author
E. C. (Edward C.) Downs
1829–1884
A Union Army officer turned storyteller, he is remembered for vivid Civil War adventure narratives built around the exploits of scout Lorain Ruggles, better known as “General Bunker.” His work brings the danger, speed, and uncertainty of wartime scouting to life in a direct, accessible voice.
1 Audiobook
About the author
E. C. Downs, identified in library records as Edward C. Downs (1829–1884), was an American Civil War veteran and author. Public-domain editions of Four Years a Scout and Spy present him as a major of the Twentieth Ohio Veteran Volunteer Infantry, and the book became the work he is best known for.
That 1866 volume centers on Corporal Lorain Ruggles, a Union scout and spy known as “General Bunker.” Later editions and related records show Downs returning to the same material under titles including The Great American Scout and Spy and Perils of Scout-Life, suggesting that this subject remained at the heart of his writing career.
Surviving biographical records indicate that Edward Clinton Downs was born on July 4, 1829, in Prattsburgh, New York, and died on March 15, 1884, in Hanson County, South Dakota. While not much else is easily confirmed from reliable online sources, his books have endured as lively first-hand-era Civil War narratives that helped preserve the dramatic world of Union scouting for later readers.