Behind The Battles | James Longstreet - Battles Of The American Civil War

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
The bloodiest war on American soil. States versus States, Brothers
versus brothers. Join hosts Bang and Dang as they take
you battle by battle through the most divisive time in
American history. Welcome to Battles of the American Civil War.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Talk back the battle of American Civil War behind the battles.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
Moving on to the Confederate side once again, as.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
We take a look at Lee's right hand Lee well
accordon him and this left hand man, I guess right,
but more accurately, is Lee's old war horse. He was
the James Longstreet. He was the prince subordinate to General
Robert E.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
Lee, So that means it was Longstreet and then Robert
that was it. Yep. He served under Lee as core
commander for most of the battles.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Obviously a lot of battles, and out of everybody we
covered so far, of course, he's in the Mexican American War,
but that dude has almost as many Mexican War American
War battles as he does the Civil Wars.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
So this dude was doing some stuff. The Union would
love to have him on their side. They did it
one time. I'm until sixty one.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
And then yeah, everybody probably remembers him more for what
would he be most known for? Just ending just being there?

Speaker 3 (01:40):
He's hanging out, just.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Being there, or failing during pickets charge.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
Yeah, that wasn't his fault, that was pickets Well, okay,
we'll get to that.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
James long Street he was born in January eighteen twenty
one in Edgefield District, South Carolina, which is now part
of North Augusta Edgefield County. Fifth child and third son
of James Longstreet of Dutch descent and Mary Anne Dent
of English descent. He was a Dutchman huh, originally from
New Joysey and Maryland respectively. They owned a cotton plantation

(02:09):
close to where the village of Gainesville would be founded
in northeastern Georgia. Okay, James ancestor Dirk Stallfel's Langa strike.
He immigrated to the Dutch colony of New Netherlands in
sixteen fifty seven. But the name was Angelic size and
the name was modernized for people over here, so they
could actually say their name right to Longstreet.

Speaker 3 (02:32):
Clearly, that's fantastic. The family was moderate at least prosperous,
held dozens of slaves. James's daddy was impressed by his
son's rock like character, giving him the nickname Peter, and
he was known as Pete or Old Pete for the
rest of his life. Longstreet's daddy decided on a military
career for his son, but he felt that the available

(02:52):
local education would not be adequate preparation for him, so
at the age of nine, James he sent away to
live of his Francis Eliza and uncle Augusta's Baldwin long
Street in Augusta, Florida, Nope, Augusta, Georgia. Augusta. James spent
eight years at his uncle's plantation, which he called wet Stover,

(03:12):
just outside the city, while he attended the Academy of
Richmond County Richmond. His father, Unfortunately, he died from cholera.
Damn it.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
It was an epidemic where they lived while visiting Augusta
in eighteen thirty three, Oh Wow. Although James's mother and
the rest of the family moved to Summerville, Alabama following
his father's death, James remained with his uncle. Now As
a boy, Longstreet enjoyed swimming, hunting, fishing, and riding horses.
He then became a depth debt shooting firearms, Northern Georgia
was a very rural frontier territory, and southern aristocratic traditions

(03:44):
had not yet taken hold.

Speaker 3 (03:45):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
As a result of that, Longstreet's manors were sometimes rather
rough in spite of his plantation background. Yeah right, he
didn't say mamers. He dressed unceremoniously, and at times used
course language, although never in the presence of women, and
they never.

Speaker 3 (03:59):
Did good for you, bud. So he was like any
other guy. Right. A little bit later on in his
lifelong Street described his aunt and uncle as caring and loving.
He made no known political statements before the war, and
it appears to have been largely uninterested in politics altogether.
But Augustas as a lawyer, judge, newspaper editor, and methodist minister,

(04:22):
fierce states right partisan who supported South Carolina darre in
a nullification crisis, as was in eighteen twenty eight eighteen
thirty three, and these ideas to which long Street probably
would have been exposed. Right. Augustas was also known for
drinking whiskey and playing cards at a time when many
Americans considered them immoral. These habits he passed along to Longstreet. Okay,

(04:47):
I don't know why drinking cards and drink drinking drink
cards and playing with whiskey during whiskey and playing cards
was a moro? Huh?

Speaker 2 (04:55):
So on eighteen thirty seven Augustus, he attempted to obtain
an appointment for his nephew to the United States Military Academy,
but the vacancy first Congressional District had already been filled
next year. Bud Longstreet was then appointed the following year
by a relative, Reuben Chapman, who represented the first District
of Alabama, where Mary Longstreet had lived.

Speaker 3 (05:13):
Oh cool, awesome Longstreet. He was a poor student.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
By his own admission and his memoirs. He said he
had more interest in the school of Soldier horsemanship, exercise,
and the outside game of football than an academic courses.
Obviously nice, Why do you hit the football?

Speaker 3 (05:29):
Soccer? Yeah? Probably? Long Street. He ranked in the bottom
third of every subject during his four years at the academy.
In January of his third year, he initially failed his
mechanics exam, but he took a second test two days
later and he passed it. Longstreet's engineering instructor in his
fourth year was Dennis hart Mahan, who stressed swift maneuvering
protection of interior lines and positioning troops and strategic points

(05:53):
rather than attempting to destroy the enemy's army outright. Although
long Street earned modest grades in the course, he used
similar tactics there in the Civil War. Okay, long long.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
Street was also a disciplinary problem at was point that
he was. He earned a large number of demerits, especially
in his final two years. His offenses included visiting after
Taps was played, absence at Roe call, an untidy room,
long hair, causing a disturbance during study time, disobeying any order.

Speaker 3 (06:22):
Basically big for Jeffrey work. He says.

Speaker 2 (06:26):
Longstreet was neither a model student nor a gentleman. Hey,
that's what you wanted, were right, Longstreet. He was popular
with his classmates, however, and befriended a number of men
who would become prominent during the Civil War, which included
George Henry Thomas Williams, Rosecranz who was his roommate, John Pope,
Dan Harvey, D. H. Hill, La Fayette Mclaw's, George Pickett,

(06:47):
and old Us Grant himself.

Speaker 3 (06:49):
So he's split until you got friends on both sides. Well,
they all did good for you, Longstreet.

Speaker 2 (06:53):
He ran fifty fourth out of fifty six cadets. I
graduated in eighteen forty two. Who was the other two?
He was commissioned to Revett, second lieutenant in the United
States Army thereafter.

Speaker 3 (07:04):
Wow after a brief furlough Longstreet he was stationed for
two years at the fourth US Infantry at Jefferson Barracks.
This is Missouri, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel John Garland.
I think he's related to jeff eighteen forty three, eighteen
forty three, who judy eighteen forty three he was joined

(07:26):
by his friend, Lieutenant Ulysses, that's Grant. In eighteen forty four,
long Street met Garland's daughter, his future wife. Why is
what is up of these guys? If we've done, they
all marry their commander's daughters, right, first girl he seen
her name Maria Louisa Garland. She was called Louise by
her family, all right, because there was probably one hundred

(07:46):
other Marias in their family. At about the same time,
Longstreet began Courton Lewis. At about the same time that
Longstreet began Court and Louise, Grant courted long Street's fourth cousin,
Julia dn Oh Julia, and the couple eventually married, as
they're tied to each other somewhat. Long Street attended the
Grant wedding on August twenty second, eighteen forty eight. This
was in Saint Louis, but his role at the ceremony

(08:08):
remains unclear. He was a fucking partyer, dude, right.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
Grant biographers John Argeen, Jean, John Edward Smith, and Ron
Sure Now they state that Longstreet served as best man.
I don't know if they have any evidence for this.
But John y Simon, editor of Julia Grant's memoirs, he
concluded that Longstreet may have Benning groomsman, and Longstreet biographer

(08:33):
Donald Brigman Sanger he called the role of the best
man uncertain, while noting that neither Grant nor Longstreet mentioned
such a role in their memoirs.

Speaker 3 (08:41):
Okay, it isn't written down anywhere, right, they.

Speaker 2 (08:44):
Don't have like a marriage certificate.

Speaker 3 (08:48):
Later on, in eighteen forty four, his regiment, along with
the third Infantry, was transferred to Camps Liberty near Natchachoch's,
Louisiana as part of an Army of observation under Major
General Zachary Taylor Zachi eighth to March eighteen forty five, Longstreet,
he promoted his second lieutenant, transferred to the eighth Infantry,
which was at Fort Marion in St. Augustine, Florida. He

(09:10):
served for a month. He served the month of August
on court martial duty and Pensacola. The regiment was then
transferred to Corpus Christy, Texas, where he was reunited with
the officers of the third and fourth Regiments, including his
buddy Grant. The men passed the winner by stage in
place one of who played the women. Grant.

Speaker 2 (09:34):
Longstreet served with distinction in the Mexican American War. With
that eighth US Infantry. He fought under Tacker Taylor as
lieutenant and May eighteen forty six in the battles of
Palo Alto and Resaca and de la Palma. He recounted
both of these battles and his memoirs, but wrote nothing
about his personal role in them. Oh June tenth, Longstreet
was given command of Company A of the eighth Infantry
of William Worse's second Division. He then fought again with

(09:57):
Taylor's army in the Battle of Monterey in September eighteen
forty six, during which about two hundred Mexican lancers drove
back a group of American troops Oh wow, Longstreet. Commanding
Companies A and B. He led the counter attack, killing
or wounding almost half of the lance.

Speaker 3 (10:10):
Oh. Twenty third of February eighteen forty seven. Promoted again
to the rank of first lieutenant. January and Chief Winfield
Scott ordered Worth's division out of Taylor's army and under
his direct command, to participate in an assault on the
Mexican capital of Mexico City. Oh boy. That division was
sent first to Labo's Island, then sailed one hundred and
eighty miles south of Vera Cruz. Worth led Scott's army

(10:32):
in an amphibious approach onto the city. I think we
had this with somebody else who this is. That's great.
It's possible to put it out it because it's not
in the same thing. I'm pretty sure we did the
Mexico City assault with somebody. We mentioned it a bunch
of times. I think this is the only time we
got into it. Oh. They arrived on the ninth of March.
Scott besieged to city and subjected it to regular bombardments.

(10:56):
The city surrendered on twenty ninth March eighteen forty seven.
The American Army then marched north towards the capitol.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
In August, long Street served in the Battle of Churubusco,
which was a pivotal battle as the US Army moved
closer to capture in Mexico City. The eighth Infantry was
the only Force and Wars division to reach the Mexican earthworks.
Longstreet carried the regimental banner under every Mexican fire. The
troops found themselves stuck in a ditch and can only
scale the Mexican defenses by standing on each other. Ooh,

(11:24):
and the fierce hand to hand combat that ensued, the
Americans prevailed.

Speaker 3 (11:28):
Longstreet.

Speaker 2 (11:28):
He received a brevet promotion to captain for his actions,
and then he received a brevet promotion to major for
Melino del Rey battle.

Speaker 3 (11:36):
In the Battle of Chipultepec on the twelfth September, he
was wounded in the thigh while charging up the hill
with his regimental colors. He fell handed the flag to
his friend, Lieutenant Pickett, who was able to reach the summit.
The capture of the Chipultepec fortress led to the fall
of Mago City. Long Street recovered in the home of
the Escandon family Scandon Scandonne family, which treated wounded American soldiers,

(12:03):
and they treated him well. His wound was slow to heal,
and he did not leave until December. After a brief
visit with his family, Longstreet he said, I'm going to Missouri.
I'm going to see my sweet Louise, Sweet Louise.

Speaker 2 (12:16):
After the war and his recovery, Longstreet and Louise, they
were married officially March eighth, eighteen forty eight. The marriage
produced ten children two ooh. Little is known of their
courtship or marriage.

Speaker 3 (12:27):
No.

Speaker 2 (12:27):
Longstreet rarely mentions her and his memoirs and never reveals
any personal details.

Speaker 3 (12:31):
That's the way it should be better. Good for him man.

Speaker 2 (12:33):
There are no surviving letters between the two either. Most
antidotes about the relationship come through the writings of Longstreet's
second wife, Helen Dersche.

Speaker 3 (12:41):
Longstreet.

Speaker 2 (12:42):
Novelist ben Ames Williams, a descendant of Longstreet, included Longstreet
as a minor character in two novels All Right. Williams
questioned longstreet surviving children and grandchildren, and depicted him as
a devoted family man with an exceptionally happy marriage. Oh
good for him, happy marriage, but he remarried right.

Speaker 3 (12:58):
Oh, it's only because she died. Oh. Longstreet next served
several months of recruiting duty in Polkeepski, New York. After
traveling Saint Louis for the Grant wedding, Longstreet and his
wife they moved to Carlisle Barracks, which is in Pennsylvania.
So did Grant go to his wedding? What's up right?
First January? Everybody's recovering from the hangover from the hell

(13:18):
of a party tonight before ringing. In the new year
of eighteen fifty, he was appointed Chief Commissary for the
Department of Texas. This was responsible for the accusation distribution
of food to the department soldiers and animals. Good for you,
long sort. The job was complex consisted mainly of paperwork,
although it did provide experience and administrative military work as well.

(13:44):
The eighteen fifty CENTSUS records showed that long Street owned
two slaves, a thirty five year old woman and a
thirteen year old girl, and got a daughter and Mama
and June.

Speaker 2 (13:54):
Longstreet, hoping for promotion and an income above his forty
dollars per month salary to support his grown family.

Speaker 3 (14:00):
Question to transfer to the cavalry, but was rejected. Oh.

Speaker 2 (14:03):
He then resigned his commissary March of eighteen fifty one
and then returned to the eighth Infantry. Long Street served
on frontier duty in Texas at Fort Martin Scott near Fredericksburg.
The primary purpose of this in Texas was to protect
frontier communities against Engines and so racist against Indians, and
long Street frequently participated in scouting missions against the.

Speaker 3 (14:24):
Comanche as well. Those pastors.

Speaker 2 (14:26):
Oh.

Speaker 3 (14:26):
I know his family remained in San Antonio and he
saw them regularly, a good friend. Eighteen fifty four, he
was then transferred to He said, you want to see
your family, you go all the way to al Paso,
which is one hundred thousand hours away. Ridiculous. He was
transferred to.

Speaker 2 (14:40):
Fort Bliss and al Paso and Luis and the children. Oh,
they went with them.

Speaker 3 (14:43):
Good for you, Good for them. Right, I'll come to
the other guys just taking their family with them, right
eighteen because they didn't wow them there. Eight eighteen fifty five,
long Street was involved in fighting against the Mescalero, which
is a tribe of the Apaches and New Maygo. He
assumed command of the garrison at Fort Bliss. Okay, I
guess that low fight didn't mean nothing, huh. He as

(15:05):
soon commanded of the garrison at Fort Bliss on two
occasions between the spring of eighteen fifty six and the
spring of eighteen fifty eight. The small size of the
garrison allowed for easy socialization with the local people, and
the fort's location allowed for visits with Louise's parents in
Santa Fe, Longstreet performed scouting missions. Well look at him.

Speaker 2 (15:24):
In March forty nine, eighteen fifty eight, he wrote to
the Adjudant General's office in Washington. He requested that he'd
be assigned a recruiting duty in the East, which would
allow him to be to get some better education first children.
He was granted a six month leave, but the request
for assignment in the East was denied and he was
instead directed to serve as major and paymaster for the
eighth Infantry in the Leavenworth, Kansas.

Speaker 3 (15:45):
That's not bad.

Speaker 2 (15:46):
He left his son Garland in a school at Yonkers,
New York, before journey into Kansas. On the way, Longstreet
came across his old friend Grant and Saint Louis. After
about a year in Levenworth, he was transferred to Colonel
Garland's department Albuquerque, New Mexico. Oh, and to there he
was going to serve as paymaster, where he was joined Yep,
you guess it by his wife and their children.

Speaker 3 (16:08):
Nice. She's like, you're going to serve under my daddy.
Knowledge of Longstreet's pre war life it's extremely limited. He's
a private man. His experience resembles that of many Civil
War generals in so far that as he went to
West Point, he served in distinction in the war with Mexico,
and he continued his career in the peacetime army of

(16:28):
the eighteen fifties. But beyond that, very very little details.
He left no diary. His lengthy memoirs focused almost entirely
on recounting and defending his Civil War military record, had
they reveal little of his personal side, while providing only
a very cursory view of his pre war activities. Eighteen

(16:50):
eighty nine fire destroyed personal papers, making it so that
the number of existing Antebellum private letters written by Longstreet
could be counted on one hand. Oh that sucks.

Speaker 2 (17:03):
At the beginning of the Civil War, Longstreet was paymaster
for the United States Army and station in Albuquerque. After
news of Fort Sumter, he joined his fellow Southerners and
leaving the post.

Speaker 3 (17:12):
So I'm getting out, airboys, oh wow.

Speaker 2 (17:14):
And his memoirs long Street he calls it a sad
day and records that a number of Northern officers attempted
to persuade him not to go.

Speaker 3 (17:21):
He writes that he asked one of them.

Speaker 2 (17:23):
What course he would pursue if his state should pass
ordinances of secession and call him to its defense. Right,
he confessed that they would obey the call.

Speaker 3 (17:31):
Right. See, there's so that's a lot of people don't
realize too. Back then, they're more loyal to this country man. Basically,
they're more loyal to the state than the country as
a whole. Long Street was no enthusiastic about succession from
the Union, but he had long been infused with the
concept of states rights and felt he could not go
against his homeland, sweet sweet Georgia, although he was born

(17:56):
in South Carolina and brought up in Georgia. He offered
his services to Alabama. Hey why not? So yeah, so
that'll even loyal to your damn state, so right, wow,
which he had appointed him, which had appointed him to
West Point and where his mother still lived. He was
the senior west Point graduate from that state, which meant

(18:18):
that he could potentially be placed in command that states.
He won the command of I mean beautiful after suddenly
his accounts. He submitted his resignation letter from the United
States Army on the ninth of May eighteen sixty one.
That's after for it something there month after intending to
join the old Confederacy, he said, I gotta go, I

(18:39):
gotta go. He had already accepted a commission as a
lieutenant colonel in the Confederate States Army on the first
of May. His resignation from the United States Army was
accepted on June first. I think, yeah, Joyce, but.

Speaker 2 (18:50):
Right they're like no, no, that long street. He arrived
in Richmond with his new commission. He then met with
Confederate President Jefferson Davis at the Executive Mansion June twenty second,
where he was informed that he had been appointed a
brigadier general with the date rank of June seventeenth, a
commission he accepted on June twenty fifth.

Speaker 3 (19:08):
Why it took so long?

Speaker 2 (19:09):
He was ordered to report to Brigadier General PGT. Beauregard
at Manassas where he was given command of a brigade
of a brigade of three Virginia regiments, which were the first,
eleventh and seventeen Infantry.

Speaker 3 (19:20):
Okay, and the Confederate Army of the Potomac. When what, Yeah,
I think that turned into the Northern Virginia. North Virginia
short lived.

Speaker 2 (19:30):
The only major combat was First Battle War one. Really, yeah,
the Army of the Shenandoah was merged into it, and yeah,
it was renamed the Army of Northern Virginia.

Speaker 3 (19:40):
Long Street assembled to his staff and trained his brigade incessantly, incessantly.
On July sixteenth, eighteen sixty one, Union Brigadier General Irvin
McDowell began marching his army toward Manassas Junction. Little did
they know of the fight they had ahead of them.
Long streets brigade first saw action at Blackbirds Ford on
July eight when it collided with McDowell's Advanced Division under

(20:03):
Brigadier General Daniel Tyler, clashing heavily with the Brigade of
Israel L. Richardson. An inmagery charge pushed Longstreet's men back,
and in his own words, long Street said, we rode
with saber in hand for the leading files, determined to
give them all that was in the sword and my
horse's heels, or stopped the break.

Speaker 2 (20:25):
Colonel jewbe Earley's brigade arrived at reinforced lawn Street. One
of Early's regiments, seventh Virginia, fired a volley while Longstreet
was still in front of its position, forcing him to
dive off his horse dam Under the renewed competitive strength,
though the Union left Wavered Tyler withdrew as he had
orders not to bring on a general engagement anyways.

Speaker 3 (20:44):
This battle preceded First.

Speaker 2 (20:45):
Ball Run, obviously, which clearly when the main attack came
at the opposite end of the line. July twenty first,
long Street's brigade endured artillery fire for nine hours, but
played a minor role in the fighting.

Speaker 3 (20:55):
Between five and six. In the evening, long Street received
an order from Brigadier General Joseph Johnston instructed him to
take pot in the pursuit of the Federal troops who
had been defeated and were fleeing the battlefield. He obeyed,
but when he met Brigadier General Millage Bonham's brigade Bonham,
who out ranked long Street, he said, retreat, motherfucker. He said, wait,

(21:15):
we're supposed to follow this guy. The same order soon
arrived from Johnston. Longstreet was infuriated that his commanders would
not allow a vigorous pursuit of the defeated Union army
right His chief of staff, Moxley's Sorrow, recorded that he
was in a fine rage. He dashed his hat fiercely
to the ground, stamped and bitter words escaped him. He

(21:39):
quoted Longstreet as saying, afterward, retreat hell. Federal army has
broken pieces. We see, look at both sides could have
done something.

Speaker 2 (21:49):
October seventh, long Street was promoted to major general and
assumed command of a division in the newly reorganized and.

Speaker 3 (21:54):
Renamed Competitate Army of Northern Virginia, which.

Speaker 2 (21:57):
Was under Johnson at this time, and where he said,
part of the Potomac and Shenando with four infantry brigades
commanded by Generals D. H. Hill, David Jones, Bonham, and
Lewis Wigfall, as well as Hampton's Legion commanded by Wade
Hampton the third.

Speaker 3 (22:11):
Oh, that's all his guys, fantastic. Tenth of January eighteen
sixty two, long Street traveled under orders from Johnson to Richmond,
where he discussed with Davis the creation of a conscription
program is buyes. We need a lot more people. We
got to force him to come in there right. He
spent much of the intervening time with Louise and their children,

(22:33):
and was back at the army headquarters in Centreville by
January twentieth ten day leave that's cool. A day or
two later, he received a telegram Teligram informed him that
all four of his children were extremely sick in an
outbreak of scarlet fever and scarlet fever. Long Street immediately
jumped on his horse and hooked it to the city.
Long Street arrived in Richmond before the death of his

(22:55):
one year old daughter, Mary Anne long Street on a
twenty fifth of January eighteen sixty two. Four year old
James died following day. Oh my goodness, dude.

Speaker 2 (23:07):
Oh no, it's not over with because eleven year old
Augustus Baldwin they called Gus, died on February first.

Speaker 3 (23:13):
You lose three children within a week.

Speaker 2 (23:16):
His thirteen year old son Garland remained ill but appeared
to be out of mortal danger. George Pickett and his
future wife LaSalle Corbel, they were in the Long Streets
Company throughout the affair.

Speaker 3 (23:25):
Oh good George.

Speaker 2 (23:26):
They arranged the funeral in burials, which, for unknown reasons,
neither Longstreet nor.

Speaker 3 (23:30):
His wife attended. They couldn't. How could you, jes long Street.
He returned to army February fifth, oh, wanting to kills
some Blue Coats.

Speaker 2 (23:39):
He rushed back to Richmond later in the month when
Garland took a turn for the worse, came back after
he recovered. The losses were devastating for long Street, and
he became withdrawn and both personally and socially. Now we
know why I didn't write about his life right eighteen
sixty one. His headquarters were noted for parties, drinking and
poker games.

Speaker 3 (23:55):
They were rails. Now, dude, you got set eight or
six more kids, dude.

Speaker 2 (24:01):
After he returned the headquarter, Solcial life became for a
time more somber, though he rarely drank, which is surprising,
and his religious devotion increased well. That spring Union General
Union Major General George mccollan, commander of the Army Potomac,
launched a Peninsula campaign, intending to capture the Confederate capital
of rich Man.

Speaker 3 (24:22):
In his memoirs, Long Street wrote that wild temporary command
of the Confederate Army, he proposed to Thomas Stonewall Jackson
that he marched to Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley Combined Forces.
No evidence has emerged for this claim.

Speaker 2 (24:36):
Wega I found the delay of the Union offensive against
their Richmond At the Siege of Yorktown, Johnson oversaw a
tactical withdrawal to the outskirts of Richmond.

Speaker 3 (24:45):
Where defenses had already been prepared.

Speaker 2 (24:47):
Longstreet's division formed the rear Guard, which was heavily engaged
at the Battle of Williamsburg.

Speaker 3 (24:51):
May fifth.

Speaker 2 (24:52):
Their Union troops, beginning with Joseph Hooker's Division of the
Third Corps, which was Union by the Way, which was
commanded by Samuel Henselman, came out of a forest into
open ground to attack long Streets.

Speaker 3 (25:02):
Men. That's nice, open ground. That's where the Union wants
to be right to protect the army supply wagons. Long
Street counter attack with the brigades of Cadmis Wilcox, A. P. Hill,
George Pickett Rallied Colston and two other regiments. The drove
the Union soldiers back. Finding the ground he occupied untenable.

(25:23):
Longstreet requests the reinforcements from D. H. Hill's Division a
little further up the road. They were and received Early's
brigade to which was later added to the entire division. Home.
That's nice, old juwbra Early then launched a fruitless and
bloody attack well after the wagons had already been safely evacuated. Overall,
the battle was a success, protecting the passage of the
confederates supply wagons delaying the advance of McClellan's army towards Richmond.

(25:48):
Good for you. The affair gave the Confederate's possession of
four cannons. McClellan inaccurately characterized the battle as a Union
victory in a dispatch to Washington.

Speaker 2 (25:57):
Where He've done mccollan all that May thirty first, during
the Battle of Seven Pines, Longstreet received his orders verbally
from Johnson, but apparently he misremembered them. He marched his
men in the wrong direction, down the wrong road, causing
congestion and confusion with the other Confederate units, and deluded
the effect of the Confederate counter attack against mccollin.

Speaker 3 (26:15):
Oh shit, what are you doing?

Speaker 2 (26:16):
Long He then got into an argument with Major General
Benjamin Huger over who had seniority, causing a significant delay.

Speaker 3 (26:23):
Oh wow.

Speaker 2 (26:24):
When Dhil subsequently asked Longstreet for reinforcements, he complied but
failed to properly coordinate his brigades. Only one of long
Street's brigades and none of Huger's reached the field.

Speaker 3 (26:33):
Oh wow, Oh, what's going on here? Late in the day,
Major General Edwin Vos Sumner crossed the rain swollen Chickenhamanee
River with two divisions. He had General Johnson wounded during
this very battle. Although Johnson preferred Longstreet as his replacement,
command of the Army of Northern Virginia shifted two G. W. Smith,

(26:53):
the senior major general, only for one day, though, because
on June first, Richardson's division of Sumner's court and Kate H.
Longstreet's man a route in Lewis Armistead's brigade, but the
brigades of Picket, William Mahone and Roger Addison prior position
in the woods, managed to hold it back. Good for you.

Speaker 2 (27:11):
That was after six hours of fighting. The battle ended
in a draw. Johnson praised long Streets performance in the battle,
and biographer William Garrett Piston calls it the lowest point
in Longstreets military career.

Speaker 3 (27:22):
Oh Wow.

Speaker 2 (27:23):
Longstreets report unfairly blamed Huger for the mishaps. Of course,
June first, the President's military adviser Robert E. Lee he
assumed command of the Army of the Northern Virginia mm HM,
and his memoirs Longstreet suggested that he initially doubted Lee's
capacity for command. He wrote that his arrival was quote
unquote far from reconciling the troops to the loss of
our beloved Chief Joseph Johnston. He wrote that Lee did

(27:45):
not have much of a reputation at the time that
he took command, and there were therefore miss gibbons about
Lee's power and skill for power and skill for field
service not tested.

Speaker 3 (27:56):
Wow. In late June, Lee organized a plan to drive
mccollin's army away from the Capitol, which culminated in the
Seven Day Battles. At daybreak twenty seventh of June, at
Gaines Mill, the Old Rabbit Army attacked the Fifth Corps
of the Blue Coats under Brigadier General John Fitzporter fitz
John Porter, which was positioned north of the Chickahamanee River,
I'm mccollins right flank. The Blue Coats held their lines

(28:19):
for most of the day against attacks from the division's
ab Hill and dh Hill and Jackson did not arrive
until that afternoon. At about five pm, Longstreet received orders
from Lee to join this very battle. Longstreet's fresh brigades
under Pickett and Richard Anderson, accompanied by the brigades of
Brigadier General John Bellhood and Colonel E. Vander Law from
William Whiting's Division, they charged the Union lines, forcing them

(28:41):
to retreat across the Chicka Homedy. Longstreet was engaged again
on June thirtieth, on about two twenty thousand men at
Glendale Nice. He departed from his usual strategy of placing
troops several lines deep and instead spread them out, which,
in the opinion of some military historians, cost him that battle.
His efforts were further damage by the slowness of other

(29:01):
Confederate commanders. McClellan was able to withdraw his armory to
the high plateau of Melvern Hill. Jackson, engaged at Oak Swamp,
ignored reports of ways in which to cross the swamp,
and he refused to answer an inquiry from long Street
staff officer John Fairfax, Oh. Huger's advance was slow enough
to allow Federal troops to be transported away from the

(29:23):
guarding him and towards long Street and Theopolis. Holmes also
performed poorly. Nearly fifty thousand Frederick troops stood within a
few miles of the field at Glendale and rendered little
to no assistance.

Speaker 2 (29:36):
That's sad, and a reconnaissance of the evening June thirtieth,
Longstreet reported to Lee that conditions were favorable enough to
justify the assault at the metal of Malvern Hill. The
next day, long Street surrendered ap Hill's entire division to
John mcgruiter and Marsh's remained in troops toward the Union
positions on the Confederate extreme right. His men were exposed
to fire on their flanks from McLellan's troops and were

(29:58):
forced to withdraw without success. Throughout the battles of the
seven days, Longstreet had operational command of nearly half of
Lee's army, which was fifteen brigades. As it drove McCallin
back down to Penza Well, long Street performer aggressively and
quite well in his new larger command, particularly at Gaines
Mills and Glendale, Oh. Lee's army suffered from poor maps,

(30:20):
organizational flaws, and weak performances by long Street's peers, including
uncharacteristically Stonewall Jackson app and it was unable to destroy
the Union Army. Maxley Sorrow wrote of long Street's confidence
and calmness into battle, he was like a rock instead,
all right, he was like a rock and steadiness when
sometimes in battle, and the world seen flying to pieces.

(30:44):
Lee he said shortly after seven days Longstreet was a
staff in my right hand.

Speaker 3 (30:49):
Now, I'm just thinking. Lee just says this about anybody. Now.
He had been established as Lee's principal Lieutenant.

Speaker 2 (30:56):
Lee reorganized the Army of Northern Virginia after seven days battles,
increasing Longstreet's command from six to twenty eight brigade. Longstreet
took command of the right wing, later known as the
First Corps, and Jackson was given command to the left
wing right. Over time, Lee and Longstreet became good friends
and set up headquarters very near each other. Despite sharon

(31:18):
with Jackson a belief in temperance as well as deep
religious conviction, Lee never developed a.

Speaker 3 (31:23):
Strong friendship with him. Wow is that what Jackson?

Speaker 2 (31:27):
He never developed a strong friendship, but he knew this
dude was his best guy. Piston speculates that the more
relaxed atmosphere of Longstreets headquarters, which included gambling and drinking,
allowed Lee to relax and take his mind off the
war and reminded him of his happier younger days.

Speaker 3 (31:42):
Right, man, you don't want to be late? Right? Yeah?
Fucking kick it back and whiskey or two fantastic. After
the campaign, an editorial appeared in the Richmond Examiner which
inaccurately claimed that the Battle of Glendale was fought exclusively
by General A. P. Hill and the forces under his command.
Who long Street was pissed, so he drafted a letter
refute in the article, which was published in a Virginia Whig,

(32:05):
I mean the Richmond rig not even the Examiner. Hill
took offense and requested that his division be transferred out
of long Street's command, but Lee was like, calm down,
all because you're both staying. Then He'll refused to even
accede to Longstreet's repeated requests for information, and it was
eventually arrested on long Street's orders. And this is who
DH apl really? I remember AP and DH didn't get

(32:27):
along either. He challenged long Street to a duel. Long
Street said hell yeah, Lee said no, I'm gonna transfer
Hill into Jackson's command, right, no, no, no, hold on,
He's The military reputation of Lee's cor commanders are often
characterized as Stonewall Jackson representing the audacious offensive component of

(32:49):
Lee's army, with long Street more typically advocating and executing
strong defensive strategies and tactics work. The story in describes
Jackson as the hammer, Longstreet as the Annville Nice. In
the first part of the Northern Virginia Campaign of August sixth,
eighteen sixty two, this stereotype held true, but in the
climactic battle it did not. Oh In June, the federal

(33:12):
government created the fifty thousand strong Army of Virginia and
put Major General John Pope in command. Sure did John
Pope Well Pope. He moved south in an attempt to
attack Lee and threaten Richmond once again through an overland march.
Lee left Longstreet near Richmond to guard the city and
dispatch Jackson to hinder Pope's advance. Jackson won a major

(33:33):
victory at the Battle of Cedar Mountain. After learning that
McClellan as ordered had dispatched troops north to assist Pope.
Lee said, Longstreet, you moved north bud leaving only three
divisions under G. W. Smith to protect Richmond against McClellan's
reduced force.

Speaker 2 (33:49):
Longstreet's men began there March taluk Is seventeenth, aided by
Stuart's Calvary Calvary. August twenty third, long Street engaged Pope's
position in a minor artillery duel at the First Battle
of a Rappahannock Station. The Confederate Washington artillery was heavily
damaged and a Union shell landed feet away from Longstreet
and Wilcox but failed to explode.

Speaker 3 (34:08):
Ooh, I could have been dead.

Speaker 2 (34:10):
Meanwhile, Stuart's cavalry cavalry rode around the Army of Virginia
and captured hundreds of soldiers and horses, as well as
some of Pope's personal belongings.

Speaker 3 (34:18):
Oh, we got the personal belongings.

Speaker 2 (34:21):
Jackson executed his sweeping flankol maneuver that captured Pope's main
sofiety Pope as well.

Speaker 3 (34:25):
He then placed his core near the rear of Pope's army.
But he then took up a defensive position and effectively
invited Pope to assault him. I hear. If I invite
you to assault me, you're formally invited to an assault tonight.
Bring your own fist u yof on' twenty eighth August

(34:46):
and the twenty ninth, the start of the Second Battle
of bull Run began. Nasses, Pope pounded Jackson, his long Street,
and the remainder of the army marched from the west
through Thoroughfare Gap to reach the battlefield. On the afternoon
of a twenty eight long Street engage at five thousand
man Federal Division under James Ricketts. At the Battle of

(35:08):
Thoroughfare Gap. Ricketts had been ordered to delay long Street's
march toward the main Confederate army. He did that, but
he took up his position way too late, allowing George
Anderson's bri Dade to occupy the high ground. Album I
can't do that would have won that battle if they
would have done that well.

Speaker 2 (35:24):
Lee and Longstreet watched the battle together and decided to
flank the Union position Hood's Division and a brigade under
Henry Benning. They advanced towards the gap from the north
end the south, respectively. Wow Wilcox's Division followed in a
six mile march northward.

Speaker 3 (35:39):
Ricketts.

Speaker 2 (35:40):
He realized his position was untenable and what drew that evening,
allowing long Street to join up with the rest of
the Lee's army. Post war criticism of long Street claimed
that he marched his men too slowly, leaving Jackson to
bear the brunt of the fighting for two days. But
they covered roughly thirty miles an hour. But they covered
roughly thirty miles and over twenty a little over twenty

(36:01):
four hours, and Lee did not attempt to get his
army concentrated any faster either.

Speaker 3 (36:06):
When Longstreet's men arrived on the field around midday twenty
ninth of August, Lee planned a flanking attack on the
Union army, which at this point is concentrating his attention
on Jackson. So Longstreet demerged the three suggestions from uh
Lee urging him to attack, recommending instead of a reconcissance,
and forced to survey the ground in front of him.

(36:26):
This confirmed the presence of Porter's fifth court in front
of his lines. By six thirty pm, Hood's division moved
forward against Porter and drove back to soldiers they didn't counted,
but it had to be withdrawn at night when it
advanced too far ahead of the main lines.

Speaker 2 (36:41):
Despite the smashing victory that followed, Longstreet he was eventually
criticized criticized for allegedly being slow, reluctant to attack, and disobedient.

Speaker 3 (36:51):
To General Lee.

Speaker 2 (36:52):
Oh Lee's biographer Douglas Southall Freeman, he wrote, the seeds
of much disaster at Gettysburg were sown in that when
Lee yielded to Longstreet and Longstreet discovered that he would
Oh long Street's.

Speaker 3 (37:06):
Like all right.

Speaker 2 (37:09):
Work, on the other hand, he disputched this conclusion, pointing
out that in a post war letter to Longstreet, Porter
told him that had he attacked him that day, Longstreet's
loss would have been enormous.

Speaker 3 (37:19):
Yeah, of course it would have undefending ode Longstreet. Are
you a porter? Despite this criticism, the following day was,
according to Work, one of Longstreet's finest performances of the war.
After his attacks on the twenty ninth, Pope came to believe,
with little evidence that Jackson was in retreat. He ordered
a reluctant porter to pursue, and his car collided with

(37:41):
Jackson's men and suffered heavy casualties. The attack exposed the
Union left flank. Longstreet took advantage of this. He launched
a massive assault on the Union flank with over twenty
five thousand men. For over four hours, they pounded like
a giant hammer, with long Street actively directing artillery fire
and send him Gage into the fray. Longstreet and Lee

(38:02):
were together during this saw, and both of them came
under Union artillery fire.

Speaker 2 (38:08):
Although the Union troops put up a fierce defense, Pope's
army was forced to retreat in a manner similar to
the embarrassing Union defeat at the First Ball Run, which
was obviously on roughly the same battleground. Longstreet gave the
credit to Lee for the victory, describing the campaign as.

Speaker 3 (38:24):
Clever and brilliant. Brilliant.

Speaker 2 (38:26):
Nice established a strategic model he believed to be ideal,
which was the use of defensive tactics tactics within.

Speaker 3 (38:33):
A strategic offense.

Speaker 2 (38:35):
Right September one, Jackson's Corps moved to cut off the
Union retreat or the Battle of Shantiy. Longstreet's men remained
on the field the fool Pope and to think of that,
Lee's entire army was still on his front.

Speaker 3 (38:45):
After the Old Rebels success as second Manassa's Lee, holding
the strategic initiative, decided to take the war to Maryland
to relieve Virginia and hopefully induce foreign nations to come
to the Confederate's aid. He wanted them, but they weren't going.
They almost did. Long Street supported this plan. The situation
called for action, he said, and there was but one

(39:08):
opening across the Potomac. His men well. They crossed the
into Maryland on the sixth of September and arrived in
Frederick the following day, beginning the Maryland campaign. At the
Battle Antietam or Sharpsburg on the seventeenth September, rather than
commit his forces all that once, McClellan made a series
of partial attacks on the old Confederate troops at different

(39:30):
places throughout the day, while holding many of his troops,
including the entire Fit Coreps reserve. Yeah, McClean was, I
don't get it well.

Speaker 2 (39:38):
At down Hood's division on the Confederate left was driven
back by an assault by Hooker's and Joseph K. Mansfield's corps,
until reinforced by men from Jackson's command.

Speaker 3 (39:48):
More troops from.

Speaker 2 (39:48):
Both sides soon poured into the fighting, which raged for
three hours.

Speaker 3 (39:52):
At the center of the field, D. H.

Speaker 2 (39:54):
Hill's Division defended a six hundred yard position dominated by
a sunken wagon path. The position was naturally strong, made
more so by the pilon of planks from wooden fence
at the top of the ditch, and Hill's men firmly
repulsed two successive chargers from the divisions of William French
and Richardson.

Speaker 3 (40:11):
Yeah, they slaughtered these guys, did oh Hill? He did suffer. Uh.
Hill did suffer significant casualties, though, and Longstreet sent R. H.
Anderson's Division, which consists of thirty five hundred men, to
go reinforce Hill. Anderson was wounded and replaced by Prior.
At Prior's request, Longstreet sent artillery support and response to
Union cannon being fired at the old rebels in the

(40:33):
road from across the Antietam Creek. He also ordered a
Flincott movement by about nine hundred soldiers in the several
regiments led by Colonel John Rogers Cook. Union troops arrested
Cook's advance. An intense fight followed. Cook withdrew after his
AMMO was expended. A mistake in order allowed Union troops
to breach the Confederate position at the Sunken Road, but

(40:55):
the Old ReBs lines they were stabilized.

Speaker 2 (40:58):
At this point in the afternoon, I didn't largely seized,
except for on the Confederate right. The Union left wing
under Major General Ambrose Burnside attempted to cross the Antietam
Creek at what would become known as Burnside's Bridge, while
Jones's division, led by Brigadier General Robert Toombs's brigade defended
the heights on the western side of the creek. For hours,
the Union troops tried to cross the river and failed

(41:19):
five times. Finally, about four PM, flankln maneuver forced Tombs
to withdraw. After the further engagement, the remainder of Jones's
division was forced to give way, and Burnside's men occupied
the crest overlooking the river. Before pressing their.

Speaker 3 (41:32):
Advantage, the progress was arrested by the arrival ap Hills
Division under Jackson from Hopper's Ferry. Fighting ensued in town
of Shopsburg until Burnside withdrew his man at dusk. The
Old ReBs pursued their enemy, but stopped once to Retreating
troops came under the protection of a battery on the
oppi's side of the River, ending the Battle of Antietam

(41:52):
after eighteen hours of fighting. At the end of that
bloody It's day of the Civil War, Lee greeted his
supportment by saying, Ah, here's long Street, here's my old
war horse. They love each oller.

Speaker 2 (42:07):
Lee held his ground at Antenam until the even of
September eighteenth, when he withdrew his army from the battlefield
and took it back across.

Speaker 3 (42:13):
The Potomac end of Virginia.

Speaker 2 (42:15):
October ninth, a few weeks after Longstreet He's promoted Lieutenant General. Lee,
he arranged for long Street's promotion to be dated one
day earlier than Jackson's, making the old war Horse the
senior lieutenant general in the Army of the Northern Virginia.
Look at that and an army reorganization in November, long
Street's command was designated the First Corps, Jackson's the second.

Speaker 3 (42:35):
The First Corps.

Speaker 2 (42:36):
Consisted of five divisions, which is about forty one thousand men,
which the divisions were commanded by la Fayette Mclaw's R. H.
Anderson Hood Pickett and Robert Ransom Junior.

Speaker 3 (42:47):
Fantastic. After a lengthy interlude with little military activity, beginning
on twenty sixth of October, McClellan marched his army across
the Potomac again. On the seventh of November, Lincoln replacing
the in with Burnside. The fifteenth November, Burnside began moving
his army south towards Fredericksburg, Virginia, midway between the opposing capitals.

(43:09):
On the eighteenth of November, Longstreet began marching his men
out of army headquarters in Culpepper towards Fredericksburg, where the
Confederate army would make it stand against Burnside. Since Lee
moved long Street to Fredericksburg early, it allowed Longstreet to
build strong defenses should Longstreet.

Speaker 2 (43:27):
He ordered trenches, vadas, and fieldworks to be constructed south
of the town along a stone wall at the foot
of Mary's Heights. After a lengthy delay caused by waiting
for the arrival of supplies to build pontoon bridges, Burnsiety
attempted to cross the Rappahannock December eleventh. Soldiers attempting to
lay pontoon bridges encountered fierce resistance from Confederate troops inside Fredericksburg,

(43:47):
which was led by William Barksdale's brigade of Mclaws's division.
Burnsiety subsequently ordered an artillery bombardment of the town, and
by the following day he had moved.

Speaker 3 (43:56):
His army across and occupied Fredericksburg. Twelve saw only a
little bit of a desultory fighting Longstreet. He had his
men firmly entrenched on the thirteenth of December. On Berneside's orders,
troops from the Union Right Grand Division under Sumner and
the Senate Grand Division under Hooker undertook to carry the
position held by Longstreet's troops, who, contrary to some of

(44:18):
their expectations, found themselves at the center of the battle.
We weren't supposed to be doing this. The very first
blue Coat saw on Longstreet's man at Mary's Height was
a disastrous failure, causing approximately one thousand casualties within thirty
minutes oh I.

Speaker 2 (44:34):
When Lee expressed apprehension at the Federal troops that they
might overrun Longstreet's men, Longstreet replied that as long as
he had sufficient AMMO, he would kill them all before
any of them reached his line. He advised him to
look towards Jackson's more tenuous position on the right, go
over there and mess with him.

Speaker 3 (44:51):
Longstreet.

Speaker 2 (44:52):
He was proven correct, as from their strong position, his
troops easily repalled several assaults.

Speaker 3 (44:56):
Damn.

Speaker 2 (44:57):
In some places behind the stone wall, Confederate ranks were
four to five troops deep.

Speaker 3 (45:02):
Nice.

Speaker 2 (45:02):
Soldiers in the rear loaded rifles passed them up front,
so that the fire was virtually continuous.

Speaker 3 (45:07):
Nice. That's yeah, it's like an assembly line of fire. Dude, yeah, yeah. Oh.
Rebel troops were well protected, although they did suffer one
notable casualty. When Brigadier General Thomas Reid Roots Cobb, who
commanded a brigade and the Clause Division that was positioned
at the front of the stone wall, moiited one Union
general compare the scene and before Mary's Heights to a

(45:30):
great slaughter pen and said that his men might as
well have tried to take Hell. The Claws estimated that
only one Union soldier lay dead within thirty yards of
the wall. The rest haven't fallen much farther back. Wow.
Jackson meanwhile, managed, which much greater difficulty to repel a
strong union of sought spearheaded about a division of George

(45:50):
Meade Long Street was like, hey, by Jackson needs up
over there.

Speaker 2 (45:56):
Since then that the rest of his troops would be
adequate to defend his position on the Confederate left on
the High Heights. Longstreet he had ordered Hood to reinforce
Jackson and Pickt to cooperate with him, but Hood hesitated
and sending his division forward, and by the time he did,
the fighting on Jackson's front had mostly ended.

Speaker 3 (46:11):
Anyways.

Speaker 2 (46:12):
Longstreet express regret after the war for not bringing the
delinquit Hood to trial. Burnside intended to attack again the
next day, but several of his officers, particularly Sumner, they
advised against it, and so they entrenched and withdrew on
December fifteenth instead.

Speaker 3 (46:28):
In Longstreet's report, he praised his men and officers while
asking them to contribute money for the residents of Fredericksburg.
Lee's report strongly commended Jackson and Longstreet. Burnside's army had
suffered twelve six hundred and fifty three casualties at Fredericksburg,
about seventy percent of them were in front of Mary's Heights.
Lee suffered only three hundred losses, about nineteen hundred which

(46:51):
came from long Street. Lieutenant Colonel Edward Porter Alexander of
the artillery described Fredericksburg as the easiest battle we ever fought.

Speaker 2 (47:01):
Octilber eighteen sixty two, long Street had suggested that Joe
Johnston that he'd be sent to fight the war in
Western theater. Shortly after Fredericksburg, Longstreet vaguely suggested to Lee
that one corps could hold the line of the Rappahannock
while the other was operating elsewhere. February of eighteen sixty three,
he made a more specific request, this time suggested to Wigfall,
that is Korby detached from the Army of Northern Virginia

(47:23):
and sent to reinforce the Army of Tennessee, where Braxon
Bragg was being challenged by the Army of the Cumberland
under Major General William Rosecrans, who happened to be Longstreet's
roommate at West Point, Oh fantasy.

Speaker 3 (47:34):
Why you wanted to go there? He's like, see what
you got, old williew By this time Longstreet could be
identified as part of a Western concentration block, which believed
that reinforcing Confederate armies operating in the Western theater to
protect the states in that part of the Confederacy from
invasion was more important than offensive campaigns in the Eastern theater.
I believe so could see what happened. Motherfuckers came in

(47:55):
from the west. West was gone, man. Then you got
everybody just focusing on the east. This group also included
Johnston and Lewis Wickfall, now a Confederate senator, both of
whom long Street was very, very close with. These people
were generally cautious and believed that the Old Confederacy, with
his limited resources, should engage in a defensive rather than
offensive war. I don't know, man, you guys aren't trying

(48:18):
to leave. Lee did detach two divisions from the First Corps,
but ordered them to Richmond, not Tennessee.

Speaker 2 (48:25):
The Confederate army was suffering from an acute food shortage. Obviously,
Southern Virginia was said to have large quantities of cattle
and substantial stores of bacon and corn. Meanwhile, seaborne movements
of the Union Ninth Corps they were thought to be
aimed at launching an invasion of the Confederate coasts anywhere
from South Carolina up to southern Virginia. In response, Lee
ordered Picket's division to the capitol in mid February. Hood's

(48:48):
division followed. Then Longstreet himself was stowed to take a
mand of the detached divisions and the departments of North
Carolina and Southern Virginia, the division of McLaws and Anderson.

Speaker 3 (48:57):
They remained with Lee. So do you guys go defend
the capitol, will stay out here right. In March, Longstreet's
men primarily conducted foraging expeditions in Virginia and North Carolina.
Longstreet sent Brigadier General Richard Garnett's brigade to D. H.
Hill to participate in Hill's attempt to capture New Bern,
which was a town on the North Carolina coast which

(49:18):
had fallen to the Union in March of eighteen sixty two.
The campaign was unsuccessful, but netted did considered role mono supplies,
and April long Street besieged Union forces in the city
of sofol which is in Virginia. Fighting was light, nothing
came of the siege. At the end of April, long
Street was ordered by Secretary of War James Seddon to

(49:38):
join Lee's army as a face attack from the Army Potomac,
now commanded by Hooker at the Battle of Chancersville. And
this one Hall starts going down hiszeles.

Speaker 2 (49:47):
Indeed moved his divisions north, but could not reach the
battle in time. Longstreet's foraging operations yielded enough food to
feed Lee's entire army for two months. Nice However, no
further military objective was reached, and the OPPERA caused long
Street and fifteen thousand men of the First Court to
be absent from Chancerville that could have helped out. Eventually,
Longstreet came out of criticism from political enemies, claiming that

(50:10):
he could have marched his men back from Suffolk and time.

Speaker 3 (50:12):
Oh sure, However, sorel He.

Speaker 2 (50:14):
Says that it was humanly impossible for the men to
move any faster than what they were.

Speaker 3 (50:18):
I you know, I'd love to see these critics do
these marches themselves following off funning games, So you gotta
get out there and do it. Following Chances Villain the
death of Old Stonewall Jackson, Longstreet and Lee met in
mid May to discuss the army's summer campaign, which wasn't
going to look too well either. Long Street once more
pushed for the detachment of all were part of his

(50:41):
court to be sent to Tennessee, and justification for this
course of action was becoming more urgent as Union Major
General Ulyis says Grant was advancing on a critical Confederate
stronghold on the Mississippi River in Vicksburg. Longstreet argued that
every evenforced army under Bragg could defeat Rose Cranes and
Drive or the Ohio River, which would compel Grant to

(51:02):
break his hold on Vicksburg, which probably would have And
then you wouldn't have the defeat of Vicksburg. He probably
still would have had Gettysburg. Maybe. Well.

Speaker 2 (51:11):
He advanced these views during the meeting was setting who
approved of the idea but doubted that Lee would, and
appine that Davis would be unlikely to go against Lee's wishes,
to which yeah, Longstreet had criticized Bragg's generalship and may
have been hoping to replace him, although he also might
have wished to see Joseph Johnson take command. Indicated that
he would be content to serve under him as core commander.

Speaker 3 (51:32):
Okay, they hated Ragon, dude, all right. Well, Lee once
again didn't like the idea, and he prevented this idea
by telling Davis that partying with large numbers of troops
would force him to move his army closer to Richmond,
and instead advanced a plan to invade Pennsylvania. Oh, shouldn't
have done that, buddy. A campaign in the north would

(51:54):
relieve agricultural military pressure that the war was placing on Virginia,
North Carolina, and by threatening federal city, disrupt Union offensive elsewhere.
And he wrote support for the war among northern civilians
and didn't work all that way.

Speaker 2 (52:09):
And his memoirs, Longstreet described his reaction to Lee's proposal.
He said, his planner wishes announced it became useless and
improper to offer suggestions leading to a different course. All
that I could ask was that the policy of the
campaign should be one of defensive tactics. That we should
work so as to force the enemy to attack us
in such good position as we might find in our

(52:30):
own country, so well adapted to that purpose, which might
assure us of a grand triumph. To this he readily
assented as an important and material d jumped to his
general plan. Uh so he wanted to stay in his
own in their own territory, and not even attack.

Speaker 3 (52:48):
Oh No, I would not leave it there. There's conflicting
evidence for the veracity of Longstreets account, though it was
written years after the campaign and it's affected by hindsight.
Both of their own to the battle, and of heavy
post bellum criticisms, yeah and letters of the time. Longstreet
made no reference to such a bargain. April of eighteen

(53:09):
sixty eight, Lee said that he had never made any
such promise and had never thought of doing any such thing.
Yet in his post batter report, Lee wrote, it had
not been intended to fight at general battle at such
a distance from our base unless attacked by the end
of me. So he's lying saving face.

Speaker 2 (53:29):
The Army North of Virginia was reorganized after Jackson's death
clearly two division commanders, Richard Ewell and A. P.

Speaker 3 (53:34):
Hill.

Speaker 2 (53:35):
They were promoted lieutenant general, and they assumed command of
the second and the newly third newly created Third Corps, respectively.
Longstreet's First Corps gave up R. H. Anderson's division during
the reorganization, Wedge left Longstreet with the divisions of hood,
Mclaw's and Picket.

Speaker 3 (53:50):
Oh he's like these guys. After determining that an advanced
North was inevitable, Longstreet dispatched the scout Henry Thomas Harrison,
whom he had met during the Sofolk campaign. He said,
go gather some info for me, but he paid Harrison
in gold and told him that he did not care
to see him till he could bring information of importance.
Yule's corps led the army north, followed by long Streets

(54:13):
and then Hill. The first corps crossed the Potomac River
on June twenty fifth through the twenty sixth.

Speaker 2 (54:20):
Harrison then he came back and reported to long Street
on the evening of the twenty eighth, and he was
instrumental in warning and he was instrumental in warning the
Confederates that the Army of the Potomac was advancing north
to meet them more quickly than they had anticipated, and
was already gathered around Frederick, Maryland Lee. He was initially skeptical,
but the report prompted him to order the immediate concentration

(54:42):
of his army north of Frederick, near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Harrison
also brought news that Hooker had been to replaced as
commander of the Army of the Potomac by Mead.

Speaker 3 (54:51):
And this is probably what they didn't want.

Speaker 2 (54:52):
Because they've already faced Mead Yep separately and beat their asses.

Speaker 3 (55:00):
Longstreet's actions at the Battle of Gettysburg will become the
centerpiece of lasting controversy yeh. He arrived on the battlefield
at about four thirty pm on the first day, which
was July first, eighteen sixty three, hours ahead of his troops.
Lee had not intended to fight before his army was
fully concentrated, but chance and decisions by A. P. Hill,

(55:20):
whose troops were the first to be engaged, brought on
the confrontation. The battle on the very first day was
a strong Confederate victory. Two Union corps had been driven
by Ewell and Hill from the positions north of Gettysburg
back through the town into the defensive positions on the
heights to the south.

Speaker 2 (55:36):
So we had always worked out in these bigger battles,
the Confederates usually got day one and then it just
went downhill from there down. A meeting with Lee, Longstreet
was concerned about the strength of the Union defensive position
on elevated ground and advocated a strategic movement around their
left leank to secure good ground between him and his capital,
which would presumably compel Meade to attack defensive positions erected

(55:58):
by the Confederates Instead. Lee exclaimed that the enemy is
there tomorrow, I will attack him. Longstreet replied, if he
is there tomorrow, it is because he wants you to attack.
All right, Lee, energized by the success of his army
that day, he refused, nothing can stop us now, right,
Lee seems a.

Speaker 3 (56:19):
Little hardheaded and stuff right there. Well, Longstreet, he is like, well,
if we're gonna do that, why don't we do an
immediate sault on the federal positions. But Lee once again
insisted on waiting for Hood and mcclaws, who were marching
towards Gettyberg on the Chambersburg Pike, giving the Union time
to set up the ship man Longstreet Senate carrier down
the Cashtown Road to hurry them along. Doesn't come on,

(56:39):
get you guys do that up there. They eventually hunkered
down about four miles behind the lines Picket. He was
performing rearguard duty in Cashtown and would not be ready
to move into morning. A major blunder occurred when you
will fail to seize the heights of Cemetery Hill after
being ordered to do so if practicable, and it was

(57:00):
they was, and couldn't do it, which go over picket
because then pick it got four shit.

Speaker 2 (57:05):
Lee's plan for the second called for long Street to
attack the Union's left flank, which was to be followed
by a hills attack and cemetery ridge near the center Yule,
he was demonstrated on the Union right. Longstreet again argued
for a flanking maneuver around the left of the Union,
but Lee rejected his plan. Longstreet was not ready to
attack as early as Lee envisioned. He received permission from

(57:27):
Lee to wait for Law's brigade of Put's Division to
reach the field before advancing.

Speaker 3 (57:31):
All marched.

Speaker 2 (57:32):
His men quickly covered twenty eight miles and eleven hours,
but didn't even arrive till noon Anyways, Yees.

Speaker 3 (57:39):
Twenty eight miles and eleven hours, three of long Street's
brigades were still in march Column, some distance from their
designated positions. Long street soldiers were forced to take a
long detour while approaching the enemy position, missed construction barrels
everywhere right, misled by inadequate reconnaissance that failed to identify
a completely concealed route. Damn post bellum criticism. Longstreet claims

(58:03):
that he was ordered by Lee to attack in the
early morning and that his delays were a significant contributor
to the loss of the battle. Early and William Pendleton
testified that Lee had ordered long Street to attack at sunrise,
and that Longstreet disobeyed oh Wow.

Speaker 2 (58:18):
This claim was factually untrue and denied by Lee's staff
officers Walter Taylor and Charles Marshall. Lee he agreed to
the delays for arriving troops, and he did not issue
his former order to attack until eleven am. Longstreet did
not aggressively pursue Lee's orders to launch an attack either,
though sorrow He writes that long Street unenthusiastic about the attack.
He displayed lethargy and bringing his troops for it, he said,

(58:41):
un whatever. While Lee expected an attack around noon, Longstreet
he wasn't even ready to ford damn need He used
that time, like I said, to bring more of his
troops for it, and just stupid get his shit built up,
man dum wow.

Speaker 3 (58:55):
Campaign historian Edwin Connington presents the approach to the federal
positions as a comedy of eras, such as one might
expect of inexperienced commanders and raw militia, but not of
Lee's wars and his vetting troops. Hood opposed an attack
on the Union left, arguing that the Union position was
too strong, and proposed that his troops we moved to

(59:17):
the riot near Big Ground Top and hit the Union
in the rear. Longstreet insisted that Lee had rejected this
plan and ordered him to make the exceut against the
front of the enemy lines. Once the assaught began around
four pm, Longstreet press mcclaws and Hoods strongly against heavy
Union resistance.

Speaker 2 (59:35):
Longstreet he personally led the attack on horseback Union Major
General Daniel Sickles. This guy command in the third Corps,
had contrary to Mead's orders. He marched his men to
the Peach Orchard and exposed position.

Speaker 3 (59:46):
Well in front of the main Union line. Oh Wow R. H.

Speaker 2 (59:49):
Anderson's division of Hill's Corps, alongside Mclaw's Division and part
of the Division of Hood.

Speaker 3 (59:54):
They lost a.

Speaker 2 (59:55):
Ferocious assault against Sickles with heavy artillery, which, after extremely intensified,
didn't push his corps back to the main Union lines.

Speaker 3 (01:00:02):
The Confederates.

Speaker 2 (01:00:03):
They were eventually repults, effing counting fierce resistance from the.

Speaker 3 (01:00:06):
Old Blue Coats. Oh General Hood. He was wounded and
replaced the command by his division by Law. Brigade Commanders
Barksdale and Paul Jones Simms, both under mcclaw's, were mortally
wounded themselves. Law's brigade attempted to carry a little round Top,
which was a hill on the far left of the

(01:00:26):
Union line. The hill had originally been without troops before
Union Brigadier General Gouvene Warren, chief of Engineers, Uh he
took advantage of the Confederate delay. He sent soldiers from
the fifth Court to forty five that.

Speaker 2 (01:00:39):
Said, look at that hill right there, there's nobody there,
probably get it.

Speaker 3 (01:00:44):
Rebel troops took the part of the hill known as
Devil's Den, but weren't able to drive off Union forts
at the top of hill. Yeah, they got there on
the top, massacred from there nine out.

Speaker 2 (01:00:54):
Now the tax had failed and Longstreets Corps suffered more
than four thousand casualties. Contributed to Longtreats failure was the
fact that his attacks did not occur simultaneously with those
of ap Hill and Ewle. Large portion of Hills and
Ewle's corps course, including soldiers who had seen significant action
the day before, they were unengaged, and Meade was able
to shift Thomas Ruger's Division from Ewele's front to oppose

(01:01:17):
Long Street Oh Wow.

Speaker 3 (01:01:18):
On the night of the second of July eighteen sixty three,
Long Street did not follow his usual custom meet in
Lee at his headquarters to discuss the day's battle, claiming
that he was too fatigued. Instead, he spent part of
the night planning for a movement around Big Groundtop that
would allow him to attack the enemy's flanking and the rear. Longstreet,
despite his use of scouting parties, was apparently unaware that

(01:01:40):
it considered a considerable body of troops from the Union
six Corps under John Sedgwick was in position to block
this very move. Shortly after issuing orders for the attack
around sunrise, long Street was joined at his headquarters by Lee,
who was dismayed at his turn of evans.

Speaker 2 (01:01:56):
The command in general had intended for Longstreet to attack
the Union left early in the morning and a manner
similar to July second, using Pickett's newly arrived division, in
concert with a resumed attack by Uele on Coalps Hill.
What Lee found was that no one had ordered Picket's
division forward from its camp in the rear, and that
long Street had been planning an independent operation without consulting him.

Speaker 3 (01:02:17):
Oh No.

Speaker 2 (01:02:19):
Lee wrote in his after battle report that Longstreet's dispositions
were not completed as.

Speaker 3 (01:02:23):
Early as we expected.

Speaker 2 (01:02:25):
Oh, your old war horses got to get taken to
the back and get put down right well.

Speaker 3 (01:02:32):
Since its plans for an early morning coordinator attack were
now infeasible, Lee instead ordered Longstreet to coordinate a massive
assault on the center of the Union line. He all right,
you want to crown You hit him right in dead middle, buddy,
It never works, all right, he gues, you cotta hit
him in the center line at Cemetery Ridge, The Union
position was held by the Second Corps on the Winfield
Scott Hancock. Long Street strongly felt that this assault had

(01:02:56):
little chance of success and shared his concerns with Lee.
The old ReBs would have to march over close to
one mile of open ground and negotiates sturdy fences under
five And that is that famous scene that you guys
seen in Gettysburg. Oh jeez.

Speaker 2 (01:03:11):
Longstreet urged Lee not to use his entire core on
the attack, arguing that the divisions of Law and and
Micklaws they were tired from the previous day and that
shifting them away from their positions would dangerously expose the
Confederate right flank. Lee conceded and instead decided to use
men from Aphis.

Speaker 3 (01:03:27):
Corps to a company Picket.

Speaker 2 (01:03:29):
The force would include about fourteen to fifteen thousand men.
Longstreet again total Lee he believed the attack with fails
is not gonna work. Man, Well, you never attacked a
You freaking middle dude.

Speaker 3 (01:03:40):
Stubborn only, stubborn only. He did not change his mind.
Longstreet relented well. The final plan call of artillery Barrage
Boy one hundred and seventy cannon under Alexander, then the
three brigades under Picket and the four brigades and the
Division of Henry Heath temporarily commanded by Brigadier Adrenal Jay
Johnston Group the position to Pickets left would lead the attack.

(01:04:04):
Two brigades from William Dorsey Pender's Division, temporarily commanded by
Brigadier General Isaac Trimble, would fill in as support behind
no pedigrew. Two brigades from rah Anderson's Division were to
support Pickets right flank.

Speaker 2 (01:04:18):
Despite his vocal disapproval of the plan, and although most
of the units came from ap Hills Corps, Lee he
designated long Street to lead the attack a right. Long
Street dutifully saw to the position of Pickets men General Pickett.
He placed the brigades of Garnet and Brigadier General James
Kemper in front, with Armistead behind them and support. However,

(01:04:39):
Longstreet neglected to adequately check on Pettigrew's division. Pettigrew had
never commanded a division before, and the division which he
had just been appointed to lead, had suffered about a
third of its casualties on the third of its army
in casualties, and the fighting on July first, Man, everything
just spells out disaster.

Speaker 3 (01:05:00):
Listen to your heart. His men were positioned behind pickets lines,
leaving Picket vulnerable and the troops on his far left
were dangerously exposed. Long Street and Hill still had a
tense relationship, which made it play a role in long
Street not carefully overseeing Hill's troops. Hill was with Lee
and long Street throughout much of the morning, but wrote

(01:05:20):
after the battle that he had ordered his men to
report to long Street, implying that he felt that he
was not responsible for arranging them. Oh Wow.

Speaker 2 (01:05:30):
During preparations for the attack, Longstreet began to agonize over
the assault. He attempted to pass the responsibility for launching
Picket's division to Alexander. The artillery bombardment began about one pm.
Union batteries responded, and the two sides fired back and
forth for about an hour and forty five minutes or
forty minutes.

Speaker 3 (01:05:48):
When the time came to actually.

Speaker 2 (01:05:49):
Order Picket forward Longstreet, he could only nod, unable to
verbalize the order, thus beginning the assault known as Pickett's charge.

Speaker 3 (01:05:58):
She couldn't even say nothing. He's just like I guess, Bud,
it's not good.

Speaker 2 (01:06:03):
Beginning about three PM, Confederate troops marched towards the Union positions.

Speaker 3 (01:06:08):
As Longstreet had anticipated, the attack was a complete disaster.
The assaulting units suffered massive cashtees. Pedigrew and Trimble were wounded,
Pickett's first two brigades severely mauled, Kemper was wounded, Garnet dead.
Armisteed's brigade briefly breached the stone wall that marked Hancock's lines,

(01:06:28):
where Armstead fell mortally wounded, but the brigade was repulsed.
To his men, Lie said, it is all my fault.
According to two long Streets staff officers, Lee subsequently expressed
regret for not taking Longstreet's advice. Who has been his
old war horrse and he was right all along about
every other part on the fourth of July, the Confederate

(01:06:52):
Army began its retreat from Gettysburg. I mean ass is
handed to him. Hampered by rain, the bulk of the
army finally made it across the Potomac River on the
night of the thirteenth or in the morning of the
fourteenth of July. They got their ass handed to him. Well.

Speaker 2 (01:07:09):
Fast forward to August eighteen sixty three, long Street he said,
I really want to go to this Western theater.

Speaker 3 (01:07:14):
Please transfer me right.

Speaker 2 (01:07:15):
He wrote a private letter to sedon seven requesting that
he'd be transferred to serve under his old friend, oh
Joey Johnson. He followed this up in conversations with his
congressional ally Wigfall, who had long considered Longtree a suitable
replacement for Brax and Bragg. Bragg he had a poor
combat record, as he did, was very unpopular with his
men and officers lee President Davis.

Speaker 3 (01:07:37):
They then agreed to the request.

Speaker 2 (01:07:38):
September fifth, mclau's hood and a brigade from Pickett's Division
and Alexander's twenty six gun Artillery Battalion. I traveled over
sixteen railroads on a seven hundred and seventy five mile
route through the Carolinas to go, say Bragg, we're here now, baby,
in northern Virginia or Georgia.

Speaker 3 (01:07:56):
Right, get the hell out of here, bud eight to
September eighteen sixty three reinforcements on the way, Bragg gave
up the forty five city and critical rail juncture of Chattanooga, Tennessee,
and b Rose Grans overtook him without a fight and
retreated into Georgia Old uh Bragg did. The troop transferred
took over three weeks. Lead elements of the corps arrived

(01:08:19):
on September seventeenth. On the nineteenth, at the Battle of Chickamauga,
Bragg began an unsuccessful attempt to interpose his army between
Rosecrans and Chattanooga before their arrival. The most of Longstreet's Corps.
Throughout that very day, Confederate troops launched largely ineffectual assaults
on Union positions that were highly costly for both sides.

Speaker 2 (01:08:39):
One of Longstreet's owned divisions under Hood, successfully resisted a
strong Union counter attack from Jefferson C. Davis's division of
the twentieth Corps that afternoon. When Longstreet himself arrived on
the field in the late evening, he failed to find
Bragg's headquarters. He and his staff spent considerable time ride
in looking for it. They accidentally came across a federal
picket line and nearly recaptured east. How do you not

(01:09:01):
know where this guy's Nobody on the freaking battlefield or
in the vicinity knew where Bragg was.

Speaker 3 (01:09:06):
When the two finally met at Bragg's headquarters late at night,
Bragg placed long Street in command of the left wing
of his armie. Lieutenant General Leonidas Pope commanded the right.
Longstreet's command consisted of Simon Boliver Buckner's Corps, under which
were the divisions of Alexander P. Stewart and William Preston
bush Rod Johnson's Division, Thomas c. Henman's Division, Hood's Division,

(01:09:28):
mcclaw's divisions fell under Longstreet's command, but did not even
completely arrive from Virginia until twenty first September, after the
battle Chickamauga had ended good for him that guy.

Speaker 2 (01:09:38):
Meanwhile, Joseph Kershaw was placing command of his two brigades
which were on the field. Bragg made a plan for
an attack. At eight a m September twentieth, Longstreet lined
up most of his men in two lines, but he
placed Hood's division behind Johnson in a column.

Speaker 3 (01:09:53):
Intended as shock troops.

Speaker 2 (01:09:54):
The attack was supposed to begin early in the morning,
shortly after an assault by Pokeswing. However, confusion and mishandled
orders it caused Pope's attack to be delayed, and Longstreet's
advance did not begin until just after eleven after hearing
gunfire from his left. So much stupidity in this war
from confusion and mishandled orders, I mean egos, just guys.

Speaker 3 (01:10:15):
Holy shit being dicks. A mistaken order from General Rose
Grants and the Norse still doing it as well. A
mistaken order from General Rosecrans caused a gap to appear
in the Union line by transferring Thomas Wood's Division from
the right to reinforce the fourteenth Corps under George Henry
Thomas in the center. Longstreet took advantage of the confusion.
The organization of the attack was well suited to the

(01:10:37):
terrain and would have penetrated the Union line. Regardless, Johnson's
division poured through the gap, driving the Union forces backwards.
After Longstreet ordered Henman's division forward, the Union right all
but collapsed colapse.

Speaker 2 (01:10:52):
Oh Rose Grans. He fled as units began to retreat
and panic. Thomas managed to rally the retreating units and
solidify a defensive position on snaw Grass Hill. He held
that position against repeated afternoon attacks by Longstreet, who was
not adequately adequately supported by the Confederate right wing wing.
Sorrow told Stuart to move his division forward to attack

(01:11:14):
the Union rearguard. Stewart initially declined, demanding confirmation from long Street.
Longstreet he was incensed at his refusal and ordered him
to go forward.

Speaker 3 (01:11:22):
Damn it wow, well, Stuart. He did as told and
captured about four hundred prisoners, but Thomas had already managed
to extricate the units under his control to Chattanooga. Bragg's
failure to coordinate the right wing and Calvary to further
enveloped Thomas prevented a total route of the Union army.
Bragg also refused to pursue the retreating Federals aggressively, resulting
in the feudal siege of Chattanooga. He had dismissed the

(01:11:45):
proposal from Longstreet that he do so, citing a lack
of transportation, calling the plan a visionary scheme. Oh wow,
the hell he get a fortning that for him right. Nevertheless,
Chickamaugo was the greatest Confederate victory in the Western theater,
and long Street received significant credit for you, buddy well.

Speaker 2 (01:12:04):
Not long after that, the Confederates enter Tennessee. Following their victory,
long Street clashed with Bragg and became a leader of
the group of senior commanders who conspired to have him gone.
Bragg supportinates had long been dissatisfied with his abrasive personality and.

Speaker 3 (01:12:18):
Poor battlefield record.

Speaker 2 (01:12:19):
The arrival of Longstreet, who was the senior lieutenant general
in the army. Yeah, and his officers, and the fact
that they quickly took their side added credibility to the
earlier claims.

Speaker 3 (01:12:28):
Yeah, they're like, finally somebody came in and did something
right long Street. He wrote the saddan, I am damn.
I'm convinced that nothing but the hand of God can
save us or help us as long as we have
our present commander as he's talking about Bragg. Situation became
so grave that Davis was forced to intercede in person, oh,

(01:12:51):
in person, oh, showing his stupid face. What followed was
a scene in which Bragg sat red face as a
procession of his subordinates. Can Oh, that's kind of suck.
Longstreet stated that Bragg was incompetent to manage an army
or put men into a fight, and that he knew
nothing of the business.

Speaker 2 (01:13:09):
So well, well, now I can't wait to get the
brag story that was going on with this guy.

Speaker 3 (01:13:14):
Wow. On the twelve of October, Davis declared his support
for Bragg. Oh he left him and his dissatisfied subordinates
in their positions. Well.

Speaker 2 (01:13:24):
Bragg he relieved or reassigned the generals who had testified
against them, and retaliated against long Street by reducing his
command to only those units he brought with him from Virginia.
Bragged he resigned himself to the siege in Chattanooga.

Speaker 3 (01:13:37):
At about this.

Speaker 2 (01:13:38):
Time, Longstreet learned of the birth of a son who
was named Robert Lee. Oh Robert Lee Longstreet huh grant.
He arrived in Chattanooga October twenty third took over all
command of the new Union Military Division of Mississippi. He
then replaced Rosecrans with Thomas. While Longstreet's relationship with Bragg
was extremely poor, his connections with his subordinates also deteriorated.

Speaker 3 (01:13:57):
Oh jeez, you wanted to go to Western Theater so bad. Wow.
He had a strong anti battum friendship with the Clause,
but they began to show signs of sour and after
mclau's criticized long Street's conduct at Gettysburg and was accused
by long Street of displaying lethargy. After Chickamaugah, Hood's Old
Division was under the temporary command of Brigadier General mikeuh Jenkins.

(01:14:20):
The brigadier general who had been in the division the
longest was Evander Law, who had temporarily commanded the division
more than once in the past. However, Jenkins outranked Law.
Jenkins in Law disliked each other as well, and both
desired permanent command of the division. Oh duel Yes. Long
Street favored Jenkins awe his long time prodigay, while most

(01:14:43):
of the men favored Law. Long Street had asked Davis
to name it permanent commander, but he said no, He's like, dude,
this is your stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:14:51):
October twenty seventh, Union troops managed to open up a
cracker line to assess food to access food by defeating
Laws Brigade under Jenkins at the Battle of Browns in
the nighttime Battle of Wahachi oct Over twenty eight to
twenty ninth. Jenkins failed to regain the lost position, for
which he blamed Law and Brigader General Jerome Robertson owed
somebody else longstreak. He took no immediate action against Law,

(01:15:13):
but complained about Robertson. Court of inquiry was set up,
but its proceedings were suspended and.

Speaker 3 (01:15:19):
Robertson returned to command offer not oh nothing. After the
old rebel failures, Longstreek devised a strategy to prevent reinforcement
and lifting of the siege by Grant. He knew this
Union reaction was underway and that the nearest railhead was Bridgeport, Alabama.
This is where portions of two Union corps would soon
arrive in Bridgeport, Alabama. After sending his artillery, commanded Porter

(01:15:40):
Alexander to reconnoi to the rim the Union to reconnoiter
to the Union occupied town. He devised a plan to
ship most of the omnive Tennessee away from the siege,
setting up a logistical support in Rome, Georgia, Georgia. Then
he wanted to go after Bridgeport to take the railhead,
possibly catching Hooker oh No, who was the leading who

(01:16:01):
was leading a detachment of arriving Union troops from the
eastern Theater in a disadvantageous position.

Speaker 2 (01:16:08):
The plan was well received and approved by old President
Davis oh Wow, but it was disapproved by Bragg, objected
to this significant logistical challenge at Post Longstreet. He accepted
Bragg's arguments and agreed to plan to a plan in
which he and his men were dispatched at East Tennessee
to deal with an advance by the Union Army Ohio,
which was commanded by Burnside Longstreet. He was selected both

(01:16:28):
due to enmity on Bragg's part and because the War
Department intended for long Street's men to return to Lee's
army anyway in this movement. He said, you're going that
way anyways, might as well go there, and thus this begins.

Speaker 3 (01:16:40):
The Knoxville campaign. Longstreet criticized for the slow pace of
his advance toward Knoxville. He's going to criticize the guy
for everything he does, and some of his soldiers began
using the nickname Peter the Slow to describe him. At
the battle Campbell Station on November sixteenth, the Federal Allies
evaded Longstreet's troop. This was due to both to the

(01:17:00):
poor performance of Law, who exposed his brigade to the
enemy and thus ruined what was supposed to be a
surprise attack, and also Burnside's scaleful retreat. The old rebels
also dealt with muddy roads and the shortage of good supplies.
They got those bad ones, though.

Speaker 2 (01:17:15):
Burnside settled into entrenchments around the city, which Longstreet besieged.
Longstreet learned that Bragg had been defeated at Chattanooga in
November twenty fifth, and that Major General William Sherman's men
were marching to relieve Burnside. He decided to risk a
frontal attack on Union and trenchments before they arrived.

Speaker 3 (01:17:30):
November twenty ninth.

Speaker 2 (01:17:31):
He sent his troops forward at the Battle of Fort Sanders,
which was repulsed, and Longstreet he said.

Speaker 3 (01:17:36):
I got a retreat. Oh wow, what'sn't he.

Speaker 2 (01:17:38):
So against the frontal assault on Gettysburg or something?

Speaker 3 (01:17:42):
And now he wants to use one and when he knows,
it's probably gonna fail, oh Man. When Grant defeated Bragg,
Longstreet was ordered to join forces with the Army of
Tennessee at Northern Georgia. He demurred and began to move
back to Virginia. Soon pursued by Sherman, Longstreet defeated Federal
troops in an engagement at Bean Station for flicking on
the fourteenth of December. The greatest effect of the campaign

(01:18:04):
was a deprived brag of troops he sorely needed. Chattanooga.
Longstreet's second independent command after Suffolk was a failure, and
his self confidence was damaged after he.

Speaker 2 (01:18:14):
Was criticizing Bragg and look at what he does. You know,
he reacted to the failure of the campaign by blaming
others as everybody does. He relieved miche Laws from command
and requested the court martial of Robertson.

Speaker 3 (01:18:26):
In law oh Am Law. He also submitted a.

Speaker 2 (01:18:28):
Letter of resignation to Adjudant General Samuel Cooper December thirtieth,
eighteen sixty three.

Speaker 3 (01:18:33):
But obviously that was and let nobody lead in the Federal.

Speaker 2 (01:18:36):
Armist Bragg was actually then relieved from command and replaced
by Joseph Johnson December twenty seventh.

Speaker 3 (01:18:41):
Though long Street established winter quarters in Russellville and Morristown,
he attempted to keep communications open with Lee's army in Virginia,
but Federal cavalry. Brigadier General William Averell's raids destroy the railroads,
isolating him and forcing him to rely only on Eastern
Tennessee for supplies. Longstreet's corps suffered through a severe winter

(01:19:01):
in Eastern Tennessee with inadequate shelter and provisions. More than
half the men were without shoes. Ooh, right into Georgia's
Quartermaster General Ira Rowe Foster. On the twenty fourth January
eighteen sixty four, long Street noted, there are five Georgia
brigades in this army, all like in excessive need of shoes,
clothing of all kinds, and blankets. All that you can

(01:19:24):
sin will be thankfully received February. Right in February of
eighteen sixty Folk, the lines of communication were repaired. Once
the weather warmed, long Street's men mocked north to the
Army of Northern Virginia at Gordonsville, set them home in March.
Longstreet didn't g did indeed rejoin the army in Northern Virginia.

Speaker 2 (01:19:43):
Presented by Lee with a plan for a joint offensive
by Johnson and long Street into Kentucky, Longstreet made the
scheme boulder by adding twenty thousand men under General Bouregard,
who was headquartered in South Carolina. However, the plan met
was met with disapproval from Davis and his newly appointed
military advisor ding Ding, Ding, Brax and Bragg.

Speaker 3 (01:20:02):
Vendetta, and long Street just remained in Virginia.

Speaker 2 (01:20:06):
He later discovered that his old friend ohed Us Grant
had been appointed General in chief of the Union Army,
with this headquarters in the field alongside the Army of
the Potomac.

Speaker 3 (01:20:15):
And guess what he knows what's about to happen. Longstreet
told us fellow officers that he will fight us every
day and every hour until the end of the war.
And boy was he right, except for that one lall
on Petersburg. But I guess they did skirmishes. Long Street
helped save the confron the army from defeat in his
first battle back with Lee's Army, the Battle Wilderness, in
May of eighteen sixty four, Grant moved south of the

(01:20:38):
rapid Ann River in attempted to take Richmond. Lee intended
to delay battle to give long Streets fourteen thousand man
time to arrive. Grant disrupted these plans by attacking them
on the fifth of May, and the fight was inconclusive.
The following morning, at five am, Hancock led two divisions
in a ferocious attack in ap of Hills Corps, driving
them in back two miles miles well.

Speaker 2 (01:20:58):
At the same time this was happening, longstreet It's men arrived.
They took advantage of an old roadbed built for an
out of use railroad to creep through a densely wooded
area unnoticed before launching a powerful flanking attack. Longstreet's men
moved forward along the orange plank road against the second
Core and in two hours nearly drove it from the field.
He developed tactics to deal with difficult terrain, ordering the

(01:21:18):
advance of six brigades by heavy skirmish lines, which allowed
his men to deliver a continuous fire into the enemy
while proving to be elusive targets themselves, shooting, run, shooting, move.

Speaker 3 (01:21:28):
What a nice. Historian Edward Steer attributed much of the
success of the army to the display of tactical genius
by long Street, which more than redressed his disparity in
numerical strength. After the war, Hancocks said to Longstreet, of
this flank in maneuver, you rolled me up like a
wet blanket. Daring the assault, long Street was wounded by

(01:21:49):
friendly fire only four miles away from where Stonewall Jackson
was killed exactly a or earlier during the Chancesville campaign.
A bullet passed through his shoulder, nerves and tearing a
gash in his throat, and he was gone for a while.

Speaker 2 (01:22:04):
Jenkins, who was riding with long Street, was also shot
and died from his wounds. The momentum of the attacked.
As he was taken from the field, long Street urged
Lee to press the attack. Instead, Lee delayed further movement
until units could be re aligned, giving the Union defenders
adequate time to reorder. The subsequent attack was a failure.
Gordon to Alexander, he says, I've always believed that but

(01:22:25):
for Longstreet's fall, the panic, which was fairly underway in
Hancock's second Corps, would have been extended and have resulted
in Grant's being forced to retreat back across the Rabbadan.

Speaker 3 (01:22:34):
Probably didn't happen well. Longstreet was succeeding the command of
his corps by R. A. T. Anderson. He missed the
rest of eighteen sixty four Spring and Summer campaign, where
Lee sorely missed his skill in handling the army. Without him,
the Old Rebel. The Old Rebel Army fought Grant at
spons Vania Corp House and was besieged by Union forces

(01:22:55):
at Petersburg. He was treated in Lynchburg, Virginia, and recuperated
in Augusta, Georgia, with his cousin Emma Eve Longstreet Sibelly,
the daughter of his father's brother Gilbert all Right Well.

Speaker 2 (01:23:05):
In Augusta, he participated in the funeral service for polk
Oh Yeah at Saint Paul's Church, casting earth onto the coffin.
He then rejoined Lee finally October eighteen sixty four, with
his right arm paralyzed and inistling. Initially unable to even
ride a horse, he had taught himself to write with
his left hand and by periodically pulling on his arm
as advised by doctors, he regained the use of his

(01:23:26):
right hand in his later years good Friend. At this
time long Street staff underwent major changes, most significantly the
transfer of Sorrel, who was Longstreet's chief of staff to
brigade command.

Speaker 3 (01:23:36):
He was replaced by Major Osmond Latrobe. For the remainder
of the siege Petersburg, Longstreet commanded the defenses in front
of the capitol of Richmond, including all forces north of
the James River and Pickett's division at Bermuda hundred. He
retreated with Lee and Emetics Campaign commanding both the first
and third Corps. Following the death of ap Hill on
the second of April, and it's a couple more days

(01:23:58):
ep you could have been living right.

Speaker 2 (01:24:01):
As Lee's army attempted to escape to Farnville, that's a
fucking game. Longstreet was engaged at Sailor's Creek, Capri six.
The Confederates were unable to reach the town, but with
the assistance of troops under Anderson and Ewele, they managed
to prevent Federal troops from blocking the army's last path
of escape. The overall battle ended in disaster. Nearly seven
thousand of the ten thousand Confederate troops engaged were either killed, wounded,

(01:24:23):
or captured. By April seventh, Lee's army had been reduced
from nearly forty thousand men to about twenty five thousand.

Speaker 3 (01:24:31):
That's crazy, damn. A group of rebel officers, including that
was just from right March thirty first April seven, that's terrible.
A group of Confederate officers, including William Pendleton, the Chief
Artillery concluded at the time, had come to ask Lead
to open negotiations for the army surrender. Pendleton approached Longstreet

(01:24:52):
and asked him to intercede with Lee, but he refused,
saying if General Lee doesn't know when to surrender until
I tell him, he will never know. He don't listen
to them anyway. Pennanton approached Lee, who was in communication
with Grant on the subject of surrender. Lee refused to
surrender the army, and he held his last conference of

(01:25:13):
war on the night of April eighth, and he's like,
we gotta do it, you gotta go.

Speaker 2 (01:25:17):
I was decided that at daybreak, Longstreet would hold the
Union troops back while John Gordon would lead to escape
towards Lynchburg and then cover his retreat at the Battle
of Appomatics Courthouse. That morning, Longstreet was heavily engaged with
the Union Second Corps under Andrew Humphries. Gordon's troops were
surrounded and he requested reenforcemates, which Longstreet couldn't give him.
Lee he was left with no alternative but to meet

(01:25:39):
Grant to discuss the surrender.

Speaker 3 (01:25:42):
Lee worried that his refusal to meet with Grant to
discuss surrendered terms at the latter's first requests would cause
him to mand harsher terms. Longstreet advised him of his
belief that Grant would treat him Fairlyn He's a good man.
As Lee rode toward Appomax Court House on the April ninth,
can't believe what just happened last four and a half years.
What the hell? Long Street said up that Grant gave
two strong demands. He ought to break off the interview

(01:26:04):
and tell General Grant to do his worst, and that's
what it's kill him there. Right after Lee surrender, long
Street arrived in the McLean House, where Grant happily greeted him.
He offered long Street a cigar, invited him to play cards. Well, Grant,
it's not time for cards right now, dude. Long Street
later told a reporter, why do men fight who were

(01:26:25):
born to be brothers? His whole greeting and conduct towards
us as though nothing had ever happened tomorrow, pleasant relations.

Speaker 2 (01:26:34):
Because he knew he had the upperhand. We're going to
treat you guys like royalty, because he's like, I got you.

Speaker 3 (01:26:40):
He's like, don't worry, We'll treat Jefferson Davis like shit.

Speaker 2 (01:26:44):
June seventh, eighteen sixty five, Lee Longstreet and other former
Confederate officers they were indicted by a grand jury in Norfolk,
Virginia for the high crime of trees and against the
United States, which is a capital offense, meaning bye bye yeah.
Grant objected and went to the White House, telling President
Andrew Johnson that the men were on parole and protected
by the surrender terms of appomatics.

Speaker 3 (01:27:03):
Anyway, damn right. When Grant threatened to.

Speaker 2 (01:27:05):
Resign, Johnson back down, and on June twentieth, Attorney General
James Speed order the United States attorney in Norfolk to
drop the charges. Damn Grant, you just saved their lives
and was to leave. Definitely would have been convicted.

Speaker 3 (01:27:18):
Well, he dies three years later. I mean so long
Street and his family Southern Dolans popular among former Confederate generals.
Further cuts he can get well, such Florida. He entered
into a Cotton broke Gridge partnership and became president of
the Southern and Western Life and Accident Insurance Company. He

(01:27:38):
sought the presidency of the Mobile and Ohio railroad, but unsuccessful,
and also failed in an attempt to get investors for
a proposed railroad from New Orleans to Monterey, Mayago. With
Grant support, he applied for a pardon from Johnson. Johnson
said no. He told long Street there are three persons
of the South who can never receive amnesty. Mister Davis,

(01:28:00):
generally in yourself, you have given in union calls.

Speaker 2 (01:28:03):
Too much trouble, damn damn.

Speaker 3 (01:28:09):
Lee didn't get a citizenship back until like way later.

Speaker 2 (01:28:12):
M Longstreet called for Southern acceptance of reconstruction and acquiescence
to federal laws, including those abolishing and slavery, and granted
citizenships to blacks. Encouragence encouraged Southern whites to join the
heavily Northern republic Party Northern Republican Party, arguing that if
they did not, the Southern wing of the party would
be exclusively dominated by blacks we can, whereas white men

(01:28:35):
joining the party would allow the black vote to be controlled.
Right June eighteen sixty eight, the Radical Republican they controlled
the United States Congress, they enacted a law that granted
pardons and restored political rights to numerous former Confederate officers,
which included Longstreet.

Speaker 3 (01:28:51):
Hey, look at you, bad you. Longstreet joined Republicans, or,
as Southerners sometimes called them, black Republicans. He endorsed Grant
for president in eighteen sixty eight, attended his inauguration in Washington,
and six days later was appointed by Grant as Surveyor
of Customs and Downlands. The Post carried an annual sare

(01:29:12):
we have six thousand dollars and dude Grant just hooked
him up? And Longstreet was confirmed by the Senate by
a vote of twenty five to ten. Oh those ten
people are bastards. For these acts, he lost favor with
many white Suddenness who regarded him as a trader for
supporting people they viewed as oppressive vacutas. His old friend
Dhill wrote to a newspaper, a scallywag. It's the local

(01:29:32):
leaper of the community.

Speaker 2 (01:29:34):
Leper, but yeah, sleeper and the leoper. And contrast to
Northerners who moved south and were sometimes referred to as carpetbaggers,
Hill wrote, Longstreet is a native, which is so much
the worse. Longstreet did not retreat in the face of criticism.
He actively supported Henry Warmouth, the Republican Governor of Louisiana

(01:29:56):
and former Union officer Oh Wow. May of eighteen seventy
Warmouth named him Adjudant General of the Louisiana State Militia.

Speaker 3 (01:30:03):
Nice.

Speaker 2 (01:30:03):
About a month later, he was named president of the
newly organized New Orleans and Northeaster.

Speaker 3 (01:30:08):
That's the way you wanted he look at.

Speaker 2 (01:30:09):
He chumps up to the bad guys and gets everything
he wants.

Speaker 3 (01:30:12):
I guess what Rock would have gave Cody Well. On
eighth of January eighteen seventy two, Longstreet was commissioned nmed
major general in the State Militia and assigned to the
command of all militia and police forces in New Islands.
So damned police forces. Shortly after, he resigned his posts
as a collector of customs and as a railroad president,

(01:30:33):
followed an April by his position as a jutant general
in the militia. Author's espousing the Lost Calls, a movement
that glorified the Southern Calls and denounced reconstruction, attacked Longstreet's
war career for years after his death. Because they're idiots.

Speaker 2 (01:30:48):
Modern authors traced that criticism to Longstreet's acceptance of the
defeat and accommodations both with the Republican Party and freed Blacks.

Speaker 3 (01:30:55):
What are you supposed to do? Live forever and be right?
I mean, you guys lost, Get over it, right? It is.

Speaker 2 (01:31:01):
The attacks formally began January nineteenth, eighteen seventy two, which
is the anniversary of Lee's birth, in less than two
years after Lee died, Juber Early, in a speech at
Washington College, exonerated Lee for the defeat at Gettysburg. He
accused Longstreet of attacking late on the second day and
held him accountable for the debacle on the third. The
following year, William Penston claimed in the same venue that

(01:31:23):
Longstreet disobeyed an illicit order to attack at sunrise July second.
The so called sunrise order was a fabrication.

Speaker 3 (01:31:30):
That's as we all know. April eighteen seventy three, Long
Street dispatch a police force under Colonel Theodore Decline. He said,
go to Colfax, Louisiana. I want you to help local
government and it's majority black supports they needed. Then he'd
helped defending themselves against an insurrection by white supremacists. Yeah,
there's a lot of insurrections going on back then. Yeah,

(01:31:50):
Decline did not arrive until the fourteenth of April, one
day after the Colfax MAXICU, Yeah, I think he knew something.
His man's task consisted of mainly bearing Blacks who have
been killed and attempted to arrest the call prits. They're
in protest of election irregularities. In eighteen sixty four eighteen
seventy four, referred to as the Battle of Liberty Place,
an armed force of eighty four hundred members of the

(01:32:13):
anti Reconstructionist White League. They advanced on the State House Knowlands,
which was the capital of Louisiana the time, isn't it
where they had two governors.

Speaker 2 (01:32:21):
No, I can tell this one, yeah, right here. But
it happened all in the solitude and they were like
literally fighting each other sometimes.

Speaker 3 (01:32:31):
Remember we had it in U remember yeah, yeah, so
one of those episodes, right, Yeah. They were passed because
the Republican William Pitt Kellogg was declared the winner of
a close and heavily disputed gubernatory Gubernator I never KNOWUBERNATORI
of a heavily disputed election.

Speaker 2 (01:32:48):
Longstreet commanded a force of thirty six hundred Metropolitan Police,
City police and African.

Speaker 3 (01:32:53):
American militia troops aren't.

Speaker 2 (01:32:55):
With two gatling guns and a battery of artillery, he
rode to meet the protesters, but was pulled from his horse,
shot by a spent ball and taken prisoner. The White
League charged, causing many of Longstreet's men to flee or surrender.
Total casualties amounted to thirty eight killed seventy nine wounded.
Better troops sent by President Grant were required to restore order.

(01:33:15):
Yeah we'd read it in Grant's Longstreet use of armed
black troops during the disturbances increased the denunciations by anti reconstruction.

Speaker 3 (01:33:23):
Display look at this guy right. While eighteen seventy five,
Longstreet began to challenge the criticisms of his war record,
demanding evidence from Pendleton and Lee's staff officers. By then,
these charges, alongside anger at him for use of black
troops in Louisiana, had destroyed his reputation Monks two racists.
Longstreet published a series of articles defending his war record.

(01:33:45):
At the very same time, he became popular with Nordlanders,
who thought highly of his support for reconstruction and praise
for Grant. Throughout the eighteen eighties eighteen nineties, long Street
often gave speeches in the North, many of them in
the presence of unives, and was received favorably. Should have
fought for the Union.

Speaker 2 (01:34:02):
But a large ceremony took place in Atlanta in eighteen
eighty six to mark the twenty fifth anniversary of the
attack of Fort Sumter. Longstreet was not invited, but he
went anyway. He was embraced by Jefferson Davis, and a
crowd cheered, oh, it's for like.

Speaker 3 (01:34:19):
The Confederates quietly.

Speaker 2 (01:34:21):
In eighteen seventy five, the Longstreet family left Nolans. With
concerns over health and safety. They returned to Gainesville, Georgia.
By this time, Luis had given birth to ten children,
five of whom lived in adulthood. I mean you had
to give the statistically halfway.

Speaker 3 (01:34:36):
We're gonna die.

Speaker 2 (01:34:37):
Longstreet continued to serve on the city school board and
as an administrator of the University of Louisiana, which is
later Two Lane University. Really March eighteen seventy seven, one
of his frequent trips to New Orleans on business, Longstreet
converted to Catholicism and remained a devout believer until his death.
I mean he was episcopal. It was a difference Father

(01:34:57):
Abram Ryan, author of the Conquered Banner. He encouraged Longstreet
to convert, assuring him he would be welcome with open
arms if he came into the church.

Speaker 3 (01:35:05):
I mean, why wouldn't you? Right, long Street plat of
various jobs throughout the Ruther Fird B. Hayes administration of
eighteen seventy seven eighteen eighty one, who and was briefly
considered for Secretary of the Navy Briefly. He served briefly
as a Deputy Collector of Internal Revenue and as postmaster
of Gainesville, oh Nice. Longstreet's chief ambition was to be

(01:35:26):
United States Marshall of Georgia. President Hayes appointed Longstreet as
his Minister Resident to the Ottoman Empire, to a position
he held from December fourteenth, eighteen eighty to April twenty nine,
eighteen eighty one. He didn't like those.

Speaker 2 (01:35:38):
Russians Ottoman's Turkey. But in Turkey, Longstreet suffered from the
high cost of living in Constantineple Constantinople Right Constantinople prevented
him from bringing his family, and the entertainment that he
was expected to provide left him financially worse off than
when he arrived. Well has only known accomplishment was convincing

(01:36:00):
Sultan Abdul Hamid the Second to reverse his position forbidden
American archaeologists from undertaking research and Automan territory.

Speaker 3 (01:36:07):
Bitch why he was granted a sixty day leave to.

Speaker 2 (01:36:10):
Tour Europe before being recalled in accordance with his own
desires after the Marshall position became available, He's I gotta
go back all right.

Speaker 3 (01:36:17):
Long Street served at the United States Marshalls Georgia from
eighteen eighty one to eighteen eighty four, but the return
of a Democratic administration under Grover Cleveland in eighteen eighty
five and in his political career, and he went into
semi retirement. On his sixty five acre farm near Gainesville,
he raised turkeys, planted orchards and vineyards on terrace ground
that his neighbors referred to jokingly as Gettysburg. If you

(01:36:42):
only knew what Gettysburg was, it would be joking. Devastating
fire on April ninth, a lot of bad things happened
on April ninth, eighteen eighty nine, destroyed his house in
many of his possessions, including his personal papers, yea and memorabilia,
that December to make matters worse, Lowest Longstreet luis dead. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:37:03):
Longstreet rebutted criticism of his Row record from other Confederates
and his memoirs from Manassas to Appomatics Labor of five Years,
published in a eighteen ninety six piston by Every Guy.
He describes the prose as entertaining, if occasionally labored. In
the book, long Street praises several Civil War officers, but
frequently disparages others, particularly his post war detractors to were

(01:37:25):
Early and fits U Lee oh oh O, Lee's son.
He expresses personal affection for Lee, but as at times
critical of his strategy.

Speaker 3 (01:37:33):
I mean.

Speaker 2 (01:37:34):
Piston argues that the quality of the book is diminished
by bitterness and lack of objectivity. It did little to
alter the views of Longstreet's opponents, right, I mean.

Speaker 3 (01:37:42):
Longstreet served from eighteen ninety seven to nineteen oh four
under President's Willim McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt as a United
States Commissioner of Railroads. Succeed in Wade Hampton, the third
Wade Hamptain the Confederate eighteen ninety seven, at the age
seventy six, in a ceremony at the Governor's mansion, Atlanta.
Longstreet married thirty four year old librarian Helen Dorts. Uh huh,

(01:38:03):
good for you, thirty four year old librarian. Oh. Although
long streets children reacted poorly to the marriage, Helen became
a devoted wife and avid supporter of his legacy. After
his death, she outlived him by fifty eight years. He
died in nineteen sixty two. Damn, she went through everything, dude.
In eighteen ninety eight, long Street, then seventy seven, volunteered
to lead the United States troops in Cuba during the

(01:38:25):
Spanish American War. Am well, I don't think that happened?
But uh did he? I don't think so.

Speaker 2 (01:38:32):
Long Street's final years were marked by poor health and
partial deafness. Nineteen oh two, he suffered from severe rheumatism
and was unable to stand for more than a few
minutes at a time. His weight diminished from two hundred
to one thirty five. By January of nineteen oh three,
cancer developed in his right eye, and in December he
had X ray therapy in Chicago to treat it. He

(01:38:53):
then contracted pneumonia and died in Gainesville January second, nineteen
oh four. Bishop Benjamin Joseph Keighley, who had served under Longstreet,
set his funeral mass. He's buried at Altavis the Cemetery
in Gainesville. He did outlive most of his detractors, and
was one of only a few general officers from the
Civil War to live into the twentieth century.

Speaker 3 (01:39:13):
Right crazy, take a look at it? Was low legacy.
Longstreet was subject to vigorous attacks over his war record,
beginning in the eighteen seventies continuing after his death. His
widow published Lee and Longstreet at High Tide and his Defense,
and stated that the South was sedaciously taught to believe

(01:39:33):
that the Federal victory was wholly the fortuitous outcome of
the culpable disobedience of General Longstreet. Was it? Though on the.

Speaker 2 (01:39:43):
First half of the twentieth century Freeman he kept criticism
of long Street foremost in Civil War scholarship and his
biography of Lee. Speaking of Gettysburg July second, he says,
the battle was being decided at that very hour in
the mind of Longstreet, who at his camp a few
miles away, was eating his heart away and sullen resentment
that Lee had rejected his long chairish plan of a

(01:40:03):
strategic offensive and attactical defensive.

Speaker 3 (01:40:06):
He is mad. He called Longstreet's performance so sluggish that
it has often been asked why Lee did not arrest
him for insubordination or order him before a court martial.
Freeman moderated his views in his later Lee's Lieutenants, a
Study in Command, where he states that long Street's attitude
was wrong, but his instinct was correct. He should have

(01:40:28):
abad orders, but the order should not have been given.
Two things can be true. Clifford Dowty, a Virginia newspaperman
and novelists. He was noted for his severe criticism of
the long Street in the nineteen fifties and sixties cool In.

Speaker 2 (01:40:43):
Nineteen seventy four, Mike Oshara's novel The Killer Angels, about
the Battle of Gettysburg, was published, based in part on
long Street's memoirs, and that.

Speaker 3 (01:40:53):
What they based the Gettysburg movie off of.

Speaker 2 (01:40:55):
Maybe the nineteen ninety three book was adapted into a
Gettysburg in nineteen ninety three. Long Street is depicted very
favorably in the both is significantly improving his standing and
popular imagination. Historians Thomas Connolly and Barbara Bellows book God
in General, which also became long Street. It also upgraded
long Street through an attack on Lee. The Lost Cause

(01:41:18):
and the Virginia Revisionists.

Speaker 3 (01:41:20):
Nineteen ninety three worked probably say new long street biography,
stating that his subject was the finest core commander in
the Army of Northern Virginia. In fact, he was arguably
the best core commander in the conflict on either side
probably drew its close. Military historian Richard L. DeNardo he wrote,

(01:41:41):
even long Street's most virulent critics have conceded that he
put together the best staff employed by any commander, and
that his de facto chief of staff, Lieutenant Colonel G.
Moxley Soro, was the best staff officer in the Confederacy.

Speaker 2 (01:41:58):
Noted Longstreet's delegation of control of the battlefield movements to
its staff. Donander argues that this allowed him to communicate
more effectively during battle. Praise for long Street's political conduct
is tempered by the fact that he urged white acceptance
of reconstruction, at least in part so that whites and blacks,
so that whites and not blacks, would have the pre
eminent role in rebuild in the South right. Nevertheless, he

(01:42:20):
has been commended for his willingness to work with the North,
support for black voting rights and bravery, and leading a
partially black militia to suppress Yes, good for you, Buddy.

Speaker 3 (01:42:30):
Long Street is remembered in his hometown of Gainesville, Georgia
through the Long Street Bridge. What did his name is Street?
Long Street a portion of the United States Broughte one
twenty nine. It crosses the Chattahoochee River, which is later
damned to form Lake Sydney Lanier and the Long Street
Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Nineteen ninety eight,

(01:42:52):
one of the last monuments erected at the Gettysburg National
Military Park was dedicated to long Street and statue by
sculptor Gary Castile. The monument was funded through a grassroots
campaign and is one of the very few Confederate monuments
in the park not paid for it by taxpayers in
the states of the former Confederacy.

Speaker 2 (01:43:14):
All right, in order to get a Confederate monument, Yeah,
they were like, when you forget over then these two
monuments are the only two memorials to Long Street. Whereas
there was once more statues of Nathan Bedford Forest in
Tennessee than there were of US President Andrew Jackson.

Speaker 3 (01:43:27):
Oh Wow Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:43:29):
At least one historian attributes this long Street's defense of
the rights of the freedmen and women, whereas Forrest was
Kindershon considered the avenging angel of American white supremacy. In
The Lost cosemth Yeah, okay, he was like leader of
the kukus Klan or some chita. At Longstreet's Billet, the
house in Russellville, Tennessee that was occupied by long Street
and the winner of sixty three sixty four, it's now

(01:43:50):
called Longstreet Museum.

Speaker 3 (01:43:51):
Oh that Na. Long Street is a minor character in
two novels by ben Ames Williams, one of his descendants,
Oh House Divided in nineteen forty seven and The Unconquered
in nineteen fifty three. He appears as a cadet in
Santa Fe Trail in nineteen forty played by actor Frank Wilcox.

(01:44:11):
Longstreet plays a prominent role in Michael Sharra's Pulitzer Prize
winning novel The Killer Angels, also the film Gettysburg, portrayed
by Tom Barringer. He is also featured in Sharra's son,
Jeff Sharrow's novel Gods in Generals, a prequel to his
father's novel, focused on the Eastern theater before Gettysburg. In
the film Gods in Generals two thousand and three, he

(01:44:32):
is portrayed by Bruce box Lightner in a minor role
and Harry Turtleedive's Autnate history series Southern Victory. Long Street
served as the fourth president of the Confederate States of America.
Oh wow, Oh that's it. That's Longstreet. A nice little
story fro him.

Speaker 2 (01:44:50):
Eh comeback story almost well not really for his reputation,
but he did some things after the war which many
people didn't for him. Yeah, it's a long episode, So
we're gonna end it right here, and we'll be back
next week. Maybe we'll take a look at uh the
Lost Cause or reconstruction like that, do something other than

(01:45:12):
a person next week. So yeah, either or we'll be
back for more behind the Battles next week. On Battles
of American Super War, we are the month of Musican
This week, Big Name

Speaker 3 (01:45:59):
M HM

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