Albert Sidney Johnston: Soldier of Three Republics

Foreword

FOREWORD Charles P. Roland's Albert Sidney Johnston: Soldier ofThree Republics has stood for more than thirty-five years as an essential title on the military history of the Confederacy. The only full-scale biography ofJohnston undertaken since publication of his son's massive The Life ofGen. Albert SidneyJohnston in 1878, it unites an important subjectwith a gifted historian . Although Johnston is best known as a notable Confederate figure, Roland addresses the Kentuckian's entire life and professional career as a high-ranking officer serving the United States and the Republic ofTexas as well as the Confederacy. The book not only takes a comprehensive approach to its subject, but it also exhibits the attributes of a superior biography. Roland consulted a wide array of published and manuscript sources, reached sound conclusions based on judicious evaluation ofevidence , and presents his findings in an engaging analytical narrative. His Johnston emerges as a believably human figure-a talented, honorable man who nonetheless made a number of mistakes. Those mistakes have dominated many recent treatments of Johnston's Civil War service. His inability to defend the Confederacy's vast Kentucky-Tennessee frontier in the winter and spring of 1862 has prompted several historians to question his capacityfor command. Roland offers a useful corrective to some ofthe harsher critiques, reminding readers that Johnston contended with enormous difficulties and portraying him as an officer who, just one year into the war, was still growing as a leader. HadJohnston survived his wound at Shiloh, he might have blossomed into the martial colossusJefferson Davis and others believed him to be. As it was, people across the Confederacy mourned the loss of a general they considered vital to their struggle for independence. Testimony from two witnesses suggests the tenor ofreaction. In Georgia, Lt. Charles C. Jones Jr. paid eloquent tribute to Johnston as "one of our bravest leaders and most accomplished generals" and alluded to "genuine sorrow" across the Confederacy. "Although the gleam of his blade shall nevermore amid the smoke and shock of battle point the way to victory, although his brave comrades will not again catch the inspiration ofhis presence on the field ofperil," addedJones in somewhat overblown xii Foreword language, "he will still live in the grateful remembrance of his countrymen ; and the valor displayed in his death will prove alike a bright incentive to heroic action, and a rich legacy to the record of the triumphs of this momentous struggle for freedom." North Carolinian Catherine Ann Devereux Edmondston expressed similar, ifmore restrained, sentiments in describingJohnston as "the ablest and best general we have.... He was just sixtyyears old, & died in the height ofhis usefulness, in the maturity ofhis judgement, before age had dulled his brain, rich with the stores of experience." Johnston's relative neglect in Civil War literature is somewhat puzzling . Lesser Confederate generals such as A.P. Hill, PatrickR. Cleburne, Richard S. Ewell, Earl Van Dom, and Nathan Bedford Forrest have received more attention. "Stonewall"Jackson never commanded a real army, and his presence as a major figure on the national stage, like Johnston's, lasted onlyabout oneyear. Yetseveral biographers have revisitedJackson's life in just the past decade. None ofthese officers wielded as much influence during the Civil War as Johnston or boasted as substantive a prewar record. In terms of pure drama, many episodes ofJohnston's life, including his last day on April 6, 1862, at Shiloh, scarcely could be more gripping. Perhaps service at the head of Confederate forces west of the Appalachians, a sprawling theater that never has generated the attention lavished on Robert E. Lee's area of operations, and the fact that he died so early in the conflict have limitedJohnston's appeal to historians. Beyond geography and length ofservice, the quality ofAlbertSidney Johnston: Soldier ofThree Republics almost certainly has helped discourage potential biographers. It twice appeared on lists ofthe one hundred best Civil War titles-in Civil War Times Illustrated in 1981 and in Civil War: The Magazine ofthe Civil War Society in 1995. In a field where new books appear at a staggering rate, even superior studies seldom retain preeminence for more than a few years. Roland's life ofJohnston is an exception. The University Press of Kentucky should be commended for reintroducing a classic to a new generation of readers. Gary W. Gallagher ...