could no longer support him, Johnston was given the command of the Army of Tennessee and commissioned to resist Sherman's advance through Georgia. This he did in slow and careful retreat, disputing every disputable point, inflicting greater losses than he received, and wonderfully preserving the discipline, courage, and energy of his army. The Government was not satisfied, however, and preferred to substitute Hood and his disastrous offensive. Early in 1865, when Lee became commander-in-chief, he restored Johnston, who conducted a skillful, if hopeless, campaign in the Carolinas, and finally surrendered to Sherman on favorable terms.
Unsurpassed in retreat and defense, a wide reader and thinker and a profound military student, Johnston was no offensive fighter, say his critics. Among Northern writers Cox, who admired him greatly, remarks: "His abilities are undoubted, and when once committed to an offensive campaign, he conducted it with vigor and skill. The bent of his mind, however, was plainly in favor of the course which he steadily urged—to await his adversary's advance and watch for errors which would give him a manifest opportunity to ruin him."1 And on the Southern side Alexander's summary is that "Johnston never fought but one aggressive battle, the battle of Seven Pines, which was phenomenally mismanaged.2
Other competent authorities are more enthusiastic. Longstreet speaks of Johnston as "the foremost soldier of the South,"3 and Pollard as "the greatest military
