Texas Johnny
Corporal
- Joined
- Jan 29, 2019
- Location
- Texas
There was a hard-working family living in north Georgia who tended, without any slaves, a small 202-acre farm in 1861 when the war started. The young couple had five boys ranging in age from 1 to 19 and two daughters, ages 12 and 5. The two oldest boys, Billy age 19 and his younger brother, Johnny, who was only 15 or 16, enlisted together on September 26, 1861 in the Murphy Guards, in what would become Company A of the 38th Georgia Infantry, part of the Georgia Brigade in the Army of Northern Virginia (ANV). They would be later be joined, in the same unit, by their father, Patrick.
Patrick would become ill and died during the war of acute dysentery. William, whom everyone called Billy, was wounded in fighting at Barlow Knoll at Gettysburg on July 1, 1863. He was left behind and captured when the ANV withdrew. He would survive the war in a Union POW camp and later returned to Georgia.
Johnny would fight on with the Georgia Brigade. He survived and endured the miseries of the Campaigns of 1864, Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor. In June of 1864 Johnny was slightly wounded at Lynchburg, Virginia, but he was soon able to return to active duty, back to his beloved 38th Georgia.
In February of 1865, just two short months before the war ended for the ANV, Johnny who was now nearly 19 years old and a battle-hardened Confederate veteran, gave his utmost for the South. It was on a cold February day outside of Petersburg where Union general U.S. Grant and his massive Federal army were closing in on Lee and his beleaguered ANV men.
At Hatcher’s Run, Virginia, during a Confederate counterattack which stopped a Union advance, young Johnny was shot on his left side on February 6, 1865. He was loaded on a wagon with other wounded Confederate soldiers and carted to Richmond to Jackson Hospital. He died there the next day. His lifeless body was taken to Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond where he was buried in an unmarked grave.
Young Johnny was my great uncle. His father Patrick was my great grandfather and the 1-year-old left back in Georgia with his mother was my grandfather.
In the 1990s I visited Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond and I found the exact location of his grave. His last name was slightly misspelled on cemetery records, but there was no question that it was Johnny’s final resting place. To my surprise, after I followed the cemetery coordinates, I found that his grave was right beside the large stone pyramid in the Confederate section of the cemetery. The “Confederate Pyramid” was 90 feet tall and was built in 1869 to honor the approximately 18,000 Confederate veterans buried in the cemetery. Later I had a Veterans Affairs marker placed on Johnny’s grave.
A little personal story of the Georgia Brigade.
Patrick would become ill and died during the war of acute dysentery. William, whom everyone called Billy, was wounded in fighting at Barlow Knoll at Gettysburg on July 1, 1863. He was left behind and captured when the ANV withdrew. He would survive the war in a Union POW camp and later returned to Georgia.
Johnny would fight on with the Georgia Brigade. He survived and endured the miseries of the Campaigns of 1864, Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor. In June of 1864 Johnny was slightly wounded at Lynchburg, Virginia, but he was soon able to return to active duty, back to his beloved 38th Georgia.
In February of 1865, just two short months before the war ended for the ANV, Johnny who was now nearly 19 years old and a battle-hardened Confederate veteran, gave his utmost for the South. It was on a cold February day outside of Petersburg where Union general U.S. Grant and his massive Federal army were closing in on Lee and his beleaguered ANV men.
At Hatcher’s Run, Virginia, during a Confederate counterattack which stopped a Union advance, young Johnny was shot on his left side on February 6, 1865. He was loaded on a wagon with other wounded Confederate soldiers and carted to Richmond to Jackson Hospital. He died there the next day. His lifeless body was taken to Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond where he was buried in an unmarked grave.
Young Johnny was my great uncle. His father Patrick was my great grandfather and the 1-year-old left back in Georgia with his mother was my grandfather.
In the 1990s I visited Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond and I found the exact location of his grave. His last name was slightly misspelled on cemetery records, but there was no question that it was Johnny’s final resting place. To my surprise, after I followed the cemetery coordinates, I found that his grave was right beside the large stone pyramid in the Confederate section of the cemetery. The “Confederate Pyramid” was 90 feet tall and was built in 1869 to honor the approximately 18,000 Confederate veterans buried in the cemetery. Later I had a Veterans Affairs marker placed on Johnny’s grave.
A little personal story of the Georgia Brigade.