Mr. Orrison good afternoon. I get the privilege of introducing a really good friend. Drew and i have been arguing over the past two days, what i should do in this introduction. I will just read what you sent me. [laughter] mr. Orrison it is kind of funny, actually. Drew gruber as the executive director of civil war trails, lives in williamsburg with his wife kate, their two cats, he enjoys reading, oysters, brown liquor and peace and quiet. Drew gruber. [applause] time, i am at this going to introduce my coauthor, doug crenshaw, who is going to lecture about williamsburg today. [laughter] mr. Gruber i sat down last night to review notes, and i couldnt help but think about how ryan ended his presentation yesterday. It caused me to rewrite the whole thing. Thanks, ryan. Forgotten battles is a cool thing and i was going to open with a quote and then i thought about it, we have a morbid fascination with body count, only big, bloody battles are important. Then Richard Lewis yesterday said something last night, the guy who falls from dysentery, that is his forgotten battle and certainly his familys forgotten battle. And the one guy on picket one night by himself on a cold day who is shot down, that is probably his most important battle. So i am going to open with a quote from not a historian, just a guy who fought at the battle of williamsburg. This guy gets hit in the shoulder with a sixpound ball. His friend next to him says, it is just a flesher, and he gets up and goes on fighting. And in his diary years after, he says this. Fights the remainder of the war. And in his diary years after, he says this. The battle of williamsburg has received less importance and history than it has merited. And that is not just the case with edwin brown. When you go back and look at the diaries of the men who fought at williamsburg, they did not forget, so why have we . That is one of the things i intend to go over today, but what a miserable honor to have, an awful accolade, a forgotten battle. It is almost like, all of you who fought that day, you are not nearly as cool as chancellorsville. Why . Why have we forgotten about williamsburg . When you think about williamsburg, what is the first thing that comes to mind . Rockefeller. I have forgotten this is an academic room. [laughter] mr. Gruber the juxtaposition of the British Empire in the transatlantic marketplace. Geez. You guys are awake. George washington breaches the American Revolution. Nobody things about civil war at williamsburg. But think about williamsburgs actual colonial history when George Washington marches down in 1781, on washingtons way to his way to yorktown, there is just one single business open in williamsburg. Just one. Not a bustling town. But still our public memory , commands Colonial Williamsburg, jamestown. And it is also forgotten during that time because in a few short weeks after the battle of williamsburg, we have this massive clash around richmond. And newspapers that were just getting ready to write about williamsburg switch. Ok, we will write about seven days instead. The failures of scholarship over the last 150 years. It is only within last few years have we gotten decent books about the battle of williamsburg, the importance of the peninsula campaign, so why not write about williamsburg . In fact, when you go back through the books, some of the best books from our favorite historians, one in particular, has six pages about the battle of williamsburg. Six pages. Thats it. Maybe it is not a sexy topic. Maybe it is not nearly as interesting. Maybe it would not sell. Maybe the publisher said no. So it is my goal in the next three and a half hours of my lecture. [laughter] mr. Gruber sorry. To make you realize that civil war williamsburg is the historic triangles most important period. How many of you have been to the battlefield . Yeah. Let me back up. How many have been to Busch Gardens . [laughter] mr. Gruber yes, you have been to the battlefield, the robert e. Lee log flume. How about the diehards . How many have been to fort mcgruder . I dont mean the hotel, i mean the actual fort. Ok. How many have been to Colonial Williamsburg . Lovely. And they say history is dying. You were on the Civil War Battlefield there too. That is the building at the college of william and mary. So our goal here is to make you realize this is an exciting, sexy topic, and you will want to buy the book doug and i are working on, and you will want to bid on the walking tour that is in the back. But i am also going to do it through the lens of personal stories. Because for the guys who fought there, this battle was immensely confusing. And since we are not standing on the battlefield today where i can point and say, there is where first massachusetts was, im not going to talk about heavy battlefield maneuvers. It doesnt pair well with a heavy big lunch either. I hope to end by talking about we have not preserved it. One thing i have not heard yet, so you are on point the next couple of speakers, is that these are forgotten battles, but we have not asked ourselves as a community is, what can we do to fix it . So off we go. Why here . When i arrived in williamsburg to work at Colonial Williamsburg, articles said it , poorlyconceived planned. And you have people who will bench their careers on backseat generaling 150 years after the fact, he was slow, he didnt know the terrain, he shouldve gone to the right. You werent there. [laughter] mr. Gruber lets think about this. The battle of williamsburg ispens because williamsburg at the narrowest point of the peninsula, and these are smart people, and they studied history to predict their future. Chief powhatan of the algonquin confederacy at the time, before white folks arrived on the peninsula, has already determined this is a strategic place. They moved the capital from williamsburg to richmond during the American Revolution because this is a strategic place. Washington will go past williamsburg on his way to yorktown because it is a strategic place. And the british in 18131814 during the Chesapeake Campaign will come to williamsburg because it is an important place and when the confederacy is born, they will look to williamsburg to build a defensive line because it is a strategic place. Benjamin from the college of william and mary in 1861 is given two regiments of soldiers constructed earthworks at the narrowest and highest point of the peninsula. Benjamin newells soldiers are not necessarily excited about digging earthworks. So he and the local commanders go to big plantation owners and say, lend us your slaves to dig your earthworks. The local plantation owners say no. They get very few slaves to help dig the earthworks at williamsburg. So robert e lee sends engineers to williamsburg with this order. The civil officers will notify groesbodied free knene that they are able to participate. So this line of 14 earthworks at williamsburg at the narrowest point of the peninsula is dug mostly by free africanamerican men pressed into confederate service. These earthworks come in a variety of shapes. They are 200 yards apart. Between them are swamps, creeks, slashings, everything you could possibly think of or imagine that you would eventually see at the petersburg front is seen here at the small line at williamsburg. The central work, fort mcgruder, oversees the intersection of two roads, the road from hampton, virginia, and the road from yorktown, virginia. So lets say you have 130,000 men, blue uniforms, your objective is uniform, you might land your boats at fortress monro. There is one road you must go down to travel east to west on peninsula. A that is todays the duke of gloucester street, which is why earthworks show up at williamsburg. One earthwork was removed for the widening of interstate 64. Let me tell you, i had the honor to go out there with the archaeologists from william and , and that earthwork told me more about the American Civil War at williamsburg then i could have imagined. It was intact. Every archaeological layer was there. It was beautiful. You could write a report on it if you wanted to today. But there are seven left today. So in the spring of 1862, this premonition of Union Soldiers getting to the peninsula comes to fruition. Of course, a large army will land at fort monroe. They begin marching to yorktown. Many of you know what then happens at yorktown, he prepares , both armies critically aware that once lines at yorktown break, it will be a race to richmond because you have two, deep rivers on either side of the virginia peninsula. Both sides hedge their bets, and the confederate artillery will open may 3, 1862, to distract the union army as Confederate Forces pull out of yorktown almost silently. Of course, this befuddles george b. , but he doesnt wait. About 2 00 a. M. On the fourth, firing ceased, and between that our troops entered the works and a message was received announcing our flag flies over yorktown. B by sunrise, about 2. 5 after they realized the confederates are gone, George Mcclellans flying column is chasing confederates on the two roads that will lead to fort mcgruder. So we set the stage. Why here . The third corps and the fourth corps will take those two roads headed toward williamsburg, and the First Division of the first corps of the union army will be put on transport boats and flyby by both armies on the york river on their way to elfhams landing, and that is truly a forgotten battle. While the battle of williamsburg is happening, the Confederate Army is trying to outrace Union Transport boats on the york river, and it is a race. Almost immediately after leaving yorktown stoneman, the general , in command of this line column, runs up against the confederate rearguard of resistance. And for 12 miles on may 4, there is constant rearguard action. One of the most incredible places is here at whitakers mill. At whitakers mill, they make a stubborn defense. Confederate mounted troops under jeb stuart and wade hampton occupy a gun battery and for 15 minutes they hold. The stoneman column will crack this within a few short minutes and will drive the confederate troopers back to the earthworks at williamsburg, and then they will start to notice confederate infantry funneling into the earthworks exactly as planned. Noticing that the Union Troopers back off the earthworks may 4, stuart and wade hampton dont wait around. They pitch right in. This is a nasty fight on may 4, on roads just like this, in a drizzle, for mounted troopers to fight in terrain like this, it means the battle on may 4 is being made in columns, so the union and confederate troopers will ride atop the road and drop horses down on top of the opposite force. Several troopers at both sides it was the only time in the war , they used their sabers to a effect. It is a race to see who can push who back into the road, drop on top of them and keep pushing them back. Again. It is a mess of a fight. William payne will lose his jaw to a shot from the fourth virginia cavalry, and they will lose their colors. The Union Artillery will lose one iron gun. And by the end of the day, one of those two brothers on the top right will be dead and buried in the road somewhere near water country, usa, today. The brothers are stephen and mosys william from the hampton legion. Stephen is killed. He is 22 years old. His body will remain there until 1866 when it is picked up and brought back to south carolina. That night, a peculiar thing happens. The whole union army is stacked up on both of these roads, and hancocks brigade itself will sleep within snoring distance of the confederate earthworks. They comment about walking into and out of each others fires that night as they try to stay warm against the impending rain. The mcgruder regiment who knew had been on the peninsula and helped dig the earthworks, who knew the terrain is pulled out, and sent west toward richmond. Longstreets division, who didnt know much about terrain here, is a division sent into this line of 14 earthworks to help stall the union army for the following day. Then it begins to rain. So the battle of williamsburg begins on may 4, late in the afternoon, and all night long there is maneuvering of armies as they prepare. Today, this area, whitakers mill is set to be a new sams , club and mixeduse housing. If any of you are scholars on the American Revolution, you know about joseph plumb martin, from the continental army. This is where martin loses his wallet to the wiley pennsylvanians as washington marches to yorktown. There is little interest in these sites. Now we get to the main show. At dawn on may 5, cinco demaio if you would, grovers Union Brigade is the closest to fort mcgruder, the central earthwork that commands this road network, and edwin brown with the first and 11th massachusetts will deploy against jenkins, whose men are in the earthworks trying to hold off the union army. Grovers men from new england will realize you cant take the fort mcgruder. It is too heavily defended. They had been meticulously engineered to cover the intersection of this road. So begins a trend for the battle of williamsburg. Each side, all day, will slowly funnel in, one regiment, one at a time, one brigade at a time as their front is cleared. This is where confusion sets in for the men on the field. Hooker, to support grover, is going to send in a guy named major Charles Wainwright and his artillery. Regular army men deploy cannons, fleely targeted, and their guns within 10 minutes. Wainwright says it was one of the most embarrassing episodes of the civil war, and he gets new york volunteers to man the regular guns. He brings up another section of to noticeas he starts the grover left is being turned. Team gray has not sat idly by either. Cox and his regiments, the ninth and 10th alabama, the 19th mississippi, will not wait in the earthworks. They go down to turn grovers left and head into a place that would be known as the ravine. So the confederate armies army is already beginning to shove the union army away from the earthworks. As the will cox brigade goes into the ravine, hookers next brigade is the new jersey brigade under Francis Patterson. The new jersey brigade has been waiting all night, they can see grovers brigade in the ravine, they can see wounded coming back from it, but they cannot see it. But they can see across the top of the ravine and see the whole Confederate Army waiting in columns to go down into the ravine. It is a mirror image on both sides of the field. You can see the fighting but see the guys about to go into it, so the new jersey brigade, for four regiments, file off to the left of grovers brigade and they slowly descend down into the ravine. I would say richard pryor, but roger pryors brigade decides that, despite orders to hold the earthworks, there was no fighting in the earthworks. So down they go. Into the ravine. At this point, Francis Patterson is feeling a little bit of pressure. His four regiments are now stacked up against six. It is a confusing fight. The rain gets worse. The smoke gets heavier. The ravine is not cleared. It is the only area where you can safely get around the central work at fort mcgruder up onank them and come other side. As everybody describes the battle in the ravine, there are briars, mud, bordered by slashing. There is no form or semblance of regular combat. When you think of Company Commanders taking charge of the situation ignore that. Or is not the brigadiers colonels or Company Commanders. We are talking about battle bodies, sections of four or six men, platoons trying to take some advantage of the situation down in this morass that would be the ravine. Within an hour, pattersons men have turned back around and called for reinforcements because they are out of ammunition. So i wake you up with this question. Do we have any mathematicians in the audience . Anybody who is good with math . Try this on for size. No, seriously. Is there somebody good in the room with math . No. All humanitiess people. Lovely. [laughter] mr. Gruber think about this. Pattersons brigade is issued 60 rounds of ammunition that morning. There are about 350 guys. They are engaged for an hour. At 60 rounds of ammunition per piece, one of the six brigades that will fight in the space of the ravine, not much larger than the yard behind us, will fire 21,000 rounds of ammunition in an hour. That is 350 rounds of ammunition per minute. That is six rounds per second. And that is 1 6 of the force fighting in an area that is only a few hundred yards. Think about this. And then think about the mechanics behind it, as these are volunteer soldiers fighting in a driving rainstorm with black powder muzzle loading rifles. I promise you, friends, the math will become important in a few moments. Patterson calls for reinforcements, because ap hill, and we know it is hill because very clearly this man in a bright red shirt has descended from the hill in williamsburg him, andbrigade behind hills brigadeap come online at the earthworks, and do they wait, no, down into the ravine they go. Wait . No. Down into the ravine they go. You see this pattern happening, both armies, once they get clearance, get it. They are not waiting. Patterson calls a third time for reinforcements. The brigade next online waiting to go into the battle is under colonel nelson taylor, the excelsior brigade. One man from the excelsior brigade is beside himself waiting to go into combat, sits down in a driving rainstorm and makes himself a cup of tea. [laughter] mr. Gruber the excelsior brigade is so large that it takes each regiment about one hour to come from column into line. Think about that. So we are setting a scene for you. Confederate brigades squaring three off against 2. 5 Union Brigades in a space not bigger this, shooting six rounds per second at each other. There are men who squared off against each other. Thomas riddell on the top from the eighth new jersey. He is killed right about where the 7eleven is today. He is 24. Shot dead in the ravine. The newark daily mercury says the dead and the eighth regiment were buried on the battlefield into rose, of which thomas was noted as being in the first row. The man who likely saw thomas fall is this guy, lucius quintus Cincinnatus Lamar the second. [laughter] if you think he has a cool name, if you study williamsburg civil war history, you not only have this dude, val arrest cincinnatus giles, Cynthia Beverly washington tucker coleman. Lucius is the colonel commanding the 19th mississippi after motts shot down, they square off against the eighth new jersey, so these men likely saw each other. Lamar after williamsburg becomes the judge advocate for long streets staff, probably because he married longstreets niece, he comes the confederate diplomat to russia. We are investigating collusion,. [laughter] mr. Gruber and in 1862 he is the first confederate brought back into the house of representatives. Yet nobody has written a biography about him. We continue to set the scene down in this ravine. Things are confused, white flags go up, people claim they are shooting at their friends, only to rise up and be shot down themselves. One soldier wrote it was pandemonium broke loose. Jersey is along the edge of the ravine. The excelsior ravine is forming behind them. Grovers men patching holes in the line, team gray in the ravine trying to force team blew blue out, and here comes George Pickett with his column, who can see over the ravine but not into it. So he brings his brigade up onto line of the earthworks, and does he wait there . No. Here comes pickett. At this point, hooker says the the battle had swollen into one of gigantic proportions, williamsburg residents turned out to watch despite the rain, several of them are with field glasses at eastern state lunatic asylum watching the tide of battle go back and forth. As the jersey brigade retires and a new york brigade comes into place, the confederates down in the ravine sense this shift. Lieutenant of the virginia, said as we moment, were going up out of the ravine, a tremendous cheer was sent up into the woods. Think about this. It is the rebel yell. And now we have almost 6000 confederates cheering the rebel yell, amplified in this ravine, and the men standing at the top of the ravine are the excelsior brigade. Of the excelsior brigade, only two regiments had fired their arms before this battle. The 72nd is on the right supported by a machine gun. The 70th new york, all 700 of them, come up into line and they split their regimental front into two battalions. There are too big to go into line. So as the new jersey brigade forces themselves back, the 72nd is on the right, the 70th will come in and fit where the new jersey brigade was. And lieutenant meme, the rest of the confederate force, will be stopped dead in their tracks by this green regiment, the 70th new york. Dwight refuses his left flank, offing the second battalion to cover his flank, the 70th goes into fight or flight mode, there is no other way to describe it, because Joseph Hooker at headquarters can clearly discern the only succinct textbook volleys that morning. And every time the 70th new york fires a volley, hooker is in the back and will start clapping, exclaiming, that is dwight, that is dwight, and the green 70th holds for about 30 minutes against almost two dozen confederate regiments. Dwight turns around and says, tell colonel taylor we will all die or hold our position, and the green 70th holds. Wainwright commanding the Union Artillery on the line behind them notices how close confederates are getting to the green regiment. He orders his battery to veer left and load canister. A dozen regiments are too much for dwights 70th new york. They get a second wind and start screaming bull run, bull run as they come out of the ravine. The 70th breaks. The new jersey brigade, what is left of them, breaks. Grovers guys start to fall back, little by little shoving the union army back over the road, and you see wainwrights guns in the center. Wainwright says this. I held fire until the head of the column was within 150 yards. Three rounds to a gun blew the whole thing away. He is talking about triple canister. Now, as we talked about before, some of these guys liked to embellish official reports. At one time i give that quote and everybody went, it is powerful, three rounds to a gun blew it all away. However, the virginians have a different opinion. Try this on for size. This is what we call in the history field a pucker factor. [laughter] mr. Gruber Salem Dutcher from the seventh virginia says, and this should show you how confused and close the combat was, a terrific roar and a jar as a hot breath of a furnace warned me of the uncomfortable proximity of the canon. [laughter] mr. Gruber they are so close to those union guns that when the seventh virginia lies prone, he feels the gun go over their back. Pucker factor. I mean, i could not have done it at all. He comments later that they are prone, told to rise up, fire, leap out of the muzzle, and the great wave then swept over the guns. So wainwrights guns are captured. They did not blow them away at all. That is what you see on this map, the confederate counterattack has not stayed in the earthworks, has come through this confusing morass of the ravine, has smashed them back, and what was supposed to be a defensive maneuver to buy time now becomes a confederate offensive. The union line will collapse. Heinselman will cobble together a band along the road. The first people he puts together are some drummers. If you have ever heard a snare drum played in the rain, it is the most uninspiring sound you will ever hear in your life. Finally he grabs some brass and cobbles together this band and says, play, play, it is all your are good for, play, damn or play some marching tune Yankee Doodle or any doodle you can think of. The drums were wet and did not give forth any cheerful sounds. [laughter] mr. Gruber womp, womp. However, both sides comment what happened next. A hush falls over the field. We are now in our sixth hour of combat. And the band strikes up the starspangled banner. And like out of a movie, with the rain and the smoke, with the starspangled banner playing in the background, one gentleman from the first of massachusetts says this. Back across the dismal road to our rear comes a kindred response from 10,000 eager throats. Out of the mist, beneath the acrid smoke, he appears, flourishing a sword in his only arm. Philip carney had arrived. Oh, yeah. [laughter] mr. Gruber that is heinselman. Have you gotten there yet . [laughter] mr. Gruber well done. What a moment. How has this not been written about . These are the things paintings are made of, a confederate waving his battle flag over the confederate caisson, Philip Carney emerging with his one good arm, the starspangled banner, these are the sexy dreams of historians, are they not . Battle ofe williamsburg is still forgotten. Would you buy that painting and hang it in your library . [laughter] mr. Gruber no doubt. So there is a pause on the battlefield. Both sides comment about the pause. Lets think about these two men, William Keane up top, company b, 74th new york, he is in a zouave co. , 20 years old, killed. His colonel commanding the 74th new york says i had 145 men killed in 45 minutes. So for those of you convinced civil war battles have to do with body counts, try this on. For size. The 70th new york is the 11th on the list of regiments that take the heaviest casualties. And where . Williamsburg. The 72nd, 77 men killed, wounded , and missing, the most of any battle they fight in, williamsburg. The 60th new jersey loses more in williamsburg than any other. Combat. The seventh, eighth new jersey, fifth michigan, should i go on . Yes. Mr. Gruber thank you. [laughter] mr. Gruber well played. In foxes book, williamsburg is the seventhhighest battle for the proportion of wounded men killed. Seventh. For those of you who are morbidly fascinated by body count and that is your legitimacy for civil war battles, try this one on for size. Tipton Davis Jennings and the 11th virginia, one of the men who gave the rebel yell, said, this, historians should take note. We happened upon what was apparently an ancient line of earthworks. We learned afterwards that portions of the washingtons lines of entrenchments were there, discernible. So it is possible we ragged rebels were actually defending the same works where once the continental rebels fighting the hessians of europe, as we were now some 80 years later, soon doth history repeat itself. Oh. Follow me, i am a one armed jersey son of a bitch, shouts oh. Carney and pitches into the , confederate line. They have turned. The confederates are moving north of yorktown road intent on collapsing the other union column. Kearney will catch their right,. He has marched around the rest of the union army, not waiting to get into combat. He catches the confederate right that the same exact time pecks brigade will show up down the yorktown road. The right guide with the 93rd pennsylvania. They are going to slam headlong into this confederate counterattack and drive the steam right out of the confederate column. They recapture part of their artillery, and it is about this time that some slaves from local plantations go into Union Headquarters and tell the union high command that the confederate left had been abandoned. With this information, sumner, in charge of the union army, will dispatch a guy named hancock and a lieutenant to go with him, and they all investigate the confederate left. So on this section of battlefield, the confederate counterattack has had the steam punched out of it by kearney on showing up on their right and the other union corps showing up in front of them. Here are some combatants who fought on this section of the battlefield. Jack, with the 102nd pennsylvania, walked into pittsburgh firehouse just as the 102nd was enlisting. He apparently understood music, apparently was captured during the seven days campaign, was wounded at that time. Apparently according to memory, he was exchanged through the p. O. W. System and would fight with the 102nd pennsylvania. Through the winter of 1863 and 1864 when he goes missing. Peter and alex diffian from the fifth michigan, who will receive more casualties there than at any other fight, are part of the carney attack that will catch the confederate right. Alex, the son is wounded in the , chest and hip and recovered. Corps. Join the peter, his father, is discharged in the winter of 1862, joins the eighth michigan calvary, is captured and confined at andersonville, and when andersonville is liberated, he weighs 68 pounds. Alex will pick him up at the train station and carry him home. So carney drives in the confederate right, hancock is assigned to explore the confederate left wit. With him will go the permed man we know and love as koster, and custer and they show up on , the confederate left, which sends long street into a downward spiral. He dispatches a brigade under the command of early to see that he botches up vast bottles up this new union up for it on the left. The hancock brigade sets himself up on an earthwork, seen in this painting. Hancock has five regiments of and is in aur guns, wheat field with three buildings. Earlys four regiments get lost in the ravine and to pop out at this wheat field, the 24th virginia does not wait for anybody and those right across the open field into the teeth of the hancock reinforced brigade. They hideo chewed up, behind the barns you see. The fifth North Carolina wheels behind them. Jubal early is wounded in the shoulder his horse shot, he , has brought off the field. One soldier tells skirmishers, take aim at that bastard flag. Talking about the fifth carolina. A wisconsin soldier described the confederate charge, officers bravely leading them forward as our fire was sitting and mowing thinning and mowing them down like grass. Canister opened at 75 yards. Someone heard hancock say, gentlemen, charge, and thus ended the battle at williamsburg. Hancock will comment, for 600 yards the entire field was strewn with enemy dead. The North Carolina loses its fifth pink set of colors and 450 men in 20 minutes. The flag of the fifth North Carolina will be captured by the fifth wisconsin, not george custer. A comrade of mine recently found the flag and returned it to North Carolina. Robert langston, 18, likely still buried on the field today. And of course, you see this beautiful painting by julian scott. So that brings me to the conclusion, the aftermath. In 14 hours, and a driving rainstorm, you have 70,000 young men trying to kill each other. This produces 4,000 killed, wounded, and missing in one day in 14 hours, and a driving rainstorm. George washington and his continental army, through the entire duration of the american 4435 menn will lose killed in action, and yet one day at williamsburg 80 years later, volunteer soldiers will do that. That is morbidly impressive. The first confederate battle flag of the war is captured here. Seven medals of honor are issued for meritorious actions, including robert brody, 26 years old, from the 40th North Carolina. Other men carry their wounds with them. Powhatan bowling little on the righthand side will be wounded in the right leg and return to action in malvern hill, where he would lose an arm, and he argued to go back into the fight. Mcclellan would telegraph lincoln, hancock was superb today. So this brings us to kerfuffles. And i have five minutes left to do it. Four. [laughter] mr. Gruber why is the battle of williamsburg forgotten . We already addressed memory. You go to Colonial Williamsburg because of the rockefellers. Williamsburgs memory is a tough one. When the president of the u. S. Drives down the duke of gloucester street to open Colonial Williamsburg in the 1930s, one, one woman stands on her porch wrapped in a confederate battle flag saying there will be no yankee president in my town. [laughter] mr. Gruber we have no maps so i cant take you to the battlefield and say, you are standing on the excelsior line. This battle sets into motion several weeks if not several months of continued combat, so when you flip open official records, you only find a few. We have no maps. We have no impact landscape. We have no photographs to argue about. Although we know civil war photographers come through town and take pictures, but we know they dont survive. This battle for the combatants is one of the most confusing but will set the pace for them to understand what the rest of the war is about. Today the biggest reason we have not preserved the Williamsburg Battlefield is because the physical evidence is gone. No physical evidence, good maps, or photographs. So you must rely on one thing and that is archaeology. , in the williamsburg region, archaeology is mandated. When i go before a Zoning Commission and start screaming that is my battlefield, dont put in a hotel, they say never fear, we will send archaeologists. And they find nothing. So the 21,000 rounds of ammunition expended by one brigade in one hour has been picked up by other people. And there is one more reason why williamsburg is forgotten, and that is because all of you have not asked for it. You have not called williamsburg and said, tell me your civil war stories. You have not written and said, please preserve the battlefield at williamsburg. Get involved. The one thing i have seen today and yesterday about forgotten battles is that there has yet to be a call for action. So i put you on notice. Lets make sure they are no longer forgotten. Thank you. [applause] mr. Orrison we have time for a couple questions. Stand and introduce yourself. Im dave from stafford. Quick question. You made a brief reference to a machine gun. Mr. Gruber yes. Could you explain that . Mr. Gruber no. Thank you. [laughter] mr. Gruber all we know is that there were one or two guns possibly deployed with the excelsior line. Thats all i got for you. Apparently, they were not effective. It is suggested they jammed halfway in the battle. That is what i got, man. For full swat at home im , going to recreate his answer. No, and that is all i have for you. Others . In the back. I have warned ted i am going to stop giving him the microphone if he doesnt remember to stand and introduce himself. Ted williams, williamsburg. You mentioned also briefly in your presentation free negroes. How many of them were they, and were they loyal to the southern cause . Mr. Gruber loyal as they would have to go back to the institution of slavery. They dont have a choice. They are either going to be paid for their work as free men, or if they dont show up, severe penalty, i. E. Sold, because the local plantation owners, good southern citizens and supporters of the confederacy, will not give up their own property to build earthworks to defend their new countries. That is why lee is put in a situation where he has to impress free men. Did i answer your question . Were there many of them . Was this a Large Community . Mr. Gruber great question that i cant directly answer. By about 1860, there are one or two pockets of free communities in and around williamsburg. Those are going to grow in coming years when the union army shows up, but documentation on them is scant. The census taker for that area is not thorough when it comes to freed communities, but you said you are from williamsburg . Baltimore. I was down there six weeks ago. Mr. Gruber lets dig into the archives together and see what we can find. [laughter] mr. Gruber and if you dont show up. [laughter] mr. Gruber severe consequences. We have time for one more question. Dr. Drew, if i were to show up at williamsburg and want to see trenches, you said for the most part, things have vanished, but there are couple of places . I can go into the remnants down there, correct . Mr. Gruber new quarter park you , can play frisbee golf around the earthwork. No fighting took place there because they dont like to charge earthworks. You have quarter path road, which are two earthworks that were not fought over. Because nobody wanted to you charge earthworks. You can visit those, a great example of the topography. The excelsior line was documented by archaeology up until about three weeks ago, when it was paved over. So that is gone. There is one core area of the battlefield left, and it went up for public sale about three months ago. So time is of the essence, friends. To answer your question directly, there are a couple areas with earthworks, but not within the core battlefield boundaries because the guys, even though this is early in the war, are not fond of charging entrenchments, nor will the Confederate Army use them. Of course, they go down in the ravine to try to fight that day. Fort mcgruder, the central earthwork, is preserved, but it is gated and access is limited. Please bring your friends and fellow nerds who come to williamsburg. Im happy to show you around what little is left, but there are only a few acres left on time is ticking. If any of you were at the American Battlefield trust conference in newport news, i stood you on the excelsior line, and that is no longer. So every day, it happens. Sorry to be a debbie downer. Wow. That is a really uplifting note to end on. Ladies and gentlemen, drew gruber. Mr. Gruber thank you. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] the house will be in order. For 40 years, cspan has been providing america unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court, and Public Policy events from washington, d. C. , and around the country, so you can make up your own mind. Created by cable in 1979, cspan is brought to you by your local cable or satellite provider. Cspan. Your unfiltered view of government. Next on the civil war, author Patrick Breen discusses his book, the land shall be day loosed in blood, a new history a new history of the nat turner revolt. This is part of the Gettysburg College Civil War Institute s summer annual conference. Peter good morning. Im peter carmichael, a member of the History Department at Gettysburg College and director also, the director of the Civil War Institute. It is my pleasure to introduce Patrick Breen, an associate professor in history in history and classics at providence college. I should note