James Longstreet, born January 8, 1821, in South Carolina, spent his youth in Augusta, Georgia. He later attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he graduated in 1842. Serving in Florida after his graduation from West Point, Longstreet began a military career, which would take him into Mexico, serving under Major Generals Zachery Taylor and Winfield Scott during the Mexican-American War.
Surviving a wound at Chapultepec, he continued service in the United States Army, until resigning his commission on June 1, 1861. Rising from his early rank of brigadier general in the Confederate army, to a position of lieutenant general, Longstreet fought in most of the major battles in the eastern theater. With the Army of Northern Virginia, and General Robert E. Lee, Longstreet, along with Lieutenant General Thomas J. Jackson, served Lee well during the war. Lee, referred to Longstreet as his “Old War Horse,” and depended upon the general during the various campaigns in the east.
Traveling a roundabout route via rail, Longstreet brought several of his troops west in September 1863, and a few of his brigades, which arrived earliest, helped the Army of Tennessee win the Battle of Chickamauga. Disgruntled with General Braxton Bragg, Longstreet sought a way to separate himself from the crusty officer. Bragg, wishing to rid his army of Longstreet, sent the general toward Knoxville, where he might force Major General Ambrose Burnside’s troops away from the city, and open the important railroad connecting the eastern and western theaters. Longstreet’s troops faced a repulse when attacking the garrison of Fort Sanders in late November 1863, and wintered in east Tennessee.
Rejoining the Army of Northern Virginia before the opening of the Overland Campaign, Longstreet received a wound from friendly-fire during the May 1864 Battle of the Wilderness. Out of the saddle for months, he returned to active duty, and continued service until Lee surrendered his forces to Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House. Longstreet and Grant, friends before the war, reunited when Grant became president. Longstreet alienated many former Confederates when he joined the Republican Party, supported Grant, and occupied several government-appointed positions, including U.S. Minister to Turkey.
Moving from New Orleans in 1875, Longstreet returned to Georgia, and set up residence in Gainesville. He managed the Piedmont Hotel, with his second wife Helen. The Longstreet couple lived as respected citizens of Gainesville, and the old general continued to deflect accusations from Jubal Early, and other former Confederates, intent on casting the blame for the loss at Gettysburg on Longstreet. In 1896, Longstreet fired a rebuttal, as his From Manassas to Appomattox: Memoirs of the Civil War in America rolled-off the press. Grieving over the passing of his old friend Grant, Longstreet, during an 1885 interview with the New York Times, uttered one of his most memorable phrases – “Why do men fight who were born to be brothers?”
James Longstreet died on January 2, 1904, and his body rests in Gainesville’s Alta Vista Cemetery. Today, the Longstreet Society, operating from their headquarters in the restored Piedmont Hotel, works to preserve and protect the various Longstreet sites in the area. They house an impressive collection of Longstreet memorabilia, host educational programs, and sponsor occasional tours. For more information, please visit http://www.longstreetsociety.org/.
 John H. Eicher and David J. Eicher, Civil War High Commands (Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 2001), 352–53.
 New York Times, “General James Longstreet (1821-1904),” Ulysses S. Grant Homepage, http://www.granthomepage.com/intlongstreet.htm (accessed August 27, 2015).
Michael K. Shaffer is a Civil War historian, author, newspaper columnist and lecturer. He can be contacted at: www.civilwarhistorian.net.