Albert Sidney Johnston: Soldier of Three Republics

by Charles P. Roland, Gary W. Gallagher (Foreword by)

" With a new foreword by Gary W. Gallagher Selected as one of the best one hundred books ever written on the Civil War by Civil War Times Illustrated and by Civil The Magazine of the Civil War Society A new, revised edition of the only full-scale biography of the Confederacy's top-ranking field general during the opening campaigns of the Civil War.

Genres: Civil War, History, American Civil War, Biography

408 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1964

About the author

Charles Pierce Roland is an American historian and professor emeritus of the University of Kentucky who is known for his research field of the American South and the U.S. Civil War.

Reviews

[Sean Chick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Roland's biography of Johnston is considered a classic of the genre and it is clear why. The book is well written and fair to its subject. It helps that Johnston left a heap of personal letters that allowed Roland to reconstruct the man. The most surprising part was Johnston's scholarly and artistic pursuits. He translated Sallust and tried to learn the flute. It is also odd for a biography of a Civil War general in that most of the book takes place before the fighting. Which makes perfect sense. Johnston was 60 when he died, old for a field commander. He also died when the war was not yet a year old. He had already seen service in the Black Hawk War, Mexican-American War, and Utah Expedition, not to mention his command of the Texan army.

The book is also a fossil. Johnston is portrayed as courageous, honorable, and nearly above personal reproach. On that later point though Johnston is an easy villain in 2020. While not a cruel slave-owner (he refused to whip a slave who stole thousands of dollars) he was opposed to emancipation and thought the free people of color needed to be removed. Of the natives he favored hard war and he held the Mexicans in near total contempt. His virtues of honor, courage, and reticence were noted by all, but in his broad worldview he is better suited to a time when conquest and exploitation were taken as permanent forces in human affairs. He would have been a Roman of renown if he had somehow been born in the days of the republic. That said, his heroic death, and the host of personal admirers, many within the Union army, still give him a glow of sorts.

[Gill Eastland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Roland does a great job with Albert Sidney. Obviously historians have thought so too as there is nothing else on him besides the post war bio by his son.

[Pat · Rating 5 out of 5]

A worthwhile read, well researched, well written and thoroughly enjoyed. The history of the times and attitudes of the newly developing frontiers of the United States and its peoples, the Indian and Mexican Wars make this book doubly readable.

[Silver · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent biography of the Confederacy's highest ranking field commander. I agree with Roland's summary: "Johnston's presence would have been an incalculable asset to the Confederacy in the trying years to come. Despite his miscalculations and mistakes of judgment during his brief Civil War career, he demonstrated in the climax of it a breadth of strategic vision, force of personality, strength of character, tenacity of will, and power of decisiveness that are the imperatives of great generalship. These qualities, combined with his stature in the eyes of President Jefferson Davis and of Johnston's subordinates, rendered him the one man who might have given the Confederates of the western theater a leadership comparable to that of Robert E. Lee in the east."

[Eric Kiser · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well-written, thoroughly researched book about a great man.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Albert Sidney Johnston was a soldier in the US Army, the army of Texas, and the Confederate army. He rose to positions of leadership in all three.