[iv.]
* * * I know you will regret to hear that Captain G. B. Johnston,1 my truly good and noble friend, is dead.
I can't help sympathizing with his bereaved and lovely wife, who almost idolized him. It is some comfort to know that he has gone to heaven and is at rest.
He was aware for months that he had not long to live; used to speak of his fast-approaching death with perfect composure, and wonder if in meeting friends in heaven he would be allowed to experience the same strong feelings of attachment for them that he had always done on earth.
He was indeed a ‘shining mark’—young, pious, noble, intellectual, full of promise, and universally beloved.
Captain E. J. Hale, Jr., who succeeds Captain Johnston as my adjutant-general, is handsome, intellectual, and well educated, is a good officer, and possesses many fine traits of character.
He is a married man, the only married one, by the way, on my staff. * *
