' '/'/"/' fi'r.if/ Lnn. 175
Brigadier-General Robert I). Johnston is a native of North Caro- lina, l)iit is now a re-idem of Birmingham, Ala. He was rommis- sioned as second lieutenant, Beattie's Ford Killes, North Carolina State troops, May o. iS'>i, ami in a vir's time became colonel of the 231! North Carolina infantry. He was made a brigadier-general
- ember i, iS6^. During the \'alley campaign his brigade con-
sisted of the following regiments: 51(1 \oith Carolina, I2th North Carolina. 2oth North Carolina (colonel, Thomas F Toon, afterwards brigadier-general), zy\ Nortli Carolina (colonel, Charles C. Black- nail), ami the famous ist North Carolina battalion sharpshooters (major, R. E. Wilson). Johnston's brigade, with Godwin's North Carolina brigade and IVgram's old Virginia brigade, under Colonel John T. Hoffman, formed IVgram's division. The Old North State is justly proud of General "Bob" Johnston.
General Bradley T. Johnson is a Marylander, and entered the Confederate army as captain of Company A, ist Maryland infantry, Colonel Arnold Elzey commanding. He succeeded George H. Steuart, another gallant Marylander, as colonel of the regiment in June, 1863. At Second Manassas, where he commanded the Second brigade of Jackson's division, his troops ran out of ammunition and fought with stones. In the early part of 1864 he was assigned to the command of the Maryland line, stationed at Hanover Junction to protect Lee's line of communication with Richmond. He rendered valuable service in repulsing the Dahlgren raid. On June 28, 1864, Colonel Johnson was made a brigadier and placed in command of the cavalry brigade of General William E. Jones, who had been killed at Piedmont, June 5, 1864. This brigade of "wild south- western Virginia horsemen " consisted of the 8th, 2 ist and 22d regi- ments, and the 34th and 361!) battalions of Virginia cavalry. John- son's brigade, with the brigades of Imboden. McCausland and H. B. Davidson, formed Lomax's cavalry division all Virginians, except the ist Maryland cavalry, of Davidson's brigade. During the Ap- pomattox campaign General Johnson commanded a division of An- derson's corps. He is now a resident of the State for which he fought in the dark days of i86i-'65.
Another North Carolinian who fought and fell in the "Tarheels' thin gray line" deserves special mention. The 23d North Carolina (General Robert Johnston's old regiment) was commanded by Col- onel Charles Christopher Blacknall, of Granville county, N. C., a descendant of the Blacknalls of Wing, Buckinghamshire, who inter- married with the " noble and exclusive Norman family of Harcourt."
