193 Facts About James Longstreet

1.

James Longstreet was one of the foremost Confederate generals of the American Civil War and the principal subordinate to General Robert E Lee, who called him his "Old War Horse".

2.

James Longstreet served under Lee as a corps commander for most of the battles fought by the Army of Northern Virginia in the Eastern Theater, and briefly with Braxton Bragg in the Army of Tennessee in the Western Theater.

3.

James Longstreet was wounded in the thigh at the Battle of Chapultepec, and during recovery married his first wife, Louise Garland.

4.

In June 1861, James Longstreet resigned his US Army commission and joined the Confederate Army.

5.

James Longstreet performed poorly at Seven Pines by accidentally marching his men down the wrong road, causing them to arrive late, but played an important role in the Confederate success of the Seven Days Battles in the summer of 1862, where he helped supervise repeated attacks which drove the Union army away from the Confederate capital of Richmond.

6.

James Longstreet's men held their ground in defensive roles at Antietam and Fredericksburg.

7.

James Longstreet did not participate in the Confederate victory at Chancellorsville, as he and most of his soldiers had been detached on the comparatively minor Siege of Suffolk.

8.

James Longstreet ably commanded troops during the Battle of the Wilderness in 1864, where he was seriously wounded by friendly fire.

9.

James Longstreet later returned to the field, serving under Lee in the Siege of Petersburg and the Appomattox campaign.

10.

James Longstreet enjoyed a successful post-war career working for the US government as a diplomat, civil servant, and administrator.

11.

Since the late 20th century, James Longstreet's reputation has undergone a slow reassessment.

12.

James Longstreet was born on January 8,1821, in Edgefield District, South Carolina, an area that is part of North Augusta, Edgefield County.

13.

James Longstreet was the fifth child and third son of James Longstreet, of Dutch descent, and Mary Ann Dent of English descent, originally from New Jersey and Maryland respectively, who owned a cotton plantation close to where the village of Gainesville would be founded in northeastern Georgia.

14.

James Longstreet's father was impressed by his son's "rocklike" character on the rural plantation, giving him the nickname Peter, and he was known as Pete or Old Pete for the rest of his life.

15.

James Longstreet's father decided on a military career for his son but felt that the local education available to him would not be adequate preparation.

16.

James Longstreet spent eight years on his uncle's plantation, Westover, just outside the city while he attended the Academy of Richmond County.

17.

James Longstreet's father died from a cholera epidemic while visiting Augusta in 1833.

18.

James Longstreet dressed unceremoniously and at times used coarse language, although not in the presence of women.

19.

James Longstreet made no known political statements before the war and appears to have been largely uninterested in politics.

20.

James Longstreet was instead appointed the following year by a relative Reuben Chapman, who represented the First District of Alabama, where Mary James Longstreet lived.

21.

James Longstreet ranked in the bottom third of every subject during his four years at the academy.

22.

James Longstreet earned a large number of demerits, especially in his final two years.

23.

James Longstreet's offenses included visiting after taps, absence at roll call, an untidy room, long hair, causing a disturbance during study time, and disobeying orders.

24.

James Longstreet ranked 54th out of 56 cadets when he graduated in 1842.

25.

James Longstreet was commissioned a brevet second lieutenant in the United States Army.

26.

In 1844, James Longstreet met Garland's daughter and his future first wife Maria Louisa Garland, called Louise by her family.

27.

At about the same time as James Longstreet began courting Louise, Grant courted James Longstreet's fourth cousin, Julia Dent, and that couple eventually married.

28.

James Longstreet attended the Grant wedding on August 22,1848, in St Louis, but his role at the ceremony remains unclear.

29.

Grant biographers Jean Edward Smith and Ron Chernow state that James Longstreet served as Grant's best man at the wedding.

30.

On March 8,1845, James Longstreet received a promotion to second lieutenant, and was transferred to the Eighth Infantry, stationed at Fort Marion in St Augustine, Florida.

31.

James Longstreet fought under Zachary Taylor as a lieutenant in May 1846 in the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma.

32.

James Longstreet recounted both of these battles in his memoirs but wrote nothing about his personal role in them.

33.

James Longstreet fought again with Taylor's army at the Battle of Monterrey in September 1846.

34.

James Longstreet, commanding companies A and B, led a counterattack, killing or wounding almost half of the lancers.

35.

James Longstreet received a brevet promotion to captain for his actions at Churubusco.

36.

James Longstreet received a brevet promotion to major for Molino del Rey.

37.

James Longstreet recovered in the home of the Escandon family, which treated wounded American soldiers.

38.

Novelist Ben Ames Williams, a descendant of James Longstreet, included James Longstreet as a minor character in two of his novels.

39.

Williams questioned James Longstreet's surviving children and grandchildren, and in the novels depicted him as a very devoted family man with an exceptionally happy marriage.

40.

James Longstreet resigned as commissary in March 1851 and returned to the Eighth Infantry.

41.

James Longstreet served on frontier duty in Texas at Fort Martin Scott near Fredericksburg.

42.

The primary purpose of the military in Texas was to protect frontier communities against Indians, and James Longstreet frequently participated in scouting missions against the Comanche.

43.

James Longstreet's family remained in San Antonio, and he saw them regularly.

44.

In 1855, James Longstreet was involved in fighting against the Mescalero.

45.

James Longstreet assumed command of the garrison at Fort Bliss on two occasions between the spring of 1856 and the spring of 1858.

46.

On March 29,1858, James Longstreet wrote to the adjutant general's office in Washington, DC requesting that he be assigned to recruiting duty in the East, which would allow him to better educate his children.

47.

James Longstreet was granted a six-month leave, but the request for assignment in the East was denied, and he was instead directed to serve as major and paymaster for the 8th Infantry in Leavenworth, Kansas.

48.

James Longstreet left his son Garland in a school at Yonkers, New York, before journeying to Kansas.

49.

James Longstreet's experience resembles that of many Civil War generals insofar as he went to West Point, served with distinction in the War with Mexico, and continued his career in the peacetime army of the 1850s.

50.

James Longstreet left no diary, and his lengthy memoirs focus almost entirely on recounting and defending his Civil War military record.

51.

Not only that, but an 1889 fire destroyed his personal papers, making it so that the number of "[e]xisting antebellum private letters written by James Longstreet [could] be counted on one hand".

52.

At the beginning of the American Civil War, James Longstreet was paymaster for the United States Army and stationed in Albuquerque, having not yet resigned his commission.

53.

James Longstreet was not enthusiastic about secession from the Union, but he had long been infused with the concept of states' rights and felt he could not go against his homeland.

54.

James Longstreet was the senior West Point graduate from that state, which meant that he could potentially be placed in command of that state's soldiers.

55.

James Longstreet met with Confederate President Jefferson Davis at the executive mansion on June 22,1861, where he was informed that he had been appointed a brigadier general with the date of rank on June 17, a commission he accepted on June 25.

56.

One of Early's regiments, the 7th Virginia, fired a volley while James Longstreet was still in front of its position, forcing him to dive off of his horse and onto the ground.

57.

Between 5 and 6 in the evening, Longstreet received an order from Brigadier General Joseph E Johnston instructing him to take part in the pursuit of the Federal troops, who had been defeated and were fleeing the battlefield.

58.

James Longstreet obeyed, but when he met Brigadier General Milledge Bonham's brigade, Bonham, who outranked Longstreet, ordered him to retreat.

59.

James Longstreet was infuriated that his commanders would not allow a vigorous pursuit of the defeated Union Army.

60.

James Longstreet dashed his hat furiously to the ground, stamped, and bitter words escaped him.

61.

On January 10,1862, James Longstreet traveled under orders from Johnston to Richmond, where he discussed with Davis the creation of a draft or conscription program.

62.

James Longstreet rushed back to Richmond later in the month when Garland took a turn for the worse, but came back after he recovered.

63.

James Longstreet then got into an argument with Major General Benjamin Huger over who had seniority, causing a significant delay.

64.

James Longstreet wrote that his arrival "was far from reconciling the troops to the loss of our beloved chief, Joseph E Johnston".

65.

James Longstreet wrote that Lee did not have much of a reputation at the time that he took command and that there were, therefore "misgivings" about Lee's "power and skill for field service".

66.

James Longstreet departed from his usual strategy of placing troops several lines deep and instead spread them out, which in the opinion of some military historians cost him the battle.

67.

James Longstreet's efforts were further damaged by the slowness of other Confederate commanders, and McClellan was able to withdraw his army to the high plateau of Malvern Hill.

68.

James Longstreet's men were exposed to fire on their flanks from McClellan's troops and were forced to withdraw without success.

69.

James Longstreet performed aggressively and quite well in his new, larger command, particularly at Gaines's Mill and Glendale.

70.

James Longstreet took command of the Right Wing and Jackson was given command of the Left Wing.

71.

Over time, Lee and James Longstreet became good friends and set up headquarters very near each other.

72.

James Longstreet then drafted a letter refuting the article, which was published in the Richmond Whig.

73.

James Longstreet accepted, but Lee intervened and transferred Hill's division out of James Longstreet's command and into Jackson's.

74.

James Longstreet placed his corps in the rear of Pope's army, but he then took up a defensive position and effectively invited Pope to assault him.

75.

Lee and James Longstreet watched the battle together and decided to flank the Union position.

76.

Ricketts realized his position was untenable and withdrew that evening, allowing James Longstreet to join up with the rest of Lee's army.

77.

James Longstreet demurred to three suggestions from Lee urging him to attack, recommending instead that a reconnaissance in force be conducted to survey the ground in front of him.

78.

James Longstreet ordered a reluctant Porter to move his corps forward in pursuit, and they collided with Jackson's men and suffered heavy casualties.

79.

The attack exposed the Union left flank, and James Longstreet took advantage of this by launching a massive assault on the Union flank with over 25,000 men.

80.

For over four hours they "pounded like a giant hammer" with James Longstreet actively directing artillery fire and sending brigades into the fray.

81.

James Longstreet gave all of the credit for the victory to Lee, describing the campaign as "clever and brilliant".

82.

James Longstreet's men remained on the field in order to fool Pope into thinking that Lee's entire army was still on his front.

83.

At Pryor's request, James Longstreet sent artillery support in response to Union cannon being fired at Confederates in the road from across Antietam Creek.

84.

James Longstreet ordered a flanking movement by about 900 soldiers in several regiments led by Colonel John Rogers Cooke.

85.

James Longstreet ordered trenches, abatis, and fieldworks to be constructed south of the town along a stone wall at the foot of Marye's Heights.

86.

The first Union assault on James Longstreet's men at Marye's Heights was a disastrous failure, causing approximately 1,000 casualties within 30 minutes.

87.

James Longstreet advised him to look towards Jackson's more tenuous position to the right.

88.

James Longstreet was proven correct, as from their strong position his troops easily repulsed several more assaults.

89.

In October 1862, James Longstreet had suggested to Joe Johnston that he be sent to fight in the war's Western Theater.

90.

Shortly after Fredericksburg, James Longstreet vaguely suggested to Lee that "one corps could hold the line of the Rappahannock while the other was operating elsewhere".

91.

Hood's division followed, and then James Longstreet himself was told to take command of the detached divisions and the Departments of North Carolina and Southern Virginia.

92.

James Longstreet moved his divisions north but could not reach the battle in time.

93.

James Longstreet's foraging operations yielded enough food to feed Lee's entire army for two months.

94.

James Longstreet argued that a reinforced army under Bragg could defeat Rosecrans and drive toward the Ohio River, which would compel Grant to break his hold on Vicksburg.

95.

In letters of the time, James Longstreet made no reference to such a bargain with Lee.

96.

James Longstreet paid Harrison in gold and told him that he "did not care to see him till he could bring information of importance".

97.

James Longstreet arrived on the battlefield at about 4:30 in the afternoon of the first day, July 1,1863, hours ahead of his troops.

98.

James Longstreet sent a courier towards them down the Cashtown Road to hurry them along.

99.

James Longstreet again argued for a flanking maneuver around the Union left, but Lee rejected his plan.

100.

James Longstreet was not ready to attack as early as Lee envisioned.

101.

James Longstreet received permission from Lee to wait for Law's brigade of Hood's division to reach the field before advancing.

102.

James Longstreet's soldiers were forced to take a long detour while approaching the enemy position, misled by inadequate reconnaissance that failed to identify a completely concealed route.

103.

Lee agreed to the delays for arriving troops and did not issue his formal order for the attack until 11 AM James Longstreet did not aggressively pursue Lee's orders to launch an attack.

104.

James Longstreet insisted that Lee had rejected this plan and ordered him to make the assault against the front of the enemy lines.

105.

The attacks had failed, and James Longstreet's corps suffered more than 4,000 casualties.

106.

Lee wrote in his after-battle report that James Longstreet's "dispositions were not completed as early as was expected".

107.

James Longstreet strongly felt that this assault had little chance of success, and made known his concerns to Lee.

108.

James Longstreet urged Lee not to use his entire corps in the attack, arguing that the divisions of Law and McLaws were tired from the previous day's combat and that shifting them towards Cemetery Ridge would dangerously expose the Confederate right flank.

109.

James Longstreet again told Lee that he believed the attack would fail.

110.

James Longstreet's men were positioned behind Pickett's lines, leaving Pickett vulnerable, and the troops on his far left were dangerously exposed.

111.

James Longstreet attempted to pass the responsibility for launching Pickett's division to Alexander.

112.

In mid-August 1863, James Longstreet resumed his attempts to be transferred to the Western Theater.

113.

James Longstreet wrote a private letter to Seddon, requesting that he be transferred to serve under his old friend Joseph Johnston.

114.

James Longstreet followed this up in conversations with his congressional ally Wigfall, who had long considered Longstreet a suitable replacement for Braxton Bragg.

115.

When James Longstreet himself arrived on the field in the late evening, he failed to find Bragg's headquarters.

116.

James Longstreet lined up most of his men into two lines, but he placed Hood's division behind Johnson in a column, intended as shock troops.

117.

However, confusion and mishandled orders caused Polk's attack to be delayed, and James Longstreet's advance did not begin until just after 11 after hearing gunfire from his left.

118.

James Longstreet took advantage of the confusion to increase his chances of success.

119.

James Longstreet held that position against repeated afternoon attacks by Longstreet, who was not adequately supported by the Confederate right wing.

120.

James Longstreet was incensed at his refusal and ordered him to go forward.

121.

James Longstreet had dismissed a proposal from Longstreet that he do so, citing a lack of transportation and calling the plan a "visionary scheme".

122.

Nevertheless, Chickamauga was the greatest Confederate victory in the Western Theater and James Longstreet received a significant portion of the credit.

123.

Not long after the Confederates entered Tennessee following their victory at Chickamauga, James Longstreet clashed with Bragg and became a leader of the group of senior commanders who conspired to have him removed.

124.

James Longstreet stated that Bragg "was incompetent to manage an army or put men into a fight" and that he "knew nothing of the business".

125.

James Longstreet left him and his dissatisfied subordinates in their positions.

126.

Bragg relieved or reassigned the generals who had testified against him and retaliated against James Longstreet by reducing his command to only those units that he brought with him from Virginia.

127.

At about this time, James Longstreet learned of the birth of a son, who was named Robert Lee.

128.

James Longstreet favored Jenkins, his longtime protege, while most of the men favored Law.

129.

James Longstreet had asked Davis to name a permanent commander, but he refused.

130.

James Longstreet blamed Law and Brigadier General Jerome B Robertson for the lack of success.

131.

James Longstreet took no immediate action against Law but complained about Robertson.

132.

James Longstreet knew this Union reaction was underway, and that the nearest railhead was Bridgeport, Alabama, where portions of two Union corps would soon arrive.

133.

James Longstreet accepted Bragg's arguments and agreed to a plan in which he and his men were dispatched to East Tennessee to deal with an advance by the Union Army of the Ohio, commanded by Burnside.

134.

James Longstreet was selected both due to enmity on Bragg's part and because the War Department intended for James Longstreet's men to return to Lee's army and this movement was in that direction.

135.

James Longstreet decided to risk a frontal attack on Union entrenchments before they arrived.

136.

The attack was repulsed, and James Longstreet was forced to retreat.

137.

When Grant defeated Bragg, James Longstreet was ordered to join forces with the Army of Tennessee in northern Georgia.

138.

James Longstreet demurred and began to move back to Virginia, soon pursued by Sherman.

139.

James Longstreet's second independent command was a failure and his self-confidence was damaged.

140.

James Longstreet reacted to the failure of the campaign by blaming others.

141.

James Longstreet relieved Lafayette McLaws from command and requested the court-martial of Robertson and Law.

142.

James Longstreet submitted a letter of resignation to Adjutant General Samuel Cooper on December 30,1863, but his request to be relieved was denied.

143.

James Longstreet attempted to keep communications open with Lee's army in Virginia, but Federal cavalry Brigadier General William W Averell's raids destroyed the railroads, isolating him and forcing him to rely only on Eastern Tennessee for supplies.

144.

James Longstreet's corps suffered through a severe winter in Eastern Tennessee with inadequate shelter and provisions.

145.

The plan failed to be enacted as it met with disapproval from President Davis and his newly appointed military advisor, Braxton Bragg, and James Longstreet remained in Virginia.

146.

Just as this was happening, James Longstreet's men arrived on the field.

147.

James Longstreet's men moved forward along the Orange Plank Road against the II Corps and in two hours nearly drove it from the field.

148.

James Longstreet developed tactics to deal with difficult terrain, ordering the advance of six brigades by heavy skirmish lines, which allowed his men to deliver a continuous fire into the enemy while proving to be elusive targets themselves.

149.

Jenkins, who was riding with James Longstreet, was shot and died from his wounds.

150.

James Longstreet missed the rest of the 1864 spring and summer campaign, where Lee sorely missed his skill in handling the army.

151.

James Longstreet rejoined Lee in October 1864, with his right arm paralyzed and in a sling, initially unable to ride a horse.

152.

James Longstreet had taught himself to write with his left hand; by periodically pulling on his arm, as advised by doctors, he regained the use of his right hand in later years.

153.

At the Battle of Appomattox Court House that morning, Longstreet was heavily engaged with the Union II Corps under Andrew A Humphreys.

154.

James Longstreet advised him of his belief that Grant would treat them fairly.

155.

James Longstreet offered Longstreet a cigar and invited him to play a card game.

156.

James Longstreet entered into a cotton-brokerage partnership and became the president of the Southern and Western Life and Accident Insurance Company.

157.

James Longstreet sought the presidency of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad but was unsuccessful, and failed in an attempt to get investors for a proposed railroad from New Orleans around the northwestern coast of the Gulf of Mexico south across the Rio Grande river and American-Mexican border to Monterrey, Mexico.

158.

James Longstreet encouraged Southern whites to join the heavily Northern Republican Party, arguing that if they did not, the Southern wing of the party would be exclusively dominated by blacks, whereas white men joining the party would allow the black vote to be controlled.

159.

Free to enter politics, James Longstreet joined the Republicans, or, as Southerners sometimes called them, "Black Republicans".

160.

James Longstreet endorsed Grant for president in the election of 1868, attended his inauguration in Washington, DC, and six days later was appointed by Grant as surveyor of customs in New Orleans.

161.

James Longstreet actively supported Henry C Warmoth, the Republican Governor of Louisiana and a former Union officer.

162.

On January 8,1872, James Longstreet was commissioned a major general in the state militia and assigned to the command of all militia and police forces inside the city of New Orleans.

163.

James Longstreet accused Longstreet of attacking late on the second day and held him accountable for the debacle on the third.

164.

James Longstreet commanded a force of 3,600 Metropolitan Police, city policemen, and African-American militia troops, armed with two Gatling guns and a battery of artillery.

165.

James Longstreet rode to meet the protesters but was pulled from his horse, shot by a spent bullet, and taken prisoner.

166.

In 1875, James Longstreet began to challenge the criticisms of his war record.

167.

James Longstreet demanded evidence from Pendleton and Lee's staff officers.

168.

James Longstreet published a series of articles defending his conduct during the war.

169.

James Longstreet was embraced by Jefferson Davis, and a crowd of people cheered.

170.

In 1875 the James Longstreet family left New Orleans with concerns over health and safety, returning to Gainesville, Georgia.

171.

James Longstreet continued to serve on the city school board and as an administrator of the University of Louisiana, later known as Tulane University.

172.

In March 1877, on one of his frequent return trips to New Orleans on business, James Longstreet converted to Catholicism and remained a devout believer until his death.

173.

Abram J Ryan, author of "The Conquered Banner", encouraged Longstreet to convert, assuring him that he would be welcomed with "open arms" if he decided to come into the Church.

174.

James Longstreet served briefly as deputy collector of internal revenue and as postmaster of Gainesville.

175.

James Longstreet suffered from the high cost of living in Constantinople.

176.

James Longstreet's only known accomplishment was convincing Sultan Abdul Hamid II to reverse his position forbidding American archeologists from undertaking research in Ottoman territories.

177.

James Longstreet was granted a 60-day leave to tour Europe before being recalled in accordance with his own desires after the marshal position became available.

178.

James Longstreet expresses personal affection for Robert E Lee but is at times critical of his strategy.

179.

James Longstreet served from 1897 to 1904, under presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, as US Commissioner of Railroads, succeeding Wade Hampton III.

180.

In 1897, at the age of 76, in a ceremony at the governor's mansion in Atlanta, James Longstreet married 34-year-old librarian Helen Dortch.

181.

James Longstreet outlived him by 58 years, dying in 1962.

182.

James Longstreet's weight diminished from 200 to 135 pounds by January 1903.

183.

James Longstreet contracted pneumonia and died in Gainesville on January 2,1904, six days before his 83rd birthday.

184.

Bishop Benjamin Joseph Keiley, who had served under James Longstreet, said his funeral Mass.

185.

James Longstreet's remains are buried in Alta Vista Cemetery in Gainesville.

186.

James Longstreet outlived most of his detractors and was one of only a few general officers from the Civil War to live into the 20th century.

187.

James Longstreet was subject to vigorous attacks over his war record beginning in the 1870s and continuing until after his death.

188.

James Longstreet should have obeyed orders, but the order should not have been given.

189.

James Longstreet is depicted very favorably in both, significantly improving his standing in popular imagination.

190.

God and General James Longstreet, upgraded James Longstreet "through an attack on Lee, the Lost Cause, and the Virginia revisionists".

191.

James Longstreet is shown riding on his horse, Hero, at ground level in a grove of trees in Pitzer Woods, unlike most generals, who are elevated on tall plinths overlooking the battlefield.

192.

James Longstreet is featured as a minor character in two novels by Ben Ames Williams, one of his descendants.

193.

James Longstreet appears as a cadet in Santa Fe Trail, played by actor Frank Wilcox.