Marylanders rallied to the regimental colors, seizing their weapons and crying "lead us to the enemy and we will prove to you that we are not cowards" At the Battle of Front Royal, May 23, 1862, the 1st Maryland (CSA) was forced into battle with their fellow Marylanders, the 1st Regiment Maryland Volunteer Infantry (USA) commanded by Colonel Kenly. This is the only time in United States military history that two regiments of the same numerical designation and from the same state have engaged each other in battle. Battle of Winchester Just two days later, on May 25, 1862, the 1st Maryland fought again at the First Battle of Winchester, and at the Battle of Cross Keys on June 8, where the 1st Maryland were placed on General Ewell's left, successfully fighting off three assaults by Federal troops. After the Confederate victory at the First Battle of Winchester, Johnson, who was described by J. J. Goldsborough as "one of the handsomest men in the First Maryland", was the recipient of some not entirely welcome female attention. According to Goldsborough: having dismounted from his horse in an unguarded moment, [he] was espied and singled out by an old lady of Amazonian proportions, just from the wash tub, who, wiping her hands and mouth on her apron as she approached, seized him around the neck with the hug of a bruin, and bestowed upon him half a dozen kisses that were heard by nearly every man in the command, and when at length she relaxed her hold the Colonel looked as if he had just come out a vapor bath. Peninsular Campaign Johnson saw service in the Seven Days Battles in 1862, part of the Peninsula Campaign, a series of six major battles over the seven days from June 25 to July 1, 1862, near Richmond, Virginia, in which Confederate General Robert E. Lee drove the invading Union Army of the Potomac, commanded by Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, away from Richmond and into a retreat down the Virginia Peninsula. After the Battle of Cedar Mountain, Johnson succeeded T.S. Garnett in command of the Second Brigade. The Second Brigade had fought under John R. Jones during the Seven Days Battles prior to that officer being wounded. Johnson led the Second Brigade in the Second Battle of Manassas, under division commanders William B. Taliaferro and William Starke. In the subsequent Maryland Campaign, Johnson's