Questions about James Longstreet
Short answers, pulled from the story.
Who was James Longstreet and what role did he play in the Civil War?
James Longstreet was a Confederate lieutenant general who served as the principal subordinate to General Robert E. Lee, commanding the First Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia. Lee called him his "Old War Horse." Longstreet led major Confederate forces at Second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, and the Wilderness, and is now considered by many Civil War historians to be among the war's most gifted tactical commanders.
Why was James Longstreet blamed for the Confederate defeat at Gettysburg?
Postwar writers affiliated with the Lost Cause movement, particularly Jubal Early and William Pendleton, claimed Longstreet disobeyed Lee's orders to attack at sunrise on the 2nd of July 1863 and that his delays cost the Confederacy the battle. Lee's own staff officers Walter Taylor and Charles Marshall denied those claims, and Lee did not issue his formal attack order until 11 in the morning. Longstreet's postwar Republican politics and his criticism of Lee's wartime decisions deepened the animosity against him.
What happened to James Longstreet's children during the Civil War?
In January and February 1862, three of Longstreet's children died within weeks of each other during a scarlet fever outbreak in Richmond: one-year-old Mary Anne on the 25th of January, four-year-old James the following day, and eleven-year-old Augustus Baldwin on the 1st of February. A fourth child, thirteen-year-old Garland, survived. George Pickett and his future wife LaSalle Corbell arranged the funerals, which neither Longstreet nor his wife attended.
What was James Longstreet's relationship with Ulysses S. Grant?
Longstreet and Grant were classmates at West Point and later served together at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, where Grant joined the regiment in 1843. Longstreet attended Grant's wedding to Julia Dent in St. Louis on the 22nd of August 1848, with some Grant biographers stating Longstreet served as best man. After the Civil War, their friendship translated into political alliance; Longstreet supported Grant's Republican Party and cooperated with him during Grant's presidency.
Why did James Longstreet fight against the White League in New Orleans?
Longstreet commanded African-American militia loyal to the Reconstruction state government against the anti-Reconstruction White League at the Battle of Liberty Place in 1874. He was wounded in the fighting. His support for Reconstruction and the Republican Party, combined with his cooperation with President Grant, had already made him deeply unpopular with former Confederates, and commanding Black militia against a white supremacist organization deepened that hostility.
What did Robert E. Lee call James Longstreet, and why?
Lee called Longstreet his "Old War Horse." Shortly after the Seven Days Battles in the summer of 1862, Lee also described Longstreet as "the staff in my right hand." The nicknames reflected Longstreet's role as Lee's most trusted corps commander, the man to whom Lee assigned operational control of roughly half the Army of Northern Virginia during some of the war's most critical engagements.