Looking for a Lt. J. L. Johnston

[Stryker65]

Hello all,
Like always, I'm not looking for a relative, but rather for another officer without any identifying information. The officer in this case is Lieutenant J. L. Johnston, of which there is no mention in any other volume of the Official Records except for this:

Lieutenant Johnston commanded Stevenson's escort. In all records of Stevenson's division, from Vicksburg to Nashville, Stevenson's division did not have an escort company, unlike, say, Cleburne's division. Additionally, J. L. Johnston is such a common name that I can find no other records of him on Search for Soldiers or a mention in the OR.

Hoping you guys could help me figure out who he is.

 

[TallTallMan]

Hello all,
Like always, I'm not looking for a relative, but rather for another officer without any identifying information. The officer in this case is Lieutenant J. L. Johnston, of which there is no mention in any other volume of the Official Records except for this:
View attachment 491244
Lieutenant Johnston commanded Stevenson's escort. In all records of Stevenson's division, from Vicksburg to Nashville, Stevenson's division did not have an escort company, unlike, say, Cleburne's division. Additionally, J. L. Johnston is such a common name that I can find no other records of him on Search for Soldiers or a mention in the OR.

Hoping you guys could help me figure out who he is.

Here's a sailor: https://web.lib.unc.edu/civilwar/in...o-this-station-came-to-his-death-by-drowning/

 

[Stryker65]

I wish ... that would make so much sense...but this Johnston is from the Carolinas Campaign order of battle, so still alive a year later.

 

[lelliott19]

Could the middle initial L have been mistranscribed? And should have actually been an S? Possibly this guy - J S Johnston who was ranked 2nd Lt Cavalry as of January 22, 1865 and serving as Asst Inspector General on the staff of BG Beverly H Robertson?

I don't think it was J. Stoddard Johnston. Looks like he was already promoted to Lt Col by the time of the Carolinas campaign.

 

[DixieRifles]

I searched for "J. L. Johnston" on FOLD3 for each state as well as Officers and I didn't find anything. I only found one with "J. L." and "James". That is odd---I expected to find hundreds.

 

[DixieRifles]

Well, I got more hits now. I found a Chaplain named "J. L. Johnston".

 

[lupaglupa]

I think @lelliott19 is right to think the name as given could be wrong. I did a search for J. L. Johnson and got:

Lt. James Johnson 12th GA Cavalry
Lt./Capt. James L. Johnson 24th GA Infantry
Lt./Capt. John Johnson (also Johnston) 29th GA Infantry

 

[Nathan Stuart]

The officer in this case is Lieutenant J. L. Johnston, of which there is no mention in any other volume of the Official Records except for this:

This extract displayed from the Official Records pertains to what exact date.

 

[Stryker65]

This extract displayed from the Official Records pertains to what exact date.

April 9, 1865.

 

[Nathan Stuart]

Nearest entry found in the 'List of Confederate Staff Officers of the Confederate States Army 1861-1865' (at page 87) was a Major John W. Johnston, who was Chief of Artillery to M-G Carter Stevenson from May 17, 1863, until the close of the war.

But during Hood's Tennessee Campaign, culminating in the complete rout of the AOT at Nashville (Dec. 16, '64), Thomas's troops captured seventy two pieces of Confederate artillery.

At Bentonville, it seems Stevenson's reduced division, as part of the remnants of the AOT, appeared to have no attached artillery present. It seems that the few Confederate artillery units there belonged to troops from either the Department of NC, or the Department of SC, Georgia & Florida, or Hampton's Cavalry command.

Notwithstanding the slight differences between the name shown in the extract displayed and the Major John W. Johnston entry mentioned above, I wonder if the latter officer could possibly have been assigned (with no longer any artillery duties to carry out) to be Stevenson's escort.

As was previously suggested, is it possible that the rank and middle initial 'L' was mistranscribed?

 

[lupaglupa]

How were these escorts generally appointed? Did they generally come from the regiments within the division?

 

[GELongstreet]

For late 1864 there are mentions of Captain Thomas B. Wilson's company as his escort, which is Company B (or consolidated companies B and C) of the 6th (Wheeler's) Tennessee Cavalry Regiment.

 

[Stryker65]

Nearest entry found in the 'List of Confederate Staff Officers of the Confederate States Army 1861-1865' (at page 87) was a Major John W. Johnston, who was Chief of Artillery to M-G Carter Stevenson from May 17, 1863, until the close of the war.

But during Hood's Tennessee Campaign, culminating in the complete rout of the AOT at Nashville (Dec. 16, '64), Thomas's troops captured seventy two pieces of Confederate artillery.

At Bentonville, it seems Stevenson's reduced division, as part of the remnants of the AOT, appeared to have no attached artillery present. It seems that the few Confederate artillery units there belonged to troops from either the Department of NC, or the Department of SC, Georgia & Florida, or Hampton's Cavalry command.

Notwithstanding the slight differences between the name shown in the extract displayed and the Major John W. Johnston entry mentioned above, I wonder if the latter officer could possibly have been assigned (with no longer any artillery duties to carry out) to be Stevenson's escort.

As was previously suggested, is it possible that the rank and middle initial 'L' was mistranscribed?

Johnston's artillery battalion was in fact in the area. It was composed by then of Beauregard's SC, Corput's GA, and Marshall's TN batteries. However, it was captured at Salisbury by Stoneman's men. CV says that Johnston surrendered himself at Salisbury on April 29, however.
Here are two articles on Maj. Johnston:

Note that the first biography of Johnston is written by a "Rev. J. L. Johnson," which caught my eye too.
This is CV V19.

 

[Nathan Stuart]

Note that the first biography of Johnston is written by a "Rev. J. L. Johnson," which caught my eye too.

Thought this is a valid point implied.

Believe it is quite easy to omit the 't' in Johnston, when transcribing. (I, myself, have sometimes mistranscribed the name 'Johnston' by instead writing 'Johnson').

 

[Nathan Stuart]

How were these escorts generally appointed? Did they generally come from the regiments within the division?

Thought these escorts were predominantly sourced from mounted units, for reasons of the practicality of mobility.

When S. D. Lee was wounded in the retreat from Nashville (on Dec. 17), Stevenson took over temporary command of Lee's Corps, which presumably included the latter's escort.

Wonder whether the 'Johnston' in question might have originally been a member of Lee's escort, and was later retained by Stevenson.

 

[lupaglupa]

So we could be looking at someone not from Georgia...

 

[lupaglupa]

Okay - I widened my search but still didn't come up with anyone who looked likely. Even looking at men who didn't have the middle initial L I came up empty, even when I made the last name Johnson.

Something is missing here. There should be some record of an officer.....

 

[Stryker65]

Could the middle initial L have been mistranscribed? And should have actually been an S? Possibly this guy - J S Johnston who was ranked 2nd Lt Cavalry as of January 22, 1865 and serving as Asst Inspector General on the staff of BG Beverly H Robertson?
View attachment 491289

Might be this guy, to be honest...then again it's likely that this Johnston was a relative of Beverly H., and Beverly H. was still down in South Carolina, so this guy would probably be with his relative. On January 19, 1865, General Beverly H. Robertson was commanding the post of Adams' Run, with a brigade of SC Reserves and Maxwell's Georgia battery.