Ask those who met him and his dauntless legion on many a bloody field, and they will tell how often he swept down upon them like an avenging whirlwind. Ask his “boys,” who for four years followed him with unquestioning devotion and with ever-increasing love and admiration, and they will with one accord and with voices tremulous with emotion answer that he never lagged, failed, or faltered.
Hear the testimony of Robert E. Lee, his great commander, who, though dead, yet speaketh: “General Longstreet (at Gaines Mill) perceived that to render the diversion effectual the feint must be converted into an attack. He resolved with characteristic promptness to carry the heights by assault.” After Chickamauga, he says, “My whole heart and soul have been with you and your brave corps in your late battle. Finish your work, my dear General, and return to me. I want you badly, and you cannot get back too soon.”
Let Joseph E. Johnston bear witness to the world of his great subordinate at Williamsburg: “I was compelled to be a mere spectator, for General Longstreet’s clear head and brave heart left no apology for interference. The skill, vigor, and decision of General Longstreet (at Seven Pines) was worthy of the highest praise.”
We have yet further testimony, which in pathos and convincing power excels all speech or written language. It is an historic truth that when the end had come at Appomattox, and those who had so long shared the hardships of the camp and the peril and the glory of the battle-field were about to separate, General Longstreet and his staff proceeded to where General Lee and his staff had gathered for the last time before their final parting, and General Lee grasped the hand and spoke a few kindly words to each member of the group until he reached General Longstreet, when each threw his arms about the other, and as they thus stood clasped together both sobbed like children. When General Lee had recovered his composure, turning to a member of the party who is now in this presence, he said, “Captain, into your care I commend my old war-horse.”
Robert E. Lee, standing on the fateful and historic field of Appomattox, amid the gathering gloom of that awful hour of defeat and disaster, with his arms about James Longstreet, while his majestic frame shook with uncontrollable grief, was a scene worthy to have been limned by genius on immortal canvas.