James Ralph Johnson was born in Alabama. Studying art, he
graduated from Howard College in 1943. He joined the Marine Corps
where he remained for over twenty years, retiring a major.
He moved to Santa Fe after his retirement to paint and write about
his passion, the cavalrymen of the Civil War and the West. He
was a historian and his talents as researcher and artist boded well
for this successful writer and illustrator. It was not long until he
took the Governor’s Award Purchase prize for his oil “The Horse
Soldiers” at the New Mexico State Fair. He was honored with a
prestigious membership in the Grand Central Galleries which had
shown the works of fellow members, Singer Sargent, John Sloan,
Howard Chandler Christy, and Walter Ufer. He was a member of
the Western Writers Association and of the American Indian and
Cowboy Artists, “AICA”.