Kentucky: A History of the State, Perrin, Battle, Kniffin, 8th ed., 1888,
Jefferson Co.

WILLIAM PRESTON McDOWELL was born in Louisville, Ky., May 28, 1838, and
at the beginning of the later Inter-State war was engaged in the study of
law in the Commissioner's office of the Chancery Court of his native
city.  Before the President called upon Kentucky for her quota of troops,
he, thinking that his State would not furnish any soldiers for the Federal
army, proceeded to Washington City and offered his services to President
Lincoln.  While in Washington he received a telegram from Col. Curran Pope
stating that he (Pope) had received authority to raise a regiment for the
Union army, and that he desired his (McDowell's) assistance, and tendering
a position as field officer.  On the advice of President Lincoln this
offer was accepted, and he returned to Louisville and used all his energy
in filling the Fifteenth Regiment Kentucky Infantry Volunteers, to
facilitate which he resigned all pretension to a field office and accepted
the position of adjutant, receiving commission as such September 15, 1861.
He served with the regiment until August 3, 1862, when he was detailed on
the staff of Major General Lovell H. Rousseau, then commanding the Third
Division of the Army of the Ohio.  At the battle of Chaplin Hills
(Perryville) he served as aide-de-camp, and received much praise for his
gallantry.  After this battle he was appointed acting assistant adjutant
general of the division, and served in this capacity until the battle of
Stone River.  In the first day's engagement he was wounded severely in
the left arm; but although the wound was painful, he refused to leave the
field until loss of blood compelled him to retire.  On the 15th of March,
1863, he was commissioned by the President, assistant adjutant general,
with the rank of major, and continued in the service as such until the
close of the war, when, by the re-opening of his wound, he was compelled
to resign.  After the war he engaged in business in Louisville until 1871,
and then accepted the position of treasurer of the Louisville Water
Company, which he has held for the last fifteen years.  His parents were
Dr. William Adair and Maria (Harvey) McDowell, natives of Virginia.  His
father came to Louisville in 1837, and practiced till [sic] just before
his death in 1854.  He was a regular graduate of college; read medicine
at Danville, and was some years professor in the University of Louisville.
Subject was educated in the city schools of Louisville, and was deputy
commissioner of Louisville Chancery Court when the war broke out.  He was
married in 1865 to Miss Kate G. Wright, daughter of John H. Wright, an
old merchant of this city.  He is the father of six children living.

McDowell Harvey Wright
=
Boyle-KY VA

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/jefferson/mcdowell.wp.txt