The Birthday of Eternity

Albert Sidney Johnston, died April 6, 1862

Albert Sidney Johnston was 58 years old when the Civil War began; he was the commander of the U.S. Army Department of the Pacific in California. Like many regular army officers from the South, he was opposed to secession, but he resigned his commission as soon as he heard that the state of Texas had seceded. 

Warner's Ranch

On April 28, 1861, he moved to Los Angeles where he had family and remained there until May. when, suspected by local Union authorities, he evaded arrest and joined the Los Angeles Mounted Rifles, leaving Warner's Ranch on May 27. He participated in their trek across the southwestern deserts into the Confederate territory of Arizona on July 4, 1861.

In the summer of 1861, Confederate President Davis appointed several generals to defend Confederate lines from the Mississippi River east to the Allegheny Mountains.  On September 10, 1861, Johnston was assigned to command the huge area of the Confederacy west of the Allegheny Mountains, except for coastal areas. He became commander of the Confederacy's western armies in the area often called the Western Military Department. 

After his appointment, Johnston immediately headed for his new territory. He was permitted to call on governors of Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi for new troops, although this authority was largely stifled by politics, especially with respect to Mississippi. On September 13, 1861, in view of the decision of the Kentucky legislature to side with the Union after the occupation of Columbus by Polk, Johnston ordered General Feix Zollicoffer  with 4,000 men to occupy Cumberland Gap in Kentucky in order to block Union troops from coming into eastern Tennessee. By September 18, Johnston had General Simon Bolivar Buckner with another 4,000 men blocking the railroad route to Tennessee at Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Johnston had less than 40,000 men spread throughout Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas and Missouri. Of these, 10,000 were in Missouri under Missouri State Guard General Sterling Price. Johnston's initial call upon the governors for more men did not result in many immediate recruits, but Johnston had another, even bigger, problem since his force was seriously short of arms and ammunition even for the troops he had. As the Confederate government concentrated efforts on the units in the East, they gave Johnston only small numbers of reinforcements and minimal amounts of arms and material. Johnston could only keep up his defense by raids and other measures to make it appear he had larger forces than he did, a strategy that worked for several months. Johnston's tactics had so annoyed and confused Union General William Tecumseh Sherman that he became somewhat unnerved, overestimated Johnston's forces, and had to be relieved by General Don Carlos Buell  on November 9, 1861.

Johnston launched a massive surprise attack with his concentrated forces against Grant at the Battle of Shiloh on April 6, 1862. 

The Battle of Shiloh

As the Confederate forces overran the Union camps, Johnston seemed to be everywhere, personally leading and rallying troops up and down the line on his horse. At about 2:30 p.m., while leading one of those charges against a Union camp near the "Peach Orchard", he was wounded, taking a bullet behind his right knee. The bullet had clipped a part of his artery and his boot was fillied up with blood. Within a few minutes, Johnston was observed by his staff to be nearly fainting off his horse. 

Among his staff was Isham Harris, the governor of Tennessee. Seeing Johnston slumping in his saddle and his face turning deathly pale, Harris asked: "General, are you wounded?" Johnston glanced down at his leg wound, then faced Harris and replied with his last words: "Yes, and I fear seriously." 

Isham Harris

Harris and other staff officers removed Johnston from his horse and carried him to a small ravine near the "Hornets Nest" and desperately tried to aid the general by trying to make a tourniquet for his leg wound, but little could be done by this point since he had already lost so much blood. He soon lost consciousness and bled to death a few minutes later. 

Johnston falling from his horse, Fire Eater

Harris and the other officers wrapped General Johnston's body in a blanket so as not to damage the troops' morale with the sight of the dead general.  Johnston and his wounded horse, named Fire Eater, were taken to his field headquarters on the Corinth road, where his body remained in his tent until the Confederate Army withdrew to Corinth the next day, April 7, 1862. 

A surgeon dug the bullet out of the back of Johnston's leg and announced that it was an Enfield bullet. Federal soldiers in that section of the battlefield weren't carrying Enfields. The Confederate soldiers that Johnston was leading in the charge were carrying Enfield Rifles. That would mean in all probability that Johnston was shot by his own men by accident.

Johnston Monument at Shiloh

From there, his body was taken to the home of Colonel William Inge, which had been his headquarters in Corinth. It was covered in the Confederate flag and laid in state for several hours.

William Inge and Wife

Johnston was the highest-ranking casualty of the war on either side, and his death was a blow to the morale of the Confederacy. Jefferson Davis considered him the best general in the country; this was two months before the emergence of Robert E. Lee as the pre-eminent general of the Confederacy.

The loss of Albert Sidney Johnston hit President Davis especially hard; they had been friends since both attended Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky.

Jefferson Davis

He died at the age of 59.

Johnston was initially buried in New Orleans. In 1866, a joint resolution of the Texas Legislature was passed to have his body re-interred in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin.  The re-interment occurred in 1867. 

His son, William Preston Johnston (1831-1899), who served on the staff of General Joseph Johnston and subsequently on that of President Davis, was a distinguished professor and president of Tulane University. His chief work was The Life of General Albert Sidney Johnston (1878).

Elisabet Ney

Forty years later, the state appointed Elisabet Ney to design a monument and sculpture of him to be erected at his gravesite.

Grave of Albert Sidney Johnston

Headstone Text

Albert Sidney Johnston 

By the State of Texas 

In the year 1904 

Brigadier General in the Army of the Republic 

And also Secretary of War; An officer in the Army of 

The United States in the War with Mexico; and a 

General in the Army of the Confederate States. 

Fell at Shiloh April 6, 1862 

While in command of the Confederate Forces 

In Defense of the Rights of Self Government 

and of the Constitution 

Footstone 

Albert Sidney Johnston 

Gen Army of Mississippi 

Confederate States Army 

Feb 2 1803 ~ Apr 6 1862