General Peter Carr Johnston

General Peter Carr Johnston

• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/177718947/peter-carr-johnston
• https://archivesweb.vmi.edu/rosters/record.php?ID=11637

Johnston was most assuredly named after Peter Carr (1770-1815), a nephew of U.S. President Thomas Jefferson.

Born: February 24, 1793, Longwood Plantation, Farmville, Prince Edward County, Virginia.
Died: March 2, 1877, at Eggleston Plantation, Abingdon, Washington County, Virginia.
Buried in Abingdon, Washington County, Virginia, on the former grounds of the Panicello/Panecillo Estate.

Home schooled and tutored; possibly also attended Hampden-Sydney College, 1810-ca. 1813 (Class of 1814). There is a Peter "Johnson" listed for that period. Records are incomplete for 1792-1819. See General Catalogue of the Officers and Students of Hampden-Sidney* College, Virginia, 1776-1906 (ca. 1908), p. 53. *Spelling as in original.

Third lieutenant, Twelfth United States Infantry (regulars), March 29, 1813; second lieutenant, November 14,** 1813; first lieutenant, November 1814. Disbanded in June 1815.

Regimental depot (or dépôt): Staunton, Virginia. The regiment served on the Northern (Canadian) front and in Maryland. Regimental battles included Frenchman's Creek (November 28, 1812); Chrysler's Field (November 11, 1813); engagements in Lower Canada (1814); a detachment at Bladensburg, Maryland (August 24, 1814); and Fort McHenry (September 13, 1814).

Lynchburg and Tennessee Railroad. Valuable and Interesting Letters from General Peter C. Johnston, and C. H. Halkett, Esq., Giving an Account of the Mineral Resources, etc. of Southwestern Virginia. Richmond, Printed by Shepherd & Colin, 1849.

Retired as General commanding 17th Brigade of Virginia Militia in 1852.

Journal of the House of Delegates of the State of Virginia for the adjourned session, 1852-3, Richmond, 1852, p. 235; Barbour appoints replacement.

U.S. Census record, August 28, 1860. Age: 67. Occupation: Attorney at Law. Real Estate: $100. Personal Estate: $2,000. Residence: Western District, Lee County, (Southwest -- in red on map) Virginia. Checked slave schedules -- no slaves for any Johnston or Johnson listed. Attached household: Elijah Hill (farmer), Eliza E. Hill, Jane B. Hill, Caledony[?] J. Hill, N.E. Beaty.

Delegate to Virginia secession convention, 1861. Representing both Scott and Lee Counties.
April 4, 1861: Voted Against Secession.
April 17, 1861: Voted For Secession (after Fort Sumter).
Signed Ordinances of Secession in April and June, 1861.

Letter, August 23, 1861, from Walter Preston, Richmond, Virginia, to General P. C. Johnston, regarding procuring a military appointment for a friend and work in [Confederate] Congress. Includes a typed transcript -- Accession 42555 -- 1 leaf and 2 pages. Library of Virginia

Listed at Jonesville, Lee County, (Southwest) Virginia, in U.S. IRS Tax Assessment Lists, 1862-1918. District 8; Annual Lists; May 1868. National Archives Series M793.

U.S. Census record, June 30, 1870. Age: 77. Ocupation: Lawyer. Residence: Jonesville, Lee County, (Southwest) Virginia. Value of Real Estate: 0. Value of Personal Estate: $825.00. Listed immediately next to William Sullivan, Hotel Keeper, and family.

Headstone inscription, Panicello/Panecillo (spelling varies) grounds, Johnston family plot, Abingdon, Virginia:

Where born, etc., and: "DIED AT EGGLESTON." And: "AN OFFICER IN THE WAR OF 1812-15 AND A PROFOUND GEOLOGIST."

NAMESAKE: Peter Carr was a justice of the peace for Albemarle County, a representative to the House of Delegates (1801–1804, 1807–1808), an educator, and a founding trustee of Albemarle Academy, which later evolved into the University of Virginia. He was also the nephew of Thomas Jefferson and lived at Monticello as a young man.

Carr is perhaps best known for the assertion, made by Thomas Jefferson Randolph after Carr's death, that he or his brother Samuel Carr had fathered at least six children with Sally Hemings, Jefferson's enslaved house servant, between 1795 and 1808. For this reason, Peter Carr was often accepted as the likely father of Hemings's children until the publication of Annette Gordon-Reed's monograph Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy (1997), which made a strong case for President Jefferson's paternity, and the 1998 DNA test that concluded that a Jefferson male, not Carr or his brother, had fathered Eston Hemings, the youngest son of Sally Hemings -- J. Jefferson Looney, "Peter Carr (1770-1815)," Encyclopedia of Virginia.

SOURCE: William A. Gordon, A Compilation of Registers of the Army of the United States, from 1815 to 1837, inclusive. To which is appended a list of officers on whom brevets were conferred by the President of the United States, for gallant conduct or meritorious services during the war with Great Britain. (Washington: James C. Dunn, 1837), p. 25:

VMI Website: General Johnston served on the VMI Board of Visitors 1837-1848, President, 1845-1846. LT, War of 1812; lawyer; Brig. General Virginia Militia; died at Abingdon, Virginia in March 1877.