minutes will be back with more live coverage of the mississippi book festival. if you want to see the schedule of events go to book tv.org or you can visit the mississippi book festival website at ms book festival.com. first here's more book tvs visit to jackson last year. >> when i was a writer i think i said in the south that i take for what i know for granted and i feel like i am judged because my eyes have been cleaned by experience so i know where a.m. i have a base to see people moving in that clear lights were in jackson mississippi it is a national historical landmark and wealthy was a writer she was born in 1909 and died in 2001. she was a writer who won just about every literary prize there was. she studied throughout the world really published in many languages, she wrote wrote short short stories. >> that was the form she most value. she had four collections of short stories in total in just over 50 stories of that collection. >> there is oneñr writers beginning to look at the time she was born to the time she was public occasion of her first storx, it's very entertaining i personally love that one. but also the optimist won the pulitzer prize. she wroteñr anywhere, she would write in the car but most of her writing she would doñi here. this home was designated as a landmark inñi 2004. the house open to the public for tours in 2006, i haven't been here two years or so i can't tell i can't tell you how many times people said to me, how they would come down here just to hear her typing. they did, they often did because she would have the windows open upstairs and it was an old manual typewriter. she did quite a bit of work here. >> this was much like her room when she was here writing she had her typewriter, she would make notes on anything available, back, back of a checkbook, little scraps of paper, and address book. the address book she would write down name she would heard she would be by the grocery store and she would think of a name or hear of a name and she would jot these names down and then some of the names she had real. so she would know not to put the whole name in the story because it was a real person. >> she loved jackson she felt like she could write anywhere but she knew the people here and i think she liked writing here because they respected her. they gave her her privacy. she could go could go to the grocery store and they would bother her and they really liked her and she was then you could go into a restaurant see the heads turn as she walked to her table, everybody would be punching everybody. she knew the people, if you read her stories you see how well she was, the way she said things she never wrote about anybody in jackson but she knew the people of mississippi. she was invited to go to the yeah the which is a writer's colony in new york and she really didn't like it. but as she said she could go to her room and right and that's not how she wrote. for example, the story she walked into a country post office and she saw an ironing board and a post office and she thought that's weird. i wonder if someone lived here so that's how the story develops. >> the whistle which is a story about people burning everything they own to save their crops she would hear a whistle and would ask what is that and someone said there is going to be a breeze tonight so the farmers know to cover their crop. so just every day happening. >> she would type out the story and then she would rip it and decide to add it and she would read it much like a seamstress she would cut out a script and she would change a few words and pin it inches it it was easy to move around, eudora saved everything she ever wrote. which is wonderful for researchers they can go back and decide if she chose change this word to this word. her thought process was a nightmare was for histories because all of these things may have ham thrown in. unlike today when writers do it on a computer and they do the next version and the first version is gone, but but we have all the edits and copies. >> i can't say what her legacy is but to me, just her mastery of the short story form, particularly as it relates to dealing with the internal life that people often don't talk about but it's there. her powers of description are amazing, not only the physical description of nature but also the interior drama that are going on within the individual and also between close individuals. it's extraordinary. >> i think we talk about nature but were used to a listener, and that does something to her narrative style i think. >> that was from book tvs visit to jackson last year, now if you're watching book to be earlier today you would've seen a panel discussion on the life of novelist, and essayist eudora welty who is a jackson native. you can watch that live at mississippi book festival on my netbook tv. now more from book tvs visit from jackson last year. >> don't shop for anything i capitol street, let's let the merchants down on capitol street build economic, let me say this to you i have one merchant who called me and he said i want you to know that i talked to my national office today and they want me to tell you that we don't need mega business. these are stories that help support the white citizens council. the council that is dedicated to keeping you and i second-class citizens. finally ladies and gentlemen, we'll be demonstrating here until freedom comes to negroes here in jackson mississippi. [applause]. >> 15 minutes past midnight got out of his call in a negro residential area, but a 40 hour delay a sniper fired a single shot from a high-powered rifle the olin hit him in the back and crash there his body through window through the house. he died within an hour at a jackson hospital. city detectives believe the fatal shot they found a rifle in the bushes which they think is the murder weapon and they also have other clues. >> at the town i remember vividly my mother talking about and she would always tell us it was an stream important to know with this person was. that you know what he did, and she was always amazed that nobody had really written about him and he hadn't gotten the kind of respect that she felt he deserved, on like martin luther king jr. malcolm x., she didn't feel he got that kind of recognition. but it's very important to understand the significance of his family, his mother and father in particular because they were teaching him that it was his responsibility to not only care for the community at large but his responsibility to the larger community. so he grew up with this kind of attitude and his father was very much protective of the family, a person who talked about the importance of manhood and the responsibility as men. he grew up with that, his that, his mother is well taught them and in particular their responsibility. he grew grew up with these kinds of ideas. it's important to know as a child to he would often time faced in terms of individuals and people who had been blanched and what that meant to him. so the childhood for him was a growing experience, out of it came this idea that you have a personal responsibility. 1950s and 1960s and mississippi was very oppressive, and violent in terms of african americans in terms of their status of society at large. were talking about second-class citizenship, denied opportunities to vote, denied access to education, denied opportunities to participate fully within the society so it was oppressive to say the least. the most most important to understand that kind of environment is that it was a violent time. in the school they decided they wanted to raise the boat and the towns you could be being at a moments notice. this is not connected to the right to vote, any person who exhibited any kind of attempted demonstrating their manhood her womanhood was subjected to brutality and that was the environment in which they lived. it's political understanding but also for those individuals were also activists along with them as well. you are acting against the society and in some instances that will kill you and that's the kind of environment we're talking about. individuals also would lose their jobs if they were identified an individual who is trying to change the system. so these are the things that would go on, employees would be notified of their participation. it was an environment in 1950s and 60s, he decided in 1953 where they're calling for volunteers to segregate and he decided then that he would volunteer to do that. he put forth his application 1954. the importance of this is that they believed african-americans should have been opportunity just like anybody else, not only to go to school but also participate in all aspects of the society in which they live. he put his application and in january 1954 it would go through the process and in the end he would be denied on a technicality a technicality in which they would say, he had not had the proper support from where he had lived originally. so he would be denied even though he could open it up again for consideration. the important part of that is the naacp was paying a close attention to his application at that point, this is a period in which the naacp is trying to integrates institutions on professionalism and on a bigger level. once he was denying the office became this vehicle to express himself fully. the secretary was responsible for organizing naacp chapters and investigating all instances of brutality and wrongdoing throughout the state. the school secretary is also responsible for making any kind of problems and send it to the national office in new york and sending it for publication as well. so the field office also went on to state speaking to individuals, encouraging encouraging them to register to vote, encouraging lawsuits, filing affidavits, showing individuals how to register and organize. so it was immense. there is a particular time in 1955 in which his responsibility at that time was to investigate what happened and try to take witnesses and try to get justice for the family. there is instances that it was something that bothered him also in 1955 there are several murders mr. mark smith and again people were responsible for investigating those and trying to get justice. so with that you would have to go in and oftentimes in disguise try to figure out what had happened, to try to speak to individuals who may have witnessed it, get it, get a sense of what had been going on and try to pull out affidavits and that nature. most and partly to get the word out to the naacp headquarters in new york so they can publicize what was going on. these are some of the prominent things he was involved inches i think it's think it's important to understand when we are talking about civil rights activism that every day that individuals get up and leave the house, they understood bow well that they may not come back home again. when they leave their families and kids in the morning that may be the last time they see them. yet they still do it day in and day out. for the field secretary that was something he was constantly in that type of fire and environment. it will become much more difficult for him after he gives his national televised address in 1963. prior to that he had to go undercover had to go in in the middle of the night where you could talk to people where they can't be seen. so is very difficult, after pretty much everybody knows what he looks like that made it more difficult to go incognito and undercover. it was always difficult, it was always trying but it was understood that going in and he would often talk about the fact that even if he was killed in the process that would be worth it if it change the way things work. that's the kind of mentality that we're talking about here. when you start looking at the environment, when environment, when you start looking at what people are faced with that field secretary your job is to go into the heart of all that. on top of that you're being monitored by organizations whether it's the white citizen counsel, you are also keeping an eye on everything you are doing, everything you're saying as much as they can, and they have these in files that they keep on you. the fascination occurred early he got home a little after 12 after leaving a meeting and naacp meeting, he gets him a little after 12, gets out of his car he decides what he is going to bring in and he decides to bring in the house some t-shirts with the words must go over and across the and as he gets out of his car he shot in the back. his family is awake because they're waiting on him to get home and they hear him pull up and then they also hear the shot, when he is hit with a bullet and this is a devastating shot but he is strong enough to and his wife opens the door she sees that he has crawled to the door as if he was trying to come home. of course the neighbors hear the shot and they come out and they see him and his wife and children and so this is a very emotional time because people understand the severity of what just happened. this individual who had done nothing but work toward of the advancement of african-americans and to bring justice to the state, that that he is shot in the back this way. it also started the movement to because people started to come about to bring positive changes but this fascination is what really showed the severity of what was going on here. there is a sense of the i guess people are happier relieved that that part of it was closed and that individual who had actually murdered him had been found guilty. at the same time, we understand that this person had lived his life along life, and he was an old man by the time he was convicted. he had an opportunity to see his family, he had opportunities to enjoy himself and those kind of way denied. you have this kind of closure part where this person is found guilty but the person who did the most to try to change the society for the best had his life cut short and his family have been denied that. more importantly the state and the nation have been denied of what he could have done with the rest of his life. so you have those kind of things. overall people were happy that justice was served. what i want to do with the book is to not only talk about the life of evers but also talk about civil rights and understand who he was and understand how he did the kind of work he did. i didn't want to just tell the story of an individual i want to tell the story of a man. what silva right struggle actually meant on a personal, familial, professional level as well. i think his impact is that he demonstrated the humanist of silver right struggle in the humanist of what it means to be a person to live in a society at whatever time you are in what is your responsibility in roles. by looking at his life you will see that in great and vivid detail, even though he was an individual who is very much low key. what he did spoke volumes. edgar's and other prominent civil rights leaders were discussed earlier today on an author panel. at the mississippi book festival in jackson. >> presidential candidates often release books to introduce themselves to voters sent to promote their views on issues, here's a look at some books written by declared candidates for president. in his book immigration wars jeb bush argues for new immigration policies. neurosurgeon, ben carson calls for greater individual responsibility to preserve america's future in, one nation. in against the tide, former rhode island governor lincoln chafee recounts his time serving as a republican in the senate. former set for terry of state hillary clinton looks back at her time in the obama administration in the book hard choices. texas senator ted cruz recounts his journey from acumen immigrant son to the u.s. senate. pollock fee arena is another declared candidate for president in writing to the challenge sheets shares less than she's learned from her difficulties and triumphs. lindsey graham released an e-book on his website, in my story, he details his childhood and career in the air force. mike huckabee gives his take on politics and culture, in gods guns grits and gravy. in leadership and crisis bobby jindal's planes why he believes conservative solutions are needed and washington. george pataki is also running for president, in 1998 the former new york governor released pataki, where he pataki, where he look back on his path to the governorship. kentucky senator rand paul calls for smaller government and more bipartisanship in his latest book taking a stand. rick perry has a book, fed up he explains government has become too intrusive a musket out out of the way. in american dreams, marco rubio outlines his plan to advance economic opportunity. bernie sanders is a candidate for the democratic nomination, his book of the speech, is composed of his eight hour long filibuster against tax cuts. in blue-collar conservatives, presidential candidate rick santorum argues the republican party must focus on the working class in order to retake the white house. donald trump has written several books in times to get tough criticizes the obama administration. >> .. an awe their discussion on the civil war. [inaudible conversations] -- this is our civil war panel, sponsored by the mississippi amenities council. we're being broadcast live on c-span's become tv. please silence your sell phones. the panelist all have books available for purchase downstairs at the tent on mississippi street, and immediately following this panel, the will make their way to the author's ten next door to that and will be happy to personalize and sign the books for you. our moderator is timis bell. during his 30-plus years as a journalist his has serve as writer, photographer, photo editor, pain designer, and shreddographyer. he researches and writes and photographs books on the civil war, civil rights history, and the gulf coast in 2007 he want inducted be usm communication and journalism hall of fame. >> i'd like to thank all of you for coming. i was going to start the session off with the quote from another mississippi author, shelby foote. any understand offering this nation has to be based on an noning of the civil war. the civil war deoffendded us as what we are and it opened us to what we game, good and bad. it's necessary if you're going to understand the american character of the 20th century to learn about this enormous catastrophe of the 19th 19th century. the crossroads of our being and a hell of a crossroads. i'd like to crow introduce my kole legs. on the far right is timothy smith. mike mallard, justin solonick, and tom parson and i'll pitch it to tim. >> it's beautiful to be here with you today. i think what we'll do first is tell you a little bit about ourselves and introduce ourselves. my name is tim smith. i live in tennessee. i teach at the university of tennessee at martin. and mississippian at heart, though. a native mississippian, grew up in carrollton and went to ol' mississippi misstate, got degrees from both somehow. egg bowl day i'm a winner either way. my publications in terms of the civil war basically fall into three different categories and each of those categories overlap a little bit. a lot of what i do, particularly recently, deals with battle histories, and i've written on shiloh and champion hill and current, and working on a book 0 on fort hinske fort donaldson. another area i like to get involved in is mississippi history, and obviously a lot of that will fall glow battle history as well. but i've written on senator james e. george, the mississippi secession commission and the other topics, and the final area i like to deal with is dealing with battle battle preservationw the veterans came back and looked at what it did decades before and how they wanted to preserve what they did, their memory and so on, and they do that through -- one of the big ways is to preserve the battlefields they had fought on so very interested in the hoyt of battlefield preservation as well. >> afternoon. i'm mike ballard. a professor emarry tase at libraries of mississippi state university. emeritus is one of those titles you get if you stay at a job long enough without getting run off. i was there over 30 years, got all my degrees out mississippi state. so from akerman, mississippi, where i lived during those years, the highway to starkville is like a long driveway. for me. my major interest of civil war history has been the western theater of the war, because i'm convinced, as are many others, that's where the war was decided. most recently i did a book on general grant and the siege of vicksburg. prior to that i did a general study of mississippi and the civil war, major campaigns and battles. and tim did a companion volume on the home front. so we think we got it covered. i also think the best book i've done, frankly, at least most involved and the hardest one to write, was the history of the vicksburg campaign that came out in 2004. it's the only one-volume study i know of that covers the entirety of the campaign. i'm very proud of it. so i always like to mention that one. i think al together -- i don't know when we throw this numbers out because they don't impress anybody usually except us, but i've published a 14 books, authored, co-authored, edited. spent a lot of years with the war, dating back to the time mist family and i used to go on vacation to vicksburg and i was always spellbound by the old chair in the old courthouse museum that grant supposedly used during the aftermath of the siege of vicksburg. something about the chair always wanted me to -- made me want to take it home with me. and it's still there. i don't nope what is holding it together. but the war to me is not just the fighting, the killing, the cannons, the bullets. it's the people. the soldiers, and even more so, civilians. i'm very interested in what they went through, what all of them went through. and i'm also developed an interest in recent years in the mississippi unionist because there's so much we don't know about them. and i would love to do a book on them but i don't know it would be possible because if you were a unionist in mississippi, it was not something you went around and talked about very much. and so it's kind of hard to find documents. some we know about. most we probably never will know about. so, that's basically an overview of my interest. the people aspect. i am, of course, interested in military history, but from there -- from that top layer, which we all have to be familiar with, down to the people involved, as i said, soldiers, civilians, children, people in towns that were impacted by the war. that story in mississippi is very compelling, as it is in most of the other states. so that's just a quick rundown of where i am with my research right now. >> hi. my name is dr. justin solonick and i'm aned a junk instructor of history at texas christian university and i'd like to thank you all for coming out today. it's wonderful to talk about history with all of you and really -- you guys are what makes this possible for us, and thank you, tim, for acting as moderator, and i want to say thank you to mike because i like mike. anyway, my current book is called engineering victory, a book i had a lot of fun writing and it was a good time and something i'm very proud of. my personal interest in the civil war actually goes back to when i was very young, about 12 years old. i'm initially -- don't get mad, i'm from connecticut. i'm sorry. i apologized. i'm sorry. i'm a native texan now. but going to the battlefields in the eastern theater with my father when i was young, and today as i said, i'm here to talk about engineering victory, my latest book. what i talk about in the book, it's really a wonderful story about how grant's arm, the army of the tennessee, an army that was deficient in engineers, and how that army was able to wage and carry out the most successful siege in american military history. a lot of people don't realize that happened at vicksburg. in addition to that i've written a chapter in a book called "the chattanooga campaign" about patrick clayburn and his rear guard action at ringle gap. so those familiar with the chattanooga campaign may know that event. the military history of the western theater of the conflict, so i look forward to answering your questions today, and if you want you're welcome to ask them even after the panel as well. i'll hand it over to tom now. >> i'm tom parson. is this new territory when i go to speak they hand out a bulletin that has my bioon it. i'm a retired navy chief petty officer from sylmar, california. my education, i like to say i got it at deckplate used. got interested in the to civil war while i was on active duty. the very first military park i visited was shiloh, and as luck would haved, when i retired in 1999, i got a job at shiloh national military park and have been with them for 16 years. the last 11 at the current civil war interpretive center. so i've been a mississippian for 11 years. i'm here today to talk about my book "work for giants: the campaign and battle of tupelo harrisburg." the heart of my research, my interest in the war, lies in what happened in northeast mississippi and west tennessee, and aside from the book i've written several magazine articles, regular column in "the daily corinthian" with articles about civil war in corinth, mississippi, and i'm writing on the battle of tupelo. you want to say hi to mike. i'm saying hi to tim. we used to be next-door neighbors when he was a ranger up at shiloh as well. tim. >> and i'm tim. i did a series that i called the sentinel, the series of civil war books and photographic books of the battlefield. of the three books we did one ol' gettysburg, vicksburg, and shiloh. if have written five more civil war books. and written two books on civil rights since growing up in jackson, i grew up there in that time and there's a big interest in that. and when i'm not doing books i'm photojournalist at the sun herald newspapers in biloxi. so i was a member of the news room that won the pew litter prize for our katrina coverage. and my labor of live right now is i promised myself, after seeing so much damage from katrina, i was going to do a book that showed the beauty of the coast, and that what i'm working on right now. and instead of all of us guys talking at you, we'll open it up and let you ask questions. if you have a question, head to the podium and fire away. if not i'll ask justin a quick question. explain saps to and every the approach of the -- >> which one -- no. okay. well, in the book i've written, engineering victory, a lot of technical terms and i tried to explain them and make them as clear as possible. if you have been to vicksburg there are a lot of approach trenches and a different brigade commanders. during the time those were trenches dug toward the vicksburg defenses that cut at sharp angles in order to prevent incoming fire from the confederate defenses. and the sap was a special kind of trench. it wasn't -- only unique to vicksburg, unique to most seasonals sense then 1700s but a sap utilized what was called ganions, large wicker basket that would be put on the sides of the trenches and filled in with argentina to protect the workers has aadvanced across no man's lan in front of a sap another characteristic feature is what is called a sap roller, and it was a big wicker basket, even bigger, knock on the side and rolled forward, usually with hand crowbars in order to prevent fire coming into the trench. what is different about vicksburg, however, that we see a lot of different types and permutations of sap rollers. partly because the weren't enough engineer officers to correctly instruct the soldiers how to build sap rollersment one of the stories i'm most fond of vicksburg is sherman, william t. sherman, on the commander of the 13th corps was riding to visit with one of his division commanders and comes up on a group that had been detailed to build gabions. and they're just standing around him says what are you doing? and they said, the guy hands them the letter that has orders and he says, do you know how to make one? the guy said, no. we haven't been in the army that long, never had. to so sherm yap gets off his horse, rolls up this sleeves, attacks an axe and shows them how much to build gabions. a two-star general building gabions. and other improvise it sap rollers. the most famous was called the gun boat which was -- there's many different descriptions. i have them in the book. the general consensus is that it was some kind of platform structure with wooden wheels and wooden axles and cotton bales on top that i would roll toward the enemy to protect them as the wasn't forward. unfortunately for the cotton bale and the boat, a soldier fired a piece of fuse from a smooth bore musket into it, and it burned down. well, they built another one but more traditional. that's what a sap roller is. i tried to make is at exciting as possible. let's be honest. >> tim, you had in your book about the secession convention, there was a picture, a guy from the new york tribune who talked his way into the secession convention. if you could tell us more about this guy. he fascinates me. >> albert richardson. albert richardson is an interesting character. in fact he wrote a book, i think 1865, 1866, got all of his adventures in it, and apparently he managed to somehow show up in jackson, right about the time of the secession convention, and didn't tell anybody who he was or where he was from and that he was reporter for a northern newspaper, but he did talk his way into the secession convention, and left a very vivid description of what these guys looked like, what the chamber looked like, the wall paper, and the plaster falling from the walls and everything. it was not a very flattering picture of mississippi at the time, but coming from the source that it did, you can imagine. but he -- this is one of those things you see him later on at fort henry and fort donaldson and he is almost like forrest gump. he is everywhere and does everything and you wonder, how much of this is really the truth? but he does offer really the only contemporary picture or hand drawing of the mississippi secession convention that is out there, and it corresponds very much with what the chamber descriptions say it would have looked like at the time. so, obviously he was there and had a visual view of what was going on and so on, and the things the describes, you can go back into the journals and the newspaper accounts and so on, and it matches up almost perfectly. so i have no doubts he was there. but it was a little bit of trickery to get into the mississippi secession convention they were dumbfounded when they read accounts of what he had written days later in in the new york herald or whatever the paper was. he is an interesting, which. >> mike, i'll ask you a question about ulises s. grant. i think if you told people before the war they would not have said he would be such a compelling character in the civil war. since you have written and studied so much on grant, give us a feeling about grant, the general, and the man. >> well, grant's -- i think, first, it's important to know his personality. he was very quiet man, very withdrawn, rarely cracked a joke, rarely smiled at jokes, very inward type personality. he -- his prewar years were indeed tragic in many ways. he graduated from west point, kind of of middle of the pack. nothing outstanding about him as a student. then he got married after the mexican war. did a good job in the mexican war, nothing really astonish, but did a good job. in fact crossed paths with john pemberton while he was down there. neither one of them knew how they would cross paths in later years. grant came home, married, a lady in missouri. her -- julia dent. her family was a slave--owning family, and from the questions -- one question that has still swirling around over civil war history all these year, didn't general grant own slaves? no. he was given a slave by his wife's family, and he proceeded to free that man in a very short time. he never owned any himself. his wife's family certainly did. and in fact, julia took a woman that had been a slave for her family, took that woman with her throughout much of the war, not treating her as a slave but more as a confidante, but in 1864, i believe it was, this lady left, and of course julia did nothing to try to stop her. she was very hurt that this woman would want to leave her, which is kind of a signal of that complex relationship between slaves and masters during the slave years. when grant got back home, he tried a lot of things to make a living. he had resigned from the army. after a brief time in the far west, northwest, he had tried to do some things there farming-wise, and trying to make extra money. he was very unhappy being away from his wife. they were very close throughout marriage, and it was there that he was first accused of drinking in a public way. i think that came about because of his depression, being away from his wife. so he eventually resigned from the army, and that drinking thing was just like you make one mistake and it never goes away. it will follow you all the days of your life, especially if you're a prominent person. so there are many wild stories out there about grant's drinking. only a small, very tiny percentage of them have any truth to them. when grant -- when the war started, grant was living in gay leap galina, illinois, and organized a local troop there, and then he was called to springfield, illinois, the capitol, by the governor of illinois, to help with paperwork and getting everything organized in illinois. he was, of course, had the west point background, and then he led some troops into forays into missouri, nothing spectacular happened. his battle was at belmont, missouri, just across the river from kentucky. kind of a mixed bag. he made progress at first and then he had to get his troops out of there in a hurry because the confederates counterattacked with more men. but he made it. then came fort donaldson, fort henry, shiloh, he lost his command of the army of tennessee at shiloh because henry hall lack, who commanded the whole western region, did not like grant very much and certainly did not like the way he conducted the battle at shiloh the first day. so, after the union victory at shiloh, halak took command of the army and made grant second in command, which meant he had nothing to do. and he came very close to resigning from the army, and we can only wonder what might have happened to the union cass if he had. his close friend, william t. sherman talked him out of it. sherman would later say, i saved grant when he was drunk and he saved me when i was crazy. and that there's some stories behind that comment, but sherman did indeed talk grant into toughing it out. eventually halak was called back to washington to be commander in chief of all the union armies -- abraham lincoln was commander in chief. so grant began his campaigning against vicksburg. it went through several months, several phases, certainly don't have time to get into all of those. what grant learned, he was very deeply depressed about what happened after shiloh. it was when he figured out that the people in washington -- he had a good friend, congressman, named washburn, who was always on his side in washington. and so when he figured out that every time he stubbed his toe that lincoln and halak and ed win stanton, the second of war, were not going to fire him. when he got at confidence from the support he was getting from washington, that pushed him to what he became, very fine general. he had his good -- good things as a general, some things he was not so good at. but the main thing about him as a general, which is the point i always emphasize, and i think the point that the -- the main point that makes me admire him so much is that he never gave up. it did not matter how many times he had setbacks. it didn't matter how many times things went wrong. it didn't matter how many infighting there was among his generals. he never gave up. and that what took him through to the victory of vicksburg, later chattanooga, and then into virginia in 1864 against robert e. lee. that, by the way, is going to be my next boot. i'm going with grant to virginia. i'm not abandoning the western theater. after all he came from the western theater, and i still live here. so, we're not abandoning the western theater, just going eas to show them how it's done. but i'm looking forward to that. and as i did with the book on grant at vicksburg, the general and the siege. i like to focus on him on a daily basis, what was he doing. never really read anywhere, what was he doing during the seeming of vicksburg on a daily bay is? what roles did he actually play? and i will do that in -- with him in virginia, too. so, i think to use one of the phrases we're used to these days-grant went from rags to riches and did it the hard way. he earned it. and he had to really fight and scrap, but he made it. >> a question toward tom here. involves one of mississippi's own guys, earl van dohrn, i hear he is quite the lady's man, and suspect, general? >> easterly van dohrn is a fascinating individual. he is at the heart of what i do at the civil war interpretive center because he is the army commander, army of west tennessee, his campaign is to retake all of west tennessee but he has to take the garrison at corinth first, and he has got a lot to live up to. much is thought of him at the beginning of the war. he is the second ranking jenna mississippi, only to jefferson davis. he is placed in command of the transmississippi department, and he leads an army to defeat at pea ridge. he brought across the mississippi river, shortly after the battle of shiloh. he misses a few opportunities to hurt general halak's army group during the siege of corinth. in the late summer of 1862, this army of west tennessee attacks corinth from the northwest and it's a two-day battle, and van dohrn is terribly beaten. ... interestingly enough all the history books miss that. if you look at the top list of all the brigades and casualties john free more they get forgotten. van doren, he doesn't realize at the time of the battle he has been replaced. john has been brought in to be the overall commander and van dorn has just reorganized the army and put himself right out of a job. it works to his advantage, a few short months later after grant against his first campaign against vicksburg, van dorn is called upon, it is a bit of a disaster as an infantry commander but he is being finally come into his own and he leads this incredible raid that goes around grants army, going southward towards jackson, it destroys grant supply depot at holly spring. the only time during the war cavalry changes the course of a campaign, grant is is forced to retire out of mississippi completely. his star is on the rise, he does does well as a calvary commander until, as you alluded to in the spring of 1863 at springhill, he begins to play dr. with the doctor's wife, that being doctor peters. the jealous husband he dispatches general van dorn, instead of dying with glory and the battle field he is shot by a jealous husband at the height of his military career. >> i see we have a gentleman will get his question. >> i am wondering about the home front, i don't know if you want to tackle this or not but things like i am assuming the rate of slaves running away increased at the moment the war

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