re: #39 The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge

He was widely hated in his duties earlier in the war, where he made the dashing cavaliers in the western forts dig entrenchments, which was no kind of a job for heroes such as themselves—“The King of Spades”, he was known as.

As developed later by Longstreet in particular, field fortifications like that—reaching full flower in WWI—were the main Confederate contribution to the art of war. Nobody wants to talk about that, though.

Longstreet made a few mistakes in his post war life that earned him the everlasting eminity of the Lost Causers: He criticized Lee in his memoirs, became a Catholic, became a Republican, and rekindled his friendship with Grant and I believe served in his or the Hayes administration in some capacity. Longstreet I think is the most underrated general of Lee’s Army IMO. I believe he may have also admitted that the war was done ot preserve slavery too.