Memoir of Joseph Eggleston Johnston

JOHNSTON'S NARRATIVE. CHAPTER I

Passage of Ordinance of Secession by Virginia Convention. -- Resign Office of Quartermaster-General of the United States. -- Defense of

West Point Officers, who resigned, from Unjust Attack. -- Assigned to Duty of organizing Virginia Troops. -- Ordered by President Davis

to take command at Harper's Ferry. -- Convineed, on Examination, that it was untenable. -- Correspondence, on the Subject, with General

Lee and the Confederate Authorities. -- General Beauregard assigned to command of Confederate Army at Manassas. -- Movements of General

Patterson. -- Withdrawal from Harper's Ferry. -- Affair near Romney. -- General Patterson again marches on Martinsburg. -- Battle

offered at Darkesville. -- General McDowell advances on Manassas. -- Precautions preparatory to assisting General Beauregard.

The composition of the convention assembled in Richmond in the spring of 1861, to consider the question of secession, proved that the

people of Virginia did not regard Mr. Lincoln's election as a sufficient cause for that measure, for at least two-thirds of its members

were elected as "Union men." And they and their constituents continued to be so, until the determination to "coerce" the seceded States

was proclaimed by the President of the United States, and Virginia required to furnish her quota of the troops to be organized for the

purpose. War being then inevitable, and the convention compelled to decide whether the State should aid in the subjugation
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of the other Southern States, or join them in the defense of principles it had professed since 1780 -- belong to the invading party, or

to that standing on the defensive -- it chose the latter, and passed its ordinance of secession. The people confirmed that choice by an

overwhelming vote.

The passage of that ordinance, in secret session on the 17th of April, was not known in Washington, where, as Quartermaster-General of

the United States Army, I was then stationed, until the 19th. I believed, like most others, that the division of the country would be

permanent; and that, apart from any right of secession, the revolution begun was justified by the maxims so often repeated by

Americans, that free government is founded on the consent of the governed, and that every community strong enough to establish and

maintain its independence has a right to assert it. Having been educated in such opinions, I naturally determined to return to the

State of which I was a native, join the people among whom I was born, and live with my kindred, and, if necessary, fight in their

defense.

Accordingly, the resignation of my commission, written on Saturday, was offered to the Secretary of War Monday morning. That gentleman

was requested, at the same time, to instruct the Adjutant-General, who had kindly accompanied me, to write the order announcing its

acceptance, immediately.

No other officer of the United States Army of equal rank, that of brigadier-general, relinquished his position in it to join the

Southern Confederacy.

Many officers of that army, of Southern birth, had previously resigned their commissions, to return
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to the States of which they were citizens, and many others did so later. Their objects in quitting the United States Army, and their

intentions to enter the service of the seceded States, were well known in the War Department. Yet no evidence of disapproval of these

intentions was given by the Federal Administration, nor efforts made by it to prevent their execution. This seems to me strong proof

that they were not then considered criminal.

Northern editors and political speakers accuse those who thus left the service of the United States for that of the Southern

Confederacy, of perjury, in breaking their oaths of allegiance. It is impossible that the inventors and propagators of this charge can

be ignorant that it is false. The acceptance of an officer's resignation absolves him from the obligations of his military oath as

completely as it releases the government from that of giving him the pay of the grade he held. An officer is bound by that oath to

allegiance to the United States, and obedience to the officers they may set over him. When the contract between the government and

himself is dissolved by mutual consent, as in the cases in question, he is no more bound, under his oath, to allegiance to the

government, than to obedience to his former commander. These two obligations are in force only during tenure of office. The individual

who was an officer has, when he becomes a citizen, exactly the same obligations to the United States as other citizens.

This principle was always acted upon by the United States. Whenever a military officer received a new appointment, either of a higher

grade, or of an equal one in another corps, he was required to
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repeat the oath of office, because the previous one, including of course that of allegiance, was held to have expired with the previous

office, although the individual had not ceased to be an officer of the army. When he left the army, as well as a particular office in

it, the case was certainly stronger.

Leaving all my property but personal arms and clothing, I set off to Richmond with my family, on Tuesday. In consequence of railroad

accidents, however, we did not reach that place until day-break, Thursday.

General Lee had been appointed commander-in-chief, with the rank of major-general. There were, however, several other officers of that

grade. A few hours after my arrival, Governor Letcher gave me the appointment of major-general.

The commander-in-chief assigned me to the service of organizing and instructing the volunteers then just beginning to assemble at the

call of the Governor. He himself was then selecting the points to be occupied by these troops for the protection of the State, and

determining the number to be assigned to each. Norfolk, a point near Yorktown, another in front of Fredericksburg, Manassas Junction,

Harper's Ferry, and Grafton, seemed to be regarded by him as the most important positions, for they were to be occupied in greatest

force.

I was assisted in my duties by Lieutenant-Colonel Pemberton, Majors Jackson and Gilham, and Captain T. L. Preston. Near the end of

April, however, the second named was promoted to a colonelcy and assigned to the command of Harper's Ferry, held until then by Colonel

Kenton Harper.
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I was employed in this way about two weeks. Then, Virginia having acceded to the Southern Confederacy, the government of which assumed

the direction of military affairs, I accepted a brigadier-generalcy offered me by telegraph by the President. It was then the highest

grade in the Confderate army. The offer had been made in one or two previous telegrams sent to General Lee, for me, but not delivered.

The Virginia Convention had abolished my office in the State service, and offered me the next lower. But, as it was certain that the

war would be conducted by the Confederate Government, and its officers had precedence of those having like State grades, I preferred

the Confederate commission.

The President had me called to Montgomery to receive instructions, and there assigned me to the command of Harper's Ferry.

In my journeys from Washington to Richmond, from Richmond to Montgomery, and thence to Harper's Ferry, I saw in the crowds assembled at

all the railroad-stations the appearance of great enthusiasm for the war against subjugation -- so much as to give me the impression

that all of the population fit for military service might have been brought into the field, if the Confederate Government could have

furnished them with arms and ammunition -- which, unfortunately, it had not provided. That government depended for arms, for the war

then imminent, mainly upon those found in the arsenals at Fayetteville, Charleston, Augusta, Mount Vernon, and Baton Rouge; United

States muskets and rifles of discarded pattern, the number supposed to be about
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seventy-five thousand; above forty thousand muskets belonging to the State of Virginia in course of rapid conversion from "flint" to

"percussion lock" by Governor Letcher's orders; and twenty thousand lately procured for the State of Georgia, by Governor Brown.

I reached Harper's Ferry soon after noon of the 23d of May, accompanied by Colonel E. Kirby Smith, [1] acting adjutant-general, Major

W. H. C. Whiting, [2] of the Engineer Corps, Major E. McLean, of the Quartermaster's Department, and Captain T. L. Preston, assistant

adjutant-general. Within an hour the commanding officer, Colonel Jackson, [3] visited me; learned the object of my coming, and read the

order of the War Department, assigning me to the command he had been exercising. My order announcing the change of commanders, made by

the President's authority, was sent to him next morning, with the request that he would have the proper number of copies made and

distributed to the troops, as I had no office as yet. He replied very courteously, in writing, that he did not "feel at liberty to

transfer his command to another without further instructions from Governor Letcher or General Lee;" but offered me, in the mean while,

every facility in his power for obtaining information relating to the post. Major Whiting, who had been his school-fellow, saw him at

my request, and convinced him very soon that the President's authority was paramount in military affairs, and his action in the
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case in accordance with military usage. This misunderstanding of military custom produced little more delay than the time consumed by

the messenger in bringing me Colonel Jackson's note, and by Major Whiting in going to that officer's quarters from mine.

This little affair is mentioned, only because what seems to me a very exaggerated account of it has been published. [4]

Governor Letcher had taken possession of Harper's Ferry as soon as possible, and had it occupied by a body of troops commanded by

Colonel Kenton Harper -- not soon enough, however, to prevent the destruction of the small-arms stored in the armory. The Federal

commanding officer, when compelled by the approach of the Virginia troops to abandon the place, set fire to the buildings containing

these arms, [5] to destroy what he could not save for his government. Soon after being appointed commander-in-chief of the forces of

the State, General Lee increased the garrison of Harper's Ferry, and placed Colonel Jackson in command there. On extending its control

of military affairs over Virginia, the Confederate Government, as if equally impressed with the importance of the position, made

another addition to the troops assembled there -- of three regiments and two battalions of infantry. I was also instructed in

Montgomery to "take Lynchburg in my route, and to make arrangements there for sending forward to Harper's Ferry `such force' as I might

deem necessary to strengthen my command." I found no available "force" there, however.
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The forces thus assembled were, the Second, Fourth, Fifth, Tenth, Thirteenth, and Twenty-seventh Virginia, Second and Eleventh

Mississippi and Fourth Alabama regiments of infantry, and a Maryland and a Kentucky battalion; four companies of artillery (Virginia),

with four guns each, but without caissons, horses, or harness; and the First Regiment of Virginia Cavalry -- of about two hundred and

fifty men, including Captain Turner Ashby's company, temporarily attached to it by Colonel Jackson -- in all, about five thousand two

hundred effective men. Among the superior officers were several who subsequently rose to high distinction: "Stonewall" Jackson; A. P.

Hill, who won the grade of lieutenant-general; Stuart, matchless as commander of outposts; and Pendleton, General Lee's commander of

artillery.

These troops were undisciplined, of course. They were also badly armed and equipped -- several regiments being without accoutrements --

and were almost destitute of ammunition, and, like all new troops assembled in large bodies, they were suffering very much from

sickness; nearly forty per cent. [6] of the "total" being in the hospitals there or elsewhere, from the effects of measles and mumps.

General Lee's command in Virginia, as major-general in the State service, was continued until Richmond became the Confederate seat of

government. The law converting the Confederate brigadier-generals into generals, approved May 16th, had not been published to the army

in orders, by the War Department, but was known to be in existence, for it had appeared in the newspapers.
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My conversations with General Lee in Richmond, and the President's oral instructions to me in Montgomery; had informed me distinctly

that they regarded Harper's Ferry as a natural fortress -- commanding the entrance into the Valley of Virginia from Pennsylvania and

Maryland -- and that it was occupied in that idea, and my command not that of a military district and active army, but of a fortress

and its garrison. Maps, and intelligent persons of the neighborhood, told me that the principal route into "the Valley" from

Pennsylvania crosses the Potomac at Williamsport, and the railroad at Martinsburg, at least twenty miles west of this garrison, and of

course beyond its control. A careful examination of the position and its environs, made on the 25th, with the assistance of an engineer

of great ability, Major Whiting, convinced me that it could not be held against equal numbers by such a force as then occupied it.

Harper's Ferry is untenable against an army by any force not strong enough to hold the neighboring heights north of the Potomac and

east of the Shenandoah, as well as the place itself. It is a triangle formed by the Potomac, Shenandoah, and Furnace Ridge, the latter

extending from river to river, a mile and a half above their junction. Artillery on the heights above mentioned to the north and east

could sweep every part of this space. As the rivers are fordable at various points, it was easy to turn or invest the place, or assail

it on the west (Furnace Ridge) side.

 

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