site logo
J.P. Johnson

J.P. Johnson

Federal (USV)

Sergeant

Joseph Peirce Johnson

"Little Joe"

(1834 - 1862)

Home State: Massachusetts

Branch of Service: Infantry

Unit: 15th Massachusetts Infantry

Before Antietam

A 27 year old comb maker from Northboro, he was a militia member before the war and he enlisted as Sergeant, Company C, 15th Massachusetts Infantry on 12 July 1861. He was appointed First (Orderly) Sergeant, date not given.

On the Campaign

He was mortally wounded in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862. Sergeant Stow of Company G wrote in his diary the next morning:

Misery. Acute, painful misery. How I suffered last night ... I remember talking and groaning all night. Many died in calling for help ... Sergt. Johnson, who lies on the other side of the log is calling for water. Carried off the field at 10 AM by the Rebs who show much kindness but devote much time to plundering dead bodies of our men ... Water very short. We suffer much.

The rest of the War

He died of wounds on 4 October 1862 in the Mount Pleasant Hospital, Washington, DC.

References & notes

His service information from Ingersoll1 and Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines.2 Further details and his photograph from his profile by Susan Harnwell on her 15th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

Post No. 96, Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), Northborough was named for him.

He married Keziah Wood in 1857 and they had 2 children.

His brother James Nathaniel Johnson was also in Company C of the 15th and survived the war.

Birth

08/25/1834; Lancaster, MA

Death

10/04/1862; Washington, DC; burial in Howard Street Cemetery, Northborough, MA

Notes

1   Ingersoll, Colin Macrae, Adjutant-General, Catalogue of Connecticut Volunteer Organizations in the Service of the United States, 1861-1865, Hartford: Brown & Gross, 1869, Vol. 2, pp. 151 - 154  [AotW citation 5669]

2   Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Adjutant General, Massachusetts Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines in the Civil War, 8 Vols, Norwood (MA): Norwood Press, 1931-35, Vol. 2, pg. 152  [AotW citation 26212]