Albert Sydney Johnston was the commander of the Army of Mississippi during the battle of Shiloh. General Johnston was actually commander of the U.S. Department of the Pacific in California, at the outbreak of the Civil War, and was approached by some Californians to take his army and go east to support the Union and help defeat the Confederacy. He resigned as commander of that department after learning of the secession of Texas from the union. Texas, although he wasn’t born there, he considered to be his home state and once they seceeded he felt obligated to join the Confederacy. He then headed to Richmond, Virginia and was appointed general by his friend, and president of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis.

After Johnston’s subordinate generals lost Fort Donelson and Fort Henry, in the early part of 1862, Johnston made the move to organize his forces, along with General Beauregard’s who had now joined him, at Corinth, Mississippi. Corinth contained two key railroads for the confederacy at the time, and while Grant was amassing his forces near Pittsburgh Landing, and waiting on Don Carlos Buell’s army to arrive from Nashville, Johnston decided that now would be the perfect time for an attack on the Union army. Thus the stage was set for the Battle of Shiloh.

Once the battle had ensued Johnston came upon some of this forces gorging on food that they had found in the Union camps. By grabbing a cup, and declaring that that would be all of the spoils he would partake in for the morning, he led his army into battle. While most generals would direct troop movements from the rear of the battle, Johnston took it upon himself to lead the troops from horseback, thus putting himself in harm’s way, and it proved costly for him.

After seeing the many wounded troops on the battlefield, both Union and Confederate, Johnston ordered his own personal surgeon off to take care of them. In the meantime, with his surgeon away, he was struck in the popliteal artery by a minie ball that was most likely fired by a confederate. Not knowing the severity of his injury, he continued on, until one of his aides, Islam Harris, who was also the governor of Tennessee at the time, found him reeling in the saddle and asked if he was hurt. The Governor began to look for blood, and none was found at first. Upon removing the General’s boot however, they discovered it filled with blood.

The Governor removed the General from his horse, and drug him to safety down into a ravine, when at 2:30pm, after trying to get some brandy down the General’s throat, General Johnston was dead still possessing a tourniquet in his pocket that could have saved his life.

General Johnston’s death site is another area of Shiloh that had a feeling to it that I just cannot begin to describe. As you walk down into the ravine, the location of his death, there is a distinct feeling such as that at the sunken road. While I can’t describe the feeling, it is one that you never forget. General Johnston’s death was a huge blow to the Confederacy at the time, and some even blame his very death for the loss at Shiloh. Who knows how the battle might have turned out if General Johnston had lived.

The monument you see in this post is actually the location of where the general was wounded, and the plaque you see down in the ravine is the location of his death site, as pointed out by the Governor of Tennessee, who was there at the time of his death.

One incredible experience to be able to stand in that ravine, and wonder how the events that took place there, affected the outcome of the Shiloh battle.

We will never know!

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