Fri Apr 03, 2009 8:38 am
Salute
I normally play as Union, but I gotta comment on Longstreet's ratings.
This was the guy who Lee relied on equally as much as Jackson. Tactically on the battlefield, he had a record second to none, his skills directing troops in attack or defence were superior to any other Corps commander in the Civil War.
Prior to 1st Manassas, he showed impressive skills as a trainer of troops and his brigade was the best disciplined and trained of the Confederate Army. He didn't have much to do in this battle, but was one of the few Confederates who recognized how much of a victory had been won, and who advocated a more vigorous pursuit.
Look at his record, both in attack and defence.
In the Seven Days Battles, he initially did a superb job of delaying McClellan's advance. He make a mistake in what road he took at Seven Pines, but the following battles he showed superb skills, leading the attacks which knocked the Union back to their evacuation point. Contrast that with Jackson's performance during the Seven Battles, which was lacklustre to be kind. Longstreet is accused of being 'slow' for his performance at 2nd Manassas and Gettysburg, but Jackson is never tarred with that brush for his performance during the Seven Days.
At 2nd Manassas, Longstreet did not move 'slowly', he marched his men 30 miles in a day, not a slow pace. When he arrived on the battlefield, he was dealing with exhausted men, and an unclear situation on his right flank. (in fact Porter and McDowell were moving up on his right flank) For that reason his request to recon the situation made complete sense. By the time he launched his advance, there was too little time to make a complete attack. The decision to postpone to the following day was the correct one. And the next day, the attack he launched was one of the most powerful single attacks of the war, (25,000 men moving in a single advance) and one of the most decisive, completely rupturing the Union line.
At Antietam, Longstreet held his positions with consumate defensive skill, throwing in troops in the defence at exactly the right moments, and holding the line despite being outnumbered considerably. He made extensive use of improvised entrenchements, especially at the sunken road, and when the line was threatened, his quick movement of his artillery to block the Union advance was decisive.
The next battle, Fredericksburg, was textbook. More than any other Civil War General, Longstreet recognized the advantages of defence, and the positioning of his infantry and artillery at Marye's heights was impeccable, far superior to Jackson's defence of the left of the line. No Union troops got even close to their objectives.
Following Fredericksburg and Chancellorville, Longstreet recognized that the Confederacy was losing the war in the West, and that a strategic defence in the East, paired with a strategic offensive in the West was the only way to retrieve the situation. Lee disagreed with this strategy, and the Gettysburg campaign followed.
Longstreet has been criticised for the slowness of his attack on the second day, but in fact, the order for the attack was not issued till 11am. At that point, Longstreet had 1 and 1/2 divisions of his Corps, he was missing Law's brigade, and the whole of Pickett's division and he requested and was given permission to wait for Law to arrive. Then on his approach march, he was given incorrect directions by an officer who supposedly had reconoitered the approach. This resulted in his two divisions having to backtrack and retrace their route. The real issue was that Stewart and his Cavalry was missing, and the Confederate Army was blind. Normally they would have scouted all the routes.
When Longstreet attacked, he smashed Sickles Corps completely, and almost got up onto Little Roundtop and the south end of Cemetary Ridge.
At that point, he counselled Lee to go onto the defensive, (he had suggested the same the previous night) but Lee was determined to attack, and despite his misgivings, Longstreet was forced to command the disastrous "Picket's Charge". Before the attack, he told Lee: "General, I have been a soldier all my life. I have been with soldiers engaged in fights by couples, by squads, companies, regiments, divisions, and armies, and should know, as well as any one, what soldiers can do. It is my opinion that no fifteen thousand men ever arranged for battle can take that position."
Longstreet's next battle of note was Chickamauga, the only victory ever won by the Western Confederate Armies.
Here he once again showed his superb grandtactical skills, organizing a massive assault column which smashed the entire right flank of the Union army. If the left flank of the Confederate army had done anything similar, the Confederate victory at Chickamauga would have been decisive.
Then followed the confrontation with the disfunctional Bragg, during which Longstreets excellent suggestions for preventing the relief of Chattanooga by the Union were ignored.
His next assignment was to counter Burnside at Knoxville. In this campaign he was outnumbered by 20,500 Union to his 15,000 Confederate. He had argued against his force being broken off from the force at Chattanooga, pointing out that this main force would be fatally weakened. He felt his assignment was impossible. Despite this, he managed to besiege Burnside inside Knoxville, but without any siege equipment, his attack was a failure. But he did manage to retreat successfully away from the encircling maneuver whereby Sherman attempted to trap him.
After rejoining Lee, he again demonstrated his superb tactical skill in the Wilderness, where marching hard to join Lee, after Hancock had mauled Hill's 3rd Corps, he arrived just in time to launch another decisive attack using an innovative tactical formation that was perfectly suited to the dense wooded terrain of the Wilderness. Deploying in extended Brigade sized skirmish lines, instead of the normal shoulder to shoulder formation, his 12,000 strong 1st Corps hit the Union in the flank and took advantage of a unguarded rail cut, and drove back the 40,000 strong US 2nd Corps. As Hancock admitted later: "You rolled me up like a wet blanket."
Unfortunately Longstreet was wounded in that attack, like Jackson, shot by his own men. He was not back into action till 1865, when he commanded the troops in front of Richmond. He was with Lee at the surrender.
Lee called him: "My Old Warhorse".
I think Longstreet should be the best ranked Corps commander TACTICALLY in the game. Ie. a rating of 5 for attack and 6 for defence. Strategically he should be a 3. He should get the 'Entrencher', 'Training Officer', and 'Slow Mover' qualifications.
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