Bushrod Johnson
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Bushrod Rust Johnson (October 7, 1817 – September 12, 1880) was a teacher, university chancellor, and Confederate general in the American Civil War.
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[edit] Early life
Johnson was born in Belmont County, Ohio. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1840 and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 3rd U.S. Infantry. He fought in the Seminole War in Florida and the Mexican-American War. He was forced to resign from the Army in 1847 after being accused of selling contraband goods. He worked as a teacher, professor of philosophy and chemistry at the Western Military Institute, Georgetown, Kentucky (1851), and professor of engineering at the University of Nashville (1855). During this period he was active in the state militias of Kentucky and Tennessee.
[edit] Civil War
After the start of the Civil War, he entered the service as a colonel of engineers in the Tennessee Militia, June 28, 1861, and a week later this commission was changed to be in the Confederate States Army. He was instrumental in the construction of Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River in Tennessee and was promoted to brigadier general on January 24, 1862, days before the Battle of Fort Donelson. He commanded a wing of the army at Donelson, but was effectively overshadowed by the more politically astute Brig. Gen. Gideon J. Pillow, who led the wing in a fierce assault in an attempt to break out and escape from the encircled fort. The fort and its army surrendered to Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant on February 16, 1862, but Johnson was able to walk unimpeded out through the porous Union Army lines and escaped capture.
Johnson commanded a brigade of the Army of Mississippi at the Battle of Shiloh, and on the second day of battle, April 6, 1862, he became the division commander, but also was severely wounded by the concussion of an artillery shell. After recovering from his injury, he led his brigade in Braxton Bragg's invasion of Kentucky and the Battle of Perryville, followed by Stones River, Chickamauga, and, under James Longstreet, the Siege of Knoxville.
Promoted to major general on May 21, 1864, the remainder of Johnson's service was with the Army of Northern Virginia under Robert E. Lee. Johnson commanded a division in the section of trenches manned by the South Carolinian troops in the Battle of the Crater. They captured three stands of colors and 130 prisoners that day. His men spent the remainder of the Siege of Petersburg in the trenches, ending up at the Battle of White Oak Road and Battle of Five Forks. His division was shattered at Battle of Sayler's Creek on April 6, 1865, although he was able to escape personally. He was paroled at Appomattox Court House without a command.
[edit] Postbellum
Johnson returned to teaching to become a professor and co-chancellor (1870) of the University of Nashville with former Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith. His health failing, he retired in 1875 to a farm in Brighton, Illinois, where he died in 1880. He was originally buried in Miles Station, near Brighton, but was reinterred in 1975 to Old City Cemetery, Nashville, Tennessee, to be next to the grave of his wife, Mary.
[edit] References
- Eicher, John H., and Eicher, David J.: Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
- Gott, Kendall D., Where the South Lost the War: An Analysis of the Fort Henry—Fort Donelson Campaign, February 1862, Stackpole books, 2003, ISBN 0-8117-0049-6.
- Warner, Ezra J., Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders, Louisiana State University Press, 1959, ISBN 0-8071-0823-5.
- Bushrod Johnson on Find-A-Grave
- Previous resting place on Find-A-Grave
