James Longstreet Quick Facts

Name Meaning

James is of Hebrew origin meaning “he who supplants”

Vital Stats

Birthday:  January 8th, 1821
Birth Name:  James Longstreet
Birthplace:  Edgefield District, SC
Height: 6′ *
Date of Death:  January 2nd, 1904
gravesite
Cause:  Pneumonia
Place of Death:  Gainesville, GA
Nationality:  American
Ancestry:  Dutch
Occupation before Civil War:
Officer in U.S. Army
Occupation during Civil War:
General in Confederate Army
Occupation after Civil War:
Various government positions including U.S. Marshal, Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, and U.S. Commissioner of Railroads

Major Battles:

First and Second Bull Run, Peninsula Campaign, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Siege of Knoxville, Wilderness, Siege of Petersburg, Appomattox Campaign

Relatives

Father: James Longstreet (1783-1833)
Mother:  Mary Ann Dent Longstreet (1793-1855)
Sister: Anna (1814-1839)
Brother: William (1817-1889)
Sister: Sarah (1818-1818)
Brother: John (1819-1819)
Sister: Henrietta (1822-1864)
Sister: Rebecca (1824-1881)
Sister: Julia (1826-1854)
Sister: Eliza (1828-1914)
Sister: Maria (1829-1881)
Sister: Sarah Jane (1831-1920)

Romance

Married:  Maria Louisa Garland Longstreet 3/8/1848
(3/16/1827-12/29/1889)
Married: Helen Dortch Longstreet 9/8/1897
(4/20/1863-5/3/1962)

Children

Son: John Garland Longstreet (1848-1918)
Son: Augustus Baldwin Longstreet (1850-1862)
Son: William Dent Longstreet (1853-1854)
Son: James Longstreet (1857-1862)
Daughter: Mary Anne Longstreet (1860-1862)
Son: Robert Lee Longstreet (1863-1940)
Son: James Longstreet (1865-1922)
Son: Fitz Randolph Longstreet (1869-1951)
Daughter: Louise Longstreet (1872-1957)

* “In person he is about six feet high, weighs two hundred pounds, wears a heavy brown beard and is considered a fine looking man.” The Portrait Monthly: Containing Sketches Of Departed Heroes, And Prominent Personages Of The Present Time, Interesting Stories, Etc, Volume 1

More Resources

• From Manassas to Appomattox: General James Longstreet, James Longstreet’s memoirs
• General James Longstreet: The Confederacy’s Most Controversial Soldier,
  by Jeffry D. Wert