Warren M. Johnson

Warren M. Johnson, also known as “Johnstone,” born 1836 in Canada.

Warren immigrated to the United States. He was married to Michigan native Ann (b. 1840), probably in Michigan, and they had at least one child: a daughter Delno (b. 1860). By 1860 Warren was living with his wife and child in Otsego, Allegan County.

He was 25 years old and probably still living in Allegan County when he enlisted as First Corporal in Company F on May 13, 1861. He was probably taken prisoner sometime between June 30 and July 1, 1862, possibly near Malvern Hill, Virginia. According to the Detroit Free Press, in mid-July Johnson was among a group of Michigan soldiers who were reported to be “at the hospital on the York River, held by the rebels.” The Free Press quoted the New York Herald report “that the joy of the poor wounded soldiers at their anticipated release was very great, but when they were informed that they must return to the hospital again and be held there as prisoners, their grief was indescribable, especially among those who were sick. The scene was heartrending.”

By late August Warren was at Camp Parole, Annapolis, Maryland, and was admitted to the hospital in Annapolis where he was reported in July as a clerk and listed as a private, an indication that he was probably reduced to the ranks at some point perhaps as a consequence of his “missing in action” since July 1. Indeed, he was eventually dropped from the rolls on December 20, 1862 by authority of War Department General Order no. 92 (1862), for being AWOL.

There is no further record and no pension seems to be available.

In 1870 there was one Warren Johnson, age 38, born in Quebec, working as a farmer and living with is wife Ohio native Julia (b. 1845), and their two children: Harvey (b. 1860) and Elizabeth (b. 1865), in Otsego, Allegan County.

There was a civil war veteran named Warren Johnson living in Kalamazoo’s First ward, Kalamazoo County, in 1894.