Officer, Engineer, Author · Confederate
John Johnson
1829 – 1907
Engineer in charge at Fort Sumter from the ironclad attack of April 1863 to the evacuation, and afterwards the historian of the defense.
His dates are given here on the authority of the Library of Congress catalog record for his book, not from a birth or death record.
Charleston
Johnson was the engineer officer in charge at Fort Sumter from 7 April 1863, the day of the ironclad attack, until the harbor was evacuated — fifteen of the fort's most eventful months, as he put it himself, with two absences for wounds. What he directed is most of what kept the place standing: the filling of the casemates and the gorge rooms, the new sally-port and wharf cut through the western wall, the traverses and merlons, the protection of the magazines, the nightly obstructions, the rebuilding after the December fire, and the 275-foot gallery mined through the ruins of the northern casemates.
Life
The title page of his book describes him only as formerly a major of engineers in the service of the Confederate States, and the portrait plate at the end of the text as engineer in charge, Fort Sumter, 1863-65. The Library of Congress gives his dates as 1829-1907.
He was wounded twice at the fort. On 17 August 1863, the first day of the first great bombardment, he is listed among the officers slightly wounded — badly enough to take him off the island on 2 September, though he was back at his post by the night of 6 November. On 28 July 1864, before daylight, while inspecting work on the eastern angle of the gorge, a fragment of mortar shell struck him on the top of the head; he had then been on continuous duty at Sumter for eight months and twenty days.
In the last weeks of the war Beauregard ordered a board of officers to preserve an authentic and detailed account of the defense from the Confederate side. The board was scattered before it could meet, and Johnson — one of its members, and the one with the closest connection to the defense — did the work alone. The Defense of Charleston Harbor was published in 1890 at the unanimous request of the Survivors' Association of Charleston District.
Service
- MajorcommissionedEngineers, engineer · Confederate army7 April 1863 to 17 February 1865Fort SumterJohnson 1890
Each rank is the rank held at the time described. A later promotion is shown only in its own dated entry.
Places
Stationed at Fort Sumter
7 April 1863 to 17 February 1865 · confirmed
Burial
Not yet documented.
What is established, and on whose authority
- verifiedMajor of engineers in the service of the Confederate States.Johnson 1890
- verifiedEngineer in charge at Fort Sumter from 7 April 1863 until the evacuation of the harbor.Johnson 1890
- verifiedWounded at Fort Sumter on 17 August 1863; taken off the island on 2 September and back at his post by the night of 6 November.Johnson 1890
- verifiedWounded again on 28 July 1864 by a fragment of mortar shell while inspecting the eastern angle of the gorge.Johnson 1890
- attributedBorn 1829, died 1907.Johnson 1890
- not establishedBurial place.no source
Identity: verified. Last checked 31 August 2026.
Corrections to this record are welcome through the publisher.