ABSTRACT
Longstreet was born on January 8, 1821, in South Carolina to the owner of a cotton plantation along the South Carolina/Georgia border, in an area that became Gainesville, Georgia. When he was nine years old he was sent away to school at the Richmond County Academy, the leading preparatory school in Georgia, with an eventual idea of attending the U.S. Military Academy. Although not a scholar by inclination, preferring the outdoor life, Longstreet was admitted to the Academy in 1838 as a member of the Class of 1842. There he continued his tradition of lackluster academic work, finally graduating 54th in a class of 56. During the time at the Academy he became close with a number of fellow cadets who would also rise to fame in the war between the states, among them Confederates Daniel Harvey Hill and Lafayette McLaws and Union generals George Thomas, U.S. Grant, William Rosecrans, and John Pope.
