“In this caucus of generals, Longstreet was selected to write and publish a letter. He did it. There was a howl of protest from the ill-informed people. The men who advised Longstreet to do this did not face this opposition, avoided this martyr, let him bear the odium alone. I ask General Joseph Wheeler to say what he personally knows of this. I call upon Colonel W. W. Garth to say what he knows and the source of his information.
“Let the South beg pardon for the wrong it has done our greater soldier, General James Longstreet.”
*****
“Did he do his duty as a soldier? Let Williamsburg, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, and the Wilderness make reply.”
We are here to-day to pay our tribute to James Longstreet, the soldier who faithfully and ably served, the fighter who fiercely fought, the leader who bravely led, the sleepless, watchful, persistent, valorous captain of a glorious host, whom his great chief implicitly trusted in every hour of supreme and dangerous service, and who on many a bloody field hurled his bold and devoted followers like an avalanche on the serried ranks of his country’s foes, and who, when valor could avail no more, bore with him from the field of strife the passionate love of the legions he had led, and the unstinted praise and tearful benediction of his great commander, who knew him best, and had trusted him in many an “imminent and deadly breach.”
Every man capable by reason of environment, character, or ability of exerting an influence upon affairs in any important field of human endeavor, is called upon at some time to act under such circumstances that his decision must infallibly indicate the character of the man and forever fix his place in the estimation of his contemporaries and of posterity.
That time came to James Longstreet in 1861. He was then an officer in the army of the greatest and most powerful republic on all the earth, and had won high and deserved honor in battle beneath its flag.
High commission in that army awaited him if he but adhered to that flag, and the future held in store for him exalted rank which his reputation and ability easily assured him.
On the other hand was a young nation, scarcely emerged from its chrysalis stage and without moral or physical support among the nations of the earth. His training and education as a soldier, and his knowledge of the power and resources of that great government in whose service he had been so long enlisted, enabled him to appreciate and realize the odds in its favor in the rapidly approaching struggle.
The conditions which confronted him required the exertion of all the virtues of courage, honor, consistency, and fidelity to conviction. He was called upon to illustrate the loftiest qualities of human character, and immolate self on the shrine of duty, or give heed to the siren voice of ambition, and, lured by the selfish hope of high reward, turn his sword against the land of his birth in the hour of her sorest need.