Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 11.
Reverend J. William Jones, Ed.

I feel assured I shall escape the charge of affecting a modesty not truthfully and sincerely felt, when I say, for reasons too obvious to be mentioned, that I would have preferred the selection of one more intimate with his personal and private life, and more nearly connected with him in his military operations; but while yielding to many I could name in this regard, I could to none in my love and admiration for his civic and public virtues—a love and admiration which has been quickened and intensified with the brief study and examination I have made since I received the invitation of your chairman, and my old friend and comrade in arms, Judge Rogers, to be with you on this occasion. I beg further, by way of preface, in treating of the typical soldier of the Tennessee Army, to say I am largely indebted for facts, circumstances and history embodied in the address to two persons holding the closest and most intimate relations with General Johnston during his entire life—I mean ex-President Davis, and his son and truthful biographer, Colonel Wm. Preston Johnston. It has been thought, and perhaps said, by some that the natural filial affection borne by his biographer for the subject of which he treated would in a measure disqualify him for the discharge of this duty faithfully. But it must be remembered that if the biographer inherited the capacity to love, honor and reverence his great subject, he at the same time inherited that fidelity to truth, that love of justice, that lofty sense of honor, which was the legitimate inheritance of such a son from such a sire. I may be permitted to say to the young men of Louisiana, who are before me to-day, as I said to my own son, when I placed this biography in his hand, and bade him read and study it, that it presents a portraiture of civic virtues and public honor that all may take pattern after.

Albert Sidney Johnston was born on the 2d of February, 1803, in the village of Washington, Mason county, Ky. He was the youngest son of Dr. Johnston, a physician, and one of the early settlers of that town. After the loss of his first wife, Dr. Johnston married Abigail Harris, the daughter of Edward Harris, who was an old citizen and a soldier of the war of the revolution. From this marriage sprang six children—three daughters and three sons—of whom Albert Sidney Johnston, the subject of this address, was the youngest son. General Johnston inherited from his father that solid judgment, [259] powers of self-control, and rare equipose of mind which so distinguished him in after life, whether in prosperity or adversity. From his mother, who died early in life, and who is described ‘as a woman of handsome person, fine intellect, and sterling worth,’ he may well be supposed to have inherited those softer traits of character which made his hearthstone a happy one, and charmed the home circle and the friends who gathered around it.

At fifteen years of age he was sent to a school in Western Virginia, and afterward to Transylvania, where he conceived the idea of entering the United States navy. But his father discouraged him from this enterprise and sent him in 1819 on a visit to his elder brother, Josiah Stoddard Johnston, who, with his other elder brothers, had moved to Rapides parish, in the State of Louisiana. His elder brother, Josiah Stoddard Johnston, had already become a distinguished citizen in this State, subsequently its representative in Congress and United States Senator. He became a second father to his young brother, and his sound judgment and affectionate love did much to shape and fashion the future life of the subject of this address. During the winter passed with his elder brother in Louisiana he was dissuaded from his purpose to enter the navy and prevailed upon to return to Transylvania University, where he prosecuted his studies with his accustomed vigor and energy, and on leaving the University, in 1822, was appointed by his elder brother, Josiah S. Johnston, then a member of Congress, from Louisiana, a cadet in the United States Military Academy at West Point. He won the respect and love of professors and class-mates at West Point. Mr. Jefferson Davis says of him at this period of his life: ‘He was Sergeant-Major, and afterward was selected by the commandant for the Adjutancy, then the most esteemed office in the corps. He was not a hard student, though a fair one. His quickness supplied the defect. He did not have an enemy in the corps or an unkind feeling to any one, though he was select in his associates.’ He graduated at the Military Academy in June, 1826, and was assigned to the Second Infantry, with the rank of brevet Second Lieutenant, to take date from July 1, 1826, and furloughed until November 1. He had as his companions and friends at the Academy such men as Leonidas Polk, of Tennessee, subsequently Bishop of Louisiana and a LieutenantGen-eral in the Confederate service, who was his room-mate and intimate friend. Robert Anderson, afterward famous for his defense of Fort Sumter; William Bickley, his fellow-townsman; Daniel S. Donelson, of Tennessee, a distinguished Brigadier-General in the Confederate [260] army; Berrien, of Georgia; the veteran Maynadier Bradford, a grandson of the first printer in Kentucky; Lucien Bibb, son of the Hon. George M. Bibb, and Mr. Jefferson Davis. Speaking of this brilliant coterie of young men, who became his fast friends for life, his biographer remarks: ‘It was a society of young, ardent, and generous spirits, in which prevailed general good feeling and little bitterness—a generation of brave spirits, steadfast and reflective, but beyond comparison ardent and generous.’

Lieutenant Johnston was subsequently assigned to duty at Jefferson Barracks, a short distance above St. Louis, on the Mississippi river, having been commissioned by John Quincy Adams, then President, as Second Lieutenant of the Sixth regiment of infantry, then regarded as the ‘crack’ regiment of the army, under the command of Brigadier General Henry Atkinson. He reported for duty on the first of June.

Lieutenant Johnston's first military service was performed in the expedition sent from Prairie-du-Chien, on the 29th of August, to compel the Winnebagoes to make reparation for outrages committed on the whites.

He came for the first time in conflict with the red man of the forest, and saw the best specimen in the large and well-built Winnebagoes, then comparatively savage, but now the most peaceable and thriving of the semi-civilized tribes. Red Bird, Le Soleil, and the son and son-in-law of Red Bird were surrendered as the guilty parties, to make reparation for their people. General Johnston was greatly impressed with the magnificent physique and splendid bearing of Red Bird, and in a letter to his friend Bickley, describing the movement of troops to preserve peace on the Northwestern frontier, he says of him: ‘I must confess that I consider Red Bird one of the noblest and most dignified men I ever saw. When he gave himself up he was dressed after the manner of the sons of the Missouri, in a perfectly white hunting shirt of deer skin, and leggins and moccasins of the same, with an elegant head-dress of feathers. He held a white flag in his right hand and a beautifully ornamented pipe in the other. He said: “I have offended. I sacrifice myself to save my country.” ’

In 1828, Lieutenant Johnston was selected as Adjutant of his regiment by Brigadier General Henry Atkinson. The Colonel commanding, Colonel T. L. Alexander, who joined the regiment in 1830 says of him at this time: ‘Possessing in an extraordinary degree the confidence, esteem and admiration of the whole regiment, he was the very beau ideal of a soldier and an officer.’ Peace prevailed until [261] the breaking out of the Black Hawk war in 1832. In this war the Sixth regiment took an active part, and the careful memoranda or journal, kept daily by Lieutenant Johnston, forms the data mainly from which the history of this Indian war has been written After a series of skirmishes and engagements, the Black Hawk war was terminated by a decisive engagement at the battle of Beras, so called from a stream near by, by which the power of the British band, under Black Hawk, was broken and the band dispersed, the remnant seeking refuge beyond the Mississippi.

General Johnston was married on January 20, 1829, to Miss Henrietta Preston, the daughter and eldest child of Major William Preston, a member of the Virginia family of that name, and an officer of Wayne's army, who had resigned and settled in Louisville, Ky.

General Johnston remained at Jefferson Barracks until the breaking out of the Black Hawk war, and at its close he returned to Louisville, and thence to New Orleans for the benefit of his wife's health. While in New Orleans he took with great reluctance the step which he thought duty demanded (and he was ever governed by duty) to the loved companion of his life; and on the 24th of April, 1834, sent in his resignation of his commission as second lieutenant in the United States Army. Returning from New Orleans after his resignation from the army, he devoted himself to the care of his invalid wife, making with her the tour of the Virginia Springs, thence to Baltimore and Philadelphia, consulting the highest medical skill with the hope to save the life of the noble woman who had been to him the light of his life and the joy of his household; but all his love and care was in vain. She died on the 12th of August, 1835, at the house of Mrs. Hancock, the daughter of Dr. Davidson In a letter written in after years by this good lady to his son and biographer, among other interesting incidents and characteristics, she narrates one incident which gives the keynote to the life and character of General Johnston. She says of him: ‘In the smallest as in the greatest affairs of his life, he took time to deliberate before acting. I was struck with an observation of his (which goes to prove this) when I remarked that he took a long while to write a letter; he said, “yes;” “I do, for I never put on paper what I am not willing to answer for with my life.” ’ After the death of his wife, Mr. Johnston remained quietly on his farm, interrupted by an occasional visit to his family connections in Louisville, Ky., until the breaking out of the Texas revolution. When by joint resolution the Congress of the United States acknowledged the independence of Texas, he offered his heart [262] and his sword to her cause. A brief description of his personnel at this period of life, taken from his faithful and loving biographer, may not be uninteresting. He pictures him ‘with brown hair clustering 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. With those eyes upon him any man would have scrupled to tell a lie. In repose his eyes were as blue as the sky, but in excitement they flashed to a steel gray and exerted a wonderful power over men. He was six feet and an inch in height, weighed 180 pounds, straight as an arrow, with broad, square shoulders and a massive chest. He was strong and active, but his endurance and vital power seemed the result rather of nervous than of muscular energy, and drew their exhaustless resources from the mind rather than the body. His bearing was essentially military and dignified rather than graceful, and his movements were prompt, but easy and firm. He was, indeed, in appearance a model for the soldier.’

Leaving Louisville, Mr. Johnston proceeded to New Orleans and thence to Alexandria, La. After tarrying a few days with his brother, Judge Johnston, who resided at Alexandria, he proceeded, on horseback, in company with Leonard Gives and brother, and Major Bynum, of Rapides, La., to the camp of the defenders. Here he found an army of men composed of every character, without discipline or order, and whom Santa Anna had characterized as the ‘Tumultuario’ of the Mississippi Valley. When Mr. Johnston reached the Texan army, then under the command of General Thomas J. Rusk, though he bore letters of introduction from his old commander, General Atkinson of the Fifth infantry, and other distinguished persons in the States, he, with his instinctive dread of being an ‘office seeker,’ quietly volunteered in the little squadron of horse, from seventy to a hundred strong. General Rusk's attention was drawn to him, says Mr. Davis, “by his bearing as a soldier and the way he sat his horse;” and calling on him, after a brief interview, tendered him the position of Adjutant of the army. On the same day (fifth of August) on which General Rusk appointed him Adjutant of the army, with the rank of Colonel, President Burnett appointed him a Colonel in the regular army, and assigned him to the post of Adjutant-General of the republic. President Sam Houston about the same time sent him a commission as aid-de-camp, with the rank of Major. He at once entered on the-task of organizing and disciplining the army. This was partially accomplished, when, on the 17th of September, 1836, he was summoned by the Hon. John [263] A. Wharton, then Secretary of War, to the capital, to discharge the duties of his office there. Proceeding to New Orleans, in the interest of the Texan government, he was notified by President Sam Houston that he was placed in nomination as Brigadier-General of the army, and he proceeded to Texas and took command of her army.

When General Johnston assumed command of the army, a hostile meeting was forced upon him by his second in command, General Felix Houston, who claimed that he had been unjustly and unfairly overslaughed by his appointment as General in command. General Johnston was seriously (and it was at first thought mortally) wounded at the fifth fire. Though suffering great physical pain, he continued in command of the army, effecting the organization of the army and its thorough discipline, until worn down with fatigue and suffering he was warned by his physicians that rest alone could restore him to his accustomed vigorous health, and on the seventh of May he turned over the command of the army to Colonel Rogers. General Johnston repaired to New Orleans, and consulting eminent physicians, who insisted on absolute rest as the only remedy; and on the 27th of June he wrote to the Secretary of War tendering his resignation, which was declined. In December, his health having sufficiently improved, he returned to Texas. In 1838 Mirabeau B. Lamar was elected President, and David G. Burnet Vice President, and on the 22d of December, after their installation, General Johnston was appointed Secretary of War, a position which he filed with distinguished ability until 1840, when he resigned. After his resignation he repaired to his plantation in Brazoria county, Texas, and was made happy by the admission of Texas, in 1845, to a place as one of the independent and sovereign States of the American Union.

On the admission of Texas into the Union, General Z. Taylor was ordered to the Rio Grande to protect our western frontier from the threatened invasion of the Mexicans. The Mexicans began the contest by an attack on Fort Brown, where Major Brown was killed. But the fort held out until succor came. On May 8th the forces under General Taylor, returning from Point Isabel, encountered the Mexicans, led by General Ampudia, on the plain of Palo Alto and defeated them, with a loss of nine killed and forty-four wounded men. The loss of the Mexicans, 600 men. On the next day, the 9th, was fought the battle of Resaca de la Palma, when 6,000 Mexicans were defeated with a loss of 1,000 men. American loss, 110. Under the call for volunteers, General Johnston was made, by election, Colonel commanding the First Regiment of Texans, and repaired at once on [264] horseback, there being no other mode of conveyance, and arrived at Point Isabel too late to participate in the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma. General Johnston had taken great pride and pleasure in the drill and discipline of his regiment, and General Taylor gave him the advance position in the march on Monterey. General Johnston was destined to see his hard labor of months thrown away, for on leaving it to a vote as to whether they would reenlist, a majority decided against reenlistment. This disbandment was under the construction of the War Department. General Taylor, after the disbandment of General Johnston's regiment, appointed him inspector general of the field division of volunteers, under Major General Butler, which he accepted, desirous as he was to participate in the campaign then opening. General Johnston in describing the attack made by Generals Worth and Twiggs, and the gallant charge made by the Tennesseeans and Mississippians, proceeds to speak of that portion of the field occupied by the Ohio regiment under Colonel Mitchell. He says: ‘Colonel Mitchell's Ohio regiment entered the town more to the right, and attacked the works with great courage and spirit. But here was concentrated the fire of all the enemy's works. From this point, or a little in the rear, the regulars had been forced back, with great loss of officers and men. Having been ordered to retire the Ohio regiment did so in tolerably good order. As it debouched from the streets of the city, believing that it was routed, the Lancers of the enemy charged the Ohio regiment; but it had none of the vim of an American charge, and was easily repulsed with some loss to them.’ This was a letter written to his son and biographer, but not even here, in the intimacy of his correspondence with one so near and close to him, does he say one word of his own share in this memorable part of the battle, in reforming the Ohio regiment in the cornfield, and sheltering it in good order behind the wall of the chaparal (like a stone fence), and gallantly and successfully repelling the charge of the Lancers. It was left for one afterward his foe and opponent on a wider arena of battle to do justice to his coolness and bravery, and the testimony is all the movie grateful because it is the tribute of one great and large-hearted soldier to another. General (then Captain) Joe Hooker, afterward distinguished as the fighting general of the Federal army in the civil war, thus describes the action of General Johnston, and his coolness and power of control in arresting the rapid withdrawal of the Ohio regiment across the cornfield, in full range of the enemy's guns, and reforming it under the chapparal [265] wall and successfully repulsing the charge of the Mexican Lancers. In a letter addressed to his son, since the close of the civil war, General Hooker says: ‘It was all the work of a few moments, but was long enough to satisfy me of the character of your father. It was through his agency mainly that our division was saved from a cruel slaughter, and the effect on the part of the army serving on that side of the town would have been almost, if not quite, irreparable. The coolness and magnificent presence your father displayed on the field, brief as it was, left an impression on my mind that I have never forgotten. They prepared me for the stirring accounts related by his companions on the Utah campaign, and for his almost god-like deeds on the field on which he fell, at Shiloh.’ Thus without a command, his cool, clear head and brave heart and single arm, ever seeking the post of danger and the point of duty, did more perhaps than any other one single man to secure the triumph of the American arms. During the assault General Johnston was attached to Hamer's brigade of Butler's division. Remaining with Colonel Mitchell's First Ohio regiment, he was near that officer when he fell wounded in the streets of Monterey. General Butler was wounded at the same point. General Johnston's horse was thrice wounded; but, though he was a conspicuous mark for the enemy's sharp shooters, he would not dismount, when all the officers around him were dismounted or disabled. Generals Taylor and Butler passed the highest encomiums on the efficiency and gallantry of General Johnston at the battle of Monterey and on the march, and united in recommending him for the position of Brigadier-General. Such appointment was not made, and General Johnston retired to his farm in Brazoria county, Texas. When General Taylor was elected President of the United States, he appointed General Johnston, in December, 1849, pay-master in the army of the United States, with the rank of Colonel. Although he would have preferred an appointment in the line, he did not decline, as it was in the line of his profession, and for which he had been educated. He was assigned to duty in the Department of Texas and the West.

One who knew him well while in command of the Department of Texas, as Colonel of cavalry, says of him, and of his future great Commander, then occupying the place of second in rank: ‘In the course of an eventful life and extensive travel, I have come in contact with many of the historic personages of the day; and yet, I scruple not to say, that of them all, but three, to my thinking, would stand the test of the most rigid scrutiny. Of these, by a singular coincidence [266] the Colonel and Lieutenant-Colonel of a cavalry regiment in the United States army—afterward respectively the ranking officers of a hostile army—Albert Sidney Johnston and Robert E. Lee were two. The third was Mr. Calhoun. No time-serving or self-seeking entered into their calculations. Self-abnegation, at the bidding of duty, was the rule of their lives. Could our much-maligned section lay no further claim to the consideration of mankind, the fact that it produced, almost in the same generation, such a triumvirate, typical of their people, is enough to place it among the foremost nations of the earth in the realm of thought, patriotism and knightly grace.’

By the treaty of 1848 the Territory of Utah was ceded to the United States. Some of the Federal judges sent to the Territory were murdered, and others were driven from the Territory. General Johnston was put in command of the troops sent to restore order in the Territory. He arrived at Fort Leavenworth on the 11th of September, and by the 17th of the same month was on the road to Salt Lake City, his command acting as an escort to the civil officers sent to said Territory. His march was through ice and snow; the severity of the climate was such that nearly all his animals perished. But he proceeded on through every obstacle, and marching on foot at the head of his troops, by firmness and a proper display of his force, he restored peace and order to the Territory. This was his last military duty until the breaking out of the civil war, which found him in command in California. When Texas, his adopted State, cast her fortunes with the Confederacy, General Johnston resigned his command intact and with good faith to the government he served, and set out on horseback to Richmond, Va., and offered his services to the Confederacy. General Johnston's services were eagerly accepted by President Davis, his companion in his academic career and his comrade in arms, who knew his full worth. He was made a Brigadier-General by order bearing date September 10, 1861, and assigned to Department No. 2, embracing the States of Tennessee and Arkansas, and that part of Mississippi west of the New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern and Central Railroads; also the military operations in Kentucky, Kansas and the Indian Territory—a command imperiel in its extent and with unlimited military discretion. His biographer well remarks: ‘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.’

General Johnston arrived at Nashville on September 14, 1861, and, acting with his accustomed promptitude of action, notified the President [267] by letter on the 16th of the same month: ‘I design, to-morrow, to take possession of Bowling Green with 5,000 troops.’ These troops were under command of General S. B. Buckner, who had at his instance been made Brigadier-General. General Zollikoffer was ordered with 4,000 troops to advance and take up his position at the Cumberland Gap. General Leonidas Pork was already in command of the left wing of the army at Columbus, Ky. General Johnston made his headquarters at Bowling Green, the centre of his extended command, stretching from Cumberland Gap along the Barren river, to the Mississippi, on the left.

General Johnston had an available force to defend this entire line of only about 19,000 men. There was opposed to him, under the ablest leaders of the Union, General Anderson, his early friend at West Point; General Grant, who had seized Paducah, Ky.; General W. T. Sherman, General Thomas and General Wm. Nelson, aggregating a force of 34,000 volunteers.

General Johnston, by exaggerating his force and a skillful disposition of it, held against fearful odds this extended line for months, until the fall of Forts Donelson and Henry necessitated the removal of his army further south to protect the valley of the Mississippi. Bowling Green had to be evacuated and Nashville left unprotected— Nashville and the State of Tennessee. It was at this time that General Johnston was subjected to that which wounded his sensitive nature to the quick. The public, uninformed as to his real force, thinking it as large as he had been glad to impress the enemy it was, ignorant of the fearful want of arms an ammunition, they blamed him for leaving Nashville and Tennessee unguarded, and the Confederate delegation in Congress, save one man, marched in a body to the President, led by Gustavus A. Henry, and demanded his removal, and that a General should be appointed to defend their homes and firesides. Mr. Davis listened to the appeal with downcast eyes and saddened heart, knowing well the worth and soldierly qualities of him of whom they spoke. He raised his eyes and replied to them: ‘If Albert Sidney Johnston is not a General, the Confederacy has none to give you.’ By forced marches, his number diminished by disease, he effected a juncture with General Beauregard at Corinth, Miss., and on the 6th day of April, 1862, twenty-one years ago, fought the last and greatest battle of his life, and laid down that life for the cause to which he had given his heart and his sword. I will not attempt to go into the details of this great battle. General Beauregard says, in his report: ‘The remnant of the enemy's army [268] had been driven into utter disorder to the immediate vicinity of Pittsburg Landing, under the heavy guns of the iron-clad gunboats. Like an Alpine avalanche, our troops moved forward, despite the determined resistance of the enemy, and at 6 P. M. we were in possession of all his encampments between Owl and Lick Creeks but one, nearly all of his field artillery, thirty flags, colors and standards, over three thousand prisoners, including a division commander (General Prentiss), several brigade commanders, thousands of small arms, an immense supply of subsistance, forage and munitions of war—all the substantial fruits of a complete victory.’ The last great charge was finally made. Says his biographer: ‘General Johnston had passed through the ordeal seemingly unhurt. His noble horse was shot in four places. His clothes were pierced by missiles. His boot soles were cut and torn by a minnie ball. At this moment Governor Harris (of Tennessee, now United States Senator) rode up elated with his own success, and the vindication of his Tennesseeans. In the meantime the retreating Federal soldiers kept up a fierce discharge of firearms, and delivered volley after volley as they retreated on their last line, and to the shelter of the gunboats. By the chance of war, a minnie ball from one of these did the work. As General Johnston sat there on horseback, knowing that he had crushed in the arch which had so long resisted the pressure of his forces, and waiting until they could collect sufficiently to give the final stroke, he received a mortal wound. It came flying in a moment of victory and triumph from a foe. It smote him at the very instant he felt the full conviction that the day was won.’

Thus fell Albert Sidney Johnston. The records of war show no more knightly warrior. He combined science, skill, daring coolness, resolution, experience and all other characteristics and elements which go to make up a great leader. It was said of him by his great civic chieftain, when he saw him on the field of Monterey: ‘In combat he had the most inspiring presence I ever saw.’ Well may his great leader and captain, who led the Confederates as military chieftain, have said: ‘When Albert Sidney Johnston fell at Shiloh the right arm of the Confederacy perished.’ I will not close this brief eulogy of the life and character of Albert Sidney Johnston, which it is temerity to attempt to embody in an address of ordinary length, without putting on record the eloquent and touching tribute paid to his memory by my friend, General Wharton J. Green, of North Carolina—himself a distinguished officer in the Confederate service and Congressman-elect from the Fayetteville District of North Carolina: [269]

Portray him as he was—great, single minded and simple. He was the devotee of duty, but softened its asperities to others. His was a character with but few counterparts in ancient or modern story.

Talleyrand's saying, “No man is a hero to his valet,” is true in the main. Johnston would have been a hero to his very shadow. Those who knew him best admired him most. His peerless, blameless life was long enough for glory, and but one brief day too short for liberty. One hour more for him in the saddle, and the Confederate States would (in all probability) have taken their place at the council board of the nations of the earth.

You, gentlemen, have determined that the equestrian statue of Albert Sidney Johnston shall surmount and ornament the tomb erected to the Confederate dead. You thus transmit his image to coming generations as he loved best to be in life—a warrior who sat his noble steed so firmly, and yet so gracefully, as to make it part and parcel of himself. With his death this brief and imperfect eulogy of a typical Confederate soldier and officer ends, and laying manuscript aside, I turn to pay brief but heartfelt homage to the boys who wore the ragged gray jacket of the Confederacy, and whose steadfast and stubborn bravery forged the epaulettes that graced the shoulders and marked the rank of their great leaders.