West. In 1855, 14th president Franklin Pierce appointed him colonel of the new 2nd U.S. Cavalry (the unit that preceded the modern 5th U.S.), a new regiment, which he organized, his lieutenant colonel being Robert E. Lee, and his majors William J. Hardee and George H. Thomas. Other subordinates in this unit included Earl Van Dorn, Edmund Kirby Smith, Nathan G. Evans, Innis N. Palmer, George Stoneman, R.W. Johnson, John B. Hood, and Charles W. Field, all future Civil War generals. Utah War As a key figure in the Utah War, Johnston took command of the U.S forces in November 1857. This army was sent to install Alfred Cummings as governor of the Utah territory, in place of Brigham Young. After the army wintered at Fort Bridger, Wyoming, a peaceful resolution was reached and in late June 1858 Johnston led the army through Salt Lake City without incident to establish Camp Floyd some 50 miles distant. He received a brevet promotion to brigadier general in 1857 for his service in Utah. He spent 1860 in Kentucky until December 21, when he sailed for California to take command of the Department of the Pacific. Slavery Johnston was a proponent of slavery and a slaveholder. In 1846, he owned a family of four slaves in Texas. In 1855, having discovered that a slave was stealing from the army payroll, Johnston refused to have him physically punished and instead sold him for $1,000 to recoup the losses. Johnston explained that "whipping will not restore what is lost and it will not benefit the [culprit], whom a lifetime of kind treatment has failed to make honest." In 1856, he called abolitionism "fanatical, idolotrous, negro worshipping" in a letter to his son, fearing that the abolitionists would incite a servile insurrection in the South. Upon moving to California, Johnston sold one slave to his son and freed another, Randolph or "Ran", who desired to accompany the family, on the condition of a $12/month contract for five more years of servitude. Ran accompanied Johnston throughout the Civil War, up until the latter's death. Johnston's wife, Eliza, celebrated the lack of black people in California, writing "where the darky is in any numbers it should be as slaves." Civil War At the outbreak of the American Civil War, Johnston was the commander of the U.S. Army Department of the Pacific in California. Like many regular army officers