Johnston, Albert Sidney

(1803-1862), a distinguished Confederate general, was born in Kentucky, and graduated at West Point in 1826. He served in the Black Hawk War, entered soon after the army of Texas, and became Secretary of War for that republic. He pa ed through the Mexican War, was for a short time a planter, and again in the U. S. army rose to be paymaster and colonel. He commanded skillfully the expedition to Utah, and was in charge of the Department of the Pacific when the war broke out. Having espoused the Confederate cause he was appointed a general and intrusted with command in the West. He fortified the strategic point of Bowling Green, but his forces were driven back, and he was compelled to concentrate at Corinth. From this point he planned a surprise on Grant’s army lying at Pittsburg Landing. The attack was executed in one of the fiercest battles of the war, but General Johnston was killed in the afternoon of the first day while leading a charge.