Capt. Andrew Wallace Johnson, 1826-1887


Gravestones of Capt. Andrew Wallace Johnson and Elizabeth Marion Moore Johnson, Congressional Cemetery, Washington D.C.

Tombstones of Capt. Andrew Wallace Johnson and Elizabeth Marion Moore Johnson, Congressional Cemetery, Washington D.C.

Richmond and Margaret’s son Andrew, born in Washington, D.C., was appointed a Midshipman in the U.S. Navy in 1841 and passed Midshipman in 1847.1 The Naval Academy was established in Annapolis in 1845, so his training would have been different from what it is today and he may never have set foot in the Academy.

Andrew rose through the ranks and was a Lieutenant when the Civil War began. He served on the sloop Savannah in the North Blockading Squadron in 1861 and in 1862 on the steam-sloop Saranac in the Pacific Squadron. He rose to Lt. Commander in 1862, serving in the Pacific on the Lancaster in 1864 and then in the South Atlantic Blocking Squadron in 1864-65.

From 1869-1872, by now a Commander, he was Chief-of-Staff of the South Atlantic Squadron. and in 1874 was commissioned Captain and assigned to command the training ship Minnesota, 1874-1877.2 The Minnesota had been decommisioned in 1865 at the end of the Civil War, but was recommissioned in 1875 as a training ship for naval aprrentices and was stationed at the New York Navy Yard – actually the Brooklyn Navy Yard.3

Throughout his career Andrew was stationed at the Naval Observatory several times during his career: 1850-52, 1856-57, 1866-68, and 1872-73. The Naval Observatory at that time was down near E and 23d Streets in Foggy Bottom and is now known as the Old Naval Observatory, a national historic landmark. The State Department has taken over the property. In 1866:

Old Naval Observatory, Washington D.C.

Old Naval Observatory, Washington D.C.

LCDR Andrew W. Johnson, in addition to his routine duty of winding and rating chronometers and maintaining the history of each instrument from the date of its manufacture and purchase by the Navy. Because the Observatory’s time-keeping function had expanded, Johnson was responsible for insuring the accuracy of the mean-time standard clock based on periodic celestial observations, and overseeing the Observatory’s growing timekeeping and time distribution functions. And each day at noon, Johnson activated the time ball.4
   
In 1855, Andrew and Elizabeth Marion Moore, who went by Marion, were married in Washington, D.C. Marion was born in Virginia, about 1830.5 They had two children, a son, Richmond Johnson, born 1856, who died as an infant, and Virginia Travis Johnson, born 1858. Virginia never married and died in Washington, D.C. in 1951. Andrew, Elizabeth and their two children are all buried in the Congressional Cemetery.



Related links:
Thomas Johnson, Jr., 1753-1795, father of Dr. Richmond Johnson and grandfather of Capt. Andrew Wallace Johnson
Dr. Richmond Johnson, 1791-1874, son of Thomas Johnson Jr.
Johnson family of Maryland and Washington D.C., descent report for 6 generations
Thomas Johnson Jr.'s home and the first post office


The tombstone photo of Andrew and Marion Johnson can be found on the Find A Grave website memorials for them. Photos were provided by the Historic Congressional Cemetery Archivist, Washington, D.C., free for use.

The Old Naval Observatory, Washington, D.C., lithograph, date and author unknown, is from the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery Archives, accessed at Wikimedia.org.

The marriage notice for Andrew and Marion appeared in The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., 15 Dec 1855, page 3. Accessed at Chronicling America, Library of Congress, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1855-12-15/ed-1/seq-3/


  1. The Records of Living Officers of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, by Lewis R. Hamersly, 3d ed., Philadelphia, J.B. Lippincott, 1878.

  2. The Records of Living Officers of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, by Lewis R. Hamersly, 3d ed., Philadelphia, J.B. Lippincott, 1878.

  3. Minnesota I (Frigate), Mark L. Evans, Naval History and Heritage Command, website, 10 Aug 2015, https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/m/minnesota-i.html

  4. The Records of Living Officers of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, by Lewis R. Hamersly, 3d ed., Philadelphia, J.B. Lippincott, 1878.

    Home of BUMED [Bureau of Medicine]: The Golden age (Part Four), by J.K. Herman, in U.S. Navy Medicine, Vol. 73, No.6, June 1982, p.11.

  5. For sources for birth and death dates and other personal information, see theJohnson Family of Maryland and Washington, D.C., descent report for 6 generations.


Anne Healy's Genealogy, Created October 2002
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22 May 2020

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