Albert Sidney Johnston: Soldier of the Republic (review)

book reviews207 and full account, and the diary testifies that he met both commitments. His few wayward excursions into the student circle of drinking bouts and his brief experience with a mistress are noted, but it is his introvertish analysis of himself that makes this work one of great value. The material is full and frank enough for a psychological case study. Secondly, the diary throws light on the self-education of an important man. Adams did not achieve brilliant marks as a student at Harvard. He was critical of almost all of his instructors, failing to find one who excited him or contributed significantly to his intellectual growth. The diary does not enable one to form any judgment as to whether the unrewarding experience at Harvard was due to Adams' lack of maturity and the disturbing factors in his own life or whether the fault lay with the professors. However, Adams read prodigiously in the fields of history, of British and French literature, and in philosophy. In addition he took full advantage of the thin fare of theater and music available to him. By the age of twenty-two, two years after he left the university, he was a mature and well-educated man. Finally, the two volumes portray the tragedies of the family. John Quincy Adams was not happily married and two of his sons caused him deep concern. One of them, George, ended his own life shortly after his father left the presidency. The President saw in his misfortunes a protection against the envy of the populace that most successful families endure. Charles Francis saw in the family tragedies a demand upon himself to carry on the tradition of public service and the independence of thought that made his father and grandfather the great men they were. Paul A. Varg Michigan State University Albert Sidney Johnston: Soldier of the Republic. By Charles P. Roland. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1964. Pp. xi, 384. $6.50.) Jefferson Davis called Albert Sidney Johnston the "great pillar of the Confederacy" and thought him an outstanding general. Richard Taylor, himself a distinguished Confederate combat commander, thought Johnston the "foremost man of all the South." A devoted son, William Preston Johnston, eulogized him in a full-length biography as a strategist and commander without peer. Immoderate praise inevitably produced a reaction and subsequent judgments of Johnston were excessively harsh. Grant remembered him as weak and indecisive, while Beauregard seriously questioned his competence as a general. Most agreed, however, that his death at Shiloh robbed him of the opportunity to prove himself the great captain many believed him to be. A Kentucky boyhood, followed by three years of study at Transylvania University, and topped by four years at West Point, equipped the young Johnston with about as fine a formal educational and technical training as the country offered in the 1820's. Indifferent to scholarly competition, 208CIVIL WAR history he maintained good grades without excessive exertion and never aspired to academic leadership. He did, however, display qualities of character that made him a natural leader among his peers and in the years that followed it was this element of character which, in the opinion of Professor Roland, became his "sustaining force." Receiving his baptism of fire in the Black Hawk 'War," Johnston quickly adopted the frontier equation between good Indians and dead ones. When personal tragedy made a shambles of his life he found his way to Texas. There his military training and reputation for leadership quickly brought him command of the Texas army. Mexican War service was confined to the battle of Monterrey but Johnston's performance there marked him for future advancement. Bleak years in the early 1850's were foDowd by important appointments as commander of the 2nd Cavalry, leader of the Utah expedition, and commander of the Department of the Pacific. With the outbreak of the Civil War, Johnston promptly resigned his San Francisco command and made his way to Richmond where he offered his services to his old friend Jefferson Davis. The President was delighted and promptly offered Johnston command of the Confederate West When his initial effort to establish a line of defense through central Kentucky was...