James Longstreet (8 January 1821 – 2 January 1904) was a Lieutenant-General of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War and the second-in-command of General Robert E. Lee. Longstreet was known not just for his role in the Civil War, but also his defection to the US Republican Party during Reconstruction and his leadership of an African-American regiment during the quelling of white nationalists in New Orleans in 1874. As a politician, Longstreet served as ambassador to the Ottoman Empire and US Commissioner of Railroads.
Biography[]
James Longstreet was born in Edgefield, South Carolina on 8 January 1821, the son of a wealthy plantation owner. In 1838, Longstreet was sent to West Point, and he graduated 54th out of a class of 56 in 1842, having been a poor student. Longstreet fought in the Mexican-American War at Monterrey, Contreras, and Churubusco, and he was wounded at Chapultepec while carrying the US flag; he gave the flag to fellow soldier George Pickett.
American Civil War general[]
Robert E. Lee and Longstreet in 1863
Longstreet served on frontier duty after the war, and he decided to join the Confederate States Army in June 1861 after the start of the American Civil War. Longstreet fought at Bull Run in July, and he was given a divisional command after the victory there. During the Seven Days Battles, he led half of Robert E. Lee's army, and Longstreet became known as a great defensive general. Longstreet became Lee's second-in-command during all of his major battles, and Longstreet was blamed for the defeat at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863 due to poor choices in strategy. Longstreet's advice was constantly ignored during the battle, whether it was advising for Lee to withdraw the Army of Northern Virginia from a decisive battle or asking for him to redeploy his men so that he could fight another defensive battle. He was chosen to lead the massive charge across the field towards Cemetery Ridge, and Longstreet was personally opposed to the plan, believing that the charge would fail and that he was not qualified to lead it; Lee still entrusted him with the command, and the charge would lead to the Confederates suffering massive losses. Longstreet was an unlucky man during the war, losing three of his children to yellow fever, and he would be accidentally shot by some of his own men during the Battle of the Wilderness; while Longstreet survived, his fellow officer Micah Jenkins was mortally wounded and died.
Postwar career[]
Longstreet later in life
Longstreet surrendered alongside General Lee at Appomattox on 9 April 1865, and Longstreet became an insurance company owner in New Orleans, Louisiana after the war's end. In 1874, he led city policemen and African-American troops in the suppression of the White League's uprising at Liberty Place, killing 19 rebels while losing 16 soldiers. His family moved to Georgia out of concern for their safety, and Longstreet joined the Republican Party during the Reconstruction era; he was said to have had Machiavellian motives for doing so, believing that white Southern elites could infiltrate the Republican Party, control the votes of Black freedmen, and restore the societal order of the Antebellum South. Longstreet betrayed the Democrats by befriending Ulysses S. Grant, his former enemy, and he surprised his Protestant white friends by converting to Catholicism in 1877, becoming a devout Catholic. From 1881 to 1884, he served as a US Marshal, and he also served as ambassador to the Ottoman Empire and Commissioner for Railroads, succeeding fellow former Confederate general Wade Hampton III in this post. Longstreet died in 1904 at the age of 82.
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