He joined Sherman for the hard slog through Georgia. Clutching his Enfield, a 32nd Mississippi sharpshooter took his finger at Kolb’s Farm. He left it, and the shattered gunstock on a hay bale and pushed to Atlanta, where 12-pounder shrapnel took an eye. When prisoners were executed at Sandersville, Johnny felt lucky only to lose an ear to a sympathizer’s bowie. At Savannah, a second ball wrecked his elbow. The arm was lost to a hasty surgeon.
Johnny followed his beloved General to the Carolinas. A thousand miles in unsized brogans found his feet infected, and unsavable. But, heartened by the Appomattox surrender, he hobbled to Raleigh where a powder-magazine fire was his end.
On April 18, 1865, he expired in the backroom at Bennett’s, while Sherman negotiated terms with General Johnson. Hearing the news, he smiled, “All will be restored!”
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