General James Longstreet at Antietam: Longstreet's Account of the Battle from His Memoirs, From Manassas to Appomattox by James Longstreet

by James Longstreet

One of the most important Confederate generals of the Civil War was Lieutenant General James Longstreet, the man Robert E. Lee called his “old war horse.” Longstreet was arguably the best corps commander the Confederates have, and he played crucial roles at Antietam, Second Bull Run, Chickamauga, the Wilderness, and Fredericksburg. However, Longstreet had a controversial role at Gettysburg, when he was unable to roll up the Union Army of the Potomac's flank on Day 2 and Pickett's Charge failed on Day 3. Though Longstreet tried to talk Lee out of the attacks, they went forward, and Longstreet criticized Lee about them afterward, making him reviled among other Confederates. In turn, they tried to blame him for the loss at Gettysburg. Just a few years before his death, Longstreet finally published his crucial memoirs, From Manassas to Appomattox , which talked about his experiences and analysis of the decisions made during the war. Longstreet wrote it to respond to his own critics and because Lee himself didn't write any. Regardless, they are one of the most important post-war writings of any general on either side of the Civil War.

Mass Market Paperback

About the author

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Born in South Carolina, James Longstreet graduated from West Point in 1842 and fought in the Mexican War. He resigned from the U.S. army in June 1861 and joined the Confederate army. Spending most of his Civil War service with the Army of Northern Virginia, by the fall of 1862 he was a lieutenant general and commander of the army's First Corps. He surrendered with the rest of the army at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.

After the war Longstreet joined the Republican Party, accepted jobs with the U.S. federal government, and criticized his former commander Robert E. Lee in several postwar writings. These actions made him unpopular with many Southerners.