Johnson HAMNER

                   Taken from "Hamner Heritage" compiled by Geneal Hamner Black and Mary Clark Ryan:

       "Johnson Hamner was a farmer living near his brother, William Taylor Hamner, Sr., whose plantation was in the North River Valley area of Tuscaloosa Co., Alabama, about eight miles north of Northport, at the beginning of the Civili War.
       He enlisted on 4 April 1862 at Tuscaloosa Co., Alabama in Co. G 51st Regiment of the Alabama Cavalry.  This Confederate Army unit was also know as the Partisan Rangers.  Johnson Hamner achieved the rank of corporal.
       On 4 October 1863, while fighting in Woodbury, Tennessee, Johnson Hamner was captured by the Union Army and taken as a prisoner to their War Camp at Camp Morton, Indianapolis, Indiana.  It was there that he soon died, on 14 November 1863.
       Most of the deaths at Camp Morton were caused by pneumonia due to exposure, pleurisy, diarrhea and dysentery caused by poor diet.
       Records indicate that Johnson Hamner was first buried at Green lawn cemetery, a portion of the Indianapolis City cemetery reserved for Confederate soldiers.  This section of the cemetery was located on Kentucky Avenue between West Street and the river. These graves consisted of long trenches, each about twenty feet long, in which the wooden coffins were laid side by side.
       In the 1870's the Vandalia Railroad exchanged some property on the west side of the cemetery for land on the north side which held two rows of the trench type graves.  The bodies from these two rows were removed and reburied in two parallel trenches, but the new graves were not marked.
       The Federal government enclosed this space in 1912 and erected a large monument in honor of the Confederate prisoners buried at Greenlawn.  The monument was later moved to Garfield Park, located at Shelby Street and South Avenue, Indianapolis,  Since 1928 the monument has been at this location.  The monument bears a bronze plate inscribed with the names of the dead.  Johnson Hamner's name is clearly visible
       On 6 February 1865 at Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Johnson Hamner's land was sold by his widow, Julia F. Hamner, at public auction, for the purpose of paying debts.  Johnson's sister-in-law, Permelia Chism Hamner, second wife of William Taylor Hamner, Sr., bought the land, paying Julia F. Hamner, $443.00 in specie (gold) and $1203.00 in Confederate notes.  This land is still owned by descendants of Permelia Chism Hamner. "  Geneal Hamner Black, Mary Clark Ryan