Rep. James Johnson (KY-DemRep)

James Johnson (January 1, 1774 – August 13, 1826) was a U.S. Representative from Kentucky, brother of Richard Mentor Johnson and John Telemachus Johnson, and uncle of Robert Ward Johnson.

Born in Orange County, Virginia, Johnson moved with his father to Kentucky in 1779. He pursued preparatory studies. He was a member of the State senate in 1808. He served as a lieutenant colonel in the War of 1812. Contractor for furnishing supplies to troops on the western frontier in 1819 and 1820. He served as a presidential elector on the ticket of Monroe and Tompkins in 1820.

Johnson was elected as a Jacksonian to the Nineteenth Congress and served from March 4, 1825, until his death in Washington, D.C., on August 13, 1826. He was interred in the family cemetery, Great Crossings, Kentucky.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Johnson_(Kentucky)

Col James Johnson

• US Congressman.
• Elected as a Jacksonian to represent Kentucky's 5th District in the Nineteenth Congress, he served from 1825 until his death.
• Born in Orange County, Virginia, he moved with his father to Kentucky at age five.
• His first political office was as a member of the Kentucky State Senate (1808). Johnson served as a Lieutenant Colonel during the War of 1812 and was later an independent contractor furnishing supplies to army troops on the western frontier.
• In 1820 he was a presidential elector on the Monroe-Tompkins ticket.
• He died in Washington DC, six months shy of completing his first term in the House of Representatives; there is a cenotaph in his memory at the capital's Congressional Cemetery.
• Johnson was the older brother of Richard Mentor Johnson, who was US Vice President under Martin Van Buren, and US Congressman John Telemachus Johnson.
• His nephew, Robert Ward Johnson, served first in the US Senate and then as a Confederate Senator during the Civil War.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7680916/james-johnson

Background
Johnson was born on January 1, 1774, in Orange County, Virginia. When he was six years of age, his father, Robert, and his mother, Jemima (Suggett) Johnson, migrated to Pennsylvania, where they remained one year before they moved to Kentucky and settled ultimately at Great Crossings, or Bryant's Station, near Lexington.

In 1782 Bryant's Station was attacked by a large body of hostile Indians. The supply of water in the fort became exhausted and the women went to the spring for more, thinking that the Indians would be less likely to fire upon them than upon the men.

It was Jemima Johnson who volunteered to lead the party and she accomplished the feat unmolested. Her husband also established his reputation in the new country. He acquired the title of colonel, was appointed in 1796 on the commission to determine the boundary between Kentucky and Virginia, and sat in the first and second constitutional conventions of his state.

Career
Johnson's fame rests exclusively upon his participation as lieutenant-colonel under command of his brother Richard Mentor Johnson in the battle of the Thames, October 5, 1813. In this engagement the British left consisted of a force of regular troops; their right was made up of Indian allies under the famous Tecumseh.

The regulars were drawn up in an open wood, while the natives were concealed in the edge of a swamp.
Col. R. M. Johnson asked and received permission to begin the attack with his regiment of mounted riflemen. Seeing that there was no room for his whole force to maneuver in front of the British regulars, he led a part of his men off to attack in person the Indians concealed in the swamp and left his brother to lead the assault on the regular forces.

Disposing of his men in four columns of twos, James Johnson advanced slowly toward the enemy. A volley was fired upon him and several of the leaders fell. A second volley was fired before order could be restored. The horsemen then dashed forward. They rode through the British lines before muskets could be reloaded and, wheeling right and left, opened fire upon the enemy from the rear, thus disorganizing and defeating the force. It was a brilliant plan brilliantly executed, and it showed the frontier soldier at his best.

• During the battle James Johnson had under his command two of his sons, aged fifteen and seventeen years.

After this exploit, he returned to Great Crossings to live the life of a private citizen. In 1819 he undertook a contract to supply federal troops on the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. He was not successful as a businessman, however. Because he trusted too much in the honesty of others, his affairs became seriously involved, and he was never able to extricate himself from the toils of debt.

• In 1824 he was elected to Congress, but death overtook him before his term expired and his passing attracted little attention even in Kentucky.

Achievements
James Johnson has been listed as a noteworthy army officer, a congressman by Marquis Who's Who.

Connections
Johnson married Nancy Payne Johnson in 1796. The couple had five children.

• Father: Robert Johnson
• Mother: Jemima Suggett
• Spouse: Nancy Payne Johnson
• Brother: Richard Mentor Johnson (He was the ninth vice president of the United States from 1837 to 1841.)
• Brother: John Telemachus Johnson (He was a minister in the Christian Church, an attorney, and a politician, elected as U.S. Representative from Kentucky.)

Daughters:

1. Ann Holland Johnson Ward
2. Evalina Jemina Johnson

Sons:

1. William Johnson
2. Darwin Johnson
3. Edward P. Johnson

nephew:
Robert Ward Johnson

He was an American politician from Arkansas who served as a U.S. Representative (1847-1853), U.S. Senator (1853-1861), delegate to the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States (1861-1862), and the Confederate States Senator (1862-1865).

References
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-2005
The political register and congressional directory: a statistical record of the federal officials, legislative, executive, and judicial, of the United States of America, 1776-1878