Film God's and General's

[Thor]

If it was just day two of Gettysburg, Longstreet would be a martyr.

But "Old Slows" screwed up and underminded just about very battle he was in. Starting with the pre-7 Days campaign where inexplicably his troops started off way late and then took the wrong road and seriously balled up Johnston's planned attack on Little Mac at Fair Oaks and Seven Pines; then Longstreet failed to push the attack at Gains Mill until Lee personally ask the Texans to push forward; to Glendale where Longrstreet pulled up short one mile from cutting off the federal retreat path; or 1st Manassas where he failed to engage in the main fight at all (remaining on the flank all day while Jackson and others moved to "the sound of the guns"); or 2nd Manassas where he failed to push the attack on June 29th when the federals could have been routed and Lee was strongly encouraging him to move forward; to the battle of Chancellorville -- which he completely missed because he refused to move to Lee's aid and stayed down on "foraging/light guard duty" in Eastern Virginia while the Army of Norther Virginia was on the verge of annihilation against overwhelming odds; to Nashville where he badly botched the Confederate pursuit of retreating federals; to the Wilderness where his again inexplicable slowness in showing up almost caused Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia to be overrun by the federals in Widow Trap field. Then he got himself accidently shot by his own men. (Or was he fragged??)

Oh well, enough spewing forth. The apologists are trying to blame his poor reputation on his post-Civil War political actions, but IMO "Old Pete" got far more credit than he was ever due. And he was good at blowing his own horn after the war and conveniently forgetting certain timelines and fact.

In my opinion, he undermined Lee at almost every juncture and failed to follow orders on a number of occassions. It was just that Day 2 at Gettysburg was so glaring that even his apologists could not fully explain it away. No doubt, Jubal Early had some axes to grind, but Longstreet really was not the sterling character he makes himselft out to be. And Shara's book "Killer Angels" was based on Longstreet's memoirs. So the movie of Gettysburg was to a large degree Longstreet's view.

And, in fact, Longstreet even actually ignored Lee's orders on the second day at Gettysburg by not moving up the Emettsburg road as ordered, instead veering off far right into Devils Den and Little Roundtop. And his "on-echelon" attack there was so disjointed that Hood's troops got decimated while the rest of Longstreets corps sat way too long in their starting positions waiting for him to give the order to advance on the Peach Orchard. That allowed Sickles and the Federals to concentrate their artillery on Hood's men almost exclusively for the first critical hours.

Prior to the war Longstreet was Major in the U.S. quartermaster corps and continued to draw his U.S. paycheck for some time after accepting a commission in the Confederate army. He also then went to a Southern state to enlist where he would be senior enough to get a star, rather than enlist in his home state as most confederates did.

In fairness, his men seemed to love him and he served well in the Mexican-American War, but in the ACW, other than Fredericksburg, I can find few examples of him shining. Even at Chickamauga, where he eventually spearheaded a major route of the Federals, he was hours behind scedule on launching his attack, disobeyed specific tactical orders -- and immediately began to incite a mutany against Braxton Brag, the grantedly inept, theater commander.

But Longstreet also felt and expressed throughout the war that he was a better general than Lee and often undermined Lee's decisions, actively or inactively.

Wrong ladder, I know. I know. Sorry.

Regards,
Mark~Thor