Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 27.djvu/303

 \VJfx,,,, /'/<>/-,// Johnston. 295

i, and the success of the- institution of which he was, in the eyes <>t the world, the head and front, it is of interest and importance also to note who and what his ancestors were, and to see in his il"<^v .t primal explanation of his own eminent ability.

Colonel Johnston was the eldest son of General Albert Sidney Johnston and Henrietta Preston, of Kentucky, through whom Col- onel Johnston was related to the late Randall L. Gibson. Josiah Stoddard Johnston, of Natchitoches, United States Senator from this State, was an uncle of Colonel Johnston, being the elder half-brother of General Albert Sidney Johnston, who was a son of Dr. John Johnston, of Salisbury, Conn., and Abigail Harris, his second wife. Dr. John Johnston was the third son of Captain Archibald Johnston, of Salisbury, Conn., a Revolutionary soldier, of Scotch descent, the family settling first in Duchess county, N. Y. He was a foremost man in his day and generation. Edward Harris, father of Colonel Johnston's paternal grandmother, was a captain in the Revolutionary army, originally of Massachusetts, and a pioneer of Kentucky. Henrietta Preston, Colonel Johnston's mother, was a daughter of Major William Preston, United States army, and Caroline Hancock, a descendant of the Hancock and Strother families of Virginia. Major Preston served under Anthony Wayne against the Indians after the Revolutionary war. He was a son of Colonel William Preston, of Virginia, a veteran of the Revolution. General William Preston, of Kentucky, son of Major Preston, grandson of Colonel Preston, and brother of Mrs. Albert Sidney Johnston, was a brilliant lawyer and dashing soldier. He was minister to Spain when the civil war broke out, resigned, and joined his brother-in-law, General Albert Sidney Johnston, who died in his arms. He rose to the rank of General.

William Preston Johnston, eldest son of Albert Sidney and Hen- rietta Preston Johnston, was born in Louisville, Ky., Januarys, 1831. He lost his mother when he was four years of age, and his father shortly afterward cast his fortunes with the young Republic of Texas. He was reared by" maternal relations in Louisville, by Mrs. Josephine Rogers, and, after her death, by General William Preston and wife, and he received his earlier education in the schools of that city. Later he attended the academy of S. V. Womack at Shelby ville; Center College, Danville, and the Western Military Institute at Georgetown, Ky. He had always been of a studious disposition, so that at a period when boys are devoted chiefly to play and light study, he was engrossed in reading standard works of ancient and