Joseph E. Johnston Biography

HARPER'S WEEKLY

[OCTOBER 5, 1861.

636

THE REBEL GENERAL JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON.

PICKING HOPS.

ON the hills of old Otsego,

By her brightly gleaming lake, Where the sound of horn and hunter

Sylvan echoes love to wake,

Where the wreaths of twining verdure

Clamber to the saplings' tops,

I sat beside sweet Minnie Wilder,

In the great field picking hops.  

Then the clusters green and golden Binding in her sunny hair,

Half afraid, yet very earnest,

Looking in her face so fair;

Speaking low, while Squire Von Lager
Talked of past and coming crops,

Said I, "Minnie, should a soldier Stay at home here picking hops?

"While the country, torn asunder,

Calls for men like me to fight, And the voice of patriots pleading

Asks for hands to guard the right ;
While from hearts of heroes slaughtered

Still the life-blood slowly drops, Can I—shall I stay beside you,

Minnie darling, picking hops?"

Very pale the cheek was growing,

And the hand I held was cold;
But the eye was bright and glowing.

While my troubled thought was told; Yet her voice was clear and steady,

Without sighs, or tears, or stops, When she answered, speaking quickly,

" "Tis women's work, this picking hops.

"Men should he where duty calls them. 

Women stay at home and pray For the gallant absent soldier,

Proud to know he would not stay." "Bravely- spoken, darling Minnie

Then I kissed her golden locks, Breathed anew a soldiers promise,

As we sat there picking hops.

Now I go away to-morrow,

And I'll dare to do or die,

Win a leader's straps and sword, love,

Or 'mid fallen heroes lie.

Then when all of earth is fading,

And the fluttering life-pulse stops, Still 'mid thoughts of home and heaven,

I'll remember picking hops.

RICHFIELD SPRINGS.   E. B.

THE REBEL GENERAL JOSEPH
E. JOHNSTON.

WE published in our last number a portrait of the Rebel General ALBERT S. JOHNSTON, who commands the rebel forces on the Mississippi: we now give the other JOHNSTON, JOSEPH E., who, with Beauregard, commands the rebel army on the Potomac.

JOSEPH EGGLESTON JOHNSTON was born in Virginia about the year 1801, and is, consequently, some fifty-seven years of age at present. After the usual school education, young Johnston was adopted by the United States, and was brought up in their Military Academy at West Point, at their cost, and under their flag. On leaving West Point he was appointed to the Fourth Artillery, and served in that capacity till 1836, when he be-came First Lieutenant and Assistant Commissary

of Subsistence—a very desirable berth. In 1838 he was appointed First Lieutenant of Topographical Engineers, and served in that capacity through the Florida War, obtaining for his services the brevet of Captain. In 1846 he became full Captain, and served first with the Engineers, and next with a regiment of Voltigeurs, throughout the Mexican War, receiving two brevets for distinguished conduct. At the close of the war he was retained in the Topographical Engineers, and enjoyed a life of agreeable ease in the Government service, until last year, when he was placed at the head of the Quarter-master's department, with the rank of Brigadier-General. The appointment was made in June, 1860, when General Scott foresaw the trouble looming in the future: it is to be presumed that, in placing General Johnston in the responsible position of Quarter-master-General, he placed implicit reliance upon his loyalty. How that faith

was requited may be inferred from the fact that, early in 1861, Joseph E. Johnston forswore his allegiance, deserted his flag, and made war against his country at the head of the Virginia rebels. General Johnston is second in command in Virginia, with the rank of full General.

THE WAR IN WESTERN VIRGINIA.

ONE of our artists has illustrated the following incident of the war in Western Virginia, described in the letter of a correspondent who writes from mouth of Twenty Mile Creek, August 29:

On the 24th, Companies B and H of the Ohio 12th Regiment, under command of Major Hines, started up New River, for Hawk's Nest, which we reached about three o'clock. Hawk's Nest is a rocky cliff, 1000 feet from the water's edge in New River. Here we took supper end cooked one day's rations, put them into our haversacks, and started up Gauley Mountain. We had to ascend single file, sometimes crawling and sometimes rolling. About ten o'clock we reached the Back Bone, or top of Gauley Mountain, where we slept soundly. We got up at four walked a mile, took breakfast, waited an hour for the fog to get off, marched four miles and took dinner.

THE NEW HAMPSHIRE SHARPSHOOTERS.

We publish on page 625 several illustrations of the New HAMPSHIRE COMPANY of BERDAN'S SHARP-SHOOTERS REGIMENT, including a portrait of Captain Jones. The Tribune said of this Company:

These New Hampshire marksmen are all men of excellent moral character, more than ordinary intelligence and of good social position. Quite one-third are farmers, the remainder being composed of mechanics and artisans who earn their $2 a day the year round. They are led by Captain A. B. Jones, a stalwart, handsome young Imo, who was offered the commission by the Governor on his graduation-day at college, and who sprang with alacrity from the study of Euclid and Herodotus to that of Hardee and Scott.

He is a wonderful rifle-shot himself, having made a ten shot string of seven inches front a rest in a recent public trial of the men. This almost equals the marvelous exploit of Colonel BERRDAN himself at the Weehawken exhibition, and is actually better than the champion-string made in '48 in Kentucky. Let the Colonel look to his laurels! The next best shot in the Company one Brown, from Bow, New Hampshire, whose string measured fifteen inches; but the average of the whole hundred men is under thirty inches. Captain Jones, in recruiting the New Hampshire Company, advertised for candidates to come to headquarters at Concord, bringing with them satisfactory certificates of good character and habits as their second qualification for admission. The result was that over 250 applications were made, nearly all of them by men who could "pass the string test." So that the 100 taken being deducted, there is material for another company of riflemen from the Old Granite State. New Hampshire has done well in this war in a good ninny ways, but he has nothing to be prouder of than the 100 whom she has sent to operate on the wings of an army under young Captain Jones. If they don't give a good account of themselves, we shall hereafter have no faith in strong arms, steady nerves, clear sight, or 40-pound rifles.

THE ASCENT OF GAULEY MOUNTAIN, IN WESTERN VIRGINIA, BY THE TWELFTH OHIO REGIMENT