Stymied. Lee is any a powerful position and grant cant break through. What does he do . Maneuvers. He pulled the army of the potomac ought of the wilderness and goes to the spotseslvania courthouse and then lee has to come out from the wilderness and fight him on opened ground. This is a tactical maneuver aimed at pulling lee from his strong entrenchmentes. The army of the potomac shifts south, a drama take point in the war because up to this point, whatever Union Generals had been trounced in the battle as bad as lee had defeated grant and in the wilderness they always retreated but grant moved south to the court house and lee gets awe finger of his army in front of grant and blocks him and theres brutal fighting in places with names like the mule shoe and the bloody age that will goes on for over a week, will be 10 days and then finally grant realizes he cant break through there so grant maneuvers again. He pulls the union army out from spots vain yeah courthouse and send the finger
Mike and some of the staff are oh, my goodness, we even recruited craig into distributing handouts. I should get a picture of this. I have a historian friend who once had trace adkins as a sound man at an event. I have a Naval Academy professor as a map handerouter. Thats kind of like bob creek as an easel in the western theater. Bob brian, i do thank you for the introduction. As brian noted, my day job is staff historian at chickamauga military park. Even though im here today, just as a selfinterested historian and citizen, and learner, because ive enjoyed making a few notes about things already yet again from richard and now craig. And look forward to hearing steves talk in a few minutes. And im not here today as a National Military park employee, but because i think the place that i work is an important Historic Site in the shaping of our nation, i couldnt miss an opportunity of hawking my day job. Chickamauga and chattanooga military park. I know a lot of you have discovered out in
Can take petersburg, cut the supply line to the army in Northern Virginia, and finally defeat lee. The union plan works like clock work. Sheridan heads off on his raid. It will end disastrously at the battle of torrian station, but it serves its purpose for the time. And on the morning of the 13th of june, lee and his men look across and discover that the union earth works are empty. Grant once again has managed to pull his army away without lee figuring out what had happened. The union army swings south, down to the james river. Grant intends to cross. But lee does not understand what grant means to do. Lee thinks that what grant might be preparing to do is to swing back toward Richmond North of the james river. So lee stays here at cold harbor, sends some of his soldiers to the south, but doesnt do a major shift, because, again, hes uncertain as to what grant will do. Well, as you civil war historians know, by june 15th, union forces are attacking at petersburg. Lee is now alerted to
Land. Our success in this Campaign Must ensure the integrity of the United States by the final overthrow of the rebellion. 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 shone clearly as the confederacys greatest hope. Ulysses s. Grant had come east to manage the armies in virginia, but ulysses s. Grant had never met robert e. Lee in battle. At Charlottesville A charlottesville newspaper editor wrote in april, the conflict
Me to be here. I hopelly because what we are going to discuss tonight is one of the most critical questions of our time. You are not going to know it because i did not turn on the microphone. [laughter] well, where is the button here, jay . Well, the green light, right . [indiscernible] light. Ssic green [laughter] why the United States assumed the role of world defender. This was after world war ii, and the question is if we should continue this role indefinitely. This question springs from my new book, which i hope is available outside, but also fr om and op ed that i published last year in the New York Times entitled come home, america. In the essay, i observe that everybody talks about getting out of iraq and afghanistan. But what about germany and japan . I am tryingce, what to raise here, is a very fundamental question where do we go from here . At some basiclook changes in american policy at this turning point in our own history. History s, i am i i am a historian. This is a lac