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Joseph Eggleston Johnston (February 3, 1807
– March 21, 1891) was a career U.S. Army
officer and one of the most senior generals in the
Confederate States Army during the American Civil
War. His effectiveness was undercut by tensions
with President Jefferson Davis, but he also
suffered from a lack of aggressiveness and victory
eluded him in every campaign he personally
commanded.

Born in Farmville, Virginia|Farmville, Virginia,
Johnston attended the U.S. Military Academy,
graduating in 1829. He served eight years in the
artillery before he was transferred to the
topographical engineers in 1838, when he rejoined
the army a year after his resignation. During the
Mexican-American War he won two brevet
(military)|brevets and was wounded at both Battle
of Cerro Gordo | Cerro Gordo and Battle of
Chapultepec | Chapultepec. He had also been
brevetted for earlier service in the Seminole
Wars. He served in California and was appointed
Quartermaster General of the U.S. Army on June 28,
1860.

When his native state secession|seceded from the
Union (ACW)|Union in 1861, Johnston resigned his
commission as a brigadier general in the Regular
Army, the highest-ranking U.S. Army officer to do
so. Initially commissioned as a major general in
the Virginia militia, he relieved Thomas J.
Jackson|Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson in command
at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia | Harpers Ferry
and organized the Army of the Shenandoah.

In the First Battle of Bull Run, July, 1861,
Johnston brought forces from the Shenandoah Valley
to combine with those of P.G.T. Beauregard, but
ceded direction of the battle to the more junior
general due to a lack of familiarity with the
terrain. He did manage to claim a share of public
credit for the Southern victory, however.

In August, Johnston was promoted to full
general—what is called a four-star general
in the modern army—but was not pleased that
three other men now outranked him. He felt that
since he was the senior officer to leave the U.S.
Army and join the Confederacy he should not be
ranked behind Samuel Cooper (general)|Samuel
Cooper, Albert Sidney Johnston, and Robert E. Lee.
Only Beauregard was placed behind Johnston on the
list of five new generals. This led to much bad
blood between Johnston and Jefferson Davis, which
would last throughout the war. 

Johnston was placed in command of the Army of
Northern Virginia and led it in the start of the
1862 Peninsula Campaign. Defending the capital of
Richmond, Virginia|Richmond against General George
B. McClellan, Johnston employed a strategy of
gradual withdrawals before any general engagement,
until his army was only five miles in front of the
city, where McClellan intended to besiege it.
Finally cornered, Johnston attacked on May 31,
1862, south of the Chickahominy River, in the
Battle of Seven Pines. The battle was tactically
inconclusive, but it stopped McClellan's advance
on the city and would turn out to be the
high-water mark of his invasion. More significant,
however, was that Johnston was wounded on the
second day of the battle, and Davis turned over
command to the more aggressive General Robert E.
Lee, who would lead the Army of Northern Virginia
for the rest of the war.

After recovering from his wound, Johnston was
given command of the Department of the West, which
gave him titular control of Braxton Bragg's Army
of Tennessee and John C. Pemberton's Department of
Mississippi and East Louisiana. Pemberton faced
Ulysses S. Grant from inside the besieged city of
Vicksburg, Mississippi, and Johnston was not able
to find troops to relieve him, causing great
consternation in the South when its last
stronghold on the Mississippi River fell on July
4, 1863. Later that year, Bragg was defeated in
the Battle of Chattanooga III | Battle of
Chattanooga and Jefferson reluctantly relieved his
old friend and replaced him with Johnston.

Faced with William T. Sherman's advance from
Chattanooga, Tennessee|Chattanooga to Atlanta,
Georgia|Atlanta in the spring of 1864, Johnston
reverted to his strategy of withdrawal. He
conducted a series of actions in which he prepared
strong defensive positions, only to see Sherman
maneuver around them, causing him to fall back in
the general direction of Atlanta. Jefferson Davis
became increasingly irritated by this strategy and
removed Johnston from command on July 17, 1864,
shortly before the Battle of Peachtree Creek, just
outside of Atlanta. (His replacement, General John
Bell Hood, was overly aggressive, but ineffective,
losing Atlanta in September and a large portion of
his army in Tennessee that winter.)

As the Confederacy became increasingly concerned
about Sherman's March to the Sea across Georgia
and then north through the Carolinas, the public
clamored for Johnston's return. Davis appointed
him to a command called collectively the
Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and
Florida, and also the Department of North Carolina
and Southern Virginia. These commands
theoretically included three Confederate armies,
but they were paper tigers and Johnston could do
little to blunt Sherman's advance.

On March 19, 1865, Johnston was able to catch a
portion of Sherman's army by surprise at the
Battle of Bentonville and briefly gained some
tactical successes before superior numbers forced
him to retreat. After learning of Lee's surrender
at Appomattox Court House, Johnston surrendered
his army to Sherman at the Bennett Place near
Durham, North Carolina, two weeks later on April
26, 1865, despite orders to the contrary from
Jefferson Davis.

After the war Johnston served a term as United
States House of Representatives|Congressman from
Virginia and was a commissioner of railroads in
the administration of President of the United
States|United States President Grover Cleveland.
His analysis of his activities in the Civil War,
Narrative of Military Operations, published in
1874, was highly critical of Davis and many of his
fellow generals.

Johnston had the grace to be a pallbearer at the
funeral of General Sherman, his former opponent.
Although it was cold and raining during the
funeral, he refused to wear a hat, as a sign of
respect to Sherman. As a result, he caught
pneumonia and died on March 21, 1891. He is buried
in Greenmount Cemetery, Baltimore, Maryland.

The only known public monument to Johnston was
erected in Dalton, Georgia, in 1912.

==External links==
*http://www.civilwarhome.com/joejohnston.htm
CivilWarHome.com: Joseph Eggleston Johnston
– a brief biography.
*http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h187.html
U-S-History.com: Joseph E. Johnston – a
brief biography.

==References==
*Eicher, John H., & Eicher, David J.: Civil War
High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001,
ISBN 0-8047-3641-3

== Further Reading ==
*Gilbert E. Govan and James W. Livingwood, A
Different Valor: The Story of General Joseph E.
*Johnston C.S.A., Indianapolis, 1956
*Bradley T. Johnson, A Memoir of the Life and
Public Service of Joseph E. Johnson, Baltimore,
1891
*Joseph E. Johnson, Narritive of Military
Operations, New York, 1874