well, good evening, everyone. the subjects tonight are abraham lincoln and jefferson davis. i think it is fair to say by any measure of military or governmental experience, by bearing or background, by any remotely reliable crystal ball. any american, northern or southern, asked let s say in the spring of 1861 who was more likely to be a superior commander in chief in a full scale war, would have given the same answer. jefferson davis. he graduated from west point, lincoln had emerged from let s say the school of hard knocks. davis served two stints in the army, led forces in the american mexican war and lincoln s only military experience came in a rag tag militia company raised to battle an indian invasion in illinois where the only blood shed lincoln later admitted was lost to mosquitos. davis served as a secretary of war. and the united states senator, lincoln is a one term congressman who opposed the war with mexico and opponents whispered at the time and even voted aga
good evening, everyone, subject for tonight as you know or the subjects are abraham lincoln and jefferson davis. any measure by bearing and background and any remotely reliable crystal ball, any american, northern or southern, asked let s say in the spring of 1861 who was more likely to be a superior commander in chief in a full scale war, would have given the same answer. jefferson davis. he graduated from west point, lincoln had emerged from let s say the school of hard knocks. led forces in the american mexican war and lincoln s only military experience came in a rag tag militia company raised to battle an indian invasion in illinois where the only blood shed lincoln later admitted was lost to mosquitos. davis served as a secretary of war. and the united states senator, lincoln is a one term congressman who opposed the war with mexico and opponents whispered at the time and even voted against supplying the soldiers with food and blan kets. by the time watt armies met f
participate, but we have kind of kept that in our pocket, so to speak, as an overarching theme. gary gallagher, when we went to seduce him, so to speak, to come to this conference and give the wrap-up talk, he immediately seized on the topic of the importance of studying military history. and we have looked forward to this day for quite a long while, not only what s gone before, but this ultimate triumph that we think that gary is going to deliver to us today. you all, i m sure, as serious scholars and buffs know exactly who he is. he s been advancing, by the way, to virginia from a long way off. he started in california, and he went to school in colorado and went to school in texas, and he taught in pennsylvania. but in 1998 he wound up at uva. and there he is the john nau professor of history of the american civil war. he is the author of or editor of 30 published volumes and he s active not only in the publishing field, but active in the preservation field. and when people
it s a very great pleasure for me to have the opportunity to introduce to you gary gallagher. i want to say to you that the topic of his talk there about the importance of studying military history goes back to the beginning of our foundation for this conference. about three years ago jim mcpherson was in lexington and i chatted with him about how we should develop this whole thing. he proposed the idea of studying or advancing the theme, overarching theme of the principles of effective command. we seized on that. he later declined to participate, but we have kind of kept that in our pocket, so to speak, as an overarching theme. gary gallagher, when we went to seduce him, so to speak, to come to this conference and give the wrap-up talk, he immediately seized on the topic of the importance of studying military history. and we have looked forward to this day for quite a long while, not only what s gone before, but this ultimate triumph that we think that gary is going to del
i have the opportunity now to do double duty, not only to call you to order, but also to introduce to you the fourth panel of today s program. i would just like to say a word to you about how we designed this whole thing, and how we wound up on this note. nobody has really questioned the idea that most of what we talked about have been battles in virginia, more than half all the activity of the civil war was in virginia, and a good deal of it in that 100 miles between the fall line on the potomac and fall line at richmond. it started here and ended here. for those of you that wished we did more around the western theater, next year perhaps. but we also, my program committee and i discussed how we were going to wind this program up, and we thought it would be wise to do two things. we are in the valley, actually, we re in one of two valleys. i ll explain that in a minute, and that has a geographical significance for us, but also did for the civil war in 62, what happened was