LONGSTREET, JAMES
Longstreet, James
(January 8, 1821–January 2, 1904)
Confederate General
“O
ld Pete” Longstreet was one of the
Confederacy’s most celebrated and
controversial soldiers. An aggres-
sive fighter, he was slow to execute orders if
he disagreed with them, and many Southern
generals blamed him for the loss at the Battle
of Gettysburg. After the war, he compounded
his unpopularity by joining the Republican
Party during Reconstruction and criticizing
Robert E. Lee.
James Longstreet was born in Edgehill,
South Carolina, on January 8, 1821, and in
1838 he gained admittance to the U.S. Military
Academy at West Point. A mediocre student,
he graduated in 1842 as a second lieutenant of
the Fourth U.S. Infantry and conducted garri-
son duty on the Louisiana and Texas frontiers.
When the Mexican-American War broke out
in 1846, Longstreet was part of Gen. Zachary
Taylor’s army, and he fought well at the Battle
of Monterrey. The following year he accompa-
nied Gen. Winfield Scott’s march to Mexico
City and distinguished himself at Churubusco
and Molino del Rey, rising to brevet major.
Longstreet was severely wounded at Chapul-
tepec, but after the war he returned to the
frontier as a paymaster. He resigned his com-
mission in April 1861 to became a brigadier
general in the Confederate Army.
Longstreet distinguished himself during
the Bull Run campaign of July 1861, repulsing
Gen. Irvin McDowell’s advance guard at
Blackburn’s Ford on July 18 and pursuing de-
feated Union forces almost to the gates of
Washington, D.C., on July 21. His fine per-
formance netted him a promotion to major
general and command of a division under
Joseph E. Johnstonduring the 1862 Penin-
sula campaign. He was confused by contra-
dictory orders at Seven Pines that May and
failed to deliver what might have been a fatal
blow to George B. McClellan’s Army of the
Potomac. However, he rebounded in the
Seven Days’ Battles under Lee. He next fought
with Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson at
Second Manassas, where Gen. John Pope was
severely defeated. Longstreet then acquired a
reputation for caution by opposing Lee’s sub-
sequent invasion of Maryland, but he nonethe-
less fought well at the September 17, 1862,
Battle of Antietam. He received a promotion
to lieutenant general in October and com-
manded the I Corps during the bloody repulse
of Ambrose Burnside’s army at Fredericks-
burg, Virginia, that December. From this point
on, Lee affectionately referred to the hard-
charging general as “my old war horse.”
In February 1863, Lee detached Long-
street’s corps to the Richmond area, where he
conducted a lethargic and unsuccessful siege
of Suffolk, Virginia. He consequently missed
the decisive victory at Chancellorsville in
May, but after the death of Jackson he be-
came Lee’s senior corps commander. In this
capacity Longstreet rendered controversial
decisions that ruined his reputation in the
minds of many. As a general, he favored a
strategic offensive coupled with a tactical de-
fense to place Union troops at a disadvantage.
Lee, however, chose to invade Pennsylvania
and attack the army of George G. Meade at
Gettysburg. Longstreet cautioned against this
offensive, which would prove to be the begin-
ning of the end for the Confederacy. Confed-
erate mishandling of the battle on July 1 en-
abled Union troops to establish strong
defensive positions along Little Round Top,
and on the following day Lee ordered
Longstreet to attack them head-on. Long-
street’s protests bordered on insubordination,
and his slow movements delayed the Confed-
erate assault until four o’clock in the after-
noon. His attack, fiercely delivered by John
Bell Hood’s division, pushed Dan Sickles’s
corps back against the main Union line, but
the Confederates failed to penetrate Union