Behind The Battles | Joseph E. Johnston

Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston was one of the Civil War's most complex and controversial commanders. Known for his cautious strategies, tense relationship with Jefferson Davis, and deep respect from both Union and Confederate leaders, Johnston’s legacy is anything but simple. From early battles to his dramatic surrender to Sherman, this episode explores the life, leadership, and lasting impact of a man who tried to outthink the war around him.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
The bloodiest war on American soil. States versus States, Brothers
versus Brothers. Join hosts Bang and Dang as they take
you battle by battle through the most divisive time in
American history. Welcome to Battles of the American Civil War.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
We're back in the Battles American Civil War behind the Battles,
and this week we're covering Joseph Johnston. Well, he's recognized
as the last.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
General to.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Surrender for the Confederates, but in actuality it was a
general in the Indian territory, in Indian General.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
Actually that did it.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Obviously, it's not gonna be as famous as though Joseph Johnston. Johnston,
like everybody else, he was a career military guy. He
was in the Mexican American War, he was in the
Seminole Wars, obviously Civil War, and just like all the
other guys, he left the war and became a president
of a railroad company and he served a one term
in Congress. So yeah, almost made it to nineteen hundred.

(01:25):
But again, only two guys we've covered so far.

Speaker 4 (01:27):
Being in a railroad company is like being in podcasts,
and today right.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Everybody's got a fucking stake in a railroad company. He
kid now Joseph Eggleston Johnston. We're gonna go all the
way back to the early eighteen hundreds, as a matter
of fact, eighteen oh seven to be exact, February third,
that's when old Joey Johnston was born. And that was
at a place called Longwood House, which is an area

(01:50):
known as Cherry Grove near Farmville, Virginia's.

Speaker 3 (01:53):
There's somebody else that was born there.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Well, Now, Longwood House itself was a bit of a
story that eventually burned down, but the rebuilt version would
go on to be the birthplace of Charles Venable, who
served on Robert E.

Speaker 3 (02:04):
Lee staff during the Civil War. That wasn't the guy
I was thinking of. That's it today?

Speaker 2 (02:09):
That very same house that old Venable was born in
is now the official residence of the president.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
Of Longwood University.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
That's the first time it's been there for Oh, he's been,
He's he's been a lot of episodes.

Speaker 3 (02:24):
Oh.

Speaker 4 (02:24):
Johnston's roots run deep in Virginia, Virginia.

Speaker 3 (02:29):
His old granddaddy, Pete.

Speaker 4 (02:31):
He made the journey from Scotland all the way to
Virginia back in seventeen twenty.

Speaker 3 (02:35):
Six, Scottish lad. Huh. Joseph was the seventh son. Yeah,
that's right. Seven.

Speaker 4 (02:40):
He was a seventh son of a judge, Peter Johnston
Junior and Mary Valentine Wood. Now Mary's name might ring
a bell if you're a little bit of history buff
like us. She was actually Denise of Patrick Henry. Oh,
oh shit, that guy, you know, the whole gimme liberty
or give me death guy, Joseph alright.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
And and some turner ainstignation that the very Patrick Henry
would have never done.

Speaker 4 (03:05):
But okay, right right, because he said, Joseph, you ask well.
It was named after Major Joseph Eggleston, under whom his
daddy had served during the Revolutionary War, under the command
of you guessed it, Henry.

Speaker 3 (03:19):
Light Horse, Harry Lee light Horse, Harry all right, General Lee,
Look all right, General Lee's we got baby.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
The Johnson family they were pretty politically active too. Joseph's brother,
Charles Clement Johnson, he served in Congress, and his nephew,
John Warfield Johnson, he became a US Senator.

Speaker 3 (03:38):
Fantastic both obviously Rep. Virginia. Rep.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
Virginia and in eighteen eleven, when Joseph was just a
little baby boy. The family packed up and moved to Abingdon,
which is way out near the Tennessee border.

Speaker 3 (03:50):
In this song, way out near Abdingden.

Speaker 4 (03:54):
Give me some order, I'm moving down to the Tennessee border.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
Oh there at that Tennis border. His daddy built a
house there and called it Panosillo.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
Yeah, what they all did that?

Speaker 4 (04:05):
I mean, did you have to name like your ranch
for it not to be taken by somebody? But if
you're all like hunting, they're like, oh what empty ranch?

Speaker 2 (04:12):
Oh shit, there's a marker that's his penicilo.

Speaker 3 (04:14):
Damn it.

Speaker 4 (04:16):
Fast forward a bit eighteen twenty five, Young Johnston he
got a nomination to attend the United States Military Academy,
you know it, west Point, courtesy of then Secretary of
War John Calhoun.

Speaker 3 (04:27):
Wow, Secretary of War did it?

Speaker 4 (04:30):
Johnston? He did okay at West Point. He wasn't a
top student by any means, but he was solid. He
finished thirteenth out of closset third forty six. We've seen worse,
sem worse that's happened in eighteen twenty nine. Ay, mean,
a nice little career in that military. Get this, guys,
His classmate that year, none other than.

Speaker 3 (04:50):
You guessed it. Robert E.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
Lee.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
Robert E. Lee finished second? Sure dead, Joseph.

Speaker 4 (04:56):
He was commissioned. Wasn't Jefferan Davison like first or something
like that? David suck so did Grant?

Speaker 3 (05:01):
Right? I want who finished first? And nobody.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
Like?

Speaker 3 (05:09):
Nobody mentionable? Right?

Speaker 4 (05:11):
They probably went straight to the top, right. They were
too too smart to go on to battlefield.

Speaker 3 (05:17):
Joseph.

Speaker 4 (05:18):
He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in fourth US
Artillery after graduation.

Speaker 2 (05:22):
Charles Mason was an Iowa judge.

Speaker 3 (05:24):
Yeah, I told you, go straight to.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
The finished second, lead to Mason and lead tied in
artillery tactics and conduct with Mason's over oscore was higher.

Speaker 4 (05:33):
Looks like Abraham Lincoln version.

Speaker 3 (05:37):
So did he go straight from west Point to be
a judge?

Speaker 2 (05:40):
They both of them still have the two highest graduation
point scores in the history of West Point. Douglas MacArthur
has the third. Old fucking Bruce la Willis himself.

Speaker 3 (05:51):
Oh wow, that's crazy.

Speaker 4 (05:52):
And he was commissioner of Patents. That's cool, But what
did you do commission straight? He was the governor of Well, No,
but he's just a candidate. Oh and he defeated oh
he was defeated by Sam Merrill. Rest in peace, all.

Speaker 2 (06:08):
Right, shovelingens nobody? Okay, so yeah, he just went straight
into politics. Basically, what a waste of a career, then,
what a waste of the first place?

Speaker 3 (06:19):
All right?

Speaker 4 (06:20):
Fun fact, Johnston would actually become the first West Point
graduate to be promoted to general officer in the regular
United States Army. He even outranked Robert E. Lee Darren
peacetime service. That's off and overlooked. Well, no, because nobody cared.
Nobody cares who who's in the rank of leadership in peacetime.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
Well, also, nobody went to their regular army back then either.
They all had their own little.

Speaker 3 (06:46):
And what was that peacetime? Three days? America has never
been in time?

Speaker 2 (06:53):
About an eighteen thirty seven Johnson. He walked away from
the army. He pivoted the civil engineering. That adventure clearly
wasn't done with him. During the Second Seminole War in Florida,
he worked as a civilian topographic engineer on a ship
under William Pope MacArthur. I wonder if that's the old
Douglas's ken kin folk. And during one mission near Jupiter, Florida,
things went sideways Johnson and his group. They were ambushed

(07:16):
and he took fire. One bullet even grazed his scalp.

Speaker 3 (07:19):
Yeamn.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
He later joked that his clothes had no less than
thirty bolts. That kind of experience, that's a great joke.
That kind of experience gave him second thoughts about civilian life,
and by eighteen thirty eight Magnete Army. He said people
were gonna shoot at me just be for being a civilian.

Speaker 3 (07:34):
Might as well. Yeah, he shoot at him back.

Speaker 4 (07:36):
Can you imagine laying in bed and that night just
be like, dude, literally centimeters away from dying. I got
a scab on my head from a bullet if I.

Speaker 3 (07:49):
Hadn't turned my head.

Speaker 4 (07:51):
By the grace of God, he got a commission as
a first lieutenant and the topographic Engineers. He was even
brevet to captain for his bravery and work for exploring
to Florida, Evergladesh.

Speaker 2 (08:05):
And a lot of gallicans, weeds and Gaiters're.

Speaker 3 (08:09):
Careful, bud Man, You're brave. Now.

Speaker 4 (08:14):
In eighteen forty five, he's in Baltimore, Johnston. He married
his sweetheart, Lydia Mulligan Sims McLean. You should have a
mulligan on that name, baby right Epka, motherfucker.

Speaker 3 (08:29):
She came from a seriously prowerful family. Her daddy Lewis McLean.

Speaker 4 (08:34):
He's president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad because of course,
and had done just about everything in politics. He was
a congressman, he was a senator, he was a diplomat,
and he was even a cabinet member under Andrew Jackson.
Joseph and Lydia they never had any children, but they
were a high profile couple for their time.

Speaker 3 (08:52):
Yeah, because they were a single couple. They can do
whatever they want.

Speaker 4 (08:56):
Everybody looked at them in town to like, oh, with
their six kids, they had to put the bed at
six o'clock that night.

Speaker 3 (09:00):
Yeah, they were right looked upon or looked down on
for that. You didn't have kids, you're low in public,
but in the privacy of their own home. Wish could
you imagine what they're doing right now, banging the time.
Don't know, it does matter what they're doing. Shit. Well,
then came to Mexican American War on Johnson.

Speaker 2 (09:21):
He was all in and he joined up with Winfield
Scott's staff and played a key role in the siege
of Air cruise. He was even the guy Scott sent
into demand the city surrender.

Speaker 3 (09:30):
Oh nice.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
Later he moved inland with General David Twiggs and was
seriously wounded by grape shot while scouting enemy positions before
the Battle of Sierra Gordo. For that, he was given
a brevet promotion to lieutenant colonel. He said, you take
some grape shot, you get lieutenant colonel.

Speaker 4 (09:44):
Fantastic, even while we're covering Johnson. He didn't sit over
very long. Held joined the army at Puebla, served as
second in command of a regiment of light infantry, which
was the United States of Alti.

Speaker 3 (09:59):
Yeah, as.

Speaker 4 (10:03):
He fought in several key battles Contrea's true Obuscle Jeff Pultepec,
and he was wounded again. He ended the war as
a brevet colonel, but after all that he dropped back
to his permanent peace time rank just captain.

Speaker 3 (10:21):
He got paid for that while he was fighting, right, hoh.

Speaker 2 (10:23):
So they do drop you down just as you get
unless you get officially moved. But Brevett, you just get
paid like that.

Speaker 3 (10:29):
You're not officially a nice. War promotions didn't stick back then.

Speaker 2 (10:33):
You're doing it towards the war we'll give you a
little more money to send to your family.

Speaker 3 (10:36):
You just got shot twenty times. After the war, you're
going back down to private private well Winfield Scott.

Speaker 2 (10:43):
He once joked that Johnson had a real talent for
getting himself shot in just about every engagement.

Speaker 3 (10:47):
Right, but even not at war. Right.

Speaker 2 (10:50):
But war wasn't all glory, clearly, Johnson. He was devastated
when his nephew, Preston Johnson was killed at Contrera's.

Speaker 3 (10:57):
When Robert E.

Speaker 2 (10:58):
Lee broke the news to him, both men cried to
the other, and then Johnson carried that grief with him
the rest of his life.

Speaker 3 (11:04):
Wow, oh shit.

Speaker 2 (11:06):
Probably the closest thing he had to baby boy.

Speaker 4 (11:09):
Right after the war, Johnson he worked as an engineer
once again, this time mapping out the Texas border Ohnversy.
He came back to Texas in eighteen forty eight spent
five years as Chief Topographical Engineer for the Department of Texas. But,
oh Johnston, he won more. He was itching to get

(11:30):
back into more active role. He was love killing people, yeah,
or the art of the art of war where they
say it the love of war or whatever.

Speaker 3 (11:43):
All's fair and love and war sure.

Speaker 4 (11:46):
All through the eighteen fifties. He wrote to the War Department,
He said, can.

Speaker 3 (11:49):
I please come back, Please take me and come back
with my wartime rank. He said, oh damn. But Jefferson Davis,
then Secretary of War. Oh, here we go.

Speaker 2 (11:58):
And this is a common theme between these guys the
rest of the episode.

Speaker 3 (12:01):
Yeah, and he kept turning them down.

Speaker 4 (12:03):
But still Davis the highly enough of Johnson to make
him lieutenant colonel and the newly formed first United States
Cavalry in eighteen fifty five, and he would have he
would have to serve under Colonel Edwin Bull Sumner.

Speaker 3 (12:16):
Oh Sumner, huh. Well.

Speaker 2 (12:18):
At the same time, Lee he got a similar appointment
into the Second Calvary under Albert Sidney.

Speaker 3 (12:22):
Johnston no relation and Joseph. Yes, we've done him already,
poor guy. He dead. Joseph.

Speaker 2 (12:30):
He took part and operations against the Sue and what's
now the Wyoming and what's now Wyoming, and also got
involved in Bleeding Kansas. We'll covered that, which was the
violent prelude to the Civil War.

Speaker 3 (12:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (12:41):
It was here that he struck up a close friendship
with a younger officer. We call him George McClellan. Oh, jeez,
who irony of ironies would one day command Union forces
against him.

Speaker 4 (12:50):
I mean, I think it's hilarious that all these guys
worked together for years and the stupid ones ended up
going to the north and the good ones to the south.

Speaker 3 (12:59):
It's crazy. I don't go that far, but.

Speaker 2 (13:01):
McClellan Mead put up the top three Union generals versus
the top three conveedtitor generals, and Union has them cleared.
It's true, Grant Chairman, Sheridan Clear's, Lee Longstreet, No, and
fucking stone Wall.

Speaker 3 (13:19):
Lee's obviously the best out of all of them.

Speaker 4 (13:21):
Yeah, yeah, but the rest of them, yeah, they're probably
pretty close.

Speaker 3 (13:26):
Stone Wall is probably better than Sheridan. Stonwall was better
than Lee. Stone Wall was good. Poor guy, Poor guy.
Marm shut me arm, I need man the money Bob
told you call me Robert nineteen fifty six YEP.

Speaker 4 (13:53):
One hundred years earlier, in the Lowerd's year of eighteen
fifty six. Eighteen fifty six, Johnston resigned to Jefferson Barracks
in Missouri. A year later, he led his survey of
the Kansas border.

Speaker 3 (14:09):
UH.

Speaker 4 (14:09):
He worked at the work that would eventually become the
subject of a Supreme Court case.

Speaker 3 (14:15):
No, I'm curious. Around that very same time, we'll be
covered all and bleeding Kansas.

Speaker 4 (14:19):
But all right, that one. Around that very same time,
John B. Floyd and Abingdon native and cousin of Johnston's
by marriage, took over a secretary of war.

Speaker 3 (14:30):
There you go, Buddy asked for eurokan rank.

Speaker 4 (14:32):
Buddy Floyd had also been guardian to Johnston's nephew Preston.

Speaker 3 (14:38):
With a little family.

Speaker 2 (14:39):
Help John help from my family, he was.

Speaker 3 (14:41):
Finally breveted colonel for Cyriro gordon.

Speaker 2 (14:44):
Ie and he got back payd for all as shit.

Speaker 4 (14:46):
Now everyone in the army was thrilled, though they whispered
about favoritism. Of course, I mean nechism.

Speaker 3 (14:51):
It's Claire's day. This motherfucker's been putting in this ship
for four years.

Speaker 2 (14:56):
All of a sudden, his old uh I wasn't by marriage,
mind you.

Speaker 4 (15:02):
Right then in eighteen fifty nine, oh Johnston. He tagged
along with his brother in law Robert Milligan McLean and
newly appointed the United States Minister in Mexico. They went
on a mission to meet with the Benito Forrez his government.
Johnston also took the opportunity to scout out potential military
roots through Mexico just case.

Speaker 3 (15:22):
He's like, we got an eye on you.

Speaker 4 (15:24):
I'd love to be ever want to pop off again,
I'd love to be at that meeting. Why beneath their
hardheads down to make or we put war is there?

Speaker 3 (15:32):
They went all the way to Mexico City, dude.

Speaker 2 (15:34):
And then it was just far damn near towards the bottom.
They could have kept it too, but we're good.

Speaker 3 (15:43):
We're good people.

Speaker 2 (15:45):
By eighteen sixty change, it was a coming a long
time quartermaster General Thomas Jissop. He had passed away and
it was time to name a replacement. Oh gotta do that,
Winfield Scott. He offered four names, he said, Joey Johnston,
Albert Johnston, Robert E. Lee, and some guy named Charles Smith.
Even though Davis preferred, oh Albert, Secretary of War Floyd.

(16:08):
Obviously he's gonna go with olde his old cousin, Joey.

Speaker 3 (16:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (16:12):
So June twenty eight, eighteen sixty, Joseph Johnson, he was
promoted to brigadier general.

Speaker 3 (16:16):
Look at that, but he wasn't thrilled.

Speaker 2 (16:20):
Johnson. He preferred Field to pushing papers in Washington. Don't
give me a brigadier general. I want to be in
the action, right, and with the country on the edge
of war, he felt increasingly conflicted. He was in charge
of distributing war middie right, stuff that might end up
used by his fellow Southerners. Unlike Secretary Floyd, who was
accused of shady dealings, Johnson state above board, but the

(16:41):
tension was.

Speaker 3 (16:41):
Eating at him.

Speaker 2 (16:42):
With that stage was set, country was about to be
split in two, and Joseph he was standing right at
the crossroad.

Speaker 4 (16:49):
Who has a lot of Americans were at that time boys.
Virginia succeeded from the Union in eighteen sixty one, Joseph
made a big decision.

Speaker 3 (16:58):
Well, let me go little muff. She's muff right.

Speaker 4 (17:04):
At the time, he was a brigadier general in the
United States, Tommy the highest ranking officer to resign and
join the Confederacy.

Speaker 2 (17:11):
Of all time well, of course, of all time Civil War,
but yeah, he's the highest ranking guy that resigned from
the US Army.

Speaker 3 (17:16):
He later explained why.

Speaker 4 (17:18):
Like a lot of Southerners back then, Johnston believed that
the break permament he's like, well broke from it would
be We'll be done with these guys and that it
was justified under the idea of Americans that always preached
that government should be based on the constant, that government
should be based on the consent of the governed. It's

(17:38):
true if people were strong enough to break away and
hold the ground, he believed.

Speaker 3 (17:42):
They had the right to do it, which is also true.

Speaker 4 (17:45):
So in his words, he went home to fight for
his sweet Virginia, his kin, and if it came to it,
die defending them.

Speaker 3 (17:55):
Okay, I am sweet Virginia.

Speaker 2 (17:57):
Well, at first he was commissioned as a major general
the Virginia Militia May fourth, but the state only needed
one major general at that time, and that one told
Robert E.

Speaker 3 (18:06):
Lee. Johnson.

Speaker 2 (18:07):
Was then offered a brigader general spot in the state army,
technically a step down, but he turned it down and
instead accepted the same rate in the Confederate Army May fourteenth. Oh,
right away, he was sent to Harper's Ferry to relieve
Colonel Thomas Stonewall Jackson and take charge there. By July
he had formed what become known as the Army of
the Shenandoah Famous.

Speaker 4 (18:26):
Yeah, well that's where it gets, uh, that's where shit
get real, boys.

Speaker 3 (18:34):
Well, there was a couple of battles before. But this
is when shit gets real.

Speaker 2 (18:38):
This is what everybody realized, right, Uh, holy shit.

Speaker 3 (18:42):
You might want to hold on here, boy, it's gonna
be a long one. I don't bring your picking in
the quebex to get this time. They have the battlefield.

Speaker 2 (18:52):
Please set away from the most direct your attention to
this side of the rope.

Speaker 3 (18:57):
Fuck well.

Speaker 4 (18:59):
First battle run came also called first Manassas, which we
all know happened on twenty first of July in eighteen
sixty one. Johnston moved quickly, rushing his small force from
the Shanandoah Valley to reinforce Brigadier General PG. T.

Speaker 3 (19:14):
Bowling God.

Speaker 4 (19:15):
But since he wasn't familiar with the t rain, Johnston
and he let Baureguard take the lead on the battlefield strategy.
Say what's a smart hey, Bud, you know what you're
doing here. Still, when things started un foe, Johnson saw
where the real fight was. It was heading north of
the headquarters at Henry House Hill, and he didn't hesitate.
And this is where he's famously had to have said,

(19:38):
the battle is there, I'm going. Then he took off
on horseback. He's such a well spoken man.

Speaker 2 (19:47):
Right Johnson, he played a hands on roll that day.
He rallied the fourth Alabama after all their senior officers
had been killed. He encouraged General Barnard B who'd been
losing heart, and urged him to keep fighting. B in
turn rallied his men and pointing to Jackson holding firm,
which is what gave Jackson the nickname Stonewall. Look at
Jackson standing there like a damned stone wall, and so

(20:11):
Johnson's action that day.

Speaker 4 (20:12):
Pretty pivotal, damn right. Eventually, Boulguard convinced Johnson that this
time would be better spent coordinating reinforcements rather than fighting on.

Speaker 3 (20:20):
The front lines. He's like here, right. Bulguard would go
on to get the most of the public credit. I mean,
he's the leader right for.

Speaker 4 (20:28):
This Confederate victory. But Johnson's role, while quieter, was absolutely
essential after that very battle. Johnson even had a hand
in designing the Confederate battle flag. It was his idea
to make it square. But Johnson's early days in the
Confederate Army weren't without drama, because later in eighteen sixty one,
he was promoted to full general, the highest possible rank

(20:51):
that should have been good news, right, Well, Johnson, he
was furious when he found out where he landed on
the seniority list. Three other generals Samuel Cooper, Albert Sidney, Johnson,
Priby warranted, Robert E. Lee Prior warrned they replaced all
that even though he believed he had outranked them back
in the United States Army, which he did. He didn't

(21:11):
have to believe it, believe it he did. Only barguard
was blow him on the list.

Speaker 2 (21:15):
Oh, thought to Johnson, this wasn't just about pride. And
he'd served for over thirty years.

Speaker 3 (21:20):
Damn, you're right.

Speaker 2 (21:21):
He'd been wounded in mettle multiple times. He had his
father's old Revolutionary War sword unstained, as he put it,
had meant he never killed nobody with it. And he
saw his record was spotless. And a bitter letter to
old Jeffy Davis Johnson he made it clear he felt
insulted and wronged. Davis for his part. He said Johnson's
brigadier general title in the US Army had been a

(21:42):
staff role and that his highest line rank serving actually
on the on the battlefield was actually lieutenant colonel, which
was below.

Speaker 3 (21:51):
Cooper, Lee and Sidney, Johnson, who'd both been.

Speaker 4 (21:53):
Full colonel's in the actual US Army either wait right
right the letter Johnson sent hit Nerve and Davis even
brought it up in the cabinet meetings.

Speaker 3 (22:04):
He's like, can you believe as motherfucker leave the son
of a bitch and.

Speaker 4 (22:08):
The feud between the two men had officially begun, Well officially,
I guess, and it wouldn't go away anytime soon. Despite
the tension Johnston he was given command of the Department
of the Potomach. Well, you know what, even back then,
when people didn't like each other, they recognized their game,
recognized game baby, recognized the valley Like, I don't like
that fucker, but he sure is damn good at what

(22:29):
he does. Johnson was given command of the Department of
the Potomac and the Confederate Confederate Army of the Potomac
in July of eighteen sixty one.

Speaker 3 (22:40):
Later that very.

Speaker 4 (22:41):
Year, in October, he took over Department of Northern Virginia
as well. He set up headquarters in Manassas. This is
where he remained through the winter of eighteen sixty one
and eighteen sixty two. He was mostly focusing on training, organization,
and getting his army properly equipped that well.

Speaker 2 (22:59):
Meanwhile, on the other on the other side of the
Union owed his best friend, Oh, George McClellan, He was
building up his own army of the Potomac and viewed
Johnson's position as heavily fortified.

Speaker 3 (23:10):
So heavily fortified, in fact.

Speaker 2 (23:12):
That McClellan decided he needed to outflank Johnson entirely by sea.
Early March, catching wind of Union movements, Johnson, he withdrew
his army to Culpepper Courthouse without even notifying old President Davis.

Speaker 3 (23:23):
You can, I mean, you've got to do it. But
as you would.

Speaker 2 (23:26):
Assume, that retreat triggered a whole new round of issues
between the two. Yep, Davis, he was surprised, and not
in a good way. He saw the move as a
premature and unnecessary retreat. From then on, Davis began to
limit Johnson's authority.

Speaker 3 (23:38):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (23:39):
He brought Lee to Richmond as his military advisor and
started giving direct orders to some of Johnson's subordinates, cutting
him out of the chain entirely.

Speaker 3 (23:46):
Oh my goodness, that's one thing you don't want to do.
And this guy still fought to the end. Wow. Asked
for McClellan.

Speaker 4 (23:54):
Well, once he realized Johnson's position had it been as
strong as.

Speaker 2 (23:57):
And he faced three hundred and fifty thousand people.

Speaker 4 (24:00):
As always with McClellan, there were fucking four hundred thousand
people over there.

Speaker 3 (24:04):
There's like forty people. That's it, right, right.

Speaker 4 (24:09):
When he realized Johnson's position wasn't as strong as he
had claimed, he got embarrassed. And he got embarrassed publicly.
That's the worst. You can get embarrassed in your own
home or even in a bar with a couple of
people at a table, but publicly. It forced him to
change his entire Spring strategy. Instead of landing at Urbana
like he had originally planned, he launched what became the

(24:31):
Peninsula Campaign, targeting Richmond from the east between the James
and York's rivers. So in a few months, Johnson had
gone from top of the United States Armory officer to
Confederate general. He helped win the South's first major battlefield victory.
He clashed with the Confederate president already, and he also
pulled off a strategic withdrawal that changed both sides plans

(24:52):
for the next phase of the war. His story just
getting started.

Speaker 2 (24:57):
That's right, Because it's early April eighteen sixty two. McClellan's
Junion forces have just landed at Fort Monroe, right at
the tippy top of Virginia Peninsula. From there, McClellan starts
inching his way towards Yorktown methodically and cautiously. Now Johnson,
who's in charge of the Confederate defense, is in a
tough spot. His army is about half the size of
mccollins either, even though mccollan don't know that right, and

(25:19):
the Union Navy can support mcleollan's move directly from the
rivers on either side of the peninsula.

Speaker 3 (25:25):
Like I said, this war should have been over within
like two weeks.

Speaker 4 (25:28):
Seriously, Johnson actually tries to convince President Davis and Robert E.
Lee that the smartest move here would be to pull back,
concentrate in fortifying Richmond itself, basically, hunker down and defend
the capitol with everything.

Speaker 3 (25:42):
They've got give, because that is what makes you a
freaking country. That's true, that's all you have. That's ce true.
You just move it.

Speaker 2 (25:53):
Well, you took this capitol, We're making a new one,
and fucking.

Speaker 4 (25:55):
Uh, we'll go back to Montgomery all right, but as
usual Davis and Lee they weren't buying it. They instead,
they want Johnson to meet the Union head on. So
he ends up deploying most of his forces out on
the peninsula.

Speaker 2 (26:07):
While McClellan, meanwhile, he's busy digging in at Yorktown preparing
for a siege. No rememb long build up. Johnson, he
decides to pull back and engage at Williamsburg on May fifth,
and he puts up a tough defensive fight.

Speaker 3 (26:18):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (26:18):
Just a couple of days later May seven, he successfully
stops a Union amphibious maneuver at Elpham's Landing.

Speaker 3 (26:23):
We did good.

Speaker 2 (26:25):
Despite these efforts, by the end of me the Union
army has pushed to within six miles of Richmond, dangerously
close Johnson, he realizes he can't hold Richmond forever.

Speaker 3 (26:34):
Mmm, We's gonna have to happen.

Speaker 4 (26:37):
Paul mccleollan's army is massive, supported by heavy siege artillery,
and the swollen Chickahamanee River splits the Union forces, given
Johnston an opening that he.

Speaker 3 (26:48):
Was solely looking for.

Speaker 4 (26:50):
So on the thirty first of May, he launches an
aggressive attack south of the river at the Battle.

Speaker 3 (26:55):
Of Seven Pines, also known as fair Oaks. I guess
there's both of them. There, there's seven pine pines, but
a bunch of fair, fair looking oaks there you're looking
still seven pines.

Speaker 2 (27:08):
Yeah, but the South used to right do it by
like landmarks or something, and the Union would do weird
chip whatever.

Speaker 4 (27:18):
Well the plan you ask well, turns out it was
to be too complicated for his subordinates to pull off correctly.
Johnston also doesn't do a great job making sure everyone
fully understands his orders or supervising the execution all those
The result, well, as you can guess, the battle ends
up tactically inconclusive, no clear winner, but effectively halts mccallin's

(27:43):
push towards Richman. There you go, so strategically it's a
win for the o ReBs.

Speaker 2 (27:48):
But here's the kicker. Johnson himself gets seriously wounded near
the end.

Speaker 3 (27:52):
Of the first day.

Speaker 2 (27:53):
This guy an artillery shell fragment hits his shoulder end
chest with Johnson's hideline General gustav As Smith. He takes
command for day two. Almost immediately afterwards, Jefferson Davis steps
in and replaces Johnson with Robert E. Lee he's known
for being more aggressive. All right, Lee, he takes over
the army of Northern Virginia and will hold it for
the rest of the war. Yeah, people forget Johnson was

(28:15):
the first right Northern Virginia.

Speaker 3 (28:17):
Guy too as well. Right, Lee wastes those times noo stimes.
Lee wastes no time.

Speaker 4 (28:23):
He drives mcleland off the peninsula there and then tense
seven days battle in late June, pushing back the old
Blue Coats. Then a couple months later in August, Lee
he scores another big victory near ball Run, beating a
Union army once again. Well, I hope he was a
Union arry. So this stretch marks a big turning point
in the war, It says the beginning of Lee's rise

(28:47):
and the slowing down McClellan's grand invasion plan, which he didn't.
He attacked but never pursued McLelland the war should have
been over with if if he was a pursuer, been
over with the first four months.

Speaker 2 (29:02):
But I don't know all that because the Union didn't
even win a freaking battle.

Speaker 3 (29:08):
Well, you can't help that. The Confederates had one point
five million people on the other day.

Speaker 2 (29:13):
With another four hundred thousand waiting in reserves.

Speaker 3 (29:16):
And freaking artillery. As far as I can see.

Speaker 2 (29:19):
He's putting warships on wheels and started bucking rolling over.

Speaker 3 (29:25):
These guys are well fed and well rested, ready to go. Well,
all this started.

Speaker 4 (29:30):
With Johnson's tough fight, his injury, and the handing over
of the reins to lead.

Speaker 2 (29:35):
Well, I don't think he handed it over. He had
no choice. But well, this time Johnson, he gets out
of the hospital a bit earlier than expected November twenty fourth,
which is the time for Thanksgiving, right, and he's handed
a pretty big job, and this time is to command
the Department of the West.

Speaker 3 (29:48):
Oh, nobody wants that job.

Speaker 2 (29:49):
This was the main Confederate command in the Western theater,
and it technically put him in charge of brax and
Bragg's Army of Tennessee and John Pemberton's Department of Mississippi
is Louisiana.

Speaker 4 (29:58):
Because Bragg needs somebody to tell him what to do.
This gay, this gay Pemberton wasn't that bad, but this gay.

Speaker 2 (30:06):
There was also the trans Mississippi Department over in Arkansas,
led by Theophilis Holmes, that he rules over as well.

Speaker 3 (30:12):
No, THEO, THEO theo oh Johnston.

Speaker 4 (30:16):
He thought it made sense to merge Holmes forces with
Pemberton's under his control, or at least send Holmes troops
to help Pepperton, but the government wasn't on board.

Speaker 3 (30:28):
Sorry, Johnson. Anything that you do is not going to be.

Speaker 4 (30:31):
Supported by Jefferson Davis, but it's just not gonna happen.

Speaker 2 (30:34):
Hey, guy, we know where you put you in command
of this, but whatever you want to do.

Speaker 3 (30:38):
No right.

Speaker 4 (30:40):
Davis is in a position where yeah, you're good, but
he's not going to give you any type of You're
on that short leash.

Speaker 3 (30:45):
Baby, write me another, write me another letter, bitch right.
He made sure your lease is long enough just to
get your.

Speaker 4 (30:51):
Water bowl, got stretched that tumbel, get a good lick,
fuck it.

Speaker 2 (30:59):
Gets so we're under halfway and then.

Speaker 3 (31:02):
You're doing so.

Speaker 4 (31:03):
Johnson's first major challenge was figuring out how to do
about Braxton Bragg.

Speaker 3 (31:08):
How to do? What am I going to do with
this guy? And how right? And how will that do it?

Speaker 4 (31:14):
The Confederate leadership and even some of Bragg's own top officers,
they were pretty unhappy with how he handled things at
the Battlestones River.

Speaker 3 (31:21):
We covered, so we covered Braggs life as well.

Speaker 4 (31:26):
So, oh, Jefferson Davis, he said, Johnston, you go and
see Bragg and you forgot if he need to be
replaced or not. There's that Johnson Davis said, love doing that,
Davison Davis loved doing that?

Speaker 3 (31:38):
Well, well, you checking out.

Speaker 2 (31:39):
I think I think you're thinking of Bragg's episode where.

Speaker 3 (31:44):
He sent Johnston, right. I mean, this is the same
thing we're just doing Johnson now. But I think he
did like to do that.

Speaker 4 (31:51):
I would, I would be uh inclined to be Didn't
it that he's done that with multiple He.

Speaker 2 (31:56):
Didn't trust Johnson to colonels and uh uh joined the
two armies together, but he trust him enough to go
down and decide whether general should be replaced.

Speaker 4 (32:06):
Right, Well, we know that if Johnston said yes, replace him,
he'd probably get the job himself. I Field command was
definitely more appealing than the mostly administrative gig he had.
But Johnson had a strong sense of humor, gotta have
that back, and he also had a strong sense of honor,

(32:27):
and he didn't want to throw Brag under the bus.

Speaker 3 (32:29):
They didn't even have busses back then, so had uh
the wagons wagon bus? Right is that what they call
what were the uh, what were the wells? Fargo? What
were they called stage coaches?

Speaker 4 (32:47):
He didn't want to throw Brag under the stage coach
for personal gain, So after talking with Bragg and his officers,
Johnston had had a generally positive report and decided not
to push for a change, like no, we're going here,
bud Well.

Speaker 2 (33:01):
Davis then called Bragg to Richmond and planned for Johnson
to take a field command. Anyways, Bragg's wife was sick,
so he couldn't travel. Meanwhile, Johnson was still dealing with
some lingering health problems himself, a pensula wound.

Speaker 4 (33:13):
Davis was going to do no matter what, he just said,
hopefully you make the right decision. If not, I just
have that still had I just have to take him
to Richmond here right quick. Right, Bragg would still technically
have that role, but Johnson would be taking over for then.

Speaker 3 (33:31):
Don't worry, he'll be back in a couple of weeks.

Speaker 2 (33:33):
Davis is like Vince McMahon, gets everybody to tell him
things and he does the complete opposite of right. Yeah, Johnson,
he still got his wounds he's dealing with from the
peninsulas and Confederate attention shifted away from Tennessee to Mississippi
for a bit. Sold Bragg he stayed put. Anyways, consequences
yeah too, because now we need you.

Speaker 4 (33:52):
Yeah. Well, here's the big crisis. It's coming up quick.

Speaker 3 (33:55):
Vicksburg. Vicksburg.

Speaker 4 (33:58):
This was the crucial Confederate hold on the Mississippi. And
Grant he was making moves to take that freaking stronghold.
He because we got to take those little spots that
we think ain't nothing, because they are.

Speaker 3 (34:10):
There's something.

Speaker 4 (34:12):
Grant started with a series of unsuccessful attempts in a
winner of sixty two and the early winner of sixty three.

Speaker 3 (34:21):
He did that. He did that in the north of
the city.

Speaker 4 (34:25):
But then he launched a bold campaign of April of
eighteen sixty three by crossing the Mississippi just southwest of Vicksburg,
which was the smartest, smartest thing and taxing thing too
as well.

Speaker 3 (34:35):
Grant caught Pepperton off guard. He fought a string of battles.

Speaker 4 (34:38):
Moving northeast towards Jackson, which is Mississippi's capital and not
a ninth of May, the Confederate Secretary of War ordered
Johnson to head straight to Mississippi, and I said, I
want you to take command of that field forces right there,
and you defeat Old You listened as Grant and Johnson said,
oh hell yeah.

Speaker 2 (34:56):
Well he didn't, well he did, but he told Richmond
he wasn't really fit, yeah, but would follow orders.

Speaker 3 (35:01):
Anyways.

Speaker 2 (35:03):
He did get the Jackson on May thirteenth and found
two Union corp a vancing and only about six thousand
feeders to defend the city. Johnson ordered her fighting retreat
at the Battle of Jackson May fourteenth, then pulled back
north Grant. He took Jackson and then moved towards Vicksburg
to the west.

Speaker 4 (35:20):
Johnson started moving his troops west. They joined up with Pemperton,
but then he heard about Pemperton's defeats at Champion Hill
on the sixteenth May. Then again he got his ass
whipped the day later on Big Black River. And there
was a bridge there, right, the Big Black River Bridge.

Speaker 2 (35:36):
I think that's the one where they tried to route
over the bridge. But then they all got basically slaughtered
at the bridge.

Speaker 4 (35:43):
Stupid almost as bad as the crater. The spiers fell
back to Vicksburg's fortifications. Johnston he urged Pepperton to a
ban in the city and joined forces him so they
could outnumber Grant. But oh, Jefferson Davis, he ordered Peperton
to defend Vicksburg at all.

Speaker 2 (35:59):
Call I mean die, bitch, I mean you would have
died before you helped Johnson mean you needed Vicksburg. But
that's your Mississip. Well, Grant, he made too failed attempts
to storm the city and settled into a siege. Folks inside,
both soldiers and civilians. They waited for Johnson to come
rescue them, but his force was small and slow. Right

(36:20):
by late May, Johnson had gathered about twenty four thousand men,
but he wanted more reinforcements before making a move. He
thought about ordering brag to send help, but worry that
might risk losing Tennessee.

Speaker 3 (36:30):
That's true, and you end up anyway.

Speaker 2 (36:33):
Plus Johnson and Davis, they cut button heads about whether
Johnson's orders the Mississippi meant he was removed from overall
threeater command.

Speaker 4 (36:39):
You know, it's very possible that if they were to
give up Vicksburg and Tennessee at this point in the war,
that war, ifire, could have lasted another four years, because
in their strategy, he would have.

Speaker 3 (36:49):
Been that little area.

Speaker 4 (36:53):
And then they can actually come up with something, you know,
you know, and said they tried to expand in two
fast and they didn't have the people to do it
or the resources they should have done this slow, stuck
with stuck with.

Speaker 2 (37:08):
The Oh, they didn't expand anything because well, the states
to succeed, but nobody Confederates saw basically a defensive war.

Speaker 3 (37:18):
Right.

Speaker 2 (37:19):
Some historians say Johnson purposely misunderstood the orders of misunderstood
because he resented Davis's interference.

Speaker 3 (37:25):
With this guy.

Speaker 4 (37:27):
Very possible. Eventually, Pemberton he surrendered. Well, that happened to
be in the fourth of July eighteen sixty three, along
with Port Hudson following a week later. This gave the
Old Blue Coats full control of the Mississippi River. Split
in the Confederacy into two.

Speaker 2 (37:42):
Something you couldn't afford to happen. Yet they're war went
on for another three years. Yeah, for two years, right, Davis.

Speaker 4 (37:49):
He sarcastically blamed the defeat on a want of provisions
inside and a general outside who would not fight. Oh,
I'm talking about Johnson there, he was. The fallout between
Johnson and Davis got better, and it got better fast.
People argued publicly about who was to blame Johnston. They're

(38:10):
like wrestling Twitter, right, Johnston.

Speaker 2 (38:13):
Had imagine the Civil War?

Speaker 3 (38:15):
Twitter, Fuck Johnston. You don't you fucking know what John's
gonna do with. David's stupid as right.

Speaker 2 (38:23):
It wasn't for David stepping up to be President of the
Confederate to be nowhere.

Speaker 4 (38:27):
He's a French supporter anyway, He's a brick guy.

Speaker 3 (38:33):
Whatever. David is not even fucking smart. He finished forty
seven to his class, right, you know why they're doing this?

Speaker 4 (38:41):
Yeah, but Johnson he could split wood faster than anybody.

Speaker 3 (38:46):
Hilarious.

Speaker 4 (38:49):
People argue publicly about what was to blame. Johnston hadn't
want in the Western Command to begin with, nobody did yea.
Even in the North, he struggled with moving troops across
vastest and bad rail connections, as well his subordinates. They
didn't always help.

Speaker 3 (39:06):
Pemberton refused to follow his advice.

Speaker 4 (39:09):
Davis was a piece of shit and talked directly to
Johnson's subordinates instead of Johnson himself, leaving Johnston in the dark.

Speaker 2 (39:18):
Davis thought about fireing Johnson, but couldn't because Johnson he
was still popular and had powerful political backers like Senator
Lewis wigfall Instead, Davis took Bragg's army away from Johnson,
leaving him only with Alabama and Mississippi.

Speaker 3 (39:31):
On this poor management.

Speaker 2 (39:34):
There's a famous diary quote from Mary Chestnut that sums
up the Johnston Davis feud perfectly. She said, the President
detests Joe Johnson for all the trouble he has given him,
and General Joe returns the compliment with compound interest. His
hatred of jeff Davis amounts to a religion with him.
It colors all things. He said, I will hate this
man no matter what. I don't care if it at

(39:55):
this point, I don't even care if it costs us
the fucking Confederacy.

Speaker 3 (39:58):
I guarantee you. Beforejsen died, he said, fuck Jefferson Davis. David.

Speaker 4 (40:07):
Meanwhile, Vicksburg was falling. Union General Williams. Rose Grands was
pushing Bragg back in Tennessee, forcing him to abandon Chattanooga altogether.
Bragg he managed to score a big win at Chickamauga.

Speaker 2 (40:22):
Then, and that's what ruined rose Grand.

Speaker 3 (40:24):
Then he got defeated at Chattanooga in November.

Speaker 4 (40:28):
He resigned and went back to Richmond to be Davis's
military advisor.

Speaker 3 (40:31):
As we all know.

Speaker 2 (40:32):
Well listen to our brags and rag episode, and there's
a little bit more than that.

Speaker 4 (40:37):
Davis offered command of the Army of Tennessee too, you
guessed it William Hardy, and he thought, well, maybe PGD
Boreguard with whom he didn't get along with as well.
And then he was like Robert E. Lee, and he
knew he couldn't take him out of there. And Lee
was very reluctant on leaving Virginia, but he first recommended Baureguard.

(41:00):
Sensing Davis's discomfort, Lee changed his recommendation to Johnson.

Speaker 3 (41:03):
He's like, oh about this motherfucker, you eight.

Speaker 2 (41:05):
Right, like either or that he ate the apparently at
a lot.

Speaker 4 (41:08):
Of back and forth, Davis finally appointed Johnston to command
the Army of the Tennessee and ended at Dalton, Georgia,
on the twenty seventh of December eighteen sixty three.

Speaker 3 (41:18):
WOW.

Speaker 2 (41:19):
On the spring of sixty four, Johnson he faced a
tough challenge Major General William T. Sherman. He was advancing
from Chattanooga down toward Atlanta. Johnson's approach looked a lot
like what he was doing during the Peninsula campaign years earlier.
He'd set up a strong defensive position, only to have
Sherman's skillfully maneuver around them with flancoln moves, forcing Johnson
to keep pulling back until he got towards Atlanta.

Speaker 4 (41:41):
Johnson's main goal was to keep his army intact, which
is every general's main goal.

Speaker 3 (41:46):
I could ursue.

Speaker 4 (41:47):
He was very cautious about risking a full on battle
that he might lose outright, not Mike, and he did
a solid job slowing down Sherman, causing the Old Union
forces heavier losses than his own. Even if this means
that he has to keep he retreat and he's gonna
he's gonna freaking as long as.

Speaker 2 (42:03):
He's giving them heavier losses than himself.

Speaker 4 (42:05):
Well, and he's not gonna put his put his army
in risk of not being intact. Sherman kicked off his
landing campaign on fourth May eighteen sixty three.

Speaker 3 (42:15):
Four.

Speaker 4 (42:16):
Johnston's Army of Tennessee tried to hold the approaches to Dalton,
but after a fight or two they gave up on Dalton,
which was on the thirteenth of May, and they fell
back about twelve miles to Osaka. This is where they
dug in again, but Oh, Sherman killing civilians and women
on the way. He pushes hard. Johnston retreated civilians and women,
women and civilians, but Sherman pushed high and Donston retreated

(42:41):
from Osaka by May fifteenth.

Speaker 3 (42:43):
This is on the move. Don't dig in, guys.

Speaker 2 (42:45):
Johnson then gathered his troops to launch a counter attack
at Catsville, but his forces moved forward, an unexpected uniforce
appeared on his right flank. Oh. The surprise led to
a skirmish at forced Lieutenant General John bell Hood, who
was coming in the court of stop and reposition. His
troops faced with this new threat, and Johnson caught off
the attack and started retreating again. By May twenty eighth,

(43:06):
the Confederates pulled back another eight miles of Cartersville by
the end of May. That saw Sherman trying to slip
away from the supply lines with the other another flankoln move,
but the Confederates fought fiercely. The Union troops got bogged
down in battles at New Hope Church May twenty fifth,
Pickett's Mill May twenty seven, and the Battle of Dallas
on May twenty eighth.

Speaker 4 (43:23):
Not that Dallas in June, Sherman kept trying to maneuver
around Atlanta's northern defenses. Twenty second June Battle of Cobs Farm, Well,
that happened, followed by Sherman's only major front assault of
the campaign at Kennesaw Mountain on the twenty seventh of June,
which Johnson successfully repulsed.

Speaker 3 (43:42):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (43:43):
Still, by this point, Sherman's forces were only about seventeen
miles from Atlanta, threatening the city from the west and
the north. Johnson had given up more than one hundred
and ten miles of rugged, mountainous terrain over just two months.
Ground that was easier to defend.

Speaker 2 (43:59):
Yeah, now you're on flat stuff. What are you gonna do?

Speaker 3 (44:02):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (44:03):
Well, this slow witch. Are all really worried the Confederate government.
When Johnson finally fell back across the Chattahoochee River, which
was the last major natural barrier before Atlanta, President Davis
lost patients earlier July. Davis sent Braxton Bragg to check
things out in Atlanta. Wow. After meeting with local leaders
and talking to Johnson's officers, Bragg went back to Richmond

(44:24):
and recommended to Johnson be replaced. But Johnson didn't know dude.

Speaker 3 (44:28):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (44:28):
So July seventeenth, eighteen sixty four, just outside of Atlanta,
Davis did indeed remove Johnson from command. Many historians say
the fall of Atlanta, who was basically sealed by Johnson's
cautious campaign.

Speaker 4 (44:40):
Yeah, that was pretty fucked up. You never give up
mountainous terrain, shouldn't, especially when they're coming at you so
you're defending it. Johnson's replacement, Lieutenant General John Bellhood, who
inherited what some called a virtually impossible situation, which it
was by that point. He tried to fan the city,

(45:01):
but it had to abandon it by September. Yeah, Davis's
decision to fire Johnson remains one of the most controversial
moments of the whole Civil War.

Speaker 3 (45:11):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (45:12):
After being relieved to command, Johnson stayed near Making, Georgia,
recovering from a stress induced case of shingles, oh between
flare ups who worked on his campaign report, which he
shared privately with the Allies in Richmond. By mid November
eighteen sixty four, he moved his wife closer to family
in Columbia, South Carolina, and pretty much settled it into
a kind of a quiet retirement.

Speaker 3 (45:31):
Why you got to do it, you think, somebody.

Speaker 4 (45:34):
But as Sherman's March Decea swept across Georgia and then
moved north through the Carolinas, the old rebels public grew anxious,
and many called for Johnson's return. The Genoan Childs of
the Western Theater PGT. Boone guard he wasn't making much
headway against Sherman's advancing forces. Meanwhile, political opponents of Jefferson Davis,

(45:55):
like Senator Lewis Wigfall, added.

Speaker 3 (45:58):
Pressure in Congress.

Speaker 4 (45:59):
The die is Mary Chestnut even remarked, we thought this
was a struggle for independence. Now it seems it is
only a fight between.

Speaker 3 (46:08):
Joe Johnston and jeff Davis. She don't like him, apparently.

Speaker 2 (46:13):
January eighteen sixty five, Congress passed a law given Robert E.
Lee the powers of General in Chief and recommended that
Johnson be reinstated as commander of the Army of Tennessee.

Speaker 3 (46:21):
Am Davis Field like an idiot?

Speaker 2 (46:24):
Davis He appointed Lee to the position right away, but
refused to bring Johnson back.

Speaker 3 (46:28):
What a piece of shit.

Speaker 2 (46:29):
In a long unpublished memo, Davis wrote that his opinion
of Johnson's unfitness for command has quote unquote ripened slowly
and against my inclinations, into a conviction so settled that
it would be impossible for me again to feel confidence
in him as the commander of an army in the field.

Speaker 4 (46:44):
I mean, I kind of do get his point there,
because he didn't like him from the get go, but
he gave him so many chances, and Johnson.

Speaker 2 (46:52):
And Johnston did some things that could have helped the army,
but just did it to spite Davis.

Speaker 4 (46:58):
Yeah, so they're both this shit. Vice President Alexander Stevens
seventeen Senators. They positioned Lee to put his new authority
to appoint Johnston except Davis, you can do it, but
Lee declined and instead of recommended the depotment back to Davis.
Despite all his misgivings, Davis finally restored Johnston to active

(47:19):
duty on the twenty fifth of February eighteen sixty five,
just in time for him to get defeated. Johnson's new
command combined two military departments, Apartment of South Carolina, Georgia
and Florida and the Department of North Carolina and Southern Virginia.
He took command of the latter on the sixth match.
These included three Confederate field Armies, excluding what was left
of the once formidable Army of Tennessee. These were armies

(47:43):
mostly in name.

Speaker 2 (47:45):
Right and nothing. Now the Tennessee Army have been badly
weakened after Franklin Nashville. It was short on supplies and
AMMO and hadn't been paid in months. Only about six thousand,
six hundred soldiers made it in South Carolina Johnston. He
also had about twelve thousand men under William Hardy, who's
been trying unsuccessfully to hold off Sherman.

Speaker 3 (48:04):
Not gonna happen.

Speaker 2 (48:05):
He had Bracks and Bragg's force and movement to North Carolina,
and about six thousand Calvary men under Wade Hampton.

Speaker 3 (48:11):
Wow damn.

Speaker 4 (48:13):
Johnson was seriously outnumbered, but hope to join forces with
the detachment of Lee's armie from Virginia and defeat Sherman altogether,
then head back to Virginia.

Speaker 3 (48:24):
To face Grant Lee.

Speaker 4 (48:26):
Well, he was like, well, I don't want to cooperate
with that, And after Richmond fell in April, Lee tried
to escape the North Carolina to link up with Johnson.

Speaker 3 (48:35):
Afterwards, Johnson's like, oh, now you know, He's like, no,
they're shooting at us Nope.

Speaker 4 (48:42):
Known Sherman was moving fast, Johnston planned to consolidate his
small armies and strike a vulnerable part of Sherman's force,
which was advancing in two columns. March nineteenth, eighteen sixty five,
Johnston caught Sherman's left wing by surprise at the Battle
of Bentonville. He had some early success tactically, but sherman
superior numbers soon forced Johnson retreat to Raleigh, North Carolina.

(49:04):
Unable to hold the capitol, Johnston's forces pulled back to Greensboro.

Speaker 3 (49:09):
Just dropping capitals, Man just dropping them well.

Speaker 2 (49:11):
Then came the final chapter. After hearing about Lee surrendered
appomatics April ninth, Johnson he agreed to meet Sherman at
a small farm called Bennett Place near Durham, North Carolina,
and over three days here pri seventeenth, eighteenth and the
twenty sixth, for some reason, Johnson and Sherman negotiated.

Speaker 3 (49:27):
Finally, Johnson surrendered.

Speaker 2 (49:28):
The Army of Tennessee and all remaining Confederate forces still
active in the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida. Wow And it
was the largest surrender of the whole war, which got
about ninety thousand soldiers off the field.

Speaker 4 (49:40):
Right, and at this time Davis and a couple other
guys were frantically trying to flee.

Speaker 2 (49:45):
In trying to set up another seeing if they can
get some knowing.

Speaker 3 (49:49):
Davis saw johnston surrender as an act of treason. What
about Lee?

Speaker 4 (49:53):
Well, Lee wasn't since many of the troops hadn't even
been explicitly defeated in battle. Johnston was paroled on second
of May at Greensboro. After the surrender, Sherman issued ten
days rausians to the hungry ReBs and provided horses and
mules to help ensure a crop. These guys, man, that's
how you do it. I know you just tried to

(50:13):
kill me. Bubby, Go grow some corn.

Speaker 3 (50:15):
Baby.

Speaker 2 (50:15):
My house took out about thirty five of your cities
on the way up to Carolina.

Speaker 4 (50:20):
Even though your farm may not be there and you're
help dead.

Speaker 2 (50:25):
Probably your family too, most likely.

Speaker 3 (50:27):
Sorry, sorry, here's a name to a good broth on
down right.

Speaker 2 (50:32):
Well, wait a minute, we burned that one.

Speaker 4 (50:36):
He also ordered the distribution of corn meal and flowered
civilians throughout the Cello. Johnston never forgot Sherman's generosity. He
later wrote that Sherman's attitude or reconciles me to what
I have previously regarded as the misfortune of my life,
that of having you to encounter in the field, that's

(50:56):
the greatest great.

Speaker 2 (50:57):
I am not trying to face this. After the war,
Johnson he had to find a way to support himself
and his alien wife. He became president of a small railroad,
which was the Alabama and Tennessee.

Speaker 3 (51:08):
River Railroad Company.

Speaker 2 (51:09):
Fantastic during his time there, from May of eighteen sixty
six to November eighteen sixty seven, very long. It got
renamed the Seal Marome and A.

Speaker 3 (51:17):
Dalton the Railroad.

Speaker 2 (51:19):
But Johnson found the job boring, and the railroad eventually
failed because it lacked enough capital.

Speaker 3 (51:24):
Right, we don't care about this. Wow, what side note?

Speaker 2 (51:30):
Okay, that is side No, this is one of the
main notes.

Speaker 4 (51:34):
Johnson wasn't one of the idle. He started Joseph E.
Johnston and Company, which is an insurance agency. Oh that
worked with the New York Life Insurance and a British
company called Liverpool in London and Globe Insurance Company.

Speaker 3 (51:47):
Why and he thought the other job was boring, all right?

Speaker 4 (51:51):
He ran this out of Savannah Georgia from eighteen sixty
eight to eighteen seventy seven, Within just four years, the
British company that had built a network of over one
hundred and twenty agents throughout the Deep South.

Speaker 3 (52:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (52:03):
Well, the great income from this insurance business gave Johnson
time to focus on what became his major post war project,
which was writing his memoirs, just.

Speaker 3 (52:12):
Like all the others did.

Speaker 2 (52:14):
His book, Narrative of Military Operations, published in eighteen seventy four,
as you would expect, was pretty critical of O. Jeff
Davis and many of his fellow generals. He also aired
his long standing grudge about his rank as a Confederate
general and tried to defend his reputation as a cautious,
deliberate commander. Unfortunately, the book didn't sell well and the
publisher didn't make a profit, so that meant neither did Johnston.

Speaker 3 (52:38):
Right Wow. Despite criticism from many rebels generals.

Speaker 2 (52:42):
Wonder why his book didn't sell, he liked.

Speaker 4 (52:44):
Johnston was actually seen in a positive light by Sherman
and Grant, and their memoirs themselves. Sherman called him a
dangerous and wily opponent. He took shots at Johnston's rivals
Hood and Davids said.

Speaker 2 (52:57):
You guys fucking suck right.

Speaker 3 (52:59):
Grant.

Speaker 4 (52:59):
Meanwhile, he supported Johnson's decisions during the Vicksburg campaign.

Speaker 3 (53:02):
Of course he did because he didn't have to fight
well as much.

Speaker 4 (53:07):
Saint Johnson wisely abstained from making an assault because it
would have caused unnecessary losses without changing the outcome, which
is true about this Atlanta campaign. Grant wrote that Johnson's
tactics were right, suggesting that prolonging the war even a
year might have worn down the North.

Speaker 3 (53:25):
And of to for as the settlement.

Speaker 2 (53:27):
Oh, goulfel, just being nice, right. Johnson also got involved
in business ventures like the Atlantic and Mexican Golf Canal
Company that was a project approve in eighteen seventy six
that planned to build a canal from Georgia Saint Mary's
River westward to the Gulf of Mexico on Florida's coast.

Speaker 3 (53:43):
Okay, I don't know why.

Speaker 2 (53:45):
You would do it from uh there, but right in
the winter of eighteen seventy six seventy seven, Johnson he
moved from Savannah.

Speaker 3 (53:53):
To Richmond, OH.

Speaker 2 (53:54):
He was even considered for President Rutherford B. Hayes cabinet,
oh especially as secondary War, but in the end he
was chosen Silly. Served one term in Congress from eighteen
seventy nine to eighty one, elected as a Democrat with
just about eight percent of the vote.

Speaker 3 (54:08):
Well that's cool. Good for him, right.

Speaker 4 (54:10):
He didn't want to run again in eighteen eighty but
he later worked as commissioners of railroads during President Grover
Cleveland's administration, which one the first one after his wife
passed in eighteen eighty seven. Johnston traveled often veterans gatherings,
where he was always warmly welcomed. September eighteen ninety, just
months before his death, Johnston was elected an honorary member

(54:34):
of the District of Columbia Society of the Sons of
the American Revolution.

Speaker 2 (54:40):
Johnson, much like old Robert E. Lee, he never forgot
the generosity of Sherman. Ypes He wouldn't allow anyone to
criticize Sherman when he was around. Sherman and Johnson kept
in touch regularly, and whenever Johnson was in DC, they
often meant for friendly dinners.

Speaker 3 (54:54):
Fantastic, dude, that's great.

Speaker 2 (54:55):
When Sherman died and Johnson served as honorary Paul Bear
as funeral and during the procession in New York City,
February nineteenth, eighteen ninety one. Spike cold and rainy weather,
Johnson refused to wear a.

Speaker 3 (55:06):
Hat out of respect. I bet that's what did it.

Speaker 2 (55:08):
When someone worried about his health and urged him to
cover up, Johnson said, if I were in his place,
and he were standing here in mind.

Speaker 3 (55:15):
He would not put on his hat. Damn it, he wouldn't.

Speaker 2 (55:17):
That day, Johnson did catch a cold witch turned into pneumonia.
He died a month later in Washington, d c. And
was buried next to his wife in Greenmount Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland.

Speaker 4 (55:28):
Dude Sherman had to kill Johnson once and for a
while right. In the years following the war, Johnson's legacy
remained mixed, but grew more nuanced nuanced, however you want
to say it. His memoires criticized Confederate leadership and attempted
to justify his strategic decisions, but his work didn't gain

(55:51):
much attraction among the public or historians initially. Still, he
maintained a dignified post war life, engaging in business and politics,
and was respected as a thoughtful, honorable man.

Speaker 2 (56:04):
Sherman and Grant to the Union stop generals. Yes, spoke
of him with respect. Acknowledging his skill and caution, Johnson's
reputation as a prudent commander who avoided unnecessary to law
there I mean, which is slaughter rather than a reckless
risk taker, began to gain appreciation.

Speaker 3 (56:19):
I'm right he did. Can come on today.

Speaker 2 (56:21):
Historians generally in viewed Johnson as a competent and complex
military leader, one whose caution reflected the difficult strategic situations
he faced rather than a lack of results.

Speaker 3 (56:30):
Right.

Speaker 2 (56:31):
His campaigns are studied for their careful balance between defense
and offense, and his disputes what Davis are seen as
emblematic broader Confederate leadership struggles.

Speaker 4 (56:40):
Yeah, it's terrible, as terrible. While not as celebrated as
figures like Robert E. Lee or Stonewall Jackson, Johnson is
recognized as a capable general who reserved his forces and
challenging circumstances, and his legacy offers insight and the political

(57:00):
and military tensions.

Speaker 3 (57:01):
With the Confederate command. I mean, that's what happens.

Speaker 4 (57:04):
His post war conduct and respect for former adversaries also
highlight his character as a man committed to reconciliation after
a bitter conflict. So I can forget. I mean I
can forgive. I just ain't gonna forget, but I forget too.

Speaker 3 (57:21):
I forget.

Speaker 2 (57:22):
You got one of those you got one of those
government jobs right then, I was old, Joseph Johnston. Not
the worst we've had, no, definitely not the best, but
not the worst either. Decent, right, but.

Speaker 4 (57:39):
Yeah, good for him, Yeah, not bad for him.

Speaker 2 (57:43):
Surprs he didn't get his rank back in the US
Army during his later years. All right, well, yeah, they
probably would have done that. They didn't even want to
give granted, is when he was freaking dying after he
was president, So that everything right there? Uh yeah, there'
jos Johnson. We'll be back next week for another oh unioneire. Oh.

(58:08):
I always say, maybe Sherman or shared in. But those
guys are just it's gonna be.

Speaker 3 (58:15):
Long episodes, and let me do a short one.

Speaker 2 (58:18):
They did they did so much after the war that
uh right, it's gonna be like two hours long for
each of those guys. I don't know if I'm ready
for a two hour long episode at this moment, so
we'll probably do like maybe a Governor Warren or something
if he has a good, nice story.

Speaker 3 (58:37):
But uh yeah, we'll.

Speaker 2 (58:38):
Either way to be a Union guy anyways. And yeah,
took us out on YouTube. Subscribe if you're not already
sure what your friends can leave us a review, like
and comment and everything else you do with stuff to engage.
So we're back next week for more better than the
mirans of the war. Appreting the content again, the attent

(59:03):
attending the adject, agreding the attrading the common attending the
amendment the land at at the Agent appending the Act,
the opinion and prop again, the age of the amendment
commanded again, the att