General Albert S. Johnston (CSA)

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171205 Albert S Johnston.jpg


General Albert Sidney Johnston (CSA)

[Brevet Brigadier General USA in PHOTO)


Albert Sidney Johnston was born 2 February 1803 in Washington, Kentucky. He met Jefferson Davis at Transylvania University in Lexington. Both would be appointed to the United States Military Academy, and Johnston graduated in 1826, eighth of 41 cadets and was commissioned a brevet second lieutenant in the 2nd U.S. Infantry. He served at posts in New York and Missouri and served as chief of staff to Bvt. Brig. Gen. Henry Atkinson during the Black Hawk War in 1832.

Johnston resigned his U.S. Army commission in 1834 to care for his dying wife. In 1836, he moved to Texas and enlisted as a private in the Texian Army during the Texas War of Independence against the Republic of Mexico. On 5 August 1836, he was named Adjutant General in the Republic of Texas Army and on 31 January 1837 became senior brigadier general in command of the army. A few days later, he fought a duel with Brig. Gen. Felix Huston for command of the army. He refused to fire on Huston, but Huston shot Johnston in the pelvis and ascended to leadership of the Texian Army. On 22 December 1838, Texan President Mirabeau B. Lamar appointed Johnston Secretary of War. In February 1840, he resigned and returned to Kentucky.

During the Mexican-American War, Johnston was colonel of the 1st Texas Rifle Volunteers. His men’s enlistments expired just before the Battle of Monterrey, but Johnston convinced a few to stay and fight as he served as inspector general of volunteers.

President Zachary Taylor appointed Johnston to the U.S. Army as a major and paymaster in December 1849. He served in that role for more than five years, making six tours, and travelling more than 4,000 miles annually on the Indian frontier of Texas. In 1855, President Franklin Pierce appointed him colonel of the new 2nd U.S. Cavalry. On 19 August 1856, General Persifor Smith, at the request of Kansas Territorial Governor Wilson Shannon, sent Col. Johnston with 1300 men to protect the territorial capital at Lecompton from an imminent attack by James Henry Lane and his abolitionist “Army of the North”.

During the Utah War, Johnston led troops who established a non-Mormon government in the formerly Mormon territory. He received a brevet promotion to brigadier general in 1857. On 21 December 1860, he sailed for California to take command of the Department of the Pacific.

Johnston was opposed to secession like many regular army officers from the South bur resigned his commission soon after he heard of the secession of his adopted state of Texas. He moved to Los Angeles and considered staying California with his second wife and five children. However, Union officials grew suspicious and he evaded arrest to join the Los Angeles Mounted Rifles as a private. They trekked across the southwest reaching the Confederate Territory of Arizona on 4 July 1861.

Maj. Gen. Leonidas Polk and Brig. Gen. Gideon J. Pillow occupied Columbus, Kentucky on 3 September 1861, driving Kentucky from neutrality in the Union camp. Johnston arrived in Richmond two days later and was quickly assigned to command the Confederacy’s Western Department. Johnston was appointed a full general ranking second to only Adjutant and Inspector General Samuel Cooper.

Johnston had fewer than 40,000 men spread throughout Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Missouri. 10,000 of these were under Missouri State Guard Maj. Gen. Sterling Price. He lacked sufficient arms and ammunition for the troops he had and struggled to gain more recruits. He maintained his defense by conducting raids and other measures to make it appear he had larger forces than he did. He actions confused Brig. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman in Kentucky making him paranoid and mentally unstable, Brig. Gen. Don Carlos Buell replaced him on 9 November.

Johnston ordered Brig. Gen. Felix Zollicoffer with 4,000 men to occupy Cumberland Gap in Kentucky to block Union troops from coming into eastern Tennessee. Brig. Gen. Simon B. Buckner with another 4,000 men blocked the railroad route to Tennessee at Bowling Green, Kentucky. However, at the Battle of Mill Springs on 19 January 1862, the ill-prepared Confederates under Zollicoffer and Brig. Gen. George B. Crittenden attacked Union forces under Brig. Gen. George H. Thomas. Zollicoffer was killed and a possibly drunk Crittenden was unable to rally the Confederates and they were routed by bayonet charge.

Following the defeat, President Jefferson Davis sent Johnston a brigade under the incompetent Brig. Gen. John B. Floyd and a few other scattered reinforcements. He also assigned him Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard to attract recruits because of his early war victories and to act as a competent subordinate for Johnston. Floyd took command at Fort Donelson just before Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant attacked. The assignment of Beauregard may have stimulated western Union commanders to attack the forts before he could make a difference in the theater.

Johnston ordered Forts Henry and Donelson to be strengthened and preferred Alexander P. Stewart to command the forts, but Brig. Gen. Lloyd Tilghman was appointed. Insubordination by Leonidas Polk had left the forts woefully under fortified. On 14 January 1862, Johnston order Tilghman to fortify the high ground opposite Fort Henry, but just like Polk, Tilghman failed to act decisively.

On 6 February, Union gunboats reduced Fort Henry and Tilghman surrender his 3,000-man force. Johnston realized he would be trapped at Bowling Green if Fort Donelson fell, so he moved his force to Nashville, Tennessee. Curiously, he reinforced Fort Donelson with 12,000 more men despite believing Union gunboats alone might take the fort. However, he did order Pillow and Floyd to evacuate if the fort could not be held. They squandered the opportunity and fled the fort along with Col. Nathan Bedford Forrest’s cavalry force of 700 men. Buckner surrendered the fort to Grant along with 12,000 to 14,000 men. Johnston pulled out of Nashville two days before Buell captured it on 25 February.

With Beauregard, Johnston concentrated his forces at the railroad crossroads of Corinth, Mississippi. He kept the Union forces under Maj. Gen. Henry Halleck confused and hesitant to move. Davis was also able to send reinforcements from coastal city garrisons and another highly rater but prickly general, Braxton Bragg, to help organize the western forces. Johnston took overall command of the 40,000 – 45,000 men at Corinth under the name Army of the Mississippi.

Johnston began to move his army against Grant at Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee on 3 April, hoping to defeat him before Buell could unite with him from Nashville. However, Beauregard felt the element of surprise was lost after many delays and contacts with the enemy and recommended calling off the attack. By the evening of 5 April, Johnston’s forces were in position.

On the morning of 6 April, Johnston launched a massive surprise attack on Grant’s encamped forces. He seemed to be everywhere, personally leading and rallying troops up and down the line on horse. At about 2:30 pm, near the Peach Orchard, he was hit behind his right knee. Johnston either did not seem concerned by the wound or did not even feel it, possibly due to nerve damage sustained in his 1837 duel, but the wound was serious. The bullet clipped a part of his popliteal artery and his boot was filling with blood. His personal surgeon was caring for wound Confederates and Yankee prisoners.

His staff observed him to be nearly fainting. Governor Isham G. Harris of Tennessee, serving on Johnston’s staff, asked, “General, are you wounded?” Johnston glanced at his leg wound and replied with his last words, “Yes…and I fear seriously.” He soon lost consciousness and was laid in a ravine near the “Hornets Nest”. His staff failed to apply a tourniquet while fetching his surgeon, and Johnston died of blood loss minutes later. He was likely struck by friendly fire as no Union troops were observed to have ever gotten behind Johnston and the bullet in his leg was identified as a round from an 1853 Enfield which was standard issue for the Confederates Johnston was leading. He was the highest-ranking fatality of the war on either side, and his death was a strong blow to the morale of the Confederacy.

171205 Albert S Johnston comparison.jpg
 
I have always liked A.S. Johnston, he is a fascinating character. Many people laid great hope upon him, but in the end he ended up being one of the great what ifs of the Civil War. Thank you @ColorizedPast for the great work in resurrecting this image of A.S. Johnston.
 
I'll add that the one at top, since it shows him as a U. S. brigadier general likely dates from around the time of the Mormon Expedition of 1857-58, or possibly just a little later when he was in command of the Pacific coast up until his resignation in 1861 to join the Confederacy. The one I posted was possibly made between this period and the earlier Mexican War, 1846-48 during a period when Johnston was temporarily out of military service, since he's in civilian dress.
 
Have visited his birth house in Washington. Ky. several times. They have several photos of him. Will have to go back and check them out again.

My UDC Chapter went there as we are named for him. We toured the home and town. It is a quaint little Ky. town. They always have something at Christmas. Been to that event twice. Have to check for this year.
 
Here's an unattractive newspaper woodcut of him, probably from Harper's or Leslies' ca. 1861 that may have been "inspired" by the photo, though the uniform is more appropriate for a colonel, which he was as commander of the 2nd U. S. Cavalry prior to the Mormon Expedition:

albert-sydney_Picture3.jpg
 
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