☞Blind Man’s Bluff!

☞Blind Man’s Bluff!

☞Today in History -- On today’s date 100 years ago, Friday, October 20, 1922, noted frontier surveyor, Indian fighter, Confederate officer, businessman, & founder of the town of Marble Falls, Texas, Adam Rankin “Stovepipe” Johnson (1834-1922) met his earthly demise at the venerable age of 88 when he died from the effects of unspecified natural causes at the city of Burnet in Burnet County, Texas.

☞Requiéscat In Pace, Stovepipe Johnson.

☞Born at the town of Henderson in Henderson County in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, in 1854, Johnson moved to Hamilton Valley in Burnet County, Texas, & worked as a surveyor on the West-Texas frontier. He was a noted Indian fighter & provided supplies & animals for the Butterfield Overland Mail stations.

☞When the War Between the States commenced, Johnson returned to Kentucky & enlisted in Nathan Bedford Forrest’s cavalry battalion as a scout, fighting with Forrest at his first engagement at the Battle of Sacramento, which became known as “Forrest’s First Fight.” Johnson escaped capture with Forrest after Fort Donelson, when the Confederate commanders decided to surrender their post to the Union besiegers. He later received a promotion to colonel in recognition of his exploits with his 10th Kentucky Partisan Rangers, a regiment that he raised which often operated deep behind Federal lines in Kentucky. Johnson’s men harassed Union supply lines & attacked isolated Union garrisons.

☞In July 1862, Johnson led the “Newburgh Raid,” capturing the town of Newburgh, Indiana, & bluffing its sizable Union militia force into surrendering with only twelve of his men & using a stovepipe & a burnt black log mounted on the running gear of an abandoned wagon to form a so-called “Quaker Cannon.” His capture of the first Northern city to fall to the Confederates made the news even in Europe, & Johnson’s men bestowed upon him the moniker “Stovepipe” Jonson.

☞On August 21, 1864, Johnson was blinded by an accidental shot from one of his own men during the Skirmish at Grubb’s Crossroads, a.k.a. the Battle of Grubbs Crossroads, near Princeton, Kentucky. Left behind on account of his injuries, he was captured by the Federals & was a prisoner at Fort Warren in Boston, Massachusetts for much of the remainder of the war. He was exchanged near the war’s end, & despite his blindness he attempted to return to active duty, although the end of the war prevented that possibility.

☞After he was exchanged & paroled in 1865, Johnson returned to Texas, where in 1887 he founded the town of Marble Falls, which subsequently became known as “The Blind Man’s Town.” In 1922 at the of 88, Johnson died from the effects of unspecified natural causes at Burnet, Texas. Stovepipe Johnson is interred at the Texas State Cemetery in Austin.

☞The undated photograph depicts the bespectacled visage of Stovepipe Johnson sometime after he was blinded by “friendly fire” during the 1864 Battle of Grubb’s Crossroads.