delay who made newt gingrich look sweet and lovely. and sadly, that s where it all went. the democrats really were very slow in getting the message and not getting their message back out and they lost a whole lot of ground in those ten years and it s really too bad. they re really saying, we re le t nice people and peop don t understand we ll be back. it was a long way in the wilderness. thank you. thank you very much. this week on the civil war the final session from a conference organized by the virginia civil war sesquicentennial commission. the theme of this year s gathering was leadership and generalship in the civil war. and the virginia military institute in lexington, virginia hosted the conference. university of virginia history professor gary gallagher gave this year s closing remarks in which he spoke about the significance of studying military history. this is about 40 minutes. it s a very great pleasure for me to have the opportunity to introduce to you g
participate, but we have kind of kept that in our pocket, so to speak, as an overarching theme. gary gallagher, when we went to seduce him, so to speak, to come to this conference and give the wrap-up talk, he immediately seized on the topic of the importance of studying military history. and we have looked forward to this day for quite a long while, not only what s gone before, but this ultimate triumph that we think that gary is going to deliver to us today. you all, i m sure, as serious scholars and buffs know exactly who he is. he s been advancing, by the way, to virginia from a long way off. he started in california, and he went to school in colorado and went to school in texas, and he taught in pennsylvania. but in 1998 he wound up at uva. and there he is the john nau professor of history of the american civil war. he is the author of or editor of 30 published volumes and he s active not only in the publishing field, but active in the preservation field. and when people