Page:War and its Heroes.djvu/48

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LIEUT. GEN. JAMES LONGSTREET. The name of no officer in the Confederate service has become more familiar to the general reader than that of Lieutenant-* ieneral James Longstreet, The immboi of important conflicts in whioh he has been engaged since the Brat shook of arms at Manas.-as, and the ability and gallantry he has displayed 'i each, lias won for him a proud position in the front rank of distinguished Confederate officers. James Longstreet was bora in the State of South Carolina, and ia about forty- three years of age. Fot many years past he has been a citizen of Alabama. He entered the Military Academy at West Point in L838, M a cadet from South Carolina, and graduated in the olaafl of 1842, bo celebrated for the number of it- distinguished members. Longatreet's grade was number fifty- four in the class, which contained about sixty members. Among his classmates we notice the names of Pope and Rosecxanz of the Federal army, ami 1>. II. Hill, Lowell, G. W. Smith, Van Horn, M. L. Smith. Rains. MoLawa and R. II. Anderson of the Confederate army. We venture the assertion that, notwith- standing the low grade of Longstreet in his class, there is not one of the above- named officers who would ooi willingly ezohange reputations with James Long- street, who has justly won the title of "the hard fighter." On the l.-t of July, 1842, General Longstreet took bis position in the United & brevet seoond lieutenant of the Fourth Regiment of Infantry, in which he served until March, 1845, when he was transferred to the Eighth Regiment. He was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant in February, 1847, having previously been distinguished in the battle of Monterey, from June, L847, to July, 1849, be Berved as adjutant to his regiment. He was breveted .aptain for "gallant and meritorious conduct" in tin* battles of CootreraS and Chernbnaoo, August 20th, 1847, and major for "gallantry" in the battle of El Molino del Roy, September 8th, 1847. He was highly distinguished and severely woumkd in the assault on Chapultepec, September loth, 1847. It will thus be seen that the career of Lieutenant Longstreet, in the Mexican war, was one of uncommon brilliancy, and that he enme out of the war with an established reputation for courage and ability at the early SfJ*e of twenty-seven. He became a captain in December, 1852, and paymaster, with the rauk of major, in July, 1868. General Longstreet was first brought prominently before the Southern public at the battle of Bull Run, on the 18th of July, 1801, where he commanded,