Welcome home Lt. Johnson, and a salute to you sir. Thank you for fighting for our freedom. Another Son of the South salutes you.
Posted on 09/27/2002 8:47:15 AM PDT by stainlessbanner
The last Confederate prisoner of war believed buried in New England will be laid to rest in his family's cemetery plot in Florida next month, nearly 139 years to the day he died in captivity at Fort Warren in Boston Harbor.
Confederate Navy Lt. Edward J.K. Johnston currently lies beneath a massive granite stone at the former Fort Devens in Ayer.
The Massachusetts Department of Veterans Services, with funding from Confederate Navy re-enactor George Hagen Jr. of Georgia, and support from the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the United Daughters of the Confederacy, is supervising Johnston's exhumation and return to Fernadina, Fla., where he will be buried with his wife, Virginia, and two of their five children.
``Tom said, `Let's try to get this boy home,' '' said Bob Hall, special assistant to Department of Veterans Services Commissioner Thomas G. Kelley.
Johnston, a Scotsman born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1827, became a POW on June 17, 1863, when his ironclad blockade runner, the CSS Atlanta, was captured off Savannah, Ga., by the USS Weehawken and USS Nahant. Johnston and some of his shipmates were imprisoned at Fort Warren on George's Island, where Johnston died of pneumonia Oct. 13, 1863.
Confederate prisoners and Union guards paid $75 for the 6-by-3-foot granite stone that lies over Johnston's body. The stone, which will also go to Florida, was moved with Johnston's remains from burial spots on George's Island, Deer Island and Governor's Island before Johnston was interred at Fort Devens in 1939.
Hall said he approached Kelley about Johnston after Joe Geden, a fellow member of the Olde Colony Civil War Roundtable, discovered Johnston was likely the last POW buried in New England when he was doing research on the Confederate Navy.
On the Internet, Hall found Johnston's great-great-grandson, Ben Korbly, 57, who once lived in Medfield and now resides in Philadelphia. Korbly, who visited Johnston's grave at Fort Devens with his now-deceased mother 10 years ago, said most of the 200 living descendants had wanted to see him returned to Florida and the family approved the move. ``It is a very gracious and honoring thing they are doing for him,'' said Korbly. ``There are a whole bunch of people who are making this happen. My mother always wanted him (buried) down South and this will be his final move.''
Johnston will be exhumed and ``pardoned from the soil of Massachusetts'' prior to a formal military ceremony at Fort Devens on Oct. 12. His hearse will be escorted by state troopers through each state from Massachusetts to Florida, where the body will be placed on a replica Confederate sailing ship for the final leg of the trip to Fernadina. Johnston will be laid to rest there Oct. 26.
I wonder when the hearse will be coming through North Carolina?
Lt. Edward J.K. Johnston, welcome home, and thank you for your service, sir. Deo vindice.
I would love to see this!
CD
if he's coming through the DC/MD/VA area, i'll fall the rebels out to meet the hearse.
free the southland,sw
Dear Sirs:
.
I am a member of ______________ Camp #___ in ______, NC. I got your e-mail addresses from the NCSCV.org website.
Today, I read this article in the online edition of the Boston Herald regarding the planned exhumation and re-interment of the last Confederate POW thought to be buried up North. For your convenience, I have copied the entire article below.
The article mentions that:
"His hearse will be escorted by state troopers through each state from Massachusetts to Florida, where the body will be placed on a replica Confederate sailing ship for the final leg of the trip to Fernadina."
I am wondering if the North Carolina SCV is aware of this and has planned to participate in any way. If so, I would like more information on what I can do to help.
I do not know what date the hearse will be traveling through NC, or if Governor Easley will actually allow the NCSHP to escort it. After all, he has not been exactly sympathetic to, or respectful of, our cause and our ancestors in years past.
Thanks in advance for your attention.
Deo Vindice!
.
Compatriot ________________
______________, NC
Glad the Lt. is finally coming home...
In a dreary yankee prison, where the rebel soldier lay
By his side stood a preacher, should his soul pass away
And he faintly whispered, "parson", as he clutched him by the hand
Oh parson, tell me quickly, will my soul pass through the southland?
Will my soul pass through the southland, through old Virginia grand
Will I see the hills of Georgia and the green fields of Alabam?
Will I see the little church house, where I pledged my heart and hand
Oh parson, tell be quickly, will my soul pass through the southland?
Was for loving dear old Dixie in this northern cell I lie
Was for loving dear old Dixie in this northern state I die
Will you see my little daughter, will you make her understand
Oh parson, tell me quickly, will my soul pass through the southland?
Then the rebel soldier died
Welcome home Lt. Johnson, and a salute to you sir. Thank you for fighting for our freedom. Another Son of the South salutes you.
Sorry all, I meant Lt. Johnston. My apologies for the previous error.
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