By Daniel Wilson Barefoot
From Playmates
To Generals :
Lee’s ‘Lincoln’ Army
3 childhood friends from Lincoln County were to rise to positions of
authority in the Confederate Army.
In 1837 Lincoln County was a
prosperous area of the Pied¬
mont. An iron industry and cot¬
ton mills had begun to supple¬
ment the agricultural economy, and
Lincolnton, the county's only town,
also was thriving.
In the span of two months in 1837,
three boys were born to three comfort¬
able. distinguished Lincoln County
families. The lives of these boys.
Robert Frederick Hoke. Stephen Dod¬
son Ramseur and Robert Daniel
Johnston, would become intertwined
over the next 27 years. Their friend¬
ship was rooted in hunting, fishing
and roaming the wooded Lincoln
County countryside. It lasted to see
them fighting side-by-side in the Civil
War, each achieving prominence for a
heroic performance.
bert Daniel Johnston was born
March 19. 1837, at Mount Welcome,
the plantation of his maternal grand¬
father, General Peter Forney. Forney
had served as a captain in the Whig
Army during the Revolutionary War,
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and he participated in the battle at
Ramseur’s Mill. Forney later attained
great wealth as one of the pioneer iron
manufacturers in western North
Carolina and served as general of the
state militia. He was elected to the
U.S. Congress in 1813.
Forney left his business to his physi¬
cian son-in-law, Dr. William John¬
ston, who had married Forney’s
daughter Nancy in 1820. Dr. William
Johnston and Nancy Forney
Johnston were the parents of five sons
who all became Confederate officers,
including Robert Johnston.
Robert Frederick Hoke was born in
Lincolnton on May 27, 1837. His pa¬
ternal grandfather. Colonel John
Hoke, had come to the town in the late
18th century from Pennsylvania, and
he became one of the pioneers in the
cotton mill industry in Lincolnton,
where the first cotton mill south of the
Potomac was built in 1816. Robert’s
father was Michael Hoke, who gained
a statewide reputation as a lawyer
and legislator, which led to his nomi¬
nation as the Democratic candidate
for governor in 1844 when he was only
The Stale/Fcbriurv *89
6
34. He lost the general election in
August to William A. Graham (also of
Lincoln County) by only 3,000 votes.
Four days after Robert Hoke was
horn, Stephen Dodson Ramseur was
born in Lincolnton on May 31, 1837.
His great-grandfather, Jacob Ram¬
seur, was the owner and operator of
Ramseur’s Mill when the Revolution¬
ary War battle occurred there in 1780.
His maternal great-grandfather,
John Wilfong, was a soldier in the
Revolutionary War and fought at
Kings Mountain. Stephen Ramseur
was the oldest son of Jacob A. Ram¬
seur, an established merchant and
leading citizen in Lincolnton.
Since Hoke, Ramseur and
Johnston all came from large, promi¬
nent families in the same area, they
had common relatives and were
friends virtually from birth. Hoke and
Ramseur were particularly close be¬
cause they lived within blocks of each
other in downtown Lincolnton.
The boys hunted and roamed the
woods around the town, they swam
