1. Adam Rankin "Stovepipe" Johnson was an antebellum Western frontiersman and later an officer in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.
15 Facts About Stovepipe Johnson
1. 2.
Stovepipe Johnson was educated in the local schools and worked in a drugstore from 12 to 20.
3.
Stovepipe Johnson was a noted Indian fighter and provided supplies and animals for the Butterfield Overland Mail stations.
4.
Stovepipe Johnson joined Nathan B Forrest's cavalry battalion as a scout, fighting at the Battle of Sacramento.
5.
Stovepipe Johnson escaped capture with Forrest after Fort Donelson, when the Confederate commanders decided to surrender their post to the Union besiegers.
6.
Stovepipe Johnson later received a promotion to colonel for his exploits with his 10th Kentucky Partisan Rangers, a regiment he raised that often operated deep behind US Army lines in Kentucky.
7.
Stovepipe Johnson's men harassed Union supply lines and attacked isolated garrisons.
8.
In July 1862, in his Newburgh Raid, Johnson captured the town of Newburgh, Indiana, bluffing its sizable Union militia force into surrendering with only twelve of his men and a stovepipe mounted and a burnt black log on the running gears of an abandoned wagon to form a Quaker cannon.
9.
In 1863, Stovepipe Johnson assumed command of a brigade in the cavalry division of Brig.
10.
Stovepipe Johnson reluctantly participated in Morgan's Raid, though he was only supposed to raid on the Kentucky side of the river.
11.
Stovepipe Johnson was appointed brigadier general on September 6,1864, to rank from June 1,1864, though his appointment was never confirmed by the Confederate Congress.
12.
Stovepipe Johnson was exchanged near the war's end and, despite his blindness, attempted to return to active duty before the Confederacy finally surrendered.
13.
Stovepipe Johnson returned to Texas after being exchanged and paroled in 1865.
14.
Stovepipe Johnson died in Burnet, Texas in 1922 at the age of 88, and is interred at the Texas State Cemetery in Austin, Texas.
15.
Stovepipe Johnson rests beside his wife Josephine and near his grandson, Judge George Christian Sr.