James Longstreet Quotes
My command, less than ten thousand, had found the battle on the Plank road in retreat, little less than a panic. In a few hours we changed defeat to victory, the broken divisions of the Third Corps rallying in their rear.
Longstreet, James. From Manassas to Appomattox: Memoirs of the Civil War in America. J. B. Lippincott Company, 1896, p. 568.
Referring to Lincoln's Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton, who was a forceful administrator constantly telling all others what to do:
1st Baron Verulam. While most agree with the importance of this principle, it is easy to say and very hard to do. Appointing or electing leaders for wartime situations has always been difficult as it involves predicting how people will behave in the future. In WWII for example, many American and German Generals were fired. Adolf Hitler was the classic example of a very popular politician and demagogue who did not have a steady hand but whose maniacal lurches actually weakened the German military effort despite the morale contribution his popularity made.
James Longstreet was an American soldier and diplomat. He was one of the foremost Confederate generals of the American Civil War and the principal subordinate to General Robert E. Lee, who called him his "Old War Horse". He served under Lee as a corps commander for most of the battles fought by the Army of Northern Virginia in the Eastern Theater, and briefly with Braxton Bragg in the Army of Tennessee in the Western Theater.
