General James Longstreet: The Confederacy's Most Controversial Soldier
by Jeffry D. Wert
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General James Longstreet was Lee's senior lieutenant in the Army of Northern Virginia and the general whose conduct at the Battle of Gettysburg remains a topic of heated debate more than 130 years later. Longstreet first saw action in the Mexican War. He joined the Confederacy soon after the Civil War began and fought in nearly every campaign of Lee's army as well as in a major campaign in the Western theater. He led troops from the brigade to the corps level, at First and Second Manassas, show more Seven Pines, Seven Days, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, and Petersburg. He scored a decisive victory at Chickamauga. And at war's end he stood alongside Lee at the surrender ceremony at Appomattox. Longstreet led the First Corps under Lee, outranking the better-known commander of the Second Corps, Stonewall Jackson. "Old Pete," as his soldiers called him, was a superb battlefield commander with great tactical skill. But he has long been blamed, especially in the South, for the crucial Confederate defeat at Gettysburg. Jeffry Wert argues that Longstreet opposed Lee's ill-fated frontal assault on July 3 and that, had Lee followed Longstreet's advice to take a more defensive posture, the battle might have turned out differently. After the war, Longstreet joined the Republican Party and became a political apostate in the South during the Reconstruction era. When he died in relative obscurity in 1904, only his old soldiers remembered him. This is the first full-scale biography of Longstreet in forty years, and it returns him to his position of central importance in the Civil War. Jeffry D. Wert's extensive research included unpublished memoirs, diaries, and letters from several archives. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
General James Longstreet: the Confederacy's Most Controversial Soldier by Jeffry Wert
★ ★ ★ ½
The Civil War era has always interested me. And I am always amazed on how much there is to learn about the war even after the many books I’ve read on it and the college courses I attended. This book just adds to the details, and quite well. This book on General James Longstreet (a Confederate General that was Lee’s right-hand man and became quite the scapegoat after the Confederates lost) is great addition to the history of the Civil War.
The author delves into the man and his time in remarkable detail. It is obvious the Wert did a lot of research. He is fair and just in his picture of Longstreet and has plenty of accurate show more information, all written an interesting format that kept my attention. One must pay attention when reading this book. The author goes into quite the fine points when it comes to the battles that Longstreet was a part of. This is good, but if you’re like me and your mind wanders a bit, you’ll start getting confused (I went through a lot of “wait, so who was where and who won what?!”) if the attention isn’t fully there…this also goes for the large amount of names mentioned throughout the battle scenes. Luckily, the author does post maps of the battles for some extra reference for the easily confused (aka ME). I wish that the author would have focused on Longstreet more after her service in the military. I felt like even though Longstreet lived several decades after the end of the war and he dealt with a lot of backlash, there was little information and it was quickly bundled into the end. A good book if you’re into the time period. show less
★ ★ ★ ½
The Civil War era has always interested me. And I am always amazed on how much there is to learn about the war even after the many books I’ve read on it and the college courses I attended. This book just adds to the details, and quite well. This book on General James Longstreet (a Confederate General that was Lee’s right-hand man and became quite the scapegoat after the Confederates lost) is great addition to the history of the Civil War.
The author delves into the man and his time in remarkable detail. It is obvious the Wert did a lot of research. He is fair and just in his picture of Longstreet and has plenty of accurate show more information, all written an interesting format that kept my attention. One must pay attention when reading this book. The author goes into quite the fine points when it comes to the battles that Longstreet was a part of. This is good, but if you’re like me and your mind wanders a bit, you’ll start getting confused (I went through a lot of “wait, so who was where and who won what?!”) if the attention isn’t fully there…this also goes for the large amount of names mentioned throughout the battle scenes. Luckily, the author does post maps of the battles for some extra reference for the easily confused (aka ME). I wish that the author would have focused on Longstreet more after her service in the military. I felt like even though Longstreet lived several decades after the end of the war and he dealt with a lot of backlash, there was little information and it was quickly bundled into the end. A good book if you’re into the time period. show less
An excellent insight into the in-fighting between the confederate generals as well as an interesting viewpoint in Longstreets accomplishments and shortcomings in the war.
Very good biography on Longstreet. Wert defends Longstreet against the view that Longstreet was the reason the South lost at Gettysburg.
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Author Information
12+ Works 2,429 Members
Jeffry D. Wert is the author of eight previous books about the Civil War, including The Sword of Lincoln, a history of the Army of the Potomac, and biographies of Generals James Longstreet and Jeb Stuart.
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1993
- People/Characters
- Robert E. Lee; James Longstreet; E. Porter Alexander; Richard Heron Anderson; Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard; Braxton Bragg (show all 25); Ambrose E. Burnside; Richard S. Ewell; Thomas Jewett Goree; Ulysses S. Grant; Ambrose Powell Hill; Daniel Harvey Hill; John Bell Hood; Stonewall Jackson (Thomas Jonathan Jackson); Joseph E. Johnston; David R. Jones; Joseph B. Kershaw; Evander McIvor Law; Maria Louisa Garland Longstreet; George B. McClellan; Lafayette McLaws; George E. Pickett; Moxley Sorrel; James Ewell Brown "Jeb" Stuart; Cadmus M. Wilcox
- Important places
- USA; Adams County, Pennsylvania, USA; Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, USA; Pennsylvania, USA; Atlanta, Georgia, USA
- Important events
- American Civil War (1861 | 1865); Gettysburg Campaign (1863); Battle of Gettysburg (1863-07-01 | 1863-07-03); Battle of Chickamauga; Battle of Fredericksburg; Siege of Knoxville (1863) (show all 9); Second Battle of Bull Run; Seven Days' Battles; Battle of Antietam
- Dedication
- For Jason and Natalie,
with a father's love and pride - First words
- PREFACE
Eleven years after the Civil War, James Longstreet confided in a private letter that "it has been my feeling and opinion, that it would have been better to leave to the historian, and the student of future d... (show all)ays, the records of our struggle from which the history should be made; that those of us who bore prominent parts in the struggle should recognize its failure, and should submit to the responsibilities of that failure, as belonging to us all in proportion to our positions and opportunities."
The column of men marched up the street in the warmth of a late spring day.
Classifications
- Genres
- Biography & Memoir, History, Nonfiction, General Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 973.730092 — History & geography History of North America United States Civil War Era (1857-1865) Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865)
- LCC
- E467.1 .L55 .W46 — History of the United States United States Civil War period, 1861-1865 The Civil War, 1861-1865
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 604
- Popularity
- 48,348
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (3.93)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 4
- ASINs
- 7
