Officials here. First of all, it is clear that we did not sustain and suffer the absolute catastrophic damage that we thought was likely based on the forecast we had last night but we have sustained a tremendous amount of damage and we have thousands and thousands of our fellow citizens whose lives are upside down because their businesses and or their homes have been damaged and we have lots of challenges around the state to say the least with a variety of things whether electrical power, Water Service or you name it and we have a lot of work to do but we are in better shape today than might have been the case and so we have a lot to be thankful for as well. As you know by now im sure hurricane laura made landfall as predicted last night or i should say this morning at 1 00 a. M. As a very strong category four hurricane with sustained winds of 150 miles per hour. This was most powerful storm to ever make landfall in louisiana and it is still a powerful storm that is in the state of lou
Governor John Bell Edward said the storm is the strongest to hit his statement did not sustain the catastrophic damage that had been forecast parties joined at the briefing by other state officials. Good afternoon and thank you for being here this afternoon. We have our usual lineup today the officials here today with m me. Chip klein is going to speak in just a moment. He is of course chairman of the cpra he will talk about coastal flooding we have secretary of department of transportation and development, shawn wilson who will speak in a little bit on roadways. And then we have fire Marshal Butch browning who is here to answer questions that you might have about the fire at the Chemical Plant and west lake. And obviously you can ask questions of any of the officials here. First of all it is clear that we did not sustain and suffer the absolute catastrophic damage that we thought was likely based on the forecast we had last night. But, we have sustained a tremendous amount of damage.
The theme of this years event is ordinary people, extraordinary times. Historians explore how the war affected a Diverse Group of american people. The event is cohosted by the library of virginia, university of Virginia Center for Civil War History, and the American Civil War museum. In the first session, james robertson, Virginia Tech history professor emeritus, and the author or editor of more than 20 books will give a talk titled civil war echoes from the common folk. But first, the director of the center for Civil War History at the university of virginia will welcome the audience. This is live coverage on American History tv on cspan3. Good morning, im Gary Gallagher and i very pleased to welcome all of you this morning. To our symposium titled ordinary people, extraordinary times. I do this and welcome you on behalf of the library of virginia, the American Civil War the center for Civil War History at the university of virginia. Treadway, they library and would perform this task,
It is my privilege to introduce professor Elizabeth Barron from the university of virginia who will speak on the election of 1864 in confederate eyes. I think this is a really important topic to address early on in this symposium so that we dont forget that there is a whole other conversation going on in other parts of the country. Professor baron got her bachelors degree from swathmore college. And then went on to teach at wellesley and temple before coming to university of virginia where shes the langborn williams professor of American History. And her first two books were from a womans point of view about womens opinions and activities in the south and in antibellum virginia. Then the biography of a spy in richmond, both of which were extremely well received and the biography won many awards. Then her next book was on disunion which was about the whole debate about the discussion of strategizing about possible breakup of the union dating from 1789 onwards. Most recently her book is
President James Buchanan and crisis of national leadership, Lincoln Campaign biographies is his most recent book and he is currently editing a book with Harold Holtzer entitled the an no tated lincoln. Let me present tom horrocks. Hello, everyone. Can you hear me . Im going to be showing some slides early on of several lincolns calm ina biographies from 1860s. Dont get upset. I do understand im talking about 1864 but i need to show talk a little bit about the 60 Campaign Biographies to put the 1864 Campaign Biographies into conte context. Theres two points i want to make at the outset. One is the close relationship between the world of prim and politics by mid 19th century, many newspapers and their editors were aligned with a Political Party. Newspapers and their editors were openly partisan. This is a trend that began in the 1820s when newspapers became the favorite print medium for political news. Newspapers were part of an extensive and powerful Publishing Industry that emerged in