Courthouse civil park. And Liz Ben Varon talks about the ending of the appomattox civil war. This is about 50 minutes. Thank you. Thank you very much. It is a pleasure and honor to be here and share the stage with these wonderful scholars. Im grateful to Patrick Schroeder to having included me. So you have the surrender scene and i would like to turn to the surrender aftermath and the political debates spawned by appomattox and ill argue that lee and grant had distinct visions of what an honorable possess would look like and peace would look like and the two of the myths of the gentlemens meeting of the minds and they had fundamental visions of what an honorable peace would look like and why the war turned out the way it did. But i will try to take us beyond lee and grant as the appomattox drama unfolded the countrymen and women would crowd the scene and vest the surrender with their oesh as pir own aspirations and agendas and dreams and the dream in the eyes of africanamericans and so
Thank you. Its indeed a pleasure to be here. I think this is the 16th seminar. I think we owe a debt of gratitude to Longwood University and to dr. Coles and Patrick Schroder and you ought to give them all a round of applause. [ applause ] how many of you, and there are quite a few of you, have been to the mcclain house at appomattox courthouse . That makes things rather easy for me. Its time for lunch i believe. One thing thats probably not generally known is that the first offer of surrender didnt come from a letter from general grant. It came from a group of officers that have gathered april 7th and these officers concluded that because the circumstances facing the army that it might be best to suggest to general lee that he opened negotiations with general grant. They selected him as their spokesman. William nelson for episcopalian. He approached general lee that day. He would not hear that suggestion. He said there were too many brave and good men. General grant and most of the fe
Lee and grant had distinct visions of what an honorable possess would look like and peace would look like and the two of the myths of the gentlemens meeting of the minds and they had fundamental visions of what an honorable peace would look like and why the war turned out the way it did. But i will try to take us beyond lee and grant as the appomattox drama unfolded the countrymen and women would crowd the scene and vest the surrender with their oesh as pir own aspirations and agendas and dreams and the dream in the eyes of africanamericans and soldiers and former slaves and lees surrender was a freedom day, the day that the moment the moment that the promise of emancipation was finally fulfilled. Lee vision of an honorable peace emphasized confederate precisiveness and the vindication, africanamerican would associate it with liberation. So ill talk about the three visions of the peace. And lets start first with the lee and the confederates. Lee and the men saw that even as the surrend
Seminar together for the first time in 1999, the e 20 0. And then when ron retired patrick took over with working with longwood on this seminar. Patrick has history degrees from Shepherd College and from virginia tech. Hes worked as a Seasonal Employee and probably, as many of you know patrick has written numerous books related to that campaign and other aspects of the war. Several pamphlets. The 30 millionths about lees surrender, cemetery at aplamatics. Probably his most important work is we came to fight, a history of the fifth new york volunteer infantry. He helped finish the vortex of hell. Thats a great book to have. Both of those. Patricks book and the one he helped brian finish. Hes very heavily involved in battlefield preservation, set up the fund with the preservation trust. His talk today is the battle fury and the last to die patrick schroeder. Thavngs, david. I know youre already probably tired of seeing me. We made a high school trip i think it was 10th or 11th grade and
Creek. Its all wednesday night starting at 8 00 eastern here on cspan 3. This sunday on q and a, Senior Editor for the Weekly Standard Andrew Ferguson on his writing career, the gop president ial candidates for 2016 and what voters are looking for in a candidate. They want somebody who looks like hes stood up for them. Im amazed now to the degree to which primary voters on both sides are motivated by resentment and the sense of being put upon and those people really dont understand us. Here is a guy, hes going to stick it to them. Hillary clinton will give her own version of that kind of thing. I dont think that was actually true 30 years ago. The resentiment has always been part of politics but the degree to which its almost exclusively the motivating factor in truly committed republicans and democrats. Sunday night at 8 00 eastern and pacific on cspans q and a. American history tv recently visited Longwood University in farmville, virginia for a seminar on the closing of the civil wa