James Longstreet Facts
James Longstreet Facts
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| Interesting James Longstreet Facts: |
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| Although Longstreet was never known as a scholar, having graduated fifty-fourth out of a class of fifty-six at West Point, he displayed extraordinary charisma and leadership skills while a student. |
| Longstreet developed a lifelong friendship with future Union general and American president, Ulysses Grant, while attending West Point. |
| He distinguished himself in the Mexican-American War, having fought in numerous battle and being wounded at the Battle of Chapultepec in 1847. |
| Longstreet began the Civil War with the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Confederate Army, but quickly advanced to general after leading several successful campaigns |
| During the Battle of Seven Pines in Virginia on May 31 and June 1, 1862, Longstreet led his troops down the wrong road, causing confusing among the Confederate troops. |
| Longstreet redeemed himself during the Seven Days Battle from June 25 to July 1, 1862 near Richmond, Virginia: Longstreet picked up the slack from his underperforming Confederate peers and helped lead the Confederates to a decisive victory. |
| Although he wanted to reinforce Confederate forces in Mississippi instead of invading the north, Longstreet played a major role in the Gettysburg campaign. |
| Longstreet delayed his attack at Gettysburg on July 2, which some have attributed to the Confederate loss at that battle, but the reasons for the delay are still debated by historians. |
| After Gettysburg, Longstreet was transferred to the Western Theater of operations, where he helped lead the Confederate forces to victory at Chickamauga from September 18-20, 1863. |
| He was injured by friendly fire at the Battle of the Wilderness, which took place in Virginia on May 5-7. 1864. The wound kept him out of service until late 1864, in time to join General Lee on the Appomattox Campaign. |
| After the war, Longstreet retired to New Orleans where he traded in cotton. |
| Longstreet became angered many of his old friends and colleagues by becoming a Republican after the war and by supporting the presidency of former Union general Ulysses Grant. |
| Longstreet was shot and temporarily held by members of the anti-Reconstruction organization known as the White League during a violent protest 1874 protest in New Orleans. |
| After his first wife died in 1889, Longstreet married Ellen Dortch in 1897 and remained married to her until his death. He was seventy-six and she was thirty-four when they married. |
| James Longstreet died of pneumonia in 1904 in Gainesville, Georgia at the age of eighty-two. |
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