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312 albert castel Mars and the reverend longstreet or, attacking and Dying in the Civil war albert Castel during the earlymonths of 1864 soldiers of the Confederatearmyof Tennessee received copies of a pamphlet on militarytacticswritten byan authorwhose last namewas longstreet. In spite of its subject, however, the pamphlet did notcome from the pen of lee’s“war horse,”lieutenantGeneral James longstreet. Instead it was the handiwork of his sixty-eight-year-old uncle, the reverend augustus baldwin longstreet, ll.d. before the war the reverend was far more famous than the general. notonlywas he a prominent Methodist ministerand university president, he also was the author of Georgia scenes, a popular and highly praised collection of short stories first published in 1835 and still regarded as a classic of early american literature. Thus the reverend longstreet was more than just another preacher;he was a public figure of considerable prestige and influence. although he originallyopposed secession, once itoccurred and thewarbegan longstreet passionately supported the cause of Confederate independence. by the end of 1863 that cause was in desperate straits. Terrible defeats had been suffered at Gettysburg, Vicksburg, and Missionary ridge, the northern invaders had occupied large and vital areas of the south, and there no longercould be any realistic hope of british-French intervention. only if the southern armies could drive backorat least hold back the Federal forcescould the Confederacysurvive. but these armies were heavily outnumbered; moreover, the south had reached 312 E Civil War History, Vol. XXXIII no. 2 © 1987 by The Kent state University Press mars and the reverend longstreet 313 the bottom of its manpower barrel, whereas the north could pour, and in fact was pouring, hundreds of thousands of fresh troops into the struggle. How, then, could defeat be staved off and victory achieved? The reverend’s answer was that the Confederate soldiers should strike to make up for their inferiority in numbers with a superiority in fighting spirit, thereby enabling quality to prevail over quantity. To that end he wrote and published his pamphlet, which he entitled “Valuable suggestions addressed to the soldiers of the Confederate states.”1 In it he endeavored with logic and statistics to persuade his soldier-readers that though the Yankees badly outnumbered them, they could still achieve victory through sheer fortitude, determination and will power: let each man go into the battlefield with this train of reflections: “I shall be frightened of course. at what? Why at the danger to which my life is exposed. Well, now,what is reallythe extent of that danger? In the most sanguinary battle, notone fifthof thecombatants are killed orwounded.Thechances are, therefore, five to one that I shall not be hurt. The proportion of the slightly wounded and recoverablywounded is to the killed and mortallywounded as five is to one.The chances are, therefore, five to one, that if touched at all, I shall not be mortally wounded.Thecannon are thecommon engineswhich unnerve men. now, of the whole number of killed in battle not more than one in one hundred are killed by cannon [at this point longstreet has a footnote affirming that “I state this upon the authority of a brigadier General of many battles, who has turned his attention to this matter on the field.”]. a hundred to one, therefore, that those noisy bellowers do not hurt me. The alternative is presented to me, to stand my ground in spite of my fears, or to run. now, in which is the most danger? Why surely in running;for as a general rule, of a given number, more men are killed in flight than in fight. While I stand my ground, I am all the time destroying, weakening and disheartening the enemy and encouraging my companions in arms. Victory, therefore, is likely to insure my safety. . . . If ten thousand engage twenty thousand, the labor of fighting is about equal 1. Under the headline “a Curious rebel Tract,” longstreet’s pamphlet was reprinted in slightly abridged form by the Cincinnati Commercial, July 19, 1864, with an editorial note stating that “The following was picked up at Marietta [Georgia] by one of our correspondents. It has been largely circulated in Johnston’s army.”efforts to ascertainwhen and where the pamphletwas published, or if there are any extant copies of the original, so far have been unavailing. an apparently complete version appears in Frank Moore, ed., The rebellion record, 12 vols, (reprint, new York: arno Press, 1977), 8:433–37. [3.128.94.171] Project MUSE (2024...

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