Transcripts For CSPAN3 Controversial Generals Of The Civil War 20171021

American history tv. Next, steven hood, the author of john bell could the rise, fall, and resurrection of a confederate general. Generals weof love to hate. You can watch all of this coverage by visiting our website at www. Cspan. Org history. Join us tomorrow at 9 00 a. M. Eastern for more of the symposium. [crowd noise] im just getting it right to the introduction of our next speaker, who had an odyssey to get here but he is here happily. M. Hood is a distant relative of confederate general john bell put. He is the author of John Bell Hood the rise, fall, and resurrection of a confederate general. And also, the lost papers of confederate general John Bell Hood. President of the Confederate Museum in new orleans. Without further do, sam. [applause] sam hello, and thank you. You mentioned my odyssey. My wife and i moved to myrtle beach, south carolina, five days ago. And if you think it is bad when the Airlines Lose your luggage, we werent able to move into the so we arere buying living out of boxes and crates and things. It sounds strange to say i drove up from south carolina. Im used to driving down here. I have been looking forward to this for several reasons. Theis, when the theme of symposium is generals you love , i dont have to worry about what peoples expectations are. , ended a fan of John Bell Hood even though i am not as closely related as the name implies. I am a collateral descendent. I think i am a second cousin. Grandfather,s andrew hood, comes off a different branch, but i am a big ,an of general hood because like most people i am a big fan of an underdog. Fan ofm also a huge people who are not around to defend themselves, and they deserve a defense. I, for probably 20 years, have been researching general hood. And there is the old saying, we have heard it a million times, if it sounds too good to be true it usually is. Is,what we dont here usually if something sounds too bad to be true, it is usually not. There is a saying that, the more fantastic of the accusation, then the more fantastic the evidence should be. So, with John Bell Hood, there and so manymyths totally extreme things, that im assuming you have all heard, that i decided i got to start looking into these things because it just doesnt make sense. Woodworthk stephen summed it up perfectly in a book or an article a while back, and he was talking about Braxton Bragg and John Bell Hood. And he said, if you read the recent writings on these two generals, you would wonder why you wouldnt wonder why they were in command of armies, but why they werent in insane asylums. [laughter] sam and the fact is, so much of the stuff that has been written about John Bell Hood, and i am sure others, as well, just has no evidence at all. Where the evidence has perhaps taken too much literary license in their paraphrasing. I like to use this as an example. Evening, ande this we can turn on the news to see what happened in the world today. And you can turn on msnbc, for example, and they are going to tell you what happened today, and chances are it will be true. And then you will turn on fox news, and they will tell you what happened today, and it will probably be pretty much true. But the two things you are hearing are going to be totally different. So you can spin things. You can accentuate things. Errors ofare also commission and there are also whyrs of omission, which is they tell you, you dont just have to tell the truth, you have to tell the whole truth. So, in my book, it starts out with a quote from cicero. And i am not going to read it to you but it states basically, the first law of a historian is r dare after an untruth untruth andtter an never suppress something that is true. Love the ultimate in a couple of things about my book, which is of aages, or 250 pages, thingsefense of all the that have been written and said about John Bell Hood. If there is 300 pages worth of stuff to answer, that is a lot. And i am only going to touch on, obviously, i have about one hour, im only get a touch on some of them. And when i get into them here, some of the ones that i touch on intentionally, or admittedly, they are kind of silly. An example of a myth or something that is silly, but it permeates history and permeates the Civil War History community the sillier it is, the whittier it is, the cuter it is, the more it spreads, quicker. And it spreads deeper. Anyway, im going to get into a few of these. I first decided i was going to write a book defending general hood into 2011 or so. And i contracted with a vislishing company, sadness bay. Me,ted was so hard on double checking, triple checking, quadruple checking, i wanted to go to california to strangle him. I growled, and darned if i didnt find something that needed to be fixed. So he was right and i was wrong. I had a contract to write a book and the title of the book was history versus John Bell Hood. I had completed the manuscript anyi had not discovered new, primarysource information at all. I went to the, same books, the same primary sources, the official record of the Southern Historical society, the same records that these recent authors have gone to, and i just found all caps of stuff in the official records which was counter to some of the things actually provided in the book. I had completed an entire book with nothing more than what was available to the authors who have been writing the negative things about hood. Funny day, it is kind of day, is kindll one of funny. I have become acquaintances with you much all of John Bell Hoods and annabelle hoods direct descendents. And i got a call one day from hoods greatgrandson, who lives in pennsylvania. And this gentleman is probably 70, recently retired. He said my mother passed away a few years ago and he was 96. That would have been general granddaughter. And he said when we cleaned up the condo, there were a bunch of boxes, and you know the story. He says, i know youre getting ready to finish your book, and there is probably nothing in here important, but we thought, before it goes to press would you like to come up. Look at this stuff . And look atere, this stop . Stuff . Thinking, im from virginia and of a construction contractor. But im also, being a southern guy, i didnt want to be rude. So i said, ok, i will come up and look. And i was sitting there thinking, if i say no hes going to think i majored. If i say yes im going to waste a day of my life, never to be recovered. Am, i told smart i my wife and said im going for an overnight eerie i didnt even take a change of close and i thought i would go up there and go through these and it will be nothing. And i get up there, and its unbelievable. It is general hoods longlost, thoughttonotevenexist personal papers. Wife,and his had 11 children. They had three sets of twins. H andad 11 children, mrs. Hood got yellow fever in 1879 and she died. General hoodand got yellow fever and he died. Just 72 hours,f 10 children were orphaned, all under the age of 10. And if youre a friend of john and an end there are 10 children needing three meals a day, you are not going to be too worried about john papers. So it was always assumed that a family friend had just thrown them away or they had gotten lost. But as it turns out, they hadnt. Had been passed along. And they end up in pennsylvania, and i show up, and here they are. And i end up staying three days, and i wasnt finished looking at them, and kind of archiving them. The family had to go out of town, so i went back later on with my wife and stayed three more days. I spent six days going through all these. I very quickly went through some of the papers that i sensed might be important from a scholastic standpoint and from the controversies of wood, mostly his tenure in the west, the army of the tennessee the army of tennessee. Really much bad, to talk about what hood in the army of northern virginia. Lettersanscribe these and i picked up the phone and i called ted and i said, ted you want to believe this. I sent him some of the stuff and he called me back a few days later and said, we were going to go to press with his next month but he said, you have got to put this stuff in there. , five,ok another four six months, and redid the book by putting the material in their that i had discovered, that was likey, really important, what happened at spring hill on november 20 9, 1864, and other things like that. To changed i decided the hiatal, not history versus. N bell hood we changed it to John Bell Hood the rise, fall, and resurrection of a confederate general. Because ted and i felt it largely exonerated him from the most outrageous stuff. Some of the most outrageous stuff. So, that is my journey from being somebody that is just the Civil War History not to actually having a book published. And then, of course, after we published the first book with this information in it, ted and i discussed doing an annotated and that those papers, is the lost papers of John Bell Hood. I want to get into some of the i dont have time to get into all of these. I am going to touch base on a few quickly. These kind of controversies they are in the book. Know if this is mostly a Eastern Theater Centric Group here or how familiar i am thinking you are all total Civil War Western theater. He did not call his men cowards. He did accept responsibility for his defeat. He was not angry at franklin. He did not like just frontal assaults. You read that all the time, he only ordered one. That apparently did not matter. He did not position any of the units to take the harsh worst casualties. Did not go to nashville and sit there and do nothing. Believe it or not he actually had a recent to send people to murfreesboro as you hear all the time. They did not squabble or feud. I use this as a illustration there are basically four books that are recognized as definitive books on his Tennessee Campaign. A author ine was by the early 1920s. The another was written in 1950s. And 1970s finally in the early 90s. If you would read these four shouldnt really because i am going to write one. Like i was telling you about the tv channels and the networks. The same effect can be told differently. Yearsauthor, every 20 someone wrote a book on the same subject. It becomes more harsh on good. K starts out with thomas whoussing a Army Commander partook in a campaign and was defeated. To where it was quite more than that. I have always said, why would anybody in these towns and areas actually name landmarks after a womanizing,d, backstabbing, murderous soul. In virginia and in georgia it is not surprising that they would name something after him because of his success there. There are landmarks also in tennessee that are suburbs of nashville. Two of them and nashville itself, to an franklin. They were landmarks last time i heard they may have changed the name of the street by now but that is a entirely different subject. Adid not know that there is straight in los angeles and in florida near fort lauderdale. The only reason i found out about them is because they were going to change them. People back inld and 70s, why would they honor somebody by naming a landmark or street and their honor . If you would read the book in the 90s or any of the books after that it would be like naming a road Charles Manson lane. There are a couple of the quotes. He called him a full with a license to kill his own men. Then ben stein, for those of you who think you know he is familiar. You talk about jumping the shark. He actually wrote the article in the New York Times saturday things the faall pondering whether or not to allow people to talk on their cell phones on flights. He somehow or another creatively hoodgh that to john bell be one of the most destructive human needs of all time. I am not kidding. You are appear accusing people of exaggerating and i am not doing that. I am telling you. He called him the most instructive american of all time in a article about cell phones. [laughter] i like the guy. , iis a big civil war fan dont know if you know that. He let Civil War History. Loves Civil War History. I am going to give examples of cana author or a historian take primary sources and can change the context of a completely. I am going to talk about mr. Sword quite a bit here. I am going to be careful because he is a great friend of the site. Book is the last that has been written on the Tennessee Campaign. It was so good. From a running standpoint he is a a writing standpoint he is a incredible writer. Andt of the smaller books monographs that have been written since then they go by his interpretation and portrayal. You will see him in here several times. I was reading this part of the book from page 350 and i get down to the part where he says the army13 gained 160 recruits since tennessee. Result to angrily and bring into the army by conscription all men liable to military duty. Writes if recruits his standardsk to he intended to bring the men at the point of a bayonet. That does not sound right. I did what a lot of us dont do enough. I go to the footnotes. All, i know about you hate interrupting my reading. By going to the back of the book am finding it and then finally it tells you that it is a file from a library in tennessee. Like you will go there and find it. I did. Quite a bit. Cited a, the footnote letter that was written. I read it. Here is what hood wrote. I do not have the date of the letter. This is all he says about recruits. Have not had time to address any kind of conscription but hope soon to do so and bring into the army all men liable to do so. With this . At balance he reacted angrily. Was there any anger and that letter . Going to find am out if you are eligible to be drafted you will be drafted. I know in 1971 i was at the marine corps boot camp at the point of a bayonet. I probably would have preferred that. That is just a example of how you can really try and spice and he gives the wrong perceptive perception of the reader. This next one that i give. I know i met a gentleman from youngstown who has heard my civil war roundtable panel. You only are given 20 or 30 minutes. The next one i am getting ready to give. It takes too long. You guys, you cannot escape. Escape and in this next couple of minutes to me it is really incredible. Now, i will set it up. Again, i dont know how familiar people are with the Tennessee Campaign. The battle of franklin, the horrible what he battle of franklin. That was november 30 1864. There were six generals killed lost 4500 casualties. Nashvilleved on to and he built fortifications. He basically kind of laid siege to nashville. Later George Thomas one of my favorite union army andattacked his over a twoday battle at nashville on december 15 and s6th of 1864 they defeat hood army and chased them back to alabama and mississippi. So, hood a couple of days after the battle of franklin, i think it was the next day. He said they dispatch said they dispatch to general cory gardner and richmond. Saying we lost six generals at them andand he named we lament the loss of 4500 men. That he had taken some very heavy casualties of franklin. Nashville and he isacked at nashville attacked at nashville. On the second day of the retreat he sends a dispatch saying we have just been defeated and we are in full retreat once i safely cross the Tennessee River i will get back to you with more details. Five or six days later after hood safely crosses the Tennessee River he sends another message saying we have completed thankfully and we have not lost much more sense the battle in front of nashville. Gardner rmed cory and they are in full retreat. Hornis from stanley the army of tennessee. 3 itote on january received his first direct word telegraphed from corinth. Aat must go down in masterpiece of understatement. The army has recrossed the Tennessee River since the battle of franklin. He goes on to say that she did not say anything about the shocking loss at franklin and the disaster at nashville. Sword writes the same thing. It is the confederacys last hurrah. Hood basically lied to his affairs by sin we have not lost any more since the battle of franklin. That is totally untrue because they lost 50 cannons and 4500 more casualties at nashville. Here is what happened. If you actually go to the footnotes in the official mr. Swordere is what cited. It is to general cooper. Beaureguard that they suffered no material losses since the battle of franklin. You see that little asterisk . It says turn to page 757. Here is what he said. The army has crossed without material losses from the battle of nashville. And it sayserisk here is what happened. Od sends a dispatch he simply dispatch sends a dispatch saying we have not lost anything since the battle of nashville. His staff screws it up. Richmond that he is not lost anyone since the battle of franklin. In the official record they decided to give them both. This is what he decided to tell him. Horn miss that. Of thoseen on tours battles and i have actually heard from very distinguished tour guides talk about how he lied to richmond. They did not tell anything about nashville. The problem i have is anyone can make a mistake. Mr. Horn made a mistake. Mistaked if he made a that means he must have missed this. This is the correct one. Mr. Sword and two other places on two totally different subjects used a primary source on page 425. He sourced the entry and the official record one inch away entry. E correct know, maybe they missed it. Thingsre the kinds of shat have not helped hood reputation that he is totally innocent. One person in his tent probably made a mistake. Another thing you hear about hood is that he was callous, cold, cruel, and that he actually complained when it was not enough blood spilled. Measure success by how many casualties. Think i am making this up. If you pick up a few books and read about the Tennessee Campaign and you will read this. One example that is in every book, one example they give is hood writing about the battle of jonesboro. There were four battles around atlanta. When you hear the battle of atlanta there were four battles around it. The battle of decatur is actually the battle of atlanta but it was one of four. The battle of atlanta had jonesboro. That was the last supply line for the army of tennessee. That is when he had to evacuate atlanta. Thescene and gone with wind. Everything blowing up and burning. Jonesboro had fallen and the army was evacuating. Report, incial january of 1865 he wrote of it may be imagined when only 1400 were killed. The failure to necessitate a b actuation a evacuation. The callingmment on it cold, cruel and callous. What did he write . At the battle of jonesboro hood had three infantry corps. Learned of a yankee movement heading towards dealeyro he sent stephen and another core 30 miles south of atlanta to meet the union threat. Hood stayed in the atlanta fortifications with Frank Cheetham and the georgia militia. He was afraid it was going to be a diversion. He sent two thirds of his army to deal with it. Was one thirdhat of his army. Assigned them party William Hardy to be at jonesboro. When the battle was over and atlanta was lost, hardy had been mad. Wasas mad because hood commander of the army of tennessee. He was not happy so he resigned and he left. A officialgive hood report of the battle. He got mad and left. The only report on the battle of jonesboro that hood got came from the other core commander. Reportte in his official the attack was a feeble one and a failure. With a loss of 1300 men killed and wounded. It was made with spirit and determination, and all that. Hood had no idea what happened. He simply took what lee wrote and paraphrased it. If you read books on John Bell Hood they talk about how he was complaining about how there was not enough blood spilled. They never say anything about stephen lee. This one is another example of misquoting and taking things out of context. Died, here is he a article in the me you portlands new portland times. Back when people died in those very elegant. You can read up on your own but it is very elegant talking about what a great guy he was. Asn in the middle it says expressed in his own forceful words, they charge me with making franklin a slaughter pen but if i understand it war means fight and right means kill. Then they go on to say more eloquent things about him. There is a article in the San Francisco newspaper. I am not joking but they did not have paper orders. You are frantically taking notes if someone is giving a speech. Different. L probably in the San Francisco paper they are talking about the same event where hood was that was referred to in the article. , i tell yout here the brave forest was not far from right when it declared that war means fighting and fighting means killing. That is kind of a famous quote. Quoting actually just forrest. Swordses from mr. Book. He ultimately was a tragic failure, a sympathetic soldier whose ambitions totally outstripped his abilities. He was a advocate of outmoded concepts. Always prone to blame others and unable to admit his mistake to the bitter and end he never understood his failures. He admonished a group of aging iterans but as i understand war means fighting and fight means kill. Admonishing but he was speaking into the army of Veterans Association and they were using his referral of forest as part of this eloquent praise of him. Bookit comes across in a 150 years later that he was admonishing a group of aging veterans. He had been invited to the aging veterans meeting. Of how you have to be careful with how things are portrayed. Here is another one. By the way, i hear these things all the time. You all may not. Some of you may. It is also an books maybe i will get some nodding here. At the battle of ezra church which was the third of the four battles around atlanta. A story thatosedly goes after the battle it was a defeat for the army of tennessee. Dark one oft got the inky soldiers yelled out across the trenches to the other fortifications, how many are there of you left . All of the books will say some gallowshumor type yelled out for enough for another killing. Authors will say this is a example of how poorly the soldiers thought of John Bell Hood. They knew he was going to send them into the slaughter pen. They said there is enough for another slaughter. That shows up all the time and books. I decided to research this. That happened on july the 20th at the battle of dallas. It was a days before John Bell Hood took command of the army of tennessee. They say you will read it and books all the time that it happened that ezra church after the beloved joe johnston had been let go. Because heted hood did not care about their lives. A use this example. It happened under Joe Johnstons watch really. I guess most of you have heard this. Again, i challenge anyone to find a book on the army of tennessee with the Tennessee Campaign that does not give a cute, witty tune of the ella rose of texas. Soldiers sang a song. It was very witty and cute. That automatically guarantees it will be an every book. You are thinking, you must be a y, it guide bored gu occurred to me. I am kind of a skeptical guy anyway. I read stuff and i tried to picture who and the world would take the time to write down and the words tostory a silly song . As it turns out not really anybody. Is, i started researching this and most of the source thequote this life of johnny red. It is a 10 commandments kind of thing. He sourced i am in a brain lock the story of the confederacy. It is not footnoted. All of the sudden it ends right there. I start digging and digging. Thank goodness there is a Confederate Library at marshall and it actually hides in the corner of the old library building. It has the word confederate and its name. And that keeps a low profile. I found this during the retreat his staff were riding along a few of the soldiers stepped out of the way. As he rode by one soldier actually said he heard a soldier from a North Carolina regiment he played and say hell and tennessee didnt he . It was records that published in 1904. He cites one soldier saying that. If you all google or you look at health and tennessee you will come up with thousands of hits. There are a couple of things that were written. Stanley moran wrote and mentions this song being song. The coldest it ever rained drummed noisily down the tent. He was sitting in the tent and it was raining. He could hear something that sounded familiar out in the distance. It was a familiar tune. Because of the rain he could not hear the words or it would have broken his heart. The cold december rain drum down but not noisily enough to drown out a confused army. Heartbroken commander had listened he would have heard them saying as they splashed barefoot. The tune they say was the old favorite. The yellow rose of texas. The words had been improvised by some camp with words that would have steered the heart of hood. That was from one guy. Another one, another book the author and historian is still around so i will not mention him. He actually says the texas brigade talks about how they were traipsing onto the bridge traipsing across the Tennessee River back into mississippi and they were all in unison singing the song. The hyperbole is quite something. Preston who is thought to have perhaps then Margaret Mitchells inspiration fortes arent familiar with chestnuts from dixie. It is essential reading into history. Book sally is all throughout the book. So many of the things he is doing is to impress Sally Preston. When the army fails he is trying to redeem his army not to lose her. At the defeat of franklin he is thinking i have to do something or i may lose her. So he went to nashville. All of these things that he is doing and not doing is being influenced by his girlfriend. I dont know about you but that does not sound right. I just decided to do research on that. These are this was real quick. Index 13 different pages, she is mentioned more times than once per page. There are 13 different pages that mention Sally Preston and nine that mention susan tarleton. Does anyone know who that is . We have three out of 100. That was after clay brings fiance. Fiances, there are 22 pages in the end decks in the index of these women. What how they were handled. Haydont appear in thomas s book. They dont appear in court horns book. You have one mentioned by these mr. Sword cited mary chestnuts diary. It has been around forever. That i thought what was also interesting was on a book on the battle of franklin and nashville. At the battle six generals get killed and there are four. Those are four of the six generals who were killed. Before Brigadier Generals were killed at the battle of franklin. In a book on the battle of franklin that is how many times they appear in the index. That is how may times the fiances appear. I assume a lot of you all have heard that robert e. Lee said hood was all lion not enough fox. Fox youoogle hood and will get hundreds, it is just about in every book. I said that does not sound like lee. Did he say stuff like that . If he did would you write that . It sounded so unlikely. There was this guy from West Virginia with a lot of time. Thank god for google. Came upd googling and i civilreds of books all ooks that say he is lion no fox. None of them were before 1928. All of them were fairly recent books. The first mention of anything hood foxes and lions, and come from a epic poem. What he is doing is he is talking about robert e. Lees lieutenants. Talking about these wonderful marvelous, Excellent Group of subordinates that he had. He writes a couple of verses on long street and on stewart. Anyway this is what he writes. This is the poet not robert e. Lee. He basically says hood was shock troops. Of theons all lion none fox. Poem that fell lle lee was lee was praisinghood. It was not a insulting criticism if you will. That is another one that if you read about it it is all over the literature. This one is kind of funny. It is dated now. The atlantis cyclorama and History Center i assume or hope many of you have been there. It is in the process of being moved. Museums or theaters or whereys you have a foyer you go in and wait for the next film to be shown. Then you go to the other end when it is over they rout you through a gift shop. Anyway this is a picture, i think it with my cell phone so i part of the quality. Foyer atin the entry the cyclorama. This thing is big. It is a entire wall. Tens of thousands of people hang by this as they are getting ready to go to the cyclorama. It is not there now because they are moving it. It has ulysses grant, robert e. This didnt have anything to do with the Tennessee Campaign. There is William T Sherman and joe johnston. It shows the different battles. Hereant read a very well it very well here. It says John Bell Hood in native of kentucky, called old wooden head by his men. [laughter] was clearer. Read probably thousands not complete letters but thousands of letters from soldiers either in full or excerpts. Seen anyime had i ever soldier calling him old woodeen head. Maybe i should not have done this but it is too late now. [laughter] i was speaking at the cyclorama hostistory center and my the guy who had been so nice to bring me there and make all of the arrangements is sitting in the front row and i am talking about how difficult it is to get this stuff change. Host and front of my the assembled multitude. I said what i just told you all. Alle is no record of it at or if there is nobody has found that. It just is not true. Host anddown to my said i have a proposition for you. If you will produce a single letter that actually backs up what is on your wall over there, if you will provide that because i have been looking for years i will donate 10,000 to your facility. [laughter] look inaid if you search of this generous donation and if you look and cannot find it, will you call the sign company and go out there and fix that. Send me the bill and i will pay for it. May of 2014 and i have not heard a word. They did not call to collect their 10,000 and it was never fix. Tens of thousands of people go by and they read that. That just shows how difficult it is to get things changed once they have gotten hold. What i am hoping is when they open the new facility, wouldnt it be nice if they didnt have that . Does anybody want to bet . [laughter] i dont think anybody is trying to degrade or demean anybody. Anyway, that one is pretty indicative. These are all that cute things. I am going to use my remaining substancet a few more to things. Not that these arent. On some of his controversies has anyone here read his memoirs . They are weird. They really are. Memoirs it iss long and it is pages excused joe0 pages answering johnstons criticism of ham and his handling of the army of tennessee. Then 30 or 40 pages of where he. S from it is very odd. Having memoirs published that very odd is that help does not help your reputation. I met read them many years ago. It turns out i knew that they were published posthumously. He was in the process of writing these when he died. They were published posthumously a year later by a Charitable Organization that was formed to help the orphans that was another general. Inway when i find his papers that house in pennsylvania. I am going through all of these papers and there is a letter to in january of 1879. That was the year he died. There are two letters, he is in washington dc. He is meeting and he tells his wife he ran into Randall Gibson who was a Brigadier General commander of a louisiana brigade. He fought pretty much the entire war. Randall gibson was a subordinate. Became he was from new orleans. He became a very close friend. Of fact he was the godfather of his oldest child that passed away. After the war gibson became a congressman. He is in washington and he writes a letter to his wife that says i ran into general gibson. He said why dont you put something in there and make it a memoir. We did not know until this letter that his book was not supposed to be a memoir. It was going to be a answer to johnston. That is all it was meant to be. A pamphlet or a monograph in response to joe johnston. Then at the last minute he decided he will make a memoir out of it. He only lived six more months. Then it was published posthumously and people to whatever they had. That is why the book is so weird. He died and did not have a chance to finish. What he was doing was converting that book. One of the things you will is hebout and read about was a disloyal subordinate when he joined the army and was ramona to Lieutenant General and given a court command he immediately set out to undermine johnston. To get him fired. So that he can get his job. You will read about this quite a bit. Thinking that really does that sound right. I read some of the letters that do exist and he wrote back to richmond when he was a court commander for joe johnson. Some of them sound like he was actually answering letters he had been receiving. There was no proof of that. Sitting goingm through all of that. There is a letter from john bell fall. O lewis t would he was the commander of the texas brigade and he resigned to reid aexas senator texas senator. At the beginning of this letter 1864 andil 15 from this is in his hand. On the 29th letter of march has just been received and i hasten to answer your direct questions which must be purely between us. He is getting letters from richmond asking what he is doing down there . Fromhing we have learned the letters that were discovered that in one case and probably in all cases he was receiving from these men asking what joe johnston is doing. He is very secretive as you all know. They wrote him asking what is going on . What is he supposed to do . Is he supposed to refuse to answer . If you are wondering why is a i foundn his papers hood and is from dont know how they got back into his personal papers. Then i found a paper from which a letter toer with his adult daughter. Through i was going daddys papers. I found these letters from your daddy to my daddy. I thought i should send them back to the family. It was a very sweet letter. That is how these got back into the papers. Controversy r the battle of castile. Criticized and has been criticized by richmond because he never wanted to fight. There was a time that the army was going to attack sherman act at castle. It was a great plan. Said now is in and the time to strike. The way the battle was to begin it was to start out with a strike from the right and then the center and then from the left. All of the big battles when it is all timing. Ood starts his move and then all of a sudden he gets bombarded from his right and rear. And he repositions his what he thought is a attack. Johnston then calls off the battle and resumes his retreat to atlanta. Johnstonwar is over says hood line. There was no enemy force to his right or his rear. He said he got attacked but he did not get attacked. Hood said he did get attacked. It became a bit of a war of words until hood died. In those papers is a letter from captain paul oliver. Saying i am the commander of two batteries of artillery that started bombing you at castle. Joe johnston said he did not get attacked and here is a letter from the guy and command of those who did the attacking. Hood was right and johnston was wrong. That is proof. I am getting near the end here. Debate hoodo a big sustained big casualties are in the atlantic campaign. Joe johnson said no you didnt. Records should indicate what the casualties were at the beginning. What happened was when he got fired his chief of staff got mad and left. Army of tennessee was a mess. This is true. They took the paper so there were no records. Was claiming after the war that johnston had lost 20 or 25,000 troops during the retreat mostly by desertion. He said no he didnt. Papers is a affidavit from john smith. Who was a member of his staff saying yes, the army was reduced by 20,000 or 25,000 men. Mostly by desertion. There is another affidavit from another staff officer who said that the army lost 25,000. Here is another letter from one of the great names of Civil War History. It sounds like a good old southern boy. The kernel has a copy saying we were reduced by about 25,000. The last thing i want to talk about is the spring hill a fair and what happened and what did not happen. I cant do seem that Everybody Knows what happened at spring hill. If you know what happened there bear with me for just a second so i cant explain it to the people who are not familiar. Fter the fall of Atlanta Sherman burns what is left and starts his march to the sea. Hood and the army of the tennessee have escaped atlanta but they are to the west and the north of atlanta. Sherman burns what is left of atlanta and begins his march to the sea that is the southeast. Hood is in the northeast and sherman is in the southeast. Richmond is trying to figure out what to do with the army of tennessee. This is an late 1864. There is a bloody stalemate going on in this part of the country between lee and grant. Is thatis decided to do they cannot catch sherman because he has a 200 mile lead and he is destroying everything in his path. No railroads, all bridges being burned and there is zero subsistence for a army. Shermans slaughtering all of the cattle and burning all of the crops, destroying everything. A pursuing army has no supplies. Even if they could figure out how to catch them with a head start. What richmond decides to do to send the army of tennessee on a invasion of tennessee to try and liberate nashville. By doing that if he could succeed in defeating George Thomas at nashville there are only two sources of troops for lincoln to use. They either had to have sherman turn around and come back and he would have to do that by c because he would have no subsistence. What was going to happen was grant would have to send 20, 30, that wasusand troops the plan. He begins a invasion on the north end of tennessee and sherman are going and a opposite direction. It is a very strange event. It makes sense if you know what is going on. Thomas is sent to organize the defend defensive nashville. And he gets there he has 8000 troops and they are mostly quartermasters. He is given only one small army. It is the army of the ohio. It is not. John scofield sends a small 25,000 man army under scofield. He positions himself between hood and alabama. He begins his march towards nashville and scoville then starts a retreat. You have 30,000 confederate 25,000 man union army. They are both racing north to try to get to nashville. Scofield was to get to nashville because it is fortified. Scofieldto get between in nashville and attack and destroy scofield and that will lead George Thomas leave George Thomas with these troops getting a small force together. Scofield both converge and the city of columbia, tennessee. Scofield got there first. He fortifies. He is sitting there south of columbia and he has two choices. One is to attack headon or the other is to try and flank. He decides to try and flight. All 100 at columbia and he takes the other two core and he takes them east and crosses the duck river and does a march on november 29 to try and get on the road to cut the road between columbia and nashville and basically isolate scofield in the middle. Had it turned out right there would have been to court two core to the north of scofield to the southanon of scofield. Flank andearns of the he goes to columbia. Flanko core that did the the night before get to the town of springhill, tennessee. Read about dark. H orders to Frank Cheetham to block the road. And he does not block the road. Hoodext morning, wakes up and it schofield is gone. Schofield who was trapped between the artillery and the uper two corps had marched the road, the columbia pike, and theyily mentioned literally mentioned it looked like an ocean of campfires beside the road, and they marched by all night long and they were never stopped. The next morning, hood and in the army wake up, schofield has escaped. They get on the road and they start chasing him to catch him before he gets to nashville. Schofield gets to franklin, all the bridges are washed out. He turns around and he digs in because the army is a couple hours behind him. That is why the battle of franklin happened. For those that do not know, there were more casualties and the battle of franklin and five hours than on the dday beaches. It was all on 1100 yard wide from. Anyway, the big debates then happened. Hood said he gave orders to cheetham to block the road, cheetham swore up and down he never that the orders. Hood is lying. Hood died in 1879 and a cheetham outlived him by 11 years. I can get in an argument with anybody over anything and if i outlive you by 11 years, guess who will win the argument. [laughter] that is exactly what happened. Basically, historians have largely sided with cheatham. Because hood was not around. So, im going through his papers. Hoods papers. I come across some interesting things. From stephenter d. Lee. Is august 25,t 1875, there were actually three letters. Wrote, it is hard to read, i think you can now right with more profundity than at any time. Possibly it is now your duty. He is trying to tell hood, you have to tell what happened. Hood was not saying anything. He did not say anything about what happened at spring no until he put it in his memoirs. Then it was after he died he was doing the robert e. Lee thing, do not argue with confederates about why we lost the war. He would not say anything bad about anybody. On april 16, lee writes, the blunder was at spring hill. Had that not occurred, all would have been well. Bear the responsibility of failure. A noble at a noble effort was made. And it was the last chance to strike with success. Later on, he writes i do hope your book will make clear the spring hill matter. For it is time for the mystery to be cleared up. If you do not, i feel it is my duty to do so after your book comes out. Well, what was it he was telling hood . What was he telling hood . Another letter from lee that steward aboutp six weeks ago and profound it, why was no battle delivered at spring hill . Replied that cheatham and determined it was not best to bring on an engagement at night. He said he believed he regretted it thereafter and it said nothing, no such weight should be on his mind again. And in that feeling, lost his life at franklin thereafter. What happened was hood only put major memoirs, he put joseph coming cumming and rochford said they delivered orders to cheatham, and cheatham said i will not attack. It is late, i will not attack. Hood put that in his memoirs. He did it because stephen lee basically give him an ultimatum. He said, if you do not tell what happened, i will. Then there was one other letter that hood did not include. Isnt that great handwriting . Ld, as from william w od member of the staff of ed johnson, one of the division commanders. Well, i he said that am mixed up here. He mentioned that his colleague, e. L. Margin on the staff of ed johnson said, that he had heard cheatham give the orders not to attack because it was dark and he did not want to attack. So, the papers that we found basically prove that hood was right, that Frank Cheetham was given orders and he thought it was too dark and he thought, we will get them in the morning. But they were not there in the morning. So that is, these are the basically the, the controversies of hood. There are 300 pages of these things. These are only a few of them. Now i will show you one picture here before we go to questions of the cool stuff i found when i found the papers. Reach in the box and here is a frame, a simple frame of a letter. I squint and i read it what is this . That is my famous phone by the way. [laughter] this is a handwritten letter from Stonewall Jackson, female cooper, after the battle of antietam, recommending hood for promotion to major general. How would you like to be sitting in a room, it is dark and they are downstairs and you are going, should i pick up that . You are going, whoa. Things onave got cool our wall, the cpa how would you like to have your recommendation for promotion from Stonewall Jackson . [laughter] and right beside it, recommendation for hoods promotion side by james long street. Anyway, tons of things in there. General,te, brigadier major general, Lieutenant General. , that is a whole different presentation. We will take questions tomorrow at the roundtable. [applause] ok, just a couple of things. The tour to the popular cemetery, you will meet outside the rotunda if you are going on that. Cars have to be moved out of the slot by this lot by 5 45 p. M. The meet and greet at the reception is at 5 30 p. M. At the rotunda. We will see you tonight. [chatter] announcer this concludes todays live coverage of the historical park civil war symposium from petersburg, virginia. You can watch the Coverage Today on cspan. Org history. Join us tomorrow and had 00 a. M. For more of the symposium. You are watching American History tv, cspan3. Next on history bookshelf, Mark Kurlansky talks about his book the food of a younger land a portrait of american food, before the national highway system, before chain restaurants, and before frozen food, when the nations food was seasonal. He