Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1878-02-26
Albert Sidney JOhnst0n's Dramatic
Death.

/ know of nothing more dramatic in
the history of this great war than John
ston's heroic death. dtsavors of antique
glory. Every circumstance was redolen
of chiyalry. 1t illustrated alike his mill
tary genius and his knightly spirit. In
planning the campaign his consummatt
generalship was displayed. He was al
COrinth with three corps under Bragg
Polk and Hardee. aggregating about
$4,000 men, with Beauregard second In
command.
THE PLANS OF SHILOH.
Grant, the Union General. to whom
belongs the inextinguishable glory OF
leading the army to the grand final
victory, was at Pittsburg Landing on
the Tennessee River, eighteen miles
distant, with six large divisions. Buell.
with five divisions more was coming up
to join Grant, and when united their
object was to seize and destroy the rail
road junction at Corinth, Johnston's
object was to strike. and annihilate
Grant before Buell. could reinforce him
and thus defeat him in detail. The
Federal force under Grant was between
81, 900 and 10000 men.
THE SUNDAY BATTLE AT PITrsBURG
LANDING.
On Sunday, the 9Th of April, 1862,
Johnston with his eager army began his
fateful fight. It was a complete surprise
in the misty Sabbath morning of q
splendid army in luxurious encamp-
ment, unsuspecting danger Never
fought a surprised force more gallantly,
no one was ever handled more skillfully
thus taken unawares. But the attack
was irresistible. With supreme daring
Gen. Johnston urged on the onset. He
handled bis army with brilliant impet-
uosity. Wherever there was pause in
the onward movement he led the charge
in person. To those who saw him that
day, as the writer did, in all the glorious
fever of that delirious success, mounted
upon magnificent steed, his massive
figure seeming to enlarge to gigantic
size with the ardor of battle, his noble
face aflame with his indomnitable spirit
of fight, he was the ideal embodiment
of the fiery essence of war. He threw
himself with reckless Indifference into
danger. The entire line of the enemy
was in. retreat little before noon.
JOHNSTON IN PURSUIT.
The victory was glorieusly begun, 1t
is the pushing broken enemy to utter
annihilation that constitutes one of the
chief merits of the great General. john
ston pressed the fierce pursuit of the
broken foe. Oblivious of peril from the
swa-ming bullets of the retreating but
still fighting enemy, he rode swiftly in
advance. It was in this supreme mo
ment OF victorious onset, a decisive tri-
umph seemingly in his eager grasp, that
| tho fotaI h1lint 81 !,
wound under the knee severing an ar
terry. He never needed it, but sweeping
on in the rush, exclaimed to one of his
| officers, "We will water eur horses in
the Tennessee river Io-night.n
oBLIvIoUs OF WOUNDS.
An aid perceiving blood On his clothes
asked him, with deep anxiety, if he was
not wounded. He answered, in the ex-
alted ardor of his feelings, removed
above sense of pain, "only scratch ~
Even then the life-blood was flowing
from his deadly wound and his mo-
nents were numbered: But his great
soul was in the battle heat and self was
sublimely forgotten. He went on to
say in the same sublimated exhiIaratIon
of his lion spirit, ''Was not that spen-
didly done! Glorious fellows! We
have got them now ~
LAST SCENE OF ALL.
lie began to reei in the saddle, dying,
He was lifted to the ground. His boot
was full of blood, and the life-current
pouring out beyond recall. He never
spoke again. Removed into ravine
out of the merciless bullets, he was dead
in twinkling. The grand old man was
gons fiona this worlds strife, and the
Southern people m0urned the heaviest
bereavement they had yet suffered in
the mighty struggle.
Take it all in all, with all its accesso-
rles, and the late war, as full as it was of
romantic events, shows no more dra-
matte picture than the taking off of this
heroic ehieftain. 1t WAS
A FIT EXIT
for the royal soldier to thus expire in
the crimson tide of such triumph. He
died in the supreme conviction of
splendid victory. That he would have
pressed his overwhelming success to its
full fruition none doubt who knew him.
That he left none behind him able to
reap the complete result, and that from
the abstraction of his masterful genius
out of the battle skillful foe the next
day retrieved the disaster does not les
son Johnston's refulgent glory. Could
his spirit in the dark day Of popular
miscenstruction have seen the honors
paid his memory by the South when his
loss was announced he would have been
spared deal of unnecessary anguish
1t is due to truth to say that while the
South had many brilliant lieutenants
capable of splendid fighting with large
subordinate commands, Gen. Sidney
Johnston was one of the few men on
either side possessed OF great genius
for war. But the grandest of this great
soldiers greatness was in his moral
splendor. Honor and truth and courage
and patriotism and duty and all ether
moral excellencies were so sovereign in
his soul that at last they constitute the
portion of his character and fame OF
winch his Southern countrymen are
most proud.-Col. 1. ". Avery in De-
trOit Free Press.
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