William
Preston
Johnston

Civil War Confederate Army Officer. The son of Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston, he graduate from Yale University in 1852, and the University of Louisville Law School in 1853. He racticed law in Louisville, until the outbreak of the Civil War, when he entered the Confederate Army. He served as Major of the 1st Kentucky (CSA)Infantry until the mustering out of that regiment. In May 1862 became and Aide-De-Camp with the rank of Colonel to Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy. He served in that position until the end of the war and was captured with President Davus near Irwinville, Georgia on May 10, 1865. Released after several months confinement in the Prison at Fort Delaware, he resided in Canada for nearly a year following his release before returning to his law practice in Louisville. In 1867 he was invited by Robert E. Lee, then president of Washington University in Lexington, Virginia to become a professor of history and English literature. He accepted and remained at what became Washington and Lee University until 1877. During that time he wrote a biography of his late father "Life of Albert Sidney Johnston" (1878). In 1880 he became president of Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge, then in 1884 he became the first president of Tulane University in New Orleans. He was the author of several volumes of poetry and was a contributor to numerous periodicals. He died in 1899 at the home of his son-in-law, Henry Tucker in Lexington, Virginia.

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