Albert Sidney Johnston: Soldier of Three Republics

Origins of a Soldier

Origins of a Soldier XLBERT SIDNEY JOHNSTON was born on February 2, 1803, in Washington, Kentucky. He came of a blending of two powerful, conflicting strains in American culture: he was a New Englander by ancestry and a Southerner by birth and association . New England left its trace on Johnston's life; of his Puritan antecedents he once said, "Notwithstanding their follies, their fantastic & ludicrous mental constitution, we no doubt owe [to them] .•. nearly all that is valuable in our glorious form of government.... There is not much in them to love, but a good deal to laugh at & pity & much to admire." 1 Nevertheless, environment prevailed over blood in the shaping of Johnston's character; he died defending the South against the land of his fathers. Johnston's forebears in New England were respectable, if not distinguished . His grandfather, Archibald Johnston, was a captain in the American Revolution and later was half-owner of an iron works at Salisbury, Connecticut. Though Archibald Johnston accumulated a measure of property, his family remembered him as a mechanic. 1 Johnston to William Preston Johnston, January 19, 1851, Johnston Papers, Barret Collection. Origins of a Soldier 7 "Your ancestors have risen from the same level on both sides," Albert Sidney Johnston told his son, "if those who really constitute the greatness of our country, that is the working men, may be said to be on a level from which others not so worthy may be said to rise." 2 Archibald Johnston sent one of his five sons, John Johnston, to the nearby medical school of Litchfield. In 1788, after practising medicine briefly in Salisbury, John Johnston departed from New England and took his wife and three sons to settle at Washington in Mason County, Kentucky.8 He left no record of his reason for the move; perhaps he simply shared the prevailing American urge to go west. They found Mason County a frontier. Bordered on the north by the Ohio River, the county embraced much of the northeastern portion of the District of Kentucky. Settled only twenty years before, the vast county yet held fewer than three thousand inhabitants. Washington was a village of mud-daubed log huts set about a rude stockade; hunting rivaled planting as a source of food for the people. The war whoop still sounded in the settlements; indomitable Indian fighter Simon Kenton still led his bands of Kentucky riflemen across the Ohio to chastise the audacity of the tribes. Only strong men could thrive in such a country.4 John Johnston was a strong man, bold of address, sound of body, and keen of mind. One of the earliest physicians in the county, he soon had a large medical practice and was diligent and capable in his profession. Other practitioners were said to have called in Dr. Johnston in desperate or difficult cases.5 He became a leader in the community; by 1793 he was a member of the Board of Trustees of Washington.6 That year John Johnston's first wife died. A year later he married Abigail Harris, who was to become the mother of Albert Sidney. Abigail was the daughter of another New Englander settled in frontier Kentucky. Her father, Edward Harris, a veteran of the American Revolution, was postmaster at Washington and a member of the town Board of Trustees, along with John Johnston. Harris was a sturdy patriot, a vigorous thinker, and an implacable Presbyterian. 2 Ibid. 8Deed, Daniel Johnston to James Johnston, October 30, 1792, in Records of Town Clerk, Salisbury, Connecticut; Historical Addresses Delivered at the Centennial Celebration in Salisbury, Connecticut, pp. 36,53-54. 4 G. Glenn Clift, History of Maysville and Mason County, 1,33,55,60. 5 Johnston, Life of Johnston, p. 2. 6 Clift, History of Maysville and Mason County, I, 119. 8 Albert Sidney Johnston When instructed to tend office on Sunday, Harris wrote the Postmaster General that he would resign his position rather than violate the day of "divine appointment." 1 Harris's tongue was quick to defend the faith, and his pen turned to lines of religious zeal. "My greatest concern is that 1 might enjoy the light of God's countenance ," he wrote to a friend. "1 hope we shall meet where Sin &: Sorrow will be at an end: &: where Singing Worthy is the Lamb will never have an end." 8 Abigail Harris Johnston was a woman of handsome appearance, strong intellect...