John B. Johnston

“ Sir William Johnston, the lieutenant-general, must be carefully distinguished from Sir William Johnston (1760–1844) , seventh baronet of Johnston, who was son of Sir William Johnston, sixth baronet of that ilk, and a collateral descendant of Sir John Johnston (d. 1690) [q. v.] He also entered the army and saw service in India; in 1798 he raised a regiment of fencibles, which was disbanded in 1802. From 1801 to 1806 he represented New Windsor in the House of Commons. ”

“ Had General Johnston lived a day longer no one can even guess what it would have meant to the South and to the North. President Johnston was also the author of The Prototype of Hamlet (1890) , in which his power as a Shakesperian scholar is well proved; and he published The Johnstons of Salisbury. He was a maker of charming verse, which may be read in his three collections, My Garden Walk (1894) , Pictures of the Patriarchs (1896) , and Seekers After God (Louisville, 1898) , a book of sonnets. As a man, Johnston was a true type of the courtly Southern soldier and scholar. ”

“ Here were the old boots, the sabre, the forage cap; here were the blue glint of the eye and the short "Good! good!" as the men passed. The marching men shouted for him. He nodded, and having noted whatever it was he had paused to note, shook Little Sorrel's bridle and stiffly galloped to the van again.
Past Newtown, past Middletown, on to Strasburg—the Massanuttons loomed ahead, all softly coloured yet with reds and golds. "Massanutton! Massanutton!" said the troops. "We've seen you before, and you've seen us before! Front Royal's at your head and Port Republic's at your feet." ”

“ In his manner, his rapid talk, his uneasy glances toward the door, I found something forced and strange. “I thought Rolfe was behind me,” he said, “but he must have been delayed. There are meat and drink set out in the great room, where the Governor and those of the Council who are safe here with us are advising together. Let's descend; you've not eaten, and the good sack will give you strength. Wilt come?”
“Ay,” I answered, “but tell me the news as we go. I have been gone ten days,—faith, it seems ten years! There have no ships sailed, Master Pory? The George is still here?” ”

“ For the ribbon—I'd saved a little o' my berry money, an' I walked to Buchanan an' bought it." She drew a long breath. "My land! 't was fine in the town—High Street just crowded with Volunteers, and the drums were beating." Her eyes shone like stars. "It's right hard on women to stay at home an' have all the excitement go away. There don't seem to be nothin' to make it up to us—"
Sairy put away the ironing-board. "Sho! We've just got the little end, as usual. What's in the bag, child?"
"Thar's thread and needles in a needle-case, an' an emery," said Christianna. ”

“ Johnston's family consists of ten persons, though all are not constantly present. He is himself a native of the county of Antrim, in the north of Ireland, his father having possessed an estate at Craige, near the Giant's Causeway. He came to America in the last presidential term of General Washington, having a brother at that time settled at Albany, and after visiting Montreal and Quebec, he fell into company with the sort of half-baronial class of north-west fur traders, who struck his fancy. ”

“ He’ll shame honest men for many a day to come. Your Platonists, who from a goodly outside argue as fair a soul, could never have been acquainted with this gentleman.”
The subject of his discourse moaned and stirred. The minister raised one of the hanging hands and felt for the pulse. “Faint enough,” he went on. “A little more and the King might have waited for his minion forever and a day. It would have been the better for us, who have now, indeed, a strange fish upon our hands, but I am glad I killed him not.”
I tossed him a flask. “It’s good aqua vitæ, and the flask is honest. ”

“ You couldn't lose all that blood and not be awful weak—"
"I'd be ashamed to report now!" whispered Coffin. "Maybe I [Pg 369] was wrong—"
"Sho!" said Billy. "We're all wrong more or less. Here, darn you, drink your wine, and stop bothering!"
Across the Shenandoah Stonewall Jackson and the 37th Virginia came down from the heights with the impetuosity of a torrent. Behind them poured other grey troops. On the cliff heads Poague and Carpenter came into position and began with grape and canister. ”

“ The runaway in the pillory was released, and went away homewards, staggering beside his master's stirrup. Passers-by grew more and more infrequent, and up the street came faint sounds of laughter and hurrahing,—the bear must be making good sport. I could see the half-moon, and the guns, and the flag that streamed in the wind, and on the river a sail or two, white in the sunlight as the gulls that swooped past. Beyond rose the bare masts of the George. The Santa Teresa rode no more forever in the James. The King's ship was gone home to the King without the freight he looked for. ”

“ A bowshot from the wood, the head of the column was met by a second courier, a boy from the Alabama River, riding like Jehu, pale with excitement. "When you get to the top of the hill you'll see! They're thicker than bees from a sweet gum—they're thicker than bolls in a cotton-field! They've got three thousand Regulars, and fifteen thousand of the other kind, and they're cutting Evans to pieces!" He pulled himself together and saluted. "General Bee's compliments to General Jackson, and he is going into action." ”

“ Johnston’s tongue was fluent, and he could tell many strange stories of his ups and downs, and in the present case so suited them to a clerical ear that the good-hearted man at length felt strong qualms as to sending such a man out into the darkness. ”

“ We are unlucky beggars; everything seems against us; you nearly killed by the myalls, Prince Tom robbing us of our stores, and now all of us to be burnt up alive. There isn't a creek or a pool that we can get into, and the fire is quickly marching up to us. There! Didn't you smell the burning fern just then?"
"Yes; by Jove! it is coming near; but don't be so despondent, Alec. It isn't on us yet. Don't you think that by pushing on to the north or south, as fast as ever we can make the horses go, we might reach the end of the line of fire and head round it? Let us ask Murri." ”

“ They looked at me uneasily, and I caught a swift glance from the Treasurer to Master Pory, and an answering shake of the latter’s head. Rolfe was very white, and his lips were set; West was pulling at his mustaches and staring at the floor.
“With all our hearts we welcome you back to life and to the service of Virginia, Captain Percy,” said the Governor, when the silence had become awkward.
A murmur of assent went round the room.
I bowed. “I thank you, sir, and these gentlemen very heartily. You have but to command me now. I find that I have to-day the best will in the world toward fighting. ”

“ The Governor hath the Company’s letters, and he and the Council—all save the reprobate Pory—sit there staring at them and drumming with their fingers on the table.”
“Is Rolfe of the Council?” I asked.
“Ay; he was speaking,—for you, I suppose, though I heard not the words. They all listened, but they all shook their heads.”
“We shall know in the morning,” I said. “The night grows wilder, and honest folk should be abed. Nantauquas, good-night. When will you have tamed your panther?”
“It is now the moon of cohonks,” answered the Indian. ”

“ His tone was offhand, his hat already back upon his head.
“I am George Yeardley, at my Lord Carnal’s service,” answered the Governor.
The favourite raised his eyebrows. “I don’t need to introduce myself, it seems,” he said. “You’ve found that I am not the devil, after all,—at least not the Spanish Apollyon. Zooks! a hawk above a poultry yard couldn’t have caused a greater commotion than did my poor little ship and my few poor birding pieces! Does every strange sail so put you through your paces?”
The Governor’s colour mounted. “We are not at home,” he answered stiffly. ”

“ The blue came on, a formidable wave indeed. Stonewall Jackson rode along the grey front.
"Men, General Early and two regiments of Lawton's are on their way. You must stand it till they come. If you have only one cartridge, save it until they are up from the cut. Then fire, and use your bayonets. Don't cheer! It makes your hand less steady."
The blue wave plunged into the railroad cut. "I think," said a grey soldier, "that I hear Jubal Early yelling." The blue wave mounted to the level. "Yaaaiih! Yaaaaiih!" came out of the distance. "We know that we do," said the men. ”

“ He eyed me closely. “By all the gods! a new doublet! She is skillful with her needle, then?”
“She may be,” I answered. “Having never seen her with one, I am no judge. The doublet was made by the tailor at Flowerdieu Hundred.”
By this we had reached the level sward at the top of the bank. “Roses!” he exclaimed,—“a long row of them new planted! An arbor, too, and a seat beneath the big walnut! Since when hast thou turned gardner, Ralph?”
“It's Diccon's doing. He is anxious to please his mistress.”
“Who neither sews, nor cooks, nor plants! What does she do?” ”

“ As you know, I am by no means the only Virginian, and they are heroes, the others, if you like!—real, old-line heroes, brave as the warriors in Homer, and a long sight better men! I am happy to report to his kinsmen here that General Joseph E. Johnston is in health—still loving astronomy, still reading du Guesclin, still studying the Art of War. He's a soldier's soldier, and that, in its way, is as fine a thing as a poet's poet! I see men before me who are of the blood of the Lees. Out there by the Rio Grande is a Colonel Robert E. Lee, of whom Virginia may well be proud! ”

“ Johnston’s past services, his indomitable spirit, his unvarying regard for the public interest throughout his entire career, his fearlessness, aggressiveness and candor, his large experience in practical affairs, as well as American politics, it is not difficult to see why the people have chosen him for successive honors.
It is rare that dominant qualities of the kind possessed by Governor Johnston are coupled with a personality so genial and winning and so rare a faculty for attaching warm friendships. ”

“ I thought he would murder me with the poniard he drew, but presently he put it up.
“She is come to her senses,” he said. “Up in the state cabin are bright lights, and wine and laughter. There are gentlewomen aboard, and I have been singing to the lute, to them—and to her. She is saved from the peril into which you plunged her; she knows that the King's Court of High Commission, to say nothing of the hangman, will soon snap the fetters which she now shudders to think of; that the King and one besides will condone her past short madness. Her cheeks are roses, her eyes are stars. ”

“ He was apprenticed to Dr. Abercrombie, and in 1817, qualifying as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, he went to London, but in 1818 he began for life practice at Berwick. In 1819 he graduated M.D. of Edinburgh, and in 1824 became F.R.C.S.E. He was thrice mayor of Berwick, and became LL.D. of Aberdeen. He retired from practice in 1853, and died at Berwick on 30 July 1855.
Johnston's works display a wide sympathy with nature, great power of observation, caution in inference, and fluency and poetical feeling in style. ”

“ I don't think either father or Fauquier were engaged last evening. Pender and Ripley bore the brunt of it. Judith is in Richmond."
"Yes. I had a letter from her before we left the Valley."
"I am glad, Richard, it is you. We were all strangely at sea, somehow—She is a noble woman. When I look at her I always feel reassured as to the meaning and goal of humanity."
"I know—I love her dearly, dearly. If I outlive this battle I will try to get to see her—"
Off somewhere, on the left, a solitary cannon boomed. The grey soldiers turned their heads. "A signal somewhere! We're spread over all creation. ”

“ His vanity took fire. “I have not wooed in earnest,” he said carelessly, and hitched forward his cloak of sky-blue tuftaffeta with an air. “I sheered off quickly enough, I warrant you, when I found the nature of the commodity I had to deal with.”
“Ah!” I said. “When I left the crowd they were going very fast. You had best hurry, if you wish to secure a bargain.”
“I'm off,” he answered; then, jerking his thumb over his shoulder, “If you keep on to the river and that clump of cedars, you will find Termagaunt in ruff and farthingale.” ”

“ The do-nothing, the popinjay, the intractable, the self-important, the remonstrant, the I thought, sir—the It is due to my dignity, sir—none of these flourished in the Army of the Valley. The tendencies had been there, of course; they came up like the flowers of spring, but each poor bloom as it appeared met an icy blast. The root beneath learned to send up to the sky a sturdier growth.
Company A, 65th Virginia, numbered in its ranks men who knew all about log cabins. It was well lodged, and the captain's hut did it credit. ”

“ He knocked the ashes from his pipe, and by degrees got his fat body up from the doorstep. “So there's a reprieve for you, Ralph Percy, unless you kill or are killed to-morrow morning. In the latter case, the problem's solved; in the former, the best service you can do yourself, and maybe the Company, is to walk out of the world of your own accord, and that as quickly as possible. Better a cross-roads and a stake through a dead heart than a hangman's hands upon a live one.”
“One moment,” I said. “Doth my Lord Carnal know of this decision of the Governor's?” ”