Appomattox Johnston advised President Davis that it was in his opinion wrong and useless to continue the conflict, and he was authorized to make terms with Sherman. The terms entered into between these generals, on the 18th of April, having been rejected by the United States government, another agreement was signed on the 26th of April, the new terms being similar to those of the surrender of Lee. After the close of the war Johnston engaged in civil pursuits. In 1874 he published a Narrative of Military Operations during the Civil War. In 1877 he was elected to represent the Richmond district of Virginia in Congress. In 1887 he was appointed by President Cleveland U.S. commissioner of railroads. Johnston was married in early life to Louisa (d. 1886), daughter of Louis M‘Lane. He died at Washington, D.C., on the 21st of March 1891, leaving no children.
It was not the good fortune of Johnston to acquire the prestige which so much assisted Lee and Jackson, nor indeed did he possess the power of enforcing his will on others in the same degree, but his methods were exact, his strategy calm and balanced, and, if he showed himself less daring than his comrades, he was unsurpassed in steadiness. The duel of Sherman and Johnston is almost as personal a contest between two great captains as were the campaigns of Turenne and Montecucculi. To Montecucculi, indeed, both in his military character and in the incidents of his career, Joseph Johnston bears a striking resemblance.
See Hughes, General Johnston, in “Great Commanders Series” (1893).
JOHNSTONE, a police burgh of Renfrewshire, Scotland, on
the Black Cart, 11 m. W. of Glasgow by the Glasgow & South-Western
railway. Pop. (1901), 10,503. The leading industries
include flax-spinning, cotton manufactures (with the introduction
of which in 1781 the prosperity of the town began), paper-making,
shoe-lace making, iron and brass foundries and engineering
works. There are also coal mines and oil works in the vicinity.
Elderslie, 1 m. E., is the reputed birthplace of Sir William
Wallace, but it is doubtful if “Wallace’s Yew,” though of
great age, and “Wallace’s Oak,” a fine old tree that perished
in a storm in 1856, and the small castellated building (traditionally
his house) which preceded the present mansion in the
west end of the village, existed in his day.
JOHNSTOWN, a city and the county-seat of Fulton county,
New York, U.S.A., on Cayadutta Creek, about 4 m. N. of the
Mohawk river and about 48 m. N.W. of Albany. Pop. (1890),
7768; (1900), 10,130 (1653 foreign-born); (1905, state census),
9765; (1910) 10,447. It is served by the Fonda, Johnstown &
Gloversville railroad, and by an electric line to Schenectady.
The city has a Federal building, a Y.M.C.A. building, a city
hall, and a Carnegie library (1902). The most interesting building
is Johnson Hall, a fine old baronial mansion, built by Sir William
Johnson in 1762 and his home until his death; his grave is just
outside the present St John’s episcopal church. Originally
the hall was flanked by two stone forts, one of which is still
standing. In 1907 the hall was bought by the state and was
placed in the custody of the Johnstown Historical Society,
which maintains a museum here. In the hall Johnson established
in 1766 a Masonic lodge, one of the oldest in the United
States. Other buildings of historical interest are the Drumm
House and the Fulton county court house, built by Sir William
Johnson in 1763 and 1772 respectively, and the gaol (1772), at first
used for all New York west of Schenectady county, and during
the War of Independence as a civil and a military prison. The
court house is said to be the oldest in the United States. Three
miles south of the city is the Butler House, built in 1742 by
Colonel John Butler (d. 1794), a prominent Tory leader during the
War of Independence. A free school, said to have been the first
in New York state, was established at Johnstown by Sir William
Johnson in 1764. The city is (after Gloversville, 3 m. distant)
the principal glove-making centre in the United States, the
product being valued at $2,581,274 in 1905 and being 14.6%
of the total value of this industry in the United States. The
manufacture of gloves in commercial quantities was introduced
into the United States and Johnstown in 1809 by Talmadge
Edwards, who was buried there in the colonial cemetery. The
value of the total factory product in 1905 was $4,543,272 (a
decrease of 11.3% since 1900). Johnstown was settled about
1760 by a colony of Scots brought to America by Sir William
Johnson, within whose extensive grant it was situated, and in
whose honour, in 1771, it was named. A number of important
conferences between the colonial authorities and the Iroquois
Indians were held here, and on the 28th of October 1781, during
the War of Independence, Colonel Marinus Willett (1740–1830)
defeated here a force of British and Indians, whose leader,
Walter Butler, a son of Colonel John Butler, and, with him, a
participant in the Wyoming massacres, was mortally wounded
near West Canada creek during the pursuit. Johnstown was
incorporated as a village in 1808, and was chartered as a city
in 1895.
JOHNSTOWN, a city of Cambria county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.,
at the confluence of the Conemaugh river and Stony creek, about
75 m. E. by S. of Pittsburg. Pop. (1890), 21,805; (1900), 35,936,
of whom 7318 were foreign-born, 2017 being Hungarians,
1663 Germans, and 923 Austrians; (1910 census) 55,482.
It is served by the Pennsylvania and the Baltimore & Ohio
railways. The city lies about 1170 ft. above the sea, on level
ground extending for some distance along the river, and nearly
enclosed by high and precipitous hills. Among the public
buildings and institutions are the Cambria free library (containing
about 14,000 volumes in 1908), the city hall, a fine high school,
and the Conemaugh Valley memorial hospital. Roxbury Park,
about 3 m. from the city, is reached by electric lines. Coal,
iron ore, fire clay and limestone abound in the vicinity, and the
city has large plants for the manufacture of iron and steel.
The total value of the factory product in 1905 was $28,891,806,
an increase of 35.2% since 1900. A settlement was established
here in 1791 by Joseph Jahns, in whose honour it was named,
and the place was soon laid out as a town, but it was not incorporated
as a city until 1889, the year of the disastrous Johnstown
flood. In 1852 a dam (700 ft. long and 100 ft. high), intended
to provide a storage reservoir for the Pennsylvania canal, had
been built across the South Fork, a branch of the Conemaugh
river, 12 m. above the city, but the Pennsylvania canal was
subsequently abandoned, and in 1888 the dam was bought and
repaired by the South Fork hunting and fishing club, and Conemaugh
lake was formed. On the 31st of May 1889, during a
heavy rainfall, the dam gave way and a mass of water 20 ft. or
more in height at its head swept over Johnstown at a speed of
about 20 m. an hour, almost completely destroying the city.
The Pennsylvania railroad bridge withstood the strain, and
against it the flood piled up a mass of wreckage many feet in
height and several acres in area. On or in this confused mass
many of the inhabitants were saved from drowning, only to be
burned alive when it caught fire. Seven other towns and
villages in the valley were also swept away, and the total loss
of lives was 2000 or more. A relief fund of nearly $3,000,000
was raised, and the city was quickly rebuilt.
JOHOR (Johore is the local official, but incorrect spelling), an independent Malayan state at the southern end of the peninsula, stretching from 2° 40′ S. to Cape Romania (Ramūnya), the most southerly point on the mainland of Asia, and including all the small islands adjacent to the coast which lie to the south of parallel 2° 40′ S. It is bounded N. by the protected native state of Pahang, N.W. by the Negri Sembilan and the territory of Malacca, S. by the strait which divides Singapore island from the mainland, E. by the China Sea, and W. by the Straits of Malacca. The province of Mūar was placed under the administration of Johor by the British government as a temporary measure in 1877, and was still a portion of the sultan’s dominions in 1910. The coast-line measures about 250 m. The greatest length from N.W. to S.E. is 165 m., the greatest breadth from E. to W. 100 m. The area is estimated at about 9000 sq. m. The principal rivers are the Mūar, the most important waterway in the south of the peninsula; the Johor, up which river the old capital of the state was situated; the Endau, which marks the boundary with Pahang; and the Bātu Pāhat and Sĕdĕli, of