City: Clarksville
JOHNSON, Robertson Yeatman, farmer; born near Clarksville, Montgomery Co., Tenn., Jan. 24, 1837; son of Alexander Lewis and Diana (Terry) JOHNSON; father’s occupation Forgeman and farmer; paternal grandfather Lewis JOHNSON, paternal grandmother Barbara (Chiles) JOHNSON, maternal grandfather Nathaniel D. TERRY, maternal grandmother Elizabeth (Ligon) TERRY; Entered Apprentice Mason and Knight of Honor; Democrat; member 47th General Assembly of Tennessee 1891, census enumerator 1900; formerly Justice of Peace of Montgomery Co.; Confederate soldier 1861-5; Lieutenant and Captain Co. F., 49th Tennessee Infantry, C. S. A.; surrendered at Fort Donelson, Tenn., Feb., 1862, was a prisoner at Camp Chase and Johnson’s Island, Ohio, and exchanged at Vicksburg, Miss., Sept., 1862; in the bombardment of Port Hudson, La., March, 1863, campaign on the Big Black River (Miss.) under Gen. Joe E. Johnston May and June, 1863, and the battle of Jackson, Miss., July, 1863; in the campaign in Northern Georgia under Gens. Joe Johnston and Hood, from New Hope church to Jonesboro, Ga.; participated in the battles of New Hope Church, Pine Mountain, Kennesaw Mountain, Vining Station, Peachtree Creek, and others, in front of Atlanta in 1864; was in the campaign into Tennessee under Gen. Hood to the battle of Franklin, Tenn., Nov. 30, 1864, where he received two wounds while picking up the colors of the 49th Tenn. Infantry, being the third man to go down with the regimental colors in that battle; as a member of the Legislature, helped to pass the act to build Confederate Soldiers’ Home, introduced the bill to pension Indigent Confederate soldiers; made the Secretary of State’s office a source of revenue to the state by imposing a privilege tax on charters for corporations; introduced a bill to turn into the state treasury the large and excessive fees received from the inspecting of lubricating oils, and strenuously advocated the idea of working the penitentiary convicts in coal mines for the state.
