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John Wesley Brownlee, served under General James Longstreet in the Confederate Army  during the Civil War.  He was captured during the Battle of Shiloh and became a prisoner of war.  John spent the duration of the war in a prison camp in Northern Virginia or Pennsylvania.

John was so impressed by General Longstreet that he named the community where he lived after the war in Elbert County, Georgia, after him - the "Longstreet Community".  Longstreet Community is Southeast of Hartwll, Ga. and used to be 2 miles out of Elberton in the direction of South Carolina (east). The ferry was just east of Longstreet Community to get across the Savannah River.

John owned a 2 story white frame house in the Longstreet Community that "was a mansion for its time". The Parlor was on the first level, with the bedrooms being on the second floor.  The stairs wend half way up to a landing and then reversed to go on up to the second floor.  John was known as a "prominent farmer" who had a 300 acre farm white with cotton.