Charles Frederick Johnson

He emigrated from Sweden with his family in 1853, arriving in Chicago in 1854. They moved to St Paul, MN in 1855. He was an apprentice bookbinder until 1860. He then went to New York City. At age 18 he enlisted there on 23 April 1861 and mustered in as Private, Company C on May 4. He was wounded by a gunshot to the right wrist in action at Camden, NC 19 April 1862. He went on furlough to New York to recover, and returned to his Company in North Carolina on 29 June.

He was again wounded, by gunshot to the hip at Antietam on 17 September 1862.

He was in a hospital on Miller's Farm until the 29th, when he was taken by ambulance wagon to a hospital in a Presbyterian church in Frederick, MD. He was there to 29 November, then at Camp Convalescent in Alexandria, VA, and was back with his unit in early February 1863. He mustered out with his Company on 20 May 1863.

He went from St. Paul to Duluth, MN in 1869. He started the Pioneer Bookstore and Duluth's first free library in 1870. He was partner in Johnson & Evans, and was a printer, bookbinder, stationer, and publisher. He was active in City affairs, and was Collector at the US Customs House in Duluth (1891-1893). He was also an active sketch artist, as he had been during the War, and also a photographer.

Service information from the State of New York1, which has his age at enlistment as 21 years. Details, and his picture here (c. 1863), from his own diary entries, published as The Long Roll (1911), available online from the Internet Archives. His gravesite is on Findagrave, which also hosts a fine photo of him in a sling from his Camden wound. Thanks to Jake Wynn for the pointer to Johnson at Antietam in a fine post. Johnson's papers are at the Kathryn A. Martin Library, University of Minnesota, Duluth. His diaries and original pen sketches are in the Minnesota Historical Society Library, St. Paul.

04/18/1843; Gisnabo, Smaland, SWEDEN

02/08/1896; burial in Forest Hill Cemetery, Duluth, MN