Hello, my name is Ranger Karlton Smith of the Gettysburg National
Military Park. We're here today in the museum. One of the
artifacts are really strikes me sometimes is in the last exhibit
case of the museum. And that's a model of the proposed Longstreet
equestrian statue by his widow Mrs Helen Longstreet.
General Longstreet himself was born in 1821 in South Carolina.
Raised in Georgia and Alabama, he graduated from West Point in
1842. Served with distinction in the Mexican War and served
in every major battle of the war. Except for Buena Vista
he was severely wounded at Chapultepec.
After the Mexican War in the 1850s, Longstreet served on the
frontier in Texas before becoming a paymaster in 1858.
In May of 1861, Longstreet resigned his Commission to join
the new Confederacy.
By November of 1862 Longstreet had risen to the rank of
Lieutenant General. He was actually the Senior Lieutenant General in
general in the entire Confederate Army. By that time
he had served at First Manassas.
7 Pines in the Seven Days campaign, Second Manassas, Antietam and
December of 62 at Fredericksburg. There was a good reason
that General Robert E. Lee referred to Longstreet as my old
warhorse and the staff in my right hand during the Civil War.
General Longstreet enjoyed a high reputation among his
contemporaries and was greatly admired throughout the South.
After the Civil War, General Longstreet moved to New Orleans,
LA. Where by 1867 he was encouraging the South to
accept the Reconstruction acts to avoid any harsher
treatment from the North. Longstreet's biggest sin at
that time, though, was joining the Republican Party during the
Post War years. General Longstreet served as surveyor
customs at New Orleans.
Postmaster at Gainesville GA.
U.S. Marshall for the State of Georgia, Minister to Turkey and
US railroad commissioner.
In the Immediate post war era, nobody would criticize James
Longstreet for any of his actions in the Civil War for one
good reason Robert E. Lee would not have allowed it, but after
Lee's death in 1870
the gloves are going to come off and Longstreet would be accused of
about anything you can think of. The theory eventually will run
That because the South lost its independence at Gettysburg, and
James Longstreet lost the Battle of Gettysburg. Then James
Longstreet and James Longstreet
alone caused the South its independence.
Longstreet's first wife, Maria Louise, died in 1889 after a 41
year marriage. In 1897, Longstreet married a second time
to a lady named Helen Dortch.
Longstreet was 76 and Helen was
34. So I mentioned Longstreet was born in 1821 and Helen was born
in 1863. So there was a 42 year age
difference. The general passed away in January of
1904, just two days short of his 84th birthday.
Helen Longstreet herself was quite a lady in her own right
besides being Mrs Longstreet, she became a social advocate
was a librarian newspaper woman who worked as a Reporter,
editor, publisher and business manager eventually she was known
as the Fighting Lady for her stance for being a champion of
environmental preservation and civil rights. In 1894, for
example, she was the first
woman to hold statewide office in Georgia as the
assistant state librarian.
She will spend the rest of her life defending General
Longstreet's reputation. In the 1930s, Mrs. Longstreet
decided to start raising funds for an equestrian statue of the
general here in Gettysburg.
This was to be no state sponsored statue. Mrs. Longstreet
was gonna raise all the monies
herself. To join the Longstreet Memorial, Association cost
$1.00 per year and she had other fund raising ideas as well.
In September 1939, Mrs Longstreet came to Gettysburg
along with the sculptor Paul Manship, to select a location
for the statue.
The location they decided on was along South Confederate Ave
near the present location of the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors
Monument. The statue would face towards the northeast towards
the Peach Orchard looking over the ground Longstreet's men
marched and fought over on July 2nd.
On July 1st, 1941, there was a groundbreaking ceremony and Paul
Manship at that time had this model of the proposed equestrian
statue on display.
Among the dignitaries at the groundbreaking was the famous
American actress Mary Pickford.
And General George Franklin Howell formerly of the 24th Virginia
Cavalry said to be one of Longstreet's couriers.
Howell himself had served as Commander in chief of the United
Confederate Veterans and thus the honorary title of general.
He is said to have been the last member of Longstreet's First
Corp. He died in 1948 at the age
of 102. But in December 1941, the United States went into World
War Two and all fund raising efforts on the moment are going to stop.
The war also had an impact on the visitation to the park.
Between 1939 and 1941, Visitation of the park had
reached over 600,000.
By 1943 visitation are dropped to just under 67,000 by
1945 visitation was back up to 197 thousand.
Mrs Longstreet, for whatever reason, was never able to get
the public interested in an equestrian statue of the general
after the war during the war itself, though Helen Longstreet
served as a riveter.
at an airplane factory near Atlanta. It was said she
never missed a day of work during the war.
She also would run for Governor of Georgia in 1950 on a write in
ticket advocating
For anti segregation platform.
She died in May of 1962 at the age of 99.
By 1998, an equestrian statue of the general had been
erected on the battlefield, but not quite the one that Mrs
Longstreet had hoped for it.