Welcome to The Longstreet Society
Longstreet Quotes
We're creating a new page on this website filled with favorite Longstreet quotes.
Quotes by and/or about Longstreet. Pre-war, Civil War, post-war. Military, personal, serious and humorous. Any and all. Please click here to go to the Guest Book page and tell us your favorite quote. Or click here to email us your choice(s).
Many thanks for LS member Debbie Petite and her book May I Quote You, General Longstreet? (Cumberland House Publishers) for collecting and annotating so many of the quotes for us.
Quotes by Longstreet
"I cannot help but think that great results would have been obtained had my views been thought better of; yet I am much inclined to accept the present condition as for the best."
Quotes about Longstreet
"The staff in my right hand."
--General Lee.
"See as brave, resolute and wise, Longstreet's reputation is a testament to the fact that the success of a great general is not only measured by victory on the hard-fought field, but by the respect and admiration of his comrades-in-arms. I am satisfied he contributed very largely to the repulse of the enemy by his own personal exertions."
--General Jubal Early's official report after the battle at Blackburn Ford.
"To Kill Longstreet."
--President Lincoln on the morning of the Battle of the Wilderness when asked about the best thing that could happen to the Union that day.
"He was brave, honest, intelligent, a very capable soldier, subordinate to his superiors, just and kind to his subordinates, but jealous of his own rights which he had the courage to maintain."
--General Grant.
"Bring me Longstreet's head on a platter and the war will be over."
--President Abraham Lincoln.
"I recollect well my thinking, there is a man that cannot be stampeded."
--General Fitzhugh Lee on General Longstreet at Bull Run.
"Longstreet has no superior as a soldier in the Southern Confederacy."
--General Lafayette McLaws to General Richard Ewell.
"By the soldiers he is invariably spoken of as the best fighter in the whole army."
--Lt. Col. Arthur Freemantle.
"He was our hardest hitter."
--General John Bell Hood.
"It's no use to stop and fight Longstreet. You can't whip him. It don't make any difference, whether he has one man or a hundred thousand."
--General Gordon Granger, 1864.
"Drive Longstreet out of Tennessee and keep him out."
General Henry Halleck to General John Foster, December 1863.
"Longstreet's advice was sound military sense; it was the step I most feared Lee would take."
--General George Meade on Longstreet's advice to General Lee at Gettysburg.
"Our generals don't do that sort of thing."
--A captured Federal officer at Gettysburg on seeing Longstreet leading Barksdale's Mississippi Brigade against the Peach Orchard.
--General Lee.
"See as brave, resolute and wise, Longstreet's reputation is a testament to the fact that the success of a great general is not only measured by victory on the hard-fought field, but by the respect and admiration of his comrades-in-arms. I am satisfied he contributed very largely to the repulse of the enemy by his own personal exertions."
--General Jubal Early's official report after the battle at Blackburn Ford.
"To Kill Longstreet."
--President Lincoln on the morning of the Battle of the Wilderness when asked about the best thing that could happen to the Union that day.
"He was brave, honest, intelligent, a very capable soldier, subordinate to his superiors, just and kind to his subordinates, but jealous of his own rights which he had the courage to maintain."
--General Grant.
"Bring me Longstreet's head on a platter and the war will be over."
--President Abraham Lincoln.
"I recollect well my thinking, there is a man that cannot be stampeded."
--General Fitzhugh Lee on General Longstreet at Bull Run.
"Longstreet has no superior as a soldier in the Southern Confederacy."
--General Lafayette McLaws to General Richard Ewell.
"By the soldiers he is invariably spoken of as the best fighter in the whole army."
--Lt. Col. Arthur Freemantle.
"He was our hardest hitter."
--General John Bell Hood.
"It's no use to stop and fight Longstreet. You can't whip him. It don't make any difference, whether he has one man or a hundred thousand."
--General Gordon Granger, 1864.
"Drive Longstreet out of Tennessee and keep him out."
General Henry Halleck to General John Foster, December 1863.
"Longstreet's advice was sound military sense; it was the step I most feared Lee would take."
--General George Meade on Longstreet's advice to General Lee at Gettysburg.
"Our generals don't do that sort of thing."
--A captured Federal officer at Gettysburg on seeing Longstreet leading Barksdale's Mississippi Brigade against the Peach Orchard.
