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GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 371
Other misfortunes crowded upon the hapless inventor. He shortly
afterwards set up two large gins in Augusta which were propelled by
steam. They worked admirably and promised handsome returns, but
not long after completion they were destroyed by fire. Subsequently
he erected at St. Mary's two steam mills, but they were both destroyed
in the War of 1812. By this time the enterprise of AVilliam Longstreet
was completely discouraged. Heartbroken over his repeated misfor
tunes and disappointments, he was in some respects like the great Italian
navigator who failed to link his name to the vast hemisphere which he
had been the first to discover and who passed away in almost unknown
obscurity at Valladolid, among the hills of Spain. The unrewarded
inventor died in 1814, and though prevented, like Tantalus, from clutch
ing the fruit which waved in the air just over him, full-orbed and
golden, he must, nevertheless, be recognized as the ill-starred forerunner
of Robert Fulton in the evolution of the modern steamboat.
To conclude this desultory sketch, it only needs to be said that Wil
liam Longstreet came of an old Dutch family whose household escutcheon
was planted in New Amsterdam by an emigrant from the low country,
one Dirk Stoffels Langestraat, who became the progenitor of an illus
trious offspring. William Longstreet was an uncle of the celebrated
humorist, Judge Augustus B. Longstreet, who wrote "Georgia Scenes."
He was also the grandfather of a noted Confederate officer, Gen. James
Longstreet, famous as "Lee's old War Horse." In the churchyard of
historic old St. Paul's, at Augusta, facing a walk to the left of the ancient
edifice, stands an old tombstone. It marks the last resting place of
William Longstreet. His grave is on an eminence overlooking the scene
of his famous experiments; and lettered upon the crumbling headstone,
yellow with age, one with difficulty may decipher the following pathetic
inscription:
Sacred to the memory of A¥ILLIAM LONGSTKEET, who
departed this life, September 1, 1814, aged 54 years, 10
months and 26 days. "All the days of the afflicted are
evil; but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast."