Joseph
Eggleston Johnston was born in Farmville, Virginia, Westernville,
on 3rd February, 1807. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy
at West Point in 1829, standing 13th
in his class of 46. He served in the 4th Artillery and as first lieutenant
in the Topographical Engineers, saw action in the Seminole
War and the Mexican War.
On the outbreak of the American Civil War
Johnston resigned from the US Army and on 14th May, 1861, was commissioned
as brigadier general in the Confederate Army.
Initially stationed at Harper's Ferry, he then brought his troops
forward in July to take part in the first battle at Bull
Run against the Union Army led by
Irvin McDowell. His support of Pierre
T. Beauregard played an important role in this Confederate victory.
As a result of this action Johnston was promoted.
In January 1862 the Union Army began
to push the Confederates southward. The following month Ulysses
S. Grant took his army along the Tennessee River with a flotilla
of gunboats and captured Fort Henry. This broke the communications
of the extended Confederate line and Johnston decided to withdraw
his main army to Nashville. He left 15,000 men to protect Fort Donelson
on the Cumberland River but this was enough and Grant had no difficulty
taking this prize as well.
On 31st May, 1862, Johnston with some 41,800 men attacked McClellan's
slightly larger army at Fair Oaks. Johnston was wounded and General
Robert E. Lee took command.
As commander of Confederate forces along the Mississippi in 1863,
Johnston was unable to prevent the capture of Vicksburg
by General Ulysses S. Grant and the Union
Army. He warned General John Pemberton
to evacuate the city but was over-ruled by Jefferson
Davis. Johnston was also unable to stop William
Sherman taking Atlanta. Johnston
surrendered to Sherman at Durham Station on 26th April, 1865.
After the war Johnston represented Virginia in the U.S. House of Representatives
(1879-81) and was commissioner of railroads (1887-91), a post to which
he was appointed by President Grover Cleveland.
Joseph Eggleston Johnston died in Washington
on 2nd March, 1891.
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