THE CIVIL WARS OF GENERAL JOSEPH E JOHNSTON: Confederate States Army - Volume I: Virginia and Mississippi, 1861-1863

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Joseph Eggleston Johnston was one of the original five full Confederate generals. He graduated West Point in the same 1829 class as Robert E. Lee and served in the War with Mexico, the Seminole Wars in Florida, and in Texas and Kansas. By 1860 Johnston was widely looked upon as one of America's finest military officers. This first installment begins just before the American Civil War and ends on the eve of Johnston taking command of the Army of Tennessee in North Georgia.

Not a traditional military biography per se, but includes a lively and opinionated conversation about major campaigns and battles, strategic goals and accomplishments, and how these men and their decision-making and leadership abilities directly impacted the war effort. Personalities win and lose wars, and the military and political leaders who form the focal point of this study could not have been more different when it came to making the important and timely decisions necessary to wage the war effectively. Includes four maps and six images.

The discord between General Johnston and President Jefferson Davis (and others), which began early in the conflict and only worsened as the months passed, routinely prevented the cooperation and coordination the South needed on the battlefield if it was going to achieve its independence. The result was one failed campaign after another, all of which cumulatively doomed the Southern Confederacy.