Background
JOHNSTON, Joseph Eggleston was born on February 3, 1807 in Prince Edward County, Virginia, United States, United States. Son of Peter Johnston, a speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, and his wife Mary (Wood) Johnston.
JOHNSTON, Joseph Eggleston was born on February 3, 1807 in Prince Edward County, Virginia, United States, United States. Son of Peter Johnston, a speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, and his wife Mary (Wood) Johnston.
Graduated from the United States Military Academy, 1829.
He attended Abingdon Academy and graduated thirteenth in a class of forty-six from the U.S. Military Academy in 1829. He was appointed second lieutenant in the 4th Artillery. Johnston was baptized an Episcopalian during the Civil War by General Leonidas K. Polk.
He married Lydia McLane, daughter of U.S. Senator Louis McLane of Delaware, on July 10, 1845. They had no children. He served in the Black Hawk War in 1832 and on topographical duty with the army in 1834.
In 1836, he was promoted to first lieutenant, and he served as an aide-de-camp to Winfield Scott during the Seminole War before resigning his commission in 1837 to become a civil engineer. In 1838, he returned to the army as a first lieutenant of topographical engineers, and he was breveted captain for his gallantry during the Seminole campaign that year. In 1841, he was put in charge of the Topographical Bureau, and the following year he was named adjutant general of Florida.
Promoted to captain in 1846, Johnston served during the Mexican War with General Scott at Vera Cruz, Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Churubusco, Molino del Rey, Chapultepec, and Mexico City. He was breveted major, lieutenant colonel, and colonel and was corps commander for the Department of Texas. In 1858, he was acting inspector general for the Utah expedition.
On June 28, 1860, he became quartermaster general for the U.S. Army. In April 1861, he resigned from the army and helped to organize the Virginia Volunteers, of which he was a major general. On May 14, 1861, he was appointed brigadier genera] in the Confederate Army, and he commanded the garrison at Harper's Ferry before assisting General P.G.T. Beauregard at the battle of First Manassas in July.
Promoted to full general on August 31, 1861, he ranked fourth in seniority (after Samuel Cooper [], A. S. Johnston [], and Robert E. Lee [g.v.]), which led to a feud between him and President Jefferson Davis. In May 1862, he was wounded at the battle of Seven Pines, where he attacked but missed the opportunity to destroy McClellan’s army. His command then passed to General Lee, and in 1863, Johnston commanded the Department of the West.
He unsuccessfully attempted to salvage an already desperate situation at Vicksburg in the first half of that year. After the fall of Vicksburg in July, he replaced Braxton Bragg as commander of the Army of Tennessee. In turn, he was replaced by John B. Hood in July 1864.
Johnston ended the war in the Carolinas, where he unsuccessfully attempted to check William T. Sherman’s march north. When the war ended, he surrendered his command to Sherman in North Carolina. He was soon paroled. In 1865, he was employed by the National Express and Transportation Company of Richmond, and the following year he was president of the Alabama and Tennessee River Railroad Company in Savannah, Georgia.
Johnston worked for Tilden’s election in 1876. He returned to Richmond in 1877 and was a U.S. congressman from Virginia from 1879 to 1881. From 1885 to 1891, he was President Grover Cleveland’s railroad commissioner.
Johnston was also an insurance agent in Richmond and published Narrative of Military Operations (1875).
"Peculiar institution" of slavery was not only expedient but also ordained by God and upheld in Holy Scripture.
Stands for preserving slavery, states' rights, and political liberty for whites. Every individual state is sovereign, even to the point of secession.
Member United States House of Representatives from Virginia, 46th Congress, 1879-1881.
Married Lydia McLane, July 10, 1845.