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Confederate Lt. Gen. James Longstreet. (National Archives)
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Lt. Gen. James Longstreet
Tenacious 'Old War Horse' Did Not Always Agree With Lee, But Stood By Him Through The End
By Bethanne Kelly Patrick
Military.com Columnist
During the second day of the Second Battle of Bull Run (known to the North as the Second Battle of Manassas), Gen. James Longstreet delivered a crushing attack that drove the Union forces from the field, proving himself once more to be Lee's premier subordinate. The battle, which took place Aug. 28-30, 1862, prevented a Union assault on the Confederate capital at Richmond and resulted in Longstreet's promotion to the rank of senior lieutenant general in the South's army.
"Longstreet owed his birth to South Carolina, his appointment to West Point to Alabama, much of his income to Louisiana and the Federal government ... but he always thought of Georgia as home," writer Brian Hampton said. Still, when Longstreet resigned his major's commission in the U.S. Army, he offered his services to the Confederacy through Alabama. Through battles like First Manassas (First Bull Run to Southerners), Chickamauga, and Gettysburg, he earned nicknames like "Old War Horse," "Bulldog," and the "Bull of the Woods," demonstrating the stubborn tenacity that made him the ideal battle officer.
Yet Longstreet's stubborn streak would ultimately cause his downfall among the stars of the Confederacy. He argued with his beloved Lee about Lee's plan for Gettysburg, and he was correct: Lee's grand battle scheme, calling for a grand Southern victory through invasion of the North, were doomed to failure.
After the war, Longstreet became a Republican, joining the party reviled throughout the South for its Reconstruction policies. He had his reasons. For example, Longstreet and Gen. Ulysses S. Grant were old friends; Longstreet had introduced Grant to Miss Julia Dent, the future Mrs. Grant. As with every time Longstreet tried to explain one of his actions, he mired himself further in inarticulate muck. His early supporters, including Gen. Jubal Early, accused him of being insubordinate to Lee and a traitor to his people.
Longstreet outlived many of his detractors. "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," he said when he attended a 1902 Memorial Day celebration. While he may not have seen this, at his Jan. 2, 1904, funeral "he still commanded the respect of thousands of soldiers, both Blue and Gray," Hampton writes.
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