Joseph E. Johnston

Joseph E. Johnston
Joseph E. Johnston
	Johnston in uniform, c. 1862
Birth name	Joseph Eggleston Johnston
Nickname(s)	Joe
Born	February 3, 1807; Farmville, Virginia, U.S.
Died	March 21, 1891 (aged 84); Washington, D.C., U.S.
Buried	Green Mount Cemetery,; Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Allegiance	United States; Confederate States;
Service / branch	United States Army; Confederate States Army;
Years of service	1829–1861 (USA); 1861–1865 (CSA);
Rank	Brigadier General (USA); General (CSA);
Commands	Army of the Shenandoah (1861); Army of Northern Virginia (1861–1862); Department of the West (1862–1863); Army of Tennessee (1863–1864); Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida (1865); Department of North Carolina and Southern Virginia (1865);
Battles / wars	Seminole Wars First Battle of the Loxahatchee; ; Mexican–American War Battle of Cerro Gordo; Battle of Chapultepec; ; American Civil War First Battle of Bull Run; Peninsula Campaign Siege of Yorktown; Battle of Seven Pines; ; Vicksburg Campaign; Atlanta Campaign; Battle of Bentonville; ;
Alma mater	United States Military Academy
Signature
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives; from Virginia's 3rd district
	In office; 1879–1881
Preceded by	Gilbert Carlton Walker
Succeeded by	George D. Wise

Joseph Eggleston Johnston (February 3, 1807 – March 21, 1891) was an American career army officer, who served in the United States Army during the Mexican–American War (1846–1848) and the Seminole Wars. After Virginia declared secession from the United States, he entered the Confederate States Army as one of its most senior general officers. From 1888 to 1889 he was a vice president, from 1889 to 1890 president, of the Aztec Club of 1847.

Johnston was trained as a civil engineer at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, graduating in the same class as Robert E. Lee. He served in Florida, Texas, and Kansas. By 1860 he achieved the rank of brigadier general as Quartermaster General of the U.S. Army.

Johnston's effectiveness in the American Civil War was undercut by tensions with Confederate president Jefferson Davis. Victory eluded him in most campaigns he personally commanded. He was the senior Confederate commander at the First Battle of Bull Run in July 1861, but the victory is usually credited to his subordinate, P. G. T. Beauregard. Johnston defended the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, during the 1862 Peninsula Campaign, withdrawing under the pressure of U.S. Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan's superior force. He suffered a severe wound at the Battle of Seven Pines and was replaced by Robert E. Lee.

In 1863, Johnston was placed in command of the Department of the West. In 1864, he commanded the Army of Tennessee against U.S. Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman in the Atlanta Campaign. In the war's final days, Johnston was returned to command of the few remaining forces in the Carolinas Campaign. U.S. Army generals Ulysses S. Grant and Sherman praised his actions in the war and became friends with Johnston afterward.

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 one month after attending Sherman's funeral.