Major General Joseph Eggleston Johnston (CSA)

General Joseph Eggleston Johnston, (CSA)

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_E._Johnston
• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/4846/joseph-eggleston-johnston

General Johnston was a career U.S. Army officer, serving with distinction in the Mexican-American War and Seminole Wars, and was the 4th highest ranking officer in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.

General Johnston, like General Robert E. Lee, never forgot the magnanimity of the man to whom he surrendered to, and would not allow an unkind word to be said about Major General William T. Sherman in his presence. When Sherman died, Johnston served as a pallbearer at his funeral; during the procession in New York City on February 19, 1891, he kept his hat off as a sign of respect in the cold, rainy weather. Someone had some concern for the old general's health and asked him to put on his hat, to which Johnston replied "If I were in his place and he standing here in mine, he would not put on his hat."

He caught pneumonia and died several weeks later. He was buried in Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland.
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He was the brother of Charles Clement Johnston and the uncle of John Warfield Johnston, a U.S. Representative from Virginia; born in Longwood, Prince Edward County, Virginia, February 3, 1807; moved with his parents to Panicello, near Abingdon, Virginia, in 1811; attended the Abingdon Academy; was graduated from the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York, in 1829; pursued a career in the Army and was promoted through the ranks to brigadier general and quartermaster general; resigned April 22, 1861, to enter the Confederate service; during the Civil War was appointed Major General of the Virginia State forces on April 26, 1861; commissioned brigadier general, Confederate States Army, May 14, 1861, and general on August 31, 1861, in which capacity he served until April 26, 1865, when the terms of surrender of his army were agreed upon; settled in Savannah, Georgia; was president of a railroad company in Arkansas; and engaged in the general insurance business in 1868 and 1869; returned to Virginia and settled in Richmond in 1877 and became president of an express company; elected as a Democrat to the Forty-sixth Congress (March 4, 1879-March 3, 1881); was not a candidate for renomination in 1880; was appointed Commissioner of Railroads by President Grover Cleveland in 1887 and served until 1891; died in Washington, D.C., March 21, 1891; interment in Greenmount Cemetery, Baltimore, Md.|Bibliography: Govan, Gilbert E., and James W. Livingood. A Different Valor: The Story of General Joseph E. Johnston, C.S.A. New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1956. Reprint, Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, [1973]; Johnston, Joseph Eggleston. Narrative of Military Operations. Edited by Frank E. Vandiver. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1959.

Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-2005

Name Joseph Eggleston Johnston
Enlistment Age 54
Birth Date 3 February 1807
Birth Place Farmville, Virginia
Enlistment Date 14 May 1861
Enlistment Rank Brig General
Muster Date 14 May 1861
Muster Place Confederate States
Muster Regiment General & Staff
Muster Information Commission
Rank Change Date 4 July 1861
Rank Change Rank General
Casualty Date 31 May 1862
Casualty Place Fair Oaks, Virginia
Type of Casualty Wounded
Side of War Confederacy
Death Date 21 March 1891
Death Place Washington, District of Columbia
Burial Place Baltimore County, Maryland
Occupation U.S. Army Officer
Title Confederate Military History; Research by Patricia Adkins-Rochette

Joseph Eggleston Johnston (February 3, 1807 – March 21, 1891) was a career U.S. Army officer, serving with distinction in the Mexican-American War and Seminole Wars, and was also one of the most senior general officers in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He was unrelated to Albert Sidney Johnston, another high-ranking Confederate general during the Civil War.

Johnston was trained as a civil engineer at the U.S. Military Academy, graduating in the same class as Robert E. Lee. He served in Florida, Texas, and Kansas, and fought with distinction in the Mexican-American War and by 1860 achieved the rank of brigadier general as Quartermaster General of the U.S. Army. When his native state of Virginia declared secession from the Union, Johnston resigned his U.S. commission and became the highest-ranking U.S. officer to join the Confederacy. To his dismay, however, he was appointed only the fourth ranking full general in the Confederate army.

Johnston's effectiveness in the American Civil War was undercut by tensions with Confederate president Jefferson Davis, who often criticized him for a lack of aggressiveness, and victory eluded him in most campaigns he personally commanded. However, he was the senior Confederate commander at the First Battle of Bull Run in 1861, and his recognition of the important necessary actions, and prompt application of leadership in that victory is usually credited to his subordinate, P. G. T. Beauregard.

He defended the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, during the 1862 Peninsula Campaign, withdrawing under the pressure of a superior force under Union Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan. In his only offensive action during the campaign, he suffered a severe wound at the Battle of Seven Pines, after which he was replaced in command by his classmate at West Point, Robert E. Lee.

In 1863, in command of the Department of the West, he was criticized for his inaction and failure[1] in the Vicksburg Campaign. In 1864, he fought against Union Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman in the Atlanta Campaign. Facing an enemy with a massive numerical advantage, Johnston's strategy was to strategically withdraw whenever it was necessary to avoid being surrounded or cut off from his supply lines, while looking for the right opportunity to make a defensive stand. Although he won a minor victory against Sherman at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, the opportunity to make a decisive stand that could turn back the Union tide never came. Fed up with Johnston's constant withdrawal from Confederate territory, Davis relieved him of command after he withdrew from northwest Georgia to the outskirts of the city.

In the final days of the war, he was returned to command of the small remaining forces in the Carolinas Campaign. Following a failed attempt to stall Sherman's advance at the Battle of Bentonville, he surrendered his armies to Sherman at Bennett Place near Durham Station, North Carolina on April 26, 1865. Two of his major opponents, General Ulysses S. Grant and Sherman, made comments highly respectful of his actions in the war, and they became close friends with Johnston in subsequent years.

After the war, Johnston was an executive in the railroad and insurance businesses. He served a single term as a Democrat in the United States House of Representatives and was commissioner of railroads under Grover Cleveland. He died of pneumonia after serving in inclement weather as a pallbearer at the funeral of his former adversary, and later friend, William T. Sherman.