Vicksburg, which battle he considers being a native mississippian and having worked at both parks, which he considers to be the biggest turning point. Gettysburg or vicksburg . I will let matt get up here and explain. Matt atkinson. [applause] matt that is what it is. I understand you all had a role last night about something. Right there, right . The most important battle, a top 10 battles in the american civil war, gettysburg was left off. Can you believe that . I want to tell you a quick story. I was invited down to a roundtable in richmond. We were at the willow oaks country club. We had virginia ham. The only time they go out there. Anyway i was having a great , time, i was in richmond and the man who did the top 10 last night lives there and he did not show. So here is what you call poetic justice. [laughter] a slight i have not forgotten right there. [laughter] the top 10 battles in the american civil war. Im sure he knows more about the civil war than i do, im sure he did not leave gettysburg off unintentionally. What is the most important battle to matt, i think that would be the relevant question. The most important battle in the civil war to Matt Atkinson is wherever Matt Atkinson happens to be working. [laughter] thank you very much. [applause] i would also like to say that i would like to acknowledge the other elephant in the room. I tell people this at gettysburg a lot. I caution them, if you go to other civil war sites, dont go into a Visitors Center and tell them that you have been to gettysburg. Dont tell a park ranger that. They do not want to hear that. They have heard that, i have worked at other sites and i have heard it multiple times. Sometimes multiple times in the same day. Multiple times, right there. I would like to say that there obviously this is an emerging civil war conference and so forth. We have a plethora of subjects back there, from which you can choose from. Books, etc. What is the most important point . I can make this lecture pick two battles and i could put it up there. I mean, the list could go on and on. We can put chancellorsville up there, we can put spotsylvania, i was driving down here and the lady who talks to me on the phone, that tells me where to go from time to time. She is having me drive past grant headquarters in 1864. I am like, this is really cool, she must really know what i like. [laughter] you could really argue what is the turning point . Is there a big turning point . Let me start by saying that i do recognize that, ok . There are other subjects and there is a lot of subjects, especially in the western theater, when i say that i mean mississippi, tennessee, those type, even west of the mississippi. There is a lot of subjects that are uncovered out there. The problem is i am supposed to and i sincerely thank the editor of ecw for his patience with me on this book on vicksburg. Is almost at 500 words if i remember correctly. [laughter] if and when that book is ever published, which will obviously be the master work on vicksburg, the problem is lets status lets stair this in the face it is not going to sell. I didnt say that. Why is it not going to sell . People do not buy in the same number subjects on the western theater that they do on the Eastern Theater. If i can slap something on there like vicksburg, the gettysburg of the west, i would sell 10,000 more copies about it. The first thing i want to do in stepping off into this minefield is having acknowledged everything that i have. I hate to let the elephant out of the room, but i dont think the question is which is more important, gettysburg or vicksburg. I think the relevant question is why is gettysburg bigger than vicksburg . Why is that . Is anybody really going to debate that with me . In the american psyche, i dont think there is any debate that gettysburg is bigger than vicksburg. Why is that . That is something i dont know if i will be able to answer today. But we will try. First things first, quick overview of both campaigns. You are after the conference and he would not be at this conference if you did not like the civil war. The Gettysburg Campaign really does not need any introduction. It is the culmination of all of robert e. Lees battles. When i drive through the fredericksburg, spotsylvania, battlefield system, im thinking about it interrelates. Im a huge fan of robert e. Lee myself and these four battlefields which surround this area are the mecca for me. As well as the rangers, they like to talk about other subjects from time to time. What is the point of robert e. Lee fighting all of these battles in the fredericksburg area . The point is, he is trying to win the war. How do you win the war . According to robert e. Lee, if youre going to win it through military means, you probably have to win a decisive battle on Virginia Soil or a victory on the northern soil. Robert e. Lee knows he can keep whipping the yankees time and time again, but what does it solve . What does it accomplish . After the battle of chancellorsville, robert e. Lee is going to get the opportunity , he has the initiative, and he is going to use that opportunity to invade the north. This map does not have a mountain ranges on it but basically he swings through the west and uses the mountain ranges as cover and it is a perfect conduit or avenue up into the north. Once he gets into pennsylvania, he splits his forces up. The union army is starting to dovetail behind him. But they are not exactly flush with him as he comes up. On the night of june 28, everything changes for him. In that little town, if you have good eyes you can see, called chambersburg. It shows how history can change on one time when a scout or spy named harrison, that is in the very beginning of the movie. [laughter] do you want me to do like cheesy lines the whole program . I did like robert duval better, i must say. [laughter] chambersburg is where harrison is going to come in. He drops a bomb on robert e. Lee. This is probably what he was playing, look it up, wikipedia, it will be on there. Harrison comes in and tells robert e. Lee, the union army is not in virginia, it is actually in maryland. As the crow flies, it is not that far away from you. The important thing to remember and if i can teach you one thing is that this lecture is not about any campaign by any stretch of the imagination, but one thing, a quick little hitter because what did you pay to get in here . 130 . What was the Early Bird Special this year . 130 . This is worth all of that right here. [laughter] you come to my conference, it is 79. 95, but we are having hamburgers. [laughter] hot dogs. [laughter] harrison, the scout, tells robert e. Lee that the union army is not moving north, he tells him that the union army is moving west. So everything based on gettysburg is based off that false intelligence. Robert e. Lee believes the union army is moving behind him, not towards him. He calls a junction of his forces at gettysburg to keep the union army on the eastern side or the washington side of the mountains. Make sense . How about a round of applause . Thank you very much. [applause] it wasnt too good, was it . Here, we have the first day and i like to say, once again, this is not an overview of the battle or any stretch of the imagination. I like to say that the battle of gettysburg ends up which is no big surprise in a confederate victory. What i like to say in summation of the first day is i think it is the worst thing that could have possibly happened to robert e. Lee. Why is that . Because robert e. Lee wins the first day and it sets up the next two days. If he lost the first day, he might have gotten away from it. But he wins, when you are winning, i dont know if youve ever pulled a slot machine, when you are winning, it is fun. [laughter] when it is not, it is not. Anyway they chased the union , forces back and robert e. Lee renews the offensive the next day, on the second day. He ends up attacking the end of the union line at places like peach orchard, devils den, little round top, places that have heard of, that will be written into American History. He comes this close, really. A couple breaks here or there, like a football game, he might have had more success. But the union army is fighting hard, harder than the confederates estimated they would. Basically the union army holds , on. On the third day, robert e. Lee decides to punch it up the gut. We all know how that worked out. That is known as picketts charge. But it has captured the american imagination. When you talk about when i talk about the overall subject of gettysburg versus vicksburg, obviously vicksburg does not have a picketts charge. If you like the romance of war, how much grander does it get . I cant tell you how many times as a boy in mississippi, how many times in my parents pasture that i walked across the terrain with my little toy musket and rebel flag that the ole miss cheerleaders gave me and i was reenacting picketts charge. That is what captured my imagination right there. It was the seminal moment. I had even read William Faulkner yet. [laughter] but it ends in defeat. It is a huge debacle. I will say that having read about the battle. It is a bad mistake and it really cant be i can offer you a whole hours worth of excuses on why he did it but i cant justify it in the end. Robert e. Lee, if he ran out of options, would hit you head on. We have some books on the seven days campaign, the battle of the wilderness, look at the pattern with robert e. Lee, he will hit you head on if he runs out of options. That is robert ely. That is robert e. Lee the union army pursues the confederate army. Here is one of the great what ifs. The union army has a chance to bottle up lees army. Next to the potomac river, a place called williamsport, maryland. George meade has just won the battle of gettysburg. The man was placed in command on june 28, 3 days before the battle. Then he goes up against arguably i dont know who is big right now, joe montana, is he still around . [laughter] is that funny . Ok. How about Archie Manning . [laughter] southern mississippi guy will get it back there. George meade, i think he is exhausted, he is trying to shoot those old rebs across the river. He has an opportunity to win the war right here. Should he attack . If theres one thing i always try to put in a little caveat, something you can learn. I want to tell you this little story, some of you know it and some of you dont. In the aftermath of the campaign of gettysburg, lincoln was furious. Because he was writing george meade and saying destroy them, end the war right here. When lincoln finds out that meade has allowed lee to escape, he writes in the letter and he is furious. When lincoln was assassinated, that letter is found in his desk. Lincoln wrote on the outside of it, Something Like letter not sent. I have remembered that. I just got my 20 year pin in the government. My supervisor, i came out wearing it on my uniform, my supervisor told me to take it off. I said, why would you send it to me if you did not want me to wear it . One thing that lincoln has taught me right here is that i cannot tell you how many times i have written an email and waited 24 hours before i sent it. Most of the time, i do not send it. That is what Abraham Lincoln taught me. Now, what about general meade . General meade is very happy with the campaign. He thinks it is a brilliant success. He would write in his official report that maybe briefly stated in the defeat of the enemy of gettysburg, his compulsory pennsylvania,f maryland, and withdraw from the upper battles of shenandoah. After three guns, 41 standards and over 13,000 prisoners. 24,978 small arms were collected on the battlefield. He finds it to be a bounding success. Lincoln doesnt feel that way. There a whole lot of color between here and grant coming to the east. I can do the whole program on this. Suffice it to say, i do believe that meades failure to attack is the start of his demise. You can add in bristow station. You can buy the book in the back if you would like, i cant remember what the name of it is called. He is back there, ready to sign right now. Cash or check. [laughter] meade has won the battle of gettysburg. We are flipping away, i can tell you the mileage because i drove it last week. I drove 850 miles, i got five miles within my parents, i have two girls screaming in the back and one boy that is tired. I am doing 79 miles an hour down the highway, at the top of the hill, and there greeting me was the mississippi highway patrol. [laughter] i got pulled over and i said to them, i said to him, you know, i made a detour to montgomery, i went to see Hank Williamss cadillac. I have been telling my girls my little threeyearolds about Hank Williams and how they know the story of how he drank too much beer in the back of that cadillac. So we went by the grave and everything. I am trying to get out of this ticket so i reach inside my pocket and i pull out this Hank Williams Museum Ticket and i hand it to him. He goes, what is this for . He has the hat on and everything, he is leaning over the window. Im like, im just saying, i have been to Hank Williams museum. He goes, i will be right back. I go, that is the best excuse youve heard all day. It did not work. If you would like to see it, it is in my car. [laughter] that worked out. If you think about vicksburg, i dont know if this dot is going to show up. It would probably be better for those in the back, where you see the big words Confederate States of america, the big s on states is where vicksburg is. In a nutshell, vicksburg, mississippi becomes the last confederate stronghold. A small shadow to port hudson, louisiana. Out to porthout hudson, louisiana. The last confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River. The both commanderinchiefs, Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln, put a high priority on vicksburg. Remember, vicksburg is daviss backyard. This is the hometown. He is very familiar, he referred to it as the nail head that held the south together. Abraham lincoln said, see what a lot of land these fellows hold of which vicksburg is the key. The war can never be brought to a close until that key is in our pocket. Now, what that ends up doing, and once again, we can do multiple lectures on the campaigns of vicksburg right here. There are a lot of failed attempts to take vicksburg. In fact, my masters thesis from the school that beat alabama, right there, roll tide. We are not at anybodys funeral. You know saban got in trouble about that comment, look it up. My thesis was on the battle of the chickasaw bayou. One of the failed attempts. If i ever get around to it, i will publish that one time. My mother has a copy. Thank you very much. She says hello, by the way. [laughter] she thinks that all the dead yankees are in a swamp. [laughter] i knew that joke would go over well because i know my crowd. If you look at this right here, here is the campaign of vicksburg. General grant, if you watch it unfold, it makes a lot better sense. In double quicktime, general grant actually starts on the louisiana side. His ultimate objective is to get the high and dry ground behind vicksburg. How do you do that . What most people fail to recognize is the Mississippi River is to the west of vicksburg. The Big Black River is to the south and east of vicksburg. You have the yazoo river to the north. That is a huge problem for grant to overcome. What he ends up doing is he has the gunboat run past the city right here and his army marches down the louisiana side and rendezvouss with the union fleet. They cross over the Mississippi River at a place that is the largest Amphibious Landing of u. S. Forces until dday i think. Maybe north africa. Until world war ii. Anyway, he ends up fighting five battles. The first one at fort gibson, couple weeks later at raymond. The battle of jackson two battle to backup, the battle of raymond, if you get there, i am not saying you have to get there but it is the only battlefield in the country that has a cannon for every gun that was historically on the battlefield. Thank you, thank you very much. [laughter] that is a true story. The battle of jackson. What is grants ultimate objective . It is to cut the railroad between jackson and vicksburg. It is not really matter where he breaks it, so he breaks it at jackson and marches towards the west. He ends up meeting the confederate garrison at a place called champion hill. It is a battle that is roughly around 70,000 men, it goes back and forth all day and ends up with general grants career tottering with it and it ends up being a Decisive Union victory. They drive the confederates back and it is nothing but a matter of time from there. They fight a rearguard action, and then pemberton and all of his infinite wisdom gets himself bottled up inside the city. After that, it boils down to a siege, which i think is very interesting within its own right. We are talking about a union army, a field army having to convert themselves into engineers. When the siege of starts, general grant has within his army of 42,000, he has three engineers. These farm boys from illinois and indiana and all of the west have to learn to be engineers. They do a darn good job. They start 13 approaches for the confederate works and as grant would say in his memoirs, they would out camp the enemy. That would end up resulting in the surrender of the city. With that comes 29,500 confederate soldiers who will be stacking arms out there. An entire army is taken off the board. In addition, the federals find themselves in possession of 172 pieces of artillery, that breaks down to 93 field pieces and 63 69 siege guns. 38,000 artillery projectiles, 58,000 pounds of black powder, and 4800 artillery cartridges. In addition, since we are all friends, i might add that they got 50,000 small arms along with 600,000 rounds of ammunition and 350,000 percussion caps, quite a haul, to say the least. So, quick overview. Gettysburg, vicksburg, which is more important . How are you going to wrestle with this question . Lemonade, that cool refreshing drink. [laughter] that is pretty tart. For 130, you get some tart lemonade around here. [laughter] put some more ice in that. I told you that you shouldve paid attention to me when i came in. If you think about it, ladies and gentlemen, if you go back and you think about it, what is bigger in the American Mind as far as gettysburg and vicksburg . How do you tackle this . How do you wrap your arms around a subject which is basically subjective . A couple quotes. George templeton strong would and july 6, it was a memorable day in his diary. Glorious news proved to be half true. Tidings from gettysburg have been arriving in fragmentary installments with a steady crescendo towards complete , overwhelming victory. July 6, the results of this victory are priceless. The charm of robert lees invincibility is broken. The army of the potomac has found a general that can handle it and has stood up to the of itse work in spite list of hardfought failures. The confederate side, john b. Jones, who i might add in the fifth grade, i want you to know that i slogged my way through his entire diary. Yes, when i look back on that and i wonder why i havent read that again. July 8, we have sad tidings from the west, general johnston telegraphs from jackson that vicksburg capitulated on the fourth instant. This is a terrible blow. It produced much despondency. If lee falls back again, it will be darkest day from the confederacy that we have seen yet. Jones and richmond is learning about vicksburg before they do gettysburg. Interesting how information is traveling. Henry adams would write to his father, who is being the minister to great britain, july 23, 1863, the disasters of the rebels are unredeemed by even any hope of success. It is now conceded that all idea of intervention is at an end. Meaning foreign intervention. Colonel josiah gorgas, most of you have never heard of, but he was the chief of ordinance for the confederacy. He made cannonballs down in richmond. You should look him up sometime. July 28, 1863, events succeeded one another with disastrous rapidity. One month ago, we were apparently at the point of success, we were in pennsylvania threatening harrisburg and even philadelphia. Vicksburg seems to laugh. Port hudson had beaten off banks forces, all looks bright. Now the picture is as somber as it was bright then. Lee fell to gettysburg, and as we crossed the potomac and resumed the position of two months ago, covering richmond. Vicksburg and port hudson capitulated. It seems incredible that human power could affect such a change in so brief a space. Yesterday, we rode on the pinnacle of success. Today, absolute ruin seems to be our portion. The confederacy totters to its destruction. Somebody was asking me in the back where i got the word totter. When we get into this, when you get into gettysburg versus vicksburg, how do you impossible, otherwise impossible. Impossible. How do you get back to what is the more focal point of it . If you look at it, if you look at the quarters that go out here, you get gettysburg and you get vicksburg. Are there any other civil war battles, somebody remind me because i am asking. None . I think that is only two quarters. Dont everybody answer at once. That shows something about the american psyche right there. When you think about it, which is more important, politics or local . Im sure to the people of illinois and iowa, those farmers who could not get their produce down to new orleans and out to the rest of the world and by the way, the railroad was jacking up the prices on when they tried to ship at east, im sure vicksburg was a big deal. I might add that the boys from the west, from the western northern states if you understand what im talking about, probably had a lot more vested in vicksburg, especially their families. That is where their home people are fighting at the time. Gettysburg, if you look at it on the other hand, is going to save arguably going to save washington, d. C. If washington, d. C. Falls, what will be the consequence of that . Or if washington does not , what, does not fall is the consequences of confederate victory on northern soil right here . Splits the confederacy in two and opens up the waters next to the sea. It also brings to the forefront, never heard of this guy, william t. Sherman. Grants righthand man. Grant is going to get promoted to the east, sherman will get command in the west, and that is all basically related to vicksburg, with a subsequent success in the chattanooga area. That rolls it all up right there. The question begs itself, could the war have been won without sherman and grant . Can the north win the war without sherman and grant . That is an openended question for you to ponder. Be note takers ought to writing right now. If you think about it, which those of you up front, because you paid the Early Bird Special of can now see that small print 130 and you in the back cannot and will not get that joke. This actually happens to be the only picture that i can find with all three generals in it, including the subsequent president andrew johnson. Grant, sherman, and meade. Out of those commanders, which are which ones are indispensable . Debatable question, but grant obviously has to be up there. If you think about it, what about the parks to the veterans . What does it mean to them . There is a reason that the veterans choose the five original five civil war parks. Do the others merit inclusion, yes. Especially around petersburg. Always ride through there, the later parks didnt buy as big a swath of land. Sometimes that is why you see houses next to the park. But your five original parks, in no certain order, vicksburg, shiloh, chickamauga, chattanooga that is one battlefield gettysburg, antietam. When they congregate after the war, they are going to be at these original battlefields when they do that. You know . The 1938 reunion, actually the war department, the u. S. Army ordered in several hundred coffins in anticipation of some of the veterans dying at the reunion. I am happy to say, i hear the murmur in the crowd over this one, you should be prepared, he is a boy scout. [laughter] that was actually right off the top of my head right there. [laughter] no one died, i am happy to report. I think one person may have died on the way home, but no one died at the reunion. What is that about the american psyche . Why is gettysburg bigger in the american psyche than vicksburg . Im running out of time, so i have to skip through, but i would urge you to go through and look at some of the more modern interpretation. It is all over the place. The hardest part that i had getting some of this together and my coworker Carleton Smith in gettysburg, give him a shout out for many of these quotes. The author really depends on the subject he is writing about and name a book that is covering both gettysburg and vicksburg at the same time. Obviously, if you are writing about gettysburg, you will feel that is more important. If you are writing about vicksburg, you will feel that is more important. Donald singer is going to say, although no one realized it, the chance for success, a military effort had been lost. The remaining confederate hope remained in the possibility of a stalemate, if the south could prevent a northern victory, she might yet win her political objectives. Never heard of this book, have you . Yes, id bet you have. Coddington says in conclusion, these accomplishes were substantial, but in return, lee paid a high price in lives lost and the destruction of the myth of invincibility. Nor did he succeed in forcing the withdraw of a single soldier from the siege of vicksburg which had been one of the major , reasons of the campaign. Although the real meaning of the victory of gettysburg remained with the passage of time, its effect was toate give the army of the potomac a sense of trial which grew into a fate itself. The confederates put forth their best efforts and best army, but were not strong enough. The army of the potomac finally lived up to its promise. You think about it, as far as vicksburg is going to write that the drums of champion hills sounded the doom of richmond. Bruce catton, who i have recently rediscovered. I recently have been reading the book grant moves south. I have fallen in love again with him. We go in cycles in the civil war business, but i think he is not getting the credit he is due. He is a fantastic writer. He said this at the end of grant moves south. This is after vicksburg. Grant was ready at last, the time of testing was over and he had reached his full stature. Better than any other northern soldier, better than other men lincoln himself, he understand that understood the necessity of he understood bringing the Infinite Power of the growing nation to bring on the desperate weakness of the grave, and tragically archaic Little Nation that approach it. Understood too that although rebellion must be crushed, the rebels themselves were men who would again be friends and fellow citizens. Now was time to go on. Sherman had said it. In conclusion, ladies and gentlemen. [laughter] i actually forgot that slide was on there. If i would have remembered that, and i remembered i would have been on cspan, i would not have put that slide on there. What is that blurry image he put over everything . I guess cspan, since this is not live, they can do something about that. All the people who did not pay 130 to attend this conference could wonder what this slide said. I did a Little Research, we like to use the Word Research in the business. I did a Little Research on this unmentioned site. I wanted to see how many hits i would get when i put in the word gettysburg, and how many hits i would get when i put in the word vicksburg. I filtered by books. What i came up with , approximately, i got 7000 hits on gettysburg. I got 1000 hits on vicksburg. Yeah. That is what im saying. To go back to the very beginning of this, why does the Eastern Theater outpace the western theater . I have talked to artists before, i have talked to civil war artists, they say they cant sell it print unless they paint a flag in it. They say their confederate prints outsell union prints. I talked to publishers. A guy with a major publication told me that if he could put the same person on the cover of his magazine every month, he would. [laughter] why . Because it sells. Or robert e. Lee, for that matter. Why is gettysburg overshadowing it though . I would like to leave you with one last rhetorical question. As far as the gettysburg and vicksburg debate right here. Lets look at the question, i just wrote this down in my own handwriting while i was back there eating lunch. I said to myself, what if we looked at this completely different . Why dont we quit looking at it from the lenses of victories for the union and why dont we look at it through the lens and this gets hypothetical but nevertheless, what would have happened if those union forces would have been defeated . What would be the repercussions from that . If you look at that question of gettysburg versus vicksburg in a reverse form, possibly you will be coming up with a better idea of why it was important that both union armies won in the first place. I have to say i know everybodys , waiting on me to pronounce which one was bigger. Which one is more important with baited breath. I have to say, in the immediate aftermath, this is my opinion, i am not burt dunkerlee. So i try to be tactful. I have to say that gettysburg, and the immediate aftermath, if it had been a defeat would have been highly more problematic from the north than vicksburg would have. However, i would like to say also for vicksburg, if general grant is defeated outside of vicksburg i cant say this with 100 accuracy, we may not see lee versus grant in 1864. General grant very well may have been sacked. Going back to one of my earlier questions, could the war have been won without grant, william t. Sherman, and the rest of the high command that ended up winning it . That question is for you to ponder. Which is more important . In the end, is this the reason why gettysburg is so big in the american psyche . What if Abraham Lincoln had gone to vicksburg instead . Thank you all very much, i appreciate it. [applause] thank you very much. A seven to one advantage for gettysburg books, but there will be two more vicksburg books added. It seemed like i was reading wellcrafted words. Matt remember, lincoln did it in 272. It took me that long to get through it. Questions format, i have one in the back. Then i got one up here. My question is, we talk about gettysburg and vicksburg, didnt he have a lot to do with the gettysburg popularity and his dedication to bringing that . Matt the gentleman is referring to John Bachelder if you dont , know who he, he is the first historian of the battle of gettysburg. Out of the five original parts, i cant name the original five historians, but every part had a veteran that came up and took an interest in it. John bachelder he was the first. He got to gettysburg in 1863 before there was any thought of a park. He started researching. Papers,the bachelder vicksburg had a guy named william rigby. He corresponds to veterans. Antietam had a gentleman of its own. These people paved the path. The question was did he pave the way for gettysburg to becoming so important . In a way he did, he definitely facilitated to a greater extent or understanding of the battle because he is already corresponding during the war with these union generals. I hate to say i believe some of that correspondence was lost in a fire. I would love to have that if i had a time machine. Nevertheless, what i think really helps gettysburg besides the geographical location, and you can say this over vicksburg, you can say this over the battlefields around fredericksburg, etc. Gettysburg is fought in an area that is left unmolested immediately after the battle. These engineers and people that want to these families, these historians, people that want to see the battlefield, they can come to gettysburg, pennsylvania and not have to worry about confederate cavalry jumping in the town. It is not an active combat area. I think that helps get gettysburg rolling. And that guy. Question over here. Matt the only man who brought a copy of drennans letter. That is rare. Everybody is like i have to get one of those. He, i think in his diary , mentions right after the battle the glorious day, he talked about vicksburg and gettysburg together. He is referring to some of the things that happened in the west. Matt yes. Information, as far as traveling, is a hard thing to say. It kind of pieces out in the news, depending on where you are. People in new york will hear about gettysburg before they are vicksburg. You might argue that people in chicago might hear about vicksburg before they do gettysburg. Especially in the rural areas when you get out there. It is weird how it disseminates. I have some letters from my ancestors who was going to ole miss in 1861. It is like two or three weeks after the firing at fort sumter. They still had not heard the news. Heard they were firing but two weeks later there was no news to reach oxford, mississippi. It is weird but it is caught in the moment. He is writing his parents saying , i wonder what is happening. One final question. Is there any way that grant could have realistically helped in pennsylvania with his troops once it was known that lee was in pennsylvania . It seems like that is a Long Distance to pull a whole bunch of men. Matt the debate was whether to pull them out. General grant, not getting too far back in the campaign, but general grant, suffice it to say, blew through a few stop signs in taking vicksburg. So to speak. Going back to my speeding ticket. I should have argued that. I agree with you, it is not realistic to get the union army all the way from mississippi, all the way up to the north. It is not what you asked, but let me give you one example. The confederates surrendered at vicksburg, i said they surrendered close to 30,000 men. Admiral david porter came to grant and said, i could get them up north but it is going to take a long time. If you think about it, that is a lot of men. By the time the Vicksburg Campaign is over, grant probably has probably got close to 75,000 men around vicksburg right there. You think about moving the components, any realistic union reinforcements probably would come from the middle of tennessee or kentucky. Is the closest you got to mentioning tullahoma . Matt was that on the list . No . Well, he wont be invited back. [laughter] ladies and gentle men atkinson. Ladies and gentlemen, Matt Atkinson. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] American History tv is on cspan3 every weekend and all of our programs are archived on our website at cspan. Org history. You can watch lectures in college classrooms, towards of historic sites, archival films, and see our schedule of upcoming programs. The cspan cities tour travels the country, exploring the american story. We have been to 200 communities across the nation. Our staff is staying close to home, due to the coronavirus. Next, a look at one of our cities tour visits. [engine revving] eric they dont build airplanes like this anymore. This is a piece of history. I like to think about the lives that have been influenced and the careers this airplane might have changed. Over the last 18 years, the airplane has been the centerpiece of our museum, but
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