1874 – Confederate Military Operations – Gen. Joseph Johnston | Civil War Narrative

Joseph E. Johnston was a 19th-century American Army officer who served as a Confederate States Army general, even though he trained at West Point. However, his military acumen was wrecked and constantly criticized by Confederate President Jefferson Davis, with whom Johnston was very displeased. Following his service time as a military officer, Johnston wrote and published his own memoirs – memoirs which were mostly attacks on President Davis and other officers, as well as defending his own actions and decisions during the Civil War.

‘In Tall Cotton’ says of this work: “A vigorous defense of his own actions and necessarily, therefore, a hard-hitting attack on others, particularly on President Davis against whom he records his objections to excess.”

According to Nevins, this work is “one of the earliest Confederate reminiscences; strongly partisan, anti-Davis, and defensive in tone.”

Per Eicher, “This is one of the early classic narratives by a senior commanding general of the Confederate armies. Bitterly partisan and constructed to attack the credibility of charges brought against him… The estimates of troops are way off… he sometimes confuses events, as with several incidents in the Vicksburg campaign.”

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Narrative of Military Operations, Directed, During the Late War Between the States
• Author(s): Joseph Eggleston Johnston
• Publisher: New York, D. Appleton and Co.
• Edition: First edition, 1874
• Binding: Hardcover
• Format: (4to), single volume
• Size:  9.5 in x 6.75 in (24 cm x 17 cm)
• Collation: 602 pp, [6]
• Illustrations: 21 engravings including portraits and maps
• Contents Include:
  • Memoir by Johnston covering Civil War operations
  • Accusations and political critiques targeting Jefferson Davis
  • Maps and battlefield discussions
• Reference(s): Howes J 167; Nevins II, p.68; Eicher 257; In Tall Cotton 101

Condition:

Very Good. Hardcover binding tight and secure, with some rubbing and wear at the corners. Pages are generally clean, and all 21 plates are intact and well preserved.

Why Collect This?

• First edition of one of the earliest Confederate officer memoirs
• 21 engraved maps and portraits
• Valuable to collectors of early Civil War military history

Item Number: # 29650