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C. A. Johnson

C. A. Johnson

Federal (USV)

Colonel

Charles Adams Johnson

(1826 - 1891)

Home State: New York

Education: Yale College

Command Billet: Commanding Regiment

Branch of Service: Infantry

Unit: 25th New York Infantry

Before Antietam

A lawyer, he saw service during the Mexican War, being commissioned 2nd Lieutenant on 1 April 1847, assigned to the 10th US Infantry on 9 April. He was honorably discharged on 14 August 1848. At the outbreak of the Civil War he enrolled 26 April 1861 in New York City at age 36 as Captain of Company D, 17th New York Infantry. He was offered the commission as Lieutenant Colonel of the 14th New York Infantry on 10 May 1861, but declined. He mustered as Major of the 17th Regiment on 24 May 1861. He transferred to the 25th New York Infantry 17th as major, and mustered in as Lieutenant Colonel on 4 October 1861. Promoted to Colonel on 21 February 1862. Wounded in action 27 May 1862 at Hanover Court House, VA.

On the Campaign

He commanded the Regiment on the Maryland Campaign.

The rest of the War

He mustered out with his Regiment on 10 July 1863, at New York City.

After the War

He was honored by brevet to Brigadier General of Volunteers on 13 March 1865.

NEW-HAVEN, March 30 [1891].-- Gen. Charles Adams Johnson, a descendent of John Quincy Adams, committed suicide at his residence, 76 Howe Street, to-day, by shooting. For the past week he had been afflicted with a skin disease, and it is believed that his mind was temporarily deranged by the illness.

References & notes

Basic information from the State of New York1 and Heitman2. His photograph from a CDV in the collection of the New York State Military Museum, online from New York Heritage. He was a Sophomore at Yale 1842-43, and he may have graduated, but not with the Class of 1845. His gravesite is on Findagrave. The quote above from the New York Times of 31 March 1891. His father was Alexander Bryan Johnson (1786-1867). His mother, Abigail Louisa Adams (1798-1836), was daughter of Charles Adams and granddaughter of President John Adams.

Birth

04/03/1826; Utica, NY

Death

03/30/1891; New Haven, CT; burial in Evergreen Cemetery, New Haven, CT

Notes

1   State of New York, Adjutant-General, Annual Report of the Adjutant General of the State of New York [year]: Registers of the [units], 43 Volumes, Albany: James B. Lyon, State Printer, 1893-1905, For the Year 1899, Serial #19, pp. 454, 746; Serial #20, pg. 737   [AotW citation 14885]

2   Heitman, Francis Bernard, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army 1789-1903, 2 volumes, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1903, Vol. 1, pg. 574  [AotW citation 14886]