Boyhood Home of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston

Born in Prince Edward Co. on 3 Feb. 1807, Joseph Eggleston Johnston, the son of Judge Peter Johnston, moved a mile north of here with his family in 1811. He attended Abingdon Male Academy and graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1829 with fellow Virginian Robert E. Lee. During the Civil War, he was the only officer to command both of the major Confederate armies, the Army of the Potomac (later Army of Northern Virginia) in 1861-62 and the Army of Tennessee in 1863-65; he surrendered at present-day Durham, N.C., on 26 Apr. 1865. He died on 21 March 1891 in Washington, D.C., and is buried in Green Mount Cemetery, Baltimore, Md.