Luther Hunt Johnson

Luther Hunt Johnson was born circa 1824 and died on 29 May 1862 in Corinth, Missisippi at age 38.

His Name

His name appears as Luther H. Johnston; Luther Johnson (his 1850 federal census entry); Luther H. Johnson; Luther Hunt Johnson; L. H. Johnson (his 1860 federal census entry).

His Birth

We can conclude that Luther’s birth took place in 1824, an approximation from his entry in the 1850 federal census. We do not know where he was born. Possibilities include Ohio, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.

Contradictory evidence is available. His 1850 federal census entry is obscure. Its online indexing took the entry to record his birthplace as Ohio, but the entry itself only includes a " to indicate the preceding birthplace, which itself may read either O for Ohio, or be another " for its preceding birthplace, which is New York.

Ida’s 1880 census entry reports his birthplace as Pennsylvania. I had originally placed Luther’s birth-place in Pennsylvania on mere guesswork, an impression emerging from the body of documents relating to his life collected by Peggy Reins. The following facts are relevant: The Bowlby family, including his second wife Mary Jane, came from Pennsylvania. After his death, the guardian of the minor children from his first marriage filed pension claims in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. Note the information I’ve filed in this regard under Delbert Johnson as well. Blood relatives of his first wife are also attested in the same county of Pennsylvania.

Delbert L. Johnson’s 1930 federal census entry implies that Luther was born in Connecticut. This is a late and therefore weak attestation, and should not be pushed too far. But this does not seem to be an erroneous reference to a later step-father, either; Delbert’s 1870 federal census entry shows that his head of household then was born in Pennsylvania.

Of the 10 Luther Johnsons in Connecticut censuses from 1790 to 1860, eight of them are consecutive entries through 1860 in the same county, which I would bet means those are not him. The other two are in Middlesex County, Stafford, and Tolland County, Tolland. The 1830 Tolland entry shows a Luther Johnson as head of household with 1 male member under 5, and 1 in the 10-15 year range.

Where was he in 1830?

1830: The federal census entries list only two Johnson heads of household in Ohio in 1830, neither with a male of the right age to be Luther.

Where was he in 1840?

1840: I might look for Johnson families in the counties that would become Morrow County, which include Crawford and Richland, the two counties in which Luther would marry. Crawford had only one Johnson head of household in 1840, a Henry Johnson in Jackson who had a male son in the 10-15 year age range. Richland, however, had 29 Johnson heads of household. See Louisa’s entry: there appears to be no way to narrow from these 29 to Johnsons in Richland that lived near Jarrards.

Only two Luther Johnsons appear in Ohio in 1840. The one in Streetsboro, Portage County, is head of household without any male children in the right range so is presumably neither him nor his father. The same is true of the Luther Johnson in Delaware, Harmony, but his entry is followed immediately by a Nathan Johnson with a male child in the 15 to 20 range. Is this convergence of age and name in a male relative a potential link?

His Life in Ohio

1846: Luther marries Loisa Or Louisa Jarrard in Richland County.

1850: A federal census entry for Mount Gilead, Morrow County (immediately southwest of Richland), Ohio records the family of a 26 year old teamster named Luther Johnson, with Louisa, Elizabeth and Amelia.

1857: Luther’s first wife dies.

1858: Luther marries Mary Jane Bowlby in Galion, Crawford County, Ohio. Crawford is the county immediately west of Richland.

1860: A federal census entry for Washington, Morrow County, Ohio records the family of a 37 year old laborer named L H Johnson, with Mary J, Amelia A (?), Francis, Delbert and Ida J. All of them are described as born in Ohio.

Civil war records list Luther's residence at time of enlistment in February 1862 as Chicago. He presumably left Ohio for Illinois at some point after the federal census in 1860.

His Family

Luther married Loisa Or Louisa Jarrard on 4 Aug 1846 in Richland County, Ohio. Children from this marriage were: Delbert Johnson, born on 25 Feb 1856 in Ohio; Francis Johnson, born on 17 Nov 1853 and died on 11 Jul 1864 at age 10; Amelia Johnson, born on 11 Sep 1849; and Elizabeth Johnson, born circa 1848.

Luther married Mary Jane Bowlby on 28 Mar 1858 in Galion, Crawford Co., OH.¹² Children from this marriage were Ida Jane Johnson and Eve Johnson, born on 11 Dec 1860 and died in 1862 at age 2. Another name for Eve was Eva.

His Civil War Service

We have copies from the National Archives of Luther H. Johnson's "Widow’s Claim for Half-Pay Pension." According to the documents in that file, Luther enlisted at Chicago on or about the 14th day of February 1862 as a private in the Chicago Light Artillery. Other documents give his unit as the 2nd Illinois Light Artillery, D Company or Battery. That unit was organized at Camp Douglas and mustered on February 28. They moved to Camp Benton, St. Louis, MO, on March 11. We have in our possession a copy of a letter he wrote home to his family from Camp Benton shortly thereafter, on March 28, which was on file at the National Archives as part of that pension file.

The 2nd Illinois Light Artillery was in the Army of the Tennessee, which was under the ultimate command of Ulysses S. Grant. The Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Illinois (volume 8 page 710) records a Luther H. Johnson as an artificer in the 2nd Illinois Light Artillery, Battery L. The history of that unit given in the same report (page 725) records that it was organized at Camp Douglas by Captain William H. Bolton and mustered in February 28. On March 11 it moved to Benton Barracks, Missouri; to Pittsburgh Landing on April 8; and was assigned to the Fourth Division of the Army of the Tennessee under Brigadier General S. A. Hurlbut.

After Battery L proceeded to Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee with the rest of the Army of the Tennessee, it fought in the Battle of Shiloh, Tennessee (also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing) on April 6 and 7 of that year. The letter for help his wife wrote on June 1 says that Luther has not been heard from in a month, when he was at "Pittsburg Landen" (sic?). I think this indicates that Luther wrote another note back home, after the one in our possession, or at least that Mary had word of him in Tennessee after the Union victory at Shiloh, and thus after the word she had from him when he was in Missouri.

Casualty records from Johnson's battery show a private dying on the steamer Champion on May 6. This is presumably when the artillery is on the move from Shiloh to Corinth.

The Adjutant General’s Office records indicate that Luther died of "disease" or "camp diarrhea" in the field near Corinth on 29 May 1862. He and his unit would have been participating in the siege on Corinth, which began in April, and ended with the secret evacuation of the Confederate army the night he died. He was only the third death in the unit since its creation.

Some Union casualties of Corinth are buried at the Corinth National Cemetery, but I do not see Luther Johnson in the transcribed list.