[731]
Colonel Wharton J. Green, of
North Carolina, some anecdotes from whose pen have already been inserted in this memoir, in a letter to the present writer says, in regard to
General Johnston:
Portray him as he was-great, good, single-minded, and simple.
He was the devotee of duty, but disposed to soften its asperities to others.
His was a character with few counterparts in ancient or modern story.
It has been said that the noblest eulogy ever written consisted of a single word--“the just.”
All who ever knew General Johnston will confirm that he was as well entitled to that epithet as the old Athenian, and, coupled with it, to another, “the generous.”
Talleyrand's saying, “No man is a hero to his valet,” is true in the main; but General Johnston would have been a hero to his very shadow.
Those who knew him best admired him most.
His peerless, blameless life was long enough for glory; and but one brief day, perhaps one hour only, too short for liberty.
One hour more for him in the saddle, and the Confederate States would have taken their place at the council-board of the nations.
Governor Harris thus notes some of the points he had observed in
General Johnston in the last half-year of his life:
From the day that General Albert Sidney Johnston assumed command of the Department of the West, in September, 1861, to the moment of his death, I was in almost constant intercourse with him, either in personal consultation or correspondence by letter or telegram.
Our official positions necessarily brought us in contact, and official intercourse soon warmed into personal friendship, and, on my part, into decided admiration for the great ability, unselfish and self-sacrificing patriotism, and exalted chivalry, of the general.
I was with him when the telegram announced the surrender of the Confederate forces at Donelson, and had occasion to admire the philosophic heroism with which he met, not only the disaster, but the unjust censure and complaints of both army and people, the coolness and energy with which he set about the work of reorganizing the remnant of his army, and the establishment of a new and different line of defense.
I was with him most of the time of his retreat from Nashville to Corinth, and was not unfrequently astonished at the coolness, vigilance, and untiring energy with which he struggled to overcome the numerous obstacles and difficulties which surrounded him.
The following is an extract from
Dr. Craven's “Prison life of
Mr. Davis” (page 210):
Had Albert Sidney Johnston lived, Mr. Davis was of opinion our [the Federal] success down the Mississippi would have been fatally checked at Corinth.
This officer best realized his ideal of a perfect commander-large in view, discreet in council, silent as to his own plans, observant and penetrative of the enemy's, sudden and impetuous in action, but of a nerve and balance of judgment which no heat of danger or complexity of maneuver could upset or bewilder.
All that Napoleon said of Dessaix and Kleber, save the slovenly habits of one of them, might be combined and truthfully said of Albert Sidney Johnston.
President Davis, in speaking of him to the writer in August, 1862, said his consistency of action and conduct differed from any other man's
