Longstreet, James (1821–1904)

American Confederate general. During the Civil War, he took part in the battles of Bull Run, Fredericksburg, and Gettysburg, and was chiefly responsible for the victory at Chickamauga 1863. His accidental wounding by his own side, at a turning point in the Battle of the Wilderness 1869, checked the Confederates' assault.

Longstreet was born in South Carolina. He was wounded in the Mexican War 1846–48, and was made a Confederate brigadier general at the outbreak of the Civil War. After the war, Longstreet became a Republican. He was minister to Turkey under President Ulysses S Grant, and commissioner for railways to presidents Willaim McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt.