LONGSTREET

A biography of the Confederate general whose support of constitutional rights for Black Americans after the Civil War enraged Southern critics and ignited a campaign to destroy his reputation.

Gen. James Longstreet (1821-1904) had the courage of his convictions, and he suffered for it. Second in command to Robert E. Lee, after Appomattox, Longstreet made a startling choice, accepting the terms of the surrender and vowing to support the Union. A slave owner and loyal Confederate before the war, he came to believe that Southerners should leave behind their “Lost Cause” and move forward to rebuild their economy and society. He moved to New Orleans, taking up a post in the federal government and advocating for equal rights for Black people. In 1874, Longstreet challenged one of Reconstruction’s most outrageous assaults on federal authority, directing an integrated force of policemen and soldiers in the battle against thousands of New Orleans insurrectionists who briefly wrested power from the federal government. Wounded in the fray, he left the state and spent the rest of his life answering his detractors, who labeled him “traitor number one.” University of Virginia historian Varon, a Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize winner for Armies of Deliverance, tells Longstreet’s story with authority and insight, and she portrays a man with complicated motives. Some of Longstreet’s postwar stances can be traced to political ambition, fostered by his West Point friendship with Ulysses S. Grant, but for the most part, he was considered a friend to Black citizens and leaders until his death at 82. Varon never quite defines what gave him the perspective to think independently, but she reclaims his reputation and does him justice. Her style is accessible, and her scholarship buttresses the narrative. Readers interested in the Civil War and the horrors of Reconstruction should not miss this book.

Comprehensive, readable, and accessible.