Stovepipe Johnson Adam Rankin " Stovepipe " Johnson ( February 6 , 1834 – October 20 , 1922 ) was an antebellum Western frontiersman and later an officer in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War . Permanently blinded during a skirmish in 1864 , Johnson in 1887 founded the town of Marble Falls , Texas , which became known as " the blind man ' s town . " Early life . Johnson was born in Henderson , Kentucky , a son of Thomas J . and Juliet ( Rankin ) Johnson . Educated in the local schools , he went to work at age 12 in a drugstore for the next eight years . In 1854 he moved to Hamilton Valley in Burnet County , Texas , and worked as a surveyor on the West Texas frontier . He was a noted Indian fighter and provided supplies and animals for the Butterfield Overland Mail stations . On January 1 , 1861 , he married Josephine Eastland of Austin , with whom he had nine children . Civil War . When the Civil War began and his native Kentucky struggled to maintain its neutrality , Johnson returned home and joined Nathan B . Forrest ' s cavalry battalion as a scout . He escaped capture with Forrest after the Fort Donelson , when the Confederate commander decided to surrender his post to the Union besiegers . He later received a promotion to colonel in recognition for his exploits as commander of his Partisan Rangers , a regiment that often operated deep within Federal lines in Kentucky . Johnson ' s men harassed Union supply lines and isolated garrisons . In July 1862 , in his Newburgh Raid , he captured the town of Newburgh , Indiana , despite a sizable Union militia presence , with only twelve men and two joints of stovepipe mounted on the running gear of an abandoned wagon to simulate a cannon . His capture of the first Northern city to fall to the Confederates was reported even in Europe , and Johnson ' s men thereafter called him " Stovepipe " for his ingenuity . In 1863 , Johnson assumed command of a brigade in the cavalry division of Brig . Gen . John Hunt Morgan . He participated in Morgan ' s Raid , and , following the Confederate disaster at the Battle of Buffington Island , Johnson led nearly 350 men across the rain - swollen Ohio River to safety . The remainder of Morgan ' s division was trapped on the Ohio side of the river and eventually had to surrender . Johnson was appointed brigadier general on September 6 , 1864 to rank from June 1 , 1864 ; this appointment was not confirmed by the Confederate Congress . On August 21 , 1864 , he was blinded by an accidental shot from one of his own men during an attack at Grubb ' s Crossroads near Princeton , Kentucky . He was subsequently captured by the Federals and imprisoned for much of the rest of the war in Fort Warren . Postbellum . Johnson returned to Texas after being exchanged and paroled in 1865 . Despite being blind , he founded a town , established a company , and worked to harness the water power of the Colorado River . Johnson died in Burnet , Texas , and is interred at the Texas State Cemetery in Austin , Texas . He rests beside Josephine and near his grandson , Judge George Christian , Sr . , and a great - grandson , former White House Press Secretary George Christian , Jr .