"Arrest of Mrs. Edward W. Johns[t]on -- Her Husband Follows Her to Prison" (1862)

["Arrest of Mrs. Edward W. Johns[t]on -- Her Husband Follows Her to Prison." Columbus, Ohio. The Crisis. August 27, 1862. Volume II, Number 31, page 248. From the St. Louis Democrat.]

[From the St. Louis Democrat.]*

 Arrest of Mrs. Edward W. Johns[t]on -- Her Husband Follows Her to Prison. 

Mrs. Edward W. Johns[t]on, wife of the former librarian at Mercantile Hall, having been arrested at Eureka, in St. Louis County, twelve miles from the City, on the line of the Pacific Railroad, was on Saturday [August 16, 1862] committed to the Gratiot street prison. The allegation against her is substantially as follows:

"In the performance of his assigned duty, a United States officer called at her residence to search for arms; and, though his deportment and language were as courteous as consistent with the task, he was assailed by her in terms of violent abuse. She defiantly avowed the rankest hostility to the national Government, bitterly stigmatized the soldiers of the Union, and took pains to make her remarks personally offensive to the officer."

On his report of the case to his superior, her arrest was at once ordered. Her husband appeared at the offices of the District Provost Marshal General and the Provost Marshal of the division, and demanded to be allowed to visit her. He was informed that the prison rules forbade it, on which he announced his intention, unless permitted  to see her, to do something by which he also would be sent to the prison. He was thereupon duly committed as a prisoner and escorted to Eighth and Gratiot streets. Edward W. Johns[t]on is a brother of General Joseph Johns[t]on of Virginia.  

[*These brackets in original.]

[Edward William Johnston (1799-1867)
Margaret A. (Jewett?) Wooley/Woolley Johnston (1821-1867)
Joseph Eggleston Johnston (1807-1891)]

[Many thanks to William Myers, Mary Davy, Sally Young and Sue Davis for their ongoing research collaboration.]