Finally, in april of 1862 northern troops began bombarding for polaski. The amazing thing was, they could hit everything they were aiming at from a distance they laid outside of the ability of the confederates to land a telling blow in return. The closer they got to the magazine, the more quickly commander olmsted was able to fly the flag of surrender and give for polaski over to the union. And in effect, inform robbery lee that the blockade of southern ports was going to work, because the union had technology that was going to overcome anything the confederates could do to answer it. They couldnt counter the parent rifles that the union army had. We hope to be doing a lot of digitizing and scanning of the correspondence because it contains a lot of genealogical information that will be of interest families. A lot of the families who did not return, of soldiers to maine, but whose family members would now like to know, what did there great, great, grandfather do during the war. We look
Debates bond by appomattox debate spawned by appomattox. I will argue lee and grant represented distinct visions of what the honorable peace would look like. They were fundamentally incompatible, contrary to a myth. They represented fundamentally incompatible visions of what the peace would look like and why the war turned out the way it did. I also try to take us beyond lee and grant. As the drama unfolded, countrymen and women would crowd the scene and have their own agenda aspirations, and dreams. Among those dreams was the dream of freedom itself. In the eyes of africanamericans, lees surrender was a freedom day, the day, the moment that the promise of emancipation was fulfilled. Lees vision emphasized confederate righteousness. Grants vision emphasized African Americans would associate appomattox with liberation. Lets start with lee and the confederates. Lee and the men in his inner circle , even as this writer took shape, to turn military deceit into moral victory. In lees view,
These democrats rallied behind the confederate interpretation of appomattox. In their valor, endurance and skill to copperhead neoprobe insisted southerners were equal to the north to the confederacy was subdued by overwhelming numbers. Heres lees interpretation lock stock and barrel. The south to is divided. By southern unionists opposed confederacy during the war rally behind grants interpretation and reveled in the fact that the noble grant and his army had broadly sushil. Surrender was a vindication for white southerners. Americans held markie maher asserted more fervently that the surrender margin of error than africanamericans. Vivendi victory vindicated the cause of black freedom and racial justice. At appomattox, both liberators had liberated. The last clash of granted me across the virginia countryside from petersburg to appomattox, my stomach tried on april 9 to break free of a federal trap only to find last escape route blocked by black soldiers and the six regiments of the
Those days are not quite as distant as some suppose. We remember that a few people still alive today lived through them, albeit as children. 2014 will mark that centennial of the drama which profoundly influenced the history of the world. I spent the last three years writing a book describing both how the war came about and what happened on the battlefields during its first months before the french lapsed into a stalemate. There is a widely held view, a delusion, as i shall argue, that the two world wars belong to different moral orders. Nineteen robo one was a good war, world war ii was bad. The first subject was so horrendous that turned is that makes it of the two sides causes could badly to meant barely managed. They add a view of what they think happened. Until 1941 britain defied the vast evil of nazism, berlin. In russia and the United States took this train encompassing the destruction of hitler. The struggle was nothing like as bloody as its predecessor, says some people kid t
We look forward to seeing you tomorrow. Next, Elizabeth Varon recalls robert e. Lees surrender to the ulysses s. Grant led union forces said the mclean house on october 9th 101865. This is about 45 minutes. [applause] thank you so much for that very, very kind introduction. Its a pleasure to be here. Property surrendered u. S. Grant in 1865 which is for most americans a familiar tableau. The two men met your mama Central Virginia at appomattox courthouse. Lee wore a fine dress uniform and vow gentility of the southeasterly. Create test crack early and represented the hardscrabble farmers and wage earners had molded in to so formidable a fighting machine. After awkwardly exchanging pleasantries about service in the mexican war, the two men agree to the surrender terms and ended the civil war. In essence, grants term salve for the army of north virginia on there arent. The promise that they would never again take up arms against the United States. Great magnanimity in this relates to the