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Today in American Military History -- 1865
Confederate Gen Joseph E Johnston surrenders the Army of Tennessee, Durham, NC
After learning of Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House on April 9, Johnston agreed to meet with General Sherman between the lines at a small farm known as Bennett Place near present-day Durham, North Carolina. After three separate days (April 17, 18, and 26, 1865) of negotiations, Johnston surrendered the Army of Tennessee and all remaining Confederate forces still active in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. It was the largest surrender of the war, totaling 89,270 soldiers. President Davis considered that Johnston, surrendering so many troops that had not been explicitly defeated in battle, had committed an act of treachery. Johnston was paroled on May 2 at Greensboro.
After the surrender, Sherman issued ten days' rations to the hungry Confederate soldiers, as well as horses and mules for them to "insure a crop." He also ordered distribution of corn, meal, and flour to civilians throughout the South. This was an act of generosity that Johnston would never forget; he wrote to Sherman that his attitude "reconciles me to what I have previously regarded as the misfortune of my life, that of having you to encounter in the field."
Confederate Gen Joseph E Johnston surrenders the Army of Tennessee, Durham, NC
After learning of Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House on April 9, Johnston agreed to meet with General Sherman between the lines at a small farm known as Bennett Place near present-day Durham, North Carolina. After three separate days (April 17, 18, and 26, 1865) of negotiations, Johnston surrendered the Army of Tennessee and all remaining Confederate forces still active in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. It was the largest surrender of the war, totaling 89,270 soldiers. President Davis considered that Johnston, surrendering so many troops that had not been explicitly defeated in battle, had committed an act of treachery. Johnston was paroled on May 2 at Greensboro.
After the surrender, Sherman issued ten days' rations to the hungry Confederate soldiers, as well as horses and mules for them to "insure a crop." He also ordered distribution of corn, meal, and flour to civilians throughout the South. This was an act of generosity that Johnston would never forget; he wrote to Sherman that his attitude "reconciles me to what I have previously regarded as the misfortune of my life, that of having you to encounter in the field."
Joseph E. Johnston - Wikipedia
Posted from en.wikipedia.org
Military History
American History
Civil War
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 2
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Oh, please...I'd read about that whole thing with Davis chastizing Johnston for doing it, Davis, to me, at least, was a pluperfect idiot...and I know I'm gonna be disagreed with on this one, however, after actually having seen where Pickett led the charge at Lee's behest, when my wife and I went to see Gettysburg, Lee was just as totally nuts...I don't care how otherwise accomplished both of them were before the Civil War, they just promulgated that whole conflagration for nothing, a total, absolute, completely pointless waste of life, except, definitely for freeing the slaves, obviously, of course...and I'd read something Sherman said once, I think, of Johnston, that Sherman found him a good, clean fighter, kind of like a bantam rooster, if you will, I think that was the analogy I'd read that was used at the time, if I recall correctly...and everybody always leaves out Albert Sydney Johnston, the Confederate general commanding before Lee, who'd been lost at Shiloh, one almost never hears anything about him, I've noticed....
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This is a great history share, shows Sherman did have a heart. Thanks, as having relative in the war, I love all the history posts.
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Capt Daniel Goodman
The one I really love was Gen Benjamin Butler with the story of the "women of the town plying their vocation" notice in New Orleans he'd had plastered everywhere, because of all the Confederate women there insulting all the Union occupiers, incl. dumping a chamber pot contents on the head of a Union adminral, I think, in one case...I esp. loved the Confederates having made chamber pots with his photo on the bottom of the inside...that I actually found pretty hysterical, it was mentioned in that Ken Burns PBS Civil War TV thing yrs ago....
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SSG Donald H "Don" Bates
Capt Daniel Goodman -I guess that was a golden shower LOL, love the chamber pot idea.
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