A Confederate general who'd later infuriate his Southern peers by joining the Republican Party and supporting Reconstruction. Longstreet served under Robert E. Lee and was his most trusted lieutenant—nicknamed "Lee's Old War Horse" for his strategic brilliance. But after the Civil War, he committed the unforgivable sin of respecting federal authority, which made him a pariah among former Confederate colleagues who saw his pragmatism as betrayal.
January 8, 1821
205 years ago
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