Edd's Gatherin' Place

On our recent visit to the Gettysburg battlefield this fall, the statue of the most maligned of Robert E. Lee’s generals sits unceremoniously among a tree line on the south end of Seminary Ridge. The statue was not erected until July 1998 and only then by private organizations seeking to rebuild the torn and tattered reputation of Longstreet that existed after the war. These and similar perceptions exist in many circles, North and South, to this day. Note that Longstreet’s horse looks out of proportion when compared to his figure - it is, the original design had the statue sitting atop a pedestal thereby allowing the horse and rider to appear in proportion when viewed from the ground. Money became an object and the pedestal was never built. In my opinion, had Lee listened to Longstreet the slaughter of July 3, 1863 would not have occurred and the South would not have lost its most strategic battle during the war.

The following excerpt from the Association Action to Memorialize The Military and Public Service of CSA General James Longstreet gives you a good background on Longstreet:

Lt. General James Longstreet served in the Confederate Army in high command positions from 1861-1865, from Manassas to Appomattox. "Old Pete" (nickname) became known as Lee's "Old War Horse" and the best fighter and corps commander in the Army.

Despite a distinguished military record and several brilliant victories where his prescience, strategic vision and well-executed tactics saved the Army of Northern Virginia from certain destruction, General Longstreet was unfairly scapegoated and blamed for the loss of Gettysburg (and the war itself) for many years after the conflict…

Written on the back cover of William Garrett Piston’s book, Lee’s Tarnished Lieutenant, are the words:

Reconstructing the military career of one of the Confederacy’s most competent but also one of his most vilified corps commanders, Lee’s Tarnished Lieutenant reveals how James Longstreet became, in the years after Appomattox, the Judas of the Lost Cause, the scapegoat for Lee’s and the South’s defeat.

Longstreet’s image as an incompetent who lost the battle of Gettysburg and, by extension, the war itself is underserved, argues William Garrett Piston…