He removed to New Orleans and engaged in commerce immediately after

the surrender. He was Surveyor of Customs of the Port of New Orleans,

1869; Supervisor of Internal Revenue, 1878; Postmaster at Gainesville,

Georgia, 1879, and was appointed by President Hayes United States

Minister to Turkey, serving 1880. He was United States Marshal of the

Northern District of Georgia, in 1881, and was appointed United States

Commissioner of Railroads by President McKinley in October, 1897,

serving until the date of his death in 1904.

On the 8th day of March, 1848, at Lynchburg, Virginia, he was married

to Marie Louise Garland, daughter of General John Garland, U.S.A., of

a noted Virginia family, hero of two wars. Mrs. Longstreet died at

Gainesville, Georgia, December 29, 1889.

On the fiftieth anniversary of the battle of Molino del Rey, September

8, 1897, at the Executive Mansion in Atlanta, Georgia, he was married

to Helen Dortch, daughter of the late Colonel James S. Dortch, a

brilliant Georgia lawyer, of a distinguished North Carolina family.

General Longstreet died at Gainesville, Georgia, January 2, 1904, and

was buried at Alta Vista Cemetery, that place, with military honors,

January 6.

THE FUNERAL CEREMONIES

(_A. S. Hardy, in the Constitution, Atlanta, Georgia._)

GAINESVILLE, GEORGIA, January 6, 1904.

The funeral of General James Longstreet, which was held at eleven

o’clock to-day at the county court-house, was the most impressive

ceremonial ever held in Gainesville. Several thousand people gathered

in and around the court-house, and when the guards threw open the doors

to the public just preceding the service, which occurred in the main

court-room instead of in the rotunda as originally intended, there was

a great crush, though every endeavor was made to handle the vast throng

with every possible ease. Only a few minutes were consumed in filling

every available seat, and outside there appeared to be absolutely no

diminution in the size of the crowd.

A few moments before twelve o’clock, the active pall-bearers bore the

casket up the stairway from the rotunda, where it had lain in state

from two o’clock yesterday, and placed it in position just in front of

the judge’s rostrum. It was banked in a profusion of exquisite floral

offerings, many of which came from out-of-town Confederate camps, other

organizations, and from personal friends. Across the head and foot were

thrown a Confederate and a United States flag, and standing near was

the handsome silk flag of the Candler Horse Guards.

If any should doubt that the people among whom the General lived

did not love him and revere his memory, this doubt would have been

dispelled to-day if they had seen the demonstration over his casket

as the last sad rites were being said. Not a business house in town

was open, everything in the city closing tight their doors from the

beginning of the funeral until after the body was placed to rest in

Alta Vista Cemetery. From every quarter the people came and upon every

lip there was praise of the immortal deeds of the great Confederate

commander.

As the body was being placed in position, Bishop Keiley, Father

Schadewell, of Albany, and Father Gunn, of Sacred Heart Church,

Atlanta, emerged from the judge’s private chambers on the left and

were escorted to a position in front of the casket. The burial service

of the Roman Catholic Church was conducted by the Right Rev. Bishop

Keiley, of Savannah; Father Schadewell, of Albany, and Dr. Gunn, of the

Sacred Heart Church, of Atlanta. Father Schadewell read the liturgical

Latin service, then gave the same in English. Some of the beautiful

prayers are given elsewhere.

After reading the service and the blessing of the remains the right

reverend bishop, who himself had served as a soldier from 1860 to 1864

in the Confederate army under Longstreet, spoke as follows:

“Had it pleased God that the cause which met defeat at Appomattox

eight and thirty years ago had been crowned with that success for

which both its justice and the singular devotedness of its defenders

had given us right and warrant to hope, a far different scene had been

witnessed here to-day. It might have been that Federal as well as State

authorities had met to pay a merited tribute to this dead hero, who

valiantly sustained on many a bloody field the imperishable principles

of the right of self-government.

“Had it pleased God to spare the precious lives of those of his

companions in arms who have passed over the river, then we had seen

the peerless Lee, the brave Johnston, and the dashing Hampton sharing

our grief and mingling their tears with ours over the remains of the

soldier whom Lee loved. Is there e’en a suggestion of irreverence in

the thought which would people this hall with the dauntless spirits of

our dead?

“Having met defeat in an unequal struggle and having loyally accepted

the results of that struggle; having devoted our time and scanty means

to the upbuilding of our loved land; having been blessed by a merciful

God beyond our dreams or deserts, we lay aside our tasks to-day for

awhile to recall the glories of our past and to tell of the valor of

one who fought and bled for us.

“The foeman need not frown,

They are all powerless now;

We gather here and we lay them down,

And tears and prayers are the only crown

We bring to wreathe each brow.

“Having passed the span which Providence ordinarily allots as the term

of human life, General James Longstreet has answered the roll-call of

the great God.

“What a brilliant page in history is filled with his grand career. Born

more than eighty years ago in the neighboring State of South Carolina,

he entered West Point in his seventeenth year and graduated therefrom

in his twenty-first. He served with marked distinction in the Mexican

War and was more than once complimented for his gallant conduct and

merited and received promotion.

“When the Southern States withdrew from the Union by reason of attacks

on their reserved rights which were guaranteed by the Constitution, and

were forced into the war between the States, James Longstreet offered

his services and sword to the cause of self-government. No history of

the war may be written which does not bear emblazoned on every page the

story of his deeds. Why need I recount them here? Assuredly no one will

question the gross impropriety of discussing incidents of the career of

Longstreet during the war which have been the subject of criticism by

some.

“We who knew him forty-odd years ago; we who shared his convictions

and in humble ways bore a part in the good cause; we know what a tower

of strength Longstreet was to the noblest knight who has graced tented

field since the peerless Bayard passed from earth,--Robert E. Lee; we

feel and know to-day that neither boundless praise nor fullest words of

gratitude can exaggerate the worth of James Longstreet or pay him what

we owe.

“By what I deem is a peculiarly fortunate coincidence, we are

committing his remains to the tomb on a day when the Catholic Church

commemorates the manifestation of our Saviour to the Gentiles in the

persons of the wise men, who, led by a star, came from their distant

homes to Bethlehem. The Bible tells us that they found the Child and

Mary, His Mother. God has sent stars which have been beacon-lights

on our pathway through the world, though in their gleaming we have

foolishly failed at times to see the guiding hand of a merciful

Providence. Joy and sorrow, sickness, and even death have been stars

which should have led us nearer and nearer to God.

“It is my duty as a priest of God to call your attention to the

obvious lesson of this occasion,--the vanity of mere earthly greatness

and the certainty of death and the necessity of preparation for it.

James Longstreet was a brave soldier, a gallant gentleman, but better

still--a consistent Christian. After the war between the States he

became a member of the Catholic Church, and to his dying day remained

faithful to her teaching and loyal to her creed.

“Deep down in the heart and breast of every man when touched by

the correcting hand of God there is a longing for some means of

communicating with loved ones who have been taken from us by death. Oh

that we might reach them or tell them of our love or do something for

them!

“In that familiar profession of faith, which comes down to us even

from the days of the immediate followers of the Master, there is a

clause which brings comfort to the afflicted heart of the sorrowing

and answers the longings of the grief-stricken. It is that solemn

profession of our belief in the communion of saints.

“To the Catholic heart it tells of a golden chain of intercession

longer than the ladder of the patriarch and reaching from the cold

dead clods of earth even to the great throne of God; a golden chain

which links and binds together the children of God here and above; a

brilliant and mystic tie which binds and unites the blessed ones who

now see God in heaven to us who yet labor and wait in this vale of

tears. It tells us of their interest in our salvation and their prayers

in our behalf. But it brings yet more solace and comfort to aching

hearts when it soothes the grief of those who are in doubt as to the

dead who have had their garments soiled with the warfare of this world

and have left it not prepared to meet that God before whom scarce the

angels are pure; for it tells, too, that even we may aid by our prayers

those who are yet in the communion of saints.

“The last words of Mother Church have been said for James Longstreet.

Softly and tenderly they fall on every Christian ear, for the children

of the Church they have a deeper meaning.

“May his soul rest in peace. Amen.”

This concluded the funeral services and the body was borne from the

court-house to the hearse by the active pall-bearers. The procession

then formed in the following order: Queen City Band, Candler Horse

Guards, and Governor’s Horse Guards, honorary escort; hearse with

pall-bearers, family and relatives, Confederate Veterans, Daughters of

the Confederacy, mayor and council and county officers, Brenau College,

Children of the Confederacy, citizens and public generally. The

procession moved up North Bradford Street to Spring Street, out Spring

Street to Grove, down Grove to West Broad, thence Broad to Alta Vista

Cemetery.

Father Schadewell accompanied the remains to the cemetery, where a

short service was held, the crowd baring their heads when the following

prayer was read:

“Almighty and most merciful Father, who knowest the weakness of our

nature, bow down thine ear in pity unto Thy servants upon whom Thou

hast laid the heavy burden of sorrow. Take away out of their hearts the

spirit of rebellion and teach them to see Thy good and gracious purpose

working in all the trials which Thou dost send upon them. Grant that

they may not languish in fruitless and unavailing grief, nor sorrow

as those who have no hope, but meekly look up to Thee, the God of all

consolation, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

“Grant, O Lord, that whilst we lament the departure of our brother,

Thy servant, out of the life, we may bear in mind that we are most

certainly to follow him. Give us grace to make ready for that last

hour by a devout and holy life and protect us against a sudden and

unprovided death. Teach us how to watch and pray that when the summons

comes we may go forth to meet the bridegroom and enter with him into

life everlasting, through Christ our Lord. Amen. Eternal rest grant

unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him.”

A volley was then fired over the grave of the dead leader by the

Candler Horse Guards and a detachment from the Governor’s Horse Guards,

under command of Colonel A. J. West, and Captain W. N. Pillow, taps

were sounded, and the grave closed over one of the greatest warriors

the world has ever known.

* * * * *

(From the Atlanta, Georgia, Constitution.)

(By Alan Rogers.)

Pathetic Scenes Marked the Interment of Lee’s “Old War-Horse.”

With muffled drums and the flag that was furled

With the cause that was lost, when the last smoke curled

From the last old gun, at the last brave stand--

His soul marched on with the old command;

And the step was slow, as they bore away,

To await the eternal muster day,

Their old-time comrade, lost awhile,

But loved long since for the brave old smile

That cleared the way when he only knew

His ways were Gray and their ways were Blue;

And if for a time, he walked alone,

He’s all right now, for “Longstreet’s home:”

Back to his old command he’s gone,

With Lee and Jackson looking on,

And cheering him back to the ranks again

With the Blue and the Gray all melted in.

GAINESVILLE, GEORGIA, January 6, 1904.

Slowly the bells of Gainesville toll a requiem, the last taps have

sounded only to be lost again across the winter-browned fields of

Georgia, but the reveille of awakening still rings out clear and

true that to-day old comrades in arms, citizens, soldiers, admirers,

friends, women of the South, children of a rising generation, Georgia,

and all Dixieland may know that Lieutenant-General James Longstreet,

the “war-horse” of the Confederacy, has at last again joined his old

command.

And the thousands who marched to the little cemetery just as the sun

started on its sleeping journey in the west did not come to say a last

good-by; with uncovered heads they simply said good-night.

In the court-house which but a few months ago was a converted hospital

for the care of those maimed by a terrible cyclone, the body of General

Longstreet rests beneath the Stars and Bars of the Confederacy and the

Stars and Stripes of the Union. Old soldiers passed in a never-ending

procession with uncovered heads for one last look upon the face of

their commander. Look if you will behind that curtain of mist before

the eyes of that wearer of a gray uniform and you will see quite

another picture. It is that of his beloved “Old Pete,” as he was known

by his own command, hurrying on to the support of General Jackson at

Manassas. Or his indomitable courage on the retreat from Gettysburg

“leading on and on as strong in the adversity of defeat as in the

success that follows victory.” Or perhaps hurrying towards the front

at the Wilderness, the intrepid leader so far in the van that he was

wounded by his own men. Or at the last succumbing at Appomattox to

the inevitable and with Lee reaping the reward of honor that belonged

to a surrender that cost more bravery than all of the battles of that

blood-drained period of history.

The sentinels that guard the bier are withdrawn. The body is carried

by loving hands to the court-room above. Here in the presence of his

nearest relatives and friends that taxed not alone the capacity of the

building, but overflowed into an acre of mourning humanity outside.

Here in the closely crowded hall of justice converted into a sanctuary

by lighted candles and the priestly robes of the officiating clergy,

the services were held. There was no music save the stifled sob of

brave men whose hearts were awakened to the sacred ties of old-time

memories in a way beyond their control. Bishop Keiley, himself an old

soldier of General Longstreet, and Rev. Fathers Gunn, of Atlanta, and

Schadewell, of Albany, officiated. After the reading of the prayers

of the impressive service of the Roman Catholic Church, Bishop Keiley

in a beautiful eulogy revered again the memory of his old friend and

commander. His address appears in another column, but the choking

of his voice, the closed eyes shutting back the tears that would

come,--these things are lost in the reproduction of printer’s ink and

can only remain in the memories of those who were so privileged as to

be present.

The picture was most inspiring. Look, if you will, at the one-time

forest of battle-flags, hewn down and water-logged in the blood of many

victories to a tiny grove of priceless ribbons that rise and fall with

the wavering strength of the old soldiers who carry them. And in this

same sweetly sad procession march with faltering steps the men who wore

the gray and the sturdy step of those who, now belonging to a rising

generation, wear the blue of the reunited union.

But perhaps even more inspiring than the uniforms of gray were the

women of the South, Daughters of the Revolution, school-girls,

Daughters of the Confederacy, many of them wives or widows of old

comrades--the bravest army of home-defenders, valor-inspiring soldiers

that ever dared not only to die but to let die all that was highest and

dearest in one common cause. Impressive is the marching of men. But the

marching of women--it is different, wonderfully, beautifully different.

What was said may soon be forgotten, but what was seen by those who

gathered at the grave will live forever in the memory of all those who

saw. Above the opening of the last resting-place of General Longstreet

the two flags he loved so well were again crossed and stacked for the

bivouac that knows no waking. Just as the near relatives and dearest

friends were gathered about the grave, there stepped up an old veteran

and delivered the Stars and Bars as the last, loving message from

General Jenkins, of North Carolina. With this old flag and the Stars

and Stripes, the General was buried.

Then, just as the body was about to be lowered, another figure bent

with the ravages of time and trembling with the emotion that bespeaks

a tender heart and brave courage made his way to the circle about the

grave. His interruption of the services was beautiful beyond all hope

of describing.

“I want,” he said, and he hesitated not as one who has forgotten some

carefully prepared speech, but rather as one whose heart was getting

the better of his attempt at expression, “I want to bury this jacket,

my old gray jacket, with my General. I’ve got my papers, too, my

enlistment papers. They’re all here, and they’re all clean. I wasn’t

an officer, but I belonged to Longstreet’s command, and I’d rather be

a private in the old corps than, than---- Well, I’ve served my time,

and the General, he’s served his time, too. And I reckon I won’t need

my uniform and papers again. But I’d like to leave them with him for

always. They were enlisted under his command, and as I don’t ever want

to be mustered out again, I’d just like to leave them with him always,

if you don’t mind.”

And as no one minded unless it was in the most beautiful way possible,

the faded gray jacket and the enlistment papers were lowered with the

crossed flags of two republics and many floral offerings as a last

loving tribute to General Longstreet, who, with the final sounding of

taps, again passed for ever and ever to his waiting commander and his

old command.

TRIBUTES FROM THE PRESS

(_Washington, D. C., Post._)

“His are as noble ashes as rest beneath the sod of any land.”

We think it safe to say that there is something in the suggestion that

these late attacks on General Longstreet’s action at the battle of

Gettysburg have for their inspiration a political bitterness of more

than thirty years’ standing. Certainly, it is true that up to the

close of the Civil War, and, indeed, for several years afterwards,

no one ever heard a question raised as to his military ability. On

the contrary, it was everywhere conceded, especially by his immediate

comrades and associates, that he stood almost at the top of the list of

Confederate warriors, not only in the matter of professional equipment,

but in that of personal integrity and character. With the exception

of Robert E. Lee, Longstreet was regarded as the very prince of the

fighters, strategists, and great commanders of that heroic episode. If

any one had hinted, even as late as 1869, that there was the smallest

flaw in his fame, either as a soldier or a gentleman, the author of the

intimation would have had enough quarrels on his hands to last him to

his dying day.

Along in the later sixties, however, Longstreet was a resident

of New Orleans. He had engaged in business there, having as his

partner Colonel Owen, another Southern soldier of high standing and

distinguished service. The shadow of reconstruction was then brooding

over the South, and thoughtful men, who had accepted the result of the

war in loyal faith, consulted together as to the best means of averting

its evils, which were at that time sufficiently defined. Finally, in

1870 or 1871, the so-called “Unification Movement” was launched. At

its head were numbers of the most prominent and influential men in

Louisiana, and conspicuous among them was Beauregard. The project

was discussed by the newspapers and generally approved in the more

substantial and responsible circles. At last a meeting was called for

the purpose of bringing together the best representatives of both

races and arranging, if possible, a course of action which would make

for peace and order and avert the turmoil that afterwards succeeded

to the irruption of the carpet-baggers and the consequent _régime_

of chaos. Before the appointed day, however, Longstreet’s coadjutors

experienced a change of heart. They abandoned the experiment which

they themselves had devised, and Longstreet was left almost without

countenance or sympathy. With characteristic determination, he adhered

to the policy his judgment and conscience had originally approved.

Of course, it came to nothing, and he, stung by what he regarded as

the desertion of the others, and still more deeply hurt by criticisms

showered on him, often from the ranks of his quondam associates,

went on as he had begun. Then began the breach which in time widened

to animosity, ostracism, and lifelong alienation. He may have been

mistaken. At least he was courageous and consistent. But we feel sure

it cannot be successfully denied that doubts as to his military genius

were cradled in that unhappy episode.

We have no idea of participating in any controversy over the details of

Gettysburg. That may be left to the survivors who were in a position

to form intelligent opinions. For our part, we think of Longstreet now

as all of his compatriots thought of him up to 1870--that he was one

of the finest figures on the stage of the Civil War; a spectacle of

perfect gallantry; an example of warlike force and splendor. We do not

believe he ever received an order from Lee which he did not execute

with instant energy. We do not believe he failed in anything, either

there or elsewhere, that became a valorous and brilliant soldier. He

is dead now, and cannot answer his accusers, but nearly forty years

have elapsed since he sheathed his stainless sword in 1865, and, in our

calm, dispassionate opinion, his are as noble ashes as rest beneath the

sod of any land.

* * * * *

(_Jacksonville, Florida, Times-Union._)

“Peace and honor to his storm-driven soul.”

Now that James Longstreet is no more, the South should forgive the

estrangement that followed long years of service. Perhaps he was wiser

than we--perhaps to-day we are not very far from the position he took

a generation ago. Perhaps his greatness as a soldier was largely due

to the same qualities which set his people in opposition to him in

civil life--he had utter confidence in his own judgment, and he went

straight for what he thought was right regardless of all prudential

considerations.

We have accepted the result of the war in good faith--let us accept

all that goes with it in our hearts and minds. Others advised while

Longstreet acted--once we hated him because he headed our foes to

make us keep order; were the riots against which Longstreet stood

in New Orleans to be repeated in Atlanta, we know Gordon or Wheeler

would head the regulars to restore peace and order if their counsels

were disregarded. The time makes a difference to the sufferers--but

not to the historian through whose glasses we can now afford to look.

Longstreet is dead--weave violets and amaranth in his wreath of

laurel--peace and honor to his storm-driven soul.

* * * * *

(_Shelby, North Carolina, Aurora._)

“Hero of two wars punished for his politics in days of peace.”

A camp of United Confederate Veterans at Wilmington, at a regular

meeting, declined to send resolutions of condolence and sympathy to the

family of General Longstreet on his death.

And yet General Longstreet was a

Hero of two wars.

He was the “War-Horse of the Confederacy.”

He was in the thickest of the fight from Manassas to Appomattox.

He was familiarly known throughout the army as “Old Pete,” and was

considered the hardest fighter in the Confederate service.

He had the unbounded confidence of his troops, and “the whole army

became imbued with new vigor in the presence of the foe when it became

known down the line that ‘Old Pete’ was up.”

Why, then, did not the Wilmington camp pass those resolutions?

Because General Longstreet was a Republican. For this reason he was

Hated,

Abused,

Slandered.

He was charged with disobeying General Lee’s most vital orders at

Gettysburg, causing the loss of the battle and the ultimate destruction

of the Confederacy.

* * * * *

(_Biblical, North Carolina, Record._)

“So long as Lee lived no one attacked Longstreet’s military

honor.”

General Longstreet was a great general. He was an able strategist,

a hard fighter, and a faithful soldier. So long as Lee lived no one

charged Longstreet with failure to make the fanciful sunrise attack on

the second day at Gettysburg. But when Lee had died, this calumny was

started, and it was used in hounding him to the day of his death--on

that day certain misguided Daughters of the Confederacy refusing

to send flowers for his bier. Longstreet was the victim of a foul

persecution by a partisan press--the like of which we see nowadays at

ever-increasing intervals. They did not approve his ideas, and they

ruined him. He advised the South to accept the results of the war; his

business was taken from him, his friends were estranged, and his life

was made a burden.

His magnificent services deserved better reward. But history will give

him his place; intolerance even now is departing; and as for Longstreet

himself, he stands to-night before the Judge of all the world.

* * * * *

(_St. Louis Globe-Democrat._)

“Republicanism does not necessarily involve treason to the South.”

One aspect of General Longstreet’s career from Appomattox till his

death the other day brings out a very unlovely attribute which was

obtrusive in the South during these years. That was the ostracism

to which he was subject because he joined the Republican party and

accepted two or three offices from Republican Presidents. This

antagonism towards him by a large portion of the old Confederate

element gradually diminished as a new generation in the South appeared

on the scene. Some of the feeling, however, remained to the close of

his days, and evinced itself in the obituaries of many of the Southern

papers.

A few facts are sufficient to expose the absurdity of this Southern

antagonism to Confederates who cast their fortunes with the Republicans

after the Confederacy fell--this feeling that an adherent of the lost

cause must cling everlastingly to the Democratic party through evil and

good reports under the penalty of eternal proscription. In the score of

years from Longstreet’s graduation from West Point to his resignation,

shortly after Sumter’s fall, he was in the army, and a participant

in the wars in Mexico and along the frontier in which the army was

engaged. The probability is that until after Appomattox he never cast

a ballot in his life. Moreover, at the time of his graduation, many of

the South’s most prominent statesmen--Tyler, Brownlow, Toombs, Legare,

Bell, Clayton, Upshur, Henry T. Wise, Botts, Alexander H. Stephens, and

others--were Whigs. The Whig, Zachary Taylor, of Louisiana, carried

more Southern States than did his Democratic antagonist, Cass.

What warrant had the South for proscribing Longstreet, because he,

a soldier who never had any politics in the old days, joined the

Republican party just as soon as he became a civilian and got a

chance to exercise his privileges as a citizen? Mosby, Mahone, and

many other ex-Confederates who had been civilians before the war, and

who, presumably, had taken some part in politics, also joined the

Republican party, though they did not do this quite so promptly as did

Longstreet. When Foote, of Mississippi, and Orr, of South Carolina,

both of whom had been prominent in Democratic politics before the war,

the latter of whom had been Speaker of the House in part of Buchanan’s

days in the Presidency, and both of whom had been in the Confederate

service, became Republicans soon after the Confederacy collapsed, their

neighbors ought to have grasped the fact that there must have been

something in this party which appealed to intelligent public-spirited

men of all localities, and that membership in it by a South Carolinian,

a Georgian, or a Louisianian did not necessarily and inevitably involve

treason either to the South’s interests or to its traditions. Mixed

in with the many shining virtues of the people below Mason and Dixon’s

line, there was, as shown in their attitude for many years towards

Longstreet, one very unattractive trait.

* * * * *

(_Vicksburg, Mississippi, Herald._)

“There was no more magnificent display of heroism during the

entire war than at Gettysburg.”

As truly as Warwick was the last of the barons of the feudal era, was

Longstreet the last of the great Confederate commanders. He rose to

prominence in the early engagements of the war--his was a household

name as one of the chief hopes of the cause, when those of all the

remaining survivors of like rank were colonels and brigadiers. At

the first Manassas, Williamsburg, Seven Pines, Seven Days’ fight,

the second Manassas, Sharpsburg, and Fredericksburg he was the chief

subordinate figure except where he divided the honors with Stonewall

Jackson. And after the death of that very Napoleon of war, until the

_ultimo suspiro_ at Appomattox, Longstreet was Lee’s right hand; or, as

our great commander fondly called him, “my old war-horse.” How highly

he was held at head-quarters and the war department was shown in his

being made the senior lieutenant-general, even over Jackson, after the

1862 test by fire.

At Gettysburg Longstreet was in charge of the fighting line, of placing

the divisions in action, on the second and third days of that Titanic

struggle. Whatever may be said of the result,--of the errors which

misinformation and sycophancy have attempted to make him the scapegoat

of,--there was no more magnificent display of heroism during the entire

war.

It has not been the Southern fashion of late years to praise, or even

practise justice towards, Longstreet. But now that the stout warrior

is dead and gone to eternal judgment, all should speak of his virtues,

his glorious deeds of arms, without thought or reference to that sad

error of judgment that, no smaller in its intent and inception than “a

man’s hand,” grew to a dark cloud between Longstreet and his people.

This will be appreciated by survivors of the old First Corps, no good

soldier of which has ever failed to repeat with pride, “I followed

Longstreet.” As one of that band the editor of the _Herald_ has always

left criticism of our old chief’s politics to others. If ever the

inclination came to us, there rose up two pictures of the past that

forbade,--the heroic and inspiring figure of Longstreet as he rode up

to Colonel Humphreys of the Twenty-first Mississippi, towards the close

of that grand “centre rush” of Barksdale’s brigade that swept Sickles

and his Third Corps off of the “Peach-Orchard Hill,” at Gettysburg, to

tell him that Barksdale was killed and to take command of the brigade;

and Longstreet as he was borne from the front at the Wilderness, all

faint and bloody from what seemed a death wound.

Longstreet is now no more. But there is a thrill in the name that

carries his surviving followers backward forty years--recalling the

roar of cannon, the charging column, the “rebel” yell, the groans of

wounded and dying comrades. For,

“There where Death’s brief pang was quickest,

And the battle’s wreck lay thickest--

There be sure was Longstreet charging,

There he ne’er shall charge again.”

* * * * *

(_Bainbridge, Georgia, Searchlight._)

“Robbed of the laurels won in peerless campaigns.”

The death of General Longstreet at his Gainesville home the other day

removes one of the few grand actors of the war drama of the sixties.

He was known as the “old war-horse of the Confederacy,” and perhaps

in point of military ability he ranked next to the great Lee himself.

His soldiers had the most remarkable confidence in him, and he it was

who could inspire them to deeds of valor unparalleled. At times since

there have been those who have attempted to cast aspersions on his

illustrious name, saying that he disobeyed Lee’s orders at Gettysburg.

A timely article has just been published, and curiously in the same

paper that conveyed the sad intelligence of his death, from the pen of

Mrs. Longstreet, presumably composed with the aid of the General in

his last feeble days, that answers completely and satisfactorily all

charges of stubbornness or disobedience at that famous battle. It is

a pity that so great a soldier and military genius should not have

been allowed to have worn the laurels of so many peerless campaigns

undisturbed and without envy. Now that he is dead his memory should be

enshrined in the hearts of a grateful people for whose cause he did

battle, and the remembrance of his illustrious deeds should be handed

down to future generations as those of the knights of the round table.

* * * * *

(_Thompson, Georgia, Progress._)

“Would have been court-martialed for disobeying orders at

Gettysburg.”

It is passing strange that any one should make such a charge against

General Longstreet, in view of the fact that General Lee never made any

such charge; and any sane man knows that he would have made the charge

had it been true, and no doubt General Longstreet would have been

court-martialed for such an offence, especially as it is charged that

this probably lost the battle to the Confederates.

General Longstreet was one of the greatest and bravest of the

Confederate generals, and no man should endeavor to dim the lustre of

his brilliant military record or cast reflections upon his good name as

a citizen or doubt his loyalty to the South. No hero that wore the gray

deserves more honor and thanks than this gallant Southern hero, who,

like Lee, Jackson, Johnston, and a long list of other loyal Southern

sons resigned a position of prominence in the army of the United States

and cast his fortunes with his Southern brethren in defense of Southern

rights, homes, and firesides, and many of whom died for Southern honor.

Sleep on, noble and illustrious soldier and patriot! Thy good name and

record as a soldier is safe from the attacks of politicians, rivals,

and so-called Daughters of the Confederacy of Savannah!

* * * * *

(_Houston, Texas, Chronicle._)

“He was superior to human vanity or ambition.”

It should not be forgotten that when the war began General Longstreet,

like General Lee and many others of the South’s illustrious leaders,

was an officer in the army of the United States. Had he adhered to the

Union, high command awaited him; the siren voice of ambition whispered

to him of a splendid future of fame and honor and rich reward, while

he knew more doubtful was the issue if he heeded the call of duty

and offered his sword to the South. Yet he did not hesitate. To his

mother’s cry he responded like the faithful son and hero that he was,

and proved superior to human vanity or ambition.

This being true, it is but fair to presume that whatever step he took

afterwards was inspired by the high sense of duty, and that he took it

only after having taken counsel with his conscience and with due regard

for the requirements of patriotism and honor.

In every position in civil life, many and responsible as they were,

he bore himself with ability, dignity, efficiency, and with stainless

honor; there was never a spot upon his official record, but the

civilian, as was the soldier, was without reproach.

If any man or woman doubts or calls in question the record of James

Longstreet as a soldier, let him or her ask the veteran Southern

soldier who followed him (and there are a number in Houston) what

they think of him, and with one voice they will say, “He was Lee’s

‘war-horse.’ When we heard Longstreet was in the lead or in command, or

was coming, we knew that victory would follow the fighting; we trusted

him; Lee trusted him; the army trusted him.”

“Where beyond these voices there is peace,” the old hero is at rest.

Little it recks whether men praise or blame him now--“The peace of God

which passeth all understanding” is upon him, and history will write

him down as he was, a brave, able, faithful soldier, who so loved his

native land as to pour out his heroic blood in its defence. Than this

he asks no higher praise.

* * * * *

(_Atlanta, Georgia, Constitution._)

“Truth will take hold upon the pen of history.”

A great soldier, in the ripeness of years and yet enduring to the

latest breath the pangs of the wounds of four decades ago, has fallen

upon earth’s final sleep.

In the brave days of his earlier soldiership, and then in the strenuous

years of one of the world’s most tragic wars, wherein his genius

lifted him to the next highest rank of generalship, General James

Longstreet was a conspicuous figure and always a force to be reckoned

with. The finest and justest military critics of America and Europe

have pronounced him a commander in whom were combined those abilities

of initiative, strategy, and persistent daring that make the historic

general of any age or people.

While to others who were concerned in the great campaigns and battles

of which he was a distinguished factor there may have appeared in his

acts some incidents for criticism, yet to his immediate officers and

men he was ever the ideal soldier and the peerless commander. But in

the presence of his shrouded frame, in the revived memories of his

loyalty and his heroism, and in the knowledge that the seeming errors

of men in pivotal crises are often the misunderstood interferences of

the Supreme Ruler, judgments cease and reverence, gratitude, and honor

form the threnody at the tomb.

The war record of General Longstreet will always remain a theme of

laudation by the sons of Southerners. For the reward of it thousands

refused to sanction the rebukes his subsequent career sometimes

engendered among his compatriots. Who that witnessed it can forget the

embrace given Longstreet by ex-President Davis here in Atlanta and

the tremendous ovation that greeted the old hero in his veteran gray

uniform as he joined in the gala-day made in honor of his disfranchised

chief?

General Longstreet’s taking of office under President Grant has

been always a misunderstood transaction. It was not a surrender of

his Southern sentiments or an act of disloyalty to the Southern

people. At the time when General Grant, feeling the impulses of

former comradeship, tendered an office and its emoluments to General

Longstreet, whose fortunes were in sore straits, the old soldier

refused to consider acceptance of the offer until urged to it by

his later fellow-soldiers in New Orleans, including Generals Hood,

Beauregard, Harry Hayes, Ogden, and even Jefferson Davis himself. He

accepted it in the belief that it was his duty to take any occasion

for public service that otherwise would be held in the hands of alien

carpet-baggers and haters of the Southern people. But the occasion was

too soon--the passions of the people yet too inflamed. Without full

knowledge of the inwardness of his conduct the people whom he loved

heaped upon him a penetrating scorn and livid coals of indignation. He

was too brave to complain; too considerate to expose his advisers, and

his heroism was never more chivalrous than the long patience with which

until now he has endured the misjudgments of his Southern fellow-men.

But these things are naught now to the flown spirit. Hereafter truth

will take hold upon the pen of history and rewrite much that has been

miswritten of this great son of the South. His stainless integrity, his

devotion to the cause of his militant people, his incomparable bravery

in battle, his superb generalship on campaign, and his later chivalry

in the calm conduct of his citizenship and public service remain as

wholesome memories of a world-acclaimed Southern hero.

* * * * *

(_St. Paul, Minnesota, Pioneer Press._)

“Ostracised by men who did no fighting.”

The pestiferous pertinacity with which certain women of the South seize

every opportunity to fan the embers of a dying sectional animosity,

and to blazon their adherence to the principles of the “Lost Cause,”

is again illustrated in the refusal of the Savannah Daughters of the

Confederacy to send a wreath to be laid on General Longstreet’s grave.

Next to Robert E. Lee, Longstreet had the reputation of being the

ablest of the officers who fought on the Southern side in the Great

Rebellion. But at the close of the war, satisfied that the Lost Cause

was lost forever, and that it was useless to attempt to keep alive

a spirit of revenge,--heart-won, too, by the splendid generosity of

Grant in his dealings with the defeated army of Lee,--he “accepted the

situation;” accepted, too, from the Republican soldier-president the

office of surveyor of the port of New Orleans, and addressed all his

powers to the work of healing the wounds of war and of reuniting the

sections. For this he was ostracised by the ultra element of Southern

irreconcilables--an element made up principally of women and of men who

did no fighting, and which nurses its bitterness with the unsatisfied

spirit of the child who, not having finished his cry yesterday,

inquires to-day, “What was I crying about?” in order that he may

indulge in the luxury of tears once more. The men who fought under and

with Longstreet honor his later loyalty to the Union as much as they

do his steadfast courage and ability under the “Stars and Bars” in the

bloody sixties. The women who refuse his bier a tribute dishonor only

themselves.

* * * * *

(_Atlanta, Georgia, Journal._)

“One of the most gallant spirits of the century.”

With the death of General James Longstreet, who was the first ranking

general of the Confederate army, passes one of the most gallant spirits

of the nineteenth century.

Of all the men who fought with conspicuous valor and prowess for the

Confederate cause, there was none who possessed more leonine courage

or inspired in his men a greater degree of enthusiastic affection than

this chieftain whom Lee dubbed with the title of “My Old War-Horse”

on the battle-field. That remark of Lee’s was like the touch of an

accolade upon his shoulders, and no subsequent misunderstandings or

criticisms have ever been able to rob him of the place among the

chivalrous souls of the South to which he was elevated by their

irreproachable King Arthur, General Lee.

And, in view of the fact that the most choice and master military

spirits of his age esteemed him to possess tactical ability and

military judgment equal in degree to his undisputed qualities of

persistent bravery, such criticisms as there were are scarcely worthy

of mention and demand no refutation now in any backward glance at his

brilliant career. The South can point to his record with pride, as his

military associates have ever pointed to the man himself with a quick

and affectionate appreciation. No note of apology should mingle with

the praise and grief of those who look to-day with tear-blurred eyes

upon the soldier’s bier.

And the memory of his actions on the boisterous stage of battle and of

the single-hearted, loyal _rôle_ he played through all the shifting

scenes of that greatest war-drama of the century should in itself

constitute a rebuke to those who have sought to rebuke him for certain

generally misunderstood actions in his subsequent career. He became an

office-holder under General Grant, a very, very human thing to do. It

was a very, very natural thing that General Grant, who had married the

cousin of the “Old War-Horse,” and who was, besides, actuated by the

spirit of a remembered, youthful comradeship, should give his friend,

comrade, and relative an office when Longstreet was walking along

thorny financial paths. And his acceptance, urged as he was to accept

by his Confederate comrades, was, under the circumstances, very human

and very natural. He made a good public servant--where could Grant

have found a better in those reconstruction days, which were not noted

for the excellence of their public servants? Where could Longstreet

have better served his own people than by taking an office which might

otherwise have been given to men who were still so inflamed by partisan

prejudice as to hate those people? His motives were of the highest

in this acceptance, and his attitude of silently bearing the remarks

of those who criticised him under a misapprehension stamps his moral

courage with the golden seal of a serene nobility.

He was misjudged, but he happily lived to see most of those who

misjudged him silenced by an exposition of facts which he was too proud

to set forth himself.

The debtor years have rendered back to him the refined coin of a fixed

fame for his life labor. He is dead, and his place--a high one in the

world’s history--is enduring.

* * * * *

(_Newport, Virginia, News._)

“The bravest of the brave.”

The Savannah Daughters of the Confederacy, whose custom it is to send

a laurel wreath for the tomb of deceased Confederates, refused to send

one upon the death of General Longstreet a few days ago.

The Daughters at Savannah have, we suppose, satisfactorily to

themselves, settled the mooted question of the Gettysburg controversy,

but we do not believe their action will find applause generally

among the ex-Confederate soldiers. Whatever may have been the fact

at Gettysburg, it is beyond dispute that his actions there did not

estrange his loyal soldiers, nor impair the esteem in which he was held

by General Lee. The close of the war found him in command of the left

wing of the army, and he joined General Lee on the way to Appomattox.

In referring to his death the Richmond _Times-Dispatch_ says,--

“We recall General Longstreet as one of the bravest of the

brave, one who struck many blows for the Confederacy, and one on

whom General Lee often leaned and whose name is identified with

world-famous battles. These are things we cannot forget, nor do

we wish to.”

Whatever may be said of the attitude of the South since the war

towards General Longstreet, the fact remains that his espousal of the

Republican cause in politics did most to invite criticism, and this he

always felt was unjust to him.

It seems strange that General John B. Gordon should have so bitterly

attacked General Longstreet, and it is charity to say that he did it

from political reasons, and not by way of challenging war records.

With his fresh grave denied its laurel wreath at the hands of the

Savannah Daughters, and his lifeless lips beyond reply to carping

critics, it is refreshing to see that the loyal wife, who walked with

him in the evening of life, brings her own wreath of the roses of

love, dewy with her tears, and places it upon the grave that holds his

valiant dust.

* * * * *

(Birmingham, Alabama, Ledger.)

“In the military annals of the Anglo-Saxon race there is nothing

finer than his fighting record.”

The author of the article on Longstreet, which recently appeared in

the _Ledger_ and which we republish below, has been a close student of

military history, and was personally observant of great movements in

Virginia during the war:

“Men of Southern blood who recall the days when the civilized

world was thrilled with the renown of those great Confederate

captains, ‘Lee, Longstreet, and Jackson,’ can scarcely realize

that the grave has just closed over all that is mortal of the

stoutest, the steadiest, the most practical, pushing, resolute,

and stolidly unimaginative fighter of that goodly and immortal

group. In the military annals of the Anglo-Saxon race there

is nothing finer than the fighting record of this Old Lion of

the South. It does not need the formal observances of official

commemoration to perpetuate the memory of a man who led the

stanch legions of the Confederacy in victorious fellowship with

Jackson and Lee. Tradition alone will uplift and applaud his

name long after monuments have crumbled and Camps and Chapters

have ceased to exist. None knew better than the great Virginian

leader that the neck of the ‘Old War-Horse’ was always clothed

with thunder when the shock of battle came. Lee never dreamed

that Longstreet was faithless.

“Every American who is proud of our common race must deplore the

openly manifest disposition of Southern veterans and sons of

veterans to discredit for all time the great historic soldiers of

the South. It needs not the perspicacity of a Verulam to inform

us that the highest virtues are not visible to the common eye.

The disposition to suspect and besmirch a glorious soldier--a man

whose leadership immortalized the armies that he led--not only

betokens a radical change in popular ideals, but apparently marks

the decadence of that traditional sentiment of chivalry which is

truly ‘the unbought grace of life,’ and that generous martial

spirit which for generations has characterized the great Southern

branch of the Anglo-American race.

“The humblest citizen of this republic has an inalienable

interest in the heroic memories of the South. Let the Dead Lion

sleep in peace. Nothing is alien to the true American heart that

in the least degree concerns the glory of the Old South or the

interest of the New. It is precisely this sentiment that was

expressed in the fine chivalry of Grant at Appomattox and won for

that iron conqueror the lasting affection and respect of the men

that he had fought. The heroic Longstreet needs no higher eulogy

than the single phrase, He was the friend of Grant and Lee.”

* * * * *

(_Macon, Georgia, Telegraph._)

“No reproach can be cast upon his bravery and devotion.”

The Savannah Chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy has made

itself ridiculous by throwing a brick at the dead lion at Gainesville!

It seems a pity that the enterprising news gatherers in the Forest City

should have given out to the public the silly action of these young

women. Their offence was a resolution “refusing” to send a wreath to

lay upon the grave of General Longstreet “because he disobeyed orders

at Gettysburg.”

The causes for the drawn battle at the critical point in the history of

the struggle of the ’60’s will be debated while time lasts. So will the

causes for the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo. This debate has been and

will be participated in by the great commanders of the world. But no

reproach has been, can, or will be cast upon the bravery or devotion of

the famous old fighter whose courage knew no abatement in the hundreds

of engagements participated in during the trying experiences of three

wars. Alexander and Cæsar and Napoleon and Grant and Lee made their

mistakes. So did Longstreet. But how does it seem for a bevy of young

women to pounce upon the cold remains of this battle-scarred veteran

and hero lying in state and attempt to punish him for an alleged

mistake made forty years ago in the midst of the roar and clash of the

greatest battle in history! Their mothers knew better.

We are not surprised that veterans in Savannah feel aggrieved, as they

must feel everywhere that the action is known.

General Gordon believes that Longstreet made a mistake at Gettysburg,

but Lee said, “It is all my fault.” The great chieftain in command made

no charge against his great fighting arm. Touching this controversy,

Colonel McBride, writing to the Atlanta _Constitution_, says,

“Longstreet, although a prudent and cautious fighter, was not only

always ready to fight, but he was always anxious and wanted to fight.

On the second day he was not slow, but was simply putting himself

in shape to do the bloodiest fight of the war. At least two-thirds

of the casualties in America’s greatest battle happened in front of

Longstreet’s corps. Reports show this. The records also show that he

only obeyed Lee’s orders to the letter.”

Grant, however, that Longstreet made a costly mistake, there are times

other than those at the grave to discuss them; there are persons

other than young women unborn in those days to administer rebuke or

punishment.

If these young women who sit in judgment at the tomb could not lay a

flower on the new-made grave of an old war-horse of the Confederacy, it

seems as if they might have restrained their tongues while the muffled

drum passing by rolled its last tattoo.

* * * * *

(_New York Journal._)

“After a while Southern capitals will be adorned with statues of

Longstreet; upon his grave ‘his foeman’s children will loose the

rose.’”

At the age of eighty-three General Longstreet has passed away--a

noble character, a good soldier, one of the hardest fighters of the

Civil War. General Longstreet was pretty badly treated by the people

whose battles he fought with so great courage and capacity. He was

no politician--just a soldier, and at the close of the war committed

the error of “fraternizing” with all his countrymen. He “accepted

the situation,” not wisely, but too early. With a fine and generous

unwisdom he laid away the animosities of the war-time and put himself

at once where all stand now,--on the broad, high ground of American

citizenship. No part had he in the provincial conceit of the thing

that has the immodesty to call itself a “Southern gentleman.” It

probably never occurred to him that the qualities distinguishing

a gentleman from a pirate of the Spanish Main had so narrow a

geographical distribution as the term implies. He paid for his breadth

of mind--became a kind of social outlaw and political excommunicant

in “the land once proud of him.” Briefly, his shipmates marooned him.

Well, he has escaped--he has “beaten the game,” as, sooner or later, we

all conquer without exertion. After a while Southern capitals will be

adorned with statues of Longstreet and upon his grave posterity will

see “his foemen’s children loose the rose.”

* * * * *

(_New York Tribune._)

Lee and Longstreet.

The death of General James Longstreet, as was to be expected, has

revived to some extent the controversies which have raged over

certain memorable incidents in his military career. For the last

twenty-five years persistent efforts have been made to throw on General

Longstreet’s shoulders responsibility for Lee’s defeat at Gettysburg.

Not a few Southern writers have gone so far as to accuse him, if not

of insubordination, at least of culpable inattention to orders given

him by the Confederate commander-in-chief. General John B. Gordon,

in his recently published reminiscences, revived and amplified these

charges against Longstreet, stating explicitly--as his own conclusion

and as that of impartial military critics generally--that Longstreet’s

blunders had blasted Confederate hopes at Gettysburg, and that General

Lee “died believing he had lost by Longstreet’s disobedience.”

Strangely enough, General Longstreet’s wife had prepared an elaborate

refutation of General Gordon’s theories, and had arranged for its

publication on January 3--the day following General Longstreet’s death.

We do not think that history will sustain the contentions of General

Longstreet’s critics. They are interesting enough as post-mortem

demonstrations of what might have been. But they ignore actual

conditions. They picture a situation which could have existed only as a

military after-thought. General Longstreet cannot be made a scapegoat

for all the sins of hesitation or omission chargeable to Confederate

commanders at Gettysburg. General Gordon is himself disposed to censure

General Lee for not vigorously attacking the Federal forces in their

new position on the evening of July 1. He condemns utterly Longstreet’s

failure to assault the Federal left wing early in the morning of July

2. But he waves aside entirely the exhaustion of A. P. Hill’s corps at

the conclusion of the first day’s battle and the physical impediments

to forming and executing an attack on the Federal left wing before noon

of July 2. That Longstreet’s assault suffered in effectiveness from the

delays of July 2 is greatly to be doubted. The fighting done by his

corps far excelled in dash and brilliance anything done at Gettysburg

by Ewell’s corps or A. P. Hill’s. Longstreet bore the brunt of both the

second and third day’s struggle and emerged from the conflict with his

reputation as a corps commander unimpaired. There is no reason to think

that he could have fought more brilliantly or more successfully if he

had attempted the attack which General Gordon philosophizes about in

the early morning of the second day.

General Lee at the close of the battle justly and honorably assumed

entire responsibility for the Confederate defeat. Lee lost at

Gettysburg because on the offensive he seemed incapable of rising to

the full height of his military talent. His generalship in his two

brief invasions of Northern territory was commonplace.

In Lee’s own lifetime not a word of criticism was aimed at Longstreet.

It is needless to inquire what influences have conspired to foist

on him the blame for the Confederate failure at Gettysburg. Another

generation of Southern writers will do him more impartial justice. He

will certainly be classed hereafter by open-minded critics as one of

the ablest and most intelligent of the commanders who fought under the

South’s flag in the Civil War.

* * * * *

“No Southern man suffered more or deserved it less.”

The death of General Longstreet removes from the world’s stage of

action one who in time of war had his name and his deeds sounded by the

trumpet of fame throughout the civilized world. He was a conspicuous

figure in the eyes of the world, and his name was at one time familiar

to and honored in every Confederate household. He was Lee’s Rock of

Gibraltar that never failed to stem the tides of assault, and when he

led, in his turn, the attack, he was a thunder-bolt of war that never

failed to strike with terrible effect. In council he was calm and

calculated well and closely all the chances of conflict, in scales well

balanced, and, as a rule, with almost unerring exactness.

He was essentially a soldier, whose education, training, and services

for a generation in years made his enforced change to civil life

practically the adoption of a new life at total variance to that

in which he has always been a conspicuous and a noted figure. His

was a lovable nature, loyal to principle and to truth, and when his

confidence was secured his trust was sure to follow.

That trait in his character was the cause of the ban under which he

suffered for such a long period from the Southern people, and, as many

an old Confederate veteran will now say, with such injustice.

At the time the storm of ostracism first burst in fury over his head I

was an official of the State of Mississippi and resided at Jackson, the

State capital, and I was then, as I am now, familiar with the cause of

the outbreak of public sentiment against him. Let me explain that there

had been on the part of the Southern people a practical nullification

of the Federal laws regarding the negro and his rights so recently

conferred, and it was hard for Southern people to swallow the doctrine

of equality in anything where the negro was concerned.

The entire South was in a tempestuous turmoil that threatened the

very foundations of society, by rising like the storm-tossed waves of

tempestuous seas and sweeping away the barriers that had been erected

against the domination of the Southern whites. At this juncture

prominent and influential leaders of public thought, who saw the coming

storm, at a conference held in New Orleans explained the situation

to certain popular and influential ex-Confederate generals then

residents of that city, and represented to them that an appeal by them

to their old soldiers to accept the situation, obey the Federal laws,

and maintain peace and order would result in great good and assist in

allaying the suppressed, indeed often open, excitement of the people.

They were appealed to as patriots to come to the rescue of their people

and lead them in peace as they had in war.

The text of a letter to be written by each was then outlined, and at

a second conference each submitted his letter. The substance of all

the letters was identical, each with the others. They were published

in the New Orleans papers simultaneously to insure the object in view,

the influencing of public opinion. Their publication aroused a storm of

reproach and denunciation that was without measure.

Instead of acting like oil on the troubled waters, they provoked the

fury of the tempest, and the authors of the letters were overwhelmed

with letters of protest and reproach.

Explanation after explanation by the authors (save General Longstreet)

that amounted to public retraction, followed. Longstreet, firm as the

rock of Gibraltar, bared his breast to the storm and proudly declared

that he had nothing to retract. He explained the circumstances under

which he had written the letter, cited its approval by leaders of

public thought, and declared that the sentiment of the letter but

expressed his honest convictions, and he stood by it. Every old veteran

of Longstreet’s corps who reads this will say, “That’s just like old

Pete.” He could have saved his popularity had he sacrificed principle.

But like the noble Roman that he was, he could, in weighing one against

the other, defiantly proclaim

“These walls, these columns fly

From their firm base as soon as I.”

I was among the few who saw nothing then in any of the letters to merit

the disapproval of the Southern people; and looking through “the vista

of time” back to those days, I can say in all candor and sincerity

that had the seed of Longstreet’s advice fallen in ground ripe for

it, reconstruction would have been shorn of many of the evils that

accompanied it and blighted the land. Some time after these occurrences

General Longstreet made a trip through territory in Mississippi from

which his mercantile firm derived much business. One day Governor

Humphreys said to me, “General Longstreet is coming this way. If he

comes here, what would you do?” Instantly I replied, “I would not wait

for him to come, but I would insist on his coming, and tell him that he

would be welcomed at the governor’s mansion.” He directed me to write

the invitation, saying, “I had made up my mind to so act, for nothing

could make me turn my back on ‘old Pete.’ I served under him too long

to do that.” He accepted the invitation and was the guest of the

governor. In honoring him the governor set an example that the whole

town followed, and the period of his stay was almost a constant levee.

On me was placed the special and agreeable duty of attendance upon him.

I was with him much of the time and participated in conversations in

which the letter that brought to him only woe was discussed. Never did

a bitter word pass his lips in denunciation of those who led him to the

slaughter and themselves stepped aside and raised no hand to help him.

He declared that the letter expressed his true sentiments, and that it

was written after deliberate thought. It proved to be unfortunate, and

though he was then reaping only thorns from it, time would vindicate

him and his course. He bore his fate like an ancient Stoic. I count

my association with him at this time as among the most pleasant of a

checkered life. I never saw him again.

General Joseph E. Johnston, of whose staff I was a member, told me

with his own lips that the plan by which the army of Stonewall Jackson

was withdrawn from the valley and hurled on the flank of McClellan

was first suggested to him by Longstreet. He said that the idea had

occurred to him, but at a time when it was not feasible. But just

previous to the battle of Seven Pines, Longstreet submitted a plan that

he had matured, that met his favor and determined him to adopt it.

At the battle that almost immediately occurred he was incapacitated

by wounds and General Lee assumed command. Shortly after, Jackson’s

force was transferred from the valley and hurled on the Federal flank.

We know with what result. The plan was communicated to General Lee

shortly after his accession to command. The plan which General Lee

adopted may have been his own, but the idea first originated in the

soldierly brain of Longstreet. Again, at the second Manassas, when

Longstreet, to the rescue of Jackson, debouched through “Thoroughfare

Gap,” a glance at the field showed him Jackson’s peril, and his

masterful, soldierly ability needed no general in command to direct

him as to the placing of his battalions. Like a thunder-bolt of war

his command struck the Federal army. Jackson was saved and the victory

was won. Space forbids further prolixity, while the theme invites it.

Let me say that no Southern man suffered more at the hands of the

Southern people and deserved it less. I uncover my head in honor to his

memory and bid him “all hail and farewell!” Little cares he now for the

plaudits of the world or the censure of his critics. When a chapter

of the Daughters of the Confederacy refused a wreath to his remains,

Jeff Davis, Lee, Stonewall Jackson, the two Johnstons, and a host of

others gone before, were giving him brotherly welcome in the city of

the living God, and his old corps who have crossed the river joined in

shouts of welcome to his knightly soul. Let us all feel that

“After life’s fitful fever he sleeps well.”

JAS. M. KENNARD,

_Ex-Colonel and Chief Ordnance Officer, Army of Tennessee, C. S. A._

* * * * *

(_New Orleans Picayune, Special._)

“The Confederates had no better fighter than Longstreet.”

NEW YORK, January 4.--“Longstreet fought hard enough to suit me--he

gave me all I wanted. I was perfectly satisfied when the second day’s

fight was over.” This was General Sickles’s comment to-day at the city

hall with reference to criticism by General John B. Gordon, who seems

to think that the defeat of the Confederates at Gettysburg was due to

General Longstreet.

“Gordon is a gallant gentleman, and he was a gallant soldier,”

continued General Sickles, “but he commanded a brigade, while

Longstreet commanded a corps. Lee told Longstreet afterwards that he

had done as well as he could. He had no criticism to make. Gordon was

in no position to judge the merits of the case. Longstreet was on my

front. I led the Third Corps on the second day. The fighting was on

Hancock’s front on the third day. He was in the centre. I guess every

one who was there knew that Longstreet fought brilliantly. Longstreet

was practically in command of the Confederate fighting on both the

second and third days. If Lee had been dissatisfied on the second day,

he would not have let Longstreet command on the third day. As a matter

of fact the Confederates had no better fighter than Longstreet.”

* * * * *

(_Macon, Georgia, Telegraph._)

“His record needs no defence.”

To THE EDITOR OF THE TELEGRAPH:

The able editorial in your issue of several days ago touching the

Savannah incident in which the Daughters of the Confederacy refused to

send flowers to the funeral of General Longstreet, assigning as the

reason “that General Longstreet refused to obey the order of General

Lee at Gettysburg,” met a responsive chord in the hearts of many old

veterans of the Confederate army.

Longstreet’s war record, like that of Stonewall Jackson’s, needs no

defence. History is replete with his grand deeds of chivalry, and

places his name high in the ranks of the great commanders of the

Civil War. The rank and file who fought under this great and intrepid

commander know that he was incapable of such conduct, and the only

tongue that could convince them otherwise was forever stilled when our

peerless Lee passed over the river.

In the first battle of Manassas, at Seven Pines, when he lead the main

attack, at Gaines Mill, Frazier’s Farm, Malvern Hill, and at second

Manassas, when the illustrious Stonewall Jackson was being sorely

pressed by the entire army of General Pope, he hurried to Jackson’s

relief, and together gained one of the greatest victories of the

war. He commanded the right wing of our army on the bloody field of

Sharpsburg, and was in the thickest of the fight during the entire

battle. At the battle of Fredericksburg he commanded the left wing of

the army, where the assault proved most fatal to the enemy. In all

of these battles, and others I do not now recall, General Longstreet

participated, winning fresh laurels in each fight.

At Gettysburg during the second and third days of the battle he

commanded the right wing of the army, and I never saw an officer more

conspicuous and daring upon the battle-field. One of the most lasting

pictures made upon my mind during the war, and which still lingers

in my memory, was in connection with this officer. While in line of

battle during the terrible cannon duel between the two armies, when

at a signal our cannons ceased firing, I saw General Longstreet as he

motioned his staff back, sitting superbly in his saddle, gallop far out

in our front in full view and range of more than one hundred of the

enemy’s cannon, stop his horse, and, standing up in his stirrups, place

his field glasses to his eyes and deliberately and for some time view

the enemy’s line of battle, while shells were bursting above and around

him so thick that at intervals he was hidden from sight by the smoke

from exploding shells. His object having been accomplished, he turned

his horse and slowly galloped back to his line of battle. No officer

upon the battle-field of Gettysburg displayed greater courage than

Longstreet, and his presence upon the battle-field, like that of Lee

and Jackson, was always worth a thousand men.

General Lee trusted Longstreet implicitly, and every act of his from

the time he assumed command of the Army of Northern Virginia to

Appomattox Court-House sustains this assertion. When President Davis

requested General Lee to send to the relief of General Bragg, who was

hard pressed by Sherman, he sent his old “war-horse,” and, true to

his mission, Longstreet reached Chickamauga in time to turn the tide

of battle in favor of the South. Afterwards he was ordered to drive

the Federal army under General Burnside from East Tennessee, which he

ably accomplished, driving him behind his entrenchment at Knoxville,

Tennessee.

When General Grant attacked General Lee at the Wilderness--the second

battle in magnitude of the war--and by overwhelming numbers was driving

our army back, Longstreet by forced marches reached the field in time

to snatch from Grant a victory almost won. Here he received a wound

which nearly cost him his life, and which, perhaps, saved Grant’s army

from being driven into the Rappahannock.

At Appomattox Court-House, “where ceased forever the Southern soldiers’

hope,” General Lee asked his old war-horse, if the necessity should

arise, to lead the remnant of the army out, and he was ready to do so,

and would have done so had not General Grant granted honorable terms of

surrender. Would General Lee have trusted General Longstreet after the

battle of Gettysburg had he been in the least disloyal to his commands?

Impartial history will ever link the names of Lee, Jackson, and

Longstreet upon the brightest page of the history of the incomparable

Army of Northern Virginia. One word more about Gettysburg. I happened

to be there (but at the time would have liked to have been elsewhere),

and I decided then and am still of the opinion that the Yankees are to

blame for our defeat.

Respectfully,

J. W. MATTHEWS.

* * * * *

(_Raleigh, North Carolina, Post._)

“The idol of the Army of Northern Virginia.”

If the conduct of some of our people towards General Longstreet, the

great soldier, just dead, was not pitiful, it would be brutal.

He, the stubborn fighter of all our armies, the trusted arm of General

Lee, the idol of the Army of Northern Virginia, dead, forty years after

his many battles and the establishment of his undying fame, is refused

by some of the daughters and granddaughters of the men who fought and

fell under his banners, a wreath of flowers for his grave--a grave

that makes hallowed the land that holds it; is refused a resolution of

praise, by the sons and grandsons of the men who cheered his plume,

as it waved them to victory. Why is this? A silly story attributed

to General Lee, published after Lee’s death, by General Gordon upon

the authority of Fitz. Lee. The story contained the charge that the

faithful “Old War-Horse,” as General Lee affectionately dubbed him,

failed, wilfully, or from other cause, to obey orders at Gettysburg.

Can this story be true? That depends upon two contingencies, neither

of which the wildest of General Longstreet’s defamers have dared to

formulate: first, that General Lee was lacking in candor, or, secondly,

he did not know his best soldiers. Can either of these propositions be

true? A thousand times no.

We all, or at least those of us who had the honor of serving in the

Army of Northern Virginia, recall that in September, 1863, it became

necessary to detach a portion of that army to send west to relieve

Bragg, then being driven south by Rosecrans from Chattanooga; we

also remember that, with all of his general officers to select from,

including Gordon and Fitz. Lee, General Lee selected General Longstreet

to lead his immortal battalion, and the fame of how well he performed

that proud duty is still ringing in the ears of all who love honor and

glory.

Would General Lee have selected General Longstreet, miscalled by malice

and envy “the slow,” “the disobeyer of orders,” “the loser of the

battle of Gettysburg,” and so of the Southern cause, if he could have

found in all his army one general braver or more competent? Surely not.

This fact established, and established it is (and it also establishes

General Lee’s unshaken confidence in his “Old War-Horse”), what becomes

of the improbable story of Fitz. Lee? It is a matter of common history

that the fighting soldiers of 1861-65 have been silent since. This at

least is true of the Southern soldiers, and pity ’tis true, because our

own General R. F. Hoke, fighting then, silent since, could add rich

chapters to the history of those Titanic days, if he would only speak.

With this conclusive evidence of General Lee’s faith in General

Longstreet, how pitiful is the unearned slander that has made the

reputation of so many babblers. Longstreet a traitor or imbecile! Out

upon it!

One other equally conclusive refutation of this miserable story is:

In 1866 General Lee, it seems, determined to write the story of his

campaigns,--“his object to disseminate the truth” (would his example

had been contagious),--at the close of an affectionate letter to

General Longstreet uses these words--words which General Longstreet

might have claimed as a charter of nobility, had he not already had

his glorious war record to ennoble him:

“I had while in Richmond a great many inquiries after you, and

learned you intended commencing business in New Orleans. If

you make as good a merchant as you were a soldier, I shall be

content. No one will excel you, and no one can wish you more

success or more happiness than I. My interest and affection for

you will never cease, and my prayers are always offered for your

prosperity.

“I am most truly yours,

“R. E. LEE.”

Does any sane man, or silly woman either, believe the noble heart that

inspired these words could have asked its tongue to utter the things

of General Longstreet that have been falsely attributed to it. Can

argument be more cogent or conclusion more conclusive?

General Gordon is, I hope, with General Longstreet. Both are at rest,

and I know the “Old War-Horse” of the Army of Northern Virginia, in

the presence of his grand old chief, has forgiven his comrade the

wrongs done him here. Peace to the ashes of both, the wronged and the

wrong-doer.

W. H. DAY,

_Formerly of First N. C. Infantry_.

* * * * *

(_Washington, D. C., Star._)

“Longstreet came out of the war with a record for courage and

loyalty second to none.”

General Thomas L. Rosser, of Virginia, who commanded a regiment at

Gettysburg, and who was with the Army of Northern Virginia from the

first battle to the surrender, bitterly resents the criticism of

General Longstreet’s course at Gettysburg. General Rosser was appointed

an officer in the Spanish War by President McKinley, and in recent

years has been acting with the Republican party. Reviewing the work

of some of the great Confederate generals, General Rosser said to a

reporter for the _Star_:

“With the death of General Longstreet passes the last of the great

soldiers of the Army of Northern Virginia. He fought alone the battle

of the 18th of July, 1861, and won the first victory of that splendid

army. He shared in the glory of the great battles that army fought.

“Longstreet and Lee, as soldiers, were similar in many respects. Both

were great defensive generals, but neither can be classed among the

successful offensive generals of history.

“Take Jackson, for instance. His campaign from Kernstown to Port

Republic, in the Valley of Virginia, in 1862, was as brilliant as

the first Italian campaign of the great Napoleon. He drew McDowell

from Fredericksburg. He left Shields, Fremont, and Banks confused as

to his whereabouts, dashed across the mountains, joined Lee on the

26th of June, striking McClellan the surprise blow, forced him to

the James, and raised the siege of Richmond. With the despatch of

lightning he wheeled around, met Pope at Cedar Mountain, stopped his

advance upon Lee’s rear and flank, held him until Lee could arrive with

reinforcements, passed to his rear, and fought the battle of the 28th

of September at Groveton Heights; opened the way for Lee to press on

with his army, and crowned the campaign with the successful battle of

the second Bull Run. He crossed the Potomac with Lee, was detached,

sent back, captured Harper’s Ferry, and joined Lee at Sharpsburg in

time to stop McClellan and save Lee’s army. In May, 1863, when Lee was

hesitating in the Wilderness, believing that Hooker’s movement below

Fredericksburg was a serious one, with the foresight of genius Jackson

pronounced it a feint, urged Lee to allow him to move around Hooker’s

right, which, in audacity, boldness, and brilliancy seemed to paralyze

Lee, and while on this wonderful march Sickles got between him and Lee

with an army nearly equal his own. Jackson pressed on, turned Hooker’s

right, as he contemplated, dissipated the Eleventh Corps and all its

support, and was within a half-mile of his goal, the Bullock house,

had he gained possession of which Hooker’s retreat would have been

impossible and he would have been at the mercy of the Confederate army,

when he was shot and mortally wounded by his own men.

“Lee, then in command of an army that knew no defeat, and not realizing

that his great offensive general had been taken from the army,

committed the fatal blunder of attempting an invasion of the North.

At no time during that campaign did he move with celerity, manœuvre

to the surprise of the enemy, or do anything of a brilliant character

marking him with the genius of war. The battle of Gettysburg was lost

the first day, although the Confederates claimed a victory, and it

might have been turned into a victory had Lee been a master of the art

of aggressive warfare. But he followed up the first day with a stubborn

attack of the enemy in an intrenched position, and, failing to dislodge

him, seemed to hesitate and his plans seemed to be confused. Finally he

committed a great error in attacking a superior enemy in an intrenched

position at the strongest point.

“In the history of battles very few generals have ever made an attack

of the centre of the enemy’s position, and history gives only one

example of where such an attack has been successful. That was the

battle of Wagram, where the great Napoleon deceived the Archduke

Charles by so threatening his flank as to cause him to weaken his

centre, when, quick as a flash, Napoleon struck the centre of the enemy

with MacDonald and his reserves. But then the world has only given us

one Napoleon, and the Western hemisphere has given us only one Jackson.

“When Lee’s army was beaten from the fatal attack which he ordered

on the 3d of July, he rode among his fleeing soldiers, begging them

to rally and reform on Seminary Ridge, telling them that it was his

fault that they had failed and not their own. No criticism was made of

Longstreet at that time. Longstreet was retained in the most important

corps of Lee’s army and served honorably and faithfully under Lee to

the end.

“At Appomattox Longstreet, with Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia,

at the close of a most glorious achievement, honestly surrendered. The

Southern Confederacy was eliminated from the map of the world, its flag

was forever furled, and all soldiers who surrendered there had either

to return to the Union and become loyal to the flag of their country

or remain hypocrites and traitors, which they could not do if they had

honestly surrendered and accepted the terms that Grant had given them.

“Longstreet came out of the war with a record for courage, devotion to

the cause he had espoused, and loyalty to the Stars and Bars second to

none. Disabled by wounds, his right arm hanging lifeless and helpless

at his side, his profession, that of a soldier, gone, he turned his

attention to civil pursuits, and was struggling for a living when his

old friend Grant, the President of the United States, offered him

service in the government. Lee was dead. Southern politicians had

expected Longstreet to keep the fires of Southern antipathy to the

North alive, and as they were seeking to inflame the passions of the

people as a basis upon which to unite the South and to fuse with the

copperhead party in the North, as a means for repossessing themselves

of a government they had lost by the results of the war, this action

of Longstreet in accepting the offer of Grant tended to break their

influence with the old soldiers of the South.

“To counteract that they brought up the charge of disloyalty and

disobedience to Lee at Gettysburg, never having thought of it before,

and never, in fact, having had a foundation for it. This, in a measure,

served their purpose, because the old soldiers and their sons in the

South are always ready to resent anything said or done unfavorable to

Lee. Now, I am mortified to see that even the ladies have taken this

matter up, and the Daughters of the Confederacy at Savannah refused to

lay a wreath of laurels on the tomb of the great hero. I was surprised

that Fitzhugh Lee should have charged Longstreet with disobedience,

for I don’t believe that General Lee ever made such a charge himself.

After the war I went to Lexington and studied law and saw Lee every

day and every night. Our comrades and enemies were often discussed,

but I never heard him speak of Longstreet but in the most affectionate

manner. Colonel Venable was professor of mathematics when I moved back

to Charlottesville eighteen years ago, and my relations with him up to

his death were close and intimate. I never heard him suggest the idea

that Longstreet disobeyed orders or failed to do his duty at Gettysburg

or anywhere else. General Lee relieved General Ewell, one of his corps

commanders at Gettysburg, from duty with his army. He criticised A. P.

Hill severely for his failure and mismanagement at Bristow station, but

no man ever heard him say one word against Longstreet.

“Now that Longstreet is laid away to rest, all old and true soldiers of

the Southern Confederacy will kneel around his tomb and pray that they

may stand at the great reveille with Lee, Jackson, and Longstreet.”

* * * * *

(_Macon, Georgia, Telegraph._)

“On the historic page is blazoned his glory.”

From the lips of Lee no word of censure ever fell upon the military

renown of his great corps commander, the intrepid and immovable

Longstreet. However men may differ as to that last fateful day at

Gettysburg, on the historic page there is blazoned the military glory

of James Longstreet. No earthly power can blot it out. Longstreet’s

corps is as inseparable from the glory of the veterans of Lee as the

Old Guard from the army of Napoleon. And when a week ago with the last

expiring sigh of its aged commander the blood of his fearless heart

broke from the wound which laid him prone on the first day at the

Wilderness, at the moment when he had restored the shattered lines and

saved the Army of Northern Virginia, each ruddy drop, a protest against

the censure of his comrades, was like the blood of Cæsar,--

“As rushing out of doors to be resolved,

If Brutus so unkindly knocked or no.”

JUDGE EMORY SPEER.

* * * * *

(_McRae, Georgia, Enterprise._)

“Only necessary to refer his critics to the official reports.”

It is rather significant in the life of General Longstreet that

under the storm of anathemas which have been hurled upon him, both

by private tongue and public pen, he always observed that silence

commensurate with his dignity of character and magnanimity of soul.

It is furthermore significant, that whenever an attack was made upon

his official conduct at any time, it was only necessary that he point

to the official report of the matter as made of it at the time. In

every case where unfair criticism was indulged in, where there was no

foundation for such, and, of course, no official data to which recourse

could be had, the kind offices of some distinguished friend was

invariably volunteered.

It is also rather a singular fact, that although he took a prominent

part in numberless engagements, among which could be mentioned some of

the most sanguinary of the ’60’s, he never suffered serious defeat,

and almost invariably bore off the laurels. This statement applies to

Longstreet more truthfully than to any other general of either side.

It was characteristic of him, and at the same time evincing his great

military skill and genius, that he very often manipulated his forces as

emergencies suggested in the absence of orders from his superior. In

no instance where this was done does it appear that he ever received a

reprimand, but the approval, rather, of the commanding officer.

After the war, his course seems to have met with some disapprobation on

the part of some of his admirers South. This is a matter which seems

rather best decided by an appeal from the arena of individual judgment

to the forum of justice and right.--OLD VETERAN.

* * * * *

(_Chattanooga Times, Special._)

_“Punished for his Americanism.”_

HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA, January 8.--General Samuel H. Moore, a brave

ex-Confederate soldier of this city, claims to know inside history

concerning the career of General Longstreet after the close of the

Civil War, and in a communication written for the public he calls upon

General Joseph Wheeler and Colonel W. W. Garth to tell what they know

in justice to the departed chieftain. General Moore writes:

“It is due General Lee’s old war-horse, who was familiarly known to the

Army of Northern Virginia as ‘Old Pete’ Longstreet, that a statement

should be made which will vindicate his actions soon after the

surrender and reinstate him in the hearts of those who always felt safe

in battle when he was at their head, and who would have been proud to

shed their last drop of blood to shield his fair name if they had only

been cognizant of the facts which impelled him to pursue the course he

did--as he believed for the benefit of his Southern people.

“In 1866, when reconstruction hung over the South like a sword of

Damocles, five lieutenant-generals of the Confederate army held a

meeting in New Orleans, in General Hood’s room, to discuss the

situation and publish to the South the easiest way to bear the yoke sad

fate had placed upon their necks.

“After discussing all the pros and cons, they unanimously decided to

accept the situation as it was, return to the Union like good and loyal

citizens, and be the recipients of the offices of trust which were

being given to carpet-baggers because the government could not find in

the Southern States men willing to accept the offices that would have

gladly been given them.

“In this caucus of generals, Longstreet was selected to write and

publish a letter. He did it. There was a howl of protest from the

ill-informed people. The men who advised Longstreet to do this did

not face this opposition, avoided this martyr, let him bear the odium

alone. I ask General Joseph Wheeler to say what he personally knows

of this. I call upon Colonel W. W. Garth to say what he knows and the

source of his information.

“Let the South beg pardon for the wrong it has done our greater

soldier, General James Longstreet.”

* * * * *

“Did he do his duty as a soldier? Let Williamsburg, Sharpsburg,

Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, and the Wilderness make

reply.”

We are here to-day to pay our tribute to James Longstreet, the soldier

who faithfully and ably served, the fighter who fiercely fought, the

leader who bravely led, the sleepless, watchful, persistent, valorous

captain of a glorious host, whom his great chief implicitly trusted in

every hour of supreme and dangerous service, and who on many a bloody

field hurled his bold and devoted followers like an avalanche on the

serried ranks of his country’s foes, and who, when valor could avail no

more, bore with him from the field of strife the passionate love of the

legions he had led, and the unstinted praise and tearful benediction of

his great commander, who knew him best, and had trusted him in many an

“imminent and deadly breach.”

Every man capable by reason of environment, character, or ability of

exerting an influence upon affairs in any important field of human

endeavor, is called upon at some time to act under such circumstances

that his decision must infallibly indicate the character of the man and

forever fix his place in the estimation of his contemporaries and of

posterity.

That time came to James Longstreet in 1861. He was then an officer in

the army of the greatest and most powerful republic on all the earth,

and had won high and deserved honor in battle beneath its flag.

High commission in that army awaited him if he but adhered to that

flag, and the future held in store for him exalted rank which his

reputation and ability easily assured him.

On the other hand was a young nation, scarcely emerged from its

chrysalis stage and without moral or physical support among the

nations of the earth. His training and education as a soldier, and his

knowledge of the power and resources of that great government in whose

service he had been so long enlisted, enabled him to appreciate and

realize the odds in its favor in the rapidly approaching struggle.

The conditions which confronted him required the exertion of all the

virtues of courage, honor, consistency, and fidelity to conviction.

He was called upon to illustrate the loftiest qualities of human

character, and immolate self on the shrine of duty, or give heed to the

siren voice of ambition, and, lured by the selfish hope of high reward,

turn his sword against the land of his birth in the hour of her sorest

need.

As Daniel, Virginia’s great orator, has so fitly said of Robert E. Lee:

“Since the Son of Man stood upon the Mount and saw ‘all the kingdoms of

the earth and the glory thereof’ stretched before him and turned away

from them to the agony and bloody sweat of Gethsemane, and to the Cross

of Calvary beyond, no follower of the meek and lowly Saviour can have

undergone a more trying ordeal or met it in a higher spirit of heroic

sacrifice.”

In that hour of supreme test, trial, and temptation, James Longstreet

did not hesitate. He dallied not with dishonor. He was deaf to every

call save that of duty. Obedient to the conviction that his first,

highest, and holiest obligation was to the land of his birth, he

responded to her call, and for four long years “feasted glory till pity

cried no more.” His gleaming sword flashed in the forefront of the

fighting, till when stricken and scarred with many a wound and with

honor unstained he bowed to the stern arbitrament of battle.

When he made his choice and upon bended knee offered his sword as a

loving and loyal son to his native South, he thereby avouched himself

unto all the ages as one who in every hour of trial and in every sphere

of duty would keep his “robes and his integrity stainless unto heaven.”

He then and there gave to the world perpetual and irrefutable proof

that his every act since that day, whether as soldier or civilian, was

prompted by an exalted sense of duty, performed in obedience to the

convictions of an intelligent and deliberate judgment, and approved by

a clear conscience, and standing on that high vantage ground he courted

truth and defied malice.

No man who rises superior to temptation, and offers his life as

an offering upon the altar of duty, and freely sheds his blood in

testimony to the sincerity of his convictions, is called upon to

explain his conduct “in any sphere of life in which it may please God

to place him.”

The exercises of this occasion take color and purpose from that tragic

era in which James Longstreet was so conspicuous and honorable a

figure; and his record as a soldier is absolutely beyond impeachment.

Did he do his duty as a soldier brave and true? Did he bear himself as

became a man in the hour of battle? Let history unroll her proud annals

and say! Let Williamsburg, Sharpsburg, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, and the

Wilderness make reply.

Ask those who met him and his dauntless legion on many a bloody field,

and they will tell how often he swept down upon them like an avenging

whirlwind. Ask his “boys,” who for four years followed him with

unquestioning devotion and with ever-increasing love and admiration,

and they will with one accord and with voices tremulous with emotion

answer that he never lagged, failed, or faltered.

Hear the testimony of Robert E. Lee, his great commander, who, though

dead, yet speaketh: “General Longstreet (at Gaines Mill) perceived that

to render the diversion effectual the feint must be converted into an

attack. He resolved with characteristic promptness to carry the heights

by assault.” After Chickamauga, he says, “My whole heart and soul have

been with you and your brave corps in your late battle. Finish your

work, my dear General, and return to me. I want you badly, and you

cannot get back too soon.”

Let Joseph E. Johnston bear witness to the world of his great

subordinate at Williamsburg: “I was compelled to be a mere spectator,

for General Longstreet’s clear head and brave heart left no apology for

interference. The skill, vigor, and decision of General Longstreet (at

Seven Pines) was worthy of the highest praise.”

We have yet further testimony, which in pathos and convincing power

excels all speech or written language. It is an historic truth that

when the end had come at Appomattox, and those who had so long

shared the hardships of the camp and the peril and the glory of the

battle-field were about to separate, General Longstreet and his staff

proceeded to where General Lee and his staff had gathered for the last

time before their final parting, and General Lee grasped the hand and

spoke a few kindly words to each member of the group until he reached

General Longstreet, when each threw his arms about the other, and

as they thus stood clasped together both sobbed like children. When

General Lee had recovered his composure, turning to a member of the

party who is now in this presence, he said, “Captain, into your care I

commend my old war-horse.”

Robert E. Lee, standing on the fateful and historic field of

Appomattox, amid the gathering gloom of that awful hour of defeat and

disaster, with his arms about James Longstreet, while his majestic

frame shook with uncontrollable grief, was a scene worthy to have been

limned by genius on immortal canvas.

The tears of Robert E. Lee falling upon the symbol and insignia of

Longstreet’s rank converted it then and there into a badge of honor,

grander than the guerdon of a king.

It is known to countless thousands that only a few years before he

passed away Jefferson Davis moved out from the midst of a mighty

throng, which was acclaiming him with every manifestation of earthly

honor, to greet with open arms General Longstreet. Turning aside for a

time from the thousands who pressed about him in a very frenzy of love

and enthusiasm, he advanced and folded the great soldier to his bosom,

thus testifying before God and a multitude of witnesses to his faith in

the fidelity to conviction and to duty of the old hero.

Davis! Lee! Johnston! Immortal triumvirate of heroes! Glorious sons

of a glorious land! Fortunate indeed is that man who by such as they

is avouched unto posterity. When Lee and Davis laid their hands in

blessing and benediction upon James Longstreet, he was then and there

given passport unto immortality.

The brevity of the time properly allotted me wherein to perform my

part in the exercises of this occasion makes impossible any discussion

or analysis of the campaigns of General Longstreet, even if such

discussion were necessary, which it is not. His fame is securely fixed,

and the faithful historian of the future will assign him to his due

and fitting place in the annals of his age. The history of that great

struggle, in which he was so majestic and forceful a figure, which does

not bear tribute to his fidelity, skill, and valor will be manifestly

and unjustly incomplete; and if any page thereof be not lighted with

the lines of glory reflected by his heroic deeds, it will be because

the truth has not been thereon written.

In the galaxy of the glorious and the great, James Longstreet will

stand through all the ages enshrined with his great companions in arms

in the pantheon of the immortals.

Over such a life as his, bravely, nobly lived on lofty levels, death

has no dominion. More than fourscore years were upon him, and his

kingly form was somewhat bowed, but the dauntless and indomitable

spirit which had never quailed before danger, however imminent or dire,

shrank not before the coming of that conqueror to whom the lofty and

the lowly alike must yield, but, soothed and sustained by the holy

faith of the mother church, he passed to his eternal rest--

“While Christ, his Lord, wide open held the door.”

To those who loved and honored him the thought is comforting that after

all the battles and trials and hardships of his arduous and eventful

life he has found that rest reserved for the faithful in the realm of

eternal reunion.

We can believe that when, clothed with the added dignity and majesty

of immortality, he drew near to that eternal bivouac where are pitched

the tents of the comrades who preceded him to rest eternal, two,

conspicuous for kingly grace, even in that immortal throng, advanced

to meet him and clasp him once again to their bosoms, and that as he

stood in their arms enfolded there fell upon his ears the voice of the

Master saying,--

“Well done, thou good and faithful servant; enter into the joy of thy

Lord.”--JUDGE NORMAN G. KITTRELL, Houston, Texas.

* * * * *

“No soldier of Longstreet’s corps ever doubted his loyalty.”

No soldier of Longstreet’s corps during the war, whether he was one

of the boys in the trenches, or wore the stars upon his collar, ever

doubted either the courage, or the capacity, or the loyalty of James

Longstreet. No man ever heard an insinuation of that kind. No, he

was entitled to the splendid name the immortal Lee gave him of “old

war-horse,” and he held in the very highest degree the implicit

confidence of the men he commanded and who loved him.

I love to think of Lee and Jackson and Longstreet and Hill as the “Big

Four” of the Army of Northern Virginia.

Many years have passed since that bloody conflict; we are now one

people, with one common flag and one country and one destiny. But

we ought not to forget, how can we forget! the glorious names which

became as familiar as household words to us during that trying time.

Among all the other great names, that of James Longstreet, the ranking

lieutenant-general of the Confederate army, who earned that title in

the field and worthily wore it to the end, must shine forever in that

noble galaxy.--CAPTAIN JOHN H. LEATHEN, _Second Regiment Virginia

Infantry, Stonewall Brigade_.

* * * * *

(_Gainesville, Georgia, Eagle.)_

“Always a plumed knight without reproach.”

Nothing but sickness and a cold drive of twenty-five miles could have

prevented me from attending the funeral obsequies of my old friend and

great military chieftain and placing my humble tribute of flowers upon

his grave.

And now, in the quiet of a sick-chamber, I undertake to weave a little

garland to his memory. I know that nothing I may write will add any

lustre or greatness to a name that has become immortal in the annals

of a people who more than a third of a century ago, and for four long

years, performed deeds of heroic valor that would have shed glory upon

the military renown of any country or people that have ever lived or

had a place in history.

I have never permitted any criticism or detraction that has been

written or uttered against General Longstreet, no matter by whom or

for what purpose the same may have been written or uttered, to have

a feather’s weight in varying my love and veneration for this almost

incomparable commander.

I watched him in his course from Bull Run to Appomattox, and to me he

was always a plumed knight, without reproach. I have seen him on the

field of battle, and I have seen him at his quiet tent. The very first

order I heard given to “fire,” was delivered by Longstreet at Bull Run

on the 18th day of July, 1861. It was the prelude to the great victory

on the bloody field of Manassas, three days after.

Bull Run may have been the beginning of battles in Northern

Virginia--introductory to greater performances, but it was nevertheless

a finished battle. A flag of truce came in and asked for a suspension

of hostilities, and that the Federal dead be buried. The Union forces

had fallen back to Centreville, three miles. Detachments from Bonham’s

South Carolinians and Early’s Louisianians were called for to bury

the dead. Longstreet’s brigade had done the principal fighting, and

Longstreet’s brigade rested.

The dead were buried by those who had been fighting them only a few

hours before. The day’s battle was over, and the sun went down with the

victors in possession of the field and its dead.