Longstreet was linked to the prewar generation of country gentlemen who preceded the specialization of the new South. He was a farmer, businessman, newspaper editor, lawyer, politician, clergyman, educator, and author, noted especially for his collected sketches, Georgia Scenes . His "scenes" were drawn from his experiences as a circuit judge and in their concentration on rural poor whites provide the first significant alternative to the plantation tradition in Southern literature. Four times a college president, he combined moral and religious fervor with the reasoning of a barrister and engaged actively in preparing his students for life in the South as he saw it. He was a staunch states' rights conservative, and although he bitterly opposed the War, his public denunciations of Northern opposition to slavery contributed to the sectional hostility which preceded the War. As an educator he influenced several generations of Southern leaders--among them his nephew, James...