Rock stars, like guys, historians, women, weve all heard of, weve seen them on tv, weve read their books. Everybody knows who they are. We talked about them in hush tones and it has been my privilege to be friends with one of those rock stars because truly eric wit bigger is a name that is known by eric wittenberg. Hes known not only for his expertise in the union calvary, many o his knowledge on controversial topics where he is constantly challenging people to reconsider what they think they know. Hes never one to take a position because its popular but he takes because it is well considered, well researched and it is well thought out. And so hes sometimes not so afraid to challenge conventional thinking on things. And its that sense of going for the truth that has always made me admire his work. Tarting out when i first got into the civil war as someone reading books and just thought this guy is fantastic. Hes got 17 books you can read. But as our friendship has grown over the years,
Feats that are now a comic symbols of new york city. This event was hosted by the new york public library, and last about 90 minutes. Thank you, lois. I want to thank the library for organizing this event. Can you guys hear me in the back . Can you hear me now . No . Yes . I will speak loudly. It is great to be in the city, lecturing on the city that he wrote about. In the very place in the city that you wrote about midtown manhattan. A couple of preliminaries before we roll into this illustrated talk. I like that better than powerpoint, as a term. Im not good at powerpoint. Luddite, im im a just a technological idiot. Not the book i originally set out to right. The original idea was to do the whole city. All five boroughs, and stretch it out from world war i to world war ii. Cute, itrying to be too took to bigger bite out of the apple. I discovered, as i was doing my research, that i was really drawn to a really compelling story within the larger story i had intended to tell. It is an
Theyve left a large train of munitions in the Eastern Central portion of atlanta that obviously cant get out. And so they set it on fire. This is 18 boxcars full of explosives. And you can imagine the sound that was heard 15, 20 miles away. This is the scene incidentally thats depicted in gone with the wind when red is in the wagon trying to get scarlet and the baby out, and theres all the sets burning in the background. I told my kids some of those sets were from the wizard of oz, which was true. They dont care anything about gone with the wind, but they were upset that the sets from the wizard of oz burned in this movie. Its worth pointing out here that the destruction of atlanta cannot be attributed solely to uncle billy sherman, that hoods army in fact began the process with the evacuation and the destruction of the firing of this train. And sherman took it a good bit further just before the march to the sea. On september second, the mayor of atlanta surrendered the city. Sherman a
Than 200,000 complete suits of uniforms to its soldiers in the field just in that time period. I do have to note a few qualifications. It was not always the most perfect system. The Southern Railroad network as it deteriorated often meant that Raw Materials and finished products would be delayed in either reaching the factories or reaching the destination points. It also meant that some alternate materials had to be used instead of the preferred all woollen outer garments, the confederates had to reply very extensively all on what was commonly called jean cloth, a mixture of wool and cotton, what was often called negro cloth. In the antebellum cloth this cloth was used to produce clothing for slaves in the south. In the production of shoes, teen agricultural south had a shortage of leather and could not make two standard infantry footwear that jefferson brogan or jefferson booty. That had been developed in the United States army in the 1850s. The southern style shoe had to produced a l
If the British Forces simply sailed up the potomac, everybody would know that washington was the ultimate party. Coburn recommends that the force be split up, one squadron sail up the Potomac River and threaten the capitol and the city of alexandria, the main force is going to go up the Pawtuxet River into southern maryland. The advantage was that it would shield the ultimate british intention it might mean an attack on washington, it could also mean the british were simply chasing after Commodore Joshua Barney who was the american commander of the chess peak flotilla, who had a flotilla of barges and the rivers flowing into it. He had been trapped in the Pawtuxet River, he was further up river than the british, and the british could use barneys presence. Its what the british commanders, general ross and admiral alexander dock run agree to do. This weekend a panel of historians as they discuss the bu burning of washington. Thats sunday at 6 00 and 10 00 p. M. Eastern, all right here on