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Archiver > TNSMITH > 2002-11 > 1038284685


From: "Steven Denney" <>
Subject: Re: [TNSMITH] Re: TNSMITH-D Digest V02 #427
Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2002 22:39:21 -0600
References: <7a.319d4578.2b1436b0@aol.com>


Different General. Joe Johnson received his most serious wound defending
Richmond during the battles known collectively as Seven Days. After his
wound, Davis replaced him with Robert E. Lee as the new commander of the
Army of Northern Virginia. Davis hated Joe Johnson and kept him on the
shelf a long time without a serious command. During the important
Vicksburg, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Chattanooga days he held a paper
command that put him in charge of all the armies East of the Mississippi and
South of North Carolina. That left him theoretically in charge of Bragg and
Pemberton, but they were allowed to command on the ground and Johnson's
worst performance of the war came in not forcefully taking command of at
least one of the two armies in question and doing something that would help
out.

The monument you saw at Shiloh was for General Albert Sidney Johnston, who
was a personal hero of Jefferson Davis and held his entire confidence. At
the outset of the war, the Confederacy realized that the hardest area to
hold onto would be Tennessee and the West. Therefore, Davis assigned the
man whom he thought was his best General to the Western theater. Johnston's
early death precludes an accurate evaluation of his talents, but during the
short time of his command in the West (he came on to the scene late as he
commanded the Second Cavalry out West at the outset of the War) he suffered
much more in the way of setbacks than success. One must remember that he
was saddled with some of the worst generals the Confederate Army was blessed
to obtain-most notably Bishop-General Leonidas Polk, Gideon Pillow, and
Crittenden. Much of the hole that the Western army had to dig itself out
from was a direct result of the ineptness of these generals and other
political appointments that had a lot to learn about fighting.

Before anyone scolds me about my assessment of these generals, I will point
out that after several years of service at high rank, Polk did develop into
a fairly good corps commander and his death about the time of Colonel
Stanton (I think that it was also at Resaca and may have been during the
same artillery barrage--Polk's head was blown off) was considered a great
loss by the rank and file of the Army of Tennessee. He was very popular
with the men. Gideon Pillow was quite frankly, although a Tennesseean one
of the worst Generals that was ever the misfortune of any nation to own. A
political ally and personal friend of James K. Polk, Pillow was very
influential in obtaining Polk's presidential nomination. As a reward, he
was appointed a general during the Mexican War, and by the end of the War,
was the second ranking officer Winfield Scott's army. He never rose above
the rank of brigadier in the Confederate army, but he was one of the senior
brigadiers, and was the first commander of the Army of Tennessee (followed
by Leonidas Polk, A.S.Johnston, Boureguard, Bragg, Joe Johnson, Hood,
Hardee, and then Joe Johnson again). He precipitated action in Kentucky by
goading Polk into occupying Paducah and then completely botched (with Floyd)
the defense of Fort Donelson. He was simply an awful general officer in
the field, although he was a competent and even great organizer and dreamer.
He would have made a good adjutant general or quartermaster general.

Albert Sidney Johnston was killed at Shiloh, during the first day of battle.
The only full general who outranked Johnston in the Confederate army was
Samuel Cooper. R.E. Lee, then Joe Johnson, Bouregard, Bragg, Edmund
Kirby-Smith, and Hood round out the list of full Generals.

By the way, did you go to Shiloh with Jeff Roberts?

Steven

----- Original Message -----
From: <>
To: <>
Sent: Monday, November 25, 2002 8:30 PM
Subject: [TNSMITH] Re: TNSMITH-D Digest V02 #427


> DEar Steven,
>
> We were just at Shiloh day before yesterday; we visited the site where
Gen.
> Johnston was shot with the minie ball and where he died. There is a
monument
> to him there.
>
> June
>
>
> ==== TNSMITH Mailing List ====
> Smith County Cemeteries North Of The Cumberland River
> at The Smith County Historical and Genealogical Society website:
> http://www.rootsweb.com/~tnsmith/hg/cems_north/
>
>

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