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A
LAST WISH ANSWERED
by Bob Bowman
"General
Johnsonıs fragmented bones ...
were reburied in Fairfield Cemetery with
full military honors, marking the
first reburial of a Confederate general
since 1910." |
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General
Joseph Burton Johnsonıs last wish has finally be granted, but only after 127 years.
Johnson, a Confederate officer in the Civil War, died on his family plantation
north of Fairfield in 1874 after suffering a stroke.
Before succumbing,
he asked his family to bury him--along with the remains of his late wife Patience
and their young son-- in the Fairfield Cemetery. But for some reason, Johnson
was buried on the plantation, presumably because his wife and son were already
buried there.
Last year, on February 4, the Sons of the Confederate
Veterans, dressed in replicated uniforms from the Civil War, exhumed the remains
of Johnson, his wife, and their son Joseph from the plantationıs family graveyard.
As the old generalıs bones were discovered, muskets sounded a 21-gun salute with
the last shot fired by a cannon. The remains of his wife and son were almost non-existent.
General Johnsonıs fragmented bones stayed at the Freestone County Courthouse
until October 27 when they were reburied in Fairfield Cemetery with full military
honors, marking the first reburial of a Confederate general since 1910. Johnson
served in the Indian Wars in Florida and Georgia, was commissioned as a captain
in the U.S. Army in 1837, and became a major in 1837.
Leaving the Army,
Johnson settled in Freestone County in the 1850s and built a large stone house
from rocks quarried on his 10,000-acre plantation. The house, known by local residents
as the ³Old Rock House², stood on the land until it was razed in 1928.
When the Civil War erupted and Texas seceded from the Union, Johnson joined the
Confederacy, held a ball in his home for soldiers entering the war, and became
a colonel in a Freestone County regiment. He was commissioned a brigadier general
two years later.
When the war ended, Johnson came home to rebuild his
plantationıs operations. Before his death, he amassed a collection of gold coins
in a business deal and hid them in the rocks of a fireplace in his home. When
someone learned of his cache, he removed the coins in an iron pot , hiding them
on another part of his land.
A family legend says Johnson, after suffering
a stroke, tried to tell his children where he hid the coins, but carried the secret
to his grave. Rumors of the generalıs treasure spread throughout Freestone County
and fortune hunters scoured the lands trying to find the treasure. One report
says a portion of the coins was dug up in 1942.
Today, General Johnson
is at rest in Fairfield Cemetery, the burial site he requested more than a century
and a quarter ago.
April 7-13, 2002 Column
Published with Permission
Bob Bowman is a former president of the East
Texas Historical Association and the author of 28 books on East Texas history
and folklore. | | |
