t later a second operation was
imperative, which left him with a mere stump below the elbow-joint.
Never for long at a time afterward was he free from pain and only a few
years ago a third operation was performed which brought relief.

As soon as the original wound was healed he went back to his command,
assisting as Division Chief of Artillery in the siege of Vicksburg.
After the fall of this place he took part in the Meridian Raid. Then
he served on detached operations at Vicksburg, Natchez, and New Orleans
until the summer of 1864, when he was re-assigned to the former command
in the Army of the Tennessee. In all the operations after the fall of
Atlanta he bore an active part, and when Sherman commenced the march to
the sea, Powell was sent back to General Thomas at Nashville, in command
of twenty batteries of artillery. At the battle of Nashville he served
on the staff of Thomas and continued with this command till mustered
out in the early summer of 1865. As a soldier his career was marked by a
thorough study and mastery not only of the details of military life, but
of military science. Especially was he apt in utilising material at hand
to accomplish his ends--a trait that was also prominent in his civil
life. Bridges he built from cotton-gin houses, mantelets for his guns
from gunny bags and old rope, and shields for his sharpshooters from the
mould-boards of old ploughs found on the abandoned plantations. All this
time wherever possible he continued his studies in natural science. He
made a collection of fossils unearthed in the trenches around Vicksburg,
land and river shells from the Mississippi swamps, and a large
collection of mosses while on detached duty in Illinois. He also
familiarised himself with the geology of regions through which the
armies passed to which he was attached. Time and again he was commended
for his services and declined promotion to higher rank in other arms of
the service. "He loved the scarlet facings of the artillery, and there
was something in the ranking of batteries and the power of cannon,"
writes Thompson, "that was akin to the workings of his own mind."

In 1862 he was married to his cousin, Miss Emma Dean, of Detroit, who
still lives in Washington with their daughter, an only child. Mrs.
Powell was often his companion in the army and early Western journeys.
Upon the return of Powell to civil life in 1865 he was tendered a
nomination to a lucrative political office in Du Page