Background
Johnson was born on October 7, 1817, in Belmont County, Ohio. He was raised as a Quaker and, before moving to the South, worked on the Underground Railroad with his uncle.
educator military officer Soldier
Johnson was born on October 7, 1817, in Belmont County, Ohio. He was raised as a Quaker and, before moving to the South, worked on the Underground Railroad with his uncle.
After a common school education, Johnson entered West Point in 1836, graduating four years later in a class which included William Tecumseh Sherman.
Assigned as second lieutenant to the 3rd Infantry, Johnson was with a regiment that encountered much hardship and privation in the war with the Seminoles, and from 1843 to 1846, saw service in the West and Southwest. With the outbreak of war with Mexico, young Johnson participated in the battles of Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, Monterey, and the siege of Vera Cruz; and was on commissary duty in the latter city from March 3 until October 1, 1847, having been promoted first lieutenant, February 29, 1844.
He resigned from the army, October 22, 1847, to become instructor in philosophy and chemistry at the Western Military Institute, Georgetown, Kentucky, and then, for four years more, superintendent of that institution (1851-1855) and instructor in natural philosophy, mathematics, and engineering. When the school became part of the University of Nashville in 1855, Johnson became superintendent of the military college of the university, and professor of civil engineering. He held commissions in the militia of Kentucky as lieutenant-colonel (1849-1851) and colonel (1851-1854), and in the militia of Tennessee as colonel (1854-1861).
With the outbreak of the Civil War, he entered the Confederate army as a colonel of engineers, but was advanced to the rank of brigadier-general in January 1862. He commanded the garrison of Fort Henry when the latter fell before General Grant; and upon the fall of Fort Donelson, he succeeded in making his escape to the Confederate lines. He commanded a brigade at the battle of Shiloh (April 6-7, 1862), where he was severely wounded, and took part in Bragg's invasion of Kentucky. He then commanded a division at Chickamauga, and largely through his initiative the Federal right wing was swept from the field. Johnson also took part in the defense of Knoxville, and was soon after promoted major-general; he opposed Butler's assault on the Richmond railroad, near Petersburg (May 6-7, 1864), and took part in the engagement at Drewry's Bluff (May 16, 1864), where he captured the enemy's guns, but lost more than one-fourth of his division. He commanded South Carolina troops during the charge on the crater at Petersburg, and captured three stands of colors and 130 prisoners. With his division, he surrendered with Lee at Appomattox.
After the War, Johnson returned to Tennessee, where in the year 1870 he became chancellor of the University of Nashville, and arranged to conduct a collegiate department of that institution with the Montgomery Bell Academy as a preparatory school. In June 1874, however, the school was compelled to close its doors for financial reasons. Broken in health, he passed his last years and died on September 12, 1880, on a farm in Brighton, Macoupin County, Illinois, his remains being interred in Miles Cemetery, where a monument marks his last resting-place.
Johnson's wife Mary died prior to the war of natural causes, leaving him with a disabled son.