| 'If I had taken General Longstreet's advice on the eve of the second day of the battle of Gettysburg … [then] the Confederates would today be a free people.' -- Gen. Robert E. Lee 'Do you know Grant? [He asked of those who were downplaying Grant's capabilities]. Well, I do. I was in the Corps of Cadets with him at West Point for three years. I was present at his wedding. I served in the same army with him in Mexico. I have observed his methods of warfare in the West, and I believe I know him through and through and I tell you that we cannot afford to underrate him and the army he now commands.' -- Gen James Longstreet, 'I have been a soldier all my life. I have commanded companies, I have commanded regiments. I have commanded divisions. And I have commanded even more. But there are no fifteen thousand men in the world that can go across that ground.' -- Gen James Longstreet, 'General, if you put every [Union soldier] now on the other side of the Potomac on that field to approach me over the same line, I will kill them all before they reach my line. Look to your right; you are in some danger over there - But not on my line.' -- Gen James Longstreet made this vow to Robert E. Lee as countless Federal assaults were beaten back by Longstreet's men at the Battle of Fredericksburg 'General, unless he offers us honorable terms, come back and let us fight it out!' -- Gen James Longstreet said this to Robert E. Lee as he rode off to discuss terms for surrender with General Grant at Appomattox 'The next time we met was at Appomattox, and the first thing that General Grant said to me when we stepped inside, placing his hand in mine was, "Pete, let us have another game of brag, to recall the days that were so pleasant." Great God! I thought to myself, how my heart swells out to such magnanimous touch of humanity. Why do men fight who were born to be brothers?' -- Gen James Longstreet talking about General Ulysses S. Grant after his death, New York Times, July 24, 1885. 'I hope to live long enough to see my surviving comrades march side by side with the Union veterans along Pennsylvania Avenue, and then I will die happy.' -- James Longstreet at a Memorial Day Parade in 1902 |
… [then] the Confederates would today be a free people.'
What would have been...IMO, I think we would ALL be better off. Had the battle for States Rights won, we'd be living in a land truer to our founding father's ideas.
