General James Longstreet's Strategies For Gettysburg

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The Civil War ended tragically for the South. They did well until Gettysburg, where the Union took a victory by pulling out all of the stops. Even though the Confederacy suffered a major loss, in men and moral during Gettysburg, there were many good strategies hidden behind a mask of defeat. General James Longstreet is one of these brilliant minds that was hidden by defeat. Longstreet created a lot of the Confederacy's strategies and if he didn’t agree with another proposed strategy, he wasn't afraid to speak his mind. James Longstreet was historically significant during Gettysburg by executing Lee’s strategies, being Lee’s right hand man, and not being afraid to speak his mind. James Longstreet was born on January 8, 1821 in South Carolina. …show more content…

He is credited to helping the Confederacy clench victories leading up to Gettysburg. During the Second Battle of Bull Run, Longstreet's strategy destroyed a Union flank During the Battle of Antietam, Longstreet’s strategy helped ward off a powerful Union flank that was two times the size of the Confederate’s Even though the South did not win every battle, Longstreet’s strategies and his spirit helped the loss to be a slim one. Longstreet created sharp strategies where he would move men into the best defence positions so the Union could not break them. Longstreet used the nature around him to create these techniques. He dug ditches and trenches and built fieldworks. His troops always followed through and did a great job doing it. Longstreet was well liked by Lee because of his great battlefield performance. Lee called him his “old war horse” because of the work Longstreet did (History.com …show more content…

They have good artillery and plenty of it. Any attack will be uphill over open ground. General, this is a bad position. Have you ever seen a worse position? Here we are in a long line, spread all around them, a line five miles long. How can we coordinate an attack?They're massed all together, damn near in a circle. Anywhere we hit them hey can bring reinforcements in a matter of minutes, And they can move up reinforcement behind those hills, out has to come from miles off, and their cannon can see every move. Hell, there cannon are looking down at us right now. General Lee, sir, this is no a good position.” Lee said, “They’ll break”. (Shaara