The Last Confederate in the Field: The Life and Career of General Joseph E. Johnston

During the Civil War, one of the tales that was often told among Confederate soldiers was that Joseph E. Johnston was a crack shot who was a better bird hunter than just about everyone else in the South. However, as the story went, Johnston would never take the shot when asked to, complaining that something was wrong with the situation that prevented him from being able to shoot the bird when it was time.

The story is almost certainly apocryphal, but it was aptly used to demonstrate the C...