Of the union army, and he blocked general lees line of retreat, thus general lee had to continue further west, searching for rations and hoping to get around grants army. The next place general lee could gather supplies was about three miles from us here at appomattox station. Supplies had been brought over from lynchburg to feed general lees army. Its everything the army really needed. Hundreds of thousands of rations, new uniforms, equipment, and thats where theyre heading for on april 8 after leaving Cumberland Church on the night of april 7. General lees advance is led by confederate reserve artillery under general Reuben Lindsey walker. They go to camp about a mile from appomattox station about two miles from here on the afternoon of april 8th. And general custers cavalry advances on that station and captures the supplies, then encounters general Reuben Lindsey walkerss general artillery and fight for about four hours the ballofp at mattox station. A very unique battle in the civi
For preservation was initiated in the 1880s and 1890s when the veterans were at the height of their power in government and Industry Leaders and all of them. It was because battlefields ironically these places of conflict could become places of comfort. So americans always put tremendous emphasis on these places as a tool of reconciliation. The key part of the battlefield that came from the sons of confederate veterans stipulated the government would care for this battlefield and not detract from the glory. The dedication speech i helped managed. 1927, said the keynote speaker said we do more than dedicate these fields in memory of things that have passed. We consecrate them in the spirit of lee and lincoln to a more perfect understanding to south and north. For the next 50 years or so would faithfully carry out that charge. Where americans can come together and understand the war in a very human level. Just to give you a sense of how deep this tradition is and how its perceived by the
Bothersome debate. And maybe its a symptom of why so Many Americans are kind of put off by the war. Why do you argue about stuff like that . But lets look at those names in a different way. Each of those names represents a perfectly valid perspective on the war. And each is a potential gateway for americans to engage in this story. This worldchanging story. The problem is and for reasons that seem mysterious to many, people who are not inclined toward history the problem is we continue to throw barriers large and subtle in the way of those intellectual gateways into this history. We view the labels, these names as not able to stand side by side but mutually exclusive. If the war is a war of northern aggression, it cant also be a war for emancipation. But, in fact it was. It was all those things. And thats okay. So like our fellow americans our history always challenges us to be better. We draw strength and inspiration from those who risked and gave all for our communitys protection, ou
Exists than the rest of the world combined than all. Society thinks of itself as being nonmilitaristic and i think in our essence we are. Preserves battlefield land to such a degree. Now our traditional view of the civil war was born on the postwar period. The reunification of our nation. Think about the fact in United States capital today are seven statutes to man supporting the rebellion against the federal government during the American Civil War. They dont do that in syria, libya. They do it here. Thats remarkable. Now there are lots of ways and the reconciliation scholars have shone is buried and incomplete in some areas and in some ways. How did that come to pass . Part of the answer is when you want to make up with somebody you find Common Ground. Place where you can both be comfortable. To some degree we did it on a national level. In the aftermath of the civil war few things everybody could agree with or most people and that was that the american soldier be he dressed in gray
Anyway, that was after reading to appomattox, the only book we had to learn from. I was trying to figure out how the armies actually got around from Sailors Creek in this area where most of the heavy fighting takes place. I remember the editor of the Farmville Herald some historian asked him how the troops got from highbridge to farmville they were wanting to know. I remember he said it would take a philadelphia lawyer to figure out how the armies got through this area. Im not from philadelphia but i think ive figured it out. Would you speak on major henry young . Chris henry young was in the second rhode island infantry. Another thing the Union Cavalry used on this campaign and tracy ably talked about what the Union Cavalry was at this point of the war, they wore confederate uniforms and took the persona of i think they took the ninth virginia cavalry, fake southern accents, and what they would do is they would ride into the confederate line of march. They would tell the teamsters go