so Johnston thought, was Johnston's ill luck personified. There are legends of quarrel and conflict even in early days at West Point, laying the foundation of lifelong hostility; but those who knew Johnston best discredit these. At any rate, the two were unfriendly from the beginning of the war, and certainly nothing could be more damaging for a general than to have the head of his Government prejudiced against him. It was for this reason, in Johnston's opinion, that commands were given him when it was too late to accomplish anything and taken away when he was on the brink of achieving something great. It was for this reason that necessary support was denied and necessary supplies given grudgingly, for this reason that his powers were curtailed, his plans criticized, his intentions mistrusted. In the list of Destiny's unkindnesses, as summed up by one of the general's admirers, the ill will and ill treatment of Davis and Davis's favorites figure so prominently that other accidental elements seem of minor account. "If there is such a thing as ill fortune, he had more than his share of it. He never had the chance that Lee had. If he had not been wounded at Seven Pines, a great victory would have crowned his arms with substantial results. If he had not been betrayed at Jackson, he would have joined with Pemberton and captured Grant's army. If he had not been removed at Atlanta, he would almost certainly have defeated Sherman."18
When I survey this portentous concatenation of ifs, I
