William H. Johnston was born on March 28, 1839, in Lincoln County, North Carolina, to William and Nancy Johnston. His father was a manufacturer who owned $6,000 of real estate by 1850. His father died in the 1850s. He grew up and attended school in Lincoln County, and he attended Davidson College and the University of North Carolina.

 

In July 1861, he received a commission as a 1^st lieutenant in Company K of the 23^rd North Carolina Infantry. The regiment took part in the Battle of Antietam, the Battle of Fredericksburg, and the Battle of Gettysburg. He was wounded in May 1862, but he eventually recovered and rejoined the regiment. He received a promotion to captain soon afterward. Union forces captured him at Gettysburg on July 1, 1863, and imprisoned him at Fort Delaware. They transferred him to Point Lookout in Maryland in March 1865, and he received a parole on May 12, 1865.

 

After the war, he studied medicine in New York City before settling in Selma, Alabama. He married Kathleen Gage on December 3, 1871, and they had at least two children: Hardee, born around 1874; and Mary, born around 1878. They moved to Birmingham, Alabama, around 1886. According to a local writer, he “was loved by his patients and admired by his friends in a way not often accorded to any physician.” He died of apoplexy in Birmingham on April 3, 1898.

 

Image: William H. Johnston (The Age Herald, 5 April 1898)

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