Benjamin S. Johnson, born in Tennessee in 1836, moved with his widowed mother to Greene County, Missouri, in the early 1850s.

Johnson enlisted in Company A, 3rd Missouri Cavalry in Carroll County, Arkansas, on August 1, 1862, as a private. On October 3, 1862, he was elected senior second lieutenant and transferred to Company H of the regiment. Promoted to captain on July 1, 1863, Johnson was captured in St. Louis County, Missouri on August 6, 1863, and sent to Myrtle Street Prison in St. Louis. Discharged from there on August 17, he apparently rejoined his regiment.

During Sterling Price’s raid through Missouri, Captain Johnson assumed command of the 3rd Missouri Cavalry regiment after Colonel Colton Greene was wounded in the fighting along the Little Blue River on October 21, 1864.

After the war, Johnson moved to McKinney, Collin County, Texas, and became city marshal. He died in McKinney in February 1875.

In late 1862, part of the 3rd Missouri Cavalry took part in the capture of Clark’s Mill, and a detachment accompanied General John S. Marmaduke on his first Missouri raid in January 1863, participating in the Battle of Hartville. The 3rd also fought at Helena on July 4, the defense of Little Rock in August and September, and the attack on Pine Bluff in October 1863. The regiment helped defeat General Frederick Steele’s Camden Expedition, and during the Price Raid the 3rd Missouri Cavalry participated in the fighting at Glasgow, Little Blue, Byram’s Ford, and Mine Creek.

Tintype, photographer unknown.

Image Courtesy Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield; WICR 12192