The Life of Albert Sidney Johnston, selected by John H. Jenkins
III as one of the basic Texas books, reads like a litany of the
important events in the life of the Texas Republic and early
statehood through the Civil War. A native Kentuckian and 1826
graduate of West Point, and a veteran of the Black Hawk War,
Johnston arrived in Texas in 1836 shortly after the battle of San
Jacinto and enlisted as a private in the Texas Army. Soon
discovered in the ranks, he was immediately appointed the army's
adjutant general. His injury from a duel with Felix Huston later
prevented his taking command of the army. In 1838 he was
appointed Texas' Secretary of War, and later led the expedition
against the Cherokee Indians in East Texas. He commanded the
1st Texas Rifle Volunteers dring the Mexican War and became a
regular officer in the US Army—one of the few Texas military men
permitted to do so.
At the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, Johnston was offered a
position second in rank only to the aging Winfield Scott, but he
refused the Federal government's offer and instead became
commander of the Confederacy's Department No. 2, the Western
Department. Keenly aware of the military weakness of the South, he
issued a call for men at Bowling Green, Kentucky, and formed and
drilled his army. On April 6, 1862, Johnston was killed at the battle
of Shiloh.
The author, Johnston's son, presents "a whole picture of the
character of a difficult, generally taciturn man, and defends his
actions in a balanced, scholarly manner." The son, having access
to all of his father's private correspondence and papers, including
his complete Confederate archives, was able to provide anecdotes
only a son could know, and was able to persuade many of his
father's associates to submit memoirs about him.
Never before reprinted since its last publication in 1878, this new
volume is of inestimable value and interest to historians and to
other readers of Civil War history and early Texas history.
This edition contains a new introduction by Charles P. Roland,
author of Albert Sidney Johnston: Soldier of Three Republics, and
Jefferson Davis's Greatest General: Albert Sidney Johnston
(McWhiney Foundation Press, 2000).
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What people are saying about this book
"A delight for any student of Texan and Confederate history."—The
Rebel Rouser
Other Texas Civil War Titles
