Unknown general showed character

While our nation grapples with the dismantling of statues to the confederacy, I frequently hear the argument that such destroys and distorts “our” history. If that was truly the case, one has to ask why there isn’t a single statue to one of the bravest and smartest commanders who served under Robert E. Lee?

James Longstreet was one of the finest generals of the south and served as Lee’s principal subordinate. He was affectionally referred to as “Old War Horse” by Lee as he served as a corps commander for most of the battles waged by the Army of Northern Virginia.

Some maintain that Longstreet “was the finest corps commander in the Army of Northern Virginia; in fact, he was arguably the best corps commander in the conflict on either side.”

Yet while there are literally hundreds of statues to confederacy generals and commanders throughout the South, I believe there is only one of James Longstreet, at Gettysburg of all places.

The simple answer is while Longstreet fought for one of the worst causes in our nation’s history he changed after the Civil War. Unlike the vast, vast number of his fellow generals and fellow southerners, he came to embrace and support the reunification of the south and north.

Longstreet was the rare Southerner to accept the Confederacy defeat while urging Southerners to support efforts to rebuild their region on the basis of greater racial equality.

Perhaps his greatest sin to the South was his subsequent command of a biracial Louisiana militia in the 1870s that fought against a white supremacists uprising in New Orleans. It didn’t help when he joined Abraham Lincoln’s Republican Party.

In contrast, the vast majority of former Southern commanders and soldiers maintained their efforts were the “Lost Cause of the Confederacy.” This “Lost Cause” describes the Civil War as a heroic effort to maintain the Southern way of life while denying the role of slavery.

It was this mentality that was responsible for the placement of confederacy statues throughout the South. It served as the beginnings of the KKK, Jim Crow laws and the hundreds, if not thousands, of lynchings that continued well into the 1960s until the enactment of the Civil Rights Act.

In contrast, James Longstreet’s life after the Civil War show us America’s amazing “saving grace.” James Longstreet shows us that we can learn from our mistakes and to advance the betterment of our Union — the United States of America.

Tom Muri is a resident of Whitefish.