JOHNSTON, JOSEPH EGGLESTON (1807-1891) , American Confederate general in the Civil War, was born near Farmville, Va., on Feb. 3, 1807. His father, Peter Johnston (1763 1841), a Virginian of Scottish descent, served in the Revolutionary War, and afterwards became a distinguished jurist ; his mother was a niece of Patrick Henry. He graduated at West Point, in the same class with Robert E. Lee. He served in the Black Hawk and Seminole wars, and left the army in 1837 to become a civil engineer, but a year afterwards he was reappointed to the army as first lieutenant, Topographical Engineers. During the Mexican war he was twice severely wounded, was engaged in the siege of Vera Cruz, the battles of Contreras, Churubusco, and Molino del Rey, the storming of Chapultepec, and the assault on the city of Mexico, and received three brevets for gallant and meritorious service. In April 1861 he resigned from the U.S. army and entered the Confederate service. He was commissioned major-general of volunteers in the army of Virginia, and assisted in organizing the volunteers. He was later appointed a general officer of the Con federacy and assigned to the command of the army of the Shen andoah. When McDowell advanced upon the Confederate forces under Beauregard at Manassas, Johnston moved from the Shenan doah valley with great rapidity to Beauregard's assistance. As senior officer he took command on the field, and at Bull Run (Manassas) (q.v.) won the first important Confederate victory. In Aug. 1861 he was made one of the five full generals of the Confederacy, remaining in command of the main army in Vir ginia. He commanded in the battle of Fair Oaks (May 31, 1862), and was severely wounded. In March 1863, still troubled by his wound, he was assigned to the command of the south-west, and in May was ordered to take immediate command of all the Confed erate forces in Mississippi, then threatened by Grant's movement on Vicksburg. When Pemberton's army was besieged in Vicks burg by Grant, Johnston made every effort to relieve it, but his force was inadequate. Later in 1863 he commanded the army of
Tennessee at Dalton, and in the early days of May 1864 the com bined armies of the North under Sherman advanced against his lines. For the main outlines of the famous campaign between Sherman and Johnston see AMERICAN CIVIL WAR. When Johnston had been driven back to Atlanta he was superseded by Hood with orders to fight a battle. The wisdom of Johnston's course was soon abundantly clear, and the Confederate cause was already lost when Lee reinstated him on Feb. 23, 1865. He opposed Sherman's march through the Carolinas, and at Bentonville, N.C., fought a most gallant and skilful battle against heavy odds. But the Union troops steadily advanced, and a few days after Lee's surrender Johnston advised President Davis that it was in his opinion use less to continue the conflict, and he was authorized to make terms with Sherman. After the close of the war Johnston engaged in civil pursuits. In 1874 he published a Narrative of Military Oper ations during the Civil War; in 1877 he was elected to represent the Richmond district of Virginia in Congress; and in 1887 he was appointed by President Cleveland U.S. commissioner of railroads. He died at Washington, D.C., on March 21, 1891.
It was not the good fortune of Johnston to acquire the prestige which so much assisted Lee and Jackson, nor indeed did he possess the power of enforcing his will on others in the same degree; but his methods were exact, his strategy calm and balanced, and, if he showed himself less daring than his comrades, he was unsur passed in steadiness.
See Hughes, General Johnston, in "Great Commanders Series" (1893) Gamaliel Bradford, Confederate Portraits (1914); Sir Frederick Barton Maurice, Statesmen and Soldiers of the Civil War (1926).