Historica Wiki
Advertisement
John W

John Warfield Johnston (9 September 1818-27 February 1889) was a Democratic US Senator from Virginia from 26 January 1870 to 3 March 1883, succeeding John S. Carlile and preceding Harrison H. Riddleberger.

Biography[]

John Warfield Johnston was born in Abingdon, Virginia in 1818, the great-grandson of Patrick Henry's sister, the cousin of Henry Bowen, and the nephew of Joseph E. Johnston. He converted to Catholicism after marrying a Catholic woman, and he served as a commonwealth attorney for Tazewell County from 1844 to 1846, in the State Senate from 1846 to 1847, and as an Abingdon town councilman under the Confederacy during the American Civil War. In 1870, he became the first former Confederate to be elected to the US Senate, and only after he saved an African-American freedman's life. He opposed a one-sided railroad bill and sided with the "Funders" who believed that Virginia should pay back its prewar debts, leading to his defeat at the hands of Harrison H. Riddleberger in 1882. He died in 1889.

Advertisement