The Life Of General Albert Sidney Johnston: His Service In The Armies Of The United States, The Republic Of Texas, And The Confederate States.

Colonel William Preston Johnston...

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Preface

A biography of Albert Sidney Johnston will need no apology with a large class of his countrymen. Many discreet men have urged upon the writer that his duty, both as son and citizen, required him to do this work. They believed that the omission of a picture of this heroic life would leave unfilled an important panel in the gallery of American history, in which the Civil War occupies so large a space. In response to such demand this memoir has been written. The writer would gladly have devolved hi

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1: Family And Boyhood

Albert Sidney Johnston was born on the 2d of February, 1803, in the village of Washington, Mason County, Kentucky. He was the youngest son of Dr. John Johnston, a physician, and One of the early settlers of that town. Dr. Johnston's father, Archibald Johnston, was a native of Salisbury, Connecticut, and descended from a Scotch family of some property and local influence, settled in Salisbury. John Johnston, having received a liberal education at New Haven, and at the Medical school at Litchfield

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2: Early Army-Life

Little of general interest remains, either in documentary form or in the memories of men, respecting the early years of Albert Sidney Johnston's Army-life. He passed the furlough granted after graduation in Kentucky with his father. The following incident of this visit is related in a letter from a friend, some Five years General Johnston's junior, and still living in Kentucky, highly respected: Our intercourse was always pleasant, and to me instructive and highly valued and sought after. At tha

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3: Black-Hawk War

The Black-Hawk War, which occurred in 1832, following a profound peace of many years, agitated not only the Northwestern frontier but the whole country. The causes and conduct of the war were, in its day, severely criticised both by partisan politicians and philanthropists. The motives of the latter entitle them to a respectful hearing; but the common-sense of the people has always sustained the practical view that the First duty of the Government in its relations with the Indians is to protect

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4: Jefferson Barracks

As soon as it was manifest that Black Hawk and the British band were utterly crushed, General Atkinson disbanded the volunteers, and distributed the regulars according to the exigencies of the service. That officer had concluded the campaign, which was really creditable to him, with an enhanced military reputation. Colonel Zachary Taylor, who, after the departure of General Brady, was the Second in command, now belongs to history as a victorious general in the Mexican War, and as the Twelfth Pre

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5: The Texan Revolution

On February 18, 1685, the adventurous La Salle, looking for a mouth of the Mississippi, which he had discovered in 1682, landed in Matagorda Bay. Six miles up the Lavaca River he built Fort St. Louis. This was the First settlement in Texas. Two years afterward, in attempting to pass by land from Lavaca to the French colony in Illinois, he was murdered near the river Neches by his own men; and in a few years the little post on the Lavaca was destroyed by disease, Indian assaults, and Spanish host

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6: As Texan Soldier

In spite of the brilliant victory of San Jacinto, it was soon apparent that Mexico had not abandoned her plans of subjugation, and that Texas needed every man she could draw to her standard. Mr. Johnston, leaving Louisville, proceeded by way of New Orleans to Alexandria, Louisiana. After staying a few days with his brother, Judge Johnston, he started on horseback for the camp of the defenders. His companions were Leonard Groce and brother, and Major Bynum, of Rapides. Crossing the Sabine on the

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7: Secretary Of War

The outlook of Texas seemed anything but bright at the beginning of Lamar's administration. Fortune, which at First appeared to smile upon the rising republic, finding her favors neglected, had now begun to turn away her face. Nearly Three years had passed since San Jacinto, and yet no government, except the United States, had acknowledged the independence of Texas. The European powers refused recognition, and pointed to the claim of title maintained by Mexico, with an annual invasion that dispu

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8: 1840-1845

The Four years that General Johnston had given to the public service of Texas had been years of sacrifice, but of sacrifice that brought its own reward. His activity, which had chafed against enforced idleness, there found employment as good as the times afforded. He had gone there heavy-hearted; but, having become warmly enlisted in the cause of Texas, his nature, which could not rest satisfied with merely selfish aims, had fixed itself upon an idea that thereafter was its pole-star— the welfar

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9: The Mexican War

As soon as the annexation of Texas was consummated, the United States Government ordered General Zachary Taylor, commanding the Southwestern Department, to put troops in motion to protect the frontier against the invasion threatened by Mexico. As Mexico not only asserted a general right to the sovereignty of Texas, but also set up a special claim to the country between the Rio Grande and the Nueces, as belonging to Tamaulipas, General Taylor, pending negotiations, established himself at Corpus C

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10: Plantation-Life

General Johnston returned to Galveston in October, and was received with enthusiasm by its citizens, with whom he was always a favorite. A public dinner was tendered him, which his business, however, compelled him to decline. A question of the utmost importance to himself now came before General Johnston for decision. When he had gone to General Taylor's assistance in May, he had promised his wife, who strongly opposed his volunteering, that he would not reenlist at the expiration of his term of

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11: Paymaster In United States Army

General Johnston was appointed paymaster, October 31, 1849. On the 2d of December, 1849, he wrote to the Adjutant-general, accepting the appointment. It is proper to state that General Johnston's legal rank while paymaster was major; but it has not been thought necessary in this or subsequent chapters to change the title by which he was generally known. This office gave him the emoluments and the nominal rank of major in the United States Army; but, in fact, the paymaster was a mere disbursing o

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13: The Mormon Rebellion

General Johnston, as commander of the United States troops employed to enforce the Federal authority in Utah, was for more than Two years placed in relations of either direct or indirect antagonism with the Mormon chiefs ; and, as his position was peculiarly dangerous and difficult, it is impossible clearly to understand it without some knowledge of the situation of this people and of the abnormal development of religious ideas which led to their separation into a distinct community. The rise an

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14: Utah Campaign

Though the troubles in Utah had been so long brewing, their nature seems to have been imperfectly understood by the people and Government of the United States. The Mormons made occasional public and formal professions of loyalty to the Government and of adhesion to the principles of American liberty; and their complaints were nominally against particular acts and persons. Hence it was not unreasonable to suppose that the remedy of particular grievances and the punishment of particular offenders

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15: Camp Floyd

Camp Floyd, the headquarters of the Army of Utah, was situated at the north end of Cedar Valley, midway between Salt Lake City and Provo, about Thirty-six miles distant from each. The valley was about Eight miles wide and Twenty-five miles long, and situated Three miles West of Utah Lake, with a low range of mountains intervening. The population of the Territory was located chiefly at the western base of the Wahsatch range, and along the eastern rim of the Great Salt Lake Basin. The position sel

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16: The Southern Confederacy

As the purpose of this biography is to set forth, not to justify, the acts and opinions of its subject, a discussion of the causes of the civil war would here be out of place. Success gives strong ground for self-complacency, and so does martyrdom. Hence the very conclusiveness of such an argument, while not needed to confirm the faith of its believers, would only serve to arouse anew the prejudices of adversaries. Nor is it necessary to the truth of history; since all the phases of that famous

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17: California

General Johnston had never been a politician or party-man. He had cast but One vote in his life, and that had been for General Taylor, who, he thought, would rise above party. He never forgot, however, that he was the citizen of a republic. Deeply interested in its welfare, conversant with its history, well acquainted with its practical working, long associated with its leading men, and himself a thinker and a leader in his own particular sphere, he could not fail to have decided opinions on the

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18: The Desert Journey

General Johnston remained at Los Angeles from May 2d to June 16th. His letter to Mrs. Gilpin, already given (Page 273), reveals in some measure his feelings at this time. The Administration, which thought the personal indignity put upon him atoned for by an offer of promotion, and the crooked policy of discrediting an upright soldier an act merely “Political,” left his reputation to this late vindication. The arbitrary delay, without cause or explanation, in accepting his resignation, as if to e

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19: Situation In The West

Before General Johnston's arrival at Richmond, deputations from the West had reached there, asking that he might be assigned to command on that line. General Polk had visited Richmond partly for that purpose, and had also written urgently; a committee from Memphis, and other delegations, had made the same request, and the public expectation hopefully awaited the announcement of his appointment. But the President needed no urging. It was evident that the general direction of affairs in the West s

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20: Military Situation In Kentucky

The command intrusted to General Johnston was imperial in extent, his discretion as to military movements was unlimited, and his powers were as large as the theory of the Confederate Government permitted. He lacked nothing, except men and munitions of war, and the means of obtaining them. His army had to be enlisted, before it could be led. Subsistence could be obtained, it is true, through his commissaries; but the country was already drained of material of war to supply its First levies. Even

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21: General Polk And Columbus, Kentucky

As General Polk felt unwilling to leave his post at Columbus, just at this juncture, and as General Johnston wished to obtain as full a knowledge as possible. of his line of defense, he went thither on the 18th of September. It was a great pleasure to him to meet again, after the lapse of many years, his old comrade. It was no small consideration to feel that he had in so responsible a position a friend to whose loyalty of heart and native chivalry he could trust entirely, and One who, if long u

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22: Efforts To Get Arms And Troops

It has already been shown that, when the Confederate troops advanced into Kentucky and established their line of operations, it was with the confident hope that the people of that Commonwealth would promptly join them in large numbers, and also that a strong army, rallied in the South, would speedily follow to support them. The First illusion was soon dispelled. The causes of inaction in Kentucky, already made sufficiently plain in Chapter XIX., continued, and destroyed the hope of any considera

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23: Bowling Green

General Johnston's command in Kentucky consisted of Three armies: Polk's on the left, at Columbus; Buckner's in the centre, about Bowling Green; and Zollicoffer's, on the right, at Cumberland Ford. Early in October, Polk had some 10,000 men to protect Columbus from Grant's 20,000 or 25,000 troops at and near Cairo. Buckner's force had increased to 6,000, against double that number of adversaries under Sherman; and Zollicoffer's 4,000 men had 8,000 or 10,000 men opposed to them in Eastern Kentuck

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Appendix A

Through the politeness of the Secretary of War, Mr. Belknap, the writer received the following statement of the strength of Sherman's command on the 10th of November: Official transcript from the return of the Department of the Cumberland, showing the strength, present and absent, on the 10th day of November, 1861, the date of the last report received at this office before Brigadier-General Sherman was relieved of that command:...

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Appendix B (2)

General Sherman (Vol. i., Pp. 206-208) undertakes to give a statement of his strength, about the 3d or 4th of November. He states that General McCook had at Nolin Four brigades, consisting of Fourteen regiments of volunteers and some regulars, besides artillery— a force 13,000 strong. General Sherman also furnishes a tabulated list of the regiments under his command, which must have been compiled from imperfect sources. He mentions Eleven regiments in easy supporting distance of McCook, and assi

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24: The Battle Of Belmont

On the 7th of November, 1861, a battle was fought at Belmont, Missouri, opposite Columbus, Kentucky. General Grant's reports and authorized biographies claim this as a victory, and that it was the culmination of an expedition undertaken for good strategic reasons, and justified by complete success. It is admitted that such was not the popular estimate of the time; and elaborate apologies have been framed to prove the substantial advantages gained by the fight. The merits of a hard fighter, of bo

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25: The Fall Campaign

It has been seen that the early part of November was a season of hostile activity with the enemy. It was also marked by important changes in the assignment of their generals. On November 1st Major-General George B. McClellan was assigned to the chief command of the army, in place of Lieutenant-General Scott, retired. On November 9th the Department of the Cumberland was discontinued by the United States War Department, and the Department of the Ohio constituted, embracing the States of Ohio, Mich

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26: Battle Of Fishing Creek

The movement of the Federal army, which had been frustrated in November, was renewed with better success early in January. General Johnston was now confronted by Halleck in the West, and by Buell in Kentucky. With the exception of the army sent under Curtis against Price in Southwestern Missouri, about 12,000 strong, the whole resources of the Northwest, from Pennsylvania to the Plains, were turned against General Johnston's lines in Kentucky. Halleck, with armies at Cairo and Paducah, under Gra

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27: Fort Henry

When Tennessee seceded, her authorities assembled volunteers at the most assailable points on her borders, and took measures for guarding the water-entrances to her territory. All the strong points on the Mississippi were occupied and fortified-Memphis, Randolph, Fort Pillow, and Island No.10. The last-named place, though a low-lying island, was believed to be a very strong position. Captain Gray, the engineer in charge when General Johnston assumed command (September 18th), reported that Island

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Appendix B

The fall of Fort Henry made it manifest that a combined attack on Donelson by land and water would soon follow. Such attack could not be otherwise than formidable. Indeed, the success of the gunboats at Henry had produced an exaggerated impression of their power; while the real strength of the Northern armies was too well known at General Johnston's headquarters to leave any doubt of their ability to move overwhelming forces on both Bowling Green and Donelson. Still, if the line of the Cumberlan

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29: The Retreat From Bowling Green

Forts Henry and Donelson had fallen, and the great water highways were opened to Nashville and to North Alabama. This gave access to the rear of the Confederate armies, and turned the positions both at Bowling Green and Columbus. Of course, such misfortunes could not happen in his department without subjecting General Johnston to the severest criticism, and we shall presently see to what heights of excitement and depths of bitterness the tide of feeling ran. That mighty surge of wrath belonged t

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30: From Murfreesboro To Corinth

It has been seen that, in the conference of February 7th, with Beauregard, the plan adopted was substantially a division of the command, by which General Johnston should face Buell and cover East and Middle Tennessee, while General Beauregard should defend the country west of the Tennessee River. The issue at Donelson left General Johnston with little more than half his former strength in array. The whole aspect of affairs was changed by the surrender there; and hence a modification of the plan

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Appendix A

While these movements of General Johnston were in progress, a stirring campaign occurred in Missouri, and great preparations were made in the Mississippi Valley, and on the Tennessee River, to overwhelm him on that flank. The storm was gathering. It has been seen that General Johnston's efforts to raise men for the contest west of the Mississippi were as earnest and as unavailing as in Mississippi and Tennessee. Though vested with the direction of affairs both East and West of the river, so dist

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Appendix

General Johnston had now effected the concentration of his troops at Corinth, with the intent of striking Grant before the arrival of Buell. The strategic importance of this point can scarcely be over-estimated. At Corinth, Two Great railway lines crossed— that running North and South from Mobile, on the Gulf, to Columbus, near the mouth of the Ohio; and that from Memphis to Chattanooga, running East and West, and connecting the Mississippi River with the railroad system of Georgia and East Tenn

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33: Before The Battle

On Thursday Morning, April 3d, at about One o'clock, preliminary orders were issued to hold the troops in readiness to move at a moment's notice, with Five days provisions and 100 rounds of ammunition. The orders for the march and battle were issued later in the day— in the afternoon, as it seems-after they had been elaborated by General Beauregard. When it became apparent that the orders meant an advance and an attack upon the enemy-meant battle— the soldiers, full of ardor, were aroused to the

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I.-Morning

Battle of Shiloh.— Sunday: Saturday Afternoon, April 5th, the sun, breaking through the mists which drifted away, set in a cloudless sky. The night was clear, calm, and beautiful. General Johnston, tired out with the vigils of the night before, slept quietly in an ambulance-wagon, his staff bivouacking by the camp-fires around him. Some of Hardee's troops having wasted their rations, he and Bragg spent a large part of the night getting up provisions for them. Before the faintest glimmer of dawn,

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The Night Of The 6th

Nightfall found the victorious Confederates retiring from the front, and abandoning the vantage-ground on the bluffs, won at such a cost of blood. This gave the Federals room and opportunity to come out from their corner, and to advance and reoccupy the strong positions from which they had been driven, and dispose their troops on much more favorable ground than the crowded landing permitted. Called off from the pursuit by staff officers, who gave no specific instructions, the brigades, according

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Appendix I: Killed, Wounded, And Missing: Battle Of Shiloh

Zzz 669-687: tables that need to be double keyed....

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Johnston

When it was found that General Johnston was dead, General Preston conveyed his body from the field to the headquarters of the night before, and left it in charge of Captain Wickham and Major John W. Throckmorton. He then reported, with Majors Benham and Hayden, and Lieutenant Jack, to General Beauregard, who courteously offered them places on his staff, which were accepted, for that battle. After consultation with General Beauregard, and learning at headquarters that the victory was as complete

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The Assembling

The remains of the distinguished chieftain remained in state on the Central Wharf during all of Friday, where it was visited by Thousands, and at night it was removed into an adjoining warehouse, where it was guarded by the following-named gentlemen: Major E. S. Bolling, Major J. W. Mangum, Messrs. S. B. Noble, J. F. Crane, Cyrus Thompson, Charles J. Jankes, M. Stoddart, A. W. Ihughes, Paul Edmonds, R. W. Belo, John Adriand, Jr., A. D. McArthur, William C. Carnes, R. J. Johns, William II. Shield

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37: The End

It has been the writer's aim in this biography to let a truthful narrative of facts reveal the character of its subject. He has not been prepossessed with any especial ideal to which he has striven to conform General Johnston's acts or motives. Whatsoever of error or inconsistency these facts may exhibit in a character very simple and noble— let it stand. Although the writer has made a study of General Johnston's life, in a spirit and temper which he hopes has been as nearly judicial as was poss

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