Longstreet, James

[civilwartalk]

"Time sets all things right. Error lives but a day. Truth is eternal."

-- James Longstreet

[civilwartalk]

"I have been a soldier all my life. I have commanded companies, I have commanded regiments. I have commanded divisions. And I have commanded even more. But there are no fifteen thousand men in the world that can go across that ground."

-- Gen James Longstreet, arguing with Gen Robert E. Lee against what became known as Pickett's Charge, July 1863

[traveller]

"That man will fight us every day and every hour till the end of the war."

-- Lt. General James Longstreet speaking of Lt. General Ulysses S. Grant upon learning of his appointment as General-in-Chief of the Union Armies.

[traveller]

"I hope to live long enough to see my surviving comrades march side by side with the Union veterans along Pennsylvania Avenue, and then I will die happy."

-- James Longstreet at a Memorial Day Parade in 1902

[traveller]

"General, unless he offers us honorable terms, come back and let us fight it out!"

-- James Longstreet said this to Robert E. Lee as he rode off to discuss terms for surrender with General Grant at Appomattox.

[thea_447]

"I do not want to make this charge. I do not see how it can succeed. I would not make it now but that General Lee has ordered it and expects it."


(Message edited by johan_steele on August 23, 2004)

[dawna]

Longstreet rode slowly and alone immediately in front of our entire line. He sat his large charger with a magnificent grace and composure I never before beheld. His bearing was to me the grandest moral spectacle of the war. I expected to see him fall every instant. Still he moved on, slowly and majestically, with an inspiring confidence, composure, self-possession and repressed power in every movement and look, that fascinated me."

Brigadier General James Kemper discussing Lt. Gen. Longstreet at Gettysburg
"The Generals of Gettysburg: The Leaders of America's Greatest Battle"
Larry Tagg, DaCapo Press; July 1998


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Pickett's

[Nytram01]

"The next time we met was at Appomattox, and the first thing that General Grant said to me when we stepped inside, placing his hand in mine was, "Pete, let us have another game of brag, to recall the days that were so pleasant." Great God! I thought to myself, how my heart swells out to such magnanimous touch of humanity. Why do men fight who were born to be brothers?"

General James Longstreet talking about General Ulysses S. Grant after his death, New York Times, July 24, 1885.