General Adam Rankin "Stovepipe" Johnson was born in Henderson on February 8, 1834. His boyhood home was located at 100 North Main Street. In 1862, Adam Rankin Johnson was commissioned a Colonel in the 10th Kentucky Cavalry of the Confederate Army. On June 30, 1862, Colonel Johnson and his two "Breckinridge Guards," Robert Martin and Amplias Owen, attacked a company of Federal soldiers who occupied a two-story brick structure at 415-425 North Main Street. Johnson and his men escaped unharmed; several of the Federal soldiers were wounded in the two hour attack. Johnson and his Confederate "army" marched back into town two weeks later and seized the courthouse, flying the Confederate flag over Henderson for one day On July 17, 1862. Shortly thereafter, Johnson successfully raided Newburgh, Indiana, where he threatened to use a "cannon" (actually a stovepipe lying atop wagon wheels) if the community did not surrender. Adam Rankin Johnson was promoted to brigadier general in 1864.
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