Ships
- USS Concord (CL-10) Captain from 20 January 1940 · Relieved on 13 July 1942
Ingram Cecil Sowell had the light cruiser Concord (CL-10) from 20 January 1940 until 13 July 1942. He was in command when the United States entered the war. The ship was then at San Diego for overhaul, and afterward she went to the Southeast Pacific Force. He left her a rear admiral's commission away from the flag rank he held before the war was over. He died in 1947, still on active duty.
He was born on 2 January 1892 in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, the son of Henry Bascome Sowell, a lawyer and farmer, and Eustatia Goodloe. He went to the public schools there and to Columbia Military Academy in Columbia, Tennessee.
He was appointed to the Naval Academy in July 1908 and was graduated with the class of 1912. Classmates called him Red. He was an athlete and a marksman, with badges as Expert Rifleman and Expert Pistol Shot. He was trained as a submarine officer. By the end of March 1918 he was ordered to the Azores and took command of the submarine K-2. From Ponta Delgada she patrolled to protect shipping and to keep German submarines and surface raiders from using the islands. He received the Navy Cross for that command.
NavSource dates his command of Concord from 20 January 1940 to 13 July 1942. DANFS does not name him. It does place the ship at San Diego, preparing for overhaul, when the United States entered the war, and with the Southeast Pacific Force after she finished that overhaul early in February 1942. He was promoted to rear admiral in 1942. In 1943 and 1944 he commanded Naval Operating Base, Bermuda. He was then sent to the Pacific and commanded battleship divisions in the last part of the war, including duty connected with Lingayen Gulf, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and the bombardment of Japan. He was awarded the Silver Star and two Legions of Merit.
He was Inspector General of the Atlantic Fleet when he died of cancer in Los Angeles on 21 December 1947, aged 55, still on active duty. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. His wife, Frances Jack Sowell, is buried beside him. An elementary school in Lawrenceburg was named for him.