Dedication.

I DEDICATE THIS WORK

TO MY WIFE;

MY STAUNCH COMRADE IN EVERY FORTUNE,

AND

MY UNFALTERING ALLY IN MANY

VICISSITUDES.

PREFACE.

This Memoir has been prepared at the request of some old friends and soldiers of Gen. Johnston, and because I wanted to testify my affection for his memory and my respect for his character. I was with him at the beginning, and at the end of the war between the States. I was the senior captain of the First Maryland Regiment, before its organization, commanding it when he assumed command at Harper's Ferry, marched under him to First Manassas, and became in due course, colonel of that regiment in his army.

I knew him as well as a young subordinate ever does know his commander-in-chief. And it so happened that I was in command as a brigadier-general, at Salisbury, North Carolina, when he was at Greensboro in April, 1865. I was with him during all that trying time, and it was at my headquarters at Salisbury that he took leave of the generals of the Army of Tennessee after the convention of Durham's Station. I, therefore, knew him as a soldier and as a man, and I admired and loved him. Since the war my intercourse with him was frequent and intimate.

This sketch, written in a light-cavalry gallop, does not pretend to give detail of his campaigns or his battles; it only seeks to give a general view of military operations, that can be taken in at a glance.

The particular description of the movements of troops, of the hour they started, of the route they took, of the minute of their arrival, is, I think, inexpressibly tedious and confusing, except to the technical and professional student. I have, therefore, only tried to present a picture, and a map, together with a photograph of the General, as we all knew him, and as we want posterity to appreciate him.

There is a general feeling among our own people, as well as in the country at large, against any reminder of the sufferings of that war, and against any reminiscence, which brings back painful

emotions. But it is right and just that our own children should understand the causes of our action, and that they should justify us for resisting such a civilization.

Every statement herein recorded is true, and can be substantiated by incontestible testimony.

I have added in the appendix an original letter of Gen. Grant's, as a matter of justice to him, for it was suppressed by the administration of Andrew Johnson.

A comparison between the Federal Constitution of 1789, and the Confederate Constitution of 1861, is appended, showing the student of the evolution of institutions, what changes the Confederates sought to make in the Constitution their fathers had done so much to frame and to establish and to operate successfully.

BRADLEY T. JOHNSON.

July 15, 1891.