Samuel Lee Johnston

A 17 year old farm boy on his family's place at Fort Mill in the York District, he enlisted as Private, Company E, 17th South Carolina Infantry on 23 November 1861 in Columbia, SC.

He was in action at Turner's Gap on South Mountain, MD on 14 September 1862.

He was appointed 4th Corporal in September 1864 and, except for a week in the hospital with a fever in March 1865, he was present with his Company for the whole war. He was surrendered with them at Appomattox Court House, VA on 9 April 1865.

A farmer for most of his life, by 1900 he was a mill operator in Ebenezer, York County, SC and in 1910 he owned a grocery store in Catawba.

His service from his Compiled Service Records, with his presence at "Boonsboro" from Colonel McMaster's list for the 17th South Carolina (Confederate States Army Casualty Lists and Narrative Reports, RG 109, NARA), as S.L. Johnston, both online from fold3. Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860-1920. His gravesite is on Findagrave, source also of his picture, from a tinted photograph shared by user Lanie.

He married a woman known only as Janie Lee, dates unknown. He married Sara Rebecca Nunnery (1861-1933) in 1882 and they had 9 children by 1900, 2 died as infants. His youngest, Colonel Wallace Johnston (1900-1965) was known as McMasters; Colonel was his given name, not a title.

10/20/1844; Fort Mill, SC

03/09/1920; Rock Hill, SC; burial in Laurelwood Cemetery, Rock Hill, SC