Major John Johnson-- Part 5: Fifteen Months Under Fire

John Johnson was posted to Fort Sumter on April 7, 1863,  in time to witness the U.S. Navy attack on that place and then served for 15 months as engineer-in-charge of the fort's severest bombardment.  Applying his expertise and constant attention to detail, he oversaw daily repairs to damage and reinforcement efforts to sustain the fort throughout the devastating  rain of shellfire  from Union guns.

On July 28, 1864, he received his second and most serious of two wounds which left him a cripple for the rest of his life.

General Beauregard said to Major John Johnson was due  the masterly defense of Fort Sumter:

"It did not end in triumph, but it has left behind a setting of glory as of the western skies, a blazonry of heroism where gold and purple serve to tell of valor  and endurance, and the crimson hue is emblem of self-sacrifice in a cause  believed to be just."

--From the concluding sentence of Major John Johnson's book "The Defense of Charleston Harbor, Including Fort Sumter and Adjacent Islands 1863-1865."

--Old Secesh