Augustus Baldwin Longstreet (1790-1870)
by Robert W. Watson
(18 March 2002)

One of the authors who is represented in our Introduction to Literature program is Augustus Baldwin Longstreet. Not only was he a contemporary with Washington Irving, Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Longstreet received favorable reviews from Edgar Allan Poe, an accomplishment that was rarely shared by few authors and poets. Poe enjoyed Longstreet's Georgia Scenes, Characters, Incidents, Etc. in the First Half Century of the Republic (1835), a collection of stories revealing the humorous and more earthy side of antebellum Southerners. The book enjoyed eleven editions and made Longstreet well-known throughout the land, even though you would not know this today. If you have never heard of Longstreet, this is not surprising. This remarkable man was a native Georgian, and since he was a Southerner of no mean talent, who supported the cause for Southern independence, he is conveniently ignored by the Northeastern literati, who controls literary tastes and publishers.

Regarding his Georgia Scenes, Longstreet remarks in his introduction to the work: "[The stories] consist of nothing more than fanciful combinations of real incidents and characters; and throwing into those scenes, which would be otherwise dull and insipid, some personal incident or adventure of my own, real or imaginary, as it would best suit my purpose; usually real, but happening at different times and under different circumstances from those in which they are here represented." Arguably, Longstreet's use of wit and humor was the inspiration that caused Mark Twain to refine the genre of the humorous story.

But Longstreet was much more than the South's first humorist. He was educated at Yale University, returned to Georgia, and served his state as a lawyer, a judge, and a legislator. Later Longstreet owned a newspaper, the States Rights Sentinel (Augusta GA), and after selling his newspaper, he dedicated himself to the Christian ministry and to education. He became an ordained Methodist preacher and was the president of Emory College in Oxford GA, of Centenary College in Shreveport LA, and finally, of the University of Mississippi. Much like John Donne, the great English metaphysical poet who became a preacher, Longstreet felt some embarrassment for many of his earlier writings after his becoming a minister of the Gospel.

As the second president of Emory College, Longstreet helped give credibility and prestige to the young school. During Longstreet's tenure, Emory College began to rival Franklin College (University of Georgia) with enrollment and graduates, even though the school in Athens had a fifty-one-year head start. Histories of the college reveal that Emory was a lively place under the direction of Longstreet, who introduced instrumental music during the commencement ceremonies, much to the disapproval of many in the Methodist community. While at the University of Mississippi, Longstreet encouraged the organizing of fraternities, established the School of Law, and augmented the faculty with a professor of government and law.

Besides the Georgia Scenes, Longstreet was a contributor to other papers, such as the Magnolia, edited by William Gilmore Simms, and the Orion, edited by W. C. Richards, both ardent Southern nationalists. During the War for Southern Independence, Longstreet wrote numerous political pamphlets supporting the Southern cause and served as a chaplain in the Georgia militia. After the war Longstreet left Georgia and returned to Mississippi to live with his granddaughter for the rest of his life. Regretfully, a fire in his home destroyed most of his papers. Therefore, only a few of his manuscripts are to be found at the University of South Carolina and at Emory University.