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
That man will fight us every day and every hour till the end of the war.
Bad as was being shot by some of our own troops in the battle of the Wilderness, - that was an honest mistake, one of the accidents of war, - being shot at, since the war, by many officers, was worse.
If we only save the finger of one man, that's enough.
Why do men fight who were born to be brothers?
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!
This is a hard fight and we had better all die than lose it.
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.
Time sets all things right. Error lives but a day. Truth is eternal.
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.
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?
The town caught fire in several places, shells crashed and burst, and solid shot rained like hail.
My command, less than ten thousand, had found the battle on the Plank road in retreat, little less than a panic. In a few hours we changed defeat to victory, the broken divisions of the Third Corps rallying in their rear.
About the city, here and there, a few soldiers could be seen, but there was no indication of the heavy masses that were concealed by the houses.