1.
Albert Sidney Johnston - Evolution of a general
Albert Sidney Johnston had taken a calculated risk. He was standing before the Board of Examiners at the United States Military Academy in January 1825, ready to receive the mathematical problem whose resolution was required for graduation. The twenty-one-year-old cadet had thoroughly studied the entire course, except for two problems, but was unconcerned. The protocol at the academy dictated that if a cadet was unable to solve a particular problem, he had the opportunity to pass and ask for a second question. Ironically, for this was a mathematics examination, Johnston felt that the odds of both his unstudied questions being asked in sequence was highly improbable. Yet this is precisely what occurred. He floundered and the professors gravely ordered the humiliated cadet back to his seat.1
Immediately after class, an agitated Johnston wrote a letter to the superintendent and Board of Examiners explaining his situation. He implored them to interrogate him on any other section of the course, but his impassioned appeal was frowned upon. Fortunately, Major Willam J. Worth, the commandant of the Corps of Cadets, interceded on Johnston's behalf, and the Board relented. The cadet was re-examined, and he managed to solve the mathematical question presented to him. Johnston's grade was reduced due to his "misadventure," but he still graduated eighth in his class.2 Worth was fond of the cadet. Johnston's roommate and close friend, Leonidas Polk, mentioned in a letter home that Johnston was "popular among the officers of the staff on account of his strict attention to duty and steadiness of character."3 Worth's intercession saved the young man's military career.
At 6'1 (1.85 m) and of muscular proportions, Johnston possessed a natural soldierly bearing. In 1823, he had been rewarded with an appointment to color corporal on the staff of the Corps of Cadets. In subsequent years, he was promoted to sergeant and then sergeant major in the first company of the corps. Even after the examination incident, Johnston was appointed adjutant of the corps the following year, considered the most prestigious position by the cadets, and tasked with the responsibility of preparing all orders disseminated from the commandant's office. Worth had clearly taken a shine to the young man, but he was not the only one. A fellow cadet observed that "no one of his large class at the Academy enjoyed more than he the respect of all who knew him, and none had a larger share of the affectionate regards of his classmates."4
Born on the 2nd of February 1803, in Mason County, Kentucky, Johnston's interest in military matters was piqued by tales of heroism by the United States Navy in the War of 1812 and the Second Barbary War of 1815. A couple of years later, two of his close friends obtained warrants as midshipmen in the navy, and Johnston wished to abandon his studies at Transylvania University and join them. However, this notion was quickly rejected by his father. Disappointed, Johnston sojourned for a period with his stepbrother's family in Louisiana but then returned to his studies at the university. The family hoped that Johnston would follow in his father's footsteps and become a qualified medical physician.5
It was not to be. Inspired by the exploits of Simón Bolívar and other notables during the Spanish American Wars of Independence, Johnston abruptly changed his mind regarding a medical career and sought appointment to the United States Military Academy. This time his father conceded, and through the political influence of his stepbrother, a United States Congressman, Johnston's appointment to West Point was confirmed in 1822. Johnston adapted well to the gruelling but tedious regime of military instruction at the Academy and graduated in June 1826 with the brevet rank of second lieutenant. The top five cadets were offered positions in the elite Corps of Engineers, so Johnston was left with the choice of serving in the artillery or the infantry. He chose the infantry, believing it to be the more active and adventurous branch of service, as those in the artillery were typically stationed in coastal fortresses.
While on several months of furlough, Johnston visited his stepbrother in Washington D.C. and was introduced to such luminaries as President John Quincy Adams, Senators Daniel Webster and Henry Clay, and one of the nation's most famous military figures, General Winfield Scott. Known as "The hero of Lundy's Lane," a bloody battle in the War of 1812, Scott was commander of the Eastern Military Department. The general took a liking to Johnston and offered him a position as his aide-de-camp, a considerable honour and a rare opportunity for rapid career advancement. To the disbelief of all, Johnston declined the offer, preferring active service in the field to a life of administrative duty in a large city. Having made this career defining decision, Johnston left Washington and following orders, travelled to Madison Barracks at Sackets Harbor, New York, arriving sometime in November 1826.6
After a monotonous six months, spent mostly in drill and practice at the lightly manned post, Johnston was ordered to join the 6th Infantry Regiment at Jefferson Barracks near St. Louis, Missouri. In August 1827, he participated in his first expedition, organized as a response to the killing and scalping of several white settlers in the Wisconsin River area by a group of Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) led by Red Bird and other warriors in late June. The peaceful surrender of the culprits averted conflict with the Ho-Chunk for the time being. In 1828, possibly due to his experience as adjutant of the Corps of Cadets at West Point, Johnston was appointed as adjutant of the regiment by Brigadier General Henry Atkinson, the commanding officer at Jefferson Barracks.
The Black Hawk War
In May 1832, Johnston's regiment was ordered to participate in the Black Hawk War, a brief but significant conflict between the United States and a coalition of Native Americans led by the Sauk leader Black Hawk. The war began when Black Hawk and his followers crossed the Mississippi River into Illinois, attempting to reclaim their ancestral lands after being forced to cede them under disputed treaties. Taking advantage of the chaotic situation, some Ho-Chunk and Potawatomi warriors unaffiliated with Black Hawk conducted their own raids along the frontier, striking terror into the hearts of the white settlers. There were instances of marauding bands surprising and butchering isolated white families and small travelling parties. Johnston soon became accustomed to this style of warfare, commenting that "an active and cruel enemy was now busy in the work of death and destruction. Their mode of warfare is such that, while you keep a sufficient force in motion against them to contend with their main body, you must necessarily keep troops at every available point on the frontier to hold in check small parties, which it is their custom to detach to a great distance."7
Black Hawk and his followers were finally corralled and defeated at the battle of the Bad Axe in August 1832. Johnston served as assistant adjutant general and aide-de-camp to Atkinson during the campaign, and thus, did not command troops on the front lines. Instead, he was involved primarily in administrative tasks, and "learned the importance of careful planning for supply and logistics, especially in operations across a country void of roads and provender."8 Johnston was close to Atkinson, possessed the general's confidence, and likely offered advice in relation to the key decisions of the campaign. He was praised by Atkinson in this role, with the general declaring that Johnston "has talents of the first order, a gallant soldier by profession and education and a gentleman of high standing and integrity."9 A fellow officer remarked that Johnston "acquired a very high reputation for his wise and successful conduct during the Black Hawk War."10
Family Tragedy
After the conclusion of the Black Hawk War, Johnston resigned from the United States Army to care for his ailing wife, Henrietta, who was likely suffering from tuberculosis. They moved back to Kentucky, but she succumbed to the illness in August 1835. This tragic event was compounded by the recent losses of Johnston's father, closest stepbrother, and newborn daughter in the two preceding years. He was now unemployed and lost in sorrow. However, early the next year, Johnston was approached by an agent from the Republic of Texas, with a request for his assistance in defending the newly independent country against military invasion by the Republic of Mexico, which refused to recognise Texas's sovereignty. Johnston was stirred by the challenge and left Kentucky in the summer of 1836. Historian Timothy B. Smith claimed that Johnston's decision to move to Texas was the first manifestation of a psychological tendency to react to a crisis, in this case the catastrophic loss of close family members and unemployment, with an irrational and flawed response.
Smith asserted that "in his move to Texas, Johnston displayed numerous attributes of a desperate man gambling on the future to regain his self-worth and peer acceptance," and that Johnston was "trying hard to resecure his future. In doing so, he almost began to panic and gamble on decisions that were always not the best...
