Ann Taylor (Johnson) Johnston (1841 - 1866)

Born 1841 in Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina, US

Ancestors

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Biography

From www.findagrave.com: Ann Nancy Johnson was born 1841 in Raleigh, Wake County, NC, the 2nd of 4 known surviving children (3 girls/1 boy) born to Dr. Charles E. Johnson Jr. and his (1st) wife, Emily Skinner. She is descended on both side of her family tree from prominent NC families. She was the paternal grandchild of Charles E. Johnson Sr. & Ann William Taylor of Edenton, Chowan Co, NC.; and gr-grandchild of Charles Johnson a member of the Senate and Congress who died in 1802, and who married Elizabeth Earle of "Bandon" Plantation in Edenton, daughter of Rev. Daniel Earle. On her mother's side, she was the maternal grandchild of Charles Worth Skinner and his (1st) wife, Mary Creecy, of Hertford Co, NC. Nannie's mother died 1847 when she was just 6 years old. Her father soon married (2nd) Francis Lenox Iredell, daughter of NC Gov. James Iredell Jr. & Frances Tredwell Johnson. This second marriage resulted in 7 more children being born. Her father would later serve the Confederacy as Surgeon General during the war. In 1860, the 19-year old married 20-year old, George Burgwyn Johnston, son of the prominent Rev. Samuel Johnston of Edenton, and a recent graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill. The young newlyweds set up housekeeping on campus where George was named tutor of Greek. Their marriage would be abruptly changed as North Carolina entered the Civil War and her husband enlisted with the NC 28th, rising to the rank of Captain. At the Battle of Hanover Court House on May 27, 1862, her husband was captured by Union forces and sent as a P.O.W. to Johnson's Island Prison in Sanudsky, Ohio. He was later released in a prisoner exchange, but the deprivations of war and prison had depleted the young's man health and strength. He was sent home to Chapel Hill to recuperate, but within months he died at the mere age of 22. Nannie, his bride of just two years, remained at Chapel Hill throughout the war. Just 21 years old when she lost her husband, her grief was devastating. During the hardships suffered on the home front during the war, a telling story occurred in 1864 when the faculty of UNC were allowed to cut firewood from the University forests due to the great shortage of fuel. In an extraordinary move, the same liberty was granted to the widow of tutor, Capt. George B. Johnston, who had died in service. Ann "Nannie" Taylor Johnson Johnston did not survive many years after her young husband. She died in 1866 at age 25 and was buried next to her husband at City Cemetery.

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