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In 1829, he married Henrietta Preston, sister of Kentucky politician and future Civil War general [[William Preston (Kentucky soldier)|William Preston]]. They had one son, [[William Preston Johnston]], who became a colonel in the Confederate States Army.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.csawardept.com/history/Cabinet/WPJohnston/index.html| title = W.P. Johnston biography.| access-date = November 28, 2007| archive-date = December 15, 2007| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071215015347/http://www.csawardept.com/history/Cabinet/WPJohnston/index.html| url-status = dead}}</ref> The senior Johnston resigned his commission in 1834 to care for his dying wife in Kentucky, who succumbed two years later to [[tuberculosis]].<ref name=Woodworth46/>
 
After serving as Secretary of War for the Republic of Texas fromin 1838 to 1840-40, Johnston resigned and returnedwent back to Kentucky.<ref name=EB1911/> In 1843, he married Eliza Griffin, his late wife's first cousin. The couple moved to Texas, where they settled on a large [[Plantations in the American South|plantation]] in [[Brazoria County, Texas|Brazoria County]]. Johnston named the property "China Grove". Here they raised Johnston's two children from his first marriage and the first three children born to Eliza and him. A sixth child was born later when the family lived in [[Los Angeles]], where they had permanently settled.
 
==Texian Army==
In 1836, JohnstonJohnson moved to Texas. in 1836 and<ref name=EB1911/> He enlisted as a [[Private (rank)|private]] in the Texian Army<ref name=EB1911/> during the [[Texas War of Independence]] from the Republic of Mexico. He was named [[Adjutant General of Texas|Adjutant General]] as a [[Colonel (United States)|colonel]] in the Republic of Texas Army on August 5, 1836. On January 31, 1837, he became senior [[brigadier general]] in command of the Texas Army.
 
On February 5, 1837, he fought in a duel with Texas Brig. Gen. [[Felix Huston]], who was angered and offended by Johnston's promotion. Johnston was shot through the hip and severely wounded, requiring him to relinquish his post during his recovery.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.texasescapes.com/ClayCoppedge/Dueling.htm| title = Dueling, and The Huston-Johnston Duel in Feb. 5, 1837.}}</ref>
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==Slavery==
Johnston was a proponentslave of slaveryowner and ana strong enslaversupporter of slavery. InBy 1846, he enslavedowned afour family of fourslaves in Texas.<ref>Roland, p. 141.</ref> In 1855, having discovered that an enslaveda personslave was stealing from the armyArmy payroll, Johnston refused to have him physically punished and instead sold him for $1,000 to recoup the losses. Johnston explained that "whipping will not restore what is lost and it will not benefit the [culprit], whom a lifetime of kind treatment has failed to make honest."<ref>Roland, p. 166.</ref> In 1856, he called [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionism]] "fanatical, idolatrous, negro worshipping" in a letter to his son, fearing that the abolitionists would incite a servileslave insurrectionrevolt in the southernSouthern states.<ref>Roland, p. 182.</ref> Upon moving to California, Johnston sold one enslaved personslave to his son and freed another, Randolph or "Ran", who agreed to accompany the family on the condition of a $12/month contract for five more years of servitude. Ran accompanied Johnston throughout the American Civil War until the latter's death. Johnston's wife, Eliza, celebrated the lackabsence of black peopleblacks in California, writing, "where the darky is in any numbers it should be as slaves."<ref>Roland, p. 242.</ref>
 
==American Civil War==
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At the outbreak of the [[American Civil War]], Johnston was the commander of the U.S. Army [[Department of the Pacific]]<ref name=EB1911/> in [[California and the Civil War|California]]. Like many regular army officers from the [[Southern United States]], he opposed secession. Nevertheless, Johnston resigned his commission soon after he heard of the Confederate states' declarations of secession. The War Department accepted it on May 6, 1861, effective May 3.<ref>Johnston, p. 273.</ref> On April 28, he moved to Los Angeles, the home of his wife's brother [[John Strother Griffin|John Griffin]]. Considering staying in California with his wife and five children, Johnston remained there until May. A sixth child was born in the family home in Los Angeles. His eldest son, Capt. Albert S. Johnston, Jr. was later killed in an [[SS Ada Hancock|accidental explosion on a steamer ship]] while on liberty in Los Angeles in 1863.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=LASTAR18630502.2.6&srpos=4&e=-------en--20-LASTAR-1--txt-txIN--------1| title = "Horrible Catastrophe!"}} ''Los Angeles Star.'' Vol. XII, No. 52, 2 May 1863.</ref>
 
Soon, Johnston enlisted in the [[Los Angeles Mounted Rifles]] as a private, leaving [[Warner's Ranch]] on May 27.<ref>Johnston, pp. 185.</ref> He participated in their trek across the southwesternSouthwestern deserts to Texas, crossing the [[Colorado River]] into the [[Confederate Territory of Arizona]] on July 4, 1861. His escort was commanded by [[Alonzo Ridley]], Undersheriff of Los Angeles, who remained at Johnston's side until he was killed.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=LASTAR18631212.2.10&srpos=4&e=-------en--20-LASTAR-1-byDA-txt-txIN-++johnston+shiloh-------1| title = "Californians in the Confederate Service,"}} ''Los Angeles Star,'' Vol. XIII, No. 32, 12 December 1863.</ref>
 
Early in the Civil War, Confederate President [[Jefferson Davis]] decided that the Confederacy would attempt to hold as much territory as possible, distributing military forces around its borders and coasts.<ref>Woodworth, pp. 18–19.</ref> In the summer of 1861, Davis appointed several generals to defend Confederate lines from the Mississippi River east to the Allegheny Mountains.<ref>Woodworth, pp. 17–33.</ref>Aged 58 when the war began, Johnson was old by Army standards. He came east to offer his service for the Confederacy without having been promised anything, merely hoping for an assignment.
 
The most sensitive, and in many ways, the most crucial areas, along the Mississippi River and in western Tennessee along the [[Tennessee River|Tennessee]] and the [[Cumberland River|Cumberland]] rivers<ref>Woodworth, pp. 20–22</ref> were placed under the command of [[Major General (CSA)|Maj. Gen.]] [[Leonidas Polk]] and [[Brigadier General (CSA)|Brig. Gen.]] [[Gideon J. Pillow]]. The latter had initially been in command in Tennessee as that State's top general.<ref>Woodworth, pp. 30–32.</ref> Their impolitic occupation of [[Columbus, Kentucky]], on September 3, 1861, two days before Johnston arrived in the Confederacy's capital of [[Richmond in the American Civil War|Richmond, Virginia]], after his cross-country journey, drove Kentucky from its stated neutrality.<ref>Woodworth, pp. 35, 45.</ref><ref>Long, p. 114.</ref> The majority of Kentuckians allied with the U.S. camp.<ref>Woodworth, pp. 39, 50.</ref> Polk and Pillow's action gave U.S. [[Brigadier general (United States)|Brig. Gen.]] [[Ulysses S. Grant]] an excuse to take control of the strategically located town of [[Paducah, Kentucky]], without raising the ire of most Kentuckians and the pro-U.S. majority in the State legislature.<ref>Woodworth, p. 39.</ref><ref>Long, p. 115.</ref>
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===Battle of Mill Springs===
[[East Tennessee]] (a heavily [[Southern Unionist|pro-U.S. region of the southern U.S.]] during the Civil War) was occupied for the Confederacy by two unimpressive brigadier generals appointed by Jefferson Davis: [[Felix Zollicoffer]], a brave but untrained and inexperienced officer, and soon-to-be Maj. Gen. [[George B. Crittenden]], a former U.S. Army officer with apparent alcohol problems.<ref>Woodworth, p. 61</ref> While Crittenden was away in Richmond, Zollicoffer moved his forces to the north bank of the upper Cumberland River near Mill Springs (now [[Nancy, Kentucky]]), putting the river to his back and his forces into a trap.<ref>Woodworth, p. 65.</ref><ref>Long, pp. 161–162.</ref> Zollicoffer decided it was impossible to obey orders to return to the other side of the river because of the scarcity of transport and proximity of U.S. troops.<ref name="Woodworth, p. 66">Woodworth, p. 66.</ref> When U.S. Brig. Gen. [[George H. Thomas]] moved against the Confederates, Crittenden decided to attack one of the two parts of Thomas's command at Logan's Cross Roads near Mill Springs before the U.S. forces could unite.<ref name="Woodworth, p. 66"/> At the [[Battle of Mill Springs]] on January 19, 1862, the ill-prepared Confederates, after a night march in the rain, attacked the U.S. soldiers with some initial success.<ref>Woodworth, pp. 66–67.</ref> As the battle progressed, Zollicoffer was killed, Crittenden could not lead the Confederate force (he may have been intoxicated), and the Confederates were turned back and routed by a U.S. bayonet charge, suffering 533 casualties from their force of 4,000 while Crittenden's conduct in the battle was so inept that subordinates accused him of being drunk.<ref>Woodworth, p. 67.</ref><ref>Long, p. 162.</ref> The Confederate troops who escaped were assigned to other units as General Crittenden faced an investigation of his conduct.<ref>Woodworth, p. 69.</ref>
 
After the Confederate defeat at Mill Springs, Davis sent Johnston a brigade and a few other scattered reinforcements. He also assigned him Gen. [[P. G. T. Beauregard]], who was supposed to attract recruits because of his victories early in the war and act as a competent subordinate for Johnston.<ref>Woodworth, pp. 71–72.</ref> The brigade was led by Brig. Gen. [[John B. Floyd]], considered incompetent. He took command at [[Fort Donelson]] as the senior general present just before U.S. Brig. Gen. [[Ulysses S. Grant]] attacked the fort.<ref>Woodworth, pp. 80, 84.</ref> Historians believe the assignment of Beauregard to the west stimulated U.S. commanders to attack the forts before Beauregard could make a difference in the theater. U.S. Army officers heard that he was bringing 15 regiments with him, but this was an exaggeration of his forces.<ref name="Woodworth7278">Woodworth, pp. 72, 78.</ref>
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===Concentration at Corinth===
Johnston hadwas variousin remaininga militaryperilous unitssituation scatteredafter throughoutthe hisfall territoryof Ft. Donelson and retreatingHenry; with barely 17,000 men to theface an overwhelming concentration of Union force, he hastily fled south tointo Mississippi by way of Nashville and avoidthen beinginto cutnorthern offAlabama.<ref>Woodworth, pp. 85–86.</ref> Johnston himself retreated with the force under his personal command, the [[Army of Central Kentucky]], from the vicinity of Nashville.<ref name="Woodworth86"/> With Beauregard's help,<ref name="McPherson, p. 406">McPherson, p. 406.</ref> Johnston decided to concentrate forces with those formerly under Polk and now already under Beauregard's command at the strategically located railroad crossroads of [[Corinth, Mississippi]], which he reached by a circuitous route.<ref>Woodworth, pp. 86–88.</ref> Johnston kept the U.S. forces, now under the overall command of the ponderous Maj. Gen. [[Henry Halleck]], confused and hesitant to move, allowing Johnston to reach his objective undetected.<ref>Woodworth, p. 88.</ref> ThisHe delayscraped allowedtogether Jeffersonreinforcements Davisfrom finallyLouisiana, toas sendwell reinforcementsas frompart theof garrisonsPolk's offorce coastalat citiesIsland andNo. another10, highlyand rated10,000 butadditional pricklytroops general,under [[Braxton Bragg]], tobrought helpup organizefrom the western forcesMobile.<ref>Woodworth, pp. 90, 94.</ref> Bragg at least calmed the nerves of Beauregard and Polk, who had become agitated by their apparent dire situation in the face of numerically superior forces, before Johnston's arrival on March 24, 1862.<ref name="Woodworth95">Woodworth, p. 95.</ref><ref>Long, p. 188.</ref>
 
Johnston's army of 17,000 men gave the Confederates a combined force of about 40,000 to 44,669 men at Corinth.<ref name="Woodworth95"/><ref name="McPherson, p. 406"/><ref>Eicher, ''The Longest Night'', p. 223.</ref> On March 29, 1862, Johnston officially took command of this combined force, which continued to use the Army of the Mississippi name under which Beauregard had organized it on March 5.<ref>Long, 190.</ref><ref>Eicher, ''Civil War High Commands'' p. 887 and Eicher, ''The Longest Night'' p. 219 are nearly alone in referring to this army as the Army of Mississippi. Muir, p. 85, in discussing the first "Army of Mississippi", includes this army as one of three in the article with that title but states: "Historians have pointed out that the Army of Mississippi is frequently mentioned in the Official Records as the Army of the Mississippi." Contemporaries, including Johnston and Beauregard, and modern historians call this Confederate army the Army of the Mississippi. {{cite web| url = http://ebooks.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=moawar;cc=moawar;q1=Army%20of%20the%20Mississippi;rgn=full%20text;idno=waro0010;didno=waro0010;view=image;seq=0114| title = 'The war of the rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies.'}}, Volume X, Part 1, index, pp. 96–99; 385 (Beauregard's report on the Battle of Shiloh, April 11, 1862, from Headquarters, Army of the Mississippi) and Part 2, p. 297 (Beauregard's announcement on taking command of Army of the Mississippi); p. 370 (Johnston General Orders of March 29, 1862, assuming command and announcing the army would retain the name Army of the Mississippi); pp. 405–409. Beauregard, p. 579. Boritt, p. 53. Connelly, ''Army of the Heartland: The Army of Tennessee, 1861–1862''. p. 151. ("The Army retained Beauregard's chosen name...") Connelly, ''Civil War Tennessee: Battles And Leaders''. p. 35. Cunningham, pp. 98, 122, 397. Engle, p. 123. Hattaway, p. 163. Hess, pp. 47, 49, 112 ("...Braxton Bragg's renamed Army of Tennessee (formerly the Army of the Mississippi)..."). Isbell, p. 102. McDonough, pp. 60, 66, 78. Kennedy, p. 48. Noe, p. 19. Williams, p. 122.</ref>
 
Johnston's plannedonly tohope defeatwas theto U.S.crush forces piecemealGrant before the U.S. soldiers in KentuckyBuell and Tennessee under Grant with 40,000 men at nearby [[Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee]], and the now Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell, on his way from Nashville with 35,000 men,others could unite againstreinforce him.<ref name="Woodworth95"/> JohnstonHe started his army in motion on April 3, 1862, intent on surprising Grant's force as soon as the next day. StillIt was not an easy undertaking; his army had been hastily thrown together, theytwo-thirds movedof slowlythe duesoldiers tohad inexperiencenever fired a shot in battle, badand roadsdrill, discipline, and inadequate staff planningwork were so poor that the different divisions kept stumbling into each other on the march.<ref>Woodworth, pp. 96–97.</ref><ref>Long, p. 192</ref> Due to the delays, as well as several contacts with the enemy, Johnston's second in command, [[P. G. T. Beauregard]], felt thethat elementthis ofoffensive surprisewas hada been lostmistake and recommendedcould callingnot offpossibly thesucceed, attack.but JohnstonJohnson proceeded as planned, stating,replied "I would fight them if they were a million." as he drove his army on to Pittsburg Landing.<ref>McWhiney; Jamieson, p. 162.</ref> His army was finally in position within a mile or two of Grant's force, undetected, by the evening of April 5, 1862.<ref>Woodworth, p. 97.</ref><ref>Long, pp. 193–194.</ref><ref>Weigley, p. 113.</ref><ref>McPherson, pp. 406–407.</ref><ref>Johnston did not achieve total surprise as some U.S. pickets were alerted to the Confederate presence and provided warning to some U.S. units before the attack began.</ref>
 
===Battle of Shiloh and death===
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