Robert Johnson (Tennessee)
Robert Johnson | |
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Private Secretary to the President | |
In office November 14, 1865 – September 19, 1868 | |
President | Andrew Johnson |
Preceded by | William A. Browning |
Succeeded by | Edmund Cooper |
Member of the Tennessee House of Representatives | |
In office 1859–1861 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Greeneville, Tennessee, United States | February 22, 1834
Died | April 22, 1869 Greeneville, Tennessee, United States | (aged 35)
Occupation | Lawyer, military officer, political staffer |
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16th Vice President of the United States
17th President of the United States
Vice presidential and Presidential campaigns
Post-presidency
Family
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Robert Johnson (February 22, 1834 – April 22, 1869) was the fourth-born child of
Early life
Robert Johnson, called Bob, was born in the family's Water Street house in Greeneville, the county seat of
Union Army
In March 1862 he left from Washington for Nashville, with his father, newly named as military governor of Tennessee, Johnson's secretary William A. Browning, and two Tennessee Congressmen, Horace Maynard, and Emerson Etheridge.[17] In summer 1862, "Andrew Johnson exchanged communications with General George W. Morgan, begging him to watch over Robert and to encourage him to do his duty. The general responded with positive news."[citation needed] Years later, an Ohio newspaper writer wrote that circa October 1862, as the outnumbered federal army abandoned the Cumberland Gap and retreated to safer ground in Ohio, "between Portland and Gallipolis, the military authorities forbade every doggery keeper on the road letting [Robert Johnson] have any liquor, on account of his violent character when drunk."[18]
On November 14, 1862, he was at the Union barracks in Cincinnati, Ohio, with his unit, where he made a speech to a couple of hundred East Tennessee refugees, and had dinner at the Burnet House hotel with politicians and military officers, including Horace Maynard; his son Lt. Col. Edward Maynard, 6th Tennessee; Col. Joseph Cooper, 6th Tennessee; and the redoubtable Parson Brownlow.[13] Johnson, who was 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m),[3] was said to be known as the "little big man" and during his speech was wearing the "blue jeans" common to the soldiery, but with the yellow stripe on the leg denoting cavalry.[13] On December 6, 1862, the occasion of the organization of the 1st Tennessee as cavalry (rather than infantry), Johnson presented the regiment with a "splendid flag" inscribed with the words For Chattanooga, Knoxville and Greeneville, "indicating the determination of the regiment to assist in driving the rebels out of Tennessee, and redeeming the State."[19][20] The 34-star American flag, also inscribed Johnson's 1st Tennessee Cavalry and "bound round the edge with yellow silk fringe," was produced by Hamlin of Cincinnati, "the prince of military furnishers in the West."[20]
On April 4, 1863, Robert Johnson's older brother Charles Johnson, an assistant surgeon with the 10th Tennessee Infantry, died at Nashville after being thrown from a horse.[22] Robert Johnson was probably the only family member to attend the funeral in Middle Tennessee; part of his regiment participated in the funeral procession.[6] On April 18, 1863, a New York newspaper published a small blurb stating, "The story about the capture by the rebels of Col. Robert Johnson, son of Gov. Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, was fabricated. He is in Nashville, attending to his duties."[23] Five days later, a Chicago paper reported that Johnson "reported captured by the rebels, is safe in Nashville."[24][b] Following Charles Johnson's death, Robert Johnson's drinking became problematic that enough that Brigadier General William S. Rosecrans wrote Andrew Johnson, who had been appointed military governor of Tennessee by Abraham Lincoln, that "Robert has been drinking so as to become a subject of remark everywhere."[2] Rosecrans also personally beseeched Robert Johnson to "cease the habit."[3] The regimental history puts the date of Johnson's resignation "for ill health" on May 31, 1863, and includes the remark, "He was a kind officer and good to the men."[25] James Patton Brownlow, the 20-year-old son of Andrew Johnson's longtime nemesis, William Gannaway Brownlow, replaced Robert Johnson as colonel.[25][26] Brownlow had joined the regiment as a private, subsequently promoted to captain of a company, and then was made a lieutenant colonel; according to the 1902 regimental history, which does not otherwise record Johnson's troubles.[20] Upon Johnson's resignation Brownlow was promoted immediately, "a promotion he well-deserved, since he was the real commander."[25] The history associates Johnson's name primarily with general troop movements and regimental administration, while Brownlow's name generally appears in tales of sabre charges and daring raids.[25]
Per the editors of The Papers of Andrew Johnson, in May 1863, the month following Charles Johnson's death, Robert had been placed on "detached duty, first to raise a brigade, in which he was unsuccessful, and then for unspecified activities at Nashville..."[15] In November 1863, Andrew Johnson wrote to Robert Johnson demanding that he resign entirely from the service of the Union Army:[30]
You tender your resignation, predicated upon my wish for you to do so, and as I obtained the Commission…require you to resign and therefore you do resign...I have not [until now] indicated to you by work or deed any desire or wish on my part, that you Should resign your Commission as Col of the regiment; but on the contrary have expressed myself in the most emphatic terms, that I would rather See you once more yourself again and at the head of your Regiment, going to your own native home, than be possessed by the highest honors which Could be conferred upon me. In this so far, I have been doomed to deep disappointment.
— Andrew Johnson, Papers of Andrew Johnson, Vol. 6, p. 485[30]
Johnson apparently resigned brigade and regimental duties for good in February 1864, stating that it was "for reasons, purely of a private nature."[2] Another account has it that Robert Johnson resigned on May 31, 1864.[16] His resignation letter stated that he had been "solicited to undertake and perform" civilian work and that his departure was in the best interests of the regiment.[15] After the war Johnson was brevetted Brigadier General with rank from March 13, 1865,[16] apparently despite the fact that he was "rarely in command of his regiment and was never in a battle."[6]
In the summer of 1864, as Andrew Johnson was being awarded a spot on Lincoln's national ticket, Robert Johnson and his mother Eliza sought out a temperance reformer and physician in Boston named Dr. Dio Lewis.[2] In January 1865, along with his brother-in-law David T. Patterson, he was one of the 12 Greene County delegates to the Union State Convention that repealed secession, abolished slavery, and restored Tennessee to the United States.[31]
Presidency of Andrew Johnson
1865–1866
According to a letter from
As Andrew Johnson settled into the duties of the presidency, apparently his wife Eliza McCardle had Robert Johnson summoned to Washington, D.C. and employed as a
Johnson apparently wrote in his diary that he spent December 31, 1865 with "some old friends, drank to the old year."[3] On New Year's Day 1866, Robert Johnson "was ill, and unable to be present" when Andrew Johnson hosted the first grand reception of his administration, in the Blue Room, with his daughters Martha Patterson and Mary Stover as cohostesses.[40][d] In early 1866 Samuel C. Pomeroy, a U.S. Senator from Kansas, claimed that he had seen Andrew Johnson, David Patterson, and Robert Johnson drunk in the White House; he eventually recanted his claim about the father but refused to withdraw the allegation against the son.[2] Come February of that year, former ambassador Norman B. Judd wrote chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Lyman Trumbull:[2]
There is too much whiskey in the White House, and harlots go into the Private Secretary's office unannounced in broad daylight.
On September 1, 1866, Johnson wrote in his diary, "Having fully and determinedly made up my mind to abstain in the future from all intoxicating liquors...and putting my trust in God, I hope to finish the remainder of my life, a sober and respected Member of Society."[3] On Sunday, October 28, 1866, Johnson and his sister Mary rode from the White House in the President's private carriage with the widow of Henry Brown to the funeral of Mr. Brown, who was a "colored servant of the Johnson family for many years past"[41] and who had served with Johnson in the 1st Tennessee Cavalry during the war.[42] In December, the New York Times listed the president's confirmed staff: "President JOHNSON'S household is thus organized, under a law passed by Congress at its last session: Private Secretary, ROBERT JOHNSON; Assistant Secretary, ROBERT MORROW; Secretary to Sign Land Patents, EDWARD D. NEILL; Aid-de-Camps, Col. W. G. MOORE, Lieut.-Col. WRIGHT RIVES, Col. ANDREW K. LONG."[43]
1867–1868
On May 23, 1867, Robert Johnson testified before the
Apparently while in the Washington, D.C., asylum Robert Johnson was able to host "various young women friends" who came to visit.[6] Andrew Johnson visited his son at the asylum for the first and only time on October 11, and Robert Johnson was released on October 15.[2] On October 27, 1867, Robert Johnson started drinking again, on October 28 he was returned to the asylum, and on November 2, he was released a second time, by request of the president.[2] A Wisconsin newspaper reported that Johnson had returned to work, stating, "He helps his sire sort pardons and taste bourbon."[47] He started drinking again November 5, was again consigned to the asylum, and remained there until November 24, 1867.[2] He departed that day, went to New York City, drank there, eventually returned to the White House, and spent a week hungover.[2]
On Tuesday, December 3, 1867, at 12:30, Col. Johnson "reported the President's annual message"
It was considered worth telegraphing from Washington the other day that Col. Robert Johnson, the son and private Secretary of President Johnson, had announced that "we"—that is the President and his private Secretary—were not going to recognize Mr. Stanton as Secretary of War in any manner whatsoever. We now perceive that "Col. Robert Johnson, son and private Secretary to the President has been placed in the lunatic asylum of Washington, D.C., to cure him if possible of periodical drunkenness, which in his case amounts to insanity." It might be well for the country if the same treatment could be tried in the case of the remainder of "we."
— Manchester Journal, Manchester, Vt., February 28, 1868[53]
After being released from an asylum in August 1868, Robert Johnson was said to have "fully recovered from his temporary insanity."[54] Nonetheless, he apparently resigned as secretary around September 19, and was "going into the practice of law."[55]
Death
For the last year or two of his life, Johnson was said to have been "mentally and physically incapacitated for any public duties by prolonged dissipation," and little was seen or heard of him.
From a tear-stained letter, we gather these sad particulars. "He was well and on the street at five o'clock, and at dusk, as the servant went as usual, to light his lamp, she discovered that he was in a deep sleep. He was never aroused from it. All the physicians of the village were immediately called in, but alas! too late to do any good. He breathed his last at half-past eleven that night, without a single groan or struggle. ¶ I do not suppose he ever made an enemy in his life. He was certainly the most popular boy ever raised in this part of the country, and continued so after he became a man. Oh, if he could only have spoken one word to us!"[67]
Johnson was initially buried, with a Presbyterian service and full Masonic honors, at the Federal-era Presbyterian Old Harmony Cemetery .[68][60] He was later reinterred, sometime before 1878, on Monument Hill at Andrew Johnson National Cemetery, beside his older brother Charles Johnson.[68] Ex-President Johnson wrote a letter to his sole surviving son, Frank Johnson, two weeks after Robert Johnson's death and funeral, but made no mention of Bob's passing.[2]
Legacy
Robert Johnson was remembered by some as a staunch Southern Unionist, and though flawed, "ever generous and chivalrous, a true friend, an affectionate brother and son."[69] Someone who knew him during the war described him as "a young man of naturally good impulses, but weak, and easily influenced and led by others."[37] Another third account described him as having spent his father's term in office as a "miserable drunkard" who often had "severe attacks of delirium tremens."[57]
Col. Johnson appears as a minor villain in a 1878
In 1943, the death certificate of William Andrew Johnson, a retired Knoxville pastry chef who had been born in Greeneville in 1858, listed Robert Johnson as "father."[72] Andrew Johnson had legally enslaved Dolly Johnson, William Andrew's mother, from 1843 to 1863.[72]
See also
- Suicide prevention
- Suicide intervention
- List of children of presidents of the United States
- List of American Civil War brevet generals (Union)
- Greeneville Historic District (Greeneville, Tennessee)
- First Presbyterian Church (Greeneville, Tennessee)
- Bibliography of Andrew Johnson
- Andrew Johnson alcoholism debate
Footnotes
- ^ Sam Johnson, who had been enslaved by Andrew Johnson for almost 20 years, worked for Robert C. Carter during early years of the American Civil War, likely in an attempt to avoid being "confiscated" by Confederates.[6]
- absent without leave.
- ^ Willard's was a prominent hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue.[35] Welcker's, also on Pennsylvania Avenue, was a restaurant owned by a German immigrant named John Welcker.[36]
- ^ The event was otherwise attended by diplomats; Army officers, including Ulysses S. Grant; members of the general public who appeared to be of the white race; and then "after two o'clock, such of the colored people as were in waiting outside."[40]
- ^ This report is constitutionally required and in this form was a predecessor to the President's annual televised State of the Union address. For the text of the 1867 State of the Union Address, see wikisource:Andrew Johnson's Third State of the Union Address.
References
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- ^ "Eliza Johnson Biography :: National First Ladies' Library". archive.firstladies.org. Retrieved 2023-06-23.
- ^ (Library of Congress, Natl. Endowment for the Humanities).
- ^ ISBN 978-1-57607-030-7.
- ^ "Robert Johnson (1834-1869) – Hawkins County Genealogy & History". August 22, 2014. Archived from the original on 2021-05-11. Retrieved 2023-06-16.
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- ^ "Andy Johnson for President". Brownlow's Tri-Weekly Whig. July 26, 1859. p. 1.
- ^ "The Late Robert Johnson". The Tennessean. April 24, 1869. p. 4. Retrieved 2023-06-30 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "page 1 part 1 of E. Tennessee convention". Brownlow's Tri-Weekly Whig. June 25, 1861. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-06-23.
- ^ "1863 in Tennessee". The Daily Register. January 3, 1863. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-06-16 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c "Burnet House". Cincinnati Daily Commercial. November 14, 1862. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-06-24 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
- ^ "Robert Johnson, of Tennessee". Chicago Tribune. February 27, 1862. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-06-17 – via Newspapers.com.
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- ^ ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
- ^ "From Washington". The Daily Evening Express. Lancaster, Penn. March 8, 1862. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-06-23 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Mackey, D., ed. (May 6, 1869). "Col. Robert Johnson, son of Andy Johnson, is dead". The Jackson Standard. Jackson, Ohio – via NewspaperArchive.com.
- ^ "First Tennessee Cavalry". Cleveland Daily Leader. December 10, 1862. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-06-16 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c Felix (December 8, 1862). "Letter from Camp Dennison". Cincinnati Daily Commercial. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-06-26 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
- ^ Digital Collections, The New York Public Library. "(still image) Evacuation of Cumberland Gap, (1865)". The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
- ^ "Andrew Johnson's Family". Andrew Johnson National Historic Site (NPS.gov). Retrieved 2023-06-26.
- ^ "Fabricated". New York Daily Herald. April 18, 1863. p. 4. Retrieved 2023-06-23 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Col. Robert Johnson". Chicago Tribune. April 23, 1863. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-06-23 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c d Carter, W. R. (1902). History of the First regiment of Tennessee volunteer cavalry in the great war of the rebellion, with the armies of the Ohio and Cumberland, under Generals Morgan, Rosecrans, Thomas, Stanley and Wilson. 1862-1865. Knoxville, Tenn.: Gaut-Ogden co., printers. pp. 72 (resignation), 269 (colonels) – via HathiTrust (University of California Libraries).
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- ^ "Recent deaths. Boston Evening Transcript 29 Apr 1879, page 4". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2023-06-29.
- ^ Armstrong, Zella (1927). "Brownlow". Notable Southern families. Vol. 1. Chattanooga, Tenn.: The Lookout Pub. Co. p. 43.
- ^ a b MacLean, Maggie (January 8, 2022). "Union Women of Northeast Tennessee Exiled in the Civil War". Northeast Tennessee Civil War. Retrieved 2023-06-23.
- ^ "Union State Convention". The Nashville Daily Union. January 10, 1865. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-06-17.
- ^ a b c "Andrew Johnson's Family". The Burlington Free Press. Burlington, Vermont. March 27, 1869. p. 4. Retrieved 2023-06-16 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Andrew Johnson family members arrive in Washington". The Pittsburgh Gazette. August 9, 1865. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-06-17 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Appointment of a Minister to the Republic of Mexico". The Wilmington Herald. November 18, 1865. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-06-16 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Richstein, W. F. & Joseph Meredith Toner Collection. (1864). The stranger's guide-book to Washington City : containing the most complete guide to Washington and vicinity. Washington, D. C.: William F. Richstein – via Library of Congress.
- ^ "Welcker's Hotel, six-story extension (19)". Archived from the original on 2023-05-29. Retrieved 2023-07-02.
- ^ a b "Died of dissipation". Belmont Chronicle. Saint Clairsville, Ohio. May 20, 1869. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-06-29 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Death of Robert Johnson". The Daily Evening Express. Lancaster, Penn. April 27, 1869. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-06-30 – via Newspapers.com.
- JSTOR 20023846.
- ^ a b "Second Edition, 4 o'clock P.M.: The President's Reception". Evening Star. January 1, 1866. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-06-23 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Untitled". Dubuque Herald. Dubuque, Iowa. October 30, 1866. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-06-26 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
- ^ "Washington: By Telegraph to the Tribune". New York Tribune. October 29, 1866. p. 10. Retrieved 2023-06-26 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-06-26.
- ^ "Robert Johnson testimony". The Courier-Journal. Louisville, Kentucky. May 29, 1867. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-06-17 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Col. Robert Johnson". Nashville Union and American. October 23, 1867. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-06-16 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Gets His Reward". Harrisburg Telegraph. October 4, 1867. p. 2 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "The Telegraph brings..." The Waukegan Weekly Gazette. November 2, 1867. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-06-16 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Center Building, St. Elizabeths Hospital West Campus". Commission of Fine Arts (cfa.gov). Retrieved 2023-07-02.
- ^ "House of Representatives". The Baltimore Sun. December 4, 1867. p. 4. Retrieved 2023-06-23 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "New Year Receptions at the President's Mansion". National Republican. January 2, 1868. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-06-17 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "The President appeared in the blue parlor". Republican Banner. January 18, 1868. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-06-23 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Robert Johnson". Burlington Weekly Free Press. Burlington, Vermont. January 24, 1868. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-06-16 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b "Col. Robert Johnson, Washington, D.C." The Manchester Journal. Manchester, Vermont. February 28, 1868. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-06-23 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Col. Robert Johnson". Chicago Evening Post. August 13, 1868. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-06-16 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Resigned". Lincoln County News. Fayetteville, Tenn. September 19, 1868. p. 2 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Ex President Johnson's oldest son". Public Ledger. Memphis, Tenn. April 24, 1869. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-06-29 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b "Death of Robert Johnson". Elyria Independent Democrat. Elyria, Ohio. April 28, 1869. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-06-16 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "March 18". Memphis Daily Appeal. March 19, 1869. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-06-16 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "The death of Col. Robert Johnson". Cincinnati Commercial. May 20, 1869. p. 5. Retrieved 2023-07-01 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
- ^ a b "Col. Robert Johnson". Daily Columbus Enquirer. Columbus, Georgia. May 4, 1869. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-06-29 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "A gentleman personally acquainted with the circumstances". The Buffalo Commercial. May 19, 1869. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-06-29 – via Newspapers.com.
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- ^ "SCOUT Collection: Andrew Johnson Papers". University of Tennessee, Knoxville Libraries. Archived from the original on 2023-03-26. Retrieved 2023-06-16.
- JSTOR 42621527.
- ^ "Death of Andy Johnson Jr". The San Francisco Examiner. March 29, 1879. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-06-26 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Col. Robert Johnson". Chicago Evening Post. April 24, 1869. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-06-23 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ copy).
- ^ a b "Andrew Johnson National Cemetery". NPS.gov. Archived from the original on 2023-02-03. Retrieved 2023-06-16.
- ^ "Robert Johnson obituary". Daily Alta California. May 13, 1869. Retrieved 2023-06-16 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
- JSTOR 23373643.
- ^ OCLC 255370105. Image 398. Retrieved 2023-07-01 – via Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA.
- ^ a b Fling, Sarah (2020). "The Formerly Enslaved Households of President Andrew Johnson". White House Historical Association. Archived from the original on 2023-06-20. Retrieved 2023-06-16.