interfere with him. In March, 1862, Union movements caused him to retire beyond the Rapidan, and when McClellan began his movement to the peninsula to make a sort of back-door attack on Richmond, Johnston hastened there to oppose him. He was now full general, with command of the army of Virginia, and the safety of the Confederate capital depended on him and his men.

He succeeded in holding McClellan for a month at Yorktown, but was forced out of Williamsburg on May 5 and retreated to a position covering Richmond. McClellan's army followed rapidly, and on reaching the Chickahominy a portion of it crossed this small and easily forded river. Hardly had they done so when the conditions changed. Heavy rains poured down, the stream was suddenly swollen with the rushing waters, and the Union army found itself cut in twain. A happy accident for his cause it seemed to Johnston, who was falling back on Richmond. He immediately turned in his tracks, marched on the isolated Union brigades, and charged them with vigor. Only stubborn courage saved them from a disastrous defeat.

The supposed happy chance proved in the end a most unhappy one for the Confederate commander. At about the hour of sunset, when his men were severely pressing their enemies, who were tenaciously clinging to their position, Johnston was struck by a fragment of a shell, and received so serious a wound that he had to be carried from the field. During the night and early in the morning the Unionists were reinforced, the stream having shrunk into its old channel, and the next day's fight left them masters of the field. Thus ended the battle of Fair Oaks, or

Seven Pines, as it has been variously named. It was a desperate affray, with heavy loss, each side losing about seven thousand men.

This battle proved very unfortunate for General Johnston. It removed him from command at a critical stage in the central field of operations, General Lee taking his place and winning the honors which might have come to him. He remained disabled for several months, it being November before he was able to assume a new command, that over Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi. As late as April, 1863, he reported that he was still unfit for active service in the field.

Very active service was before him. Grant, tired of being held at bay north of Vicksburg, was now making his memorable swing round that city to the soil of Mississippi south of the stronghold. The plan he had in view was first to deal with the forces in the open field and then take the city by siege or assault.

Johnston's army was a small one, quite unfit to deal with Grant's heavy forces, but he marched to the relief of the beleaguered stronghold, reaching Jackson on May 13. He tried to hold this place against heavier forces under Sherman, but was unable to do so, and during the month that followed he sought in vain to aid Pemberton, in command at Vicksburg. As Pemberton held on to the place against Johnston's advice until Grant had him closed tightly in, the case soon became hopeless.

On May 29 Johnston wrote to Pemberton, "I am too weak to save Vicksburg," and this proved to be the case. He gave Grant what trouble he could, but was not able to stand before the quick and heavy blows dealt him, and on July 4 the campaign ended in the fall of the strong Confederate city and the surrender of

Pemberton and all his men. If Johnston's advice had been taken the latter disaster would have been avoided, but President Davis had other views and Pemberton was induced to hold on until escape was impossible.

We take up the fortunes of General Johnston again six months later, in December, 1863, when he was put in command of Bragg's army after the disastrous defeat of the latter before Chattanooga. In the following May Sherman began his famous advance towards Atlanta, Johnston opposing him with an army of about fifty-five thousand men, then strongly fortified at Dalton, Georgia.

It was an interesting game of war that followed. Johnston's army was much smaller than Sherman's, but the country the latter had to march through was mountainous and full of deep gullies, woods, and ravines, its difficulties going far to equalize the strength of the forces engaged. Sherman found it easier to flank than to attack the strong position at Dalton, and Johnston was quickly obliged to fall back to Reseca, where Sherman attacked him. Here he showed a bold front, but finding himself outmatched he retreated during the night and made his next stand in a strong mountain pass, where Sherman again outflanked him.

Thus fighting and flanking, the two armies kept at it until the vicinity of Atlanta was reached, Johnston steadily on the defensive, as Lee was in the North. Yet by this time one-fourth of Johnston's army was gone. He had done splendidly with his inferior force, saving it wherever he could, for he knew that the Confederacy was then too poor in able-bodied men to replace its losses, but fighting wherever he thought a chance for victory existed. Atlanta, which he had now reached, was already well fortified, but he set his

men busily at work in an effort to make it an impregnable stronghold, hoping to beat off his more powerful foe. In the midst of this work he was suddenly deprived of his command.

His continual retreat before Sherman had deeply displeased the authorities at Richmond, especially President Davis, who did not approve of his cautious policy and evidently expected more from him than was possible. Experts tell us that Johnston had managed the campaign with the greatest skill and for the best interests of his cause, and that his defensive stand at Atlanta was the best course that remained for him under the circumstances; but this the government at Richmond did not believe, and the more dashing, but less skilful and prudent soldier, General Hood, was put in his place.

Davis wanted battles, and Hood was the man to accommodate him. Johnston was removed on the 18th of July, and Hood fought fierce battles on the 22d and the 28th, being defeated with heavy loss on both occasions. He fought other battles with the same result, and finally, being forced out of Atlanta, moved to the north with the purpose of cutting Sherman's lines of supply. What came of this movement may be read in our story of General Thomas. All we need say here is that the policy of "swapping horses in crossing a stream" did not prove a good one in that instance.

In February, 1865, the Richmond government, in despair at Sherman's seemingly irresistible advance, turned to General Johnston again and asked him to take command of the army collecting in South Carolina to oppose this advance. It was a forlorn hope he was

asked to lead. To check Sherman now, with the

resources at his command, was next to impossible. Johnston, however, patriotically took the command offered him.

By gathering up Hardee's men from Charleston, Beauregard's from Columbia, and Hampton's cavalry, he got together a respectable force, about forty thousand strong, and for a time put Sherman in considerable jeopardy. A stand was made by Hardee at Averasboro, North Carolina, on March 16, and a stubborn little battle took place, ending in Hardee's being pushed out of his intrenchments.

Sherman meanwhile was on the march to Goldsboro and the result of this engagement gave him a perilous sense of security. He ordered his corps commanders to march in the easiest manner and by the nearest roads to Goldsboro, as a result of which his army became separated and spread out over a distance of ten or twelve miles. He had no idea that Johnston was marching upon him swiftly and stealthily during the night and next day was hovering near, waiting for a favorable opportunity to strike.

It

The blow came on the morning of the 19th, falling heavily on Slocum's wing of the army, which suddenly found itself in the face of Johnston's whole host. was a genuine surprise and only stubborn fighting enabled the troops to hold their own until help could reach them. The battle continued all day, the seasoned veterans on both sides fighting with fury. Only the rapid hurrying up of the scattered divisions saved Sherman from a disastrous defeat. As he says, his men received "six distinct assaults by the combined forces of Hoke, Hardee, and Cheatham, under the immediate command of General Johnston himself, without giving an inch of ground, and doing good