The Anniversary of Longstreet’s Wounding

Longstreet Wound
Wounding of Longstreet at the Wilderness

On this date, in 1864, Confederate Lt. Gen. James Longstreet took a bullet through his neck and right shoulder during the battle of the Wilderness. “Old Pete,” as his friends called him, was caught in a crossfire by his own men while executing a flank attack—eerily similar to the general situation that took down Longstreet’s Second Corps counterpart, Lt. Gen. Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson a year a four days earlier just a couple miles down the road.

We have plenty of resources at ECW to help you learn more about this pivotal moment in the history of the Army of Northern Virginia. For starters, check out this two-part post Kris White and I co-authored on “The Wounding of James Longstreet”: part one and part two.

Understanding the ground is key in understanding how this event took place. Here’s a video tour I did last year of the area where Longstreet was shot:

Which wounding proved more consequential to the army, Longstreet’s or Jackson’s? In this video by the American Battlefield Trust, Kris White, Don Pfanz, and I do some armchair generalling on the topic with Doug Ullman.

 

 



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