George J. Johnston (1842-1881) was born July 6, 1842 in Wynton Alabama, near Columbus, Georgia. He lived in Montgomery before going to school in Salem Alabama, where he learned the printing trade. He then moved to Opelika Alabama, and then back to Montgomery. During the Civil War he joined the Confederate army as a private in the 60th Alabama Infantry. On December 12, 1863, he was wounded at Bean Station, Rutledge County, Tennessee in his right foot and was temporarily discharged. In September he rejoined the army and helped defend Petersburg, Virginia against the Union army. In the Petersburg Campaign he was wounded in his leg in March 1865. After the Civil War, George J. Johnston returned to Montgomery Alabama where he worked as a printer and as an editor for the Montgomery Mail. He married a Miss Hilliard in 1868 and they had five children before eventually divorcing. In 1878 he moved away from his former wife and children to Atlanta where he worked as a reporter. Four years later in 1881 he was found dead in his room from a morphine overdose, an assumed suicide. The 1881 Atlanta Directory records him as working as a printer for the Atlanta Constitution.
From the description of George J. Johnston papers, 1856-1865. (Atlanta History Center). WorldCat record id: 436307607
