Bushrod Rust Johnson

Bushrod Rust Johnson

Bushrod Rust Johnson (born October 7, 1817 in Morristown , Ohio , † September 12, 1880 in Brighton , Illinois ) was an officer in the US Army , professor and major general in the Confederate Army .

Born into a Quaker family, he chose a career in the military and was appointed to the Military Academy at West Point , New York in 1836 . After graduating in 1840 as the 23rd of his class, he took part as an infantry officer in the Second Seminole War and the Mexican-American War . He was brought to court in 1847 for the sale of contraband . By leaving the army, he anticipated a possible dishonorable discharge. Johnson taught philosophy and chemistry at the Western Military Institute in Georgetown, Kentucky and as a pioneer professor at the University of Nashville. In 1852 he married Mary E. Hatch who had one son.

With the start of the Civil War, Johnson was colonel in the engineering corps of the militia of Tennessee . He was instrumental in building the forts Henry and Donelson. In January 1862 he was promoted to brigadier general. After the surrender of Fort Donelson , he was captured but managed to escape. He was badly wounded in the Battle of Shiloh , but was able to take part in the battles at Perryville and the Stones River again. He led a division in the Battle of Chickamauga . In May 1864 he was promoted to major general and took part in the siege of Petersburg . His division was crushed on April 6, 1865 during the fighting at Sailor's Creek , but he himself escaped.

After the war he was Chancellor of the University of Nashville from 1870 until shortly before his death.

literature

• Cummings, Charles M .: Yankee Quaker, Confederate General: The Curious Career of Bushrod Rust Johnson. Cranbury, New Jersey 1971.

Web links

• Bushrod Rust Johnson in the database of Find a Grave (English) - burial place until 1975

• Bushrod Rust Johnson in the database of Find a Grave (English) - burial place since 1975