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Petty considerations over rank
and military etiquette and wounds cost the Confederacy, for lengthy
periods, the services of one of its most effective, top commanders, Joseph
E. Johnston. The Virginia native and West Pointer (1829), rated by many as
more capable than Lee, was the highest-ranking regular army officer to
resign and join the Confederacy. With the staff rank of brigadier general,
he had been the national army's quartermaster general for almost a year
when he quit on April 22, 1861. Johnston’s grandfather was born in
Scotland and his mother was a niece of Patrick Henry.
A Memoir of the Life and Public
Service of Joseph E. Johnston
Edited by Bradley T. Johnson, formerly a soldier in the army of Northern
Virginia (1891) (pdf) |
