Johnston, Joseph E(ggleston)

(1807--91)

Confederate general, born near Farmville, VA. He trained at West Point, fought in the Seminole and Mexican Wars, and in 1860 was made quartermaster-general. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he resigned to enter the Confederate service, and as brigadier-general took command of the army of the Shenandoah. He supported Beauregard at the first Battle of Bull Run (1861), but after the fall of Vicksburg he was criticised by Jefferson Davis for failing to stem the Union advance, and relieved of his command (1864). Restored in 1865, he surrendered to Sherman. He was elected to Congress in 1877, and was US commissioner of railroads (1885).