![Walter P. Johnston is shown with his wife Mary and dog in this circa-1880s photo. While researching his history, Johnston’s great-great-great-granddaughter, Colleen Malinowski, obtained the photo from his great-granddaughter, Georgene Johnston Peterson, who lives in Salt Lake City, UT. Georgene is the daughter of Howard Johnston, who ran EZ Clean cleaners in LaPorte for years; Howard was Walter’s grandson.]()
Walter P. Johnston is shown with his wife Mary and dog in this circa-1880s photo. While researching his history, Johnston’s great-great-great-granddaughter, Colleen Malinowski, obtained the photo from his great-granddaughter, Georgene Johnston Peterson, who lives in Salt Lake City, UT. Georgene is the daughter of Howard Johnston, who ran EZ Clean cleaners in LaPorte for years; Howard was Walter’s grandson.
(CLICK ON PHOTOS TO ENLARGE)
Saturday, June 8, 2013, will be a special day in LaPorte’s history, especially its military history. A dedication ceremony will honor Civil War hero Walter P. Johnston, who was awarded the U.S. Medal of Honor in 1864. A new memorial will be dedicated at Johnston’s gravesite in Patton Cemetery, which until now was marked with a simple, weathered headstone.
![The original headstone for Walter Johnston in Patton Cemetery.]()
The original headstone for Walter Johnston in Patton Cemetery.
The public is invited to the dedication ceremony, which will begin at 11 a.m. at First Christian Church, 610 Maple Ave., then move to Patton Cemetery for the rest of the ceremony. Among those attending will be Johnston’s great-great-great-granddaughter, Colleen Malinowski of Chicago, who did the sleuthing that led to the discovery of Johnston’s Medal of Honor and plans for the new headstone.
The Sons of Union Civil War Veterans is organizing the event, which will feature Civil War re-enactment units. Speakers will include:
![The new memorial stone to be dedicated June 8.]()
The new memorial stone to be dedicated June 8.
– Capt. Clarence Carter, professor of Naval Science and commanding officer of Navy ROTC, University of Notre Dame
– Ray Johnston of the U.S. Medal of Honor Historical Society
– Allen J. Lynch, Medal of Honor recipient (Vietnam)
– U.S. Navy veteran and LaPorte Mayor Blair Milo
Rediscovering history
In April 2012, WNLP posted Malinowski’s account of how she tracked down her great-great-great-grandfather’s military history:
“While doing some genealogy work on a branch of my family that I know very little about, I found that my paternal great-great-great-grandparents had lived in LaPorte and had run a broom factory there. I also learned that my great-great-great-grandfather, Walter P. Johnston, was a Civil War veteran, having been in the Navy and serving on the USS Fort Hindman. (The ship was built in Jeffersonville, IN, according to U.S. Navy archives.)
“As I dug further, I found that at the time of his service, he would’ve only been around 15 years old. This seemed very young, but I knew not unusual for the Civil War era. I looked into the history of the Fort Hindman. I was more intrigued when I learned that during what they called ‘the engagement at Harrisonburg, Louisiana,’ on March 2, 1864, a man by the name of William P. Johnston, a sailor on the Fort Hindman, was awarded the Medal of Honor, citing:
Rank and organization: Landsman, U.S. Navy.
Entered service at: Chicago, Ill.
Birth: Chicago, Ill. G.O. No.: 32, 16 April 1864.
Citation: ‘Served on board the USS Fort Hindman during the engagement near Harrisonburg, La., 2 March 1864. Badly wounded in the hand during the action, Johnston, despite his wound, took the place of another man to sponge and lead one of the guns throughout the entire action in which the Fort Hindman was raked severely with shot and shell from the enemy guns.’
“Was this my great-great-great-grandfather? Same year of birth, same place of birth (Chicago), same initials (W.P.), same less common spelling of the last name (Johnston), same ship, same time period.
“I began to look for an organization to help me as I tried to figure out exactly what I was on to, if anything. I came across the website for the Medal of Honor Historical Society of the United States. As I was looking through the website for someone I could contact personally to find out more, I found a list of some 400 MOH recipients who have been ‘lost’ to history — meaning no one has any idea as to what became of them, nor their final resting place.
“As it would happen, William P. Johnston was among those ‘lost.’
“I contacted the society and talked with Gayle Alvarez and Don Morfe. With their extensive help and access to military records, and by using the genealogical research I provided, we were able to determine that the MOH recipient known as William P. Johnston is in fact my great-great-great-grandfather, Walter P. Johnston, who lived and died in LaPorte on May 8, 1888, at the age of 39, and is buried in Patton Cemetery.”
Malinowski, with the help of her father, the Medal of Honor historians and Lea Galloway, office manager at Patton Cemetery, went on to find Johnston’s grave, which is worn and virtually illegible. They decided to take on the work of documenting the Johnston story so that his old headstone can be replaced with a Medal of Honor recipient marker.
Now that work has come to fruition.
“After a year of government red tape and verification with historians through the Veterans Administration, Walter (as he has affectionately come to be known!) was finally granted his Medal of Honor headstone,” Malinowski wrote. “For a Medal of Honor recipient, or any United States soldier or sailor, to lie for over a century in an unmarked grave, unknown to his family, the town in which he lived and died, and even his country, is something that definitely deserves to be made right.
“On Feb. 2, I went to LaPorte to check out the stone,” Malinowski continued. “Bill Adams of the Sons of Civil War Union Veterans and his wife also came to view the stone … I also met with (LaPorte County Historian) Fern Eddy Schultz. Fern is great and has spent a lot of time helping me with my research on Walter and his family and has given me many wonderful ideas for continued research. She was able to provide me with some obituaries and through those obituaries, I was able to locate a completely different line of Walter’s family which I am just now coming into contact with.”
Malinowski included this quote, the author of which is unknown:
“Poor is the nation that has no heroes. Shameful is the one that, having them, forgets.”
For more information on the ceremony, visit the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/WalterPJohnstonMedalofHonorHeadstoneDedication.
![A U.S. Navy archive photo shows the USS Fort Hindman, a 286-ton side-wheel "tinclad" river gunboat, which was built in 1862 in Jeffersonville, IN, as a civilian steamer. It was pressed into service by the Navy during the Civil War.]()
A U.S. Navy archive photo shows the USS Fort Hindman, a 286-ton side-wheel “tinclad” river gunboat, which was built in 1862 in Jeffersonville, IN, as a civilian steamer. It was pressed into service by the Navy during the Civil War.
