Josiah Stoddard Johnston, journalist and historian, was born at New
Orleans, February 10, 1833. He is the nephew of the celebrated
Confederate cavalry leader, General Albert Sidney Johnston. Left an
orphan when but five years old, he was reared by relatives in Kentucky.
He was graduated from Yale in 1853; and the following year he was
married to Miss Elizabeth W. Johnson, daughter of George W. Johnson,
Confederate governor of Kentucky. Johnston was a cotton planter in
Arkansas from 1855 to 1859, and a Kentucky farmer until the Civil War
began. He served throughout the war upon the staffs of Generals Bragg,
Buckner, and Breckinridge. Colonel Johnston was editor of the old
Frankfort _Yeoman_ for more than twenty years; and from 1903 to 1908 he
was associate editor of the Louisville _Courier-Journal_. In 1871
Colonel Johnston was Adjutant-General of Kentucky; and Secretary of
State from 1875 to 1879. He has been vice-president of the Filson Club
of Louisville since 1893; and he is now consulting geologist of the
Kentucky Geological Survey. Colonel Johnston's knowledge of plants and
mammals is very extensive and most surprising in a man of literary
tastes. His tube-roses and flower gardens is one of the traditions of
the old town of Frankfort. Colonel Johnston has published _The Memorial
History of Louisville, Kentucky_ (Chicago, 1896, two vols.); _The First
Explorations of Kentucky_ (Louisville, 1898); and _The Confederate
History of Kentucky_. Colonel Johnston is one of the finest men in
Kentucky to-day, dignified, cultured, and deeply learned in the history
of Kentucky and the West.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Memorial History of Louisville_ (Chicago, 1896);
_Library of Southern Literature_ (Atlanta, 1909, v. vi).
"CAPTAIN MOLL"[18]
[From _First Explorations of Kentucky_ (Louisville, Kentucky,
1898)]
The Revolutionary War was drawing to a close, involving Virginia in
its last throes in the devastation of an invading army. The whole
eastern portion was overrun by the British forces under Arnold and
Tarleton, the capital taken, and much public and private property
destroyed everywhere. Charlottesville, to which the legislature had
adjourned, Monticello, and Castle Hill were raided by Tarleton's
dragoons, and the legislature, Mr. Jefferson, and Doctor Walker barely
escaped capture. An interesting incident of the raid is recorded well
illustrating the spirit which actuated the American women of that
period. Not far distant from Charlottesville, on an estate known as
"The Farm," resided Nicholas Lewis, the uncle and guardian of
Meriwether Lewis, of the Lewis and Clark expedition to the Pacific.
His wife was Mary Walker, the eldest daughter of Doctor Walker. Her
husband was absent in the army when Tarleton with his raiders swooped
down on her home and proceeded to appropriate forage and every thing
eatable and portable. She received the British cavalryman with spirit
and dignity, and upbraided him sharply for his war on defenseless
women, telling him to go to the armies of Virginia and meet her men.
Tarleton parried her thrusts with politeness as well as he could, and
after his men were rested, resumed his march.
After his departure Mrs. Lewis discovered that his men had carried off
all her ducks except a single old drake. This she caused to be caught
and sent it to Tarleton by a messenger, who overtook him, with her
compliments, saying that the drake was lonesome without his companions,
and as he had evidently overlooked it, she wished to reunite them. From
that time she was known as "Captain Moll," and bears that sobriquet in
the family records. She was a woman of strong character, was still
living at "The Farm" in 1817, and left many descendants in Virginia and
in and near Louisville, Kentucky. On the 19th of October, 1781,
Tarleton's career closed, and Virginia was relieved from similar
devastation for a period of eighty years by the surrender at Yorktown.