The Life of General Albert Sidney Johnston

At the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, Johnston was offered a position second in rank only to the aging Winfield Scott, but he refused the Federal government's offer and instead became commander of the Confederacy's Department No. 2, the Western Department. Keenly aware of the military weakness of the South, he issued a call for men at Bowling Green, Kentucky, and formed and drilled his army. On April 6, 1862, Johnston was killed at the battle of Shiloh.

The author, Johnston's son, presents "a whole picture of the character of a difficult, generally taciturn man, and defends his actions in a balanced, scholarly manner." The son, having access to all of his father's private correspondence and papers, including his complete Confederate archives, was able to provide anecdotes only a son could know, and was able to persuade many of his father's associates to submit memoirs about him.

Never before reprinted since its last publication in 1878, this new volume is of inestimable value and interest to historians and to other readers of Civil War history and early Texas history.

This edition contains a new introduction by Charles P. Roland, author of "Albert Sidney Johnston: Soldier of Three Republics," and "Jefferson Davis's Greatest General: Albert Sidney Johnston" (McWhiney Foundation Press, 2000).