I must apologize that an early i iteration was called away to a memorial this afternoon. But she will be here tomorrow talking about her new book. The new lincoln. I am very pleased today, im Catherine Clinton and teach at the university of texas incentive tokyo and im here to moderate the panel. And also, as all of you im sure are aware, but to interject whenever a enthusiastically have some ideas that we could share. Our two panelists are going to share some of their comments and views with you. Then im going to comment and opened it up to you for your questions. I want to begin today by saying that my friend canvas cooper, was born in guam to a u. S. Navy hospital and his wife, and she attended more than half a dozen schools before her high school graduation. And undergraduate degree in journalism and a logic ray from georgetown university. It was only after her career on capitol hill as an aide to the late congressman Charlie Wilson, some of you may have seen him portrayed by tom hanks and Charlie Wilson swore. As a lobbyist with her husband that she discovered her true intellectual passion, returning to school in 2006 she earned in a main history with a concentration in military history from George Washington university. Her work has appeared in the new york times, the journal of military history, the michigan war studies review. She is an Award Winning poet as well serving on the Editorial Advisory Board on the journal of military history. Shes a member of a ulyssess grant historical home Advisory Boards in detroit, michigan. Lincolns generals wives, has won National Awards and will be available in the bookstore and for signing later today. Please welcome canvas cooper. applause i want to thank Harold Holzer for this wonderful invitation, to speak here. It is a great honor. And Catherine Clinton, for the lovely bird that is on the cover of my book. So to both of you, thank you so much. I also have to think jean and michelle, without whom my book would not have been written or published. Like so many other stories of the civil war, mine begins and ends with Abraham Lincoln. It begins in his office in the white house, at the outset of the war, with his unprecedented open door to all. Including wives of military men seeking redress or advantage for their husbands. It concludes in the cabinet room after his assassination with the death of his hopes for a soft piece. In between those two points in American History lies my tale of four women who influence the civil war by influencing their husbands who fought it. In large part because of their opinions of Abraham LincolnJesse Fremont, ellen sherman, julia grant where their husbands closest confidants. No other person had as profound or persistent impact upon them as did these women, who may loved and bore their children. The generals wrote their wives regularly, some even daily. About their hopes, fears, their love and sometimes of their terrible bloody work. When the wives responded, they wrote to their husbands about love, children, home and all that fighting men to here. The women wrote about the war and about the men charged with waging. It sometimes they wrote about Abraham Lincoln. Sometimes they wrote to him. Sometimes they travel to washington to petition him. The wives were known to change their opinions of lincoln, and theyre shifting views of the president influenced their actions. Perhaps this early as lincolns election, Jesse Fremont fought the rail splitter naive. Soon thereafter, she decided lincoln was irrelevant. Would she urged her husband to issue his emancipation order in august of 1861, without consulting lincoln who had so publicly wrestled with the idea of slavery through his career. Next, jesse disdained lincoln. Her trip to washington to rescue her husbands career ended badly. Lincoln listen to her carefully, asked her questions, and then, just as you can imagine he wouldve done if he was a man, lost his temper and heard her answers. She proceeded to lose her temper to. She concluded her visit by challenging the president s authority in her husbands name. She demanded the president s correspondence with the blares, by urging her husband to print more copies of the emancipation order, that the order had just told her was null and void. And theyd by encouraging fremont to arrest frank blair who is lincolns man in. Missouri jesses disdain for lincoln remained unabated for the rest of her life. Only one man could engender more revulsion in jesses breast than Abraham Lincoln. That would be George Brenton mcclelland. And the contest for the presidency in 1864, even her life long love affair with fremont, who is also in the running for president , took a backseat to her fervent hopes for the end of slavery. Despite her enmity toward lincoln, she had far more confidence in him in that regard then she had in mcclelland. She proceeded to go behind her husbands back and and jeweler his withdrawal from the president ial race without him knowing it in order to prevent there being a split in the republican vote. Jesse sacrificed much to end slavery. First she sacrificed her husbands military career by urging him to issue the emancipation order. And then against his commander in chiefs direct order, to continue to distributed widely. And she sacrificed her husbands dream of the presidency in order to preserve his reputation as champion against slavery. All her life, jesse sacrificed for john charles fremont. Of that there can be little doubt. There is some room for doubt though in the relationship between natalie and george mcclellan. One of the things i look at very closely is the question of whether she ever really loved him. But theres also room for doubt in whether her opinions of link and were hers are more influenced by her husbands. Her unfavorable views of lincoln might well have been harris because she was quite a spunky lady. But mcclellands own strong conservative judgment of lincoln were reinforced and amplified by nearly in the couples correspondence. The mcclellands could always change a good opinion they had of someone but never a bad one. Existing evidence shows that in words and deeds, natalie bolstered her husbands disdain towards macon and his cabinet. When mcclellan brought mcclellan and his daughter to the battlefield, it is hard to imagine that nellie would not have known that lincoln and halock were frantically pushing her husband southward. Yes she was a relatively young woman and he was an important military person to the apparent balance of power in victorian manage tilted toward the husband. Nonetheless, she could have found a way to subvert his ill advised arrogance at times, just as julia forced grant to refuse lincolns invitation to the theater. Nellies regard bull inaction was matched by regrettable action as when she urged her husband to disobey an order from halek. When she coily try to get mcclellan too dark into washington solely for the purpose of retrieving their table silver. And when she gave his literary executor unfettered access to their private correspondence which he later published in his version of mcclellans posthumous memoirs, thereby damning mcclellan fraternity in his own words. Even if there was no difference between george and nellies opinions of lincoln in private, there was a room enough for good judgment to surface in public toward him. But between the two of them it never did. Good judgment is not a quality that historians ascribe to alan sherman. If you have read anything about her or her husband but i think theyre wrong. Although she is typically recognized for her religious zeal and her nagging, nonetheless in her dealings with lincoln on behalf of her husband, she is an exemplary of shrewdness and political savvy. , the emotional rollercoaster of the shermans wartime experiences was extraordinary even by the extraordinary standards of the civil war. Rocketing from crisis to crisis, some professional and some personal,. In every case, she urged him to stay on the job and work through the crisis at hand. The earliest calamity during the war came at its outset when sherman was nearly felt by newspapers charge of insanity. Wounded herself by the journalist bitter scorn for her husband and the shame and disgrace it visited on her and her family, she nonetheless recovered quickly and marshal to hurt families resources. Balance early independent judgment in support of lincoln for president when no one else in her politically powerful family supported him, laid her groundwork for her approach to link it in crisis mode. Her letter to lincoln can a contains superbly crafted arguments in favor of action on his part to erase the statements from its reputation. Combining an honest assessment of shermans state of mind with a blunt recounting of the charges against him. And shrewd reference to his successors similar failures to advance. After her meeting with the president in the white house, ellens trust in lincoln led her to accept lincolns verbal support, even in the absence of any positive action by him, as the best course for her husband. And unless unlike jesse and nellie, she encouraged her husband to trust lincolns judgment. More than a year later, ellens anger led her to write to showman that the president ought to be impeached because of his maneuvering of the cornyn over her husband. Thank you for setting up that context craig because that was an important thing. But ellen did not repeat that judgment to anyone else. She did not appeal directly to the president to change your mind his mind. She did not even hint to sherman that he should leave the army. To the contrary, what her impatient red headed husband threatened to resign, she sternly accused him of desertion in time of war. Even when ellen did not approve of lincolns actions visavis her husband, she shrewdly never lost sight of his authority and his ultimate ability to help her husband. Ellens shifting perceptions of lincoln were fairly straightforward. Julia grants feelings about him must have been more complex. Lincoln and the civil war that his elections sparked destroyed the mythical way of life julia left and forever idealized. Her childhood plantation white haven was gone. The comforts of slavery as she called them were gone. Her adored father superior position in the social hierarchy was gone. Her life as a pampered southern belle, gone. Her chivalry notions of war, gone. All were swept away with a tempest that was the civil war. It was a warrant that her presents her husband prosecuted industriously rather than romantic lee. It was a war that enabled you ulysses to rise out of boredom that start his soul. It was a war she encouraged him to fight. It was also a war that risked the lives of her husband, her children and herself. And it was a war that divided her sisters and brothers, estranged her at times from her father, and elevated her former slaves to her political status. Yet there is no indication that julia ever expressed dismay at lincolns policies towards slavery or at her husbands workman like approach to dismantling the infrastructure of her childhood in concert with his commander in chief. Julia did not merely lac anger at lincoln, she felt warmly toward the man guiding the dismantling of this is society she mythologized in her memoirs. She must risked much to be with grant during the war. Traveling more than 10,000 miles over four years to bring him the sunshine he desperately needed. It was julias natural tendency to spread sunshine that led her to urge grant to invite lincoln to city point in march of 1865. And it was only after mary lincoln rained on julius perpetual sunny disposition that she nerve herself to disappoint the president and insist that her husband refuse the invitation to the theater. The reader of the civil war cannot help but be struck by the symmetry in these two sets of generals. The first set, fremont and mcclellan were like meteors. They blazed at first sight, raced high in the public eye, left chaos in their wake, and then faded from view. The second set, William Sherman and Ulysses Grant were like stars. In the fading light of dusk, they were only dimly perceived but their brilliance emerged as night fell. And the darkest hours, they shone brightly enough to light a path home and they have endured. There is symmetry as well in the wives stories. Jesse fremont and Nellie Mcclellan both displayed the most conventional 19th century widely attribute, uncritical, warship full, endorsement of their husbands every instinct. They provided emotional strength that enabled their husbands to persist and in their incompetence and delusion and to reject the advice and friendship of their commanderinchief whom booth wives equally disdained. In the end, jesse and nearly contributed most to the Union War Effort by accelerating their husbands removal from active command. Ellen sherman and julia grant were no less smart or socially polished than jesse and nearly. Their husbands loved them and they love them in the return. But melanin julia did not hesitate to take issue with the generals when they believed their actions to be wrong like the order 11, or their judgments ill advised. Their belief in their husbands character and potential was ardent but not unbound did. They intelligently supported their husbands best instincts, including trust in lincoln, and rebuffed their worst. Military terms, allen and julia were their husbands centers of gravity. The source of strength that sherman and grant used to win the civil war. Thank you. applause thank you so much for that. And now im going to introduce greene medford. Although the phrase is frequently used, she needs no introduction but i feel it is my duty to highlight important issues such as she is serving as interim dean at the college of arts and sciences and professor of history at university where she has worked for 34 31 years. She is authored several articles on slavery, reconstruction as well as on lincoln and the emancipation proclamation. And historical perspectives of the african Burial Ground project, new york blacks and the diaspora. She serves on several National Boards and is frequently a contributor to documentaries. Im sure most of you have tuned in to cspan and seen her there. Doctor met furred is the recipient of a number of awards including the bicentennial edition of the order of lincoln. The lincoln diploma from the college of liberal arts, awarded by the Lincoln Memorial university in 2014. She is also an along the Achievement Award from the college of liberal arts of the university of illinois. But most important, she is professor of the year award from howard Student University association in 2013. I know you are going to welcome her back for her comments on women in the civil war. Admit good afternoon, as a member of the board of advisers for the lincoln forum, i thank you for being here. I would like to thank harold and frank for giving me the opportunity on numerous occasions to presents my perspective on civil war. And a special thank you to Catherine Clinton who is truly a womans woman. She is someone who has always supported women, whether they were black, white green, blue, whatever. And she has helped our students along the way who are graduate students and have spent, shes that most of her life committed to studying the history of women. I think are sincerely for all that she has done for us. Lets give her around of applause. applause my comments are going to be rather general, but i want to stick keep in mind that black womens experiences, and im talking about black women here, i titled this, more than their fair burden. African american women during the civil war. We need to keep in mind that black womens miss experiences during the war the nature and extent of the impact dependent on location, legal status, and class. African american women had the most to gain and in many ways the most to lose from the civil war. Those who were enslaved saw the war as an opportunity to secure statutory and practical freedom. In the case of the already free, it offered the prospect of expanding liberties that had been denied to them. As they attempted to realize these aspirations, they face daily challenges that tested their resolve but that also affirmed their commitment to progress and change. Black women, whether enslaved in the south or legally free, were disadvantaged both by gender and race. They were tonight inclusion in the victorian definition of women hood. So while their blood connection to their fathers and brothers elevated the status of white women, and shielded them from some of the worst defenses against their sex, black women could expect and receive no such accommodation. Common burdens of war, physical suffering, heartbreaking loss, uncertainty weighed more heavily on them because of their own already compromised circumstances. As black men fled the plantations and farms, or were taken in by armies, or giant taylor joined the forces, most black women constrained by the obligations of motherhood experience the first half of the war within the confines of the confederacy. Women inherited the legal responsibilities that men left behind. In reality, it was hardly new. And they had always performed acre total tasks beside maam. But now they are expected to carry a greater load. They responded to that challenge when possible by using the same task picks they had used before the war. Work slowdowns, feigning ignorance, and southern us. Well black men help to win freedom and preserve the union on the battlefield, black women press to do so at home. Common practice is designed to protect slavery as an institution created a gut wrenching dilemma for some women. Refugees, the removal of more valuable laborers out of the army, resulted in a separation of families. Either win owners fled the union advance or when adults about to be taken away chose to strike out on their own towards freedom. In either case, children were often left behind. Extracting them from former owners would become a major concern for anguished mothers once the war ended. I am reminded of an incident reported by one name john sultan, who recalled the emotional farewell he received from his enslaved laborers when he fled his virginia plantation in 1862. I have to put a plug in, because thats where i was born. Seldom believed, his people were sad to see him leave. Most likely, their reaction resulted in the planters decision to carry many of their relatives and friends with them. It was not any kind of love for their owner. Those enslaved women who chose to remain at home faced sustained abuse, especially as enslaved man fled to the union side. Despite the owners, they turned out wives and children and administered frequent and severe beatings. Even in the border states, black women faced the wrath of owners Whose Authority had been usurped by union recruiters who threatened to press their men into military service. Women wrote letters to their husbands complaining of ill treatment and imploring them to send money to support their families. When these women sought asylum in the union calves, they were turned away sometimes without benefit of alternative shelter or a means to feed their children or were forced back to the plantations from which they fled. By 1863, the conditions of women laborers and their children reached a critical stage as lincolns proclamation of freedom encouraged even greater flight. Even though both men and women enthusiastically welcomed the promise, the resulting need of the free people to try out their new status and respond former owners to the perceived threat and left many in a precarious state. Advancing rvs of liberation, fried tens of thousands who had no place to go and no jobs to sustain them. Gathered into camps, they suffered overcrowding, violence, and neglect. Consisting mainly of women and children, upwards of 25 of clamp population succumbed to starvation, exposure, and disease. Living their lives admits war, three black women experienced some of the same deprivations as their white neighbors. They were impacted by shortages and the unimaginable stress as opposing armies met each other across contested ground. Just as dire, if not more so, they suffered because of precarious Economic Conditions that most of them lived before the war. Most existed at the margins. They were dependent on the goodwill of white men and women to provide employment that would enable minimal support of their families. The demands of both armies made their Economic Health even less secure, as both impressed free black man. Thats leaving their wives and children without sustained Financial Support and vulnerable to neighbors who coveted their meager acquisitions. Black women who had farms that might yield much needed goods were vulnerable as well to foraging rates from both sides. Years of sacrifice and labor could be wiped out instantly. When hungry troops passed through, lucy green, her experience exemplified this painful reality. The 52yearold virginia resident lost nearly all of her property to forging union troops. Not content to carry off her cal, calves, poultry, to kill her hogs and strip her garden of its vegetables, they also took her Household Goods including blankets and pillows and tore down the poor womans offense, which they use for firewood. When she locked the stable to prevent the theft of her horse, they bore a hole through the door and killed it with a bayonet. Suffering these and under constant suspicion of being a union sympathizer, black women found little relief. Although they did not experience the challenges that came with living in the midst of war, northern black women sacrificed as well. Having bad husbands, bad farewell to husbands, two fathers, two sons who they relied on for financial security, they suffered severely when these breadwinners received an equal pay or no pay at all. Other than the death of a loved one, no reality impacted the more directly. Struggling white women could often seek Financial Relief from their states, a source that was frequently denied to black wives and mothers. In response to their dire economic circumstances, black women lobbied for their husbands and sons to be released from duty or openly questioned why families loyal to the country were being treated so callously. To paraphrase, radio host paul harvey, im dating myself with that and now for the rest of the story, despite their suffering the unraveling of the union altered experiences of black women in powerful ways. If a black males pushed for the opportunity to prove their worth as men, African American women demonstrated that they were more than voiceless drudges and victims of exploitation. The transformative nature of the war, and it enabled them to circumvent their prescribed roles just as it did for the white counterparts. It allowed them to occupy a place of dignity and consequence, to continue to contribute to their own growth as they waged battle. In the north, black women formed associations similar to those established by white women. With the aim of providing aid to soldiers and others in distress. Local groups needed socks, made uniforms, regimental flags and held affairs and bazaars in which they raised funds for their cause. The special object of their concern where the destitute who occupied camps and banded buildings throughout the union occupied south. They provided relief to the tens of thousands of these residents, supplying them with ready made clothes, and with cloth to replace the rags that provided little protection from the elements. Elizabeth was one such organization. The successful formally enslaved dressmaker turned businesswoman solicited donors and donations primarily in the district of columbia, including from the lincolns. Her organization and those established on the auspices of African American churches, help free people to survive the boast difficult times in their early months of liberation. Northern black women also offered themselves for service. They provided assistance in the camps, instructing formally enslaved women in hygiene, childcare and literacy. Some of these women, such as charlotte ventured into the deep south with both acts in hands, eager to prepare both black men and women here to for denied the right to read the opportunity to learn. These women unaccustomed to the suffering and need they encountered in their sojourn south, committed themselves to altering the lives of the dispossessed. Prevented from enrolling as combatants, black women actively recruited black men and were instrumental in helping to build the quotas of the northern states. Among the best known and most successful was mary and shed carrie, editor of the defunct canadabased provincial freeman, a black abolitionist newspaper. Traveled throughout the midwest preaching her gospel. She was joined by harry jacobs, author of incidents in the life of a slave girl, and joseph fiend, another black publisher and activists. These women defied convention, making direct appeals to potential recruits and churches and other public arenas. They appeal to these men by linking citizenship and equality with military service. Asserting black activists like frederick douglas, that freedom and citizenship must be secured through the efforts of African Americans themselves. Of course, there were some extraordinarily audacious black women who threw caution aside and placed themselves directly in harms way. Women such