Joe Johnston: Letter to "Beloved" Lydia McLane Johnston, April 23, 1862

Many thanks to Addy Von DenToten for her field research on my behalf at the Library of Maryland History, Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore. She did it all -- looked up and requested pertinent files from the McLane-Fisher Family Papers, ca. 1800-1905 (MS 2403), and requested photocopies. Because of her efforts, I can finally begin to take a close look at these important historical documents -- specifically ones from the files labelled "Lydia McLane Johnston Incoming Correspondence, 1845-1869."

I cannot post a verbatim transcript without express permission, nor reproduce scanned copies of the letters here for the same reason, so for now, a few notes about the contents of a single letter from Joseph E. Johnston at Lee's Farm [now called Lee Hall Mansion, Newport News, Virginia] to "Beloved" Lydia on April 23, 1862, during the Peninsula Campaign.

"Lee's Farm" aka Lee's Hall Mansion, Johnston's HQ when he wrote the letter of April 23, 1862
(Wiki Commons)

This is a rich letter, full of possibility. 

Johnston makes reference to having been "bored" by the Reverend Dr. K. J. Stewart [spelled Stuart by JEJ]. He is dismissive of Stewart's role in the incident of February 9, 1862, that occurred in Alexandria, Virginia, at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, in which Stewart refused the traditional prayer for the US president [Abraham Lincoln], and was therefore detained by Union soldiers attending church services. Stewart apparently was paying a visit to Johnston's headquarters just before the letter was composed, and must have been allowed to pass through Union lines to do so. Johnston was not impressed.

The April 23 letter itself, Johnston notes, is to be delivered personally to Lydia (presumably in Richmond) by Colonel William C. Falkner, lately of the 2nd Mississippi Infantry. Falkner was a direct ancestor (great grandfather) and the namesake of novelist William Faulkner [JEJ spelled the family name in the modern way]. After effective combat service at First Manassas, he was subsequently voted out as regimental commander. As was fairly common at the time, volunteers elected their officers, something professional commanders thought virtually madness as a way to conduct war. Falkner went on to raise a partisan ranger unit back in Mississippi. He later wrote several books before being gunned down by a former "business associate" in 1889.

Joe Johnston, writing hurriedly (you can tell from his penmanship, which in calmer times is more graceful), covers the strategic situation and his feeling that the war will drag on longer than first anticipated. 

Johnston reviews why he joined the Confederacy -- because of Virginia, land of his birth, because of his "love of the soil," the land where his "fathers" are buried, and the need to thwart "invasion." He notes that it was exactly one year before that he and Lydia had left their happy home in Washington, D.C. (giving up his position as Quartermaster General, U.S.A.) to go with Virginia. If ever there's a clear statement as to why he joined up, this is it.

There's more, but that's plenty enough for now. As of this posting, for further communication, I can be reached by email at: efrance23@gmail.com

Thanks again to Addy Von DenToten!

(Images courtesy of Wiki Commons).