Tag Archives: Gen. James Longstreet

Reprise: Longstreet’s faulty recon

At least one reviewer of the novel has complained about Gen. Longstreet’s apparent mistake in insufficiently reconnoitering Fort Sanders before his Mississippians and Georgians attacked. Indeed, after the battle, Longstreet tried to pin the blame for the mistake on his … Continue reading

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Longstreet to McLaws: “a want of confidence”

Gen Lafayette McLaws protested his relief by Gen. James Longstreet and eventually won reinstatement. And then lost it. Here is Longstreet’s reply to McLaws’ initial protest. Headquarters Near Bean’s Station, December 17th, 1863. Major-General McLaws, Confederate States Army General: I … Continue reading

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McLaws on court-martial politics

He would be vindicated by review of the court martial, but he was embittered by the whole process against him: “I am charged with not having ladders to cross a ditch,” he wrote his wife in an undated letter before … Continue reading

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No men who are determined to succeed can fail

HEADQUARTERS, November 28, 1863 General M. JENKINS, Commanding Division: GENERAL: Your letter is received. The work of the enemy is not inclosed. The ditch is probably at some points not more than 3 feet deep and 5 or 6 feet … Continue reading

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Burnside’s headquarters

Gen. Burnside made his Knoxville headquarters here at the home of Congressman & attorney John Hervey Crozier. It was no less a mansion than Longstreet’s HQ at Bleak House, the Armstrong’s Italianate villa southeast of town. In the novel, the … Continue reading

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Gen. James Longstreet

The “Bull of The Woods” in 1901 when he wore mutton chops instead of the full beard he had during the war. This was three years before he died. There are more attractive photos of him during the war, when … Continue reading

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Saving Longstreet’s headquarters

Sometime about 1985, I think it was, I drove south from visiting in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley into Tennessee in search of the First Corps’ winter camp near Russellville. Eventually, I drove past a state historic marker, turned around and went … Continue reading

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The court martial of Gen. Lafayette McLaws

Shortly before the Rebs retreated from Knoxville, Longstreet sent an aide, Moxley Sorrel, to notify McLaws that he had been relieved of command for failure “to make arrangements essential to success” in the attack on Fort Sanders. McLaws, who had … Continue reading

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