So i have the very difficult task of going after gary. I would like to first thank carrie for inviting me and will, for accommodating all of my traveling snafus and being so gracious. And to thank liz baron, who is my former advisor and gary gallagher, who is also a dear mentor of mine, for not only having me here at the conference, but also just for years and years of mentoring. That dont seem to end. I am going to talk about i am going to begin with the battle that gary does not think is important, because it is in North Carolina. To be fair, i dont think many people think that the battle of newborn is incredibly important or significant, so i dont think he is alone. Nor am i arguing that the western theater is more important than the eastern theater. I wanted to throw my hands up and say that up front and maybe change the conversation a little bit. So, i will begin. On the morning of march 14, 1862, general john foster read the first troops to the front line in North Carolina. Foste
Of the day is none other than steve kushman. He holds the robert c. Taylor it wasship in the English Department and a renowned poet and thrilled to say he is a scholar of the civil war as well. Three of professor kushmans 14 books dealt with the civil war including be lidge represent muse and the book i suggested you get in the back, civil war writing from the first conference with professor gallagher. With that, i will turn it over to professor kushman. Im grateful to everybody. I wont repeat the thank yous, but on behalf of tamika and myself, i will say thank you for being courageous and not being driven away by that first talk. Lets start with a large claim. Without the civil war, there would be no mark twain. But why stop with one big claim. Heres another i will throw in free of charge. Without mark twain, memory of the civil war would be different from what it is today. Twain played a significant role in shaping civil war memory by publishing books and by various other people abou