Longstreet Young James Longstreet

Joined
Nov 26, 2016
Location
central NC
After following a link (see below) that was shared by @Mike Serpa in a "Ladies Tea" thread, I discovered what is identified as an early image of General Longstreet. This is the first picture I have seen of a young Longstreet! What do you think?


https://historical.ha.com/itm/milit...018.s?ic4=GalleryView-ShortDescription-071515

General James Longstreet CDV
. 2.5" x 4", no photographer's backmark, "Gen. Longstreet" in pencil on verso, small abrasion to top layer of image along top edge, else a fine image. This is an earlier image of Longstreet, in an earlier style uniform and before he sported a full beard.

Edit: This picture has been identified on other sites as A.P. Hill. Darn it!!

Young Longstreet.jpg
 
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...What do you think ...

I´m afraid that @Mike Serpa is correct; have seen it attributed to Hill several times (like the one from pinterest below). The picture shows him as Colonel in 1861, the third star half visible (if the stars weren´t added in artistic freedom) - an insignia that Longstreet never wore. Also if other pictures are right Longstreet already wore full beard during the 1850s.

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After following a link (see below) that was shared by @Mike Serpa in a "Ladies Tea" thread, I discovered what is identified as an early image of General Longstreet. This is the first picture I have seen of a young Longstreet! What do you think?


https://historical.ha.com/itm/milit...018.s?ic4=GalleryView-ShortDescription-071515

General James Longstreet CDV
. 2.5" x 4", no photographer's backmark, "Gen. Longstreet" in pencil on verso, small abrasion to top layer of image along top edge, else a fine image. This is an earlier image of Longstreet, in an earlier style uniform and before he sported a full beard.

View attachment 125291

I can't say for sure. I know Longstreet sported his beard for many years as seen in this younger James Longstreet photo.

IMG_3037.PNG
 
Sorry @Eleanor Rose for chiming in so late! How fascinating! I would never thought it possible that James Longstreet and Ambose Powell Hill could ever have resembled one another! I always thought of one of them as bursting with physical strength, the "Bull of the Woods", while the other one in my imagination always was kind of frail and emaciatiated, although his illness probably nagged at him more in his later years.
As for the picture in the OP, I don't think that it shows Longstreet. The decisive part for me is the lower lip. The officer on the first photo had a full sculpted lower lip while I always thought that Longstreet sported his beard to hide is small lower lip that might have given him a kind of hesitating or indecisive or even weak expression. jeb Stuarg did it to hide his weak chin, Longstreet maybe did it to let his impressive beard give him a coarse, but manly, powerful look. Just my impression, though. And I can't find "my" Longstreet in the expression shown in tge photo, the faint hint of frivolity, the desire to please the observer that is expressed in the cocked head... in my opinion Longstreet would not have cocked his head to look more pleasant. He presented himself as he was, straightforward. "Like me or not, but that's me", so to speak.
At any rate, thank you for that picture! It has improved my imagination of A. P. Hill, I can now see the boldness and dash that made him the valuable general he was for Lee. In his later pictures his ailments had taken that from him, but here we see him as he must have been in reality.
Great thread, @Eleanor Rose! Thank you!
 
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