[Jane Mary Wood Johnston Michel (aka Mitchell) [at Washington City for Robert Morton Hughes at Norfolk, Virginia, circa 1891.] Box 3, folder 9, Robert Morton Hughes Papers, Special Collections and University Archives, Patricia W. and J. Douglas Perry Library, Old Dominion University Libraries, Norfolk, VA 23529. This is my rough, annotated transcription from a copy graciously provided by William Myers. Extra paragraph breaks added for emphasis and easier reading.]
[Re: Joseph Eggleston Johnston.]
There is not much to tell about his education. It was begun, like that of the other sons, under the care of my mother, who taught all her sons until they finished the Latin grammar, when she could go no further, & they were sent to school.
Joseph had no advantages beyond the Academy in Abingdon (a good classical school) & the instruction derived from my father, who was a very fine scholar, and the elder sons.
He did not love to learn, he said yet he was always a good student.
Some months before Joseph went to West Point, he was attacked by some disease of the eyes. It was treated so injudiciously as to result in chronic inflammation which lasted all the time he was at W. P., & prevented any use of his eyes in reading at night. To make up for this, he rose early & studied during the time allotted for meals -- took only one meal a day.
There is not much to tell about his education. It was begun, like that of the other sons, under the care of my mother, who taught all her sons until they finished the Latin grammar, when she could go no further, & they were sent to school.
Joseph had no advantages beyond the Academy in Abingdon (a good classical school) & the instruction derived from my father, who was a very fine scholar, and the elder sons.
He did not love to learn, he said yet he was always a good student.
Some months before Joseph went to West Point, he was attacked by some disease of the eyes. It was treated so injudiciously as to result in chronic inflammation which lasted all the time he was at W. P., & prevented any use of his eyes in reading at night. To make up for this, he rose early & studied during the time allotted for meals -- took only one meal a day.
[Compare with the final version from Robert M. Hughes, General Johnston (Great Commanders), New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1893, pages 13-14, 16]:
His education was begun by his parents, both of whom were amply competent to give it, and carried on by them until he became old enough to enter the Academy at Abingdon, which was a fair classical school. He was a good student, and made the most of his opportunities. He retained through life a taste for the classics, as is evidenced by the large number of works of that character in his library. Homer was his special favorite.
Increase of years only strengthened his determination to be a soldier, and he adhered to it with a constancy which showed it to be the natural bent of his mind and not a mere boyish fancy. He burned to emulate his father's revolutionary record and the deeds of his neighbors and relatives of the King's Mountain campaign. His father did not discourage this predilection, but, on the contrary, presented him, though he was next to the youngest son, with his revolutionary sword. Though he owned this sword from his youth, he did not wear it during his earlier military life, but drew it for the first time in defense of his native State at the out break of the civil war.
In 1825, at the age of eighteen, he secured, through the influence of James Barbour, United States Senator from Virginia and Secretary of War under President John Q. Adams, an appointment to the Military Academy as a cadet, thus obtaining an entrance into the field of his cherished ambition. . .
He made the most of his opportunities, and was unremitting in his studies. But during his cadetship a very serious obstacle supervened in an affection of the eyes, which totally debarred him from using them at night, and probably made his graduation mark lower than it would otherwise have been. He completed his course in 1829, being number thirteen in a class of forty-six [the class had been much larger before attrition set in].
Increase of years only strengthened his determination to be a soldier, and he adhered to it with a constancy which showed it to be the natural bent of his mind and not a mere boyish fancy. He burned to emulate his father's revolutionary record and the deeds of his neighbors and relatives of the King's Mountain campaign. His father did not discourage this predilection, but, on the contrary, presented him, though he was next to the youngest son, with his revolutionary sword. Though he owned this sword from his youth, he did not wear it during his earlier military life, but drew it for the first time in defense of his native State at the out break of the civil war.
In 1825, at the age of eighteen, he secured, through the influence of James Barbour, United States Senator from Virginia and Secretary of War under President John Q. Adams, an appointment to the Military Academy as a cadet, thus obtaining an entrance into the field of his cherished ambition. . .
He made the most of his opportunities, and was unremitting in his studies. But during his cadetship a very serious obstacle supervened in an affection of the eyes, which totally debarred him from using them at night, and probably made his graduation mark lower than it would otherwise have been. He completed his course in 1829, being number thirteen in a class of forty-six [the class had been much larger before attrition set in].
[Robert Morton Hughes (1855-1940).
Jane Mary Wood Johnston Mitchell/Michel (1811-1892).
Joseph Eggleston Johnston (1807-1891).
My mother = Mary Valentine Wood Johnston (1769-1825).
My father = Peter Johnston, Jr. (1763-1831).]
[Many thanks to Sue Davis, William Myers, Mary Davy and Sally Young for their ongoing research collaboration; in this case, specifically to William for providing a scanned copy of the original document.]
No comments:
Post a Comment
Commentaires