This fading image, graciously provided by
Heritage Auctions, HA.com, gives us an early glimpse of a
well-known Mobile newsie, Charles Archie Johnson.
Johnson became a pawn in the struggle between Democrats and Republicans
for control of Port City politics during Reconstruction. Mobile newspapers gave
Johnson a lot of attention in their pages but so did other papers around the
country. Newspapers on the Gulf Coast continued to follow Johnson’s misfortunes
until he died in 1903.
Johnson poses in a photographer’s studio on this carte de visite, a
photographic calling card, just 2.3 inches by 4 inches. I found the photo
online in 2020. Unfortunately, it had been sold in 2017. It is heavily stained
and has been folded in half, resulting in the deep horizontal crease. The
photographer chemically treated the finish, giving the tone an altered color. I
corrected the tone to improve the clarity of the image.
Johnson’s past before coming to Mobile is just as unclear as the image.
One of two different stories may be true, or it also is possible to look at the
two stories as parts of the same tale.
According to a story in the New Orleans Picayune, Johnson had
been the slave of a Confederate army captain who was wounded during the battle
of Murfreesboro. This is taken to mean the Battle of Stones River from December
31, 1862, to January 2, 1863, in Middle Tennessee, and not the First Battle of
Murfreesboro, a cavalry battle in July 1862.
This story, which may have been embellished, holds that while Johnson
was carrying his wounded master from the firing line, he too was wounded in the
right leg. Doctors had to amputate the limb above the knee.(1)
In this version of events, we don’t know if Union or Rebel doctors
amputated Johnson’s leg or what happened to him before he showed up in Mobile
after the war. Although Stones River was an inconclusive battle, the
Confederates withdrew, making it likely that Union troops picked up Johnson from
the battlefield and took him to their hospital for care.
As Heritage Auctions points out, the
Civil War
Soldiers and Sailors System database lists a Charles Archie Johnson,
apparently a liberated slave, as a veteran of Company D, 92
nd Infantry
Regiment, U.S. Colored Infantry. He appears to have mustered into service as a
private on October 24, 1863, with the 22
nd Infantry Regiment, Corps d’Afrique, organized at New Orleans on September
30, 1863.
The regiment saw duty at New Orleans, Brashear City, New Iberia, and in
the District of La Fourche until January 1864. The Army ordered the troops to duty
at Port Hudson on January 4 and then to Brashear City in April. The Army took
advantage of the move to reorganize the unit as the 92nd Infantry.
The Army discharged this Johnson after the end of the war on December 31, 1865.
It’s possible that the Johnson wounded at Murfreesboro somehow found
his way to New Orleans and later enlisted with the Corps d’Afrique. Or these
may be two entirely different men.
At any rate, the Johnson who sold newspapers in Mobile was suited only
to menial labor, regardless of having only one leg. Most observers at the time seem
to agree that Johnson was a “mental, intellectual and physical
cripple . . . who can scarce distinguish between right and
wrong, whose mind borders on idiocy. . . .”
That description may have somewhat exaggerated Johnson’s mental
limitations as those who used him sought to present the newsboy as deserving
sympathy. All newsboys also tried to look sorrowful in order to elicit larger
tips from their patrons.(2)
The Johnson who sold papers in Mobile would seem, then, to have lacked
the capability to shoulder arms and wasn’t the man who enlisted in New Orleans.
But he still could have served as a teamster or other laborer with the Army toward
the end of the war.
At some point, the news peddler Johnson, who was about 25 in 1865,
found his way to Mobile. Union black troops were still stationed in Mobile and
perhaps Johnson came to join friends or family. He earned a living by hawking
newspapers along Royal Street for the Mobile Daily Tribune and blacking
shoes. Johnson sold his papers wearing the outlandish costume he dressed in for
the photo. It is an exaggerated military uniform with large epaulettes. It may
have been a cast off band uniform.
Written on the back of the photo is, “Hon Archie Johnson Gentleman
of Color / G. Horton's Friend / 1867 Mobile Ala.” The phrase, “G.
Horton’s Friend,” was meant to be tongue in cheek.
In 1867, U.S. Major General John Pope had appointed Gustavus Horton
mayor of Mobile. Before the war, Horton had been a successful and prominent
businessman. During the war, Horton had remained a unionist and suffered
persecution, even though two sons and a son-in-law served in the Confederacy.
After the war, he became a Republican.
As mayor, Horton fired ineffective white policemen and hired black
officers in their place. He also replaced some white laborers with blacks. Both
moves angered white Democrats.
The Tribune may have hired Johnson just to torment Horton. As
Johnson went about the streets selling the Mobile Tribune, he wore
placards with the paper’s headlines, which were often critical of Horton and
fellow Republican Frederick G. Bromberg, who was the city treasurer in 1867. On one occasion Johnson cried, “Here’s yer Mobile
Tribune, wid all about Mayor Horton and his Bromberg rats.”
Written on the hat that Johnson is wearing in the photo is “Bromberg.”
Another word, which may be “Horton,” is written below Bromberg.(3)
Among
his duties, Horton presided over the Mayor’s Court to try cases for minor
offenses. Police officers arrested Johnson at least three times during the
summer 1867 for disorderly conduct, probably related to his frequent drunkenness.
The court could fine offenders, order them to post a bond to insure good
behavior, or order them to leave the city. Horton ordered Johnson to leave.
When
Johnson didn’t leave the city, Horton had an officer put him on a steamer to
New Orleans. But Mobile’s Democrats chartered a steamer and chased the boat
carrying Johnson. Overtaking the other boat, the Democrats took Johnson aboard
their steamer and back to Mobile. The steamer arrived with a band playing Dixie
and banners flying. The Democrat partisans put Johnson in a carriage and
paraded past large, cheering crowds.
Johnson’s
days as a pawn in this political chess game weren’t over. Mayor Horton had an
officer put Johnson on a train and escort him to Montgomery. Again the
peg-legged veteran returned, no doubt aided by the Democrats. Policemen
arrested Johnson again and Horton ordered him to post a $500 bond to keep the
peace.
In
a few weeks, Johnson was back in front of the mayor charged with disorderly
conduct, drunkenness, and resisting arrest. Horton ordered the newsboy to pay a
$50 fine or serve 30 days in jail, and pay a peace bond of $300.
Johnson
undoubtedly was getting help and encouragement in his battles with the mayor
from Democrats, particularly the owners of the Tribune, the Mobile
Times, and the Mobile Register. Certainly, there is no way that
Johnson made enough money selling papers and shining shoes to pay all his fines
and return trips from banishment.
The
editor of the Nationalist, a Republican paper, charged the Democrats
with being behind Johnson’s antics. The newspaper said Johnson got drunk and
allowed “himself to be tricked out by the Tribune buffoons and their
allies in such a manner as to necessarily create an excitement upon the street,
and endanger the public peace.”(4)
Horton’s
opponents now snared mayor in the federal government’s own laws. They turned U.S.
law aimed at securing black civil rights against the white unionist mayor.
Johnson’s bosses and the other Democrat editors charged that Horton’s arrests
and sentences of the street vendor were politically motivated and deprived
Johnson of his civil rights. They charged Horton in federal court with
violating the U.S. civil rights act.
U.S.
District Judge Richard Busteed, although a fellow Republican, was an opponent
of Horton. In Horton’s trial, Busteed excluded evidence that other mayors had
commonly expelled troublemakers, often whites, from the city. A jury found Horton
guilty. Busteed had the mayor briefly jailed before slapping him with a $250
fine.
With
their point made, the Tribune and other Democrat newspaper editors
apparently ceased using Johnson to torment the mayor. In 1868, voters elected
Horton as probate judge of Mobile County, which took him out of Reconstruction
political controversies. Archie Johnson, as he was usually called, continued to
hawk the Tribune along Royal Street and to get into trouble with the law
for many years.
On
one occasion in January 1868, however, Johnson needed the help of the police.
Johnson presented himself at Mobile’s guardhouse in such an excited state that
it was sometime before police could calm him down enough to understand the
problem.
Johnson’s
Democrat patrons had favored him with numerous gifts, including a gold stud. He
had a sentimental attachment to the gift and carried it with him each time he
was expelled from Mobile. On one deportation to Montgomery, Johnson was broke
but refused to sell the stud for the money he needed.
Johnson
accused a fellow newsboy named Palmer of stealing the stud. Police arrested
Palmer and put him under a $100 bond to appear in Mayor’s Court.(5)
But
it was usually Johnson who was in trouble. In November 1874, a policeman again
hauled the newspaper vendor into the Mayor’s Court, with Alderman Underhill
presiding in the absence of the mayor. The officer explained that Johnson was
drunk and disorderly all the time and that he made too little money to live on.
Underhill must have taken pity on Johnson because he didn’t assess a fine.
In
January 1875, Johnson was back in court, this time before Mayor Alphonse
Hurtel. The Tribune reported that Johnson “got into a weaving way and
became very noisy and abusive near the corner of St. Michael and Joachim”
streets. The mayor fined Johnson $10 “and he will languish in durance vile
unless some friend comes to his rescue,” meaning the newsie was stuck behind
bars until someone paid his fine.
The
Mayor’s Court must have sent Johnson again from Mobile at some point because in
May 1876, he was in Pensacola and in trouble. The Pensacola Gazette
reported that a photographer caught Johnson breaking into his studio one night.
Deputies confined Johnson to the county jail.
The
news stories don’t say so, but it seems likely that someone else directed
Johnson in his petty criminal ways. Given Johnson’s limited abilities, he would
have needed a Fagin, a fence, to tell him what to steal and to exchange the
goods for shelter or cash. It also possible that Johnson simply didn’t know
legal from illegal and right from wrong. Regardless of the reasons for his
activities, Johnson paid the consequences.(6)
The
Pensacola court found Johnson guilty of burglary and the judge sentenced him to
10 years in the state penitentiary. Johnson applied to the pardoning board in
1882 for a reduction of his sentence. Whether that happened isn’t clear, but
whenever Johnson was released the veteran newsie returned to the Port City. By
1880, regular passenger rail service linked Pensacola and Mobile, making it
easier and cheaper for Johnson to travel.(7)
The
sound of Johnson crying the news could again be heard on Mobile’s streets. A
correspondent for the New Orleans Times-Democrat in August 1897 recalled
for his Crescent City audience the colorful cries of Mobile street vendors.
These included the charcoal man or woman, ice man, butcher boy, fruit wagon
driver, beer bottle collector, and, of course, one particular newspaper seller.
“In
the past who does not remember ‘Charles Archie Johnson’ the one-legged negro,
with a voice that equaled that of a bugle, and whose call, ‘Times-Democrat,’
could be distinctly heard for eleven blocks?” Mobile newsboys such as Johnson
sold out-of-town newspapers such as the Times-Democrat as well as Mobile
newspapers. “Archie is still with the gang, but his loud calls have grown to respectable
limits, old age and a fast life having had their effect, but his voice is yet
good for six squares.” The Mobile Register said Johnson had “stentorian
lungs.”(8)
A
year later, in 1898, an unknown photographer captured Johnson chatting with a
passerby in Mobile. The photo, in the collection of the Alabama Department of
Archives and History, had only identified the man as a “
newspaper carrier.” (The department has since updated the identification.) News stories make it clear that Johnson was a well-known
character in Mobile, which explains the photographer’s interest. Besides, how
many one-legged, African American newsies could there have been on Royal Street
in Mobile at that time?
In
the photo, Johnson is resting the stump of his right leg on the steps of the
U.S. Customs House at the southwest corner of Royal and St. Francis streets. He
appears to be carrying on a lively conversation with the well-dressed older man
wearing the derby. Judging from a number of photos of the Customs House, this
area was a popular place for men to gather and talk. It would have been a good
place to sell newspapers.
The
state archives doesn’t identify which newspaper he is selling. It’s likely he’s
hawking the Mobile Register, but it could have been the Mobile Daily
Item or another newspaper such as the New Orleans Times-Democrat,
which was shipped to news agents in Mobile.
In
March 1899, Johnson was back in Pensacola and back in trouble with the law. He
and a comrade, Charles Wright, were charged with
petit
larceny and held for trial. The jury found Johnson guilty, but acquitted
Wright. The judge sentenced the hapless newsboy to 30 days in the county jail
at hard labor.
(9)
In
January 1903, Pensacola’s opera house called the police to deal with rowdies,
apparently newsboys, at the ticket box. When the police arrived, they caught
Johnson crawling over the shoulders of those ahead of him trying to reach the
box. The next morning, the police court judge sentenced Johnson to work 60 days
on the city’s street gang.(10)
Not
long after completing his sentence in Pensacola, Johnson was back on the
streets of Mobile hawking papers. About April 9, 1903, Johnson fell seriously
ill and was taken to the city hospital. He died 20 days later, never having
recovered.(11)
(1) “Mobile Negroe’s Adventure,” Pensacola News, April 29, 1903 3:4
(2) Harriet E. Amos Doss, “Trials of a Unionist: Gustavus Horton, Military Mayor of Mobile during Reconstruction,” 123-144, in Michael Thomason, editor, Down the Years: Articles on Mobile’s History. (Mobile: Gulf Coast Historical Review, 2001), 136; Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System, National Park Service. Online: https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-soldiers.htm. Accessed February 8, 2020.
(4) Harriet E. Amos Doss, “Trials of a Unionist: Gustavus Horton, Military Mayor of Mobile during Reconstruction,” 123-144, in Michael Thomason, editor, Down the Years: Articles on Mobile’s History. (Mobile: Gulf Coast Historical Review, 2001), 133-134
(5) “Charles Archie Johnson Robbed,” Mobile Daily Times, January 6, 1868 5:1. The Times gives the name of the thief as “Palmes,” but this appears to be a typographical error.
(6) Mobile Daily Tribune, November 6, 1874, 3; Mobile Daily Tribune, January 15, 1875, 3; Mobile Daily Tribune, May 13, 1876, 2
(7) Pensacola Commercial, April 1, 1882, 3:5
(8) “Record of happenings in the Gulf City yesterday,” New Orleans Times-Democrat, August 12, 1897, 9:3; “The Surrender at Montgomery,” Pickens County Herald and West Alabamian, December 14, 1870 2:6
(9) “The Criminal Court,” Pensacola News March 13, 1899 2:5; “The Criminal Court,” Pensacola News March 18, 1899 5:2
(10) “Rowdy opera house patrons,” Pensacola News January 29, 1903 1:6
(11) New Orleans Times-Democrat April 9, 1903 9:4; “Mobile Negroe’s Adventure,” Pensacola News, April 29, 1903 3:4
