Joseph E. Johnston
Joseph E. Johnston | |
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Army of the Shenandoah (1861) (1863–1864) | |
Battles/wars |
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Gilbert Carlton Walker | |
Succeeded by | George D. Wise |
Joseph Eggleston Johnston (February 3, 1807 – March 21, 1891) was an American career
Johnston was trained as a civil engineer at the
Johnston's effectiveness in the
In 1863, Johnston was placed in command of the
After the war, Johnston served as an executive in the railroad and insurance businesses. He was elected as a Democrat in the United States House of Representatives, serving a single term. He was appointed as commissioner of railroads under Grover Cleveland. Johnston died of pneumonia 10 days after attending Sherman's funeral.
Early years
Johnston was born at Longwood House in "Cherry Grove", near
Johnston attended the
U.S. Army service
Johnston resigned from the Army in March 1837 and studied civil engineering.
On July 10, 1845, in Baltimore, Johnston married Lydia Mulligan Sims McLane (1822–1887), the daughter of
Johnston was enthusiastic about the outbreak of the Mexican–American War. He served on the staff of Lt. Gen. Winfield Scott in the Siege of Veracruz, having been chosen by Scott to be the officer carrying the demand for surrender beforehand to the provincial governor. He was in the vanguard of the movement inland under Brig. Gen. David E. Twiggs and was severely wounded by grapeshot performing reconnaissance before the Battle of Cerro Gordo. He was appointed a brevet lieutenant colonel for his actions at Cerro Gordo. After recovering in a field hospital, he rejoined the army at Puebla. During the advance toward Mexico City, he was second in command of the "U.S. Regiment of Voltigeurs", a unit composed of light infantry or skirmishers. He distinguished himself at Contreras and Churubusco, was wounded again at Chapultepec, and received two brevet promotions for the latter two engagements, ending the war as a brevet colonel of volunteers. (After the end of hostilities, he reverted to his peacetime rank of captain in the topographical engineers.) Winfield Scott humorously remarked, "Johnston is a great soldier, but he had an unfortunate knack of getting himself shot in nearly every engagement." Johnston's greatest anguish during the war was the death of his nephew, Preston Johnston. When Robert E. Lee informed Johnston that a Mexican artillery shell had killed Preston at Contreras, both officers wept, and Johnston grieved for the remainder of his life.[7]
Johnston was an engineer on the Texas-United States boundary survey in 1841; he returned to the area, was appointed chief topographical engineer of the Department of Texas and served from 1848 to 1853.[8]
During the 1850s, he sought his previous rank, sending letters to the War Department suggesting that he should be returned to a combat regiment with his wartime rank of colonel. Secretary of War
In the fall of 1856, Johnston was transferred to a depot for recruits at
Brig. Gen.
Johnston was promoted to brigadier general on June 28, 1860. Johnston did not enjoy the position, preferring field command to administration in Washington. In addition, he suffered from the pressures of the imminent sectional crisis and the ethical dilemma of administering war matériel that might prove useful to his native South. He did not yield to temptation, however, as Secretary of War Floyd was accused of doing.[11]
Civil War
Manassas and first friction with President Davis
When his native state, Virginia, declared secession from the United States in 1861, Johnston resigned his commission as a brigadier general in the regular army, the highest-ranking U.S. Army officer to do so. He would go on to state, "I believed like most others, that the division of the country would be permanent; and that ... the revolution begun was justified by the maxims so often repeated by Americans, that Free government is founded on the consent of the governed, and that every community strong enough to establish and maintain its independence, has a right to assert it. Having been educated in such opinions, I naturally determined to return to the State of which I was a native, join the people among whom I was born, and live with my kindred, and if necessary, fight in their defense."[12]
He was initially commissioned as a
In the
It [the ranking of senior generals] seeks to tarnish my fair fame as a soldier and 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 venerated 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 hearths, the women and children; aye, and the men of my mother Virginia, my native South.
—Johnston's letter to Jefferson Davis, September 12, 1861 [15]
In August, Johnston was promoted to full general—what is called a four-star general in the modern U.S. Army—but was not pleased that three other men he had outranked in the "old Army" now outranked him, even though Davis backdated his promotion to July 4. Johnston felt that, since he was the senior officer to leave the U.S. Army and join the Confederacy, he should not be ranked behind Samuel Cooper, Albert Sidney Johnston, and Robert E. Lee. Only Beauregard was placed behind Johnston on the list of five new generals. This led to much bad blood between Johnston and Jefferson Davis, lasting throughout the war. The crux of Davis's counterargument was that Johnston's U.S. commission as a brigadier general was as a staff officer and that his highest line commission was as a lieutenant colonel; both Sidney Johnston and Lee had been full colonels. Johnston sent an intemperately worded letter to Davis, who was offended enough to discuss its tone with his cabinet.[16]
Johnston was placed in command of the Department of the Potomac and the
Peninsula Campaign
In early April 1862, McClellan, having landed his troops at Fort Monroe at the tip of the Virginia Peninsula, began to move slowly toward Yorktown. Johnston's plan for the defense of the Confederate capital was controversial. Knowing that his army was half the size of McClellan's and that the U.S. Navy could directly support McClellan from either river, Johnston attempted to convince Davis and Lee that the best course would be to concentrate on fortifications around Richmond. He was unsuccessful in persuading them and deployed most of his force on the Peninsula. Following lengthy siege preparations by McClellan at Yorktown, Johnston withdrew and fought a sharp defensive fight at Williamsburg (May 5) and turned back an attempt at an amphibious turning movement at Eltham's Landing (May 7). By late May, the U.S. Army was within six miles of Richmond.[19]
Realizing that he could not defend Richmond forever from the U.S. Army's overwhelming numbers and heavy siege artillery and that McClellan's army was divided by the rain-swollen
Appointment to the Western Theater and Vicksburg
Johnston was prematurely discharged from the hospital on November 24, 1862, and appointed to command the Department of the West, the principal command of the
The first issue facing Johnston in the west was the fate of Braxton Bragg. The Confederate government was displeased with Bragg's performance at the Battle of Stones River, as were many of Bragg's senior subordinates. Jefferson Davis ordered Johnston to visit Bragg and determine whether he should be replaced. Johnston realized that if he recommended Bragg's replacement, he would be the logical choice to succeed him. He considered a field army command more desirable than his current, mostly administrative post. Still, his sense of honor prevented him from achieving this personal gain at Bragg's expense. After interviewing Bragg and several of his subordinates, he produced a generally positive report and refused to relieve the army commander. Davis ordered Bragg to a meeting in Richmond and designated Johnston to take command in the field, but Bragg's wife was ill, and he was unable to travel. Furthermore, in early April, Johnston was forced to bed with lingering problems from his Peninsula wound, and the attention of the Confederates shifted from Tennessee to Mississippi, leaving Bragg in place.[23]
The major crisis facing Johnston was defending Confederate control of Vicksburg, Mississippi, which was threatened by U.S. Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, first in a series of unsuccessful maneuvers during the winter of 1862–63 to the north of the fortress city, but followed in April 1863 with an ambitious campaign that began with Grant's army crossing the Mississippi River southwest of Vicksburg. Catching Lt. Gen. Pemberton by surprise, the U.S. army waged a series of successful battles as it moved northeast toward the state capital of Jackson. On May 9, the Confederate Secretary of War directed Johnston to "proceed at once to Mississippi and take chief command of the forces in the field." Johnston informed Richmond that he was still medically unfit but would obey the order. When he arrived in Jackson on May 13 from Middle Tennessee, he learned that two U.S. Army corps were advancing on the city and that only 6,000 Confederate troops were available to hold it. Johnston ordered a fighting evacuation (the Battle of Jackson, May 14) and retreated with his force north. Grant captured the city and then faced to the west to approach Vicksburg.[24]
Johnston began to move his force west to join Pemberton when he heard of that general's defeat at Champion Hill (May 16) and Big Black River Bridge (May 17). The survivors retreated to the fortifications of Vicksburg. Johnston urged Pemberton to avoid being surrounded by abandoning the city and to join forces with Johnston's troops, outnumbering Grant. Still, Davis had ordered Pemberton to defend the city as his highest priority. Grant launched two unsuccessful assaults against the fortifications and settled in for a siege. The soldiers and civilians in the surrounded city waited in vain for Johnston's small force to rescue them. By late May, Johnston had accumulated about 24,000 men but wanted additional reinforcements before moving forward. He considered ordering Bragg to send these reinforcements but was concerned that this could result in the loss of Tennessee. He also bickered with President Davis about whether the order sending him to Mississippi could be construed as removing him from theater command; historian Steven E. Woodworth judges that Johnston "willfully misconstrued" his orders out of resentment of Davis's interference. Pemberton's army surrendered on July 4, 1863. Along with the capture of Port Hudson a week later, the loss of Vicksburg gave the United States complete control of the Mississippi River and cut the Confederacy in two. President Davis wryly ascribed the strategic defeat to a "want of provisions inside and a general outside [Johnston] who would not fight."[25]
The relationship between Johnston and Davis, difficult since the early days of the war, became bitter as recriminations were traded publicly about who was to blame for Vicksburg. That Johnston never wanted this theater command in the first place, difficulty in effectively moving troops due to lack of direct rail lines and the vast distances involved, lack of assistance from subordinate commanders, Pemberton's refusal to abandon Vicksburg as suggested, and President Davis' habit of communicating directly to Johnston's subordinates (which meant Johnston was often not aware of what was going on) all contributed to this defeat.[26] Davis considered firing Johnston, but he remained a popular officer and had many political allies in Richmond, most notably Sen. Louis Wigfall. Instead, Bragg's army was removed from Johnston's command, leaving him in control of only Alabama and Mississippi.[27]
The President detests Joe Johnston for all the trouble he has given him, and General Joe returns the compliment with compound interest. His hatred of Jeff Davis amounts to a religion. With him it colors all things.
—Diarist
While Vicksburg was falling, U.S. Maj. Gen.
Atlanta Campaign
Faced with Maj. Gen.
Sherman began his
In June, Sherman's forces continued maneuvers around the northern approaches to Atlanta. The Battle of Kolb's Farm ensued on June 22, followed by Sherman's first (and only) attempt at a massive frontal assault in the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain on June 27, which Johnston vigorously repulsed. However, U.S. forces were within 17 miles of Atlanta by this time, threatening the city from the west and north. Johnston had yielded over 110 miles of mountainous, and thus more easily defensible, territory in just two months, while the Confederate government became increasingly frustrated and alarmed. When Johnston retreated across the Chattahoochee River, the final significant barrier before Atlanta, President Davis lost his patience.[32]
In early July, Davis sent Gen. Braxton Bragg to Atlanta to assess the situation. After several meetings with local civilian leaders and Johnston's subordinates, Bragg returned to Richmond and urged President Davis to replace Johnston. Davis removed Johnston from command on July 17, 1864, just outside Atlanta. "The fate of Atlanta, from the Confederate standpoint, was all but decided by Johnston."[33] His replacement, Lt. Gen. Hood, was left with the "virtually impossible situation" of defending Atlanta,[34] which he was forced to abandon in September. Davis's decision to remove Johnston was one of the most controversial of the war.[35]
North Carolina and surrender at Bennett Place
Johnston traveled to
Despite his serious misgivings, Davis restored Johnston to active duty on February 25, 1865. His new command comprised two military departments: the Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, and the Department of North Carolina and Southern Virginia; he assumed command of the latter department on March 6. These commands included three Confederate field armies, including the remnants of the once formidable Army of Tennessee, but they were armies in name only. The Tennessee army had been severely depleted at Franklin and Nashville, lacked sufficient supplies and ammunition, and the men had not been paid for months; only about 6,600 traveled to South Carolina. Johnston also had available 12,000 men under William J. Hardee, who had been unsuccessfully attempting to resist Sherman's advance, Braxton Bragg's force in Wilmington, North Carolina, and 6,000 cavalrymen under Wade Hampton.[38]
Johnston, severely outnumbered, hoped to combine his force with a detachment of Robert E. Lee's army from Virginia, jointly defeat Sherman, and then return to Virginia for an attack on Ulysses S. Grant. Lee initially refused to cooperate with this plan. (Following the fall of Richmond in April, Lee attempted to escape to North Carolina to join Johnston, but it was too late.) Recognizing that Sherman was moving quickly, Johnston planned to consolidate his small armies to land a blow against an isolated portion of Sherman's army, advancing in two separate columns. On March 19, 1865, Johnston was able to catch the left wing of Sherman's army by surprise at the Battle of Bentonville and briefly gained some tactical successes before superior numbers forced him to retreat to Raleigh, North Carolina. Unable to secure the capital, Johnston's army withdrew to Greensboro.[39]
After learning of Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House on April 9, Johnston agreed to meet with General Sherman between the lines at a small farm known as Bennett Place near present-day Durham, North Carolina. After three separate days (April 17, 18, and 26, 1865) of negotiations, Johnston surrendered the Army of Tennessee and all remaining Confederate forces still active in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. It was the largest surrender of the war, totaling 89,270 soldiers. President Davis considered that Johnston, surrendering so many troops that had not been explicitly defeated in battle, had committed an act of treason. Johnston was paroled on May 2 at Greensboro.[40]
After the surrender, Sherman issued ten days' rations to the hungry Confederate soldiers as well as horses and mules to "insure a crop." He also ordered the distribution of corn meal and flour to civilians throughout the South. This was an act of generosity that Johnston would never forget; he wrote to Sherman that his attitude "reconciles me to what I have previously regarded as the misfortune of my life, that of having you to encounter in the field."[41]
Post-war years
Johnston began to make a living for himself and his ailing wife. He became president of a small railroad, the Alabama and Tennessee River Railroad Company, which during his tenure of May 1866 to November 1867, was renamed the Selma, Rome and Dalton Railroad. Johnston was bored with the position, and the company failed for a lack of capital. He established Joseph E. Johnston & Company, an insurance agency for New York Life Insurance Co. and a British insurance company, which Johnston operated out of Savannah (Ga.) from 1868 to 1877.[42] The British company was Liverpool and London and Globe Insurance Company, and within four years had a network of more than 120 agents across the deep South.[43]
The income from this venture allowed him to devote time to his great post-war activity, writing his memoirs, as did several fellow officers. His Narrative of Military Operations (1874) was highly critical of Davis and many of his fellow generals. He repeated his grievance about his ranking as a general in the Confederate Army and attempted to justify his career as a cautious campaigner. The book sold poorly, and its publisher failed to make a profit.[43]
Although many Confederate generals criticized Johnston, Sherman and Grant portrayed him favorably in their memoirs. Sherman described him as a "dangerous and wily opponent" and criticized Johnston's nemeses, Hood and Davis. Grant supported his decisions in the Vicksburg Campaign: "Johnston evidently took in the situation, and wisely, I think, abstained from making an assault on us because it would simply have inflicted losses on both sides without accomplishing any result." Commenting on the Atlanta Campaign, Grant wrote,
For my own part, I think that Johnston's tactics were right. Anything that could have prolonged the war a year beyond the time that it finally did close, would probably have exhausted the North to such an extent that they might then have abandoned the contest and agreed to a settlement.[44]
Johnston was a part owner of the
Johnston moved from Savannah to Richmond in the winter of 1876–77. The former Confederate general was considered for service in President Rutherford B. Hayes's Cabinet, particularly for the post of Secretary of War, but was ultimately not chosen.[46][47] He served in the 46th Congress from 1879 to 1881 as a Democratic congressman, having been elected with 58.11% of the vote over Greenback candidate William W. Newman. He did not run for reelection in 1880. He was appointed as a commissioner of railroads in the administration of President Grover Cleveland. After his wife died in 1887, Johnston frequently traveled to veterans' gatherings, where he was universally cheered.[48] In September 1890, a few months before he died, he was elected as an honorary member of the District of Columbia Society of the Sons of the American Revolution and was assigned national membership number 1963.
Johnston, like Lee, never forgot the magnanimity of the man to whom he surrendered. He would not allow criticism of Sherman in his presence. Sherman and Johnston corresponded frequently, and they met for friendly dinners in Washington, D.C. whenever Johnston traveled there. When Sherman died, Johnston served as an honorary pallbearer at his funeral. During the procession in New York City on February 19, 1891, he kept his hat off as a sign of respect, although the weather was cold and rainy. Someone concerned for his health asked him to put on his hat, to which Johnston replied, "If I were in his place, and he were standing here in mine, he would not put on his hat." He did catch a cold that day, which developed into pneumonia, and Johnston died ten days later in Washington, D.C. He was buried next to his wife in Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland.[49]
Legacy
Johnston's papers are held by the
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Robert E. Lee and Joseph E. Johnston in 1869–1870
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Johnston statue in Dalton, Georgia, where he took command of the Army of Tennessee
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Johnston statue at the location of the Battle of Bentonville, in North Carolina
Honors
- A public monument to Johnston was erected in Dalton, Georgia, in 1912.
- On March 20, 2010, a bronze statue of Johnston was dedicated at the site of the Battle of Bentonville in North Carolina.
- During Liberty Ship (#113) in honor of Johnston.[51]
See also
Notes
- ^ Chisholm, p. 474
- ^ Symonds, pp. 10–11, 28, 373; Longwood historical marker Archived May 31, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b Eicher, pp. 322–323.
- ^ Symonds, pp. 13, 3; Warner, p. 161; Eicher, p. 344.
- ^ Symonds, pp. 40–43; Eicher, p. 322.
- ^ Symonds, pp. 6, 48–49, 52; McMurry, p. 193.
- ^ Symonds, pp. 54–71; Woodworth, p. 174; Eicher, p. 322.
- ^ "Joseph Eggleston Johnston", The Handbook of Texas Online. Retrieved December 22, 2009.
- ^ Symonds, pp. 72–80.
- ^ Symonds, pp. 81–86, 89–91.
- ^ Symonds, pp. 45, 88–96; Eicher, p. 322.
- ^ Johnston, Joseph E., p. 10; Narrative of Military Operations, 1874.
- ^ Eicher, p. 322; Symonds, pp. 97, 103; McMurry, p. 193.
- ^ Symonds, pp. 112–24; McMurry, p, 193; Coski, p. 9.
- ^ Symonds, p. 128.
- ^ Eicher, p. 69; Symonds, pp. 123–30.
- ^ Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission Staff (January 1981). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Conner House" (PDF). Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 4, 2016. Retrieved September 28, 2013.
- ^ Symonds, pp. 140–46; Sears, pp. 15, 25.
- ^ Sears, pp. 40–110; Symonds, pp. 153–59.
- ^ Johnston, pp. 138-39.
- ^ Sears, pp. 111–45; Eicher, p. 323; Symonds, pp. 160–74.
- ^ Symonds, pp. 189–91; Ballard, pp. 115–16.
- ^ Woodworth, pp. 196–99; Symonds, pp. 193–201.
- ^ Woodworth, pp. 207–10; Ballard, pp. 273–81; Symonds, pp. 205–209.
- ^ Woodworth, pp. 210–18; Symonds, pp. 209–18.
- ^ Wasiak, Joseph E., Jr. "A Failure in Strategic Command: Jefferson Davis, J. E. Johnston and the Western Theater." U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. 1998.
- ^ Symonds, pp. 219–26.
- ^ Chesnut, pp. 248–49.
- ^ Woodworth, pp. 256–58; Eicher, p. 323.
- ^ Weiss, Timothy F. (2007). "'I lead you to battle': Joseph E. Johnston and the Controversy at Cassville". Georgia Historical Quarterly. 91 (4): 424–452. Retrieved February 15, 2018.
- ^ Symonds, pp. 275–301; Castel, pp. 128–254.
- ^ Symonds, pp. 302–19; Castel, pp. 255–347.
- ^ Steven Woodsworth, Civil War Gazette interview, December 27, 2006.
- ^ Castel, p. 562.
- ^ Symonds, pp. 320–35; Castel, pp. 347–65; McMurry, p. 197.
- ^ Jefferson Davis' letter to James Phelan, March 1, 1865, with enclosure. OR 47, pt. 2, 1303-1313.
- ^ Symonds, pp. 339–42; Bradley, pp. 22–25, 45–46.
- ^ Bradley, pp. 28, 45–46; Symonds, pp. 343–46; Eicher, p. 323.
- ^ Symonds, pp. 346–52.
- ^ Symonds, pp. 356–57; North Carolina Historic Sites: Bennett Place Archived January 29, 2015, at the Wayback Machine; Eicher, p. 323.
- ^ Flood, p. 347.
- ^ Georgia Historical Society, Johnston, Joseph E. (Joseph Eggleston), 1807-1891, Georgiahistory.com
- ^ a b Symonds, pp. 360–65.
- ^ Symonds, p. 370.
- ISBN 978-0807860472.
- ^ Davison, Kenneth (1972). The Presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. pp. 96, 99.
- ^ Cox, Jacob (June 1893), "The Hayes Administration", The Atlantic
- ^ Symonds, pp. 376–79; Vandiver, p. 219.
- ^ Symonds, pp. 380–81; Flood, pp. 397–98.
- ^ "Joseph E. Johnston Papers". Special Collections Research Center, Earl Gregg Swem Library, College of William & Mary. Archived from the original on September 18, 2017. Retrieved March 30, 2018.
- ^ "Troopships of World War II: Liberty Ships". www.skylighters.org. Archived from the original on August 19, 2017. Retrieved October 23, 2017.
References
- Ballard, Michael B. Vicksburg, The Campaign that Opened the Mississippi. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004. ISBN 978-0-8078-2893-9.
- Bradley, Mark L. Last Stand in the Carolinas: The Battle of Bentonville. Campbell, CA: Savas Publishing Co., 1995. ISBN 978-1-882810-02-4.
- Castel, Albert E. Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1992. ISBN 978-0-7006-0748-8.
- OCLC 287696932.
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 474.
- Coski, John M. The Confederate Battle Flag: America's Most Embattled Emblem. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-674-01983-0.
- Eicher, John H., and ISBN 978-0-8047-3641-1.
- Flood, Charles Bracelen. Grant and Sherman: The Friendship That Won the Civil War. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005. ISBN 978-0-374-16600-7.
- Georgia Historical Society, Johnston, Joseph E. (Joseph Eggleston), 1807–1891, Georgiahistory.com.
- McMurry, Richard M. "Joseph Eggleston Johnston." In The Confederate General, vol. 3, edited by ISBN 0-918678-65-X.
- ISBN 978-0-89919-790-6.
- Sifakis, Stewart. Who Was Who in the Civil War. New York: Facts On File, 1988. ISBN 978-0-8160-1055-4.
- ISBN 978-0-393-31130-3.
- Vandiver, Frank Everson. "Joseph Eggleston Johnston." In Leaders of the American Civil War: A Biographical and Historiographical Dictionary, edited by Charles F. Ritter and Jon L. Wakelyn. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998. ISBN 0-313-29560-3.
- ISBN 978-0-8071-0823-9.
- Wasiak, Joseph E., Jr. "A Failure in Strategic Command: Jefferson Davis, J. E. Johnston and the Western Theater." Archived October 18, 2022, at the Wayback Machine US Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. 1998.
- ISBN 0-7006-0461-8.
Further reading
- Connelly, Thomas L. Autumn of Glory: The Army of Tennessee 1862–1865. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1971. ISBN 0-8071-2738-8.
- Downs, Alan. "'The Responsibility Is Great': Joseph E. Johnston and the War in Virginia." In Civil War Generals in Defeat, edited by Steven E. Woodworth. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1999. ISBN 0-7006-0943-1.
- Govan, Gilbert E., and James W. Livingood. A Different Valor: The Story of General Joseph E. Johnston C.S.A.. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1956. ISBN 978-0-8371-7012-1.
- Hood, Stephen M. John Bell Hood: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of a Confederate General. El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Beatie, 2013. ISBN 978-1-61121-140-5.
- Hughes, Robert M. General Johnston. Great Commanders. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1893. OCLC 869760.
- Johnson, Bradley T. A Memoir of the Life and Public Service of Joseph E. Johnston. Baltimore: Woodward, 1891. OCLC 25524368.
- Johnston, Joseph E. Narrative of Military Operations: Directed, During the Late War between the States. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1874. OCLC 444839.
- Newton, Steven H. Joseph E. Johnston and the Defense of Richmond. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1998. ISBN 978-0-7006-0921-5.
External links
- Lydia McLane Johnston, Wife Of Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston
- Finding aid for the Joseph E. Johnston Papers
- Joseph E. Johnston in Encyclopedia Virginia
- CivilWarHome.com: Joseph Eggleston Johnston – a brief biography
- United States Congress. "Joseph E. Johnston (id: J000192)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
- Rasmussen, Frederick N. "A much-respected, and conflicted, general of the Confederacy", The Baltimore Sun, Sunday, July 31, 2011.
- Correspondences of Joseph E. Johnston during the American Civil War - held in the Walter Havighurst Special Collections, Miami University