Joseph E. Johnston the Carolinas, the public clamored for Johnston's return. The general in charge of the Western Theater, P.G.T. Beauregard, was making little progress against the advancing Union force. Political opponents of Jefferson Davis, such as Sen. Louis Wigfall, added to the pressure in Congress. Diarist Mary Chesnut wrote, "We thought this was a struggle for independence. Now it seems it is only a fight between Joe Johnston and Jeff Davis." In January 1865, the Congress passed a law authorizing Robert E. Lee the powers of general in chief, and recommending that Johnston be reinstated as the commander of the Army of
Charles Clement Johnston Johnston is interred in the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C. His brother Joseph E. Johnston, was a Confederate general and also, much later, a U.S. Representative. The Johnston political family of Virginia also includes a nephew, John W. Johnston, who was a United States Senator, and grandnephew Henry Bowen, also a U.S. Representative for Virginia. Charles Clement Johnston Charles Clement Johnston (April 30, 1795 – June 17, 1832) was a U.S. Representative from Virginia. Born in Prince Edward County, Virginia, and educated at home, he moved with his parents to his grandfather's house, Panicello, near Abingdon, Virginia, in 1811. He