Richard W. Johnson

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Richard W. Johnson (1827-97) was an American soldier, born in Kentucky He graduated at West Point in 1849 and up to the time of the Civil War was employed chiefly on frontier service. In 1861 he was commissioned colonel in the Third Kentucky Cavalry and soon afterward was made a brigadier general of volunteers. He took part as a cavalry commander in the western campaigns of 1861 and 1862 and on August 21 of the latter year was defeated and captured by Col. John H. Morgan, whom he had been sent to drive out of Tennessee. In the battle of Murfreesboro he commanded a division. At Chickamauga his division formed part of of the command of General Thomas, and it was one of those which during the battle of Chattanooga charged up the heights of Missionary Ridge. The next year he commanded a division in the Army of the Cumberland during the invasion of Georgia and was severely wounded at the battle of New Hope Church (May 28, 1864). On August 22 of that year he was made chief of cavalry of the Military Division of the Mississippi. He commanded a cavalry division at the battle of Nashville, and on the second day was given the brevet rank of major general of volunteers, supplemented on March 13, 1865, by the brevet rank of brigadier general in the regular army, and on the same day was brevetted major general in the regular army for "gallant and meritorious services during the war." He was mustered out of the volunteer service on January 15, 1866, and became provost marshal general of the Military Division of the Tennessee, and later acting judge advocate in various military departments. He resigned in 1867 with the rank of major, which grade by an Act of Congress (March 3, 1875) was changed to that of brigadier general. He published A Soldier's Reminiscences in Peace and War (1866) and a Memoir of Major General George H. Thomas (1881).