A Memoir Of The Life And Public Service Of Joseph E. Johnston: Once The Quartermaster General Of The Army Of The United States (1891)
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Reports of the Secretary of War: With Reconnaissances of Routes From San Antonio to El Paso (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from Reports of the Secretary of War: With Reconn...)
Excerpt from Reports of the Secretary of War: With Reconnaissances of Routes From San Antonio to El Paso
The surve s referred to in these several reports have been reduced to one scale, an are imbodied in the map attached to this letter.
Respectfully, sir, your obedient servant. J. J. Abert, Colonel Corps Topographical Engineers.
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Joseph Eggleston Johnston was a career United States Army officer, serving with distinction in the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), and Seminole Wars, and was also one of the most senior general officers in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War (1861-1865).
Background
Johnston was born at Longwood House in "Cherry Grove", near Farmville, Virginia on February 3, 1807. (Longwood House later burned down. The rebuilt house was the birthplace in 1827 of Charles S. Venable, an officer on the staff of Robert E. Lee, and is now the home of the president of Longwood University. ) His grandfather, Peter Johnston, emigrated to Virginia from Scotland in 1726. Joseph was the seventh son of Judge Peter Johnston (1763–1831) and Mary Valentine Wood (1769–1825), a niece of Patrick Henry. He was named for Major Joseph Eggleston, under whom his father served in the American Revolutionary War, in the command of Light-Horse Harry Lee. His brother Charles Clement Johnston served as a congressman, and his nephew John Warfield Johnston was a senator; both represented Virginia. In 1811, the Johnston family moved to Abingdon, Virginia, a town near the Tennessee border, where Peter built a home he named Panecillo.
Education
Johnston attended the United States Military Academy, nominated by John C. Calhoun while he was Secretary of War, days before he was inaugurated as vice president in 1825. He was moderately successful at academics and received only a small number of disciplinary demerits. He graduated in 1829, ranking 13th of 46 cadets, and was appointed a second lieutenant in the 4th U. S. Artillery. He would become the first West Point graduate to be promoted to a general officer in the regular army, reaching a higher rank in the U. S. Army than did his 1829 classmate, Robert E. Lee (2nd of 46).
Career
Johnston was a member of Gen. Winfield Scott's expedition against Mexico City during the Mexican War and was made brevet colonel in 1848. In 1860 he became quartermaster general of the U. S. Army.
When Virginia seceded from the Union, Johnston resigned from the Army and accepted a commission as a brigadier general in the Confederate service. When the Union army advanced toward Bull Run, he marched to cover Confederate troops at Manassas, thus making possible a Confederate victory. He was subsequently promoted to full general. In spring 1862 he marched to Yorktown to confront Union forces that were preparing to advance on Richmond. Although Confederate president Jefferson Davis believed that Johnston should defend his position as long as possible, Johnston disagreed and fell back on Richmond, leaving behind irreplaceable heavy artillery. He attacked the enemy army before Richmond on May 31, 1862, but poor planning and execution resulted in a drawn battle. Johnston was severely wounded and forced to retire temporarily.
Johnston's first assignment after his recovery was to coordinate the movements of Confederate forces in Mississippi and Tennessee. He complained that this arrangement was unworkable, and in fact he accomplished little. When the Union general Ulysses S. Grant crossed the Mississippi and moved against Vicksburg, Johnston went to take field command. Because one of Johnston's commanders disobeyed orders, both an army and Vicksburg were lost on July 4, 1863.
Despite the loss of Vicksburg, Davis chose Johnston to command the Army of Tennessee in 1863. He opposed Gen. William T. Sherman, who advanced on Atlanta in May 1864. Johnston retreated adroitly in the fact of heavy odds, but by July he had reached the outskirts of Atlanta. Davis relieved him of command on July 17, after Johnston refused to say whether or not he would abandon the city without a fight. He was recalled to active duty in February 1865 but was forced to surrender to Sherman's vastly superior forces that April.
After the war Johnston engaged in various pursuits, serving one term in Congress, writing his memoirs, and continuing his feud with Jefferson Davis. His last employment was as commissioner of railroads under President Grover Cleveland.
(This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)
Membership
He was an honorary member of the District of Columbia Society of the Sons of the American Revolution and was assigned national membership number 1963.
Connections
On July 10, 1845, in Baltimore, Johnston married Lydia Mulligan Sims McLane (1822–1887), the daughter of Louis McLane, the president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and a prominent former politician (congressman and senator from Delaware, minister to London, and a member of President Andrew Jackson's cabinet). They had no children.