author
David E. (David Emmons) Johnston
1845–1917
A Civil War memoirist, lawyer, and former congressman, he turned his own wartime service into a vivid personal narrative. His best-known book offers a firsthand view of a Confederate soldier’s experience, written decades after the conflict ended.
1 Audiobook
The Story of a Confederate Boy in the Civil War
by David E. (David Emmons) Johnston
About the author
Born in Virginia in 1845, David Emmons Johnston served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War and later built a public career as a lawyer and politician in West Virginia. He served in the West Virginia Senate, sat in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1899 to 1901, and was also a circuit judge.
As an author, he is best remembered for The Story of a Confederate Boy in the Civil War, published in 1914. The book grew out of his own experience in Company D of the 7th Virginia Infantry and presents the war through the eyes of someone who lived it.
Johnston died in 1917. His writing remains of interest not only as memoir, but as a personal record of memory, service, and the long afterlife of the Civil War in American letters.