Originally aired on March 27, 1998 - In part 187 of our Civil War series, Virginia Tech history professor James Robertson profiles the career of the controversial General Joseph E. Johnston.
#187 – General Joseph E. Johnston
Anytime a group of Civil War historians gets together debate will eventually begin over General Joseph E. Johnston. The Virginian was controversial during the Civil War and the arguments have only intensified in the years thereafter. A subordinate once asserted that Johnston was popularly regarded as a “gamecock”, ready for battle at any moment. Well how Johnston looked and how he acted were two entirely different things. He became an apostle of strategic withdrawals some called it. To others it was blatant retreat.
The future general was born in Farmville in 1807 and was a classmate with Robert E. Lee at West Point. Johnston served with distinction in the Seminole War. He was wounded five times in the Mexican War which more than gave his a hero’s stamp. When Civil War came in 1861, Johnston was Quartermaster General of the Army. That made him the highest ranking officer to enter Confederate service.
He was a key figure in the opening battle at Manassas. In late summer he was one of eight officers appointed by President Jefferson Davis to the rank of full general. Yet because Johnston’s name was fourth on the list rather than first he began a bitter feud with Davis that lasted to the grave. Johnston, autocratic and petulant, would not abide any intrusion or slight where his presumed authority was concerned.
In the spring of 1862, at the head of the Army of Northern Virginia, Johnston retired all the way up the Virginia peninsula as General George McClellan’s Federal Army moved on Richmond. Johnston and his pre-war friend, McClellan, were cut from the same mold. Each officer was loved by his men and distrusted by his government because of a reluctance to do battle.
Johnston reached a point only nine miles from the capital when he launched a weak attack at Southern Pines. He was seriously wounded in the action. Upon his return to duty months later Johnston was sent to the western theatre. He did little to stop the investment and capture of Vicksburg, although the fault was not entirely his. In November, 1863, he took command of the Army of Tennessee. Soldiers called him “Uncle Joe”, and admired his caution when battle seemed imminent.
He had the appearance of a general. A staff officer described Johnston as, “rather under sized but the most soldierly looking man in the army”. He was a dashing horseman with a rather stern but handsome face. That ruddy face decorated with gray side whiskers, moustache and goatee made Johnston easily recognizable.
With the opening of the 1864 campaigns Johnston reverted to form. He retreated ninety miles from Chattanooga to the earthworks in Atlanta while General William Sherman moved steadily on the Georgia commercial center. An angry President Davis removed Johnston from command on the eve of the battles for Atlanta. The general saw no further duty until he resumed command of the Army of Tennessee two months before surrendering it to Sherman at Bennett’s Station, North Carolina.
Johnston’s post-war career included a time in the Congress and an appointment by President Grover Cleveland as U. S. Commissioner of Railroads. Then a friendship developed between Johnston and his former nemesis, Sherman. When the Union General died in February, 1891, the aged Johnston struggled to New York for the funeral. Johnston stood bare-headed in a sleet storm as the coffin passed. Six weeks later Joe Johnston died. He succumbed to pneumonia which probably began when he became wet and chilled while saying goodbye to an old friend. What a strange, but moving conclusion to a civil war.