he has written numerous works on strategy and security. more recent military topics. he is a highly regarded journalist and is currently the fox news strategic analyst and a member of the hoover military working group at stanford university, and currently lives in washington. in his title today is the human side of human war leadership. so, please welcome colonel peters. [applause] col. peters: good morning, ladies and element. -- ladies and gentlemen. my publisher would be delighted if you buy my books, but one of the most important institutions and the united states of america -- the national parks service. whenese turbulent times people and government are looking for what to cut, the national parks service already does more with less than any government institution i have ever known. but at some point, less is just less. our national parks have the norma's backlog of maintenance of has to be done, worthwhile new initiatives, and their budget in washington is basically a lobbyist tip. when you speak your representatives local or national, stick up for the national parks service. they do great work and they have given us all the opportunities to be here today. with that privilege, i am going to talk about leadership. the humors -- the humor -- the human side of leadership in the civil war. there is something else i want to talk about to lead into it. that is context. there are so many marvelous histories and civil war and experts were very generous with their time and that been generous with me personally. lacking is the greater human dimension. what the times were like? we concentrate so intensely on the campaigns and specific battles that we sometimes forget -- we never have a feel of the complexity of their age. first of all, they cannot think of themselves as living in old times. these people, who thought the civil war, really two generations that fought that war -- have experienced perhaps the greatest technological revolution in all of human history. much more important than the revolution that we are focused on in our own lives today. may explain that a bit. -- let me explain that a bit. these generations that have fought the civil war have seen incredible developments. then we talk about a few of them that it made -- that pushed them to the cusp of the modern era. for the united states, the united states begins the 11861 as the old country -- begins the war in 1861 in the old country and ends the war in 1865. history, howman fast could we travel? we could travel to the speed of the human foot, on horseback, or the back of a mule. later on by a coach. if we had to go to sea to travel america, theo americas -- you depended on wind power to take six weeks, it could take eight weeks. you were very lucky if you got in and four or five weeks. raced fromships england to manhattan harbor. and under steam power, they have made it in about a week and a half. it opened a new age. the world does get smaller. and by the civil war, of course, the steam-powered vessels going back all the time -- going back and forth all the time and the world of commerce is exploding. u.s.-powered naval ships have opened up the door in an age of globalization. perhaps, even more important than the increased mobility that we pull cf sea and that the railroads. you understand the vital importance of railroads in the civil war and how that collapses distance. instead of moving with a stagecoach, it was crude, dusty, hot, nasty and very cold in the wintertime, and the roads were bad. suddenly, you could travel across entire states and relatively smoothly. in the north has far more developed road lines, and by the end of the civil war, if you are in the union occupation for clips -- occupation forces and you need horses, you can get them in the matter --you can get them in a matter of days. it is astonishing. the information revolution of the time. we were the second nation on this earth to have universal childhood education. frederick the great of prussia. the 18th century, we were lacking a little bit, but this leads to the explosion of newspapers. and information explosion an information -- an information explosion. we hear a lot today about fake news. brothers and sisters, fake news has always been with us. if you read some of the battle reports, excuse me, that were published during our civil war, it is just phenomenal. really, really? honestly? did the south really -- the south really did win that war? human beings are human beings. the internet has led to a degradation and manners. post anythingver on the internet without their real name to make the civilized civil again. . but limited to the telegram. with the telegraph, i can communicate over thousands of miles in near real-time, as fast as it takes to type in the runage to buy it down and it across town to a lawyer's office or a hotel. it is phenomenal. before the civil war, there is a transatlantic cable leg. london and new york and connecticut by telegraph, except the cable breaks, so it is not active drug war itself. the crimean war is the first war that is widely photographed. think about that. early forms of photography -- suddenly, when men go to war, not just officers, but privates can leave images behind. --how did yourd relatives or loved ones look? maybe you had a country painter come by and do something, but suddenly, it is a democratization of memory. so, we have cheap means of communicating over thousands of miles. the cost of the transatlantic journey goes down, the speed increases, newspapers are everywhere. societies are suddenly literate, and by the way, in 1861, at least four states in england 99% literacy rates above for male adult literacy rates. the south does not. north carolina was around 72%. why does that matter? because the modern age is very much about education. wonderful a great, infantry soldier in the army of northern virginia, or in the union armies, take your pick. and be illiterate. but you cannot be a supply sergeant and be illiterate. you cannot be a first sergeant and fill out the roles and be illiterate. there are so many things you need it for. one of the ways the north one for the civil war was with forms will. in triplicate. it is fashionable to mock bureaucracy, but mass armies are bureaucratic organizations. in any tour of the petersburg campaign for the petersburg automatic campaign -- petersburg mathematic campaign does not stop at city point, really misses a fundamental reason why the north won. and the north -- there is no city in the entire south can compete with boston, philadelphia, or new york, manhattan already has a population of 810,000 people in 1860. and many of the farsighted southern leaders and are being men like wade hampton knew that war was a losing proposition, but i am getting ahead of myself because before i go to the human side of leadership, i am stressing these revolutions. one of information, travel, distances. it is an entirely new mindset. by the way, other things happened that we would not regard as of the two, but were. demarestd-1850's, mrs. in new york, she and her husband run businesses, clothing invents the- she paper pattern for dressmaking. it is a revolution to american women because suddenly, you can buy these precut paper patterns. minnesota and in rural minnesota can order a pattern and thinks she dressing in the latest comparison or london -- dressing in the latest fashions from paris or london. those paper patterns are with us today. you still buy them. that myr and law mother-in-law is a great seamstress and still uses them. and with clothing, brooks brothers -- in lower manhattan, brooks brothers was there, lord and taylor was there. anyone know where the word shoddy comes from? it was a new form of saving money, instead of wasting time sewing, you glued clothing together. the union ordered 30,000 overcoats from brooks brothers. and bruce for the delivered them. and when it rained -- and brooks brothers deliver them. and when it rained, they fell apart. [laughter] col. peter: that is why sho ddy is a pejorative term today. it is not just our country going through a revolution. the north is going through an industrial revolution, economics. the confederacy, to me, is a counterrevolution. it is an effort, desperate effort to make time stands still. but time doesn't stand still. the economic structures of the south just don't work anymore in the modern age. in the south, again, the farsighted men, and even men -- they become bitter southern partisans. robert e. lee, they know the institution of slavery is doomed. they do not know how to get out of it. has 2000ton's family slaves. in wade hampton does not like slavery, he knows it it is over. but the banks hold his paper. he is actually broke, except for the slaves. and his father is considered the richest men in the south. he was on paper, but not really. so there are all of these turbulent dilemmas. meanwhile, the entire world is changing. begins the 1860's as the grimy, dirty, grubby collar-ridden of charles dickens. by the end of the decade, it is the city of anthony told bert and the modern world -- anthony tolbert and the modern world, urban renovation. people figure out that -- is caused by infected water. we had this ridiculously unfair picture of civil war doctors is brutal butchers. they were not. when you have these quick expansions in the army in the beginning of the war, of course, you hired doctors that were not very good, but they got fired. but the germ. disease is being discussed by the better educated doctors. it came up in budapest, hungary made an elementary discovery. he realized during an epidemic of fever that after dissecting a corpse to find out what killed her, he washed his hands with lye soap for he went to deliver a baby. the mother and child are more lucky to survive. and so, civil war doctors do their best. and there are some that poo poo the idea of a germ theory, but the younger ones except it. friday indicating all of those limbs? because we do not have antibiotics. it is not just the speed required on the battlefield, but it shatters bones. you cannot put shattered bones back together. you got to have terrible infections. in the patient is probably going to die. cutting off limbs is about saving lives. and the pain -- we do have some anesthetics coming in. aspirin has not get i been invented -- aspirin has not yet been invented. you all have seen those old movies about the cavalry and there is always the drunken, either sergeant. and drunkenness was a severe problem in the old frontier army. but it was not just because of the boredom. there was plenty of boredom out there. their teeth hurt. these guys had really bad teeth. two things really, really hurt. rotting teeth, whiskey is helpful in those days before aspirin. europe is going through these little revolutions and rebelling against russia and russian occupation of 1863. a russians are phrased the serfs. in one of its -- and one of the great military sweeps of all time that we do not study, leaves an army to sicily, lance, armedfeats 20,000 well soldiers. is beginning its march towards unification. the world is -- these men perceive their world as modern. just as we proceed hours as modern. and understand when i write these books, better technically fiction, but are very accurate -- i prefer to call them dramatized history because they are accurate, but i am trying to get into the heads of the men and women who fought, or supported those who thought. it is important not just to see them in uniform, but what else were they like? what do they read? this picture of stonewall jackson as this fears presbyterian -- as this fierce presbyterian. he was that, but he also loved shakespeare, milton, and other poetry. he always had trouble with his eyes. he was steady his bible at lunch. but then in the evening, his wives would read sticker to him. -- would read shakespeare to him. when he went on his tour of europe, he went to one single battlefield. stonewall jackson went to look at churches and art. that is not how we think of him. one of his greatest -- henry was douglas, henry douglas a tough, somewhat everyday, brave, talented young man. handsome as could be, really studley lady-killer. his secret vice was reading what rippers, called bodice romantic novels written for women. he would go for the latest of danielle steel. leadership,ct of judge lest not you be judged. us to look atfor those ice cold black and gray symbols on a white page in the arrows advance and retreat and say, why on earth did general x or colonel y do something that stupid? the short answer is he did not know it would be that stupid. sometimes they do not sleep for days. these men are tired, they are worn, they are often sick. robert e. lee has been suffering gina,rheumatism, an severe dysentery. and then he collapses for a time and cannot make you decisions. -- and not -- and cannot make key decisions. they do not have good maps. when george meade arrives at gettysburg at cemetery hill on the night of july 1, finally after midnight on july 2, there is some debate, but that is the first time he sees a map of the area. the army of the potomac had no maps in southern pennsylvania. they did not expect to fight there. when george me take command earlier, he is given command of a defeated team and told to win the superbowl three days later, and fight a battle that he does not get credit. then suddenly sees a map. in the campaign, the cap federate -- in the campaign, even the confederates don't have accurate maps. they are running on knowledge of the terrain. one of the great advantage stonewall jackson has in the valley is a brilliant mapmaker. jackson relies is how good this guy is and says --make me a map of the valley. and his maps are works of art. they are actually brilliant. so, they do not always have complete information. in the heat of battle, when you literally cannot see because of the smoke, and you are relying on reports trying to judge by the sounds i in the echo of cannons, and everybody is streaming back given your account of panic, you have to make decisions right now on incomplete information. sometimes you make the right ones. sometimes you make the bad ones. when out in the morning saying, i am going to do everything i can to lose today. sick,en you are tired, desperate when you have tired, sick, exhausted men bearing grave responsibilities, sometimes they hesitate. sometimes they freeze, the panic, or they rush headlong forward. they are human beings. and by the way, they and their soldiers are costly getting letters from home, especially from the south, saying, i cannot do this. i cannot work the fields anymore. the kids are sick. they are dying. then there are the human tragedies. his children die of a scarlet fever early in the war. that he distraught cannot even go to their funerals and sits in a darkened parlor while the funerals are going on. wade hampton suffers all of his life. he is plagued by personal losses, but these men rise above the losses. that theytonishing is -- what is astonishing is not that they make bad decisions, but what is astonishing is how persistent and morally courageous they were. and going even beyond it. i want to talk about a few case studies. first of all, any familiar to some of you locally is francis channing barlow. seen as a hybrid for the meaning and aidse union forces george meade's army -- and aides george meade's army. there is one monument to barlow at gettysburg. it is a monument on his worst day of the war, the day he really screwed up. overall, he is a brutal, tough fighter. he makes mistakes as all generals has made some, but on the whole, he is really tough. but it is a case study in leadership. i want to give you background on the human side of francis channing barlow. the channings and the barlows are all one family. his father is a military investor who marries the stunning beauty of a wife. except his father goes a little bit wacky and at one point, his sermons get crazy and he disappears. and his wife is left with three boys and, what do i do now? and by hook or crook with all of her new england family connections, they survive in poverty for a few years. francis channing barlow lives the first great famous commune, not the first commune but a massachusetts. he grows up and ms. wild, artsy area era. the communal fails because someone has to do the dishes -- and the commune fails because someone has to do the dishes. in the afternoon, they would enact plays and write poetry. barlow's gorgeous mother comes in, and guys been guys, they are drawn to mrs. barlow. before you know it, the other ban together and she is getting her walking papers. but she manages to get things through and the family connections matter. drop the civil war, there are all of these mafias. there is a boston mafia, a harvard moffat, a philadelphia mafia. and hancock just outside of philly, george gordon needed and many others. you have the ohio political mafia and the virginia mafia, which really dominates the eastern war. and these guys were the old school tightfisted together -- the old-school type that stuck together. francis channing barlow goes to harvard. he becomes that he is brilliant. he is the valedictorian of the class of 1855. someone who is not so bright, a younger guy. of the 54thrt shaw massachusetts. -- with thee movie movie "glory" does not bring out, he did, the job of leading the regimen. his mother is a ferocious abolitionist and forces her son to take that command. barlow gets him through harvard. , when he isrlow really sick, suddenly, mrs. barlow -- i'm sorry, barlow has married a woman 10 years his senior. a very cerebral match, although they love each other very much. she dies in the summer of 1874. because she has followed her husband around by being a volunteer nurse and gets typhoid. she dies while her husband is on the battlefield and he is sick as a dog. later on, mom decides in the tradition of good moms everywhere that she will fix them up with a better wife. and she fixes him up with who? of robert, the sister goal shaw. the channing and the barlow is -- the channings and the barlows knew each other. is not about drawing your sword and leading in bayonet charge for making one wise decision. there are questions of loyalty. any soldier will tell you the first loyalty is to the mission. if the mission you are given its hopeless and you know your soldiers are going to die? is there a gray area? is your next loyalty to your superior to your soldiers? or is it divided? is your loyalty to a cause of or to your family back home? it is just not as clear-cut as the want it to be. and men make different decisions at different times under different circumstances. francis channing barlow -- he makes a mistake that he was promoted to fast. less than a year before he was a regimental commander, he is a brigade commander. he comes back at chancellorsville. he is detached from the 11th core. when he gets to gettysburg, he is never really that she has never really thought a full division and battle. he sees that wall out there and sees that there is a great position for artillery and that i have to have it. but a division commander would've recognized that moving forward would unhand the entire defense that would lead to the debacle. but barlow is respected, known, brilliant and fights on. but we had the believe if you are a leader you tough it out to the end. you collapse in your tracks. barlow did. and there are consequences. he has had dysentery most of the summer. aggravated diarrhea. deadly diarrhea in many cases, a big killer and the civil war. he will not quit. he is not a quitter. he has eight days off for his wife's funeral. he comes back a day early. he was crushed because he and his first wife did have a deep love. he is trying to deal with this. he has a toothache, too. he's really sick. caulk is grooming barlow because hancock is badly wounded -- hancock is grooming barlow because hancock is badly wounded. and barlow is so ill that he cannot make a decisions. he starts doing things on the haveefield that he would fired one of his subordinates for doing. , who barlowrdinate has brought up behind them. andon miles started the war a boston -- as a sales clerk at a boston crockery shop. he arrives to be a general officer and ultimately chief of staff of the army later on during the spanish-american war. a brilliant fighter -- nelly miles. nelson miles can see the barlow is falling apart. and he doesn't know what to do. and finally, barlow just physically collapses. after he has squandered men's lives by trying to tough it out and be hard. he is evacuated back to the hospital, huge hospital at centerpoint. by the way, another revolution -- medical evacuation come at the time, with railroads running through the core rear in petersburg, if you were wounded around petersburg, and everything is clicking for you, you can be back within 36 to 48 call a rearhat we area base hospital in annapolis, maryland. european armies won't reach that speed of medical evacuation until mid-world war i. the russian army doesn't achieve that speed of medical evacuation until afghanistan in the 1980's. by the way, i wish i had more time to talk about it -- the first modern staff is not the prussian general's staff which fell apart in 1860 616 lost the border. troops. even feed their the first truly modern staff is put together by andrew humphries for the army of the potomac. the grand staff is checking that everybody is toeing the party line. whichagnificent crossing america would not be able to cross until 1845. nelson miles is promoted to take over the division and things move on. knows what he is doing. he is putting things together. the day before the station, barlow releases himself on the hospital. he is sick as a dog still and shows back up and starts changing what nelson miles has done. he doesn't really understand hancock's mission. well, by the next morning, he collapses again. in this time, he is out of the war. he is so sick. to me, as i read it, he actually had a severe power site -- a severe parasite. he was given leave to get medical treatment. he is cured in europe and get back just in time to get the highbridge and be present. in barlow is a case study the caliphate officer who does not know when to quit. we have all of these models and cliches -- never say die. never say die, maybe your men die in your place. it is not clear, it is not easy. let's go to another guy, john brown gordon. classic, southern gentleman, self-made. gordon,john brown nelson miles and a few others -- these are men without west point educations. that liberates them. the west pointers do a marvelous job of holding things together, building armies at the beginning of the war. but they do not understand how warfare is changing. a few do, grant does. sherman figures it out. but very few others do. they are locked into this idea that -- they are locked into this idea of a napoleononci battle -- napoleonic battle. by the close of the siege of collapses,when all the lines are stretched from richmond around petersburg almost 40 miles long. it is a preview of world war i. your controlling things with the telegraph. that has its own pitfalls. at: robert, grant thinks he can stay in the rear and does not see the battle after the second tragic attack. so technology does have its pitfalls. but john brown gordon -- he is a curious guy. charming with charisma. his father tries being a preacher and that does not work out too well. he runs 19th century: of a health spot. that does not work out too well -- he runs the 19th century equivalent of a health spa. that does not work out too well. he is a brilliant scholar. lovely master -- is a master of rhetoric. rhetoric matters. the ability to speak well i command a crowd. how where that is today. but if i command the language, i commend the situation. in civil commanders, especially in the confederate armies in the army in northern virginia, there is times where there is no food, bullets, the men are in rags and they are running on a commander's rhetoric on the ability to aspire men. john brown gordon makes his way up and he has a great, intensely physical love affair with his wife. then andre as sexual there impulses and biology as we are now. if you don't believe me, check out the mineral disease roles on both sides. entire hospitals dedicated to venereal disease, which was a terrible problems of the soldiers north and south. there is so much more to that, but i don't want to sidetrack myself again. boys will be boys. and thank you, no penicillin available today. they are complex and they are human. one of the criticisms i have gotten from the traumatized histories -- dramatized histories is i have had people say that people did not curse back then. lives could many have been saved in our civil war at the opposing commander just marched out in front of the armies and had a cursing contest. men were famous for their profanity. , hancock, so many others. lee doesn't want to hear the word damn in his presents -- in his presence. but troops eat it up. they are frontier soldiers in those dusty outpost where the primary problems are diarrhea and an indian fight. these are rough, tough men. and the men in the ranks are tough friend -- the men in the rights are tough men. if you go back and read closely of the letters written to friends -- itale waystonishing at helmeted ways you can misspell a four letter word. but they are human beings. but john brown gordon is a really charismatic man, born to be a soldier. he just takes to it. he has this great love affair, he is coming, handsome, badly wounded. he comes back and he just by 12. he rises up the ranks. ofthe shenandoah campaign 1854, you have a pairing of two terrific leaders who don't get along. this is where the human side of leadership also comes in. -- he is a big, ugly man with rheumatism. he is bent over like a hunchback. he is always chewing tobacco. his beard looks like somebody emptied a baby's diaper into it. he is not an appealing guy. he is grumpy. but lee knows what he is doing. lee knows that early is the best guy he has got left the independent command. now john brown gordon is a brilliant tactical fighter and operator. he is thinking as an operator. early has to think strategically. he has got the last army that is going to fight in the shenandoah valley. there are no more troops. so we get into question -- and early, it is easy to write him off as i often did in my earlier years because sherman beat him -- sheridan beats him several times outnumbering him 4-1. what is really amazing is how well early does fight. how close he comes to winning. winning the ultimate battle at cedar creek. those of you who know cedar creek, john brown gordon advises the attack strategy. it is a brilliant and successful -- it is brilliantly successful. overrunning union division after union division and almost collapsed the sixth core. point when early -- he loses his nerve. they are on the verge of is on his -- sheridan way back from washington makes his famous ride on the battlefield. in gordon is saying, no, you have to push on. we have to finish the job. and gordon is right. you got to finish the job. finish it now. but early is right, too. because he is overextended. they aread not slept, out of ammunition, they are exhausted, they are outnumbered. and the union lines are already stabilizing in front of them. and if he loses that day, he lee'sthat he has lost last detached army. unfortunately, he loses the army anyway because sheridan -- he was obscene, vicious, jealous, magnificent is on the battlefield. sheridan is so funny looking that abraham lincoln made fun of him. [laughter] col. peter: seriously. but he has this gift. by the way, i have met many jim matus our new secretary of defense has charisma. he has got the gift. people love them and does rally around. gordon is as gorgeous and cavalier, who was also a brilliant soldier. in the soldiers love him. nobody likes early, so of course, there are -- there is tension between them. early clearly feels jealous of gordon. so that kind of thing plays. human jealousies, vanity, courage comes into play. about robert e. lee. a man so incredibly misunderstood because when we mythologize these men. when we make them perfect heroes, we takeaway their humanity, we do a great disservice to them. if they have overcome their human limitations that make them so admirable and the end. robert e. lee, the picture him at this perfect, southern gentleman. a sign of a grand old family. lee, robertrobert lee's father, died in shame trying to return from the self-imposed financially induced exile from the caribbean. up, and a not so gentle poverty, with his mother, his ill mother, and the rest of the family, and a small house in alexandria. he is the poor cousin. the one who is not really welcomed, but is tolerated at the lee family get-togethers in the summertime as a boy. and he feels it. he is taking care of his mother, too. goes to west lee point because it is a free education. talk about the american self-made man -- there is no better example in the truest sense, a self-made man of robert e. lee. in a sense, that he literally makes himself over. he makes himself and of the person that he wants to be. and it really starts at west hist where he works out diction. calm, controlled speech. his posture is perfect. he is not a religious man early in life. early 1850's, he really undergoes his conversion and becomes truly devout. he has always been a member of the church, but the episcopal church society, of course. but robert e. lee works diligently to be the best at everything he does. mary,e falls in love with he still has not gotten there. the for part of arlington does not want his daughter to marry robert e. lee. because robert e. lee is from the bad blood of lee's family. his father should've been a jailbird. guns andsticks to her they get married. dies, leehe old man builds himself up to be the perfect officer in the perfect gentleman. he loves to flirt. he is a handsome man. he left to flirt. enough to dance -- he loves to flirt. he loves to dance. he goes homed, with mary. then the war comes. robert e. lee, who has built himself, made himself this man he is. and he is idolized because he starts winning. he gives these great victories. tease another modern term, by the time he is marching on the road to gettysburg, he has to rock his own kool-aid that she has drunk his own kool-aid -- he drunk his own kool-aid. by the end of the war, because of his personal pride, he cannot quit. he is a brilliant tactician and a good operator. is to face an officer who is not a good tactician, who is a good operator, as good as lee, but a brilliant strategist -- ulysses s. grant. hands down, the most billion officer who ever served in the united states uniform -- ever served in a united states uniform. genius. inherent but lee, i admire him to a point. are lockedut if we into petersburg under a siege, it is a matter of time. but because of his pride to my he cannot quit. knows the war is lost and he will not give up, and he hides behind the idea that only president jefferson davis can decide that. he cannot be the want to make a decision. by the time the breakthrough petersburg, he does not want to be the guy who surrenders. killing his own soldiers because of his pride. i know that is not a popular view, and i admire this man incredibly. but the war was lost and lee knew it, and could not get up. -- could not give up. so the bloody road from petersburg to -- was paved with corpses that did not have to fall. at any rate, it is done now. you cannot change it. we will never know because lee was not communicative in that way. we will never know if he felt any guilt about it. he was certainly a lion and a hero of the south. the only thing i fault him for that sin of pride. and when you come down to the issue of leadership, a military leadership throughout history, if there is one quality -- the greek does it already -- it is one quality that will undo a general, field marshal, tribal leader -- a roman it's pride. ladies and gentlemen. i am proud to have been able to speak with you. thank you very much. [applause] col. peter: i think we have time for a couple of questions. in your perfectly fine with telling i am wrong about robert e. lee. any questions or is everybody too hungry? >> imi connelly -- i am mike connolly. you talked about the cognitive dimension and how it increased so much during the civil war. in your mind, who was the greatest leader utilizing that to your advantage? well, you just for that perfect presentation by eric about mosby. it is often the younger guys that can use it. the problem with the older generals is that they do not always know what they know. the rifleinherently musket has greater killing power, otherwise why would there be -- they cannot operationalize it. the younger officers can internalize change without prejudice. ory were not polluted mentally deformed by the old ways of doing things. so, who uses the information the best? certainly grant uses it. to go a little bit -- apart from using information, emotional intelligence is important. one guy who really gets emotional intelligence is billie sherman. he understands how tough the south is. he understands what it will take to break this out. early in the war when he says it is going to be a long war with hundreds and thousands of men under arms, he is called a lunatic. but he saw it early on. , to give you a better answer, i would really need to ponder it. the question of course, who made the best use of information? early in the war, the confederates do. he believes the crazy estimates of the confederate's strength. but by the end of the work, the union has a preponderance of information everything from far better scouting to mass desertions. when you have the winter of 64 -- 1964, 1955 -- contrary to ths, it was cold with a lot of sleet. the army of northern virginia never start at petersburg, but they went hungry. there is a difference as any irish immigrant could have told you between being hungry and starting. the officers -- between being hungry and starving. the officers eat a lavish diet. but this hunger and despair and the letters from home, and the letters from home or incredibly important psychologically and gutting the army of northern virginia. people were getting letters from home about children dying, hunger, losing the farm and friends writing to tell them about unfaithful wives. on a night, there could be 100 deserters coming across the union lines. what is strange is that there are union deserters going through confederate lines. at any rate, information becomes increasingly powerful. the union has balloons on opponents of a another places -- balloons on peninsulas and other places where they are trying to spy. the key problem in civil war battles is an information problem. want to launch the attack, once in closes are engaged combat within a few hundred yards of each other, you lose control. of the drums, bugles, and flags, you cannot see the flags in the smoke. you cannot tell who is blowing the bugle. you are not even sure who is drumming anymore. it is chaos. the one tool they needed was a tactical radio, which of course, will not commit to come and play for three quarters of a century, but you lose information once the battle starts. it is hard to see into the smoke for the commanders to tell what is going on, but for brigade commanders in the fight, it is very hard to communicate only by carrier or shouts. again, you cannot see the flags. one of the reason is why you should the flags is as long as you can see the flags are where you rally is where your regiment is. so communication comes in a amount of flavors. i would say the south had better spies. the north has considerably better organized military intelligence. sir? >> prideful though he was, when we left richmond after the breakthrough of petersburg, he came through farm bill here and he came over the hybrid. the confederates were successful in burning four of the stance of the highbridge, they were unsuccessful in wooden wagonower, bridge, purely because it was made of a greater lumber that did not burn. and barlow moved fast. so lethal that the time, he was unwilling to throne a towel, he was hip to the railroad depots and go south and join up with joseph johnson's army in north carolina. do you really think that was a pipe dream when possible? for if that -- that was a pipe dream or impossible? if you look at where the southernmost union cores were, he could not have made it to joe johnson. the soldiers in the army of northern virginia on that retreat, they were no longer fighting for the confederacy. they had not fought for geoff davis and a longtime. they were fighting for robert e. lee. they loved him. they loved him. and we knew by the time, the same day as highbridge, his subordinate officers and generals are coming to him saying, sir, we lost, you got to surrender. he threatened some of court marshals. and i'm blanking out on the name of the brigade commander that lee is leave while watching up in the morning, he just read only the right act -- the righotds lee act. lee turns his back and walks away. this is a classic example. soldiers cannot break out of the old pattern. lee is thinking in napoleonic terms. the polling is a tactical the strategy of the center position, which was an operational tool, not a strategy. facing converging enemy forces, instead of retreating, napoleon would thrust himself between them, use a small holding force to hold off one, while destroy the other force and turned. and lee is thinking in terms of that to straddle several positions that napoleon did, and unite with joe johnson's force in north carolina, defeat sherman, and then turn around and defeat -- the math does not work. united with the army in northern virginia. the most they could have done was holt sherman at bantam grant. there -- the most they could of done was hold sherman at bay until grant got there. we can differ. again, i admire robert e. lee. up until that point. i am not trying to trash a seven icon. the north had far graver feelings as far as general goes, but my point is that human beings are inherently flawed. only god is perfect. you can admire lee up into the end. i think he made a mistake. having grown up as a poor relation. the young officer who shot beyonce's father did not want -- the officer who did not want her fiance to marry. he had this need to fight to the bitter end. god knows there are all flawed, complex human beings. on the whole, robert e. lee is incredibly admirable. lovettsville, virginia. col. peter: please just call me ralph. retired, i learned one thing -- the members do not care if you are a private or general. they just want you to cut the grass. [laughter] >> ok, well then, ralph. i always thought there was one point in the war after which there was no possibility of the confederacy winning. and that was the election of 1864 with lincoln being reelected. it has always been my belief that the confederacy at that point, leadership would have been justified getting together saying we gave it our best shot, but now all we can do is drag it out. something has to do with pride, i suppose. can you address that? col. peter: i think you are absolutely right. with the reelection of lincoln in 1864, that is it. that means that others want to fight till the end. no doubt about it. but lee had written if he was trapped in petersburg essentially, it was a matter of time. i agree with you with what you said. i think there were signals earlier. quotess one single and "terrorist attack." in the summer of 1864, this huge base in aphenomenal hospital complex is filling up ,ight miles west of petersburg at that point, the confederate agents come in and night an -- and it tonight an -- and ignite ammunition. city point was considered by some, the busiest harbor in the world. it was so busy with all of these goods flowing in. there were acres and acres of cannons. the wealth of the north is fully coming into play. the civil war breaks the south as an economic power. what happens is after this incredible explosion, which is supposed to shock grant, and maybe convince him he cannot win, within 24 hours, the harbors operating again. within 48 hours, it is fully operational. the wealth of the north is such in material and manpower, that if you can do that. and in petersburg, they never experienced a significant shortage because of that. at that point, for me, the war was over. but, you know, pride. i can understand them fighting going back to what i said at the beginning of the presentation, the confederacy was not a revolution. it was a counterrevolution against rapidly changing times against the rise of the modern banknote economy. the rise -- you know, you go back to 1828 in the terrace tariff-- 1828 and the issue. the south is fighting to stop the clock. perhaps the greatest advantage the north has ultimately, is a history -- is that history is on its side. again, thank you so much, ladies and gentlemen. [applause] thanks, ralph. what an enlightening talk. we have one of your books left and we have five other books "fated code of blue." shadow," and the "damned of petersburg." pick up a copy and visit ralph. my question to you is that when ralph came on the campaign two years ago, he confessed he was doing this so he could get info on his next book. col. peter: the reason i went on that battle filled walk -- i used operate independently. i do my own research, but i do turn to historians to check my work. because iton a walk was a national park service clock. and these guys are really good. i have been on military trained walks and i have led walks. i have evere best been on, and i hope you do it again. [applause] and your influence directly will be seen in the next book, which comes august -- which comes out on august 20 9th. it is to look at the human side. i want to look at the people like little billie mahone. fascinating and brilliant. another natural soldier who comes into his own. all of these wonderful -- barlow another's. -- barlow and others. when i am writing, these are not made up stories. these are what the people actually did. the dialogue is imagined, taken from notes whenever possible. but i'm trying to investigate their fox. i call it -- i am trying to houghts.ate their t she stood up to adolf hitler and hillary was afraid of her. she said, i will not leave my country because of this little man." but she wrote this magnificent dramatized history where she was accurate right down to which crop was in that field and what the weather was like that day. it humanizes the experience. the really good history book and take the details about how the soldiers were marching. they marched in 90 degree heat. but if i dramatized it well and accurately, i can make you feel what it was like to march in that uniform within into canteen and 93 degree heat, and couriers are riding back and forth kicking up dust with the sound of the battle ahead. a field and in wounded men are screaming past you and you still do not know what is going on until the battle is over. that is what the dramatization can do. in the last point, the purpose of writing these is we americans don't know our history anymore. we have to get out of the schools. when people do not know their history, they printed demagogues. we should be -- they pray to demagogues. but the wonderful facts about our brave, bold, liberating history speak for themselves. [applause] col. peter: and i will leave you with my impression of too many young people today. they are not totally ignorant of history. they have heard of the civil war. and they say, well, tell me about it. uh, uh, when george washington freed the jews at pearl harbor. [laughter] col. peter: thank you ladies and gentlemen. [applause] resulted in a naval victory for the u.s. over japan just six months after the attack on pearl harbor. and on june 2, american history fromll be live all day macarthur memorial visitor's center in norfolk, virginia for the 75th anniversary of the battle of midway. featured speakers include author , arthur boardman -- featured speakers include arthar orr.r boardman and timothy watch the battle of midway's 75th anniversary special lists from the macarthur memorial in norfolk, virginia beginning at 9:30 a.m. history -- 9:30 a.m. eastern. next, virginia military institute professor john matsui discusses the rolling of religion in the shenandoah valley during the civil war and how religious differences between the union occupiers and confederate citizens of the valley often led to disagreements about politics and the abolition of slavery. this is part of a conference hosted by civil war history. >> welcome back. we are thrilled to collaborate with our sister institutions and universities here in the state of virginia. happyt spirit, we are so to welcome as a representative of the virginia military institute, professor john matsui. he is in assistant professor is ane is and who -- he assistant professor. called "the first republican army," was published in 2016 and study the ideological conflict among northerners over union