Joe Johnston and Jefferson Davis

[hughes]

Can anyone direct me to a good source(s) shedding some illumination on the disputes between those gentlemen? I understand that Johnston believed that he should outrank. Cooper, AS Johnston, and Lee, so what is known abut why Davis put him fourth in seniority in the first place?

thanks

[The General]

Hughes,

There's a good bit on this issue in Lee's Lieutenants, and I believe that Craig Symonds' biogrqphy or Johnston also addresses the issue.

Eric
_________________
"If you want to have some fun, jine the cav'ry!"

[hughes]

Thanks. Ironically, a local library was weeding a while ago and there, for the taking, was the whole set of Lee's Lieutenants. I will get to Symonds in the near future.

[Samhood]

Gents:

Sam Hood here.

Although it doesn't have anything to do with rank, there is a remarkable 8 page letter that Davis wrote to Sen. James Phelan of Mississippi on Feb 18, 1865 that gives, in remarkable detail, Davis's beefs against Joe Johnston, from the beginning of the war through Atlanta. I have heard that the letter was actually an outline of charges that Davis was going to press against Johnston, but the collapse of the CS government kept it from happening. Although Johnston scholars/supporters might want to refute some or all of Davis's assertions, on the surface Davis makes a very compelling argument.

The letter is in the OR, Series 1, Vol. 47 (Part II) Pages 1304-1311

It can be read at the below longgggggg link.

http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/pageviewer?root=%2Fmoa%2Fwaro%2Fwaro0099%2F&tif=01306.TIF&cite=http%3A%2F%2Fcdl.library.cornell.edu%2Fcgi-bin%2Fmoa%2Fmoa-cgi%3Fnotisid%3DANU4519-0099&coll=moa&frames=1&view=50

[grognard]

Davis claimed that Johnson held a staff position, not a field position, so Johnson's rank was appropriate. Of course Davis really wanted his friend Sidney Johnson to rank above everyone in field command, hence the hairsplitting. Remember, Sidney outranked every other general including Lee except Adjutant General Samuel Cooper