- Joined
- Aug 25, 2013
- Location
- Hannover, Germany
Do you know that? You read something and an image builds up in your mind that becomes quite persuasive - until you think it's reality.
That is the case with my image of the relationship between James Longstreet and George Pickett. Somehow I always thought they were pretty good friends - although I cannot really tell why I thought that. Now, in another thread, @diane and @War Horse enlightened me about the fact that it were not Sally Pickett and her husband George who cared for the burial of the Longstreet children. That is a myth created by LaSalle Pickett in one of her books. I had always found it perfectly credible, an act of true friendship - but now I can't help asking myself, what was the true relationship of these two men? Is it true that Longstreet befriended Pickett at West Point (although they were not classmates (as I had thought also...), Longstreet graduated in 1842, Pickett in 1846)? And what is true about the story from the Mexican war - Pickett taking the American flag out of the the hands of his wounded friend (?) Longstreet and placing it on the ramparts of Fort Chapultepec? Was that an act of friendship, as I always thought, in the way of "if any of us did it, we have done it both" - or was it just that Pickett seized the chance to distinguish himself without thinking twice about Longstreet? And then of course, Pickett's Charge. I admit that my image here comes from the movie "Gettysburg". One of my favorite scenes, the desperate Longstreet and the dashing Pickett, eager to fight. I can imagine that so well, Longstreet hoping against hope that a more confident, less doubtful man like Pickett maybe can do the impossible with his men...
Sure there are other stories of the two of them. What do you more knowledgeable members think? Were they friends? Comrades? Just professionally linked as superior and subaltern officers?
Seems I need some help to get my image straight...
That is the case with my image of the relationship between James Longstreet and George Pickett. Somehow I always thought they were pretty good friends - although I cannot really tell why I thought that. Now, in another thread, @diane and @War Horse enlightened me about the fact that it were not Sally Pickett and her husband George who cared for the burial of the Longstreet children. That is a myth created by LaSalle Pickett in one of her books. I had always found it perfectly credible, an act of true friendship - but now I can't help asking myself, what was the true relationship of these two men? Is it true that Longstreet befriended Pickett at West Point (although they were not classmates (as I had thought also...), Longstreet graduated in 1842, Pickett in 1846)? And what is true about the story from the Mexican war - Pickett taking the American flag out of the the hands of his wounded friend (?) Longstreet and placing it on the ramparts of Fort Chapultepec? Was that an act of friendship, as I always thought, in the way of "if any of us did it, we have done it both" - or was it just that Pickett seized the chance to distinguish himself without thinking twice about Longstreet? And then of course, Pickett's Charge. I admit that my image here comes from the movie "Gettysburg". One of my favorite scenes, the desperate Longstreet and the dashing Pickett, eager to fight. I can imagine that so well, Longstreet hoping against hope that a more confident, less doubtful man like Pickett maybe can do the impossible with his men...
Sure there are other stories of the two of them. What do you more knowledgeable members think? Were they friends? Comrades? Just professionally linked as superior and subaltern officers?
Seems I need some help to get my image straight...