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(February 2, 1803 -April 6, 1862) Kentucky native Albert Sidney Johnston graduated from the U. S. Military Academy at West Point in 1826. He was assigned to posts in New York and Missouri, and served in the Black Hawk War in 1832. He resigned his commission in 1834 to return to Kentucky to care for his dying wife. Johnston came to Texas in July 1836 and enlisted in the Republic army. A month later he was appointed adjutant general, and in January 1837 became senior brigadier general in command of the army. He was appointed secretary of war by President Mirabeau B. Lamar in December 1838. In 1840 Johnston returned to Kentucky, where he married Eliza Griffin in 1843. They settled at China Grove, Johnston's large plantation at this site, and continued to live here until 1849. During the Mexican war Johnston commanded a company of Texas volunteers. Later, as a colonel in the U. S. Army, he served on the Texas frontier and in the West. At the outbreak of the Civil War he resigned and was appointed a Confederate general by President Jefferson Davis. Johnston was killed at the Battle of Shiloh in 1862 and was buried in New Orleans. In 1867 he was reinterred in the State Cemetery in Austin. (1989) |
