OH-FOOTSTEPS-L Archives

Archiver > OH-FOOTSTEPS > 2005-02 > 1108820320


From: Archives <>
Subject: Oh-Jackson Co. Bios (Johnson)
Date: 19 Feb 2005 13:38:40 -0000


Jackson County OhArchives Biographies.....Johnson, James L. July 22, 1848 - December 5, 1935
************************************************
Copyright. All rights reserved.
http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/copyright.htm
http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/oh/ohfiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Lynn Byler February 19, 2005, 8:38 am

Author: From 1934 self interview from Wellston Telegram

First biography came from the Wellston Telegram
First is my great, great-grandfather, James L. Johnson, born July 22,
1848 and died December 5, 1935, who came to Wellston around 1884. He was a
Civil war survivor and was in General Sherman's army after the famous march
through Georgia. It was after Lee's surrender, after South Carolina had been
devastated, after the war was lost, that General Joe Johnston was still
dodging through North Carolina.
James (Jim) L. Johnson saw him captured and his bedraggled Rebels paroled and
sent home. "They were the raggedness hungriest soldiers I ever saw" said Mr.
Johnson in the interview with the Wellston Telegram Reporter.
Those were stirring times with victory crowning the banners of the Northern
armies. Mr Johnson and his comrades of the 81st Ohio Volunteer Infantry were
ordered to Washington. The long Rebellion was at an end.
There President Lincoln reviewed the northern armies and he remembered that on
the day of the review he was detailed as a wagon guard, not a very desirable
duty on such a day when the soldiers were to March before "old Abe".
GOT IN AT PORTSMOUTH
Jim Johnson, like Dr. Rogers ran away to join the army. He was between 15 and
16. "We were all boys who enlisted at the close of the war, for most of the
able-bodied men were already in. All we had to do was to say we were 18 and
they took us".
It was on Feb 3, 1865. Jim Johnson was living at pioneer Furnace, north of
Ironton, John Robinson, who was a year older, and Jim was sent out in the
morning to get his father's horses. Instead of doing it we threw the bridles
down and started for Portsmouth to enlist.
Once there the enlisting officer, Capt. R.P. Fout, asked Jim to swear he was
18, but he refused. He took him anyway, and John Robinson too. We had to
wait until the next morning for the medical examination.
The next morning Jim's father and Mr Robinson arrived and took them back
home. They stayed that night with Mose Burns, father of some of the Wellston
Burns. Later, in the night the boys slipped off again.
SENT TO SHERMAN
They were mustered in and Jim was in Company B. Then went to South Carolina
and joined General Sherman's army. Jim was with him at Columbia when it
burned. He never thought Sherman ordered that, but some cotton got afire and
soon the city was all in flames.
Their hardest battle was at Bentonville, but it was fighting all the was for
they were on General Johnston's trail every day.
James L. Johnson was muster out at Louisville and returned home.
Later Jim's father moved to Richland Furnace and them to Hamden Furnace in
1883. In 1884 Jim moved to Wellston and for many years has been an honored
citizen of the west side.


File at: http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/oh/jackson/bios/bs72johnson.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/ohfiles/

File size: 3.4 Kb


This thread: