John P. Houston

This photo of John P. Houston is available to view and purchase at the Minnesota Historical Society web site. Click on the image to go directly to it.

Name: John P. Houston Company: K, Field & Staff Veteran; enlisted as private January 30, 1862; promoted First Lieutenant Company K April 30, 1862; Captain July 24, 1862; Major April 4 or May 10, 1865; wounded at Nashville December 16, 1864
Birth Date: About 1830-1835 Place: Alabama	Mustered In Date: January 30, 1862 Rank: Private Age: 27 Residence prior to military service: Stillwater, Washington County, Minnesota (1860); Trempealeau, Wisconsin (1861) Vocation prior to military service: Attorney at law (1860); School Teacher (1861)
Death Date: Unknown Place: Unknown Burial: Unknown	Mustered Out Date: September 6, 1865 Rank: Major Age: about 30

John P. Houston Biography and Civil War Narrative

John P. Houston was born about 1835 in Alabama. At the time of the 1860 U.S. Census, 30-year-old(?) J. P. was living in Stillwater, Washington County, Minnesota, where he worked as an Attorney at Law. He was a law partner of Gold T. Curtis, who would become the first Captain of Company K of the Fifth Minnesota. In 1861, John worked as a school teacher in Trempealeau, Trempealeau County, Wisconsin. Trempeleau was a small town built along the Mississippi River, between Winona, Minnesota, and Lacrosse, Wisconsin.

When Gold T. Curtis opened his recruitment office in Stillwater, one of his recruits was his former law partner, John P. Houston. Houston enlisted as a private in Company K on January 30, 1862. When the regiment was formally organized on April 30, Houston was named First Lieutenant, the right hand man of Captain Curtis. About May 13, 1862, Captain Curtis and his company left Fort Snelling and headed south along with Companies A, E, F, G, H, and I. The 5th Minnesota Regiment reported to General John Pope near Corinth, Mississippi, on May 24, where they were attached to the Second Brigade (Loomis), Second Division (Stanley), Army of Mississippi (Pope). Just four days later they were engaged in battle at Farmington. When the Confederate army snuck out of Corinth before dawn on May 30, the 5th Minnesota and the rest of General Rosecrans' army pursued them south to Booneville, Mississippi. By June 12, they had returned northward and settled in at Camp Clear Creek, about 8 miles south of Corinth. The marching, heat, and unhealthy conditions took a toll on the 5th Minnesota, and on July 9, Captain Curtis -- ill with dysentery -- was sent home on furlough. When Captain Curtis died in St. Louis, John Houston was promoted to Captain of Company K.

Captain John P. Houston led Company K throughout the remainder of the Civil War: the Second Battle of Corinth (October 4, 1862), Grant's Central Mississippi Campaign (November 1862-January 1863), the Siege of Vicksburg (May 18-July 4, 1863), the Red River Campaign (March 10-May 22, 1864), the pursuit of Price through Arkansas and Missouri (September 17-November 15, 1864), the Battle of Nashville (December 15-16, 1864), and the campaign against Mobile, Alabama (March 7-April 12, 1865). At the Battle of Nashville, Houston was wounded in his right arm. A section of bone was removed from between the elbow and shoulder, so the arm consequently hung loose at his right side.

In the spring of 1865, John P. Houston was promoted to Major in the 5th Regiment, replacing John Becht. He also served as Provost-Marshal in Selma, Alabama, during the early reconstruction after the war. Byron Cloyd Bryner, author of Bugle Echoes: The Story of Illionois 47th (1905) describes Houston's responsibilities as Provost-Marshal, including the issuing of amnesty oaths, taking charge of property which had been owned by the Confederacy (such as cotton), suppressing disorder, and providing for emancipated slaves.

A report by Provost-Marshal Houston was included with an 1865 Report on the Condition of the South by Carl Schurz to the Senate of the United States. Houston's report listed twelve cases in which "negroes were killed by whites." Houston considered the examples to be "a small part of those that have actually been perpetrated." John P. Houston thus played a small but significant role in process of reconstruction following the Civil War and in the inception of the Civil Rights movement that would culminate a hundred years later.

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This page is maintained by Tim Bode (timbode@juno.com ). Last modified on 6/2/08.