The civil war in the east from gettysburg appomattox. His newest book is darkness at chancellorsville it was released late may. In addition to offering over 30 books, ralph has been a u. S. Army enlisted man and career officer, a columnist and media commentator, a strategy and security analyst, and a researcher in the developing world. His fascination with the study of our civil war dates back to his early to his childhood entering the wars continue. At the present he is working on a novel set during the cold war and is a contributor to the Hoover Institute publication on military history and its impact on world affairs. Without any further introduction, i give you ralph. Thank you. [applause] its always good to be back here. Its terrific. Thank you for coming. I know many of you would much rather not being this condition him and would much rather be out in the 95degree heat but thanks for making a sacrifice. Tammy, in covering my biography, left out one very important thing. I was also a very, very bad musician. Delighted to be back, and yes, talking about darkness at chancellorsville, the new book, incense this talk today might him entitled chancellorsville, why we lost at gettysburg. Because although chancellorsville has been and is broadly and enthusiastically recognized as lees greatest triumph against commits osco nonetheless that victory was a very expensive one. Ill give you a couple of bottom lines right now and then go into more of the background in the battle. Because were at gettysburg after all. Chancellorsville shapes the Gettysburg Campaign to live. The army of the potomac under joe hooker had many good qualities as well as bad ones but the army comes across the river to fight. Outnumbers lee by about two to one. If you count all the ash and trash as a say in todays military, its almost 30 to one but it was up or just up, some regiments were being dispensed but anyway when they come into confrontation across a few dozen miles on this broad front from chancellorsville to fredericksburg, hooker has the odds. He has more of everything. He manages to fail. Will talk about why. But importance to gettysburg is, that again, the victory against such odds, against poker, initially getting the drop on lee is so astonishing that lee begins to feel his army cant be defeated, that the north just cant beat them. When you start thinking you cant be defeated, youre on the road to defeat. But even more critical and practical aspects of it was lee is literally fighting for his country and his armies life as chancellorsville. Its a near run thing. There several chances, and hooker and army of the potomac had to turn around even after jacksons attack didnt take them. Because although hooker and army of the potomac are on the strategic and operational offensive, lee is on the operational defensive a tactically hes got to attack. He knows hes got to catch hooker, hit him, hit them hard. More of that later but because he is the attacker and attackers generally take higher casualties, the south loses more men killed in the Chancellorsville Campaign just over 1700 killed on the battlefield, just under 1700 Union Soldiers killed and you can double the number of death for those who died of wounds after the battle. It appears to have been the second Bloodiest Day in American History. Then after that sneak attack of which more later, the penalties are brutal on both sides. The difference is lee goes into the battle with half the numbers immediately on lease side of the river and lee cant afford these losses, he knows he cant afford it because he has no choice, he has to fight whereas he and his losses are painful but they can replace them. Theres so many contingencies going, but one of the important things to understand is that he confederate leaders, men who became confederate generals from jubal to wade hampton, robert e lee, they knew the south couldnt win but they also felt they had to go with their state, their families, their neighbors and not everybody made that decision so especially a man like wade hampton, a rich man, a man of the world, experienced in europe and the north , he knows the difference between the north, which in 1861 is already integrated as a country. North of the potomac or certainly north of the masondixon line, theres a sense in the country that we are america in the north , in new england and in the northern mid atlantic but in the south , its still an agrarian utile society and the first loyalty is to the state. America hasnt had the melting pot, sociologically and mentally is far from melted in the south so in massachusetts, in new york, you are american first and a new yorker or a rhode island or second. In the south youre a mississippian or a virginian first and there are exceptions to that of course but its important to understand why men made the choices they did to go with the states despite the threat upon graduationfrom west point to the union. So lee suffers horrific casualties, really a quarter of his forces engaged, long street or mind is in southeastern virginia, they dont rejoin him at gettysburg but when it comes to raw numbers, valor will get you a long way but ultimately the tyranny of mathematics takes over. Imagine if on the second day at gettysburg , when long street makes his sweeping flank attack and almost overruns little round top, almost plunges through devils bannon and the valley of death to, his problem is long street runs out of reserves. Theres nothing behind the alabama boys who attacked the 20th made but when theyre defeated, theres nothing else. Theres no reinforcements left fort mcintyre and frank. What if we had had, not that its not the 12 or 13,000 men he loses, what if he just had 5000 of them on that flank . The battle still may have come out the same way but certainly he would have had a crucial several hours on the confederate right as more union troops arrive in the battlefield, he could have had a series of tactical engagements which could have gone eitherway but as brave as those southern boys were , attacking on the union left and confederate right on 2 july, they just didnt have the numbers. Matter how hard they fought, they could notovercome the numbers. Imagine if on july 3 if lee had had another 10,000 men to add to the ticket pettigrew charge, it may still have failed but it may have worked. So it would be mycontention as a former soldier and lifelong student of mira military history, i got started about age six , that the numbers really mattered so lee believed his own koolaid and that launches him, his victory chances, gives him the confidence to march north to gettysburg. He gets to gettysburg and the army is smaller than the Chancellorsville Campaign, not just because of battlefield losses but because regiments mustered up. Lee is down depending onhow you count rifles in soldiers hands, hes done 10 to 20,000 that most. Finding out roughly equal numbers on an open field for the most part. And the numbers you have made a difference and then theres a third factor which is generally recognized. Jackson. It would have been different if jackson had been on the confederate right on may 2. Perhaps, perhaps not but when you look at the fact that lee is overconfident, hes lost his finest tactical commander or operational commander,even jackson is better at operations than tactics, he gets blunt at tactics but hes lost key men. What about chancellorsville . For me, chancellorsville is the most misunderstood battle of the american civil war. Even those who have more than a passing familiarity with civil war tend to think that lee is threatened, jackson makes his daring flankattack, overruns the 11th core and everybody goes home and has lunch. The Bloodiest Day again was after jacksons flank attack. This is a campaign for which there are four days of intense fighting, another few days of heavy skirmishing and potshots on the seventh day so its a week in hell. Its not going very well for the union and the union should have one at chancellorsville. You cant blame it all on joe hooker. Hooker made his share of mistakes, otis howard, more on him in a bit but what has happened to the army at the potomac, and the rappahannock it feels as if were on the offensive under joe hooker. He got thename fighting joe, it was a typographical error. Hooker was a fine tactical commander, find Division Commander,very brave. He was committed to the union pause. He was a heavy drinker, it was an age of heavy drinkers. Yes he was fond of women and illicit relationships. He was set up at headquarters, many of you heard this, when he was commander the armys headquarters was a place where no decent man would go and no decent woman could go. Joe like, he liked the sauce but he was a patriot and he swore off liquor. For the Chancellorsville Campaign. More on that in a moment. But first when he took over the army of the potomac and the dead of winter hes been through fredericksburg, hes been through the month of march, morale is not broken but its lost and hooker does an amazing job of organization of putting these pieces backtogether. He and his chief of staff Dan Butterfield who also wrote tax by the way and had a business background, hes an organizer affiliated with American Express early on and they reorganized everything from the channel lines to the hospitals. They developed a system in butterfield developed a core flags core, core badges, different colors for the first, second and third degree so you can tell whos who on the battlefield. But above all hooker fees the troops and the morale in the union army embarks its skyhigh. Get the drop on robert e lee and Dan Butterfield also had a brilliant deception plan. Hookers planon paper was terrific. He would cross a minority force under uncle John Sedgwick and chancellorsville, the majority of these the army of potomac would cross the river and they would sweep in and double and development on lees army and either destroy it on the spot or drive lee back. And hooker, the planning goes well. The initial movements go better in the north then they had any right to expect, the confederates were surprised. Lee was shocked, jackson was shocked and theyre scrambling to react and hooker as the initiative. He could have plowed right into lee, got out of the wilderness, plowed into and hes afraid. When hooker comes up against lee directly, he seems to have lost hisnerve. Because its one thing to be a brave, terrific Division Commander or even a core commander, when somebody else bears the responsibility. And now he is in command of the army. He has the responsibility. Lee has been winning victory after victory and occur orders his troops to stop at chancellorsville in the heart of thewilderness. George meade, the most underestimated general of the civil war and because the southerners resented him, lee is the only general who ever beats me in a fair fight in open field until the closing days of the war. Meade invites a nearperfect battle at gettysburg. Lee even said and im paraphrasing, when he heard lee was in command, meet will make a mistake. And he didnt make one mistake in trusting Dan Butterfield. He didnt personally have him investigated, investigate butterfields position but he finds a very good battle. At chancellorsville, meade is just the fifth core commander, hes got to listen to the Army Commander and his core and the 11th core and couches men get to chancellorsville and its open. There are a few skirmishes ahead but they could have pressed right on and slammed into the army in northern virginia. Need one to do iton couches orders from headquarters , stop here. Meade is fit to be tied. Why when we have the numbers are we stopping in the middle of the woods where we can use artillery effectively, why dont we push on . That starts the rent between hooker and mead right there. Hooker stopped because he wants all his forces together, once been consolidated, one of them to move methodically. Many times in military historythat can be good , a little methodically, takes his time, put it all together, lines it up. It was the wrong approach to use against lee and jackson because once you drop the initiative and handed over to lee andjackson, theyre going to seize it and get their teeth into you. Lee is all the way outnumbered again, roughly 3 to 1. But he knows he has to watch sedgwick over fredericksburg so he has to have a reinforced division to do that. The rest of the force moves on chancellorsville to deal with hooker and need, sorry, lee led us to the end of the war, lee is conditioned by his training in napoleonic tactics and operation he will use again and again and try to use at the end of the war when what napoleon called the strategy of the central position. In other words if youre outnumbered, dont let your enemy unite, plunge in between them, hold on one side, athe other side and bring your horse to bear on the other force and defeat them in detail piece by piece so we have to take chances. He feels like he cant retreat on richmond for a variety of reasons,practical and strategic and morale wise as well. So he and jackson, the first thing they do is make sure you stop the enemy advance so on may 1 the union starts timidly advancing and the Union Soldiers, their full of but the commanders are getting nervous. They still want to fight, hooker is getting nervous and he is nervous already and hooker decided to stay off the sauce for the campaign and even people who didnt like him, the best sources say he didnt touch a drinkon the campaign except he may have been given a set of brandy after he gets a concussion. But what happens when a stone cold high functioning alcoholic stop drinking overnight . Everything from the shapes to going to pieces and quite a number of Union Officers felt that the battle mighthave turned out differently if joe had kept drinking , just not quite as much. He got the shakes, and then he has a lot of bad luck which ill get you more but he had another interesting character, in the civil war we talk about the news today. The civil war was full of fake news including gets blamed for what. Gets blamed for the union defeat at chancellorsville . The flying dutchman. Those bad germans in the 11th core. In the 11th core the smallest core of the army of the potomac only recentlybecame , received, it had been fighting in the valley under france eagle. There sort of the black sheet small core, nobody knows what they can do and half of the regiments are german resident regiments, many of them germanspeaking and even in terms of command. The germans are wildly misunderstood. All over otis howard, a young general is given command of the score. He doesnt want it. He feels these higher on the army roles, you should get a bigger core and he doesnt want to command germans. Howell is a complex man. Hes a diehard abolitionist. He believes in the fight against slavery but hes deeply prejudiced against immigrants and germans and we all have our blind spots in life. So but im sorry, howard is known as otis howard, after chancellorsville at gettysburg he gets the nickname of oh howard. But later in the war he will do an incredible job in the south under sherman but at chancellorsville, he doesnt like the germans, dont trust them. He and his staff make it plain even to the german members of the staff theyre not wellliked and in the germans tend to be misunderstood. Are different and not only because they speak german, theyre different because the average age in german resident regiments is a bit older because these are men many of whom came over after the failed revolution of 1848, 49in the germanspeaking country and elsewhere in europe. They came fleeing persecution after the revolution stale. They come to the United States and fall in love with the freedoms of their new country and by 1860 met one, some of these men, their craftsmen, brewers, professionals and farmers, and family. It children. Nonetheless, every german at chancellorsville has volunteered to fight for his new country. For his adopted country. And they fight far better than their given credit for. But the patterns of fighting will be different and it was for a great 1819 20yearold, you can get a 19yearold kid do anything and as an officer i tell people the point of military discipline is not to get 20yearolds to kill. The point of military discipline is to get them to stop killing when you say stop. The bloodlust in a 20 or 19 or 20yearold, 18yearold and im not talking about just americans, just the you, the whole testosterone push, its not hard to get them to fight and do acts of violence but these children, these german, in the valley a servant report commanders one after another and now the new commander at the division level, one of the three divisions, two created by germans, one by a nativeborn american culture, and its sch you rv. Call short is one of my heroes for a variety of reasons, also for what he does after the war but carl shorts was a brilliant young man in the late 1840s. Brilliantin germany , the revolution comes and no military experience, hejoins the revolution. He gets military experience quickly to be on the losing end of a long retreat, the Prussian Army is closing in on the rattle and arms, the equivalent of the minutemen in lexington and concorde. Their pushback in southern germany. Short is wounded, is commissioned as lieutenant in the infantry in the army of modern which is the last state holding out against the prussians and the return of the monarchs and at the end he is fighting to the bitter end and the fortress of ronstadt, lastplace of the revolutionaries that held out against the prussian and the prussians areshooting people right and left. They assume theyll stop by putting them in prison but carl shorts as assume hes a depression subject, born outside cologne which is about bizarre map of germany at the time was question territory but these are traitors to the crown of prussia so he and a few other acquaintances, they hide out and they go into the sewers. Theyre almost drowned, there almost caught, they cant get away. They hide in the attic of a barn, they lost a barn and the prussian lancers moving to the border underneath them at these guys, overtime even if youre not eating and drinking, bodily functions become an issue but they have to hold out and hold it and they do and when they geta chance, they sneak out again, they sneak through the storm drains. Make a daringescape across the rhine. To switzerland which is welcoming all the refugees. Hes safe. But his mentor had been captured by the prussians and imprisoned in bond out prison outside of berlin. So whats this carl do . Thispoint hes 20 years old. He decides to singlehandedly rescue his mentor from the toughest prison the prussians half. And he pulls it off. He gets them free, get them to polish territory, polish speaking territory, smuggled him on a ship to england and carl shorts becomes a hero for germans, freedom loving germans everywhere. He comes back, establishes a forum in political connections and short is brilliant, hes one of those people with aget for language. He learned english in llp over two years reading the Philadelphia Newspapers. I fighting to learn proper english Philadelphia Newspapers today although thats not fair, the inquirer is a good newspaper but he does and he has a gift for mimicry. Most germans have a heavy german accent, he loses it. He can speak in perfect german and he can switch over like that and speak english with an american accent. And along the way he runs into an ambitious Railroad Lawyer named abraham lincoln. And abraham lincoln, when the war comes hes campaigned for lincoln and brought the german immunity over to lincoln and when war comes, lincoln makes him the equivalent of a canadian ambassador to spain, the head of madrid. He knows what the fighting means, he knows what its like to be on the losing end but if lincoln says i need you to go to spain, in january cant campaign anymore, he has to be in the fight. He resides the position of ambassadorship and is a general star, hes given another because he was not a highranking officer, people arent sure about him. He performs very well, hes an inspirational leader but among the subordinates inhis division , and any other divisions around the court, there are numerous trained russian officers, brunswick officers, baden officers and these guys have read klausentiz. Theres noamerican translations, theyre all reading napoleonic wars. And their reading john of course in west point. These men who have battlefield experience, their officers who deserted the Prussian Army in many cases to come over to the Freedom Fighters, they got a stake in this new country so the germans are not beer drinking and confidence. Some are better than others so lets jump ahead to may 2, 1863. Lee makes the decision yes, youll unleash accent, you his black mark at a very high risk. He gets jackson more than half on the forces remaining to him. Hes basically going to try to hold off the entire army of the potomac with two divisions minus some detachments and poker have another chance to smash and not him. The union army remains largely passive on may 2. Theres some fighting along the union centerleft and but it doesnt amount to much. Jacksons making this for smart. The german professional officers are sending out scouts. Theyre sending out. They report back at least a dozen times during the day you occur, the confederates are marching around our flag, theyre out there, we see them and the confederate calgary feed is not working. They can see them getting treatment at various points where you can see the confederates on the market in plainview. With certain, passing certain crests or from certain high ground and otis howard will not believe them. Hooker by the way has already given howard the order to refuse part of his flank and poker sees that the flank is uncovered, we are hanging out there in the air. He tells howard refuse the flank which means pull some guys back to face west to cover your flight. Howard ignores poker. Poker doesnt think the confederates are going to attack him, hes doing the professional thing saying lets make sure. Hes convinced lee is so afraid ofhim, wishful thinking. He goes back and forth, wrestling with himself. Now hes convinced lee is retreating towards orange virginia and those are reports that these getting confederates on the market are from lees forces retreating. And the germans plead and carl shorts against his orders, hes the middle division, the farthest Western Division is commanded by a nativebornamerican. And shorts on his own holdback to regiments, a householdname , a kernel then opposed Freedom Fighter and by the way, if any nation in history has fought longer and harder for freedom in the polls, i have yet to find nation and a pot in the revolution with us, but in our civil war on the side of the union. She is in oski, to regiments later on are going to make an incredible stand. First the germans are nervous but they cant dissipate orders and move troops out. True canons on the road, theres one road through the wilderness and the 11 court spread out along the road. I have two cannons, one regimen facing west and jackson is coming through there, coming through the raw and brush and the breyer and the brambles and you can hear the confederates talking. And they cant do anything. And so you got the leather of course spread out on this long line. And then sickles is having a fight with himself in chancellorsville. Howard takes his only releases and companies is only resort, barlows brigade to reinforce tonight got the smallest poor union army, heaviest brigade branched out in a long line for about almost 3 miles. And whos coming . Stonewall jackson with more than half of lees army and imagine that the 11th core is stretched out in a narrow line down this little aisle. Jackson is equivalent to stretching from walltowall. And he hits him, its like this massive key closing in. Whats amazing is the 11th core held as long as it did and as well as it did. Alexander, confederate, very talented, after the war he said there is no way any soldier on earth could have withstood jacksons attack. He felt the germans were getting a bad rap but the germans dont just all runaway, nativeborn troops run area in a split core. Others really fight, but howard has made a couple other decisions. He was convinced that the confederates were coming he brings up his supply wagons earlier in the day. Theres one road through a wilderness. Where are the supply wagons going to be . On or right adjacent to the road and how quickly can you move artillery down the road that squandered with a supply way . How fast can you move regiments . This happens because although corker had a brilliant plan, it had holes in it. One holewas communication. Hookers plan really if you analyze it objectively, it was a brilliant 20thcentury plan and the 19th century army couldnt execute because it required 20th Century Communications to coordinate between chancellorsville and fredericksburg and theyre trying a new, against his advice, the union is trying a new telegraph system, a nonmorse system. It doesnt work, it breaks down very quickly. The messages are getting out of sequence and youll get one that was sent 12hours before, you get one that superseded but it was sent 24 hours before. They were relying on horses and riders over this long front. The communication breakdown. But also, poker, his plan was to move fast and that man who was going to limit the supply wagons, he does and he uses his mules. The problem with using mules if you dont have a skilled mule skinner, the meals are already broken, youre going to losea lot of stuff. And they try to put common soldiers in regular infantry soldiers in charge of mules and it does not work well. By the third day of chancellorsville the union army on the verge of living off after jacksons woman, the north phil couldnt have one smashing victory but theyre running out of ammunition because hooker and spit them down so far another story. To stay with that night, the evening of may 2, jackson against all on and reason does achieve surprise at the operational level, even germans know hes coming. Theres nothing we can do about it so germans fight as hard as they can, some rum away, some dont and then the confederates just off center hits should ask these regiments. The 26th wisconsin has never been in a real battle before. And colonel jacob banker from milwaukee, there a regiment commander is worried about how will perform. And those two regiments depending which source you read olaf jacksons entire attack for 20 to 30 minutes and they may not sound like much but its enough for the, a lot of the courts, the bush back line which bronstein never has established already and alsofor news to get back to headquarters, the unions to start bringing up forces to stop the bleeding as it were. Should oskis regiments engage in a fighting withdrawal as long as they can and along the road, how many of you have been to dillards battery on the hill . Hubert gilbert, dashing young man, heartthrob, a matinee idol kind of guy, he has his battery but he starts leapfrogging backwards, just sweeping the road. He sticks his guns, the confederates always shoot down the battery horses. They start manhandling the guns back and they leapfrogged them back and gilbert finally decides he has to guns to stay with. And he tells his secondincommand to drop ammunition all the way back about 150 to 200 yards. And theyll fire primarily down the road at the confederates. The artillery is being shot down on all sides. The older begs the germans to retreat and they happen to be fellow ohioans, they man the guns, and gilbert fights the battery all the way back to the solidified union line. Its one of the most heroic performances by an artillery man in American History and how many of you have heard about that. Thats great, im surprised anybody has because the germans on the bad guys, they ran away. They didnt all runaway. The 11th core against all great odds did what could get some regiments broke, some performed heroically but jackson pushes to almost within a mile of chancellorsville. And of course what happens . He runs out of time. But this attack, his forces become very disorganized because you have to adapt, its late in the day and he knows he got to attack on the confederate side. Jackson knows to move. He has a block here a block there but its too late so hes got to funnel them in the long lines, a great long line, another division behind him and finally you get the Third Division in a long line , thats a mistaken formation that the confederates used at shiloh and their given across the two orthree mile front youre going to lose control but jackson has no choice. Shiloh is at jackson, he has no choice so they come sweeping forward through the brambles and briar and he resists, some of jacksons forces push ahead, others lag behind the second line intermingled with the first and the third line coming up intermingled withthe second and by the time they push the 11th core back , two miles or more, theyre discombobulated. People are crying out trying to find their regiments, there are wounded men, prisoners, parts of the forest are burning and jackson want to keep pushing, keep pushing but ultimately he realizes it got to at least reorganize what because commanders are pleading with him and jackson is not somebody to plead with, jackson is intolerant, you want to push but the attack peters out. Then what happens . Jackson had slept for atleast 48 hours , maybe two hours total. Jackson wants to go out and scout things out for himself and its dark. And theres just been, this pennsylvania cavalry would which has fought well just blundered into an ambush in the dark. So when the confederate soldiers, their yanking calvary out there, the yankee cavalry are attacking and jackson without coordinating with the North Carolina brigade in front of him goes right up the road, turns left. We dont know exactly how far he got but hes trying to find out how far back the yankees are he and his party here the yankees chopping trees down. The yankees are digging in, they are broken so hes got to reorganize, push on the attack even though it start but he hasnt coordinated so when he turns around to go back and give the orders to his men to move out as quickly as possible, here are confederate soldiers, your exhausted,your tired, your friends have been getting killed. Your agree, theres smoke, people are yelling. Theres still firing going on and suddenly you hear horses coming on perhaps even at a galloptowards you, what do you think . The yankee cavalry and the confederates openedfire on Jacksons Party. Somebody in Jacksons Party starts screaming there our men, your firing on your own men. The saddest major in the Confederate Army cries out thats a lie, there yankee cavalry, pour it into them and they do and jackson of course is wounded. Hes badly wounded and then when hes being carried to the rear hes droppedtwice from shoulder level. And you all know the jackson story but this is the beginning of the battle, its not the end. Now what happens . Who is going to take command . Confederate generals are being wounded right and left. The next ranking man is jeff stewart. Jeff stewart is a terrific cavalry commander, great on raids. Hes never commanded large infantry formations and jackson is closed mouth, he wouldnt tell his subordinates he was going to do until he ordered them to do it. They did not know what his plan was, was it to push through chancellorsville and reunite with lee . Was it had left and push on to thepotomac . Nobody knows. People are sorting things out. Duard has finally found, he starts asking people whats jacksons plan and nobody knows. Its absolute chaos and when historians look back and say the yankees should have done this or the confederates should have done this, often times they dont take into account how confused things were the third day of gettysburg, we should have counterattack. On the fourth day the union army realizes how severe it then in Company Regimental and brigade officers at the cross level as we say today. After jacksons wording, the next day and ill have to cut this off , but on may 3 this bloodied day, confederates jeb stuart was not an experienced commander but he knows hes got to attack, he told to attack, launches a piecemeal attack over broken terrain in broad daylight and the yankees hammer them. They hammer the living daylights out of them and the course of three ways of attack, the first tobreak up completely. Stonewall brigade rakes apart and runs. Well talk about that much,we talk about the germans running. There never the same after chancellorsville. Never the same and theyre not the only ones. The years will go forward and they will not confederate soldiers cowering on the ground they you boys, will show you how its done. They go into the meatgrinder and they come running back and by late morning even though the confederate artillery sces key positions, the confederates are vulnerable, but if one got one last attack and hooker as half his force. Media taking command, you can see the Confederate Flag exposed. He wants to plow into them. The union had a chance on may 3, the confederates are disorganized, jeb stuart, all you know is just go forward. His blanket is exposed. The union delays, hooker delays, what happens . Hookers out on the porch at the chancellor mansion, the chancellor house and a confederate shell of the division that he had given up. Its a pillar on the porch, the pillar splinters, a chunk of it hits hooker on the head and hes out. Hes got a concussion and hes literally out for a little while and nobody wants to make a decision. Mead is begging to attack, john revels is a cross river, he wants to attack the confederates. Got to full union core or almost 4 union card, its upper gate or to, there ready to position perfectly to smash into confederates, sweep them up and theres a vacuum on the potomac. By the afternoon, hooker is in and out, hes coming back commending and refuses to let anybody attack. In the meantime the yankees who have been fighting brilliantly are running outof ammunition. And hooker doesnt want to hear it. The chancellorsville houses in flames, hes moved his headquarters back. People are pleading they can hold, theres no ammunition and he says its turned into an unnecessary disaster area even short on ammunition, had mead and reynolds and allowed to attack, it would have been a stunning Union Victory but these are the problems of command. The real problems of tired men or sick men or wounded men with incomplete information have to make a life and death decision on the spot. When i went to officer in Kansas School there thinking saying make a decision candidate because military rule is simple. An imperfect decision made in an in timely manner beats a perfect decision made too late. And again and again you had the school of law to make perfect decision and now youve got hooker, you want everything to be perfect and it cant be, not when youre fighting lead and the union, union forces dont know jackson is off the battlefield. We winds up, his forces disorganized as they are to up from to flex. Pass the burning chancellorsville house thats when you get the union and to confederate wings and the cheers for lee, its the most glorious moment of the war, against great odds hes turned the tide and hes enjoying his Golden Moment with men cheering on all sides, then he gets word that says word is moving west from fredericksburg and that turns into another day of fighting. And thats where its describing as well. But we will have to stop, we started a little late but just take this with you. When something becomes an accepted popular wisdom, lee was not a good general, all the generals ran away, question. One of the few wars in history where the losing side with the history books and they had axes to grind, even confederates writing in the 1960s and 70s still had axes to grind so what you got to do is go back to the original record. Back to the memoirs, the battles written home, piece it together as best you can and on the german side, ill give you a plug not from my book although my publisher would love you to buy doctors at chancellorsville but doctor poole has done research on german and Central European immigrants. We already know about the irish but not about the tens of thousands of germans who volunteered and fought bravely for a country that then turned its back on them. Thank you for coming and we have time for questions. If you can turn it up to thestarting role with a microphone. Today as statues are torn down by a generation engorged on its selfrighteousness which i think is great, his reputation as a soldier endures. I can remember when he was here one other time. The Confederate Flag and the us flag saying its about the culture. My question is with all this goofiness going today, do you think that eventually with the civil war not being taught so much, that his reputation will endure . The civil war, if you say tell me something about the civil war to the average yale or harvard graduate today, dont think about it for a little bit and say thats when George Washington freed the jews at pearl harbor. No, we have taken history out of our schools and a nation that does not know its history and i dont mean rightwing or leftwing history, objective history as best we can be objective about it, if you dont know your history can you be an informed voter . We hear again and again our country has never been so divided. Cameron noted 49,000americans died in our civil war, i think we were slightly more divided than. Some of us through the late 60s and early 70s were more divided than, we were divided in thejacksonian era. There certainly divided again in the depression. When socialism had its real heyday among nativeborn supporters. So yes, youre right. History is critical. And again, i dont want people taking a political stance on this, you dont play politics with history and lets try to understand the men and women on their own terms. It is utterly unfair and grotesque and ethically and morally wrong to judge people of the 1860s by the standards of 2019. And by the way, were the situation reversed they would be mortified by our public behavior, by the way families get broken down, they be mortified by the way young men and women rested public. They be mortified by the falsity of so much about religion. The superficiality of it. These men were able to stand in line fire volley after volley anddie because for them , not all by many means but religion had an immediacy that we have by and large loss so i think history will tell you what to do but its really good attelling you what not to do. And people tell me well, they dont have time for history, they have to learn computer science. You dont have to teach kids how to use an iphone but you do have to teach them who we are and the tremendous expense of getting here. So on robert e lee and the statues coming down, im a yankee born and bred. My civil war ancestors graves are down north in south carolina. He died like most Civil War Union builders of dysentery. Died in january 1865, hes a german soldier,he was a private. He did his part. But the confederates, youve got to try tounderstand them on their terms. The first loyalty was to the state. There are statues, first of all i tell people beware of tearing down other peoples statues because someday they will be back and they will tear down yours. If you want war heroes, build more statues. There are exceptions, Nathan Bedford forrest, a generally brilliant tactical slave dealer, founder of the ku klux klan. You dont need statues of Nathan Bedford forrest but thats an exception. What about Stonewall Jackson . Do we judge him solely because he wore a gray coat for two years . Dont wall jackson who in the 1850s when he was Thomas Johnson jackson, professor at bmi in virginia five his neighbors to open a sunday school for free blacks and slaves. Jackson broke in your law to teach blacks to read. He sent his views back tothat sunday school up until the month of his death. He was regarded as a champion friend of blacks in his county in virginia. Twice blacks begged him to buy them so they would be sold south where traditions are much more brutal. He bought one, immediately turn him loose to earn his keep and earn his living as a waiter at the local hotel and he paid jacksonback and jackson sent him free. The other was a woman with two kids. Jackson offered to free her and she preferred to stay with the jackson family. This is the 1850s. This is a guy defiant of virginia law to take care of blacks and hes very comfortable around them. Jackson to me, i think he was a high functioning ultra stick overcame much through sheer strength of will. He has trouble speaking of war and he speaks and clipped tones, very comfortable with women and for whatever psychological reason you have no trouble speaking with blacks. His problem with blacks in sunday school is jackson and he can sing and he cant so everybody rolls their eyes. Singing again. But jackson is an enigma in many ways. He can be a cruel man, you wanted to kill prisoners, took no prisoners earlier in thewar, others put a stop to that. But his logic was the more terrible you make war, the sooner you get it over with. On the other hand he could break down over the face of a little child getting scarlet fever in the winter before chancellorsville. Dostoyevsky characterized the germans as sentimental and cruel. It was reflecting in my experience more on the russians but jackson you can also call him self sentimental and cruel but he was obsessed with justice but his idea of justice, his Old Testament of justice was an incredibly complex manso a long answer but i would say this , i am not a republican and i am not a democrat, i am anamerican. My loyalties to our constitution. On some issues, you would probably find me outrageously left of center, on others i am far to the right of dwight eisenhower. Because im american, i get to choose. I dont have to, party lines are for commies, that soviet union stuff. We get to make up our minds on individual candidates and individual issues so hold all that back when you started say Political Correctness, let mefill you what Political Correctness is. Political correctness is fascism with a law degree. Question in the back. Free speech is critically important, we cant let people tell us you cannot discuss that. We are americans, we cantalk about anything we want. [inaudible] do you know the reaction of the union command after they heard that news . Booker was probably delighted but there were men who had come to admire jackson so he can be simultaneously glad that hes off the battlefield but also in a sense more of an enemys death. Its not unprecedented. Remember, the us military love affair with rommel which i never understood, the guy was a nazi , he doesnt turn on hitler until hes losing. So its not uncommon and the longer wars go on, the more commonality people tend to find with the other side. Its a strange phenomenon, thats the best i can say about that. One of you please. Yes, a microphone is comingto you. I think. We have enough, we have a microphone coming at you. Okay, right over here. Was stuart able to communicate with lee after he took command . Very good question. Yes he could but slowly, they had to ride up route, there were writers back and forth andits during the night , lee is stunned. Hes awakened and told that jackson is wounded in his right arm. They still think jackson is going to survive, he dies from causes including pneumonia and its a debate on what killed jackson at the end but first they have to find stuart and stuart have to leave the calvary often the flag, come back, find other confusion and stuart knows hes got it put a good face on. He you know, as a commander, its perfectly fine to live if the lie is necessary for morale and stuart is just lying right and left apparently but hes communicating through these relays of horsemen and forth behind the lines and people get lost in the dark. And the clearest instructions you get from lee is that youve got to continue the attack. And stuart does his best. I talk about this and other lectures, is a cavalryman but hes a waiting cavalryman, is formed by life on the planes. Little raids and counter raids and hes never handle these large bodies of infantrymen so he does his best and ultimately its enough because the confederates when for a number of reasons but its a bloodied mess. Thousands are wounded in frontal attack that were ill managed to put it wildly. Youre anxious to get back in the heat, thank you so much for coming today. [applause] here are some of the current bestselling nonfiction books according to the wall street journal. The list is educated, carol westovers account of going up in idaho mountains and her introduction to formal education at age 17. Its been onbestseller lists for more than a year. Next, and the pioneers Pulitzer Prize winning historian David Mccullough recounts the journeys of the early settlers of the northwest territory. Then its tv and radio mark levins critical look at the media, on freedom of the press. Following that, Pulitzer Prizewinning biographer john meacham and Country Singer tim mcgraw explore American History music in songs of america. And wrapping up our look at some of the bestselling nonfiction books according to the wall street journal is former first Lady Michelle obamas memoir becoming, the bestselling book of last year