Lee's Tarnished Lieutenant

1 From Manassas to Antietam

i.From Manassas to Antietam ing as a paymaster in the United States Army he applied for a comparable position in the Confederate forces. The error reflects either false modesty or faulty memory. Major Longstreet was stationed in Albuquerque, New Mexico Territory, in 1860. He opposed secession but decided after Abraham Lincoln's election that he would side with the South if fighting broke out. In a move that his superiors would probably have considered treasonous, he tried to obtain a commission from Alabama, as that state had sponsored him at West Point. Nothing came of this effort, however, and Longstreet did not resign and head for Richmond until the fall of Fort Sumter had made a sectional reconcilation improbable.1 If Longstreet ever entertained thoughts of becoming a Confederate paymaster, he abandoned them quickly. On a train from New Orleans to Virginia he fell in with a group of young Texans, and they decided to form a company of mounted infantry. During an interview Longstreet obtained with Jefferson Davis shortly after June 21, the president expressed enthusiasm for the idea but indicated that Longstreet could expect to command far more than a mere company. Elated, Longstreet made plans to organize an entire brigade from the many Texans flocking to Richmond in search of a fight.2 Longstreet knew Texas well from his army service and had resided there longer than in any other state except Georgia. Texas wasa young state. Fewof its residents were nativeborn, and Longstreet had 11 N HIS MEMOIRS James Longstreet states that after resignI 12 Longstreet's Military Record as much right to adopt it as anyone. Had events gone a bit differently, history might tell of Longstreet's Texas Brigade as it does of John Bell Hood's. But there was no time for Longstreet to organize a command of his own choosing. Davis desperately needed qualified officers. On July i, Longstreet received a commission as brigadier general which was to date fromJune 17. He wasordered to report to General P.G.T. Beauregard at Manassas Junction, a rail center some eighty miles north of the capital. There he wasgiven command of the Fourth Brigade , consisting of the First, Eleventh, and Seventeenth regiments of Virginia Volunteer Infantry.3 Longstreet had no connection with Virginia . The fact that he was not identified with any particular state, unnoticed at the time, would have grave consequences after the war. Longstreet's command was part of a force of some 15,000 to 18,000 men guarding a strategic railjunction little more than a dozen miles from Washington. Beauregard, famous throughout the South for his reduction of Fort Sumter, styled his men the Armyof the Potomac . He was opposed by Irwin McDowell, rumored to be building an immense Federal army. This enemy force would also eventually call itself the Army of the Potomac.4 On July 8, Longstreet's brigade was ordered forward to Blackburn 's Ford, a key position in the line that Beauregard was organizing behind Bull Run. The steep banks of this meandering stream, a tributary of the Potomac River, offered the best position from which an army might protect Manassas Junction. At Blackburn's Ford, Longstreet's 1,400 men guarded the route to Manassasvia Centerville, three miles north. Other Confederate brigades protected strategic fords and crossings on each of his flanks, upstream and downstream. In Longstreet's rear, within easy reach of Blackburn's Ford, Beauregard placed a reserve brigade under Jubal Anderson Early.5 Longstreet picketed both sides of the ford heavily and, after camping his main force just behind the crossing, turned his attention to drilling his men. The raw recruits needed months of discipline, but McDowell allowed the rebels little time for training. By July 16, the Federal commander was moving his own equally inexperienced army forward. At 11:30 A.M. on the eighteenth an advance Federal brigade under General Israel B. Richardson drove in Longstreet's pickets and assaulted Blackburn's Ford.6 From Manassas to Antietam 13 The ensuing combat gave Longstreet his first test as a field commander . He passed although not without making mistakes. As the Federals approached, Longstreet formed a heavy skirmish line on the south bank of Bull Run but kept his main force in reserve, correctly calculating that his skirmishers alone would be sufficient to repulse the enemy's initial assault. When a second, stronger attack followed, he moved each...