Gen Adam Rankin Johnson ^{1 2 3 4 5 6}

  General Notes:

"Civil War Confederate Brigadier General. Adam Johnson was born on February 8, 1834, in Henderson, Kentucky. He started working at the age of twelve in a drugstore, leaving his job in 1854 to move to Burnet County, Texas to work as a surveyor. He married Josephine Eastland in January of 1861 and gained a reputation as an expert Indian fighter and stagecoach driver for Butterfield Overland Mail. When the Civil War broke out, he returned to his home state of Kentucky in 1861 and enlisted in Nathan Bedford Forrest's company as a scout; his skill in the military being such that he was given command of the Texas Partisan Rangers and promoted to colonel by June, 1864. He was well respected for his bravado, once capturing the town of Newburgh, Indiana from a large Union unit with only twelve men and a length of stovepipe mounted to a wagon. The Union soldiers, fearing the "cannon" surrendered, and Stovepipe Johnson acquired his nickname. However, his service was cut short quickly: during a dawn attack on the Union camp at Grubbs Crossroads, Johnson was accidentally shot in the face by his own men; he was then captured and imprisoned at Fort Warren until the end of the Civil War. After the armistice, he was released and returned to Texas, now totally blind, but his drive never diminished. He founded the town of Marble Falls and the Texas Mining Improvement Company; wrote his memoirs The Partisan Rangers of the Confederate States Army and continued his pre-war work with Overland Mail until his death on October 23, 1922. He was honored by having his funeral services held in the Texas Senate chamber and was laid to rest in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin." (biography found at his FindAGrave memorial)

JOHNSON, General Adam Rankin (6 Feb 1834 - 20 Oct 1922)
Marble Falls Messenger, Oct 26, 1922 - From Barry Caraway

General A. R. Johnson Is Dead

General Adam Rankin Johnson of Burnet, soldier, pioneer builder and progressive citizen of Texas for more than half a century, died at Burnet last Friday morning. He ate breakfast and was up and about the house when a fainting spell came over him. He was helped to his bed and died in a few minutes.

General Johnson was a notable character during the Civil War and rendered valiant service to the cause that was dear to his soul. As a citizen of Burnet County he had a part in every thing that tended to advance development and enhance the wealth of the citizenship. The body was carried to Austin Saturday afternoon and placed in the Senate Chamber at the capitol, where it was kept until the following afternoon and then buried in the State cemetery.

Active pallbearers for the funeral were his five grandsons, Geo. E. Christian, Walton Christian, W. H. Badger, Jr. , Eastland Johnson and Brownlee Posey, and R. T. Badger. The honorary pallbearers were Governor Pat M. Neff, Governor Joseph D. Sayers, Judge W. M. Key, S. L. Staples, Ike D. White, Mayor W. D. Yett, W. T. Wroe, Captain J. D. Fauntleroy, J. T. Robison, Captain William Walsh, W. E. Dozier, Guy A. Collett, H. A. Wroe, M. H. Reed, D. C. Reed, W. E. Long, Houghton Brownlee, Dr. Joe Wooten and Dr. C. H. Brownlee of Austin, and John S. Guthrie, Dr. A. Howell, Gus Jackson, James A. Stevens, and John H. Stapp of Burnet, and five inmates of the Confederate home here.

The Daughters of the American Revolution, of which Mrs. Samuel Posey, one of the surviving children, is a member, attended the funeral in a body. Other children at the service which marked the last of the illustrious son of central Texas were Adam R. Johnson, Jr. , Mrs. W. H. Badger and Mrs. George Christian of Austin, and R. E. Johnson and Mrs. E. E. Guthrie of Burnet.

The flags on the state house and the governor's mansion floated at half mast Saturday in mourning for the passing of the outstanding figure of the last half century in central Texas.

General Johnson was 87 years old. He was born in Kentucky, but had been a resident of Texas since he was 18 years old. Although blinded as a result of a wound received during the civil war, he was active until the last in promoting the interests of this section of the state. He was a dreamer of big things, but death cut him short before he had realized the one big dream of his life-that of harnessing the great, dormant power wasting in Texas streams and turning it to use in industrial development.

On two occasions General Johnson, who had been an independent scout for Bedford Forrest, went behind the federal lines and recruited southern sympathizers into large military units. To show his skill as a leader and to gain confidence of the men whom he hoped to enlist, the general with three privates attacked a garrison of 150 Yankees in the heart of Henderson, Ky., by firing loads of buckshot into the soldiers at night from three sides. The surprised federals were thrown into a riot and fired volley after volley into surrounding houses for the remainder of the night.

The Louisville Journal reported this affair later as a great battle in which the United States soldiers drove off a band of 300 guerillas after six hours of severe fighting. The nerve and valor showed in this exploit gained numbers of sympathizers to the rebel leader's banner.

General Johnson was given the sobriquet of "stove pipe Johnson" during the war by an exploit even more daring than the first, at Newberg, Indiana. The general crossed the river with eight picked men in a skiff, left a lieutenant with 20 men on the bank and corralled a number of unarmed sympathizers on the outskirts of the city as a "dummy" army. Wagon wheels with stove pipes mounted on them were swung into place ready for action.

When his "mobilization" had been quietly completed, the general slipped into the heart of the city, found the federal arsenal practically unmanned and single-handed captured a sizeable store of arms and ammunition. Before his plot had been discovered he also succeeded in capturing some 80 federal soldiers lolling in a hotel.

His achievements were made spectacular by a daring that caused him to operate in the most unexpected places-behind the lines where the federals had small garrisons and suspicioned no danger. On another trip he traveled 600 miles in enemy country recruiting sympathizers. In 1864 he was reported as having died from wounds in Trigg county, Ky. , and southern newspapers printed his obituary and paid his gallantry and bravery unstinted tribute. But more than a half century later he was building and dreaming of an enterprise to furnish half of Texas with electrical power through the use of prison labor and conservation of water power.

The editor had been intimate with General Johnson for almost a quarter of a century. We always admired him for his enterprise, his good traits of character and for his frankness upon all public issues. He was always outspoken on all issues of a public nature. He was a man who had visions of great importance. One of his ideals was to harness the water power going to waste in the Colorado river. He was a friend to education. We never saw him mad nor heard him use foul language during all of the years that we have known him.

General Johnson was a wonderful man, a brave soldier and a good citizen. The Messenger joins the many friends thoughout Texas in extending condolence to those who mourn his death.
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At the time of the 1850 census, Adam was a student in Henderson, Henderson County, Kentucky. At the time of the 1870 census, he was a stock raiser living in Burnet, Burnet County, Texas. He had real estate valued at $15,000 and personal assets of $5000. The census records that he was blind. At the time of the 1880 census, he was a land and collecting agent living in Burnet, Burnet County, Texas. On the 1900 census, he indicated that he was a land agent. He was paying a mortgage on a farm. He lived in Burnet County, Texas. At the time of the 1910 census, he was a real estate agent living in Burnet County, Texas. He owned his home free of mortgage. At the time of the 1920 census, Adam and Josephine were living with their married daughter Ethel and husband Samuel Guthrie in Burnet, Burnet County, Texas. He was retired.

  Additional Information:

• FindAGrave: Memorial# 11000.

Stovepipe married Maria Josephine Eastland, daughter of Robert Eastland and Eliza Breazeale, on 1 Jan 1861 in , Burnet County, Texas. (Maria Josephine Eastland was born on 31 Aug 1845 in Sparta, White County, Tennessee,⁷ died on 11 Sep 1923 in Austin, Travis County, Texas ⁷ and was buried in Texas State Cemetery, Austin, Travis County, Texas ⁹.)