Joseph E. Johnston a right to assert it. Having been educated in such opinions, I naturally determined to return to the State of which I was a native, join the people among whom I was born, and live with my kindred, and if necessary, fight in their defense." He was initially commissioned as a major general in the Virginia militia on May 4, but the Virginia Convention decided two weeks later that only one major general was required in the state army and Robert E. Lee was their choice. Johnston was then offered a state commission as a brigadier general, which he declined,
Confederate Army of the Potomac the spring of 1862, Johnston's army was transferred to the Richmond area, where the Army of the Peninsula and the Confederate garrison of Norfolk, Virginia, were incorporated into the army. At this time in the Peninsula Campaign, the army was officially renamed the Army of Northern Virginia, although Johnston continued to use the name Army of the Potomac until he was wounded. Confederate Army of the Potomac The Confederate Army of the Potomac, whose name was short-lived, was the command under Brig. Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard in the early days of the American Civil War. Its only major combat