first of all, i do kind of have to apologizefor being so late with the program. i had some things going on back in march and i hadto make a trip to accommodate some things that were going on, but tony and angie werevery gracious to reschedule the program for today. so this is officially our last mid-wintertalk for 2014. the date is pretty, actually worked out pretty well, april 27th, becausethe 150th anniversary of the wilderness is going to be in ten days. so if anyone is planningat trip down to the wilderness for that, you're going to get a little preview of what's goingon. of course we're talking about longstreet to the rescue and actually the second dayof the battle of the wilderness. before we can get there though, we have to go back severalmonths to september of 1863. in september
of 1863, general longstreet, along with twodivisions of infantry and some of his artillery, are ordered west to reinforce the army oftennessee. some of his troops arrive on the battlefield of chickamauga towards the endof the first day's fighting. when longstreet arrives, he's placed in command of the leftwing of the army. and as command of that left wing, he would mount a massive attack thatbreaks through the right half of the union army of the cumberland, sending that halfof the army in retreat back to chattanooga. caught up in the retreat is the army's commander,general rosecrans, who happened to be not only longstreet's classmate, but also longstreet'sroommate at west point. during the fighting on september 20th, though, longstreet is goingto lose one of his division commanders. major
general john bell hood is hit in the leg,the leg would eventually have to be amputated, and hood is gone now from longstreet's command;he would never report back to him. longstreet, or actually on september 25th, five days afterthe battle, longstreet receives a message from general lee, and among other things,lee said, "finish the work before you, my dear general, and return to me. i want youbadly and you cannot get back too soon. your departure was known to the enemy as soon asit occurred." now longstreet tries to convince the commander of the army of tennessee generalbraxton bragg, to leave a token force around chattanooga and take the rest of the armyto reoccupy tennessee, possibly move into kentucky, and maybe even besiege the cityof cincinnati, ohio. bragg is not going to
do that. he is going to sit back and try tomount a siege of chattanooga. bragg, though, doesn't have enough men to completely encirclethe city, so it's not a true siege in that sense. also coming to the relief of chattanoogaare two army corps from the army of the potomac and william sherman's army corps from generalgrant's army of the tennessee. and ulysses s. grant himself is placed in overall commandof the troops around chattanooga. to try to keep the north from extending its supply line,bragg will have longstreet try to launch an attack near wauhatchie, tennessee on the westernside of lookout mountain, and this is one of the most botched attacked longstreet'stroops are going to carry out. longstreet, of course, will blame evander law for thedefeat at wauhatchie. law is going to blame
longstreet, and general bragg will also blamelongstreet for what happened. so things are not going well for longstreet and his menat this point. law had taken over command of hood's division after hood's wounding atchickamauga, just as law had done here after gettysburg, and law felt he deserved to bepromoted to take command of the division. longstreet wants micah jenkins to take commandof the division. at this point, he can't really do that, but that's what longstreet is anglingfor, so there's a conflict now between law and jenkins. longstreet will also get intoarguments with general braxton bragg, along with just about everybody else, and the upshotis on november 3rd, 1863, bragg ordered longstreet to knoxville to try to lay siege and capturethat city. knoxville is a well-fortified town,
the defenses were started by the confederates,and when they left, they were improved by union forces. the union forces now in knoxvillewere commanded by ambrose burnside, and he actually has more troops than general longstreet,so again, longstreet can't conduct a proper siege of knoxville. but on november 29th,1863, he's going to try to break through at a place called fort sanders. this is anotherpoorly-executed attack. from here, longstreet would fall back to russellville, tennesseeto establish his winter headquarters by december 10th. he's 82 miles from bristol, tennesseeand 52 miles from knoxville. as bad as things had been for the first corps up until now,they're going to get even worse. on december 17th, longstreet will relieve major generallafayette mclaws of command of his division
and bring charges against him. mclaws is goingto be charged with neglect of duty stemming from the attack on fort sanders. on the sameday, longstreet will bring charges against brigadier general jerome robertson of thetexas brigade and also relive robertson of command. robertson is going to be chargedwith conduct highly prejudiced as a good order in military discipline. two days later, ondecember 19th, evander law, who heard he was going to be charged, offered longstreet hisresignation, and longstreet is going to accept it. longstreet had planned to charge law withconduct highly prejudiced as a good order in military discipline and conduct unbecomingan officer and a gentleman. to replace mclaws, longstreet would choose senior brigade commander,brigadier general joseph kershaw. on february
12th, 1864, major general charles field, underorders from the war department assumed command of hood's old division. now, longstreet stillwanted micah jenkins to command hood's division and he actually wrote the war department,"can i transfer field over to mclaws's division and put jenkins in charge of hood's division?"and the war department wrote back and said, "no, field is directing hood's division byour orders," and the only people that can change that is the war department, not longstreet.while at russellville, longstreet received orders on april 12th, 1864 to report backto lee in virginia. he is to return to charlottesville by april 14th. at this point, longstreet himselfis somewhat despondent, he's become a little demoralized, and it's arguable that the easttennessee campaign was longstreet's worst
performance in the whole civil war. douglassouthall freeman, in "lee's lieutenants" wrote, "longstreet has failed in a semi-independentcommand and failed to maintain peace in his corps. his strategy continued, despite discouragements.a bitterness toward the administration had developed in his heart. he was less the imperturbableold war horse and more the aggrieved, restive lieutenant who thought all authorities exceptlee are readied against him." and even one of his most ardent defenders in the 20th century,lieutenant colonel donald bridgman sanger wrote, "all in all, he failed to measure upto the standard required for the role of an independent commander. there was a fatal lackof harmony in his command and it appeared at times as if he could not handle his owntroops and preserve that quality of discipline
which he had formerly instilled in the firstcorps. most serious of all, longstreet, for the first time, lost confidence in himself."when longstreet's men returned to virginia, the divisions were commanded by major generalcharles field, hood's old division, and brigadier general joseph kershaw commanded mclaws'sdivision; all in all about 10,000 officers and men. pickett's division had been sentto north carolina in september of 1863 and had not yet reported back to longstreet'scommand. longstreet is going to write to lieutenant colonel walter taylor, lee's assistant adjutantgeneral, about when lee can come to review the troops. taylor wrote on april 26th thatlee would visit the first corps as soon as possible, and then he added a personal note.he told longstreet, "i really am beside myself,
general, with joy of having you back. it islike the reunion of a family." and it seems as though once longstreet has made it backon virginia soil, everything in east tennessee is going to be forgotten. for some reason,just because they're back from tennessee, the old esprit de corps and longstreet's handlingof the corps is going to be like it was in the old days. east tennessee is kind of ablack mark, but it's passing now and longstreet will soon have a chance to redeem himselffrom east tennessee and some modern historians might say redeem himself from gettysburg aswell. lee is going to review the troops on april 29th at gordonsville. longstreet saysgordonsville on the line of the orange and alexandria railroad in case of a federal advanceagainst richmond - he can use the line to
get to richmond pretty quickly. on may 2nd,lee is going to meet with his corps and division commanders on clark's mountain here in thebackground. from clark's mountain, they can see the army of the potomac encampments acrossthe rapidan river. field's division has moved north of gordonsville to meet a possible federaladvance toward richmond along the rail line. if meade and the army of the potomac, though,advance against lee's right near germanna or ely's fords on the rapidan, longstreetis going to be at least a day's march away. lee was willing to take that chance and wouldtry to offer some cover for richmond. on may 4th, longstreet is going to be ordered tomarch. his objective is richard's sharp on the catharpin road. the recommended routewas by brock's bridge on the north anna river.
kershaw starts to move out about 4:00pm inthe afternoon to brock's bridge, a distance of about ten miles. field has a distance ofabout sixteen miles to cover. these are also the opening moves in what's going to becomegeneral grant's overland campaign. you have general meade commanding the army of the potomac,but the new commanding general, ulysses grant is going to establish his headquarters withthe army of the potomac. grant's going to cross the rapidan river on the evening ofmay 3rd and 4th. longstreet's initial orders were to continue on the catharpin road totodd's tavern; that would place him on general meade's southern flank. early in the morning,the guard resumed the march to richard's sharp, a distance of about sixteen miles on the catharpinroad. most of longstreet's units are going
to cover thirty-two miles in twenty-four hoursand still be about ten miles short of the battlefield. also, the morning of may 5th,lafayette rallies his confederate cavalry and skirmishes with james wilson's union cavalryat todd's tavern and wilson's cavalry is going to get the worst of it in this engagement.it's also the first day of the battle of the wilderness and lee is trying to use the tangledmess of the wilderness to neutralize grant's and meade's forces. at the best, by the endof the first fighting on the first day of the wilderness, you're going to have a stalemate.lee can't force grant out of the wilderness and grant can't seem to move forward at thatpoint. but major charles venable would be sent by lee to longstreet with a change ofmarching orders. longstreet is to cut across
country now to the orange plank road and linkup with general hill and his corps. major venable later wrote, "my message to you wasto reach general lee as soon as practicable on the morning of the 6th." longstreet himselfwrote, "the accounts we had of the day's work were favorable to the confederates, but thechange of direction of our march was not reassuring." at 1:00am on the morning of may 6th, longstreet'smen would start their march for parker's store and they arrived at parker's store at dawnwhich was about 4:40am in the morning of may 6th. he is there to relieve heth and wilcox'sdivisions about another three miles from parker's store. longstreet wrote, though, of this cross-countrymarch, "such a march and under such conditions was never before experienced by the troops.along blind roads overgrown by underbrush,
through fields that had lain fallow for years,now stumbling over bushes and briars." even the so-called "roads" through the wildernessare not like the nice country roads up here in pennsylvania which are nice and brightand, in some cases, hard surfaced. these are, in some cases, just tracks through the wilderness,and there is a good reason in 1864 that they called this the wilderness. it's just a massive,tangled woods broken up by small farms and that's it, and there's a lot of undergrowthin the wilderness as well, so this is not an easy march across country for longstreet'smen to make. in fact, longstreet actually ordered his divisions to double up into tighterand more efficient marching columns to get his men through this.
once they reach parker's store they're goingto pass colonel henry c. cabell's artillery battalion of the 1st corps. this is one ofthe units left behind when longstreet went to tennessee. included cabell's battalionis the 1st richmond howitzers. one soldier from the howitzers wrote, "everything brokeloose as general longstreet in person rode past. like a fine lady at a party, longstreetwas often late in his arrival at the ball. but he always made a sensation, and that ofdelight, when he got in, with the grand old first corps streaming behind him as his train."another soldier of the howitzers wrote, "the instant the head of his column was seen, thecries resounded on every side. here is longstreet, the old war horse is up at last, it's alrightnow." at 5:00am, on the morning of may 6th,
major general winfield scott hancock and brigadiergeneral james wadsworth would launch a massive attack against the divisions of heth and wilcoxof a.p. hill's corps. those troops are going to be quickly pushed back from their advancedpositions and they start to retreat almost in a pell-mell fashion. the right flank oflee's line now in the wilderness is in danger of collapse, and along with it, maybe eventhe army of northern virginia. the only troops ready to stop this union advance is poague'sartillery line in the widow tapp field. in there with the batteries is lieutenant colonelwilliam h. palmer, general hill's chief of staff. he was walking along the guns tryingto encourage the gunners when he suddenly looked up and there was general longstreeton horseback. palmer, who knew longstreet,
went over to him and said, "ah general, wehave been looking for you since twelve o'clock last night. we expect to be attacked at anymoment and are not in any shape to resist." longstreet started replying, "my troops arenot up - i have ridden ahead. and then the rest of what longstreet said kind of got lostin the growing crescendo of the battle. but palmer noted that longstreet turned his horseto meet his oncoming soldiers. field and kershaw are coming up, side by side, on either sideof the orange plank road; field on the north side of the road and kershaw on the southside of the road. it was reported that they also came up in perfect order, ranks wellclosed, and no stragglers. "those splendid troops came on regardless of the confusionon every side, pressing their steady movement
onward like a river in the sea of confusionand troubled human waves around them." moxley sorrell, longstreet's capable chief of staff,also reported that, "never did his great qualities as a tenacious, fighting soldier shine forthin better light. i have always thought that in its entire splendid history, the simpleact of forming line in the dense undergrowth under heavy fire, and with the third corpsmen pushing to the rear through the ranks, was perhaps its greatest performance for itssteadiness and inflexible courage and discipline." again, the field discipline of the first corpsis coming to the front and longstreet and his officers have the troops well in handand know exactly what to do. even major charles venable of lee's staff, in the postwar yearsno particularly great friend of longstreet's,
had to admit, "i met your two divisions withinless than half a mile of the battlefield coming up in parallel columns very rapidly on theplank road side by side and that they came in grandly, forming line of battle. it wassuperb and my heart beats quicker to think about it, even at this distance of time. leadingfield's division is going to be the texas brigade under brigadier general john gregg.gregg had joined the division and longstreet's troops in tennessee, so he was an unknownquantity to general lee, lee didn't know who the guy was. so he goes riding over to greggand asks, "what brigade is this?" and of course general gregg proudly says, "the texas brigade!"and lee said, "i am glad to see it. when you go in there, i wish you to give those menthe cold steel. they will stand and fight
all day and never move unless you charge them.the texas brigade has always driven the enemy and i want them to do it now, and tell them,general, that they will fight today under my eye. i will watch their conduct. i wantevery man of them to know i am here with them." and then lee rides to the front of the texasbrigade and starts to shout, "texans always move them!" and the texans shout back, "leeto the rear!" here is the famous episode of the texans trying to get lee to move to therear, out of danger. lee, at first, isn't moving. he's determined to lead the texasbrigade in person. and then charles venable shows up again, this guy seems to be all overthe place, and he points out to lee that general longstreet is on the other side of the road.so lee rides over to longstreet and they have
a little conference, and longstreet assureslee that he can restore the line if given a free hand on the battlefield. but if leewants to take charge of everything, longstreet's more than willing to go to the rear, becauseas he said, "it was not quite comfortable where we were." lee took the hint, startedto ride to the rear to leave the battlefield in longstreet's capable hands, and longstreetknows exactly what to do. this is the view the texans had of the union forces. they haveto charge across this open field as the union troops are just emerging from the treelinein the distance. lieutenant colonel palmer, who also seems to be all over the place, saidthat, "longstreet rode down the line, his horse at a walk, and addressing each companysaid, 'keep cool men, we will straighten this
out in a short time. keep cool.' in the midstof the confusion, his coolness and manner was inspiring." longstreet's going to sendfield's division in one brigade at a time. so field's division will be attacking withsledgehammer blows against the union line. kershaw goes in to a slightly more extendedline, but these soldiers now would start pushing back the union troops, regaining a lot ofthe lost ground. almost about eight o'clock in the morning, major general richard h. anderson'sdivision arrives on the battlefield. prior to the army reorganization in may of 1863,anderson had belonged to longstreet's command; in the reorganization, he was transferredto the third corps. so at the wilderness, as he's coming up, he belongs to the thirdcorps. but when anderson arrives on the battlefield,
lee's going to reassign him to the first corps,acknowledging longstreet's command on that part of the field. a.p. hill, meanwhile, istrying to extend his line into the chewning farm, north of longstreet's position. andnow, in what had to be somewhat embarrassing circumstances, hill had to send palmer overto longstreet to request a brigade from anderson's division. remember, just prior to this, andersonhad been under hill's command and now suddenly he's under longstreet's command, so duty andprotocol dictates hill has to ask longstreet for a brigade of anderson's division. longstreetis very helpful; when palmer asks for the brigade, he said, "certainly colonel, whichone will you take?" and palmer said, "the first one." and longstreet said, "that's goodenough for me." longstreet, though, he's pushing
back the union forces, he's regaining lostground, but that's not good enough for him. he wants to try to organize an attack thatwill lead to a possible confederate victory on the field. coming up to longstreet at teno'clock in the morning is brigadier general martin luther smith, the chief engineer forthe army of northern virginia and a member of longstreet's class of 1842. smith reportsto longstreet that he's found a way through the wilderness to turn hancock's left flank.there is an unfinished railroad cutting through the wilderness, and just like the railroadcut here in gettysburg, the area had been cleared, but there were no tracks throughhere. they won't be any railroad tracks until several years after the civil war. longstreet'sgoing to direct his chief of staff moxley
sorrell to conduct three brigades by the route,have them face to the left, and march against hancock's flank. the three brigades makingthe assault would be william wofford, william mahone, and george "tige" anderson. in supportwould be the davis-stone brigade in reserve; four brigades from four different divisionsnow making this attack. since william mahone is the senior brigade commander, he is goingto be in charge of the attack. lieutenant colonel e.m. field and 170 men of the newly-organizedsharpshooter battalion from mahone's brigade would lead the advance. mahone's attack isgoing to smash into the left flank of hancock's line and completely disorganize and startto rout it. longstreet later wrote: "the movement was a complete surprise and a perfect success.it was executed with a rare zeal and intelligence.
the enemy made but a short stand and fellback in utter rout with heavy loss to a position about three-quarters of a mile from my attack."years later, even general hancock had to admit to longstreet, "you rolled me up like a wetblanket and it was some hours before i could reorganize for battle." in a sense, thesethree under-strength confederate brigades would overpower five times their number onthe union side, and that's the effect of a flank attack on an enemy force. you can stillget to the site of longstreet's flank attack, but you have to go through the entrance ofthe fawn lake development to get there. now fortunately, the development has recognizedthat path through the wilderness and its historical importance, so they have still maintainedit. the last time i was down there, we actually
had to call ahead to get into the place becauseit is a gated community. as longstreet's men are advancing up the orange plank road they'regoing to pass by the mortally wounded brigadier general james wadsworth, and there's a monumentto wadsworth's wounding on the battlefield today. so longstreet's men are pushing pasthim on the road. what longstreet is aiming for is this intersection between the orangeplank road and the brock road. if longstreet can control this crossroads, he's going tolimit the union options in the wilderness. general hancock's men, though, are erectingfortifications along the brock road, or at least improving the ones they've already putup. they're trying to clear a field of fire in front of it well. general smith now comesback to longstreet and he reports that this
rail line extends even further into the wilderness,and they can take more troops in to attack hancock's position along the brock road. smith,now, is going to be authorized by longstreet to lead the attack. wofford's brigade is movedby what's called inversion, in other words, he's going to move from the left flank ofthe line over to the right and form the new attack. mahone's brigade in the middle isstill advancing toward the orange plank road. general kershaw is going to report: "we metthe lieutenant general commanding, coming to the front, almost within musket-range ofthe brock road. exchanging hasty congratulations upon the success of the morning, the lieutenantgeneral rapidly planned a direct attack to be made by brigadier general jenkins and myselfupon the position of the enemy upon the brock
road, before he could recover this disaster.the order to me was to break the line and push on to the right of the road towards fredericksburg.jenkins's brigade was put in motion by a flank on the road; my division in the woods on theright. i rode with general jenkins to the head of his command and arranged with himthe details of our combined attack." so longstreet wants not just his flank attack, he wantsto keep up the pressure on the front as well, to keep hancock from trying to get organized,while the flank attack is being organized itself. what's going to happen next? the 12thvirginia of mahone's brigade, as the brigade was nearing the plank road, encountered afire in the woods and they had to go around it. they found themselves about fifty yardsnorth of the road, separated from the rest
of the brigade, so the officers organizedthe 12th virginia, turned around, and started to head back to the south side of the road.jenkins's brigade, as we mentioned, is in the middle of the road and column and they'redescribed as being in new uniforms so dark or grey as to be almost black. jenkins wasriding with general longstreet and he said, "i am happy. i have felt despair for the causefor some months but am relieved and feel assured that we will put the enemy back across therapidan before night." and turning to his brigade, jenkins said, "why do you not cheermen?" and they answered him with a hearty round. andrew dunn, one of longstreet's aide-de-campssuggested the general was too exposed at the head of the column. longstreet responded,"that is our business." then suddenly, shots
are going to ring out. some men cried out,"show your colors!" and the 12th virginia color bearer walked onto the road to showhis flag. kershaw reported that, "two or three shots were fired on the left of the road andsome stragglers came running in from that direction. a melee or volley was pouring intothe head of our column from the woods on our right occupied by mahone's brigade." kershawsaid, "the leading files of jenkins's brigade on this occasion faced the firing and wereabout to return it, but when i dashed my horse into the ranks crying, 'they are friends!'they instantaneously realized the position of things and fell on their faces where theystood. this fatal casualty arrested the projected movement." in longstreet's party, captainalfred e. doby, kershaw's aide-de-camp, and
his orderly marcus barnum, are going to bekilled. also private john f. menga of the 12th virginia will be killed in the same volley.the worst casualty is going to occur to general longstreet himself. first of all, micah jenkinshimself was hit in the head and mortally wounded. general longstreet is going to be hit frombehind, the bullet exiting the throat. longstreet's servant said that, "he, longstreet, was aheavy man with a firm seat in the saddle," but he was actually lifted straight up andcame down hard. longstreet was about 6'2" and weighed close to 200 pounds. longstreethimself wrote that he felt, "a severe shock for the minie ball passing through my throatand right shoulder. the blow lifted me from the saddle and my right arm dropped to myside, but i settled back to my seat and started
to ride on, when in a minute, the flow ofblood admonished me that my work for the day was done." a lot of historians and some contemporarypeople thought that the bullet hit longstreet in the throat and came out his back. thatprobably could only happen if either somebody shot the general from a tree or if the generalwas somehow leaning over the saddle like this, and that's not happening. all the reportswere that the general was sitting upright in the saddle when he took the hit. the bestscenario, if you will, is that he's hit in the back with the bullet coming out of histhroat. general charles field reported that, "i was at longstreet's side in a moment anin answer to my anxious inquiry as to his condition, he replied that he would be lookedafter by others and directed me to take command
of the troops and push ahead." colonel walterfairfax, one of longstreet's staff officers reported, "on reaching the line of troops,you were taken off the horse and propped against a tree. you blew the bloody foam from yourmouth and said, 'tell general field to take command and move forward with the whole forceand gain the brock road.'" longstreet's wounding occurred roughly half a mile from the brockroad and almost one mile from the widow tapp field. moxley sorrell is going to be sentto report to general lee and sorrell said, "here is the report what had been accomplishedand urged him, lee, to continue the movement he, longstreet, was engaged in, the troopsbeing already successful for truly far along, and grant, longstreet firmly believed, bedriven back across the rapidan." dr. john
synge dorsey cullen, the medical directorof the first corps was on the scene. he checked the flow of blood and also noted the bloodyfroth at the general's mouth and throat. this is sort of a modern diagram of the general'swound. to put it in medical terms, the bullet entered the right side of the general's backjust along the medial border of the scapula. it traveled in an anterior superior directionand angled medially, transecting the right brachial plexus and the right recurrent longtudinalnerve. it then passed through the right lobe of the thyroid gland and the right anteriorlateral wall of the trachea, exiting almost at the midline. in other words, the bullethit the general right below the scapula, traveled up and to the left, cut the nerve going tohis right shoulder, and then exited out through
his throat. and that explains why the generalnever really recovered the use of his right arm and why after this, even though beforethis he had a booming voice that could be heard over the whole battlefield, after this,he could never speak above a whisper. longstreet himself is going to place a hat over his face.this is noon of may 6th and the sun is shining down on him so they put the hat on to coverhis face. well the troops saw the general going back with the hat on his head and theyimmediately thought he was dead. they're telling us he's alive, but he's actually dead. longstreetheard these comments and he took his left hand, lifted his hat off his face, and thenreported that, "the bursting of voices and the flying of hats in the air eased my painsomewhat."
an artillery officer observed all that wasgoing on here, and these are all the members of longstreet's staff, and he reported that,"i never on any occasion during the four years of the war saw a group of officers and gentlemenmore deeply distressed. they were literally bowed down with grief. it was not alone thegeneral they admired that had been shot down, it was rather the man they loved." this sameofficer saw longstreet in the ambulance when they placed him in there, and he said longstreettook his left hand and lifted up the blanket to look at the saturated shirt he was wearingand after seeing it, longstreet but the blanket back down again. this officer said, "he isnot dead and he is calm and entirely master of the situation. he is both greater and moreattractive than i have heretofore thought
of." lee is going to arrive on the battlefieldnow with richard anderson. since anderson outranks charles field, lee, by military protocol,would place anderson in charge of the first corps. even though lee had been encouragedby longstreet to continue the attack the troops, to lee's mind, are so disorganized at thispoint, he doesn't want to press the attack. so he's going to take the time to reorganizethe troops. by the time they get things moving forward, it's about four o'clock in the afternoon.jenkins's men, along with one other, are going to capture part of the defenses along thebrock road before union reserves come up and force him back again. by the end of the secondday there is still somewhat of a stalemate in the wilderness. now longstreet was convincedhe could force grant back across the rapidan;
some ardent historians dispute that. theymake the argument that lee had used the woods to counter grant's strength in the wilderness.grant could now use those woods to mask whatever he was doing. to show you the importance ofthe brock road, by the end of the day, hancock's troops controlled the intersection; that'sgoing to give grant one major option. lee probably thought if he hadn't defeated inthe wilderness, grant's going to do what what every other union general would do - that'sfall back across the rapidan. well grant's not exactly a guy to fall backand start over again. with the brock road in his hands, grant now can move the armyof the potomac south around lee's flank and head towards a place called spotsylvania courthouse. if longstreet's men had controlled
the brock road intersection, grant might nothave had that option. some of the first corps troops would fall back to the widow tapp fieldand start to erect entrenchments just in case of another union attack the next day. hereare some of the stops on the driving tour of the places we've been talking about. stopfive is the chewning farm where hill is trying to set up his line, stop six is the widowtapp field, and stop seven is the longstreet wounding marker. there's actually a littlepull-off there and they have some wayside exhibits that talk about longstreet's wounding.dr. lafayette guild, the medical director for the army of northern virginia, and otherdoctors, examined longstreet's wound and they determined that it was not necessarily fatal.alexander dunn heard this report and wrote
back to general lee, "i assure you general,nothing can be announced to general longstreet's staff that could give them more pleasure,and we hope that in a short time, he will be on duty again. it will afford our deargeneral great pleasure to know that what he inaugurated has been successful, that is,the entire repulse of the hated enemy." and, of course, as we learned, lee is not goingto do that; he can't force grant out of the wilderness. longstreet is first taken to meadowfarm, the home of major erasmus taylor, his chief quartermaster. he is then transferredto taliaferro hospital in lynchburg, virginia. on may 18th, mrs. susan blackford, the wifeof longstreet's provost marshal, is going to see longstreet in the hospital. she isgoing to write, "he is very feeble and nervous
and suffers much from his wound. he shedstears on the slightest provocation and apologizes for it. he says he does not see why a bulletgoing through a man's shoulder should make a baby of him." longstreet is later transferredto the home of mrs. caroline garland, his cousin-in-law by marriage and the mother ofgeneral samuel garland, who had been killed at south mountain in september of 1862. longstreetwas moved to campbell county court house in rustburg, virginia where he stays with coloneljohn d. alexander until they're chased down with word of union cavalry coming to capturethem. longstreet later moves down to georgia and first stays with josiah sibley and hissecond wife emma eve longstreet. emma longstreet was the daughter of gilbert longstreet, abrother of the general's father. so emma is
the general's first cousin. he later movesto union point, georgia to stay with the hart's and daniels' families who were friends ofhis. also staying with him this whole time is going to be his wife, mrs. longstreet,and captain t.j. gorey from texas, who longstreet had been with on his first trip when he wascoming back to join the army in 1861. longstreet is going to write, around the 1st of october,"i was strong enough to ride horseback, and after a little practice, and having becomevery weary of idle hours, took leave of wife and children and traveled back to richmondto find our great commander and his noble followers." on october 7th, longstreet wouldwrite to walter taylor, "i have not reported formally for duty because i doubted the proprietyof being assigned in my crippled condition
to a position now filled by officers of vigoroushealth. if i can be of service in any position, i prefer to go to duty." and he actually asksfor assignment to the trans-mississippi. "the doctors give me little reason to hope to recoverthe use of my arm even within a year hence my desire to be assigned for duty or to havean extended leave of absence." general lee is having none of that. ten days later, onoctober 17th, longstreet is ordered to resume command of the first corps, and he'll returnto lee two days later on october 19th, 1864. lee is going to take personal responsibilityfor the defenses around petersburg, virginia. longstreet is going to be commanding virtuallyeverything else, from the james river, up to and around the defenses of richmond, andhe'll hold that position until april 2nd,
1865 when he's ordered to finally rejoin leeat petersburg for the retreat that would end at appomattox. to repeat a few things, generalhancock, as we said, in the postwar years, had to admit to longstreet that, "you rolledmy line up like a wet blanket" and moxley sorrell had been directed by longstreet toreport to lee what's going on and to urge lee to press the advantage and drive grantout of the wilderness. longstreet firmly believed that if lee had pushed the attack, that'sexactly what would have happened. grant would have been pushed out of the wilderness andback across the rapidan. some modern historians debate that, dispute that, but it is one ofthose things that brings up an interesting "what if" question at the battle of the wilderness.and that is what if longstreet's plan had
succeeded. if lee had continued the attack,as longstreet planned, and pushed grant out of the wilderness. what effect would thathave had on the overland campaign of 1864? and more importantly, what effect would ithave had on grant's military career which might have been cut short in such an event?i'm going to leave the last word here, though, to colonel walter taylor, lee's adjutant,and he wrote in the postwar years, "i have always thought that had general longstreetnot been wounded, he would have rolled back that wing of general grant's army in suchmanner as would have forced the federals to recross the rapidan. a strange fatality attendedus. jackson killed in the zenith of his successful career; longstreet wounded in the act of strikinga blow which would have rivaled jackson at
chancellorsville and its results, and eachcase the fire was from our own men. a blunder, call it so. the old deacon would say thatgod willed it thus." i want to thank you, folks, for joining me this afternoon for theprogram. does anybody have any questions at this point about anything i've talked about?[audience member] how long did longstreet live? [karlton smith] how long did longstreetlive? he died in 1904, just two days short of his 84th birthday. he never recovered theuse of his right arm, and he never spoke above a whisper. what apparently happened is hecame down with a case of pneumonia and all the coughing reopened the old wound and that'swhat lead to his death. he had lost a lot of weight because he had also been treatedfor cancer of the eye. among other things,
he had rheumatism, he was deaf by that time,he had a speaking trumpet, but he was still, officially, a u.s. railroad commissioner.and among other things, in the 1890s, he had taken trips out to san francisco to reporton the conditions of the railroads out there, so still fairly active, almost up to the end.yes ma'am? [audience member] you know, one thing that you hear about wounded personnelduring the war that so many of them died not from their actual injuries but from infectionsand so forth. did he have some type of, or were his doctors more progressive, or modernmedical care than any other doctors? [karlton smith] well, in one sense, longstreet is goingto get what's today called v.i.p. treatment. i mean he not only has his own medical officer,chief medical officer with him, he's got the
chief medical officer of the entire army ofnorthern virginia, and three or four other doctors, looking after him. so he is goingto get kind of v.i.p. treatment, in a way, because he is general longstreet. this isone guy lee cannot afford to lose, especially longstreet. if he loses longstreet, he's gotrichard ewell, a.p. hill, and maybe richard anderson commanding his army corps. a lotof people have wondered if longstreet bungled here at gettysburg, why didn't lee just getrid of him? if there was an officer lee didn't like, or lee didn't think was up to standards,he got rid of him. after gettysburg, lee's got two great opportunities to get rid oflongstreet; he could very easily have told the administration, "i need longstreet's troops,but keep longstreet himself in tennessee."
and here, after he's been wounded, lee can'twait for longstreet to get back. longstreet soon requests, on october 7th for either transferor an extended leave, and ten days later, pretty fast for any war department, he's gotorders to report back to lee, and that has to be coming from lee himself. this is theone man, at this point, that lee depends on the most. yes? [audience member] didn't longstreet'ssecond wife lived until 1962? when were they married? [karlton smith] they got marriedin, i want to say, 1896 or 1898. [audience member] he was quite an old man then. [karltonsmith] yeah, she was the assistant state librarian for the state of georgia when they met andthat was an unusual position for a woman to have in georgia, so she was quite progressivein the 1890s. longstreet's excuse was that
an old man gets lonely sometimes, so that'swhy they got married. yes? [audience member] when did his first wife die? [karlton smith]his first wife died in the early 1880s and we don't know exactly why because this isone of the cases where, i think, shortly after that, longstreet's house burned down and helost almost all of his personal correspondences, lost his civil war uniform, his mexican warsword that he wore in the civil war, all of that was lost, and all his personal paperswere lost as well. yes? [audience member] did he have children? [karlton smith] he andhis first wife, prior to the civil war, had six children, two died before the civil war,and within the period of one week between february and march of 1862, they lost threemore. so between those six children, only
one survived, and then afterwards, mrs. longstreethad six more. so altogether, they had twelve children, but lost five of them. there areno direct descendants of general longstreet, though, it's through branch families instead,but i can tell you that two of his sons served in the spanish-american war in the army andone is buried in arlington cemetery because of it; they followed in their father's footsteps.longstreet is one of those guys who viewed the spanish-american war as the major reconciliationpoint between north and south. his sons were fighting in the war, the nephews of generalpickett were fighting in the war, lee's nephew, fitzhugh lee, was the american consular inhavana when the maine was blown up, and general joseph wheeler, the famous confederate cavalrycommander, is an american brigadier general,
u.s. army brigadier general in cuba, he wasactually teddy roosevelt's commander. there is a story that longstreet was able to makeit up to the west point centennial in 1902 and there's a story that he was sitting onthe porch with at least one or two other officers and they see joe wheeler walking down thepath to the hotel. well wheeler is wearing his dress uniform from the spanish-americanwar which is blue, and as he started getting closer, longstreet tells wheeler, "i hopei die before you do because i want to be at the gates of hell when jubal early sees youwearing a yankee uniform." i've heard somebody else said that to wheeler but it's usuallyattributed to longstreet. if you want a book that covers the general's whole life, it'ssimply "james longstreet" and that's by donald
bridgman sanger, and, i forget his first name,but a guy named hay. now that book is probably out of print. it doesn't have a lot of footnotesto it, but that covers longstreet's whole life. sanger was a former lieutenant colonel,he was able to write the first half of the book which covers longstreet's life up throughthe civil war and then thomas hay took over writing the second half of longstreet's life.longstreet lived to be the age of 84. he was 42 here at gettysburg, so he's got half hislife to lead after the war. he gets involved in louisiana politics, georgia politics, he'sa u.s. marshal for georgia after the war, he serves briefly as u.s. ambassador to turkey,and u.s. railroad commissioner. he actually took over for wade hampton. that commissionerappointment was a political appointment so
when the republicans came in, they threw wadehampton out and appointed longstreet, and it had a pretty nice salary too. plus he wrotehis memoirs, in 1898 it came out. it's actually been sort of, since i started working hereat the park, that there's been a concerted effort to rehabilitate longstreet's reputation.some of the older historians like glenn tucker were trying to do it back in the '60s, butit's really been since the early '90s that it's hit full stride. anything else? alright,once again, i want to thank everyone for joining us today and i hope you have a good afternoon.
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