John Smith Preston was born April 20th 1809 in Abingdon, Virginia at “Salt Works” the family plantation. He was the son of General Francis and Sarah Buchanan [Campbell] Preston. Preston graduated in 1824 from Hampden - Sydney College and then studied law at Harvard. After passing the bar Preston opened a practice in Abingdon. He married in 1830 to Caroline Hampton the daughter of Wade Hampton. Preston moved to Columbia, South Carolina where he opened a law practice, and invested in a Baton Rouge, Louisiana sugar plantation. He was a member of the Democratic Party and served in the South Carolina State Senate, and as a delegate and the chairman at the May 1860 Democratic National Convention held in Charleston, South Carolina.
At the beginning of the Civil War Preston was an aide de camp to Confederate General PGT Beauregard. He latter received a commission of Lieutenant Colonel in the Confederate Army and was placed at the head of the Confederate bureau of conscription in Richmond, Virginia. In 1864 Preston was promoted to Brigadier General. His family home the Hampton - Preston House in Columbia was seized by the Union Army in 1865 and used as the headquarters of Union Major General John A Logan.
When the war ended Preston moved to England, and didn’t return to the United States until 1868. Until the end of his life Preston was a strong defender of the Confederacy. He gave a commencement speech at the University of Virginia, where he asserted the right of state secession, he also spoke at the dedication of the Confederate monument in Columbia. He died May 1st 1881 in Columbia, South Carolina was is buried the Trinity Cathedral Cemetery there.
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