The History

At any given time during the Civil War, 25% of Union soldiers were stricken with dysentery or diarrhea. This led historians to believe the name “Shittin’ Johnny Wink” was a composite – a generic soldier meant to symbolize ALL soldiers suffering from these afflictions. Surely no one man could achieve the output “Johnny” is credited with in the lyrics. But in 2002 a genealogist researching his family history discovered he was indeed related to a “Johnny Wink,” who records show more than deserved the nickname of “Shittin’ Johnny.” A Historical Marker has since been erected at the site of Johnny Wink’s greatest heroism, known in the North as ‘The Battle of Brown River,’ just outside Antietam, Maryland.

Researchers with the Smithsonian Institution have tracked the origin of the song to two heretofore unheralded Union soldiers, mess Corporal Stephen “Cookie” Grieger and Private David “Crybaby” Hines. Having witnessed Private Wink’s heroic outpouring turn the tide in “The Battle of Brown River” in 1862, they penned the song as tribute to their Union brother the following year.

Speculation exists that Grieger and Hines felt a certain kinship to Johnny Wink. Recently uncovered military records suggest Hines was no stranger to soiling his uniform during battle, while units in which Grieger served as cook experienced numerous instances of rampant and crippling food poisoning.

Both Hines and Grieger survived the war. Hines seems to have become a hermit, living alone in a small cabin penning political diatribes until his death from boredom in 1882. Grieger served as cook in a series of mining camps in the West before joining friend and fellow Union soldier Alferd Packer on his ill-fated Colorado gold expedition in 1874. It is believed Grieger met a grisly, yet ironic, end.