Groups. Long story short, i was invited to speak at a church in Washington County in july 2016. The church was celebrating their 150th anniversary, and they invited me to come up and talk about what it mightve been like trying to start a church in the immediate aftermath of the american civil war. My wife and i drove up and we walked into the back of the sanctuary, and there was one lady sitting in the sanctuary, and she jumps up, runs to the back, shakes my hand, and says my family and i have something we think you may have an interest in. Would you come out to the car after the program . I said, sure. I go out to the car, she opens the trunk and tells me to hold my arms out. And shes in and out the truck, and the stack is growing taller and taller. And i say, what do we have here . And she says, these are my grandfather Thomas Wallace colleys seven volumes of handwritten journals of his service in the first virginia cavalry and his postwar life. I thought i was going to fall over in
Van lew was published by Oxford University in 2003 and 13 prizes including the library of virginias peoples choice awards. She will speak to us about her new book, armies of deliverance which was published earlier this year by oxford. A review in the wall street holzer calledold the book a highly original and sweeping new study. I had the good fortune to hear liz speak on the subject a few weeks ago in hampton roads, virginia and im so glad we could have her here to speak to us. Please join me in welcoming elizabeth varon. [applause] can everyone hear me . Good. In his first time were message to congress delivered july 4, 1861 Abraham Lincoln casts secession as the work of a small band of conspirators who had duped and cowed the south into submission. After drugging the public mind of their section for more than 30 years as lincoln put it, relied on coercion to bring many good men to a willingness to take up arms against the government. Theres much reason to believe, leggett speculated
Captioning performed by vitac seeds that bear ill fruit. Because on january 11th, against the advice of his staff, he sends a message to his core commanders and basically says you advised me to retreat. Please publicly say so. Put it in writing. We had a conference about it. You told me about it. Put it in writing and let us stand together against the news coming from the press. But he also says something else. He says if i find that i have lost the good faith and confidence of my generals, i will retire without a murmur. And please talk to your division and brigade commanders as well and get their opinions as well. If you are a ceo and you put yourself in front of your subordinates for a referendum on your fitness for leadership, even if you win, that vote of confidence you can never command the same respect, okay . This is a capital error on the part of brag. The replies are very quickly coming. Polk is on leave. Hes got a couple of lawyers and they take a look at this and say is bra
As always its nice to see some new faces. And a special welcome we are the oldest Historical Society in america with 14000 manuscripts it is truly breathtaking correction. And we also host academic seminars and workshops with many many public programs. It with those upcoming programs with africanamerican history so we are hosting a four Program Series and now the 400th anniversary for the arrival of the british colonies in north america. So discuss the history of africans and africanamericans to feature scholars to elaborate on the perspective of the 20th century. The first past a couple weeks ago but we still have three more to go the next program is october 19th. Tonight well hear from kevin will talk about the myth of African Americans fighting for the confederacy he claims they would have shocked anyone who served in the army and he suggests the story of the 20th century backlash and as we often do we pulled material from the display thats in the reception so when reviewing the boo
Look at the other perspectives. Our way of selecting an author is an author will submit a manuscript. We have a bunch of Senior Officers. Senior means age, not rank. They review the manuscripts and make a recommendation to the director of the book program, and then the wheels start rolling. The negotiation with the publisher goes on between the book Program Director and the author himself. Weve got a nice stable of printing houses, universities and other organizations that produce our books. As a bit of history, in the audience in the back, the roger, thes dr. Genesis, start of this years book program. A number of years ago when it came under attack, we brought roger in and he resolved it and kept it running. Roger is a colonel in the regiment. If you are a tanker, you know what regiment im talking about. Im not a tanker. Im an engineer. In the last row, and some of you have heard this story before, is a retired general, but in the opening days of world war ii, this individual was stat