John W. Johnston
John Warfield Johnston (September 9, 1818 – February 27, 1889) was a Virginia lawyer and politician from Abingdon. He served in the Virginia State Senate (1846–1848) and later represented Virginia in the United States Senate after the state was readmitted to the Union following the Civil War. He was a Democrat and became the first former Confederate to serve in the U.S. Senate.
Johnston grew up near Abingdon, studied law at the University of Virginia, and began practicing in 1839. He married Nicketti Buchanan Floyd in 1841, and they had twelve children. He held local and state offices, including commonwealth attorney for Tazewell County and Abingdon town councilman in 1861. During the Civil War, he supported the Confederacy. After the war, he helped care for a sick former slave, an act that helped lift his political disabilities, allowing him to take a seat in the U.S. Senate in 1870.
As a senator, Johnston chaired the Committee on Revolutionary Claims and later the Agriculture Committee, and he served on the Foreign Relations Committee. He was involved in several major debates, including the Arlington Cemetery issue, where he defended Robert E. Lee’s memory, the Texas-Pacific Railway bill, and Virginia’s postwar debt readjustment. His stance aligned with Virginia’s Conservative Democrats, and he opposed many efforts favored by the Readjusters.
Johnston’s Senate term lasted until 1883. He lived in Abingdon, later in Richmond, and built the Johnston-Trigg Law Office with Daniel Trigg. After leaving the Senate, he returned to his law practice. He died in Richmond in 1889 at age 70 and was buried in Wytheville.
His legacy includes hospitals named after him in Abingdon and Richmond. He was remembered as a formidable, practical debater who cared for the poor and stood up for what he believed. His wife Nicketti outlived him, dying in 1908.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 14:21 (CET).