Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 2.djvu/195

Rh at the hands of his superiors. His highest ambition was that his loved State should be properly represented in the great struggle for liberty, honor and home rule. No inducement that would separate him from this great purpose was for a moment considered. As a Marylander he entered the army of the Confederacy associated with Maryland troops. Their fame was his fame; the honor of their record was his honor; and the perpetuation of the story of their privations and the glories of their triumphs was to him the ever-prevailing object of his efforts. To them he gave his loving care, and for them he made the sacrifices of the four years' war. Thus it can be readily understood why, then and since, Bradley T. Johnson has been recognized as the typical Marylander in the Confederate army, and the love and devotion so freely bestowed on the men of the Maryland line have in return followed him to this day, and make glad his declining years.

He was without the great advantages of military education, his early efforts being given to that more prosaic profession, the law. In this he attained a degree of success and was becoming prominently known when the disruption of the Democratic party occurred and the fatal struggle of 1860 was precipitated. When the dire alternative was presented of taking sides against conviction and kindred, or against the Federal government, and the crisis was accentuated by the passage of troops through Baltimore, Johnson, in command of a company of Frederick volunteers, was among the first to unhesitatingly tender his services to defend the city and State. When futility of opposition by the State to the Federal power became apparent he moved his company to Point of Rocks, and declining a commission as lieutenant-colonel in the Virginia service from Governor Letcher, endeavored to organize a distinctively Maryland command. His hopes were realized in the organization of the First regiment, whose record, which cannot be disassociated from the history of his own gallant career, has been eloquently