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Major-General Bushrod R. Johnson, a distinguished Confederate officer and citizen of
Tennessee, was born in
Ohio in 1817.
He was a cadet at the United States military academy from 1836 to 1840, when he was appointed second lieutenant in the Third infantry.
He served in the
Florida war, and was on frontier duty at
Fort Leavenworth, Kan., when he was promoted to first lieutenant, February, 1844.
He participated in the
Mexican war, and was engaged in the battles of
Palo Alto,
Resaca de la Palma and
Monterey, and the siege of
Vera Cruz.
After the fall of that city he remained there on commissary duty until October.
In that month he resigned and returned to the
United States.
He was professor in the
Western military institute of
Kentucky from 1848 to 1851, when he became its superintendent.
Four years later he became superintendent of the military college of the university of Nashville, Tenn., which place he held at the outbreak of the
Confederate war. He was also at that time colonel of
Tennessee militia.
During his stay in
Kentucky he had been lieutenant-colonel of militia.
He was appointed colonel of engineers in the provisional army of
Tennessee, June 28, 1861, and when the
Tennessee troops were turned over to the
Confederate States, he was assigned to the army acting in
Tennessee and
Kentucky under the command of
Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston.
He commanded with great ability a brigade at
Fort Donelson, having been commissioned brigadier-general January 24, 1862.
Though captured on the fall of that important post, he was exchanged in time to bear a conspicuous part in the
battle of Shiloh, where he was severely wounded April 6, 1862.
On his recovery he went into the
Kentucky campaign, and at the
battle of Perryville, his and
Cleburne's brigades, charging together, captured three batteries and many prisoners.
General Johnson also led his brigade in
Hardee's brilliant and successful charge in the
battle of Murfreesboro.
At
Chickamauga, in the second day's battle, he was the first to detect and