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 November 11, 2025 Kentucky Historical Society George W. Johnson Papers KYR-0003-092-0084 Folder 3

Yazoo County, Mississippi George Washington Johnson (Provisional Governor of Kentucky) N001002 1811-05-27 1862-04-08 Categories: People

First governor of the provisional Confederate government of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Georgetown, Kentucky, native. Son of William Johnson and Betsy Payne Johnson. Married to Ann Viley Johnson on August 20, 1833. Father of Eliza Woolfolk Johnson, Willa Viley Johnson, Madison Conyers Johnson, Martha Lydia Johnson, Junius Ward Johnson, Warren Viley Johnson, Henry Viley Johnson, and Euclid Lane Johnson. Educated at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. Practiced law in Georgetown, Kentucky. Planter in Scott County, Kentucky, and Helena, Arkansas. Member of the Democratic Party. Member of the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Kentucky from Scott County from 1838 to 1840. Owned fourteen enslaved persons in Scott County in 1850. Owned twenty-six enslaved persons in Scott County in 1860. Member of the Southern Rights Party. First provisional Confederate governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky from November 20, 1861, to April 8, 1862. Served as an aide to Confederate General John C. Breckinridge. Served in the 4th Kentucky Infantry Regiment (C.S.A.) as a private from April 6, 1862 to April 8, 1862. Died on April 8, 1862 from wounds sustained at the Battle of Shiloh.

Relationships Social: William P. Adcock (Trimble County, Kentucky, farmer)

Seventh Manuscript Census of the United States (1850), Slave Schedules, Kentucky, Scott County, p. 612. Eighth Manuscript Census of the United States (1860), Slave Schedules, Kentucky, Scott County, District No. 1, pp. 228A-B. Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Kentucky: Confederate Kentucky Volunteers War 1861-65, vol. 1 (Frankfort: Legislature of Kentucky, 1915), 168-69. Lowell H. Harrison, "Johnson, George, W." in The Kentucky Encyclopedia, John E. Kleber, ed. (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1992), 473. Lowell H. Harrison, “George W. Johnson (1861-1862)” in Lowell H. Harrison, Ed., Kentucky’s Governors (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2004), 82-84. Jon L. Wakelyn, Biographical Dictionary of the Confederacy, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1971, 255. Harriett (Woman enslaved by Wm Henry Johnson, on his cotton plantation near Yazoo City, MS. Also hired out in Vicksburg, MS) N00008268 Categories: People

Enslaved by George W. Johnson and William Henry Johnson. Hired out by the Johnsons in Vicksburg, Mississippi.

Relationships Slavery: William Henry Johnson (Warren County, Mississippi, planter and brother of George Washington Johnson)

KYR-0003-092-0084. KYR-0003-092-0087. William Henry Johnson (Warren County, Mississippi, planter and brother of George Washington Johnson) N00008196 1813-06-13 1872-12-28 Categories: People

Warren County, Mississippi, planter. Scott County, Kentucky, native. Son of William Johnson and Elizabeth "Betsy" Payne Johnson. Married to Mary B. Johnson. Father of William H. Johnson. Married to Lucy A. Johnson. Owner of Belle Isle, a cotton plantation, in Warren County, Mississippi. Planter in Warren County in 1850 and 1860. Owned seventy-seven enslaved persons in 1850 and ninety-three in 1860. Colonel in the Confederate Army during the Civil War.

Relationships Legal: Junius R. Ward (Washington County, Mississippi, and Scott County, Kentucky, planter and livestock breeder)

"Death of a Kentuckian, *Courier-Journal (Louisville, Ky.), January 3, 1873, p. 1. Seventh Manuscript Census of the United States (1850), Population Schedules, Mississippi, Warren County, p. 239A. Seventh Manuscript Census of the United States (1850), Slave Schedules, Mississippi, Warren County. Eighth Manuscript Census of the United States (1860), Population Schedules, Mississippi, Warren County, p. 134. Eighth Manuscript Census of the United States (1860), Slave Schedules, Mississippi, Warren County, p. 257A-257B. Smith, Myron J., Jr., The Fight for the Yazoo, August 1862-July 1864: Swamps, Forts and Fleets on Vicksburg's Northern Flank (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2012), 91. Find A Grave, "William Henry Johnson (1813-1872)," Memorial #98878640, http://www.findagrave.com/memorial/98878640/william-henry-johnson (accessed January 3, 2018). Vicksburg, Mississippi P00008270 Categories: Places

Located in Warren County, Mississippi. Located on the Mississippi River.

32.3526, 90.8779 Ownby, Ted and Charles Reagan Wilson, eds., The Mississippi Encyclopedia (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2017), 1301-1302. Texas P00002520 Categories: Places

State in the southern United States. Capital at Austin. Located on the Gulf of Mexico. Bordered by Mexico.

30.2672, -97.7431 Ralph A. Wooster, DeWitt C. Reddick, and Gregory Lewis McNamee, "Texas," Encyclopedia Britannica, accessed June 26, 2017, https://www.britannica.com/place/Texas-state. "Austin, Texas," USGS: Earth Explorer, accessed September 22, 2021, https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/. Arkansas P00002510 Categories: Places

State in the southern United States. Capital at Little Rock, Arkansas. Located on the Mississippi River.

34.7465, -92.2896 Boyce A. Drummond and Thomas O. Graff, "Arkansas" in Encyclopedia Britannica, (https://www.britannica.com/place/Arkansas-state) (accessed on June 26, 2017). USGS: Earth Explorer, “Little Rock, Arkansas," https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/ (accessed on March 2, 2020). New Orleans, Louisiana P00002303 Categories: Places

City in Orleans Parish, Louisiana. Located on the Mississippi River.

29.9511, -90.0715 USGS: Earth Explorer, "New Orleans, Louisiana," https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/ (accessed on April 7, 2020). Joy Juanita Jackson, "New Orleans" in Encyclopedia Britannica, (https://www.britannica.com/place/New-Orleans-Louisiana) (accessed May 11, 2017). New York P001007 Categories: Places

State in the northeast United States. Capital at Albany. Located on the Hudson River and the Atlantic Ocean.

42.6526, -73.7562 Alan K. Campbell and Paul Joseph Scudlere, "New York," Encyclopedia Britannica, accessed May 22, 2017, https://www.britannica.com/place/New-York-state. "Albany, New York," USGS: Earth Explorer, accessed May 22, 2017, https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/. Confederate States of America O00003030 1861-02-08 1865-05 Categories: Organizations

Governing and administrative body of the Confederate States. Capitals at Montgomery, Alabama, and Richmond, Virginia.

Relationships Military: Army of Mississippi (C.S.A.) Military: Department of the Mississippi Military: Department (Army) of the Potomac Military: George Baird Hodge (Kentucky attorney, soldier CSA, Rep to congress (prov gov & CSA)) Military: Humphrey Marshall (Confederate Gen. & Rep.) Political: Humphrey Marshall (Confederate Gen. & Rep.) Military: Provisional Council Political: Provisional Government of Kentucky Political: Committee on Foreign Relations Political: Horatio Washington Bruce (Jefferson County, KY, Representative (Confederate), attorney) Political: Provisional Council Military: Provisional Government of Kentucky Military: Confederate States Army Military: The People's Bank of Kentucky Military: Branch Bank of the Farmers' Bank at Princeton Military: Bank of Kentucky Branch at Hopkinsville Military: Committee on Banks Military: Northern Bank of Kentucky Branch at Glasgow Military: Bank of Kentucky Branch at Bowling Green

Emory M. Thomas, The Confederate Nation, 1861-1865 (New York: Harper & Row, 1979). Hunter & Bruce O00004833 1855 1869 Categories: Organizations

Wholesale and retail grocer in Lexington, Kentucky, from 1855 to 1869. Partner(s): J. J. Hunter and Benjamin Gratz Bruce

Relationships Political: James Donahoe (Lexington, Kentucky, grocer) Economic: William Henry Johnson (Warren County, Mississippi, planter and brother of George Washington Johnson)

Williams' Lexington City Directory for 1864-5 (Lexington, Ky.: Williams & Co., 1864), p. 33, 60. William Henry Perrin, ed., *History of Fayette County, Kentucky (Chicago, IL: O. L. Baskin & Co., 1882), p. 564-65. KYR-0001-029-0556. Martin, Cobb & Co O00008269 Categories: Organizations

Commercial merchant located in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1861.

Relationships Economic: William Henry Johnson (Warren County, Mississippi, planter and brother of George Washington Johnson)

Gardner, Charles, comp., Gardner's New Orleans Directory for 1861 (New Orleans: Compiled and Published by Charles Gardner), 304. Yazoo County, Mississippi 1860-12-02 Correspondence English Version 1 of page "4": Changes to page transcript. Version 2 of page "2": Changes to page transcript. Version 0 of page "4": Empty transcript -- probably initial upload of page facsimile. Version 2 of page "1": Changes to page transcript. Version 1 of page "2": Changes to page transcript. Version 0 of page "3": Empty transcript -- probably initial upload of page facsimile. Version 1 of page "1": Changes to page transcript. Version 0 of page "2": Empty transcript -- probably initial upload of page facsimile. Version 0 of page "1": Empty transcript -- probably initial upload of page facsimile.
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Belle Isle Dec 2d 1860 Dear George

I have not as yet been able to sell Harriett nor do I believe I shall be able to do ^so^ in the present condition of financial affairs in this country. The negro traders tell me they have not sold one this fall. I offered 2 negro men for sale, at public auction, belonging to the Black estate and did not get a bid on them. The rate of interest on money is so great, that every one who has it prefers it loaning, to investing in negroes or any other discription of property. I have known the paper of the best paper houses in Vicksburg to sell for 4per cent, per month discount. Under these circumstances would it not be better to send Harriett up to Miller's place?. She is doing nothing in Vicksburg. But if you still desire her to remain I will do the best I can, and in this event you must let me know the lowest price you will take for her.

Political affairs in this section are in a most critical condition. All of the Cotton States as they are called with the exception of Texas and Arkansas have Called Conventions of their citizens or are preparing to do so. A great desire exists to establish a Southern Confederacy, the only question being how shall it be accomplished? Some are in favour of

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the immediate Secession of each state, and then consult with the other ^slave^ states in regard to forming a union amongst themselves -- Others, and amongst them myself, are in favour of having a general consultation with all the southern States, before either acts seperately- Having the same rights and interests at stake, I think it would be wrong in any one state to take such a position as would ^force^ others against their wishes to join her, without at least first consulting them on the propriety of the course- What will be the result of this movement, it is impossible to conjecture -- It has already depreciated property to a most alarming extent, deranged financial ^matters^ beyond all precedent, and created distrust where good feeling should exist. A few months and these grave questions will all be settled.

I sent last week to Messrs Hunter & Bruce the draft of Cobb, Manlove & Co of Vicksburg on their house in New Orleans (Martin Cobb & Co) to meet your note to them for me. I was compelled to do this as a check on New York could not be obtained in Vicksburg. The draft I sent them is unquestionably good I had to pay the Cash for it.

We are all well -- Love to all

Your Brother W H Johnson

Let me hear from you about Harriett

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Wm H. Johnson 1860

Wm H. Johnson Decr 2 1860