Alexander H. Johnson
Born in Massachusetts, Alexander H. Johnson enlisted in the Union Army at age 14, and joined the 54th Massachusetts (of the movie Glory fame) as a drummer boy when that regiment was formed. The 54th Massachusetts being one of the Union’s first colored regiments, young Alexander was likely the first African American musician to enlist in the Civil War.
He saw significant service during the war, taking part in the battles of Honey Hill, Boykins Mill, James Island, Olustee, the siege of Charleston, South Carolina, was present at the murderous assault on Fort Wagner, and participated in Sherman’s march through the Carolinas. His drum was struck by enemy fire six times, and he was wounded in the leg during his Civil War career. Alexander stayed with the 54th Massachusetts until the war’s end and his discharge in 1865, when he returned home with the drum he had carried at Fort Wagner.
After the war, Alexander settled in Worcester, Massachusetts, taught drumming, and founded that town’s first drum corps. Nicknamed “Major”, in reference to his being the drum major of the town’s drum corps, Alexander married, raised a family, and had 17 children. He was a lifelong active member in the Grand Army of the Republic, as well as a member of the Sons of Union Veterans.
In 1897, a memorial sculpted by Augustus Saint-Gaudens was unveiled in Boston, honoring the 54th Massachusetts and its colonel, Robert Gould Shaw, who died fighting at the regiment’s head during the assault on Fort Wagner. The memorial, erected in front of the Massachusetts State House in Boston, where it can be seen to this day, depicts Colonel Shaw and his regiment leaving Boston for the South. In that bronze bas relief, Alexander is depicted with his drum, tapping the beat at the head of a column of his comrades. Alexander H. Johnson lived to the age of 83, and died in 1930.