Joseph Eggleston Johnston (Congressional Biographical Directory)

JOHNSTON, Joseph Eggleston,  (brother of Charles Clement Johnston and uncle of John Warfield Johnston), a Representative from Virginia; born in Longwood, Prince Edward County, Va., February 3, 1807; moved with his parents to Panicello, near Abingdon, Va., in 1811; attended the Abingdon Academy; was graduated from the United States Military Academy, West Point, N.Y., in 1829; pursued a career in the Army and was promoted through the ranks to brigadier general and quartermaster general; resigned April 22, 1861, to enter the Confederate service; during the Civil War was appointed major general of the Virginia State forces on April 26, 1861; commissioned brigadier general, Confederate States Army, May 14, 1861, and general on August 31, 1861, in which capacity he served until April 26, 1865, when the terms of surrender of his army were agreed upon; settled in Savannah, Ga.; was president of a railroad company in Arkansas; and engaged in the general insurance business in 1868 and 1869; returned to Virginia and settled in Richmond in 1877 and became president of an express company; elected as a Democrat to the Forty-sixth Congress (March 4, 1879-March 3, 1881); was not a candidate for renomination in 1880; was appointed Commissioner of Railroads by President Grover Cleveland in 1887 and served until 1891; died in Washington, D.C., March 21, 1891; interment in Greenmount Cemetery, Baltimore, Md.