Joseph E. Johnston

Joseph E. Johnston (born February 3, 1807, near Farmville, Virginia, U.S.—died March 21, 1891, Washington, D.C.) was a Confederate general who never suffered a direct defeat during the American Civil War (1861–65). His military effectiveness, though, was hindered by a long-standing feud with Jefferson Davis.

A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York (1829), Johnston resigned his commission at the outbreak of the Civil War to offer his services to his native state of Virginia. Given the rank of brigadier general in the Confederate Army of the Shenandoah (May 1861), he was credited in July with the first important Southern victory at the First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas). He was promoted to general, but his dissatisfaction with his seniority was the start of his lengthy differences with Davis, president of the Confederacy. When the Peninsular Campaign began in April 1862, Johnston withdrew to defend the capital at Richmond. Although objecting to the strategy prescribed by Davis, he fought well against the Union forces. Severely wounded at the Battle of Fair Oaks (Seven Pines) in May, he was replaced by General Robert E. Lee.

A year later Johnston assumed control of Confederate forces in Mississippi threatened by the Federal advance on Vicksburg. He warned General John C. Pemberton to evacuate the city, but President Davis counterordered Pemberton to hold it at all costs. Lacking sufficient troops, Johnston could not relieve Pemberton, and Vicksburg fell on July 4, 1863. Bitterly criticized, he nonetheless took command of the Army of Tennessee in December as the combined armies of the North advanced toward Atlanta, Georgia. Subsequent events demonstrated the soundness of Johnston’s strategy of planned withdrawal to avoid a defeat by superior forces and the disintegration of the Confederate army. Nevertheless, Davis, dissatisfied with his failure to defeat the invaders, replaced him in July.

Restored to duty in February 1865, Johnston took command of his old army, now in North Carolina, and succeeded in delaying the advance of General William T. Sherman at Bentonville, in March. But lack of men and supplies forced Johnston to order continued withdrawal, and he surrendered to Sherman at Durham Station, North Carolina, on April 26.

After the war, Johnston engaged in business ventures, wrote his memoirs, served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1879–81), and was named U.S. commissioner of railroads in 1885.