Park. It is little under an hour. [applause] thank you david. Can everyone hear me ok . We have watched the armys of grant and lee moving across the virginia landscape from the siege of petersburg to the surrendered appomattox courthouse. Now im going to take a detour. We are going to make a sharp turn south, and were going to turn back the clock. South, and were going to turn back the clock. Were going to go back to december of 1864. And we are going to follow this man, general william t sherman. And his progress in what he believes in hopes will be his final campaign of the war. Sherman grant are pursuing the grand strategy that they formulated in march of 1864. In cincinnati, ohio. The idea was to keep the armys in the east and in the west, the confederate armys so busy that they cannot reinforce each other. And i have a repeat fiasco of the battle of chickamauga. The strategy is working. Slowly, but inexorably. While grant keeps lees army bottled up around the trenches of petersbur
Captures atlanta. Thomas crushes the army of tennessee, the confederacys secondlargest field army, and one week later, general sherman completes his march from atlanta to the sea by presenting the city of Savannah Georgia to president Abraham Lincoln as a christmas gift. Now, sherman is looking ahead to his next campaign. He is going to make a march through the carolinas, moving his army group northward to richmond, virginia. There he will join forces with general grant, and together, they will crush lees army and bring the war to a victorious conclusion. Sherman plans to launch his campaign and january of 1865. But torrential winter rain prevents that from happening. He is forced to delay his campaign to the following month. In the meantime, general grant decides to launch a second expedition to capture fort fisher, and close wilmington North Carolina, the last blockade running seaport the confederacy and in effect close the lifeline of the confederacy as it is called. The First Exped