Yes He Was a General Too!: USA Brig. Gen. Andrew Johnson

[Battleline]

Brig. Gen. Andrew Johnson (b. 1808, d. 1875) One of the least-known facts about the 17th president of the United States is that he held the commission as brigadier general of volunteers during the Civil War. Andrew Johnson, who ascended to the presidency, April 15, 1865, after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, had been commissioned at that rank in March of 1862 after being named military governor of Tennessee. Johnson was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, Dec. 29, 1808. Growing up poor, Johnson was apprenticed to a tailor, but ran away. He found refuge in Greenville, Tennessee, where he married Eliza McCardle, the daughter of a shopkeeper. A popular story is that she taught him how to read and write while he sat on his table stitching pantaloons. His rough demeanor played well in the eastern Tennessee mountains, but would not help later when he was embroiled in political games in Washington, D.C., as the president. He quickly rose in local politics, serving on the town board of aldermen and then as mayor. In 18356, he was elected to the Tennessee legislature. He was a candidate for presidential elector in 1840 and a member of the state senate in 1841. In 1843, his neighbors sent him to Congress. In 1853, Johnson was elected Tennessee’s governor. He then earned election to the U.S. Senate in 1861. Politically, he followed the principles of Andrew Jackson. He was known to argue with those of his own party and felt slaves should not count toward population for representation in Congress. He also was against laws which banned slavery in new territories. A supporter of John C. Breckinridge for president, Johnson was firmly against secession. In 1861, Johnson was only one of two senators (Kentucky’s L.W. Powell was the other) from states which either joined the Confederacy or were considering it. Johnson left the senate in March of 1862 to serve as his state’s military governor and return the authority of the Federal government to the state. In 1864, Johnson was a compromise candidate for vice president by the Republicans (who ran as the Union Party that year). When Lincoln won the election, Johnson became the vice president. On Jan. 20, 1865, Johnson stumbled through the oath at the inauguration, partially due to illness (typhoid fever) and partially due to intoxication. Lincoln excused his slip. In April, Johnson was forced to take over for his slain boss. “Treason must be made infamous and traitors . . . impoverished,” Johnson said soon after Lincoln’s death. He later became more moderate in his dealings, following Lincoln’s example in trying to reconstruct the Union. This ended up putting him into conflict with the Radical Republicans, who felt he wasn’t being tough enough on the former Confederate states. Johnson vetoed much of the legislation put on his desk, though much of it received a congressional override. He suspended Secretary of War Edwin Stanton against the “Tenure of Office Act,” (which forbid the president from removing certain appointed officials without approval of the Senate). Johnson was brought up on charges by a Court of Impeachment in February of 1868. It was established that the only legal question involved the “Tenure of Office Act,” a statute later declared unconstitutional (58 years later). On May 7, 1868, the Senate voted 35-19 to impeach, but it was one vote less than the two-thirds required for conviction. Johnson finished out his term, continuing to fight for the rights of former Confederates. In 1872, he lost an election bid for Congress, but won a seat in the Senate. When he was seated March 5, 1875, he became the first former president to serve in the Senate. Johnson died July 31, 1875, while visiting a daughter near Elizabethton, Tennessee. He was buried in the Andrew Johnson National Cemetery in Greenville, Tennessee.

[Gil R.]

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