James Longstreet
James Longstreet was a Confederate general and American military officer who also served, in his later years, as an ambassador and diplomat.
Born on January 8, 1821, in Edgefield County, Longstreet received his early education at the Academy of Richmond County before attending the United States Military Academy. He held citizenship in both the United States and the Confederate States of America, and his service as a Confederate general during the American Civil War placed him among the senior military figures of that conflict.
Following his military career, Longstreet took on the roles of ambassador and diplomat, positions that marked a sustained engagement with American civic life beyond the battlefield. He died on January 2, 1904, in Gainesville. His career moved across the distinct spheres of military command and diplomatic service, and it is within those two domains that his life finds its defining shape.
Quotes by James Longstreet
James Longstreet's insights on:
The heavy fumes of gunpowder hanging about our ranks, as stimulating as sparkling wine, charged the atmosphere with the light and splendor of battle. Time was culminating under a flowing tide.
The next time we met was at Appomattox, and the first thing that General Grant said to me when we stepped inside, placing his hand in mine was, Pete, let us have another game of brag, to recall the days that were so pleasant. Great God! I thought to myself, how my heart swells out to such magnanimous touch of humanity. Why do men fight who were born to be brothers?
I have been a soldier all my life. I have commanded companies, I have commanded regiments. I have commanded divisions. And I have commanded even more. But there are no fifteen thousand men i the world that can go across that ground.
General, if you put every Union soldier now on the other side of the Potomac on that field to approach me over the same line, I will kill them all before they reach my line.
My arm is paralyzed; my voice that once could be heard all along the line, is gone; I can scarcely speak above a whisper; my hearing is very much impaired, and sometimes I feel as if I wished the end would come; but I have some misrepresentations of my battles that I wish to correct, so as to have my record correct before I die.
