Longstreet’s Aide: The Civil War Letters of Major Thomas J Goree

One of the Confederacy’s most loyal adherents and articulate advocates was Lieutenant Grant James Longstreet’s aide-de-camp, Thomas Jewett Goree. Present at Longstreet’s headquarters and party to the counsels of Robert E. Lee and his lieutenants, Goree wrote incisively on matters of strategy and politics and drew revealing portraits of Longstreet, Jefferson Davis, P.G.T. Beauregard, John Bell Hood, J.E.B. Stuart, and others of Lee’s inner circle. His letters are some of the richest and most perceptive from the Civil War period. Thomas Cutrer has collected all of Goree’s wartime correspondence to his family, as well as his travel diary from June-August 1865. With its wide scope and rich detail, Longstreet’s Aide represents an invaluable addition to the Civil War letter collections published in recent years. While Goree’s letters will fascinate Civil War buffs, they also provide a unique opportunity for scholars of social and military history to witness from inside the workings of both an extended Southern family and the forces of the Confederacy.