Joseph S. Powell was born in the State of Georgia on September 16, 1818 and relocated to Alabama sometime around 1850. He operated a large plantation in the community of Persons, Russell County, Alabama just prior to and during the American Civil War. The 1860 census lists that he owned 48 slaves and a large amount of farmland. Evidence seems to point that he furnished a substitute to serve for him in Waddell's Alabama Artillery Battery (a.k.a. the 20th Alabama Artillery Battalion) in October of 1863 but may have served in Company I of the 3rd Alabama Battalion Reserves (became part of 65th Alabama Infantry Regiment) during the closing days of the war. He died on June 1, 1891 and is buried at the Methodist Church Cemetery in Louisville, Barbour County, Alabama.