Lee's Tarnished Lieutenant

6 Setting the Stage

6. Setting theStage WO MONTHS AFTER PARTING with Lee at Appomattox , James Longstreet began his journey to Texas, moving at a leisurely pace and stopping frequently along his route to visit relatives. He traveled only as far as New Orleans, however. Although the war was barely over, the Crescent City had already captured the imagination of many prominent former Confederates, including Beauregard, Hood, and a host of lesser generals. Longstreet joined this community of veterans, settling in New Orleans with his wife and family and devoting himself to business. Longstreet became a cotton factor in partnership with awartime friend, William Miller Owen of the Washington Artillery,and Owen's brother Edward. Within two years he was a successful businessman and a respected figure in financial circles. He became president of the board of an insurance firm and took an interest in large-scale railroad investments. During his evening hours, he and Louise mixed with the city's social elite. For recreation, he and Owen purchased a hunting cabin not far from town. One Louisiana resident described the General at the time as "a candid, sensible man. Everybody appears to like him."1 Longstreet made a speedy transition from a lifetime of military service, accepting defeat without bitterness. If the tragic deaths of his three children still preyed on his mind, his grief did not show. Longstreet 's friend D. H. Hill described him in 1867 as "a genial, wholesouled fellow, full of fun and frolic."2 No one would have guessed, as 95 T 96 Longstreet's Place in Southern History the second year of peace began, that Longstreet would soon become one of the South's most controversial figures. To understand the controversies which later engulfed Longstreet and affected his place in Southern history, it is important to examine briefly the public image of the man during the war and in the immediate postwar period. This exercise gives one a taste of history as it might have been, for the Longstreet of the 186os was not the Longstreet of the 18708, i88os, and beyond. The difference lay not only with the General but in the perceptions of the people viewing him as well. In 1867, Northerners and Southerners alike considered Longstreet one of the key figures of the rebellion, and newspapers followed his postwar movements with interest. The new president, Andrew Johnson, hated Longstreet because he had occupied Johnson's native East Tennessee during the war. He declared that Longstreet was one of three Southerners (the other two being Lee and Davis) who had caused "too much trouble" ever to receive a Federal pardon.3 The first Northern histories of the war paid little attention to Longstreet or any other Southern generals, intent as they were on creating Federal heroes.4 A notable exception was the writing of William Swinton, who obtained information from Longstreet which he used in two books, Campaigns of theArmy of thePotomac, published in 1866, and The Twelve Decisive Battles of the War, published in 1867. The author attributed to Longstreet a statement (but not a quotation) that Lee had promised to remain on the defensive during the Gettysburg campaign. Longstreet himself never made such a claim, although he implied it in his later writingsand never denied the accuracy of Swinton 's works.5 Except in the work of Swinton, however, the picture of Longstreet in the North remained unbalanced. Although newspapers considered him important, he was largely ignored in the books just beginning to appear chronicling the war. In the South, the picture was reversed. As previously noted, the Southern press took little notice of Longstreet during the war. Confederate newspapers were highly provincial, each tending to portray the closest war zone as the most important. Thus Western newspapers focused on the Army of Tennessee, not that of northern Virginia. This was unfortunate for Longstreet because Virginia newspapers were highly partisan toward native sons and gave him scant attention. Setting the Stage 97 Only when Longstreet went west to fight at Chickamauga did he receive the coverage and praise his efforts merited.6 Longstreet was therefore never a figure of great public adoration as were Jackson and such cavalier figures as Stuart, Mosby, or John Hunt Morgan. Nor did he possess the popularity of army commanders such as Beauregard, Johnston, or Lee. But among officers who had exercised only limited independent command, and who spent their careers at corps level, Longstreet's...