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During the angry political strife which preceded the contest of arms,
General Albert Sidney Johnston 2 remained silent, stern, and sorrowful.
He determined to stand at his post in
San Francisco, performing his full duty as an officer of the
United States, until events should require a decision as to his course.
When
Texas — his adopted State--passed the ordinance of secession from the
Union, the alternative was presented, and, on the day he heard the news, he resigned his commission in the army.
He kept the fact concealed, however, lest it might stir up disaffection among the turbulent
population of the
Pacific Coast.
He said, “I shall do my duty to the last, and, when absolved, shall take my course.”
All honest and competent witnesses now accord that he carried out this purpose in letter and spirit.
General Sumner, who relieved him, reported that he found him “carrying out the orders of the
Government.”
Mr. Lincoln's Administration treated
General Johnston with a distrust which wounded his pride to the quick, but afterward made such amends as it could, by sending him a major-general's commission.
He was also assured through confidential sources that he would receive the highest command in the
Federal army.
But he declined to take part against his own people, and retired to
Los Angeles with the intention of farming.
There he was subjected to an irritating surveillance; while at the same time there came
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across mountain and desert the voice of the
Southern people calling to him for help in their extremity.
3 His heart and intellect both recognized their claim upon his services, and he obeyed.
At this time he wrote, “No one could feel more sensibly the calamitous condition of our country than myself, and whatever part I may take hereafter, it will always be a subject of gratulation with me that no act of mine ever contributed to bring it about.
I suppose the difficulties now will only be adjusted by the sword.
In my humble judgment, that was not the remedy.”
When he arrived in the new Confederacy, his coming was welcomed with a spontaneous outburst of popular enthusiasm, and deputations from the
West preceded him to
Richmond, entreating his assignment to that department.
President Davis said that he regarded his coming as of more worth than the accession of an army of ten thousand men; and on the 10th of September, 1861, he was intrusted with the defense of that part of the
Confederate States which lay west of the
Alleghany Mountains, except the
Gulf Coast (
Bragg having control of the coast of
West Florida and
Alabama, and
Mansfield Lovell of the coast of
Mississippi and
Louisiana). His command was
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General Albert Sidney Johnston at the age of fifty-seven.
From a photograph taken in salt Lake City in 1860.
the appearance of General Albert Sidney Johnston before the war is described as both commanding and attractive.
In some respects the bust of Alexander Hamilton is the best extant likeness of him, a resemblance very frequently remarked.
His cheek-bones were rather high, and with his nose and complexion gave him a Scotch look.
His chin was delicate and handsome; his teeth were white and regular, and his mouth was square and firm.
In the portrait by Bush taken about this time, his lips seem rather full, but as they are best remembered, they were somewhat thin and very firmly set. Light-brown hair clustered over a noble forehead, and from under heavy brows his deep-set but clear, steady eyes looked straight at you with a regard kind and sincere, yet penetrating.
In repose his eyes were as blue as the sky, but in excitement they flashed to a steel-gray, and exerted a remarkable power over men. He was six feet and an inch in height, of about one hundred and eighty pounds weight, straight as an arrow, with broad, square shoulders and a massive chest.
He was strong and active, and of a military bearing.-W. P. J. |
imperial in extent, and his powers and discretion as large as the theory of the Confederate Government permitted.
He lacked nothing except men, munitions of war, and the means of obtaining them.
He had the right to ask for anything, and the
State Executives had the power to withhold everything.
the
Mississippi River divided his department into two distinct theaters of war. West of the
River,
Fremont held
Missouri with a force of from 60,000 to 80,000 Federals, confronted by
Price and
McCulloch in the extreme
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southwest corner of the
State with 6000 men, and by
Hardee, in north-eastern
Arkansas, with about as many raw recruits down with camp diseases and unable to move.
East of the
Mississippi, the northern boundary of
Tennessee was barely in his possession, and was held under sufferance from an enemy who, for various reasons, hesitated to advance.
The Mississippi opened the way to a ruinous naval invasion unless it could be defended and held.
Grant was at
Cairo and
Paducah with 20,000 men; and
Polk, to oppose his invasion, had seized
Columbus, Ky., with about 11,000 Confederates, and had fortified it.
Tennessee was twice divided: first by the
Tennessee River, and then by the
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Autograph found inside the cover of General Johnston's pocket-map of Tennessee, and written three days before the battle of Shiloh--probably his last Autograph. |
Cumberland, both of which invited the advance of a hostile force.
Some small pretense of fortifications had been made on both rivers at
Forts Henry and
Donelson, near the boundary line, but practically there was nothing to prevent the
Federal army from capturing
Nashville, then the most important depot of supplies west of
the Alleghanies.
Hence the immediate and pressing question for
General Johnston was the defense of the
Tennessee border.
The mock neutrality of
Kentucky, which had served as a paper barrier, was terminated, on the 13th of September, by a formal defiance from the Union Legislature of
Kentucky.
The United States Government had about 34,000 volunteers and about 6000
Kentucky Home Guards assembled in the
State under
General Robert Anderson, of
Fort Sumter fame, who had with him such enterprising corps commanders as
Sherman,
Thomas, and
Nelson.
the
Confederacy had some four thousand ill-armed and ill-equipped troops at
Cumberland Gap under
General Zollicoffer, guarding the only line of railroad communication between
Virginia and
Tennessee, and overawing the
Union population of
East Tennessee.
This hostile section penetrated the heart of the
Confederacy like a wedge and flanked and weakened
General Johnston's line of defense, requiring, as it did, constant vigilance and repression.
besides
Zollicoffer's force,
General Johnston found only 4000 men available to protect his [whole line against 40,000 Federal troops.
There were, it is true, some four thousand more raw recruits in camps of
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