Roger Cole has hit the nail on the head, as I see it. Longstreet seems to have
played the role of the "mulish child" on 2 July 1863, refusing to examine the
newly developing situation and to employ the initiative that his three star rank
afforded him. Several contemporary accounts suggest that he clung dognatically
to his instructions, issued many hours earlier by Lee who, at the time, lacked
intelligence concerning the Union's "hanging flank." My inclination has always
been to recommend a court martial for Longstreet, just as a number of others
recommended same for JEB Stuart based on his wagon-chasing expedition of the
same general period of time. Longstreet seems to have been generally ineffective
throughout the Gettysburg campaign. Lee had to "make do" with what he had to
work with by 1863, and never seems to have "given up" on Old Pete, but Longstree
may have been losing confidence in Lee and in the Southern Cause even as early
as 1863. \\Longstreet seems to have been one of those tragic characters who may
have lived too long after the war's end for his own good-as was the case with
John S. Mosby, the guerilla fighter. Had Longstreet and Mosby perished in the
fighting, their reputations would very likely have been secure. As it was, both
made accommodation with the Republicans following the war and were, consequently
vilified by their kinsmen of the South. Mosby's support for Grant and Longstreet
's command of Federal troops (Black, I believe) in the New Orleans riots during
Reconstruction, guaranteed both of them a place on the Southern list of evil
people. The fact that Longstreet is buried in Arlington cemetery next to his son
, also an Army officer, suggests his dedication to the US in later years. Not a
bad attitude, it might be added! \\Back to the point, Marse Robert (Lee) was
"fresh out " of competent Corps commanders at Gettysburg, it would appear. As he
is reported to have stated following Pickett's Charge, "Too bad, oh, too bad!!