Lt. John Fowle (1789–1838), former Superintendent of West Point (1833–1837), was among the 150 lives lost when the steamship Moselle exploded on the Ohio River shortly after departing Cincinnati.
The catastrophic blast—felt and heard across the region—was one of the deadliest transportation disasters of its time. A harrowing account in the Cincinnati Whig described, “heads, limbs, bodies, and blood being hurled through the air,” capturing the horror of the moment. The tragedy helped prompt the first federal regulations for steam boiler safety.
Fowle’s body was returned to Alexandria and laid to rest in the Cazenove plot of The Presbyterian Cemetery in the Wilkes Street Cemetery Complex.