Very special event here at the Gerald R Ford president ial museum. Really proud to see all of you coming out to enjoy, i think, whats going be a very stimulating discussion about. Our home, we dont know enough about. Im gleaves. Im the executive director of the Gerald R Ford president ial foundation. My this evening is jon lauck, whos a writer and researcher hes written many books. Ive got several of them here that he and i have worked on together on, the midwest. And were going to explore that. So im welcoming you, our Live Audience and our cspan viewers everywhere. So, john, i think we ought get right into it. Please tell us about your background and you have real midwestern roots. I mean, you come by all of this honestly raised on a midwestern you know, you went to big colleges, you know, both your ph. D. In history and your law degree, and youve had quite a career in the midwest. So tell us yourself. Well, thank you. And thanks to everyone here in grand rapids for coming out tonigh
Good evening and welcome to this very special event here at the Gerald R Ford president ial museum. Really proud to see all of you coming out to enjoy, i think, whats going be a very stimulating discussion about. Our home, we dont know enough about. Im gleaves. Im the executive director of the Gerald R Ford president ial foundation. My this evening is jon lauck, whos a writer and researcher hes written many books. Ive got several of them here that he and i have worked on together on, the midwest. And were going to explore that. So im welcoming you, our Live Audience and our cspan viewers everywhere. So, john, i think we ought get right into it. Please tell us about your background and you have real midwestern roots. I mean, you come by all of this honestly raised on a midwestern you know, you went to big colleges, you know, both your ph. D. In history and your law degree, and youve had quite a career in the midwest. So tell us yourself. Well, thank you. And thanks to everyone here in g
The casualties were astounding, a stouinstounding to soldiers, generals and those left back home. Amidst the staggering losses at cole harbor, for every soldier killed, wounded or captured, there was a family. Mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, sons, daughters that also felt the loss. The loss of the men that fell at cole harbor in the spring of 1864 reverb rasreverberated thr kmunlts a communities across the north and south. The battlegrounds left indelible kbag impacts on the living left behind. So, too, were the believes of the men who fought that bloody spring. Indeed, in spite of so many lost lives, those believes and ideas about nation, government and home became even more deeply enslie enshrined in the hearts and minds of those left to fight on tonight to reflect upon and learn from today. Writing soon after the war with a perspective on hindsight. Sally putnam came to believe that in its own unique way, cole harbor had been a landmark event in the 1866 Campaign Across Central
Men ever went into battle. We fight for the principles of free government, and for the existence of a nation whose institutions are the hope of the downtrodden people of every land. Our success in this Campaign Must ensure the integrity of the United States by the final overthrow of the rebel down. Success will give a new life to our country, and a new faith to the stability of free government to the world. It will also determine the next presidency as certainly as if the votes were counted. But if we fail in this campaign, that failure will be the greatest disaster in modern history. Upon general grant there now concentrates the deepest interest with which the world ever watched the actions of a single soldier. He is the foremost man in the greatest contest of the age. When the nation and the world wanted to know how the civil war was going, they looked to virginia. That spring, robert e. Lee and his army showed clearly as the confederacies greatest hope. Ulysses s. Grant had come eas
Nevertheless, while other Union Commanders were failing, grant had climbed steadily up the military ladder with resounding victories, stretching from fort henry in 1862, through vicksburg to Missionary Ridge in 1863. He was clearly the norths man of the hour. When lincoln ordered an east early in 1864 to take command of all federal forces. The somewhere near 500,000 combat ready soldiers grant would have authority over the largest post any american officer had ever led. The new Lieutenant General wasted little time in making his strategic intentions known. In the past, grant asserted, union armies had quote, acted independently and without concept like a bulky team of mules, no two pulling to the. And this allowed confederates to shift men from one sector to the other to meet the most pressing danger. Union generals seemed content to maneuver. But that was not the road to victory, grant announced. The north had far superior numbers, and materiel. It was time to switch games. To stop pl