Adam Rankin Johnson
| Adam Rankin Johnson | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Nickname(s) | "Stovepipe" |
| Born |
February 6, 1834 Henderson, Kentucky |
| Died | October 20, 1922 (aged 88) Burnet, Texas |
| Place of burial | Texas State Cemetery Austin, Texas |
| Allegiance |
United States of America Confederate States of America |
| Service/branch | Confederate States Army |
| Years of service | 1861–1865 |
| Rank |
 Colonel Brigadier General (appointment not confirmed) |
| Unit | 3rd Tennessee Cavalry (Forrest's) |
| Commands held | 10th Kentucky Partisan Rangers Johnson's Cavalry Brigade |
| Battles/wars | |
Adam Rankin "Stovepipe" Johnson (February 6, 1834 – October 20, 1922) was an antebellum Western frontiersman and later an officer in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. Johnson obtained notoriety leading the Newburgh Raid using a force of only about 35 men. Johnson and his men confiscated supplies and ammunition without a shot being fired by tricking Newburgh's defenders into thinking the town was surrounded by cannons. In reality, the so-called cannons were an assemblage of a stove pipe, a charred log, and wagon wheels, forever giving the Confederate commander the nickname of Adam "Stovepipe" Johnson. Permanently blinded during a skirmish in 1864, Johnson in 1887 founded the town of Marble Falls, Texas, which became known as "the blind man's town."
Johnson was born in Henderson, Kentucky, a son of Thomas J. and Juliet (Rankin) Johnson. Educated in the local schools, he went to work at age 12 in a drugstore for the next eight years. In 1854 he moved to Hamilton Valley in Burnet County, Texas, and worked as a surveyor on the West Texas frontier. He was a noted Indian fighter and provided supplies and animals for the Butterfield Overland Mail stations. On January 1, 1861, he married Josephine Eastland of Austin, with whom he had nine children.
When the Civil War began and his native Kentucky struggled to maintain its neutrality, Johnson returned home and joined Nathan B. Forrest's cavalry battalion as a scout, fighting with him at his first engagement at the Battle of Sacramento. He escaped capture with Forrest after Fort Donelson, when the Confederate commanders decided to surrender their post to the Union besiegers. He later received a promotion to colonel in recognition of his exploits with his 10th Kentucky Partisan Rangers, a regiment he raised that often operated deep behind Federal lines in Kentucky. Johnson's men harassed Union supply lines and attacked isolated garrisons. 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 two joints of a stovepipe mounted on the running gear of an abandoned wagon to form a Quaker cannon. His capture of the first Northern city to fall to the Confederates made the news even in Europe, and Johnson's men thereafter nicknamed him "Stovepipe".
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