Posted on 01/08/2005 7:02:11 AM PST by Valin
intersting . thanks
no idea he was ambassador to turkey and lived till 1904
Longstreet's stategic and tactical thinking beautifully anticipated the First World War 50 years before its time. It cost the European nations millions of lives to discover what paying attention to Longstreet could have taught them.
He shares a birthday with two other great Americans - Elvis Presley and ME! :)
Middle age is having a choice between two temptations and choosing the one that'll get you home earlier.
A birthday is just the first day of another 365-day journey around the sun. Enjoy the trip.
Thanks for the post, there were some things that I didn't know about Longstreet. Reading "Last Full Measure" now.
Wasn't he best man at Grant's wedding, before the war?
Which saved a lot of lives.
They were certainly friends before the war. In FROM MANASSAS TO APPOMATTOX, Longstreet says that his(Longstreet's) wife and Grant's wife were childhood friends; and, it was suggested, at one point, that the two ladies meet in order to discuss ways to bring the war to a conclusion.
I've pointed people to "Gods and Generals, "The Killer Angels, "The Last Full Measure", as a good place to read about the Civil War, they're good for people who don't read history books.
The movie "Gettysburg" is one of my favorite movies, OTOH "Gods and Generals" was a...disappointment.
"After the war he befriended Grant "
Longstreet and Grant were well aquainted years before the war, IIRC, Longstreet attended Grant's wedding.
Grant/Longstreet friendship:
http://www.mscomm.com/~ulysses/page46.html
Codington's "Gettysburg: A Study in Command" remains the best analysis of the Lee-Longstreet debate.
Happy Birthday! :o)
In Missouri where I was born, there were no nicey, nicey make up feelings after the second war of independence. It was the Balkans before, during, and for many a decade afterwards. The book and movie titled, "Ride With The Devil" best depicts it all.
Come to think on it, to this day in some parts, it still does not pay to scratch too far beneath the thin veneer of civility, old and bitter hatreds die hard.
Amen. But may his memory continue to live on.
I understand your Missouri comment very well. In my childhood in Kansas we didn't trust those Damn' Redlegs who had burned Lawrence twice. That was some 80 years after the war.
In those days I lived within a few miles of the site of the Battle of Mine Creek. Now I am located almost exactly where Price tried to cross the Big Blue.
On the north side of MO Highway 119 is a gate with two stone towers. One (on the left) supports a pole always flying the American flag. The other supports a pole with the Confederate Battle flag. I must admire the person who keeps these two flying.
...and David Bowie
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