James Longstreet Quotes

“There can be no discredit to a conquered people for accepting the conditions offered by their conquerors. Nor is there any occasion for a feeling of humiliation. We have made an honest, and I hope that I may say, a creditable fight, but we have lost. Let us come forward, then, and accept the ends involved in the struggle....Let us accept the terms, as we are in duty bound to do. -- JAMES LONGSTREET, Letter to New Orleans Times, March 18, 1867.”
― Elizabeth Varon, Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South

“I have some little reputation, but my men made it all for me. -- JAMES LONGSTREET, Article in -Sumter Republican-, October 29, 1864.”
― Elizabeth Varon, Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South

“We have in the past a brilliant, an unsurpassed record. Let our future eclipse it in our eagerness for glory, our love of country, and our determination to beat the enemy. -- JAMES LONGSTREET, Article in -Sumter Republican-, October 29, 1864.”
― Elizabeth Varon, Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South

“[The] object of politics is to relieve the distress of the people and to provide for their future comfort. -- JAMES LONGSTREET, Letter to the New Orleans Times, June 8, 1867.”
― Elizabeth Varon, Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South

“Men can't all think alike, and the trouble with the Southern people always has been that they won't tolerate any difference of opinion. If God Almighty had intended all men to think just alike, He might just as well have made but one man....My opinion is that the only true solution for Southern troubles is for the people to accept cordially and in good faith all the results of the war, including the reconstruction measures, the acts of Congress, negro suffrage, etc., and live up to them like men. If they would do this, and encourage Northern immigration, and treat all men fairly, whites and blacks, the troubles would soon be over, and in less than five years, the South would be in the enjoyment of greater prosperity than ever. -- JAMES LONGSTREET, Interview with correspondent from the Indianapolis Journal, September 24, 1874.”
― Elizabeth Varon, Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South

“...both sides, in the civil war, committed mistake when they put engineer officers at the head of large armies.... -- JAMES LONGSTREET (referring to George McClellan and Robert E. Lee), Interview with the Chicago Tribune, January 29, 1871.”
― Elizabeth Varon, Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South

“Gen. Pendleton may lecture and create a sensation that will put money in his pocket, but he will never convince the fighting men who are left of Longstreet's corps that the grim commander at whose word they so often threw themselves against the battalions of the north, was a traitor to the cause he sacrificed for. No matter what his politics may be; no matter how much derided, vilified and abused, Longstreet's name will go sounding down the corridors of time as one of the best, bravest, and most unassuming officers the southern confederacy produced. -- 'One of Longstreet's Foot Cavalry,' Morning Republican (Little Rock, AR), May 14, 1873.”
― Elizabeth Varon, Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South

“Those of us who bore prominent parts in the struggle should recognize its failure. And should submit to the responsibilities of that failure, as belonging to us all in proportion to our positions. -- JAMES LONGSTREET, Letter to Henry B. Dawson, March 27, 1876.”
― Elizabeth Varon, Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South

“It does not look like generalship to lose a battle and a cause and then lay the responsibility upon others. -- JAMES LONGSTREET, From Manassas to Appomattox: Memoirs of the Civil War in America (1896)”
― Elizabeth Varon, Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South