Johnson, John R.

John R. Johnson was born in Virginia. He served at the Siege of Béxar and on March 31, 1836, enlisted in Sam Houston’s army at Jared Groce’s plantation on the Brazos River. At the battle of San Jacinto he served as a private in Col. Sidney Sherman’s Second Regiment, Texas Volunteers. In 1838 Sam Houston used Johnson as a trusted courier. In August 1842 Johnson was a major in the Texas militia at Swartwout. During the Mexican War a John R. Johnson served as a private in Capt. Robert A. Gillespie’s Company I of Col. John Coffee Hays’s First Regiment, Texas Mounted Riflemen, and later in Capt. Walter P. Lane’s Company A of Maj. Michael H. Chevallie’s battalion of Texas Mounted Volunteers. In the latter company Johnson was elected second sergeant, promoted to first sergeant on September 1, 1847, and reduced to private on March 1, 1848. He served a third enlistment in Capt. Mirabeau B. Lamar’s company of Col. Peter H. Bell’s regiment of Texas Mounted Volunteers. John R. Johnson died in Travis County in 1852.

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