Johnson K. Duncan - Civil War

Civil War

When the Southern states began seceding from the Union, Duncan reentered military service, this time as an enemy of the United States Army. He enlisted in the CSA forces as a colonel of the 1st Louisiana Regular Artillery Regiment and rose in rank and status rather quickly. Promoted to brigadier general of Louisiana troops on January 7, 1862, he was assigned to command the defenses of New Orleans and the Lower Mississippi, and he quickly became widely known as one of the finest artillerists in that region. He commanded Forts Jackson and St. Philip at the time of their capture by Admiral David Farragut on April 25, 1862, and became a prisoner of war. After being exchanged, Duncan was assigned to the staff of General Braxton Bragg, becoming Chief of Staff.

Johnson K. Duncan contracted a malarial fever and died far from his native York County at Knoxville, Tennessee, at the age of only 36. He was buried in the McGavock Confederate Cemetery on the Carnton Plantation in Franklin, Tennessee.