September 25, 2023
This incisive biography from historian Varon (Armies of Deliverance) offers a fresh take on Confederate general James Longstreet (1821–1904), who was Robert E. Lee’s trusted “war-horse.” Rather than trod the usual ground of Longstreet studies—his renowned military command during the Civil War, including his generalship at the Battle of Gettysburg, where he argued against Lee’s disastrous decision to attack the center of the Union line—Varon provides a thorough account of Longstreet’s remarkable postwar political conversion from “ardent Confederate to ardent Republican.” Inspired by his longtime friend Ulysses S. Grant, Longstreet joined the Republican Party after receiving congressional amnesty and, during Grant’s presidency, inflamed former Confederates by supporting the Reconstruction Acts of 1867. In 1874, white supremacists attempted to overthrow the Republican-controlled Louisiana state government in New Orleans, but Longstreet led an interracial state militia that stopped the coup attempt. The backlash against Longstreet for firing on former Confederates was vicious, but the more “white Southern critics treated him as an apostate on the issue of race,” Varon writes, “the more receptive he became to Republican ideology.” Varon draws an intriguing parallel between this event and the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol insurrection, and suggests the consequences of not punishing rioters can be irreversible. The result is a must-read for Civil War buffs that contains valuable insight on today’s political polarization.
October 1, 2023
A biography of the Confederate general whose support of constitutional rights for Black Americans after the Civil War enraged Southern critics and ignited a campaign to destroy his reputation.None Gen. James Longstreet (1821-1904) had the courage of his convictions, and he suffered for it. Second in command to Robert E. Lee, after Appomattox, Longstreet made a startling choice, accepting the terms of the surrender and vowing to support the Union. A slave owner and loyal Confederate before the war, he came to believe that Southerners should leave behind their "Lost Cause" and move forward to rebuild their economy and society. He moved to New Orleans, taking up a post in the federal government and advocating for equal rights for Black people. In 1874, Longstreet challenged one of Reconstruction's most outrageous assaults on federal authority, directing an integrated force of policemen and soldiers in the battle against thousands of New Orleans insurrectionists who briefly wrested power from the federal government. Wounded in the fray, he left the state and spent the rest of his life answering his detractors, who labeled him "traitor number one." University of Virginia historian Varon, a Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize winner for Armies of Deliverance, tells Longstreet's story with authority and insight, and she portrays a man with complicated motives. Some of Longstreet's postwar stances can be traced to political ambition, fostered by his West Point friendship with Ulysses S. Grant, but for the most part, he was considered a friend to Black citizens and leaders until his death at 82. Varon never quite defines what gave him the perspective to think independently, but she reclaims his reputation and does him justice. Her style is accessible, and her scholarship buttresses the narrative. Readers interested in the Civil War and the horrors of Reconstruction should not miss this book. Comprehensive, readable, and accessible.
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October 1, 2023
University of Virginia history professor Varon profiles Confederate general James Longstreet, who joined Louisiana's integrated government and supported Black voting after the war, which brought forth cries from angry white Southerners that he was a traitor to his race. Prepub Alert.
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