The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1931-01-23

all the Confederate forces in the West.
The fall of Fort Henry and Fort
Donelson to the Union forces under
Foote and Grant followed and the
new leader fell back to Murfrees-
boro where he began recognizing his
troops. Then he moved to Corinth,
Miss, the key of the defense of the
railroad system in the lower Missis-
sippi valley, where by April /, 1862,
he had about 10000 men, poorly armed
and badly supplied. Grant, command
ing the right wing of the Union army,
was concentrating at Pittsburg Land
ing on the Tennessee river with some
10000 men and Buell. was rapidly ap-
preaching with 10000 more. With a
Napoleonic flash Of genius Johnston
decided to beat the enemy in detail
and to attack Grant before Buell. could
arrive.
On April 8 he started on his 25
mile march to Pittsburgh Landing but
he was delayed by bad roads and did
not arrive until the 9Th. At a council
of war General Beauregard, his, Sec
ond in command, protested against
an attack and advised a return to
Corinth. Johnston overruled him and on
Sunday morning, April 6, he led his
army to the attack. 1t was a COM
plete surprise, for Grant was not even
on the field.
The struggle lasted all day and was
proceeding successfully just as Johns
ton had planned. The Union army was
being crowded into an angle between
Snake creek and the Tennessee river
and was facing humiliation. About
2:30 o'clock in the afternoon Johns
ton, while leading a charge which
crushed the left wing of Grants
forces, fell with mortal wound. Beau
regard, with enough daylight left to
complete the victory, vacillated and
ordered the attack to cease. That
night Buell's army came up and the
next day the Confederates were driven
from the field. Had the bullet which
struck down Albert Sidney Johnston
reached another target, the history
of the Civil war might have been vast
ly different.
Unlike Albert Sidney Johnston, who
was Southerner Of Northern an
cestry, Joseph Eggleston Johnston
was Southerner of the Southerners.
He was born in Cherry Grove, Va, on
February 8, 1907, the scion of a Vir-
ginia family which had been in this
country for nearly 200 years. He was
graduated from West Point in 1929 in
the same class that gave Robert e.
Lee to the army and commissioned a
second lieutenant in the Fourth ar
tillery. With the exception of service
in the Black Hawk war in 1882, most
Of his first six years in the army was
spent in garrison duty at various posts
along the Atlantic seaboard.
But in 1896 he became ide-de-camp
to Gen. Winfield Scott in the war with
the Seminole Indians in Florida and
won brevet as captain for gallantry
in action when troops under his COM
mand fell into an ambuscade, from
which Johnston extricated them skill
fully. On this occasion his uniform was
perforated with no less than 80 bull
lets In 1928 he was again in
Florida serving against the Seminoles.
In the war with Mexico he was at
the siege of Vera Cruz and in the
battles of Cerro Gordo, Contreras,
Moline del Rey, Chapultepec and the
attack on the City of Mexico. He
was severely wounded at Cerro Gordo
and again at Chapultepec. where he
was the first to plant regimental colors
on the ramparts of the fortress. For
his gallantry at Cerro Gordo, he was