General James Longstreet

Longstreet was second in command to Robert E. Lee who called him his “old war horse.”  In the North, Longstreet was regarded as Confederate Number three after Davis and Lee.  He was the hero of Chickamauga, one of the South’s biggest victories.  And yet, no southern city boasts a statue of Longstreet.

Why was he denied a place of honor in the Confederate Pantheon?  Because he accepted the defeat of the South.  He was with Lee at Appomattox and was impressed by Grant’s generous terms of surrender.  Unlike other southern leaders, he accepted the defeat of the South and took no part in the supporting the “Myth of the Lost Cause.”  He thought the myth was detrimental in that it led southerners to cling to the past and old ways of thinking.  He supported Reconstruction.  And even though he was a slave owner before the war he accepted that former slaves deserved full citizenship as the price of the southern defeat.  He was appalled by the formation of the Ku Klux Klan and other terrorist groups and led a mixed race militia in battles against the violence.  He believed that full acceptance of the southern defeat was the only way back for the South.  

So-–if you believe that the statues of Robert E. Lee and other Confederate heroes are simply historic, you are wrong.  Those statues are a tribute to the myth of the lost cause and all that it implies.  Otherwise, how do you explain the absence of Longstreet, one of the south’s most effective generals?

This has been a guest post.