He is known for being a Confederate brigadier general during the Civil War, for his works in the Mississippi Southern Baptist Convention, and for founding Blue Mountain College.

[1] After preaching for eight years, the American Civil War broke out and his congregation urged him to join the Confederacy.

This unit was disbanded in early 1862, and on April 3, 1862, he joined the Confederate army as commander of the 32nd Mississippi Infantry.

[3] In December 1864, during the Franklin-Nashville Campaign, an officer saw the flash of an enemy gun and yelled to Lowrey, who quickly lowered himself and the bullet stuck and killed a man behind him.

[7] Years of bad health and other reasons caused Lowrey to resign his commission as a brigadier general on March 14, 1865, almost one month before the Confederate forces surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse.

Following several years of teaching at the Blue Mountain College, Lowrey became very sick and, in 1882, his doctors alerted him that his heart was very weak.

[7] Then, on February 27, 1885, while buying a train ticket at Middleton, Tennessee, he turned, gasped, and fell to the floor dead.