Longwood. At that time one book was published in 1859 dealing with the final campaign called to appomattox. Its a good popular book but i remember after reading it and studying it i had a lot of questions as to where the events took place, how did the armys get from here to there . So this book here set up my quest, then, to learn more about these sites. At that time when i worked at appomattox i worked with a gentleman a lot of you probably know. His name was harold howard. He portrayed an exsoldier who stayed on. I took the role of a Union Officer who was stationed in appomattox on provoes duty after the surrender. He and i were companions in trying to learn more about the events that took place on the retreat. And one of the areas that i was particularly interested in was the battle of Sailors Creek. Sailors creek actually became a state park in 1936. And efforts were made to purchase more land for the park and to have it become a National Park. But something happened like world war
You, but they want the same things. Could you even imagine a more pay tree patriarchal scene than this . Hes always trying to needle in a political point and in this case its right between by jeff davis in the doorway is the table upon which the surrender of general lee thats now the photographic pride. One of the other things that i enjoy is look at the girl. Look at daddys knee and mothers chair. She is locked in. She is not going to move. Shes not going anywhere. Something else that kind of intrigues me. Look at the preoccupation. I dont understand this gesture. I really got nothing here for you folks. Look how they solve the problem of keeping the little girl still in this one. Put your head on daddys shoulder. So charming. Here he is with his staff. The staff looks off in all different directions. Then youll find a slightly different shot. Oh, yeah, we got a movie coming on. This fascinates me on a number of levels. Look at this guys pants. Untucked tucked, untucked, tuck tucked.
Anyway, that was after reading to appomattox, the only book we had to learn from. I was trying to figure out how the armies actually got around from Sailors Creek in this area where most of the heavy fighting takes place. I remember the editor of the Farmville Herald some historian asked him how the troops got from highbridge to farmville they were wanting to know. I remember he said it would take a philadelphia lawyer to figure out how the armies got through this area. Im not from philadelphia but i think ive figured it out. Would you speak on major henry young . Chris henry young was in the second rhode island infantry. Another thing the Union Cavalry used on this campaign and tracy ably talked about what the Union Cavalry was at this point of the war, they wore confederate uniforms and took the persona of i think they took the ninth virginia cavalry, fake southern accents, and what they would do is they would ride into the confederate line of march. They would tell the teamsters go
Our final speaker tonight is christopher calkins. He a proud graduate of longwood university. You were one of the first male graduates of longwood. Chris has had a long career with the National Park service. He worked at appomattox, spotsylvania, and was chief of interpretation at petersburg for many years. In 2008 he took over the position of park manager for battlefield state park. It is only 15 minutes from here. He has done an amazing job in revising Sailors Creek. As a mentioned in the beginning he will be available tomorrow for some tors of their cash for some tors out there for some tours out there. He is responsible for the retreat route. He is actively involved in battlefield preservation, the association of preservation for civil war sites, particularly building up petersburg in the past getting a large amount of land for petersburg battlefield. Received an award for marriage in 2015. For merit in 2015. Numerous books on sailor creek and appomattox. Also a study of the 29th d
When he asked me to speak as the leadoff man, that was a first for me. Most of you can tell by my size, i have always been rather large i never hit leadoff because i that requires somebody speedy. Being the leadoff man is something new for me. I was surprised when pat pointed out that the magazine contains his article, because you get to this article, you have to read through my article. Which i think should have been the end of the magazine. [laughter] we could have avoided a lot of history that would have droned on. Please pick up one of those and read my article. Mike gorman has an article as well. It is always a pleasure to speak about petersburg, because most of you in this room having heard stories of petersburg, probably never delved into it. When i was at appomattox courthouse a number of years ago my boss at the time, who , promises to heckle me later, asked me, when i said i was going to petersburg, are you crazy . He said that it was the most unimportant story in all of the