Longstreet, after the Mexican War and before he resigned his commission in the United States Army to join the Confederacy, once was the commander of Fort Bliss. Located on the Rio Grande River, near El Paso in Texas, Fort Bliss is very near the Mexican border and not far from the state line between Texas and New Mexico. When Fort Bliss was founded back in 1848 it was pretty well out in the middle of nowhere, and the Army had been assigned to that area primarily to protect the ranchers and settlers from some hostile Indians. It was a small frontier fort with adobe buildings, and Longstreet and his small Army contingent were charged with keeping the peace in a very large and rugged territory. Jeffrey Wert, in his book about Longstreet, said this: "Altogether, James and Louise Longstreet spend nearly four years at Fort Bliss. It was perhaps the happiest period of their lives in the antebellum army."
Looking at Fort Bliss on TV the other nite, with huge airplanes, and all kinds of modern equipment, along with a huge contingent of El Paso citizens, I had to wonder what General Longstreet might have thought about the American military at this point ... about 150 years later. And the thought struck me, as I watched the flag being waved out the top hatch of that huge airplane, that the important thing is, except for a few stars, the flag is the same today as when Longstreet commanded that frontier fort back in 1858.
This is Gordon Sawyer, from a window on historic Green Street.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2003/4/179897