Speech in richmond, virginia. Shes codirector for the study of war in society at the university of southern mississippi. She taught at Sam Houston State University which accounts in part for the topic of her program today. Now as you can see in your program, shes fully immersed in the history of mississippi where she led the student and Community Driven study of the mississippi confederate home and launched the civil war governors of mississippi project, a part they areship betwe partnership between the mi mississippi digital library. I should draw your attention to the theme you will hear from the introduction of our speakers, that their role as educators and as mentors of younger students. Dr. Ural is the former president of the Mississippi Historical society and serves on the board of trustees for the society of military history. Too many mississippi in one introduction. The academic journal of war and society and the magazine civil wartime times. As you can see, her scholarship explores the intersection of military and social history. Her newest book hoods texas brigade is the basis of her program today entitled hoods texas brigade, ladies and gentlemen, dr. Susannah ural. [ applause ] thank you, john. Thank you, everybody, for coming out out. My thanks to the library of virginia. Its a pleasure to be back in richmond. As i was preparing this talk, i kept noticing how many times i was talking about richmond. During a very different time period. When john first talked to me about this program, one of the things i decided i really wanted to think about with you today is the changing role of military history in the field of civil war studies. It actually it works quite nicely with the book, because i kind of have a foot in each camp, if you will, with kind of how i designed the book and wrote it that is true to my roots as a military historian. Its why i went to graduate school. Its what ive been doing for the last few decades here. But it is also about bringing in other fields and how it is sometimes difficult is what i want us to think about today to benefit from so many other fields that are becoming very interested in military history and civil war military history in particular and yet also understand the importance of remaining true to the core principals of military history. Thats what i want to look at with you today. Hoods texas brigade is one of the best known units of the civil war. They fought in the wellknown and studied army of Northern Virginia under robert e. Lee. They fought at some of the best known battles, antietam, gettysburg. They would always add to that list the battle of gains mill, the first big battle and which they were probably the most proud. It was usually the anniversary when they held the veterans reunions. Contemporaries and later historians have agreed that the texas brigade was one of the most effective units of the war. When i dove into the history of the hard fighting unit when i was starting this project, i felt like we knew a lot about its combat experiences and its Overall Service in the civil war, but we didnt fully understand why it was so successful on the battlefield. What made this an elite unit. I concluded its because we kind of lacked a full picture of these men but really of the unit as a whole because i didnt think we were approaching unit histories in the right way. Or i thought we could approach this unit history in a better way. Modern unit histories have largely abandoned the celebratory tone, which were written by a veteran of the unit. Heroic and noble tales. By the time we got to the late 20th century, these had become pretty sophisticated an ed d ea. Nolan made sure we knew about individual men in the unit that we considered their experience in combat, we analyzed their w motivati motivation. As i was researching and working on the texas brigade book, i was inspired by his approach and other unit histories from the early 20th and 21st century, like Leslie Gordon, ward hubb and joe blathart. Those works helped me ponder what shaped hoods texas brigade into an effective unit and shaped the questions that guided my project. How, for example, did the world texans came from influence their effectiveness in war . When i say that, im talking about expanding beyond questions of wealth and class, which are important and these have been used to consider what motivated men to serve or, for example, to investigate whether wealthy southerns were under or over represented in the ranks. What i wanted to think about was how the world they came from affected not only their decision to serve but really the soldiers effectiveness in combat. How did their families were the families able to sustain themselves in the mens absence . Did they join other confederates in contacting their governor with complaints, request for assistance, petition to exempt men from military service . I was also wondering what made this unit able to suffer such high casualties and continue to fight. I mean, they dont get consolidated. The unit remains effective well through 1864, despite being in some of the most heavy fighting of the war and suffering as i mentioned tremendous casualties. Dont forget, the losses are actually opposite of what the norm is. We know its a two to one ratio. Most died of disease as opposed towns. Other communities that sent these men to war and that would try to sustain them and each other in the mens absence. You have to study that unit in its fullest sense. This approach really reflects a transition were seeing in the field of civil war military history over the last several decades. Social historians, cultural historians, scholars working in women in gender studies, environmental scholars. The first two death acades of t 21st century have witnessed an explosion of works examining the Civil War Soldier experience and to place that in fields that havent traditionally intersected with military history. In many ways my work reflects that movement. It has benefitted from those id ideas. My study really is a community study. A social historian community study. But that being said, i also believe that the nuts and bolts of a military unit are just as important, are absolutely essential to understanding those soldiers experiences. I want to be sure we dont forget that. In my definition of a civil war military unit, i never lost sight of the fact that it was a military unit. This is a unique community with very different rules and expectations from civilian or any other community. Understanding its military structure and assignments. The officers and mens interaction and respect or lack of respect is essential to understanding that units success in the field. Those of you who study military history are sitting there, yeah, way to go, rocket scientist. But if you dont and if you are coming to the field from other areas of specialization, what im saying is that just as i made sure i was grounding myself in the field of social history and the tenants that guide that field, im encouraging scholars who work and go into military history to really master the traditions of that field and to recognize how much we can benefit from each other. When writers, for example, use a letter from a soldier, any soldier, it doesnt really matter, you have to consider and understand the military context in which that letter was written. It matters not necessarily we recognize that a battle may have just happened. We get that context. Thats pretty straightforward. How good is their commander . Whats the relationship between the men . Thats what im talking about. That kind of context i think is very important for us to remember and to study. But i also want to be clear about one more thing. Im not a military historian standing on the stage yelling at a bunch of people to get off my lawn. Okay . I want that clear. Military history is a big tent field. It has become stronger because so many people from other fields recognize that the value of the field. I am very fortunate to be an academic, one of the terrible academics working at a university with i work with eight other military historians. Its a fantastic job that i have. But we dont work in isolation. Right . We work with theres cultural historians who are military historians. But were benefitting from different fields. When i use the word expand on our definition of unit histories, i am using that purposefully. I dont want to replace some things with other things. It all can be beneficial as long as were remembering the context and the ten enterants of these. That was my goal, to blend traditional military history, the field that defined my career, with other fields to craft a full picture of a military unit to understand its effectiveness in war and interestingly enough in the uneasy peace that followed. What im going to share with you today is what i found. Then you can tell me later if you think im just full of hooey. As we look at hoods texas brigade and we i do that. Do you do that . Me and my multiple personalities. As i but as we as a group look at hoods texans, a couple of things stood out to me when i was investigating that question of what made them such an effective and celebrated unit. To me, i settled on four key principles. Because we can never pick two. Number one, they had an incredibly high devotion to the confederate notion. Their determination to fight for independence from beginning to end. Number two, they had superb officers at the company and regim regimental level. They had a strong belief personally that they had a key role to play in the war and that that role had to be played here in virginia. 1,000 miles from home. Number four, they had the support of their families. Who were both willing and able not always two things that go together to sacrifice and support other texas brigade families and themselves while the men were gone in the field. Those are the four key things i want you to think about as i talk today. I want to give you a little background on the texas brigade itself. Number one, i think one of the interesting things about this unit is that this is not a creation of myth and memory. It was celebrated during the war just as it is recognized as a hard fighting and very talented unit today. Robert e. Lee admitted relied on his texas soldiers quite in all tight places and argued, quote, we must have more of them. Following the battle of antiet m antietam. When James Longstreets first corps reunited with lees army of Northern Virginia, lee declared the best fighting brigade in the corps. Lee cheered the arrival at the battle of the wilderness a week la later. Expressing his confidence the men would turn the tide of the battle, which they did. Other confederates im picking nontexans because texans love texans. Confederate major smith commented in the spring of 1862, the texans won immortal honor for themselves and their commander and their state. I could talk a week and then not say half they deserve. If they could be transported here and armed tomorrow, properly led, they would end the war in three months. North carolina colonel pender said hoods texas boys were the best material on the continent without a doubt. Private Alexander Hunter of the first virginia infantry referred to the texas brigade as the pride and glory of the army of Northern Virginia. The other background i want to give you is who what units im talking about. The three corps of the hoods texas brigade. The three rein the beginning an end of the war. They are joined by the georgia. The georgians and carolinians are transferred out following the battle of antietam. Transferred in as the 3rd arkansas in hoods texas brigade through the end of the war. When you look at those three corps r core regimens, t1st texas, they are the ones i call the die hards. These are volunteers who were ready to go to war from the moment the secession process started. Tex really, once you have those 11 states in the confederacy, they are rushing to virginia because thats where they are convinced they can make the difference before they even have approval from Jefferson Davis that texas troops will be allowed to participate in the fighting in virginia. The thinking was the texans would help on the frontier and on the coastline. These are your diehards. They will suffer the casualties of a diehard, aggressive unit. The 4th and 5th texas infantry arent too far behind. They wait for actual permission before going to virginia, but the second they have it they are on the train and going. This is a highly motivated unit when its organized in the summer of 1861 and when they arrive in richmond that fall. Other background to help you picture these men as you can kind of see some of them as they were in the early months of 1862. If you just look at those three texas regiments to get a sense who is volunteering, about twothirds of texas brigade soldiers came from middle class households, middle to upper in class if your range is 500 up to 20,000. Fairly wealthy, fairly comfortable, moderately to well educated. Most of them are not born in texas. Like many 19th century americans, they were with families that kept traveling west and had arrived in texas. Like most 19th century americans they came from farming families. They are also the ranks included backsmith, teachers, physicians and many, many, many lawyers. Most of are from rural areas. You have men from houston, companies are organized in austin, dallas. They are unified in their disdain for Republican Party policies, which they saw as a threat to the wealth that they and their families accumulated by 1860. That included a commitment to slavery. Twothirds of the texas officers and onethird of the privates came from households that owned enslaved men, women and children. As works has shown us, even if you dont own slaves, you have access to slave labor and the status if you will that came with that class. The men rarely spoke directly about slavery. Particularly early in the war. In first year or two, i could barely find it in their letters. I looked at a lot of letters. Even when lincoln announced the emancipation proclamation and thousands of white southerners worried about the results of this, hoods texans talked a bit more about it. But they still they are not particularly worried like many were. I argue it did not occur to them they were going to lose. It did not occur to them that slavery would end in their world. They did, however, address the issue clearly when they ran into africanamerican troops on the battlefield. New Market Heights is an example of this. Hoods texans participated in the capturing and enslaving of black soldiers and in some cases refusing to give quarter. To summarize their views on slavery, they argued that it was a Legal Institution and one that had been key to the socioeconomic success that many of them enjoyed, particularly during the 1850s and hoods texans resented efforts to limit northern efforts to limit the expansion of slavery or threaten it in any way. Now we have some basic background on the unit. Lets get into why i decided it was so effective in battle. The first thing i told you, they had superb company and commanders. These were key to the successes and sustaining the men. It doesnt mean though that they found those commanders right away. In fact, hoods texans were famous at the start of the war for rejecting officers that they didnt like, particularly if they were appointed rather than elected by the men. They didnt even necessarily like texans. Rtp allen was a colonel. He was too restricting, too controlling. The most effective commanders were disciplinarians whether it came to drill and making sure the men were effective in a fight, but they tended to be more relaxed when it came to other camp regulations if guys disappeared for a while, they trusted they would come back. There wasnt necessarily a big deal made out of this. Rtp allen made a big deal out of everything. The men disliked him and made him miserable until he left. This is going to be a common tactic early in the war. Colonel showler decided he was too fancy. He was a dandy with gold lace and stars. Dugal williams described him as, a man so little worthy of remark that i deem it a waste of paper and ink as well as time and trouble to make the slightest mention of him whatsoever. Then he continues. He is a small, very dried up specimen of human nature and his enormous mustache covers his face. I wish you could see him. I know you would fully agree with me in saying he is totally unfit to occupy the position he now holds. The men teased and tormented him until he at last left in disgust. The last the texans saw of him was his back side riding out astride his horse, its mane sheered off. The if i ha their judgment knew no bounds. They made a mockery of major quattlebaum. I know you will assume what they do with his name. He resigned, insisting that if he had to associate with devils, he would wait until he went to hell where he would select his own company. The 5th texans did accept colonel archer. They were always suspicious because he was a marylander and that meant he was, quote, too near yankeedom for them. This leads you to the next question. Who did they approve of . This guy is one of them. Ho howdy martin, this is one of the reasons they loved him, he thought the saluting thing was stupid. They would salute him. He would say howdy. This is how he got his name. They loved that egalitarian nature. He is in control. He is a very effective commander. Like i said, its like he knows with horses, to be gentle on the bit. He knows how to control the men without being too controlling. Long after the war, this guy, val giles who i was chatting with one of you about if you read the memoir, read it. Its hands down either side of the war one of the best ever written. Hes a beautiful writer. Long after the war, val giles of the 4th texas, you can hear him smiling in the writing. He was reflecting on the optimism in the texas brigade in the summer of 1863 as they marched towards pennsylvania. He said that some of the good cheer was aided by the whiskey. Each man received when the confederates crossed the potomac. It was chain lightning. It knocked out many a valiant soel soldier. They never did figure out quite where hood got the whiskey. But every man in the regiment was a no nothing. We ate breakfast in virginia, dinner in maryland, supper in pennsylvania and slept in the state of intoxication. [ laughter ] four states in 24 hours. Giles remembered, too, the man he was walking with when he crossed into the keystone state. He stepped out of line to wait for the company commander, strolling at the head of his company, his long saber thrown over his shoulder. Giles asked martin to joan hin in capturing pennsylvania. That most to giles, it signified the tight bond between the Citizen Volunteer officers and the men of texas brigade, a relationship key to their past and future successes. Quote, arm in arm, a captain and a 4th sergeant invaded the united states. Giles insisted such familiarity as that between a captain and a noncommissioned officer would appear ridiculous but captain martin was a man we all loved and could approach. By the way, they approached him a lot when they got in trouble. Martin was a lawyer. They would get to the guardhouse for one or the other thing. Martin was there. He could argue their case pret at this ti pretty well and sometimes get them taken care of. John c. Upton was another officer they respected and loved. He was strict. Care a courageous in battle. Consider, for example, this description from Robert Campbell of what upton looked like at the battle of gains mill. He wore an old pair of pants, a pair of cavalry boots, a slouch black hat and a pair of six shooters looking less like an officer than many of his men. The texas cattleman walked calmly along the line in the middle of the battle, circling his saber over his head and yelling above the noise. He embodied the kind of man hoods texans would accept as a leader and disciplinarian. They loved John Bell Hood the most. I need to thank the American Civil War museum for let meg use this photograph in the book, particularly the fact that it came from the time period when he was with those men. The texans warmed to hood immediately. Duke of the 4th texas declared when the regiment met the colonel they were well pleased with him. He is a good soldier and has the appearance of a brave man. Thats just what texans want, a man that will lead them on to victories or death. This loyalty to hood by the way lasted for the rest of their lives. It lasted long after hoods reputation had become tarnished, after atlanta, after franklin and nashville, after the battled for civil war memory and confederate memory. When hoods texas brigade, when they organized into a veterans association, they named themselves the hoods Texas Brigade Association. He had only commanded them for six months. They had longer brigade commanders who had led them. It was hood that they loved the most. Val giles mouse used, its a qun whether hood made the texas brigade or the texas brigade made hood. By the way, i know im violating the rules of powerpoint. Theres too much text on this slide. But theres always a but. What i want you to notice here are the number of casualties the unit is suffering. Gains mill, the 4th texas loses close to 50 killed, wounded and missing. 5th texas is going to be close to 50 . The 1st texas at the battle of antietam, jack davis was talking about clee number crunching. I kind of like it. It does have its flaws. I remember crunching numbers and looking at casualty rates. I had a grad student working with me. Theres a spike in september of 1862. Well, yeah, its called antietam. It doesnt always work. It does work in other areas. I will those with you later. At antietam, i told you the 1st texas, it was the diehartd unit. They pushed so far into the corn field that they are surrounded by federal forces. The generally accepted statistics are 82 , 83 casualty for the 1st texas infantry. If you look at the report long after the war when he is writing back and forth, he argued that it was closer to 86 to 87 casualty. Some men joined the unit whose names were not on the rolls and they suffered devastating losses. If you look at the summer of 1862, during the campaign season, even if you look at june 27 through antietam, you are looking at close to 2,000 men killed, wound and missing. If you look at gettysburg, they will suffer 600 casualties at the wilderness of the 811 men engaged, they suffer 565 casualties. As i was writing this book, i literally its one of the reasons i started crunching numbers because im like, you cant sustain those kind of casualties and remain an effective fighting force in a war. You just dont tend to do that. A unit will get consolidated. Its going to not be effective anymore. So i started trying to figure out how this was possible. I found out a couple of things. Number one, hoods texas brigade had high return rates from hospitals and capture and it had exceptionally low desertion rate. Over onethird of the army of Northern Virginia was listed as deserters. Between 1861 and 1865, only 6 . 6 of hoods texas brigade deserted. Of that 6 , a third of them abandoned the ranks between november of 1863 and the spring of 1864 when they were away from one of the commanders they trusted most, robert e. Lee and felt like they were being misled, undersupplied and uncared for unjustly treated. This was when 1st corps detached from the army of Northern Virginia to go to east tennessee. They were miserable and rudderless without lee. The brigade leader was facing courtmartial charged with demoralizing his men by complaining about lack of food, clothing and shelter. They were led that winter by one of the brigade was led by one of the regimental commanders who was a superb commander but he is trying to lead the regiment at the same time he is trying to lead the brigade. That moment of frustration, that window of just they were lost in that winter of 63 and 64. Its the exception rather than the rule for the texas brigade. The rule for the texas brigade in the civil war is that very few men deserted and if they were captured or in hospital from wounds or disease, they fought not to get to their home but the home that was the brigade, the unit home. 5th texas williams marvelled at this when he was home on recruiting duty. He admitted to his fiancee he had just left. He was headed back to the unit. Saying as good as it is to be home, what he wanted to do was get back to the unit. That had become his home. I remember thinking, i dont know if i would say that to your fiancee. Its a powerful statement again of the families and communities that develop in war that are echoing the homefro front famil within the unit. Speaking of those home front families, one of the other points i asked you to remember was the ability of hoods texas brigade families to sustain themselves and each other during the war. Throughout the war, they tended to raise money to build and outfit the texas hospital in richmond, to send clothing, blanking, books to the men. Such fundraising, thats not unusual. You saw that north and south. Their ability to sustain themselves and the brigade families, that was a little different. I looked, for example, in the governors papers. We know from studies by amy taylor, ann ruben, stephanie mccurry, that governors offices were flooded with all sorts of complaints. 19th century americans were fabulous. Its like writing to your governor was the twitter of the 19th century. They will spout off about everything. My cow died. What are you going to do about it . Whats fascinating is you can tap into the frustration and concern and hope of 19th century americans by looking at those papers. Realizing what other scholars had done, i started to explore Texas Governors papers to see how many petitions, how many complaints are coming in, how many requests to have a son exempted, to have a son or a husband sent home, which was very, very common in governors papers, including the Texas Governor collections. I couldnt find one. Doesnt mean one or two doesnt exist. But i couldnt find it. We looked. What i argue is that these families were financially stronger, wealthier when the war began. So they were probably more likely to sustain themselves with the men gone. For the families that werent, they were able to help take care of them. The woman on the left, maude young, was probably the one they knew and recognized the most. She did a lot of the most successful fundraising for hoods texas brigade. She was adored by the men of the 5th texas. Her brother served. She helped make their flag. They sent the flag back to be saved in 1864. Probably the biggest sacrifice she personally made she did a tremendous amount with fundraising. But she also came from a very wealthy family and had roots within the wealthier communities of houston. She had been widowed while she was pregnant with her only son. He finally turned 16 in 1864. She sent him to go join the 5th texas in the field. You find him showing up in january of 1865 personally making that sacrifice. This was you see this again and again in texas brigade families, whether they are wealthy, like maude young or if they are not. Raz cartwright did not come from a wealthy family. His mother was widowed. They made their raliving sellin hogs. He and his brother died early on. He died on the train. He doesnt get to the war. The brother continues on. In 1862, another brother volunteered and joined the texas brigade. You will see this happening again and again, even after they start to have those high casualties that i put up there. You dont have to do that if you are worried about serving honorably or making a sacrifice for the confederacy. These men could have served closer to home. Plenty of texans did. It was quite acceptable, perfectly acceptable. But they sought out the texas brigade because this is it where they argued they could make the greatest difference. They wanted to be in a unit that they would argue could win the war. That faith was shared not only among the men but among their families at home. The women you see here, most of them come from wealthy families. Most of them have more than one Family Member in the unit. Maude young sent her son. Lucy sullivan sent a son, a nephew, a soninlaw. Ann erskin sent her brother, husband, nephew. Felicia lockridges husband went with close freniends. Each left some very rich records of their experiences in the war, their ability to sustain the families, including when some of the Family Members did not come home as the case with lucy sullivans son. So the families shared that devotion that you saw in the men. And thats what im talking about when i tell you that i think we need that full picture of the multiple communities that make up and sustain military units to understand their effectiveness or their ineffectiveness in war. One last thing i want you to think about that was interesting to me as i was writing this book. Most civil war historians will tell you one of the frustrating parts is we dont want to end our books in 1865. Its not like their lives ended. They went home and stopped writing. Or they kept writing letters, its nobody thought those were important because they were about everyday things. They didnt necessarily save or donate those. Sometimes its hard to trace these men whethn they get home. But as jack davis mentioned earlier, one of the great things about the digitalization of civil war area newspapers is that you can find them and you can find what theyre doing after they get home. I wanted to find out kind of do they come home if you are in the same company, you were recruited close by in the same town s and counties. What were they doing . Did they stay in close contact . Were they limited . How off were they going into business together . One of the most interesting things is they very much either stayed together forming businesses together or as you can see in these ads, they used their service in the texas brigade almost like you would put a degree from an Ivy League Institution on a resume. Okay . For those of you in the back, if you cant see all this, when d. C. Farmer, a former texas thats good. Former captain in the 5th texas, when he opened a school in october of 1865 months after he gets home he did not advertise his education. He did not advertise his experience as a teacher. The ad simply highlighted farmers quote, spirit of business and he was of the old texas brigade in virginia. Thats all you need to know. He is a good guy. Go here. The other one, dr. R. J. Breckenridge. No mention of his schooling or experience. Doesnt mention he was the surgeon of the 5th texas, he rose to chief medical inspector of the army of medical inspector. The endorsement he offers in his ad was that he was a gentleman wellknown to the old texas brigade. This is not a newspaper for veterans of the texas brigade. This is houston triweekly telegraph. Thats how they are advertising. They use their connections within the brigade and that endorsement of having been a soldier in the texas brigade to wage the peace that followed the war. Ads mentioned, for example, that other veterans of the brigade would be welcome. When two men opened a store in houston, we need not add that any member of the old texas brigade who visits will always be made at home in this store. The texas brigade veterans and their families sustained each other after the war just as they had during the war. Maude young and veterans worked to take care of poor and sick. They testified on each others behalf in pension applications. It truly had an affect on their security, their wealth in the postwar period. The number crunching i mentioned to you earlier, again, some of the its like with digital history, its not that it proviepr provides as much as it tells you where to look deeper. If you crunch the numbers and compare the wealth, they lost a huge amount of wealth. Shocker. One of the interesting things i found that when compared with their neighbors in the same county in 1870, in nearly twothirds of cases, hoods texas brigade family losses were less than those suffered by the county as a whole. I argue this is because these men and their families stuck together and cared for each other after the war just as they had during it. Thank you very much. [ applause ] once again, we have generous time for questions. About 15 minutes or so. The microphones will be coming to you. Two questions. First of all, one could argue the low desertion rate had to do with the distance to their homes. Whats the point in deserting if you cant make it home. What was the relationship with the texas units that fought in the western armies, in postwar reunions, did they get together . Great questions. On the fist one, you could argue that they just didnt have homes to go to. Texas is too far its 1,000 miles to get home. Except for the fact that when they did get furloughs and they couldnt often get across the mississippi after the fall of vixburg, they went to families in virginia, carolinas. As i mentioned earlier, most of the guys werent born in texas. Their families moved west. Instead of going to hospital, sometimes they would be allowed to go and spend a couple months healing and recuperating with a Family Member in North Carolina and South Carolina and western virginia, Something Like that. They definitely had places to go to even do the french leave, i will go for a while and come back. Just believe in what theyre doing too much. Its really what you see in an elite unit. You dont tend to see those sorts of problems because ideologically theyre so convinced of the ideals and also, too, they are very well led. They are not as miserable as youll see other units, right . Theyre not going through what Leslie Gordon is talking about in the broken regimen where you have real problems with leadership and cohesion. You dont have that in the texas brigade. You have tremendous losses and tremendous pride and security in that family, right . I blanked on your other question. Postwar reunions. Postwar reunions. Poof there it went. Yes, they tended to get together with other texas units in texas sometimes, but those werent their favorites. They would talk about yeah, we went there, but we really want together with our own unit. Its like any elite unit getting together with other regular soldiers, right . They like them and theyre great, but theyre not like us, kind of thing. They very much, even if they have the other reunions or go to those other reunions they would very much always work to have their own. Okay. Hi. Hi. What was the process after losing so many men in these particular battles of getting new recruits . How did they get them all of the way from texas . That was been of the reasons i started crunching the numbers because its not adding up after the fall of vicksburg. You can find the record of these guys and williams who was sent back over recruiting duty in the early spring in particular of 62 and 63 and they would recruit and bring back a number of men. That way after the fall of vicksburg that becomes very difficult. The number of new recruits is absolutely minimal. Maybe a dozen guys in 1864, and this is what im showing you is that when you track the wounded, and this is more of that number crunching in hospitals and who were captured and then exchanged. They are very, very quickly making their way and you can find them reappearing and resurfacing on the roles. Thats literally how theyre able to do it and they also tended to reject guys who did not necessarily view as some of the western units under general greg, for example, would you accept some of these fellow texans from the west . And it was kind of i dont know. Again, this kind of elite attitude of i dont know. You guys have surrendered and i dont know if i want you in this unit. So no, you dont find a lot almost any draftees in the unit, and again, if you show up in the texas brigade its because you specifically specifically wanted to be there. Certainly by 62 and 63, by the second manassas you knew what you were committing to, as well, which means youre dedicated and youre probably going to stay. I want to impose a question myself. Ask a question with which im wrestling in some of my own work. You told us about the elite unit and how well they performed and but also about the slight holding among them and also their devotion to the cause which we all know is ultimately the preservation of slavery. To people and talk like this publicly and among the faculty colleague, do you ever get and how would you answer if you did the question suzanne, they fought for slavery. They performed so well and you wax on and on about how well they performed, but they did so in the interest of slavery. How do you cope with that . How do i cope with it . Part of it is, im not married to it. Part of it is i dont i dont tend to write about units because i love them because i agree with everything we do. I get particularly invested in some of the characters whose letters and diaries, right . Are particularly interesting and every once in a while you knew one of them dies with the battle of the wilderness and you knew it was coming and it will kind of hit you. I am more interested in what made them so effective, not that theres some glorious unit. The texans fought for things with which we all fundamentally disagree and thai did a lot of things with which i fundamentally disagree, but what i was most curious about is what makes an elite unit an elite unit. How does that happen . Why would they suffer the casualties they could and why would they do it. My first book which was the very irish brigade was a part and they suffered tremendous casualties and theyre not able to sustain that elf well of strength and the fighting force and the iron brigade suffers tremendous casualties and is weakened because of it and the answer i often give to colleagues is that im not interested in writing the book of the texas brigade and im interested in what makes an effective unit. Hi. Hi. Thank you for your discussion. I had a question, with all of the casualties and you mentioned that they were close as a unit. Did that carry over into taking care of those who lost Family Members, as well. I know you mentioned veterans and what sort of steps did you take to take care of those loved ones during the brigade . During the war you talked about so and sos families having a hard time. To go back to the image on the left. Maude young was probably one of the most effective, i think. I think that because she left the letters that make it possible that i can know that, right . But she, for example, there is a powerful story that rick eisner helped me uncover, they found a veteran who is just crippled down and just horribly suffering on his death bed and shes working with some other folks, and it was in baltimore if i remember right, and you wrote about them in your book, and she would do that type of networking within the veterans association. Probably the bestknown case was the Texas Brigade Association was raising money with their yellow fever epidemic in the 1870s and they took the money to help take care of the orphaned children and make sure they got placed in homes and things like that, but the other things you will see them doing is the things that arent necessarily that unusual. Testifying on each others pension applications. No, no, no. He didnt desert, he was in the hospital and he came back in town for darbytown road and i can clarify. You see things like that, but its also the closeness that they maintain in terms of opening up businesses together and advertising to support each others businesses and that kind of networking, if you will, that they do after the war. So its everything from that day to day business to really working to take care of veterans who had fallen on hard times. Hi. So i got into this years ago with my fascination with Joshua Chamberlain. We all went through the Joshua Chamberlain phase. Its okay. Its okay. I dont know how much of what i learned back then is true, but i am still fascinated and i have to admit also my Hoods Division was on that side and i believe oats was part of what you were talking about. Im curious from your study what the afteraction reaction was after that key battle. At gettysburg. Yeah, at gettysburg, and the what ifs. Did they think if we would have done this and if oats would have done that. Im curious of your thoughts on that day. Yeah, sure. Its a great question. I had a piece on this in civil war times looking at that guy on the far right there. Lockridge wrote home to his wife in the immediate aftermath, just weeks after gettysburg, just devastated. I mean, he had literally seen one of his good friends go down who was a School Teacher in corsicana, and just. They had just fought so hard and ill put in a plug for our battlefield folks, you can study this all you want. Dont just you go, take people. Take young people, okay . Go to these park, walk the ground and you will understand what theyre writing about in a whole new way. I remember i was there with my brother and a friend and i said we always go the route of the route to devils den and lets go to fourth and fifth texas way, and all of the times ive hiked that ground, ladies and gentlemen, ive only done it once is there are boulders and trees and we were exhausted going through that route up to little round top, and so in their letters as theyre writing home immediately after that, you have that kind of exhaustion and that frustration. I mean, they are so close, right . And yet, one month after lockeridge wrote the letter to his write, felicia there on the right, one month later he says i dont know. I think we about won that thing and by the way, we took more prisoners, so thats what im talking about, right . They so fundamentally believe in who they are and whats happening that any negative theyre hearing, its probably just some rumors. Maybe we won that thing and we havent had the full story yet, so that ability almost not quite logical ability to bounce back like that, thats one of those other factors that im talking about that helps sustain a unit and keep it going kind of very, very militarily effectively. Thank you. [ applause ] youre watching a special edition of American History tv, during the week while members of congress are in their districts due to the coronavirus pandemic. Tonight at 8 00 p. M. Eastern programs on Alexander Hamilton. Selected by George Washington in 1789, Alexander Hamilton served as the nations first treasury secretary until january 1795. In a talk titled the hamilton scheme, enemies and allies in the creation of an american economy, historian and author William Hogeland discusses amitions financial ideas. Enjoy American History tv now and over the weekend on cspan3. Television has changed since cspan began 41 years ago, but our Mission Continues to provide an unfiltered view of government. Already this year we brought you primary election coverage, the president ial impeachment process and now the federal response to the coronavirus. You can watch all of cspans Public Affairs programming on television, online or listen on our free radio app, and be part of the National Conversation through cspans daily Washington Journal Program or through our social media feeds. Cspan, created by private industry, americas Cable Television companies. As a Public Service and brought to you today by your television provider. Next on the civil war, author Jonathan White talks about how Abraham Lincoln interacted with africanamericans he met during his time in office. He explains how lincolns willingness to have africanamerican guests at the white house and shake their hands was considered very liberal, even radical at the time. This talk w