Hammond Johnson

Edward Hammond Johnson[1] (April 19, 1883 – May 17, 1919) was an American football player and coach of football and baseball. He served as the head football coach at the University of Virginia for one season in 1907, compiling a record of 6–3–1. Johnson was also the head baseball coach at the University of Georgia for one season in 1908, tallying a mark of 20–2.

Hammond Johnson

Johnson pictured in The Bomb 1904, VMI yearbook
Biographical details
Born	April 19, 1883 Woodville, North Carolina
Died	May 17, 1919 (aged 36) near Cochem, Germany
Alma mater	Virginia Military Institute (1904) University of Virginia (1907)
Playing career
Football
1901–1903	VMI
1904–1906	Virginia
Position(s)	Halfback
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
Football
1907	Virginia
Baseball
1908	Georgia
Head coaching record
Overall	6–3–1 (football) 20–2 (baseball)
Accomplishments and honors
Awards
All-Southern (1904)

Biography

Johnson was a native of Woodville, North Carolina.[2] He graduated from the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) in 1904 and the University of Virginia School of Law. While in Athens, Georgia, on November 10, 1910, he married Anne Barrett Phinizy (1887-1936), daughter of Billups Phinizy (1861–1927) and Nellie G. Stovall (1864–1949), and then went to Norfolk, Virginia to make his home. He practiced law in Norfolk until America entered World War I.[3]

In 1917, Johnson returned to Athens to enlist in the United States Army and was sent to officer's training school at Fort McPherson in Atlanta, where on August 15, 1917, he was commissioned a major. He saw service at Camp Gordon, near Atlanta, Camp Upton in New York, and in Boston, Massachusetts, before being ordered to France on May 1, 1918, as a battalion commander in 328th Infantry, 164th Brigade, 82nd Division, American Expeditionary Forces (AEF).[2]

During the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, Major Johnson was severely wounded, gassed, and he received a bad case of shell shock, which left him deaf in one ear. Released from the hospital after the Armistice, he was reassigned to Headquarters, 112th Infantry, 56th Brigade, 28th Division, IV Army Corps, AEF. While serving as assistant inspector general in the American Army of Occupation, based near Cochem, Germany, Johnson died of apoplexy.[4][5]

Although he was immediately buried in Cochem, his body was later returned to the United States and he was re-interred in Arlington National Cemetery. His marker has date of death as May 19, 1919, but this was the date of his original burial in Germany.[6]

He was survived by his wife and two children, Billups Phinizy Johnson (1911–1988) and Nell Bolling Johnson (1915–1991). A son of James Pettiway Johnson (1833–1904) and Sarah Agnes Walton (1848–1915). He and Ira Johnson were brothers.

Head coaching record

Football

Year	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Bowl/playoffs
Virginia Cavaliers (South Atlantic Intercollegiate Athletic Association) (1907)
1907	Virginia	6–3–1
Virginia:		6–3–1
Total:		6–3–1

References

2. Georgia Adjutant General’s Office. World War I Statements of Service Cards. Georgia State Archives, Morrow, Georgia.
3. "Maj. Hammond Johnson, Well-Known Georgian, is Dead Overseas," Atlanta Journal, May 23, 1919.
4. University of Virginia (1922). Alumni Bulletin of the University of Virginia. University of Virginia Press. ISSN 0195-8798. Retrieved April 5, 2015.
5. Virginia Military Institute; Anderson, J.R. (1920). Record of service in the world war of V. M. I. alumni and their alma mater. The Richmond press inc. Retrieved April 5, 2015.
6. Interment Control Forms, A1 2110-B. Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774–1985, Record Group 92. The National Archives at College Park, College Park, Maryland.

External links

• Hammond Johnson at Find a Grave