James Longstreet

James Longstreet (1821–1904) was one of the leading generals of the Confederacy. A West Point graduate and veteran of the Mexican War, he commanded the First Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia, and Robert E. Lee called him his old war horse. He fought at Second Manassas, Antietam, Fredericksburg and Gettysburg, where he opposed Pickett's Charge, and was badly wounded by his own troops in the Wilderness in 1864. After the war he joined the Republican Party and supported Reconstruction, which made him a target of former comrades who blamed him for Gettysburg. His memoir, From Manassas to Appomattox (1896), defends his record.