Gil R.
Posts: 10821
Joined: 4/1/2005
Status: offline
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Really? I'd certainly welcome the help. I'm almost done cutting down Sherman, which is one heck of a difficult thing to do.
I am pretty sure that I posted this before, but here is the version that was fully edited and actually in the game -- until Eric discovered, after many hours of debugging because of a mysterious crash, that the length of this bio was causing the crash:
Lt. Gen. James “Old Pete” Longstreet (b. 1821, d. 1904). Longstreet was a West Point graduate from the class of 1842, where he met and became friends with future Union General Ulysses S. Grant, who would graduate from the academy a year later. Appointed to the U.S. Fourth Infantry, Longstreet welcomed Lt. Grant to that command and formally introduced Grant to his cousin Julia Dent (whose brother had been Grant's roommate as a plebe). Longstreet would serve as the best man at their wedding after the Mexican War. In that war, Longstreet fought at Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, Monterey, Vera Cruz, Cerro Gordo, San Antonio, Churubusco, and Molino del Rey, winning the brevets of captain and major, and he was subsequently wounded seriously at the Battle of Chapultepec. Longstreet was promoted to full Captain in 1852, and in 1858 full Major and paymaster, and stationed at Albuquerque, N. M. At the outbreak of the Civil War he resigned this office and reported to Richmond on June 29, 1861, receiving a commission as Brigadier General effective July 1, 1861 and was ordered to report to Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard at Manassas. At the ensuing battle there, Longstreet commanded the 1st, 11th and 17th Virginia regiments, repulsing the Federal attack at Blackburn's Ford and threatening the enemy’s rear. On October 17, 1861 he was promoted to Major General, and with this rank he commanded a division of the army under Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. As fate would have it, Johnston was wounded and Gen. Robert E. Lee took command in the defense of Richmond, intertwining the destinies of Longstreet and Lee. ”Lee's Workhorse,” as the nickname implies, spent most of his time with the Army of Northern Virginia, effectively acting as second in command and being partly responsible for many of its successes both by planning strategy and leading one wing of the army. Early on, Longstreet realized that the Western Theater was the key to the war. His plan was to hold the Union army in place at the Potomac River with one army, while using an offensive wing to take over areas sympathetic to the southern cause, such as Kentucky, Missouri and the southern portions of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. When Pres. Jefferson Davis approved a plan that was the opposite, Longstreet dutifully set to work to make the Eastern Theater capable of carrying the war to the North. His idea of moving Gen. “Stonewall” Jackson's forces by rail to reinforce Beauregard and Johnston at First Manassas allowed the Confederacy to achieve the first victory of the war. Longstreet again suggested using Jackson in the summer of 1862 to augment the Army of Northern Virginia’s forces and reverse Union Gen. George B. McClellan's Peninsular Campaign. Jackson's foot-dragging in coming into line during the Seven Days Battle led Longstreet to suggest to Lee that he personally go and order Jackson to move. Instead, Lee chose to execute a frontal assault at Malvern Hill. After following the retreating enemy to Harrison's Landing, Longstreet entered upon his command of the 1st Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia, with Jackson leading the 2nd Corps. Jackson marched at once to confront Union Gen. John Pope in northern Virginia, and Longstreet soon followed. While Jackson flanked the enemy from their strong position on the Rappahannock River Longstreet engaged them at various points on the river and, finally forcing the passage of Thoroughfare Gap, participated in the crushing defeat of Pope's army. In the Maryland campaign of 1862, he moved his division from Frederick to Hagerstown, with part of his command holding the South Mountain passes, while Jackson captured Harper's Ferry, and at Antietam he won additional renown for stubborn and heroic fighting. On October 9, 1862, Longstreet was promoted to Lieutenant General. At Fredericksburg two months later, the fighting of the left wing, including the heroic defense of Marye's Hill, was under his supervision. In the spring of 1863, Longstreet operated with part of his corps at Suffolk, but rejoined Lee at Fredericksburg after the Battle of Chancellorsville and the mortal wounding of Jackson. It was decided at this crisis to create a diversion by a campaign into Pennsylvania, and in accordance with the general plan Longstreet moved his command to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and thence to Gettysburg, reaching the field in person on the afternoon of the first day of the battle. At Gettysburg, Longstreet immediately saw that Union Gen. George G. Meade had achieved superior field position and suggested that Lee move the army between Meade and the Union capital, forcing Meade to fight against entrenched positions as Burnside had done at Fredericksburg. Lee, having been successful thus far, decided to continue the fight on the Federal front, and chose multiple assaults to try to drive Meade from his position. Longstreet's troops arrived in time to participate in the second day's battle. On the third day, under orders from Lee, Gen. George Pickett's division, reinforced by Gen. J. Johnston Pettigrew and Gen. Isaac R. Trimble, made the memorable and ill-fated charge against the Federal position on Cemetery Hill. After the defeated Confederate army had retired to Virginia, Longstreet was finally sent west to assist in stopping the Union armies. Longstreet, along with Gen. John B. Hood’s and Gen. Lafayette McLaws' divisions, was sent to reinforce Gen. Braxton Bragg in northern Georgia, and as commander of the left wing at Chickamauga he crushed the Federal right, becoming, as D. H. Hill wrote, “The organizer of victory on the Confederate side, as Thomas was the savior of the army on the other side.” In late 1863, after the Union army under Gen. William S. Rosecrans was shut up in Chattanooga, Longstreet was detached for the capture of Knoxville. Marching to that point in November by difficult roads, he began assaulting the works, but soon was apprised of the defeat of Bragg at Chattanooga. Rejoining the Army of Northern Virginia before the fighting began in the Wilderness, he took the field on May 6 and led his men in a successful assault which promised the defeat of Grant's army, until in the confusion a Confederate volley seriously wounded him within a mile of the spot where Jackson had been mortally wounded a year earlier. After returning to duty that October, Longstreet commanded on the north side of the James River during the greater part of the sieges at Richmond and Petersburg, and during final movements of the Army of Northern Virginia before its surrender at Appomattox Courthouse he commanded the advance and main portion of the army. After the war had ended, Longstreet was told by Pres. Andrew Johnson, “There are three persons of the South who can never receive amnesty: Mr. Davis, General Lee, and yourself. You have given the Union cause too much trouble.” Nonetheless, the U.S. Congress did restore his citizenship in 1868. Having left military life behind, Longstreet engaged in business at New Orleans, and during Grant's presidency his old friend appointed him first as surveyor of that city’s port, and afterward supervisor of internal revenue and postmaster. In 1880, Longstreet was appointed United States minister to Turkey, and under Pres. James A. Garfield he was United States Marshal for the District of Georgia. In October, 1897, Longstreet was appointed United States Railroad Commissioner, succeeding former Confederate Gen. Wade Hampton. Having become a Republican, Longstreet he was often seen as a collaborator with the Reconstructionists and several fellow former Confederate generals tried to blame defeats on him. His own memoirs placed the blame for the defeat at Gettysburg on Lee, and he blamed other icons such as Jackson for other defeats as well – and many modern historians have come to agree with his observations. (Bio by “Murat”)
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Michael Jordan plays ball. Charles Manson kills people. I torment eager potential customers by not sharing screenshots of "Brother Against Brother." Everyone has a talent.
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