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Chargement... Lee's Tarnished Lieutenant: James Longstreet and His Place in Southern History (1987)par William Garrett Piston
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Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. Extremely interesting story of Gen. Longstreet of the Confederacy. He was shunned by promoters of the "lost cause" theory (who are pretty deluded). He became a Republican after the war which was considered horrible by most Southerners. Worth reading. ( ) I thought this was a very satisfying examination of portions of James Longstreet's military career and post-Civil War politics and repercussions. As the author notes in his prologue this is not a biography, and the author does assume the reader has more than a simple knowledge of events of the Civil War. In fact, if I have one complaint about this book it is that the author presupposes too much knowledge about less well known individuals and events in places where he is making arguments. The book was published about 30 years ago in late 1987 and the intent was for it to clear away some of the misinformation about Longstreet and restore a more balanced view of him. Since the time of the publication more readers have read books like Michael Shaara's The Killer Angels or seen films like Gettysburg and other books have brought fresh eyes to the subject and people have come to realize that blaming Longstreet for Robert E Lee's mistakes at Gettysburg and elsewhere (as well as many of the "Lost Cause" movement blaming Longstreet for the South's defeat in the Civil War in their attempts to elevate Robert E Lee to godhood) is simply wrong. Longstreet certainly was not a perfect man and had his failings as any man does, but he also became a superb defensive tactician and one of the best leaders the southern forces had. His post-war politics would make him a scapegoat for the South's loss in the war. This is a good book for those interested in the Civil War who might want to dig a little deeper. This is certainly not a starter book. The analysis is highly footnoted and documented for those who might want to go even further. Really an outstanding piece of scholarship here. Recommended aucune critique | ajouter une critique
In the South, one can find any number of bronze monuments to the Confederacy featuring heroic images of Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, J. E. B. Stuart, and many lesser commanders. But while the tarnish on such statues has done nothing to color the reputation of those great leaders, there remains one Confederate commander whose tarnished image has nothing to do with bronze monuments. Nowhere in the South does a memorial stand to Lee's intimate friend and second-in-command James Longstreet. In Lee's Tarnished Lieutenant, William Garrett Piston examines the life of James Longstreet and explains how a man so revered during the course of the war could fall from grace so swiftly and completely. Unlike other generals in gray whose deeds are familiar to southerners and northerners alike, Longstreet has the image not of a hero but of an incompetent who lost the Battle of Gettysburg and, by extension, the war itself. Piston's reappraisal of the general's military record establishes Longstreet as an energetic corps commander with an unsurpassed ability to direct troops in combat, as a trustworthy subordinate willing to place the war effort above personal ambition. He made mistakes, but Piston shows that he did not commit the grave errors at Gettysburg and elsewhere of which he was so often accused after the war. In discussing Longstreet's postwar fate, Piston analyzes the literature and public events of the time to show how the southern people, in reaction to defeat, evolved an image of themselves which bore little resemblance to reality. As a product of the Georgia backwoods, Longstreet failed to meet the popular cavalier image embodied by Lee, Stuart, and other Confederate heroes. When he joined the Republican party during Reconstruction, Longstreet forfeited his wartime reputation and quickly became a convenient target for those anxious to explain how a "superior people" could have lost the war. His new role as the villain of the Lost Cause was solidified by his own postwar writings. Embittered by years of social ostracism resulting from his Republican affiliation, resentful of the orchestrated deification of Lee and Stonewall Jackson, Longstreet exaggerated his own accomplishments and displayed a vanity that further alienated an already offended southern populace. Beneath the layers of invective and vilification remains a general whose military record has been badly maligned. Lee's Tarnished Lieutenant explains how this reputation developed--how James Longstreet became, in the years after Appomattox, the scapegoat for the South's defeat, a Judas for the new religion of the Lost Cause. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)973.7History and Geography North America United States Administration of Abraham Lincoln, 1861-1865 Civil WarClassification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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