View our monthly newsletter, The Longstreet Society News.

Gainesville, Georgia
A Self Guided Tour

"The General took great delight in his 65 acre farm that he purchased in 1875 just north of Gainesville. He loved the forest and streams and he set out a large vineyard whose care gave him much pleasure. A visiting news correspondent recalled finding the famous general happily pruning his grape vines, wearing a tattered duster and straw hat. Longstreet crowned the farm's highest eminence with an attractive home of the old colonial style of architecture which he richly furnished with a fine library and furnishings from all over the world. The house burned on April 9, 1889, leaving for today's visitor only the granite front steps and one of his grape vines and a terrace in the yard next door. The Longstreets moved to a cottage on the farm, and on December 29th of the same year Maria Louisa, his first wife, died." From Lee and Longstreet at High Tide by Helen Dortch Longstreet.

Today the hilltop features a fine standing bronze statue of the General by sculptor Gregory Jonnson. The statue is a project of the General James Longstreet Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and was funded by the L. Denton Hadaway estate. A. J. Gilbert, a Society member, posed for the statue.

The General was living in this house at 746 Green Street with his second wife, Helen Dortch, when he died in 1904. The house was then owned by Helen's father, but was purchased by Helen after the General's death. She later mortgaged the house to pay the legal expenses in an effort to stop the Georgia Power Company hydro-electric project at Tallulah Gorge. She lost the court case and her home. The house is privately owned with no parking on the street and should be a rolling look only.

Georgia State Historical Marker, Lt. Gen. James Longstreet- site of Pre 1936 Hall County Court House where funeral of General Longstreet was held.

On Saturday, January 2, 1904 the General was visiting his daughter, Maria Louisa Longstreet Whelchel, at her home on the northwest corner of the Bradford Street and College Avenue intersection, where today there is only a loan company parking lot. He had been suffering from severe rheumatism and cancer of the eye and throat. That morning he contracted pneumonia and sank quickly. During a coughing spasm his old wound from the Wilderness reopened and he bled to death. His last words were, "Helen, we shall be happier in this post."

Mr. Alvah Smith build the Piedmont Hotel near the new railroad depot in 1873 and sold it to the General for $6000.00 on October 7, 1875. The Piedmont was a 45-room hotel, consisting of two wings of three stories each. There were separate buildings housing the kitchen, dining room, stables and other necessary structures. The whole complex occupied an entire city block.

During periods of cold weather the Longstreets made their home at the hotel. According to local lore, Southern (batter) fried chicken was first served here. Prominent guests included: Confederate General Joe Johnston; Union General and New York Congressman Daniel Sickles; editor Henry Grady, known as the voice of the New South; Joel Chandler Harris, author of the Uncle Remus tales; and Woodrow and Ellen Wilson, whose daughter Jessie Woodrow Wilson was born in the Piedmont in the summer of 1887.

After its years as a hotel the building served as a boarding house and a military school. Most of it was torn down in 1918, and the lower floor of the north wing continued as a duplex apartment until the late 1980s. Then it was used for storage until the Longstreet Society bought it in 1994. It is currently being restored as a memorial to the General and is located at 827 Maple Street.

James Longstreet was laid to rest here on January 6th, 1904. The funeral service was held in the Hall County Courthouse where several thousand gathered, most of whom had to stand outside in the cold. Bishop Kelley of Savannah, Father Schadewell of Albany, and Father Gunn of Atlanta conducted the burial service of the Roman Catholic Church.

Father Schadewell and a crowd of thousands accompanied the remains to this burial plot, which closely resembles the terrain of the Union Position behind the stonewall at Gettysburg. The General himself chose this spot, and one last time he chose the good ground. Here a short service was held. After the Candler's and Governor's Horse Guards fired a volley over the grave, an aged veteran placed his gray jacket and parole papers on the casket, "Taps" was sounded and the grave closed over one of the greatest warriors the world has known.

On the eve of the Spanish-American War the old General wrote a simple prayer which defined the focus of his post-war years. This is the way we of the Longstreet Society remember this great American, and we hope you take this sentiment with you when you end your visit to Gainesville.

As the evening hours draw near, the bugle calls of the eternal years sound clearer to my understanding than when drowned in the hiss of musketry and the roar of cannon. By memory of battle-fields and prophecy of coming events, I declare the hope that the present generation may witness the disbandment of standing armies, the reign of natural justice, the ushering in of the brotherhood of man. If I could recall one hour of my distant but glorious command, I would say, on the eve of battle with a foreign foe, little children, love one another.

Longstreet is remembered through places in and around Gainesville which bear his name: