Saturday, December 19, 2009

Something Must Be Done About This!

The Longstreet Society sent this along in hopes that we will spread the word and write a letter or send an email to help set at least this record straight.

The Houghton Mifflin publication The American Heritage College Dictionary (4th edition, 2007) contains the following entry:

Longstreet, James, 1821-1904. American Confederate general whose delay in carrying out orders contributed to the Confederate defeat at Gettysburg (1863).

We'd like Houghton Mifflin to know that this entry is inaccurate and ask them to change the entry for the next edition of their dictionary. Please send an email to dictionaries@hmco.com or drop a note to:
Dictionary Editorial Department
Houghton Mifflin Company
222 Berkeley Street, 8th Floor
Boston, MA 02116

If they get enough polite and sincere emails and letters from us, they might take notice and make the change. If would be best if we all wrote our own original emails but, if you prefer, you can cut and paste this note into your email.

Dear Houghton Mifflin Editorial Department-
Your publications have outstanding reputations as learning and teaching tools and we know that you take pride in them. But the entry for General James Longstreet in your American Heritage College Dictionary is factually inaccurate and based on what is now accepted as misrepresentation and bad history. We of the Longstreet Society sincerely hope that you will investigate the matter and update the entry to reflect the modern and accepted historical view that Longstreet served General Lee, his soldiers and the Confederate cause appropriately and admirably at Gettysburg.(Suggested sources-Lee's Tarnished Lieutenant: James Longstreet and His Place in Southern History by William Garrett Piston, University of Georgia Press, 1987; I Have Been a Soldier All My Life by Carol Reardon, Farnsworth Military Impressions, 1997.)


For more information or to become a member of the Longstreet Society, write P.O.Box 191 Gainesville GA 30503, call 770-539-9005 or email old_pete@bellsouth.net.

Thanks!
Kristie Poehler, Editor
Battlefield Journal

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