Johnston

“ Johnston, known to the outer world as a fire-eater of the most determined order, inside the House is one of the most popular of men, and with no section of the House is he more popular than with those Irish Nationalists for whose blood he is supposed to thirst. ”

“ We've been ahead with Ashby, fending off Frémont. General Jackson is marching very rapidly, and I expect him to-night."
"Where's he going, then?"
"I haven't the least idea, sir."
"Well," piped Ewell, "I'll be glad to see him. God knows, I don't know what I'm to do! Am I to strengthen Johnston at Richmond? Am I to cross into the Valley—by God, it's lovely!—and reinforce Jackson? Damn it, gentlemen, I'm a major-general on a seesaw! Richmond in danger—Valley in danger. 'Better come to me!' says Johnston. Quite right! He needs every man. 'Better stay with Jackson,' says Lee. ”

“ General Johnston had freed all his slaves before he came to California. One of them, called “Rand,” brief for “Randolph”—he had no other name—followed him as a body-servant to the Pacific. When Johnston left for the South he ordered “Rand” to stay behind. He was a famous cook and could have commanded big wages in a high-class restaurant. But the faithful body-servant would not be denied. He fought his way with his former master through the Apaches of Arizona and was with him at Shiloh when he died. He hung over the dead body of the fallen leader in a wild passion of primitive grief. ”

“ 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. ”

“ A distinguished name in Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky.
Johnston is Scandinavian. Probably the most conspicuous and influential Scandinavian in the United States at this time bears that name. He is a native of Scandinavia. The most notable American of that race and name was the Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston. There are two pictures of him that will live in the popular mind: (1) As he stood, silent and absorbed, beside his camp fire on the night before Shiloh; (2) As he led that dashing and successful charge on the following day. A soldier worthy of his race. ”

“ 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. ”

“ And that pesky old woman looks more like the devil than a human being. I wouldn't venture back there alone for the whole north half of Michigan!"
"But isn't this the man you want?" pointing to me.
"The devil, no. What do I want of the [Pg 212] telegraph operator? I want Johnston, but I'd give more for that —— old woman's scalp and that dog's life than I would for a dozen Johnstons and all the horses in the state, and I——"
"But," interrupted the landlord, "this isn't the operator; this is Johnston,—or at least, he's the man who rode the horse here." ”

“ Johnston relates, that previous to her marriage, she fasted, according to the universal Indian custom, for a guardian spirit: to perform this ceremony, she went away to the summit of an eminence, and built herself a little lodge of cedar boughs, painted herself black, and began her fast in solitude. She dreamed continually of a white man, who approached her with a cup in his hand, saying, "Poor thing! why are you punishing yourself? why do you fast? ”

“ Our ride now was on a charming road finely shaded by woods, with now and then a good farm, five miles to Johnston’s tavern, where we fed our horses and got some refreshment. Capt. Johnston is most comfortably settled on a fine farm, having a son married and settled on an equally good one, on one side, and a daughter equally well situated on the other. He and his wife are good looking, middle aged people, {159} and both in their persons, and in every thing around them, have the appearance of being possessed of the happy otium of life. ”

“ Although a man with a mission, Johnston was a gentleman in grain, 'transparently upright and honest,' and simply and devoutly rehgious. He never lost the esteem of his opponents. The Belfast nationalist organ, in recording his death, spoke of his 'courage and consistency,' adding that he was 'loved by his catholic tenants and neighbours.' One of his daughters joined the Roman catholic church, and it was characteristic of his sense of duty and his goodness of heart that he drove her to mass on the way to his own parish church. ”

“ 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! ”

“ The glory of man is strength, and when that is gone, the best bed and blanket are the grave and a green turf. There was still the genteel begging left to him, but somehow the returns were now poor compared with his former gains, and Johnston was impatient for a chance which should allow him to leave this country for the Cape with a good pocketful of money at his command. ”

“ Johnston with her delicious juleps and hearty cordiality made us forget all the outrages of the world.
I have never known two people more devoted to each other than they were. Her health was not robust, and he watched over her illness with the greatest of tenderness, and at all times paid her the delicate attentions of a lover. ”

“ All day the seventh they skirmished. The night of the seventh the blue, weary of the Wilderness, moved with swiftness southeast toward Spottsylvania Court-House. “Get so between him and Richmond,” said Grant, as at Dalton Sherman was saying, “Get so between him and Atlanta.” But as Johnston moved on inner lines and with more swiftness than Sherman, so Lee moved on inner lines and with more swiftness than Grant. Flexible as a Toledo blade was the grey army. ”

“ This was a surprise to Johnston, and about the 13th he decided to abandon his position at Dalton.
On the 15th there was very hard fighting about Resaca; but our cavalry having been sent around to the right got near the road in the enemy's rear. Again Johnston fell back, our army pursuing. The pursuit was continued to Kingston, which was reached on the 19th with very little fighting, except that Newton's division overtook the rear of Johnston's army and engaged it. Sherman was now obliged to halt for the purpose of bringing up his railroad trains. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Johnston stood demurely in the lobby, to which he had been admitted with marked suspicion by the servant, till the Rev. Robert Goodall appeared, in spectacles and slippers, direct from his study. If he had been startled to learn that a brother clergyman wished to see him, he was much more so at seeing the brother clergyman. But Johnston was fluent of tongue, and he had experience in dealing with such surprise. ”

“ 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. ”

“ General Johnston died in the City of Washington on the evening of March 21, 1891. Society is so constructed that individual character becomes prominent and conspicuous by deed and action no less than by expressed thought. As we look back through the ages, we mark some names that shine as beacon lights along the way, whose characters we accept as prototypes of all their contemporaries. ”

“ The stars are over us all.—Here is the house.”
As the two dismounted, an aide came forward. “There is some one waiting here, General, to speak to you. A lady—Mrs. Cary—”
Désirée came into the light from the open door. “Mrs. Cary!” exclaimed Hardee. “How in the world—”
Johnston took her hand in his. It was cold, and the light showed her face. “My dear, what is it—”
“General,” said Désirée, “I left Dalton yesterday, and to-day I got by the lines, and this afternoon into Resaca. And awhile ago, when the fighting had stopped, I found where was ——’s brigade and the ——th Virginia. ”

“ Johnston's death is an event I sincerely deplore, and one upon which I tender my condolements to the family. He was really no common man. To preserve the manners of a perfect gentleman, and the intelligence and information of a well-educated man, in the dreary wastes around him, and in his seclusion from all society but that of his own family, required a vigor and elasticity of mind rarely to be found. ”

“ He gave his foes no end of fits, and gave his friends their wishes.
Made women tear their king to bits, and turned men into fishes;
Raised Ariadne to the skies, and 'verted [3] all the East,
But Johnston's doings more surprise the sharers of his feast. ”

“ 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." ”

“ My own opinion is that Johnston will be compelled to hang to his railroad, the only possible avenue of supply to his army, estimated at from forty-five to sixty thousand men.
At Lafayette all our armies will be together, and if Johnston stands at Dalton we must attack him in position. Thomas feels certain that he has no material increase of force, and that he has not sent away Hardee, or any part of his army. Supplies are the great question. I have materially increased the number of cars daily. ”

“ It was late afternoon, and the slant sunshine streaming in at door and window striped wall and floor with gold. Floor and wall were no longer logs gnarled and stained: upon the one lay a carpet of delicate ferns and aromatic leaves, and glossy vines, purple-berried, tapestried the other. Flowers—purple and red and yellow—were everywhere. As we entered, a figure started up from the hearth.
“St. George!” exclaimed Rolfe. “You have never married a blackamoor?”
“It is the negress, Angela,” I said. “I bought her from William Pierce the other day. Mistress Percy wished a waiting damsel.” ”

“ He grabbed the old shot-gun and yelled:
"Who is there?"
"Johnston."
"Johnston the fisherman?"
"No."
"Johnston from the lumber camp?"
"No sir, Johnston the jewelry-man."
"From Chicago?"
"Yes sir, from Chicago; and I want to sell you a bill of jewelry right away."
"Goodness' sakes! Can't you call to-morrow?"
"No sir; business is too brisk. I must sell to you to-night so I can leave on the morning boat."
The whole family got up and came down stairs in the store, and I finished up with them about five o'clock in the morning, after selling a large bill of goods. ”

“ Johnston, unwilling to accumulate obligations he might never be able to repay, and stimulated by a clear perception of the line of life he believed nature had marked out for him, declined this generous offer. ”

“ 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?” ”

“ The gauntlet then thrown down was accepted as a gauge of battle between the President and General Johnston, ultimately causing his removal from the command of the army of the Tennessee and the downfall of the Confederacy as many now believe. Johnston was critical, controversial, and sometimes irritable by nature, very exact in his statements, and possessed with a wonderful memory. Few men read so much as he, and none I had ever seen retained so accurately facts and impressions, or were so careful in the selection of the words to express their views. ”