And from time to time when ive done this panel with friends and colleagues, ive called it on or off their pedestals. The debate over statues, memorials, memory and meaning. And ive discussed this topic at twice or three times with edna medford. And it is evolving even between us as we proceed over about a year and a half. And its a pleasure to welcome not only edna medford, but also liz varon and Gary Gallagher to join the discussion. Of 1,728 confederate memorials in 22 states and the district of columbia, 110 have been removed in the past few years. And three new ones have been built. So it is good to have the opportunity to take a snapshot. At best it will be a snapshot. And i think that we all have to agree that however we feel about art, ography and icons, history, and american heroes and villains alike, that the controversy over statues and memorials thought only attributed to confederates in the south and also to those, and for example and ill show you imanls, honoring figures i
Battlefield trusts. Without any further introduction, i now present to you my friend, gary adelman. Leave your book here . Gary yeah, sure, i might need it. Hello, everybody. This isnt easy doing the whole civil war in such a short period of time. Well see if it takes 56 minutes or whatever. I am committed to get this done. Im already wasting time for good luck for those of you who like to take notes. The seeds of the civil war are sewn in the constitution and then you have north and south starting to look at each other differently. You have southerners look to the north and although they speak the same language, worship the same god, everything like that but you see increasingly southerners looking north and seeing greedy. People that care about money and business and dont care about family. The northerners are looking south and seeing people who are cruel and lazy slave holders and whatnot. Really this is a war of perception as much as anything else. They did not trust each other and
frequently on american history and politics for major media outlets. his writing has appeared in the los angeles times the huffington post slate the new republic the conversation time and the them post just to name a few. and he s here tonight to talk with us about his first book and i think it is probably gonna be the first of many it looks like you ve got some projects lined up but the book tonight west of slavery the southern dream of a transcontinental empire published by unc press and i will mention that we do have the shop the book for sale in our museum shop. so without without further ado, i m going to turn the screen over to dr. waite. great. thank you, kelly. and thank you all for for showing up. i know it s been a long long year. i m not going to give individual shout-outs, but it s really nice to see a lot of familiar faces on my screen. so i i first went to the american civil war museum with my parents when i was a high school student, you know 15 plus years ago
best generals that each side had. i think this campaign has been more misunderstood, more misinterpreted than maybe any other campaign in the civil war. i think the reason is because of expectations. today in politics you would see, a presidential campaign or primary campaign going on. several candidates are seeking the nomination of one of the parties. they. or coming up on one of the nominating primaries the state primaries typically you ll hear some politicians say, if i finish in the top three than that will be a win. if i could finish in the top three than i would be happy or something like that. of course trying to manage expectations. if he does that successfully and of people in the press so forth by it, top three finishes a win for him. if you finishes number two, and that s great! he exceeded expectations. but, on the other hand, if he doesn t bother to manage expectations or if he is not successful at it, people don t buy it, then he finishes second then oh wow,
Again so thank very much. The first time i met tim smith was 455th anniversary in the Vicksburg Campaign, and i went for the American Battlefield trust along with chris white out to do a series of videos. And so i meet tim on Champion Hill on the anniversary of the battle, which, as a civil war nerd, i was totally out about. Right. But its not that its even worse than that because i packed a whole suitcase of tim smith books for him to sign. So im like, tim smith, so glad to meet you. Sign my books. Yeah. Total fanboy going on at the moment and tim was super gracious and very kind about it and since then we have grown to become friends and he is truly the epitome me of the gentleman and the scholar. But hes the southern gentleman and the scholar. So everything he says is not only kind and polite, but with a really quaint drawl, which is wonderful and he is so gracious with his time. Hes been deeply, deeply invested in his series about the Vicksburg Campaign. If you havent had the oppor