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#12 - Johnston's Death Site

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Quotes from Actual Battlefield Participants

Notes from the Field . . .

Throughout the day Johnston had been near the front lines, directing the assault. He moved into this area and began to marshal forces, including Maj. Gen. John C. Breckinridge’s Reserve Corps, for a major push against the stubborn Federals near the Peach Orchard. As one of the new brigades moved up to the firing line Johnston, still carrying the tin cup he had picked up in one of Prentiss’s camps, exhorted them: “Men of Missouri and Arkansas, the enemy is stubborn. I want you to show General Beauregard and General Bragg what you can do with your bayonets and tooth picks.” The latter was a reference to the famous Bowie Knife or “Arkansas Toothpick.”

One of Breckinridge’s regiments, the 45th Tennessee, became disorganized under heavy fire, fell back into a ravine about 400 yards south of here, and could not be induced to move forward again as a unit. Both Breckinridge, a former U.S. vice president, and Tennessee governor Isham G. Harris, who was serving as a volunteer aide to Johnston, tried unsuccessfully to move the regiment forward. Around 2:00 p.m., as other units began to advance as part of the big push Johnston had been orchestrating, Breckinridge rode up to Johnston in considerable excitement. “General Johnston,” he exclaimed, “I cannot get my men to make the charge.” “Then I will help you,” Johnston replied.

Riding over to the ravine where the 45th Tennessee was sheltering, Johnston rode along the front of the regiment’s line. Leaning over as he rode he reached out and tapped the men’s fixed bayonets with his tin cup. “These will do the work,” he said. “Men, they are stubborn; we must use the bayonet.” He reached the center of the regiment’s line, wheeled Fire-eater toward the enemy, and shouted, “I will lead you!” He urged the big thoroughbred up the slope of the ravine, over its lip, and out into Sarah Bell’s cotton field, just west of here.

The coordinated Confederate attack finally broke the Union left. It was about this time that what was left of Stuart’s brigade had to retreat from its position just east of here (out of site beyond the woods). With Stuart gone, the pressure on Hurlbut’s left flank became unbearable. Slowly, grudgingly, the Union line bent and bent until it curved back sharply to the rear just west of the Peach Orchard, leaving that landmark in Rebel hands. In theory the way to Pittsburg Landing was open to the Confederates, and they had leverage to pry loose the remaining troops in the Hornets’ Nest/Sunken Road position.

Johnston, who had led the charge most of the way to the Peach Orchard, was exuberant. Fire-eater was slightly wounded in two places. A bullet had grazed along the bottom of Johnston’s foot, cutting the sole of his boot. Laughing, he flapped the loose sole and joked to Gov. Harris, “They almost tripped me up that time.” He then dispatched Harris to carry orders to another part of the field, and for the next few minutes none of his staff was with him. When the governor rejoined Johnston near this place, he noticed that the general was “deadly pale” and reeling in the saddle as if about to lose consciousness. “General,” he asked anxiously, “are you wounded?”

“Yes,” Johnston replied, “and I fear seriously.” Harris and another staff officer steadied the general in the saddle and guided his horse back behind the crest of the knoll in the middle of the field to this somewhat more sheltered position. They helped him to dismount, laid him down, and sent for a surgeon. Even then, however, Johnston was losing consciousness, and before medical help could arrive, he was dead. During the grand charge on the Peach Orchard a stray bullet had struck Johnston behind the knee, lacerating the popliteal artery. Johnston may not have realized that he was wounded, and at least some of the blood—he probably lost about two quarts—may have flowed into his high boot. When Harris returned from his errand and found Johnston on the point of losing consciousness, there was still a chance to save the general’s life by prompt application of a tourniquet above the wound, but neither Harris nor the others nearby realized the nature of Johnston’s wounds or the remedy. The general died with a tourniquet in his pocket.

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