Panelists compare yalta, to previous meetings between the three leaders, and examine the political motives that drove the deliberations. The National World War Ii Museum in new orleans hosted the event. Welcome back, as we begin to silence our conversations, please remember to silence your cell phones as well. I was thinking with yalta being an eightday conference, we have almost made a full eight hours talking about it. The last session is often one of our favorites. And that is a roundtable discussion where we get all of the speakers up together to talk about themes, to ask each other questions, and to give you all one last time to pepper one, some, or all of our panelists with your own questions. I would ask that when you have a question, if it is or specific panelist, please name that panelist, or if you want to throw it open to some or all. We are going to ask dr. Gunter bischoff to chair this panel discussion. I want to thank gunter for coming in and filling in on such short noti
Weve got a great speech for our second session this morning. Dr. Timothy smith is a veteran of the National Parks service and currently teaches history at the university of tennessee. In addition to numerous articles and essays, he is the coeditor of 18 books, including Champion Hill, decisive battle of vicksburg, which won the Nonfiction Book award from the mississippi arts and letters. You can buy a copy in our bookstore. I am pleased to introduce dr. Timothy smith. [applause] thank you. Appreciate that. Appreciate the opportunity to be here. This is my first time to be here. I am a believer now. You have got a great place here. We are going to talk about the western theater here. Vicksburg, Champion Hill. How many of you have been to vicksburg . I figured that. A good number of you. Champion hill is one of those great battlefields, if you have been watching the news, listening to the American Battlefield trust, they are doing a lot of work there. The state of mississippi has just tu
Test. Test test. Test test test. He stormed out of headquarters without orders, down the street, to the dock side, commondeered a steamer and went to forth fi fi. When he arrived, he got anything but an optimistic greeting. I am come to share your feet, you are to be sacrificed. Despite his gloomy prediction, and even though he had barely 1 15000 troops in the force. In the woods, general cherry deployed his troops in lines stretching from the Atlantic Beach across the peninsula to the backs of the peninsula. In the rear, a secondary line faced northward where terry feared a confederate attack from the rear. And reinforcements had been sent south. 6,000 troops from north carolina. They were seasoned combat troots, sent to defend their home state and they were ready to do battle. It was the generals worst fear, especially if a rear attack came at night when the federal fleet could not provide federal support for fear of hitting federal troops. From inside forth fi fisher the sent messag
His book on the raid comes out, it is now out and you can buy a copy of it at our bookstore. Im pleased to introduce dr. Timothy smith. Thank you, i appreciate the chance to be here. I have always heard about pamplin park, and it is great here. Were going to talk about the western theater today. Vicksburg, how many of you have been to vicksburg. She o he is one of the great battlefields, listening to the civil war American Trust now, you know theyre doing a lot of work down there. They turned over nearly several hundred acres. So there is a lot going down at Champion Hill. So were going to talk about that battle in particular, the larger Vicksburg Campaign. And i do not have a power point either. Im a little old fashioned. We have a map of Champion Hill which we will talk about in just a little bit. I tend to go overboard when i go into power points and i confuse everybody, so to keep from doing that, i dont do powerpoints when i can help it. And im beginning to realize that powerpoint
Crestcom bank center for military studies. Graggs work on battle of gettysburg won an award for best civil war book that year and his history of fort fisher earned a prestigious fletcher pride award for Civil War History is thats given out yearly from the new york city civil war roundtable. Lets give rod gragg a warm welcome. [ applause ] thank you. Thank you. Pleasure for me to be in a room full of historians and i say that seriously because i have learned, i may write a lot but the folks who really know the civil war are those of you who read a lot. And i appreciate that. Before i begin, if you dont mind i would like to tell you the story about the young history major who decided after he got a bachelors degree in history that probably ought to go get a masters degree in business so he could earn a living. [ laughter ] so he was accepted and enrolled in a distant Prestigious School of business. And wondered soon after he got there if he made the right decision because he failed his f