Joseph E. Johnston: A Civil War Biography (Norton Paperback) by Craig L. Symonds

Author:Craig L. Symonds [Symonds, Craig L.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 1994-06-17T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

The Army of Tennessee

Two days after Christmas, 1863, Joseph E. Johnston announced to the Army of Tennessee that he was its new commander. That same day he conducted an informal review of his new command by riding through the camps. One soldier, looking up from the ranks, later described what he saw:

Fancy, if you please, a man about fifty years old, rather small of stature, but firmly and compactly built, an open and honest countenance, and a keen but restless black eye, that seemed to read your very inmost thoughts. In his dress he was a perfect dandy. He ever wore the very finest clothes that could be obtained, carrying out in every point the dress and paraphernalia of the soldier. . . . His hat was decorated with a star and feather, his coat with every star and embellishment, and he wore a bright new sash, big gauntlets, and silver spurs. He was the very picture of a general.1

By all accounts Johnston’s arrival in Dalton elicited near-unanimous approval from the men in the ranks. They cheered him heartily and Johnston responded, as one officer recalled, “by darting out on his bright bay horse in front of the line & lifting his hat, not merely off his head, but down to his stirrup.” For many, perhaps, the news that Bragg was not going to return was as cheering as the intelligence that Johnston was to replace him. But for most, Johnston’s reputation, his imposing presence, and especially his manifest concern for his men generated genuine enthusiasm. From the very beginning, Johnston set a completely different tone in the army. The troops learned quickly that their well-being was the new commander’s first priority; he was, as one put it, a “feeding general.”2

From his earliest days as a professional officer, Johnston had made the care and feeding of his men his highest priority. In Dalton, he started by ordering that two days rations be issued to the troops at once. In place of the ancient beef, so rancid and slippery that the men called it, accurately, “blue beef,” he ordered the commissary to distribute the small reserves of bacon and sugar, and he announced that tobacco and whiskey would be issued twice a week. Of course, without a dramatically improved supply system, this gesture would have been a very temporary solution, for he would have had to fall back on the detested “blue beef” within a matter of days. So his first administrative efforts were aimed at improving the flow of goods and supplies to the army. In addition, he ordered new uniforms, tents, and especially shoes, for much of the army was barefoot. He offered universal, unconditional amnesty to those who were absent without leave, and ordered that the men who had remained be granted furloughs—one third of the army at a time—until every soldier had had a chance to go home. Soldiers drew furloughs by lot, and the lucky ones if they wished could sell or give their draw to a family man.

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