396 



JOHNSTON, JOSEPH EGGLESTON. 



He had charge of the improvement of Black 

 river, N. Y., in 1838-'39, of the Sault Ste. Marie 

 in 1840, of the boundary survey between the 

 United States and Texas in 1841, of the harbors 

 on Lake Erie the same year, and of the Topo- 

 graphical Bureau at Washington in 1842. He 

 served again in Florida in 1842-'43, and the 

 next year assisted in surveying the boundary line 

 between the United States and the British prov- 

 inces. He was engaged in the coast survey in 

 1844-'46, and in the latter year was promoted to 

 captain in the engineer corps. 



During the Mexican War he served with the 

 army of Gen. Scott, being in action at Vera 

 Cruz, Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Churubusco, Mo- 

 lino del Key, Chapultepec, and the City of Mexi- 

 co. He was wounded at Cerro Gordo, and again 

 at Chapultepec, where he was the first to plant 

 a regimental color on the citadel. For his gal- 

 lant services in these actions he was brevetted 

 colonel, April 12, 1847. He was mustered out 

 as lieutenant-colonel of volunteers Aug. 28, 1848, 

 but was reinstated by act of Congress as captain 

 of engineers. He was chief of topographical 

 engineers in the Department of Texas in 1848-'53, 

 and was in charge of the Western river improve- 

 ments in 1853-'55. From that date till 1860 he 

 was a part of the time on garrison duty, part 

 in active service in Kansas (during the strug- 



le there between Free-State men and Slave- 

 tate men), part on special duty at Washington, 

 and part with the Utah expedition as acting in- 

 spector-general. He was made lieutenant-col- 

 onel of the First Cavalry in March, 1855, and on 

 June 28, 1860. was promoted to brigadier-general 

 and made quartermaster-general of the army, 

 with headquarters at Washington. On April 

 22, 1861, he resigned this commission and re- 

 turned to Virginia. He was the highest in rank 

 in the United States army of all the officers who 

 left it to take service in the Confederacy. 



He was immediately commissioned major-gen- 

 eral of Virginia volunteers, and engaged in or- 

 ganizing the troops that were pouring into Rich- 

 mond. Two weeks later he was called to Mont- 

 gomery, Ala., and made a brigadier-general in 

 the army of the Confederate States, and assigned 

 to the command of Harper's Ferry. Here he 

 had about 7,000 men, But he protested against 

 the policy of keeping a force at Harper's Ferry, 

 a place that has no strategic importance, and 

 in June he was authorized to abandon it and 

 move toward Winchester. On the 16th of May 

 the Confederate Congress had passed a bill 

 creating the rank of full general and providing 

 for five appointees. An earlier act of that Con- 

 gress had provided that " in all cases of officers 

 who have resigned, or who may within six 

 months tender their resignations, from the army 

 of the United States, and who have been or 

 may be appointed to original vacancies in the 

 army of the Confederate States, the commis- 

 sions issued shall bear one and the same date, 

 so that the relative rank of officers of each 

 grade shall be determined by their former com- 

 missions in the United States army." In Au- 

 gust, when Mr. Davis made the appointments 

 under this law, instead of giving the first rank 

 to Gen. Joseph E. Johnston (who had been a 

 brigadier-general in the United States army), he 

 gave it to Samuel Cooper (who had been a col- 



onel), the second to Albert Sidney Johnston 

 (who had been a colonel), the third to Robert E. 

 Lee (who had been a lieutenant-colonel), the 

 fourth to Joseph E. Johnston, and the fifth to 

 G. T. Beauregard (who had been a captain). J. 

 E. Johnston's commission was made to date 

 from July 4. Gen. Johnston says in his " Nar- 

 rative" : " Information of these nominations and 

 their confirmation came to me at the same time. 

 On receiving it, I wrote to the President [Jeffer- 

 son Davis] such a statement as the preceding, 

 and also expressed my sense of the wrong done 

 me. But, in order that sense of injury might 

 not betray me into the use of language improper 

 from an officer to the President, I laid aside the 

 letter for two days, and then examined it dis- 

 passionately, I believe, and was confident that 

 what it contained was not improper to be said by 

 a soldier to the President, nor improperly said. 

 The letter was therefore dispatched. It is said 

 that it irritated him greatly, and that his irrita- 

 tion was freely expressed. The animosity against 

 me that he is known to have entertained ever 

 since was attributed by my acquaintances in 

 public life in Richmond to this letter." 



Gen. Johnston's force in the Shenandoah valley 

 was opposed by a National force under Gen, 

 Robert Patterson, and when in J uly Gen. McDow- 

 ell was sent forward with an army to attack the 

 Confederate army commanded by Gen. Beaure- 

 gard at Manassas, Patterson was relied upon to 

 prevent Johnston from going to the help of 

 Beauregard. But Johnston, masking his move- 

 ment by means of cavalry, went with a large 

 part of his force by rail to the help of Beaure- 

 gard, and arrived with part of his men while 

 the battle of Bull Run (July 21, 1861) was in 

 progress. He left Beauregard in command of 

 the troops engaged, while he assumed command 

 of the whole field and hurried forward the re-en- 

 forcements. These came just in time to turn the 

 scale of the contest. The National army, after 

 an obstinate battle, was defeated, a large part of 

 it becoming demoralized, and streamed back in 

 confusion toward Washington. Gen. Johnston 

 says : " If the tactics of the Federals had been 

 equal to their strategy we should have been 

 beaten. If, instead of being brought into action 

 in detail, their troops had been formed in two 

 lines with a proper reserve, and had assailed Bee 

 and Jackson in that order, the two Southern 

 brigades must have been swept from the field in 

 a few minutes, or enveloped. Gen. McDowell 

 would have made such a formation, probably, had 

 he not greatly underestimated the strength of 

 his enemy." Gen. Johnston was severely criti- 

 cised at the South for not closely following the 

 defeated army, and capturing the city of Wash- 

 ing. On this point he says : 



If the tone of the press indicated public opinion and 

 feeling in the South, my failure to capture Washing- 

 ton received strong and general condemnation. Mam 

 , erroneously attributed it to the President's prohibi- 

 tion [Mr. Davis reached the field near the close of the 

 battle] ; but he gave no orders, and expressed neither 

 wish nor opinion on the subject, that ever came t<> 

 my knowledge. Considering the relative strength of 

 the belligerents on the field, the Southern people eul<l 

 not reasonably have expected greater results t'nun 

 their victory than those accomplished: the defeat <>f 

 the invasion of Virginia, and the preservation nt the 

 capital of the Confederacy. All the military condi- 



