Johnston Family Papers, 1798-1943

Held by The Filson Historical Society 

Creator:  Johnston Family 

Title:  Papers, 1798-1943 

Rights: For information regarding literary and copyright interest for these papers, contact the Collections Department. 

Size of Collection:  2.66 cubic feet 

Location Number:  Mss. A J72j 

Scope and Content Note 

Collection includes correspondence of Albert Sidney Johnston, his Johnston relations, and the Preston relations of his first wife. Much of the correspondence concerns military affairs during the Civil War, including administrative communications received by Johnston and letters received by his son, an aide de camp to Jefferson Davis. Extensive correspondence of William Preston Davis and his wife Rosa Duncan Johnston, discussing wartime conditions and letters during the period of William P. Johnston’s imprisonment and exile. 

Later correspondence concerns William P. Johnston’s career as a faculty member at Washington and Lee, 1866-1877, as president of Louisiana State University, 1881-1883, and president of Tulane University, from 1883. Many letters of William P. Johnston’s children are included. 

Additional material includes correspondence, 1798-1943; miscellaneous papers, 1833-1861, of the Duncan family of New Orleans; autobiography of William P. Johnston; diary, 1880-1901, of George Anderson Robinson; genealogical data on the Barret, Brown, Covington, Duncan, Goldsborough, Hancock, Johnston, Patton, Poignand, Preston, Provoost, Robinson, and Yoder families. 

Correspondents include James Breckinridge, Major William Preston, William Campbell Preston, Caroline Hancock Preston, Henrietta Preston Johnston, John J. Crittenden, James Guthrie, Simon Bolivar Buckner, John Cabell Breckinridge, Winfield Scott, Josiah Gorgas, Benjamin Huger, Leroy Pope Walker, Judah P. Benjamin, Braxton Bragg, William J. Hardee, General William Preston, George Washington Custis Lee, William Campbell Preston Breckinridge, John Hunt Morgan, Randall Lee Gibson, John Echols, Varina Howell Davis, Basil W. Duke, Robert E. Lee, Margaret Junkin Preston, Wade Hampton, Alexander Lamar, Joseph Jefferson, Josiah Stoddard Johnston, Charles Dudley Warner, and John Mason Brown. 

To view a calendar of correspondents, please click here to access PDF.

Biographical Note 

Albert Sidney Johnston 

• 1803 Born in Washington, Ky. 
• 1826 Graduated from the United States Military Academy. 
• 1832 Fought in the Black Hawk War. 
• 1846 Fought at the battle of Monterrey. 
• 1861 Appointed to head the Confederate Army in the West by Jefferson Davis. 
• 1862 Killed at the battle of Shiloh 

William Preston Johnston 

• 1831 Born in Louisville, Ky. 
• 1852 Graduated from Yale. 
• 1853 Began the practice of law in Louisville. 
• 1861 Joined the Confederate Army. 
• 1862 Served as aide-de-camp to Jefferson Davis. 
• 1867 Became chair of the dept. of history and English literature at Washington University in Lexington, Va. 
• 1880 Assumed the presidency of Louisiana State University. 
• 1882? Became president of Tulane. 
• 1899 Died and was buried in Cave Hill Cemetery. 

 

Folder List 

 

Box 1 

1 Correspondence, 1798.

2 Correspondence, 1800-1827.

3 Correspondence, 1831-1839.

4 Correspondence, 1842-1848.

5 Correspondence, 1850-1858.

6 Correspondence, 1860.

7 Correspondence, 1861 Jan.-Sept.

8 Correspondence, 1861 Oct.-Dec.

9 Correspondence, 1862 Jan.-June.

10 Correspondence, 1862 July-Dec.

11 E. W. Munford to Jefferson Davis letter, 1862 May 10.

 

Box 2 

12 Correspondence, 1863.

13 Correspondence, 1864.

14 Correspondence, 1865.

15 Correspondence, 1866.

16 Correspondence, 1867.

17 Correspondence, 1868.

18 Correspondence, 1869.

19 Correspondence, 1870.

20 Correspondence, 1871.

21 Correspondence, 1872.

22 Correspondence, 1873.

23 Correspondence, 1874.

24 Correspondence, 1875.

25 Correspondence, 1876.

26 Correspondence, 1877.

27 Correspondence, 1878.

28 Correspondence, 1879.

 

Box 3 

29 Correspondence, undated 1870s.

30 Correspondence, 1880.

31 Correspondence, 1881.

32 Correspondence, 1882.

33 Correspondence, 1883.

34 Correspondence, 1884.

35 Correspondence, 1885.

36 Correspondence, 1886.

37 Correspondence, 1887.

38 Correspondence, 1888.

39 Correspondence, 1889.

40 Correspondence, 1890.

41 Correspondence, 1891.

42 Correspondence, 1892.

43 Correspondence, 1893.

 

Box 4 

44 Correspondence, 1894.

45 Correspondence, 1895.

46 Correspondence, 1896.

47 Correspondence, 1897.

48 Correspondence, 1898.

49 Correspondence, 1899.

50 Correspondence, 1900.

51 Correspondence, 1901.

52 Correspondence, 1903.

53 Correspondence, 1904.

54 Correspondence, 1906.

55 Correspondence, 1907.

56 Correspondence, 1909.

57 Correspondence, 1910-1919.

58 Correspondence, 1920-1943.

 

Box 5 

59 Correspondence, n.d.

60 Notes to Colonel William Preston Johnston from Mary Custis Lee, when Johnston was on the faculty of Washington College. 

61 Miscellaneous legal papers and receipts. 

62 Duncan family papers, 1833-1861.

63 Duncan family papers, n.d.

64 Autobiography of William Preston Johnston.

65 Poem “Heaven’s Hostage,” by W. P. Johnston, 1885.Incomplete text of a paper on the value of family history. Eulogy of Johnston. Invitation. 

 

Box 6 

66 Inscription for the tomb of Major William Preston. Account of the grave of William Preston. Account of the tradition of a romance between Dolly Payne and Major William Preston. 

67 Proof sheet for a printing of “Bivouac of the Dead,” with a letter to the editor and a note by D. Doty.

68 George A. Robinson diary, 1880-1901.

69 Scrapbook of newspaper clippings about Albert Sidney Johnston, William P. Johnston, Richard Alexander Robinson, and Rosa Robinson.

70Miscellaneousclippings about the Robinson family of Louisville. 

71 Newspaper clippings about Albert Sidney Johnston.

72 Newspaper clippings about William P. Johnston.

73 Newspaper clippings about Richard Alexander Robinson.

74 Newspaper clippings about George Anderson Robinson.

75 Newspaper clippings about Margaretta Mason Barret. 

76 Newspaper clippings about Mason Brown Barret.

77 Newspaper clippings about Rosa Robinson Barret.

78 Newspaper clipping giving a biographical sketch of Susan Preston Christy Hepburn, 1916 June 25.

79 Newspaper clippings about Henry St. George Tucker.

80 Newspaper clippings. Article on the Preston Hotel (Seelbach); article on the Preston family graveyard.

81 Newspaper article about George Hancock.

82 Newspaper clippings.

83 Newspaper clippings about Liberty Hall, Frankfort, Ky.

84 Newspaper clippings about Washington and Lee University.

 

Box 7 

85 Article on James Patton of Va. American Monthly Magazine, 1897 July.

85a Genealogical data on the Barret family. 

86 Genealogical data on the Brown family.

87 Genealogical data on the lineage of Rosa Robinson (Barret) of Covington.

88 Genealogical data on the Duncan family.

89 Genealogical data on the New York (New Amsterdam) Dutch families from whom Margaretta Mason descended. 

90 Genealogical data on the Goldsborough family.

91 Genealogical data on the Hancock family.

92 Genealogical data on the Johnston family.

93 Genealogical data on the Patton family.

94 Genealogical data on the Poign and family. 

95 Genealogical data on the Preston family.

96 Genealogical data on the Provoost family. 

97 Genealogical data on the Robinson family.

98 Genealogical data on the Yoder family.

99Miscellaneousgenealogical data. 

 

Box 8 

100 W. P. Johnston address to the Literary Societies of Washington and Lee, 1879June 25.In Memoriam Rosa Duncan Johnston. Certificate, 1884 Mar. 8. Sonnet. List of schools attended. 

101Fourtax stamps from the Spanish American War. 

102 Memoranda of the Preston Family, 1870.

103 “The Brown family of Liberty Hall.”

104 Edward Harris and his Ancestors, 1634-1820, by W. P. Johnston, 1899.

105 Memoranda of the Preston Family, by Orlando Brown, 1842.

106 Photo of the Joseph H. Bush portrait of Albert Sidney Johnston.

107 Photo of Albert Sidney Johnston (carte devisite).

108Twophotos of Albert Sidney Johnston (carte de visite). 

109 Print of a portrait of Albert Sidney Johnston in uniform.

110 Photo of Eliza Croghan Johnston and three of the children. 

111 Photo of an oil portrait by Joseph H. Bush of Colonel William P. Johnston.

112 Photo of Griffin Johnston.

113 Photo of Henrietta Preston Johnston.

114 Photo of Mary Owen Preston.

115 Carte devisite of Robert E. Lee. 

116 Engraving of a portrait of Richard Alexander Robinson.

117 Carte devisite of George Anderson Robinson, 1874 Feb. 10. 

118 Photo of George Anderson Robinson, 1901 Oct.

119 Group photo of schoolchildren at Miss Sally Booth’s School in Louisville, ca.1883.

120 Photo of Mason Brown Barret, 1912.

121Twophotos of Rosa Duncan Johnston. 

122Fourtintypes of a young man, probably George Anderson Robinson. 

122 Miscellaneous.