I am glad that you are not stuck in traffic on i95. I am sure some of you have enjoyed that wonderful form of torture in the past. Glad to have you here with us. It is my distinct privilege to kick involved by introducing my ecw cofounder kristopher white. Christopher is currently the education manager at the civil war trust, of it as soon a position he has had since the beginning of the year. That has turned the civil war into his playground across the country. He has been going from one event to the next. We are glad he could land here in spotsylvania. As our chief historian, his job is to contextualize our symposium. The theme is great defenses of the civil war. We are going to talk about some great battlefield defenses both federal and confederate. We want to invite you to think about that notion of defenses and a larger, broader context as well. Perhaps it is not just all mud and blood. To help us get our gears turning. It is my privilege introduce my friend chris white create kris white. [applause] good afternoon. I want to thank you for coming out to the Fourth Annual emerging civil war symposium. Chris has been fantastic. His wife who is floating around somewhere, she is the proprietor. She puts on a great display for us. Going to havere. Ome very special things there will be some things that you have to be here to experience. My job is to give you the context of the weekend. Chris has given me the shortest amount of time to speak and im the only nonphd speaking. I think that said something about myself but i think chris was sending a message. Aboute want to do is talk , at least for the next 20 to 25 minutes, the defenses of the civil war where did they come from . What are some great defenses . Who train these men and who did they studied to think about the defensive, offensive . Without a great defense you have to have a great offense, too. Picketts charge would be nothing without pickets men and others coming across the field at gettysburg terror attack that center. Franklin, down there. Greatuld not have that defense by George Thomas and his army. Looking at these defenses, you always have to keep in mind those great offenses. That was our theme last year. Spanre to go back to c and check out those talks we had last year. Who did they learn from . Who are they studying . And then we will put that into play in the war itself or it we will talk itself. We will talk about how it lingered on in the 20th century. How those involved and came about and then we will close by talking about some other defenses. Some nonbattlefield defenses talking about newly freed slaves trying to defend those freedoms they are fighting for on the battlefield. This is going to be a crash course in the American Civil War, how these guys learned, and great defenses. To have a great defense you have to have a great defensive position. No one is laughing because you are not liquored up yet. [laughter] this is my version of a foxhole print these guys are hiding down. Is this how they are really trained . Lets jump into it and talk about where the training came from. The United States military academy at west point is founded in 1802. West point for the first decade until two decades is trying to find itself. What kind of school is west point . We think of it as a military school, training our officers to go out in the field to problem solve, and command men out on the field. The early days at west point, that is not at all what you do. When you go to west point, you are going to become an engineer. It was an engineering school. The first very prominent of that westt point really is the guy who is going to put together a curriculum that is going to impact our civil war soldiers. Most of it is going to deal with learning about mathematics because mathematics is the basic of engineering. If you are going to become an engineer you have to be good at geometry, calculus. It comes with a great number of calculations. Trying to turn the Mississippi River or trying to build those rivers. Underneath these guys are really engineers. Secondy training comes at west point. Mathematics is such an important tool at west point. 48 of the men who entered west point throughout the 1830s, 1840s, 1850s, 48 of them were washed out. Due to mathematics, 78 of them are going to wash out. Math is going to be a huge problem. Military academy at west point starts to evolve, we start to see more men wanting to study that science of warfare. The man they are going to focus on is napoleon. Napoleon had just bought those grand campaigns throughout the early seven late 1700s to become the emperor of france twice. He had one some of the greatest battles. He is a guy who was ushering in a new way of military thinking. He is outnumbered by a large coalition, he able to move a more open mobile army across battlefields. Employ calvary and breakup massive formations using it close and artillery support followed by cavalry and infantry support. Napoleon is the soldier of that age. One of the men who studies him closely is a man named Henry Anthony johnny. Jominie. Henry anthony jominie is one of those guys students at west point read about. Up until the mid1850s, it is a fouryear curriculum. Fourth year, they are finally starting to absorb some of these military thoughts and ideals. Otherwise they are learning about mathematics, learning to speak french, and other classes ofwhat we do not think of pertaining to the battlefield itself. These is going to give guys an idea of the way napoleon thought. Napoleon thought warfare and unlimited warfare fashion. He wants to destroy his enemy. He is very good at destroying a number of coalitions. Hes able to bring victory at gina and other places that are going to be feathers and his cap. He is always going to have coalitions coming after him. Jomini is going to be an enlightened man. He is coming up during the french resolution french revolution. As he is coming up, he is looking at warfare in a more compartmentalized fashion. He is not looking to go out on the battlefield to utterly destroy in harmony an army. He comes up with an idea of attacking a weaker point of the enemy. That is going to be jominis great carryover. To concentrate his forces and hit a weak point print looking at malvern hill when robert e. Lee launches that great assault, these assaults are hopefully attacking the union or confederate lines. Jomini is one of these guys was very instrumental. A man that many of them are starting to read. Another one that they are following is winfield scott. Scott is the soldier of his day. He is the man fighting from the war of 1812 and is still in the army in the civil war. When he is out there fighting in mexico during the mexicanamerican war, he is holding classrooms. He had put together what he whichhis a little included a young captain of robert e. Lee. Scott thought so highly of robert e. Lee that he thought the United States government should ensure his life for 5 million. Forlittle cabinet was a way men to bounce ideas off their general officer. He is learning from his younger subordinates and they are learning from him and they are doing it out on the battlefield from mexico as they march off towards the mexican capital. Another man that is quoted is carlton clausewitz carl von clausewitz. He dies before he is able to actually finish it. Is avon clausewitz prussian officer. He does fight against napoleon and he has fantastic military ideals. He does not impact the United States armys like historians will make you think. Carl von clausewitz is prussian and he is writing in german. German is not taught at west point. French is. It is easier to read something from johnny or napoleon then carl von clausewitz. He does have an impact on those men just up the road from us where were standing at spotsylvania, just up the road at chancellorsville and that would be the 11 army corps. Many of them would learn the ideas of carl von clausewitz. Usewitz clausewitz clausewitz is a guy who you read a lot about his theories but they are not practices as one might think. Theren the United States are two thinkers outside winfield scott. The most prominent is the man on your righthand side and that is dennis hartmanns. His father is an army strategists. He is the one who is going to start employing in the senior year of many of these cadets the ideas of napoleon. He is talking about the campaigns of napoleon, bringing. Hose ideas of jomini one of his pupils is henry halleck. Niceck is derisively knamed old brains. The two of them is going to write a number of books about draghi. About strategy. , five of the 15 chapters in his book ours are focused on the defense. As we learned with henry halleck, he is not an efficient general, he is not an overly aggressive general, he is what Abraham Lincoln calls, nothing but a first rate clerk. Has ao, Dennis Monahan large impact on young officers. One in particular is a guy i will talk about later and that googler kimball warren warren. Kimball he eventually takes over physical or. He eventually takes over 5th corps. He talks about utilizing terrain. This is a strange notion. Like like willing william t sherman, these guys are going to write about their experiences at west point and their handson military training , specifically talking about infantry tactics and how much they loathed going out on the drill field for it the drill field. The instructors at west point are not teaching you how to utilize terrain properly. They ares picking they are sticking straight to the drill manuals. Teaching you how to use the military crest of the rich. If you have a hill, and you want to defend it, you do not want to put your men at the top of the hill. You can pick out all of the men. You want to move them about a third of the way down because that will help to give the men a defensive position and it will force them not to be silhouetted. Men if they are pushed off the crest, they are out of luck. They have at least the opportunity to fall back. These instructors are not teaching this to these young men. A lot of them when they go out into the Civil War Land were out on the planes, they are learning it firsthand. They are learning hard lessons. West point of the 1830s, 1840s, 18 these are not training soldiers the way we think of today. West point is fantastic today but it is still trying to find itself in 1840s, 1850s. It is still trying to become the delete training down training ground. There are other schools there are Virginia Military institute, other smaller colleges around, west point, bmi, norwich those will be the big ones. At the end of the day, they are all about napoleon. He is riding the horse going over the outs. Lps. He a everybody wants to be him. He has his hand and his coat, loves to be called the young napoleon, and he is the guy who never leaves up lives up to who napolean was. This is the simpsons. This is my absolute favorite character on the simpsons. South park also has a great episode. Going off to the first battle of bull run. War,these men go off to the first thing they learn is that it is difficult. The friction of war as carl von clausewitz would call it. One of the first defensive battles takes place just outside of washington and it includes a famous general. Henry houseing hill. This is one of the great defenses that he is taking a position that seemed logical. Hold the top of the hill, have your men lay down, these are the logical things not being taught at west point. The guys are going to learn as they go across the battlefield. Those open fields they are fighting and give ways to the choking woods of shiloh. This is around the place we call the hornets nest today. That great defense is just a portion of the shiloh battle. Wel great defenses havent speaker talking about the battle of corregidor, the tan death march. Of the alamo was a great defense for 13 days but is not a victory. Loh isrnets nest at shi not a victory. It ultimately helps to bring a great victory for the union, but it comes at a horrific cost. A cost that is starting to add up. As men start going across to likehills up places malvern hill. Robert e. Lee charges across malvern hill. The union army was 40 cannons at least firing into an open field. Areding in open fields fighting for their lives as they keep retreating closer and closer to the james river. They throw back the confederates with grievous losses. Assaults that were made by men like napoleon, and robert e. Lee. They are unsustainable. A great defense has to go along with a great offense. Looking at antietam who kevin will talk about tomorrow, antietam is a perfect example robert e. Lee used interior lines lines where interior can move quickly from right to left. If an enemy has exterior lines, it is going to take longer to that long arc. It is a big deal to napoleon, jomini. These are the things they would have learned about at west point if they went to the class with Dennis Monahan. Great defenses are not always successful. Look at the bloody lane. The confederates held but then they gave way. Burnside hill. They are enough of docs they are another locks they are unorthodox defenses. Some are merchants and some are politicians. These are guys who are learning on the fly. One of these men is william barksdale. He is a tennessee native fighting with mississippians in fredericksburg. He is going to put up what we observe as a delaying action and a great defense. He uses the river and then he uses the city streets puts men and houses. He is thinking outside the box. He is inside the city where do you find the high ground . The high ground of second and third story homes where you can put men. That is what he is doing. He is thinking outside the box. [please standby] kristopher it is terrible shots contrary to popular belief. Groups in be in this schedule is done about two miles from where we are standing. Practicality they had tee towhat is known as oba the french. [please standby] in an an she isand kristopher like some of the women of the south who are going to lose their husbands at a relatively young age and then build them up in their own ideals. Sometimes to the anger of the men who fought underneath or with picket. She is defending what she thought. Joe hooker would tell you some great stories, none of them would be true, but they are ng to be fantastic or it joe hooker for the rest of his he will throw anyone and everyone under the bus. He will never write an official reports and when he writes letters, he is going to change the story to samuel bates who is this unofficial Fan Club President and others. Dan sickles would do the same thing. Dan sickles who is even going to take off with his own money for a monument at gettysburg, he is going to talk about how gettysburg is a monument is a great monument. This is a guy who had to defend himself in court. This is the first time we saw temporary insanity in the courtroom. This is a guy who has the defend themselves constantly himself constantly. Hooker to the point where he eve n has a great painting after chancellor phil after chancellorsville. This, if you go to lookout mountain, you can see this awesome painting area point painting. Joe hooker is trying to defend his reputation which is soiled. Those some things i want you to think about this weekend, how these guys were trained. I want you to think about how it evolved throughout the war, how the defense evolved. After the war, what these guys were doing. There something behind were there more motives behind their biographies. Were there more motives behind the theories that they had during the war, yes, absolutely. They are human. They want you to remember them the way they are remembered. Soldiers comet out of the American Civil War is going to supply everything for us. Grant is going to usher out the old way of war and he, sherman, philip sheridan, they are going to assure it in. They are going to show us mobility. These are ideals we start to see especially as George Patton here is a preview. Bobby baker paroles was the photo editor at life. She did not know me but she said lets give this guy a shot. I talked to barbara bush and she said, you ought to come over to point at at walkers 6 00 in the morning and watch what happens. I go over andng their bedroom is inside the door. There is george and barbara bush in bed, his head is all messed up and they are in their pajamas,. Bed and the end of the reminding them of what i was doing there. And then the grandchildren started coming in. This was a natural occurrence. I stood back and took some photos of the grandchildren in bed with george and barbara bush. There were many times president bushs hair was kind in the windh blow a lot. A lot of times i would go like do it like this and he would pull his hair back. Was uprning, his hair and i thought, if i say and iing about his hair take this photo and his hair looks nice, nobody will ever believe this was not set out. I just took the photo i wound up running two full pages in life magazine. Over the next 20 years, it was the best and last in classic moments of life. Selected in the issue of one of the best photos in life magazine for the past 75 years. Watch the entire interview with former white house photographer, david valadez, sunday at 7 00 p. M. At 11 00 eastern. That is your on American History tv on cspan3. Author kevin pollak talked about confederate general robert eva lee positioning at september 17, 1862 battle of antietam and how he used it to take opportunities of the defensive. The battle was the bloodiest day