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THB[CIVIL WAR] McDowell on Gen. Johnston's Defection to Confederacy
![[CIVIL WAR] McDowell on Gen. Johnston's Defection to Confederacy](https://s1.img.bidsquare.com/item/xl/3594/35945869.jpeg?t=1W3fzN)
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About Auction
LiveApr 25, 2026
Featuring rare artifacts, documents, ephemera, photography, and weaponry relating to the American Civil War. Fleischer's Auctions info@fleischersauctions.com
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- Lot Description
“GENL. JOHNSTON HAS RESIGNED” — UNION SHOCK AT THE HIGHEST-RANKING DEFECTION OF 1861
Autograph letter signed by Irvin McDowell (1818–1885), as staff officer under General Winfield Scott, to Fitz John Porter (1822–1901). Washington, D.C., 10 May 1861. 2 pages, 8vo.
In this historic letter, McDowell writes to Fitz John Porter, a fellow West Point graduate, former instructor, and veteran of the Mexican-American War, concerning the resignation of General Joseph E. Johnston, who had given up his commission as brigadier general and Quartermaster General only weeks earlier: “Genl. Johnston has resigned. He did so April 9th, 1861! Sumner’s orders were not known here ’till near that time he left Washington. Johnston asked that a successor might be sent to relieve him! His letter did not show he had any idea that we was suspected or that any one was sent to relieve him.”
Johnston was the highest-ranking officer in the United States Army to resign and join the Confederacy, doing so after his native Virginia seceded from the Union. McDowell’s tone here is notably familiar and animated, standing in marked contrast to the bitter estrangement that later marred his relationship with Porter during the war. Johnston would go on to command the Army of the Shenandoah and then play a decisive role in the Confederate victory at the First Battle of Bull Run, while Porter’s own career would eventually be overshadowed by the controversy surrounding the Second Battle of Bull Run. In its immediate wartime context, however, this letter captures a moment of uncertainty and transition at the very outset of the conflict, as Union officers reckoned with the resignations of Southern-born comrades whose loyalties had shifted with secession.
[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs]
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