James Longstreet
James Longstreet
James Longstreetwas 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." He served under Lee as a corps commander for many of the famous battles fought by the Army of Northern Virginia in the Eastern Theater, but also with Gen. Braxton Bragg in the Army of Tennessee in the Western Theater. Biographer and historian Jeffry D. Wert wrote that "Longstreet ... was...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWar Hero
Date of Birth8 January 1821
CountryUnited States of America
The next time we met was at Appomattox, and the first thing that General Grant said to me when we stepped inside, placing his hand in mine was, Pete, let us have another game of brag, to recall the days that were so pleasant. Great God! I thought to myself, how my heart swells out to such magnanimous touch of humanity. Why do men fight who were born to be brothers?
I have been a soldier all my life. I have commanded companies, I have commanded regiments. I have commanded divisions. And I have commanded even more. But there are no fifteen thousand men i the world that can go across that ground.
Time sets all things right. Error lives but a day. Truth is eternal.
My arm is paralyzed; my voice that once could be heard all along the line, is gone; I can scarcely speak above a whisper; my hearing is very much impaired, and sometimes I feel as if I wished the end would come; but I have some misrepresentations of my battles that I wish to correct, so as to have my record correct before I die.
General, if you put every Union soldier now on the other side of the Potomac on that field to approach me over the same line, I will kill them all before they reach my line.
This is a hard fight and we had better all die than lose it.
I do not want to make this charge. I do not see how it can succeed. I would not make it now but that General Lee has ordered it and expects it.
General, unless he offers us honorable terms, come back and let us fight it out!
The passions of the titanic struggle will finally enter upon the sleep of oblivion, and only its splendid accomplishments for the cause of human freedom and a united nation, stronger and richer in patriotism because of the great strife, will be remembered.
Why do men fight who were born to be brothers?
There was no indication of panic. The broken files marched back in steady step. The effort was nobly made and failed from the blows that could not be fended.
I hope to live long enough to see my surviving comrades march side by side with the Union veterans along Pennsylvania Avenue, and then I will die happy.
If we only save the finger of one man, that's enough.
I fancy that no good ideas upon that campaign will be mentioned at any time that did not receive their share of consideration by General Lee.