Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South

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8 recent Civil War history books by UVA authors
By Sam Grossman

Civil War history has always been a UVA strength, especially as home to the Nau Center devoted to the subject. These recent works by alumni and faculty may teach even the most avid history buffs something new about this complex, pivotal era.

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Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South (2023)
By Elizabeth R. Varon



In her latest biography, UVA history professor Elizabeth Varon dissects the surprising political conversion of Confederate general James Longstreet. He served as second-in-command to Robert E. Lee—who referred to Longstreet as his “old war horse”—and directed Confederate forces to capture Black people for slavery or imprisonment. In what Varon posits is one of the most remarkable political about-faces in American history, after the war Longstreet supported Black suffrage, endorsed Reconstruction and became commander of Louisiana’s multiracial militia. He was branded as a “Confederate Judas,” she writes. The story of his life and career, she argues, represents “American culture’s unfolding contest over the Civil War’s legacies.”