THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 ;. 
 
 

 
 GENERAL JOSEPH E. JOHNS I "N. 
 AGE 83 YEARS.
 
 A MEMOIR 
 
 OF THE 
 
 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICE 
 
 OF 
 
 JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON, 
 
 ONCE THE QUARTERMASTER GENERAL OF THE ARMY OF THE 
 UNITED STATES, 
 
 AND 
 
 A GENERAL IN THE ARMY OF THE CONFEDERATE 
 STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
 "Within the bounds of Annandale, 
 
 The gentle Johnstoncs ride ; 
 They have been there a thousand years, 
 A thousand more they'll bide." 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 BRADLEY T. JOHNSON, 
 
 FORMERLY A SOLDIER IN THE ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA. 
 
 I ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 BALTIMORE: 
 
 R. II. WOODWARD & COMPANY. 
 1891.
 
 COPYRIGHTED, 1891, 
 
 BY 
 R. H. WOODWARD & COMPANY.
 
 College 
 library 
 
 < 
 
 I DEDICATE THIS WORI: 
 
 To MY WIFE; 
 MY STAUNCH COMRADE IN EVERY FORTUNE, 
 
 AND 
 
 MY UNFALTERING ALLY IN MANY 
 VICISSITUDES. 
 
 1005681
 
 This Memoir has been prepared at the request of some old 
 friends and soldiers of Gen. Johnston, and because I wanted to 
 testify my affection for his memory and my respect for his char- 
 acter. I was with him at the beginning, and at the end of the war 
 between the States. I was the senior captain of the First Mary- 
 land Regiment, before its organization, commanding it when he 
 assumed command at Harper's Ferry, marched under him to First 
 Manassas, and became in due course, colonel of that regiment in 
 his army. 
 
 I knew him as well as a young subordinate ever does know his 
 commander-in-chief. And it so happened that I was in command 
 as a brigadier-general, at Salisbury, North Carolina, when he was 
 at Greensboro in April, 1865. I was with him during all that trying 
 time, and it was at my headquarters at Salisbury that he took 
 leave of the generals of the Army of Tennessee after the conven- 
 tion of Durham's Station. I, therefore, knew him as a soldier and 
 as a man, and I admired and loved him. Since the war my inter- 
 course with him was frequent and intimate. 
 
 This sketch, written in a light-cavalry gallop, does not pretend to 
 give detail of his campaigns or his battles ; it only seeks to give 
 a general view of military operations, that can be taken in at a 
 glance. 
 
 The particular description of the movements of troops, of the 
 hour they started, of the route they took, of the minute of their 
 arrival, is, I think, inexpressibly tedious and confusing, except to 
 the technical and professional student. I have, therefore, only 
 tried to present a picture, and a map, together with a photograph 
 of the General, as we all knew him, and as we want posterity to 
 appreciate him. 
 
 There is a general feeling among our own people, as well as in 
 the country at large, against any reminder of the sufferings of that 
 war, and against any reminiscence, which brings back painful
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 emotions. But it is right and just that our own children should 
 understand the causes of our action, and that they should justify 
 us for resisting such a civilization. 
 
 Every statement herein recorded is true, and can be substan- 
 tiated by incontestible testimony. 
 
 I have added in the appendix an original letter of Gen. Grant's, 
 as a matter of justice to him, for it was suppressed by the adminis- 
 tration of Andrew Johnson. 
 
 A comparison between the Federal Constitution of 1789, and the 
 Confederate Constitution of 1861, is appended, showing the student 
 of the evolution of institutions, what changes the Confederates 
 sought to make in the Constitution their fathers had done so much 
 to frame and to establish and to operate successfully. 
 
 BRADLEY T. JOHNSON. 
 July 75, 1891.
 
 coNTRisnrs 
 
 CHAPTER I. PAGE. 
 BEFORE THE WAR i 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES 17 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 THE ARRAY OF VIRGINIA 26 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 THE CAMPAIGN, OF 1861, IN VIRGINIA 36 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 THE BATTLE OF (FIRST) MANASSAS 46 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE FIRST VICTORY 55 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 THE LINES OF CENTREVILLE 62 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 THE ARMY OF THE SOUTHWEST 94 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 THE VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN 101 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 THE GEORGIA CAMPAIGN 112 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 THE FALL OF ATLANTA AND SHERMAN'S RAID 119 
 
 vii
 
 Vlll CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. PAGE. 
 
 THE DRAGONNADE OF SOUTH CAROLINA, AND THE SACK OF 
 
 COLUMBIA 151 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 SHERMAN AND CORNWALLIS IN NORTH CAROLINA 181 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 THE CONVENTION AT DURHAM'S 226 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 THK RECORD OF SHERMAN'S DRAGONNADE 239 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 AFTER THE SURRENDER 241 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 THE YEARS OF RECONSTRUCTION 244 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 DAVIS AND JOHNSTON 251 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 His LAST SICKNESS, DEATH AND FUNERAL 270 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 GEN. DABNEV H. MAURY'S REMINISCENCES 291 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 REMINISCENCES OF COL. ARCHER ANDERSON 307 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 THE RICHMOND MEMORIAL MEETING '. 318 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 REMINISCENCES OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON, BY A NORTH- 
 ERN SOLDIER 326 
 
 Al-i-! NDIX 330
 
 I JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 3 BRAXTON BRA(.(.. 
 
 5 J. B. HOOD. 
 
 2 KIRBY SMITH. 
 4 I. LONGSTREET.
 
 A MEMOIR 
 
 OF THE 
 
 LIKK AND PUBLIC SKRVICK 
 
 OF 
 
 JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON, 
 
 Once the Quartermaster- General of the Army of the United 
 States, and a General in the Army of the Con- 
 federate States of America. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 BEFORE THE WAR. 
 
 ON September 12, 1862, General Johnston wrote to 
 President Davis, from his headquarters at Manas- 
 sas, protesting against the relative rank as General 
 assigned him by the President. "It seeks to tarnish 
 my fair fame as a soldier and as a man, earned by more 
 than thirty years of laborious and perilous service. I 
 had but this the scars of many wounds all honestly 
 taken in my front, and in the front of battle, and my 
 father's revolutionary sword. It was delivered to me 
 from his venerable hand without a stain of dishonor. 
 Its blade is still unblemished, as when it passed from 
 his hand to mine. I drew it in the war not for rank or 
 fame, but to defend the sacred soil, the homes and
 
 2 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 hearths, and the women and children, aye, and the 
 men of my Mother Virginia, my native South. It may 
 hereafter be the sword of a general leading armies, or 
 of a private volunteer. But while I live and have an 
 arm to wield it, it shall never be sheathed until the 
 freedom, independence and full rights of the South are 
 achieved. When that is done, it may well be a matter 
 of small concern to the government, to Congress, or to 
 the country, what my rank or lot may be. I shall be 
 satisfied if my country stands among the powers of the 
 world free, powerful and victorious, and that I, as a 
 general, a lieutenant, or a volunteer soldier, have borne 
 my part in the glorious strife and contributed to the final 
 blessed consummation."* 
 
 I have begun this tribute of love, respect and admira- 
 tion with this expression of sentiment by Gen. Johnston, 
 because I think it gives the key to his character, and his 
 conduct in the war between the States. 
 
 The son of a revolutionary soldier, married to the 
 daughter of his father's comrade, all the environment of 
 early growth, and all the influences of mature life, con- 
 duced to impress upon his character, sentiments of devo- 
 tion to duty, and to country, to truth, and to honor, and 
 to develop that chivalry and nobility which were his 
 dominating characteristics. 
 
 " My Mother Virginia," for whom his father fought 
 under Greene and Lee, for whom he bled in Florida and 
 Mexico, was to him the ideal of a lofty devotion. 
 "My father's revolutionary sword," stainless when it 
 
 'Memoir of Jefferson Davis, vol. 2, page 151.
 
 BEFORE THE WAR. 3 
 
 came to him, stainless it should ever be, and its lessons 
 of chivalry, patriotism, fortitude and patience, were 
 ever present during all the trials of a stormy life. This 
 outgiving of his feelings, I have therefore selected as an 
 introduction to a memoir of his public service. 
 
 Soon after the battle of Lexington, there reported to 
 Washington, then commanding the army before Boston, 
 a young Virginian, captain of a troop of cavalry, aged 
 nineteen, ardent, enterprising and daring. He was 
 descended from Lionel Lee, who rode with Richard 
 Coeur de Lion on the Third Crusade, like himself at the 
 head of a company of gentlemen volunteers, and who 
 for his services was made first earl of Litchfield, and 
 also from Richard Lee who, with Sir William Berkley, 
 held the Old Dominion for the king against the Com- 
 monwealth, and who, as commissioner from Virginia, 
 proceeded to Breda, and urged Charles II. to take 
 refuge with his loyal friends and establish his govern- 
 ment as King of Virginia, for the kings of England 
 claimed to be kings also of Scotland, Ireland, France 
 and Virginia. 
 
 He was the son of that Miss Grymes who Washing- 
 ton celebrated in adolescent and immature verse as his 
 Lowland beauty, and who was his first love. 
 
 Under such auspices it can easily be understood that 
 he was welcomed with interest by the commander-in- 
 chief, whose notice and confidence he soon compelled 
 by his activity and intelligence. He had that genius 
 for war which is bred in some breeds; in no English 
 one, probably, so marked as in this race of Lee. Gen.
 
 4 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 Charles Lee, no kin to the Virginia Lees, said of him: 
 "He came a soldier from his mother's womb." 
 
 In the operations in 1777, 1778 and 1780 in New 
 York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, he was always 
 placed near the enemy, intrusted with the command of 
 outposts and the superintendence of scouts, and was the 
 eye and ear of Washington. His activity attracted the 
 attention of the enemy, and on the 2Oth January, 
 1778, they attempted to cut him off. The reserve of 
 his picket line was then posted at the Spread Eagle 
 Tavern, about six miles below Valley Forge. A force 
 of two hundred British light horse rode through his 
 lines and reached his quarters about daylight. Lee, 
 with two officers and five men, barricaded the doors and 
 windows of the tavern and fought with such vigor and 
 determination that after a contest of half an hour the 
 enemy withdrew, fearing infantry reinforcements. Lee 
 took horse with his squad and actually pursued them 
 to the British lines. 
 
 Such an exploit rang through the army like the sound 
 of a bugle. The commander-in-chief thanked Lee and 
 his comrades in general orders. Congress promoted 
 him to the rank of major, and gave him an independent 
 partisan corps to consist of three troops of horse. The 
 surprise and capture of Paulus Hook, in August, 1780, 
 was rewarded by Congress with a vote of thanks and a 
 gold medal. In the fall of 1780 the American cause 
 in the South seemed irretrievable. Gates' Northern 
 laurels had withered into Southern willows, Georgia 
 was conquered, South Carolina overrun, North Carolina
 
 BEFORE THE WAR. 5 
 
 paralyzed by internal factions; and with the conquest 
 of Virginia Cornwallis hoped to restore all of the coun- 
 try south of the Potomac to its allegiance. In response 
 to the urgent appeals of those States, Greene was sent 
 them, to restore the ruined fortunes of the Confederacy. 
 
 The commander-in-chief could make no greater sacri- 
 fice, nor afford more efficient assistance, than by detach- 
 ing Lee and his legion. Congress made him lieutenant- 
 colonel, and added to his corps three companies of 
 infantry. It was the finest corps that made its appear- 
 ance on the arena of the Revolutionary War. The men 
 were the best mounted, on three-quarter or full-bred 
 horses, best armed, best equipped, best drilled and best 
 disciplined in the whole army. They were picked 
 volunteers from all the other corps, and made a corps 
 d'elite, which is capable, under proper leadership, of 
 accomplishing anything that soldiers can do. The 
 cavalry had the free use of the sabre, and rode into 
 action "boot to boot," says tradition, and were hand- 
 somely uniformed. An old soldier tells me he don't 
 believe this. No Southern cavalry ever were made, or 
 can be made, to ride "boot to boot." He fought under 
 Stuart, and he knows. 
 
 When, therefore, Lee's legion, in the early winter of 
 1780, marched through the county side from Philadel- 
 phia to Charlotte, North Carolina, they set the country 
 aflame. Their commander, the impersonation of manly 
 beauty, of knightly grace and of soldierly bearing, 
 carried his twenty-two years like a decoration, and not 
 a man behind him but bore the port and mien of martial
 
 6 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 valor. Just before Christmas, 1780, this martial array, 
 aroused the hamlet of Farmville, in Prince Edward 
 county, Virginia. At school there, was Peter Johnston, 
 grandson of a Scotchman, and of that blood whose feud 
 with the Maxwell's has furnished food for song and 
 story for three centuries. Without standing upon any 
 order, without why or wherefore, young Peter threw 
 aside books, mounted his horse, and "joined the 
 cavalry." 
 
 His intelligence and courage soon won him the com- 
 mission of ensign, and for leading the forlorn hope in 
 the attack on Wright's Bluff, in South Carolina, where 
 he cut away the abattis to clear a way for the storming 
 party, Peter Johnston was thanked in orders. 
 
 The war over, he returned to Prince Edward, where 
 he embraced the profession of the law and became 
 judge of the circuit embracing the southwestern part of 
 Virginia. He was Speaker of the Virginia House of 
 Delegates when the resolutions of 1798-99 were adopted 
 by that body. 
 
 He married Mary Wood, a niece of Patrick Henry, 
 who on February 3, 1807, bore him a son who was 
 named Joseph Eggleston, after a Captain of the Legion, 
 his father's comrade and friend. 
 
 The child was born at Cherry Grove, his father's 
 plantation, near Farmville, Virginia, and spent his early 
 years amid the scenes and surrounded by the traditions 
 which clustered around the hearth of a revolutionary 
 soldier. His father had been a soldier of the Legion. 
 His godfather for whom he was named had ridden with
 
 BEFORE THE WAR. 7 
 
 Lee and charged with Washington ; in his mother's 
 veins was the blood of the leader of the resistance to 
 tyranny in America, the forest born Demosthenes, and 
 every breath the child and lad breathed, inspired him 
 with the tradition of liberty, the sentiment of chivalry 
 and devotion to honor, right and duty. 
 
 Every gentleman in the neighboring country had 
 ridden with William Campbell, to drive back Ferguson, 
 and had formed part of that circle of fire which had 
 destroyed British control in the South, at the battle of 
 King's Mountain. 
 
 With such surroundings, it was necessary for him to 
 become a soldier, and in 1829, he graduated at the 
 Military Academy at West Point in the same class with 
 Robert Edward Lee son of his father's commander, 
 comrade and life long friend, and was commissioned 
 Second Lieutenant in the Fourth Artillery, as is customary 
 in the military service of the United States. He served 
 his turn of garrison duty at the various posts of the 
 United States at Fort Columbus, New York in 1830-31, 
 at Fort Monroe, Virginia in 1831-32 ; was in the Indian 
 war with Black Hawk on the northwest frontier in 1832, 
 where he served with Jefferson Davis, Lieutenant of 
 Infantry and Abraham Lincoln, Captain of Volunteers. 
 He was in garrison at Charleston, South Carolina, in 
 1832-3, during the nullification controversy, and I have 
 found no account of the position taken by him at that 
 period. Many officers of the army contemplated resig- 
 nation rather than to bear arms for the subjugation of a 
 State, but I am not justified to say that Lieutenant John-
 
 8 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 ston entertained those views. General Jackson was a 
 Southern soldier he had led Southern men in battle and 
 it might well have been that the son of Peter Johnston 
 of the Legion would have followed the hero of the battle 
 of the Horse Shoe and of Chalmette. 
 
 He was on duty at Fort Monroe in 1833-34, at Fort 
 Madison, North Carolina in 1834, an< ^ on topographical 
 duty in 1834-35. He was promoted First Lieutenant 
 Fourth Artillery, July 31, 1836, and served as aid-de- 
 camp on the staff of Gen. Scott in 1836-8, during the 
 Seminole war. He resigned on May 31, 1837, an d 
 pursued the profession of Civil Engineer. He had 
 married Louisa McLane, daughter of Lewis McLane 
 and grand-daughter of Capt. Allan McLane, who had 
 commanded a troop of dragoons in the army under 
 Washington. 
 
 Louis McLane had been Secretary of tne Treasury 
 and of State, and Minister to England in Jackson's 
 administration, but in 1837 had been made Presi- 
 dent of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, in 
 which corporation, all the energies of the City of Balti- 
 more, and the State of Maryland, were concentrated in 
 the enterprise of opening the western country to the com- 
 merce of the Atlantic ports. The slow promotion in the 
 Army offered small inducement to an able and ambitious 
 young man, to devote his life to the profession of arms, 
 and the construction of the great road to the west, of 
 which his father-in-law was president, seemed to open a 
 career of usefulness and honor, which it was his duty 
 to embrace.
 
 BEFORE THE WAR. 9 
 
 But the call to his soldier blood could not be resisted, 
 and he returned to the army in Florida with the rank of 
 first lieutenant of topographical engineers, on July 7, 
 1838. 
 
 The struggle of the Seminoles to retain possession of 
 the graves of their ancestors and the homes of their 
 fathers, was but another chapter in the history of the 
 never ending encroachment of the superior race upon 
 the inferior, and another illustration of the irreconcilable 
 conflict forever going on between the forces of civiliza- 
 tion and barbarism. Whenever, wherever and however 
 any black, brown or colored race has ever anywhere, 
 possessed anything, the white race wanted, the whites 
 have taken it from them. Whether it be the invasion of 
 the peninsula of Hindostan, or the Valley of the Nile, 
 or the fertile plains of Western Europe, or the two 
 American continents, the fair-haired race from the table 
 lands of Central Asia has possessed the land and has 
 cultivated it. It is now about to exterminate the inferior 
 races of Africa, just as in the last three centuries it has 
 eliminated the colored races in America. Peruvian and 
 Mexican, Pequot and Susquehannah, Cherokee, Choc- 
 taw, Sioux and Sac, have all faded away, by the opera- 
 tion of the inexorable law of the survival of the fittest. 
 But the Seminole made gallant and bloody defence. 
 In the dark recesses of the cypress swamps, in the 
 gloomy aisles of the everglades, for a generation they 
 defied pursuit or capture. Many a soldier in blue was 
 lost there, leaving not a trace, and the black waters of 
 those mysterious alleys, closed over and concealed
 
 IO LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 many a tragedy. The pursuit of the Seminoles was as 
 perilous and thankless a duty as ever a soldier per- 
 formed. 
 
 During the Christmas holidays, 1835, Major Dade, 
 with no men, was set upon, and the last man toma- 
 hawked and killed. This was known in army chroni- 
 cles as Dade's massacre. 
 
 When, therefore, Lieutenant Johnston reported for 
 duty to General Zachary Taylor, in July, 1838, it was 
 on no holiday tour he was about to embark, nor the 
 work of a carpet knight, that he undertook. Toil, priva- 
 tion, danger, the lot of every soldier, never confronted 
 one in more forms, than in the war in Florida with the 
 Seminoles. As a skilled and experienced engineer, his 
 services were immediately called into requisition. The 
 amphibious requirements of the everglades necessitated 
 the organization of a corps, half marine and half mili- 
 tary. Boats manned by sailors were used to convey 
 soldiers on reconnoissance and from place to place. 
 
 A force of this kind, to which Lieutenant Johnston 
 was attached as engineer, with no command of troops, 
 was exploring the lakes and ponds and water alleys of 
 the everglades, in boats, when they ran into an ambus- 
 cade, and at the first fire from the banks the officer in 
 command was killed. In an instant Johnston assumed 
 command, asserted control of the men, landed them, 
 charged his concealed enemy and drove them from 
 cover to cover, until he had restored the moral of the 
 command, and then fought his way back seven miles 
 to camp. Lieut. Robert M, McLane, of the fourth
 
 BEFORE THE WAR. 
 
 artillery, his brother-in-law, was sent out with a party to 
 reinforce and cover him, but he found Johnston in per- 
 fect control of the situation, falling back on his own 
 terms and at his own convenience. McLane has since 
 been Member of Congress, Governor of Maryland and 
 Minister to France, but he has never performed more 
 gallant duty than this of leading a forlorn hope to the 
 rescue of his friend and comrade. 
 
 During this affair Lieutenant Johnston was hit by a 
 rifle ball on the top of the forehead, and the ball running 
 round under the scalp, came out behind, inflicting a 
 flesh wound, not serious. The coat he wore on this 
 occasion was long preserved as a curiosity in the com- 
 mand. It had thirty bullet holes in it. A suitable 
 souvenir for the son of Ensign Johnston, who cut away 
 the abattis at Wright's Bluff in 1781 to clear the way 
 for the stormers. He was in charge of the Black River 
 improvement in New York in 1838-39, of the Sault St. 
 Marie in 1840, the boundary line between Texas and 
 the United States in 1841, the harbors on Lake Erie in 
 1841, and the Topographical Bureau at Washington in 
 1841-42. He again served in the Florida War in 
 1842-43, when the long struggle was substantially 
 brought to an end by the expatriation and extermination 
 of the Semjnoles. 
 
 He was acting assistant adjutant general in 1842-43, 
 was on the survey of the boundary between the United 
 States and the British Provinces in 1843-44, and on the 
 coast survey in 1844-46, and was promoted captain in 
 the corps of topographical engineers September 21, 1846.
 
 12 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH K. JOHNSTON. 
 
 The annexation of Texas brought on a war with Mexico, 
 and two lines of operation were decided upon by the 
 administration of Polk against the Republic of Mexico. 
 
 One was by an army moving from the lower part of 
 the Rio Grande to occupy and segregate the Northern 
 States of Mexico from the capital, the other was by 
 direct attack on the Fortress of Vera Cruz, to secure it 
 as the base of operations against the City of Mexico. 
 These two co-operating movements were believed to be 
 most effective, and were adopted as the strategy of 
 the war. 
 
 The campaign of Scott, beginning with the reduction 
 of the Fortress of San Juan d'Ulloa and the fortified 
 city of Vera Cruz and ending w r ith the capture and occu- 
 pation of the City of Mexico, for military genius in the 
 commander, for endurance, daring and gallantry in 
 officers and men, is not excelled in the annals of war. 
 The highroad from the seaport to the capital has been 
 for centuries the way of approach to the heart of Mexico. 
 Constructed probably by the Astecs, improved by the 
 engineering skill of the Spaniards when they were the 
 first soldiers of the age, it had been fortified and pre- 
 pared for defence by all the expedients known to the 
 military art. Cortez marched. over it to the Conquest of 
 Mexico, and prevailed with superior arms and civilized 
 skill over an army half barbarian, and insufficiently 
 equipped. 
 
 Scott moved over the same line with an utterly inferior 
 force in numbers, against fortifications constructed on the 
 most approved principles of engineering, and mounted 
 with the best artilery that modern art could furnish.
 
 BEFORE THE WAR. 13 
 
 The roadway from the sea rises over successive 
 chains of mountains, and passes through mountain 
 gorges which one after another were defended by earth 
 works and heavy guns ranged in parallel lines one 
 above the other. At three days march from Vera Cruz, 
 the pass of Cerro Gordo made an obstacle almost insur- 
 mountable. 
 
 The Mexican General in Chief, Santa Anna, with 
 sixteen thousand men, occupied this formidable position. 
 The road led through a rocky ravine, overhung on each 
 side by precipices fortified with line above line, of earth- 
 works, defended by artillery and infantry. 
 
 On the iSth of April, 1847, Scott, with eight thousand 
 men', attacked and carried the place, with the precision 
 of a game of chess. 
 
 Every movement of every brigade was worked out 
 beforehand, every hour specified every route marked out, 
 and all explained in orders to the troops before going 
 into action. Scott's order of battle of the iyth was a 
 prophecy of what would be done as well as an order of 
 what ought to be done. Captain Johnston, in discharge 
 of his duty as topographical engineer, made the recon- 
 noissance on which Scott's plan and movements were 
 largely based, and in so doing he was badly wounded 
 and for which he was promoted Lieutenant Colonel and 
 Colonel April 12, 1847, his promotion being for gallant 
 and meritorious service at the battle of Cerro Gordo, 
 was dated from the day of the service and the wound, 
 and not from the day of th*e battle. 
 
 Scott says in his report: "The plan of attack
 
 14 I^IFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 sketched in General Orders No. in forwarded herewith, 
 was finely executed by this gallant army before 2 o'clock 
 P. M. yesterday." 
 
 Pressing on with vigor and determination in August, 
 Scott carried the fortified positions of Contreras and 
 Cherubusco. The fortress of Chapultepec then con- 
 fronted him as the last tenable point of defence, for the 
 City of Mexico. 
 
 Chapultepec is the historical fortress of Mexico. 
 Occupied by the Astec Emperors, it was retained by 
 theit-'Spanish successors as the key to the Valley of 
 Mexico and to the capitol of the nation. Crowned by a 
 strong building of masonry, which had been a palace, 
 and then converted into a citadel, the base of the hill 
 was girdled by a stone wall four feet thick and twenty 
 feet high. 
 
 The lower slope was honey-combed with mines 
 and protected by breast-works heavily manned with 
 troops. The place was inaccessible save by storm. 
 The position of the wall was such as to render a breach 
 by artillery impracticable, and the only way through, 
 was to go over by aid of ladders. 
 
 On September 13, 1847, the intrepid Americans car- 
 ried the place by assault. Lieutenant-colonel Johnston 
 leading four companies of the voltigeurs. He was 
 severely wounded, but Scott reported that he was the 
 first to plant a regimental color on the ramparts of the 
 
 fortress. 
 
 
 
 An army tradition says that Johnston's ladder proving 
 too short, lithe and active as an athlete, he made a
 
 BEFORE THE WAR. 1 5 
 
 soldier raise him on his shoulders, and thus shove him 
 into an embrasure, whereby he got in first. 
 
 The surrender of the City of Mexico and the peace 
 followed, and he came home with a reputation second to 
 none in that galaxy of brilliant soldiers. Among his 
 comrades were Pierce, afterwards President of the 
 United States; Captain Robert E. Lee, Lieutenant 
 Hooker, commander of the Army of the Potomac ; 
 Beauregard, E. Kirby Smith, Stevens, who died under 
 the Union flag at Chantilly; Dabney Maury, who won 
 fame by his defence at Mobile against Farragut ; Geo. 
 B. McClellan, and that long list, who then and since 
 have shed imperishable renown, on the name and valor 
 of the American soldier. 
 
 Johnston's training and accomplishment was second 
 to that of no man who ever wore the uniform of a 
 soldier. His experience with troops in Florida and in 
 Mexico had made him master of that art which directs 
 the movement, transportation and subsistence of troops 
 in the field. His employment as engineer on fortifica- 
 tions had afforded him an opportunity for study and 
 reflection, which the life of an active soldier in war 
 never gives, and his extraordinary intellectual force and 
 ability had enabled him to improve his great opportuni- 
 ties to the utmost. As if fate were preparing him for a 
 great career, he served as chief of topographical engi- 
 neers in the department of Texas in 1852-53, was in 
 charge of Western river improvements in 1853-55, an ^ 
 was acting and inspector-general of the Utah Expedi- 
 tion of 1858. As if to give the last measure of the
 
 l6 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 widest broadest military education, he was appointed 
 quartermaster-general of the Army of the United States, 
 June 28, 1860. 
 
 Thus having personally led troops in action, as staff 
 officer having directed an army in the field, as engineer 
 having selected and prepared lines for defence, he had 
 been trained in the largest and severest school of the 
 soldier, physically and intellectually, and I do not claim 
 too much when I assert that in the year 1861 he was the 
 best equipped soldier in the Army of the United States, 
 accomplished in all the knowledge of the art of war 
 and capable of directing great affairs and great armies. 
 He was master of the art of logistics, the art of man- 
 aging armies. 
 
 Lee was a great soldier, but he had not had the 
 scientific training that Johnston had. McClellan was a 
 great soldier, but he never had enjoyed the diversified 
 experience that good fortune and his own merit had 
 afforded Johnston.
 
 AOE 70 YEARS.
 
 THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES. 17 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES. 
 
 IT is proper here to consider the political conditions 
 J which brought on the war between the States, and 
 which justified and required Johnston to resign high 
 rank in an established army, to cast his fortune with a 
 side when he knew success was doubtful, and where he 
 also knew that failure meant ruin to him. 
 
 But the principles which controlled his conduct were 
 so well defined that a bare statement of them will suffice. 
 
 "My Mother Virginia" and "My Father's Revolu- 
 tionary Sword " give the key to .his sentiment and the 
 clue to his action. 
 
 Virginia was his native land, for whom his father's 
 sword had aided to achieve independence, and while he 
 had breath and an arm his heart could never cease to 
 love his mother State nor his sword to defend her. A 
 silly slander has been reiterated for thirty years, by 
 people who know better and who persist in mendacity 
 out of pure malice, that the gentlemen, who, educated at 
 West Point, resigned their commissions in the army of the 
 United States to defend their mother's homes and their 
 father's graves, were basely ungrateful to the hand which 
 fed them and had trained them in the profession of arms ; 
 nothing can be baser than this falsehood. Lee and John- 
 ston were educated at West Point by Virginia money con- 
 tributed by taxes paid by Virginia for the common defence,
 
 l8 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 and there never has been a day since Virginia entered the 
 Union in 1789, that the money paid by Virginia to the 
 Federal government has ever been returned to her by 
 expenditures within her borders or to her people. They 
 were Virginia soldiers trained at Virginia's expense, 
 and when she needed them they came to her like noble 
 sons as they were. 
 
 George Washington bore the commission and the 
 uniform of the King of England, and he doffed the 
 one and resigned the other to defend his Mother Virginia. 
 He was traitor and rebel sure enough, but success 
 crowned him Pater Patria and apotheosized him as 
 Hero, Patriot and Sage. But if Sir Henry Clinton had 
 pushed his advantage at Monmouth, Washington might 
 have been tried before a special commission as Der- 
 wentwater or Monmouth had been tried before him, and 
 might have been hung, drawn and quartered, and his 
 head and limbs would have decorated Temple Bar. 
 
 But this misfortune surely would not have changed 
 the nature of his character or the tenor of his conduct. 
 He would have still been the patriot, defending his 
 native land and the hero, dying as Hampden had died 
 before, in defence of the liberties inherited from free 
 ancestors. 
 
 Therefore it would seem that the only difference 
 between Washington, who left the British Army to 
 defend his Mother Virginia, and Johnston who left the 
 Federal Army, then having become the Army of the 
 Northern States to defend his Mother Virginia, is only 
 the difference between success and failure which his-
 
 THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES. 19 
 
 torically, morally or logically, can in no way affect the 
 question. 
 
 The settlements of the English on the Atlantic coast 
 of the North American Continents were made by au- 
 thority of grants from the English Crown. At common 
 law all corporations must be created by the Crown and 
 the creation of corporations for the purpose of settling 
 the newly discovered country beyond the Atlantic was 
 the exercise of the long used, and admitted power, inher- 
 ent in the Crown. Some were trading corporations, as 
 the grant to the London Company or the Plymouth 
 Company, or the Virginia Company. Some were corpo- 
 rations sole, as the grants to Penn, to Calvert, to Sir 
 William Alexander. These corporations were as dis- 
 tinct and separate as those of London or of Yarmouth. 
 
 They were all amenable to the law and were respon- 
 sible to the process of scire facias of quo warranto or of 
 mandamus. They could be restrained from exercising 
 power not granted to them, and their charters could be 
 taken away for an abuse of their powers. They could 
 be compelled to perform their duty to the King or to 
 their fellow subjects, and the Court of Kings Bench or 
 High Court of Chancery had ample power to compel 
 them to do right. 
 
 In 1775, these distinct and separate corporations un- 
 dertook to free themselves from the control of the Crown 
 and of the Crowns Courts, and meeting in a convention 
 at Philadelphia, each equal to the other, agreed in 1778, 
 to terms of confederation, in order to form a perpetual 
 union of free, equal and sovereign States. They all
 
 2O LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 joined in this union except Maryland, who acted with 
 and supported them until 1781, when she also came in. 
 
 On July 4, 1776, these thirteen Provinces or Corpo- 
 rations united in declaring to the world that henceforth 
 they were free and independent States. 
 
 In 1778, France made a treaty of perpetual alliance 
 with the thirteen United Colonies, naming each one 
 
 7 O 
 
 separately as one of the contracting parties. 
 
 The treaty with the king of Great Britain in 1783 
 acknowledged the United States, viz: New Hampshire, 
 Massachusetts Bay, &c., naming each one of the thirteen 
 to be " free, sovereign and independent States," and 
 "that he treated with them as such." 
 
 When the articles of confederation proved to be 
 inefficient, the States, as States, called a convention to 
 reform those articles, they met as equal States, each 
 having an equal vote, framed a new constitution as 
 States and submitted it for ratification or rejection by 
 each State for itself. Eleven States seceded from the 
 confederation, which by its terms was to be perpetual, 
 and formed a new union which was to be more perfect 
 than the perpetual union which had only lasted ten 
 years. The prime mover in this secession, who presided 
 over the secession convention at Philadelphia, and who 
 signed the act of secession called the Constitution, was 
 George Washington, known to the world and in the 
 hearts of his countrymen as the father of his country. 
 During all this time, while these tremendous events 
 were occurring when the thirteen free and independent 
 States were struggling for life, first by forming a " per-
 
 THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES. 21 
 
 petual union," and then by seceding from that union and 
 endeavoring to form a "more perfect one," under an 
 amended constitution, when two States refused to 
 secede, and held on to the old original Simon Pure Union, 
 no one, any where, had hinted, or pretended to intimate, 
 that there was such a thing as an American Nation. 
 The thirteen States united the eleven States united, 
 consisted of thirteen or of eleven free sovereign and in- 
 dependent States. So they proclaimed themselves, so 
 the King of England had acknowledged them, so the 
 King of France had treated them, so all the Christian 
 powers had esteemed them. 
 
 Virginia, New York and Massachusetts, in seceding 
 from the confederation and acceding to the union, had 
 expressly reserved to each the right and power to with- 
 draw from the latter, as fully as they had from the former, 
 and they explicitly disclaimed the right or power to bind 
 the hands of posterity by any form of government what- 
 ever. Most of the seceding States on joining the new 
 union, had insisted on certain amendments to the ordi- 
 nance of secession, called the Constitution, in order to 
 make plain beyond doubt or cavil, the nature of the 
 new compact, and the very first business transacted by 
 the Congress of the Union was the submission of these 
 amendments to the States in the Union for ratification 
 and adoption. North Carolina and Rhode Island hav- 
 ing refused to secede, constituted still the old perpetual 
 confederation. 
 
 Number ten of the amendments at that time proposed, 
 and ratified is in these words :
 
 22 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 ' ' The powers not delegated to the United States by 
 the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are 
 reserved to the States respectively or to the people." 
 The adoption of these amendments was by most of the 
 States made a condition of their accession to the new 
 Union, and without the distinct understanding and under- 
 taking by the friends of the new compact that these 
 amendments should be adopted as part thereof, the union 
 would not have been formed. 
 
 It never entered the mind of any sane man, that by 
 the Federal Constitution the States or the people intended 
 to delegate to the United States that power of secession, 
 and of changing the form of their government, which 
 they had just exercised, and out of and by which the 
 United States had been created. On the contrary, the 
 power delegated to the United States to alter, amend and 
 change the form of government then constituted, was 
 distinctly marked out and designated, and the mode of 
 its exercise defined and limited. It could only be 
 changed by the United States, with the concurrence of 
 three-fourths of the States. 
 
 This w r as the only power of alteration, delegated to 
 the United States. All other methods of alteration or 
 amendment were reserved to the States or to the people 
 thereof. In the exercise of this reserved power, thirteen 
 States in 1861, as eleven States had done in 1789, with- 
 drew from the form of government constituted by their 
 ancestors, met at Montgomery, Ala., and taking the 
 constitution of 1789 as their basis, altered, amended and 
 improved it, so as to provide for the dangers which the
 
 THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES. 23 
 
 
 
 experience of two generations had shown. The articles 
 of confederation of 1778 had proved to be insufficient to 
 secure to the States and the people, the blessing of a 
 stable and just government. The seceding States had 
 substituted for them a constitution under which the 
 country had prospered and developed. But by 1861 the 
 power of government had been usurped by one section, 
 within the letter, and in defiance of the spirit and intent 
 of the law, and the minority, in the exercise of those 
 rights by which Anglo-Saxon liberty had been protected 
 and defended for a thousand years, withdrew from that 
 government, which was no longer their government, 
 and established a new Union, under an amended and 
 improved Constitution, better suited to the new con- 
 ditions of society, and better adapted to secure liberty to 
 their posterity. No man can be found, even now, who 
 will deny that the people of each State have the right to 
 alter and amend and change their own form of govern- 
 ment, at their own will. 
 
 And it has got to be the law of heredity in the race, 
 Anglo-Saxon, Norman, Dane, Celt and Goth, which 
 conquered, settled and pacified England, that each 
 generation is bound to transmit to those who come after 
 
 o 
 
 it, all the rights and liberties transmitted from free 
 ancestors. Their is no question of logic, or of reason, 
 or of tradition, or of charter, or of written or paper guar- 
 antees. We have inherited from our ancestors rights to 
 be free, to be happy, to possess our own homes our 
 wives and our children without challenge, check or 
 molestation. Every generation has enlarged their
 
 24 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 rights, has struggled to increase them. In this struggle, 
 always intensifying, never ceasing, never yielding, we 
 have invented the right of habeas corpus, to secure to 
 each personal liberty, the right of trial by jury, to secure 
 to the humblest protection against the most powerful, the 
 right of home, of hearth, and of family. 
 
 These divers and constantly-amplifying fortifications 
 of personal rights, have been only the muniments of 
 rights. The form has never been regarded the thing 
 is what has been held sacred and no matter in what 
 social organization our race has found itself, Saxon 
 community, Norman feudalism, Roman paternalism, the 
 right of each man to think for himself and do for him- 
 self has been its radical idea; and deeply implanted 
 so far back that its traditions give no clue to its 
 beginning has been the fundamental, ineradicable, 
 unchangeable law, that it is the duty of the father to 
 transmit to his children all the rights of personal liberty 
 which he inherited from his ancestors. 
 
 The bee builds its octagon cell, the ant constructs its 
 ways and its store-houses. No man can give reason for 
 their acts; they work out the law of their being. And 
 the composite Aryan race centered in the Islands of the 
 North Sea, are controlled, dominated, directed by a 
 law as irresistible as ever guided and forced any action 
 of animal or vegetable creation. The rights of liberty 
 inherited from our ancestors must, by the law of our 
 nature, be transmitted unimpaired to our children. 
 
 Property rights, rights to personal consequence and 
 honor, are of secondary importance, but the right to
 
 THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES. 25 
 
 free thought, free labor, free trade, for every man to be 
 secure in his right to one wife, and their children, to his 
 home, the product of his own labor, or the 
 reward of his labor, these rights must be transmitted to 
 his children, enlarged if possible, but certainly and 
 absolutely, unrestricted and unimpaired. 
 
 This law of heredity in the race, of duty to preserve, 
 protect and transmit all inherited rights to children, as 
 fully as acquired from ancestors, is the law that has 
 made the race the dominating, directing, controlling 
 force of the whole world, in modern times, and in modern 
 civilization. Where people are willing to give up all 
 struggle for liberty, to secure to posterity rights 
 inherited by ancestors, when they prefer present ease 
 and luxury and comfort, to turmoil and contest for 
 right, then that people are doomed to the fate that has 
 overtaken all preceding civilization. Such were not 
 the people confronted by the duty of action in 1861.
 
 26 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE ARRAY OF VIRGINIA. 
 
 many reasons the environment of the early 
 history of Virginia was peculiarly romantic and 
 picturesque. When the force of the renaissance begun 
 to be felt in England, and the vitality of the new learn- 
 ing to be imparted to the hearts and minds of English- 
 men, when the great changes wrought by Henry VIII 
 had become operative, and the ideas of the reformation 
 taken deep root, all-pervading energy, directed 
 thought, ideas and action. The imaginations of men 
 created realms from dreams, and stimulated efforts from 
 aspirations. 
 
 And this extraordinary excitement possessed all 
 classes of society. The struggle of the Reformation 
 with the Papacy, of free thought with authority, pro- 
 duced intellectual and physical energy, never before 
 equalled in the history of man. 
 
 The destruction of the Armada, made England mis- 
 tress of the seas, while the imagination of Shakespeare, 
 and the intellect of Bacon, gave her equal pre-eminence 
 in the world of thought. 
 
 In this prodigious effort of will, and mind, and body, 
 Virginia was born. From the first, she was the Utopia 
 of England and Protestantism. Spain had possessed 
 all the Southern part of the new world, with its islands 
 and its ocean shores, and from the Southern cape to the
 
 THE ARRAY OF VIRGINIA. 2>J 
 
 Northern sea, on the West. France had seized the 
 larger part of the North American Continent, from the 
 lakes to the North Pole. Virginia alone, between the two 
 great reactionary powers, represented progress, liberty 
 and hope. 
 
 Virginia included the Northern Continent, from ocean 
 to ocean, and from the French on the North to the 
 Spaniard on the South. 
 
 She represented the cause of liberty, of free thought 
 and free action. 
 
 In the first company of Virginia were included all the 
 leading historic families of the realm seventy peers 
 and one hundred knights and baronets, and all the 
 great merchants and trading guilds of the kingdom. 
 Percy, of Northumberland, sent his son Henry to 
 represent the family, whose antiquity, nobility and 
 splendor, says the chronicler, antidates the Norman 
 kingdom, and which for a thousand years had fur- 
 nished soldiers to carry the flag of England in battle, 
 and statesmen to enlarge her authority and to guide her 
 destinies. Hardly a noble family in England but 
 was represented in that wonderful array which destroyed 
 the Armada; hardly a family which had struck for 
 England and free thought, under Lord Howard, of 
 Effingham, against Parma and Medina-Sidonia and 
 Guise, but was represented in the settlement of Virginia. 
 
 Henry Percy was governor for a time, and left the 
 title of his house to a county. 
 
 Virginia was "The Dominion," and constituted the 
 fifth of the dominions of the king, whose title was King
 
 28 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 of England, Scotland, Ireland, France and Virginia. 
 She bore on her coat of arms and her great seal the 
 
 proud motto: 
 
 *' Virginia en dat quintum," 
 
 for she was the peer and equal of either of the other 
 four kingdoms claimed by the English crown. 
 
 The dawn of her histQry had been illustrated by 
 Capt. John Smith soldier, statesman, knight errant 
 who bore on his shield three Turk's heads, in memory 
 of the three Turkish champions of the crescent he had 
 slain, in honor of the cross, in open fight before the 
 walls of Silistria. 
 
 The country is a parterre of souvenirs, redolent and 
 blooming with flowers of sentiment and romance; it is 
 a shrine of consecrated relics. 
 
 Here at Powhatan is the very stone upon which 
 Smith's head lay when he was saved by Pocahontas. 
 There is Powhatan's chimney, sole relic of the power of 
 the great emperor. Here is Bacon's Castle, \vhere 
 Nathaniel Bacon mustered the "householders" of Vir- 
 ginia for their first rebellion in defence of liberty and 
 home. There is Bloody Run, which perpetuates the 
 bloody victory of the Virginians over the savage on the 
 very edge of the city of Richmond. There is the path 
 by which Pocahontas came to give warning and save 
 the infant State from extinction. Boscobel is held by 
 the family to whose ancestor it was granted by Charles 
 II for loyal service at the Royal Oak. Romancoke 
 designates the spot of Claiborne's victory over the 
 Indians, in consideration of which, the estate of 40,000 
 acres was granted to him.
 
 THE ARRAY OF VIRGINIA. 29 
 
 In this family is preserved the collar atid star of the 
 Order of St. Stanislaus, once belonging to Lewis Little- 
 page, Chamberlain to the last king of Poland, and 
 Knight of the Order of St. Stanislaus. In another is 
 
 O 
 
 kept tne silver frontlet presented by Charles II to the 
 Queen of Pamunkey, and still another holds the golden 
 horseshoes, set with precious stones, given to their ances- 
 tors by Sir Alexander Spottswood as the insignium of the 
 Order of Tramontane Knights, who rode with him on 
 the march over the Blue Mountains. Here is Green- 
 spring, where Sir William Berkley and the Cavaliers 
 held high feast during the Commonwealth, when the 
 King was over the water, and where they drank many 
 a full bumper of Virginian wine, passing it from left to 
 right over a tumbler of pure water. There was Green- 
 way Court, where Lord Fairfax, descendant of the 
 blonde Saxon and of Black Tom Fairfax, called to his 
 servant on the news of Yorktown, to take him to bed to 
 die, for it was time now. 
 
 There is the road called Braddock's road, over which 
 the British general, with his Virginian aid-de-camp, 
 marched to battle and to death. There is another road, 
 known to this day as ''Marquis road," which Lafayette 
 cut through the forests of Culpeper to close in on Corn- 
 wallis and the British. There is the stone which marks 
 the post of Arnold's outside picket when he sacked, and 
 burnt Richmond. At Rock Castle is the mark 
 of Tarleton's sabre where he hacked off the arms 
 of Tarleton, borne by the Lord of the Manor, and 
 carved in the wood over the chimney piece. Theie live
 
 3O LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 the descendants of Taliaferro, who rode by the side of 
 William, carrying his banner at Hastings, as he chanted 
 the song of Roland and the rear guard, at Roncesvalles. 
 
 Alexandria is named for Sir William Alexander, 
 descendant of a Norse viking, who conquered the isles 
 on the North Coast of Scotland, and whose descend- 
 ants, as lords of the isles, reigned there for centuries, to 
 reappear in Virginia and make their mark there by 
 intellect, and force of will, as their ancestors had done 
 with sword and dagger. 
 
 There was the descendant of old Sir Humphrey Gil- 
 bert, who, when his vessel, on his "way to Virginia, was 
 sinking, his last words were, "Be of good cheer, my 
 friends, it is as near heaven by sea, as by land." 
 
 Not a neighborhood, not a mountain peak, not a 
 ford, nor a ferry, but has always borne a connection 
 with a romantic and sentimental past. 
 
 Tradition transmits legends of honor, of piety and of 
 devotion. From every fireside proceeds the light of 
 love, of honor, of family, and of friends. The aroma 
 and the halo of romance ladens the air and glows 
 around the hearts of the people. 
 
 From these surroundings, and by their influences, a 
 well-marked and distinct character has been produced, 
 which seems to be the most enduring and most forcible 
 as yet evolved by American civilization. 
 
 Polybius has a chapter on the characteristics of the 
 Romans, who he describes as a singular people, for, 
 says the Greek, "They actually believe that they are 
 bound to keep their oaths, and do keep them." Such a
 
 THE ARRAY OF VIRGINIA. 3! 
 
 waste of energy in telling the truth, and keeping faith, 
 was incomprehensible to the keen, alert intellect of the 
 descendant of the conquerors of the great king. 
 
 But the solid manliness the unreasoning obedience 
 to duty, the devotion to truth the respect for courage 
 displayed by the Latin race made the Romans the 
 conquerors of the world and gave them pre-eminence 
 in intellectual force, and leaders of thought, in all the 
 history of all time. 
 
 The circumstances surrounding the settlement of 
 Virginia her progress as the Dominion, the individuals 
 and incidents marking her development have given her 
 a concrete form and an actual existence to her children. 
 The common language of the common people designates 
 her as "The Old Mother," "The Mother of Us All," 
 and the Virginian has no hazy, vague conception of 
 country; Virginia is to him his Mother, the common 
 Mother of the noble brood of noble children. 
 
 Said old John Janney, of Loudoun, Union man and 
 President of the Convention of 1861, when taxed with 
 taking sides with Virginia against the Union: "Vir- 
 ginia, sir, was a nation one hundred and eighty years 
 before your Union was born/' The sword of Virginia, 
 wielded by Andrew Lewis at Point Pleasant had 
 shattered the Indian power in the Northwest, and saved 
 the settlements from Erie to Savannah from pillage and 
 massacre. The standard of Virginia, borne by George 
 Rogers Clarke, had acquired that great empire north 
 and west of the Ohio, and the motto of the Dominion, 
 "en dat Virginia quintum" had given way to the war 
 cry of the sovereign States, "Sic Semper Tyrannis"
 
 32 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 Every honor, every distinction, acquired by any 
 Virginian, anywhere, is the right and property of the 
 old Mother, and every right of the old Mother belongs, 
 by equal right to all her children. They are the 
 Romans of modern history. They love God, they tell 
 the truth, they honor manhood, they despise the false, 
 they scorn tricks. They are the English of Shakes- 
 peare and Elizabeth, of Raleigh and of Drake, who 
 have made the genius of England to be known wher- 
 ever thought lightens or imagination alleviates human 
 lives, and who circled the globe with the red cross of 
 St. George. 
 
 They have changed less than their brethren over 
 sea, and furnish now the highest types of the character 
 which has moulded England, and the closest family 
 resemblance to their ancestors. 
 
 There has been much derision and ridicule over the 
 First Families of Virginia. They have furnished 
 mirth for fools for three generations. But the First 
 Families are facts. They are not separated by wealth. 
 They are marked by character alone, and in all the 
 vicissitudes of fortune, wherever they have been, and 
 however called upon, they have promptly responded, 
 and shown themselves first in fact, to the demands of 
 duty. 
 
 Whether as merchant in Hong Kong or sea captain 
 against the Malay pirates, as pioneer to California or 
 Australia or South African mines, as financier on Wall 
 street, at the bar, in the pulpit or in the professor's chair, 
 the scion of the First Families has everywhere always
 
 THE ARRAY OF VIRGINIA. 33 
 
 vindicated the law of heredity, and given another proof 
 that "blood will tell;" and there were no second 
 families. Every Virginian was as good as any other 
 man, and no other man was as good as any Virginian 
 unless he was brave, truthful, honest; money never 
 equalized them. 
 
 By the assize of arms instituted by King Henry II, 
 whenever the royal standard was raised, the "array" of 
 all men capable of bearing arms was bound to turn out 
 to support the King's authority. Virginia opposed the 
 war, begged for peace, called peace conference to meet 
 her sister States arid avert war, and elected a convention 
 to meet at Richmond to consider and decide upon what 
 ought to be done, what the duty and the honor, not the 
 prosperity and the profit of Virginia, required to be 
 done. 
 
 When the President of the United States called for 
 troops to coerce the States who had seceded, Virginia 
 raised her standard, called her assize of arms and sum- 
 moned her array of her sons to protect "the Old Mother." 
 They came from everywhere, Austin Smith from San. 
 Francisco, Bradfute Warwick from Naples, Powhatan 
 Clark from Louisiana, Robert Edward Lee, Colonel of 
 Dragoons, son of Light-horse Harry, of the Legion, 
 Joseph Eggleston Johnston, son of Peter, Ensign of the 
 Legion, Quartermaster General of the Army of the 
 United States, Jeb. Stuart, Hill, A. P. The very 
 earth trembled at the tramp of the Virginians as they 
 marched to the assize of arms of the mother of them all. 
 
 No such picture can be drawn of any event in history ;
 
 34 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 no such incident can be described. Webster said of old 
 England that, "her morning drum beat, following tiie 
 sun, circles the world with the martial airs of England." 
 But when Virginia flung her standard to the breeze 
 with her proud motto, "Sic Semper Tyrannis" and sum- 
 moned her array, the earth blazed with the fiery cross of 
 V>ginia as they rushed to her defence. From every 
 continent, from every clime, from all avocations, from 
 the bar, the pulpit, the counting room, the work-shop, 
 the Virginians came. 
 
 "Their's not to reason why, 
 Their's but to do and dia." 
 
 When the Sea Venture, after the romantic shipwreck 
 at the Summer Isles, which gave Shakespeare the inci- 
 dent and the locality for the Tempest, was about to loose 
 her gallant commander, old Sir George Somers, when 
 he gave up his manly spirit, he called his crew about 
 him and "exhorted them to be true to duty and return to 
 Virginia." 
 
 The words of the old knight rang like a trumpet call 
 wherever there was a Virginian, "Be true to duty 
 and return to Virginia." Those who failed to obey that 
 call, for there were a few, a very few, who did fail, by 
 their subsequent lives, did not furnish bright examples of 
 renown, success or happiness, to encourage others in 
 future crises to follow their example. 
 
 It is due to candor to say that neither Lee nor John- 
 ston approved the action of the other States, for they 
 knew that such action would inevitably bring on war, 
 and they knew what war meant, but there is no reason
 
 THE ARRAY OF VIRGINIA. 35 
 
 to think that either of them for a moment believed that 
 Virginia could, would or ought to act, except just 
 exactly as she did act. With them, as with all other 
 Virginians, the simple question was: ''With or against 
 blood and kin? For or against the old mother? " and 
 the question answered itself in the asking.
 
 36 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 T 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE CAMPAIGN OF l86l IN VIRGINIA. 
 
 HE Virginia convention, on the lyth of April, 
 adopted an ordinance, repealing the act by which, 
 in 1787, she had accepted the Constitution made at Phil- 
 adelphia, and provided for accepting the Constitution as 
 amended and accepted by the States at Montgomery ; 
 the ordinance to be submitted to the vote of the people 
 on the 24th of May. The secret was at once pro- 
 claimed all over the land, and on April ipth, a Massa- 
 chusetts regiment passing through Baltimore in response 
 to President Lincoln's proclamation to defend the capital, 
 was attacked in the streets by a mob and badly 
 demoralized. 
 
 The Virginians promptly took possession of Harper's 
 Ferry, where there was a depot of arms, and were 
 about to seize Fortress Monroe, but lost their opportunity 
 through vacillating counsels of a State administration, 
 faithful and zealous, but inexperienced in war. 
 
 Brigadier-General Johnston sent in his resignation to 
 the Secretary of War of the United States on Saturday, 
 April 20th, and it was placed in the hands of the Secre- 
 tary April 22, with the request that the proper order 
 accepting it be promptly issued. This was done, .and 
 on the morning of the 23d, with only his personal arms 
 and clothing, he left Washington for Richmond.
 
 THE CAMPAIGN OF l86l IN VIRGINIA. 37 
 
 His house, and all property of every kind belonging 
 to himself and his wife, was left behind. 
 
 Owing to an accident to the train, he did not reach 
 
 c? , * 
 
 Richmond until the next day, when he at once reported 
 to John Letcher, Governor of Virginia, and was by him 
 forthwith commissioned as a Major-General in the ser- 
 vice of his State. Lee had the day before been placed 
 in command of all the armies of Virginia, with the same 
 rank. 
 
 Gen. Lee assigned to Gen. Johnston the duty of 
 organizing and instructing the volunteers, then rallying 
 to the standard from all quarters of the State, the Union, 
 
 and the globe. 
 
 * 
 The points to be occupied in force for the defence pf 
 
 Virginia were designated as Norfolk, Yorktown, a point 
 on the lower Potomac in front of Fredericksburg, 
 Manassas Junction, Harper's Ferry and Grafton. 
 
 This it was supposed would make a defensive line 
 where each place could support the other, and which 
 would protect the State from invasion and save her peo- 
 ple from the horrors of war. 
 
 In two weeks Virginia acceded to the Confederacy, 
 and Gen. Johnston, his place of Major-General having 
 been abolished, accepted the commission of Brigadier- 
 General in the Army of the Confederate States. 
 
 The United States by that time had three armies 
 threatening Virginia : one at Washington under Gen. 
 McDowell, one at Chambersburg under Gen. Pattersonj 
 and one in West Virginia under Gen. McClellan. It 
 was supposed, and indeed generally given out, by those
 
 3& LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 omniscient .strategists, the newspapers, that Patterson 
 and McClellan were to unite at Winchester, capture the 
 Confederates at Harper's Ferry, and then march over 
 the Blue Ridge passes, so as to attack Manassas Junction 
 in flank, while McDowell closed in in front, and 
 thus the way would be open for the "on to Richmond" 
 move so vociferously called for and confidently expected. 
 The military authorities of the Confederacy and of 
 Virginia were under the most extraordinary delusion as 
 to the value of Harper's Ferry. It is the point where 
 the Shenandoah joins the Potomac, and their united 
 flood forces its way through the Blue Ridge. It is a 
 mountain pass, absolutely^ impregnable if the enemy 
 will only attack at either end. But as a fortress to cover 
 a line, or a fortified camp for a military depot, it is use- 
 less and indefensible. 
 
 Good roads cross the Potomac at every point north 
 and northwest of k. A bridge led the way into Vir- 
 ginia at the Point of Rocks, and practicable fords 
 existed all along the Potomac, south and southeast of it. 
 
 Instead of being a Thermopylae it was a trap, as was 
 proved in 1862, when it fell after a twenty-four hours' 
 defence before Lee, coming from the northern side. 
 Lee, in 1862, forded the Potomac below Harper's 
 Ferry, and in 1863 above the point, as Early did in 
 1864. Ten regiments of infantry, a four-gun battery 
 and a regiment of cavalry were collected there, and in 
 the latter part of May, Gen. Johnston was sent to 
 command it. His orders were impressive as to the 
 value of the position, as the key to the valley, and the 
 commanding position to protect Virginia from invasion.
 
 THE CAMPAIGN OF l86l IN VIRGINIA. 39 
 
 He reached Harper's Ferry on the afternoon of May 
 23, and after a careful examination and report by Maj. 
 W. H. C. Whiting, as engineer, on 25th he reported 
 to Gen. Lee that the place was untenable, and ought to 
 be evacuated without delay. He showed that the force 
 under his command ought to be a moveable column, 
 and not tied by the leg to a stake ; that the true defence 
 of the valley and the northern frontier of Virginia could 
 be best made by an army in the field, and not by 
 fortified positions. 
 
 And here began the difference of opinion, and diver- 
 gence of views, between Gen. Johnston and President 
 Davis as to the strategy of the war, and the policy 
 which ought to be pursued to secure peace and inde- 
 pendence. 
 
 There was not an exact agreement between them as 
 to existing conditions. Johnston believed that the 
 resources of the North were inexhaustible. In arts and 
 in arms, in men and in money, they could command the 
 world. 
 
 While the blood of the North had been modified and 
 diluted by the emigration and changed conditions of the 
 preceding ninety years, still the dominating ideas, the 
 heriditary instincts, the physical characteristics of the 
 North, men and women, were in the main the same as 
 those that had achieved their independence in the 
 rebellion of 1775-81, that had constructed and operated 
 the Constitution of 1787. 
 
 They were a brave, self-reliant, patriotic race, and 
 while they did not have probably the same individuality
 
 40 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 as the Southern people, in all the characteristics of 
 manliness perseverance, fortitude, courage they were 
 the equals of any race that ever lived. 
 
 The South, in Gen. Johnston's opinion, started out 
 with fixed and definite resources. She had a certain 
 balance in bank, and when that was exhausted there 
 was no source from which it could be replenished. 
 
 She had a frontier extending from the Chesapeake to 
 the Western line of Missouri to protect against the 
 invasion of an enemy innumerable in numbers, inex- 
 haustible in resources, untiring in energy, unflagging in 
 courage. The number of men she could put into the 
 field was fixed and certain; beyond that limit it was 
 arithmetically impossible to go. 
 
 The North started with the difference of six to one 
 against the South. As time went on and the waste of 
 war was replenished on the one side and unrepaired on the 
 other, that discrepancy was of necessity to be increased. 
 
 No mathematical proposition could be clearer than 
 that, if the war was to be a trial of endurance, a strug- 
 gle of numbers that six must prevail against one, when 
 six was to be increased to twelve and one to diminish in 
 value. But in war, courage, genius, skill, audacity, 
 sometimes compensates for discrepancies in force. 
 Momentum is made of weight and velocity, and the 
 lighter weight may have the greater momentum. At 
 this early stage of the struggle, Gen. Johnston sought to 
 impress his views on the Confederate authorities that the 
 policy of defending posts, positions, lines and ports was 
 untenable and could only lead to certain and irretrieva- 
 ble disaster.
 
 THE CAMPAIGN OF 1861^ IN VIRGINIA. 4! 
 
 The fortification of positions, the marking out of 
 lines of defense, gave the whole initiative of war to the 
 antagonist. He was left at liberty to select the time, 
 place and opportunity for attack, and to make the cam- 
 paign on conditions of his selection. 
 
 Thus, with Johnston tied fast to Harper's Ferry, and 
 Beaureeard at Manassas, Patterson and McClellan 
 
 o ' 
 
 could have combined at Winchester, corked Johnston 
 up at Harper's Ferry, while with McDowell they could 
 have swept the way to Richmond clear at Manassas. 
 
 The same criticism applies to Gen. Albert Sidney 
 Johnston's position at Rowling Green, Kentucky. 
 
 President Davis did not agree with this view as to 
 policy or strategy. 
 
 He was a trained soldier of long and wide experience. 
 He had commanded Southern volunteers at Buena Vista, 
 and he held a large and enthusiastic view of the 
 capability of volunteers, especially of Southern men, 
 inured to arms and accustomed to command a subordi- 
 nate and inferior race. 
 
 He did not minimize the vigor and duration of the 
 war, for from the first, while deploring the fact, he 
 insisted that war must result from the attempt of the 
 Southern States to amend and reform the Constitution 
 of 1787, and that that war would be long, bloody and 
 exhausting. 
 
 But President Davis though a soldier was an agricul- 
 tural man ; he did not fully estimate the enormous force 
 and machine created by modern society, whereby one 
 generation, or one country, can mortgage the future to
 
 42 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 the rest of mankind for the supreme present. He 
 believed that the supply of cotton was so necessary to 
 modern commerce that the South, which controlled that 
 supply, could dictate terms and require support from 
 nations, whose industries were dependent on her agri- 
 culture. 
 
 He believed that with the strain on the credit of the 
 North, its currency would depreciate, its expenses 
 would increase, until, at last, its finances would break 
 down, and that it would not be able to raise a dollar or 
 a man. Wait, said he, until gold touches 250, and the 
 great monied interests, which are behind this war, will 
 cry for peace to save what they have left. 
 
 He did not appreciate, as none, did, that the bond- 
 holders and contractors had got into the position that 
 success only could save them from ruin, and they were 
 forced by necessity to stake everything on success. 
 
 This divergence of view between the Confederate 
 authorities at the very beginning of the war kept on 
 widening, mutual confidence was absent, and the con- 
 sequences to the cause of the Confederacy were prodi- 
 gious and fraught with overwhelming evil. 
 
 It would seem to have been unavoidable. Mr. Davis 
 and Gen. Johnston were both men of very positive 
 character; both were soldiers of experience; both had 
 thought over the problems of this war which they both 
 deplored and both saw was inevitable, and when, there- 
 fore, they arrived at different conclusions on funda- 
 mental principles, it is not reasonable to expect either to 
 yield. It was Johnston's duty to have given obedience,
 
 THE CAMPAIGN OF l86l IN VIRGINIA. 43 
 
 prompt and ready. This he did. But he never changed 
 the convictions of his mind as to the proper strategy for 
 the struggle. 
 
 This is an unfortunate position for a soldier to occupy 
 toward his superior. In the profession of arms, mind 
 and muscle, body, heart and soul must always go 
 together, and he who criticizes his commanding officer 
 will impair his own efficiency, even though ever so 
 zealous to contribute to the success of the common 
 cause, the glory of one's country. 
 
 Gen. Beauregard had taken command at Manassas 
 about a week after Gen. Johnston had assumed charge 
 at Harper's Ferry, and by correspondence and staff 
 officers a perfect understanding was arrived at, that the 
 first one attacked should be supported by the other. 
 
 But Harper's Ferry was the place to be supported not 
 to give support. It was an exposed point on the frontier, 
 with its communications, and its base of supplies liable 
 to be cut off on either side at any time. 
 
 On the loth of June, Patterson advanced from Cham- 
 bersburg to Hagerstown with eighteen thousand men. 
 Hagerstown is six miles from the Potomac at Williams- 
 port, and once across the river, Patterson would be as 
 near Winchester as Johnston at Harper's Ferry. 
 
 At the same time came news that McClellan's ad- 
 vance had reached Romney. Romney is forty-three 
 miles from Winchester, while Williamsport and Harper's 
 Ferry are each about thirty miles from that point ; a-half 
 a day's march then by Patterson and McClellan would 
 ensure their junction at Winchester and close Johnston 
 in at Harper's Ferry.
 
 44 LIFE OF GEN. JOSKl'I! I-:. JOHNSTON. 
 
 On the I5th, the baggage and stores of the troops 
 had been sent ahead. Almost every soldier had a 
 trunk, many of them Saratoga trunks. The Confed- 
 erates left Harper's Ferry and marched three miles 
 beyond Charlestown, where they bivouacked for the 
 night at Turner's Spring. 
 
 The next morning, information having been received 
 that Patterson had crossed the Potomac and was advan- 
 cing along the valley pike south of Martinsburg, 
 Johnston moved across the country and took position at 
 Bunker Hill to intercept him. 
 
 Immediately on receipt of the movement of McClellan, 
 Col. A. P. Hill of Thirteenth Virginia, with Col. Gibbon, 
 Tenth Virginia, and Col. Vaughan, Third Tennessee, 
 had been sent to Romney to hinder, delay or prevent 
 further move from that direction. 
 
 All day of June i7th the Confederates waited Patter- 
 son at Bunker Hill, in "high spirits of another i7th of 
 June at another Bunker Hill. 
 
 But Patterson recrossed the river, not on account of 
 Johnston's demonstration, but because some of his best 
 troops had been taken from him. 
 
 Gen. Johnston then proceeded to Winchester, where 
 he took position on the valley ,pike three miles north of 
 the town, and was soon rejoined by Hill, who had 
 burned the bridge of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad at 
 New Creek and captured two guns and a set of colors, 
 by the hands of Vaughan and the Third Tennessee. At 
 Winchester the army was reinforced and reorganized. 
 
 Jackson's brigade, of Second, Fourth, Fifth and
 
 THE CAMPAIGN OF l86"I IN VIRGINIA. 45 
 
 Twenty-Seventh Virginia regiments, and Pendleton's 
 battery. Bee's, of Second and Eleventh Mississippi, 
 Fourth Alabama and Second Tennessee, and Imboden's 
 battery. Elzey's, of the Tenth and Thirteenth Virginia, 
 Third Tennessee and First Maryland, Elzey being 
 colonel of First Maryland and senior colonel of the 
 brigade and Groves' battery. *And Bartow's, of Seventh, 
 Eighth and Ninth Georgia regiments, First Kentucky 
 and Alburtis' battery. Subsequently the Thirty-third 
 Virginia was added to Jackson's brigade, the Sixth 
 North Carolina to Bee's, and the Eleventh Georgia to 
 Bartow's. 
 
 A fifth brigade was formed for Brigadier-General E. 
 Kirby Smith, of the Nineteenth Mississippi, Eighth, 
 Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh Alabama and Stanard's 
 battery. 
 
 This force was known as the Army of the Shenan- 
 doah. 
 
 The twenty-five regiments named were reduced by 
 mumps, measles and camp diseases, so that they aver- 
 aged about five hundred effective men.
 
 46 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE BATTLE OF FIRST MANASSAS. 
 
 ON the i8th of July, 1861, the army of the Shenan- 
 cloah was reposing in its camps in the beautiful 
 fields on the valley pike north of Winchester; morning 
 drill was over and there was nothing to be done but to 
 get dinner, and smoke and sleep until the drums beat for 
 afternoon drill. The men were busy over their skillets 
 and "spiders" at innumerable fires along the lines, and 
 the smell of savory cookery scented the air. In an 
 instant a thrill pervaded everything. Not a word had 
 been said; not a trumpet sounded; not a drum beat, but 
 every one felt that something had happened. The 
 Generals straightened up ; the Colonels drew up their 
 sword belts; the line officers kicked their legs and fell 
 into groups, all in silent expectation. 
 
 Within three minutes orderlies from brigade head- 
 quarters stride up to regimental headquarters. The 
 adjutants fly out, and in a moment the air throbs with 
 the drum beat of the assembly. One all-pervading 
 cheer; one thrilling yell in an anstant pervaded that 
 whole army, and in an hour tents were struck, wagons 
 packed and the brigades in column, their right resting 
 on the road, ready for the word. 
 
 Down the dusty pike in the hot July afternoon ; down 
 the streets of gallant Winchester; sweethearts and 
 wives waving encouragement and courage from every
 
 THE BATTLE OF FIRST MANASSAS. 47 
 
 window. Not an order had given notice, not a word 
 had been said, but every one knew that Beauregard 
 had been attacked, and that they were marching to the 
 firing. 
 
 When the army had become stretched out along the 
 road so as to be clear of the town, the column was 
 halted and an order read at the head of each regiment 
 from Gen. Johnston, informing them that the battle had 
 opened that day at Manassas, and that it was the duty 
 of every man to "step out," so as to be there in time to 
 share in the danger and the glory of the first Confed- 
 erate victory. 
 
 But alas for enthusiasm and sentiment. Th,e human 
 machine has its limitations; some things it can do, and 
 some things it cannot. Green men fresh from city 
 pavements or country fields have tender feet, and tender 
 feet become blistered, and men with blistered feet can't 
 walk, no matter how hot the heart is, no matter how 
 high the spirit is, when feet are one solid blister from 
 tip of toe to end of heel, the most ardent patriot, the 
 most chivalric knight will limp and halt and lay down 
 in the road side. 
 
 The plan of the Generals was for Johnston to march 
 from Winchester and strike McDowell on his flank as 
 he moved against Beauregard.* The fact of the 
 soldiers was, that their feet got sore after the first hour's 
 march, and they couldn't get to Manassas in time to 
 keep McDowell from routing Beauregard. 
 
 *General Johnston did not accept this plan of Beauregard. He thought the 
 attempt of two converging armies of volunteers to attack involved too much risk, 
 and he rejected its proficiency to concentrate his force before going to battle.
 
 48 J.IFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 Gen. Johnston had never seen volunteers march. 
 He had marched with regulars from Vera-Cruz to the 
 City of Mexico, and he had seen them start at a certain 
 minute in the morning, halt at a certain minute for rest, 
 resume the march and go into camp with the regularity 
 of clock work. 
 
 But the volunteer had no idea of regularity. If there 
 was a small stream across the road he would lay a 
 fence rail over it and cross with great care, followed by 
 ten thousand men after him. Each man would lose a 
 minute, so that the last man would be hours behind the 
 place he ought to have been in. 
 
 Jackson's brigade, afterward the Stonewall, famed in 
 song and story, led and actually marched seventeen 
 miles that day. The rest of the command only covered 
 thirteen miles and went into camp. 
 
 It was now the night of the i8th, and Johnston was 
 informed by Beauregard that the whole of McDowell's 
 army was before him, and would attack on the ipth. 
 
 To march to Manassas with volunteers was plainly 
 impracticable. So the head of the column was directed 
 to the nearest railroad point, Piedmont, on the Manassas 
 Gap Railroad, thirty miles from Manassas Junction. 
 
 Here Jackson and his Stonewall brigade was dis- 
 patched forthwith, and arrived at Manassas during the 
 ipth. 
 
 Gen. Johnston and Gen. Bee, with the Fourth Ala- 
 bama and Second Mississippi, and two companies of the 
 Eleventh Mississippi, reached Manassas during the 
 afternoon of Saturday, the 2Oth of July.
 
 THE BATTLE OF FIRST MANASSAS. 49 
 
 Gen. Johnston had been appointed a General in the 
 Army of the Confederate States to rank from July 4, 
 1861. But the promotion had not been published in 
 
 
 
 orders, and he had not been notified of it. Gen. Beau- 
 regard was a Brigadier-General, but in order to remove 
 all doubt in every one's mind, Gen. Johnston, while en 
 route, telegraphed the President to know what would be 
 the relative positions of Gen. Beauregard and himself 
 when their commands were united. To this the Presi- 
 dent replied: 
 
 RICHMOND, July 20, 1861. 
 GENERAL J. E. JOHNSTON, 
 
 Manassas Junction, Virginia: 
 
 You are a general in the Confederate army, 
 possessed of all the power attached to that rank. You 
 will know how to make the exact knowledge of Briga- 
 dier-General Beauregard, as well of the ground as of 
 the troops and preparation, avail for the success of the 
 object in which you co-operate. The zeal of both 
 assures me of harmonious action. 
 
 JEFFERSON DAVIS. 
 
 Johnston reached Beauregard about noon of the 2Oth. 
 He had come to the conclusion that their united forces 
 ought to attack McDowell, for it was reasonable to 
 expect that Patterson would not be over twenty-four 
 hours behind Johnston, and they ought to beat 
 McDowell before Patterson got up. 
 
 Beauregard at once assented to this suggestion, and 
 submitted a map and order of march by which his com- 
 mand could be moved upon Centreville, McDowell's left. 
 
 He had chosen Bull Run as his defensive line, which 
 was approved by Gen. Johnston.
 
 5O LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 Johnston directed copies to be made of the order of 
 march in the attack to be made on Centreville, so as to 
 be signed by himself and distributed to commanding 
 officers. These copies were not completed until the 
 morning of the 2ist, and then turned out to be phrazed 
 "By command of General Beauregard. Thomas Jordan, 
 Assistant Adjutant-General." 
 
 Now, General Beauregard was a Brigadier-General 
 and not a General, and the order ought to have been 
 by command of General Johnston, the ranking officer, 
 who had no right to shirk his duty nor his responsibility 
 for the conduct and operations of the two armies then 
 consolidated for the battle. Gen. Johnston endorsed 
 these orders in these words : 
 
 SPECIAL ORDERS No. } 
 
 HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, f 
 The plan of attack given by Brigadier-General Beau- 
 regard in the above order is approved and will be exe- 
 cuted accordingly. J. E. JOHNSTON, 
 
 General C. S. A. 
 
 The military office creates and imposes certain duties, 
 authorities and responsibilities as appurtenant to and 
 inseparable from each rank in the service. The rank- 
 ing officer is bound to command. He may direct his 
 subordinate to take charge of one operation or all opera- 
 tions on the field. He may put him in charge of a 
 corps, a division, or a brigade, but he cannot thereby es- 
 cape the responsibility of his authority. He is in command ; 
 he is responsible; all acts done are his acts; all orders 
 given are his orders. The form of papers issued and 
 sent out to troops does not affect the substantial thing
 
 THE BATTLE OF FIRST MANASSAS. 51 
 
 who is in command ? Who has the rank which makes 
 him responsible and makes it his duty to bear the 
 responsibility, and not to attempt to shift it to sub- 
 ordinates. 
 
 As a matter of fact, and as a matter of military law, 
 the General on the field must command the Brigadier- 
 General. And as a matter of fact, the moment Gen. 
 Johnston arrived at Gen. Beauregard's headquarters, 
 his rank placed him in command and made him respon- 
 sible for the whole conduct of operations. 
 
 Gen. Beauregard was a soldier of experience and 
 genius, an old comrade of Mexican campaigns, and 
 Gen. Johnston accepted his arrangements at once, and 
 ordered them carried out. 
 
 General Johnston says: "As we were riding forward, 
 General Beauregard suggested to me that I assign to 
 him the immediate command of the troops engaged, so 
 that my supervision of the whole field might not be 
 interrupted. So he commanded the troops under me, 
 as elsewhere lieutenant-general commanded corps and 
 major-general commanded a division under me." 
 General Beauregard is one of the most brilliant soldiers 
 that war has ever produced. 
 
 His individuality, his personality, his aash at Manas- 
 sas were beyond estimation. When the lines were 
 falling back before the overwhelming Federal onset, 
 he seized the colors of the Fourth Alabama and rode 
 out in front and rallied the retreat and re-established 
 the line. 
 
 His personal gallantry saved the battle and gained 
 the victory more than any one incident of the day.
 
 52 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH ]:. JOHNSTON. 
 
 But Johnston was the superintending providence. At 
 his place as general commanding, he issued the orders 
 and moved the troops and directed the blows which 
 produced the great result. It is unfortunate and fruitless 
 that any discussion should ever have arisen between 
 friends, comrades in arms, great soldiers, as to which 
 one won the glory of the victory there was enough 
 for both. 
 
 But before any move could be made effective on the 
 Confederate right to attack McDowell, it became evident 
 that the Federal General had disarranged the best laid 
 plans by himself taking the initiative and turning the 
 Confederate left. He crossed Bull Run at Sudley ford, 
 some distance above the Confederate left, and moving the 
 head of his column straight from the ford, faced to the 
 left, and marched direct on the left flank of the Con- 
 federates. This was not the battle as arranged at all ; 
 indeed, it was directly and perversely contrary to the 
 preconcieved plan. 
 
 The Confederates ought to have turned McDowell's 
 left and cut him off from Washington. McDowell was 
 in fact turning, had turned, the Confederate left and was 
 marching to cut them off from Richmond. 
 
 Bee, Bartow and Jackson from the Army of the Shen- 
 andoah were formed "a stonewall," right across the 
 line of advance and held back the victorious lines. 
 
 Bonham, Holmes, Early and Ewell of Beauregard's 
 Army of the Potomac were hurried from the right to re- 
 inforce the thin line of the Stonewall Bartow had fal- 
 len, Bee had gone down, Johnson of Hampton's Legion
 
 THE BATTLE OF FIRST MANASSAS. 53 
 
 was dead, Hampton of the Lion Heart was badly 
 wounded, and the future of the Confederate arms was 
 in desperate straits, when far to the left came the 
 whistle of the locomotive. 
 
 The train stopped where the Manassas Gap rail 
 branches from theVirginia Midland, then Orange & Alex- 
 andria Railroad. It held Elzey's brigade, First Maryland, 
 Tenth and Thirteenth Virginia, Third Tennessee. The 
 booming of heavy guns could be heard way off toward 
 the rising sun. Elzey got his troops out promptly, and 
 was forming his regiments in the road, by the side of the 
 railroad, piling their knapsacks in charge of a guard 
 when Kirby Smith dashed up in a strain, "The watch- 
 word is Sumpter," he said. " The signal is this," throw- 
 ing his hand over his foreheacl, palm outward, " forward, 
 to the sound of the firing." Elzey's brigade was one 
 of two which had been assigned to Kirby Smith as a 
 division, and the latter assumed command as soon as it 
 got within his reach. 
 
 The brigade moved through Manassas and out towards 
 Young's branch, bearing to the left. Passing Cash and 
 Kershaw's South Carolina regiments, it was led by 
 Smith toward the left of the whole Confederate line, and 
 Smith, having been shot from his horse, Elzey resumed 
 control and directed himself still to the left. At length 
 he struck the extreme left of the Federal line, crushed 
 it like an eggshell, and the battle of First Manassas was 
 won. 
 
 The troops, tired by their quick march of five miles, 
 were utterly exhausted, and laid down by some captured
 
 54 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 guns of Griffin's and Rickett's batteries. A half a 
 dozen horsemen came rattling down the line, and the 
 cheers which followed them, roused the men. When 
 the word passed, "It's Jeff Davis, Johnston and Beau- 
 regard," a wounded boy raised himself on one elbow, 
 took off his cap with one hand, swung it over his head 
 "Hurrah for Jeff Davis," he cried, and fell back dead. 
 It was literally his last breath. 
 
 Elzey's brigade was at once moved over the stone 
 bridge and for three miles toward Centreville, when 
 about sundown it was ordered back and bivouacked on 
 the east bank of Bull Run. 
 
 The men had been on their feet since twelve o'clock 
 midnight of July 20-21, and had not had a mouthful 
 during that eighteen hours of march, battle and excite- 
 ment. About ten o'clock that night hard bread and 
 ham, sent out by the forethought and care of Beaure- 
 gard, were issued and the soldiers got "filled up." 

 
 THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE VICTORY. 55 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE VICTORY. 
 
 IT must be borne in mind that no man on either side 
 had ever seen so many men in battle before. Scott's 
 army of occupation of eight thousand in Mexico, had 
 been the largest number that any of them had ever served 
 with. Johnston had never seen volunteers march or 
 fight before, and his observation of their marching 
 power on the route from Winchester to Piedmont, had 
 convinced him that they were utterly incapable yet 
 awhile of accomplishing any thing with their legs. 
 President Davis, on the contrary, had not seen the army 
 of the Shenandoah march, but he had seen the First 
 Mississippi regiment, with him as colonel, march and 
 fight at Monterey and Buena Vista. 
 
 While the one underestimated, the other exaggerated 
 the value of the American volunteer. 
 
 It was not until after the Seven Days' Battles that the 
 docility, the intelligence, the endurance of the Southern 
 volunteer was appreciated by Gen. Lee. I do not 
 believe that any Union general-in-chief but McClellan 
 and Grant ever fully understood the value of the North- 
 ern volunteer. The fact that General Johnston did not 
 accupy Washington in the few days after the rout at 
 Manassas, force recognition by the foreign powers and 
 achieve independence for the South, has been greatly 
 complained of among the Confederates, and criticised in
 
 56 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 the North, and by a foreign writer. President Davis has 
 left on record his opinion that Johnston ought to have 
 taken Washington, and that if he had acted on his 
 advice he would have done so. The Count of Paris 
 thinks that while he could not have taken Washington, 
 he ought to have sent a few brigades across the Potomac 
 to worry and harass the enemy. 
 
 General Johnston himself was satisfied of the wisdom 
 of his course and never changed his opinion. 
 
 The light which time and experience throws over 
 events and situations gives us clearer, views that the 
 actors had. Gen. Johnston was of opinion that his army, 
 exhausted by the combat and the marching of Sundav, 
 2 ist, without wagons, rations, cooking utensils or shoes, 
 could not have marched the thirty miles from the Stone 
 Bridge to the fortifications of Arlington and carried them, 
 nor have crossed the navigable Potomac, dominated by 
 war vessels. But Gen. Johnston did not know, for at 
 that time no one could know, the enormous force of 
 morale in men, the prodigious power of enthusiasm. 
 
 When armies meet in death struggle, and one over- 
 comes the other, the courage, the enthusiasm, the high 
 spirit, the morale, which the beaten army looses is at- 
 tracted to and absorbed by the victorious army. 
 
 The pursuit is always more capable of supreme effort 
 than the retreat. The victor is stronger, more enduring, 
 more spirited, than the vanquished. He can march 
 farther, fight harder, eat less, sleep less, work, more 
 than his unsuccessful opponent. 
 
 Jackson was the first man on either side who discov- 
 ered this fact and had a full appreciation of it.
 
 THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE VICTORY. 57 
 
 On the night of July 2ist, no one had any idea of the 
 extent of the Federal rout. It rained all night after the 
 battle, and at daylight of 22d, Col. J, E. B. Stuart 
 was sent with the First Virginia cavalry and Elzey's 
 brigade to Fairfax Court House. On that march, the 
 symptoms of disorder were so remarkable that Stuart 
 refused to believe the evidence of his own eyes. He 
 suspected that a ruse was being used and a trap being 
 laid. The road was filled with debris perfect muskets, 
 accoutrements, uniforms, suttlers' wagons, handsome 
 carriages filled with the choicest delicacies for a fete 
 champetre; in one place a soldier picked up twenty 
 double eagles, dropped in a woodpath at a foot apart. 
 At another place a man's arm was lying on top of the 
 top rail of a fence, the most surprising collection of sur- 
 prising sights that the eye of man ever saw. At Fairfax 
 the court house was packed full of brand new gray over- 
 coats and the yard full of new wall tents. 
 
 By the afternoon of the 22d, Gen. Johnston knew the 
 extent of the rout. A year after he would have marched 
 until the last man was barefoot; he would have crossed 
 the Potomac at White's Ford have taken Washington 
 in reverse and by Thursday, July 25, he would have 
 issued his orders from the White House in Washington. 
 Marching toward the enemy, his men would have found 
 shoes on the wayside, they would have picked up their 
 rations on the march, they would have found everything 
 that was necessary. They were green troops; that was 
 the \vay to season them ; they were inexperienced ; that 
 was the way to give them experience.
 
 58 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 It js easy to see it now. It was almost impossible for 
 Gen. Johnston to have understood it tht-n. 
 
 Lee did it' in September, 1862. But Lee and his 
 army had had thirteen months of marching and lighting, 
 to let the General know what his troops could do and 
 make the troops understand what they were capable of. 
 But Lee's army after the victory of second Manassas in 
 August, 1862, when he crossed the Potomac, did not 
 attempt to capture Washington. 
 
 lie had beaten McClell'an on the peninsula, he had 
 beaten Pope at Manassas. His troops were composed 
 of veterans, tough campaigners, of a hundred combats. 
 
 The sole defenders of Washington were the debris of 
 beaten armies, who had never seen a line of battle of 
 their adversary, without being driven back by it, and 
 who had never had the inspiration of one small success. 
 
 Yet Lee, in 1862, preferred having his demoralized 
 adversary in his rear, and advancing farther into the 
 enemy's country. 
 
 We now understand that the capture of Washington 
 in July, 1861, did not involve an attack on fortifications, 
 nor the carrying of a bridge, nor the control of a navi- 
 gable river. It did involve forced marches by green 
 men, borne up by enthusiasm and capable under the 
 excitement of the most extraordinary energy. It is easy 
 now to see all this. 
 
 It was impossible to have seen and understood it on 
 the 22d or 23d of July, 1861. With the experience 
 of the generals and of their troops, officers and men, 
 on the 22d of July, 1861, it seems now as if they did
 
 THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE VICTORY. 59 
 
 everything that men could do according to their Jights 
 at that time, and it is fruitless now to attempt to appor- 
 tion the responsibility for what was left undone ; whether 
 President Davis ordered, or advised, or expected an en- 
 ergetic pursuit and a prompt advance ; whether General 
 Beauregard or Johnston considered themselves con- 
 strained by the presence of the commander-in-chief from 
 entire liberty of action, it is bootless to inquire or to 
 determine. 
 
 General Johnston has definitely settled all such 
 discussion by assuming the entire responsibilty for all 
 the delay and non-action, and to the end of his life 
 continued entirely satisfied with the wisdom of his 
 course. 
 
 It may fairly be contended that if Lee in 1862, with a 
 veteran army of victors, crowned with glory and imbued 
 with the confidence of invincibility, could not or would 
 not attempt to take Washington from the debris of the 
 armies which he had been booting about Virginia for six 
 months, certainly Johnston was justified in not attempting 
 it with utterly inexperienced troops. I believe it could 
 have been done, but no one had a right to believe so on 
 the morning of July 22, 1861. 
 
 The consequences of the victory were not as damag- 
 ing to the defeated, nor as advantageous to the victors 
 as might have been expected. 
 
 The Northern statesmen recovered from their panic 
 in marvelous brief time, and at once applied all the 
 energy of their immense machine to support the war. 
 
 To make up the loss of the Southern market to the
 
 6O LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 Northern manufacturer, they gave him a new and better 
 market in war expenses. To give work to unemployed 
 labor, they paid bounties to recruits and premiums to 
 substitutes. 
 
 The vigor of a democracy was never more vividly 
 illustrated. The enthusiasm of the people took control 
 of the 1 last dollar and the last man, and then sent out 
 into the world to borrow more men and money. 
 
 The influence on the South was not so invigorating. 
 The Southern people for several generations had trained 
 themselves into a vainglorious mood toward the Northern 
 men. 
 
 They believed that they were inconquerable by the 
 North, and that the men of the North were not their 
 physical nor mental equals. The rout at Manassas 
 seemed to justify their estimate of their value, and it 
 was difficult to get States or societies to understand that 
 the struggle had just begun. Manassas was considered 
 to have demonstrated the futility of further effort to 
 subjugate the South, and there was a sensible relaxa- 
 tion of the effort in the South. The Confederate 
 Congress, nor the State governments, had the least 
 appreciation of the necessity of finance to support war. 
 They believed that supplies could be raised indefinitely 
 by mortgaging the future, and never did understand that 
 the power of borrowing on the one side was only created 
 by the faith in payment, and that a debt created, with 
 no security nor provision for payment, becomes at once 
 a burden. 
 
 The Confederate government could have bought the
 
 THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE VICTORY. 6l 
 
 entire cotton crop for bonds. It could have transported 
 it to Europe and created a fund of a thousand millions 
 in gold, which would have floated four times that amount 
 of bonds, have bought arms, fleets, moral support, rec- 
 ognition, independence. President Davis from the first 
 had the clearest ideas of the necessity of the emergency. 
 Lee and Johnston certainly understood it as well. But 
 the brains of the South were in the army. Her leading 
 men, her thinkers and statesmen were in the field in 
 charge of regiments or brigades, consequently her Con- 
 gress was inferior to the Northern Congress, and from 
 first to last there was not a single man in the legislative 
 department of the government who appreciated the 
 tremendous problem before them. 
 
 The Confederate States were not crushed by over- 
 whelming resources nor overpowering numbers. They 
 were out-thought by the Northern men. The great brain 
 of Chase, which conceived the financial system of the 
 Union side, and the courage of Lincoln and the sagacity 
 of Seward, administered the resources of the North and 
 applied the machinery of currency, credit and industry, 
 as created by modern civilization, in a way no Southern 
 statesman was able to do. 
 
 The monopoly of the currency, that machine by which 
 trade and commerce and industry lives, was invented by 
 Chase and seized by the Federal powers and wielded 
 with irresistible force and inexhaustible resources. 
 
 Therefore, the consequences of the rout at Manassas 
 were rather favorable to the Federals and unfavorable 
 to the Confederates.
 
 62 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE LINES OF CENTREVILLE. 
 
 1T\URING the two or three days succeeding tne battle, 
 * ' Gen. Johnston moved up to Fairfax court house, 
 where he established the headquarters of the army and 
 distributed the Army of the Potomac in a line of canon- 
 ments extending from north of the pourt-house down 
 beyond Fairfax station, on the Orange & Alexandria 
 Railroad as far as Wolf Run Shoals. They remained 
 there during the summer, being instructed by daily 
 drills, marches and alarms. 
 
 In September, Beauregard, who was the spirit, the 
 elan, the enthusiasm of the army, pressed down to the 
 Potomac and occupied a line of hills from the south of 
 Alexandria up, west and toward the north of that place. 
 Mason's, Munson's, Upton's, Hall's hills were all occu- 
 pied and held partly as points of observation, for from 
 Mason's hill, Beauregard's signal officer could commu- 
 nicate with his comrade in Washington, and also for the 
 purpose of exasperating the Federals into a fight. The 
 first plan, as a signal station, succeeded admirably. From 
 Mason's hill at night, flashes could be seen and sent 
 from and to a house in Washington, from a room in the 
 third story of which movements of a lamp conveyed 
 messages to the Confederate station in Virginia. But as 
 a challenge or a taunt the move was a failure. 
 
 McClellan was organizing his army, and could not 
 be di vertex! t inferior enterprises.
 
 THE LINES OF CEXTREVILLE. 63 
 
 His first business was to make an army a fighting 
 machine, his second was to use it for great results. So 
 while the occupation of the lines of Mason's, Munson's 
 and Upton's hills added greatly to the morale or the 
 self-glorification of the Confederates, the only substan- 
 tial advantage they acquired was experience in march- 
 ing, in bivouac and in prompt movement. During this 
 period arose a controversy which was painful at the 
 time, and never ceased to be the cause of soreness during 
 the rest of the war.. 
 
 When the thirteen Southern States withdrew from the 
 Union of 1787-89, and amended the articles of Union and 
 established a new Union under them, they expected that 
 they would receive their proper part of the common 
 property of all the States, their share of the army and 
 navy and their proportion of the public lands and funds. 
 The president nor Lee, nor Johnston, expected any such 
 thing. They knew that there was to be a death struggle 
 between the two systems, and that there was no alterna- 
 tive but independence or subjugation. 
 
 But the public expectation was that reason and justice 
 would rule. Each State had had educated and trained 
 at her expense, a body of skilled soldiers at the com- 
 mon military school of all the States. They occupied 
 various ranks and posts of responsibility, from General 
 Winfield Scott of Virginia, Commander-in-Chief of the 
 Army of the United States and Joseph E. Johnston, 
 Brigadier-General and Quartermaster-General of the 
 Army of the United States, and Robert Edward Lee, 
 Lieutant-Colonel of Dragoons, down to Lieutenant J. E. 
 B. Stuart.
 
 64 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 When the States undertook to separate themselves 
 from the Union, they believed that their citizens in the 
 army would, of course, follow their own people. And 
 it was evidently neither just nor wise that soldiers, the 
 breath of whose life was promotion, rank and conse- 
 quent power, should be required to abandon the career 
 of their choice and the results of the labors of life, and 
 enter a new Service on terms of perfect equality. 
 Therefore the Confederate Congress,' on March 14, 1861, 
 first provided for the appointment of five officers with 
 the rank of Brigadier-Generals, and in the same act de- 
 clared that "in all cases of officers who have resigned 
 or who may within six months tender their resignation 
 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 commissions issued 
 shall bear one and the same date, so that the relative 
 rank of officers of each grade shall be determined by 
 their former commissions in the United States Army, 
 held anterior to the secession of these Confederate States 
 from the United States." 
 
 The object of this law was to indemnify all citizens 
 who left the service of the United States and entered 
 that of the Confederate States by securing them, not the 
 same rank, but the same relative rank, in the new service 
 as they had enjoyed in the old. 
 
 It was not intended as a promise to General Scott, 
 that if he would leave the Army of the United States 
 he would fce guaranteed the Command-in-chief of the 
 Army of the Confederate States, for before that law
 
 THE LINES OF CENTREVILLE. 6$ 
 
 passed, March 14, 1861, it had been definitely ascer- 
 tained and settled that General Scott would stay where 
 he was. But it was at the same time equally understood 
 that General Johnston and Colonel Lee would certainly 
 resign, and take commissions under the Confederacy. 
 
 The act of Congress, therefore, was in substance an 
 offer by Virginia and her co-States to Johnston, Lee and 
 others that if you will give up your places in the Army 
 of the United States, we will guarantee you the same rela- 
 tive rank in the Army of the Confederate States. You, 
 General Johnston shall rank you, Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Lee, and you, Colonel Albert Sidney Johnson, shall 
 rank you, Captain Beauregard. This was plain and 
 understood of all men. 
 
 The five brigadier-generals under the act of March 
 14, with relative rank as provided by that act, were: 
 
 1. Joseph E. Johnston, (Brigadier-General U. S. A.) 
 
 2. Samuel Cooper, (Colonel U. S. A.) 
 
 3. A. S. Johnston, (Colonel U. S. A.) 
 
 4. R. E. Lee, (Lieutenant-Colonel U. S. A.) 
 
 5. G. T. Beauregard, (Captain U. S. A.) 
 
 These were the brigadier-generals appointed under 
 the act of March 14, 1861, with their relative rank as 
 fixed by that act. 
 
 On May i6th, the Congress passed another act, that 
 the five Brigadier-Generals shall have the rank and 
 denomination of Generals instead of Brigadier-Generals, 
 which shall be the highest military grade known to the 
 Confederate States. Therefore, under the law, the 
 Brigadier-Generals were at once converted into Gen-
 
 66 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 erals, Joseph E. Johnston being first, Cooper second, 
 A. S. Johnston third, R. E. Lee fourth and G. T. 
 Beauregard fifth. Thus far the point is too plain for 
 discussion. 
 
 But when commissions were issued to these brigadiers 
 turned into generals, the President nominated them to 
 be generals in the Confederate service, first, Cooper to 
 rank from May 16; second, A. S. Johnston to rank 
 from May 28; third, Lee from June 14; fourth, J. E. 
 Johnston from July 4, and fifth, Beauregard from July 
 21, the day of the battle of First Manassas. When 
 General Johnston was officially informed of their nomi- 
 nations and the confirmation thereof, he was deeply 
 wounded, and greatly offended, as he had the right to 
 be. He then wrote the letter quoted in the first page of 
 this memoir. " But," said he, " 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 dispassionately, 
 T believe, and was confident that what it contained was 
 not improper to be said by a soldier to the President, nor 
 improperly said.'' 
 
 When General Johnston wrote his narrative in 1874, 
 and his paper in Scribner's "Battles and Leaders," ir 
 1886, he had only the last page of this letter. Mrs. 
 Davis has given us the full text in her memoir, and I 
 have inserted the leading part in the first pages of this 
 memoir. Looking at it now, after the lapse of thirty 
 years, it must be conceded that General Johnston was 
 within his right.
 
 THE LINES OF CENTREVILLE. ' 67 
 
 He was the ranking officer who left the army of the 
 United States, He was the only general officer who 
 left that service. 
 
 He was the senior brigadier-general in the original 
 organization of the army of the Confederate States, and 
 by law, by logic, by justice, by the comradeship of 
 arms, he ought to have retained his seniority when all 
 the brigadiers were converted into generals. 
 
 He had a right to be indignant, and to express himself 
 as he did at the treatment he had received. But at the 
 very beginning he had differed radically with President 
 Davis, as to the policy and strategy of the war, as has 
 been seen, and it may well be that the commander-in- 
 chief of all the armies was absolutely unwilling to have 
 at the head of his army, an officer who differed with 
 him so radically as Johnston did. Confidence is a vase, 
 once cracked can never be made whole, and these two 
 points destroyed the possibility of Davis and Johnston 
 co-operating with cordiality and mutual forbearance. 
 They were too much alike to get along. Each intellec- 
 tual, thoughtful, full of ideas as of sentiment; each 
 with the highest ideals of duty, of friendship, and of- 
 honor. If they had agreed they would have been insep- 
 arable in their ideas and their acts. Their union would 
 have made a prodigious force for the Confederacy. 
 
 But they were each high tempered, impetuous, jeal- 
 ous of honor, of the love of their friends, and they 
 could brook no rival. They required absolute devotion, 
 without question. Neither could accord that confidence 
 to the other, and they separated, and their divergence
 
 68 MFE OF GEN. JOSEPH K. JOHNSTON. 
 
 widened every day until the convention at Durham's 
 station. 
 
 During the month of September the Army of the 
 Potomac was organized into four divisions, containing 
 thirteen brigades. Major-General Earl Van Dorn 
 commanded the first division of Bonham's, Early's 
 and Rode's brigades; Major-General James Long- 
 street commanded the second division of D. R. Jones, 
 Ewell and Cocke's brigades; Major-General Gustavus 
 W. Smith had S. Jones, Toombs and Wilcox brigades, 
 and Major-General Thomas J. Jackson (Stonewall) had 
 the Stonewall, Elzey's, Crittenden's and Walker's 
 brigades. 
 
 President Davis came to Fairfax on the last day of 
 September, and called a conference with Gens. Johnston 
 and Beauregard and G. W. Smith. 
 
 It was proposed to cross the Potomac at the fords 
 above Washington, take position in the rear of Wash- 
 ington, and thus force McClellan out of his entrench- 
 ments and make him attack. The President demanded 
 to know what force was considered necessary for such 
 An enterprise. Smith thought fifty thousand would be 
 enough. Beauregard and Johnston considered sixty 
 thousand necessary. The Generals proposed that 
 twenty thousand men should be taken from the seacoast 
 of North and South Carolina and Georgia, and thrown 
 into the Army of the Potomac, and with these reinforce- 
 ments, they considered that results could reasonably be 
 anticipated highly profitable to the Confederacy. But 
 tin.- President considered it impracticable to strip the
 
 THE LINES OF CENTREVILLE. 69 
 
 ports to reinforce for this move, and all idea of aggres- 
 sive operations ceased for the season of 1861. 
 
 About the first of November the department of North- 
 ern Virginia was created, and Gen. Johnston assigned 
 to the command of it. 
 
 It was composed of the valley district lying between 
 the Alleghany and Blue Ridge mountains, commanded 
 by Major-General T. J. Jackson. 
 
 The district of the Potomac, commanded by General 
 Beauregard, extending from the Blue Ridge to Quantico, 
 on the Potomac, and that of Acquia, from Quantico to 
 the Chesapeake, commanded by Major-General Holmes. 
 Major-General E. Kirby Smith, having recovered from 
 his wound, reported for duty and was placed in command 
 of the reserve. 
 
 The summer and fall of 1861 was employed in the 
 instruction of the troops. They suffered severely from 
 mumps and measles, and some regiments whick had 
 come up one thousand strong could hardly turn out 
 enough effective men for camp guard. 
 
 By October 19, General McClellan, having progressed 
 sufficiently with the organization and instruction of his 
 army as to make it capable of movement and enterprises, 
 General Johnston withdrew from his posts on the Poto- 
 mac at Mason's and Munson's hills and his lines at Fair- 
 fax court-house to a position at Centreville, which was 
 much stronger in front and less easily turned. 
 
 At this time the effective total of all arms in the 
 Department of Northern Virginia capable of going into 
 battle was forty-one thousand men. According to the
 
 70 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 reports of Johnston's spies, the effective force of the 
 Federal army opposed to him was one hundred and fifty 
 thousand. The troops went into winter quarters in log 
 cabins which they constructed along Bull Run. 
 
 During January, 1862, Gen. Beauregard and Major- 
 Gen. Van Dorn were ordered to the Western army, and 
 shortly afterward Major-Gen. E. Kirby Smith was sent 
 to command the Department of East Tennessee. 
 
 While the organization was thus greatly interfered with 
 by the transference of Beauregard, Van Dorn and Smith 
 to other fields of duty, the morale of the army was radi- 
 cally impaired by unmilitary interference from the Sec- 
 retary of War's Office at Richmond. A large body of 
 the troops had enlisted for twelve months in March or 
 April, 1861. As the period of their term approached, 
 the men became more and more restless. 
 
 None of them contemplated leaving the field. Patriot- 
 ism, pride and duty all combined to keep them up to 
 the work of defending their homes. But they wanted 
 to change their companies. They did not like their 
 officers, or they wanted to change their branch of ser- 
 vice. They were tired of walking and wanted to ride, 
 or they were tired of grooming horses and wanted to 
 go into the artillery and so forth, and so forth. 
 
 No man who was not present, and party to it, can 
 appreciate the ferment that was going on in the Army 
 of the Potomac in January and February, 1862. 
 
 Everybody was dissatisfied. The commissioned offi- 
 cers were uncertain in their positions, for they did not 
 know whether they were to be retained in their places
 
 THE LINES OF CENTREVILLE. 71 
 
 in their companies, and their regiments. The men in 
 the ranks were disorganized, because they were in a 
 ferment for promotion. 
 
 Bad as the situation was from the necessity of the 
 case, it was ten times intensified by the lack of discre- 
 tion at the war office in Richmond. 
 
 While Johnston was trying to influence his people by the 
 legitimate means of controlling his officers at Manassas, 
 the war office was doing everything to disorganize his 
 command and discredit him. 
 
 The Secretary of War would furlough whole compa- 
 nies without consulting the commanding General. 
 
 Johnston writes: "The Secretary of War has ordered 
 a private soldier to be detailed on special duty, an order 
 which I venture to say has never before been issued by 
 by a Secretary of War in time of war." 
 
 The Army of the Potomac at Manassas, from being 
 a highly organized, finely tempered machine in October 
 and November, 1861, had become little better than a 
 badly demoralized mob by February, 1862. I have 
 known twenty-one men taken from one company, de- 
 tailed by a special order of the department of war at 
 Richmond, without reference to the Colonel command- 
 ing the regiment, or the captain commanding the com- 
 pany, much less the General commanding the army. 
 
 While this was going on with us, we had certain 
 information of the progress of organization on the other 
 side. 
 
 McClellan, beyond doubt, was a great organizer. He 
 had the faculty of taking great bodies of men and
 
 72 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 infusing into them one spirit, one idea, supreme confidence 
 in himself. 
 
 He was not a great General. He will never com- 
 pare with Marlborough or Wellington, or Grant, or Lee, 
 or the great soldiers that the English race has produced 
 in the last three centuries. He was eminently an intel- 
 lectual man. He understood the mathematics of life. 
 , He knew that two and two made four, and given certain 
 quantities of men, of weather, of roads, of human 
 energy, McClellan was a great soldier. But he was 
 utterly incapable of dealing with the "unknown 
 quantity." He had no imagination. He could not 
 project himself into the hearts and rninds of his men so as 
 to calculate or appreciate or estimate the value of 
 enthusiasm with them. He thought he was a sentimental 
 soldier. He believed he was a romantic knight. His 
 conduct was keyed up to the highest point of sympathy, 
 with chivalry, and honor, and generosity in war. 
 
 McClellan never struck a foul blow, and never tole- 
 rated mean men or mean methods about him. He 
 generated and organized, and propagated an enthusiasm, 
 a generous ideal of war, a high sense of chivalry, which 
 is the duty of fighting the belligerent and sparing the 
 weak, and he impressed on his Army of the Potomac 
 the most intense feeling of personal devotion to him. 
 
 His fight at Sharpsburgh showed that. No man who 
 ever lived could have taken the debris of armies, one of 
 which had been driven from Mechanicsville to Harri- 
 son's Landing, another from Cross Keys and Port 
 Republic to the mountains, another from Cedar moun-
 
 THE LINES OF CENTREVILLE. 73 
 
 tain, and then the whole three booted and kicked from 
 Manassas to the fortifications of Washington; no man 
 could have remodeled and remoraled these broken 
 debris of armies from September 2, to September 15, 
 1862, and made them fight as he did, but a great soul. 
 But McClellan fell below the measure of the greatest, 
 because he did not know how to estimate the value of 
 his own people and the force of his adversary at a given 
 time. 
 
 Before Richmond in 1862, he certainly ought to have 
 pushed forward and taken his adversary's base. At 
 Sharpsburgh in September, 1862, he ought to have cap- 
 tured Lee's army, but his fine mathematical intellect too 
 clearly appreciated the quantities of the problem; given 
 so much force, so much will, so much numbers on one 
 side, and an indefinite quantity of . will on the other, 
 he could not tell what the result of the collision would 
 be. Therefore, he had no collision. 
 
 In August, September, October, November, 1861, he 
 kept his raw levies in his camps. He drilled his men, 
 he instructed his officers in never ceasing schools, where 
 he made old soldiers drawn from all the armies of the 
 world his drill masters. 
 
 He had the most accurate dress parades, he had the 
 most regular reviews, and he sacrificed everything to the 
 style, the pomp, the parade of war. The soldiers of for- 
 tune he drew to him from the refuse of the armies of the 
 old world the Sigeles, Blenkers, Sir Percy Windhams, 
 all the adventurers from everywhere, knew more about 
 drill and style and appearances than the American vol-
 
 74 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 unteer. They were deficient in brains; they became 
 rattled in battle, they had not the faculty of becoming 
 cooler and concentrated in high excitement. The South 
 had only a few of such men ; the North had many of 
 them, and not one stood the test of use and time, not one 
 ever achieved any high renown or position. 
 
 While McClellan was thus organizing his raw levies 
 on the Potomac, the War Department at Richmond was 
 demoralizing Johnston's seasoned soldiers at Manassas. 
 
 Before the concentration of the Army of the Shenan- 
 doah with the Army of the Potomac, it had been discus- 
 sed between Generals Johnston and Beauregard whether 
 the line of the Rappahannock would not be a better line 
 than that of Manassas and the Potomac. 
 
 A Federal column moving up the valley could cross 
 the Blue Ridge at several passes at Chester's Gap from 
 Front Royal, or Brown's Gap to Madison court house, 
 and would be two marches nearer Richmond than an 
 army at Manassas Junction. And a movement to take 
 up the line of the Rappahannock was being discussed 
 when McDowell precipitated the decision by selecting 
 Bull Run for the line of battle? 
 
 As the spring of 1862 advanced, it became clear that 
 as soon as the roads would permit, McClellan must 
 move. Gen. Johnston did not have a convinced opinion 
 as to a Federal advance by land on the line of the Vir- 
 ginian railroads. The command of the water absolutely 
 held by the Federals, and the navigable rivers which 
 pierced the side of Virginia, the Potomac, the Rappa- 
 hannock, the York and the James, gave at a dozen
 
 THE LINES OF CENTREVILLE. 75 
 
 points places for bases of operation which could not 
 possibly escape the attention of McClellan. 
 
 One day a group of young officers were in Gen. 
 Johnston's Adjutant's office at Centreville, and Col. 
 George W. Lay, his aid-de-camp, was delivering a 
 discourse on strategy. Lay had been Gen. Scott's 
 military secretary and aid for years, and had probably 
 as large a view of the science of war, and of this par- 
 ticular war, as any man living. He had the map of 
 Virginia before him, and was demonstrating to his circle 
 of ardent and inquisitive auditors the folly and imprac- 
 ticability of an attack on the lines of Centreville and an 
 advance to Richmond by that route. The way to 
 Richmond is this, said he, putting his finger on City 
 Point, and Richmond can only be taken by an army 
 operating south of the James. 
 
 Gen. Johnston had entered the room without attracting 
 the attention of the absorbed auditors or the speaker. 
 He here broke in: "Col. Lay, don't you think it unad- 
 visable to make such a discussion ; you cannot know 
 who may be evesdropping." And that conversation 
 ceased. 
 
 But as the spring opened, Johnston apprehended that 
 McClellan might march down on the north bank of the 
 Potomac, pass his army rapidly across below Acquia 
 creek, where he could move promptly to Fredericks- 
 burg, and would be three days nearer Richmond than 
 Johnston. 
 
 Therefore, on March pth, he withdrew from the lines 
 at Centreville just as McClellan advanced to feel his 
 force, and took position behind the Rappahannock.
 
 76 LIFK OK GEN. JOSEI'H K. JOHNSTON. 
 
 McCiellan replied to this move by transporting his 
 whole army by water to York River, when Fortress 
 Monroe gave him a fortified base, and Hampton Roads 
 brought his supplies to his very camps. 
 
 The six positions selected by the Confederate admin- 
 istration to be occupied in force so as to protect Virginia 
 from invasion, were Grafton, on the Baltimore & Ohio 
 Railroad, west of Cumberland; Harper's Ferry to cover 
 the Valley; Manassas Junction to protect the interior 
 railroads; Acquia creek to cover the flank of Manassas; 
 Yorktown and Norfolk. 
 
 Johnston objected to the strategy which endeavored 
 to defend positions, and the event justified his judgment. 
 The secession of West Virginia carried off Grafton 
 without a struggle. Patterson's move to Williamsport 
 gave him check at Harper's Ferry, and he was forced 
 out of that position. 
 
 Now the movement of McCiellan by the water 
 route obliged the abandonment of the line of the 
 Potomac, and no sooner had the design of the Federal 
 General been developed, than it became clear that Nor- 
 folk and Yorktown must be abandoned. 
 
 An army on the peninsula, between the York and 
 the James, is at the mercy of the power which controls 
 the water. Cornwallis* found it so. McCiellan ought 
 to have utilized his tremendous advantage instead of a 
 laborious siege operation at Yorktown. He could have 
 landed his army at West Point, forty miles from Rich- 
 mond, or at City Point, eight miles from Petersburg, 
 and from either place, with his communications abso-
 
 THE LINES OF CENTREVILLE. 77 
 
 lutely untrammeled, would have been free for a positive 
 movement on the capital of his adversary. The Army 
 of the Potomac had not got back to the. Rappahannock 
 before the appearance of McClellan on York river 
 notified Johnston of his next move. He accordingly 
 confronted McClellan at Yorktown, with the troops who 
 had been observing him for the preceding six months 
 on the line of the Potomac. 
 
 But before this, an incident had occurred which was 
 fraught with grave consequences to the Confederacy. 
 Before the 2Oth of February, Gen. Johnston had been 
 ordered to Richmond to confer with the President, and 
 on his arrival on the forenoon of the 2Oth, he had a pro- 
 longed conference with Mr. Davis and his cabinet at 
 his office at what had been and is now the post-office and 
 custom-house. The result of a discussion of several 
 hours was that, without giving orders, Gen. Johnston 
 understood that the army was to fall back as soon as 
 practicable. 
 
 The dicussion was of course strictly confidential, yet 
 on going straight from the meeting to the Spottswood 
 Hotel, only two squares off, he was asked by Col. Pender, 
 of the Sixth North Carolina, just arrived in the city on 
 his way to the army, if he, Johnston, had heard a 
 report, which he, Pender, had found in the house on his 
 arrival, that the cabinet had been discussing that day, 
 the question of withdrawing the army from the line then 
 occupied. 
 
 Gen. Johnston accepted this rumor as proof positive of 
 the indiscretion of some member of the cabinet, and never
 
 78 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH K. JOHNSTON. 
 
 thereafter gave his confidence to the President nor those 
 in authority over him. He insisted that if his plans were 
 communicated to anyone, they \vould immediately be 
 made known to the Federal authorities, and thencefor- 
 ward he steadfastly refused to take anyone into his 
 confidence. 
 
 But in this instance, which was the foundation for his 
 mistrust, he seems to have acted on insufficient evidence. 
 
 The fact that Col. Fender heard a rumor at the 
 Spottswood Hotel that the cabinet had been in consulta- 
 tion that day about a withdrawal from Manassas, did not 
 prove in the slightest degree that any one in that con- 
 ference had mentioned anything outside about the sub- 
 ject matter of it. Two facts were notorious: Gen. 
 Johnston had left the army and Jiad come to Richmond. 
 He had never done so since June, 1861. He had gone 
 at once to a cabinet meeting, which was kept up for 
 several hours. 
 
 It took no great imagination to discern that the com- 
 mander of the army had been sent for, for conference, 
 and that conference could only refer to a withdrawal of 
 the army. 
 
 It would seem therefore that Gen. Johnston too hastily 
 concluded that the indiscretion of the cabinet had 
 exposed his councils, and it was extremely unfortunate 
 that he should have come to this conclusion. 
 
 He withdrew his army from before McClellan, with- 
 out the knowledge of his superior officer, and Mr. Davis 
 says he met some artillery actually in the suburbs of 
 Richmond before he knew that the army was falling 
 back.
 
 THE LINES OF CENTREVILLE. 79 
 
 But behind it all was Johnston's sense of the cruel injus- 
 tice which had been done him on the question of rank, 
 and the absolute lack of confidence between himself 
 and the President. He did not believe that Mr. Davis 
 appreciated or understood at all the real conditions of the 
 struggle. He believed that his large experience had 
 qualified him far beyond the President to judge and 
 decide as to proper measures and movements. He 
 urged and insisted on certain views of policy. For 
 instance, from Centreville he urged that his commissary 
 be allowed to live on the country around and in front of 
 his lines, because he said they will otherwise be ulti- 
 mately lost. But supplies were collected along the 
 railroad, hauled by his camps to Richmond, and the 
 next week hauled back and issued to his troops. 
 
 He remonstrated at this maladministration, and he had 
 no patience with it. Taking into consideration the 
 inexperience of every one connected with the staff, it is 
 remarkable how well it did its wOrk, and it is not just to 
 criticise it for inefficiency. 
 
 tf 
 
 But Gen. Johnston had been Quartermaster General 
 of the Army of the United States, a machine with the 
 experience of ninety years, and the brightest intellects 
 that had been applied to logistics at any time. 
 
 It is not beyond the fact to say that the trained and 
 educated staff of the Army of the United States has 
 never had, and has not now, its equal in the world. In 
 intelligence, in education, in force, and in energy, it is 
 without a peer. 
 
 It is the fashion to overestimate the great ability of ,
 
 SO LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 the German staff, and of Von Moltke and his school. 
 But the ^soldiers trained at West Point, in brains, in 
 acquirement in force, in capacity to do things, have 
 never been equalled anywhere, and the first great trial 
 of force this country is ever involved in will prove it 
 again. 
 
 Gen. Johnston had been accustomed to the smooth 
 working of the great machine of which he had been 
 chief, and he did riot make just allowance for the diffi- 
 culties in taking clerks, young lawyers, absolutely 
 inexperienced young men, and putting them in charge 
 of duties, where exact obedience is the highest obligation. 
 
 The necessities of the situation compelled this, and 
 the Confederate staff accomplished miracles. 
 
 No men ever did more with less means than they did. 
 But the inefficiency of the staff in January and February, 
 1862, as the marching of the volunteers in July, 1861, 
 exasperated Gen. Johnston, and the incident with 
 Fender only assisted to aggravate the general situation. 
 
 As McClellan began to move on Johnston's lines at 
 Yorktown in the most skillful and approved manner, 
 and began to open his parallels of approach according 
 to strictest rules of science, Johnston interested himself 
 in committing McClellan to this method of operations. 
 
 Every day's delay cost the invading army in money 
 and men and means, and if McClellan could only be 
 induced to dig his way to Richmond, it was supposed 
 that, while it would gratify his scientific aspirations, it 
 would not greatly incommode his adversaries. 
 
 Yorktown is on the south side of York river, on the
 
 THE LINES OF CENTREVILLE. 8l 
 
 peninsula between the James and the York ; at the end 
 of the peninsula, the point between the Chesapeake 
 and the James, is Fortress Monroe, a place heavily 
 fortified and with deep water approaches. 
 
 McClellan had landed about 100,000 effectives on the 
 peninsula for the movement on Richmond. When 
 Johnston assumed command, he had probably 53,000 
 effectives. But Johnston knew the map of Virginia as 
 well as any man who ever lived. He knew the naviga- 
 ble waters penetrating her eastern side, and was perfectly 
 acquainted with their depth and capacity. He knew 
 before he went to the peninsula, that it was utterly 
 untenable. The Union general had absolute control 
 of the water. York was already in his hands. The 
 James would be when he required it. 
 
 The Confederate line, extending across the narrow 
 neck of land between the York and the James, could 
 be flanked whenever he chose to do so. He could 
 occupy Gloucester Point on the north side of the York, 
 land a proper force there, march to West Point abso- 
 lutely secure from attack; or he could move up James 
 river and seize a point west of the Chickahominy, and 
 by either move, would have his army nearer Richmond 
 than Johnston. 
 
 Besides this, McDowell, with 38,000 effectives, was 
 at Fredericksburg, eighty miles north of Richmond, as 
 near that point as Johnston found the Confederate army. 
 The first thing to be done then was to withdraw and 
 place his force in such a position as could meet an 
 advance, either by the York or the James, or by both, as
 
 82 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 well as guard against McDowell. This withdrawal 
 was effected with promptness and skill. The Confed- 
 erate rear guard covering Johnston's trains was fiercely 
 assailed by the Union advance, and after a bloody light 
 on May 5, 1862, at Williamsburg, captured four hun- 
 dred unwounded prisoners, ten colors and twelve field 
 pieces. 
 
 The Confederates slept on the field of battle, and 
 though in some accounts on the Union side this affair is 
 claimed as a great Union victory, the fact is that the 
 Confederates captured and carried off the trophies of 
 battle, slept on the field and marched off the next 
 morning at their leisure and convenience, and did not 
 have a shot fired at them for weeks. 
 
 The Chickahominy is a stream flowing from a point 
 north of Richmond in a southeasterly direction, its 
 nearest point three miles from the suburb of Richmond. 
 For the first part of its course it is an insignificant 
 branch^ in the Virginian vernacular, a small stream 
 everywhere fordable. But it drains an extensive water- 
 shed of hilly, rolling country, and a hard rain raises 
 the stream and floods its banks for hundreds of yards 
 on each side with a prodigious quantity of water. The 
 stream will rise ten feet in two hours. On occasions, 
 and what was at noon a pretty, sluggish brook, by sun- 
 down will become a turbid torrent, more than a mile 
 wide, unapproachable by any ordinary means of trans- 
 portation. 
 
 Numerous bridges and fords along the upper part of 
 the Chickahominy afford easy access across it. In its
 
 THE LINES OF CENTREVILLE. 83 
 
 ordinary stages it opposed no great obstacle to move- 
 ments from either side, but after a hard rain up the 
 the country, it became a serious consideration in moving 
 or feeding or fighting an army. 
 
 Johnston withdrew from the peninsula, and took posi- 
 tion on the right or southern and western side of the 
 Chickahominy. He placed a brigade at Hanover court- 
 house, fifteen miles north of Richmond, to keep a watch 
 over McDowell, and another at Gordonsville, to protect 
 his railroad communications with the Valley of Virginia, 
 and the army under Jackson there being collected. 
 
 He urged upon President Davis and Gen. Lee, who 
 was acting as the President's military counsellor, the 
 paramount importance first, of drawing McClellan as 
 far from his base as possible. This he had accom- 
 plished by making him follow to the Chickahominy. 
 Second, of- concentrating all the troops of the Con- 
 federacy into one army of overwhelming numbers, and 
 with that falling on McClellan and crushing him. Noth- 
 ing was to be left to chance. But he insisted that 
 Charleston, Wilmington, Savannah and Mobile should 
 be stripped of troops, and that McClellan's destruction 
 should be made certain, absolutely, mathematically 
 certain, as could have been done had Johnston's urgent 
 appeal been consented to. 
 
 But neither Mr. Davis nor Gen. Lee were willing to 
 give up the ports, their only access to the world, and 
 through which alone could cotton be shipped to pur- 
 chase ships, arms and supplies, and the articles pur- 
 chased brought into the Confederacy.
 
 84 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 Johnston insisted that if he did not crush McClellan 
 the ports would go anyhow; if he did crush his adver- 
 sary the ports Would promptly fall back into the hands 
 of the victors. 
 
 It was the old difference about defending lines and 
 positions, and protecting the country from invasion. 
 Johnston insisted that that was antiquated war. It had 
 been practicable under the old conditions, but that with 
 modern arms and movements and ideas, when prompt- 
 ness is the first requisite, when celerity is one of the 
 highest military virtues, when an army accomplishes 
 as much with its legs as with its hands, other methods 
 of applying the principles of war must be devised. 
 
 The medieval knight, with two hundred weight of 
 iron on him, and another on his* horse, mounted on an 
 immense cart horse, of heavy draft, to carry such a bur- 
 den, armed with a sixteen-foot pole and an iron-bound 
 maul, called lance, and battle axe, would have stood no 
 chance with one of Stuart's horsemen. A light cavalry- 
 man of the First Virginia would have ridden around 
 King Arthur or Sir Launcelot half a dozen times, while 
 the knight was bracing himself up for action, and the 
 Chicopee sabre would have searched out the joints under 
 his chin, or his arm, or above his sword belt, and would 
 have shucked him like an oyster before he could get his 
 lance in rest. 
 
 The Spaniards, said Johnston, are the only people 
 who have attempted to defend fortified lines and posi- 
 tions covering a country in modern war. 
 
 We must use all our resources. We must make up n
 
 THE LINES OF CENTREVILLE. 85 
 
 celerity what we lack in numbers. Increase the velocity, 
 and the inferior weight will have the greater momentum. 
 This was the argument, and his statement of the case. 
 But Mr. Davis and Gen. Lee were unable to agree with 
 him. 
 
 Some brigades were brought from Norfolk and North 
 Carolina, and by the latter part of May his force was 
 increased to 74,000 effectives. McClellan moved up 
 and occupied the opposite side of the Chickahominy. 
 There were two things to be prepared for by him. One 
 was to reach out and take McDowell by the hand at 
 Fredericksburg, so that when he was ready to strike, he 
 might have McDowell's force crushing in Johnston's 
 left. Another and equally important matter was that the 
 army in the valley under Jackson should be prevented 
 from reinforcing Johnston. 
 
 He was first to secure McDowell's reinforcement for 
 himself, and second to prevent Johnston from having 
 Jackson. 
 
 He exactly failed in both, and failed because 
 Johnston's precise knowledge of the art of war was 
 larger than his. 
 
 Johnston knew the valley. He had studied it when 
 he was at Harper's Ferry in June, 1861. He appreciated 
 the value of the parallel mountain chains of the Blue 
 Ridge, the Massanutton, and the North Mountain, 
 which might be used as curtains, behind which great 
 movements could be concealed, or as fortifications to 
 protect the flanks of an advancing or retreating army. 
 
 If the valley could be utilized for disarranging the
 
 86 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 Federal plan of campaign, Johnston would be afforded 
 an opportunity of crushing McClellan before McDowell 
 could reach him. 
 
 Jackson had about 7,000 men, and was soon rein- 
 forced by Ewell with 8,000 more. 
 
 With his own force he attacked and drove back 
 Milroy at McDowell on May 8; reinforced by Ewell he 
 attacked and routed Banks at Strasburg and Winches- 
 ter, May 24; he threatened to cross the Potomac and 
 take Washington in rear May 26th and 27th. 
 
 In the meantime, while these events were transpiring, 
 McClellan was not idle. He sent Fitz John Porter 
 on his extreme right to open communications with 
 McDowell. Porter attacked and defeated Branch at 
 Hanover court-house, and took possession of the bridges 
 below Hanover Junction where the railroads from Fred- 
 ericksburg and the Valley of Virginia intersect each other 
 and cross the North Anna, the Middle river and the South 
 Anna over six high, long wooden bridges. There Porter 
 found McDowell's scouts, and the way was therefore 
 open. Why he did not burn the bridges he does not 
 explain, but it is inferred that he proposed to keep them 
 for the use of McDowell. In fact he did preserve them 
 for the use of Jackson. He reported that he had 
 destroyed all of the bridges by the hands of Major 
 Lawrence William's Sixth United States Cavalry. But 
 he is mistaken; some, not all, were burned, and the way 
 to the valley was left intact. 
 
 On the 22d of May, McClellan had crossed Heint- 
 zleman's and Key's corps to the west side of the
 
 THE LINES OF CENTREVILLE, 87 
 
 Chickahominy, leaving Sumner, Franklin and Porter's 
 corps on the east or north side. Heintzleman and Keys 
 immediately began to intrench, advancing as they dug. 
 They came on step by step, forming four lines of earth- 
 works of a division each, and made themselves reason- 
 ably secure. Bottom's bridge is over the stream only a 
 short distance below the point where the York river 
 railroad crosses it. 
 
 The other three corps of the Army of the Potomac, 
 Johnston hoped and expected, would be separated from 
 the two corps by a dangerous and treacherous river, 
 and by a constantly increasing interval which would 
 give him the opportunity to beat one wing before the 
 other could come to his assistance. 
 
 The attack by Porter on Branch at Hanover court- 
 house, seemed to give the waited-for opportunity, 
 especially as Branch reported on the 27th that McDowell 
 was in march to grasp Porter's extended hand. It was 
 therefore of pressing importance that McClellan should be 
 attacked before his disconnected wings could be united, 
 and before this great reinforcement could reach him. 
 On the 28th, Johnston made arrangements to attack 
 McClellan's right w r ing, by passing A. P. Hill over the 
 Meadow bridge for that purpose. G. W. Smith and 
 A. P. Hill were to strike the extreme right, Magruder 
 and Hughes crossing the Chickahominy at the New 
 Bridge were to interpose between the Federal left wing 
 and the Chickahominy, while Longstreet and D. H. Hill 
 were to attack the tw r o advanced corps, thus cut off from 
 their supports. During the night of the 29th, Gen.
 
 88 LITE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 Stuart brought infoVmation that McDowell had moved 
 back to Fredericksburg. In point of fact, Jackson's 
 demonstration that day and the day before on the 
 Potomac at Williamsport, Sheppardstown and Harper's 
 Ferry, had panicked the authorities at Washington, and 
 they had pulled McDowell back to the defence of the 
 capital. Neither Jackson's movements, nor the reason 
 for McDowell's, were however known at Johnston's 
 headquarters on the night of May 29. 
 
 It was only certain that there was no immediate stress 
 to attack, so as to be ahead of McDowell, and reverting 
 to the mathematics of battle, to which Johnston's mind 
 went with the precision of an operation of nature, he 
 determined that there was no use fighting McClellan's 
 whole army, when he had two-fifths of it cut off and 
 detached and separated to his hand. So A. P. Hill was 
 recalled, and recrossed the Chickahominy without hav- 
 ing been discovered. 
 
 On May 30, Johnston struck out a terrific blow with 
 his right. He precipitated twenty-three "of his twenty- 
 seven brigades upon Heintzleman and Keys. Longstreet 
 was in main charge, owing to the location of his troops, 
 although G. W. Smith was entitled to it on account of 
 his rank. 
 
 The other four brigades were observing the river, 
 from the New bridge up to Meadow bridge. 
 
 After the disposition for the attack had been made, 
 the orders of battle copied out and distributed, and the 
 Major-Generals instructed in personal interviews with 
 the General commanding, it came on to rain, in that
 
 THE LINES OF CENTREVILLE. 89 
 
 phenomenal manner, in which it sometimes does rain in 
 Virginia. 
 
 The placid Chickahominy spread itself out from a-half 
 to two miles wide, and every little rivulet and spring 
 branch which contributed to it assumed embarrassing 
 proportions. 
 
 The swamps became bogs, the streams serious impedi- 
 ments, for no man can tell the depth of water which 
 spreads over a hundred yards of meadow. 
 
 The attack was intended to have been made early in 
 the day. The troops did not actually get into collision 
 until 3 P. M. The atmosphere was in such a peculiar 
 condition that although Gen. Johnston was only three 
 miles off, on a hill, waiting to hear Longstreet's attack, 
 the first musketry he or the staff heard was at 4.30 P. 
 M., when there had been a terrific battle of infantry 
 raging for an hour and a-half. 
 
 The onslaught of Longstreet drove back the first line, 
 the second line, the third line, all the lines of the 
 Federal army. They were routed, rolled up, disorgan- 
 ized. At nightfall came Surraier, over the flood and the 
 swinging bridge, to the assistance of his comrades. 
 But he was too late, the battle was irretrievably lost 
 before he got up. 
 
 About 7 o'clock P. M., that is, on May 30, about 
 sundown, Gen. Johnston naively records, that he 
 received a slight wound in the right shoulder from 
 a musket ball, and a few moments after was unhorsed 
 by a heavy fragment of shell which struck his breast. 
 Now this is an uncommon incident.
 
 90 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 No great soldier that I can recall ever got struck by 
 a musket ball, and a few minutes after was knocked off 
 his horse by a fragment of shell. Colonels often meet 
 with such casualties. Its their business to be with the 
 line of fire. Brigadier-Generals sometimes get hit in 
 this way, Major-Generals rarely, but Commanding- 
 Generals never before. 
 
 The responsibilities of rank are well defined. The 
 larger the responsibility the more valuable the life that 
 bears it becomes. If a thousand lives depend on the 
 officer, his life is a thousand times as valuable as that 
 of any one of the men in line. 
 
 It is the duty of inferior officers to lead their men, of 
 superiors to keep their heads cool, and to invigorate and 
 strengthen the people under them by the consciousness 
 of being directed and moved by a higher intelligence ; 
 therefore, it has got to be an axim, that the General in 
 command must not go under fire. 
 
 Napoleon is said to have done it at the Bridge of 
 Arcola, but he was then young and inexperienced. He 
 ought to have had fifty captains or twenty colonels who 
 would have led that charge. 
 
 Gen. Lee certainly attempted to do it at Spottsylvania, 
 when his lines were carried with a rush, and Grant was 
 pouring Hancock's corps through the gap on him. He 
 headed the Texans then, for unless he then and there 
 saved the battle, his life was of no value to his army, 
 for that would have been gone. 
 
 But the chivalric instincts of those veteran heroes 
 corrected that false move. "Go back," said they, "go
 
 THE LINES OF CENTREVILLE. 9! 
 
 back, we'll attend to this," and a private in the ranks, 
 seizing his horse by the bridle, led back the commander- 
 in-chief of the army submissively, obeying the order of 
 the men in the ranks. 
 
 At the battle of Seven Pines there was not the same 
 experience. It was really the first close and bloody 
 fight of the war, and Gen. Johnston had no business 
 being in a place where a piece of a shell knocked him 
 off his horse, a few moments after, being struck by a 
 musket ball. He had no right to be within musket range. 
 
 But it must be borne in mind, that he was handling 
 the hope of the Confederacy in its struggle with the 
 supreme effort of the Federal side ; success was life and 
 failure was death; and by his constant presence with 
 the troops, he gave confidence and encouragement to 
 men he had "already come to value as the most dashing, 
 as they were the most enduring of soldiers. Johnston 
 was carried from the field, and G. W. Smith, the rank- 
 ing Major-General, assumed command that night and 
 until noon, May 31, when Gen. Lee was assigned to 
 command the army. 
 
 When Johnston was wounded, the fighting was over 
 for that day. The next day, Sunday, the Confederates 
 gathered three hundred and fifty prisoners, six thousand 
 seven hundred muskets and rifles as good as new, a 
 garison flag and four regimental colors, with a great 
 quantity of ordnance commissary, quartermaster and 
 medical stores and tents. 
 
 The Chickahominy was high, and the two parts of 
 the Federal army separated by it, and Johnston at Rich-
 
 92 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 mond fretted because the attack was not pushed. The 
 Confederates had thirteen brigades, some of which had 
 lost tremendously, but they had beaten, routed and 
 demoralized two Federal corps. 
 
 Sumner's corps, which had crossed to their assistance, 
 was six miles off at Fair Oaks. And the Confederates 
 could have defeated Sumner before Heintzleman could 
 get to him, and then have used up Heintzleman and 
 Keys at their pleasure. 
 
 But the loss of the commander-in-chief in battle 
 disarranged everything. Plans that had been thought 
 out for days and nights, movements that had been 
 worked out by measurements of time and distances, all 
 the parts of that most exquisitely constructed machine, 
 an army, which are in entire and perfect control of the 
 general, must be taken up anew by his successors. As 
 a general thing, the adjutant-general of the command is 
 better qualified to take charge of an army in battle when 
 the commander-in-chief is lost, than any subordinate 
 general, no matter how well qualified. G. W. Smith 
 was a soldier of the highest accomplishments. His 
 natural ability was exceeded by no one on either side, 
 but the twenty hours in which he was in supreme com- 
 mand gave him no chance to take hold of his weapon 
 and wield it as he could have wielded it. If Johnston 
 had not fallen on the 3ist of May, Sumner would have 
 been destroyed, and both Heintzleman and Keys would 
 have been captured. Holmes and Ripley brought up 
 eight thousand men on June ist, and with this reinforce- 
 ment to the Confederates, McClellan would never have 
 changed his base.
 
 THE LINES OF CENTREVILLE. 93 
 
 This is speculation; but Johnston had arranged the 
 campaign, had placed the troops, had accomplished 
 everything he had undertaken, and it was his plan to 
 keep McClellan divided, and to destroy him in detail. 
 It can fairly be inferred that he would have succeeded. 
 But Johnston's chaper of Virginia history was closed. 
 He never afterward commanded troops in Virginia. His 
 Army of the Potomac became the Army of Northern 
 Virginia under Lee, and Johnston did not report for duty 
 until November 12, 1862. 
 
 This battle, called by the Federals Fair Oaks, and 
 by the Confederates Seven Pines, was one of the closest, 
 most hotly contested, and bloody of the war. On the 
 Federal side were the Second Army Corps, Brigadier- 
 General Sumner; Third Army Corps, Brigadier-General 
 Heintzleman, and Fourth Army Corps, Brigadier-General 
 Keys, with an aggregate present for duty of 51,543. 
 Johnston's whole army showed, on May 21, present 
 for duty 53,688. The three divisions actually in battle, 
 Longstreet, D. H. Hill and G. W. Smith, contained 
 an aggregate of 35,559. The Union troops actually 
 engaged on June ist, was about 14,000. 
 
 The Confederates were about 8,300. In the two 
 days fighting of May 3ist and June ist, the Federal 
 loss was 5,031, and the Confederate loss 6,134. 
 
 Anderson's North Carolina Brigade lost 740 out of 
 2,065. The Sixth South Carolina, out of 521 taken 
 into action, left 269 on the ground. The Twenty- 
 Seventh Georgia, out of 392, lost 145, and out of the 
 color guard of the Fifth South Carolina of eleven men, 
 ten were shot down.
 
 94 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE ARMY OF THE SOUTHWEST. 
 
 /"~"\N November 24th, 1862, Johnston received orders 
 ^-^ assigning him to the command of the depart- 
 ments of Gen. Bragg, Lieut.-Gen. E. Kirby Smith, and 
 Lieut.-Gen. Pemberton. Bragg's army had just returned 
 from his Kentucky campaign, and was at Murfreesboro, 
 in observation of the army of Gen. Rosecrans near 
 Nashville. Pemberton had garrisons at Vicksburg and 
 Port Hudson, and an active army of twenty-three 
 thousand men on the Tallahatchie, watching Grant 
 with forty-three thousand men at Holly Springs. 
 
 Lieut.-Gen. Holmes had about fifty-five thousand 
 men at Little Rock, on the west side of the Mississippi. 
 Johnston proposed to Randolph, the Confederate Secre- 
 tary of War, that Holmes should be ordered across the 
 Mississippi to unite with Pemberton, that he, Johnston, 
 with this combination of seventy-eight thousand men, 
 would fall on Grant and extinguish him, and then uniting 
 with Bragg they would move on Rosecrans and over- 
 whelm him. 
 
 Mr. Randolph showed Johnston an order which he 
 had prepared, anticipating his application, and directing 
 the exact movement that he had just suggested ; but at 
 the same time he showed him an order by the President 
 countermanding that by the Secretary of War. 
 
 In a few days Randolph resigned, whether on account
 
 THE ARMY OF THE SOUTHWEST. 95 
 
 of this incident I do not know, but Johnston went to the 
 Southwest without that firm support that a commanding 
 officer ought to have in the high councils of his superiors. 
 
 Owing to railroad accidents and delays, Johnston did 
 not reach Chattanooga, which had been designated for 
 his headquarters until December 4. 
 
 In a few weeks President Davis visited the armies in 
 person and had personal interviews with Johnston, Bragg 
 and Pemberton. He advised that Johnston should rein- 
 force Pemberton from Bragg, Johnson insisting that 
 Pemberton's reinforcements must be drawn from Holmes 
 in the trans-Mississippi ; that the battle for the redemp- 
 tion of Missouri and the security of Arkansas and the 
 retention of the Mississippi must first be fought against 
 Grant, and then against Rosecrans, and that Holmes 
 must be brought across the river and united with Pem- 
 berton. It was the old difference of opinion, the original 
 divergence between the President and Commander-in- 
 chief and the head of the second army of the Confed- 
 eracy. One was for holding on to lines, and protecting 
 territory, the other was for abandoning territory, con- 
 centrating on interior lines, destroying his enemy, in 
 detail, and thus eventually securing the country, and 
 positions abandoned, to accomplish this result. Mr. 
 Davis finding Johnston impracticable, ordered a division 
 from Bragg to Pemberton, and the order transferring 
 Stevenson's division from Murfreesboro to Jackson with 
 McCown's brigade was actually issued in the name of 
 the President, and not in the name of the general com- 
 manding. This was discourteous was temper. It
 
 96 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 could only indicate a condition of things which must 
 inevitably lead to disaster. Johnston ought to have 
 been made to issue the orders required of him, or he 
 ought to have been relieved. No order ought to have 
 gone over his head to any subordinate. 
 
 The President met the General Assembly of Missis- 
 sippi about ipth December, where it had been convened 
 by Gov. Pettus, for the purpose of calling out the 
 whole military force of the State to support Pemberton. 
 Johnston found the fortifications at Vicksburg, and as 
 he saw by a map of them those at Port Hudson, so large 
 that they each required twelve thousand five hundred 
 men to hold them. 
 
 Grant was between the two armies of Pemberton and 
 Bragg, with a force superior to either of them. There 
 was danger that he would destroy them in detail, and 
 then capture Vicksburg. Finding himself unable to 
 carry out the strategy which he believed was the only 
 safe policy, and being incapable of converting the 
 President to his views, Gen. Johnston requested to be 
 relieved from the responsibility for two armies so widely 
 separated as Pemberton's and Bragg's. The President 
 declined to gratify him, for the reason that the field of 
 operation was so far from the headquarters of military 
 affairs, it was necessary to have an officer of sufficient 
 rank, to supervise, and direct, near to the scene of 
 operations. 
 
 As soon as Rosecrans heard of the detachment of 
 troops from Bragg to Pemberton, he moved out to attack 
 the former. This he did on December 31, 1862, and
 
 THE ARMY OF THE SOUTHWEST. 97 
 
 the battle -was continued during the ist, 2d and 3d of 
 January. Bragg, on the next day, withdrew across 
 Duck river. 
 
 At this battle of Murfreesboro, Bragg reports his 
 force at thirty thousand infantry and artillery and five 
 thousand cavalry, and his loss at ten thousand, including 
 twelve hundred severely wounded and three hundred 
 sick left in Murfreesboro. 
 
 He captured "over thirty pieces of artillery, six 
 thousand prisoners, six thousand small arms, nine colors, 
 ambulances and other valuable property," and destroyed 
 eight hundred loaded wagons. 
 
 Rosecrans reports that he had forty-three thousand 
 four hundred infantry, of whom nine thousand two 
 hundred and sixty-seven were killed and wounded, and 
 three thousand four hundred and fifty were made 
 prisoners, a total loss of twelve thousand seven hundred 
 and seventeen. 
 
 January and February were occupied in directing 
 Pemberton in resisting a movement against Vicksburg 
 by way of transports up the Yazoo; in organizing a 
 body of cavalry and sending it into Tennessee under 
 Van Dorn to occupy territory there, so as to enable Gen. 
 Bragg to feed his army from that quarter, and in dis- 
 patching Wheeler with his cavalry to break the Federal 
 communications northward from Nashville. 
 
 On March pth, Johnston was ordered to relieve 
 Bragg, to take command of his army, and direct him to 
 report to Richmond. 
 
 On reaching Tullahoma, on the i8th, he assumed
 
 98 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 command of the army there, but did not communicate 
 to Bragg the order directing him to report to the war 
 department, because Mrs. Bragg was very ill and her 
 death momentarily expected. 
 
 In a few days Johnston became so seriously ill as to 
 incapacitate him for duty, and Bragg resumed command 
 of the Army of Tennessee. 
 
 The Mississippi river was controlled by the Federals 
 from its mouth to Port Hudson, and from Vicksburg 
 north. That part of the river between these two forti- 
 fied positions was open to the Confederates, and was the 
 route by which communication was had with the trans- 
 Mississippi. 
 
 About the middle of March some Federal gun boats 
 ran by the batteries at Port Hudson, and thus the value 
 of the two fortified points on the river was greatly 
 impaired, if not entirely destroyed. 
 
 Grant, on the western side of the Mississippi, was 
 employed in cutting a canal, so as to enable transports 
 and gunboats to get by the batteries of Vicksburg. 
 
 By the middle of April this enterprise was abandoned, 
 and Grant marched his whole army to a point on the 
 west bank below Vicksburg and above Port Hudson. 
 His war vessels and transports then ran by Vicksburg in 
 the night. 
 
 Grant promptly crossed to the east side and began at 
 once a series of movements and maneuvers, which, for 
 vigor, skill, genius and courage, have hardly ever been 
 equalled, and certainly never excelled. He moved 
 promptly in the rear of Vicksburg, isolated it from all 

 
 THE ARMY OF THE SOUTHWEST. 99 
 
 reinforcements, and in due course reduced and cap- 
 tured it. 
 
 On May*9, Gen. Johnston was ordered to "proceed 
 at once to Mississippi, and take chief command of the 
 forces there, giving to those in the field, as far as prac- 
 ticable, the encouragement and benefit of your personal 
 direction." He replied: "Your dispatch of this morn- 
 ing received. I shall go immediately, although unfit for 
 field service." He left in the next train for Jackson, 
 where he arrived on the evening of May 13. He imme- 
 diately telegraphed to the Secretary of War: "I 
 arrived this evening, finding the enemy in force between 
 this place and General Pemberton, cutting off the com- 
 munication. I am too late" Johnston found in Mis- 
 sissippi, subject to his orders, and which could be con- 
 centrated, combined and organized into an army, about 
 25,000 men of all arms. They were at Canton, at 
 Jackson, and at other places. All supplies of ammuni- 
 tion and material were shut up in Vicksburg and Port 
 Hudson. Johnston was obliged, not only to organize, 
 but to provide transportation and supplies of all sorts for 
 an army. On June 8th he reports that "the artillery is 
 not yet equipped." 
 
 In the meantime Grant had invested Vicksburg, and 
 protected himself with intrenchments from attack by 
 Johnston. The latter informed the War Department 
 that there was no hope of saving Vicksburg, that 
 the only thing practical that could be done was to save 
 Pemberton's army. But it would require the whole of 
 Bragg's Army of Tennessee to be given him, to enable
 
 IOO LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 him to beat Grant, and such a movement of Bragg's 
 army would be equivalent to giving up Tennessee. The 
 government must take the responsibility, and be the 
 judge of what was best. 
 
 It was the old question of abandoning territory to 
 combine on the enemy, and the old question was 
 answered in the old way. Vicksburg was lost, and 
 with it Pemberton's army.
 
 THE VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN. IOI 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN. 
 
 GEN. Johnston was directly charged by President 
 Davis with being responsible for the disaster at 
 Vicksburg and the loss of Pemberton's army. It is 
 proper, therefore, to examine the operations of the cam- 
 paign in Mississippi, and to make clear what did occur, 
 what did not occur, and what were the moving causes 
 for events there. The control of the Mississippi river, 
 early in the war, became a prime object in the strategy 
 of the Federal generals. This obtained by their arms, 
 the Confederates would be divided, and the vast territory 
 of Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas and Missouri, rich in 
 supplies of material and men, would be cut off, and 
 could be overcome and reduced in detail. 
 
 The possession of the river was thus of incalculable 
 importance to the Confederates. They raised, organ- 
 ized and established an army of 55,000 men under 
 Lietenant-General Holmes in the Trans-Mississippi 
 Department, with headquarters at Little Rock, the capi- 
 tal of Arkansas, and an army in Louisiana under Major- 
 General Dick Taylor. 
 
 They fortified the positions at VicKsburg and Port 
 Hudson on the east bank of the Mississippi, about four 
 hundred miles apart by the river, and one hundred miles 
 by the roads on the east side. The course of the Mis- 
 sissippi is the most tortuous in the world. Its current 
 flows in every direction south, east and west.
 
 IO2 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 Where its immense flood has cut away a bank of 
 alluvion until it reaches a rocky bluff, it turns short 
 round on itself, and flows back in the direction from 
 which it comes, thus making loops, miles in extent, but 
 the sides of which are only a few miles apart. Vicks- 
 burg is situated on a high bluff at the end of one of 
 these loops. 
 
 In the Northeast section of the State of Mississippi 
 rises the Big Black River, which flows in a Southwest- 
 erly course until it empties into the Mississippi, just 
 above Grand Gulf, probably seventy miles below Vicks- 
 burg by land. 
 
 The Yazoo flows from the Northeast, and enters the 
 Mississippi nine miles north of Vicksburg. 
 
 Lieutenant-General John C. Pemberton commanded 
 the Confederate Army of Mississippi, and the posts at 
 Port Hudson and Vicksburg. He had six thousand 
 men at Port Hudson, under Major-General Gardner, 
 and about twenty-six thousand under his direct com- 
 mand, of whom at least six thousand were required to 
 garrison Vicksburg. 
 
 It was conceded by the Confederate officers that 
 twelve thousand men to each place would be necessary 
 to hold the fortifications at Port Hudson and Vicksburg. 
 Those lines were too extensive for the purpose of their 
 creation. They ought to have been more contracted, 
 so as to concentrate their fire to hold the river. 
 
 The city of Jackson is fifty miles east of Vicksburg, 
 connected with it by a railroad, which was extended 
 beyond the Mississippi to Shreveport, in the interior of 
 Louisiana.
 
 THE VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN. 103 
 
 The Federals held the river north of Vicksburg and 
 south of Port Hudson. The Confederates used the 
 intervening stretch of water to communicate with their 
 Trans-Mississippi Department. 
 
 In the campaign of 1862, Major-General Ulysses S. 
 Grant had acquired reputation by his reduction of the 
 forts on the Tennessee, and the force and vigor of his 
 operations. To him was assigned the task of opening the 
 Mississippi, and the boundless resources of his omnipo- 
 tent government were placed at his disposal. 
 
 On October 25th he was assigned to command of the 
 Department of the Tennessee. His force, in round 
 numbers, consisted of 48,500 effectives. But they were 
 scattered from Cairo in Illinois to Corinth in Mississippi. 
 
 On the 2d of November, 1862, he moved for the 
 reduction of Vicksburg, and the opening of the Missis- 
 sippi, from Jackson in Tennessee with 30,000 men. 
 Pemberton, with about 20,000 men, was fortified at the 
 Tallahatchie river, and occupied Holly Springs and 
 Grand Junction on the Mississippi Central railroad. 
 
 He pressed down on Pemberton on the Tallahatchie, 
 turned his position and forced him to fall back. In 
 accordance, as Grant says in his memoir,* with a 
 venerable axiom in war, he had established his depot 
 of supplies at Holly Springs in his rear, to which every- 
 thing necessary for his army was hauled by railroad 
 from the North, and from which he was fed and 
 furnished. 
 
 Grant makes this fling at the " axiom of war," which 
 
 'Grant's Memoirs, Vol. I, page 424.
 
 I(>4 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 "he said up to this time had been accepted, that large 
 bodies of troops must operate from a base of supplies, 
 which they always covered and guarded in all forward 
 movements." 
 
 An invading army was, therefore, always tied to its 
 base. But there was no such "axiom;" no great 
 soldier had ever acted on it; Alexander, Caesar, Han- 
 nibal and Napoleon had always cut loose from fixed 
 bases of supplies, and made their arms feed their 
 mouths. And Grant himself was at once forced by the 
 inexorable logic of facts to ignore the "axiom" and take 
 care of himself. 
 
 Van Dorn came in behind him and burnt up his 
 "base" at Holly Springs. If Grant had then acted as a 
 scientific soldier, according to the rules, should have 
 acted, he would have fallen back and changed his base, 
 and waited until communications could be restored with 
 the source of his supplies. 
 
 Unfortunately for the Confederates he turned out to 
 be not that sort of a soldier, but without a moment's 
 hesitation, sent out into the country, seized all the 
 borses, mules, wagons and provisions he could find, and 
 made himself independent and comfortable. 
 
 And he did this in a regular, orderly, civilized way. 
 He took what he was obliged to take, by the hands of 
 officers acting under orders. But he did not let loose 
 upon an unarmed population of women and children, 
 surrounded by a servile population of an inferior and half 
 savage race, hords of marauders, robbers and mur- 
 derers, and call them "bummers"; to devastate, burn,
 
 THE VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN. 105 
 
 rape, murder and destroy; to disgrace his name through 
 future generations, and dishonor the uniform he wore 
 and the flag under which he fought. 
 
 He bore a great soul. He was a large man. He 
 was a rough soldier. He struck hard blows and did 
 rough things, but war is no holiday spectacle, nor parlor 
 amusement. But Grant never in his whole career as 
 soldier in the Union army, ever did one thing for which 
 his posterity will blush, or which his countrymen must 
 palliate or excuse. 
 
 He foraged in Mississippi, as he had the right to do, 
 and he foraged like a soldier and a gentleman, as he 
 was, in a legal, decent, orderly way. 
 
 But he was forced to turn back and try for Vicksburg 
 in some other way. A great popular demand had 
 arisen on his government, that the Mississippi should be 
 opened by an expedition down the stream. That the 
 great West should "hew her way to the Gulf with her 
 own sword," as John Logan had said. Consequently, 
 Memphis was made the starting point for a new 
 movement. 
 
 Sherman was sent by water from that place down 
 the Mississippi and up the Yazoo, to get into the rear of 
 Vicksburg, but he was driven back by the fortifications 
 with which Pemberton had protected his flank. 
 
 Farragut with a fleet held the river below Port Hud- 
 son, but was stopped by Gardner's guns. 
 
 Porter with another fleet was prevented from descend- 
 ing by Vicksburg, and the Confederates had free 
 communication with their Trans-Mississippi Department 
 and the armies of Dick Taylor and Holmes there.
 
 IO6 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 Grant took command at Memphis himself, and forth- 
 with transferred his army to Mllllken's Bend, the loop 
 just opposite Vicksburg, and on which it is situated. 
 On the northern side of the loop is Young's Point, and 
 from there across to the southern side is only a mile. 
 The Mississippi has before this changed its course, for 
 Lake Providence, extending along the west side, is evi- 
 dently the ancient channel of the Father of Waters. 
 It is curious what insignificant incidents influence great 
 events. 
 
 President Lincoln once in his life had gone down the 
 river in a flat-boat, and as the boat floated on the slug- 
 gish current for days and days, an active-minded and 
 imaginative youth would think many thoughts and 
 dream many dreams. 
 
 It is not to be supposed that Lincoln's dreams ever 
 called back pictures of Ponce de Leon or De Soto or of 
 Old Hickory, for it is doubtful if he ever had heard of 
 the two Spaniards, and he only knew the name of 
 Andrew Jackson, and the battle of New Orleans. The 
 opening of the waterway of the West their way to the 
 sea inflamed the imaginations of their young men, and 
 of no one more than the President himself. 
 
 Some one suggested that a canal cut across the neck 
 of Milliken's Bend, only a mile across, would turn the 
 whole force of the mighty river into it and leave Vicks- 
 burg high and dry, while the way to the sea would be 
 open forever. 
 
 Gen. Williams had cut a canal ten or twelve feet wide 
 and as many deep across the neck of Milliken's Bend,
 
 THE VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN. 107 
 
 and everybody and the President thought that this would 
 induce the river to change its course, but it did not. 
 
 Grant, therefore, directed McClernand, who reached 
 Young's Point before him, to extend and enlarge this 
 work, and McClernand, by the last of January, 1863, 
 had 4,000 men at work digging as hard as they could. 
 
 But it became certain that the river would not change 
 its course to save the Union, to make away for the West 
 to the sea, or to gratify the President of the United States. 
 Admiral Porter's fleet was waiting to come down. 
 Admiral Farragut's fleet was waiting to come up. 
 Grant was digging and ditching across Millikin's Bend, 
 and the whole West was yelling for their " way to the 
 sea." 
 
 In May, 1863, as we have seen, Johnston was ordered 
 to Jackson to take command of Pemberton and his Army 
 of the Mississippi, of Bragg and his Army of Ten- 
 nessee, and of Dabney and his Army of the Gulf. He 
 wanted Holmes' army at Little Rock, of 55,000, ferried 
 across the Mississippi and concentrated with Pemberton, 
 and fall on Grant, displayed along the railroad lead- 
 ing from Holly Springs north. And he insisted 
 upon Holmes instead of Bragg, because he said 
 Holmes could be brought up so much sooner 
 and easier than Bragg, from Tullahoma in Tennessee. 
 The troops west of the Mississippi ought, according to 
 Johnston's ideas and his urgent representations, to be 
 transferred to the east of the Mississippi, where they 
 could be utilized with Pemberton, Bragg and Maury, 
 and not be cut off in detail, separated by distance and
 
 IO8 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 the great river, from supporting armies. Grant, tired of 
 the attempt to turn the river, urged the navy to run by 
 the guns on the bluffs. 
 
 On the I4th of March Farragut ran the blockade at 
 Port Hudson with the Hartford and the Albatross, and 
 Porter responded by passing a fleet of ironclads, gun- 
 boats and transports by Vicksburg in the night. 
 
 The river then was in possession of the Federal fleet. 
 The Confederate communication with the Trans-Missis- 
 sippi was broken, and Port Hudson and Vicksbnrg both 
 ceased to be of value to them. 
 
 As soon as Johnston was advised that Holmes and 
 Dick Taylor were cut off he saw that Gardner and Pem- 
 berton must soon share their fate unless promptly re- 
 lieved. Grant let go Milliken's Bend, leaving only a 
 garrison there, and rapidly crossed the Mississippi at 
 Bruinsburg, below the mouth of the Big Black. 
 
 His movements thenceforward were dashing and bril- 
 liant. He never lost a moment. He cut loose from 
 bases of supplies, only taking with him ammunition, and 
 pushed for Pemberton's rear. Johnston had about 
 20,000 at Jackson. With Pemberton's 25,000, and 
 Holmes' 55,000, he could have overwhelmed Grant. 
 
 Inasmuch as Holmes was now cut off, he applied to 
 the War Department at Richmond for Bragg. The 
 Secretary of War replied that Bragg was under John- 
 ston's command, and that he must do what he thought 
 was necessary. 
 
 Johnston answered to that, that the coming of Bragg 
 to Mississippi meant the evacuation of Tennessee; that
 
 THE VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN. 109 
 
 the choice between Mississippi and Tennessee was a 
 political question, not a military one, and was for the 
 civil government to decide, not for the general com- 
 manding armies in the field. 
 
 And then arose discussion and recrimination between 
 President Davis and Gen. Johnston, which ought not to 
 have occurred. 
 
 But Bragg did not move, and Grant did. Johnston 
 ordered Pemberton to evacuate Vicksburg and march to 
 the northeast, while he would leave Jackson and march 
 to the northwest. Thus these two armies would be 
 united, and they could fall on Grant, who had cut loose 
 from the Mississippi, and his fleet and was marching on 
 Jackson. 
 
 This order was dated May 14. It was sent in tripli- 
 cate. The bearer of one copy was a Southerner, so 
 ardent that he had been expelled from Memphis by 
 General Hurlbut on account of his vociferous denuncia- 
 tion of the Yankees. His expulsion was a trick to get 
 a spy into Confederate headquarters. It was one fre- 
 quently practiced, and, as far as I know, always with 
 success. Beauregard expelled one in October, 1862, 
 from Manasssa, into McClellan's adjutant's office in 
 Washington, and the movement on Mason's Hill was 
 prosecuted largely to have the benefit of her signals 
 from Washington. 
 
 The rebel expelled by Hurlburt, as a martyr and a 
 zealous partisan, readily got credit in Jackson, and was 
 dispatched in charge of one copy of the order to Pem- 
 berton. He rode straight to McPherson's lines, deliv-
 
 IIO LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 ered it to McPherson, to hand it to Grant, when it was 
 given back to the courier to go on to Pemberton. It 
 did not reach him until May i6th, after Grant had 
 attacked and beaten him at Baker's Creek. His answer 
 was sent back to Johnston by the same hand, was 
 carried to Grant, and then forwarded to Johnston. 
 
 This incident was unknown to General Johnston when 
 he wrote his narrative in 1872-74. 
 
 Pemberton did not receive Johnston's order in time to 
 obey it. 
 
 On May i5th, Johnston again wrote Pemberton that the 
 only way they could unite was by the latter moving 
 promptly to Clinton, to the northwest of Jackson. And 
 Johnston marched his two brigades sixteen or eighteen 
 miles toward the northwest to make junction with Pem- 
 berton. 
 
 On the night of the i6th, he heard from Pemberton 
 that he considered it better to cut Grant off from his 
 base at Bruinsburg, and had attempted to do so when 
 Grant prevented it by the attack at Baker's creek. 
 
 It was then too late to get out. Grant was driving 
 Pemberton back to Vicksburg, and the rescue of the 
 Confederate army there became utterly hopeless. Grant 
 invested Vicksburg and constructed a line of fortifica- 
 tions in his rear to protect him from Johnston's attack, 
 which were impregnable to any force the latter could 
 throw against him. 
 
 It is just to say that Johnston's view as to the with- 
 drawal of Holmes and Dick Taylor to the east of the 
 Mississippi was without doubt the sound view, and if it
 
 THE VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN. Ill 
 
 had prevailed, would probably have materially changed 
 the course of history. But it is equally true that when 
 the President and Secretary of War forced on Johnston 
 the responsibility of the evacuation of Tennessee, by the 
 withdrawal of Bragg, and the concentration of all the 
 troops of his command against Grant, it was Johnston's 
 duty to have accepted the responsibility and have 
 decided the military question, and to have left the 
 political one to take care of itself.
 
 112 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE GEORGIA CAMPAIGN. 
 
 the fall of Vicksburg, July 4, 1863, during 
 the remainder of the summer, Johnston was 
 engaged supervising the defense of Mobile, where 
 Maury was in command, and in organizing the debris of 
 the Army of the Mississippi. 
 
 In the latter part of September, Bragg fought Rose- 
 crans at Chicamauga and beat him. 
 
 The Federal General was rapidly reinforced from 
 Grant's army in Mississippi, and Grant transferred to 
 command it. He drove Bragg from Missionary Ridge, 
 and on December i8th, Johnston was ordered to transfer 
 the command of the Department of Mississippi and 
 East Louisiana to Lieutenant-General Polk, and repair 
 to Dalton and assume that of the Army of Tennessee. 
 He arrived at Dalton on the 26th, and assumed com- 
 mand on the 27th of December. 
 
 On the i8th of December, President Davis had 
 visited the troops at Demopolis, and on the 2Oth, those 
 at Enterprise. While there he transferred General 
 Hardee and two brigades to the Army of Tennessee. 
 
 On December 2Oth, the returns of the army showed 
 effectives, not quite 36,000; the number present, 
 about 43,000. 
 
 General Bragg estimated Grant's force at Chatta- 
 nooga, Bridgeport and Shreveport at 80,000. Grant 
 reports them at 65,000.
 
 THE GEORGIA CAMPAIGN. 11$ 
 
 The hard service of the preceding campaign had so 
 reduced the animals of the artillery and transportation 
 that they were unfit for service. The railroad was 
 unable to supply them with long forage, and they were 
 sent into the Valley of the Etowah to recuperate. 
 
 Many of the men were barefooted, and there was a 
 deficiency in the infantry of six thousand small arms. 
 
 On February nth, Lieutenant-General Polk reported 
 that Sherman was advancing with 35,000 men along the 
 railroad toward Mobile. On the i7th, the President 
 directed that Lieutenant-General Hardee be sent to Polk 
 with three divisions, which was promptly done. 
 
 Grant at once made a forward movement on Dalton. 
 Sherman turned back, and Hardee returned to the Army 
 of Tennessee. 
 
 On March 3d, Grant, having been commissioned 
 Lieutenant-General, was ordered to Washington to take 
 command of all the Armies of the United States. 
 
 This left Sherman and Johnston facing each other; 
 Sherman with 80,000 fighting men, Johnston with 
 40,000. Sherman was at Chattanooga, and Johnson at 
 Dalton one-fourth of the way between Chattanooga 
 and Atlanta. 
 
 Atlanta was the centre at which the railroads from 
 Southern Georgia met, and from which they led to the 
 North. Georgia had got to be the source from which 
 the supplies for the Army of Northern Virginia were 
 largely drawn. 
 
 The Confederacy had been divided by the fall of 
 Vicksburg and the opening of the Mississippi.
 
 114 L.IFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 The possession of Atlanta by the Federals would give 
 them Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. They already 
 had Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisi- 
 ana and Texas, and if Atlanta was lost, nine States 
 would have been conquered and reduced, and only the 
 two Carolinas and Virginia left to defend the cause of 
 the Confederacy. Therefore, the possession of Atlanta 
 was a question of life and death. 
 
 The country from Chattanooga to Atlanta is moun- 
 tainous, traversed by mountain ranges running north 
 and south, with numerous ridges across the valleys and 
 bold streams affording positions for defense. 
 
 Since Johnston had assumed command of the Army 
 of Tennessee, he had caused careful surveys to be made 
 of the country behind him, and had selected positions 
 for defense to be fortified and prepared. 
 
 On February 22, 1864, Sherman moved on John- 
 ston's lines. 
 
 Gen. Bragg, who had been called to Richmond as 
 general military adviser of the President, if not General- 
 in-chief, proposed to Johnston to reinforce him up to 
 75,000 men, with which he was to move into Tennessee 
 and force Sherman, or, as he said, Grant, to fight him. 
 Johnston replied that if he was to make that move, he 
 must have the troops promised at once, or it would be 
 too late. They were not supplied and Sherman moved. 
 
 But the administration was not satisfied. It insisted 
 that Johnston should assume the offensive, ''with an 
 army 16,000 weaker than that proposed by Gen. 
 Bragg," as Johnston says.
 
 THE GEORGIA CAMPAIGN. 115 
 
 The return of May i, 1864, showed the effective 
 strength of the Army of Tennessee to be 42,856. 
 
 Sherman had in the meantime been reinforced by pro- 
 bably 30,000 veterans. Polk with all his infantrv was 
 ordered to Johnston. 
 
 Sherman moved on. His tactics were simple. He 
 moved in three columns.. The center engaged Johnston 
 in his fortified position. Either flanking column pushed 
 on by him as it found opportunity. 
 
 Now one man cannot fight three men of equal 
 courage. No matter how he defends himself against 
 his assailant in front, the one on his right or his left 
 is bound to get behind him and strike him a fatal blow. 
 This was Grant's move, from the Rapidan to the James. 
 This was Sherman's from Dalton to Atlanta. 
 
 Johnston occupied every mountain pass, every ridge 
 of hills, every ford, and fought his enemy whenever he 
 attacked. He always repulsed him in front, but when 
 his flank was turned, as turned it must be, he fell back 
 in the night to the next position, with the 'morale of his 
 people increased, and their spirit for the next fight 
 heightened. 
 
 From the I2th of May, back to Atlanta, on July lyth, 
 1864, Johnston conducted this masterly retrograde with 
 the loss of four field pieces, disabled and unable to be 
 carried off, in seventy-four days' fighting an enemy of 
 more than double his numbers. 
 
 Grant's army, that had fought at Missionary* ridge, 
 was then estimated at 80,000 men. It had been in- 
 creased by two corps, one division and probably 12,000 
 recruits.
 
 Il6 .IKE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 On June ist, it contained, according to the returns, 
 112,819. On September ist, it mustered 81,758. It 
 actually lost in killed, wounded and missing 31,687. 
 Johnston's total loss was 9,972. 
 
 These are the figures as shown by the official returns 
 of Sherman and Johnston. 
 
 The Confederate, confronted -by overwhelming num- 
 bers, seems to have taken Wellington's retreat in Spain 
 as his model. His object was to withdraw his enemy 
 as far from his base and into a hostile country as possi- 
 ble, reducing his numbers and his morale by reiterated 
 blows, until he had oroduced something like an eauality 
 of forces. 
 
 Peach Tree Creek runs just north of Atlanta. It 
 is passable by two fords at some distance apart. John- 
 ston's plan was to strike Sherman as he was passing 
 these fords, hoping to crush one of his columns before the 
 other could aid him, and in case of disaster, he had the 
 fortified position of Atlanta, which he had been preparing 
 since June, for just such a contingency. 
 
 No one can now say that his whole campaign was not 
 conducted on the best principles and with the highest 
 generalship. 
 
 It was unjust in the extreme, to criticise his policy of 
 retreat and fight, of fight and retreat. Lee in Virginia 
 had been pursuing precisely the same plan since May, 
 and had been forced back from the Rapidan to the 
 James with no greater disparity of forces; and his move- 
 ment met the entire sympathy and approval of the 
 people and of the administration.
 
 THE GEORGIA CAMPAIGN. 
 
 But for some inscrutable reason, by some logic even 
 now unaccountable, there was a demand that Johnston 
 should fight. He fought every day for seventy-four days. 
 That he should stop retreating. He did stop until his 
 army was nearly surrounded. That he should make a 
 forward movement. That he should move around his 
 adversary and throw himself on his communications. 
 
 Just at the point when he was about to declare decisive 
 battle on his own terms, he was ignommousiy relieved 
 and Hood placed in command. 
 
 His removal was a shock to the military sense of the 
 Confederacy. Lee subordinate, patient, respectful, as 
 he ever was remonstrated in writing to the Secretary 
 of War. He spoke openly, as he never spoke before or 
 since, "That if General Johnston was not a soldier, 
 America had never produced one. That if he was not 
 competent to command that army, the Confederacy had 
 no one who was competent." And he was firm in 
 urging that Johnston be reinstated to command. He 
 was relieved September 17, 1864. 
 
 Hood cut loose from Atlanta, carried out the pro- 
 gramme directed by Bragg to Johnston in the preceding 
 Spring, moved into Tennessee and lost his army. 
 
 On February 22, 1865, Johnston was directed by 
 Adjutant-General Cooper to report by telegraph to Lee, 
 at Petersburg, for orders. On the same day Lee 
 ordered him to "Assume command of the Army *of 
 Tennessee and all troops in South Carolina, Georgia 
 and Florida; assign General Beauregard to duty under 
 you as you may select. Concentrate all available forces 
 and drive back Sherman."
 
 IlS LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 Johnston had retired to Lincolnton, North Carolina, 
 and reported that "It was too late to concentrate troops 
 to drive back Sherman." 
 
 Sherman was then in South Carolina, moving north 
 to unite with Grant. 
 
 The Army of Tennessee, utterly broken up by the 
 Tennessee Campaign, was coming into North Carolina 
 by regiments and skeleton brigades, and there was 
 hardly a* vestige of the organization of an army left. 
 But Johnston did what was possible. He drew together 
 the fragments from Charleston, Wilmington, and wher- 
 ever they could be laid hold on, and concentrated them 
 near Goldsboro, North Carolina, to delay Sherman and 
 prevent his junction with Grant; while he hoped that 
 Lee might disengage himself from Richmond, join him, 
 and they together might defeat Sherman.
 
 THE FALL OF ATLANTA AND SHERMAN'S RAID. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE FALL OF ATLANTA AND SHERMAN'S RAID. 
 
 WHEN Johnston turned over the command of the 
 army to Hood, he communicated to him his 
 plan then ready to be executed, and Hood faithfully 
 tried to carry it out. 
 
 He attacked Sherman as he was crossing Peach Tree 
 creek, but the removal of Johnston had taken the spring 
 out of his army, and he was badly defeated and drive'n 
 back. He at once withdrew to a position about twenty 
 miles southeast of Atlanta, on the railroad, about Love- 
 joy's station. Sherman pursued him, but soon returned 
 and occupied Atlanta, perfecting his communications 
 with the North and preparing for future movements. 
 
 In the latter part of September, President Davis visited 
 Hood at his camp, and made a speech to the soldiers. 
 He denounced Johnston for his Fabian policy ; told the 
 men that it was to be changed to the aggressive. 
 
 He said the Yankee army must either retreat or 
 starve, and that Sherman's retreat would be more dis- 
 astrous than that of Napoleon's from Moscow. That 
 Forrest was already on the railroad in Tennessee, and 
 that they should soon be there. Sherman was so well 
 served that a spy actually heard this speech and reported 
 it the following morning to him. He telegraphed it 
 North. 
 
 It gave him the whole policy of his adversary's cam-
 
 I2O LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 paign, and enabled him to prepare for it. He sent 
 Schofield and Thomas back to Franklin and Nashville 
 to collect troops and be ready for Hood. 
 
 In a few days Hood began to move around Sherman 
 and go North. He attacked Altoona, a fortified post on 
 the railroad, and was repulsed with heavy loss. Sher- 
 man followed him, until it became perfectly certain that 
 he was off for Tennessee, as promised in Mr. Davis' 
 speech at Lovejoy's, when he returned to Atlanta. 
 
 Savannah is three hundred miles from Atlanta. The 
 country between is rich, well cultivated, had never seen 
 an army, and was full of provisions. Absolutely every 
 man in Georgia, from sixteen to fifty, was with the army. 
 A march through such a country would be a military 
 promenade. Hood would have been an obstacle, but 
 Hood had gone and left the -gate open. 
 
 The fall of Atlanta was naturally the subject of great 
 rejoicing and much vainglory on the successful side. 
 It meant the downfall of the Confederacy, and it para- 
 lyzed all hopes of success in the hearts of the great mass 
 of the people. Sherman and the Federal authorities had 
 a perfect conception of the importance of the event, and 
 lost no time in improving their advantage. 
 
 The first thing Sherman did upon occupying Atlanta 
 and getting his railroad communication with the North 
 satisfactorily established, was to drive out every human 
 being, young or old, male or female, from the city, who 
 did not belong to his army. Pregnant women, women 
 in child-bed, babies at the breast, sick women, puling 
 infants, were thrust from their homes and sent off, against
 
 THE FALL OF ATLANTA AND SHERMAN'S RAID. 121 
 
 the protests of the mayor of Atlanta, and the burning 
 remonstrance of Hood, who commanded the Confed- 
 erate Army. 
 
 Sherman justified his act as an act of war, and said 
 "he was not dealing with the humanity of the question." 
 
 The same in sentiment, but more brutal even in expres- 
 sion, was the language of another great Federal General, 
 as related by Busch in his "Bismarck and the Franco- 
 Prussian War." On the advance of the Prussians into 
 France, General Sheridan, with two of his staff accom- 
 panied the general headquarters. 
 
 When the advance guard of the invading army entered 
 the village of Bazeilles, it was fired on from the houses 
 and the gardens, by citizens or by Franc tireurs, the 
 French guerrillas. The village was r orthwith burned 
 and razed to the ground. 
 
 The incident caused great criticism among the Prus- 
 sians, and the action of the Prussian General who 
 ordered it much commented on. Here is Busch's 
 account of the views of the American general: "On 
 September 8th," says he, "we had a great dinner, at 
 which the hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg- 
 Schwerin, and the three Americans, were present. 
 
 "They spoke of the different reports about the incidents 
 at Bazeilles. The minister (Bismarck) said it could not 
 be tolerated, that peasants should join in fighting to 
 defend places. They were not in uniform, and there- 
 fore when they throw away their muskets unnoticed, 
 they cannot be known as combatants. The chances 
 ought to be equal for both sides. Abeken thought the
 
 122 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 fate of Bazeilles too hard, and that the war ought to be 
 carried on more humanely. 
 
 "Sheridan, to whom McLean had explained the case, 
 took a different view. He thought the severest treat- 
 ment of a population during a war, quite justified on 
 political grounds, 'The main thing, in true strategy.' 
 What he said amounted to this: 'First, deal as hard 
 blows at the enemy's soldiers as possible, and then 
 cause so much suffering to the inhabitants of the country 
 that they will long for peace and press their government 
 to make it. Nothing should be left to the people but eyes 
 to lament the -war.' Rathei heartless, I thought to 
 myself, but perhaps worth consideration."* 
 
 No such sentiment has been uttered by a commanding 
 General since Attila or Alva, even if they did, which 
 may be doubted. 
 
 Every writer on international war, every authority 
 who has laid down the principles and practices on, and 
 with which modern civilized war ought and must be 
 carried on, condemns maltreatment of non-combatants, 
 and forbids plunder or the appropriation of private 
 property, unless necessary for the support of the army, 
 and then to be paid for. 
 
 Scott and Taylor in Mexico procured provisions by 
 regular details under responsible officers, and paid for 
 them in hard money. 
 
 The government of the United States, bound to range 
 itself on the side of civilization, employed Dr. Francis 
 Lieber, the greatest publicist in America, to prepare a 
 
 *Busch, page 130.
 
 THE FALL OF ATLANTA AND SHERMAN'S RAID. 123 
 
 code for the government of the American army in war. 
 This code was published by authority, and was the law 
 which was law for Gen. Sherman as well as for the 
 meanest bummer who flanked his march and disgraced 
 his flag. 
 
 Section 20 of this code is: "Private property, unless 
 forfeited by crimes, or by offences of the owner against 
 the safety of the army, or the dignity of the United 
 States, and after due conviction of the owner by court- 
 martial, can be seized only by way of military necessity, 
 for the support or the benefit of the army or of the 
 United States." 
 
 Section 24 is: "All wanton violence committed 
 against persons in the invaded country ; all destruction 
 of property not commanded by the authorized officers ; 
 all robbery; all pillage or sacking, even after taking a 
 place by main force; all rape, wounding, maiming, or 
 killing of such inhabitants, are prohibited under penalty 
 of death, or such other severe punishment as may seem 
 adequate for the gravity of the offence." 
 
 This code does not appear to be entirely in accord 
 with the sentiment of Sheridan: "That the inhabitants 
 should be^ left only eyes to weep." But in September, 
 1863, it was the law which bound the Federal army, 
 which every officer and every soldier had sworn to obey. 
 Sherman cleaned out his army of all ineffectives: Sick, 
 disabled, convalescents, everybody who could not march 
 was sent North by the railroad. By the last of Novem- 
 ber he was ready for his march to the sea. He had 
 60,000 men, seasoned and toughened by march, bivouac
 
 124 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 and battle for a year. The victors at Port Huason, 
 Grand Gulf, Vicksburg, Missionary Ridge and the 
 pursuers of Johnston for seventy odd days, always 
 advancing and never giving ground. They were in 
 perfect health, in the highest morale, and must havr 
 been under the best discipline. With them he took 
 sixty-five guns, generally in four gun batteries, twenty- 
 five hundred six-mule wagons, and twenty-five hundred 
 two-horse ambulances. The wagons carried about 
 twenty-five hundred pounds each. The roads were 
 good, wood, water and provisions plenty, and the 
 weather superb. 
 
 His general order for the march conforms to the 
 requirements of Lieber's code. Straggling was strictly 
 prohibited, and plundering denounced; lest the straggler 
 or plunderer in the enemy's country might meet a 
 sudden death. 
 
 The wagons were always to carry ten day's rations 
 and forage for the army. And they always did. So 
 there never was excuse for plunder or pillage. The 
 troops were to march by four roads, keeping in touch 
 with each other all the time, so that they could be 
 rapidly concentrated at any point when necessary. 
 
 The columns ought to make fifteen miles a day, and 
 therefore twenty days would bring them to th,e sea at 
 Savannah. 
 
 The march began from Atlanta on November i5th, 
 and for the first day or two proceeded in an orderly and 
 military manner. The trains were properly guarded. 
 Foraging parties were kept out on the flanks in charge
 
 THE FALL OF ATLANTA AND SHERMAN'S RAID. 
 
 of quartermasters and commissaries, and provisions 
 were collected in a decent, civilized way. But by the 
 end of two days it became evident that there were no 
 white people left in the country, but women and children, 
 and that the byroads, paths and fields were as absolutely 
 safe as in Central New York. And then began the 
 saturnalia of the "bummers." 
 
 The Federal army contained regiments from many 
 Northern States. In the ranks were men whose ances- 
 tors had died at Bunker Hill or fallen at Buena Vista. 
 They were the sons of God-fearing, country-loving 
 fathers and mothers, and were as high-minded, chival- 
 rous, generous soldiers as ever carried musket or drew 
 sabre. But by their sides, in no inconsiderable propor- 
 tion, were the mercenaries, who had enlisted solely 
 from selfish considerations. They knew no flag; they 
 had no country ; they never felt a pulsation of patriotism, 
 nor a throb of honest enthusiasm. The commercial 
 spirit, which understood that it would pay better to give 
 a thousand dollars for a substitute, when a man was 
 making a thousand dollars a day, by a contract for 
 bogus boots, or shoddy coats, or useless hats, than to risk 
 life or limb for the Union, had filled the army with the 
 scum of the world. The market price of the human 
 material rose as the competition grew hotter. 
 
 The proletariat of the old world, the jails and peni- 
 tiaries of the new, were bought up by commercial 
 dealers, who sold them at a profit. 
 
 Clubs were formed for mutual assurance against the 
 perils of patriotism and the loss of jobs.
 
 126 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 A hundred neighbors, all interested in making money 
 out of the war for the Union, and all profiting by it, 
 would form an association for protection, that if one was 
 drawn for the war, the whole would supply a substitute 
 by assessment on all the members. 
 
 It was the same arrangement that has since blossomed 
 out as graveyard insurance, or mutual benefit associa- 
 tion. The consequence was, that as there was a ready 
 market for substitutes, there was an ample supply. 
 The Bunker Hill Mutual Assurance Society, and Perfect 
 Substitute Association, would be formed on the basis that 
 each member would put in so much capital, which was 
 at once invested in substitutes, and that there should 
 be no further call on the stockholders until drafts had 
 been made on members sufficient to exhaust the paid-in 
 capital of substitutes. 
 
 The consequence of this market in blood and bones 
 was, that side by side with the high-spirited New Eng- 
 land boy, whose grandfather had stood by Warren, or 
 the Illinois farmer's son, whose ancestor had died at 
 Tippecanoe or Monterey, was a collection of the basest, 
 vilest dregs ever collected by the dredge of avarice from 
 the bottom of civilization. 
 
 In all the scenes that followed Sherman, in all the 
 gruesome memories of that fearful march, in all the 
 lurid pictures of crime and suffering, the only light is 
 that of some bright young "Yankee," always American, 
 who interposes sometimes officer against private soldier, 
 sometimes private soldier against officer to shelter 
 women, old men and children against the "bummers,"
 
 THE FALL OF ATLANTA AND SHERMAN'S RAID. 127 
 
 the outpourings of the jails and penitentiaries of the 
 North, and the dregs of the mob in the Continental cities. 
 
 No tongue can tell, no pen can paint the horrors of 
 that thirty days' march of Sherman from Atlanta to 
 Savannah. He left Atlanta November 15, he reached 
 Savannah December 15 ; and in that thirty days was 
 packed as much of human suffering as ever was experi- 
 enced in the same period in all the history of all time. 
 
 The spirit of the chiefs inspires the followers. I have 
 already shown what feeling Sheridan had. 
 
 After Sherman had reached the sea he received this 
 order from "H. W. Halleck, Major-General, Chief of 
 
 Staff": 
 
 HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY, ) 
 WASHINGTON, Dec. 18, i63- ) 
 
 * * * Should you capture Charleston, I hope that 
 by some accident the place may be destroyed, and if a 
 little salt should be sown upon its site, it may prevent 
 the growth of future crops of nullification and secession." 
 
 On December 24, 1864, Sherman answers this deli- 
 cate intimation to commit murder, arson and robbery, 
 and pretend it is by accident, as follows : 
 
 "I will bear in mind your hint as to Charleston, and 
 do not think that 'salt' will be necessary. When I 
 move, the Fifteenth Corps will be on the right of the 
 right wing, and their position will naturally bring them 
 into Charleston first, and if you have watched the 
 history of that corps, you will have remarked that they 
 generally do their work pretty well ; the truth is, the 
 whole army is burning with an insatiable desire to wreak 
 vengeance upon South Carolina. I almost tremble for her 
 
 fate, but FEEL THAT SHE DESERVES ALL THAT SEEMS 
 
 IN STORE FOR HER. * * * I look iipon Columbia as quite 
 as bad as Charleston, and I doubt if we shall spare the 
 public buildings tJicrc, as we did at Millcdgcvillc"
 
 128 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 The Federal army marched by four roads, covering a 
 front of forty miles. It moved at the rate of fifteen 
 mile a day. 
 
 A solid wall of smoke by day forty miles wide, 
 and from the horizon to the zenith, gave notice to the 
 women and children of the fate that was moving on 
 them. At early dawn the black vail showed the march 
 of the bummers. All day long they watched it coming 
 from the Northwest, like the storm-cloud of destruction. 
 All night it was lit up by forked tongues of flame light- 
 ing the lurid blackness. The next morning it reached 
 them. Terror borne on the air, fleet as the furies, 
 spread out ahead, and murder, arson, rapine, enveloped 
 them. 
 
 Who can describe the agonies of mothers for their 
 daughters, for their babies, for their old fathers and 
 young boys? 
 
 This crime was organized and regulated with intelli- 
 gence and method. Every morning details were sent in 
 advance and on the flanks. Justice required that the 
 men who remained in the ranks should share in the 
 advantages of these details. Of course energy, enter- 
 prise and courage made itself felt at once among the 
 "bummers," and the more daring and boldest forthwith 
 supplied themselves with good horses and kept well 
 mounted by that means. There were many thorough- 
 bred horses in Southern Georgia, and the stables of the 
 rich planters were stocked with the best blood of Vir- 
 ginia and South Carolina. 
 The bummers spread themselves over the whole country
 
 THE FALL OF ATLANTA AND SHERMAN'S RAID. 
 
 for miles beyond either flank of the marching columns, 
 and they robbed everything. The negroes were no 
 more safe than the whites. The especial objects of their 
 search were watches, jewelry and women's trinkets. 
 The old galley slave, fresh from Toulou, and the 
 French hulks, with the brand on his shoulder and the 
 limp of the shackles on his leg, found a wide field for 
 the exercise of those talents which had brought him to 
 grief in his own country. 
 
 Between the thieves and their accomplices, there was 
 organized a rude system. of division, according to a law 
 of prize. 
 
 All valuables gold, silver, jewels, watches, &c., 
 were to be brought in at night and a fair division made 
 of them among all parties. 
 
 The captain was entitled to so much. The colonel to 
 his share. The general to his portion. 
 
 In May, 1865, a brigadier-General commanding a 
 cavalry brigade under Major-General Kilpatrick, said 
 that Kilpatrick had a bushel of watches, trinkets, 
 numerous finger-rings and earrings; of course in such 
 a band there was no such thing as honor, and the 
 division made was in no way equal; but the system 
 worked. Under it everybody was robbed, and everyone 
 among the robbers got a share. Sherman set out to 
 leave the inhabitants "nothing but eyes to weep." He 
 left nothing else in his track, but one thing, which he 
 forgot. He left them memories to retain the imoressions 
 and the feelings he created. 
 
 General Sherman, in his memoirs, makes merry over
 
 130 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 the humors of the "bummers," and says that President 
 Lincoln, "HonestOld Abe," in the last interview he ever 
 had with him, in April, 1865, at City Point, was highly 
 diverted and greatly interested in the "bummers." 
 The massacre at Glencoe was the one single blot upon 
 the honor and fame of William of Orange, the deliverer 
 of England. But the picture drawn by Macaulay of 
 that tragedy is of a holiday fete, beside the tragic scenes 
 spread over hundreds of miles for months on the line 
 and flank of Sherman's march. One or two drawn by 
 the actors in them, will suffice in this panorama of 
 horror. 
 
 In the fall of 1864, Judge H , of Macon, Georgia, 
 
 left his home at Macon and went to his plantation in 
 Jefferson county, Georgia, twelve miles from a railroad, 
 in the Ogeechee swamp. His wife writes this account 
 of experiences, that justice to history and to truth 
 requires should be put on record : 
 
 "About the 24th of November, we heard that Sher- 
 man's Army were in posession of Milledgeville, and were 
 on their way to Savannah, burning and destroying 
 everything in their course, and our house being directly 
 on the wagon road from Milledgeville to Savannah, we 
 of course, expected them to lay everthing in ashes that 
 they could find. 
 
 "A few days afterward we could hear of Kilpatrick's 
 cavalry all around us, and see the heaven's illuminated 
 at night with the glare of burning gin houses and other 
 buildings. We could hear of houses being pillaged, 
 'and old men being beaten nearly to death, to be
 
 I 
 
 THE FALL OF ATLANTA AND SHERMAN'S RAID. 
 
 made to tell where their money and treasures were con- 
 cealed. All these tales of horror we heard, and deeply 
 sympathized with the sufferers, expecting every hour to 
 see the cavalry ride up and treat us in the same manner. 
 But to our great joy they passed us, coming no nearer 
 than six miles, and when they had passed, we hoped 
 the main army would do the same. We thought it best, 
 however, to take such precaution to conceal our stock, 
 so as to prevent them being found, if they should make 
 us a visit, and stockades were built in the dense swamp 
 of the Ogeechee, impenetrable, as we thought, to any 
 one not acquainted with the surroundings. 
 
 "For several days, squads of Wheeler's cavalry would 
 pass, and tell us where Sherman's army was, and of the 
 depredations they were committing, and warn us to pre- 
 pare for the worst, as they were showing no mercy; 
 and on Sunday, November 28, we heard that the 
 destroyers were encamped just above our upper planta- 
 tion about four miles from our home. That night the 
 heavens looked as if they were on fire, from the glare 
 of hundreds of burning houses, and early Monday 
 morning a negro man came from the upper plantation 
 and told us the}^ were crossing the river, and that some 
 of them were in Louisville, about two miles off ; also 
 that they were searching the houses, breaking in the 
 stores and setting fire to them, and killing all the stock 
 they could find. (Stores, in Southern vernacular, means 
 stores and supplies of provisions, clothing, &c., provid- 
 ed for a plantation. Stock, means live stock.) 
 
 ''He proposed to hide a number of hams we had hang-
 
 132 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH K. JOHNSTON. 
 
 ing up in the smoke-house, where we had been making 
 salt by leaching the dirt from the earthen floor, and we 
 gladly accepted the proposition. He accordingly dug 
 down about two feet, laid plank at the bottom of the 
 excavation, laid the hams on them, covering them up 
 securely and putting syrup barrels over the place. 
 
 "I told the cook to prepare us enough food to last us 
 several days, as we would not be able to have anything 
 cooked while the Yankees were on the place. We also 
 gave the negroes one month's rations, thinking that they 
 would be better able to keep them than we should. 
 
 "That morning Mrs. S , the overseer's wife, and 
 
 myself had gone into the woods and buried my valuables. 
 
 "Judge H was in the swamp at the time having 
 
 the stock put in the stockade, and turning the fattening 
 hogs out in the swamp, thinking they would be less 
 liable to be killed running at large. He had his watch 
 with him. 
 
 "When he came back to the house I got his watch 
 
 from him and gave it to Mrs. S , with the request 
 
 that she would hide it in some safe place. 
 
 "About noon, just as we were ready to sit down to 
 dinner, a little negro boy came running in half breath- 
 less from fright. 
 
 O 
 
 " 'Marster,' he cried, 'dey's comin down de lane.' 
 
 " 'Who is coming,' asked his master? 
 
 " 'Two white men's wid blue coats on,' the little 
 negro answered. 
 
 "We left the dining-room and looked out. Instead of 
 'two white men with blue coats,' we saw about a dozen,
 
 THE FALL OF ATLANTA AND SHERMAN'S RAID. 133 
 
 talking to the negroes at the negro houses. My 
 husband went out, and two of them came up and spoke 
 very politely to him, asking if he could let them have 
 something to eat. They said they wanted some flour, 
 and were willing to pay for what they got. They 
 looked around the pantry and smoke-house, and one of 
 them said, 'you had better have those provisions carried 
 into your house, some of our men are not very particular 
 to ask for what they want,' while another offered to take 
 down some pieces of meat that were hanging in the 
 smoke-house and bring them into the house for me. 
 
 " I began to think they were not so bad after all, but I 
 soon had reason to change my mind. I had hardly got 
 the meat inside of the house before hundreds of the 
 'Blue Coats' could be seen everywhere. One man 
 came up to me and asked if I could tell him how long it 
 was since the last 'Rebs' passed the place. I made no 
 reply to him, whereupon he cursed me and demanded to 
 know why I did not answer his question. 
 
 " f Don't you know the Southern women know no 
 such persons as "Rebs," ' another soldier observed. 
 
 " 'Then,' said the first, 'will you please tell me, 
 madam, how long since the last Confederate soldier 
 passed here? ' 
 
 " I told him General Wheeler's men had been passing 
 for several days, and that some of them had passed that 
 morning. ' I suppose,' I added, ' that they are waiting 
 for you down in the swamp," and I hoped in my heart 
 they would give them a warm reception. 
 
 " In our fright we had forgotten our dinner, and
 
 134 LIFE OF GEN - JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 when we went back into the dining-room everything 
 was gone, not a morsel to eat was left. The dishes 
 were all gone, and even the table-cloth was taken. 
 They, no doubt, were very much delighted to find a 
 nice dinner already prepared for them a large turkey, 
 a nice ham and various other things nicely cooked. We 
 were too much frightened to feel hungry then. 
 
 "As we were outside the picket line, we were not 
 molested during the night. The army regulations were 
 very strict, requiring all to be in camp before dark, and 
 we were not able to get a guard. That night, however, 
 about nine o'clock, we heard a slight knocking on the 
 window. ' Who is that? ' asked my husband. 'A 
 friend,' was the answer. ' I am a Confederate soldier.' 
 Upon opening the door, a young Confederate officer 
 came in. He said his name was Carter, and that his 
 command being nearby, he had come into Louisville to 
 see his wife, who was visiting Relatives there. She was 
 a sister of General Ranse Wright. That morning, 
 before daylight, he left Louisville, hearing that the 
 Yankees were in the neighborhood, and knowing that 
 he would be taken prisoner if he were found. His 
 friends had provided him with provisions to last several 
 days. He had been hiding in the woods all day, and 
 he came to ask us if we could direct him to a safe place 
 in which he could conceal himself until the enemy 
 passed by. 
 
 "Judge H directed him to a place in which he 
 
 thought he might hide without much danger of being 
 discovered. The young man accordingly provided
 
 THE FALL OF ATLANTA AND SHERMAN'S RAID. 135 
 
 himself with some water and set out, having avoided 
 letting the overseer, or any of the negroes, know of 
 his visit. 
 
 * 'Early Tuesday morning the Yankees began to come 
 in from every quarter. One could not look in any 
 direction without seeing them. They searched every 
 place. One of them loudly declared that he had heard 
 we had a Confederate officer concealed in the house, 
 and that he was determined to find him. 
 
 "The intruders thereupon looked into closets, trunks, 
 boxes, and every conceivable place. One man came in 
 and said : 'I know you have got a Rebel officer hidden 
 away in here somewhere. He was seen to come in here 
 last night.' He accordingly began to search the bureau 
 drawers, and even opened the clock and looked into 
 that. 'Sir,' said I, half laughingly, just as he was 
 about leaving the room, 'There is one place in the room 
 you have not looked into.' 'Where is it?' he asked. I 
 pointed to a small pill box on the mantelpiece^, and asked 
 him if the Conlederate soldier might not be hidden in 
 that. He turned away with a curse upon his lips on all 
 the Rebel women. 
 
 "At noon some of the men insisted that my husband 
 should go down to the swamp with them, to show them 
 where some syrup was hidden. He called a negro man 
 who had assisted us in hiding it, and told him to go, but 
 the Yankees insisted that he should go himself. He 
 told them he was old and feeble, and not able to walk so 
 far. One of them thereupon went and brought a mule 
 
 
 
 and put him on it, and three of them started with him
 
 136 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 to the swamp. I felt very uneasy about him, but was 
 assured by some of the soldiers that no harm would be 
 done to him. 
 
 "While my husband was absent, the destroyers set fire 
 to the gin-house, in which were stored over two hundred 
 bales of cotton and several bales of kersey we had 
 hidden between the bales of cotton. The granary, in 
 which were several hundred bushels of wheat, was also 
 set on fire. The negroes went out and begged for the 
 cotton, saying that it was to make their winter clothes. 
 The cruel destroyers refused to let the negroes have a 
 single piece. They told them they knew it was to make 
 clothes for the 'Rebs.' 
 
 "One man, who had been particularly insulting, came 
 up to me and laughed, harshly. 'Well, madam,' said 
 he, sneeringly, ' how do you like the looks of our little 
 fire. We have seen a great many such, within the last 
 few weeks.' 
 
 "I had grown desperate, and I told him 'I didn't care. 
 I was thankful that not a lock of that cotton would ever 
 feed a Yankee factory or clothe a Yankee soldier's back.' 
 
 "He turned with an oath, and left me, but after a few 
 minutes came back, having discovered that my house 
 was in the city of Macon, and that I had heard nothing 
 from there for some time, and told me, with a chuckle, 
 that the army had passed through Macon, had sacked it 
 and then burned it to the ground. 
 
 "A rough looking western man was standing by, and 
 he interrupted him. 'Madam,' said he, 'have you 
 friends in Macon?' I told him I had a home and a
 
 THE FALL OF ATLANTA AND SHERMAN S RAID. , 137 
 
 brother there. He then turned to the miscreant and 
 looked him squarely in the face. 'Why,' he demanded, 
 'do you lie to this lady? You know very well we did 
 not touch Macon, but passed it by. God knows she will 
 have enough to bear before this army leaves here, with- 
 out being made the target of lies.' 
 
 11 'I am glad you have a home outside Sherman's 
 track,' he continued, addressing me, 'for Heaven knows 
 you will need it before many days pass. You will have 
 nothing left here.' 
 
 "Just then I saw my husband coming up on a bare- 
 back mule, with a Yankee soldier on each side holding 
 him on. He was brought up to the piazza, lifted from 
 the mule and brought into the house. They took him 
 into a small room, and I followed. He turned to me 
 and requested me to give the men his watch. 
 
 " 'Why?' I asked, 'they have no business with your 
 watch!' 
 
 " 'Give it to them,' he repeated, with a gasp, 'and let 
 them go. I am almost dead.' 
 
 "Mrs. S , was standing by, and I told her to get 
 
 the watch. She, without thinking, asked me if I meant 
 
 Judge H 's watch, and I answered yes. Of course 
 
 the Yankees inferred from her remark that she knew 
 where other valuables were concealed, and they made 
 her yield up everything. I got my husband to his room 
 as soon as possible, and found he was very faint, as I 
 thought, from fatigue. Imagine my horror, therefore, 
 when he had recovered sufficiently to talk, to hear that 
 the fiends had taken him to the swamp and hanged him.
 
 138 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 He said he suspected no harm until he got about two 
 miles from the house, when they stopped, and taking him 
 from the mule, said: 'Now, old man, you've got to tell 
 us where your gold is hidden.' He told them he had 
 no gold, that he had gone down to his plantation for a 
 short visit, and had left his money at home in the bank. 
 They cursed him, and told him that story would 
 not do; that his wife had gone up to Macon and 
 brought it all down, for a negro man had told them she 
 had brought a trunk full of gold and silver down there, 
 and that he could scarcely lift the trunk, it Avas so heavy. 
 They then said they had brought him to the swamp to 
 make him tell where it was. If he would give it up 
 without force, all right, if not, they would hang him 
 until he revealed its hiding place. 
 
 "He repeated his first statement, and told them he 
 had no gold. 
 
 "They then took him to a tree that bent over the path, 
 tied a rope around his neck, threw it over a projecting 
 limb, and drew him up until his feet were off the ground. 
 He did not quite lose consciousness, when they let him 
 down and said, 'now where is your gold.' 
 
 "He told them the same story, whereupon one of them 
 cried, 'we'll make you tell another story before we are 
 done with you, so pull him up again boys.' They 
 raised him up again, and that time he said he felt as if 
 he were suffocating. They again lowered him to his 
 feet and cried out fiercely, 'now tell us where that gold 
 is or we will kill you, and your wife will never know 
 what has become of vou. 'I have told you the truth
 
 THE FALL OF ATLANTA AND SHERMAN'S RAID. 139 
 
 I have got no gold,' he again repeated, adding, 'I am 
 an old man and at your mercy. If you want to kill me 
 you have the power to do it, but I cannot die with a lie 
 on my lips. I have no gold. I have a gold watch at 
 the house, but nothing else.' 
 
 "One of them who seemed to be the leader said, 
 'swing the old Rebel up again ; next time we will get all 
 the truth from him.' They then lifted him up and let 
 him fall with more force than before. He heard a 
 sound as of water rushing through his head, and then 
 a blindness came over him, and a dry choking sensation 
 was felt in his throat, as he lost consciousness. 
 
 "The next thing he remembered, he was some dis- 
 tance from the place where he was hanged, lying with 
 his head down the hill near a stream of water, and one 
 of the men was bathing his face and another rubbing 
 his hands. For some time he was unable to speak. 
 Then he heard one of them say 'we liked to have car- 
 ried this game too far.' When he was able to sit up, 
 they placed him on the mule and brought him to the 
 house to get his watch. 
 
 "When Mrs. S went to get Judge H 's watch, 
 
 which was not with our other valuables, the plunderers 
 compelled her to guide them to the place where every- 
 thing of value we had was concealed, and she came to 
 me when she returned to the house, and with trembling 
 lips, said she hoped I would not blame her for showing 
 them where our silver was hidden. 'I couldn't help it. 
 she cried, 'they threatened to kill me if I did not tell.' 
 They said they had hanged Judge H until he was
 
 140 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 nearly dead, and they would do the same to me if I did 
 not show them where everything was concealed. They 
 even threatened to burn the house down if I kept back 
 anything.' 
 
 "Poor woman, life was dear to her. She did try to 
 save it. I did not blame her. Oh ! the horror of that 
 night! 
 
 " None but God will ever know what I suffered. 
 There my husband lay with scorching fever, his tongue 
 parched and swollen, and his throat dry and sore. He 
 begged for water, and there was not a drop to be had. 
 The Yankees had cut all the well ropes, and stolen all 
 the buckets, and there was no water nearer than half a 
 mile. 
 
 "Just before daylight, one of the negro men offered 
 to go to the spring for some water, but there was not a 
 bucket or tub to be found. Everything had been taken 
 off. He at last found a small tin bucket that some of 
 the negroes had used to carry their dinner to the field, 
 and brought that full about half a gallon. 
 
 " The next morning Wednesday a rough-looking 
 man from Iowa came to the window and asked me if he 
 could be of any service to me. The negroes were 
 afraid to come near the house during the day, but came 
 at night and brought in wood, and did all they could for 
 me. I told the stranger we had no water and nothing 
 to eat. He offered to bring me some water if I would 
 give him a bucket. I told him every vessel had been 
 carried off, and we had nothing. He then left, and in 
 about an hour returned with a wooden pail, such as
 
 THE FALL OF ATLANTA AND SHERMAN'S RAID. 14! 
 
 the negroes used in carrying water to the fields. In 
 other days I should have hesitated to drink water from 
 such a vessel, as it certainly did not look very clean, but I 
 was thankful to get it, and expressed my gratitude to 
 the man. 
 
 " The Good Samaritan then took from his pockets two 
 envelopes, one containing about two tablespoonfuls of 
 parched coffee, and the other about the same quantity 
 of brown sugar, and handed them to me. Notwith- 
 standing my trouble, I could not help being amused. 
 He brought me a small teacup and said, 'Now, take 
 this coffee and grind it if you have a mill, if not, put it 
 in a rag and beat it until it is fine, then put it in the cup 
 and pour boiling water on it, and let it boil a few 
 minutes. You will then have a good drink for your 
 sick husband.' 
 
 "I thanked him, but did not let him know I knew 
 how to make coffee. I know one thing, I never appre- 
 ciated a cup of coffee more than I did that one. This 
 man was rough-looking, but his heart was in the right 
 place. He certainly acted the part of the ' Good 
 Samaritan.' 
 
 "With one exception, the only kindness I received 
 was from the Western soldiers. There were in that 
 large army some feelings of kindness, but it was not my 
 good fortune to meet them. Not far from the house, 
 there were about a dozen banks of potatoes that the 
 plunderers began to carry away by the bagful. They 
 would come into the house, take any article of clothing 
 they could find, tie a string around one end of it, and 
 make a receptacle to carry off potatoes.
 
 142 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 "My We^ern friend, the Good Samaritan, who gave 
 me the coffee, came to the door and said, 'Give me a 
 basket and I will bring in some of those potatoes, for 
 you will need them.' 
 
 "I, fortunately, had a basket in the room and gave it 
 to him, and he brought in about three bushels and put 
 them under the bed on the floor. 
 
 "All the time he was bringing them in, the soldiers 
 were jeering him and calling him 'Old Secesh.' He 
 paid no attention to their taunts, but kept bringing in 
 potatoes as long as he could find a place to put them. 
 
 "During the day a number of officers came 
 in 'to pay their respects,' as they said. One of them, 
 speaking of the horrors war brought on the women and 
 children of the South, spoke freely of the terrible way 
 in which South Carolina was to be punished. 
 
 '"You may think the people .of Georgia are faring 
 badly,' he said, 'and they are, but God pity the people 
 of South Carolina when this army gets there, for we 
 have orders to lay everything in ashes, not to leave a 
 green thing in the State for man or beast. That State 
 will be made to feel the fearful sin of secession, before 
 our army gets through it. Here our soldiers are held in 
 check as much as is possible, with such a large body of 
 men, but when we get to South Carolina they*will be 
 turned loose to follow their own inclinations.' 'Their 
 own inclinations,' he seemed to understand, would be 
 murder, arson, rape and robbery. 
 
 "On Saturday morning we looked out upon a scene of 
 desolation ;i:ul ruin. We could hardly believe it was
 
 THE FALL OF ATLANTA AND SHERMAN'S RAID. 143 
 
 our home.. One week before, it was one of the most 
 beautiful places in the State. Now it was a vast wreck. 
 Gin-houses, packing houses, screws, granary all lay in , 
 ashes. Not a fence was to be seen for miles. The corn 
 crop had not been gathered, and the army had turned 
 their stock in the fields and destroyed what they had not 
 carried off. 
 
 "The poor negroes had fared no better than we had. 
 Their friends had stolen everything from them, as well 
 as from us. Their master had given them a month's 
 rations, thinking they would be able to save them, but 
 alas, they had provisions, clothing and everything taken 
 from them ; even their shoes were taken from their feet. 
 Their chickens had all been killed, and their beds and 
 bedding carried off. Poor creatures, they looked discon- 
 solate, and when they saw their master, the older ones 
 burst out crying. 'Marster,' they asked, piteously, 
 'What we all gwine to do now? Everything gone, 
 nothing left for us to eat.' 
 
 " 'I can't tell. It looks as if we would all have to 
 starve together. I never saw starvation looking me in 
 the face before.' 
 
 "I well remember the distress of one of the negro 
 women. She was sitting on her doorsteps, swaying her 
 body back and forth, in the manner peculiar to the 
 negro, and making a mournful noise, a kind of moaning 
 and low sorrowful sound, occasionally wringing her 
 hands and crying out. As we approached her she 
 raised her head. 
 
 " 'Marster,' she said, rolling her eyes strangely, 'what
 
 144 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 kind of folks dese here Yankees? They won't even let 
 the dead rest in de grave.' 'What do you mean?' he 
 asked. 'You know my chile, what I bury last week? 
 Dey take 'em up and left 'em on de top of de ground for 
 de hog to root. What you tink of dat, sir.' ' 
 
 " Her story was true. A fresh grave was dug up in 
 search of treasure. A coffin with a little baby taken 
 out and broken open, and the pitiful little corpse left on 
 the ground for the hogs. The eyes of black as well as 
 white were made to weep. There was no distinction on 
 account of race or color. And at that moment Sherman 
 was hauling ten days' rations for his whole army in his 
 twenty-five hundred six mule wagons. The live stock, 
 horses, cows, hogs, calves, sheep were shot and left on 
 the ground as carrion."* 
 
 Here is another picture of the search for treasure. A 
 party of bummers, coming on a secluded country house, 
 inhabited by a one-armed and wounded Confederate 
 soldier, his child, wife and his sister, undertook to find 
 JefT. Davis's gold, which they hoped, or believed, or 
 pretended to believe, had been concealed by the family. 
 
 They secured large chests of plate and jewelry, which 
 had been sent up the country from Charleston for safe 
 keeping, and which, doubtless, were the origin of the 
 myth about Jeff. Davis's gold. 
 
 The one-armed man was under guard, and refusing to 
 tell where the gold was for he asserted truthfully there 
 was no gold was struck over the head by the colonel 
 with a musket, and when about to repeat the blow, the 
 
 *Our Women in the War, page 77.
 
 THE FALL OF ATLANTA AND SHERMAN'S RAID. 145 
 
 young wife rushed in and warded it from her husband 
 by receiving it herself. 
 
 " ' No more of that, colonel," said an officer, who had 
 been sitting on one side for some time, examining a 
 casket of jewels. ' Take the fellow out and shoot him 
 or break his neck as soon as you please, but let that 
 girl alone or I'll take her under my own wing.' 
 
 " In a shorter time than I can relate it, the inhuman 
 wretches dragged my helpless brother beneath a large 
 maple tree, and placing a strong rope round his neck, 
 prepared to execute their threat. 
 
 "'Perhaps the coil of hemp around his neck will 
 make him open his mouth,' said one of the ruffians, 
 giving the rope a sudden jerk. 
 
 " 'You have already been told that there is no gold 
 here, and now I add that if there were tons of it I would 
 rather die twenty deaths than deliver it into the hands of 
 such a band of cut-throats and robbers.' 
 
 " These defiant words from Earle were received with 
 a volley of curses, and the order was given, ' draw him 
 up.' The rope was tightening when one of the men 
 exclaimed, 'Where's his wife? She must see him 
 swing ;' and as if in answer to the call, Ins sprang forward 
 and tightly clasped the rope. ' You dare not, you shall 
 not kill him,' she cried, her face blanched to the dread- 
 ful whiteness of death. 
 
 "'Who will stop us, you cursed Rebel?' asked the 
 colonel, the most inhuman of the lot. ' Here, men, pull 
 her off, and if she won't keep her distance, make her.' 
 
 " Rudely they tore her hands from the rope, and held
 
 
 146 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 them firmly, despite her efforts to free herself. And 
 then I saw the rope tighten again, and my poor brother 
 swing into mid-air. They twice drew Earle up and let 
 him down, each time calling him to tell where the gold 
 was, and were preparing to hang him a third time when 
 some officers, apparently of high rank, rode up and 
 ordered the release of the captive, and the party to 
 rejoin their brigade."' 
 
 Said Dr. : "When Sherman's Army passed 
 
 through my place in North Carolina, some of his camp 
 followers, in their greedy search for treasure, entered 
 the graveyard, dug up my dead children, opened their 
 coffins and left their bodies exposed to birds and beasts 
 less vile than they."f 
 
 Such barbarities were practiced daily during three 
 months in the track of desolation over three States. 
 
 The atrocities of the "unspeakable Turk" in Bulgaria, 
 painted by the pencil of Gladstone, have since then 
 roused Christendom to horror, and civilization to execra- 
 tion. This is not war, it is barbarism. The morale of 
 of an army comes from its head. The spirit of the 
 commander inspires his followers. In the preceding 
 year General Lee, in the enemy's country, had issued 
 the following order: 
 
 HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA, ) 
 CHAMBERSBURG, PA., June 27, 1863. ) 
 General Order y No. 73: 
 
 The Commanding General has observed with marked 
 satisfaction, the conduct of the troops upon the march, 
 and confidently anticipates results commensurate with 
 
 *Our Women in the War, page 59. 
 tOur Women in the- War, page 116.
 
 - 
 
 THE FALL OF ATLANTA AND SHERMAN'S RAID. 147 
 
 the high spirit they have manifested. * * Their con- 
 duct in other respects has, with few exceptions, been in 
 keeping with their character as soldiers, and entitles 
 them to approbation and praise. 
 
 There have, however, been instances of forgetfulness, 
 on the part of some, that they have in keeping the yet 
 unsullied reputation of the army, and that the duties 
 exacted of us by civilization and Christianity are not less 
 obligatory in the country of the enemy than in our own. 
 
 The Commanding General considers that no greater 
 disgrace could befall the army, and through it our whole 
 people, than the perpetration of the barbarous outrages 
 upon the innocent and defenceless, and the wanton 
 destruction of private property, which have marked the 
 course of the enemy in our own country. Such pro- 
 ceedings not only disgrace the perpetrators and all con- 
 nected with them, but are subversive of the discipline 
 and efficiency of the army, and destructive of the ends 
 of our present movements. It must be remembered, 
 that we -make war only on armed men> and that we can- 
 not take vengeance for the wrongs our people have suf- 
 fered, without lowering ourselves in the eyes of all, 
 whose abhorrence has been excited by the atrocities of 
 our enemy, and offending against Him to whom ven- 
 geance belongeth, without whose favor and support 
 must all prove vain. 
 
 The Commanding General, therefore, earnestly exhorts 
 the troops to abstain, with most scrupulous care, from 
 unnecessary or wanton injury of private property, and 
 he enjoins upon all officers to arrest and bring to sum- 
 mary punishment all who shall in any way offend 
 against the orders on this subject. 
 
 R. E. LEE, 
 
 General. 
 
 The idea of plunder permeated and saturated the 
 Federal Army, from its headquarters to its bummers. 
 
 'When Sherman captured Atlanta, he found there 
 about thirty-one thousand bales of cotton, some of it 
 belonging to foreigners. He seized it all, as prize of
 
 148 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 war, and took the position with Mr. Barklay, the British 
 Consul, that all cotton was saturated with treason, and 
 that no rights of British subjects would be recognized 
 to that article. 
 
 As soon as the capture of the cotton was known, 
 December 27, 1864, Grant wrote Sherman: "Please 
 instruct Foster to hold on to all the property in Savan- 
 nah, and especially the cotton. Do not turn it over to 
 citizens or treasury agents, without orders from the War 
 Department."* 
 
 But the Secretary of War himself felt an interest in 
 that cotton, and on January u, 1864, he arrived in 
 Savannah in a revenue cutter, with Simeon Draper, of 
 New York, and others. 
 
 Sherman had a keen and alert intellect, and knew 
 exactly what he wanted, and also how to get it. 
 
 He claimed the cotton as prize of war, assimulating it 
 to captures, and the law of prize, on the high seas. Such 
 a claim was unknown to the common law or the law of 
 nations, and the Supreme Court of the United States 
 have since decided that no such law of booty exists 
 in the Army of the United States. 
 
 Stanton knew no theory by which the Secretary of 
 War could share in booty. Sherman was satisfied that 
 the Commander of the Army must take a large share, 
 and of this opinion seemed Grant. So Grant wrote 
 Sherman to hold on. Sherman ordered a list of all cot- 
 ton with the marks on it to be made out, and for it to be 
 forwarded to New York for adjudication and division by 
 
 *ShcnnMrs Memoirs, Vol. II, page 238.
 
 THE FALL OF ATLANTA AND SHERMAN'S RAID. 149 
 
 the District Court of the United States, acting as a prize 
 court. 
 
 Stan ton did not agree to this, so he ordered it all 
 turned over to Simeon Draper, agent of Treasury De- 
 partment of the United States, and that all the bagging 
 be taken off the bales and that they be re-bagged and 
 re-packed so as to render identification impossible. 
 This was a tolerably smart trick to "steal, take and 
 carry away" thirty thousand bales of cotton, worth in 
 the market six millions of dollars. Stolen silver is fre- 
 quently melted up in the same way, to destroy the marks 
 on it and prevent identification. There was a smarter 
 one, however, and it was played. The chief quarter- 
 master of Sherman's old corps put a couple of clerks in 
 the warehouse where this disbaling and rebaling was go- 
 ing on, to keep a descriptive list of each bale, showing 
 its old marks, its new marks and the name of its owner. 
 
 So Draper got the cotton, and some of the proceeds 
 were paid into the treasury, under the captured and 
 abandoned property act of the United States, which 
 provided that all proceeds of such property should be 
 held in trust for owners, who could get it by proving' 
 loyalty, &c. 
 
 After the war the Supreme Court of the United 
 States settled the law, that a pardon by the President of 
 the United States wiped out all the consequences of 
 treason, and released all penalties. So the chief quar- 
 termaster sought out the owners of this captured cotton, 
 and agreed to recover the proceeds of it, in the Court of 
 Claims.
 
 I5O LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 He actually recovered $3,700,000 of this money, 
 the government refunding the price, about fifty cents 
 per pound, paid for the cotton, and he got one-half of 
 the sum recovered.
 
 THE DRAGONNADE OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE DRAGONNADE OF SOUTH CAROLINA, AND THE 
 SACK OF COLUMBIA. 
 
 1V/IAJOR GENERAL HALLECK, on December 
 * * 1 18, 1863, wrote from headquarters of the army 
 as chief of staff at Washington, to Sherman at Savannah : 
 
 "Should you capture Charleston, I hope that by 
 some accident the place may be destroyed, and if a little 
 salt should be sown on its site, it might prevent the 
 growth of future crops of nullification and treason."* 
 
 Sherman replied, December 24th: "I will bear in 
 mind your hint as to Charleston, and do not think 
 'salt' will be necessary. When I move, the Fifteenth 
 Corps will be on the right of the right wing, and their 
 position will naturally bring them into Charleston first; 
 and if you have watched the history of that corps, you 
 will have remarked that they generally do their work 
 pretty well. The truth is, the whole army is burning 
 with an insatiable desire to wreak vengeance upon 
 South Carolina. I almost tremble at her fate, but feel 
 that she deserves all that seems in store for her. * * 
 I look upon Columbia as quite as bad as Charleston, and 
 I doubt if we shall spare the public buildings there, as 
 we did at Milledgeville."f 
 
 In the same vein, Sherman writes in his memoirs : 
 
 "So I saw and felt that we would not be able longer 
 
 Sherman's Memoirs, Vol. II, page 223. 
 t Sherman's Memoirs, Vol. II, page 227.
 
 152 LIFE OF GBN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 to restrain our men, as we had done in Georgia. Per- 
 sonally, I had many foiends in Charleston, to whom I 
 would gladly have extended protection and mercy, but 
 they were beyond my personal reach, and I would not 
 restrain the army, lest its vigor and energy should be 
 impaired."* 
 
 With a General as loquacious and vain-glorious as 
 Sherman, these views of his were known- to every 
 "bummer" of the Fifteenth Corps, "which always did 
 its work so well," as well as his whole command. So 
 that when the army marched into South Carolina it did 
 just what he wanted it to do, what Halleck wanted it 
 to do, and what they both instigated it to do. 
 
 These facts would be of less importance, but that 
 Gen. Sherman has persistently, deliberately, and with- 
 out cessation, denied that he burnt Columbia, or knew 
 it was going to be burnt, or permitted it to be burnt. 
 
 If he would avow the act, and take the responsibility 
 to history, that at least would be honest and frank. But 
 he has put on record in the United States Senate a care- 
 fully prepared, long matured, deliberate, and premedi- 
 tated, falsification of history as to this crowning act of 
 vandalism. Great men sometimes make blunders. 
 Great generals sometimes have committed grave crimes, 
 but no one has ever before skulked from the responsi- 
 bility of his act, and endeavored to fix the stain on an 
 innocent and honorable adversary. 
 
 Napoleon perfectly understood that the execution of 
 the Due d'Eughien was both a blunder and a crime, but 
 
 Sherman's Memoirs, Vol. II, page 254.
 
 THE DRAGONNADE OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 153 
 
 even he never shirked the responsibility for that dark 
 deed. 
 
 Speaking of the firing of Columbia, he says in 
 his report : 
 
 "Gen. Wade Hampton, who commanded the Con- 
 federate rear-guard of cavalry, had, in anticipation of 
 our capture of Columbia, ordered that all cotton, public 
 and private, should be moved into the streets and 
 fired to prevent our making use of it. 
 Some of these piles of cotton were burning," (when 
 the Federal troops entered the city,) especially one in 
 the very heart of the city, near the court-house, but the 
 fire was partially subdued by the labor of our soldiers. 
 * * -* Before one single public building had been 
 fired by order, the smouldering fires, set by Hampton's 
 order, were rekindled by the wind and communicated 
 to the buildings around. I disclaim on the part of my 
 army any agency in this fire, but on the contrary claim 
 that we saved what of Columbia remains unconsumed. 
 And without hesitation I charge Gen. Wade Hampton 
 with having burned his own city of Columbia, not with 
 malicious intent, or as the manifestation of a silly 
 'Roman stoicism,' but from folly and want of sense, in 
 filling it with lint cotton and tinder." 
 
 Hampton and the people of Columbia vigorously 
 repelled this charge, and in May, 1866, published over- 
 whelming proof of its falsehood. 
 
 In 1874-5, when Sherman's Memoirs were written, 
 it was universally conceded that the charge was 
 unfounded. Under the circumstances, an honorable 
 soldier, nay, an honest man, would have said that he 
 was mistaken as to the statement made in his report; 
 and a generous one would have expressed regret at the 
 wrong done his adversary, as well as the injury to his 
 own reputation in having originated and circulated a
 
 154 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 slander. But the memoir does neither. In them Gen. 
 Sherman says : "Many of the people thought that this 
 fire was deliberately planned and executed. This is not 
 true. It was accidental, and in my judgment began with 
 the cotton which Gen. Hampton's men had set fire to on 
 leaving the city, (whether by his orders or not is not 
 material), which fire was partially subdued early in the 
 day by our men, but when night came, the high winds 
 fanned it again into full blaze, carried it against the 
 frame houses, which caught like tinder, and soon spread 
 beyond our control. In my official report of 
 
 this conflagration, I distinctly charged it to Gen. Wade 
 Hampton, and confess I did so pointedly to shake the faith 
 of his people in him, for he was, in my opinion, a brag- 
 gart, and professed to be the especial champion of 
 South Carolina."* 
 
 If there is such another contession recorded on the 
 pages of any history, anywhere, at any time, by a man 
 of high position, by a general of a great army, and a 
 man high in the confidence of a great government, I 
 have never heard of it. The records of -the criminal 
 courts sometimes preserve the statements of pickpockets, 
 of rogues, of swindlers, that they have "put up jobs," 
 as they call it, on honest men, to call attention from 
 themselves. The cry of "stop thief" is a familiar and 
 shallow device of these gentry. 
 
 But never before has the General of an army recorded 
 himself, in his own memoirs, carefully prepared ten 
 years after the fact, that he had deliberately, wilfully 
 
 *Sherman's Memoirs, Vol. II, page 287.
 
 THE DRAGONNADE OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 155 
 
 and with malice aforethought, invented and uttered a lie, 
 a base calumny against his adversary, for the sole pur- 
 pose of injuring his reputation. 
 
 There is the record made by Gen. Sherman himself. 
 Examine, explain, extenuate it! 
 
 While these events were transpinng in Georgia, 
 Thomas and Schofield had destroyed Hood's Army at 
 Nashville and Franklin, and Grant at once ordered 
 Schofield, with his Twenty-third Corps, by rail to Anna- 
 polis, thence to be transported by sea to Newbern, North 
 Carolina. The campaign then arranged, was that Sher- 
 man should cut loose from Savannah and Beaufort on 
 the sea, march across South Carolina to Fayetteville, 
 North Carolina on the Cape Fear, and thus compel the 
 evacuation of Charleston, while Grant would make 
 another attempt on Wilmington. 
 
 From Fayetteville, Sherman was to march to Golds- 
 borough, North Carolina, where the railroad from 
 Newbern, fifty miles off, joins the Weldon & Wilming- 
 ton road, and refreshed with reinforcements, clothes, 
 shoes and luxuries to move on Raleigh, the capital 
 of North Carolina; thence to Greensborough, where the 
 railroad connects the North Carolina railroad with the 
 Virginia system, thence to Danville, and cut Lee off at 
 Farmville, w*here the railroad from Richmond to Dan- 
 ville and the South crosses the railroad from Petersburg 
 to Bristol, Tennessee, and the southwest. This pro- 
 gramme, carried out, would end the war. 'So, on 
 February i, 1864, Sherman started from Savannah and 
 Pocataligo northward, with four corps of infantry and one
 
 156 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 division of cavalry of three brigades, with an effective 
 force of 60,000 men, twenty -five hundred wagons, with 
 six mules each, and six hundred ambulances, with two 
 mules each. 
 
 The wagons contained ammunition for a great battle, 
 forage for seven days, and rations for twenty days, 
 depending for fresh meat on the country. 
 
 Goldsboro was four hundred and twenty-live miles off. 
 There was absolutely no force to oppose him. Hampton 
 and Butler, with two skeleton brigades, were at Col- 
 umbia. 
 
 A march of thirty days was before him. The weather 
 was perfect. Cool enough and warm enough to permit 
 men to sleep without tents or cover. The fresh meat 
 and forage needed, could have been collected by the 
 commissaries, impressing them in an orderly way, and 
 there was no necessity for burning a single house, mur- 
 dering a single old man, dishonoring a single woman, 
 or desecrating the grave of a child. 
 
 Yet that army moved through South Carolina, from its 
 southwestern corner to its northeast boundary, diagon- 
 ally crossing the State, covering a front of sixty miles 
 with its parallel columns, and its "bummers" on its flanks, 
 leaving not a house with a brick chimney, not a barn, or 
 a mill, nor a gin-house, nor any building hardly a 
 fence, nor a beast, nor a fowl; not a graveyard where the 
 fresh graves were not dug up. And the Army of the 
 Northern Virginia supplied many a fresh grave that 
 winter to South Carolina. Not a woman, white or black, 
 gentle or simple, who was not insulted.
 
 THE DRAGONXADE OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 157 
 
 It has been said, that all our Christianity and civiliza- 
 tion has removed us only three generations from barbar- 
 ism. That if you scratch a Russian, you will find a 
 Tartar under the veneer and varnish. This march 
 proves that the philosopher, who made the first observa- 
 tion was utterly mistaken, for experience has proved 
 that sixty days is enough to make savages of men, with 
 Christian mothers, reared under the influence of the 
 bible, and with the light of civilization in their lives. No 
 tongue will ever tell, no pen can record the horrors of 
 that march. Ten generations of women will transmit, in 
 whispers to their daughters, traditions of unspeakable 
 things. These things may not be written. Eyes will 
 weep for them, and memories will transmit them for 
 many a generation. 
 
 Posterity will decide, and history will record, upon 
 whom the responsibility for all this crime shall rest, just 
 as certainly as that the Great Judge on the last day will 
 render judgment for it. 
 
 The burning of Columbia was so atrocious, and 
 accompanied by such incidents of barbarity, that it 
 attracted the denunciation of Christendom, and Sher- 
 man, as we have seen, denied being responsible for it, 
 and charged it upon Hampton. He has since confessed 
 that the charge -against Hampton was a malicious 
 slander, invented by himself, to injure that great soldier's 
 reputation among his own people. But in the memoirs, 
 Sherman stands to his denial that he was responsible for 
 the sack of Columbia. 
 
 But he also records the instructions of Halleck to
 
 158 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E". JOHNSTON. 
 
 destroy Charleston, and sow its desolated foundations 
 with salt. He shows how, he replied to Halleck, that 
 the Fifteenth corps would take charge of Charleston, 
 and that that corps always did its work thoroughly. 
 He further shows how he considered Columbia as bad 
 as Charleston; that he did not intend to restrain his 
 soldiers breathing fire, sword and destruction to South 
 Carolina, and that he sent the Fifteenth corps, his corps 
 d'clitc, through Columbia, and that Columbia was 
 sacked. Only the Fifteenth corps passed through Col- 
 umbia. This is the case as General Sherman states it. 
 
 No other or further proof is required, but there are 
 some details that ought to be put in permanent shape for 
 authentic perpetuation. 
 
 In the winter of i865-'66, the people of Columbia 
 appointed a committee to collect and perpetuate testi- 
 mony about the sack of the city. 
 
 At the head of this committee was ex-Chancellor J. 
 P. Carroll, a citizen illustrious for long and distinguished 
 service to his State, and a blameless life. With him 
 were others of whom any society anywhere would have 
 been proud. 
 
 Chancellor Carroll, in May, 1866, reported as follows, 
 and I insert his report that it may go on record, "in pcr- 
 petuam memoriam rei:" 
 
 "The committee who were charged w r ith the duty of 
 collecting the evidence in relation to the destruction of 
 Columbia by fire, on the iyth of February, 1865, SUD ~ 
 mit the following report : 
 
 "By the terms of the resolution appointing them, the
 
 THE DRAGONNADE OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 159 
 
 committee do not feel authorized to deduce any conclu- 
 sion, or pronounce any judgment, however warranted 
 by the proof, as to the person responsible for the crime. 
 Their task will be accomplished by presenting the 
 evidence that has been obtained, with an abstract of the 
 facts established by it. 
 
 "More than sixty depositions and statements in writing, 
 from as many individuals, have been placed in the 
 hands of the committee. The array of witnesses is 
 impressive, not merely because of their number, but for 
 the high-toned and elevated character of some of them, 
 the unpretending and sterling probity of others, and the 
 general intelligence and worth of all. The plain and 
 unvarnished narrative subjoined is taken from the testi- 
 mony referred to, solely and exclusively, except so much 
 as refers to certain declarations of Gen. Sherman himself, 
 widely circulated through the public press, and to the 
 ravages of his army in this State ; after their departure 
 from Columbia, matters of such notoriety as, in the 
 judgment of the committee, to dispense with the neces- 
 sity of formal proof. 
 
 "The forces of Gen. Sherman's command, while in 
 Georgia, seem to have anticipated that their next march 
 would be through South Carolina. Their temper and 
 feelings towards our people, a witness, Mrs. L. Cathe- 
 rine Jaynor, thus describes : 
 
 " 'The soldiers were universal in their threats. They 
 seemed to gloat over the distress that would accrue from 
 their march through the State. I conversed with num- 
 bers of all grades belonging to the 1/j.th and 2Oth corps. 
 Such expressions as the following were of hourly
 
 l6o LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 occurrence: "Carolina may well dread us; she brought 
 this war on, and shall pay the penalty." "You think 
 Georgia has suffered? Just wait until we get into Caro- 
 lina every man, woman and child may dread us 
 there." 
 
 "Gen. Sherman himself, the same witness informs us, 
 in addressing himself to a lady of his acquaintance, 
 said to her: 'Go off the line of railroad, for I will not 
 answer for the consequences where the army p^ses.' 
 
 A TRAIL OF FIRE. 
 
 "The threats uttered in Georgia were sternly executed 
 by the troops of Gen. Sherman upon their entrance into 
 this State. For eighty miles along the route of his army, 
 through the most highly improved and cultivated region 
 of the State, according to the testimony of intelligent 
 and respectable witnesses, the habitations of but two 
 white persons remain. As he advanced, the villages of 
 Hardeeville, Grahamville, Gillisonville, McPhersonville, 
 Barnwell, Blackville, Midway, Orangeburg and Lex- 
 ington were successively devoted to the flames. Indig- 
 nities and outrages were perpetrated upon the persons of 
 the inhabitants; the implements of agriculture were 
 broken; dwellings, barns, mills, gin-houses were con- 
 sumed; provisions of every description appropriated or 
 destroyed; horses and mules carried away, and sheep, 
 cattle and hogs were either taken for actual use, or shot 
 down, and left behind. The like devastation marked 
 the progress of the invading army, from Columbia 
 through the State to its northern frontier, and the 
 
 O 
 
 towns of Winnsboro, Camden and Cheraw suffered
 
 THE DRAGONNADE OF SOUTH CAROLINA. l6l 
 
 from like visitations by fire. If a single town, or village, 
 or hamlet, within their line of march escaped altogether 
 the torch of the invaders, the committee have not been 
 informed of the exception. The line of Gen. Sherman's 
 march from his entering the territory of the State up to 
 Columbia, and from Columbia to the North Carolina 
 border, was one continuous track of fire. 
 
 "The devastation and ruin thus inflicted were but the 
 execution of the policy, and plan of Gen. Sherman, for 
 the subjugation of the Confederate States. Extracts from 
 his address at Salem, Illinois, in July last, have appeared 
 in the public prints, and thus he announces and vindi- 
 cates the policy and plan referred to : 
 
 " 'We were strung out from Nashville clear down to 
 Atlanta. Had I gone on, stringing out our forces, what 
 danger would there not have been of their attacking this 
 little head of the column and crushing it ? Therefore, 
 I resolved in a moment to stop the game of guarding 
 their cities, and to destroy their cities. We were deter- 
 mined to produce results, and now what were those 
 results? To make every man woman and child in the 
 South feel that if they dared to rebel against the flag of 
 their country they must die or submit." 
 
 AN ARMY OF INCENDIARIES. 
 
 "The plan of subjugation adopted by Gen. Sherman 
 was fully comprehended and approved by his army. 
 His officers and men universally justified their acts, by 
 declaring that it was 'the way to put down rebellion, by 
 burning and destroying everything.' 
 
 "Before the surrender of our town, the soldiers of Gen. 
 Sherman, officers and privates, declared that it was to 
 be destroyed. 'It was,' deposes a witness, Mrs. Rosa
 
 l62 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 I. Meetze, 'the common talk among them, at the village 
 of Lexington, that Columbia was to be burned by Gen. 
 Sherman.' 
 
 "At the same place, on the i6th of February, 1865, as 
 deposed to by another witness, Mrs. Frances T. Caugh- 
 man, the general officer in command of his cavalry 
 forces, General Kilpatrick, said in reference to Colum- 
 bia : 'Sherman will lay it in ashes for them.' 
 
 " 'It was the general impression among all the prison- 
 ers we captured,' says a Confederate officer, Col. J. P. 
 Austin, of the pth Kentucky regular cavalry, 'that 
 Columbia was to be destroyed.' 
 
 "On the morning of the same day (February 16, 1865,) 
 some of the forces of Gen. Sherman appeared on the 
 western side of the river, and without a demand of sur- 
 render, or any previous notice of their purpose, began 
 to shell the town, then filled with women, children and 
 aged persons, and continued to do so, at intervals, 
 throughout the day. 
 
 "The Confederate forces were withdrawn, and the 
 town restored to the control of the municipal authorities 
 on the morning of the iyth of February. Accompanied 
 by three of the aldermen, the mayor, between 8 and 9 
 o'clock A. M., proceeded in the direction of Broad 
 River for the purpose of surrendering the city to Gen. 
 Sherman. Acting in concert with the mayor, the officer 
 in command of the rear guard of the Confederate cavalry, 
 Gen. M. C. Butler, forbore from further resistance to the 
 advance of the opposing enemy, and took effectual pre- 
 cautions against anvthing being done which might pro-
 
 THE DRAGONNADE OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 163 
 
 voke Gen. Sherman or his troops to acts of violence,' 
 or severity towards the town or its citizens. 
 
 "The surrender of Columbia was made by the mayor 
 and aldermen to the first general officer of the hostile 
 army whom they met, and that officer promised protec- 
 tion to the town and its inhabitants, until communication 
 could be had with Gen. Sherman, and the terms of 
 surrender arranged. 
 
 SACKING THE CITY. 
 
 "By ii o'clock A. M., the town was in possession of 
 the Federal forces, the first detachment entering being 
 the command of the officer who had received the sur- 
 render. They had scarcely marched into the town, 
 however, before they began to break into the stores of 
 the merchants, appropriating the contents, or throwing 
 them in the streets and destroying them. 
 
 "As other bodies of troops came in, the pillage grew 
 more general, and soon the sack of the town was 
 universal. Guards were in general sent to those of the 
 citizens who applied for them, but in numerous instances 
 they proved to be unable, or unwilling to perform the 
 duty assigned them. Scarcely a single household, or 
 family escaped altogether from being plundered. The 
 streets of the town were densely filled with thousands of 
 Federal soldiers, drinking, shouting, carousing and 
 robbing the defenceless inhabitants, without reprimand 
 or check from their officers, and this state of things con- 
 tinued until night. 
 
 "In some instances guards were refused. Papers and
 
 164 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 property of great value were in the vaults of one of the 
 city banks, while the apartments above, and in the rear, 
 were occupied by women and children, with their food 
 and clothing. For a guard to protect them, application 
 was made by one of our worthiest and most respectable 
 citizens, Mr. Edwin J. Scott, first to the general officer, 
 who had received the town, Col. Stone, and then to the 
 provost marshal, Major Jenkins. The response made 
 to the applicant by the former officer, though standing 
 idle in the crowd, was that he ' had no time to attend 
 to him,' and the answer of the latter was, 'I cannot 
 undertake to protect private property.' Between 2 and 
 3 o'clock P. M., Gen. Sherman in person rode into 
 Columbia, informed the mayor that his letter had been 
 received, and promised protection to the town. Extra- 
 ordinary license was allowed to his soldiers by Gen. 
 Sherman. 
 
 IN THE HANDS OF HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 
 
 "In the afternoon of the i7th of February, 1865, and 
 shortly after his arrival in Columbia, the mayor of the 
 town, at the request of Gen. Sherman, accompanied 
 him on a visit to a lady of his acquaintance. While 
 proceeding to her residence, Gen. Sherman began to 
 express his opinion very freely upon the subject of our 
 institution of slavery. In the midst of his remarks he 
 was interrupted by the sudden and near report of a 
 musket. Immediately before them, in the direction they 
 were going, they observed a group of Federal soldiers 
 seeming to be excited, and upon approaching they saw 
 ;i negro lying dead directly in their path, being shot
 
 THE DRAGONNADE OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 165 
 
 through the heart. 'Gen. Sherman,' the mayor, Dr. 
 T. J. Goodwin, narrates, 'asked of the soldiers "how 
 came the negro shot," and was answered that the negro 
 had been guilty of great insolence to them, and that 
 thereupon Gen. Sherman remarked: "Stop this, boys; 
 this is all wrong. Take away the body and bury it." 
 Gen. Sherman, continues the mayor, then stepped over 
 the body of the negro, and observed to this deponent 
 that in quiet times such a thing ought to be noticed, but 
 in times like these it could not be done. Gen. Sherman 
 resumed his conversation in relation to slavery, and that 
 no arrest was ordered or any censure or reprimand 
 uttered by him except as above stated. About sundown/ 
 as the mayor deposes, 'Gen. Sherman said to him: 
 "Go home and rest assured that your city will be as safe 
 in my hands as if you had controlled it." He added 
 that he was compelled to burn some of the public build- 
 ings, and in so doing did riot wish to destroy one particle 
 of private property. This evening, he said, was too 
 windy to do anything.' 
 
 ''An esteemed clergyman, the Rev. A. Toomer Porter, 
 testifies that the same afternoon between 6 and 7 o'clock 
 Gen. Sherman said to him: 'You must know a great 
 many ladies; go around and tell them to go to bed 
 quietly ; they will not be disturbed any more than if my 
 army was one hundred miles off. ' He seemed oblivious 
 of the fact that we had been pillaged and insulted the 
 whole day. In one hour's time the whole city was in 
 flames. 
 
 * 'Meanwhile the soldiers f Gen. Sherman had burned
 
 l66 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 that afternoon many houses in the environs of the town, 
 including the dwelling of Gen. Hampton, with that ot 
 his sisters, formerly the residence of their father and 
 once the seat of genial and princely hospitality. 
 
 THREATS AND WARNINGS. 
 
 "Throughout the day, after they had marched into the 
 town, the soldiers of Gen. Sherman gave distinct and 
 frequent notice to the citizens of the impending calamity, 
 usually in the form of direct and fierce threats, but 
 occasionally as if in kindly forewarning. A lady of 
 rare worth and intelligence and of high social position, 
 Mrs. L. S. McCord, relates the following incident: 
 'One of my maids brought me a paper left, she told 
 me, by a Yankee soldier ; it was an ill-spelled, but 
 kindly warning of the horrors to come, written upon a 
 torn sheet of my dead son's note book, which, with 
 private papers of every kind, now strewed my yard. 
 It was signed by a lieutenant, of what company and 
 regiment I did not take note. The writer said he had 
 relatives and friends at the South, and that he felt for 
 us ; that his heart bled to think of what was threatened. 
 "Ladies," he wrote, "I pity you; leave this town go 
 anywhere to be safer than here." This was written in 
 the morning; the fires were in the evening and night.' 
 
 "One of our citizens, of great intelligence and respec- 
 tability, (Wm. H. Orchard,) was visited about 7 P. M. 
 by a squad of some six or seven soldiers, to whose* 
 depredations he submitted with a composure which 
 seemed to impress their leader. Of his conversation
 
 THE DRAGONNADE OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 167 
 
 with this person the gentleman referred to testified as 
 follows: 'On leaving the yard he called to me, and 
 said he wished to speak to me alone. He then said to 
 me in an undertone: "You seem to be a clever sort of a 
 man and have a large family, so I will give you some 
 advice. If you have anything you wish to save take 
 
 care of it at once, for before morning this town 
 
 will be in ashes, every house in it." My only reply was, 
 "Can that be true ?" He said, "Yes, and if you do not 
 believe me, you will be the sufferer. If you watch, 
 you will see three rockets go up soon, and if -you do not 
 take my advice you will see h 1." 
 
 SIGNAL ROCKETS AND DISABLED FIRE-HOSE. 
 
 "Within an hour afterwards three rockets were seen to 
 ascend from a point in front of the Mayor's dwelling, 
 But a few minutes elapsed before fires in quick succes- 
 sion broke out, and at intervals so distant that they could 
 not have been communicated from the one to the other. 
 At various parts of the town the soldiers of Gen. Sher- 
 man, at the appearance of the rockets, declared that 
 they were appointed signals for a general conflagration. 
 The fire companies, with their engines, promptly re- 
 paired to the scene of the fires, and endeavored to arrest 
 them, but in vain. The soldiers of Gen. Sherman, with 
 bayonets and axes, pierced and cut the hose, disabled 
 the engines, and prevented the citizens from extinguish- 
 ing the flames. The wind was high, and blew from the 
 west. The fires spread and advanced with fearful 
 rapidity, and soon enveloped the very heart of the town.
 
 l68 LIFE OF GE.N. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 "The pillage, begun upon the entrance of the hostile 
 forces, continued without cessation or abatement, and 
 now the town was delivered up to the accumulated 
 horrors of sack or conflagration. The inhabitants 
 were subjected to personal indignities and outrages. A 
 witness, Capt. W. B. Stanley, testifies 'that several times 
 during the night he saw the soldiers of Sherman take 
 from females bundles of clothing and provisions, open 
 them, appropriate what they wanted and throw the 
 remainder into the flames.' Men were violently seized 
 and threatened with the halter, or pistol, to compel them 
 to disclose where their gold or silver was concealed. 
 
 "The revered and beloved pastor of one of our 
 churches, the Rev. P. J. Shand, states that, ' in the 
 midst and during the progress of the appalling calamity, 
 above all other noises might be heard the demoniac and 
 gladsome shouts of the soldiery.' Driven from his 
 home by the flames, with the aid of a servant he was 
 bearing off a trunk containing the communion plate of 
 his church, his wife walking by his side, when he was 
 surrounded by five of the soldiers, who required him to 
 put down the trunk and inform them of its contents, 
 which was done. The sequel he thus narrates: 'They 
 then demanded the key, but I not having it they pro- 
 ceeded in their efforts to break the lock. While four 
 of them were thus engaged, the fifth seized me with his 
 left hand by the collar, and presenting a pistol to my 
 breast with his right he demanded of me my watch. I 
 had it not about me, but he searched by pockets thor- 
 oughly and then joined his comrades, who, finding it
 
 GENERAL OLIVER O. HOWAED,
 
 THE DRAGONNADE OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 169 
 
 impracticable to force open the lock, took up the trunk 
 and carried it away. These men, he adds, were all 
 perfectly sober.' 
 
 "By 3 o'clock A M on the night of the iyth of Feb- 
 ruary, 1865, more than two-thirds of the town lay in 
 ashes, composing the most highly improved and the 
 entire business portion of it. Thousands of the inhabi- 
 tants, including women delicately reared, young chil- 
 dren, the aged and the sick, passed that winter night in 
 the open air, without shelter from the bitter and piercing 
 blasts. About the hour mentioned, 3 o'clock A. M., 
 another highly esteemed clergyman, the Rev. A. Toomer 
 Porter, personally known to Gen. Sherman, was at the 
 corner of a street conversing with one of his officers on 
 horseback, when Gen. Sherman, in citizen's attire, 
 walked up and accosted him. The interview is thus 
 described : 
 
 * ORDER THIS THING STOPPED.' 
 
 " 'In the bright light of the burning city Gen. Sher- 
 man recognized me and remarked: "This is a horrible 
 sight." "Yes," I replied, "when you reflect that women 
 and children are the victims." He said: " Your Gov- 
 ernor is responsible for this." "How so ?" I replied. 
 "Who ever heard," he said, "of an evacuated city to be 
 left a depot of liquor for an army to occupy? I found one 
 hundred and twenty casks of whiskey in one cellar. 
 Your Governor, being a lawyer or a judge, refused to 
 have it destroyed, as it was private property, and now 
 my men have got drunk and have got beyond my con- 
 trol, and this is the result." Perceiving the officer on
 
 I7O LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 horseback, he said : "Capt. Andrews, did I not order 
 that this thing should be stopped?" "Yes, General," said 
 the Captain; "but the first division that came in soon got 
 as drunk as the first regiment that occupied the town." 
 "Then, sir," said Gen. Sherman, "go and bring in the 
 second division. I hold you personally responsible for 
 its immediate cessation." The officer darted off, and 
 Sherman bid me good evening. I am sure it was no 
 more than an hour and a-half from the time that Gen. 
 Sherman gave his order before the city was cleared of 
 the destroyers.' 
 
 "From that time until the departure of Gen. Sherman 
 from Columbia (with perhaps one or two exceptions) not 
 another dwelling in it was burned by his soldiers, and 
 during the succeeding days and nights of his occupancy 
 perfect tranquility prevailed throughout the town. The 
 discipline of his troops was perfect, the soldiers 
 standing in great awe of their officers. That Columbia 
 was burned by the soldiers of Gen. Sherman that the 
 vast majority of the incendiaries were sober that for 
 hours they were seen with combustibles firing house 
 after house, without any affectation of concealment and 
 without the slightest check from their officers, is estab- 
 lished by proof full to repletion, and wearisome from its 
 very superfluity. 
 
 "After the destruction of the town his officers and men 
 openly approved of its burning and exulted in it. ' I 
 saw,' deposes the mayor, 'very few drunken soldiers 
 that night. Many who appeared to sympathize with our 
 people told me that the fate and doom of Columbia had
 
 THE DRAGONNADE OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 17 1 
 
 been common talk around their camp-fires ever since 
 they left Savannah.' 
 
 "It was said by numbers of the soldiers that the order 
 had been given to burn down the city. There is strong 
 evidence that such an order was actually issued in rela- 
 tion to the house of Gen. Jno. S. Preston. The Ursuline 
 Convent was destroyed by the fire, and the proof referred 
 to comes from a revered and honored member of that 
 holy sisterhood the Mother Superior ; and it is sub- 
 joined in her own words : 
 
 " 'Our convent was consumed in the general con- 
 flagration of Columbia. Ourselves and pupils were 
 forced to fly, leaving provisions, clothing, and almost 
 everything. We spent the night in the open air in 
 the churchyard. On the following morninig Gen. Sher- 
 man made a visit, expressed nis regret at the burning 
 of 6*ur convent, disclaimed the act, attributing it to 
 the intoxication of his soldiers, and told me to choose 
 any house in town for a convent and it should be ours. 
 He deputed his Adjutant-General, Col. Ewing, to act in 
 his stead. Col. Ewing reminded us of Gen. Sherman's 
 offer to give us any house in Columbia we might choose 
 for a convent. "We have thought of it," said we, "and 
 of asking for Gen. Preston's house, which is large." 
 "That is where Gen. Logan holds his headquarters," 
 said he, "and orders have already been given, I know, 
 to burn it on to-morrow morning ; but if you say you 
 will take it for a convent I will speak to the General, 
 and the order will be countermanded." On the follow- 
 ing morning, after many inquiries, we learned from the
 
 172 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 officer in charge, (Gen. Perry, I think,) that his orders 
 were to fire it, unless the Sisters were in actual posses- 
 sion of it, but if even a detachment of Sisters were in it 
 it should be spared on their account. Accordingly we 
 took possession of it, although fires were already kindled 
 near, and the servants were carrying off the bedding and 
 furniture, in view of the house being consigned to the 
 flames.' 
 
 GRATIFYING THE GENERAL. 
 
 "Although orders for the actual burning of the town 
 may not have been given, the soldiers of Gen. Sherman 
 certainly believed that its destruction would not be dis- 
 pleasing to him. That such was their impression we 
 have the authority of a personage not less distinguished 
 than the officer of highest rank in the army of invaders, 
 next after the commander-in-chief himself. The proof 
 is beyond impeachment. It comes from the honored 
 pastor of one of our city churches, (the Rev. P. J. 
 Shand,) to whom reference has already been made, and 
 it is thus expressed in his written statement in the pos- 
 session of the committee: 
 
 " 'As well as I recollect, November, 1865, I went in 
 company with a friend, to see Gen. Howard, at his head- 
 quarters in Charleston, on matters of business. Before 
 we, left the conversation turned on the destruction of 
 Columbia. Gen. Howard expressed his regret at the 
 occurrence, and added the following words: "Though 
 Gen. Sherman did not order the burning of the town, 
 yet, somehow or other, the men had taken up the idea 
 that if they destroyed the capital of South Carolina^ it
 
 THE DRAGONNADE OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 173 
 
 would be peculiarly gratifying to Gen. Sherman." These 
 were his words, in the order in which I set them forth. 
 I noted them down as having great significance, and 
 they are as fresh in my remembrance as they were 
 immediately after they were spoken. My friend (whose 
 recollection accords fully with my own) and myself, on 
 our way home, talked the matter over, and could not 
 but be struck by the two following facts: First, that 
 although Gen. Howard said that Gen. Sherman did not 
 order the burning, he did not state that Gen. Sherman 
 gave order that the city should not be burned. Second, 
 that it was surprising, if Gen. Sherman was opposed to 
 the burning, that his opposition should have been so 
 disguised, as to lead to the conviction on the part of his 
 soldiery that the act, so far from incurring his disappro- 
 bation or censure, would be a source to him of peculiar 
 gratification.' 
 
 "The cotton bales in the town had been placed in the 
 centre of the wide streets, in order to be burned to pre- 
 vent their falling into the possession of the invaders. 
 But upon Gen. Hampton's suggesting that this might 
 endanger the town, and that, as the South Carolina 
 railroad had been destroyed, Ihe cotton could not be 
 removed, Gen. Beauregard, upon this representation, 
 directed Gen. Hampton to issue an order that the cotton 
 should not be burned. The proof of this fact is to be 
 found in the written statement of Gen. Beauregard him- 
 self. Accordingly, and in due time, the order forbid- 
 ding the burning of the cotton w^s issued by Gen. 
 Hampton, and communicated to the Confederate troops.
 
 174 L1FE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 The officer then acting as Gen. Hampton's adjutant 
 (Capt. Rawlins Lowndes) speaks as follows: 
 
 THE 'BURNING COTTON* MYTH. 
 
 " 'Soon after Gen. Hampton assumed command of the 
 cavalry, which he did on the morning of the i7th of 
 February, he told me that Gen. Beauregard had deter- 
 mined not to burn the cotton, as the Yankees had 
 destroyed the railroad, and directed me to issue an order 
 that no cotton should be fired. This I did at once, and 
 the same order was extended to the cavalry throughout 
 their march through South and North Carolina.' 
 
 "The general officer commanding the division forming 
 the rear guard of the Confederate cavalry (Gen. M. C. 
 Butler) deposes: 'That he was personally present with 
 the rear squadron of this division; that Lieut.-Gen. 
 Wade Hampton withdrew simultaneously with him, with 
 a part of this deponent's command, and that Gen. 
 Hampton, on the morning of the evacuation and the day 
 previous, directed him that the cotton must not be set on 
 fire ; and this order, he adds, was communicated to the 
 entire division, and strictly observed.' 
 
 "A clergyman, highly esteemed at the North, as well 
 as at the South, (Rev. A. Toomer Porter), thus testifies: 
 'Gen. Hampton had told me at daylight, in answer to 
 the question whether he was going to burn the cotton, 
 "No; the wind is high; it might catch something and 
 give Sherman an excuse to burn the town.' ' 
 
 " 'Between 8 and 9 o'clock on the morning of the i7th 
 of February,' deposes the mayor, 'Gen. Hampton,
 
 THE DRAGONNADE OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 175 
 
 whilst on his horse, observed some cotton piled not far 
 off in the middle of the street. He advised me to put a 
 guard over it, saying, "some careless ones, by smoking, 
 might set it on fire, and in doing so endanger the city." 
 From that hour I saw nothing more of Gen. Hampton 
 until the war was over.' 
 
 "Not one bale of the cotton had been fired by the Con- 
 federate troops when they withdrew from Columbia. 
 'The only thing on fire at the time of the evacuation 
 was the depot building of the South Carolina Railroad, 
 which caught fire accidentally from the explosion of 
 some amunition.' This is the statement of Gen. Beau- 
 regard himself. It is sustained by the testimony of the 
 officer, high in rank but higher still in character, who 
 commanded the rear guard of the Confederate cavalry, 
 (Gen. M. C. Butler,) and is concurred in by other wit- 
 nesses, comprising officers, clergymen, and citizens 
 witnesses of such repute and such numbers as to render 
 the proof overwhelming. 
 
 "The fire at the South Carolina Railroad depot burnt 
 out without extending to any other buildings. Shortly 
 after the first detachment of Gen. Sherman's troops had 
 entered the town, and whilst the men were seated or 
 reclining on the cotton bales in Main street, and passing 
 to and fro along them with lighted cigars and pipes, the 
 row of cotton bales between Washington and Lady 
 streets caught fire, the bales being badly packed, with 
 the cotton protruding from them. The flames extended 
 swiftly over the cotton, and the fire companies with their 
 engines were called out, and by i o'clock P. M . the fire
 
 176 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 was effectually extinguished. While the fire companies 
 were engaged about the cotton an alarm was given of 
 fire in the jail, and one of the engines being sent there 
 the flames were soon subdued, with slight injury only to 
 one of the cells. 
 
 "About 5 o'clock in the afternoon, as deposed by a 
 witness, Mrs. E. Squire, the cotton bales in Sumter 
 street, between Washington and Lady streets, were set 
 on fire by Gen. Sherman's wagon train, then passing 
 along the cotton. But that fire was soon extinguished 
 by the efforts of the witness referred to and her family. 
 'I saw,' says a witness, Mr. John McKenzie, 'fire 
 balls thrown out of the wagons against the Hon. W. F. 
 DeSaussure's house, but without doing any damage.' 
 No other fires in the town occurred until after night, 
 when the general conflagration began. As already 
 stated, the wind blew from the west, but the fires after 
 night broke out first on the west of Main and Sumter 
 streets, where the cotton bales were placed. 'The 
 cotton,' it is testified and proved by Mr. Ed. J. Scott, 
 'instead of burning the houses was burnt by them.' 
 
 HIS 'DRUNKEN SOLDIERS.' 
 
 "Gen. Sherman, as has been shown, on the night of 
 the lyth of February, and while the town was in flames, 
 ascribed the burning of Columbia to the intoxication of 
 his soldiers, and to no other cause. On the following 
 day, the i8th of February, the lady to whom reference 
 was first made (Mrs. L. S. McCord,) at the request of 
 a friend, having undertaken to present a paper to Gen.
 
 THE DRAGONNADE OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 177 
 
 Howard, sought an interview with that officer, second 
 in command of the invading army, and found Gen. 
 Sherman with him. Her narrative of a part of the 
 interview is as follows : 
 
 " 'I handed him the paper, which he glanced at, and 
 then in a somewhat subdued voice, but standing so near 
 Gen. Sherman that I think it impossible that the latter 
 could have help hearing him, he said: "You may rest 
 
 satisfied, Mrs. , that there will be nothing of the 
 
 kind happening to-night. The truth is, our men last 
 night got beyond our control; many of them were shot, 
 many of them were killed ; there will be no repetition of 
 these things to-night. I assure you there will be 
 nothing of the kind; to-night will be perfectly quiet." 
 And it was quiet, peaceful as the grave, the ghost of its 
 predecessor.' 
 
 " 'The same day, i8th February, Gen. Sherman,' 
 deposes the mayor, 'sent for me. I -went to see him 
 about i o'clock. He met me very cordially, and said 
 he regretted very much that our city was burnt, and 
 that it was my fault. I asked him how? He said in 
 suffering ardent spirits to be left in the city after it was 
 evacuated, saying, "who could command drunken 
 soldiers?" There was no allusion ~iade to Gen. Hamp- 
 ton, to accident, or to cotton.' 
 
 "On the succeeding day, Sunday, ipth February, 
 1865, the mayor and six of the citizens visited Gen. 
 Sherman, in order to obtain food for the subsistence of 
 the women and children, until communication could be 
 had with the country. Gen. Sherman upon that occa-
 
 178 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 sion talked much. 'In the course of his discourse,' 
 deposes one of the gentlemen, (Mr. Edwin I. Scott,) 
 'he referred to the burning of the city, admitting that 
 it was done by his troops, but excusing them because, 
 as he alleged, they had been made drunk by our 
 citizens, one of whom, a druggist, he said had brought 
 a pail full of spirits to them on their arrival. Again, on 
 our leaving the room, he expressed regret that the liquor 
 had not been destroyed before his men entered the 
 place, but he never mentioned or alluded in any way to 
 Gen. Hampton, or the cotton, nor gave the slightest inti- 
 mation that they were instrumental in the destruction of 
 the city.' 
 
 " 'At that time,' deposes the same witness, 'the uni- 
 versal testimony of our people was that Sherman's 
 troops burnt the town. Since then I have been in the 
 habit of daily intercourse with all classes in and about 
 Columbia, high and low, rich and poor, male and 
 female, whites and blacks, yet I have not met with a 
 single person who attributed the calamity to any other 
 cause. If, he adds, a transaction that occurred in the 
 presence of forty or fifty thousand people can be success- 
 fully falsified then all human testimony is worthless.' 
 
 A DESOLATED COUNTRY. 
 
 "As evidence of the general distress and suffering 
 which resulted from the sack and burning of our city, 
 and the desolation of the adjoining country, the com- 
 mittee refer to the fact, established by unimpeachable 
 testimony, that for about three months daily rations, 
 consisting generally of a pint of meal and a small
 
 THE DRAGONNADE OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 179 
 
 allowance of poor beef for each person, were dealt out 
 at Columbia to upwards of 8,000 sufferers. 
 
 "Of the suffering and distress of the individual inhabi- 
 
 O 
 
 tants, some conception may be collected from the expe- 
 rience of one of them, (Mrs. Agnes Law,) a lady more 
 venerable for her virtues even than for her age, whose 
 narrative, almost entire, we venture to introduce: 
 
 " 'I am 72 years old,' she deposes, 'and have lived in 
 this town forty-eight years. My dwelling was a brick 
 house, three stories, slate roof, with large gardens on 
 two sides. When Columbia was burnt my sister was 
 with me; also a niece of mine, recently confined, who 
 had not yet ventured out of the house. When Gen. 
 Sherman took possession I got four guards ; they were 
 well-behaved and sober men. I gave them supper. 
 One lay down on the sofa, the others walked about. 
 When the city began to burn I wished to move my fur- 
 niture. They objected, and said my house was in no 
 danger. Not long afterwards these guards themselves 
 took lighted candles from the mantlepiece and went up- 
 stairs; at the same time other soldiers crowded into 
 the house. My sister followed them up-stairs, but 
 came down very soon to say, "They are setting the cur- 
 tains on fire." Soon the whole house was in a blaze. 
 When those who set fire up stairs came down they said 
 to me, "Old woman, if you do not mean to burn up with 
 the house you had better get out of it." My niece had 
 been carried up to the Taylor house on Arsenal Hill. 
 I went to the door to see if I could get any person I 
 knew to assist me up there. I had been very sick. I 
 could see no friend onlv crowds of Federal soldiers.
 
 l8o LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 I was afraid I should fall in the street and be burnt up 
 in the flames of the houses blazing on both sides of the 
 street. I had to go alone. I spent that night at the 
 Taylor house, which a Federal officer said should not 
 be burned out of pity for my niece. The next two 
 nights I passed in my garden, without any shelter. I 
 have been for over fifty years a member of the Presby- 
 terian Church. I cannot live long. I shall meet Gen. 
 Sherman and his soldiers at the bar of God, and I give 
 this testimony against them in the full view of that dread 
 tribunal.' 
 
 "The committee have designed, by the preceding 
 summary of the more prominent events and incidents 
 connected with the destruction of Columbia, to present 
 only an abstract of the numerous depositions and proofs 
 in their possession. The proprieties imposed upon them 
 by the very nature of the duties to which they have been 
 assigned have precluded their doing more. In the evi- 
 dence thus collected may be read, in all its pathetic and 
 heartrendering details, the story of the tragic fate that 
 has befallen our once beautiful city, now in ashes and 
 ruins. Impressed with the historic value of the proofs 
 referred to, and their importance to the cause of truth, 
 and with a view to their preservation, the committee 
 respectfully recommend that they be committed to the 
 guardianship of the municipal authorities, and be de- 
 posited with the archives of the town, trusting that in 
 after and better times they will yet be found effectual as 
 well to vindicate the innocent as to confound the guilty. 
 
 . J. P. CARROTS, Chairman." 
 May, 1866.
 
 SHERMAN AND CORNWALLIS IN NORTH CAROLINA. iSl 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 SHERMAN AND CORNWALLIS IN NORTH CAROLINA. 
 
 Q HERMAN burnt Columbia February 17, 1865, and 
 **r then pushed on to Fayetteville, on the Cape Fear. 
 His campaign was an able one, for he kept in touch 
 with salt water from the time he reached it at Savannah 
 up to the surrender of Johnston's army. 
 
 At Fayetteville he opened communication with Gen. 
 Terry on March I2th, the Federals having taken Fort 
 Fisher, and occupied Wilmington. 
 
 From there he moved on to Goldsborough, N. C., 
 where he expected to be joined by Schofield and his 
 23,000 reinforcements. 
 
 When Cornwallis pursued Greene, in February, 1781, 
 just eighty-four years before, he moved through the west- 
 ern part of the State. When he retreated, after the battle 
 of Guilford court-house, he fell back to Cross creek, 
 now Fayetteville, so a part of his march was over the 
 same country that Sherman moved over. On his 
 advance he was attacked everywhere. His pickets 
 were fired on in the night; his scouts were shot down 
 
 O * 
 
 from the bush. Graham, with a handful of country 
 boys, held him back at Charlotte, "the Hornet's Nest," 
 for half a day. But Cornwallis burnt no towns; he 
 laid waste no plantations ; his soldiers hung no old men, 
 and dug up no children's corpses, to get treasure. 
 
 When he reached Fayetteville on his way to Wil-
 
 l82 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 mington, his troops halted one day in the road in front 
 of a plantation house. The mistress of the house, a gay 
 and beautiful young matron of eighteen, with the im- 
 pulsive curiosity of a child, ran out on the front piazza 
 to gaze at the pageant. 
 
 A party of officers dismounted and approached the 
 house, when she asked the foremost "Was Lord Corn- 
 wallis there? She wanted to see a Lord." 
 
 "Madame," said the gentleman, removing his hat, 
 "I am Lord Cornwallis." Then, with the formal 
 courtesy of the day, he led her into the house, giving to 
 the frightened family every assurance of protection. 
 With the high breeding of a gentleman, and the frank- 
 ness of a soldier, he won all hearts during his stay, from 
 the venerable grandmother to the gay girl who first 
 accosted him. 
 
 While the army remained, not an article was disturbed 
 on the plantation, though, as he himself warned them, 
 there were stragglers in his wake, whom he could not 
 detect, and who failed not to do what mischief they 
 could, in the way of plundering, after he had passed. 
 
 That girl's grand-daughters now tell that story of 
 chivalry and respect for defenceless women. 
 
 Her grandson, Charles B. Mallett, Esq., tells this 
 story of that other army that passed there, in 1865, 
 eighty-four years afterwards: 
 
 "The china and glassware were all carried out of the 
 house by the Federal soldiers, and deliberately smashed 
 in the yard. The furniture piano, beds, tables, bu- 
 reaus were all cut to pieces with axes; the pantries
 
 SHERMAN AND CORNWALLIS IN NORTH CAROLINA. 183 
 
 and smoke-houses were stripped of their contents ; the 
 negro houses were all plundered; the poultry, cows, 
 horses, &c., were shot down and carried off, and then, 
 after this, all the houses were fired and burnt to the 
 ground." 
 
 The cotton factory belonging to the family was burned 
 as were also six others near Fayetteville. John M. Rose, 
 Esq., a near neighbor of the Malletts, says: "They 
 plundered my house of everything and robbed all the 
 negroes. They fired the buildings and fences and left 
 a dozen slaughtered cattle in my yard." 
 
 Four gentlemen were hung by the neck until nearly 
 dead to force them to tell where valuables were hidden. 
 
 The property taken from another family, in jewels, 
 plate, money, &c., was estimated to be worth $25,000 
 in gold.* 
 
 Governor Z. B. Vance, who was governor of North 
 Carolina during the war, and has been her represent- 
 ative in the Senate of the United States nearly ever 
 since, has drawn the contrast between the invasion by 
 Cornwallis and Tarleton, in 1781, and Sherman and 
 Kilpatrick, in 1865. He says: 
 
 "On the ist day of February, 1805, tnat movement 
 began. With irresistible force his columns began their 
 march through the southern regions of South Carolina 
 towards Columbia, and apparently Charlotte, North 
 Carolina, and so on into Virginia along the track of 
 Sherman's last great predecessor, Lord Cornwallis, in 
 1781. But whether it was that he feared the winter 
 
 * The Last Ninety Days of the War. p. 65.
 
 184 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 mud of the North Carolina hill country, or that he did 
 not care to trust himself to such combinations of the 
 Confederates as might cross his path so far in the 
 interior, he left Lord Cornwallis' track near Winnsboro', 
 South Carolina, and turning to the right made for Fay- 
 etteville, crossing the Catavvba and the Great Pedee. 
 His army marched in two great divisions, near a day's 
 march apart, thus covering and devastating a wide 
 expanse of country. With reference to this famous and 
 infamous march, I wish to say that I hope I am too 
 much of a man to complain of the natural and inevitable 
 hardships, or even cruelties, of war; but of the manner 
 in which this army treated the peaceful and defenceless 
 inhabitants in the reach of its columns, all civilization 
 should complain. There are always stragglers and 
 desperadoes, following in the wake of an army, who do 
 some damage to, and inflict some outrages upon helpless 
 citizens, in spite of all the efforts of commanding officers 
 to restrain and punish ; but when a General organizes a 
 corps of thieves and plunderers as a part of his invad- 
 ing army, and licenses beforehand their outrages, he 
 and all who countenance, aid or abet, invite the execra- 
 tion of mankind. This peculiar arm of the military 
 service, it is charged and believed, was instituted by 
 Gen. Sherman in his invasion of the Southern States. 
 Certain it is that the operations of his 'Bummer Corps' 
 were as regular and as unrebuked, if not as much com- 
 mended for efficiency, as any other division of his army, 
 and their atrocities are often justified or excused on the 
 ground that 'such is war.'
 
 SHERMAN AND CORNWALLIS IN NORTH CAROLINA. 185 
 
 "In his own official report of his operations in Georgia, 
 he says: 'We consumed the corn and fodder in the 
 region of country thirty miles on either side of a line 
 from Atlanta to Savannah; also the sweet potatoes, 
 hogs, sheep and poultry, and carried off more than ten 
 thousand horses and mules. I estimate the damage 
 done to the State of Georgia at one hundred million 
 dollars, at least twenty million of which inured to our 
 benefit, and the remainder was simply waste and 
 destruction!' The same chivalric course of warfare 
 was continued, only worse, through South and North 
 Carolina. The 'remainder ',' delicately alluded to that 
 is to say, the damage done to the unresisting inhabitants, 
 over and above the seizing of necessary army supplies, 
 consisted in private houses burned; stock shot down and 
 left to rot; bed clothes, money, watches, spoons, plate 
 and ladies' jewelry stolen, &c., &c. A lane of desola- 
 tion sixty miles wide, through the heart of three great 
 States, marked by more burnings and destruction than 
 ever followed in the wake of the wildest cyclone that 
 ever laid forest low! And all done, not to support an 
 invading army, but for "pure waste and destruction;" to 
 punish the crime of rebellion, not in the persons of 
 those who had brought these things about, but of the 
 peaceful non-combatants, the tillers of the soil, the 
 women and children, the aged and feeble, and the poor 
 slaves! A silver spoon was evidence of disloyalty; a 
 ring on a lady's ringer was sure proof of sympathy with 
 rebellion ; whilst a gold watch was prima facia evidence 
 of most damnable guilt on the part of the wearer. These
 
 l86 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 obnoxious ear-marks of treason must be seized and con- 
 fiscated for private use for such is war! 
 
 "As proof that these things met the approbation of the 
 officers of that army, hundreds of instances can be cited, 
 where the depredations were committed in full view of 
 the officers. Many can be shown where they partici- 
 pated in the plunder; and no where has any case come 
 under my observation, or under my knowledge, in which 
 the perpetrators were even rebuked, much less punished. 
 In vain did the terrified people secrete their valuables 
 upon the approach of Sherman's army; with infernal 
 skill this corps of bummers maintained their high repu- 
 tation as the most expert thieves on earth, by ransacking 
 every conceivable place of concealment, penetrating 
 every suspicious spot of earth with their ramrods and 
 bayonets, searching every cellar, out-house, nook and 
 cranny. 
 
 "If these failed, and they sometimes did, torture of 
 the inhabitants was freely employed to force disclo- 
 sure. Sometimes, with noble rage at their disappoint- 
 ment, the victims were left dead, as a warning to all 
 others who should dare hide a jewel, or a family trinket 
 from the cupidity of a 'Soldier of the Union.' No doubt 
 the stern necessity for such things caused great pain to 
 those who inflicted them, but the Union must be restored, 
 and how could that be done whilst a felonious gold 
 watch, or treasonable spoon, was suffered to remain in 
 the land, giving aid and comfort to rebellion? For such 
 is war! Are such things war, indeed? Let us see: 
 
 "Eighty-four years before that time, there was a war
 
 SHERMAN AND CORNWALLIS IN NORTH CAROLINA. 187 
 
 in that same country; it was a rebellion, too, and an 
 English nobleman led the troops of Great Britain through 
 that same region, over much of the same route, in his 
 efforts to subdue that rebellion. The people through 
 whose land he marched were bitterly hostile ; they shot 
 his foraging parties, his sentinels and stragglers- the 
 fired upon him from every wood. 
 
 "He and his troops had every motive to ..ate and to 
 punish those rebellious and hostile people. It so hap- 
 pens that the original order-book of Lord Cornwallis is 
 in possession of the North Carolina Historical Society. 
 I have seen and read it. Let us make a few extracts, 
 and see what he considered war, and what he thought 
 to be the duty of a civilized soldier towards non-com- 
 batants and the helpless : 
 
 "CAMP NEAR BEATTY'S FORD,") 
 January 28, 1781. \ 
 
 "Lord Cornwallis has so often experienced the zeal 
 and good will of the army, that he has not the smallest 
 doubt that the officers and soldiers will most cheerfully 
 submit to the ill conveniences that must naturally attend 
 war, so remote from water-carriage and the magazines 
 of the army. The supply of rum for a time will be 
 absolutely impossible, and that of meal very uncertain. 
 It is needless to point out to the officers the necessity of 
 preserving the strictest discipline, and of preventing the 
 oppressed people from- suffering violence by the hands 
 from whom they are taught to look for protection.' 
 
 "Now, Gen. Sherman was fighting, as he said, for the 
 sole purpose of restoring the Union, and for making the 
 people of the rebellious States look to the Union for pro- 
 tection. Does any act or order of his anywhere indicate 
 a similar desire of protecting the people from suffering 
 at the hands of those whose duty it was to protect them?
 
 l88 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 "Again 
 
 'HEADQUARTERS, CANSLER'S PLANTATION/ ) 
 
 February 2 1 1781. f 
 
 'Lord Cornwallis is highly displeased that several 
 houses have been set on fire to-day during the march 
 a disgrace to the army and he will punish to the utmost 
 severity any person or persons who shall be found guilty 
 of committing so disgraceful an outrage. His Lordship 
 requests the commanding officers of the corps will en- 
 endeavor to find the persons who set fire to the houses 
 this day.' 
 
 "Now, think of the march of Sherman's army, which 
 could be discovered a great way off by the smoke of 
 burning homesteads by day and the lurid glare of flames 
 by night, from Atlanta to Savannah, from Columbia to 
 Fayetteville, and suppose that such an order as this had 
 been issued by its commanding officer, and rigidly ex- 
 ecuted, would not the mortality have been quite equal to 
 that of a great battle? 
 
 "Arriving in Fayetteville on the loth of March, 1865, 
 he not only burned the Arsenal one of the finest in the 
 United States which, perhaps, he might have properly 
 done, but he also burned five private dwelling-houses 
 nearby; he burned the principal printing office, that of 
 the old 'Fayetteville Observer;' he burned the old 
 Bank of North Carolina, eleven large warehouses, five 
 cotton mills, and quite a number of private dwellings in 
 other parts of the town, whilst in the suburbs almost a 
 clean sweep was made. In one locality nine houses 
 were burned. Universally, houses were gutted before 
 they were burned; and, after everything portable was 
 secured, the furniture was ruthlessly destroyed. Pianos,
 
 SHERMAN AND CORNWALLIS IN NORTH CAROLINA. 189 
 
 on which perhaps rebel tunes had been played 'Dixie' 
 or 'My Maryland' disloyal bureaus, traitorous tables 
 and chairs were cut to pieces with axes ; and frequently, 
 after all this damage, fire was applied and all consumed. 
 Carriages and vehicles of all kinds were wantonly de- 
 stroyed or burned. Instances could be given of old men 
 who had the shoes taken from their feet, the hats from 
 their heads and clothes from their persons ; their wives 
 and children subjected to like treatment. In one in- 
 stance, as the marauders left, they shot down a dozen 
 cattle belonging to an old man and left their carcasses 
 lying in the yard. Think of that, and remember the 
 grievances of the Pennsylvania Dutch farmers, who 
 came, in all seriousness, to complain to Gen. Long- 
 street, in the Gettysburg campaign, of the outrage which 
 some of his ferocious rebels had committed upon them 
 by milking their cows ! On one occasion, at Fayetteville, 
 four gentlemen were hung by the neck until nearly dead 
 to force them to disclose where their valuables were 
 hidden, and one of them was shot to death. 
 "Again 
 
 'HEADQUARTERS DOBBINS HOUSE,' ) 
 
 February 17, 1781. f 
 
 ' Lord Cornwallis is very sorry to be obliged to call 
 the attention of the officers of the army to the repeated 
 orders against plundering, and he assures the officers 
 that if their duty to their King and country, and their 
 feeling for humanity, are not sufficient to force obedience 
 to them, he must, however, reluctantly make use of such 
 powers as the military laws have placed in his hands. 
 * # * * i t i s ex p ec ted that Captains will exert 
 themselves to keep good order and prevent plundering. 
 * * Any officer who looks on with indifference
 
 190 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 and docs not do his utmost to prevent shameful marauding 
 will be considered in a more criminal light than the per- 
 sons who commit these scandalous crimes, which must 
 bring disgrace and ruin on nis Majesty's service. All 
 foraging parties will give receipts for the supplies taken 
 by them.' 
 
 "Now, taking it for granted that Lord Cornwallis, a 
 distinguished soldier and a gentleman, is an authority on 
 the rights of war, could there be found anywhere a 
 more damnatory comment upon the practices of General 
 Sherman and his Army? 
 
 "Again 
 
 'HEADQUARTERS, FREELANDS, ) 
 
 February 28, 1781. f 
 'Memorandum :' 
 
 'A watch found by the regiment of Bose. The 
 owner may have it from the Adjutant of that regiment 
 upon proving property.' 
 
 "Another 
 
 'SMITH'S PLANTATION,' ) 
 March i, 1781. \ 
 
 'Brigade Orders' 
 
 * 'A woman having been robbed of a 
 watch, a black silk handkerchief, a gallon of peach 
 brandy and a shirt, and as by description, by a soldier 
 of the guards, the camp, and every man's kit is to be 
 immediately searched for the same, by the officer of the 
 brigade.' 
 
 "Are there any poets in the audience, or other per- 
 sons in whom the imaginative faculty has been largely 
 cultivated? If so, let me beg him to do me the favor of 
 conceiving, if he can, and make manifest to me, the 
 idea of a notice of a lost watch being given, in general 
 orders, by Wm. Tecumseh Sherman, and the offer to
 
 SHERMAN AND CORNWALLIS IN NORTH CAROLINA. 19! 
 
 return it on proof of property by the rebel owner! 
 Let him imagine, if he can, the searching of every man's 
 kit in that army, for a stolen watch, a shirt, a black silk 
 handkerchief and a gallon of peach brandy because 
 'such is war.' 
 
 "Time and your patience forbids that I should further 
 quote from this interesting record of the war of 
 1781. Suffice it to say that the whole policy and con- 
 duct of that British commander was such as to indicate 
 unmistakably that he did not consider the burning of 
 private houses, the stealing of private property, and 
 the outraging of helpless, private citizens as War, but 
 as robbery and arson. I venture to say up to the 
 period when that great march taught us the contrary, no 
 humane general or civilized people in Christendom 
 believed that 'such was war.' Has civilization gone 
 backward since Lord Cornwallis' day? Have arson and 
 vulgar theft been ennobled into heroic virtues ? If so, 
 when and by whom? Has the art of discovering a poor 
 man's hidden treasure by fraud or torture been elevated 
 into the strategy which wins a campaign ? If so, when 
 and by whom? 
 
 "No, sir, it will not do to slur over these things by a 
 vague reference to the inevitable cruelties of war. The 
 time is fast coming when the conduct of that campaign 
 will be looked upon in the light of real humanity, and 
 investigated with the real historic spirit which evolves 
 truth; and all the partisan songs which have been sung, 
 or orations which subservient 'orators have spoken, 
 about that great march to the sea ; and all the carica-
 
 192 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 tures of Southern leaders which the bitterness of a 
 diseased sectional sentiment has inspired; and all the 
 glamour of a great success, shall not avail to restrain 
 the inexorable, the illuminating pen of history. Truth, 
 like charity, never faileth. Whether there be prophecies 
 they shall fail; whether there be tongues the}' shall 
 cease; whether there be knowledge it shall vanish away ; 
 but when the truth, which is perfect, has come, then 
 that what is in part shall be done away. 
 
 "Now let us contrast Gen. Sherman with his greatest 
 foe, likewise the greatest, certainly the most humane, 
 general of modern times, and see whether he regarded 
 the pitiless destruction of the substance of women and 
 children and inoffensive inhabitants as legitimate war/' 
 
 'HEADQUARTERS ARMY NORTHERN VIRGINIA, ) 
 
 June 27, 1863. C 
 
 ^General Order No. 73. 
 
 'The Commanding General has observed with marked 
 satisfaction the conduct of the troops on 'the march. 
 There have, however, been instances of forgetfulness 
 on the part of some that they have in keeping the yet 
 unsullied reputation of this army, and that the duties 
 exacted of us by civilization and Christianity are not less 
 obligatory in the country of the enemy than our own. 
 The Commanding General considers that no greater 
 disgrace could befall the army, and through it our whole 
 people, than the perpetration of barbarous outrages upon 
 the unarmed and defenceless, and the wanton destruction 
 of private property, that have marked the course of the 
 enemy in our own country. * * * * It will be re- 
 membered that we make war only upon armed men. 
 
 'R. E. LEE, General: 
 
 "The humanity and Christian spirit of this order was 
 Mich as to challenge the admiration of foreign nations.
 
 SHERMAN AND CORNWALLIS IN NORTH CAROLINA. 193 
 
 The 'London Times' commented upon it, and its Amer- 
 ican correspondent said: 'The greatest surprise has been 
 expressed to me by officers from the Austrian, Prussian 
 and English armies, each of which have representatives 
 here, that volunteer troops, provoked by nearly twenty- 
 seven months of unparalleled ruthlessness and wanton- 
 ness, of which their country has been the scene, should 
 be under such control, and willing to act in harmony 
 with the long-suffering and forbearance of President 
 Davis and Gen. Lee.' 
 
 "To show how this order was executed, the same 
 writer tells a story of how he witnessed, with his own 
 eyes, Gen. Lee and a surgeon of his command repairing 
 the damage to a farmer's fence. Col. McClure, of Phil- 
 
 O 
 
 adelphia, a Union soldier himself, bears witness to the 
 good conduct of Lee's ragged rebels in that famous 
 campaign. He tells of hundreds of them coming to him 
 and asking for a little bread and coffee, and of others 
 who were wet and shivering 'asking permission' to enter 
 a house in which they saw a bright fire, to warm them- 
 selves until their coffee should be ready. . 
 
 "Hundreds of similar instances could be given, sub- 
 stantiated by the testimony of men on both sides, to show 
 the splendid humanity of that great invasion. Blessed 
 be the good God, who, if in His wisdom, He denied us 
 success, yet gave to us and our children the rich inher- 
 itage of this great example. 
 
 "Now, there is Lee's order on entering Pennsylvania, 
 and there are the proofs referred to of the good faith with 
 which that order was executed. Was any such humane
 
 194 T ' IFE OF GEN - JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 order issued by Gen. Sherman when he began his march 
 through Georgia, South and North Carolina? If so, let 
 the numberless and atrocious outrages which character- 
 ized his every step, speak as to the mala fides with which 
 it was executed. Let a few other things also speak. 
 Major-Gen. Halleck, then, I believe, commander-in- 
 chief, under the President, of the armies of the Union/ 
 on the iSth of December, 1864, dispatched as follows to 
 Gen. Sherman, then in Savannah. 'Should you capture 
 Charleston, I hope that by some accident the place may 
 be destroyed ; and if a little salt should be sown upon its 
 site it may prevent the growth of future crops of nullifi- 
 cation and secession.' On the 24th of December, 1864, 
 Gen. Sherman made the following answer: ' I will bear 
 in mind your hint as to Charleston, and don't think 
 "salt" will be necessary. When I move, the Fifteenth 
 Corps will be on the right of the right wing, and their 
 position will bring them naturally into Charleston first, 
 and if you have watched the history of that corps you 
 will have remarked that they generally do their work 
 up pretty well. The truth is, the whole army is burning 
 with an insatiable desire to wreak vengeance upon South 
 Carolina. I almost tremble at her fate, but feel that she 
 deserves all that seems in store for her. * * * I look 
 upon Columbia as quite as bad as Charleston!' There- 
 fore, Columbia was burned to ashes. And though he 
 knew what was in store for South Carolina, so horrible 
 that even he trembled, he took no steps to avert it, for 
 he felt that she deserved it all. Did she, indeed? What 
 crime had she committed that placed her outside the
 
 SHERMAN AND CORNWALLIS IN NORTH CAROLINA. 
 
 protection of the law of civilized nations? What unjust 
 and barbarous or brutal conduct had she been guilty of 
 to bring her within the exceptions laid down by the 
 writers on the laws of war as authorizing extraordinary 
 severity of punishment? They are not even imputed to 
 her. South Carolina's crime and the crime of all the 
 seceding States was that of a construction of the consti- 
 tution of the United States, differing from that of Gen. 
 Sherman and the Fifteenth Corps, which 'always did its 
 work pretty well.' 
 
 "Happily, the Divine Goodness has made the powers 
 of recuperation even superior to those of destruction; 
 and though their overthrow was so complete that 'salt' 
 was not needed as the type of utter desolation, yet 
 Marietta and Atlanta are thriving and prosperous cities ; 
 and Columbia has once more resumed her poetic name 
 the city of roses ; and but recently I read, with satisfac- 
 tion, that the good old town of Fayetteville is fast 
 rebuilding her factories, and boasts of having but lately 
 recovered much of her ancient trade. 
 
 "I mean further to contrast this march to the sea with 
 the opinions of the great American writer on interna- 
 tional law, Chancellor Kent. Treating of plunder on 
 land and depredations on private property, he says: 
 (part i, sec. 5.) 'Such conduct has been condemned in 
 all ages, by the wise and the virtuous, and it is usually 
 punished severely by those commanders of disciplined 
 troops who have studied war as a science, and are 
 animated by a sense of duty or love of fame. "" 
 If the conqueror goes beyond these limits wantonly, or
 
 196 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 when it is not clearly indispensable to the just purposes 
 of war, and seizes private property of pacific persons 
 for the sake of gain, and destroys private dwellings or 
 public edifices devoted to civil purposes only, or makes 
 war upon monuments of art and models of taste, he 
 violates the modern usages of war, and is sure to meet 
 with indignant resentment, and to be held up to the 
 general scorn and detestation of the world.' If Kent, 
 although studied by Gen. Sherman at West Point, be 
 not a sufficient authority for his condemnation, let us try 
 him by the opinion of Major-Gen. Halleck the 'salt' 
 suggester above referred to, and see what he says in his 
 cooler moments concerning the rights of unarmed in- 
 habitants during war. 
 
 "In his International Law and Laws of War, pub- 
 lished in 1861, treating of the ancient practice which 
 made all private property of the enemy subject to con- 
 fiscation, he says: 'But the modern usage is not to touch 
 private property on land without making compensation, 
 except in certain specified cases. These exceptions may 
 be stated under three general heads : First, confiscations 
 or seizures by way of penalty for military offenses; 
 second, forced contributions for the support of the in- 
 vading army, or as an indemnity for the expenses of 
 maintaining order and affording protection to the con- 
 quered inhabitants; and, third, property taken on the 
 field of battle, or in storming a fortress or town.' 
 
 "Again, the same author says (Chap. 19, page 451): 
 'The evils resulting from irregular requisitions and for- 
 aging for the ordinary supplies of an army are so very
 
 SHERMAN AND CORNWALLIS IN NORTH CAROLINA. 197 
 
 great, and so generally admitted, that it has become a 
 recognized maxim of war, that the commanding officer 
 who permits indiscriminate pillage, and allows the taking 
 of private property without a strict accountability * * * 
 fails in his duty to his own government, and violates the 
 usages of modern warfare. It is sometimes alleged, in 
 excuse for such conduct, that the General is unable to 
 restrain his troops ; but, in the eye of the law, there is 
 no excuse, for he who cannot preserve order in his army 
 has no right to command it.' 
 
 "Once more, let us bring this General to the test of 
 the code, prepared for the government of the armies of 
 the United States, by Frances Lieber: 
 
 "Section 20 reads as follows: 'Private property, 
 unless forfeited by crimes or by offenses of the owner 
 against the safety of the army or the dignity of the 
 United States, and after due conviction of the owner by 
 court martial, can be seized only by way of military 
 necessity for the support or other benefit of the army or 
 of the United States.' 
 
 "Section 24 reads : 'All wanton violence com- 
 mitted against persons in the invaded country; 
 all destruction of property not commanded by the 
 authorized officer; all robbery; all pillage or sack- 
 ing, even after taking a place by main force; all rape, 
 wounding, maiming or killing of such inhabitants, are 
 prohibited under the penalty of death, or such other 
 severe punishment as may seem adequate for the gravity 
 of the offence.' 
 
 "Section 27 reads as follows: 'Crimes punishable by
 
 198 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 all penal codes, such as arson, murder, maiming, 
 assaults, highway robbery, theft, burglary, fraud, for- 
 gery, and rape, if committed by an American soldier in 
 a hostile country against its inhabitants, are not only 
 punishable as at home, but in all cases in which death 
 is not inflicted, the* severer punishment shall be preferred, 
 because the criminal has, as far as in him lay, prostituted 
 the power conferred on a man of arms, and prostrated 
 the dignity of the Uuited States.' 
 
 "One more short quotation from this cede prepared by 
 Dr. Lieber I will give, not so much for its authority as 
 because it is so eminently ludicrous in the light of the 
 way in which it was observed by Sherman's bummers. 
 Listen 
 
 "Section 40: 'It is the usage in European armies 
 that money and all valuables on the person of a prisoner, 
 such as watches or jewelry, as well as extra clothing, 
 belong to the captor; but it distinguishes the army of 
 the United States that the appropriation of such articles 
 or money is considered dishonorable, and not suffered 
 by the officers. ' Ah ! 
 
 "To the same effect are all the great writers on public 
 law for more than two centuries back. Wolsey, Vattel 
 Grotius, PufTendorf, Poison, Jomini, and the rest of them, 
 almost without exception. In fact every one of any 
 note condemns in unmistakable terms the destruction and 
 indiscriminate pillaging of private property of unarmed 
 people in time of war. Even the followers of Mahomet, 
 cruel and blood-thirsty as they were, recognized to its 
 full extent the justice and propriety of these principles.
 
 SHERMAN AND CORNWALLIS IN NORTH CAROLINA. 199 
 
 The Caliph, Abubekr, in 634, when sending forth his 
 generals to the conquest of Syria, gave them instructions 
 which Gen. Sherman cannot read without a sense of 
 shame. Abubekr, an old man, accompanied the army 
 on foot on its first day's march, and when the blushing 
 leaders attempted to dismount, says the historian, the 
 Caliph removed their scruples by a declaration that 
 those who rode and those who walked in the service of 
 religion were equally meritorious. 'Remember,' said 
 the successor of the Prophet to the chiefs of the Syrian 
 army, that you are always in the presence of God, on 
 the verge of death, in the assurance of judgment, and 
 the hope of paradise. Avoid injustice and oppression, 
 consult with your brethren and study to preserve the love 
 and confidence of your troops. When you fight the 
 battles of the Lord acquit yourselves like men, without 
 turning your backs, but let not your victory be stained 
 with the blood of women or children. Destroy no palm 
 trees, nor burn any fields of corn. Cut down no fruit 
 trees, nor do any mischief to cattle, only such as you 
 kill to eat. When you make any covenant or article, 
 stand to it, and be as good as your word. As you go 
 on, you will find some religious persons who live retired 
 in monasteries and propose to themselves to serve God 
 in that way, let them alone, and neither kill them nor 
 destroy their monasteries.' This is neither a bad expo- 
 sition of the laws of war or of the principles of 
 Christianity. 
 
 "As far back in the history of our race as four hun- 
 dred years B. C., the great Xenophon, in the Cyropedia,
 
 200 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 puts in the mouth of his hero Cyrus, the Prince of 
 Persia, an order directing that his army, when march- 
 ing upon the enemy's borders, should not- disturb the 
 cultivators of the soil. Now let us draw the contrast in 
 
 the conduct of Gen. Sherman and the Arab chieftain, 
 
 i 
 
 who denied Christianity, and the old Greek pagan who 
 had never heard of Christ. Let us take no Southern 
 man's testimony; there are plenty of honest and truthful 
 soldiers of the Union, who were with the Federal army 
 and served iA its ranks, to tell all we want and more. 
 This is what one of them says, writing of that cam- 
 paign to the "Detroit Free Press:" "One of the most 
 devilish acts of Sherman's campaign was the destruc- 
 tion of Marietta. * The Military Institute, and 
 such mills and factories as might be a benefit to Hood, 
 could expect the torch, but Sherman was not content 
 with that; the torch was applied to everything, even to 
 the shanties occupied by the colored people. No 
 advance warning was given. The first alarm was 
 followed by the crackling of flames. Soldiers rode 
 from house to house, entered without ceremony, and 
 kindled fires in garrets and closets, and stood by to see 
 that they were not extinguished." 
 
 "Again, he says: 'Had one been aole to climb to such 
 a height, at Atlanta, as to enable him to see for forty 
 miles around, the day Sherman marched out, he would 
 have been appalled at the destruction. Hundreds of 
 houses had been burned ; every rod of fence destroyed ; 
 nearly every fruit tree cut down ; and the face of the 
 country so changed that one born in that section could
 
 SHERMAN AND CORNWALLIS IN NORTH CAROLINA. 2OI 
 
 scarcely recognize it. The vindictiveness of war would 
 have trampled the very earth out of sight, had such a 
 thing been possible.' 
 
 "Again, he says: 'At the very opening of the cam- 
 paign, at Dalton, the Federal soldiery had received 
 encouragement to become vandals. Not one private 
 soldier out of every forty turned robber or incendiary, 
 but there were enough to cast a stigm^. on the whole. 
 From Dalton to Atlanta every house was entered a dozen 
 times over, and each new band of foragers robbed it of 
 something. When there was nothing in the shape of 
 money, provisions, jewelry or clothing left, the looters 
 destroyed furniture, abused women and children, and 
 ended by setting fire to the house. As these parties 
 rode back to camp, attired in dresses and bonnets, and 
 exhibiting the trophies of their raid, and nothing was 
 said to them, others were encouraged to follow suit. 
 The treatment of colored women was brutal in the ex- 
 treme, and not a few of them died from the effects. One 
 who has the nerve to sit down and listen to what they 
 can tell will find his respect for the ignorant and savage 
 Indians increased. But these were preparatory lessons. 
 When Sherman cut loose from Atlanta, everybody had 
 license to throw off restraint and make Georgia "drain 
 the bitter cup." The Federal who wants to learn what it 
 was to license an army to become vandals should mount 
 a horse at Atlanta and follow Sherman's route for fifty 
 miles. He can hear stories from the lips of women that 
 would make him ashamed of the flag that waved over 
 him as he went into battle. When the army had passed,
 
 2O2 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 nothing was left but a trail of desolation and despair. 
 No house escaped robbery; no woman escaped insult; 
 no building escaped the fire-brand, except by some 
 strange interposition. War may license an army to 
 subsist on the enemy, but civilized warfare stops at 
 live-stock, forage and provisions. It does not enter the 
 houses of the sick and helpless, and rob women of 
 finger-rings and carry off their clothing. 
 
 'Add to all these horrors that most merciless and 
 inhuman order of expatriation, by which the entire 
 population of Atlanta, of all ages, sex and conditions, 
 were driven forth to the fields of a desolated country, or 
 shipped off to the rear like cattle ; an order which was 
 followed by the "deliberate burning of Atlanta" by 
 Sherman's own account. But I have said enough about 
 these horrors, for it is exceedingly unpleasant to speak 
 of them. Yet they must be told, if for nothing else than 
 to excite the execration of humane people, and they will 
 be told more hereafter than ever before. It is not worth 
 while to cry hush. The truth is entitled to be known.' ' 
 
 I have made this record of the Federal military opera- 
 tions in Georgia and South Carolina, to show what con- 
 sequences flowed from Johnston's removal from the 
 Army of Tennessee before Atlanta. 
 
 It was said that he would not stop retreating, and that 
 he would finally take refuge in the everglades, as 
 Osceola had done before him. But even if this had 
 been true, it was better to have kept the Army of Ten- 
 nessee in hand, as he had done from Dalton to Atlanta, 
 to confront Sherman and to control his movements, than
 
 SHERMAN AND CORNWALLIS IN NORTH CAROLINA. 2O3 
 
 to send it off, leaving him absolutely unchecked and 
 unmoderated. 
 
 In justice to the administration at Richmond, it must 
 be said that it held on to Johnston for a long time against 
 a tremendous popular pressure, and in spite of a great 
 popular clamor. Mr. Seddon, the Confederate Secre- 
 tary of War, was a warm admirer of Johnston, and was 
 his personal friend, with great confidence in his ability. 
 
 Lee remonstrated against his removal, and the first 
 order he issued in February, 1865, after he had been 
 placed in command of all the armies of the Confederate 
 States, was to assign Johnston to the command of the 
 Army of Tennessee, and all the troops in Georgia, 
 South Carolina and North Carolina. 
 
 From the day Sherman started from Savannah, his 
 movements were so well masked that the Confederate 
 authorities could not decide where he intended to strike. 
 
 At first Charleston was supposed to be his objective, 
 but \vhen he moved into Columbia it was understood 
 that he was going by Charlotte, Salisbury, Greensboro, 
 Danville, to unite with Grant. 
 
 The movements at Newbern repairing the railroad 
 and arranging docks and wharves if known, did not 
 attract attention. But the whole month of January, 
 1865, was employed putting Newbem into condition to 
 be a great depot, and Schofield w T as promptly transpor- 
 ted there, to be ready for Sherman when he approached 
 Goldsboro. 
 
 General Johnston was residing in Lincolnton, North 
 Carolina, attending his wife, whose health was very in-
 
 204 LIFE OK GKN. JOSKl'II I.. JOHNSTON. 
 
 firm, where, on January 23, 1865, he received instru :tions 
 by telegraph to report to General Lee at Petersburg, 
 recently appointed General-in-chief. A telegram from 
 Gen. Lee, in anticipation of such a report to him, was 
 received the same day. In it he directed him to assume 
 command of the Army of Tennessee, and of all troops 
 in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, and to "concen- 
 trate all available forces, and drive back Sherman." 
 Beauregard had before then been in command of South 
 Carolina and part of Florida and Georgia, and before 
 accepting the command tendered, Johnston visited 
 him in Charlotte, to ascertain if the arrangement was 
 agreeable to him. 
 
 Being assured by Beauregard that the feeble and 
 precarious condition of his health made the order 
 exceedingly satisfactory and desirable to him, Beaure- 
 gard gave him a copy of a dispatch, which he had the 
 day before addressed to General Lee, in which the same 
 feeling was expressed. 
 
 Relieved from all embarassment at superceding this 
 illustrious soldier his friend and comrade in two 
 wars Johnston assumed the responsibility of the 
 command, with a full sense that nothing was to be 
 done, except to save the further effusion of blood, 
 and secure the best terms for the States and the 
 people of the South, that could be extorted from 
 their adversaries. The trans -Mississippi was in 
 the hands of the Federals. The fall of Atlanta had 
 secured them all the States west of the Savannah and 
 south of the Ohio. Sherman's march had crushed
 
 SHERMAN AND CORNWALLIS IN NORTH CAROLINA. 
 
 South Carolina like an eggshell. Charleston, Wil- 
 mington and Mobile had fallen, and the Confederacy 
 was surrounded from Cape Charles, on the Chesapeake, 
 to the Rio Grande with a cordon of fire and shot and 
 
 shell. 
 j. 
 Under these circumstances, Johnston undertook the 
 
 command. His orders were to concentrate the troops 
 in his department and drive back Sherman. 
 
 The Army of Tennessee the "disjecta membra" of 
 that gallant army he had led in glorious retreat from 
 Dalton to Atlanta after having been dashed to pieces 
 on the rocks of Franklin and Nashville, was percolating, 
 sifting through the country by skeleton brigades, regi- 
 ments, batteries, to report to Beauregard in North 
 Carolina. From Mississippi, where the fragments of 
 Nashville had lodged, it was carried by rail to Augusta, 
 Georgia; thence they marched northeast to Charlotte. 
 
 Stevenson, Stewart and Lee, Cheatham, Wheeler and 
 Battle, the knights of the crusade behind Sherman, 
 were all moving as fast as they could, and men's legs 
 would carry them into North Carolina, to rally to Beau- 
 regard the hero of Manassas and the defender of 
 Charleston to head off Sherman. 
 
 Under orders, Johnston took up the flag and moved 
 to the front. He had about five thousand men of the 
 Army of Tennessee, and about eleven thousand who 
 had been holding Charleston, under Hardee, and Wil- 
 mington under Whiting. Sherman had seventy thousr 
 and infantry and five thousand cavalry. 
 
 The fragments of the Army of Tennessee in small
 
 2O6 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 bodies were hastening through South Carolina, with no 
 rations, no transportation, no assistance from their 
 government, to help Johnston and Beauregard to drive 
 back the invader. 
 
 It was a hopeless task, a duty absolutely without any 
 chance of success to reward it, but these soldiers from 
 Missouri, from Arkansas, from Texas, from west of the 
 Mississippi, and from the other Southwestern States, 
 marched, many of them, from luka, Mississippi, without 
 arms, rations or pay, to Raleigh, North Carolina, to 
 defend their country, and to do their duty. All hope of 
 saving their cause was utterly lost. The reinstatement 
 of Johnston had roused enthusiasm all through the 
 Southwest, and the soldiers of the Army of Tennessee 
 flocked to the standard of "Old Joe," to stand by him 
 to the last. 
 
 They were largely without arms, and absolutely with- 
 out wagons or transportation. Johnston was ordered to 
 draw his supplies from the country, although he found 
 in the principal railroad depots between Charlotte, Dan- 
 ville and Weldon, rations for four months for sixty 
 thousand men, which were reserved for the Army of 
 Northern Virginia. 
 
 Upon reporting to General Lee the condition of affairs 
 in North Carolina, General Johnston suggested that 
 all the troops in that State should be put under his 
 command. 
 
 This suggestion was adopted, and 8,000 men, under 
 Bragg, near Goldsboro, were added to the force under 
 his control. It is singular that Johnston had no certain
 
 SHERMAN AND CORNWALLIS IN NORTH CAROLINA. 207 
 
 information of what troops were at Newbern, or what 
 disposition there was of Federal troops in North Carolina. 
 
 He says, that "the course of the Federal march from 
 Winnsborough indicated that it would cross the Cape 
 Fear at Fayetteville and there be joined by Schofield 
 at Wilmington." But Schofield was then at Newbern. 
 
 Leaving Beauregard to protect the line of railroad 
 from Charlotte to Danville, Gen. Johnston selected 
 Smithfield as the point of rendezvous for all his troops, 
 and, on March 4, established his headquarters at Fay- 
 etteville. Sherman's plan would not be developed until 
 he approached the centre of the State, whether he pro- 
 posed to march from Goldsboro directly on Petersburg, 
 by way of Weldon, or whether by way of Greensboro 
 and Danville, to unite with Grant in Virginia. Inasmuch, 
 as the Wilmington & Weldon road was of little further 
 use, for Wilmington and Charleston were in the posses- 
 sion of the Federals, and could no longer supply Lee, 
 it was most reasonable to conjecture that Sherman would 
 take the Western line, break Lee's communication at 
 Greensboro with the South, and then move on Burke- 
 ville, where the railroad from Petersburg to Lynchburg 
 crosses the railroad from Richmond to Danville, and 
 thus cut Lee off from all railroad communication with 
 Western North Carolina, Georgia, Southwestern Vir- 
 ginia and East Tennessee. He would thus be effectually 
 cooped up. 
 
 Goldsboro is about sixty miles northeast from Fayette- 
 ville and fifty miles southeast from Raleigh. Newbern 
 is fifty miles east from Goldsboro. Smithfield is half
 
 2O8 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 way between Goldsboro and Raleigh. It was, therefore, 
 the point from which Johnston could guard both, the 
 road to Weldon and that to Raleigh. 
 
 On the 6th of March, Gen. Bragg, at Goldsboro, re- 
 ported that a large Federal force was advancing from 
 Newbern, and was then but nine miles from Kinston. 
 He asked that the troops just arrived at Smithfield from 
 Charlotte be sent him, so he could attack. Major-Gen. 
 D. H. Hill, who commanded the troops at Smithfield, 
 was ordered to Bragg, and, on March 7, joined him at 
 Kinston with about 2,000 men. 
 
 Bragg at once attacked the enemy three divisions 
 under Major-Gen. Cox. He drove them three miles, 
 capturing 1,500 prisoners and 3 field pieces, with little 
 loss. 
 
 On the loth of March, Bragg attempted to turn the 
 Federal entrenchments, but was obliged to withdraw ; 
 and though his actual loss in men was slight, his sub- 
 stantial loss in morale, which had been gained by their 
 previous success, was great. 
 
 Lieut. -Gen. Hampton, with Butler and Wheeler's 
 divisions of cavalry, was in front and on the left of 
 Sherman, who was moving in two columns about a 
 day's march apart. 
 
 Hardee was hard pushed to get through Cheraw, 
 before Sherman reached there, and moved on to Fayette- 
 ville, where he halted on the pth and loth of March. 
 
 High water in the Pedee forced Hampton far to the 
 west, and, when he crossed the river, Sherman had 
 passed it two days before and was then between him 
 and Fayetteville.
 
 SHERMAN AND CORNWALLIS IN NORTH CAROLINA. 209 
 
 He found Kilpatrick directly in his road, surprised 
 him in his camp at daybreak on the loth, drove him 
 into the swamp, where his people rallied, and made a 
 spirited attack on the Confederates, and eventually drove 
 them off. Hampton and Wheeler thought the Federal 
 loss much greater than theirs, although they suffered a 
 great deal. 
 
 But the Confederate attack opened the road to Fay- 
 etteville, where Hampton and Wheeler at once rejoined 
 Hardee. 
 
 Sherman's advance was then only seven miles from 
 Fayetteville. Hardee crossed the Cape Fear and burnt 
 the bridges, leaving Hampton to hold Sherman to some 
 terms of moderation. 
 
 On nth of March the cavalry advance of the Fed- 
 erals charged the town with a squadron. Hampton 
 was sitting on the piazza of the Tavern, with only his 
 couriers about him ; as the commanding officer always 
 will be sitting in a shady and cool place, when his 
 adversary charges his pickets, and rides helter-skelter 
 with them, through the reserve into the camp. 
 
 One leap from the piazza to the saddle put Hampton 
 armed for the onset, another half minute he and the 
 couriers were riding down the Federal advance. Six 
 men fell under Hampton's sabre in that ride. 
 
 But the Confederate situation then was desperate. 
 There was no hope. Everybody understood it from 
 the teamster with his team, to Gen. Johnston at head- 
 quarters. 
 
 The only thing left to be done by orave men was to
 
 2 TO LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 fight for terms. Everybody wanted peace, and knew 
 that peace was about to come, but the Confederates 
 fought for peace with honor, with law, not the peace of 
 desolated Poland. 
 
 No one understood this more perfectly than Gen. 
 Johnston. He had Bragg's army, of North Carolina, of 
 8,000, Hardee's of Charleston, of less than 10,000 men, 
 Lieut. -Gen. Hampton, with the divisions of Major-Gens. 
 M. C. Butler and Joseph Wheeler, held the cavalry of 
 probably 3,000 men in the advance, and left flank of 
 Sherman's columns. 
 
 Sherman marched 70,000 seasoned infantry and 5,000 
 fair cavalry in two columns, the heads of which were 
 nearly a day's march apart. 
 
 Therefore, if Johnston could club all his force and 
 strike the head of one Federal column, he might do it 
 such harm before the other got to it, as to produce 
 pacific sentiments in the minds of the Federal au- 
 thorities. A stout club, properly and seasonably used, 
 has a most pacifying effect. 
 
 Sherman had not yet developed whether he was to 
 march direct on Raleigh or on Goldsboro. Wheeler was 
 placed across the Raleigh road, and Butler on that to 
 Goldsboro. On March i4th, Wheeler, entrenched at 
 Silver Creek, easily drove back the cavalry advance of 
 Sherman. But on March 15, the Fourteenth and 
 Twentieth Corps pushed Wheeler out of the way, 
 and pressed on toward Raleigh. 
 
 Hardee had entrenched 'a position four miles south of 
 Averysboro, but the enemy forced him out by turning
 
 SHERMAN AND CORNWALLIS IN NORTH CAROLINA. 211 
 
 his left. He fell back only four hundred yards, to a 
 better position. This he held against repeated attacks 
 during the day of March i6th, and at night, hours 
 after the fighting had ceased, fell back to Elevation, a 
 position near Smithfield, being informed by Hampton 
 that Sherman was crossing above and below him. 
 
 General Hardee reported that his loss was in killed, 
 wounded and missing, about 500, and prisoners taken 
 reported the Federal loss at over 3,000. The report of 
 prisoners in battle is utterly unreliable, and no heed 
 should be given to them. They are not first-class men. 
 They have no opportunity for knowledge, and they are 
 "rattled," therefore, they are unreliable witnesses. But 
 General Sherman reports his loss at 77 killed and 407 
 wounded. 
 
 Says Johnston, an acute judge of men and of soldiers: 
 "If that report is true, it proves that Sherman's army 
 had been utterly demoralized by its course of life on 
 Southern plantations. Those soldiers, when fighting 
 between Dalton and Atlanta, could not have been 
 driven back repeatedly, by a fourth of their number, with 
 a loss so utterly insignificant. It is unaccountable, too, 
 that the party fighting under cover, and holding its 
 ground, should have 180 men killed; that, unsheltered 
 and repulsed, but 77." 
 
 Both statements may be correct. Generals often 
 exaggerate the losses of their adversaries, but the 
 official reports must approximate the truth. Johnston's 
 people were fighting not for victory, nor for independ- 
 ence; they were fighting for a "settlement," as is the 
 Southern vernacular.
 
 212 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 They were desperate men, and death had no terrors 
 for them. On the other hand, Sherman's people had 
 all the future before them victory, glory, home, the 
 applause of shouting multitudes, were all inducements 
 not to get killed. The Confederate had a ruined life, a 
 wasted home perhaps a murdered wife and massacred 
 babies behind him. 
 
 It is not impossible that he may have willingly given 
 up a life without hope or prospect, and that the other 
 side may have been more frugal. But it is true, as 
 Johnston remarks, that plunder, license, lack of disci- 
 pline, will take the soul out of soldiers in a two days' 
 march. 
 
 Curious it is, but a soldier must have some conscience, 
 and soldiers without conscience are beasts they will do 
 what they are made to do, and nothing else. 
 
 Napoleon said: "Bayonets think." It would have 
 been better to say: "Bayonets believe." For if bayo- 
 nets do not believe, if they do not have faith in the 
 justice of their side, they are worth little. Murder, 
 rape, arson and robbery will demoralize an army, and 
 take all the fight out of it, sooner than a dozen defeats. 
 
 The extraordinary 'morale of the Confederates was 
 due to their sublime faith in their cause, their com- 
 mander, and in themselves. On the retreat from Gettys- 
 burg it was necessary to feed the rear guard, from Fair- 
 field to Hagerstown, to send details from each regiment 
 to gather rations. 
 
 And on the march on July 5th, as the column marched 
 along the road, men could occasionally be seen shooting
 
 SHERMAN AND CORNWALLIS IN NORTH CAROLINA. 213 
 
 the cattle in the fields. The remark was constant in 
 the ranks: "That's an outrage." That's no better than 
 Yankees." "That's disgraceful to us." For the 
 private soldier felt as high a sense of duty, of justice to 
 himself, and his enemy, as Gen. Lee. Therefore, 
 Johnston's observation was just. The robbers, thieves 
 and murderers who marched into North Carolina in 
 March, 1865, were not the same soldiers who had left 
 Dalton the preceding spring. They had become bru- 
 talized, demoralized. They would not face death, 
 the way the soldiers of Missionary Ridge, of Resaca, 
 of Kenesaw, would have done. Johnston appreciated 
 this, and on it were based his hopes for a "settlement." 
 
 On March 17 it was ascertained that the troops with 
 which Hardee had been engaged the day before were 
 not marching to Raleigh, but no definite information 
 could be gained as to their destination. Hardee remained 
 at Elevation to rest his people. 
 
 At Smithfield, Bragg had Hoke, and his North Caro- 
 linians, 4,775 effectives and Lieut.-Gen. Stewart's 3,950 
 of the Army of Tennessee. 
 
 On the iSth of March Johnston was informed that 
 Sherman's right wing was marching on the direct road 
 from Fayetteville to Goldsboro, and had crossed Black 
 river, while his left wing on the road from Averysboro 
 had not reached that stream, and was more than a day's 
 march from the road on the map, opposite Bentonville. 
 That hamlet was about two miles to the north of the 
 road, and sixteen from Smithfield. 
 
 According to the old map of North Carolina they
 
 214 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 were obliged to use, the roads were about twelve miles 
 apart. According to the cavalry reports the Federal 
 right wing was half a day's march ahead of the left, 
 and, according to the map, the roads they were on were 
 twelve miles apart. 
 
 Johnston clubbed his force and ordered the troops 
 from Elevation and Smithfield to concentrate at Benton- 
 ville, so as to mash up Sherman's left column before his 
 right could get up to him. 
 
 But the map deceived them. Instead of Elevation, 
 Hardee's position, according to the map, being only 12 
 miles from Bentonville, it was too great to be made by 
 Hardee in one day, and the distance between the roads 
 was much less "than the map represented it; so, while 
 Hardee could not get up in time, the Federals could and 
 did. Hardee got up to Bentonville next morning, and 
 Johnston threw his troops across the path of the advanc- 
 ing Federal left wing. Hardee with 9,500, Bragg and 
 Stewart with 5,600, total 14,100, in front of 35,000 men; 
 nearly three to one. 
 
 As Hampton rode down the line which he was estab- 
 lishing, he heard one of the South Carolinans say to 
 another, lying down on the sedge grass, "The old man 
 is playing a pretty stiff bluff, but some of them times 
 these Yankees will call him, and then look out!" 
 Hampton rode on with a grim chuckle at the sort of 
 hand he was bluffing with. 
 
 The Federals deployed as soon as they felt the ob- 
 struction in their way, and moved vigorously on the 
 Confederate line. This advanced at once, and drove
 
 SHERMAN AND CORNWALLIS IN NORTH CAROLINA. 215 
 
 the Federal line back over its first line of light entrench- 
 ments, thrown up in the woods, and Lieut.-Gen. Hardee, 
 leading the infantry charge, leaped his horse over the 
 second line and captured it. The woods were so thick 
 that no orderly advance could be made, and the Con- 
 federates held the field until their wounded could be 
 removed; after which, after nightfall, they fell back to 
 the position from which they had moved in the morning. 
 Four pieces of artillery were taken, but one piece was 
 left on the ground for lack of horses to haul it off. 
 
 Early on the morning of March 20, the Federal right 
 wing, which had left the Fayetteville road to Goldsboro, 
 crossed to that to Averysboro, and rapidly attacked 
 Hoke's division, which was in rear. Hampton immedi- 
 ately put Butler's and Wheeler's divisions of cavalry 
 into position to help to hold Hoke's line, and together, 
 the cavalry, and the North Carolinians stood the Federals 
 off, for the rest of the day, against repeated attacks. 
 All day of March 21 the Confederates held their position 
 against repeated and resolute attacks. Lieut.-Gen. 
 Hardee's son, a boy of 16, fell in the first set of "fours" 
 of the Eighth Texas cavalry, with whom he was charg- 
 ing. During the night of March 22, the troops were 
 withdrawn to Smithfield. Johnston's loss in the three 
 days' fighting was 223 killed, 1,467 wounded, and 653 
 missing total 2,343, out of a total of 14,000 engaged. 
 
 It is supposed that the Federal loss largely exceeded 
 4,000. 
 
 After Schofield joined Sherman at Goldsboro after 
 the battle of Bentonville Johnston placed himself in
 
 2l6 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 such a position as to observe the roads to Richmond 
 via Weldon, or by Raleigh, Greensboro and Danville, 
 and at the same time to be in position to join hands with 
 Lee, in case he should determine to let go Richmond, 
 and joining Johnston, fall on Sherman before Grant 
 could get up. 
 
 As soon as Johnston was assigned by Lee to the com- 
 mand of North Carolina, and the duty of "driving back 
 Sherman," he had been incessant in representing to his 
 superior officer, that the only chance to save the Confed- 
 eracy was for Lee to unite with him, and first defeat 
 Sherman, and then Grant. 
 
 To the last moment Johnston was not without hopes 
 that his strategy would be followed. But Lee knew 
 better than he did. He couldn't let go Grant. Grant 
 held him tight. The moment he inarched out of the 
 lines at Petersburg, Grant's strong cavalry horses would 
 flank him. Grant's strong artillery horses would out- 
 march him, and he would be destroyed, just as he was 
 destroyed a month afterward, in his vain attempt to 
 reach Danville to join Johnston. 
 
 But Johnston certainly did not understand to what 
 straits his comrade, friend, and commanding officer, was 
 reduced. He argued the question as if it was a matter 
 of volition. 
 
 On April 5, he received the press dispatch that the 
 Administration had caused the evacuation of Richmond 
 on the 2d. 
 
 Johnston supposed that they had adopted his ideas, 
 and were moving to join him. He heard from Brig.-
 
 SHERMAN AND CORNWALLIS IN NORTH CAROLINA. 217 
 
 Gen. W. H. Walker, at Danville, on April 7, and 
 Col. Jno. Taylor Wood, the President's aid, on the 8th, 
 at Greensboro, but there was no news of Lee's army, 
 and nothing in these dispatches to suggest the idea that 
 Lee had been driven from his lines. 
 
 On March 22, Schofield joined Sherman at Golds- 
 boro with the Twenty-third Corps. The railroad to 
 Newbern was in running order, and supplies were 
 rapidly brought to him. 
 
 He had no apprehension then of being stopped by 
 Lee and Johnston combined, for he had with his colors 
 full 93,000 fighting men, and the whole Army of 
 Northern Virginia, with the Army of North Carolina, 
 could not have barred his way. 
 
 On March 25th, Sherman started by rail to Newbern, 
 and thence by steamer to City Point, Virginia, for an 
 interview with Grant, reaching Fortress Monroe on 27th. 
 He reached City Point the same afternoon, and found 
 President Lincoln there. That night and the next day 
 was spent in going over the whole situation. Sherman 
 was anxious that Lee should remain where he was until 
 he, Sherman, could get to Burkeville, when Lee 
 would have to starve, or come out of his entrenchments 
 and fight Grant and him combined. 
 
 The two Generals expected another battle would be 
 necessary to finish up the war, but the President depre- 
 cated more bloodshed. "His mind," says Sherman, 
 "was all ready for the civil organization of officers at 
 the South," and he authorized Sherman to assure Gov. 
 Vance, and the people of North Carolina } that as soon
 
 2l8 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 as the Rebel armies laid down their arms, and resumed 
 their civil pursuits, they would at once be guaranteed 
 all their rights, as citizens of a common country, and 
 that, to avoid anarchy, the State government then in 
 existence, with their civil functionaries, would be recog- 
 nized by him as the government defacto until Congress 
 could provide others.* 
 
 They parted at noon, March 28th. Sherman reached 
 Newbern, March 3Oth, and Goldsborough the same 
 evening. 
 
 By the 5th of April he was ready to move, and issued 
 his confidential order to his army commanders, that the 
 next move was to place the army north of the Roanoke^ 
 facing west, with its base of supplies at Norfolk, or on 
 the Chowan, and in full communication with the Army 
 of the Potomac at Petersburg. The march was to 
 begin in earnest on March 12. But the news of the fall 
 of Richmond reached him on April nth, and Sherman 
 appointed April i2th to move direct on Raleigh, pre- 
 pared to follow Johnston wherever he might go. 
 
 On the 9th, Johnston still had no definite information 
 as to the condition of affairs in Virginia. On the loth 
 Johnston moved back to Raleigh, with Sherman about 
 twenty-five miles in his rear. At one o'clock next 
 morning, in his camp at Battles Bridge, over the Neuse, 
 he received a telegram from President Davis, dated 
 Danville, the evening before, informing him that an 
 unofficial report had just reached him that Lee had 
 surrendered the day before April pth. 
 
 'Memoirs, Vol. II, p. 327.
 
 SHERMAN AND CORNWALLIS IN NORTH CAROLINA. 219 
 
 The Confederates reached Raleigh during the after- 
 noon of the nth. During that same night, Sherman, at 
 Smithfield, received a message from Grant, informing 
 him of Lee's surrender. 
 
 He published it in a general order to his troops the next 
 morning, and, of course, it invigorated and refreshed 
 them more than anything else could have done. He 
 reached Raleigh the next day, and again announced to 
 his troops his plans that his next move would be to 
 Ashboro to cut off Johnston's retreat southward. 
 
 Thus matters stood, when on April 14, Kilpatrick 
 reported from Durham Station, twenty-six miles up the 
 North "Carolina Railroad, that a flag of truce had come 
 in with a package from Gen. Johnston, addressed to 
 Sherman. 
 
 The Confederates continued their retreat toward 
 Hillsboro and Greensboro, and on the evening of the 
 nth, Gen. Johnston received an order by telegraph 
 from President Davis at Greensboro, directing him to 
 report there in person without delay. 
 
 He reached that place on the morning of April 12, 
 and went at once to Beauregard's quarters in a railroad 
 car. In an hour or two the Generals were summoned 
 to meet President Davis, with whom they found Messrs. 
 Benjamin, Secretary of State; Mallory, -Secretary of 
 War, and Reagan, Postmaster-General. 
 
 Mr. Davis was eager to continue the war. He stated 
 that in two or three weeks he would have a large army 
 in the field, by bringing back those who had deserted, 
 and gone home, and by calling out those liable to con
 
 220 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 scription, whom the conscript officers had been unable to 
 obtain. The Generals remarked that it was unlikely 
 that those who had deserted, and who would not join, 
 when circumstances were more favorable, could be 
 expected to come forward now when circumstances were 
 desperate. 
 
 And so the conference was adjourned until Gen. 
 Breckenridge, the Secretary of War, should arrive, 
 who was expected that evening, with certain news from 
 Virginia. 
 
 Gens. Johnston and Beauregard, comparing views of 
 the situation, concluded that the Confederacy was over- 
 thrown, and that the only thing left was to make terms. 
 And when Breckenridge arrived, Johnston presented 
 this conclusion to him, and said that the only power left 
 President Davis was that of terminating the war, and 
 that this power should be exercised without more delay. 
 
 Mr. Mallory, in conversation, agreed with Gen. John- 
 ston. The next day, by Breckenridge 's arrangement, 
 Johnston and Beauregard were summoned to President 
 Davis, where they presented a comparison of the military 
 forces of the two sides. The Confederates had an army 
 of 20,000 infantry and artillery, and 5,000 cavalry. The 
 United States had Grant's army of 180,000, Sherman's 
 of 110,000, and Canby's of 60,000 odds of 14 to one. 
 
 Johnston represented that under such circumstances it 
 would be the greatest of human crimes to attempt 
 to continue the war ; for having neither money nor credit, 
 nor arms but those in the hands of our soldiers, nor 
 ammunition but that in their cartridge boxes, nor shops
 
 SHERMAN AND CORNWALLIS IN NORTH CAROLINA. 221 
 
 for repairing arms or fixing ammunition, the effect of 
 our keeping the field would be, not to harm the enemy, 
 but to complete the devastation of our country and ruin 
 of its people. He therefore urged that the President 
 should exercise at once the only function of government 
 still in his possession, and open negotiations for peace.* 
 
 Mr. Davis requested the members of the Cabinet 
 present to express their opinions. Breckenridge, Mai- 
 lory and Reagan agreed with Johnston. Benjamin was 
 for war, and made a speech, says Johnston, much like 
 that of Sempronius in Addison's play. Mr. Davis said 
 it was idle for him to attempt to negotiate, for the other 
 side had repeatedly refused to recognize him. 
 
 Johnston suggested that it had not been unusual for 
 military commanders to initiate negotiations upon which 
 treaties of peace were founded, and proposed that he be 
 allowed to address Gen. Sherman on the subject. 
 
 The President agreed that Johnston should address a 
 proposition to Sherman for an armistice to enable the 
 civil authorities to agree upon terms of peace. 
 
 He dictated such a letter, which was reduced to 
 writing by Mr. Mallory, signed by Johnston, and at 
 once dispatched to Sherman. 
 
 It was in these words : 
 
 April 13, 1865. 
 
 "The results of the recent campaign in Virginia have 
 changed the relative military condition of the belig- 
 erents. I am, therefore, induced to address you in this 
 form, the inquiry whether to stop the further effusion of 
 blood and devastation of property, you are willing to 
 make a temporary suspension of active operations, and 
 
 * Johnston's Narrative, p. 398.
 
 222 LIFfi OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 to communicate to Lieut. -Gen Grant, commanding the 
 armies of the United States, the request that he will take 
 like action in regard to other armies, the object being to 
 permit the civil authorities to enter into the needful 
 arrangements to terminate the existing war." 
 
 This is the letter of which Kilpatrick sent Sherman 
 notice. 
 
 On the I4th Sherman received the letter and replied 
 
 at once: 
 
 HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF \ 
 
 THE MISSISSIPPI, 
 IN THE FIELD, RALEIGH, April 14, 1865. ) 
 
 Gen. Jos. E. Johnston, 
 
 Commanding' Confederate Army: 
 
 General I have this moment received your communi- 
 cation of this date. I am fully empowered to arrange 
 with you any terms for the suspension of further hostili- 
 ties between the armies commanded by you, and those 
 commanded by myself, and will be willing to confer 
 with you to that end. 
 
 I will limit the advance of my main column to-morrow 
 to Morrisville, and the cavalry to the University, and 
 expect that you will also maintain the present position 
 of your forces, until each has notice of a failure to agree. 
 
 That a basis of action may be had, I undertake to 
 abide by the same terms and conditions, as were made 
 by Gens. Grant and Lee at Appomattox court-house, on 
 the 9th instant, relative to our two armies, and, further, 
 to obtain from Gen. Grant an order to suspend the move- 
 ments of any troops, from the direction of Virginia. 
 Gen. Stoneman is under my commmand, and my order 
 will suspend any devastation or destruction contemplated 
 by him. I will add that I really desire to save the 
 people of North Carolina the damage they would 
 sustain by the march of this army through the central or 
 western parts of the State. 
 
 I am, with respect, your obedient servant, 
 
 W. T. SHERMAN. Maior-Gcncral
 
 SHERMAN AND CORNWALLIS IN NORTH CAROLINA. 223 
 
 It was arranged that the two Generals should meet on 
 the i^th at a point midway between Sherman's advance at 
 Durhams and Johnson's rear at Hillsborough. Just as 
 Sherman was about to start for this meeting, the telegraph 
 operator, whose office was up-stairs in the depot building, 
 came running into Gen. Sherman's car and told him he 
 was just receiving an important dispatch in cypher 
 which it was necessary for the General to see before he 
 left. This was at 8 o'clock on the morning of the iyth. 
 Sherman held the train for half an hour, when the 
 operator returned with the message translated and 
 transcribed. 
 
 It was from Stanton informing him of the assassina- 
 tion of Lincoln, April 14, the attempt on the* life of Mr. 
 Seward and son, and a suspicion that a like fate was 
 designed for Gen. Grant, and all the principal officers of 
 the government. 
 
 After charging the man to keep this news absolutely 
 to himself until the General's return, he proceeded to 
 Durham's, and riding out on the road probably five 
 miles, met Johnston, where they had a private confer- 
 ence, at the house of a gentleman named Bennet. 
 
 The first thing Sherman did was to show Johnston the 
 dispatch announcing Lincoln's assassination. It dis- 
 tressed him inexpressibly. Large drops of perspiration, 
 Sherman says, burst out on his forehead, and he 
 denounced the act as a disgrace to the age, and hoped 
 that Sherman did not charge it to the Canfederate 
 Government. 
 
 Sherman assured him "that he did not believe that he
 
 224 LIFE OF GEN - JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 or Gen. Lee or the officers of the Confederate Army 
 could possibly be privy to acts of assassination," but he 
 "would not say as much for Jeff Davis, George Sanders, 
 and men of that stripe." Sherman urged Johnston to 
 surrender on Grant's terms to Lee. 
 
 Johnston insisted that they ought to make arrange- 
 ments for all the Confederate armies. That he could 
 procure authority to control all of them, and that in addi- 
 tion to providing for the laying down their arms, they 
 must be secured in their personal property and political 
 rights. Sherman then told Johnston of his recent 
 interview with President Lincoln and General Grant, 
 and assured him that he was perfectly and fully 
 informed as to the views of the President of the United 
 States, and that he had authority to arrange with John- 
 ston on the terms stated and requested by him. It was 
 agreed that Johnston should return to his lines, and get 
 authority to arrange for all the Confederate armies, and 
 that they would meet again the next day at the same 
 place. 
 
 After some discussion, Johnston brought Brecken- 
 ridge into the conference, and a messenger, having 
 brought a package to Johnston, he opened it, and, after 
 a side talk with Breckenridge, handed one of the papers 
 from it to Sherman. It was, says Sherman, the draft in 
 Reagan's handwriting of the terms, and began with a 
 preamble so long and verbose, that Sherman at once 
 rejected it. 
 
 "Then," says he, "recalling the conversation with 
 Mr. Lincoln at City Point, I sat down at the table and
 
 SHERMAN AND CORNWALLIS IN NORTH CAROLINA. 225 
 
 wrote off the terms, which I thought concisely expressed 
 his views and wishes, and explained that I was willing 
 to submit these terms to the new President, Mr. John- 
 son, provided that both armies should remain in statu 
 quo until the truce therein declared should expire. I 
 had full faith that General Johnston would religiously 
 respect the truce, which he did. And that / sliould be 
 the gainer, for in the few days it would take to send the 
 papers to Washington and receive an answer, I could 
 finisli the railroad to Raleigh, and be the better prepared 
 for a long chase."* 
 
 This is General Sherman's idea of preserving the 
 status quo, and religiously respecting the truce. 
 
 "Neither Mr. Breckenridge nor General Johnston 
 wrote one word of that paper. I wrote it myself and 
 announced it as the best I could do, and they readily 
 assented, "f 
 
 This paper is known as the "Convention at Dur- 
 ham's." 
 
 *\iemoirs, Vol. II, p. 353. 
 t\enoirs, Vol. II, p. 353.
 
 226 1/IFTC OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE CONVENTION AT DURHAM'S. 
 
 r I ^HE paper signed is in these words : Memorandum 
 or basis of agreement made this i8th day of 
 April, 1865, near Durham's Station, in the State of 
 North Carolina, by and between Gen. Joseph E. John- 
 ston, commanding the Confederate Army, and Major- 
 Gen. W. T. Sherman, commanding the Army of the 
 United States, in North Carolina, both present: 
 
 1 . The contending armies now in the field to maintain 
 the statu quo until notice is given by the commanding 
 General of any one, to its opponent, and reasonable 
 time, say forty-eight hours, allowed. 
 
 2. The Confederate armies now in existence to be 
 disbanded, and conducted to their several State capitals, 
 there to deposit their arms and public property in the 
 State arsenal ; and each officer and man to execute and 
 file an agreement, to cease from acts of war, and to 
 abide the action of the State and Federal authority. 
 The number of arms and munitions of war to be reported 
 to the chief of ordnance at Washington city, subject to the 
 future action of the Congress of the United States, and 
 in the meantime to be used solely to maintain peace and 
 order within the borders of the States respectively. 
 
 3. The recognition by the Executive of the United 
 States, of the several State governments, on their officers 
 and Legislatures taking the oath prescribed by the Con- 
 stitution of the United States, and where conflicting 
 State governments have resulted from the war, the
 
 THE CONVENTION AT DURHAM'S. 227 
 
 legitimacy of all shall be submitted to the Supreme 
 Court of the United States. 
 
 4. The re-establishment of all the Federal courts in 
 the several States, with powers, as defined by the 
 Constitution of the United States, and of the States 
 respectively. 
 
 5. The people and inhabitants of all the States to be 
 guaranteed, so far as the Executive can, their political 
 rights and franchises, as well as their rights of person 
 and property, as defined by the Constitution of the 
 United States, and of the States rsepectively. 
 
 6. The Executive authority of the government of the 
 United States not to disturb any of the people by reason 
 of the late war, so long as they live in peace and quiet, 
 abstain from acts of armed hostility, and obey the laws 
 in existence at the place of their residence. 
 
 7. In general terms the war to cease a general 
 amnesty, so far as the Executive of the United States 
 can command, on condition of the disbandment of the 
 Confederate armies, the distribution of the arms, and 
 the resumption of peaceful pursuits, by the officers and 
 men hitherto composing said armies. 
 
 Not being fully empowered by our respective prin- 
 cipals to fulfill these terms, we, individually and officially, 
 pledge ourselves to promptly obtain the necessary 
 authority, and to carry out the above programme. 
 
 W. T. SHERMAN, 
 
 Major- General, Commanding Army of the 
 United States, in North Carolina. 
 
 J. E. JOHNSTON, 
 
 General, Commanding Confederate States 
 Army in North Carolina.
 
 228 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 Sherman says he wrote every word of this paper. 
 Johnston says Sherman wrote it very rapidly, with 
 Johnston's memorandum lying on the table before him, 
 as if he had come prepared to make that arrangement. 
 
 In the discussion, Johnston's point had been a general 
 disarmament of the Confederate armies, and, in con- 
 sideration of that, a general amnesty by the President of 
 the United States. 
 
 The proposition to guarantee to the Confederates all 
 their rights of private property as defined by the State 
 constitutions ) came from Sherman, as far as can be under- 
 stood from Johnston's Narrative and Sherman's Memoirs. 
 What he meant by it is impossible to say, for it was a 
 distinct promise to protect property in slaves, which had 
 .already been destroyed by the proclamation of Mr. 
 Lincoln, as far as any executive act could destroy it. 
 
 In fact it is difficult to understand Gen. Sherman's 
 position about this convention, "every word of which he 
 wrote himself." Johnston nor Breckenridge did not 
 write a word of it. 
 
 Johnston, who was only a plain Virginia gentleman, 
 and a soldier trained in the traditions of the old army of 
 the United States, evidently took the agreement to be 
 serious, and that he was bound by it. 
 
 When he pledged himself, in the first article, that the 
 armies should maintain the status quo during the truce, 
 he really believed that his honor was pledged to do so, 
 and he religiously did as he had promised. 
 
 Sherman, however, did not take it so seriously, but 
 strained every effort to complete the railroad from
 
 THE CONVENTION AT DURHAM S. 
 
 Goldsboro to Raleigh, so that if he was obliged to follow 
 Johnston toward the West or Southwest, his commu- 
 nications with his base at Newbern being thus perfected, 
 would give him an enormous advantage. His idea of 
 the status qtio seems to have been to employ the truce in 
 bettering his condition as much as possible. 
 
 Johnston believed that when he pledged himself offi- 
 cially and personally to obtain the necessary authority to 
 make the agreement, and to carry out the programme, 
 ' that his honor as a soldier and a gentleman was involved 
 and he, without an hour's delay, applied to President 
 Davis for ratification of this action and approval of the 
 convention. 
 
 Such a pledge sat more lightly on Gen. Sherman's 
 mind, for, he said, "he wrote to Gen. Grant and the 
 Secretary of War, submitting the agreement for their 
 action, and the letters fully explained that the military 
 situation was such that the delay was an advantage to 
 us. I cared little whether they were approved, modified 
 or disapproved in toto. I only wanted instructions." 
 
 This was like his observing the truce, by repairing his 
 railroad. He pledged himself as a man, and as a soldier, 
 to obtain the approval of his superiors, and then writes 
 them that the delay was helping him, and their approval 
 was a matter of no consequence. 
 
 The convention was signed April 18, 1865. Sherman 
 sent a staff officer off at once by Newbern and Morehead 
 to Washington, and who returned to Raleigh on 24th, 
 bringing Gen. Grant, accompanied by one or two officers 
 of his staff.
 
 230 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 It cannot be understood from the memoirs of Sherman 
 or Grant how far this Durham's station convention was 
 meant to be serious, or only a trap to catch Johnston. 
 
 It was certainly a wise, statesmanlike and patriotic 
 measure, and if "the programme" had been carried out, 
 would have saved the country twenty years of dis- 
 order, turmoil and disturbed society. The troops 
 marched to their respective homes by their own com- 
 mands, the State government of the people recognized, 
 the Union would have been restored, their relations to 
 the Federal government would have been re-established, 
 their own leaders would have represented them in the 
 Congress, and peace and order would have been estab- 
 lished at once. Instead of that, the Revolutionary 
 Reconstruction Legislation of Congress actually re- 
 versed society, and put on top those classes who every- 
 where are at the bottom of the social structure, and in 
 the operation of nature, by which the proper organiza- 
 tion of society was restored, much suffering was caused, 
 and bitter feelings created. The experience has been 
 beneficial to the Confederates. The trials and ordeal 
 through which they have passed, have been beneficial to 
 them, but probably the whole country would have been 
 better off if the convention at Durham had been ratified, 
 and "the programme" carried out. But in the govern- 
 ment at Washington there had always been a jealousy 
 of the military power, and a vague uneasiness about a 
 dictatorship. 
 
 Mr. Seward was a philosophic student of history, Mr. 
 Sumner was a scholar, Secretary Chase was a man of
 
 THE CONVENTION AT DURHAM S. 23! 
 
 great intellectual force and acquirements, and Mr. 
 Stanton was the Danton of that revolution. * 
 
 It may be, that, perfectly conscious that they had 
 overturned Constitutional government, and were con- 
 ducting a great revolution, in defiance of all the safe- 
 guards of public liberty and private right, they felt that 
 the time might easily come when they would be over- 
 turned by the "man on horseback." Thus Cromwell, 
 backed by the army, had dissolved Parliament. Thus 
 Napoleon, with the guards, had dispersed the Assembly 
 in France. For several years, it is apparent there was 
 a cloud hanging over'the politicians at Washington a 
 cloud of apprehension of the dictator. This was at the 
 bottom of the jealousy of McClellan, of the early snub- 
 bing of Grant in the West, and the squelching of 
 Sherman, by Stanton, about the Durham convention. 
 
 During the summer of 1861, and the winter of 1861- 
 62, there was much discussion among the Confederate 
 officers at Fairfax Courthouse and Centerville. Among 
 them were several who had known McClellan inti- 
 mately, from his West Point days, who had served 
 with him in Mexico and in garrison since, who knew 
 the fibre of his mind the tendency of his thoughts, his 
 feelings, his sympathies and his ambitions. They 
 knew McClellan to be extremely ambitious, and with 
 an appreciation of his own capacity by no means 
 moderate. 
 
 An idea got about, I can give no authority, can refer 
 to no record, but an idea floated around the army, 
 division and brigade headquarters of Johnston's army of
 
 23- LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 the Potomac, that McClellan was organizing that grand 
 army until he had it sufficiently in hand ; when he 
 would propose a truce to Johnston, in order that they, 
 two, at the head of these armies, might make peace and 
 restore the Union and compel their respective govern- 
 ments to ratify and accept their settlement. 
 
 No one believed that Johnston would not resent such 
 an idea, but officers w r ho knew McClellan well and who 
 had been more intimate with him than any of those who 
 were with the Federal side, believed such a thing not 
 impossible with him. 
 
 I do not wish to do him an injustice, for he was an 
 honorable, chivalric, high-minded solder, but I show 
 what views some of his antagonists held about him. 
 
 I believe the same opinions were entertained in Mr. 
 Lincoln's cabinet, and they were particularly careful 
 that the army should be kept in strict subordination to 
 the civil authority. 
 
 The tramp of the coming horseman was always 
 sounding in their ears. So when Grant telegraphed Mr. 
 Lincoln, March 3d, for permission to meet Lee, and 
 treat for peace, Lincoln promptly answered him that 
 treating for peace was none of his business, that he was 
 not to interfere with any political question, but to confine 
 himself entirely to military matters. 
 
 When, therefore, Sherman undertook to negotiate a 
 treaty of peace, which fixed the legal status of States 
 and of people, here was the dictator sure enough, they 
 thought. 
 
 Lincoln had been assassinated. Andrew Johnson, the
 
 THE CONVENTION AT DURHAM S. 233 
 
 nw president, crazed by terror ; and here was the victor 
 of a hundred fields, having a veteran army of 100,000 
 men, ready to march to Washington, and impose his terms 
 on President Johnson, as he had done on General 
 Johnston. 
 
 The panic was puerile, but it was real, and Sherman's 
 act was repudiated in a manner, the most mortifying to 
 him, and humiliating to the army. 
 
 The manner of doing this was intended to break the 
 force of Sherman's position before the American people. 
 In a bulletin given to the press, signed by Stanton, 
 Secretary of War, it was intimated that Sherman had 
 made a bargain with President Davis, in consideration 
 of the President of the Confederacy dividing, with the 
 General of the Federal Army, the gold which he was 
 carrying off, that the Confederate should be allowed to 
 escape. 
 
 And the same people published a proclamation to the 
 world, charging Jefferson Davis with being accessory 
 to the murder of Abraham Lincoln. A charge which 
 no one believed at the time, never has been believed 
 since, and which stands to-day unretracted in the 
 archives of the United States. 
 
 Orders were issued to the armies in the South not to 
 obey Sherman.* 
 
 They sent Grant back from Washington to take 
 charge of Sherman's army, and if necessary, to take 
 command of it.f 
 
 Sherman notified Johnston of the rejection of the 
 
 *Grant's Memoirs, Vol. II, p. 516. 
 tGraut's Memoirs, Vol. II, p. 516.
 
 234 LIFE OF GEN - JOSEPH K. JOHNSTON. 
 
 convention, and under Grant's dictation, demanded 
 Johnston's surrender upon the terms granted by Grant 
 to Lee at Appomattox court-house. 
 
 Now occurs another incident which shocks us, and 
 will shock posterity more than any breach of faith con- 
 nected with this negotiation. 
 
 By the convention at Durham's, April 18 (Section 7), it 
 was agreed that there should be "universal amnesty, so 
 far as the Executive of the United States can command." 
 
 The Executive of the United States had complete 
 control of an amnesty, for no one could be punished, 
 whom he chose to pardon. 
 
 This agreement was signed by General Sherman on 
 the 1 8th. He was notified of its rejection by his gov- 
 ernment on the 24th, and on the 25th wrote General 
 Grant: 
 
 "As to punishment for past crimes, that is for the 
 judiciary, and can in no ways be disturbed .by our acts; 
 and so far as I can, I will use my influence that Rebels 
 shall suffer all the personal punishment prescribed by 
 law, as also the civil liabilities arising from their past 
 acts."* 
 
 The next day he made this new agreement with 
 Johnston, who knew nothing as to how Sherman had 
 been preserving the status quo, under the truce, by 
 repairing the railroads, and of course could know 
 nothing of the letter to Grant of the preceding day, 
 promising to use his influence to have Johnston, Ex- 
 Quartermaster-General of the Army of the United 
 States, hung. 
 
 Memoirs, Vol. II, p. 361.
 
 THE CONVENTION AT DURHAM'S. 235 
 
 The new agreement was : 
 
 Terms of a Military Convention, entered into this 
 26th day of April, 1865, at Bennett's House, near 
 Durham's Station, North Carolina, between General 
 Joseph E. Johnston, commanding the Confederate 
 Army, and Major-General W. T Sherman, command- 
 ing the United States Army in North Carolina. 
 
 1. All acts of war, on the part of the troops under 
 General Johnston's command, to cease from this date. 
 
 2. All arms and public property to be deposited at 
 Greensboro, and delivered to an ordnance officer of the 
 United States Army. 
 
 3. Rolls of all the officers and men to be made in 
 duplicate, one copy to be retained by the com- 
 mander of the troops, and the other to be given to an 
 officer, to be designated by Gen. Sherman. Each 
 officer and man to give his individual obligation in 
 writing not to take up arms against the Government of the 
 United States, until properly released from this obligation. 
 
 4. The side arms of officers, and their private horses 
 and baggage, to be retained by them. 
 
 5. This being done, all the officers and men will be 
 permitted to return to their homes, not to be disturbed by 
 the United States authorities, so long as they observe 
 their obligation and the laws in force where they may 
 reside. W. T. SHERMAN, 
 
 Major-General, Commanding United States 
 Forces in North Carolina, 
 . J. E. JOHNSTON, 
 General, Commanding Confederate States 
 
 Forces in North Carolina. 
 Approved: U. S. GRANT, 
 
 Lieutenant- General.
 
 236 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E JOHNSTON. 
 
 Stanton's bulletin, insinuating that Sherman was let- 
 ting Davis off for a share of his plunder, was intended 
 to insult and degrade Sherman. It was an outrage on 
 a soldier, and an infamy on a gentleman. 
 
 But it was not as severe as the record Sherman makes 
 for himself. One day he wrote to his superior officer 
 pledging himself to use his influence that rebels shall 
 suffer all the personal punishment prescribed by law, as 
 also the civil liabilities, arising from their past acts. 
 
 The personal punishment prescribed by law was 
 hanging; the civil liabilities were confiscation of all the 
 property of the rebels. When Gen. Sherman the next 
 day made the agreement with Gen. Johnston, he said: 
 "If you will stop fighting and disarm your people I will 
 guarantee that you may go home and live undisturbed." 
 And to Grant he said: "As soon as I get these people 
 disarmed, I'll have as many of them hung as possible, 
 and will confiscate their property." It was another 
 application of the law of prize, as sought to be applied 
 to the Savannah cotton. 
 
 Stanton's insinuation against Sherman's integrity was 
 dreadful, but it is not one hundredth part as infamous 
 as Sherman's proof against himself. It is a sad thing 
 for his reputation that his memoirs should ever have seen 
 the light. 
 
 His confession that he made a false charge against 
 Hampton, in order to injure his reputation his admis- 
 sion that he employed his time during the truce, which 
 pledged him to preserve the status quo, in destroying 
 the status qrio by the reconstruction of vital railroads
 
 THE CONVENTION AT DURHAM'S. 237 
 
 his statement that he induced Johnston to give up his 
 arms, under a promise of protection, while his real in- 
 tention was to prosecute him to the extent of the law 
 all will stand against Sherman's reputation as an honor- 
 able man to the last syllable of recorded time. He has 
 deliberately made his own record, and he is to be held 
 responsible at the bar of history for it. 
 
 I am not aware, nor have I ever heard, that Sherman 
 anywhere, at any time, sought to redeem the pledge he 
 made at Durham's station. Not so the great soldier, his 
 superior. There was not a moment, from the surrender 
 at Appomattox court-house until his death, that the heart 
 of Grant was not full of generosity to his late foes. 
 
 If Lincoln had lived, the people would have been 
 saved great suffering; but Lincoln dead, Grant stood 
 "like a stonewall" between the soldiers, who had his 
 parole, and the blood-hounds baying on their track. 
 
 There was a mature, deliberate, carefully concocted 
 plan to indict, try, convict and punish Lee. 
 
 The President of the United States instructed the 
 Judge of the District Court for the Eastern District of 
 Virginia to secure the indictment of President Davis and 
 Gen. Lee for treason.* . 
 
 In May, 1866, accordingly, an indictment was found 
 against the commander of the Army of Northern Vir- 
 ginia, and a motion made for a bench warrant for his 
 arrest. Lee inclosed a copy of the newspaper notice of 
 these transactions to Grant, then the General in com- 
 mand of the armies of the United States. 
 
 *Chase's Decisions, p. i.
 
 238 
 
 J.IFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 Without a moment's hesitation or an instant's doubt, 
 Grant addressed a letter to the President of the United 
 States, insisting, in fiery terms, that it was a question of 
 his honor ) of his faith, that all proceedings against 
 Lee should be promptly suppressed, and, upon some 
 discussion raised, intimated that his resignation was the 
 alternative to a refusal of his demand. So peremptory 
 a demand admitted of no paltering, and the proceeding 
 against Lee was suspended. 
 
 Shortly afterward, another officer, included in the 
 terms of the Durham convention, which Grant had 
 signed, was arrested in Baltimore on an indictment for 
 overt acts of treason committed at the battle of Gettysburg. 
 Gen. Johnston, with the officer who had been arrested, 
 waited on Grant at army headquarters at Washington, and 
 claimed the protection of the parole. Grant at once 
 wrote to the President of the United States, insisting, in 
 the clearest and most emphatic terms, that all Confed- 
 erate soldiers embraced in the terms of the convention, 
 were entitled to be protected from molestation to person 
 or property in any manner, and that the public faith of 
 the United States was pledged to this course of action. * 
 
 * See Appendix A.
 
 THE RECORD OF SHERMAN'S DRAGONNADE. 239 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE RECORD OF SHERMAN'S DRAGONNADE. 
 
 r I ^HE introduction of the account of the barbarous 
 proceedings during the campaign from Atlanta to 
 Goldsboro is necessary, because to form a proper esti- 
 mate of the character and career of Johnston, he must 
 be seen by the light of contemporaneous sentiments and 
 feelings, and of surrounding circumstances. His stature 
 can best be measured by that of his comrades, or his 
 adversaries. 
 
 In the midst of the most cruel and barbarous war that 
 has been waged in Christendom among Christians for 
 three centuries, he never lost his poise. He was always 
 the knightly soldier, the Christian warrior, and no man 
 or woman or child ever lived who could say that John- 
 ston cost them one tear. His soul was as clear, his hands as 
 unstained as any knightly pilgrim of tradition, or of fable. 
 Like Lee, he never for an instant yielded to the clamor 
 of revenge, of hate, and of folly, that filled the air with 
 demands for ''retaliation, no quarter, and the "black flag." 
 Like Davis, his soul abhorred all cowardly and cruel 
 measures. When a distinct retaliation, for a distinct 
 crime, could have the effect of preventing a repetition of 
 it, or when a threat of retaliation was necessary to save 
 the commissioned officers of the army or navy of the 
 Confederacy from an ignominious death, Gen. Johnston 
 approved of applying the remedy promptly and vigor-
 
 240 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 ously. But there is not an incident in his whole career 
 as soldier for which his countrymen, Federal or Con- 
 federate, need now to blush. 
 
 Posterity is a relentless judge. History is an unerring 
 arbiter, and the truth, the facts, have been recorded here, 
 so that all the actors concerned in these events may have 
 meted out to them the justice of the final judgment of 
 men; with the other we dare not meddle. 
 
 But it is right and expedient that men should be held 
 responsible in this world for conduct, so that their 
 example, and their fate may deter future generations 
 from imitating them. 
 
 It is believed that no American general, suppressing 
 future resistance to Government by armed force, w r ill 
 ever instigate or countenance or permit such barbarities 
 as were perpetrated during this dragonnade of these 
 States. Washington did not do it in putting down the 
 whiskey insurrection in Pennsylvania, nor did Lincoln 
 in dispersing Shay's rebellion in Massachusetts. 
 
 Says McMaster: "Lincoln's march from Boston to 
 Springfield was conducted with the greatest regard for 
 the feelings and property of the inhabitants."* 
 
 Washington's march, from Carlisle to Bedford, and 
 thence to Parkinson's Ferry, was conducted with dis- 
 cipline and humanity. Their troops were old soldiers 
 of the Revolution, or soldiers' sons. They never dreamed 
 of such a sentiment, that an invaded people should be 
 left " only eyes to weep." 
 
 It is hoped that no future American soldier will feel, 
 or utter such a one. 
 
 * McMaster's "People of the United States," Vol. I, p. 319.
 
 AFTER THE SURRENDER. 24! 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 AFTER THE SURRENDER. 
 
 the conference at Durham, Gen. Johnston rode 
 back to Greensboro, and proceeded to execute his 
 agreement. Duplicate muster-rolls were prepared, 
 signed by commanding officers, detailed by Gen. Sher- 
 man for the purpose, and paroles were executed by each 
 soldier private and officer. 
 
 A considerable amount of specie was on the train 
 which brought President Davis to Greensboro, and was 
 
 O * 
 
 earned on south with him. The amoun^ was greatly 
 exaggerated, and the ownership of it utterly misunder- 
 stood. 
 
 There was in the Coniederate treasury, belonging to 
 the Confederate government, $327,022.90. 
 
 The General Assembly of Virginia, in its session of 
 January, 1865, had passed a law levying a tax in coin 
 on the banks of the State, which was in substance a 
 forced loan. 
 
 This coin thus collected was lodged in some Rich- 
 mond banks as a special deposit by the commonwealth 
 of Virginia. It amounted to $230,000. 
 
 On Sunday, April 2, when Richmond was being 
 evacuated, Governor Letcher sent an officer down, and 
 withdrew this special deposit of the State, and sent it off 
 with the cash of the Confederacy. 
 
 Some bank officers, from whom the coin had originally
 
 2^2 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 been taken by the State, went with it, somewhat on the 
 idea of flotsam, where in a shipwreck, every one is en- 
 titled to all he saves. 
 
 This $230,000 was captured at Washington, Georgia, 
 and was covered into the treasury of the United States, 
 where it now is. Of the Confederate coin, $39,000 was 
 left with Gen. Johnston, at Greensboro, as his military 
 chest, and was divided by him to his troops, each re- 
 ceiving $1.15, without regard to rank the only pay 
 most of them had received for a year. The rest was 
 paid out to troops at Washington, Georgia, by order of 
 Mr. Davis, and Gen. Breckenridge, Secretary of War; 
 by M. H. Clark, Esq., acting Treasurer of the Confed- 
 erate States.* 
 
 Gen. Johnston, therefore, was in error when 
 he stated, long afterward, that President Davis had a 
 large amount, or any amount, of Confederate gold with 
 him just as Stanton was mistaken when he believed 
 that his General, second in rank in his army, was 
 capable of being bribed, and had in fact been bribed, 
 by Mr. Davis, to let him escape. 
 
 If anything is certain in this world it is that Davis's 
 soul was too great, and his nature too lofty to be capable 
 of such an idea. He would have died in his tracks 
 before he would have offered a bribe to his enemy to 
 induce him betray his duty. 
 
 This may be a strained sense of chivalry, but Presi- 
 dent Davis possessed it, held to it, lived on, and died 
 by it. 
 
 * Memoirs of Davis, Vol. II. p. 868.
 
 AFTER THE SURRENDER. 
 
 243 
 
 No power could make him condone, ignore, or do a 
 foul thing. 
 
 The crudest oiow that ever was struck at himj was 
 the dastardly charge of Andrew Johnson and Stanton, 
 of complicity with the assassination of Lincoln. As he 
 said with keen bitterness: "There is one man in the 
 United States who knows the falsity of that charge 
 absolutely, and that is the man who made it, for he 
 knows that I greatly prefer Lincoln for President 
 to him.''''
 
 244 LIFE OF GEN ' TOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE YEARS OF RE-CONSTRUCTION. 
 
 AFTER Johnston had discharged his duty to his 
 soldiers, by securing to each one the written 
 promise of Gen. Sherman for protection, he started 
 them homeward under the command of their own 
 Division and Brigade Generals. 
 
 Sherman was moving North for his grand review 
 at Washington, having left Schofield with his corps to 
 command the Department of North Carolina. 
 
 Schofield set the sxample, and every man under him 
 behaved with the most chivalric courtesy to the heart- 
 broken people they had conquered. He supplied 
 rations and transportation for the march of the paroled 
 Confederates returning home. Where railroads were in 
 operation, Federal Quartermasters gave them orders to 
 be carried over the railroads to their homes on the 
 nearest point by rail to them. 
 
 Thus Texans, Arkansians, and Missourians were sent 
 thousands of miles at the expense of the Federal Gov- 
 ernment, and it may be recorded that during the whole 
 year 1865, from the ist of May, when the paroles were 
 signed, peace and order, good-will and kind offices, 
 reigned in all the conquered States. As long as the 
 soldiers controlled things, everything went on well. It 
 was only when the politicians began to divide the 
 plunder of the conquest, and allot the prize money, 
 that the ".uffering was ten-fold aggravated.
 
 THE YEARS OF RE-CONSTRUCTION. 245 
 
 The surrender at Durham's had left Gen. Johnston 
 without one cent in the world. The scant savings of a 
 life in the old army had been left in the North and were 
 all gone. Mrs. Johnston had a small property from her 
 father's estate, which was in the hands of her family, in 
 California, or in Maryland, and that alone was saved 
 from the wreck. Gen. Johnston made a point, all his 
 life, to preserve his wife's property, for her alone under 
 her entire control, free from any interference by him at 
 all. All he had to do with it was to see that it was safe. 
 
 The Southern people had nothing to offer him but 
 their love. They gave that unstinted. He was made 
 president of a railroad in Arkansas. But that did not 
 materalize; and he was chosen as president of the 
 National Express Company, an enterprise organized 
 under the laws of Virginia, to engage in the business of 
 quick transportation of parcels. This was unsatisfactory, 
 and, in a short time, he gave that up and became the 
 agent of the London, Liverpool & Globe Insurance Co., 
 and the New York Life Insurance Co., for the Gulf 
 States, with headquarters at Savannah. He made his 
 residence there, and pushed the business in which he 
 was engaged wdth great energy and intelligence. His 
 reputation aided in making the enterprise a success, and 
 he lived for several years in that city which was devoted 
 to him and his wife. 
 
 But Mrs. Johnston's health, which had been failing 
 lor years, made a more northern climate necessary, and 
 besides, he wanted to get back to his Mother Virginia, 
 and, in 1876, he removed to Richmond.
 
 7.46 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 Virginia was just then recovering from the throes of 
 the struggle for the possession of her government, and 
 the preservation of her civilization. 
 
 The Richmond District had been represented 
 satisfactorily in Congress for several terms by Gilbert C. 
 Walker, a Northern man, who had been elected by the 
 white people of Virginia their first governor under the 
 re-constructed government. 
 
 After governor Walker's term expired, he was 
 rewarded for the admirable manner in which he had 
 performed his executive duties by being chosen to 
 represent the Metrooolitan District of Virginia in 
 Congress. 
 
 In 1877, there were several aspirants for his place, 
 but the old soldiers concluded that they had the right to 
 represent that district, and that Gen. Johnston was the 
 proper man to represent them. 
 
 Col. Archer Anderson, his former chief-of-staff, was 
 selected to sound the General as to whether such a can- 
 didacy would be agreeable to him. The movement 
 was without his knowledge, and was absolutely volun- 
 tary, and in no way, direct or indirect, had he any- 
 thing to do with it. Col. Anderson reported as his 
 opinion that the General would be much gratified at 
 such a proof of the love and respect of Virginians, as 
 a tender of the nomination would be. 
 
 The next step was to get the ambitious aspirants out 
 of the way, so as to prevent all competition, and a card 
 was drawn up requesting General Johnston to allow his 
 name to be used as the Democratic candidate for
 
 THE YEARS OF RE-CONSTRUCTION. 247 
 
 Congress from the Fourth Virginia District. This card 
 was presented to the aspirants first, for approval and 
 signature. They had not the slightest idea that the 
 General would accept the position, and they hastened to 
 sign, eager to have the benefit with Johnston's friends of 
 a cordial and prompt support of him. 
 
 To their disgust, he promptly accepted, and was put 
 in the canvass as the Democratic nominee. 
 
 But probably no man in America was more utterly 
 unfitted to be a candidate for popular favor, at an 
 election by universal suffrage, than "Old Joe," as he 
 was affectionately known. 
 
 By nature a reserved man, except to the few whom 
 he loved, fifty years of life as a soldier in command, had 
 utterly unfitted him for the flexibilities of a canvass 
 among the people. 
 
 He had definite and precise meas on the theory of 
 government and the history and construction of the 
 Constitution of the United States. Few politicians were 
 as well or as accurately informed as he, or had thought 
 out as thoroughly the answers to the social and political 
 problems then confronting, or about to confront, the 
 people of Virginia. 
 
 He had ample capacity to explain his views to a 
 small audience, but the bustle and noise and puerility of 
 the hustings disgusted him. He tried to accommodate 
 himself to them, but gave it up. 
 
 Major Robert Stiles and Captain Louis F. Bossieux, 
 of Richmond, were placed in charge of the canvass, 
 and never had candidate two more intelligent, zealous, 
 energetic, never-tiring friends, that they were.
 
 248 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 The influenza of Greenbackism had attacked the 
 district, and the opposing candidate was traversing the 
 counties, advocating a "shower of greenbacks," which 
 ought to be secured to the farmers and laboring people. 
 
 And the people from the very battle-field where 
 Johnston shed his blood in their defence in May, 1862, 
 were preparing to vote against him for Congress, the 
 hope of cheap money being stronger than the memory 
 of dear blood. 
 
 A friend of Gen. Johnston's was telegrapned to the 
 White Sulphur to come back at once, and he 
 returned on the next train. 
 
 At the committee rooms ne. was informed that 
 Johnston would be beaten unless they could raise some 
 money, and that their resources were exhausted. 
 
 They had expended about a thousand dollars in the 
 canvass, and they believed success reasonably sure, if 
 they could raise another thousand. Gen. Johnston 
 knew absolutely nothing about the financial part of the 
 canvass; had paid, probably, the rent of the committee 
 room and the pay of a clerk, but beyond that he had no 
 idea that money was necessary, and they were afraid to 
 broach the subject, for fear lest he would throw up the 
 candidacy, on the idea that if a seat in Congress was to 
 be paid for, he would not have it. The matter was put 
 in the hands of a friend, who wrote to another friend of 
 Gen. Johnston, in Maryland, explaining the situation 
 and asking for help. In a couple of days came the 
 answer, that nothing could be expected in that quarter. 
 Thereupon, the gentleman called on Mrs. Johnston, and
 
 THE YEARS OF RE-CONSTRUCTION. 249 
 
 sent her word by the servant, that there "was an old 
 soldier down thar' who hadn't had nothing to eat fur 
 three days. Could she give him a squar' meal's vittles?" 
 Mrs. Johnston, recognizing the message and the voice, 
 came down at once, and, in a short time, dinner was 
 announced. 
 
 The General was off on his canvass, and Mrs. John- 
 ston at once began to upbraid her friend, who she had 
 known, all through the war and since, as one of her 
 husband's dearest friends, with the undignified position 
 he had put "Johnston," as she called him, in. 
 
 "It's all your fault," she cried, with bright vivacity 
 she was one of the most charming of women "It's all 
 your fault. You got him into this thing, and it's shame- 
 ful, a man of his age and reputation, going round to 
 your cross roads, like a common member of Congress. 
 I do hope he'll be beat. That'll serve you all right." 
 
 " Well, Mrs. Johnston," said her visitor, " you will 
 certainly be gratified, for the General is beat now! " 
 
 " What's that you say?" said she, "if he's beat it will 
 be simply disgraceful, and shameful! It will kill him. 
 He shan't be beat; you must not allow it. I will not 
 permit it!" 
 
 "Well," said the other, "he certainly will be beat, 
 unless we can raise a thousand dollars, and everybody 
 is afraid to mention it to the old General ; and, as you 
 are the only person we know who ain't afraid of him, 
 I've come to explain the situation to you! " 
 
 "Oh, that's it, is it?" said she, "I'll see you get the 
 money in the morning."
 
 250 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 Bright and early next morning, she drove down in her 
 carriage to the committee room, called Styles out, and 
 gave him two $1,000 railroad bonds, worth $Soo each, 
 and told him to call on her for whatever was necessary. 
 
 Her example so inspired the General's friends that 
 they raised the necessary funds, and triumphantly 
 elected him; and, after the election, Major Styles 
 returned Mrs. Johnston's bonds to her, and it is not 
 believed that the General ever knew of the incident at 
 all. 
 
 In Congress he was placed on the Military Committee, 
 and there his word was law, on all questions relating to 
 the equipment of, and expenditure for, the army. 
 
 At the expiration of his term he was not a candidate 
 for re-electionf for he would have encountered opposition 
 for the nomination, and his friends did not think it just, 
 to him, that he should be required to enter into a struggle 
 for that which, it ought to have been, the highest honor 
 the people of his district could confer on themselves. 
 
 He had a house in Washington, though he maintained 
 his residence in Richmond, and he died a registered 
 voter in the district he had defended in war and honored 
 in peace. 
 
 He was appointed, by President Cleveland, one of the 
 Commissioners of Railroads of the United States, the 
 duties of which place he performed with the energy, 
 zeal and intelligence always exercised by him in the 
 execution of duty.
 
 DAVIS AND JOHNSTON. 251 
 
 T 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 DAVIS AND JOHNSTON. 
 
 HE two men in the Confederacy, whose perfect 
 accord and implicit confidence in each other were 
 f most necessary to the success of the new government, 
 were the two men who, from the first, were perfectly 
 and entirely estranged and separated. 
 
 This was a misfortune to their country, and to their 
 own reputations, the consequences of which were far 
 reaching and disastrous. 
 
 They were remarkably alike in mind and in character, 
 in temperament and in sentiment. Each was the son 
 of a Revolutionary soldier; each had imbibed, at his 
 mother's knee, and from his father's daily life, traditions 
 of patriotic self-sacrifice, and fearless devotion to duty. 
 Each had the nighest ideal of liberty, and of country. 
 Each the most sentimental and tender devotion to family 
 and to friends. Each was a consistent Christian, be- 
 lieving absolutely and implicitly in the goodness of God, 
 and in his superintending love for all his children. Each 
 loved his family, and his friends, with an intensity that 
 brooked no doubt and tolerated not criticism. 
 
 President Davis had been educated as a soldier. He 
 had had a long experience on the frontier; that training 
 school for fortitude, endurance, courage and fidelity. 
 
 After leaving the army his mind had been matured 
 by long and patient study of political problems and
 
 252 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 military history, improved by daily discussion with his 
 companion, his elder brother, one of the ablest men of 
 his day, as he was one of the best-informed. After an 
 experience in political discussion as Member of Congress, 
 he had given up his seat to take command of the First 
 Mississippi Regiment, a body of volunteers of the young 
 gentlemen of his State. 
 
 With it he performed such distinguished service as 
 fell to the good fortune of no other Colonel during the 
 Mexican War, and he came back thoroughly impressed 
 with the capacity of the American volunteer to make 
 the best soldier. 
 
 Afterwards, his service as Secretary of War, and 
 chairman of the Military Committee of the Senate, had 
 given him large experience in the administration of the 
 army, and a wide view of the strategy of a war in 
 America. 
 
 He became Secretary of War in March, 1853, con- 
 tinued in charge of that Department until 1857, then 
 returned to the Senate, where he was Chairman of the 
 Committee on Military Affairs, until he resigned his 
 place, in 1861, to take command of the Army of Mis- 
 sissippi. During that ten years his mind had been 
 turning over the contingency of a war between the 
 States. 
 
 He certainly deprecated a separation, and only 
 acquiesced in it, as a choice of evils. But he was 
 convinced always, that a great war would be the conse- 
 quence of the action of the Southern States. 
 
 When, therefore, the contingency actually happened,
 
 DAVIS AND JOHNSTON. 253 
 
 Mr. Davis, a soldier by training, by taste, and by tem- 
 perament, was thoroughly prepared, by long study and 
 investigation, for the proper steps to be taken. In his 
 own mind he had matured the policy of a war of 
 defence, and the strategy by which it was to be con- 
 ducted to a successful issue. 
 
 He considered himself more competent for military 
 command than for civil administration, and his election 
 as President of the Confederate States was a disap- 
 pointment to him. He hoped, and preferred, to have 
 been made Commander-in-chief of the army in the 
 field. He was thoroughly imbued with the traditions 
 and feelings of the old army, which he believed were 
 based on the soundest reason. 
 
 A fundamental principle iif military organization is 
 that staff officers cannot command troops, unless specially 
 assigned to that duty. And in addition to that the 
 Quartermaster-General of the Army of the United 
 States was prohibited by law from commanding troops.* 
 
 Gen. Johnston, with the same preliminary education 
 and training as President Davis, had been serving for 
 thirty years in the regular service of a regular army. 
 That service had been in every field, and his experi- 
 ence was wide and great, but it was the experience of a 
 soldier. Now no man with a special training, and 
 extended service, in one line of conduct, can regard 
 another who has only occasionally and temporarily 
 devoted himself to similar pursuits, as equal in equip- 
 ment to himself. Every regular looks at least with 
 
 'Memoirs of Jefferson Davis, Vol. II, p. 150.
 
 254 LIFE OF GEN - JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 amusement on the amateur, whether it be in theatricals 
 or on a military parade. 
 
 When, therefore, President Davis first met Gen. 
 Johnston in discussion about the conduct of the war at 
 Montgomery, Alabama, early in 1861, Johnston, I doubt 
 not, received his mature suggestion without cordiality, 
 and heard his opinion as to the strategy of the war 
 with expressed dissent. 
 
 Mr. Davis had been studying the problem for years. 
 He was a widely-read, vigorous thinker, and he was, as 
 a matter of fact, quite as well equipped on matters of the 
 theory of the war as any man living. But right here he 
 and Johnston collided. Johnston disagreed with him 
 absolutely and without qualification. Mr. Davis knew, 
 for he had read history, that a slave population was 
 utterly unreliable in war. He believed, as turned out 
 the fact, that the Southern slaves would be obedient, 
 faithful, and tractable; but he also knew that the supe- 
 rior force of the Master once removed from them, they 
 would become worthless as a producing machine. The 
 experience of the War of the Revolution proved this, as 
 shown in Johnson's Life of Greene; and Mr. Davis was 
 convinced that the protection of Southern territory from 
 contact with the enemy was the only way to preserve 
 social institutions, as well as the industrial organization 
 of the South. 
 
 His large mind had matured the plan 01 defence, and 
 had worked out many details for the orotection of the 
 Southern territory. 
 
 He oroposed to hold the seaboard* with garrisons
 
 DAVIS AND JOHNSTON. 255 
 
 at its ports, and to protect a line from the Chesapeake 
 along the Potomac, through the mountains of Western 
 Virginia, and make the Ohio and the Missouri the fron- 
 tiers, to be covered by armies placed within supporting 
 distance. 
 
 Johnston repudiated the whole plan. He pointed out 
 that by trying to protect a frontier three thousand miles 
 long, your adversary was permitted to select the point 
 for attack, to concentrate on it, and to break it when he 
 pleased. 
 
 The proper policy, he said, was to have no fortified 
 positions and no lines of defence to concentrate armies 
 at points best adapted for subsistence, and prompt com- 
 munication, and when the enemy advanced into your 
 country, having the interior lines, to concentrate on him 
 an overwhelming force, and crush him. Then, said he, 
 you will recover all you have lost. "But," replied the 
 President, "wherever a Federal army marches through 
 the South, it will leave destruction and disorganization 
 in its wake. You may drive it back, but you cannot 
 restore the destruction it has caused not the destruction 
 of property, but the destruction of social order. The 
 negroes, who do not go off, will remain utterly useless." 
 
 This discussion, between the statesman and the sol- 
 dier, could have no end, because there was no maxim 
 common to both, no axiom on which they agreed. And 
 the difference was ineradicable. 
 
 When, therefore, President Davis came to arrange 
 the rank of the superior officers, provided for the act of 
 the Confederate Congress, he was unwilling to put in
 
 256 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 command of the Confederate army a man who enter- 
 tained such radically divergent views from his own. 
 Ignoring Johnston's staff and rank as Brigadier Quarter- 
 master-General, in the army of the United States, he 
 construed the statutory promise of the Confederate Con- 
 gress to mean, that officers joining their army from that 
 of the United States, should retain their relative positions 
 and should be commissioned with the relative rank in 
 thi- line of the army from which they came, ignoring the 
 fact that staff rank was rank, as much as line rank. 
 
 And the Act of Congress did not say, "relative line 
 rank," it said relative rank nothing more, nothing less. 
 
 And Johnston had the right to complain, and he did 
 complain, and to feel as he did feel, that he, the rank- 
 ing officer in the United States Army, who had cast his 
 fortunes in the Confederacy, should have been made 
 fourth in rank instead of first in rank. 
 
 Mr. Davis says: "General Johnston does not re- 
 member that he did not leave the Army of the United 
 States to enter the Army of the Confederate States, 
 but to enter the army of Virginia, and that Lee ranked 
 him in that Army."* 
 
 That is surely no reason that a soldier should first 
 have offered his sword to his native State, who was 
 standing by herself, before she entered the Confederacy. 
 It can be no disqualification in a movement organized on 
 the principle of the sovereignty of States, and that the 
 Federal Government was the creature of the States, and 
 that its army was subordinate to, and subject to the 
 armies of the States. 
 
 'Memoirs of Jefferson Davis, Vol. II, p. 150.
 
 DAVIS AND JOHNSTON. 
 
 President Davis entered first the military service of 
 Mississippi, and no one ever thought that such action, 
 in any way, operated as disqualification of him in 
 patriotism, or in wisdom. This arrangement of rank 
 Gen. Johnston felt as keenly as a blow, and resented it 
 as such. If staff rank was ignored, Col. Cooper, 
 Adjutant-General of the United States Army, had no 
 other rank than staff rank, and yet he was made the 
 ranking General. This difference of opinion, and this 
 affront, was the source and cause of all future trouble. 
 Johnston urged the concentration of troops with Bragg 
 in Tennessee in 1863, and that he attack Grant in 
 detail in Northern Mississippi. He remonstrated 
 against Bragg's raid into Kentucky. He insisted that 
 Holmes be ordered to report to him from Arkansas ; and 
 his remonstrance and applications were neither dignified 
 nor subordinate in tone or style. As was natural, they 
 were ignored or directly refused. 
 
 Thus things went on from bad to worse, until the 
 Dalton-Atlanta campaign, when President Davis insisted 
 that Gen. Johnston should report to him his plan of 
 campaign and inform him categorically, if he intended 
 to fight at all, and if so, when and where. This inter- 
 meddling with his prerogative, as Johnston considered it, 
 was resented by him, and the consequence was his 
 removal, Hood's fiasco in Tennessee, the direct conse- 
 quence of President Davis's strategy, and Sherman's 
 maraud through three States, and the speedy fall of the 
 Confederacy. 
 
 Jefferson Davis, as time goes on, ana the dust and
 
 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 smoke of contemporary conflict clears off, will be 
 esteemed one of the great men of history. His per- 
 sonal characteristics were not those generally possessed 
 by the successful men of affairs. They, as Mr. Seward 
 once ingenuously said, in private conversation with Mr. 
 and Mrs. Davis, when he was Secretary of War in 
 Pierce's cabinet, consider success the first duty. When 
 truth will serve that, then they use truth; if not, then 
 they use something else and reserve truth for another 
 occasion. The fiber of Mr. Davis' mind was such that 
 he could not understand such an intellectual proposition. 
 His brain worked like a perfect mechanism given cer- 
 tain premises certain results must follow. He couldn't 
 think superficially or falsely, nor could he sympathize 
 with wrong or injustice. His heart was as large and as 
 true as his brain. No man ever loved his wife, his 
 children, his friends, his country, with a more intense 
 affection and perfect devotion. Not a friend of his early 
 youth, not one of his young manhood on the frontier, 
 that he did not retain in his inmost heart. 
 
 After the war an old soldier of his cavalry command, 
 in the Black Hawk War, wrote him from Texas, recall- 
 ing the noble and generous care of Lieutenant Davis for 
 a soldier in the ranks who was ill unto death, and whose 
 life was saved by the firmness, and thoughtfulness, and 
 kindheartedness, of his commanding officer, the ex-Pres- 
 ident. His intellect was as vigorous and as broad as 
 his heart was great. His bearing was graceful, alert 
 and dignified, and his voice the most silvery, as well as 
 far-reaching, that ever has been heard in modern times.
 
 DAVIS AND JOHNSTON. 25-5^ 
 
 No one who saw it will ever forget the scene at the 
 great memorial meeting of the survivors of the Army of 
 Northern Virginia, held at Richmond, on November 3, 
 1870, when President Davis was brought forward to 
 preside. Few had seen him since his incarceration at 
 Fortress Monroe, when he had been made the vicarious 
 sacrifice for the sins of the Southern people. 
 
 Before him were the heroes of a hundred battles men 
 who had faced death and plucked victory from the very 
 front of danger a thousand times, speechless in emotion 
 at the sight of their chieftain, whom they loved for the 
 sufferings he had undergone for their sakes. As Davis 
 came forward on that platform, such a tense cry of 
 human passion, and sympathy, and grief, and love, went 
 up as was never heard in this world. He stood for a 
 minute, his figure straightening and quivering with feel- 
 ing, and began in a low voice, of such exquisitely silver 
 tones that it thrilled the utmost verge of the great audience, 
 "soldiers and sailors of the Confederacy, countrymen 
 and friends." 
 
 Assembled on this sad occasion, with hearts oppressed 
 with the grief that follows the loss of him who was our 
 leader, on many a bloody battlefield, there is a melan- 
 choly pleasure in the spectacle which is presented. 
 Hitherto men have been honored when successful; but 
 here is the case of one who, amidst disaster, went down 
 to his grave, and those who were his companions in 
 misfortune, have assembled to honor his memory. It is 
 as much an honor to you who give, as to him who re- 
 ceives, for, above the vulgar test, you show yourselves
 
 260 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 competent to judge between him who enjoys and him 
 who deserves success. 
 
 Robert E. Lee was my associate and friend in the 
 military academy, and we were friends until the hour 
 of his death. ' Here he sleeps now in the land he 
 
 loved so well, and that land is not Virginia only, for 
 they do injustice to Lee who believe he fought only for 
 Virginia. 
 
 He was ready to go anywhere, on any service, for the 
 good of his country, and his heart was as broad as the 
 fifteen States struggling for the principle that our fore- 
 fathers fought for in the Revolution of 1776. 
 
 He sleeps with the thousands who fought under the 
 same flag, and happiest they who first offered up 
 their lives; he sleeps in the soil to him and to them 
 most dear. T*hat flag was furled when there was none 
 to hear it; around it we are assembled, a remnant of 
 the living, to do honor to his memory, and there is an 
 army of skeleton sentinels to keep watch above his 
 grave. This good citizen, this gallant soldier, this 
 great general, this true patriot, had yet a higher praise 
 than this he was a true Christian. The Christianity 
 which ennobled his life gives us the consolatory belief 
 that he is happy beyond the grave." 
 
 As the voice of the orator rose and fell like the vibra- 
 tions of a bell, of perfect modulation, it sounded like a 
 dirge for the glorious dead and an invocation to the 
 faithful living. 
 
 Such an orator, on such an occasion, with such an 
 audience, has never before been seen by men, and
 
 DAVIS AND JOHNSTON. 261 
 
 President Davis's words go sounding down the years, 
 with the ring of prophecy and the power of doom. 
 Ten generations from now they will be quoted to show 
 what manner of man Davis was, with whom he lived, 
 and whom he led. 
 
 The soul of honor, the mirror of chivalry, the 
 embodiment of generous friendship; patriot, sage, sol- 
 dier, lover, father, he will furnish the model to future 
 American citizens, of noble conduct, and high aspira- 
 tions, of fortitude and courage, which will form char- 
 acter, as long as justice is cherished, and right believed 
 to be desirable, wherever liberty is maintained, or 
 sought for, and heroic endeavor is imitated. 
 
 Gen. Johnston was as intense a man as President 
 Davis. 
 
 His letter, quoted in the first chapter of this memoir, 
 his fiery remonstrance at the indignity put upon him 
 in the matter of rank, gives the keynote of his life, 
 and the clue to his feelings. He was the son of a 
 Revolutionary soldier, who had fought for Virginia. 
 He had been reared among the very men who fought at 
 King's Mountain, and there was not an incident of 
 the Southern struggle for independence that was not 
 burnt into his boyish heart, by recital around the fire- 
 side. He knew how the Tories wore green pine twigs 
 in their hats, and how the Whigs wore a tuft of white 
 cotton or cotton cloth. 
 
 The sword with which Ensign Peter Johnston cleared 
 the way at Wright's Bluff had been delivered to his 
 hand. It should be devoted to the defence of his
 
 262 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 Mother Virginia. Johnston was intensely clannish. 
 The ties of blood bound him tight. Kinship created 
 solemn obligations. He was the Virginian of the Vir- 
 ginians. And, while he loved Lee, with a faithful and 
 loyal friendship, he always felt hurt that Virginia should 
 have apotheosized him, and given Johnston a sec- 
 ondary place in her heart. 
 
 This was one of the grievances he felt against Mr. 
 Davis. He had separated him from Virginia, and sent 
 him away from his blood and kin. Johnston had a 
 heart as tender as a child. He loved children. He 
 loved young people. He loved those who loved him. 
 
 In October, 1861, on the line at Mumson's and Mason's 
 Hill, below Fairfax court-house, one day he found the 
 Lieutenant-Colonel of the First Maryland regiment 
 riding along the picket line with his little son, a lad of 
 five and a half years, on his pony by his side, and 
 highly diverted with the singing of an occasional bullet 
 which would fly from the opposite picket. For thirty 
 years Gen. Johnston remembered that incident, and 
 would refer to it with glee, and the very summer before 
 his death found much pleasure in the six-year-old son 
 of his young cavalryman of Mumson's Hill. His heart 
 yearned for affection. The devotion between his wife 
 and himself was an idyl. 
 
 She was the grand-daughter of Capt. Allan McLane, 
 of Delaware, who, with his troop of dragoons, patrolled 
 and picketed the roads around Valley Forge, in the 
 winter of 1777, side by side with Harry Lee, of Virginia. 
 Her father, Louis McLane, had filled and ornamented
 
 DAVIS AND JOHNSTON. 263 
 
 the highest civil stations in the government, except the 
 very highest. Twice minister to England, Secretary of 
 the Treasury, and of State, of the United States, Repre- 
 sentative and Senator in Congress, his daughter had 
 graced the most elegant society in America and in Eng- 
 land. She was witty, graceful, charming, fascinating, 
 and, without being a raving beauty, was altogether one 
 of the most delightful women of her day. Her husband 
 thought her the loveliest, most agreeable person that 
 ever lived, and she worshiped him as her knight and 
 hero. 
 
 To the day of her death, their devotion to each other 
 knew no change, nor experienced any moderation. 
 
 He buried her where he could be secure of a place by 
 her side, and prepared his own resting place there, at 
 the same time he arranged hers. Mrs. Johnston's bad- 
 inage about "Johnston," as she generally spoke of him, 
 and sometimes "Joe," was delightful. Warm hearted, 
 impulsive, generous, of course she took up his quarrels 
 in the army, and sometimes high discord reigned in the 
 higher circles. The General had a great respect for 
 her intellect, and for her character, as well as the warmest 
 admiration for her person, and altogether, when he was 
 eighty years old, he furnished the model for a courtly 
 and ardent lover. 
 
 His mind was as well cultivated and trained as that 
 of any soldier who ever lived, and as well stored with 
 the history of men, of nations, and of wars. It was re- 
 markably vigorous and penetrating, and he could put 
 the most complex proposition, whether of affairs or of
 
 264 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 ideas, in such a lucid order, and clear arrangement, as to 
 render it caoable of being easily grasped by an ordinary 
 intellect. 
 
 He was master of a peculiarly strong, terse, Saxon 
 English. When he was at Centre ville, in the winter 
 of 1862, the style of the address and of the orders 
 about re-enlistment was so very forcible that many had 
 the notion that they came from the pen of Beverly 
 Johnston, Esq., the General's elder brother, who was 
 his guest at headquarters a part of the time. 
 
 Beverly Johnston was a lawyer, and a scholar of 
 English literature, of rare accomplishments and acquire- 
 ments, but it is certain that the papers in question were 
 written by the General himself. When he took com- 
 mand at Harper's Ferry in May, 1861, he was just a 
 little over fifty-four years of age, with dark hair, and 
 not a strand of gray in it; with gray eyes, a clean, 
 clear complexion, short side-whiskers, and a close cut 
 moustache; about five feet eight inches high, and 
 weighing probably one hundred and thirty-five pounds. 
 His form was perfect a mixture of strength, activity, 
 grace, dignity and force, altogether unusual. If Gen. 
 Johnston had entered an assemblage in London, Paris, 
 Berlin, or any other European capital, of the elite of 
 that society, he would have at once attracted attention 
 from his mien and bearing. 
 
 Lee was reposeful and dignified; Davis was grace- 
 ful and dignified; Johnston was forceful and dignified. 
 
 As full of repose as Lee, as full of grace as Davis, 
 with it all he produced the impression of vigor, of
 
 DAVIS AND JOHNSTON. 
 
 force, of weight. He was a large man, and in regard- 
 ing him one lost all power of comparison and con- 
 ception of stature. The man was a master; a noble 
 character, a great will, a large nature, was before the 
 observer, and he was unable to compare him with 
 others. 
 
 I called with him on Grant in Washington in March, 
 1866, at army headquarters, to claim the protection of 
 the parole under the Durham Convention. Gen. Grant, 
 without a moment's hesitation wrote the proper letter to 
 the President, and as Johnston rose to leave, Grant 
 rose, too, and said: "General, permit me to present 
 my staff to you," and, touching a bell, the orderly 
 ushered in a procession of general officers, who, hearing 
 that Johnston was in the building, had collected in the 
 ante-room to pay their respects to him. Gen. Grant 
 stood on Gen. Johnston's right hand, and as each gentle- 
 man came up, presented him to Johnston. 
 
 The scene was a curious and interesting one, but the 
 most impressive part to the Confederate was the manner 
 in which Johnston bore himself the dignity, the grace, 
 the grave friendliness, with which he received this superb 
 overture of respect. He seemed to tower above the crowd, 
 although he was hardly of the average height, and I 
 believe every man present that day left deeply impressed 
 that he had met a very great man. 
 
 Johnston never doubted that the Confederacy ought 
 to have succeeded, that the men and resources were 
 ample. The interior lines for concentration and supply, 
 in his opinion largely, if not quite, equalized the prepon-
 
 Z66 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 derance of force on the Federal side. He said that 
 there were three distinct periods when the Confederacy 
 could and ought to have succeeded. The first was when 
 he had drawn McClellan from deep-water to the Chicka- 
 hominy, in the spring of 1862. 
 
 Then he said the garrisons of Wilmington, Charleston, 
 Savannah and Mobile, with Jackson's Army of the 
 Valley, ought to have been concentrated at Richmond, 
 and McClellan's army would have been destroyed and 
 peace conquered. ' 
 
 The next opportunity was when Grant was in 
 Northern Mississippi in 1863, with his army scattered 
 along the railroad from Cairo to Corinth. 
 
 Johnston again urged that Bragg's Army of Tennessee 
 should be reinforced with the garrisons from the ports, and 
 he should then destroy Grant in detail. This was not 
 done. 
 
 The third lost opportunity was when Grant crossed 
 the Mississippi, at'Bruinsburgh, in May, 1863, and 
 Johnston was ordered to command the Department of 
 the Mississippi. He then insisted that Holmes' 55,000, 
 whom he had at Little Rock, should be consolidated 
 with him, and he thus be enabled to capture Grant's army. 
 This also was refused. Johnston remained of the opinion 
 that either of these three movements were sound on mil- 
 itary principles, and would have proved successful. In 
 the light of subsequent events, it seems as if he was 
 right. 
 
 Time will enlarge Jonnston's reputation. If there is 
 such a thing as ill-fortune, he had more than his share
 
 of it. He never had the chance that Lee had. If he 
 had not been wounded at Seven Pines, a great victory 
 would have crowned his arms with substantial results. 
 If he had not been betrayed at Jackson, he would have 
 joined with Pemberton and have captured Grant's army. 
 If he had not been removed at Atlanta, he would almost 
 certainly have defeated Sherman, and then would have 
 ensued another Moscow retreat. But it is bootless to 
 conjecture contingencies that never occurred. Johnston's 
 campaigns will be judged by the canons of military 
 criticism, and the highest authorities to-day of the mili- 
 tary art consider them models for study and imitation. 
 His movement from Yorktown to the Chickahominy, be- 
 yond doubt, was masterly. He fixed himself close to 
 his own base, and made his enemy leave his behind, and 
 expose it to destruction, as was subsequently done by 
 Stuart in June. But Johnston's reputation will rest on 
 the Dal ton- Atlanta campaign. That retreat has no par- 
 allel in military history. Fighting and falling back, 
 falling back and fighting, Johnston inflicted on his 
 enemy a loss equal to his entire force; he himself losing 
 not one-fifth as many as his adversary and so skilfully 
 was this done that when the time came to strike the final 
 blow, at Atlanta, his people were on the qui vive for it. 
 Johnston knew what his adversary was going to do and 
 when he was going to do it. He knew that Thomas 
 was going to cross Peach Tree Creek, three miles or 
 more apart from the other corps, and he had made his 
 dispositions to strike him, while extended in crossing the 
 ford. But the order relieving him took all the spirit out
 
 268 
 
 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPJi li. JOHNSTON. 
 
 of the men, and while they were led as gallantly and 
 handled as promptly as men could be put into a fight, 
 by Hood, they had lost that elan, that morale, which is 
 so large a part of the soldiers' force in battle, and they 
 failed. 
 
 These were the misfortunes of a great heart. They 
 will be repaired to him by posterity, for in the grand 
 cortege of great generals, furnished by both sides in the 
 war between the States, Johnston will be in the first rank 
 among the very first. 
 
 His faults were all human faults. He was quick- 
 tempered and imperious, ^ut he was great-hearted, 
 chivalric, generous, loving, tender, and as true a man as 
 ever carried cross, or drew sword. In subsequent chap- 
 ters will be found the loving tributes of Major-General 
 Dabney H. Maury, of Col. Archer Anderson, and of 
 Major Robert Stiles. 
 
 After the death of Mrs. Johnston, which occurred in 
 1888, he lived at his house on Vermont avenue, Wash- 
 ington, with his friends around him, but he always 
 remained a citizen of Virginia, and died a registered 
 voter of the City of Richmond. 
 
 He always went home and voted. The McLanes, 
 his wife's brothers, and nieces, and nephews, were as ten 
 derly devoted and attentive to him as love can be. 
 With him he had Joseph Wheeler, his chief-of-cavalry 
 in Georgia, the chevalier sans pcur ct sans reproclie, a 
 greater terror to Sherman's bummers than the Black 
 Douglas ever was to Saxon invader. Wade Hampton, 
 cavalier of cavaliers, who brought "the gentlemen of
 
 DAVIS AND JOHNSTON. 
 
 the legion" to back Bee's faltering lines at First 
 Manassas, and who rode with him to the conference at 
 Bennett's house with Sherman the first a representa- 
 tive from Alabama, the latter a Senator from South 
 Carolina, Major-General Dabney H. Maury, w r ho held 
 Mobile against Farragut until there was nothing left to 
 hold, Major-General Cadmus Wilcox, trusty and true 
 as his own blade these knights sat at the Round Table, 
 giving the love of their hearts to as manly a Virginian, 
 as true a gentleman, as gallant a soldier, and as able a 
 general as America has ever reared. 
 
 This large heart, this great intellect, this broad patri- 
 otism, this devoted lover, leaves a figure misty and 
 rather obscure and ill-defined. But as time goes on it 
 will become more sharply and clearly defined, and be 
 more and more recognized as one of the greatest men 
 of a great epoch, and as an ideal for conduct and 
 character in generations long hereafter to be born.
 
 270 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 HIS LAST SICKNESS, DEATH AND FUNERAL.* 
 
 QEN. JOS. E. JOHNSTON died at u o'clock Satur- 
 day night at his residence on Connecticut Avenue, 
 Washington City. The General had been suffering for 
 three weeks with an affection of the heart, aggravated 
 by a cold he caught soon after General Sherman's 
 funeral in New York. The immediate cause of his 
 death was heart failure, due more particularly to extreme 
 old age. His physician had been trying to keep his 
 strength up for some days, but his advanced age had 
 given little hope for his recovery from the beginning of 
 his illness. The General did not seem to suffer in the 
 least, and was conscious to the last. At his bedside 
 was ex-Governor McLane, of Maryland, the General's 
 brother-in-law, and the nurse. At times for about two 
 years General Johnston had shown unmistakable signs 
 of general breaking down. His mind often became 
 bewildered, so that he couldn't tell where he was or how 
 he came there. Some days after the Sherman funeral, 
 the General one night got up out of his bed while in a 
 state of profuse perspiration, which greatly aggravated 
 the slight cold with which he was then suffering. This 
 brought on a severe attack of his old heart trouble, 
 which completely prostrated him. His physician, Dr. 
 Lincoln, succeeded, however, with much difficulty in 
 arresting the disease for a time, and for a day or two 
 prior he seemed greatly improving. On Friday, how- 
 
 * Collated from the press of the day.
 
 HIS LAST SICKNESS, DEATH AND FUNERAL. 271 
 
 ever, he went down stairs without assistance, as he had 
 done before, but it proved too much for his strength, 
 and only v/ith the aid of Governor McL/ane could he 
 again reach his bed, or even rise from the sofa where he 
 was sitting. From that time he continued to grow worse 
 until about 6 o'clock Saturday evening, when Dr. 
 Lincoln found him perfectly comfortable and apparently 
 a little better. While his friends and attendants knew 
 that he might pass away at any time, yet they had had 
 no warning that the end was so near. Governor 
 McLane entered the room at a little after n o'clock 
 and as he approached the General's bedside he heard an 
 almost inaudible sigh, and the General was dead. 
 
 AN ESCORT FOR GEN. JOHNSTON'S REMAINS. 
 
 At a meeting of Maryland Confederates at the 
 residence of Gen. Bradley T. Johnson Sunday night, it 
 was decided to testify their esteem for the memory of the 
 late Joseph E. Johnston by sending a committee to 
 Washington to attend the funeral ceremonies there and 
 to serve as an escort to Baltimore. The following gen- 
 tlemen compose the committee: Gen. George H. Steu- 
 art, Gen. Bradley T. Johnson, Adjt.-Gen. J. Howard, 
 Col. John S. Saunders, Major Thomas W. Hall, Gen. 
 John Gill, Col. Charles Marshall, Major W. S. Syming- 
 ton, Capt. F. M. Colston, W. H. Fitzgerald, J. 
 McKenny White, M. B. Brown, Brig. -Gen. Stewart 
 Brown, M. N. G., Gen. Joseph L. Brent, Winfield 
 Peters, McHenry Howard, Skipwith Wilmer, Joseph 
 Packard, Jr., Capt. George W. Booth, Capt. J. S.
 
 272 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 Maury, C. S. N., Gen. R. Snowden Andrews, Capt. 
 Frank H. Smith, J. Southgate Lemon, Dr. Gary B. 
 Gamble, Col. D. G. Mclntosh, Capt. C. M. Morris, U. 
 S. N., R. Curzon Hoffman and George C. Jenkins. It 
 is intended that Confederates generally shall assemble at 
 the depot to await the arrival of the train. 
 
 But for the expressed wish of the old hero and the 
 irremovable objections of his relatives, Baltimore would 
 have made the interment of Gen. Jo'seph E. Johnston in the 
 quiet and beautiful shades of Greenmount Cemetery an 
 event in keeping with the lofty personal and military 
 character of the gallant Confederate who has so soon 
 followed his famous antagonist on the field of war, 
 Gen. W. T. Sherman, to the grave. 
 
 It was the wish of the Confederate societies and 
 others to have a grand military funeral, and to call out 
 the Fifth Regiment and Fourth Battalion and the ex-Con- 
 federates, but it was deemed by those who knew Gen. 
 Johnston best to be more in keeping with his simple and 
 unostentatious tastes and habits, to bear his remains 
 quietly to their last resting place, and inter them with 
 only those ceremonies of the church which attend the 
 burial of the humblest and most inconspicuous of men. 
 
 The Maryland Confederates used every endeavor con- 
 sistent with good taste to change, in a degree, this 
 determination, but in vain. Not even the acceptance of 
 the escort of a committee was deemed by the relatives 
 in keeping with Gen. Johnston's commands. The people 
 will, however, be able to manifest their respect for his 
 memory to-morrow by gathering at Union Station when
 
 HIS LAST SICKNESS, DEATH AND FUNERAL. 273 
 
 the funeral train arrives, as suggested below by the 
 Committee. 
 
 Understanding that the immediate family of the 
 General desired a perfectly private and quiet funeral, a 
 committee was appointed to await upon them and 
 earnestly request that the society of the Army and Navy 
 of the Confederate States and representatives of Mary- 
 land National Guard be permitted to attend and take 
 such part in the funeral ceremonies as would testify the 
 affection and respect of the people of Maryland for Gen. 
 Johnston. 
 
 The committee, consisting of Gen. Bradley T. Johnson, 
 Col. John S. Saunders, Maj. N. S. Hill, Col. John Gill, 
 Major Thomas W. Hall, Col. William A. Boykin, of 
 the Fifth Regiment, and Gen. Joseph L. Brent, waited 
 upon Mr. James L. McLane, representing the nearest 
 friends and relatives of Gen. Johnston, and laid their 
 request before him. 
 
 Gen. Stewart Brown and Col. Boykin authorized the 
 committee to tender the escort of the Maryland National 
 Guard, and the committee offered an escort of 10,000 
 men, asked that the funeral be postponed until Thursday, 
 and promised if this delay was accorded, that every 
 Southern State should 4 be represented and a demonstra- 
 tion made of the whole Southern people for Gen. 
 Johnston. 
 
 Mr. McLane thanked the committee for their tender 
 and for the feeling with which it was made, but said that 
 Gen. Johnston had recently told him distinctly that he 
 wished to be buried as privately as possible, with only
 
 274 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 the ceremonies of his church. In deference to Gen. 
 Johnston's wishes, so recently and emphatically ex- 
 pressed, he was obliged to decline with regret the offer 
 of the committee. 
 
 To this the committee answered that Gen. Johnston 
 was endeared to millions of his fellow-citizens by his 
 eminent services and patriotic devotion to the public 
 interests, and that he was a special object of affection to 
 the majority of the people of at least eleven States of the' 
 Union, while the whole country held him in the highest 
 esteem, and that it would be a shock to the sensibilities 
 of his friends and admirers if no opportunity were given 
 to express their feelings of love and veneration by honor- 
 ing his remains upon their interment. 
 
 But Mr. McLane said the funeral must take place on 
 Tuesday morning, and that the family could not consent 
 to any departure from the distinctly private character 
 determined upon in deference to the wishes of the 
 deceased General. He added, in answer to an inquiry, 
 that an escort of the Confederate Association could not 
 be accepted, as it would give a publicity to the funeral 
 not in harmony with the family's views. 
 
 WASHINGTON, March 23, 1891. 
 
 This morning the body of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston 
 was attired in a plain black suit and placed in the casket, 
 after which it was conveyed to the front parlor of the 
 residence. 
 
 It was an ordinary civilian's suit, and every appear- 
 ance of military display was studiously avoided. No
 
 HIS LAST SICKNESS, DEATH AND FUNERAL. 275^ 
 
 badge, no button, no decoration of any shape or char- 
 acter was either about the person or the casket of the 
 dead General. On his breast was a small cluster of 
 violets. There was absolutely no sign that the man had 
 been one of the most conspicuous military leaders of 
 his age. 
 
 The casket is of the pattern ordinarily used for per- 
 sons of Gen. Johnston's station. It is covered with 
 heavy broad-cloth, and has silver bars and screws, but 
 is devoid of any ornament. 
 
 During the day hundreds of callers looked upon the 
 thin face of the dead General. His appearance was 
 natural, and the expression seemed to indicate that his 
 death was painless and peaceful. It was apparent, 
 however, that his last illness had been a steady failure 
 of vital powers, as he was very much emaciated. His 
 face was very thin, and his hands were partially trans- 
 parent. During his illness General Johnston had no 
 appetite. He was sustained by small administrations of 
 beef tea and kindred remedies. 
 
 THE DATE OF HIS BIRTH. 
 
 The silver plate on the coffin bears the inscription : 
 
 JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON, 
 
 Born February, 3d, 1809, 
 
 and 
 Died March 2ist, 1891.
 
 276 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 After the inscription was ordered it was positively 
 ascertained that the date given of the General's birth 
 was erroneous. The encyclopaedias and other works 
 containing sketches of prominent men differ on this 
 point. Some of them date General Johnston's birth at 
 1807 and others 1809. On this point Dr. George Ben 
 Johnston, of Richmond, a grand-nephew of the late 
 General, said: 
 
 "I had several controversies with my uncle in regard 
 to his age. He was firmly convinced that he was born 
 in 1809, while my information was that he was born in 
 1807. Ex-Governor McLane also maintained that the 
 General was born in 1809. Nor was ' the question 
 determined until last night. I hunted out the old family 
 Bible, and there, in the handwriting of General John- 
 ston's father was the entry: 'Joseph Eccleston, eighth 
 son of Peter Johnston, &c., born February 3, 1807.' 
 This, of course, was conclusive, and the plate will be 
 changed so as to make it record the correct age." 
 
 The register of the West Point Academy confirms 
 this entry, and shows that the General was born in 1807. 
 Upon entering West Point his age was given at 18 years 
 and 5 months. He graduated 4 years later, in 1829, 
 and taking these figures it is shown that the General was 
 83 years of age on the 3d of last February. 
 
 HE KNEW HE WAS FAILING. 
 
 A friend of Gen. Johnston, who was with him a great 
 deal during the last year or so, says that he was fully cog- 
 nizant of his steadily failing physical powers, and that it
 
 \ 
 
 HIS LAST. SICKNESS, DEATH AND FUNERAL. 277^ 
 
 was a source of serious annoyance and embarrassment 
 to him. He had always prided himself upon his erect 
 and soldierly bearing and his self-reliance. When the 
 weakness incident to advancing age assailed him he 
 uttered no complaint, but his friend observed that he felt 
 the change. For instance, this friend remarked: 
 
 "Only a few weeks ago I accompanied the General 
 home. We rode out in a car, and in front of his resi- 
 dence the car was stopped. The conductor, who knew 
 him well, noticing that the General was feeble and 
 unsteady upon his feet, jumped off and extended his 
 arm for support. The General declined it, saying that 
 he needed no assistance. Upon entering the 
 house he confessed to me that he had realized his weak- 
 ness, and he added : 'Of late my legs have been unsteady 
 at times and they are much thinner than formerly.' ' 
 
 Services will be held at St. John's Church at n 
 o'clock, and will be conducted by Rev. Dr. Douglass. 
 At the conclusion of the ceremonies at the church the 
 remains will be conveyed directly to Baltimore for inter- 
 ment at Greenmount Cemetery. The honorary pall- 
 bearers will be as follows : Senator John T. Morgan, 
 of Alabama ; Senator John W. Daniel, of Virginia ; 
 Hon. J. L. M. Curry ; Gen. John G. Parker, U. S. A., 
 
 Gen. Dabney H. Maury, Gen. Charles W. Field, Gen. 
 
 f 
 
 Harry Heth, Rear-Admiral C. R. P. Rodgers, Rear- 
 Admiral W. G. Temple, Gen. H. G. Wright, Gen. 
 Benjamin W. Brice ; Col. Archer Anderson, of Rich- 
 mond ; Col. Edwin G. Harris, Hon. J. C. Bancroft 
 Davis and Gen. James Watmaugh.
 
 27$ LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 The active pall-bearers at the funeral will be furnished 
 by the ex-Confederates' Association of this city. They 
 are all men who fought under General Johnston, and 
 who hold his name in veneration. They are Captain 
 T. J. Luttrell, Private W. A. Gordon, Private Charles 
 Wheatley ; Major Anderson, president of the associa- 
 tion ; Major H. L. Biscoe, Surgeon W. P. Young, 
 Private Lee Robinson and Captain J. W. Drew. 
 
 The expressed wish of the family is that there be as 
 little -demonstration as possible, and for that reason 
 requests from military and other organizations that they 
 be permitted to act as escort have all been rejected. 
 Gov. McKinney, of Virginia, telegraphed ex-Governor 
 McLane this morning asking if the presence of military 
 companies from Virginia at the funeral would be agree- 
 able. He was at once informed that neither civic or 
 military organizations were desired, and replied that he 
 would attend the funeral in person, accompanied by 
 other State officials. 
 
 Among the telegrams received by Governor McLane 
 to-day were the following : 
 
 NEW YORK, March 23, 1891. 
 
 Ex-Governor McLane, Washington : The family of 
 General Sherman desire to tender to the relatives of 
 General Johnston assurances of their profound sorrow 
 and sympathy. P. T. SHERMAN. 
 
 LEXINGTON, VA., March 23, 1891. 
 Governor Robert M. McLane : We have just heard 
 of General Johnston's death, and tender our heartfelt
 
 HIS LAST SICKNESS, DEATH AND FUNERAL. 279 
 
 sympathies to his family in their bereavement. We 
 regret our inability to attend his funeral. 
 
 G. W. C. LEE. 
 W. H. F. LEE. 
 R. E. LEE. 
 
 SAVANNAH, GA., March 23, 1891. 
 Ex-Governor McLane : My wife and I, long-time 
 loving friends of our dead General, send our deep sym- 
 pathy and sorrow to his family. His death, a keen 
 personal loss to us, goes deep to the hearts of his Con- 
 federate soldiers and friends. G. M. SORRELL. 
 
 HILLSBORO, ALA., March 23, 1891. 
 Ex-Governor McLane, Washington : We join in the 
 universal and unutterable regret that we no longer have 
 our beloved General. JOSEPH WHEELER. 
 
 GRENADA, Miss., March 23, 1891. 
 General Johnston had my admiration and affection, 
 and his family have my sincere sympathy. 
 
 E. C. WALTHALL. 
 
 There were many others from prominent men and 
 others who had served under General Johnston during 
 the war. Marcus Bernheimer, of St. Louis, telegraphed 
 the sympathy of the ex-soldiers in that city. J. B. 
 Washington sent a message of condolence from White 
 Hall, Pa. Archer Anderson, from Richmond; Living- 
 ston Minas, from Atlanta; A. R. Lawton, from Savan- 
 nah, and various others in different sections.
 
 280 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 The Cotton Exchange of Savannah sent a message 
 through its president, J. P. Merrehew. The Confed- 
 erate Veterans' Association of Jefferson county, Ala., 
 and the Confederate Veterans' Association of Kentucky 
 also sent messages. In acknowledgement of the nu- 
 merous telegrams received Mr. McLane this afternoon 
 furnished for publication the following: 
 
 "I beg to acknowledge the receipt of numerous tele- 
 grams and cards expressing regret and affection, as well 
 as admiration for the late Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, and, 
 though I have not been able personally to express my 
 entire sympathy with them in their sentiments, I have 
 had the opportunity to communicate them .to his family, 
 who gratefully accept and appreciate them, and request 
 me to make this acknowledgement. 
 
 ROBT. M. MCLANE." 
 
 An informal meeting of Union soldiers of Baltimore 
 decided to attend the funeral of Gen. Johnston. They 
 met at the office of Col. G. W. F. Vernon. It was 
 stated that they desired to show their respect to the 
 memory of the Confederate chieftain whom Sherman 
 and Grant recognized as a friend. Col. Vernon pre- 
 sided, and Sergt. C. Armour Newcomer was secretary. 
 Cole's cavalry and the first, fourth, sixth and tenth 
 Maryland regiments were represented. The following 
 announced that they would follow the remains of Gen. 
 Johnston to the grave: Col. G. W. F. Vernon, Gen. 
 W. E. W. Ross, Sergt. C. A. Newcomer, George W. 
 Welch and Capt. Wm. II. Taylor.
 
 HIS LAST SICKNESS, DEATH AND FUNERAL. 281 
 
 Nearly four years a*go Gen. Johnston came to Balti- 
 more and had two graves dug in Greenmount Cemetery 
 one for himself and the other for his wife. He 'had 
 them bricked up, and, as his friend, Gen. Bradley T. 
 Johnson, expressed it, ''he had his grave made as com- 
 fortable as possible." 
 
 The- funeral of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston took place 
 Tuesday morning, March 24, 1891, from St. John's 
 Church, Washington. The ceremonies were of the 
 simplest character, and when contrasted with the pomp 
 and splendor which has characterized the recent burials 
 of other heroes of the war was strikingly unostentatious. 
 The funeral procession formed at the late residence of 
 the deceased, on Connecticut avenue, and proceeded 
 directly to the church. The honorary pall-bearers, 
 Senator John T. Morgan, of Alabama; Senator John 
 W. Daniel, of Virginia; Hon. J. L. M. Curry, Gen. 
 John G. Walker, Gen. Charles W. Field, Gen. Harry 
 Heth, Rear-Admiral C. R. P. Rodgers, Rear-Admiral 
 W. G. Temple, General H. C. Wright, General 
 Benjamin W. Brice, Col. Archer Anderson, of Rich- 
 mond; Col. Edwin G. Harris, Hon. J. C. Bancroft 
 Davis and Gen. James Watmaugh, occupied carriages 
 immediately following the hearse, and after them came 
 the carriages containing the relatives of the deceased 
 General and friends of the family. The active pall 
 bearers, selected from the Confederate Veterans' Asso- 
 ciation, preceded the hearse. They were T. J. Luttrell, 
 W. A. Gordon, Charles Wheatley, Major Anderson, 
 Major H. L. Biscoe, W. P. Young, Lee Robinson and 
 J. W. Drew.
 
 282 LIU; <>i <;KN. JOSKIMI K. JOHNSTON. 
 
 AN ESCORT OF CONFEDERATE VETERANS. 
 
 At the head of the column, and acting as an escort, 
 matched about 30 members of R. E. Lee Camp of Con- 
 federate Veterans, from Alexandria, commanded by Col. 
 W. A. Smoot. The appearance of this organization in 
 uniform and marching as a body was contrary to the 
 wishes of the dead General's family. The members of 
 the organization, however, had no intention of failing to 
 respect these expressed desires regarding organizations 
 in line, but so many of them assembled at the Johnston 
 residence, each anxious to pay a last tribute of respect 
 and affection to their dead commander, that they invol- 
 untarily formed a feature of the procession which it was 
 intended should be lacking. On the way to the church 
 the veterans were joined by Col. Robert I. Fleming, a 
 member of R. E. Lee Camp of Veterans, of Richmond ; 
 Gen. John M. Corse and Col. John S. Mosby, who 
 marched at the head of the column beside Col. Smoot. 
 
 THE SCENE AT THE CHURCH. 
 
 When the procession reached the church a large 
 crowd of interested spectators, including a large number 
 of veterans of both armies, had assembled, and except 
 the pews reserved for the funeral party the seats were 
 already well filled and a number of people were waiting 
 to gain admittance. The veterans opened a way through 
 the crowd to the door leading into the chancel of 
 the church, and then formed a line, in front of 
 which the casket was borne by the active pall-bearers. 
 The honorary pall-bearers followed and were in turn
 
 HIS LAST SICKNESS, DEATH AND FUNERAL. 283 
 
 followed by the relatives and friends of the family. As 
 the coffin was borne slowly to the church door the entire 
 assemblage outside the church stood with uncovered 
 heads, showing evident feelings of veneration, which in 
 its earnestness was an impressive as any pomp of 
 military display could have been. Inside the church, as 
 the casket was borne into the vestibule of the building, 
 the organ pealed forth a funeral march. 
 
 THE CHORISTERS. 
 
 A moment later its tones were mingling with the 
 fresh voices of the choristers rising in a solemn chant. 
 The singers were not visible at first, but as the music 
 continued they entered the chancel, marching slowly, 
 and took up their positions on either side of the altar. 
 They were followed by Rev. Dr. Douglass, the pastor 
 of the church, who was accompanied by Rev. Dr. Mc- 
 Kim, pastor of Epiphany church. The two clergymen 
 proceeded across the church to the door on the H-street 
 side, and, turning there, led in the funeral cortege. 
 The casket was placed in front of the altar rail, where, 
 despite the wishes of the family to the contrary, several 
 handsome floral offerings had been surreptitiously placed, 
 and those in attendance took their places in the body of 
 the church. 
 
 BURIAL SERVICE. 
 
 The services were then conducted by Rev. Dr. Doug- 
 lass, and consisted simply of the ordinary service of the 
 Episcopal church for the burial of the dead, interspersed 
 with hymns impressively rendered by the choristers. At
 
 284 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 their conclusion the body was conveyed from the church, 
 and, followed by those who occupied carriages, was 
 taken at once to the Baltimore and Potomac Depot and 
 was placed on a train for Baltimore. 
 
 So unostentatiously were all the simple arrangements 
 carried out that even the railroad officials were not 
 aware that the body was going to be shipped on the 12.15 
 train, while most of the people who composed the 
 surging crowd about the depot were entirely ignorant 
 of the fact that the remains of the last great General of 
 the war were being taken to their last resting-place. 
 
 Those who followed the remains to the depot drove 
 away as soon as the body had been placed in charge of 
 the train officials, except a small party which had been 
 selected to accompany the remains to Baltimore. The 
 party consisted of Mr. Allan McLane and Dr. John- 
 ston, of Richmond, representing the family ; Senator 
 Daniel, of Virginia, and one or two others, representing 
 the honorary pall-bearers; Major Anderson and Briscoe, 
 representing the active pall-bearers, and also the Con- 
 federate Veterans' Association of this city, and Prof. W. 
 D. Cabell, representing the Sons of the Revolution. 
 Governor McLane and the other relatives of the deceased 
 followed the remains to Baltimore on a train at 2 o'clock. 
 
 SOME OF THOSE PRESENT. 
 
 Among those who attended the services at the church 
 were Vice-President Morton, Gen. D. H. Maury, Gov. 
 McKinney, of Virginia ; Mayor Ellyson, of Richmond; 
 ex-Senator Wade Hampton, Gen. Greely, Fish Com-
 
 HIS LAST SICKNESS, DEATH AND FUNERAL. 285 
 
 missioner McDonald and Prof. Cabell, constituting a 
 committee to represent the Sons of the Revolution ; Col. 
 John Gill, Gen. Bradley T. Johnson, Major Thomas 
 Mackall, Irving A. Buck, J. Boykin Lee, Wilson M. 
 Gary, and Col. John S. Saunders, of Baltimore; Major 
 Wood, of Richmond ; Senator Cockrell, Senator Man- 
 derson, Civil Service Commissioner Thompson, Senator 
 Hawley, Gen. Alex. P. Stewart, Col. James G. Berrett, 
 Representative McMillan, Gen. Rosecrans, Gen. Eppa 
 Hunton, ex-Solicitor-General Goode, Senator Butler, 
 Gen. Beverly Robinson, Judge Hughes, of Virginia ; 
 Captain Garden, President of the Southern Society of 
 New York ; Major Green Clay Goodloe, of the Marine 
 Corps ; Gen. Veazey, commander-in-chief of the Grand 
 Army of the Republic ; M. W. Gait, Col. Richard 
 Wintersmith, ex-District Attorney Hoge, and a host of 
 ex-Confederate veterans from this city and the South. 
 
 ARRIVAL OF THE BODY IN BALTIMORE. 
 
 When the body arrived at Union Station, at half-past 
 i o'clock, a good-sized delegation of old Confederate 
 soldiers, with a sprinkling of those who wore the blue, 
 were waiting to receive it. It was taken from the bag- 
 gage car and wheeled across that station on a truck, 
 from which it was lifted by a dozen pairs of willing 
 hands. The casket was carried to the hearse by Messrs. 
 James L. McLane and Louis McLane and the under- 
 taker's men through two long lines of ex-Confederates, 
 headed by Adjutant-General James Howard, with Col. 
 J. Lyle Clark acting as adjutant. The men lifted their
 
 286 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 hats reverently as the casket passed before them, and 
 after it had been placed in the hearse and taken to 
 Greenmount Cemetery they gathered about the station in 
 little groups and spoke lovingly of the old General. 
 
 AT THE CEMETERY. 
 
 Messrs. James L. McLane, Louis McLane and Allan 
 McLane, Jr., followed Gen. Johnston's body to the 
 cemetery. R. M. Chambers and James McKee, of the 
 Maryland line, also went to the cemetery and assisted in 
 placing the body in the mausoleum, whence it will be 
 interred in the grave Gen. Johnston had himself pre- 
 pared at some future day. 
 
 SOLDIERS OF BOTH ARMIES. 
 
 Among those who met the body at the depo. were 
 Capt. Chas. N. Claiborne, Capt. H. H. Lewis, Wm. H. 
 Pope, Wm. H. Thomas, Lieut. J. W. Elliott, Wm. C. 
 Thomas, D. W. Stubbs, Major Stuart Symington, S. 
 Clotworthy, S. W. Dorsey, W: S. Skidmore, Frank X. 
 Ward, Major F. H. Wigfall, Gustav Lurman, Joseph L. 
 Brent, S. H. Richardson, Col. Levin Lake, F. F. 
 Presstman, Charles W. Small, Col. George R. Gaither, 
 John H. Briscoe, Herman Stump, Rev. Wm. H. Dame, 
 Rev. A. DeR. Mears, F. M. Duvall, James K. Har- 
 wood, Dr. T. K. Ward, B. S. Hackney, Andrew C. 
 Trippe, Henry A. Wise, George W. Wood, Thomas C. 
 Pugh, Joshua Thomas, McHenry Howard, James 
 Murray, George A. Streiber, W. R. Woody, Capt. 
 Maury, Capt. F. M. Colston and Major Geo. C. Wed-
 
 HIS LAST SICKNESS, DEATH AND FUNERAL. 287 
 
 derburn. Among the Federal soldiers present were 
 Gen. John R. Kenly, Col. Geo. W. F. Vernon, Capt. 
 W. D. Burchinal, Capt. Win. H. Taylor, Capt. L. M. 
 Zimmerman, Sergt. C. A. Newcomer and Gen. W. E. 
 
 7 O 
 
 W. Ross. 
 
 The Baltimore Sun has the following: 
 
 "The military career of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, 
 which began over sixty years ago, was marked by con- 
 spicuous gallantry at the outset, and by masterly general- 
 ship against overwhelming odds at the close. In Florida 
 and in Mexico he exhibited a daring courage, which 
 was proved by the number of his wounds, and at the 
 same time demonstrated that his military abilities were 
 of a very high order. Inheriting a martial spirit from 
 his father, who, when a mere lad, became a revolution- 
 ary soldier, he was wedded to his profession, which was 
 for him, as it was for Lee, a noble science, to which he 
 dedicated all his energies. With Lee, he was one of 
 the most notable of the group of young officers who 
 before the war were regarded as "coming men" in the 
 army a group that included several Marylanders, with 
 whom both Johnston and Lee were on terms of affec- 
 tionate intimacy. When the war began he, like Lee, 
 resigned his commission rather than fight against his 
 native State, Virginia, and it was on Virginia's soil that 
 he contributed so largely to the first brilliant victory of 
 the Confederacy the first Bull Run or Manassas. While 
 the credit for that remarkable triumph must be shared 
 by him with Beauregard, it cannot be denied that but for 
 his strategy in rendering Patterson's forces inoperative
 
 288 LIFE OP GEN. JOSEPH K. JOHNSTON. 
 
 and marching to the assistance of Beauregard, the latter 
 probably would not have been able to crush McDowell 
 and to put his army to so demoralizing a rout as that 
 which followed the battle. Unfortunately, General 
 Johnston's ideas as to the proper method of conducting 
 operations came into conflict with those of the authorities 
 at Richmond, and it has been claimed, and probably 
 with justice, on his behalf, that he was not permitted to 
 work out to their full fruition the plans he had formed 
 for baffling Sherman. His value to the Confederacy 
 was seen, however, in the disasters that followed his 
 removal from command, and his military reputation was 
 fully vindicated when President Davis and his advisers 
 turned to him in their extremity as the only man capable 
 of repairing the damage that had been done. But it 
 was then too late, and although General Johnston loyally 
 exerted himself to the utmost of his powers, the doomed 
 Confederacy toppled to its fall. Johnston stands with 
 Lee and Jackson among the great commanders of the 
 Confederacy, and Virginia, which may be called the 
 mother of generals as well as the mother of presidents, 
 has every reason to be proud of her distinguished son. 
 A pure, high-minded gentleman, an intrepid soldier, 
 a master of the art of war, whom the greatest of his 
 enemies respected and feared, he presents to us and to 
 those who come after us a noble type of the cultured 
 American." 
 
 "The closing years of his life were spent in the service 
 of a re-united country that country for which he had 
 fought and bled in his earlier years, and in peaceful and
 
 HIS LAST SICKNESS, DEATH AND FUNERAL. 289 
 
 friendly intercourse with those whom he had confronted 
 as enemies on the field of battle. It was singularly 
 appropriate that his last notable appearances before the 
 public should have been as the central figure at the 
 unveiling of the Richmond monument to Lee, the com- 
 rade and friend of his youth and his follow-hero of the 
 Confederacy, and as one of the chief mourners at the 
 bier of his old adversary, Sherman, who preceded him 
 by only a few short weeks to the grave." 
 
 This distinguished soldier has quickly followed to the 
 grave General Sherman, his one time great adversary in 
 war, and almost life-long friend in peace. He was 
 the oldest and next to the last of the highest Confed- 
 erates of high rank. He fought in three wars, the 
 Seminole Indian Florida war, the Mexican war and the 
 war of the Rebellion. He was wounded in all of them, 
 and yet lived to the age of 84 years. Gen. Johnston 
 was accounted a very accomplished and skillful soldier 
 during the war of the Rebellion, but circumstances, and 
 the personal hostility of Jefferson Davis, were against 
 him. He had occasion to complain bitterly of the 
 interference of Davis, who, being a West Point graduate 
 and a man of imperious will, had a great deal to say 
 about military operations, and was as much of a hind- 
 rance to the Generals in the field, except Lee, as were 
 the closet soldiers in Washington who tried so disast- 
 rously to direct Federal operations before the coming of 
 Grant. Since the war Gen. Johnston has been earnestly 
 engaged in restoring good feeling between the sections, 
 and quickly renewed his friendship with Generals Sher- 
 man and Grant.
 
 290 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 Indeed there was something akin in the treatment 
 received by these great rival soldiers Johnston and 
 Sherman by meddling semi-military officials on the 
 opposite sides in the war. Johnston was the object of 
 unrelenting hatred by Davis, operating from Richmond 
 in Tennessee and Georgia, during Sherman's memor- 
 able campaign from the mountains towards the sea, 
 while Sherman was subjected at the very close of his 
 brilliant campaign and priceless service to the country 
 to cruel aspersion and insult, almost immediately upon 
 the death of Lincoln, by Secretary Stanton, who then 
 happened to be in possession of power.
 
 GEN. DABNEY H. MAURY's REMINISCENCES. 29! 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 GEN. DABNEY H. MAURY's REMINISCENCES. 
 
 T FIRST saw Gen. Johnston at Vera Cruz in March, 
 * 1847* when, after a bombardment of two weeks, 
 the city raised the white flag, and Gen. Scott appointed 
 Capt. Robert E. Lee and Capt. Joseph E. Johnston, of 
 his staff, to go into the place and arrange the terms of 
 its surrender. They were then distinguished young 
 officers, intimate friends to each other, and their martial 
 appearance, as they rode, superbly mounted, to meet 
 the Mexican officers, gave a general feeling of satis- 
 faction to our army, that such representatives of the 
 "North Americans" had been chosen for such an 
 occasion. 
 
 A few days before Gen. Scott had published to his 
 army a congratulatory order announcing "the great 
 victory won by the successful Gen. Taylor" on the 
 field of Buena Vista. We young Virginians felt very 
 proud that day. 
 
 After disposing of Vera Cruz we moved on towards 
 the City of Mexico. The army marched along the 
 great National road made by the old Spaniards till 
 about April I2th, when some cannon-shots from Cerro 
 Gordo checked the advance guard of our cavalry, and 
 made us know Santa Anna was prepared to give us 
 battle there.
 
 292 LIFE OF GEN. T OSEPII E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 WOUNDED IN MEXICO. 
 
 Capt. Johnston was ordered to make a reconnoissance 
 of his 'position. "C" company of Rifles (now Third 
 cavalry) was a part of his escort, I being attached to it. 
 We had been halted in the timber, just out of sight of 
 the enemy, some twenty minutes, when we heard the 
 rattle of musketry, and a few minutes later the order 
 came "fall back to the right and left of the road" to let 
 the bearers of Capt. Johnston pass by. He had received 
 two severe wounds while making a daring reconnois- 
 sance, and was borne back to Plan Del Rio, and placed 
 in the most airy house in the village, where I also was 
 borne, five days later, being severely wounded. 
 
 Stevens Mason, captain of the Rifles, was taken the^e 
 also, and a few days after, Lieut. Derby (John Phoenix) 
 was brought in and laid on a cot by my side. 
 
 A DISCIPLINARIAN. 
 
 The rooms were separated by partitions o* reeds, which 
 admitted the passage of air and sound, and we could 
 converse from One room to another. Derby's coarse 
 humor was irrepressible. Nothing could stop it, and it 
 gave annoyance, especially to Capt. Johnston, who was 
 as pure as a woman in word and thought. But he lay 
 quiescent, without any expression of pain, though his 
 wounds were the most grievous of all, and silently en- 
 dured Derby's jokes till he heard him one day order his 
 servant to catch a lamb from a passing flock and have 
 it cooked for dinner. Then he lifted up his voice and 
 said: "If you dare to do that, sir, I will have you court- 
 martialed."
 
 GEN. DABNEY H. MAURY S REMINISCENCES. 293 
 
 After ten days Gen. Scott had all of us borne on 
 litters up to the beautiful city of Jalapa, where we were 
 in a delicious climate and luxurious quarters. 
 
 After getting strength enough to walk to Capt. (now 
 Col.) Johnston's quarters he had been promoted to the 
 lieutenant-colonelcy of the fine regiment of voltigeurs 
 I went to see him every day, and we there formed 
 an attachment which ever grew until the end. His 
 nephew, the gallant young Preston Johnston, of the 
 artillery, was his constant companion and nurse. Ten 
 months later both had been shot down in battle "in 
 the valley." Young Preston Johnston was killed in- 
 stantly. His uncle, then heading the voltigeurs at 
 Chapultepec, was again severely wounded. 
 
 TENDER AFFECTION. 
 
 Only a month ago he told me with deep feeling of 
 his distress on hearing of his brave boy's death, and 
 how Lee, who broke the news to him, wept as he 
 grasped his hand and told it. The affection between 
 these two great men was very tender. 
 
 A COMPARISON. 
 
 After the Mexican war we met no more on duty until 
 about 1858, when a board of cavalry officers was 
 assembled in Washington to establish a uniform equip- 
 age for our cavalry and artillery regiments. We were 
 occupied several weeks on this business in Winder's 
 building, where during the same time Capt. William B. 
 Franklin and Raphael Semmes were serving together 
 on the light-house board.
 
 294 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 One day, after our daily session, Franklin said : "Now 
 that you have seen Lee and Johnston working together 
 for some weeks, how do you estimate the two men ? In 
 previous discussion I had thought Lee more full of promise 
 and capacity." 
 
 I said: "While both are as earnest and intelligent as 
 possible, I have noticed that Col. Lee often yields his 
 opinions to those of the board, or of other members of it, 
 while Col. Johnston has never on any occasion yielded 
 his, but frequently has made the board yield to him. In 
 fact, he is the one man who seems to have come to his 
 work with a clear and fixed idea of what is needed in 
 every detail of it." 
 
 CORDIAL INTERCOURSE. 
 
 Our intercourse, as you know, has been cordial and 
 even affectionate ever since we met in Mexico. I was 
 with him for a few days after the first battle of Manassas, 
 and accompanied him as he rode over the field, and 
 described the course and incidents of the fight. Then, 
 I being ordered to the West, met him no more until 
 about Christmas, 1862. When he came to our army at 
 Grenada with President Davis, who reviewed and 
 inspected it, the army was in position in our entrench- 
 ments on the Yallabusha. I commanded the centre, 
 and was in my place when Gen. Johnston rode out from 
 the President's cortege, greeted me *most cordially, and 
 asked me to ride with him, which we did for several 
 hours. 
 
 '. MISTAKE. 
 
 He had iust returned from an inspection of Vicksburg,
 
 GEN. DABNEY H. MAURY's REMINISCENCES. 295 
 
 and told me he had never seen so much fortification, and 
 thought it a mistake to keep so large an army in an en- 
 trenched camp; that the army ought to be in the field; 
 that a heavy work should be constructed to command 
 the river just above Vicksburg, at "the turn," with a 
 year's supply for a good garrison of about 3,000 men, 
 which would guard the river better than the long line of 
 dispersed guns and entrenchments and troops which 
 extended above and belo-vn Vicksburg for more than 
 twenty miles. 
 
 While commanding the Department of the Gulf, I 
 occasionally sent him supplies of provisions, troops, and 
 some siege pieces, which he mounted on the works at 
 Atlanta, declaring thereby his intention to "keep that 
 place" After his removal from command, I received 
 this very interesting letter from him : 
 
 GENERAL JOHNSTON'S LETTER. 
 
 MACON, GA., September i, 1864. 
 
 My dear Maury I have been intending ever since 
 my arrival at this place to pay a part of the epistolary 
 debt I owe you. But you know how lazy it makes one 
 to have nothing to do, and so with the hot weather we 
 have been enduring here I have absolutely devoted 
 myself to idleness. I have been disposed to write more 
 particularly of what concerns myself to explain to you 
 as far as practicable the operations for which I was laid 
 on the shelf, for you are one of the last whose unfavor- 
 able opinion I should be willing to incur. 
 
 You know that the army I commanded was that which, 
 under Gen. Bragg, was routed at Missionary Ridge. 
 Sherman's army was -that which routed it, reinforced 
 by the Sixteenth and Twenty-third corps. I am cen- 
 sured for not taking the offensive at Dalton where the
 
 296 LIFE OF GEN. JOSH I' 1 1 K. JOHNSTON. 
 
 enemy, if beaten, had a secure refuge behind the 
 fortified gap at Ringgold, or in the fortress of Chatta- 
 nooga, and where the odds against us were almost as 
 ten to four. At Resaca he received five brigades, near 
 Kingston three, and about 3,500 cavalry, at New Hope 
 church one in all about 14,000 infantry and artillery. 
 The enemy received the Seventeenth corps and a number 
 of garrisons and bridge guards from Tennessee and Ken- 
 tucky that had been relieved by "loo-day men." 
 
 FOUGHT EVERY DAY. 
 
 I am blamed for not fighting. Operations com- 
 menced about the 6th of May. I was relieved on the 
 i8th of July. In that time we fought daily, always 
 under circumstances so favorable to us as to make it 
 certain that the sum of the enemy's losses was five 
 times ours, which was 10,000. Northern papers rep- 
 resented theirs up to about the end of June at 45 ,000. 
 Sherman's progress was at the rate of a mile and a 
 quarter a day. Had this style of fighting been allowed 
 to continue, is it not clear that we would soon have been 
 able to give battle with abundant chances of victory? 
 and that the enemy, beaten on this side of the Chatta- 
 hoochee, would have been destroyed? 
 
 SHERMAN'S ARMY STRONGER. 
 
 It is certain that Sherman's army was stronger, com- 
 pared with that of Tennessee, than Grant's, compared 
 with that offr Northern Virginia. Gen. Bragg asserts 
 that Sherman's was absolutely stronger than Grant's. 
 It is well known that the army of Virginia was much 
 superior to that of Tennessee. Why, then, should I be 
 condemned for the defensive, while Gen. Lee was add- 
 ing to his great fame by the same course? Gen. Bragg 
 seems to have earned at Missionary Ridge his present 
 high position. People report at Columbus and Mont- 
 gomery that Gen. Bragg said that my losses had been 
 frightful ; that I had disregarded the wishes and instruc- 
 tions of the President; that he had in vain implored me
 
 GEN. DABNEY H. MAURY'S REMINISCENSES. 297 
 
 to change my course, by which, I suppose, it is meant 
 assume the offensive. 
 
 UTTERLY UNTRUE. 
 
 As these things are utterly untrue; it is not to be 
 supposed that they were said by Gen. Bragg. The 
 President gave me no instructions, and expressed no 
 wishes, except just before we reached the Chattahoo- 
 chee, warning me not fight with the river behind us, 
 and against crossing it, and previously he urged me not 
 to allow Sherman to detach to Grant's aid. Gen. Bragg 
 passed some ten hours with me just before I was relieved, 
 and gave me the impression that his visit to the army 
 was casual, he being on his way further west, to en- 
 deavor to get us reinforcements from Kirby Smith and 
 Lee. I thought him satisfied with the state of things, 
 but not so with that in Virginia. He assured me that he 
 had always maintained in Richmond that Sherman's 
 army was stronger than Grant's. He said nothing of 
 the intention to relieve me, but talked with Gen, Hood 
 011 the subject, as I learned after my removal. 
 
 THE OBJECT. 
 
 It is clear that his expedition had no other purpose 
 than my removal, and the giving proper direction to 
 public opinion on the subject. He could have had no 
 other object in going to Montgomery. A man of honor 
 in his place would have communicated with me, as well 
 as Hood, on the subject. , Being expected to assume the 
 offensive, he attacked, on the 2Oth, 22d and 28th of July, 
 disastrously losing more men than I had done in seventy- 
 two days. Since then his defensive has been at least as 
 quiet as mine was. But you must be tired of this. 
 
 HOSPITABLE GEORGIANS. 
 
 We are living very quietly and pleasantly here. The 
 Georgians have been very hospitable. We stopped here 
 merely because it was the first stopping place.
 
 298 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 her us cordially to Mrs. Maury . Tell her that the gloves 
 arrived most opportunely. Mine had just been lost, and 
 it would have been impossible to buy more, and they are 
 lovely. 
 
 Just before I left the army, we thought the odds 
 against us had been reduced almost six to four. I have 
 not supposed, therefore, that Sherman could either invest 
 Atlanta or carry it by assault. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 Major-Gen. Maury. J. E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 Since the great war between the States, we have 
 been often so associated as to impress me with the 
 tender nature which underlay the martial mind and 
 person of our great soldier. As a host, and with his 
 wife, he was attentive and tender above all men. She' 
 was very humorous and jovial, and delighted to have 
 a joke on him, and he enjoyed it from her as heartily 
 as any of us. 
 
 WHY DON'T YOU RUN AWAY? 
 
 One day, at Sweet Chalybeate Springs, a party of 
 us, as usual, assembled before dinner around one of 
 John Dabney's great hail-storm juleps. The General 
 was sitting near the baluster of the portico, which 
 overlooked the walk beneath, and deep in some nar- 
 rative, when he was interrupted by a shriek, which 
 startled us all, and broke in upon his story. After 
 looking over to learn the cause of such a yell, he 
 re-commenced his story, but was again interrupted as 
 before. Again he looked, and then again resumed, 
 only to be interrupted a third time. Then, fierce as 
 Mars, he looked down upon the screamer, and said:
 
 GEN. DABNEY H. MAURY S REMINISCENCES. 299 
 
 "Why don't you run away? Why don't you run 
 away?" I suggested: "Well, that's fine advice for a 
 great general to give." Turning savagely upon me, 
 he said: "If she will not fight, sir, is not the best 
 thing for her to do to run away, sir?" Mrs. Johnston, 
 with a burst of her hearty laugh, said: "That used 
 to be your plan always, I know, sir." This relieved 
 us all, and we burst into a laugh, in which he ioined 
 as heartily as any. 
 
 A TERRIBLE GOBBLER. 
 
 The cause of all of this disturbance was a young 
 woman in a red cloak, upon whom a turkey-gobbler 
 charged. The girl stood still and shrieked with fear. 
 The gobbler then wheeled in retreat, only to make an- 
 other charge on the paralyzed woman, whose only 
 course each time was to shake herself and shriek until 
 somebody came and drove the gobbler away. 
 
 ELDER'S PICTURE. 
 
 The State of Virginia employed Jack Elder to paint 
 his portrait a good one it is and now hangs in the ro- 
 tunda of our capitol, beide Lee's. I was asked to go 
 and keep him in chat while the artist was at work. The 
 first sitting was occupied by him in discussing Napoleon, 
 Marlborough and Wellington, and a short-hand writer 
 might then have recorded the most terse critique ever 
 pronounced on these great commanders. 
 
 THE LITTLE CORPORAL. 
 
 He placed Napoleon above all thejGenerals of history.
 
 3OO LIFE OK GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 Maryborough he ranks above all Englishmen, and cen- 
 sured Macaulay for allowing his partisan feelings for 
 King William to transmit as history his aspersions of 
 Maryborough. Wellington he considered a very great 
 General, but denounced his brutality in Spain, in giving 
 to sack, by the British soldiery, the cities of the people 
 he was sent there to defend and protect. 
 
 HIS OPINION OF FORREST. 
 
 The next day we had another sitting, and he discussed 
 the Generals of our war. He spoke most highly of For- 
 rest, whom he had closely observed, and declared to be 
 
 the greatest soldier the war produced. You know how 
 
 
 keenly he felt that the Virginians had known so little of 
 
 him in our war. His strongest desire was to be identi- 
 fied with Virginia. 'Twas this caused him to agree to 
 go to Congress, and, up to the last, he often expressed 
 his wish to live in Virginia. 
 
 A TRUE DESCRIPTION. 
 
 One day, during his canvass for Congress, Mrs. 
 Johnston, meeting me on Main street, said: "Can 
 you tell me where my husband .is?" I went at once, 
 and found him, and said: "The handsomest and 
 brightest woman in Richmond is looking for her hus- 
 band." "There is but one woman in Richmond who 
 answers that description, and she is my wife. I'll go 
 to find her at once." 
 
 Some time after I heard he had been laid up by an 
 accident to his leg, and went to see him. He was sit- 

 
 GEN. DABNEY H. MAURY's REMINISCENCES. 30! 
 
 ting in the parlor, with his leg extended over a chair. 
 His wife was by him, and affected to triumph over him 
 in his crippled condition. I said: ''That's very un- 
 grateful in you to -so treat the husband who loves and 
 admires you as he does," and then told her the above 
 incident. She said: "You old goose, you, do you let 
 him fool you in^that way? Don't you know he said 
 that to you, knowing that you would come and tell 
 me?" 
 
 He joined heartily in the laugh, as he always did 
 when she raised one at his expense. 
 
 HIS TENDER CARE. 
 
 You remember that ten years or so ago, Mrs. John- 
 jton was very ill for many weeks at the White Sulphur. 
 The General nursed her with the tender care of a 
 mother. He never left her, except to get a hurried 
 meal, from which he hastened back to her sick cham- 
 ber. Mrs. James Lyons was an active and constant 
 friend, and so soon as Mrs. Johnston began to improve 
 in health, she insisted that the General should relax his 
 anxious \vatch, and induced him to take the air for an 
 hour or two every day. But he would never go far 
 from their cottage door, but sat upon a fallen tree on 
 the lawn, in sight and sound of it, and conversed with 
 a friend. On these occasions he talked all the time, 
 and all he ever said was full of strong conviction and 
 good sense. 
 
 RETICENCE AND EMBARRASSMENT. 
 
 Genial and confiding as he was to the friends he knew
 
 3O2 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 and trusted, he was reticent and even aversive to those 
 whom he did not like, and was quick to resent any free- 
 dom or liberty from those he did not like nor know. Of 
 all men in the world, he was the least fitted for the work of 
 canvassing a Virginia district, and he never went upon 
 the hustings that his friends did not fear he would 
 give offense to somebody, and in this, we were sorely 
 disappointed. He could not overcome his embarrass- 
 ment in making an extempore speech, and therefore, 
 tried to write out his speeches and get them by heart. 
 But he found it impossible to commit to memory what he 
 had written himself, though in all other directions his 
 memory was the most accurate and retentive. Towards 
 the last years of his life he could not command it in 
 little matters, and was often at a loss for the exact word* 
 he wished. t This was a great trial to him, and in it he 
 recognized the beginning of the end. There was a 
 magnetic power about him no man could resist, and 
 exact discipline followed at once upon his assuming any 
 command. 
 
 A WRETCHED CONDITION. 
 
 When he took charge of the great army which had 
 been defeated, and disorganized, before his arrival to its 
 command, it was in wretched condition. Most of the 
 general officers were in open hostility and avowed mis- 
 trust of the general commanding, and indiscipline pre- 
 vailed throughout. When Johnston came the change 
 was instantaneous, and henceforth no army of the Con- 
 federacy ever equaled Johnston's in drill and high dis- 
 cipline.
 
 GEN. DABNEY H. MAURY S REMINISCENCES. 303 
 HOW HE IMPROVED IT. 
 
 Gen. -Carter Stevenson was one of the division com- 
 manders of that army, of the largest experience and 
 military accomplishments. He had served in every army 
 of the Confederacy, and actively in all of our wars since 
 1834. He told me he had never seen any troops in such 
 fine discipline and condition as Johnston's army the day 
 he was moved from its command. 
 
 Gen. Randall L. Gibson had been in constant action 
 in the Western army (he it was who closed an honorable 
 record by his masterly command of the defences near 
 Spanish Fort, on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay, in the 
 last battle of the war between the States), and says, that 
 when Johnston assumed command of that army it was 
 somewhat demoralized, but, when the campaign with 
 Sherman opened, the worse regiment in it was equal to 
 the best when he came to its command. A Missouri 
 soldier, of CockrelFs brigade, which Johnston declared 
 to be the best body of infantry he ever saw, was on his 
 way back to his regiment, after recovery from a wound. 
 I asked him, "What do you all think of the change of 
 commanders?" " Oh, sir, we are mightily cut down 
 about it! The bomb-proofs and the newspapers com- 
 plain of his retreats. Why, we did not miss a meal 
 from Dalton to Atlanta, and were always ready for the 
 fight. We never felt we were retreating." 
 
 GRANT'S OPINION. 
 
 During that campaign, Bishop Lay went to City Point 
 to get a pass from Grant to enable him to return to his
 
 304 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 home. He told me Grant sent for him, invited him to 
 his headquarters, and talked freely with him for a long 
 time. He seemed, to the Bishop, to feel that he was 
 handling Sherman's army during that campaign. He 
 said that the telegraph was a wonderful accessory of 
 war; that every night he and Sherman conversed by it 
 an hour or two about the movements of the army on that 
 day, and what it was to do on the next. And, he said; 
 "Bishop, when I heard your government had removed 
 Johnston from command, I was as happy as if I had re- 
 inforced Sherman with a large army corps." 
 
 SCHOFIELD. 
 
 During the past year, Gen. Johnston, responding to 
 me, said in his emphatic manner: "Yes, I consider 
 Gen. Schofield much the ablest soldier, and the highest 
 gentleman, who has occupied that office since I have 
 known it." 
 
 Such a tribute, from such a source, must be very 
 gratifying to such a soldier as Schofield is. And, you 
 know, just praise is the breath of the soldier's life, and 
 its highest aim 
 
 THE BEST SHOT. 
 
 The General bitterly deplored the long inaction 
 which his severe wounds at Seven Pines enforced upon 
 him. When he was lying at Mr. Crenshaw's, in Rich- 
 mond, where he was brought from the field, his medical 
 director, Dr. Fauntleroy, told me an old Virginian 
 called to pay his respects and sympathy. 
 
 He said: "Not only do* we deplore this cruel afflic-
 
 GEN. DABNEY H. MAURY's REMINISCENCES. 305 
 
 tion upon you, General, but we feel it to be a national 
 calamity." 
 
 "No, sir," said Johnston, fiercely, rising suddenly 
 upon his unbroken elbow, "The shot that struck me 
 down was the best ever fired for the Southern Confed- 
 eracy, for I possessed in no degree the confidence of 
 this Government, and now a man who does enjoy it 
 will succeed me, and be able to accomplish what I 
 never could." 
 
 EMBITTERED HIS LIFE. 
 
 The consciousness of wrong done him, and of the 
 non-appreciation by his Government, bore hardly upon 
 him all through our long war, and was a misfortune 
 for him and for our cause, and embittered his life to 
 its end. Proud and unyielding as he was to injustice, 
 he was quick and gentle in his symoathy *or all that 
 were weak and unfortunate. 
 
 For over fifty years he was the tender, devoted lover 
 of his wife, and was always true and affectionate to his 
 kindred. He loved young people and drew them to him. 
 He yearned for children of his own. He and my 
 children were fervent friends. Only a few month's ago 
 he said to me : ' 'You are truly blessed in your children," 
 and it will ever be their, and my consolation, that we 
 enjoyed his affection, for he was the honestest, bravest, 
 and gentlest gentleman who ever gave us his trust and 
 love. 
 
 A STUDENT OF HISTORY. 
 
 To the end of his life he was a student of history 
 bearing upon his profession. During the past few
 
 306 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 months I found him reading memoirs of Tamerlane 
 (Timur the Tartar), of which he read me nine striking 
 pages, as on another day he read me with great feeling 
 "Thiers' narrative of the last days of Napoleon at St. 
 Helena." 
 
 And the very last day I saw him the last on which 
 he left his chamber I found him with DuGuesclin 
 open before him. 
 
 WE WILL MEET AGAIN. 
 
 His disease had then become very grave and distress- 
 ing. I sat by him but a short time, and expecting to go 
 on a long journey next day I told him so, and said 
 good-by. He crew me to him, kissed my cheek, then 
 again kissed my lips tenderly as a father. I said: 
 "We will meet again soon if the yellow fever don't 
 carry me off." 
 
 He said, with strong emotion and emphasis: "Yes, 
 we will surely meet again." I never saw him any more. 
 
 DABNEY H. MAURY.
 
 REMINISCENCES OF COL. ARCHER ANDERSON. 307 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 REMINISCENCES OF COL. ARCHER ANDERSON. 
 
 \/OU ask me to give you some recollections of my 
 1 intercourse with Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. I shall 
 not attempt any formal estimate of his character as a 
 commander of armies. That could only be undertaken 
 after a careful review of all his campaigns. I will 
 endeavor merely to recall some incidents, and conversa- 
 tions, which may help to portray the inner, personal 
 nature of the man, who was generally known to his 
 countrymen only under the soldier's stern exterior. , 
 
 The circumstances of Gen. Johnston's early years 
 were such as strongly to encourage the martial instincts 
 which he inherited at his birth. To the end of his life 
 he was accustomed to talk with pride of his father's 
 distinguished service in the Revolutionary War as an 
 officer of Lee's legion, and he would tell the story of 
 the campaign in the Carolinas, as he heard it from Peter 
 Johnston's lips, with all the fire that marked his own 
 descriptions of Cerro Gordo or Chapultepec. 
 
 The incidents of the war of 1812-15 in America, and 
 the distant reverberation of. Waterloo, doubtless stirred 
 the boy's heart, and, indeed, I once heard him describe 
 to a child with some humor how in his seventh or eighth 
 year he first proclaimed his purpose to be a soldier by 
 appropriating the sword and part of the uniform of some 
 kinsman, fresh from the field, and taking instant com- 
 mand of a troop of young servants.
 
 308 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 The love of war was in his Scotch blood. And he 
 always kindled at any mention of Scotland or Scottish 
 men. Once, in discussing with him the different charac- 
 teristics of European soldiers, somebody said that, after 
 all, the English soldier was the stoutest Europe had 
 seen since Caesar's legionaries. 
 
 "I think the Scotch the best," the General quickly 
 rejoined, with that slight toss of the head, with which he 
 sometimes emphasized the expression of an opinion he 
 was ready to do battle for. He was proud of his Scotch 
 descent, tracing close kinship with the family from 
 which sprang the historian, Robertson, Lord Brougham, 
 Patrick Henry, and, I believe I may add, Mr. Glad- 
 stone. A visit, which he was able to make to Scotland 
 a few years after the close of our late war, was ever 
 afterwards a subject he loved to talk about. The low- 
 land country, as the home of his ancestors, and its 
 remains of strongholds, attesting the martial habits of 
 their former possessors, had a peculiar charm for him; 
 and it was only a year ago that, after an animated con- 
 versation about these things, I heard him murmuring in 
 a soft, clear voice: 
 
 "Within the bounds of Annandale 
 The gentle Johnstones ride ; 
 They have been there a thousand years, 
 A thousand more they'll bide." 
 
 Not till many months afterwards did I learn where 
 these lines came from. Walter Scott wrote them as a 
 motto for one of the chapters of the "Fair Maid of 
 Perth, and, when I found them there, all of the Gen-
 
 REMINISCENCES OF COL. ARCHER ANDERSON. 309 
 
 eral's great love of Sir Walter was agreeably recalled. 
 It was delightful to hear him describe the arrival of the 
 first Waverley novels in his father's quiet country home. 
 The family circle would quickly form around the blazing 
 wood fire, one of the elder brothers would begin to read 
 aloud the entrancing story, and the interruption of the 
 summons to supper or bed was always met with a gen- 
 eral murmur. It was touching to see the old soldier, in 
 his 84th year, comparing favorite passages with a little 
 girl of thirteeen, but lately introduced to Scott's magic 
 world. Love of Sir Walter at once broke down all 
 barriers between these representatives of the two 
 extremes of life, and from that moment they were fast 
 friends. 
 
 The General's father and elder brothers were men of 
 uncommon ability and culture, and the intellectual and 
 moral training he received at home was no bad prepara- 
 tion for a great career. In that circle, the "best that 
 had been said and done in the world" was often read 
 aloud and discussed. It was there the General got his 
 love "for some of the great masterpieces of literature. 
 Schliemann himself was not a greater enthusiast about 
 Homer. The old soldier talked about the heroes of the 
 Iliad, as if he had fought at their sides. Diomed was 
 his favorite. 
 
 It was the heroic fibre in him that was strung into 
 tension at every contact with greatness, in fiction or 
 history. 
 
 He had a definite image, in his mind's eye, of every 
 soldier who had played a great part in the world, and
 
 310 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 he talked about each one, from Alexander to Napoleon, 
 with criticism as discriminating, and feeling as deep as 
 contemporaries would have called forth. His conception 
 of the qualities necessary to form a soldier of the first 
 rank was so exalted that, when he found one, he could 
 not tolerate the idea that such greatness could be coupled 
 with weakness or crime. Hence, he never forgave 
 Macaulay for blackening Marlborough, or Lanfrey and 
 the radical school for belittling Napoleon. 
 
 There never was a soldier, perhaps, who delighted 
 more in the habitual contemplation of the great examples 
 of military conduct which fill the annals of war. And 
 nature had so endowed him, in heart and soul and body, 
 that he was fit to be moulded by such examples. 
 
 We had been discussing Napoleon one day, ana 
 something was said about the number of times the 
 Emperor had been wounded. "Let me show you," he 
 said, "what Thiers says about the marks of wounds 
 found on his body," and with that he read aloud Thiers' 
 touching description of Napoleon's death in tones that 
 cannot easily be forgotten. Tears were streaming 
 down his face when he closed the book. 
 
 It is almost unnecessary to say that his knowledge of 
 military history was minute and profound. In his old 
 age reading had become physically burdensome, and he 
 did not care much for new books. But his mind easily 
 reproduced all he had read in his younger days. I was 
 trying to get him to look into some parts of Carlyle's 
 "Frederick" without much success, and offered to read 
 to him one of his battle pieces. "Stop, "he said, "I
 
 Kh.MiMSCENCES OF COL. ARCHER ANDERSON. 3!! 
 
 have not read about that battle for thirty years, but I 
 think I can show you exactly the position and move- 
 ments of the armies." Then, suiting the action to the 
 word, he got down on the floor and, taking books from 
 the table, displayed all the evolutions of the Prussians 
 at Leuthen. 
 
 In his early years in the army be had been a great 
 student. He had, after leaving West Point, read in the 
 original most of the great Latin authors, -and in transla- 
 tions the principal Greek classics. With these he com- 
 bined a great deal of history and, particularlyj military 
 history. 
 
 He was exceedingly fond of the older French memoirs, 
 of which his library contained some fine copies. One 
 visitor in the last two weeks of his life found him read- 
 ing the memoirs of Sully, another, the life of Du 
 Guesclin. Du Guesclin was one of his favorite heroes. 
 How he loved to tell that story of the commander of a 
 besieged fort, who would yield his sword only to Du 
 Guesclin's dead body ! 
 
 But all this ardor in the pursuit of knowledge was 
 coupled with an equal love for out-door occupations, for 
 riding and shooting and all martial exercises. Though 
 of short stature, he had great muscular development and 
 activity. 
 
 The story used to be current at Centreville in 1861, 
 that he and Beauregard, returning to their quarters in a 
 farm-house, had been seen to vault over the paling that 
 surrounded it. He had that love of wielding weapons, 
 which would have fitted him to lead men in battle, in the
 
 312 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 days when commanders of armies fought with their own 
 hands, and he had a specially tender feeling for generals 
 whose foible was to dash foremost into the thickest 
 of the fight. How often was this trait of Prince Eugene 
 on his lips! 
 
 His love of arms and armour was always very 
 striking. As Sir Walter Scott's first excursion on 
 reaching Rome was to the neighboring feudal castle of 
 Bracciano, so the General's liveliest reminiscence of 
 Paris was of the collections of the Musee d' Artillerie. 
 And later, I remember the delight with which he 
 showed a richly illustrated history of arms and armour, 
 which he had picked up at some cost in New York. So 
 his anecdotes of shooting and hunting in the Wild West 
 were told with the zest of the keenest sportsman. 
 
 His service in the old army had made him familiar 
 with most parts of the United States. The long span 
 of his life connected periods very far apart in the devel- 
 opment of the country, and it was interesting to hear 
 his descriptions of different stages of this progress. 
 The story of the movement of his company from Fort 
 Monroe to the theatre of the Black Hawk war and its 
 return, with all the details of the route, was one of these. 
 In coming back the company marched from the Ohio 
 across Virginia to Richmond, the officers, of course, on 
 foot like their men. On the last day's march, some 
 gentlemen of the neighborhood went to meet the troops 
 at a famous tavern, thirteen miles from Richmond, and 
 invited Lieutenant Johnston to remain with them to 
 dinner. He accepted their hospitality, but was obliged
 
 REMINISCENCES OF COL. ARCHER ANDERSON. 313 
 
 to overtake his company, which was to embark the next 
 morning at Rocketts, by a night march in a driving rain 
 to Richmond. So ended in storm and mud the in- 
 glorious Black Hawk campaign; but the General's 
 account of his share in it gave a lively picture of the 
 aspect of the country, the condition of the people, and 
 the means of travel and transportation at that day. 
 
 General Johnston had not the arts of popularity. His 
 nature was too reserved to admit of that frank and ready 
 speech, which wins immediate access to every heart. 
 He gave his confidence slowly, and was not accustomed 
 to disclose his inmost thoughts, except to those whom he 
 counted as* personal friends. These knew the warmth 
 and depth of his affections, his tenderness, his love of 
 children, his unostentatious benevolence, and above all 
 the constancy and fidelity of his nature. And they 
 loved him all the more, perhaps, for certain peculiarities 
 of speech and temper, which sometimes gave offence; 
 for these showed that the hero had points of contact and 
 sympathy with ordinary humanity. There are char- 
 acters so perfect as to produce around them an atmos- 
 phere of coldness and constraint. General Johnston 
 was not one of these. Though slow to form friendships, 
 he was altogether hearty and human in his intercourse 
 with men. He loved good cheer, he enjoyed a glass of 
 wine, and his conversation at a dinner-table with con- 
 genial companions was often fascinating and memorable. 
 His speech was measured and never quite fluent; but 
 the fitting word was always found, the thought was 
 clear and its expression terse and striking. Upon any
 
 314 LIFE OK GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 subject which had engaged his intellect and feelings he 
 was an effective talker, and, as the good bishop said of 
 Macaulay, it was generally safer to agree with him at 
 once you were pretty certain to have to do so in the 
 end. 
 
 But this, in truth, was only another aspect of those 
 qualities which made him a soldier. A soldier must 
 see one side very clearly, and believe in one course 
 very firmly. There must not be much room in his 
 mind for refinements or reservations. And so, natur- 
 ally, it was the General's military talk which was the 
 most charming. Whether on the march, or at the 
 rough camp table, or at some luxurious Board in the 
 piping times of peace, he could always be drawn out 
 by a skilful question or two, into most abundant and 
 instructive criticism and narrative of great campaigns. 
 
 To the general public, his manner had in it some- 
 thing liiat was austere, and sometimes abrupt. This 
 did not impair his influence with soldiers. Even in 
 this democratic country, citizen soldiers did not expect 
 from their commanders the conciliatory manners of 
 politicians. They divined at once, under Gen. John- 
 ston's martial bearing, the stout soldier and daring 
 leader. They soon recognized his protecting care for 
 their comfort, his forethought and justice, and were at 
 once inspired with confidence in his powers of com- 
 mand. There was about him an air of strength and 
 daring, which promptly invigorated his followers. This 
 was strikingly displayed at Dalton, Georgia, in Decem- 
 ber, 1863.
 
 REMINISCENCES OF COL. ARCHER ANDERSON. 315 
 
 The Army of Tennessee was demoralized by recent 
 disaster at Missionary Ridge When Johnston assumed 
 command, confidence and military spirit instantly re- 
 vived. And all this came about without any display, 
 or boastful promises on the part of the commander. 
 The army felt that a bold heart and penetrating mind 
 would bring to bear upon its fortunes the highest mili- 
 tary skill and the most patriotic devotion. 
 
 If this was the effect he produced upon his own 
 troops, the respect he at once inspired in the enemy's 
 ranks was equally marked. Nothing is more striking 
 than the uniform testimony of Gen. Sherman and all 
 his officers', to Johnston's signal merits as a commander. 
 
 And the same opinion has prevailed amongst the 
 best foreign military critics. The estimate of Chesney, 
 placing him by the side of Turenne, is well known. 
 The Cornte de Paris had an equally high admiration of 
 him, which he gracefully manifested in his recent tour 
 in this country, by making to Gen. Johnston, at his 
 home in Washington, the only- visit he paid, except to 
 Gens. Sherman and Schofield. Gen. Johnston was not 
 at home; but he afterwards met the French Prince at 
 Richmond and Philadelphia, and received from him 
 marks of the greatest deference and respect. And the 
 Count, who has shown the most soldierly and liberal 
 spirit in recognizing the military merit of Confederates, 
 as entitled to equal consideration with that of their late 
 antagonists, has earned for himself the thanks of all 
 Southern soldiers by the generous and sympathetic 
 utterances which the death of Gen. Johnston drew from
 
 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH K. JOHNSTON. 
 
 him. These were in keeping with the high admiration 
 he showed for him in life. At a dinner given by a 
 distinguished Federal General, at which a number of 
 famous Northern officers were present, the only toast 
 the Comte de Paris gave was to Gen. Johnston the 
 chivalrous Frenchman, who had fought against him, 
 making it a point, when thus surrounded by Northern 
 officers, to propose the health of the old hero of the 
 South. 
 
 The strangers .rom other lands, who saw him then for 
 the first time, were amazed to learn that he would soon 
 complete his 84th year. There was surely a rare union 
 in Gen. Johnston of physical and mental vigor. Never 
 was healthy mind lodged in a healthier body. Though 
 that body was riddled with bullets, no unsound spot was 
 ever developed in it till the labor of four score years 
 was done. 
 
 During the war he sustained all sorts of fatigues and 
 hardships as easily as the youngest of his followers. He 
 was, at all times, the very type of a hardy soldier; and 
 the idea would often come into the minds of those about 
 him that the men who, with the Roman short sword 
 conquered the world, must have looked like him. It 
 was this martial bearing that at once won the hearts of 
 soldiers. It conveyed an instantaneous impression of 
 his most marked characteristic indomitable courage. 
 Few men ever had such a look in battle. The flashing 
 of his eye, and the movements of his body, were more 
 potent commands than any spoken words. Never was 
 warlike temper more visibly stamped on face, gesture
 
 REMINISCENCES OF COL. ARCHER ANDERSON. 317 
 
 and bearing than in the person of this grand leader, in 
 the crisis of action. To see him, then, was to receive 
 a new impulse to battle. 
 
 Such were some of the elements out of which that rare 
 product a man fit to lead armies was formed. Only 
 a few such men are born in a century. If, in 1870, 
 France had possessed one such, there would have been 
 defeat, perhaps, but no disgrace. 'No army would have 
 been lost; every inch of ground would have been con- 
 tested; and, before the siege of Paris could have been 
 formed, new levies, rallying about a nucleus of veterans, 
 would have reversed the balance of numerical superi- 
 ority. The capital and the military honor of France 
 would have been saved. 
 
 For these reasons, then even if affection and pride 
 were dead in us such a soldier should not lack endur- 
 ing commemoration. The safety of the country can 
 never be assured if each generation shall not produce 
 one such hero to lead her armies in the day of peril. 
 
 And to cherish the fame of the great and good com- 
 mander is to transmit to posterity the high thoughts and 
 feelings which in each age are needed to warm into life 
 every latent germ of military virtue. 
 
 ARCHER ANDERSON.
 
 3l8 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 T 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 THE RICHMOND MEMORIAL MEETING. 
 
 HE Johnston meeting held at the Chamber of 
 Commerce yesterday evening, was thoroughly 
 representative of all classes of Richmond's citizens. 
 
 The meeting was called to order by Judge George 
 L. Christian, on whose motion, Mayor J. T. Ellyson 
 was elected chairman. 
 
 Mayor Ellyson, on taking the chair, said he had 
 called the meeting at the request of Lee Camp, Con 
 federate Veterans, to take suitable action to secure the 
 removal of the remains of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston to 
 Richmond. 'He did not hesitate to comply with the 
 request and issue the call, for he felt that in so doing 
 he was but carrying out, and indeed, anticipating the 
 wishes of the citizens of Richmond, who he knew would 
 endorse any action of the meeting, looking to the end in 
 view. 
 
 On motion of Mr. W. L. White, Judge George L. 
 Christian was elected secretary. 
 
 It was moved and carried, that a committee on resolu- 
 tions be appointed, and the Chair announced the 
 following: Major Robert Stiles, Colonel W. H. Palmer, 
 Colonel Alexander Archer, Judge E. C. Minor, and 
 Mr. Joseph H. Thomas. 
 
 BEAUTIFUL RESOLUTIONS REPORTED. 
 
 The committee, after consultation, reported through 
 Major Stiles the following:
 
 THE RICHMOND MEMORIAL MEETING. 319 
 
 Virginia mourns the last of her great soldier trium- 
 virate, Jackson, Lee, Johnston all stainless, each one 
 as good as great. 
 
 Within a year after he drew aside the veil that hid 
 the image of the God-like Lee, Johnston himself passed 
 from us, and beyond that greater veil the three Christian 
 heroes have entered upon immortal comradeship. Weep- 
 ing Virginia, though Rachel-like, lamenting her 
 children because they are not, may yet lift her bowed 
 head with this proud reflection : Even in these degener- 
 ate days have I borne peerless sons, and, w r hile in some 
 sense I must give them up, yet are they mine forever. 
 
 More essentially, perhaps, than any other great 
 American, Joseph E. Johnston was the soldier the 
 trained,, professional soldier. As such, he was less per- 
 fectly in touch with the mass of the people, and in pro- 
 portion to his merit less appreciated by them than were 
 most of the other heroes of the war. The Christian 
 civilization of to-day rightly yearns for peace, but 
 wrongly refuses to estimate fairly the greatness that is 
 born of the profession of arms alone. A quarter of a 
 century ago, as the majestic figures of our great 
 generals emerged from the smoke of battle, and moved 
 out from the soldier life, from camp and march and 
 field, into the unromantic walks of our selfish, scheming 
 business world, men marveled at them as anomalies, and 
 demanded "whence have mere soldiers these character- 
 istics ; this purity and consecration, this majesty and 
 strength?" Those of us who have to some degree 
 lived, and loved, the life of the soldier make answer:
 
 32O LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 "These men were cast in this mould; they are not 
 anomalies, but the lofty yet normal outcome of a grand 
 system of physical and mental and moral training." 
 What, then, is the training and what are the formative 
 elements of this life? 
 
 ESSENTIAL CHARACTER OF THE SOLDIER LIFE. 
 
 We answer: The essential character of the soldier 
 life is "SERVICE" its all pervading law is "DuTY." 
 Its first lesson is OBEDIENCE unquestioning its last 
 lesson COMMAND unquestioned. Its daily discipline 
 ACCOUNTABILITY unceasing its final burden RESPON- 
 SIBILITY unmeasured. Its every-day experience HARD- 
 SHIPS, PERILS, CRISES unparalleled its compensation 
 FIXED PAY. Its inspiration PROMOTION FROM ABOVE. 
 
 Here is the mould. Does it not prefigure the man 
 we mourn and honor to-night? His purity, his loyalty, 
 his directness, his robustness, his majestic simplicity, 
 his devotion to duty, his heroism ? Yes ! God made 
 him in body, mind and soul a youth capable of respond- 
 ing to this noble training and absorbing these lofty 
 influences; but they made him the man and the hero 
 he was. 
 
 Thus was he soldier-trained to a great character and 
 a grand career, to a majestic manhood and a mighty 
 life, but his spirit soared even higher, because he was 
 also God-created, high-souled and broad-minded. It is 
 noteworthy how his soldier training and his soldier 
 spirit entered into, inspiring or modifying, his almost 
 every act and utterance, and yet how his personal eleva-
 
 THE RICHMOND MEMORIAL MEETING. 321 
 
 tion and breadth bore him up, and away above and 
 beyond the mere soldier. 
 
 FOUGHT BRAVELY UNDER WHAT HE CONSIDERED 
 INJUSTICE. 
 
 Where will you find anything finer than his palliation 
 of the failure of a gallant officer (afterwards prominent 
 upon the Federal side) to espouse the cause of his native 
 South, upon the ground, as he said, that his friend was 
 essentially a soldier, and had failed to secure in our 
 service the rank to which his worth, and his position, in 
 the old army justly entitled him all unconscious the 
 while of the noble contrast which his own conduct 
 presented in turning his back upon a higher position 
 in the old service than any other Southern officer 
 sacrificed, and never sulking, but fighting to the bitter 
 end under what he considered injustice like to that 
 which repelled his friend? 
 
 His mere intellectual pre-eminence does not even 
 require distinct assertion. Not only does his career 
 throughout bear witness to it, but it is, perhaps, not 
 too much to say that by the general consensus of com- 
 petent opinion in the United States, North and South, 
 Joseph E. Johnston is ranked as at least the peer of any 
 officer upon either side of the late war, not in intellect 
 only, but in all the learning and skill of his profession. 
 He was even more than this. It is questionable 
 \vhether there can be found, in all the annals of war 
 and of defeat, a sublimer exhibition of imperturbable 
 poise of soul and perfect command of the very utmost of
 
 322 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 one's supremest powers than is furnished by Johnston's 
 great double act of soldiership and statesmanship in the 
 battle of Bentonville, and the convention with Sherman. 
 But not only did his comprehensive intelligence and 
 his high-souled strength overlap and rise above the 
 broad, high ideal even of the true soldier if soldier 
 only but his heart and his affections were so rich and 
 so loving that even his lion-like masculinity could not 
 banish from his intercourse with his family and his 
 friends a tenderness that was absolutely womanly. 
 Gen. Dabney Maury says he kissed him upon both 
 cheeks and then upon his lips when parting with him 
 for the last time. It was one of his peculiar habits to 
 embrace and kiss men whom he specially loved and 
 trusted. He was not only affectionate and tender "he 
 of the lion heart and hammer hand" and body battle- 
 scarred but he was the most affectionate and the most 
 tender of men. 
 
 WE CRAVE THE NOBLE BODY. 
 
 Let it be added, to complete the picture, and with de- 
 vout gratitude to Almighty God, that he who, with such 
 compelling will and such a mighty hand, controlled and 
 led men, followed his Divine Master with the humility 
 and the confiding trust of a little child ; therefore be it 
 
 Resolved, i, That in the life of Gen. Joseph Eggleston 
 Johnston, Virginia recognizes, with paternal pride, the 
 career of a great Christian soldier without fear and with- 
 out reproach, and full of well-earned honors. 
 
 2, That, in his death, she mourns the loss of one of 
 the most noble and the most loyal of all her heroic sons. 
 
 3, That, so far as such final disposition of his remains
 
 THE RICHMOND MEMORIAL MEETING. 323 
 
 can be harmonized with the wishes and plans of the 
 General's family, the people of Richmond, and, we are 
 confident, the people of Virginia as well, crave the noble 
 body, scarred with ten honorable wounds, and ask that 
 they be permitted to lay it reverently to rest here, in his 
 native soil, at such place in or near the city of Rich- 
 mond as may hereafter be determined upon. 
 
 4, That the foregoing minute and resolutions be com- 
 municated to the family of Gen. Johnston, accompanied 
 by our reverent sympathies. 
 
 MAJOR STILES'S REMARKS. 
 
 Major Stiles, in speaking of the resolutions, said that 
 Gen. Johnston was the grandest man he had ever known, 
 in respect of personal friendly relations. He was, how- 
 ever, so essentially a soldier, that he was not in touch 
 
 v 
 
 with the people, and was not esteemed as other men 
 were. 
 
 The speaker believed that if he could communicate 
 with the old hero, he would thank him for putting before 
 the people the life of the soldier. Public sentiment, 
 continued Major Stiles, does not do justice to the soldier. 
 The whole force of modern society is given to the 
 accumulation of wealth. The soldier never accumu- 
 lates. It was contended that the time of the soldier had 
 passed. This is not true. All civilization is born of the 
 blood of the soldier, and founded on the bullet, and the 
 sword. The Christian civilization is iron-bound, 
 and will be until the millennium. The contrary idea 
 was a false representation of the Christian religion. 
 The speaker showed how Sir Philip Sidney, Havelock, 
 Chinese Gordon, Jackson, Lee, and others were not 
 anomalies, but the development of the soldier life, and
 
 324 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 drew a striking picture of Gen. Johnston the soldierly 
 type. 
 
 INFINITE AND ABSOLUTE COURAGE. 
 
 He was, Major Stiles said, the embodiment of infinite 
 and absolute courage. There was as much courage 
 and nobility in his small frame as could have been 
 packed in that of a man of six feet six inches. The 
 life of a soldier was, said Major Stiles, service. He 
 was cut off from everything that others enjoy. It was 
 a priesthood of consecration. He was separate from the 
 people, from their aims, and from their ambitions, 
 standing way off on the frontier, protecting the State and 
 the women and children. 
 
 DUTY. 
 
 As for duty, the soldier had put that word where it 
 never was before, and he obeyed, because those above 
 him had a right to command. There was, asserted the 
 speaker, no more important lesson for the people to learn 
 than that of obedience. The centurion had given the 
 best analysis of obedience. 
 
 Major Stiles then attested to the responsibilities of the 
 military life, and showed how Gen. Johnston measured 
 up to the full standard of all that combined to constitute 
 the ideal soldier. 
 
 NO POLITICIAN. 
 
 The speaker's description of what difficulties he and 
 others encountered in trying to make a politician of Gen. 
 Johnston was very amusing; and, in this connection, he 
 told some anecdotes, at the expense of himself and
 
 THE RICHMOND MEMORIAL MEETING. 325 
 
 friends, which illustrated Gen. Johnston's straightfor- 
 wardness, that provoked bursts of merriment. 
 
 Gen. Johnston, added Major Stiles, was one of the 
 most charming conversationalists he had ever heard 
 talk, and was the most affectionate and lovable man he 
 had ever met. He had often kissed the speaker, and 
 it was his habit, whenever he parted from a family, to 
 kiss the younger members. Major Stiles's description 
 of his last interview with Gen. Johnston was so pathetic 
 as to draw tears from the eyes of all present. 
 
 AN ELOQUENT AND TENDER TRIBUTE. 
 
 Major Stiles spoke for half an hour, perhaps, and 
 nothing short of a verbatim report of his remarks could 
 convey anything like an adequate impression of his 
 eloquence and tenderness in his reference to his old 
 commander and friend. 
 
 At the conclusion of Major Stiles's remarks, the reso- 
 lutions were unanimously adopted. 
 
 Capt. Louis Bosseiux spoke briefly regarding his old 
 friend, after which the meeting adjourned.
 
 326 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 REMINISCENCES OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON, BY 
 A NORTHERN SOLDIER. 
 
 This story is credited to Gen. Joseph E. Johnston and 
 to several officers who were musketry instructors in their 
 younger days, and who held leading commands on 
 different* sides during our civil war. On getting into 
 hot corners, when the enemy's balls were flying close 
 around their heads, they would say: "Disgusting! 
 Really, now, less accuracy than in the old buck and 
 ball period. It is too bad! Too bad! No improve- 
 ment at all. Won't they ever learn to gauge distances? 
 A shameless waste of good ammunition, that's what it is. 
 Confounded carelessness!" 
 
 With Grant, Gen. Sheridan was the least fidgety of 
 men under fire ; and as to Custer, he really seemed to 
 like such abnormal conditions. It would be invidious 
 to signal out any one on either side for coolness in 
 action; nevertheless, the peculiar idiosyncracies of the 
 late Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston were con- 
 spicuous. He was noted for absolute indifference to 
 lead. ''You can't see things, gentlemen, in their 
 proper light," Gen. Johnston would say to his staff, 
 "unless we get much closer quite close, in fact," and 
 close to the line of fire he would gp. It looked as if he 
 never remembered that he had been hit, or that there 
 was any risk to be run.
 
 REMINISCENCES OF A NORTHERN SOLDIER. 327 
 
 It is said, that at the battle of Seven Pines, where he 
 got his last wound, he remarked, after he had reeled in 
 his saddle: "Quite extraordinary! It's nothing, gentle- 
 men, I assure you; not worthy of comment. I think 
 we ought to move up a little closer. If a surgeon is 
 within call, and not too busy at his convenience, per- 
 fect convenience he might as well look me over." If 
 some one on his staff had not just then caught him, the 
 General would have fallen from his horse; and, even 
 then, he made a little deprecatory gesture, as if to say, 
 It is a mere trifle of no possible consequence. 
 
 This anecdote is authentic, and shows how modest is 
 true courage, and how it may have a ludicrous side to 
 it. Some years after the war, at a family dinner, where 
 there were present Gen. Joseph E. Johnston and a 
 distinguished officer, in the regular service, who was 
 bravery personified, the talk was about the Black Hawk 
 war. 
 
 "I think," said Gen. Johnston, in his quiet way, "an 
 Irish private soldier was the most amusingly brave man 
 I ever heard about. It seems, or I have been told, that 
 there were six men surrounded in a swamp by eighty 
 odd Indians. The soldiers were like rats in a trap, up 
 to their knees in a swamp, the mud of such tenacious 
 ooze that they couldn't move. During the first five 
 minutes three of the men were wounded. It was cer- 
 tain that in time some of the Indians would make their 
 way in the rear of the soldiers, and shoot them in the 
 back, because the men could not face about. There 
 was this Irishman, and he said to the officer in charge:
 
 328 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 ' Excusin' the libertee, sor, but there's a bloody mus- 
 quiter on me nose, and the baste won't get lose of me. 
 Would your honor kindly brush it off, bekase my arm 
 is kind of ripped up wid a ball, and if I move it, belike 
 my muskit would fall in the mud and be unsarviceable, 
 and she's furnished with the last ca'tidge in the sack? ' 
 Every one of those six men thought they had but a few 
 minutes more to live, when, just then, if I remember 
 rightly, there happened to be a rescue.' 
 
 "I have heard that story, Gen. Johnston," said the 
 listening officer; "only you forget to mention one thing, 
 and it was that you were the officer in charge of that 
 party." 
 
 Then Gen. Johnston looked quite confused, blushed 
 and said: "That may be, but I was frightened, sir. 
 How do you know that I was not? I think I was in a 
 perfect funk." 
 
 During the evening the lady, at whose house they 
 were dining, was discussing the merits of kerosene 
 lamps, mineral oils having been about that time brought 
 into use in the South. Gen. Johnston's opinion was 
 asked about them. 
 
 "I am the most timid man in the world," said the 
 General, " and dreadfully afraid of a kerosene lamp. 
 The other day a servant put one in my room. I was 
 but half dressed, and I hurried out as fast as I could 
 run. I knew it was going to burst. Then think of it! 
 The very next night some kind of a patent kerosene 
 lamp was sent me as a present, and the donor lit it, ex- 
 p^ining to me the method of working it. Such was my
 
 REMINISCENCES OF A NORTHERN SOLDIER. 329 
 
 nervousness that I never knew he was talking to me. 
 Later, after somebody had extinguished the lamp, I tried 
 to reason out to myself what a poltroon I was. We get 
 hardened in time; but, I assure you, nothing would ever 
 induce me to light or extinguish a kerosene lamp. I 
 really envy you, madam, as possessing heroic traits, 
 when you tell me you feel no alarm when in the pres- 
 ence of a kerosene lamp. But I am, by nature, an 
 arrant coward. An enemy, armed with kerosene lamps, 
 would drive me off the field. I should be panic per- 
 sonified." 
 
 All this was said with such an air of conviction as to 
 be highly amusing, when coming from the lips of as 
 brave a man as ever lived. B. P.
 
 33 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 
 The following is the form of the parole, rxi-oik-d 
 under the Convention of Durham : 
 
 SALISBURY, N. C., May 2, 1865. 
 
 In accordance with the terms of the military conven- 
 tion, entered into on the 26th day of April, 1865, 
 between Gen. Jos. E. Johnston, commanding the Con- 
 federate Army, and Major-Gen. W. T. Sherman, com- 
 manding the United States Army, in North Carolina. 
 
 Bradley T. Johnson, Brig. -Gen. C. S. A., has given 
 his solemn obligation not to take up arms against the 
 Government of the United States until properly released 
 from this obligation, and is permitted to return to his 
 home, not to be disturbed by the United States authorities, 
 so long as he observe this obligation, and obey the laws 
 in force where he may reside. 
 
 FR. EWD. WOLCOTT, 
 Major and J. A., U. S. A., Special Commission. 
 
 BRADLEY T. JOHNSON, 
 Brig. -Gen. C. S. A., Commanding. 
 
 HEADQUARTERS \ 
 
 ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES, > 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C., March 30, 1866. ) 
 
 His EXCELLENCY, A. JOHNSON, 
 
 President of the United States : 
 
 Sir I understand from Bradley T. Johnson, late of 
 the Southern Army, and who was included in the 
 paroled officers, under the convention between Gen. W. 
 T. Sherman and Gen. J. E. Johnston, has been arrested 
 in the State of Maryland on the charge of treason, for 
 acts committed at the battle of Gettysburg, Pa., in 1863. 
 I have noticed the same thing from the newspapers.
 
 APPENDIX A. 331 
 
 There is nothing clearer in my mind, than that the 
 terms of the paroles given by officers and soldiers who 
 were arrayed against the authority of the General Gov- 
 ernment of the United States, prior to their surrender, 
 exempts them from trial or punishment for acts of legal 
 warfare, so long as they observe the conditions of their 
 paroles. 
 
 Gen. Johnston was in Maryland by express authority 
 from these headquarters. I would now ask, as a point 
 of faith on the part of the government, that proper steps 
 be taken to relieve B. T. Johnson from the obligations 
 of the bonds which he has been forced to give in the 
 State of Maryland. 
 
 I have the honor to be, very respectfully, 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 U.S. GRANT, Lt. General. 
 
 The above was written by Gen. Grant, and delivered 
 to Gen. Joseph E. Johnston for approval, on the com- 
 plaint by th^ latter of the arrest in Baltimore of one of 
 his subordinates. 
 
 The above copy was taken and the original delivered 
 by Hon. D. W. Voorhees, of Indiana, to Hon. Reverdy 
 Johnson, of Maryland, who personally delivered it to 
 Andrew Johnson. The statements in it were considered 
 too broad and embarrassing to the Administration, which 
 then contemplated embarking on criminal prosecutions, 
 and the original letter was withdrawn from the files of 
 the Executive Department and another substituted, merely 
 asking for a nolle prosequi, which was granted. 
 
 But Grant's official statement, that the faith of the 
 government was pledged to protect against all pros- 
 ecution, for acts of legal war, all paroled officers and 
 soldiers, was, at that time, considered of great weight 
 and moment.
 
 332 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH K. JOHNSTON. 
 
 And the criminal prosecution was stayed. He inter- 
 posed in the same way for the protection of Col. John 
 S. Mosby, and during the whole of that trying time his 
 assistance was never invoked by any one who had the 
 right to it, without being liberally and without delay, 
 extended. 
 
 If the first convention at Durham's station was in- 
 tended by Sherman to be executed in good faith, it was 
 a wise, broad measure; if it was intended merely as a 
 device to deceive Johnston, and did deceive him, the 
 disgrace and dishonor does not rest on Johnston's brow.
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED CONSTITUTION OF THE CONFED- 
 STATES OF AMERICA.* ERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
 WE the People of the United 
 States, in order to form a more 
 perfect Union, establish Jus- 
 tice, insure domestic Tranquil- 
 ity, provide for the common 
 defence, promote the general 
 Welfare, and secure the Bles- 
 sings of Liberty to ourselves 
 and our Posterity, do ordain 
 and establish this CONSTITU- 
 TION for the United States of 
 America. 
 
 WE, the People of the Confed- 
 erate States, each State acting 
 in its sovereign and indepen- 
 dent character, in order to 
 form a permanent Federal 
 Government, establish justice, 
 insure domestic tranquility, 
 and secure the blessings of 
 liberty to ourselves and our 
 posterity invoking .the favor 
 and guidance of Almighty 
 God do ordain and establish 
 this Constitution for the Con- 
 federate States of America. 
 
 ARTICLE I. 
 
 SECTION i. All legislative 
 Powers herein granted shall be 
 vested in a Congress of the Uni- 
 ted States, which shall consist of 
 a Senate and House of Repre- 
 sentatives. 
 
 SECTION 2. The House of Rep- 
 resentatives shall be composed 
 of Members chosen every second 
 Year by the People of the several 
 States, and the Electors in each 
 State shall have the Qualifica- 
 tions requisite for Electors of the 
 
 ARTICLE I. 
 
 SECTION i. All legislative 
 powers herein delegated shall be 
 vested in a Congress of the Con- 
 federate States, which shall con- 
 sist of a Senate and House of 
 Representatives. 
 
 SECTION 2. The House of Rep- 
 resentatives shall' be composed 
 of members chosen every second 
 year by the people of the several 
 States ; and the electors in each 
 State shall be citizens of the Con- 
 federate States, and have the 
 
 * This is an exact copy of the original in punctuation, spelling, capitals, etc. 
 
 333
 
 334 
 
 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 most numerous Branch of the 
 State Legislature. 
 
 No Person shall be a Repre- 
 sentative who shall not have 
 attained to the Age of twenty- 
 five Years, and been seven Years 
 a Citizen of the United States, 
 and who shall not, when elected, 
 be an Inhabitant of that State in 
 which he shall be chosen. 
 
 Representatives and direct 
 Taxes shall be apportioned 
 among the several States which 
 may be included within this 
 Union, according to their respec- 
 tive Numbers,* which shall be 
 determined by adding to the 
 whole Number of free Persons, 
 including those bound to Service 
 for a term of Years, and exclud- 
 ing Indians not taxed, three- 
 fifths of all other Persons. f The 
 actual Enumeration shall be 
 made within three Years after 
 the first meeting of the Congress 
 of the United States, and within 
 every subsequent Term of ten 
 Years, in such Manner as they 
 shall by Law direct. The Num- 
 ber of Representatives shall not 
 exceed one for every thirty 
 Thousand, but each State shall 
 have at Least one Representa- 
 tive ; and until such enumera 
 tion shall be made, the State of 
 New Hampshire shall be entitled 
 
 qualifications requisite for elec- 
 tors of the most numerous 
 branch of the State Legislature ; 
 but no person of foreign birth, 
 not a citizen of the Confederate 
 States, shall be allowed to vote 
 for any officer, civil or political, 
 State or Federal. 
 
 No person shall be a Repre- 
 sentative who shall not have 
 attained the age of twenty-five 
 years, and be a citizen of the 
 Confederate States, and who 
 shall not, when elected, be an 
 inhabitant of that State in which 
 he shall be chosen. 
 
 Representatives and direct tax- 
 es shall be apportioned among 
 the several States, which may be 
 included within this Confeder- 
 acy, according to their respective 
 numbers, which shall be de- 
 termined by adding to the whole 
 number of free persons, includ- 
 ing those bound to service for a 
 term of years, and excluding 
 Indians not taxed, three fifths of 
 all slaves. The actual enumera- 
 tion shall be made within three 
 years after the first meeting of 
 the Congress of the Confederate 
 States, and within every subse- 
 quent term of ten years, in such 
 manner as they shall by law 
 direct. The number of Repre- 
 sentatives shall not exceed one 
 for every fifty thousand, but 
 each State shall have at least one 
 Representative ; and until such 
 enumeration shall be made, the 
 State of South Carolina shall be 
 entitled to choose six, the State 
 
 * Under the census of 1860 on representative is allowed for every 127,381 
 persons. 
 
 t "Other persons" refers to slaves. Sec Amendments, Art. XIV, Sections I and 2.
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 335 
 
 to chuse three, Massachusetts 
 eight, Rhode-Island and Provi- 
 dence Plantations one, Connect- 
 icut five, New York six, New 
 Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, 
 Delaware one, Maryland six, Vir- 
 ginia ten, North Carolina five, 
 South Carolina five, and Georgia 
 three. 
 
 When vacancies happen in the 
 Representation from any State, 
 the Executive Authority thereof 
 shall issue Writs of Election to 
 fill such Vacancies. 
 
 The House of Representatives 
 shall chuse their Speaker and 
 other officers ; * and shall have 
 the sole Power of Impeachment. 
 
 SECTION 3. The Senate of 
 the United States shall be com- 
 posed of two Senators from each 
 State, chosen by the Legislature 
 thereof, for six Years ; and each 
 Senator shall have one Vote. 
 
 Immediately after they shall 
 be assembled in Consequence of 
 the first Election, they shall be 
 divided as equally as may be 
 into three Classes. The Seats 
 of the Senators of the first Class 
 shall be vacated at the Expira- 
 tion of the second Year, of the 
 
 of Georgia ten, the State of Ala- 
 bama nine, the State of Florida 
 two, the State of Mississippi 
 seven, the State of Louisiana six, 
 and the State of Texas six. 
 
 When vacancies happen in the 
 representation from any State, 
 the Executive authority thereof 
 shall issue writs of election to 
 fill such vacancies. 
 
 The House of Representatives 
 shall choose their Speaker and 
 other officers ; and shall have 
 the sole power of impeachment, 
 except that any judicial or other 
 Federal officer, resident and act- 
 ing solely within the limits of 
 any State, may be impeached by 
 a vote of two thirds of both 
 branches of the Legislature 
 thereof. 
 
 SECTION 3. The Senate of the 
 Confederate States shall be com- 
 posed of two Senators from each 
 State, chosen for six years by the 
 Legislature thereof, at the regu- 
 lar session next immediately 
 preceding the commencement of 
 the term of service ; and each 
 Senator shall have one vote. 
 
 Immediately after they shall 
 be assembled, in consequence of 
 the first election, they shall be 
 divided as equally as may* be 
 into three classes. The seats of 
 the Senators of the first class 
 be vacated at the expiration of 
 the second year ; of the second 
 
 * The principal of these are the clerk, sergeant-at-arms, door-keeper, and 
 postmaster,
 
 33^ 
 
 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 second Class at the Expiration 
 of the fourth Year, and of the 
 third class at the Expiration of 
 the sixth Year, so that one-third 
 may be chosen every second 
 year; and if Vacancies happen 
 by Resignation, or otherwise, 
 during the Recess of the Legis- 
 lature of any State, the Execu- 
 tive thereof may make tempo- 
 rary Appointments until the 
 next Meeting of the Legislature, 
 which shall then fill such Vacan 
 cies. 
 
 No person shall be a Senatoi 
 who shall not have attained to the 
 Age of thirty Years, and been 
 nine Years a Citizen of the Uni 
 ted States, and who shall not 
 when elected, be an Inhabitant 
 of that State for which he shall 
 be chosen. 
 
 The Vice President qf the Uni- 
 ted States shall be President of 
 the Senate, but shall have no 
 Vote, unless they be equally 
 divided. 
 
 The Senate shall chuse their 
 other Officers, and also a Presi- 
 dent pro tempore, in the absence 
 of the Vice President, or when 
 he shall exercise the Office of 
 President of the United States. 
 
 The Senate shall have the sole 
 Power to try all Impeachments. 
 When sitting for that Purpose, 
 they shall be on Oath or Affirma- 
 tion. When the President of the 
 United State's is tried, the Chief 
 Justice shall preside: And no 
 Person shall be convicted with- 
 out the Concurrence of two- 
 thirds of the Members present. 
 
 Judgment in Cases of Impeach- 
 ment shall not extend further 
 
 class at the expiration of the 
 fourth year ; and of the third 
 class at the expiration of the 
 sixth year ; so that one third 
 may be chosen every second 
 year; and if vacancies happen 
 by resignation or otherwise, 
 during the recess of the Legis- 
 lature of any State, the Execu- 
 tive thereof may make tempo- 
 rary appointments until the next 
 meeting of the Legislature, 
 which shall then fill such vacan- 
 cies. 
 
 No person shall be a Senator 
 who shall not have attained the 
 age of thirty years, and be a 
 r .itizen of the Confederate States ; 
 and who shall not, when elected, 
 oe an inhabitant of the State for 
 which he shall be chosen. 
 
 The Vice-President of the Con- 
 federate States shall be Presi- 
 dent of the Senate, but shall 
 have no vote unless they be 
 equally divided. 
 
 The Senate shall choose their 
 other officers ; and also a Presi- 
 dent pro tempore in the absence 
 of the Vice-President, or when he 
 shall exercise the office of Presi- 
 dent of the Confederate States. 
 
 The Senate shall have the sole 
 power to try all impeachments. 
 When sitting for that purpose, 
 they shall be on oath or affirma- 
 tion. When the President of the 
 Confederate States is tried, the 
 Chief-Justice shall preside ; and 
 no person shall be convicted 
 without the concurrence of two 
 thirds of the members present. 
 Judgment in cases of impeach- 
 ment shall not extend further
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 337 
 
 than to removal from Office, and 
 Disqualification to hold and 
 enjoy any Office of Honour, 
 Trust or. Profit under the United 
 States : but the Party convicted 
 shall nevertheless be liable and 
 subject to Indictment, Trial, 
 Judgment and Punishment, 
 according to Law. 
 
 SECTION 4. The Times, Places 
 and Manner of holding Elections 
 for Senators and Representa- 
 tives, shall be prescribed in each 
 State by the Legislature thereof: 
 but the Congress may at any 
 time by Law make or alter such 
 Regulations, except as to the 
 places of chusing Senators. 
 
 The Congress shall assemble 
 at least once in every Year, and 
 such Meeting shall be on the 
 first Monday in December, unless 
 they shall by Law appoint a 
 different Day. 
 
 SECTION 5. Each House shall 
 be the Judge of the Elections, 
 Returns and Qualifications of its 
 own Members, and a Majority of 
 each shall constitute a Quorum 
 to do Business; but a smaller 
 Number may adjourn from day 
 to day, and may be authorized 
 to compel the Attendance of 
 absent Members, in such Man- 
 ner, and under such Penalties as 
 each House may provide. 
 
 Each House may determine 
 the Rules of its Proceedings, 
 punish its Members for disor- 
 derly Behaviour, and, with the 
 Concurrence of two-thirds, ex- 
 pel a Member. 
 
 than to removal from office, and 
 diqualification to hold and enjoy 
 any office of honor, trust, or 
 profit, under the Confederate 
 States ; but the party convicted 
 shall, nevertheless, be liable and 
 subject to indictment, trial, judg- 
 ment, and punishment according 
 to law. 
 
 SECTION 4. The times, place, 
 and manner of holding elections 
 for Senators and Representa- 
 tives, shall be orescribed in each 
 State by the Legislature thereof, 
 subject to the provisions of this 
 Constitutions ; but the Congress 
 may, at any time, by law, make 
 or alter such regulations, except 
 as to the times and places of 
 choosing Senators. 
 
 The Congress shall assemble 
 at least once in every year ; and 
 such meeting shall be on the 
 first Monday in December, unless 
 they shall, by law, appoint a 
 different day. 
 
 SECTION 5. Each House shall 
 be the judge of .the elections, 
 returns, and qualifications of its 
 own members, and a majority of 
 each shall constitute a quorum 
 to do business ; but a smaller 
 number may adjourn from day 
 to day, and may be authorized 
 to compel the attendance of 
 absent members, in such man- 
 ner and under such penalties as 
 each house may provide. 
 
 Each House may determine 
 the rules of its proceedings, 
 punish its members for disor- 
 derly behavior, and, with the 
 concurrence of two thirds of the 
 whole number, expel a member.
 
 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 Each House shall keep a Jour- 
 nal of its Proceedings, and from 
 time to time publish the same, 
 excepting such Parts as may in 
 their Judgment require Secrecy ; 
 and the Yeas and Nays of the 
 Members of either House on any 
 question shall, at the Desire of 
 one-fifth of those Present, be 
 entered on the Journal. 
 
 Neither House, during th6 Ses- 
 sion of Congress, shall, without 
 the Consent of the other, ad- 
 journ for more than three days, 
 nor to any other Place than that 
 in which the two Houses shall 
 be sitting. 
 
 SECTION 6. The Senators and 
 Representatives shall receive a 
 Compensation for their Services, 
 to be ascertained by Law, and 
 paid out of the Treasury of the 
 United States. They shall in 
 all Cases, except Treason, Felony 
 and Breach of the Peace, be privi- 
 leged from Arrest during their 
 Attendance at the Session of 
 their respective Houses, and in 
 going to and returning from the 
 same , and for any Speech or 
 Debate in either House, they 
 shall not be questioned in any 
 other Place. 
 
 No Senator or Representative 
 shall, during the time for which 
 he was elected, be appointed to 
 any civil Office under the Author- 
 ity of the United States, which 
 shall have been created, or the 
 Emoluments whereof shall have 
 been increased during such time ; 
 and no Person holding any Office 
 under the United States, shall be 
 a Member of either House during 
 his Continuance in Office. 
 
 Each House shall keep a jour- 
 nal of its proceedings, and from 
 time to time pnblish the same, 
 excepting such parts as may in 
 their judgment require secrecy; 
 and the yeas and nays of the 
 members of either House, on any 
 question, shall, at the desire of 
 one fifth of those present, be 
 entered on the journal. 
 
 Neither House, during the ses- 
 sion of Congress, shall, without 
 the consent of the other, ad- 
 journ for more than three days, 
 nor to any other place than that 
 in which the two Houses shall 
 be sitting. 
 
 SECTION 6. The Senators and 
 Representatives shall receive a 
 compensation for their services, 
 to be ascertained by law, and 
 paid out of the Treasury of the 
 Confederate States. They shall, 
 in all cases, except treason, fel- 
 ony, and breach of the peace, be 
 privileged from arrest during 
 their attendance at the session 
 of their respective Houses, and 
 in going to and returning from 
 the same ; and for any speech or 
 debate in either House, they 
 shall not be questioned in any 
 other place. 
 
 No Senator or Representative 
 shall, during the time for which 
 he was elected, be appointed to 
 any civil office under the author- 
 ity of the Confederate States, 
 which shall have been created, 
 or the emoluments whereof shall 
 have been increased during such 
 time ; and no person holding 
 any office under the Confederate 
 States shall be a member of 
 either House during his continu-
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 339 
 
 SECTION 7. All Bills for raising 
 Revenue shall originate in the 
 House of Representatives ; but 
 the Senate may propose or con- 
 cur with Amendments as on 
 other Bills. 
 
 Every Bill which shall have 
 passed the House of Representa- 
 tives and the Senate, shall, be- 
 fore it become a Law, be pre- 
 sented to the President of the 
 United States ; If he approve he 
 shall sign it, but if not he shall 
 return it, with his Objections to 
 that House in which it shall have 
 originated, who shall enter the 
 Objections at large on their Jour- 
 nal, and proceed to reconsider it. 
 If after such Reconsideration 
 two-thirds of that House shall 
 agree to pass the Bill, it shall be 
 sent, together with the Objec- 
 tions, to the other House, by 
 which it shall likewise be recon- 
 sidered, and if approved by two- 
 thirds of that House, it.shall be- 
 come a Law. But in all such 
 Cases the Votes of Both Houses 
 shall be determined by Yeas and 
 Nays, and the Names of the Per- 
 sons voting for and against the 
 Bill shall be entered on the Jour- 
 nal of each House respectively. 
 If any Bill shall not be returned 
 by the President within ten Days 
 (Sundays excepted) after it shall 
 have been presented to him, the 
 
 ance in office. But Congress 
 may, by law, grant to the princi- 
 pal officer in each of the execu- 
 tive departments a seat Ttpon the 
 floor of either House, with the 
 privilege of discussing any meas- 
 ures appertaining to his depart- 
 ment. 
 
 SECTION 7. All bills for raising 
 the revenue shall originate in the 
 House of Representatives ; but 
 the Senate may propose or con- 
 cur with amendments, as on 
 other bills. 
 
 Every bill which shall have 
 passed both Hotises, shall, before 
 it becomes a law, be presented 
 to the President of the Confed- 
 erate States ; if he approve, he 
 shall sign it ; but if not, he shall 
 return it^ with his objections, to 
 that House in which it shall have 
 originated, who shall enter the 
 objections at large on their jour- 
 nal, and proceed to reconsider it. 
 If, after such reconsideration, 
 two thirds of that House shall 
 agree to pass the bill, it shall be 
 sent, together "with the objec- 
 tions, to the other House, by 
 which it shall likewise be recon- 
 sidered, and, if approved by two 
 thirds of that House, it shall be- 
 come a law. But, in all such 
 cases, the votes of both Houses 
 shall be determined by yeas and 
 nays, and the names of the per- 
 sons voting for and against the 
 bill shall be entered on the jour- 
 nal of each House, respectively. 
 If any bill shall not be returned 
 by the President within ten days 
 (Sundays excepted) after it shall 
 have been presented to him, the 
 same shall be a law, in like
 
 34 
 
 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 Same shall be a law, in like 
 Manner as if he had signed it, 
 unless the Congress by their 
 Adjournment prevent its Return, 
 in which Case it shall not be a 
 Law. 
 
 Every Order, Resolution, or 
 Vote, to which the Concurrence 
 of the Senate and House of Rep- 
 resentatives may be necessary 
 (except on a question of Ad- 
 journment) shall be presented to 
 the President of the United 
 States ; and before the Same 
 shall take Effect, shall be ap- 
 proved by him, or being disap- 
 proved by him, shall be repassed 
 by two-thirds of the Senate and 
 House of Representatives, ac- 
 cording to the Rules and Limita- 
 tions prescribed in the Case of a 
 Bill. 
 
 SECTION 8. The Congress shall 
 have Powr 
 
 To lay and collect Taxes, Du- 
 ties, Imposts and Excises, to 
 pay the Debts and provide for 
 the common Defence and gen- 
 eral Welfare of the United 
 States ; but all Duties, Imposts 
 and Excises shall be uniform 
 throughout the United States ; 
 
 manner as if he had signed it, 
 unless the Congress, by their 
 adjournment, prevent its return ; 
 in which case it shall not be a 
 law. The President may approve 
 any appropriation and disapprove 
 any other appropriation in the 
 same bill. In such case he shall, 
 in signing the bill, designate the 
 appropriations disapproved ; and 
 shall return a copy of such ap- 
 propriations, with his objections, 
 to the House in ivhich the bill 
 shall have originated ; and the 
 same proceedings shall then be 
 had as in case of other bills dis- 
 approved by the President. 
 
 Every order, resolution, or 
 vote, to which the concurrence 
 of both Houses may be necessary 
 (except on a question of adjourn- 
 ment), shall be presented to the 
 President of the Confederate 
 States ; and, before the same 
 shall take effect, shall be ap- 
 proved by him ; or, being disap- 
 proved, shall be repassed by two 
 thirds of both Houses, according 
 to the rules and limitations pre- 
 scribed in case of a bill. 
 
 SECTION 8. the Congress shall 
 have power 
 
 To lay and collect taxes, du- 
 ties, imposts, and excises, for 
 revenue necessary to pay the 
 debts, provide for the common 
 defense, and carry on the Gov- 
 ernment of the Confederate 
 States ; but no bounties shall, be 
 granted from the Treasury ; nor 
 shall any duties or taxes on im- 
 portations from foreign nations
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 I4 1 
 
 To borrow Money on the credit 
 of the United States ; 
 
 To regulate Commerce with 
 foreign Nations, and among the 
 several States, and with the In- 
 dian Tribes ; 
 
 To establish an uniform Rule 
 of Naturalization, and uniform 
 Laws on the subject of Bank- 
 ruptcies throughout the United 
 States ; 
 
 To coin Money, regulate the 
 Value thereof, and of foreign 
 Coin, and fix the Standard of 
 Weights and Measures ; 
 
 To provide for the Punishment 
 of counterfeiting the Securities 
 and current Coin of the United 
 States ; 
 
 be laid to promote or foster any 
 branch of industry ; and all du- 
 ties, imposts, and excises shall be 
 . uniform throughout the Confed- 
 erate States : 
 
 To borrow money on the credit 
 of the Confedeate States : 
 
 To regulate commerce with 
 foreign nations, and among the 
 several States, and with the In- 
 dian tribes ; but neither this, nor 
 any other clause contained in the 
 Constitution, shall ever be con- 
 strued to delegate the power to 
 Congress to appropriate -money 
 for any internal improvement in- 
 tended to facilitate commerce ; 
 except for the purpose of furnish- 
 ing lights, beacons, and btioys, 
 and other aid to navigation ttpon 
 the coasts, and the improvement 
 of harbors and the removing of 
 obstructions in river navigation, 
 in all which cases, such duties 
 shall be laid on the navigation 
 facilitated thereby, as may be 
 necessary to pay the costs and ex- 
 penses thereof: 
 
 To establish uniform laws of 
 naturalization, and uniform laws 
 on the subject of bankruptcies, 
 throughout the Confederate 
 States ; but no law of Congress 
 shall discharge any debt con- 
 tracted before the passage of the 
 same : 
 
 To coin money, regulate the 
 value thereof, and of foreign 
 coin, and fix the standard of 
 weights and measures : 
 
 To provide for the punishment 
 of counterfeiting the securities 
 and current coin of the Confed- 
 erate States :
 
 34 2 
 
 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 To establish Post Offices and 
 post Roads ; 
 
 To promote the progress of 
 Science and useful Arts, by se- 
 curing for limited Times to 
 Authors and Inventors the ex- 
 clusive Right to their respective 
 Writings and Discoveries ; 
 
 To constitute Tribunals in- 
 ferior to the supreme Court ; 
 
 To define and punish Piracies 
 and Felonies committed on the 
 high Seas, and Offences against 
 the Law of Nations ; 
 
 To declare War, grant Letters 
 of Marque and Reprisal, and 
 make Rules concerning Captures 
 on Land and Water ; 
 
 To raise and support Armies, 
 but no Appropriation of Money 
 to that Use shall be for a longer 
 Term than two Years ; 
 
 To provide and maintain a 
 Navy ; 
 
 To make Rules for the Gov- 
 ernment and Regulation of the 
 land and naval Forces ; 
 
 To provide for calling forth 
 the Militia to execute the Laws 
 of the Union, suppress Insurrec- 
 tions and repel Invasions ; 
 
 To provide for organizing, 
 arming, and disciplining, the 
 Militia, and for governing such 
 Part of them as may be em- 
 ployed in the Service of the 
 United States, reserving to the 
 States respectively, the Appoint- 
 ment of the Officers, and the 
 
 To establish post-offices and 
 post routes ; but the expenses of 
 the Post-Office Department, after 
 the first day of March, in the 
 year of our Lord eighteen hun- 
 dred and sixty-three t shall be 
 Paid out of its own revenue : 
 
 To promote the progress of 
 science and useful arts, by se- 
 curing for limited times to 
 authors and inventors the exclu- 
 sive right to their respective 
 writings and discoveries : 
 
 To constitute tribunals inferior 
 to the Supreme Court : 
 
 To define and punish piracies 
 and felonies committed on the 
 high-seas, and offenses against 
 the law of nations : 
 
 To declare war, grant letters 
 of marque and reprisal, and 
 make rules concerning captures' 
 on land and on water : 
 
 To raise and support armies, 
 but no appropriation of money 
 to that use shall be for a longer 
 term than two years : 
 
 To provide and maintain a 
 navy : 
 
 To make rules for the govern- 
 ment and regulation of the land 
 and naval forces : 
 
 To provide for calling forth 
 the militia to execute the laws 
 of the Confederate States, sup- 
 press insurrections, and repel 
 invasions : 
 
 To provide for organizing, 
 arming, and disciplining the 
 militia, and for governing such 
 part of them as the Confederate 
 States, reserving to the States, 
 respectively, the appointment of 
 the officers, and the authority of 
 training the militia according to
 
 APPENDIX B, 
 
 343 
 
 Authority of training the Militia 
 according to the Discipline pre- 
 scribed by Congress ; 
 
 To exercise exclusive Legisla* 
 tion in all Cases whatsoever, 
 over such District (not exceeding 
 ten Miles square) as may, by 
 Cession of particular States, and 
 the Acceptance of Congress, be- 
 come the Seat of the Govern- 
 ment of the United States, and 
 to exercise like Authority over 
 all Places purchased by the Con- 
 sent of the Legislature of the 
 State in which the Same shall be, 
 for the Erection of Forts, Maga- 
 zines, Arsenals, Dock-Yards, 
 and other needful Buildings ; 
 And 
 
 To make all Laws which shall 
 be necessary and proper for car- 
 rying into Execution the forego- 
 ing Powers, and all other Powers 
 vested by this Constitution in 
 the Government of the United 
 States, or in any Department or 
 Officer thereof. 
 
 SECTION 9. The Migration or 
 Importation of such Persons as 
 any of the States now existing 
 shall think proper to admit, 
 shall not be prohibited by the 
 Congress prior to the Year one 
 thousand eight hundred and 
 eight, but a Tax or Duty may be 
 imposed on such Importation, 
 not exceeding ten dollars for 
 each Person. 
 
 The Privilege of the Writ of 
 Habeas Corpus shall not be sus- 
 pended, unless when in Cases of 
 
 the discipline prescribed by 
 Congress ; 
 
 To exercise exclusive legisla- 
 tion in all cases whatsoever, over 
 such district (not exceeding ten 
 miles square) as may, by cession 
 of one or more States, and the 
 acceptance of Congress, become 
 the seat of the Government of 
 the Confederate States, and to 
 exercise like authority over all 
 places purchased by the consent 
 of the Legislature of the State 
 in which the same shall be, for 
 the erection of forts, magazines, 
 arsenals, dock-yards, and other 
 needful buildings ; and 
 
 To make all laws which shall 
 be necessary and proper for car- 
 rying into execution the forego- 
 ing powers, and all other powers 
 vested by this Constitution in 
 the Government of the Con- 
 federate States, or in any depart- 
 ment or officer thereof. 
 
 SECTION 9. The importation of 
 negroes of the African race, 
 from any foreign country other 
 than the slave-holding States or 
 Territories of the United States 
 of America, is hereby forbidden ; 
 and Congress is required to pass 
 such laws as shall effectually pre- 
 vent the same. 
 
 Congress shall also have power 
 to prohibit the introduction of 
 slaves from any State not a mem- 
 ber of, or Territory not belong- 
 ing to, this Confederacy. 
 
 The privilege of the writ of 
 habeas corpus shall not be sus- 
 pended, unless when, in case of
 
 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 Rebellion or Mivasion the public 
 Safety may require it. 
 
 No Bill of Attainder or ex 
 post facto Law shall be passed. 
 
 No Capitation, or other direct, 
 Tax shall be laid, unless in Pro- 
 portion to the Census or Enu- 
 meration herein before directed 
 to be taken. 
 
 No Tax or Duty shall be laid 
 on Articles exported from any 
 State. 
 
 No Preference shall be given 
 by any Regulation of Commerce 
 or Revenue to the Ports of one 
 State over those of another ; nor 
 shall Vessels bound to, or from, 
 one State, be obliged to enter, 
 clear, or pay Duties in another. 
 
 No Money shall be drawn from 
 the Treasury, but in Conse- 
 quence of Appropriations made 
 by Law ; and a regular State- 
 ment and Account of the Re- 
 ceipts and Expenditures of all 
 public Money shall be published 
 from time to time. 
 
 rebellion or invasion, the public 
 safety may require it. 
 
 No bill of attainder, ex post 
 facto law, or law denying or im- 
 pairing the right of property in 
 negro slaves shall be passed. 
 
 No capitation or other direct 
 tax shall be laid, unless in pro- 
 portion to the census or enu- 
 meration hereinbefore directed 
 to be taken. 
 
 No tax or duty shall be laid on 
 articles exported from any State 
 except by a vote of two thirds of 
 both Honses. 
 
 No preference shall be given 
 by any regulation of commerce 
 or revenue to the ports of one 
 State over those of another. 
 
 No money shall be drawn from 
 the Treasury, but in consequence 
 of appropriations made by law ; 
 and a regular statement and ac- 
 count of the receipts and expen- 
 ditures of all public money shall 
 be published from time to time. 
 
 Congress shall appropriate no 
 money from the Treasury, ex- 
 cept by a vote of two thirds of 
 both Houses, taken by yeas and 
 nays, unless it be asked and esti- 
 mated for by some one of the 
 heads of departments, and sub- 
 mitted to Congress by the Presi- 
 dent; or for the purpose of 
 paying its own expenses and con- 
 tingencies ; or for the payment 
 of claims against the Confederate 
 States, the justice of which shall 
 have been judicially declared by 
 a tribunal for the investigation
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 345 
 
 No Title of Nobility shall be 
 granted by the United States ; 
 And no Person holding any 
 Office of Profit or Trust under 
 them, shall, without the Consent 
 of the Congress, accept of any 
 present, Emolument, Office, or 
 Title, of any kind whatever, 
 from any King, Prince, or for- 
 eign State. 
 
 of claims against the Govern- 
 ment, which it is hereby made 
 the duty of Congress to establish. 
 
 All bills appropriating money 
 shall specify, in Federal cur- 
 rency, the exact amount of each 
 appropriation, and the purposes 
 for which it is made ; and Con- 
 gress shall grant no extra com- 
 pensation to any public contractor, 
 officer, agent, or servant, after 
 such contract shall have been 
 made or stick serice rendered. 
 
 No title of nobility shall be 
 granted by the Confederate 
 States ; and no person holding 
 any office of profit or trust under 
 them shall, without the consent 
 of the Congress, accept of any 
 present, emolument, office, or 
 title of any kind whatever, from 
 any king, prince, or foreign 
 state. 
 
 Congress shall make no law 
 respecting an establishment of 
 religion, or 'prohibiting the free 
 exercise thereof; or abridging 
 the freedom of speech, or of the 
 press ; or the right of the people 
 peaceably to assemble and peti- 
 tion the Government for a re- 
 dress of grievances. 
 
 A well-regulated militia being 
 necessary to the security of a 
 free state, the right of the peo 
 pie to keep and bear arms shall 
 not be infringed. 
 
 No soldier shall, in time of 
 peace, be quartered in any house 
 without the consent of the owner; 
 nor in time of war, but in a man- 
 ner to be prescribed by law 
 
 The right of the people to be 
 secure in their persons, houses, 
 papers, and effects, against un-
 
 346 UFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 reasonable searches and seiz- 
 ures, shall not be violated ; and 
 no warrants shall issue but upon 
 probable cause, supported by 
 oath or affirmation, and particu- 
 larly describing the place to be 
 searched, and the persons or 
 things to be seized. 
 
 No person shall be held to 
 answer for a capital or otherwise 
 infamous crime, unless on a pre- 
 sentment or indictment of a 
 grand jury, except in cases aris- 
 ing in the land or naval forces, 
 or in the militia, when in actual 
 service in time of war or public 
 danger ; nor shall any person be 
 subject, for the same offense, to 
 be twice put in jeopardy of life 
 or limb ; nor be compelled, in 
 any criminal case, to be a wit- 
 ness against himself; nor be 
 deprived of life, liberty, or prop- 
 erty, without due process of law ; 
 nor shall private property be 
 taken for public use without just 
 compensation. 
 
 In all criminal prosecutions, 
 the accused shall enjoy the right 
 to a speedy and public trial, by 
 an impartial jury of the State 
 and district wherein the crime 
 shall have been committed, 
 which district shall have been 
 previously ascertained by law, 
 and to be informed of the nature 
 and cause of the accusation ; to 
 be confronted with the witnesses 
 against him ; to have compul- 
 sory process for obtaining wit- 
 nesses in his favor ; and to have 
 the assistance of counsel for his 
 defense. 
 
 In suits at common law, where 
 the value in controversy shall
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 347 
 
 SECTION 10. No State shall 
 enter into any Treaty, Alliance, 
 or Confederation ; grant Letters 
 of Marque and Reprisal ; coin 
 Money ; emit Bills of Credit ; 
 make any Thing but gold and 
 silver Coin a Tender in Payment 
 of Debts ; pass any Bill of At- 
 tainder, ex post facto Law, or 
 Law impairing the Obligation of 
 Contracts, or grant any Title of 
 Nobility. 
 
 No State shall, without tne 
 consent of the Congress, lay any 
 Imposts or Duties on Imports or 
 Exports, except what may be 
 absolutely necessary for ex- 
 ecuting its inspection Laws ; and 
 the net Produce of all Duties 
 and Imposts, laid by any State 
 on Imports or Exports, shall be 
 for the Use of the Treasury of 
 the United States ; and all such 
 Laws shall be subject to the Re- 
 vision and Controul of the Con- 
 gress. 
 
 No State shall, without the 
 Consent of Congress, lay any 
 Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, 
 or Ships of War in time of Peace, 
 
 exceed twenty dollars, the right 
 of trial by jury shall be pre- 
 served ; and no fact so tried by a 
 jury shall be otherwise re-exam- 
 ined in any court of the Con- 
 federacy, than according to the 
 rules of the common law. 
 
 Excessive bail shall not be re- 
 quired, nor excessive fines im- 
 posed, nor cruel and unusual 
 punishment inflicted. 
 
 Every law, or resolution hav- 
 ing the force of law, shall relate 
 to but one subject, and that shall 
 be expressed in the title. 
 
 SECTION 10. No State shall 
 enter into any treaty, alliance, 
 or confederation ; grant letters 
 of marque and reprisal ; coin 
 money ; make anything but gold 
 and silver coin a tender in pay- 
 ment of debts ; pass any bill of 
 attainder, or ex post facto law, 
 or law impairing the obligation of 
 contracts, or grant any title of 
 nobility. 
 
 No State shall, without the 
 consent of the Congress, lay any 
 imposts or duties on imports or 
 exports, except what may be 
 absolutely necessary for execu- 
 ting its inspection laws ; and the 
 net produce of all duties and 
 imposts, laid by any State on 
 imports or exports, shall be for 
 the use of the Treasury of the 
 Confederate States ; and all such 
 laws shall be subject to the revi- 
 sion and control of Congress. 
 
 No State shall, without the 
 consent of Congress, lay any 
 duty on tonnage, except on sea- 
 going vessels for the improve-
 
 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH K. JOHNSTON. 
 
 enter into any Agreement or 
 Compact with another State, 
 or with a foreign Power, or en- 
 gage in War, unless actually 
 invaded, or in such imminent 
 Danger as will not admit of 
 Delay. 
 
 ARTICLE II. 
 
 SECTION i. The executive 
 Power shall be vested in a Presi- 
 dent of the United States of 
 America. He shall hold his 
 Office during the Term of four 
 Years, and, together with the 
 Vice President, chosen for the 
 same Term* be elected, as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 Each State shall appoint, in 
 such Manner as the Legislature 
 thereof may direct, a Number of 
 Electors, equal to the whole 
 Number of Senators and Repre- 
 sentatives to which the State 
 may be entitled in the Congress : 
 but no Senator or Representa- 
 tive, or Person holding an Office 
 of Trust or Profit under the 
 United States, shall be appointed 
 an Elector. 
 
 incnt of its rivers and harbors 
 navigated by the said vessels; 
 but such duties shall not conflict 
 with any treaties of the Con- 
 federate States with foreign na- 
 tions. And any surplus revenue 
 thus derived shall, after making 
 such improvement, be paid into 
 the common Treasury ; nor shall 
 any State keep troops or ships 
 of war in time of peace, enter 
 into any agreement or compact 
 with another State, or with a 
 foreign power, or engage in war 
 unless actually invaded, or in 
 such imminent danger as will 
 not admit of delay. But when 
 any river divides or flows through 
 two or more States, they may 
 enter into compacts with each 
 other to improve the navigation 
 thereof. 
 
 ARTICLE II. 
 
 SECTION i. The Executive 
 power shall be vested in a Presi- 
 dent of the Confederate States 
 of America. He and the Vice- 
 President shall hold their offices 
 for the term of six years ; but 
 the President shall not be re- 
 eligible. The President and the 
 Vice- President shall be elected 
 as follows : 
 
 Each State shall appoint, in 
 such manner as the Legislature 
 thereof may direct, a number of 
 electors, equal to the whole 
 number of Senators and Repre- 
 sentatives to which the State 
 may be entitled in the Congress ; 
 but no Senator or Representa- 
 tative, or person holding an 
 office of trust or profit under the 
 Confederate States, shall be ap- 
 pointed an elector.
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 349 
 
 *The Electors shall meet in 
 their respective States, and vote 
 by Ballot for two Persons, of 
 whom one at least shall not be 
 an Inhabitant of the same State 
 with themselves. And they 
 shall make a List of all the Per- 
 sons voted for, and of the Num- 
 ber of Votes for each ; which 
 List they shall sign and certify, 
 and transmit sealed to the Seat 
 of the Government of the United 
 States, directed to the President 
 of the Senate. The President of 
 the Senate shall, in the Presence 
 of the Senate and House of 
 Representatives, open all the 
 Certificates, and the Votes shall 
 then be counted. The Person 
 having the greatest Number of 
 Votes shall be the President, if 
 such Number be a Majority of 
 the whole Number of Electors 
 appointed ; and if there be more 
 than one who have such Ma- 
 jority and have an equal Num- 
 ber of Votes, then the House of 
 Representatives shall immedi- 
 ately chuse by Ballot one of them 
 for President ; and if no Person 
 have a Majority, then from the 
 five highest on the List the said 
 House shall in like Manner chuse 
 the President. But in chusing 
 the President, the Votes shall be 
 taken by States, the Representa- 
 tion from each State having one 
 Vote ; a Quorum for this Pur- 
 pose shall consist of a Member 
 or Members from two-thirds of 
 the States, and a Majority of all 
 the States shall be necessary to 
 a Choice. In every Case, after 
 
 The electors shall meet in 
 their respective States and vote 
 by ballot for President and Vice- 
 President, one of whom, at least, 
 shall not be an inhabitant of the 
 same State with themselves ; 
 they shall name in their ballots 
 the person voted for as Presi- 
 dent, and in distinct ballots the 
 person voted for as Vice-Presi- 
 dent, and they shall make dis- 
 tinct lists of all persons voted 
 for as President, and all persons 
 voted for as Vice-President, and 
 of the number of votes for each, 
 which list they shall sign and 
 certify, and transmit sealed to 
 the seat of the Government of 
 the Confederate States, directed 
 to the President of the Senate. 
 The President of the Senate 
 shall, in the presence of the 
 Senate and House of Represen- 
 tatives, open all the certificates, 
 and the votes shall then be 
 counted. The person having the 
 greatest number of votes for 
 President shall be the President, 
 if such number be a majority of 
 the whole number of electors 
 appointed ; and if no person 
 have such a majority, then from 
 the persons having the highest 
 numbers not exceeding three on 
 the list of those voted for as 
 President, the House of Repre- 
 sentatives shall choose immedi- 
 ately, by ballot, the President. 
 But in choosing the President, 
 the votes shall be taken by 
 States, the representation from 
 each State having one vote ; a 
 quorum for this purpose shall 
 
 Superseded by the twelfth amendment.
 
 350 
 
 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 the Choice of the President, the 
 Person having the greatest Num- 
 ber of Votes of the Electors 
 shall be the Vice-President. But 
 if there should remain two or 
 more who have equal Votes, the 
 Senate shall chuse from them 
 by Ballot the Vice-President. 
 
 The Congress may determine 
 the Time of chusing the Electors, 
 and the Day on which they shall 
 give their Votes ; which Day 
 shall be the same throughout 
 the United States. 
 
 No Person except a natural 
 born Citizen, or a Citizen of the 
 United States, at the time of the 
 Adoption of this Constitution, 
 shall be eligible to the Office of 
 
 consist of a member or members 
 from two-thirds of the States, 
 and a majority of all the States 
 shall be necessary to a choice. 
 And if the House of Represen- 
 tatives shall not choose a Presi- 
 dent whenever the right of 
 choice shall devolve upon them, 
 before the fourth day of March 
 next following, then the Vice- 
 President shall act as President, 
 as in the case of the death or 
 other constitutional disability of 
 the President. 
 
 The person having the greatest 
 number of votes as Vice-Presi- 
 dent, shall be the Vice-President, 
 if such number be a majority of 
 the whole number of electors 
 appointed ; and if no person 
 have a majority, then from the 
 two highest numbers on the list 
 the Senate shall choose the Vice- 
 President. A quorum for the 
 purpose shall consist of two- 
 thirds of the whole number of 
 Senators, and a majority of the 
 whole number shall be neces- 
 sary to a choice. 
 
 But no person constitutionally 
 ineligible to the office of Presi- 
 dent shall be eligible to that of 
 Vice-President of the Confed- 
 erate States. 
 
 The Congress may determine 
 the time of choosing the electors, 
 and the day on which they shall 
 'give their votes ; which day shall 
 be the same throughout the Con- 
 federate States. 
 
 No person except a natural 
 born citizen of the Confederate 
 States, or a citizen thereof at the 
 lime of the adoption of this Con- 
 stitution, or a citizen thereof
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 351 
 
 President ; neither shall any 
 Person be eligible to that Office 
 who shall not have attained to 
 the Age of thirty-five Years, and 
 been fourteen Years a Resident 
 within the United States. 
 
 In Case of the Removal of the 
 President from Office, or of his 
 Death, Resignation, or Inability 
 to discharge the Powers and 
 Duties of the said office, the 
 same shall devolve on the Vice 
 President, and the Congress 
 may by Law provide for the 
 Case of Removal, Death, Resign- 
 ation, or Inability, both of the 
 President and Vice President, 
 declaring what Officer shall then 
 act as President, and such Officer 
 shall act accordingly, until the 
 Disability be removed, or a 
 President shall be elected. 
 
 The President shall, at stated 
 Times, receive for his Services, 
 a Compensation, which shall 
 neither be encreased nor dimin- 
 ished during the Period for which 
 he shall have been elected, and 
 he shall not receive within that 
 Period any other Emolument 
 from the United States, or any 
 of them. 
 
 Before he enter on the Execu- 
 tion of his Office, he shall take 
 the following Oath or Affirma- 
 tion : 
 
 "I do solemnly swear (or 
 "affirm) that I will faithfully exe- 
 "cute the Office of President of 
 "the United States, and will to 
 
 born in the United States prior to 
 the 2oth of December, 1860, shall 
 be eligible to the office of Presi- 
 dent ; neither shall any person 
 be eligible to that office who 
 shall not have attained the age of 
 thirty-five years, and been four- 
 teen years a resident within the 
 limits of the Confederate States, 
 as they may exist at the time of 
 his election. 
 
 In case of the removal of the 
 President from office, or of his 
 death, resignation, or inability 
 to discharge the powers and du- 
 ties of the said office, the same 
 shall devolve on the Vice-Presi- 
 dent ; and the Congress may, 
 by law, provide for the case of 
 removal, death, resignation, or 
 inability, both of the President 
 and Vice-President, declaring 
 what officer shall then act as 
 President ; and such officer shall 
 act accordingly, until the disa- 
 bility be removed or a President 
 shall be elected. 
 
 The President shall, at stated 
 times, receive for his services 
 a compensation, which shall 
 neither be increased nor dimin- 
 ished during the period for which 
 he shall have been elected and 
 he shall not receive within that 
 period any other emolument 
 from the Confederate States, or 
 any of them. 
 
 Before he enters on the execu- 
 tion of his office, he shall take 
 the following oath or affirmation : 
 
 "I do solemnly swear (or 
 affirm) that I will faithfully exe- 
 cute the office of President of 
 the Confederate States of Amer-
 
 352 
 
 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 "the best of my Ability, pre- 
 "serve, protect and defend the 
 "Constitution of the United 
 "States." 
 
 SECTION 2. The President shall 
 be Commander in Chief of the 
 Army and Navy of the United 
 States, and of the Militia of the 
 several States, when called into 
 the actual Service of the United 
 States ; he may require the 
 Opinion, in writing, of the prin- 
 cipal Officer in each of the ex- 
 ecutive Departments, upon any 
 Subject relating to the Duties of 
 their respective Offices, and he 
 shall have Power to grant Re- 
 prieves and Pardons for Offences 
 against the United States, exceot 
 in Cases of Impeachment. 
 
 He shall have Power, by and 
 with the Advice and Consent of 
 the Senate, to make Treaties, 
 provided two-thirds of the Sena- 
 tors present concur ; and he 
 shall nominate, and by and with 
 the Advice and Consent of the 
 Senate, shall appoint Ambassa- 
 dors, other public Ministers and 
 Consuls, Judges of the supreme 
 Court, and all other Officers of 
 the United States, whose Ap- 
 pointments are not herein other- 
 wise provided for, and which 
 shall be established by Law ; 
 but the Congress may by Law 
 vest the Appointment of such in- 
 ferior Officers, as they think 
 proper, in the President alone, 
 in the Courts of Law, or in the 
 Heads of Departments. 
 
 ica, and will to the best of my 
 ability, preserve, protect, and 
 defend the Constitution thereof. 11 
 
 SECTION -2. The President shall 
 be Commander-in-Chief of the 
 Army any Navy of the Con- 
 federate States, and of the mili- 
 tia of the several States, when 
 called into the actual service of 
 the Confederate States ; he may 
 require the opinion, in writing, 
 of the principal officer in each of 
 the executive departments, upon 
 any subject relating to the du- 
 ties of their respective offices, and 
 he shall have power to grant re- 
 prieves and pardons for offenses 
 against the Confederacy, except 
 in cases of impeachment. 
 
 He shall have power, by and 
 with the advice and consent of 
 the Senate, to make treaties, 
 provided two thirds of the Sena- 
 tors present concur ; and he shall 
 nominate, and by and with the 
 advice and consent of the Senate 
 shall appoint ambassadors, other 
 public ministers and consuls, 
 Judges of the Supreme Court 
 and all other officers of the Con- 
 federate States, whose appoint- 
 ments are not herein otherwise 
 provided for, and which shall be 
 established by law ; but the Con- 
 gress may by law vest the ap- 
 pointment of such inferior offi- 
 cers, as they think proper, in the 
 President alone, in the courts of 
 law, or in the heads of depart- 
 ments. 
 
 The principal officer in each of 
 the executive departments, and 
 all persons connected with the 
 diplomatic service, may be re-
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 353 
 
 The President shall have 
 Power to fill up all Vacancies 
 that may happen during the Re- 
 cess of the Senate, by granting 
 Commissions which shall expire 
 at the End of their next Session. 
 
 SECTION 3. He shall from time 
 to time give to the Congress In- 
 formation of the State of the 
 Union, and recommend to their 
 Consideration such Measures as 
 he shall judge necessary and ex- 
 pedient ; he may, on extraor- 
 dinary Occasions, convene both 
 Houses, or either of them, and 
 in Case of Disagreement between 
 them, with Respect to the time 
 of Adjournment, he may adjourn 
 them to such Time as he shall 
 think proper ; he shall receive 
 Ambassadors and other public 
 Ministers ; he shall take Care 
 that the Laws be faithfully exe- 
 cuted, and shall Commission all 
 the officers of the United States. 
 
 SECTION 4. The President, 
 Vice President and all civil Offi- 
 
 movedfrom office at the pleasure 
 of the President. All other civil 
 officers of the executive depart- 
 ment may be removed at any time 
 by the President, or other ap- 
 pointing power, when their ser- 
 vices are unnecessary, or for dis- 
 honesty, incapacity, inefficiency, 
 misconduct, or neglect of duty ; 
 and, when so removed, the re- 
 moval shall be reported to the 
 Senate, together with the reasons 
 therefor. 
 
 The President shall have 
 power to fill up all vacancies 
 that may happen during the re- 
 cess of the Senate, by granting 
 commissions which shall expire 
 at the end of their next session. 
 But no person rejected by the 
 Senate shall be reappointed to the 
 same office during their ensuing 
 recess^ 
 
 SECTION 3. The President shall 
 from time to time give to the 
 Congress information of the 
 state of the Confederacy, and 
 recommend to their considera- 
 tion such measures as he shall 
 judge necessary and expedient ; 
 he may on extraordinary occa- 
 sions convene both Houses, or 
 either of them ; and in case of 
 disagreement between them, 
 with respect to the time of ad- 
 journment, he may adjourn them 
 to such time as he shall think 
 proper ; he shall receive ambas- 
 sadors and other public min- 
 isters ; he shall take care that 
 the laws be faithfully executed, 
 and shall commission all the 
 officers of the Confederate States. 
 
 SECTION 4. The President, 
 Vice-President, and all civil offi-
 
 354 
 
 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 cers of the United States, shall 
 be removed from Office on Im- 
 peachment for, and Conviction 
 of, Treason, Bribery, or other 
 high Crimes and Misdemeanors. 
 
 cers of the Confederate States, 
 shall be removed from office on 
 impeachment for and conviction 
 of treason, bribery, or other 
 high crimes and misdemeanors. 
 
 ARTICLE III. 
 
 SECTION i. The Judicial Power 
 of the United States', shall be 
 vested in one supreme Court, 
 and in such inferior Courts as 
 the Congress may from time to 
 time ordain and establish. The 
 Judges, both of the supreme and 
 inferior Courts, shall hold their 
 Offices during good Behavior, 
 and shall, at stated times, re- 
 ceive for their Services, a Com- 
 pensation which shall not be 
 diminished during their Con- 
 tinuance in Office. 
 
 SECTION 2. The judicial Power 
 shall extend to all Cases, in Law 
 and Equity, arising under this 
 Constitution, the Laws of the 
 United States, and Treaties 
 made, or which shall be made, 
 under their Authority ; to all 
 Cases affecting Ambassadors, 
 other public Ministers and Con- 
 suls ; to all Cases of admiralty 
 and maritime Jurisdiction ; to 
 Controversies to which the 
 United States shall be a Party ; 
 to Controversies between two or 
 more States ; between a State 
 and Citizens of another State ; 
 between Citizens of different 
 States, between Citizens of the 
 same State claiming Lands 
 under Grants of different States, 
 and between a State, or the 
 Citizens thereof, and foreign 
 States, Citizens or Subjects. 
 
 ARTICLE III. 
 
 SECTION i. The judicial power 
 of the Confederate States shall 
 be vested in one Supreme Court, 
 and in such inferior courts as the 
 Congress may from time to time 
 ordain and establish. The 
 Judges, both of the Supreme 
 and inferior Courts, shall hold 
 their officers during good be- 
 havior, and shall, at stated times, 
 receive for their services a com- 
 pensation, which shall not be 
 diminished during their continu- 
 ance in office. 
 
 SECTION 2. The judicial power 
 shall extend to all cases arising 
 under this Constitution, the laws 
 of the Confederate States, and 
 treaties made, or which shall be 
 made, under their authority ; to 
 all cases affecting ambassadors, 
 other public ministers, and con- 
 suls ; to all cases of admiralty 
 and maritime jurisdiction; to 
 controversies to which the Con- 
 federate States shall be a party ; 
 to controversies between two or 
 more States ; between a State 
 and citizens of another State, 
 7chcre the State is plaintiff ; be- 
 tween citizens claiming lands 
 under grants of different States, 
 and between a State or the citi- 
 zens thereof, and foreign states, 
 citizens, or subjects. But no 
 State shaft be sited by a citizen of 
 subject of any foreign state.
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 355 
 
 In all Cases affecting Ambas- 
 sadors, other public Ministers 
 and Consuls, and those in which 
 a State shall be Party, the su- 
 preme Court shall have original 
 Jurisdiction. In all the other 
 Cases before mentioned, the su- 
 preme Court shall have appel- 
 late Jurisdiction, both as to Law 
 and Fact, with such Exceptions, 
 and under such Regulations as 
 the Congress shall make. 
 
 The Trial of all Crimes, except 
 Cases of Impeachment, shall be 
 by Jury ; and such Trial shall be 
 held in the State where the said 
 Crimes shall have been com- 
 mitted ; but when not committed 
 within any State, the Trial shall 
 be at such Place or Places as the 
 Congress may by Law have 
 directed. 
 
 SECTION 3. Treason against 
 the United States, shall consist 
 only in levying War against 
 them, or in adhering to their 
 Enemies, giving them Aid and 
 Comfort. No Person shall be 
 convicted of Treason unless on 
 the Testimony of two Witnesses 
 to the 'same overt Act, or on 
 Confession in open Court. 
 
 The Congress shall have 
 Power to declare the Punish- 
 ment of Treason, but no Attain- 
 der of Treason shall work Cor- 
 ruption of Blood, or Forfeiture 
 except during the Life of the 
 Person attainted. 
 
 ARTICLE IV. 
 
 SECTION i. Full Faith and 
 Credit shall be given in each 
 State to the public Acts, Rec- 
 ords, and judicial Proceedings 
 
 In all cases affecting ambassa- 
 dors, other public ministers and 
 consuls, and those in which a 
 State shall be party, the Su- 
 preme Court shall have original 
 jurisdiction. In all the other 
 cases before mentioned, the Su- 
 preme Court shall have appel- 
 late jurisdiction, both as to law 
 and fact, with such exceptions 
 and under such regulations as 
 the Congress shall make. 
 
 The trial of all crimes, except 
 in cases of impeachment, shall 
 be by jury, and such trial shall 
 be held in the State where the 
 said crimes shall have been com- 
 mitted ; but when not committed 
 within any State the trial shall 
 be at such place or places as the 
 Congress may by law have 
 directed. 
 
 SECTION 3. Treason against 
 the Confederate States shall con- 
 sist only in levying war against 
 them, or in adhering to their 
 enemies, giving them aid and 
 comfort. No person shall be 
 convicted of treason unless on 
 the testimony of two witnesses 
 to the same overt act, or- on con- 
 fession in open court. 
 
 The Congress shall have power 
 to declare the punishment of 
 treason ; but no attainder of 
 treason shall work corruption of 
 blood, or forfeiture, except 
 during the life of the person 
 attainted. 
 
 ARTICLE IV. 
 
 SECTION i. Full faith and 
 credit shall be given in each 
 State to the public acts, records, 
 and judicial proceedings of every
 
 356 
 
 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 of every other State. And the 
 Congress may by general La\\ s 
 prescribe the Manner in which 
 such Acts, Records and Proceed- 
 ings shall be proved, and the 
 Effect thereof 
 
 SECTION 2. The Citizens of 
 each State shall be entitled to 
 all Privileges and Immunities of 
 Citizens in the several States. 
 
 A Person charged in any State 
 with Treason, Felony, or other 
 Crime, who shall flee from Jus- 
 tice, and be found in another 
 State, shall on Demand of the 
 executive Authority of the State 
 from which he fled, be delivered 
 up, to be removed to the State 
 having Jurisdiction of the Crime. 
 
 No Person held to Service or 
 Labour in one State, under the 
 Laws thereof, escaping into an- 
 other, shall, in Consequence of 
 any Law or Regulation therein, 
 be discharged from such Service 
 or Labour, but shall be delivered 
 up on Claim of the Party to 
 whom such Service or Labour 
 may be done. 
 
 SECTION 3. New States may be 
 admitted by the Congress into 
 this Union ; but no new State 
 shall be formed or erected 
 within the Jurisdiction of any 
 other State ; nor any State be 
 formed by the Junction of two 
 
 other State. And the Congress 
 may, by general laws, prescribe 
 the manner in which such acts, 
 records, and proceedings shall 
 be proved, and the effect thereof. 
 
 SECTION 2. The citizens of 
 each State shall be entitled to 
 all the privileges and immunities 
 of citizens in the several States, 
 and shall have the right of transit 
 and sojourn in any State of this 
 Confederacy, with their slaves 
 and other property ; and the right 
 of property in said slaves shall 
 not be thereby impaired. 
 
 A person charged in any State 
 with treason, felony, or other 
 crime against the laws of such 
 State, who shall flee from jus- 
 tice, and be found in another 
 State, shall on demand of the 
 Executive authority of the State 
 from which he fled, be delivered 
 up, to be removed to the State 
 having jurisdiction of the crime. 
 
 No slave or other person held 
 to service or labor in any State 
 or Territory of the Confederate 
 States, under the laws thereof, 
 escaping or lawfully carried into 
 another, shall, in consequence 
 of any law or regulation therein, 
 be discharged from such service 
 or labor ; but shall be delivered 
 up on claim of the party to whom 
 such slave belongs, or to whom 
 such service or labor may be due. 
 
 SECTION 3. Other States may 
 be admitted into this Confederacy 
 by a vote of two thirds of the 
 whole House of Representatives 
 and two thirds of the 1 Senate, the 
 Senate voting by States ; but no 
 new State shall be formed or
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 357 
 
 or more States, or Paris of 
 States, without the Consent of 
 the Legislatures of the States 
 concerned as well as of the 
 Congress. 
 
 The Congress shall have 
 power to dispose of and make 
 all needful Rules and Regula- 
 tions respecting the Territory or 
 other Property belonging to the 
 United States ; and nothing in 
 this Constitution shall be so con- 
 strued as to Prejudice any Claims 
 of the United States, or of any 
 particular State. 
 
 SECTION 4. The United States 
 shall guarantee to every State in 
 this Union a Republican Form 
 
 erected within the jurisdiction 
 of any other State; nor any 
 State be formed by the junction 
 of two or more States, or parts 
 of States, without the consent of 
 the Legislatures of the States 
 concerned, as well as of the 
 Congress. 
 
 The Congress shall have 
 power to dispose of and make 
 all needful rules and regulations 
 concerning the property of the 
 Confederate States, including the 
 lands thereof. 
 
 The Confederate States may 
 acquire new territory ; and Con- 
 gress shall have power to legis- 
 late and provide governments for 
 the inhabitants of all territory 
 belonging to the Confederate 
 States, lying- without the limits of 
 the several States ; and may per- 
 mit them, at such times and in 
 such manner as it may by law 
 provide, to form States to be ad- 
 mitted into the Confederacy. In 
 all such territory, the institution 
 of negro slavery, as it now exists 
 in the Confederate States, shall 
 be recognized and protected by 
 Congress and by the territorial 
 government ; and the inhabitants 
 of the several Confederate States 
 and Territories shall have the 
 right to take to such Territory 
 any slaves lawfully held by them 
 in any of the States or Terri- 
 tories of the Confederate States. 
 
 The Confederate States shall 
 guarantee to every State that 
 now is or hereafter may becotne
 
 35* 
 
 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 of Government, and shall pro- 
 tect each of them against Inva- 
 sion, and on Application of the 
 Legislature, or of he Executive 
 (when the Legislature cannot be 
 convened) against domestic Vio- 
 lence. 
 
 ARTICLE V. 
 
 The Congress, whenever two- 
 thirds of both Houses shall 
 deem it necessary, shall propose 
 Amendments to this Constitu- 
 tion, or, on the application of 
 the Legislatures of two-thirds of 
 the several States, shall call 
 a Convention for proposing 
 Amendments, which, in either 
 Case, shall be valid to all In- 
 tents and Purposes, as Part of 
 this Constitution, when ratified 
 by the Legislatures of three- 
 fourths of the several States, or 
 by Conventions in three-fourths 
 thereof, as the one or the other 
 Mode of Ratification may be 
 proposed by the Congress : Pro- 
 vided that no Amendment which 
 may be made prior to the Year 
 one thousand eight hundred and 
 eight shall in any Manner affect 
 the first and fourth Clauses in 
 the Ninth Section of the first 
 Article ; and that no State, with- 
 out its Consent, shall be de- 
 prived of its equal Suffrage in 
 the Senate. 
 
 ARTICLE VI. 
 
 All Debts contracted and En- 
 gagements entered into, before 
 the Adoption of this Constitution, 
 shall be as valid against the 
 United States under thisConstitu- 
 tion, as under the Confederation. 
 
 a member of this Confederacy, a 
 republican form of government ; 
 and shall protect each of them 
 against invasion ; and on appli- 
 cation of the Legislature (or of 
 the Executive when the Legisla- 
 ture is not in session), against 
 domestic violence. 
 
 ARTICLE V. 
 
 SECTION i. Upon the demand 
 of any three States, legally as- 
 sembled in their several conven- 
 tions the Congress shall summon 
 a Convention of all the Slates, to 
 take into consideration such 
 amendments to the Constitution 
 as the said States shall concur in 
 suggesting at the time when the 
 said demand is made ; and should 
 any of the proposed amendments 
 to the Constitution be agreed on 
 by the said Convention voting 
 by States and the same be rati- 
 fied by the Legislatures of two 
 thirds of the several States, or 
 by conventions in two thirds 
 thereof as the one or the other 
 mode of ratification may be pro- 
 posed by the general Convention 
 they shall thenceforward form 
 a part of this Constitution. But 
 no State shall, without its con- 
 sent, be deprived of its equal 
 representation in the Senate. 
 
 ARTICLE VI. 
 
 The Government established 
 by this Constitution is the succes- 
 sor of the Provisional Govern- 
 ment of the Confederate States of 
 America, and all the laws passed 
 by the latter shall continue in
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 359 
 
 This Constitution, and the 
 Laws of the United States which 
 shall be made in Pursuance 
 thereof; and all Treaties made, 
 or which shall be made, under 
 the authority of the United 
 States, shall be the supreme 
 Law of the Land ; and the Judges 
 in every State shall be bound 
 thereby, any Thing in the Con- 
 stitution or Laws of any State to 
 the Contrary notwithstanding. 
 
 The Senators and Representa- 
 tives before mentioned, and the 
 Members of the several State 
 Legislatures, and all executive 
 and judicial Officers, both of the 
 United States and of the several 
 States, shall be bound by Oath 
 or Affirmation, to support this 
 Constitution ; but no religious 
 Test shall ever be required as a 
 Qualification to any Office or 
 public Trust under the United 
 States 
 
 force until the same shall be 
 repealed or modified ; and all the 
 officers appointed by the same 
 shall remain in office until their 
 successors are appointed and 
 qualified, or the offices abolished. 
 
 All debts contracted and en- 
 gagements entered into before 
 the adoption of this Constitution 
 shall be as valid against the Con- 
 federate States under this Con- 
 stitution as under the Provi- 
 sional Government. 
 
 This Constitution, and the 
 laws of the Confederate States 
 made in pursuance thereof, and 
 all treaties made or which shall 
 be made under the authority of 
 the Confederate States, shall be 
 the supreme law of the land ; 
 and the Judges in every State 
 shall be bound thereby, any- 
 thing in the Constitution or laws 
 of any State to the contrary not- 
 withstanding. 
 
 The Senators and Representa- 
 tives before mentioned, and the 
 members of the several State 
 Legislatures, and all executive 
 and judicial officers, both of the 
 Confederate States and of the 
 several States, shall be bound 
 by oath or affirmation to sup- 
 port this Constitution ; but no 
 religious test shall ever be re- 
 quired as a qualification to any 
 office or public trust under the 
 Confederate States. 
 
 The enumeration in the Con- 
 stitution, of certain rights, shall 
 not be construed to deny or dis- 
 parage others retained by the 
 people of the several States. 
 
 The powers not delegated to 
 the Confederate States by the
 
 3<5o 
 
 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 ARTICLE VII. 
 
 The Ratification of the Con- 
 ventions of nine States, shall be 
 sufficient for the Establishment 
 of this Constitution between the 
 States so ratifying the Same. 
 
 Constitution, nor prohibited by 
 it to the States, are reserved to 
 the States, respectively, or to 
 the people thereof. 
 
 ARTICLE VII. 
 
 The ratification of the Con- 
 ventions of five States shall be 
 sufficient for the establishment 
 of this Constitution between the 
 States so ratifying the same. 
 
 When Jive States shall have 
 ratified this Constitution, in the 
 manner before specified, the Con- 
 gress under the Provisional Con- 
 stitution shall prescribe the time 
 for holding the election of Presi- 
 dent and Vice-President, and for 
 the meeting of the electoral col- 
 lege, and for counting the votes, 
 and inaugurating the President. 
 They shall also prescribe the 
 time for holding the fi'rst election 
 of members of Congress under 
 this Constitution, and the time 
 for assembling the same. Until 
 the assembling of such Congress, 
 the Congress under the Provi- 
 sional Constitution shall continue 
 to exercise the legislative powers 
 granted them; not extending be- 
 yond the time limited by the Con- 
 stitution of the Provisional Gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 Articles in Addition to, and Amendment of, the Constitution of the 
 United States of America. Proposed by Congress, and ratified 
 by the Legislatures of the several States, pursuant to the fifth 
 article of the original Constitution. 
 
 ARTICLE I. 
 
 Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of 
 religion, or .prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the 
 freedom of speech, or of the press ; or the right of the people
 
 APPENDIX B. 36;! 
 
 peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a 
 redress of grievances. 
 
 ARTICLE II. 
 
 A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free 
 State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be 
 infringed. 
 
 ARTICLE III. 
 
 No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, 
 without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a 
 manner to be prescribed by law. 
 
 * ARTICLE IV. 
 
 The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, 
 papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, 
 shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon prob- 
 able cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly 
 describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be 
 seized. 
 
 ARTICLE V. 
 
 No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise 
 infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand 
 Jury, except in cases arising tii the land or naval forces, or in the 
 Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger ; 
 nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice 
 put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any 
 Criminal Case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of 
 life, liberty, or property, without due process of law ; nor shall 
 private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. 
 
 ARTICLE VI. 
 
 In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to 
 i\ speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and dis- 
 trict wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district 
 shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed 
 of the nature and cause of the accusation ; to be confronted with 
 the witnesses against him ; to have Compulsory process for obtain- 
 ing Witnesses in his favour, and to have the Assistance of Counsel 
 for his defence. 
 
 ARTICLE VII. 
 
 In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall 
 exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, 
 and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examined in any
 
 362 LIFE OF GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 
 
 Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the 
 common law. 
 
 ARTICLE VIII. 
 
 Excessive oail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, 
 nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. 
 
 \RTICLE XII.* 
 
 The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by 
 ballot for President and Vice President, one of whom, at least, 
 shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves ; they 
 shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and 
 in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice President, and they 
 shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and 
 of all persons voted for as Vice President, and of the number of 
 votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit 
 sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed 
 to the President of the Senate ; The President of the Senate shall, 
 in presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all 
 the certificates and the votes shall then be counted ; The person 
 having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the 
 President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of 
 Electors appointed ; and if no person have such majority, then 
 from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three 
 on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Repre- 
 sentatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But 
 in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the 
 representation from each state having one vote ; a quorum for this 
 purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of 
 the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a 
 choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a 
 President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, 
 before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice Presi- 
 dent shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other 
 constitutional disability of the President. The person having the 
 greatest number of votes as Vice President, shall be the Vice 
 President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of 
 Electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from 
 the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the 
 Vice President ; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two- 
 thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the 
 whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person con- 
 stitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to 
 that of Vice President of the United States. 
 
 This article is substituted for Clause 3, 
 It was declared adopted in 1804. 
 
 Sec. I., Art. II, page 66:, r.nd annuls it.
 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY, LOS ANGELES 
 
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