That nice, not to have talking heads tell you how to interpret what is going on. Thank you for being here tonight. Speaker is mr. Marc leepson. He was a letter for the congressional quarterly, but he is now a freelance rider. He has a bachelors degree and a masters degree from George Washington university. His many books include sitting monticello, published by Simon Schuster in 2001, flag an 2005,an biography, storyrate engagement the of the battle of the monopoly in 2007. Lafayette idealist general, what so proudly we hailed francis got key, a life published by mcmillan in 2011, and the battle of the green beret, about 50 of the Army Staff Sergeant barry sadler published in 2017. Will ber, marc releasing a volume on the history of one of our beloved an important Historic Properties within our heritage area. Today the home is called homeland. Forward to be rich history and the stories associated with that wonderful property. Marcs articles have appeared in many publications including the smithsonian magazine, civil war times, americas civil war, the civil war, the washington post, and the wall street journal. His Television Interviews include the today show, all , thes considered, cnn history channel, bbc news, the diane reames show the diane he has been a guest speaker at georgetown university, George Washington university, college of william americom mary, tulane university, and the university of notre dame. Marcte his busy schedule, has always made time for community service. He has served on the boards of Many Organizations including the Virginia State library, the middle berry library, the lounge and theibrary system goose creek association. And most of these organization he served not only as a trustee or director, but as a chair, president , treasurer, or secretary. He has served as an announcer with our chairman, lanie. Orrison who is here he has been a longtime leader in our special Events Committee and there is no question the success that we have had over the last is due to marks steadfast efforts. Marc and his lovely wife live our down the road in one of many wonderful historical properties. Please welcome my friend marc scaring ah his talk blink and like hell an overview of jubal earlys campaign. N likearing abe lincol ball an overview of june b earlys campaign. [applause] marc thank you very much, childs, for that great introduction. Thank you for reading it the way i wrote it. Talk. Ing to do a kickoff battle and thehe subsequent attack on washington, d. C. I wanted tell you for a start, this is my only civil war bark. I have written nine books. Im working on my 10th. I dont pretend to be an expert on the civil war. I did teach history at Lord Fairfax Community college in warrington, virginia. I taught the survey class. Teach these civil war, but my depth of knowledge is not strong. However, i do know an awful lot about one particular part of the civil war, and i just want to ask you when it comes time for questions, if you would please keep your questions within that area of what i know most about, ok . Will answer any questions about the civil war as long as they are, have to do with what happened between june 13 sorry i will expand that to june 12 [laughter] and in the Eastern Theater and the north of richmond and we are all set. So, in the limited amount of not i have and also im going to step on anybody. This is what we will hear about tomorrow. I will not step on anybodys toes. Broad overview a of what happened at fort stevens. July 12, 1964. Where are we in the civil war in july 1864 . We just came off the blaze, whatever it was, the three last big battles of the war, which was the battle of thank you, wilderness, spotsylvania courthouse, and cold harbor. And then very simply, the highlights what happened there. Grant of austrias grand campaign. Grants grand campaign to end the world. After those three battle, he has what he wants. , anas richmond, petersburg overwhelming majority of troops. He knows that he can choke lee out in a matter of time. Wantirst big battle i to talk about maps really quickly. This was my first civil war book. Put a map in any of my books before. I kind of secured figured the audience would want, so i put in three. Not puttingized for enough maps in, so in my presentation i have lots of maps. There is one of them. Huge. You know about the battle of wilderness. I have a presentday picture of it. Just a beautiful part of virginia. We have 8000 union, 12,000 confederate. And you know that grant is making his way east towards richmond. When i taught the civil war in community college, i always started out why putting one of the romanticizing of the war and then i show them pictures like this, because i always wanted my students to remember. I have been in a war. Remember students to what war is about. Its about death and dying and disfigurement and lets never keep that away from our thoughts. Battle. One last big way, this will be on cspan, so you dont have to take notes, because when they play it, you can put it on pause and you can read from my slide. The map this is a civil it isnt. No, you can see where you know, i think you probably know cold harbor, theres not much of the battlefield left. Theres lots of development over there. The other thing is the Bigger Campaign and that was the 1864 president ial election. I believe this is the only held inic election ever the country during a full scale civil war and things were not going very well by 1864. Things, you took know, he was an emotional guy. Is that quote . I will get to it later. Lincoln, his political position in 1864 was tenuous. His own party was divided among the prowar republicans and the antiwar. Democrats were little bit divided among themselves, but they were united against lincoln , and he did not believe he was even going to get the republican nomination and theres this great scene, which is illustrated here about he did not go to the convention. He finds out that he gets nominated from a clerk in the. Elegraph office and who does he choose for Vice President . Andrew johnson, a democrat, a southern democrat. He was proslavery, but he was antisecession. Theres that quote. The heavens are hung in black. Terribly. Going its weighing on lincolns soul. Did not have gallup polls then, right . That not only did he think he was not going to get nominated, he did not think he was going to win, and you know who they put against him, right . Mcclellan. Wrote a letter to this waset members earlier in the summer of 1864 and which he said, do not open this until the election is over and what did he tell his cabinet members . Sure to operate with the new administration for a smooth transition. Here we are at this point in the war. Lee is surrounded at richmond and petersburg. He comes up with a poll with pland plan fourpoint that he knows, if he stays there, grants, because of his superiority in everything is going to overwhelm him eventually. What does he decide to do . Confederates the are really hurting for everything, including food. Railroad. Controls the he decides that he wants to drive the union forces out of the shenandoah valley. Number 2 and this comes in a to freeater, he wanted the Union Prisoners at Point Lookout. You all know where Point Lookout is, right . Crownot very far as the flies from washington, but to get there, you have to go a circuitous way. There were about 15,000 confederate troops imprisoned at fort lookout. That was something lee desperately needed. I think his Main Objective was to try to alleviate what was going to be the end of the war for him and that was to force grant to take troops away from richmond and petersburg. And the other big part of the war was to threaten washington, d. C. Basically the order said if the opportunity presents itself, you have my permission to attack washington. Who did he choose who did choose to go on this mission . Our friend jubal early. Its always nice to have main characters and we surely have one in jubal early. He was born in rocky mount, virginia. He came from kind of a well off family. His parents sent him to west point not to be a military man though, to get a good education, which we know even and then was the case. He read the law. After that she was not a great student at west point. I think he finished third from the bottom of his class and we will talk about his character and amount of his character in a minute because he was a character, and when he got out, it went to serve in the mexican war, but the shooting was over, so he did contract a bad type of pneumonia no. Rheumatoid arthritis. Thats right. He was hunched over you can see in later pictures from that arthritis. He got that on the boat ride back. He was fighting in the next gilmore. Argued against secession. If you know early history from turned, her the tide voted in favor and became one of the most ardent secessionist, one of the greatest adherents of the confederate cause during the war. No combat experience when he joined the Confederate Army and he wound up fighting almost in every major battle in the Eastern Theater. I like to compare him to robert e. Lee. Was a gentleman. No one ever accused early of being a gentleman. He was hard drinking. He at a highpitched voice and he was famous for cussing. He hated women because of a bad experience with a woman at west point. He was misogynist. He was racist. He did not get along well with his fellow officers. He did not get along well with the men. But they had a grudging respect for him. A veryu know, and he was aggressive general, which is probably widely chosen for this. On the other hand, there were lieutenanther generals available for him at this point in the war. And because of that arthritis , lee, lee he had called him my bad old man. Even though he was older than early. And by the way, he did not judge terrain very well. He was not very good on tactics. Certainly not on strategy. But he was really good as an aggressive general and thats to robert e. Lee chose. There is a nice plaque down there. , he was the gung ho southerner. He never took the oath. He went out to texas where he thought the war would be kept going. That did not happen. He went down to mexico. That didnt happen. He wound up in canada. The868, he wrote one of first memoirs of any civil war general and then somehow he got back here and he spent the rest of his life living in a hotel and he was onerg of the originators and certainly one of the strongest proselytizers of the lost cause theory, which i think you know. I think he also had probably the best beard of any retired general. June 13, 1864. , 3 00arts his bold plan in the morning. Wake the troops up. They sneak out through the defenses in richmond and i think you probably know union intelligence was not great during the civil war. In this case, the union did not left early and they got it all wrong. They overestimated the number of troops. They thought it was another general in charge. They wake him up. They march on foot. They get on rickety old trains and they arrive at lynchburg on june 18. Will you all raise your hands . Who knows about the battle of lynchburg. Wait a minute. Ive the civil war crowd. Most people dont. Not much happened. General david hunter, one of the unsharp knives in the union drawer, free except when he sees he has jubal early there and he flees. He sees heut when has jubal early there any please. Is hardly any fighting. Fighting. S hardly any he goes into West Virginia and take himself out of the war. Keep the number 1 union troops out of the valley. Kick the union troops out of the valley. Early succeeds without hardly firing a shot. The aggressive general he was, early thought about and did go down there and thought he would go after hunter, but he at already gone over the mountain and they said, no. Ok. We will go what we will call down the valley, meaning going north. Got a map. , one of the not very good things he did was he tok in order from grants live off the land and went crazy burning and confiscating and he did not very good things at lexington including earning of the mi. Hes out of the picture. Just like that is it today. Stonewall isthat buried there. Theres some great primary source material, memoirs of where early is troops are marching north and they go to lexington and they walk by stonewalls grave and they honor him. So, they keep moving down the valley and who do they encounter next . Another dimbulb in the union ferment and that is general franz sigel. He was german. I do not think he had any fighting experience. He was a political general. Lincoln got him in there because they needed the north needed germanamericans and german immigrants. He had his low points at the battle of new market, right question mark when he lost to a and was bailed out by the cadets. This was the last Union General sorry, i forgot. What was his nickname . For hisng dutchman propensity to leave the battlefield. The flying dutchman flees up to harpers ferry. Now we are to july 3, july 4. I could not get a picture of the Maryland Heights story, but it actually where that rock is. Hes got the high ground. , he early gets up there thought about attacking him, but he remembered what his worries were. There were no shots fired. They cross into shepherdstown virginia in 1864. Now the telegraph is going into saying we have a core of troops going your way. The initial reports were 30,000, for thousand, 45,000. Had at most 12,000 men. When they crossed the potomac i will get to that in a moment. Here is a core of troops. They crossed the potomac. They camps right around what was the antietam battlefield. One of the problems was the confederates were very ill supplied. Heard of the men did not have shoes. They were waiting on a shipment of shoes that finally came from the railroad. And also, while they were at antietam, that is when early got the order from property lee to robert e lee to do the lookout. It was supersecret. He did not cable it. And he it to his son rode his horse from richmond to give the order verbally. That is where they give that order. All of this is happening 50 miles from washington, d. C. ,hen you think about it water. Ton is across the there was always the worry the confederates were going to attack washington. Early in 1861, they decided they needed to build some forts. Er the battle of manassas theiles from washington, defenses of washington are all but complete and you will get an excellent talk tomorrow. I will go over the highlights a little bit. There were 68 forts around washington. Kind of like a beltway. Took overunion troops northern virginia, a bunch of them were on the other side of the potomac and alexandria was considered part of washington, d. C. Back then. Defensive they were not extensive forts. They were open on the inside and we have a couple pictures from the time. This is fort stevens, which we will talk about later. , d cu think of washington as sheet like a diamond, this was the tip of the diamond near where the Walter Reed Medical Center is. T is still there today this is fort stevens today. Stands, one that still and i could be corrected on this , the only one that still stands and it is open to the public. You know the area of fort reno and washington. Here were defensive forts well fortified with guns. Who was manning these four . With the unionem in 1864. Basically every ablebodied man was with grant trying to choke out lee in richmond. Originally, we think that they were designed to be manned by. 0,000, 50,000 troops but the confederates had never attacked washington before. What we had was a bunch of 100 days men you know them, right . They never fired a weapon. There is a picture of the veteran reserve corps. These are people who had been wounded in the war. Washington was like one giant hospital at this time. And the guys who recovered, but were not battle ready were given in whatt color uniforms was called the bedroom reserve corps. I think you know they change their name. They used to be called the invalid corps. So who is defending washington at this point . Men who and 100 days never fired a shot in anger. So this is a little bit of a recapitulation of earlys march up the valley. We have him crossing the potomac. I told you about rob lee. Early was living off the land, causland andent mc his cavalry to extort money from hagerstown and later he would extort money from the banks of frederick. Did i tell you it is great when you have a colorful character for your main character . I had two of them. We had lew wallace. He was from a prominent family in indiana. His father was a governor, etc. , etc. He was a young man who did not know what he wanted to do with his life. He was a journalist for a while, a lawyer. He didnt have any military experience, but he got into the zwab thing, dressed up like whatever you call them. Like arabian nights or whatever they were. They did close order drills. Of course, you know what happened to lew wallace after the war. He wrote the second bestselling novel of the 19th century, ben hur. He did have one of the best goatees, or van dycks. Here is the zwab. Pantaloons. He joined the union army, no experience, raises a regiment, and he has early success in romney, West Virginia and again in fort henry and donaldson near tennessee early in 1962. Things are dark for the union. They are looking for heroes. The Northern Press played wallace up. They made him into a big hero. Promoted to Major General youngest, one of the Union Generals. That was his high point. His low point came at shiloh. We dont have to get into the details, but basically lew got ,ost the first night of shiloh never made it to the battlefield. Grant was not very happy with him. It was a fog of war situation. I dont know how they found their way anywhere, but he didnt. Basically grant was not very happy with lou wallace, and they sidelined him. He was out of the war. He went back to crawfordsville, indiana and managed to get back into the war and they gave him a not very good position. They let him be commanding departmentthe middle of the union army. Basically he was the military governor of baltimore. Here is a guy who wanted to fight in the war and here he was you know baltimore was a secessionist stronghold, but not much was going on. He would round up a few people here or there and he was itching to get back into the war. I told you that the word was about this corps of troops that was on their way to washington, but grant figured out what lee was up to. He realized that lee was trying to get him to send troops away from richmond and petersburg. Grant not act. You can read the letters, the memoirs, the journals of these officers, and lincoln, two. Telegrams are flying between washington and richmond. Lincoln was the commanderinchief. , but het a micromanager was doing a little bit of, maybe it might be time to reinforce the invalids here in washington. But grant did not act. On that same information, lou wallace remember, he is on the outs with alec, now the commander of the army, and grant. Anddes he is going to some of that intelligence is saying there is 30,000 or 40,000 troops, so he geysers gathers up as many troops as you can, which is not that many, and decides he is going to try to stop them. One battery of artillery. The confederates had 12 batteries at minoxidil. Map. Is a e junction as ase picture of yesterday and today, four miles south of frederick, maryland. Bute wasnt any fighting, there was a crossroads of troops thehe on both sides on way to gettysburg, antietam. Lees famous lost order during the battle of antietam is right across the river from the center at democracy battlefield. Grant is there at city point. Saying that if the confederates are there, there is going to be trouble. Rickets and 5000 troops up away from the barricades of richmond. They wake him up at 5 00 in the morning, they got on ships at the james river, they go down the james, they go up the Chesapeake Bay they go over to camden station, where the baseball stadium is, and they get on trains and arrive at the nocacynously mo junction at dawn on the eighth. Lou wallace has 6500 troops facing about 2000 confederate troops. Lou wallace who wrote in that cant 19thcentury style just say these guys got off the train and made their campfires their coffee. Campfires and cooked their coffee. Here is the map, which i just described. You see where the battlefield was. Sure enough, they were coming. They fired up a black pot, etc. , etc. It is fun to read. Wallaces memoir was the last thing he wrote before he died. We are going to be on sunday at the monocacy battlefield. Awont read this, but it is little bit of the order of battle to show how few union troops there were and how many confederate troops. John brown gordon was one of the commanders. Gordon fought throughout the Eastern Theater. He was shot five times at antietam. Shot off his horse, shot through the face. He never faced the camera on his left side because of his eye. He said the battle at monocacy was the sharpest fight he was in. Breckenridge was one of the commanders. Mccausland and his cavalry. Ramseur andds rhodes. Ofstarted on the morning july 9, which was extremely hot. All of the accounts, the troops mark how hot. You know how it can be in july, probably in the 90s and really humid. Confederate troops were on the march since june 13, it is now july 9. It was a very sharp fight. Battle to takelt interstate today 270 goes through the middle of it. It didnt back then, if i am correct. 355 does and did. You are going to get a good look at it. The battle raged all day from 9 00 in the morning to 4 00 in the afternoon. Early was not on the field of battle at first. He was extorting money from the city founders at frederick. By the way, early did not want to engage the troops. His orders were to threaten washington, d. C. , so not all his troops were engaged. Nevertheless, 12,000 versus 6000. There was fighting at the best farm, which we will go to on sunday, and the worthington farm. There were Three Bridges around monocacy, fighting over all three of them. Outgunnedd, they were with the big guns like 10 to one or Something Like that. Andourse early prevailed when word got out that wallace was defeated at monocacy, he was relieved of his command. Then so what did early do . Northll sent his cavalry toward baltimore in a feint so thinkingkeep the union that he might be going after baltimore and to cut the railroad and the telegraph line, which they did. Incommunicado is after wallace is defeated at monocacy. Men remember i was telling you how hot it was and how they had been on the march all that time. They rested on the battlefield all that night. Out that wallace was defeated at monocacy, there was panic in the streets in washington. The terror of the citizens amounted almost to paralysis. The word went out, we need all the help we can get on the barricades. We had clerks from the state department, people on the gto, people who had never fired a weapon gathered there one shotgun and went up to the barricade. The word motley was used by more than one person to describe who was in charge of the barricades ofn early and one corps confederate troops were knocking on the door. Consider what an attack on washington, d. C. Would have meant in july of 19 of 1864. Lincoln was fighting for his political life. What would the headlines have said if confederates were running amok in the street . There was a ship that was provisioned in the potomac that was designed to take lincoln out of town, should the confederates get in there. How would that have looked on cnn . They did not have cnn back then. But this war was covered in the newspapers. It was incalculable how much damage it could have done to lincolns reelection chances. It was at a low point. Lincoln was furious when he found out the ship was provisioned. Luckily he never had to use it. Although supplies, the u. S. Treasury could have been ra ided. It could have been a catastrophe. We talked about the call for volunteers. Telegrams are flying back and forth to grant. He finally sends the rest of the six corps up again. They did with their compadres did earlier. They went to the docks on the james, came down the james. This time they went up the potomac. There are some diaries or letters of confederate troops on vernonps going by mount as they were coming up to washington. One guy said Something Like, what is going on here . Here we are, americans fighting americans going by our Founding Fathers house. They get to the old docs down at six street in washington, d. C. The citizens are related. They greet them with ice cream and sandwiches. Isare saved, the sixth corps here. At which time they start going to georgetown and they say, no, go that way. They march up the old 7th street pike, which is now Georgia Avenue. They get to fort stevens, right at the top there. Barricades just about the time early and his men are within range of his glasses. Is july 11, 1864. Early takes a look. By the way, early could see the capitol dome through his glass from the top of his horse up there. The Confederate Armys most aggressive generals has the capitol dome in his sights and invalids are defending washington, d. C. Early decides not to attack. One reason is he see those sixth corps troops on the parapet. The sixth corps had a distinctive patch, which he saw at monocacy in those engagements. He decides not to attack, but he has artillery and they are skirmishing and there is artillery battles. That night he has a council of war in silver spring. He takes over the home of the blair not the blair mansion, but the blair home in silver spring. You know that Montgomery Blair was lincolns postmaster general and his father was Francis Preston blair, a friend of lincoln and a founder of the republican party. The blairs decided this was a good time to go to pennsylvania, so they were not there. The confederate generals where they, including breckenridge, who had been there and knew where the winds otherwise. They had a council of war, drank the wine, and decided they would decide the next morning whether to attack or not. , thatk you know this, too the citizens of washington now, fort stevens is in washington, d. C. , but back then it was hardly considered the city. There was fields, farms. It was where they went to escape the heat of the city. When we say the citizens of washington came out to see the battle, which they did, so did president lincoln. There is an actual picture of lincoln no, that is not lincoln, but that is him at fort stevens. He was standing on the parapet when a confederate sharpshooter at what is the old walter reed shot and wounded a Union Surgeon standing right next to him. There is lincoln, 65 in a stovepipe hat, at which point the surgeon is shot and someone urges lincoln to please get down from there, sir. You have heard it was Oliver Wendell holmes who said, get down, you fool. That is apocryphal, it just sounds good. It did not come out until the 1930s. Holmes was there, but so were other people. Someone wrote a book about just that incident. We believe this was the only time in u. S. History that a sitting u. S. President came under direct fire in a shooting war. We can argue about this later, the war of 1812, maybe president madison but not like this. There was more skirmishing, more artillery rounds. The next morning when the union troops woke up, early was gone. He retraced his steps. He went back up into Montgomery County and he crossed the Potomac River at whites ferry. Anybody been on the whites ferry . Whats the name of it . The ferryboat, jubal early. Now you know why that is. That was july 13, 1864. The limit of my knowledge about the civil war. [applause] [laughter] lets do a little bit of what ifing. Historians hate what ifs. Could early have made it, did monocacy save washington, d. C. . Should early have invaded . The troops wanted to go in. Some of them wrote later they were ready to go and were very disappointed in old jube, could he have made it . We dont know. It is conceivable they could have been trapped inside washington, d. C. And it could have been really bad. You know,save if you go to monocacy, they call it the battle that saved washington, d. C. , and i think you can make a case that it did. We mentioned wallace was relieved of his command when they heard he was defeated at monocacy, but one grant realized what happened, he reinstated him. Grant rights in his memoirs that had lew wallace not held jubal early up for one day and the better part of the second day, too, he, grant, could not have gotten his troops up to washington in time to save it. I think you could make the case that it did save washington, d. C. The impact on the 1864 president ial election, it would have been devastating for lincoln. Weknow it is a what if and know things changed almost 180 degrees after this, when sherman took atlanta and sheridan started rampaging in the valley. All of a sudden lincolns poll numbers they did not have poll numbers he would wind up to win fairly handily, but it was closer it was not a roiut. The bigger question to me is did what happened at monocacy change the course of the civil war . It is a what if, but it is pretty intriguing. These are the hard numbers. , there before menachem c were 130,000 troops. , there after monocacy were only 93000 and by august 31, 69,000. Not all of them left because of the sixth corps, but people with enlistments left and went home. That is a significant number. Grants planat work. He choked lee out of there and were ended in march 1865. If these 70,000 troops had not left, it stands to reason that the thing could have ended sooner. How much sooner . Days, 100ant gas, 60 days, who knows . It is a what if. It is intriguing and shows you that sometimes fairly little or seemingly insignificant things can have a pretty big impact on a war like this. Kevin decided to call my talk. How, sod abe lincoln to i decided i had better show you the quote i wrote in a letter to kyd douglas. If you want to think of this thing in the big picture about how this had an impact on the election and war, it is that jubal early was late. Thank you, everybody. [applause] mr. Leepson we have time for some questions. Our friends at cspan said if you would please stand up, they are going to do a directional microphone, not in your face. Tell us who you are. A number that grant actually said. Corpst the sixth and 19th of. How many men was that . Mr. Leepson the 19th corps was on the way to richmond, but never got off the train, and he sent them directly off. Corps all of wallaces troops amounted to 6500 at monocacy. I dont have the number i am sure somebody here knows. It was in the thousands and thousands of troops. Fighting,days of there were casualties in washington, d. C. I think it is the smallest national cemetery, on Georgia Avenue in d. C. , where a bunch of union troops are buried. Confederate troops, a lot of them were buried in a mass grave. They dug them up and put them at grace church on Georgia Avenue under a marker. There were 400 Union Casualties killed and wounded at the fighting at fort stevens. Ok . Thanks, everybody. I do have books over there to sign and sell. [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] announcer learn more about the people and events that shaped the civil war and reconstruction every saturday on American History tv on cspan3. Announcer American History tv products are available at the new cspan online store. To seespanstore. Org whats new for American History tv and check out all the cspan products. Warrener next, andrea talks about her book enemy child the story of norman mineta, a boy imprisoned in a japanese american internment camp during world war ii. Mineta joins the discussion to share his experiences before, during, and after his time at the center in wyoming. The library of congress is the host of this event. Skin to thehe who are so generous to make this program possible. Thank you for being here. And welcome to all of our young visitors from Washington Area schools. So nice to have you here. And welcome to the cspan audience that will be watching this in the future
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