JAMES LONGSTREET
James Longstreet was born in Edgefield District, South Carolina, January 8, 1821, son of James and Mary Ann (Dent) Longstreet, and a descendant of the Longstreets and Randolphs of New Jersey and the Dents and Marshalls of Maryland and Virginia. Richard Longstreet, progenitor of the name in America, settled in Monmouth County, New Jersey.
James Longstreet, subject of this sketch, removed with his parents to Alabama in 1831, from which State he received his appointment to West Point, and was graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1842. He was promoted in the army as brevet second lieutenant of the Fourth Infantry, July 1, 1842, and served in garrison at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, 1842–44; on frontier duty at Natchitoches, Louisiana, 1844–45; was promoted second lieutenant of the Eighth Infantry, March 4, 1845; was in military occupation of Texas, 1845–46, and served in the war with Mexico, 1846–47. He participated in the battle of Palo Alto; May 8, 1846; the battle of Resaca de la Palma, May 9, 1846; was promoted first lieutenant Eighth Infantry, February 23, 1847, and participated in the siege of Vera Cruz, March 9–29, 1847; the battle of Cerro Gordo, April 17 and 18, 1847; the capture of San Antonio and the battle of Churubusco, August 20, 1847; the battle of Molino del Rey, September 8, 1847; the storming of Chepultepec, September 13, 1847, where he was severely wounded in the assault on the fortified convent. He was brevetted captain, August 20, 1847, “for gallant and meritorious conduct in the battles of Churubusco and Contreras,” and major, September 8, 1847, “for gallant and meritorious conduct at the battle of Molino del Rey.” He served as adjutant of the Eighth Infantry, 1847–49; was in garrison at Jefferson Barracks, 1848–49; and served on frontier duty in Texas in 1849. He was chief of Commissariat of the Department of Texas, 1849–51, and served on scouting duty in Texas, Kansas, and New Mexico, 1851–61. He was promoted captain, December 7, 1852, and major of staff and paymaster July 19, 1858. He resigned his commission in 1861 and was appointed brigadier-general in the Confederate States army, and commanded a brigade at Blackburn’s Ford, Virginia, from July 18 to and including July 21, 1861. He was promoted major-general and commanded the rear guard of Joseph E. Johnston’s army during the retreat from Yorktown, Virginia. He commanded the Confederate forces in the field, composed of his own and part of D. H. Hill’s division and Stuart’s cavalry brigade, at the battle of Williamsburg, May 5, 1862; commanded the right wing of Johnston’s army at Seven Pines, May 31 and June 1, 1862; his own and A. P. Hill’s division, in the Seven Days’ Battle before Richmond; and commanded the right wing of Lee’s army of Northern Virginia in the second battle of Bull Run, August 29 and 30, 1862; and in the Maryland campaign, September, 1862; the First Corps (Confederate left) at the battle of Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862. He was on duty south of the James River in April, 1863, and was ordered to rejoin General Lee at Chancellorsville, Virginia, but Lee, without awaiting his return made precipitate battle May 2 to 4, 1863. He commanded the right wing of the Army of Northern Virginia at Gettysburg July 1 to 3, 1863. He served under General Bragg in the Army of the Tennessee, and commanded the left wing of that army, composed of Hindman’s division, Polk’s corps, Buckner’s corps, and two divisions and artillery of Longstreet’s corps, at the battle of Chickamauga, September 19 and 20, 1863. He was sent with part of his corps and Wheeler’s cavalry against Burnside’s army in East Tennessee, in November, with orders to recover possession of that part of the State. He drove Burnside back into his works around Knoxville, and held him there under siege from November 17 to December 4, 1863, when Sherman approached with twenty thousand of Grant’s army, near Chattanooga, for relief of the besieged army. Bragg ordered precipitate attack of the fortifications, but they were too strong to be carried by assault. Just then orders came from President Davis for Longstreet to return to Bragg’s army in distress at Chattanooga. Longstreet held his army in possession of East Tennessee, keeping the Federal forces close about their works, until January, 1864, when he was ordered to withdraw towards General Lee’s army in Virginia, and he participated in the battle of the Wilderness, May 5 and 6, 1864, when he commanded the two divisions of the First Corps forming the right of Lee’s army, and was severely wounded. After convalescing he participated in all the engagements of the Army of Northern Virginia in 1864. He commanded the First Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia from the date of its organization until surrendered by General Lee at Appomattox Court-House, Virginia, April 9, 1865. He was called the hardest fighter in the Confederate army, and the fairest military critics of the century have estimated his military genius as second to no commander in the Confederate States service.
He removed to New Orleans and engaged in commerce immediately after the surrender. He was Surveyor of Customs of the Port of New Orleans, 1869; Supervisor of Internal Revenue, 1878; Postmaster at Gainesville, Georgia, 1879, and was appointed by President Hayes United States Minister to Turkey, serving 1880. He was United States Marshal of the Northern District of Georgia, in 1881, and was appointed United States Commissioner of Railroads by President McKinley in October, 1897, serving until the date of his death in 1904.
On the 8th day of March, 1848, at Lynchburg, Virginia, he was married to Marie Louise Garland, daughter of General John Garland, U.S.A., of a noted Virginia family, hero of two wars. Mrs. Longstreet died at Gainesville, Georgia, December 29, 1889.
On the fiftieth anniversary of the battle of Molino del Rey, September 8, 1897, at the Executive Mansion in Atlanta, Georgia, he was married to Helen Dortch, daughter of the late Colonel James S. Dortch, a brilliant Georgia lawyer, of a distinguished North Carolina family.
General Longstreet died at Gainesville, Georgia, January 2, 1904, and was buried at Alta Vista Cemetery, that place, with military honors, January 6.