Major General Bushrod Rust Johnson,
P.A.C.S.
Major-General Bushrod R. Johnson, a distinguished Confederate officer and
citizen of Tennessee, was born in Ohio in 1817. He was a cadet at the
United States military academy from 1836 to 1840, when he was
appointed second lieutenant in the Third infantry. He served in the Florida
war, and was on frontier duty at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., when he was
promoted to first lieutenant, February, 1844. He participated in the
Mexican War, and was engaged in the battles of Palo Alto, Resaca de la
Palma and Monterey, and the siege of Vera Cruz. After the fall of that city
he remained there on commissary duty until October. In that month he
resigned and returned to the United States. he was professor in the
Western military institute of Kentucky from 1848 to 1851, when he became
its superintendent. Four years later he became superintendent of the
military college of the university at Nashville, Tenn., which place he held at
the outbreak of the Confederate war. He was also at that time colonel of
Tennessee militia. During his stay in Kentucky he had been lieutenant-
colonel of militia. He was appointed colonel of engineers in the provisional
army of Tennessee, June 28, 1861, and when the Tennessee troops were
turned over to the Confederate States, he was assigned to the army acting
in Tennessee and Kentucky under the command of Gen. Albert Sidney
Johnston. He commanded with great ability a brigade at Fort Donelson,
having been commissioned brigadier-general January 24, 1862. Though
captured on the fall of that important post, he was exchanged in time to
bear a conspicuous part in the battle of Shiloh, where he was severely
wounded April 6, 1862. On his recovery he went into the Kentucky
campaign, and at the battle of Perryville, his and Cleburne's brigades,
charging together, captured three batteries and many prisoners. General
Johnson also led his brigade in Hardee's brilliant and successful charge in
the battle of Murfreesboro. At Chickamauga, in the second day's battle, he
was the first to detect and enter the gap in the Federal lines. Of this, Gen.
D. H. Hill says: "With the coolness and judgment for which he was always
distinguished, he took in the situation at a glance, and began a flank
movement to the right. Longstreet adopted the plan of his lieutenant and
made his other troops conform to Johnson's movement," thus sweeping
away one wing of the Federal army and with it the commanding general
himself. General Johnson also served under Longstreet in the unfortunate
campaign into east Tennessee, commanding Buckner's division, brigades of
Gracie, Johnson and Reynolds; shared in the disastrous assault on Fort
Sanders (Knoxville), and fount the battle of Bean's Station. When the
campaign of 1864 opened in Virginia, General Johnson, with his division,
was near Petersburg, where he assisted in the defense against Butler's
attack upon the Richmond & Petersburg railroad. His services were also
eminent in the battle of Drewry's Bluff, where Beauregard "bottled up"
Butler. A few days after this battle Johnson was commissioned major-
general (May 21, 1864). At the battle of the Crater, before Petersburg, he
commanded the troops who repulsed the Federal assault. He continued to
serve with distinguished ability until the end came and the banners of the
Confederacy were furled forever. At the evacuation of Richmond he
commanded the division on Anderson's corps, comprising the brigades of
Wallace, Moody, Ransom, and Wise, South Carolina, Alabama, North
Carolina and Virginia troops; was engaged in severe fighting preceding and
during the retreat, and after the battle of Sailor's Creek was ordered by
General Lee to collect all the scattered forces of Anderson's and Ewell's
commands. In 1866 he resumed his favorite occupation, that of a teacher,
and served as professor of engineering, mechanics and natural philosophy
in the Western military institute at Georgetown, Ky., until 1880. On
December 7th of that year he died at Brighton, Ill., at the age of sixty-three
years.
Source: Evans, Clement, ed. Confederate Military History, Vol.
VIII, Confederate Publishing Company, Atlanta, GA, 1899
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