Owens was a dry goods merchant in Norfolk, VA at the beginning of the war when he enlisted on April 19, 1861 as 2nd lieutenant of Co. H of the 12th VA Infantry, the Norfolk Junior Volunteers. He was elected captain of the company on May 1, 1862. In early 1862, he was hospitalized in Richmond, VA due to illness and in late summer was on detached service and serving as the regiment's quarter master. Owens was captured at the Battle of Chancellorsville on April 30, 1863 and taken to Aquia, VA and then sent on to Old Capitol Prison in Washington, DC on May 1, 1863. Owens was paroled on May 18, 1863. He was again listed as on sick leave in Dec. 1863, but had returned to the company by the spring of 1864. In late summer 1864, he had extra duty as acting assistant quarter master. He was paroled at Appomattox Court House, VA on april 9, 1865.
He returned to Norfolk, VA, where he became a founding member and first master of a masonic lodge named after him, the Owens Lodge. In 1869, Owens became the Grand Master of Masons in Virginia. He died on May 17, 1878 and is buried in Norfolk, VA in Cedar Grove Cemetery.
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