*****
(Camp Hardee.)
“Longstreet more often than any other subordinate was trusted with independent commands.”
To Camp Hardee, Confederate Veterans, Birmingham, Alabama:
Your committee, appointed to report resolutions commemorative of the life and service of the late Lieutenant-General James Longstreet, recommends the following:
Resolved, That in the testimony of the estimate of old soldiers of his life and services to the South in the great war between the States Camp Hardee adopt the following statement:
General Longstreet, a South Carolinian by birth, a graduate of the West Point Military Academy as a cadet from Alabama, while assured of position in the Federal army, resigned the commission he held in an established service to enter the unorganized, poorly equipped army of the Confederacy, and undertook all the arduous duties and dangers of that war, and fought it out to the disastrous end.
From the time of his appointment as brigadier-general under Beauregard along the line of Bull Run Creek, in July, 1861, to the surrender at Appomattox in April, 1865, he was distinguished as a stalwart, skilful commander and a gallant soldier. He was remarkable for staying qualities rather than for dash.
In all that brave service there was nothing spectacular, but he was always steadfast, true, and reliable.
Whatever may have been said of General Longstreet, it is remarkable that at no time for inefficiency or the absence of results or disobedience of order was he relieved of his command. No other subordinate was so often intrusted with independent and difficult enterprises. Now that death has silenced all complaints and the great commander has gone to his reward, we who survive him desire to crown his memory with the degree of praise which his great deeds wrought in behalf of his people so richly deserve. As a soldier he was wholly faithful to the South, and for that fidelity merits the grateful appreciation of our people. Such a great soul needs no defence. Time will cover with its mantle whatever has been charged as his faults. It may be that in the great conservatism of his nature he saw more clearly what was best for his country. In this hour of bereavement let us only remember that a great and gallant spirit has gone to his reward; and therefore,