Civil War Confederate Lieutenant General. Commanded the First Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia, under General Robert E. Lee. Born January 8, 1821 in Edgefield County, South Carolina, when his mother was visiting her mother-in-law. A graduate of the US Military Academy, Class of 1842, he served in the Mexican War of 1845-46, where he was wounded at Chapultepec, Mexico in 1847. On March 8, 1848, in Lynchburg, Virginia, he married Maria Louisa Garland, daughter of General John Garland, and they would have ten children. He resigned his commission as a Major in the US Army on 1 June 1861 to join the Confederate Army as a Colonel. He was quickly promoted to General and soon commanded the First Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia, fighting in nearly every battle. Although exceptionally talented as an offensive commander he preferred to fight on the defensive from a strong position. During the Battle of Gettysburg (1-3 July 1863), it was argued that Longstreet did not agree with Lee's flawed plan of attack. Lee, however, retained his faith in Longstreet throughout the war, and he proved to be an able commander. His military career would reach its peak when Longstreet moved the entire 1st Corps from Virginia to northern Georgia, to support CSA General Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee in the Battle of Chickamauga. In this battle, Longstreet's leadership of his Corps proved most capable, and the 1st Corps, on the offensive, drove the invading Yankee Army back to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Shortly afterwards, Lee recalled him back to Virginia, where Lee's Army was being pressed by General Grant. The several months of campaigning in Georgia and Tennessee was the first time in military history that the railroad was used to reposition an entire Corps to participate in battle. Longstreet was wounded on May 6, 1864, during the Battle of the Wilderness by his own men. After the War, he allied himself with the Republican Party, to the anger of his fellow Confederates, and worked to reconcile the Southern states to the Union. Many southerners considered him a traitor to the cause, and blamed him for the Confederacy's defeat. In 1880, he was appointed Minister to Turkey, and in 1881, he was appointed US Marshal of the state of Georgia (1881-84). Following the death of his wife, Maria, he married for a second time, on September 8, 1897, to Helen Dortch in Atlanta, Georgia. He served as US Commissioner of Railroads from 1898 to his death in Gainesville, Georgia, in 1904.