Major John Johnson, Obituary-- Part 1

From Confederate Vets.com.  From the Confederate Veteran magazine of the United Confederate Veterans.

REV. JOHN JOHNSON D.D.

Tribute by Gen. Cornelius Irvine  Walker, Charleston, S.C.

The most obstinate , prolonged and gallant defense of the whole war was that of Fort Sumter in Charleston, S.C. Harbor. There the first Confederate flag was planted in victory, and there almost the last was lowered in disaster.

For two years the vast resources of the United States, its navies and its armies, were in vain expended against the fortress.  Shot and shell from the most powerful armaments of the day were thundered against its ramparts; but it never yielded to a front attack, and was abandoned only when Sherman flanked the Confederates out of Charleston.

The heroic men who so gallantly held the fortress won an imperishable glory.

The man who, by his skill, patience, untiring energy, and superb courage, made possible the prolonged holding of the fort was its chief engineer, Major John Johnson.  His genius converted the crumbling ruins  of Fort Sumter into an impregnable stronghold.

So preeminent and  and well-known were these services that  all unite in yielding him credit.

--Old Secesh