Booknotes: Righting the Longstreet Record at Gettysburg

New Arrival:
• Righting the Longstreet Record at Gettysburg: Six Matters of Controversy and Confusion by Cory M. Pfarr (McFarland, 2023).

In 2019, Cory Pfarr's Longstreet at Gettysburg: A Critical Reassessment was released to positive reception. Click here to read the interview I conducted with the author at the time.

While the previous treatment was pretty thorough, the author has more to say on the topic in his new book Righting the Longstreet Record at Gettysburg: Six Matters of Controversy and Confusion. From the description: "Following up on the award-winning Longstreet at Gettysburg, this collection of new essays addresses some of the persistent questions regarding Confederate General James Longstreet's performance at the Battle of Gettysburg. Influential interpretations of his actions are evaluated for historical accuracy, drawing on often overlooked primary source material."

As the title reveals, there are six main topics raised in the book. They are closely supported by nine detailed maps. The first chapter explores the origins of Longstreet criticism, in this case through the anti-Longstreet writing of the Rev. John W. Jones. The second essay weighs the postwar interpretations of the Day 2 fighting put forth by opposing generals Longstreet and Sickles, which were mutually supportive of each other's performance. Of course, Longstreet's march and countermarch to his assault's late-afternoon launch point on Day 2 remains controversial to this day, and two essays reexamine those much disputed events. One looks at the reconnaissance efforts that preceded it and the other the movement itself and its treatment in the literature. The division led by Richard Anderson was part of Third Corps, but under whose control it was directly subject to (Hill's or Longstreet's) during the July 2 attack is, according to Pfarr, the subject of much popular confusion. That matter is scrutinized in the fifth chapter. The final essay addresses Helen Longstreet's published defense of her husband in Lee and Longstreet at High Tide: Gettysburg in the Light of the Official Records (1904).