Jackson County OhArchives Biographies.....Johnson, James L. July 22, 1848 - December 5, 1935 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/oh/ohfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Lynn Byler lbyler111@direcway.com 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://files.usgwarchives.net/oh/jackson/bios/bs72johnson.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/ohfiles/ File size: 3.4 Kb