The words resonate through Confederate history like an unwelcome truth. As General Robert E. Lee made preparations for an assault on the center of the Union line at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863, his senior subordinate, Lieutenant General James Longstreet, voiced objections. At one point in the discussion, Longstreet recounted his experience as a soldier and then stated, "It is my opinion that no fifteen thousand men ever arranged for battle can take that position."

Subscribe Today

• Did you enjoy our article?
• Read more in Civil War Times magazine
• Subscribe online and save nearly 40%!!!
 

Lee thought otherwise, and the attackers went forward that afternoon into a cauldron of hellfire and were repulsed. Longstreet's judgment had been correct. In the years after Appomattox, however, a group of ex-Confederate officers began shaping the history of the war. A tenet of their interpretation stressed the virtual infallibility of Lee's generalship. If Gettysburg had been the Confederacy's finest opportunity to achieve independence, the reasons for the defeat rested with others in the army, not Lee.

This "Lost Cause" interpretation of the Civil War made Longstreet a prime, if not primary, culprit. The former Confederates, mostly Virginians, invented a "sunrise order," alleging that Longstreet failed to obey instructions to attack at sunrise on July 2, 1863. They further charged him with insubordination for opposing Lee's offensive plans during the battle. It was an indictment that endured for decades.

Longstreet aided his critics during the postwar years by accepting positions within the federal government and joining the Republican Party — thus becoming a political apostate in the Democratic South. When he tried to defend himself in print, he misstated facts, enhanced his role in campaigns and criticized Lee's generalship. His defense of his conduct in the war was understandable. He had been arraigned, he would write, "before the world as the person and the only one responsible for the loss of the cause."

It was ultimately Gettysburg, the South's greatest might-have-been, that formed the core of history's judgment of Longstreet. His controversial performance there cannot be denied, nor can his failures at Seven Pines and Knoxville be dismissed. But he had been Lee's "old war-horse," a general who had directed four of the conflict's most striking attacks and counterattacks. He was a gifted tactician and arguably the Confederacy's finest corps commander.

Longstreet was 42 years old in the summer of 1863. A West Pointer, class of 1842, he had suffered a wound in the Mexican War and spent the remaining antebellum years on the frontiers of Texas and New Mexico Territory, attaining the rank of major. When he joined the Confederacy, he was appointed a brigadier general and assigned to the army at Manassas, Va. On July 18, 1861, his brigade repulsed a Union advance at Blackburn's Ford. Three days later, his troops maintained a reserve position during the First Battle of Manassas.

Shortly after the Confederate victory there, Longstreet was assigned command of the designated "Advance Forces," which lay closest to the Federal lines around Washington, D.C. The duty required him to maintain constant vigilance to prevent an enemy surprise attack and to gather intelligence on Union movements. He had authority over seven infantry brigades and cavalry units and daily control over their operations. Longstreet worked closely with Colonel J.E.B. Stuart, who was commanding the cavalry. Longstreet recognized Stuart's talent for reconnaissance and became quite fond of the fun-loving officer. He was instrumental in Stuart's promotion to brigadier general in late September.

Longstreet's conduct of operations impressed his senior commanders, Generals P.G.T. Beauregard and Joseph E. Johnston. In mid-August, Beauregard inquired of the Confederate War Department, "Can it not be so arranged as to make General Longstreet second in command?" Several weeks later, on October 7, Longstreet and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson were promoted to major general. Longstreet received command of a division, while Jackson was appointed commander of the Valley District, with headquarters in Winchester.

Johnston, who now held command of the army, withdrew it into lines around Centreville, where the troops spent the late fall and winter. During these months, Longstreet demonstrated the characteristics that would mark his generalship. He attended to details, conferred with and lectured to his brigade commanders and maintained strict discipline. He was the only major general to conduct drills with his division at Centreville. A staff officer, Thomas Goree, wrote to his mother that the general's "forte though as an officer consists, I think, in the seeming ease with which he can handle and arrange large numbers of troops, as also with the confidence and enthusiasm with which [he] seems to inspire them. If he is ever excited, he has a way of concealing it, and always appears as if he had the utmost confidence in his own ability to command and in that of his troops to execute."

During the long winter nights, Longstreet's headquarters served as a popular gathering place. Fellow generals and aides enjoyed dinners, music, poker games and whiskey. Frequently, he and former Regular Army comrades reminisced about their youthful days in Mexico and on the frontier. A soldier's life had always appealed to Longstreet. In January 1862, however, he and his wife, Louise, suffered a terrible tragedy when three of their four children died of scarlet fever within eight days. An aide noted his "grief was very deep," while others commented on his change in personality. He sought solace in religion and gave up gambling.

By late spring, operations in Virginia had shifted to the Peninsula and Richmond. As Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac closed on the Confederate capital, Johnston, Longstreet and other senior generals attended meetings with President Jefferson Davis and cabinet members to discuss the city's defense. Johnston committed to an offensive strike against the Federals and assigned Longstreet to command of the main attack force of 30,000 troops. The resulting Battle of Seven Pines, or Fair Oaks, occurred on May 31-June 1, 1862.

Longstreet's direction of the offensive revealed his inexperience in handling so large a force. He misunderstood orders and misdirected units onto the wrong road, resulting in an hours-long delay. The muddy roads and wooded terrain hampered the attackers, and Longstreet relinquished control of the fighting to subordinates. It was a bungled assault, with Longstreet and Johnston bearing primary responsibility. Both commanders, however, shifted the blame onto Maj. Gen. Benjamin Huger in their reports, an act unworthy of either man.

Johnston fell wounded in the action, and President Davis assigned General Robert E. Lee to temporary command of the soon-to-be designated Army of Northern Virginia. Longstreet had never served directly under Lee, who had been Davis' military adviser at the time of his appointment to command. Later, Longstreet described his and Lee's wartime relationship as "affectionate, confidential, and even tender, from first to last." When Louise Longstreet gave birth to a son in October 1863, the couple named him Robert Lee Longstreet.

Lee's appointment marked a turning point in the war in the East. He possessed audacity, a trait lacking in Johnston's generalship. The Confederates struck McClellan's Federals during the final week of June. In a series of engagements — the Seven Days' campaign — the Rebels shoved the enemy back down the Peninsula. While Stonewall Jackson's lethargic performance during this fighting has been controversial ever since, Longstreet emerged as Lee's most reliable combat commander. After the campaign, Lee described Longstreet as "the staff in my right hand."

From the Peninsula, Lee moved the army into central Virginia to confront Maj. Gen. John Pope's Union Army of Virginia. The collision occurred on August 29-30, on the old killing ground at Manassas. Lee had divided the army into two wings, under Jackson and Longstreet. While Jackson's troops repulsed Federal assaults, Longstreet rolled up Pope's left flank in a powerful counterattack. Longstreet sent his units forward en echelon, in a series of hammerlike blows that nearly routed the Federals.

Second Manassas was a stunning Confederate victory. Longstreet later called the operation "clever and brilliant," giving the credit to Lee, who "displayed the most brilliant tactical ability" on the battlefield. Longstreet came to regard it as Lee's masterpiece of the war — a blend of the strategic or operational offensive and the tactical defensive. In Longstreet's judgment, it was the preferred model upon which to conduct campaigns.

Help HistoryNet by bookmarking to