Baxter C. (Fleming) Johnson died on a Tuesday in 1931. It was May, and it was the sort of death that came like a visiting friend—Baxter, by this time in his 80’s and bed ridden, greeted this visitor without hesitation. It was the last time he would meet death, but not the first.
In my family, Baxter, his origins, and therefore our own origins, have been a mystery for the past 87 years since the time of his death in 1931. Our genealogy tree begins and ends with Baxter Fleming, a baby of unknown parents, who was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. John Johnson of LaSalle, Michigan and brought up as one of their own. He took their last name, but the official documentation of the adoption was either never discovered or never documented. Baxter Fleming simply became Baxter Johnson. Such was the way of life back then. And ever since, our family has carried on the name of Johnson, the name Fleming disappearing from our family entirely.
The Early Years.
Baxter's parents and their disappearance has been a wealthy and never-ending source of speculation. Born December 9th in 1846, Baxter's birth was only documented in LaSalle township's annual population census after he was adopted by the Johnsons in 1851. No birth certificate exists. I and my Aunt Molly spent many hours in the archives of our local library, following the footsteps of ancestors who tried and failed to find the secret behind his mother's disappearance. Where did she come from? Where was her husband and family? Why did she leave Baxter?
Baxter's father lived and died many different ways in the tales of our family: some said he went out west in search of gold, died, and is buried under a nameless grave somewhere deep in the mountains. Others stories are more sinister and less respectable. But no amount of digging in Monroe's archives brought us closer to Baxter's parents. No answers, just more questions.
After appearing in the 1850 LaSalle population census, little Baxter again appeared in the following population censuses as he grew and thrived on Johnson's 82 1/2 acre farm established in 1845. His childhood will remain a mystery to us, but in later documents, it's evident that Baxter was a continuous source of pride and joy for his adoptive mother. In a later article about her deceased husband, Mary Ann wrote extensively on the life and accomplishments of her Baxter, with very little to say about her other 4 children. But despite being the possible favorite of his adoptive mother, Baxter had a spirit for adventure and wouldn't spend very long in the comforting sleepy town of LaSalle, Michigan.
U.S. Population Census for LaSalle, MI. Baxter, then aged 3, is at the bottom of the list.
Above are pictures of both John and Mary Ann Johnson's and one of their sons, L.H. Johnson's properties. L.H. bought land across the street from his parents. Here was where Baxter spent his childhood.
Enter the American Civil War.
Source: National Archives Civil War Photos.
When the Civil War began in 1861, Baxter was only 14 years old, a boy eager but too young to join the fight against the rebels. According to the Civil War Trust, the average age of the Union soldier was 25 years old, and the youngest a soldier could enlist was 18 years due to a law put in place by President Lincoln to hinder the recruitment of young boys. So, as other men around him left their homes and families to fight, Baxter remained home to help his family run their farm.
On New Years Eve of 1864, Baxter and a friend had traveled 6 miles on horseback to downtown Monroe to witness the jubilant celebration of soldiers returning home to their families. The returning regiment was greeted with the whole county in attendance. Speeches were made on the gallantry of the men, food was in abundance, and those whose men had returned home wept with joy. These men were considered to be the heroes of the Battle of Gettysburg, part of the 700 Wolverines who charged into battle under General George Custer, a decisive action that defeated 3,000 of Robert E. Lee's men, preventing them from attacking the rear of the Union Army. Their charge into point-blank range of cannon fire has often been said by present-day historians to be the very moment the Union Army won the Civil War.
Young, impressionable, and full to the brim with ideas of glory, the celebration and festivities must have had such a strong effect on Baxter that a few days later, he enlisted as a private in Company I, 7th Regiment Michigan Volunteer Infantry along with 49 other recruits.
Like many boys his age and younger, Baxter enlisted into the Union Army pretending to be of age -- lying, breaking the law, and charging headfirst into danger.
Map of downtown Monroe, Michigan. For an in-depth look, click here.
Following shortly after his enlistment, Baxter and the rest of his regiment trained for army life on the old fairgrounds of Monroe County, then located between Godfroy Avenue and Grove street in downtown Monroe. In a report written in the Monroe Commercial (a former newspaper of Monroe County), the men were taught on those grounds how to march, shoot, pitch tents, and accustom themselves to the limited diet of the Union soldier: salted pork, hardtack, and if lucky, coffee to keep them going.
On February 10th, less then a month after enlisting, Baxter and the rest of the 7th Regiment Infantry left on the noon train to head east to join the rest of General Ulysses S. Grant's Potomac Army: the beginning of what will quickly become an eventful military career.
During the first few months of his enlistment in 1864, under the command of General Ulysses S. Grant, the Potomac Army was heading toward the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, when Robert E. Lee, General of the Confederate Army, met them in a dense overgrown area in a battle that was later christened the Battle of the Wilderness. The Battle of the Wilderness, widely considered to be one of the costliest battles of the war with over 28,699 casualties and losses from both sides, took place from May 5th to May 7th.
Each day, the men fought in smoke, fog, and through thick ravines, shooting at shadows and footfalls that came too close. Reportedly, Union General Winfield Scott Hancock had said one couldn't see more than 100 paces ahead of themselves, and their only sense of direction for moving to attack was the sound of musket fire in the distance. It's also been said that during those days in the wilderness, General Grant smoked over 20 cigarettes a day, destroyed several pairs of leather gloves by worriedly wringing his hands, and wept each night in his tent. Amidst bloodshed, chaos, and smoke, approximately 13-14% of the 124,000 Union soldiers present died within those two short days.
Across the wilderness, the Confederates were ragged, and fighting a losing war. By this time, healthy men of fighting age were scarce in the South. All of them had either already enlisted, were dead, or deserted. Desperate, the South began pressing young boys and old men to fight the north. When the Union army and the Confederate army clashed in the woods of the wilderness, one Union soldier noted the high number of grey bearded old men, and the bare cheeks of young boys.
Not yet a man himself at barely 17 years old, Baxter survived one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War, witnessing for the first time the true horrors of what it meant to be a soldier. Whether it was luck, skill, or destiny, Baxter continued on with the rest of the exhausted Union army, but in the battles to come, he would face even greater peril.
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