James Bowler was a school teacher until he joined the Union army in 1861. In 1862, while home on leave, he married Elizabeth (Lizzie) Caleff. James became a father while away at war, and the couple spent the first four years of their marriage mostly apart, talking through hundreds of letters. Despite missing his family and pleas from Lizzie to come home to his family, James stayed with the Third Minnesota in Arkansas until 1866. After the war, James worked as a farmer and in railroad construction, before serving one term in the Minnesota legislature. James and Lizzie had four more children and lived in Minnesota for the rest of their lives.