James Longstreet was an exceptional Confederate general whose leadership and battle strategy, his relationship with Lee, and controversial disobedience contributed to his enormous impact in the American Civil War and the battle at Gettysburg.
Longstreet was born January 8, 1821, and was raised in the South ("General James Longstreet" 1). As a young boy he lived with his parents on the family plantation in Georgia. His father nicknamed him Old Pete, a nickname that stuck with him his whole life, after the saint Peter, because they shared a solid, rock-like character. He entered West Point in 1838. Graduating in 1842, he ranked 54th in a class of 56. However, he made many friends that he would fight alongside, and friends he would fight against, such as Ulysses S. Grant, George H. Thomas, John Bell Hood, and George Pickett. After graduating, Longstreet joined the National Army, with whom he fought in the Mexican-American War. He served in the siege of Veracruz, the advance inland, and in the Battle of Chapultepec, where he was wounded. While recovering, he was stationed in Texas where he was paymaster for the 8th Infantry and ran patrols on the frontier. When tensions rose in the 1860s, James Longstreet supported the doctrine of state’s rights, but was not a secessionist. Upon the outbreak of the fighting in the Civil War, He decided to go with the South, as it was his home, and he agreed with the ideals of state’s rights and slavery (Hickman 1).
As a general in the Civil War, James Longstreet had an exceptional sense of battle tactics. Battles in which his logic shown were: Yorktown and Williamsburg, Fredericksburg, and Antietam. At the battle of Yorktown, Longstreet was in command, and made the executive decision to...
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"General James Longstreet CSA." AmericanCivilWar.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Mar. 2014.
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"General Longstreet Recognition Project." General Longstreet Recognition Project. The
Agribusiness Council/Heritage Preservation Committee, n.d. Web. 31 Mar. 2014.
Hickman, Kennedy. "American Civil War: Lieutenant General James Longstreet."About.com
Military History. About.com, n.d. Web. 31 Mar. 2014.
Shaara, Michael. The Killer Angels; A Novel. New York: McKay, 1974. Print.
United States. National Park Service. "Yorktown National Cemetery--Civil War Era National
Cemeteries: A Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary." National Parks Service. U.S. Department of the Interior, n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2014. .
General Lee said, to be a good soldier you must love the army, to be a good general you must be prepared to order the death of the thing you love, and therein lies the great trap of soldiering. When you attack you must hold nothing back." Thomas J. Jackson was both a good soldier and a good general. In the Mexican War he fought with all his heart for his country. When the Civil War came, he was a general. He never hesitated to send his men forward. He held nothing back. George McClellan also fought with all his heart for his country in the Mexican War. When the time came to send his men forward in the Civil War, he couldn’t do it. He loved the army to much to order its death.
Havertown, PA: Savas Beatie. Retrieved from http://site.ebrary.com.proxy- library.ashford.edu/lib/ashford/docDetail.action?docID=10498889. Reardon, C. (2013). The 'Standards'. The Gettysburg Campaign, June-July 1863.
Stewart R. W. (2005). American Military History (Vol. 1). The United States Army and the
When we compare the military leaders of both North and South during the Civil War, it is not hard to see what the differences are. One of the first things that stand out is the numerous number of Northern generals that led the “Army of the Potomac.” Whereas the Confederate generals, at least in the “Army of Northern Virginia” were much more stable in their position. Personalities, ambitions and emotions also played a big part in effective they were in the field, as well as their interactions with other officers.
The Battle of Gettysburg lead by Robert E. Lee was a three-day battle and was an immense turning point in the war for the Confederate army. Lee had designed brilliant plans for battle, but they were not always fully thought out and executed. Furthermore at Gettysburg Lee’s battle plans seemed to be a big guess or gamble and not really certain at all. Having well thought out
Heidler, David Stephen, and Jeanne T. Heidler, eds. Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: a
Source: Records of the Great War. 3rd ed. of the year. Lewiston, New York: E. Mellen Press. Moss, W., 2014.
The main character in the book is General Robert E. Lee. He was the commander of the Confederate Army and was one of the most famous men in the South. He led his army through many victories, and was known for coming up with very good strategies that he shared with his army. General James Longstreet, Lee’s second in command, was aware of the new nature of warfare and understood that military tactics have to change with new technology. Longstreet was Lee’s most important general and tended to be very stubborn at times, but respected General Lee.
During the War for American Independence, 78 men were commissioned as general officers into the Continental Army by the Continental Congress. Many of these generals commanded troops with differing levels of competence and success. George Washington is typically seen as most important general, however throughout the war a number of his subordinates were able to distinguish themselves amongst their peers. One such general was Nathanael Greene. At the end of the Revolutionary War, Greene would become Washington’s most important subordinate, as demonstrated by Edward Lengel’s assessment of Greene as “the youngest and most capable of Washington’s generals.” Washington and Greene developed a strong, positive and close relationship between themselves. Greene began his life in the military after having been raised a Quaker. With limited access to literature and knowledge in his younger years, Greene became an avid reader which equipped him with the knowledge necessary to excel as a general during the war. Through his devoted study of military operations, firsthand experience and natural abilities as a soldier, Greene became an excellent military commander. He would become known for his successful southern campaign, during which, he loosened British control of the South and helped lead the war to its climax at Yorktown. Throughout the war, he was involved in a number high profile battles where he built a reputation of being an elite strategist who also understood unconventional warfare, logistics, and the importance of military-civil affairs and had a natural political/social acumen. The thesis of this paper is that Greene’s proven reputation of being a soldier, strategist and statesman would cause him to become the second greates...
Palfrey, Francis Winthrop, The Army in the Civil War: The Antietam and Fredericksburg. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1885.
Ulysses S Grant born Hiram Ulysses Grant was born on 27 April 1822 in Pleasant, Ohio. Grant and his family moved to Georgetown, Ohio, just one year after his birth. Grant was a graduate of West Point in 1843 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 4th U.S. Infantry stationed in Missouri. Grant was married Julia Dent and had four children later in marriage. Grant served in the Mexican-American War and he resigned from the military in 1854 after being stationed for several years away from his family. Grant tried a few different occupations after resigning from the Army such as a Farmer, Realtor, and after moving to Galena, Illinois, worked at his father’s leather goods business but failed at all these occupations. Grant was promoted to Colonel in the 21st Illinois Volunteers in April 1861after the start of the Civil War. Grant was then promoted to the rank of Brigadier General later that summer by President Abraham Lincoln. (www.histo...
The Civil War is one of the defining wars in the history of this great nation. The Battle of Gettysburg was the bloodiest battle in American history, and a turning point in the four year war. At the time, Gettysburg was a small, quiet town generally unaffected by the war. General Robert E. Lee of the Confederate States of America and General George Meade of the Union converged in Gettysburg, and a conflict quickly arose. After three long days of battle the Union pulled away with a victory, though not an easy one. This essay will outline the six themes of history; in essence the who, what, when, where, why, and who cares of this infamous battle.
Web. The Web. The Web. 23 Apr. 2014. The 'Standard' of the 'Standard'.
Sears’ thesis is the Union could have won the war faster. McClellan was an incompetent commander and to take the initiative to attack an defeat the Confederate army. The Army of Northern Virginia, under...
- - -, ed. "The Anti-War Movement in the United States." English.Illnois.edu. Ed. Oxford Companion to American Military History. 1st ed. Vers. 1. Rev. 1. Oxford Companion to American Military History, 1999. Web. 24 Feb. 2014. .