>Johnson, John F. I Private Private Mountain Marksmen, Washington County
So, where do I find Film Number: M382 roll 30? Might it contain a lot of military records, like why he was in the Charlottesville hospital for 4 months? Like how he was captured, how he was released? Any personal/family stuff?
>Looking at the 1880 Federal Census tells some interesting information.
Marinda J. Johnson is obviously John F. Johnson's 2nd wife [she can not be the mother of either Mary F. Johnson or James N. Johnson ---- so who was?]
They probably got married in 1871 --- but where?
If the census information is correct, they were living in West Virginia by 1870, without children -- but I can't seem to find where they were prior to that and where did all the children come from, where had they been living?
John Frank was 1st married to Julia Ellington, and their children included Mary F. and James N. They'd lived in Washington Co. VA, although I find no census records for 1860. After the war, they split up on their way to Illinois, and he settled somewhere in McDowell county WV. In 1870, he and his new wife Marinda Jane Compton are in Big Creek WV. Family lore holds that John Frank was a drunken wife-beater and a turncoat traitor, and that his family scorned him. But, as you note, two children from the previous marriage are living with him in 1880. James Nathaniel was my g-grandfather.
Thanks for so thorough a response!