Both books are readily available from Amazon, Books-A-Million, Barnes & Noble, and other book outlets.
Warning: Finding yourself interested in the War Between the States/Civil War can be highly addicting. There is no end to the information, places to visit, documentaries, movies, and above all, books. “I am Ben House and I am a Civil War Book-Addict.” Granted, I am much better than I used to be, but I still keep going back to those same old battlefields and discovering all too many new books.
For many people, including many of my former students, the book Killer Angels by Michael Shaara and the movie Gettysburg (the film version of the novel) have been the primary way that then Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (brilliantly played by Jeff Daniels) and General James Longstreet (played by Tom Berenger) have become known.
Those two characters (in the novel and the movie) trump Chamberlain’s superior officers, such as General Hancock and General Meade and Longstreet’s superior, Robert E. Lee. It is no wonder that it is their images that grace the most frequent seen poster of the movie.
But those accounts were fictionalized accounts. And yet, they are great introductions into the lives of two really fascinating people who “met” across the fields from each other at Gettysburg and a few other encounters. Both had backstories and futures beyond the War that were rich stories in themselves.
From Professor to Military Leader
Chamberlain’s story holds many useful details about the state of education in ante-bellum America, particularly in Maine. Chamberlain was a product of both the best of Puritan Christianity and of classical education. People (like me) who have delved into the classical Christian education movement will find many points of interest in Chamberlain’s education and subsequent teaching career.
1861 changed everything. Chamberlain left his classroom and went to the battlefield. Because the two nations were suddenly at war and needing large numbers of men in uniforms and officers, the road to leadership was very different from our times. Chamberlain had considered entering the military in his younger years, spurred on by his father, but had opted for studies in things relating to the ministry and classical learning instead. But again, the world changed in 1861.
Contrary to Edwin Starr’s recurring answer to what war is good for (“Absolutely nothing”), war often uncovers and accentuates leadership traits in certain people. Even many of the West Point graduates rose to greatness on the battlefields, whereas a life of serving in the military or elsewhere in peacetime would have left them obscure. Chamberlain was the proverbial quick study on military discipline, tactics, and procedures.
As the Killer Angels/Gettysburg account illustrates, it was on the second day at Gettysburg when Chamberlain’s star rose quickly and brightly. The battle waged by the 20th Maine on the far right of the Union line could have gone either way. But Chamberlain’s leadership was indispensable to the Union success.
While he never had another event quite as notable as that day, he was present on the following battles from 1863 to 1865, except for a time when he was recovering from a serious wounding at the battle of Petersburg. Expected to die from his wounds, he was promoted to brigadier general. He returned to the battlefields in time to be present at Lee’s surrender at Appomattox.
The book covers the “second half” of Chamberlain’s life thoroughly. His reputation before the war, enhanced by his heroic status during the war, pushed him into a political career. Maine had the odd practice of having governors serving one-year terms. Chamberlain served four terms. As in war, in politics he did not back down from a fight.
As a man, Chamberlain was a person of character. He was a Christian in upbringing and conviction. If his Christianity veered off the path of orthodoxy, I did not detect it from this biography. He was a wise and learned man. He was a faithful family man; however, it does seem that his marriage was filled with a number of tensions. Granted, most women would not be happy with having a house full of children (the Chamberlains had five kids) when the husband leaves home for several years to face imminent death at any time.
In spite of the lingering effects of wounds, Chamberlain lived to 1913. He often wrote and talked about the War and sang the praises of the Northern side. And, like many others who fought, he had a great respect for the soldiers and officers who stood on the other side of the conflict.
I confess to having a deep inner need for biographical accounts that inspire. Sometimes, looking closely at a historical figure reveals far too many faults and failures. Chamberlain was an honorable man. He is in my small list of favorite Civil War generals who fought for the Union.
James Longstreet was called “My Old Warhorse” by Robert E. Lee. Much of his story during the war relates to the ever-uneasy relationship he had with his superior, General Lee. They were a good team, in spite of events during and after the war that pitted them against each other or that seemed to do so. In fact, Longstreet named one of his sons after Robert E. Lee.
As his autobiography–titled From Manassas to Appomattox–indicated, Longstreet was in the war from beginning to end. He was only out of the picture for a time after he was wounded at the Battle of the Wilderness in 1864. During the last days and hours of the war, he was still all in and more than willing to go at the Union army one more time. As the song made popular by Johnny Horton said, “You fought all the way, Johnny Reb, Johnny Reb.”
The larger portion of Professor Varon’s book deals with the second half of Longstreet’s career; that is, it covers his life during the Reconstruction Era and beyond. If there are disagreements among military historians and fans of the Southern cause and war regarding Longstreet’s military actions, the volume of the disagreements rise significantly in the post-war years.
As Professor Varon says in her subtitle, he was the Confederate general who “defied the South”–after the war. Basically, Longstreet was a political realist and a pragmatist who saw that the only viable future for the South and survival of his family would come from cooperating with the winning Union side.
The Reconstruction period was an ugly time. Side Note: I have never felt successful when teaching about that period. The War is full of drama and powerful characters. Reconstruction is full of political conflicts and terrible local conditions in the South. The best approach–for a high school level study–often is to watch the overly lengthy part of the movie Gone With the Wind.
There were numerous factions at work during the Reconstruction time period. There were unrepentant Southerners, Carpetbaggers, Scalawags, freed slaves, occupying Union troops, and all manner of conflict at the ballot boxes and in the streets over those factions.
Many Southerners denounced Longstreet for accepting political offices and favors from the Reconstruction governments and for becoming a Republican. Odd that the very Republican Red State Southern areas were once violently hostile to that party.
Longstreet, like most West Point graduates who fought in the War, had old friends on the Union side. He cultivated those friendships and recognized the political realities of the times. He angled for political appointments and got them. Each time he received some political appointment, fellow Southerners took him to task for having given in to the Yankees, and Northerners took him to task for having been “disloyal” to the Union by serving in the Confederacy.
When studying history, one does not have to take sides. I don’t know how I feel completely about Longstreet’s postwar decisions. I don’t even always know how I feel about my most recent decisions. Sometimes, historical studies are settled by saying, “Here is what happened.” Maybe, we can venture into why it happened, but the plethora of circumstances surrounding an event or impacting a person cannot be fully known or felt.
No doubt, as the author and as many of Longstreet’s friends and detractors pointed out, he would have shared the high honors accorded to Generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson if only he had died from the wounds he received at the Wilderness. But he lived–for a long time after the War. He was respected by his fellow soldiers for his wartime exploits, even when they questioned his post-war actions.
Side Note: Longstreet’s actions at the Battle of Gettysburg on the second day continue to be a running battle. Longstreet has been blamed for being dilatory that terrible afternoon and for contributing to the ultimate defeat at that battle. Michael Shaara’s fictional Longstreet (modeled upon both the real Longstreet and Achilles from The Iliad) was vexed that Lee would not agree with him to pull the whole Army of Northern Virginia out of its place and move to the east. Dr. Varon aptly discusses this matter, but it is clear that military history is not her expertise. I don’t dismiss her views, and throughout the book, she gives ample citations to other historians who have covered Longstreet.
At moments, I felt like she was giving a summary of Killer Angels, the book. But anyone who has heard my class lectures (rambles) would think the same. If someone wants to study the War, the battles, the campaigns, the leadership issues–this is not the go-to book. Her book has as its center of focus the controversies of the post-war years.
Two more biographies of Civil War generals will now add more weight to my heavy laden bookshelves. Both are really fine studies. Both have reminded me that–even over a hundred book readings into the War–I am still a novice.
The Heavy Laden Bookshelf 