Transcripts For CSPAN2 Book TV 20110625 : comparemela.com

CSPAN2 Book TV June 25, 2011



i think i have the advantage of stepping back and certainly i've spoken to people in the campaign that have worked we are but i've written it from afar and researched from afar. >> what is bully pulpit books? >> we publish books on politics, pop culture, religion. we have books on the chronicles of narnia, a book on bob dylan and his spiritual background. and we try to operate in that sphere where the three intersect. >> what's your background? >> i'm formerly back with the cnn back in the days of the entertainment reporter and i'm a film producer. >> mark joseph this is the book wildcard the promise and peril of sarah palin. .. >> sold or others, historians in the country today. jeffrey wert was bigger but his new book teenine -- "a glorious army: robert e. lee's triumph, 1862-1863". this book, we are delighted to say is a mainstay of the book club. this book is one of the most sought after civil war books in the country right now today. mr. jeffrey wert is the other of nine books and has been writing about the civil war for 40 years. it took awhile to get that out. forty years, and he really is well known from pennsylvania to california. his most notable achievement, one of them, is a barber feet and general james longstreet of the confederacy, the most controversial soldier. we are delighted to have. ♪ with us here today. at the conclusion he will take your questions. let's give him a nice round of applause. [applause] [applause] >> thanks, joe. when i was here, i don't know if you were here are not. many of you were so kind to ask questions. please, if you have questions and going to allow time for this. i certainly applaud like to hear them. if you disagree with what i have to say. in fact, i was digging about this coming down on our drive this morning. this is the first full talk have given on the book presoak parts of it don't make sense, forgive me. i haven't gone through this all together. so please, when i'm done, i would like as many questions as you have. when ready lee rode out nine mile road on sundays in first 1862 to assume command of the army in northern virginia there were, i will tell you, very few people who were quite optimistic about the prospects. there were a few in richmond, but there weren't many. now, lee had a great virginia family named. a west pointer, a model soldier in many ways, but he had commanded in western virginia in the fall of 61 and between lousy weather and even worse subordinates it was a failed campaign. that kind of hung over his reputation. actually, lee was temporarily exiled to the south carolina and georgia and coastal defenses until march of 1862 when jefferson davis needed a military advisor. so he chose lee, and he joined davis. what was critical for the next march, april, and make was that these two men developed mutual respect and trust for each other. davis, you know, has so many problems with joseph e. johnston. yes justin he would have some new problems. their relationship was very, very icy. getting more difficult. then of course johnston is wounded on may 301st. in davis roadway that evening on may 301st. the was with them. you can make the argument. he was going to command the army. there was no subordinate to give it to. he turned to lee and set on going to appoint a temporary command, not permit their -- permit command. so that is highly get the job as being commander of the army number virginia. when he joined the army he realize very quickly that johnston was a bad administrator. the organization of the army was week. discipline was miserable in many ways. dhl wrote to his wife at that time. hundreds, if not thousand men was slick away from camp and enjoy the saloons and brothels of richmond. you can run an army that white. so we in turn in heritage army that was not quite ready for what lee is going to expect of them. yet i thought about this when i was doing it. you know, you can write in a book that all the stars aligned. people will think it -- you can prove that all the stars aligned. in the sense all the stars aligned for the confederacy on that june day. there is no body really in the army of the atomic which were at the gates of richmond that simply -- i know the names. stonewall jackson, james longstreet, jeff stuart, epo, dhl, richards yules, left eight. there simply wasn't in the union army those kind of subordinates. so what they needed, if you will was somebody who could take them somewhere. that man was lee who rode up their the morning of sunday's in first. what tiddly do immediately? what he would do for the next three years, he went to work. he issued an order immediately saying that all commanders would have their brigades and divisions ready to move at a moment's notice. today's letter, two days later lee decided that he was going to attack the union army of the atomic. what is critical to understand about this, and i think it is what becomes of hallmark of his generalship certainly for the next 13 months. arguably as long as he could do it leave incest rationally. some have argued that he had that in a combativeness. it's hard to measure that. if you remember, there is a famous conversation between one of davis's aids and porter alexander, the future gate are terrorist. this happened soon after we took command. alexander asked, is generally audacious enough? we need audacity. endive's said, alexander, you will see shortly all the audacity you need to seek. and he had it right. but it doesn't come from a combativeness assets. it comes from our recent calculation. if you look at june 1862 the confederacy had a terrible winter. henry donaldson surrendered. you have natural captured. you have the battle of shiloh will give better sue lost, and you have enormous captured. excuse me, the year army up atomic. the attitude in the north, they set down the recruiting offices. there is every reason to believe it may be our very charlie. the winter of 62 was a winter with the confederacy of on the defensive. the union army sought defense all that massive stretches of land. we saw that the only chance they had against an opponent his material might and manpower may not be unlimited but it was certainly a limited compared to the confederacy. he felt he had to take the word to them. you had to assume the offensive. you had to take risks because if you don't take risks you are impossibly for a slow death. you had to prevent that we calculated that the only thing the confederacy needed to do, if you will, was be audacious and bold. some have argued that lee was too bold. but what i will tell you, lee was doing what the seven people expected their generals to do. the old line was that any kid representative. he probably exaggerated the numbers. they believed that their voice to with a fair number of the yankees. they had this marshall attitude in the south prior to the war. the davis a ministration, he wanted aggressiveness. the seven people, so when the s&p aggressiveness, the offensive he really in turn is reflecting what the seven people expected them to do. so by doing so if you are general you can dictate within your theater how the campaign and operation is going to unfold the strategic or operational offensive. so within two days on june 2nd in june 3rd lee made the decision within two days to strike the enemy. charles marshall would say in conversations with lee and a reflection of the strategy we believe the best way to defend richmond was to be as far away as possible from richmond. yet to take the war away from richmond. he had to get away from that. grant tensor to richmond. during the bleated slow death. so until the you have to fight it away. so the other factor, and this is critical to understand. lee will write about this time and again. he paid close attention to what was going on in the north as a trivia lee's favorite newspaper was the philadelphia inquirer. he felt that they had the most reliable correspondence with the army of the potomac. he would read other newspapers, but his favorite was the philadelphia inquirer. he knew that the confederacy to win this war had to achieve on the battlefield. ultimately what they had to do was to break the will of the northern people. the will of the northern people to sustain the war effort in the face of defeat and sacrifice, the loss of husbands and brothers and so forth. that was the german military analysts, it was the center of gravity, the crucial thing that has to be broken. to do that in lee's mind you have to fashion together a series of battlefield victories that might break the will of the northern people and forcing billing demonstration to negotiate a political settlement. the confederacy could never caulker the north. they had to bring the north to the table. in the speculation that was part of his strategy. and so as many of you all know, at the end of june 1862 the confederate army struck. the army struck in what is known as the seven days campaign. actually, we like turning points and worst. in the war. civil war is famous for it. the military turning point. folks come in some ways a critical turning point was the seven days. the war took a new course because of the seven days. lee and his army are going to change everything in the east and are going to change it for the next year. when he drove the army of the potomac with george mcclellan's help in the sense that mcclellan wanted to retreat away from them, but when they receive flatbush the war in the east is going to change. that is because we was willing to do that. this is an army that will be not the army did you think about later. just a couple of things that struck me. one of the standard things, of course, terrible mass communication. jackson had a bad campaign. given over to 50 in dallas. we are not sure, but he doesn't do very well. in fact, lee had serious questions about someone jackson's conduct in that campaign. but one of the other things that struck me was the amount. my goodness. a lot of good all seven boys that weren't interested. when they came close to the battlefield they went around. this is going to be a problem throughout 62. we get into antietam, but this is clearly a problem at that time. just for an example of how they weren't a machine by any means, and that is malvern hill, the question has been argued and still remains argued. i just saw recent market -- article. the premise and part is wrong. piteous to a string of bloody battles. if you're engaged in bloody battles you will lose more men. it is aligned there. he said it was not war but murder. the confederate slipped to five trips were slaughtered. they never had a chance. there were slaughtered the important thing to remember, that is an example of these aggressiveness and combativeness. on the west wing of the army late that afternoon. james longstreet. there were discussing this. lee had decided to cancel the attack if there were going to make an attack. they were preparing for an attack. lee decided that he was going to cancel. two things happened, two messages came. one said that the federal army was in retreat. well, lee had been trying to catch them for a week. secondly, the armed raid, his brigade had made an advanced degree these two messages daintily we have an opportunity to be that federal's are scurrying away. as we would say, he wants to destroy their armies. unfortunately both pieces of information were wrong. is that heavily ordering a massive assault, he was drawn into it by a false information. the result was murdered. the next campaign i say in my book, and not just saying it. i think both run and manassas degree in fact, it is really the second manassas. if you go to the park is manassas battlefield. grizzlies masterpiece. combined a strategic or operational offensive around john pope. they assumed the tax bill defensive until august the 30th. then it would counterattack. they came very close to destroying the army of virginia. then you go down there. henry house will. down below it is a stone house. it is where the work turned. if they were to capture that pubs army would have been scattered all over. he would have been forced to surrender. they came close but never did. from the seven days at the beginning of july until the end of august some of this army to all parts of it came together. this is a different army. the communication was much better. jackson had gotten out of would never have bothered him or costa and to have a subpar conformance during the seven days. he was the one that executed the flag marched. forestry is clearly becoming a solid wing commander. but he and jackson. in that sense it is in many ways the masterpiece even the chancellorsville is considered the greatest battle. if you want to look at the end what he hoped. in a lot of mind. and i know wind. i imagine all of you have been to gettysburg. you walked out of there from the virginia monument. alexander's guns. you look across that line. how could he do this, or his army across this ground? you know, is he that combative? and so we have this image. but actually have to look more closely at these campaigns, he preferred maneuvering to give him a situation that was very favorable tactically on the battlefield to an army. he used it in seven days. his use it and second manassas. but after that he is sitting in northern virginia. he is looking around and he feels he has to take the war across the potomac into maryland the difficulty with that is he is looking at an army that the men are physically just worn out. they have gone many miles. they're going to fall. what is interesting, we know from research of others, probably his army at that time numbered in the neighborhood of 70 to 75,000 as it sat there just south of the potomac river. he had to inform davis of this. he wrote to davis to ask permission. davis is going to grant it. davis in that year, there were discussions within the administration, how can we take the war not into maryland and pennsylvania. they wanted to expand the borders of the confederacy. soberly across that river he is going to risk a great deal. straggly becomes epidemic. they probably lost, and it's hard to estimate. we know thousands of them could not cross the river because there were just physically exhausted or build. more than likely anywhere from 25,000 to 30,000 confederates during a campaign that is going to last two weeks are going to abandon the ranks. they're going to head back into virginia. i know the second virginia which is the stonewall brigade, they will go with jackson's demand to capture harpers ferry. then there were ordered back across the potomac to go to sharpsburg. they decided they had been to maryland and see enough. they weren't going back. they don't come back. they're doing duty south of the river. you ticket numbers. we all want to have them. recently this. how many federal assault on the field and antietam? the consensus is probably about 40,000. i've gone through some of the records and other fellows have to. bin federal regimen folks before the battle, not after the battle, before the battle lasted 15 man , 25 men. these are regiments of a thousand in the ranks and 61. when you look at 50 men, a battalion, not a full regimen, but of italian. i believe that is the south carolina union. what happens, of course. lee is going to be criticized. why did you fight there? these explanation was it was better to fight a battle in maryland than to leave without a battle. if you go to sharpsburg in the visit that battlefield, and it is a wonderful place in the sense of it, i think gettysburg is a great place to go. sharpsburg is a wonderful jewel of there. you know, there is not a motel in town, not the mcdonald's. it is hardly changed. if you want to stay overnight to have to go back up be read it is a small battle field and a sense. it stands, you know, the potomac river is 3 miles. how do you -- had he lost his army faced possible destruction. okay. what if c-span2? well, if he won he wasn't going to hurt the army of the potomac that much. antietam creek will divide you. he cannot pursue them. he is not going to tear into the rear of the army of the potomac as it crosses the south mountain. so what lee asked his men to do as one confederate officer said is probably the greatest testimony. i think it is the greatest day in the history of the army for its rank-and-file. sacrifice, folks, measured the hours of minutes at sharpsburg for the confederates. there is an north carolina soldier who john in his diary, my god, when will the sun go down? the sun seemed to hang in this guide. from the opening attacks, and we know the place, when that fighting was over their were 8,000 men on the ground in esquire mile. it would shift to what we call bloodline. the yankees would break through bloody lane. two is in the front? james longstreet's maintenance. d. h. hill, major-general rounding up 200 men that he could find. this is the center of the army of northern virginia at that moment, and they are going to counterattack with 200 men. this is how close it came. then you have the collapse. once burnside gets rolling. the only thing that saves lee's army is the hills division. what he asked his men to do is simply remarkable. they did it. and you know what is also interesting, as the battles shifted from the north and through the center into bloodline midafternoon, and jackson's men, was left of them are hanging on in the west woods and around the church and so forth tamales sends a request to jackson to have chips toward conducting reconnaissance a round the flank of the army of the potomac to see if he can counterattack. they are hanging on by a thread. lee is looking to see whether they can counterattack. the boldness of that very idea is astonishing. it really is. of course, as we know, it's the bloodiest day in american history. lee would say later, amid himself that what he asked his army to do was probably the greatest. i would almost agree with that. and they saved him. of course lee was all over the field. jackson was superb. so was longstreet. subordinate commanders. the phrase many of you remember. john cedrics division. many of them came from pennsylvania. they're going to charge into the west with. there would lose 2200 men in 20 minutes. he didn't bother putting skirmishes out. they just plus ten. this is the level of fighting. in the aftermath of that we would establish. congress would approve course. long street and jackson became the two core commanders. it is lee who will promote james longstreet ahead of stonewall jackson. so if we would have fallen in battle battle -- he would have a sense temporary command of the army, not someone jackson. you know, there are two different men entirely. jackson, i have always been amazed at how unmanned kit imposes will not only on his men but upon his enemy. jackson did that. i remember in april of 62 he wrote to his wife that he wanted to create the army of the living god. a whole bunch of centers following the living down idea. all of them left the range. but there is jackson. he told the vmi cadets as they are leaving when virginia seceded. he said in the civil war when you take the sword you and said -- unsheathe the sword. from the moment stonewall jackson became a confederate officer he had unsheathe the sword. he would throughout. james longstreet is a different man. james longstreet was probably the best tactician in the army. longstreet was much more careful in the expenditure of things. could longstreet have done the 1862 campaign? i don't think so. jackson knew the region, but secondly what it took to be jackson would push men and pressmen and punishment. lee says jackson around because jackson can push men be really understood it. when you wanted to defend a position or you wanted to launch a counter-attack he didn't give it to jack. that is where long street excelled. of won't talk much about fredericksburg. the it is a terri

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