Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 March 1891 — GEN. JOHNSTON DEAD. [ARTICLE]

GEN. JOHNSTON DEAD.

ANOTHER CONFEDERATE NOTABLE GONE. H« Expired at Hi* Washington Home of Heart Failure—Con scions to ’the Last—A Brief Sketch of His Military and Cird| Career. General Joseph E. Johnston died at his residence on Connecticut avenue, Washington. The General had been suffering for three weeks with an affection.of the heart, aggravated by a cold he caught soon after General Sherman'sfuneral in New York. His physician had been trying to keep his strength up for some days, but his advanced age had given little hope for his recovery from, the beginning of bis illness. The General did not seem to suffer in. the least, and was conscious to the last. At his bedside wereex-Governer M c t ane »- of Maryland, his brother-in-law, and tho nurse. The immediate cause of his death, was heart failure, the result of degeneration of the heart, due in a measure to a cold contracted, some weeks ago, but more particularly due to extreme old age. At times for about two years General Johnston had shown unmistakable signs of a general breaking down. His mind often became Dewildered so that he could not tell where he was or how cam© there. Some days after the Sherman funeral, the General one night got up out of his bed while in a state of perspiration, which greatly aggravated the slight cold with which he was then suffering. This brought ou a severe attack of his old heart trouble, which completely prostrated him. His physician, Dr. Lincoln, succeeded, however, with much difficulty, in arresting the disease for a time, and for a day or two he seemed to be really improving. One day, however, he wont down stairs without assistance, as he had done before, but it proved too much for his strength, and only with the aid of Gov. McLane could he again reach h s bed, or even lise from the sofa where he was sitting. I rom that time he continued to grow worse. Dr. Lincoln found him perfectly comfortable and apparently a little better; while his friends and attendants knew that he might pass away at any time, yet they had no warning that the end was so near. Gov. McLane entered the room, and as ho appreached the General’s bedside he heard an almost inaudible sigh, and the General was dead. Gen. Johnston’s nearest living relative is a sister, Mrs. Mitchall, who lives in Washington The funeral services were held in Washington, and the interment in Greenmourit Cemetery, Baltimore.

General Johnston was the last, save General Beauregard, of the six full Generals of the Confederacy. He was born at Cherry Grove, Va., in 1807, and was graduated lrom West Point In 1829, in the same class with Gen. Robert E. Lee. He was appointed second lieutenant of the Fourth Artillery, and first saw active service in the field in 1532, in the Black Hawk Indian expedition. He was promotecTTn 1836, and was an aid-de-camp on Gen. Winfield Scott’s staff in thep Seminole war. He participated in all t battles connected with Gen- * eral Scott’s campaign In Mexico, from the taking of Vera Cruz to the capture of the City of Mexico. He was thrice brevetted for gallantry during this war, and in 1848 was mustered out of the service as a lieutenant colonel of volunteers, only to be reinstated by Congress with his original rank of captain of topographical engineers. He was commissioed quartormaster general of the United States army in June, 1-60, but resigned the following April to ente • the Confederate service, in which, as a major general of volunteers, he assisted G neral Lee in the work of organizing the men who were pouring into” Richmond. Subsequently he was commissioned a brigadier general in the Confederate service, and was placed In command at Harper’s Ferry. He joined forces with Beauregard, and remained in command of the consolidated treops until 1863. At the battle of Seven Pines he was wounded and incapacitated for about six months. His next service waß ns commander of the Army of the Tennessee. Ije employed tho winter of 1863 to reorganize, his command, which bad become - demoralized by the defeat at Missionary Ridge. He was relieved of this command in July, 1854, by order of the authorities at Richmond. General Hood succeeding him. Early in 1865 General Lee again assigned him to the command from which he had been relieved, and ordered him to drive back Sherman. General Johnston urged Leo to abandon Rich- , mond, join forces with him, and fight Sherman before Grant could come up, but Lee replied that it was impossible for him to leave Virginia, as his force was small. General Johnston, declining a. decisive engagement, hung on Sherman’s flanks, annoying the latter and impeding his march from Atlanta toward Richmoud as much as possible. Lee surrendered at Appomattox, and Johnston obtaining the consent of President Jefferson Davis that the war should not be further prolonged, entered into negotiations with Sherman. The first agreement framed was disapproved by the Federal Government, and on April 26 a second agreement was concluded. General Johnston, after the war, became successively President of a railroad company in Arkansas, of an express company in Virginia, and an insurance agent in Georgia. He was elected to Congress from the Richmond district In 1877, and next saw public life as Commissioner of Railroads, which office he held under President Cleveland’s administration. He had lived in Washington since ho lost his office under the present administration. In person General Johnston was a man of Blender build, of not more than medium height, and with a kindly, pleasant face. He was unobtrusive in manner and invariably courteous to all persons with whom he was brought in contact.