the university of kansas and had a 22 year career in the u.s. army which he rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel, slightly higher than i got to in the army. he has many awards and served much of his career in central -- he currentlys works for the u.s. government. they -- he and his wife have three sons and the title of his presentation today is john asked mosby, the perfect man in the perfect place. lee's help me welcome mr. eric buckland. [applause] mr. buckland: good morning. in keeping with the theme on leadership, patrick and asked me to talk about john mosby so we could address a leader at the union -- at the unit level, the tactical and operational level. there is no doubt that john mosby was a singularly outstanding combat commander, i think he is one of the few, if not the only commander during the civil war to actually put together a unit and candidate all the way until the very end of the war when he disbanded the unit. i can't think of another regiment was formed where that commander, if you lived, continued to command. in many cases, they would have been promoted out of the job. he was a remarkable man, but i will make the case, it's with my title, i believe of the perfect man in the perfect place at the -- that the stars aligned for john singleton mosby. he had some luck in his success, a great deal of it had to do with his abilities. but i also think that the stars aligned to a certain extent in what he was able to do and you might say get away with over 26 months. to understand john mosby and who he became, i think you have to understand or know a little bit about his youth. he was a sickly child born december 6, 1833 and the family did not expect him to live far into adulthood. he, in fact, when he was full-grown, was perhaps 5'7", probably closer to 5'6", 125 pounds. not a big man. because of his illness, and because he was frail, he was doted on at home by his mother. he didn't have to do chores around the house, he spent a great deal of his time reading. he became a highly educated and very intelligent young man who would become a very intelligent older gentleman as well. that opened his world, but again, he was doted on at home. and once he began to go to school, i think he had a certain amount of self-confidence that bubbled over into a little but -- bit of arrogance and probably rubbed a lot of his schoolmates the wrong way. plus, he was a smaller boy and he tended to be picked on. he himself said he had a fight almost every day when he was in public school. and he lost every fight. but he would go back the next day and get right back at it. he would not back down. you see that later on in his partisan ranger career, that this was not a man who backed down from a fight. he was courageous. i often claim that he had ice water in his veins. i know that's a cliche, but this was a man who was about as close to fearless as i have ever seen or read about. i think he exhibited that even as a youth. i think he was ambitious to a certain extent. i'm not certain if he always knew what direction he wanted that to take that with being so much spoiled home and being told -- somewhat spoiled at home and being told he was the apple of his mother's eye and that he was very intelligent, again, he was bubbling with self-confidence. when you read his memoirs, he is very self-deprecating to a certain point. then you realize that maybe just eight had disingenuous. i think from the very start of mosby's life, and later as you -- as he grew older, it was john singleton mosby's way, or it was the highway. he did not broker people disputing with him, especially as a commander later, as an older man, he challenged people at least 2, 3, 4 times to duels after the war. this was an ornery man, and had great self-confidence, that translated well into his ranger career. but not someone, even though john mosby did not drink it he , was not someone i would have wanted to sit down and have a bourbon with. i believe most of the stories would have been about him, and i might have told about him i probably would have been wrong and he would've corrected me. i think one of the things that encapsulates his personality is an incident that occurred at the university of virginia when he was a student there. he wanted to have a party, he had invited young gentleman to two come to his party, they were known as musicians. there doesn't seem to be any thought that there was subterfuge in mosby's inviting them. they were friends of his. they were musicians. rpin, the town bully was a big kind. he caved in students heading , heead in with a brick wanted to have a party as well and he wanted these musicians to come to his party. he heard that mosby has art -- had artie invited them. so he began a rumor or stories that mosby had only invited them of any music as sort insult to the two men. mosby heard about it and in the way they did things back then, he sent a note saying what do you mean by these comments? his response for all practical purposes was i will eat you blood raw. mosby took that seriously, this was a dangerous, violent man. so he armed himself with a pepper box pistol. i think you can say at that time, mosby realize that even at 5'6" or 5'7", your size or weight didn't much matter if you had a pistol in your hand. he armed himself with a pepper box pistol and eventually, george turpin came to the boardinghouse where mosby was staying. some movement was made after turpin came to the front door, whether or not he lurched at mosby, whether or not he began to move up the stairs, mosby was a few stairs up in the stairs by the front door. once he moved, he found himself shot in the neck and line on the -- lying on the floor in a pool of blood. i think it that point, mosby did two things he would later make almost standard operating procedure for himself, and that was one, to be armed with a pistol, something you control for up close and personal work and the second thing was once an enemy once an enemy attacks, you don't sit back and wait for the attack to hit you, you go into the attack mode itself. he did that with his command later when he began his partisan ranger career. as well as the fact that he was fearless. he was not intimidated by turpin. he took care of business, he would do that later on. i think at that point, it shows that bridge between the young boy who had to fight every day and lost in school to the young man who armed himself and was not going to back down when he got into a confrontation that possibly required some sort of violence. he was arrested for shooting turpin, he was tried and convicted and put in jail. it was while he was in jail that he began to study the law. in fact, his prosecutor's -- prosecutor is the man who lent him his law books and mosby would eventually become a lawyer. there were some twists and turns with his case, in the end, he was exonerated. the record expunged and he was released from jail. he would become a lawyer in the bristol, virginia area. and then, of course, more clouds -- war clouds begin to loom in virginia. up until the time of virginia's secession, mosby was a unionist. he did not believe that the country should be torn apart. but when virginia seceded, he made the comments that he had to go with his mother. meaning the state of virginia, and he enlisted in the unit called the first washington mounted rifles. that was a calvary company formed out of southwestern virginia that would eventually be rolled into the first virginia calvary. his company commander was william e grumble jones. jones took mosby under his wing and it was there that mosby discovered that he hated camp life. he did not like the regimen of the army. he found he would much rather be out on ticket duty or outpost duty, but he did like to be in camp. that would show up later in his partisan career. after the battle bull run or manassas, the federal army began -- confederate army began to go through some transformation. jones had become the regimental commander of the first virginia and he would make john mosby his adjutant. jones very much took mosby under his wing, and mosby said a great -- spent a great deal of time with him learning about training and how to take care of the men. jones as you might imagine by his nickname, grumble, was not the most affable man, but he took good care of the men. he looked out for the welfare is -- as mosby would you later on. second-in-command was fitzhugh lee, and mosby and lee did not like each other at all. when elections were held in 1862, once the confederate soldiers were given the privilege of electing their commanders, fitzhugh lee was -- jones was voted out and fitzhugh lee was voted in. mosby did not want to work for lee and he knew that lee would not want him as his accident so -- adjutant, so mosby resigned his position. luckily for him, he had done some errands, some small missions for jeb stuart prior to that. stuart knew of him and thought he was intelligent and trusted him and stuart, hearing of mosby's plight now back from the ranks from first lieutenant to a private at best stuart asked up on his staff as a scout or courier. the stars began to align for mosby, and that he had opportunities to truly prove his worth to jeb stuart. one was the ride around mcclellan, it was mosby who founded the collins flank was in 's flank was in the air and mosby was one of the men who led stewart's ride around mcclellan during the peninsula campaign. he did a couple of other things for stuart that gained his trust in mosby. he knew that mosby reported something, it was accurate and true. he could count on him to get the job done. and somewhere along this time is mosby, a scout for stuart began to prove his worth, mosby began to espouse this idea of going behind union lines with a small group of men and annoying the union forces. disrupting their lines of communication. stuart would continually stiff arm mosby saying i don't have the people, i can't give you any men to go off and do this. but eventually, very late december 1862 after what was known as the christmas raid, when stewart was up in northern loudoun county, mosby with him as a scout, stuart told mosby i'm going to leave you behind. the quote here for mosby says it was six, but it was actually nine men stuart left with mosby. he told mosby you can go ahead and try this idea that you have. let's see how it works out. the area of operation was to be in loudoun county. mosby almost immediately began to display his ability to pick targets and be successful in what he was doing. so about two weeks after stuart had left with the remainder of the confederate calvary england -- calvary into fredericksburg to the winter enchantments about , two weeks later, mosby wrote down -- rode down to report to stuart and bring these nine men back who had been on loan. but with them, were about 30 captured union horses, all the attack -- all the tack that in -- and all the weaponry that had been with the union troopers who were captured. all the union troopers had been paroled. yet about 30 complete sets of calvary equipment. stuart thought that is pretty good. nowgoing to give you 15 men , not for a total of 24, but 15 instead of nine. you go back and see if you can continue to do what you were doing. mosby expresses these ideas later on in what he wanted to do as far as his mission as a partisan ranger. a great deal is made by some that mosby studied francis marion as a child. he did in fact -- even refers to it in his memoirs about reading about francis marion the swamp fox and whooping with delight when he would hear these wonderful tales of him tricking the british soldiers. people say that mosby took his tactics and his ideas directly from francis marion area i've read some of the books. to equate mosby becoming a -- the partisan ranger he was, from reading those books about francis marion would be like many of us taking the owners manual of our car and disassembling the engine, and then putting it back together. there just wasn't that much information in the books. mosby just understood unconventional warfare. he understood what needed to be done. and how he should be operating while he was out with his men. you see this very clearly, i believe, in these two comments he made. i told stuart that i would, by incessant attacks, compelled the enemy either greatly the -- to contract his lines or to reinforce them. either of which would be a great advantage to the southern cause. it was an economy of force mission. never did mosby envision taking his force en masse and attacking a union calvary unit in the conventional manner. it was hit and run, continue to cause trouble disrupt them, make , them concerned, make them worried, make them pull forces back to protect areas. mosby said he thought the greatest thing he had accomplished as a partisan ranger was to deprive union soldiers of sleep. anybody who has been in the military knows how precious sleep is. if for no other reason just to escape the drudgery that you are involved in. but often times, if you've been out on operation, you have been out on patrol, sleep is wonderful. mosby really felt that by his operating at night and coming into places where he was least expected, he caused worry and angst amongst the union troopers, the calvary especially. again, another statement of what he wanted to do. his idea more than anything else was twofold, that was two other push back the union pickets or posts that ringed washington city, to push them back so he could have a little more room to maneuver, or, to force those outposts to be reinforced. and in order to have them be reinforced they would have to , draw from the main battle area down where the main union army was confronting robert e. lee. when all was said and done, he was successful on both levels. he pushed the outposts back tighter into washington city, and they were reinforced. he tied up a good number of union forces, because you worry about problems within washington city. i don't believe anyone ever felt that mosby would go in and capture washington, but he certainly would get close enough that he began to worry them as far as what things he might do. he was actually successful on both levels. but from start to finish, i truly believe that mosby did things his way. initially, his chain of command, he would report to jon stewart. -- jeb stuart. he had a direct shot to stuart. once stuart was mortally wounded at yellow tavern, he reported directly to robert e. lee. it's the only instance i can think of for a kernel -- colonel reported directly without anybody in between. but mosby did it his way. what do i mean by that? when mosby had enough men to go from being what he called mosby's conglomerates, that would have been january 1863 to the ninth of june, 1863, when he operated not as a formal unit with no other blessing from anyone other than the fact that he was in charge of this group of people -- until the 10th of june, 1863, when he formalized his command my forming company -- by forming company a, and when he was about to form that unit, jeb stuart told him don't call them partisan rangers, don't call yourself rangers. that is a word that has kind of fallen into ill repute at this call yourself mosby's regulars. point. mosby did not listen to that guidance. stewart also told him you will have elections. when you formed a new companies, you will have elections. mosby would have elections, but he did it his way, which i will talk about. also from robert e lee, as audacious as he was, i think when all is said and done, robert e lee never fully understood what it was that john mosby was doing. i don't think he is any different than a good number of conventional general officers. special't understand operations, unconventional warfare they just don't get it , or they don't want to get it. lee was audacious, absolutely. did he push the envelope? absolutely. i believe when all was said and done, he was a conventional officer and he was also i think to a certain extent a gentleman of the old school, who really -- mosby didn't fight fair. a lot of union officers complained. he doesn't fight fair. he fought to win. did he fight dirty? i guess that depends on what 44 you werecolt on. when all was said and done, lee didn't understand what mosley was about. a couple of different times, general lee complained to stuart that mosby was fighting with too many small groups. this decentralized way that he operated didn't make sense. he needed to mass his forces. and pick one big target. that went completely against everything that mosby was doing. his effectiveness was the fact that he could have 3, 4, 5, 6 different combat patrols out on any given night, especially as the unit increased in size. 10, 15, 30 miles apart and disrupt the union lines of communication at several different points at the same time. if he were to mass his unit, and only once. remember he started with nine men. at the end of the war, 800 men were officially mustered into the 43rd battalion virginia cavalry, and almost 2000 men had ridden with him at one time or another. the largest group of men he ever had from operation was about 350 at the wagon train raid in the late summer of 1864. generally he operated in groups of 50 or 100, maybe 150. lee emphasized to stuart that he thought mosby was wasting his time hitting these wagon trains, he needed to bring all of his people together and hit bridges or more trains, when in fact it would have really diluted mosby's effectiveness. mosby continued to do what he believed was the right way to go about operating in the way that he believed was the right way to operate. his area of operations, northern virginia, allowed in and clark counties was known as the debatable land. this was a great area for an unforgiven -- unconventional warfare unit to operate. it was compartmented as far as the draws, the hollows, the valleys, the thick woods, the people in the area were essentially pro-southern. there were some small quaker settlements or communities in northern lebanon county. -- loud in -- loudon county. there were a few towns that had voted against the secession but , by large, the people in the area were in support of southern activities. it was a tremendous area in which mosby was able to operate as far as having a great freedom of movement. in fact, from the time he started operations in january of -- up until the end of the war there were only really two times , that mosby didn't have almost complete freedom of movement. that was during the gettysburg campaign, when the union forces began to move down what today is route 50. as they were chasing lee, who was going into the shenandoah valley. mosby essentially told his men get out of the way, just find somewhere and hunker down. he knew those odds were just too great. the only other time he lost his freedom of movement would be in the fall of 64, when the loud and burning -- loudon burning. that was after the burning of the shenandoah, but about two brigades of union cavalry came into the valley and began to burn it. new his men were outnumbered and they moved out of the way. other than that mosby had great , freedom of movement and that enabled him to be successful. he was never chased where the odds were so stacked against him that he didn't have a chance. you can see the quote here. this was written by herman melville. and it was about a union cavalry patrol that went into mosby's confederacy. written by herman melville, was essentially a true account of the union patrol and throughout that epic polymer, there is a feeling of mosby and his men lurking off just on the flanks on that ridgeline in the shadow. that was a feeling the union cavalry had when they would go through heading west from fairfax county when they would go through the gap and plunge into loudoun county, they knew they had gotten into's. it was a nervous thing for them because the rangers would be up on the ridge lines watching. mosby, it was truly his confederacy and there were never truly challenge. he wason two occasions the only unit that stayed in the area for a great extent of time. another tool he brought to the table and used was the partisan ranger act. when this is distilled down to its very basics, it says that partisan ranger units can be formed in a calvary or infantry, they will be an official part of the confederate army, officers will be duly commissioned, the men will be paid the same as regular confederate soldiers. the big difference is that anyone in a partisan ranger unit was allowed to keep anything he captured on a raid or during a fight. weapons, ammunition, horses, tack, whatever it might be. if they didn't keep that, if they didn't want that piece of equipment or horse, they can sell it back to the confederate government for profit. mosby knew that was a pretty good deal. he knew that would draw people in. he knew once they got into the unit, they would want to stay. especially after they came up with their second or third horse or had a pocket of greenbacks. he used both the partisan ranger act as a recruiting tool and as a disciplinary tool. if people got out of line, did not do what they were supposed to, life in the rangers was fairly easy. be where you are supposed to be when you are supposed to be there and do what you are told once you get there. fight and conductors of as a gentleman. other than that, it is fairly easy. people who would go against the grain, somewhere along that line, would find themselves gone. mosby had that power. there were a good number of men who were cast out of the unit because of behavior. that partisan ranger act was the backbone to bring people in and to keep them in line. the partisan ranger act really poked down in many cases to fans of thugs and begins. the beginning of him for the federal government and army -- the confederate government and army. the partisan ranger act was rescinded. as demonstration for the recognition of the unit, two units were continued to be allowed as rangers, mosby and mcneil. all others were shot down and the men were told they would find the nearest unit and mustard in as regulars. , on a personal side of john mosby, not a loud man or exuberant man. not a big talker. howeverd time and again , you wonder how this man hold -- held sway over this group of pretty innovative and adventurous young men? especially as the unit began to grow. it was remarked upon time after time that mosby had a set of eyes that would lock you in place. if you did something wrong and he turned and looked at you, you knew it. if you had done something well you, he knew at it. i don't believe mosby was loved or a loved or beloved by his men, i'm not certain a lot of them like him, but i do believe they respected him, i believe anyone who rode with him for an amount of time trusted him, he was not going to put them in a position they could not get through. externally --uld to a certain extent, they feared him. they saw by his actions in combat that this was a tough, tough, small man possibly, but a dangerous man. one thing that was commented on time and again that left an impression on rangers were his eyes. he was in charge. there was no question about who was in command. another thing that mosby and his leadership and his skills made -- made a great effort to use was intelligence. information about the enemy. mosby was known to go out on scouts many times himself. , who wrote books about the rangers, said he was the fastest outer he ever seen. on a scout and be out for a couple of days, combat, take a small break and go out again. forad a tremendous knack the manually knew the area and you had scouting skills. you see on the slide some of the men he picked as his scouts who could lead him. in many cases of the rangers needed to one of these men would know another route. b waiting be at point there because they when a circuitous route. it helped tremendously from start to finish. rarely was he surprised by union -- often thete union was surprised by his activity. mosby'sson talked about estimate of men. many of the men remarked that he could meet a man and maybe not even talk to him, just look at to join when he wanted the unit mosby would say i don't want you or you are in. the case example is in of ames. he wanted to join the small band mosby had at the time. the other rangers said no. this is a trick. mosby spoke to him for a moment and said he would be fine. done, amess said and would become a lieutenant under mosby and one of the most liked and respected men in the command. of mosbyeal is made not accepting deserters. of richard paul, there is no doubt he was a deserter from a mississippi unit saw something in him and he allowed him and the unit. would be killed in the late fall of 1864. he had risen to the rank of captain under mosby, one of his most trusted subordinate commanders. stewart told mosby he would have elections. mosby did have elections. he did it his way. when mosby new a new company was to be formed, he would begin to watch the men who would he in that unit. he would start to figure out who was intelligent, who was trusted by the other manic, respected by the other men, who understood how he wanted to fight here in he would write their names down. inwould then call the men when the time came to form that company and open the floor for nominations of the chain of command. opened,as the floor was he would read his list of nominees and close the floor to nominations and ask for a vote. time thely the first vote was not unanimous. the first time there was a little bit of pushback from some of the men who felt somebody else should have been considered. mosby said these are your officers. you can leave the unit. that's the last time he had any problems. that is a lot of power for a man to have in picking his subordinate officers. one of the things i respect about mosby's he did not play favorites. based one an officer merit and merit alone. good examples, the chapman brothers. sam chapman was two years older than his little brother william. sam ands much closer to would remain much closer to him after the war. they would exchange letters up until the time of mosby's death. who woulde william become second-in-command under mosby. was 10 yearss younger than his brother tom. 1864 actually put his head and shoulders in between the blade strike for major lowell who was about to hit mosby with that blade strike. tookrds got in between and the saber strike himself. he received a nasty wound. richards, 10olly years younger, not hearing the scar he took his boss, he would be the one who would become major and tom would become a captain. he would rise no higher than the rank of lieutenant. lieutenant frank williams was with mosby very early on. he would be promoted to lieutenant. never be promoted to captain and never given a company command. later in life he would become the director of the board of supervisors in fairfax county. mosby saw people he thought were better qualified. he took care of his men and they stayed in private homes. he did not like camp life. have nothing to do, don't do it here. mosby felt that way when the men were not out on operations. they would go to their safehouses and stay in private homes. theyof the men had money would take from union prisoners when they would be captured or from things they sold that to the government. it was a fairly lucrative as this. if you conducted yourself as a gentleman and did what you were told, you would stay in that unit. mosby allowed his manic great freedom of movement and the things they did when they were not out on operations. mosby led from the front. that is something that any warrior respects. he wants his boss up there with him, to know that he will be there if need be. mosby was in the thick of every fight the rangers had, but people have ever heard of. he was wounded three different times. loadings, he was in the middle of small fights. back and, he'd come was in a house when he was shot. the most impressive thing about that third wounding, the worst he was backin 1864, in the saddle in 1865. it was a wound he should have died from. his men trusted him. they respected him. they feared him to a certain extent and he set the example of leading from the front and going through every danger those meant through -- men went through as well. they talk about special operations today being specially trained and specially equipped. the rangers lived and died by two things, the cold 44 pistol -- colt 44 pistol and their horses. that's what cap them alive. would go a long way in the middle of a fight. that was their special equipment. intelligence, what set the rangers apart afforded them the ability to be so successful. horses andthose b,wing how to get from a to this was a swarm of angry wasps when they would decide to hit a union unit. --ry ranger just allowed supplier --they had superior firepower. those things are what made them so affect and so effective so often for such a long time. the rangers, most of my research has been done on the men who rode with mosby. it was a remarkable group of men. age is a little bit younger than the average confederate regiment of entropy or cavalry. he had three or four men at 14 years of age. war, a good number of those men would it become doctors, lawyers, millionaires, successful businessmen. people who would contribute to society at a very high level. else,and beyond anything without the skills that mosby had may have been close to his success was he was simply because of the quality of the men who rode with him during that time. he understood it. he got it. the military value of the work is not measured the property destroyed or the number of men killed or captured. it's by the number he keeps watching. how many people could he tie up. effective inely doing that from the second he began operations until the end of the war. know, johnou may not was inductedby into the united states ranger hall of fame in 1992. the first class inducted into the ranger hall of fame. ofwas inducted with a group noteworthy individuals from ranger special forces and airborne history. john mosby was one of those men. this is notid, unlike troy aikman from the dallas cowboys getting inducted into the washington redskins hall of fame. serious, but more his abilities, his skills are accepted and to this day remain a part of special forces and ranger lineage in the united states army. that completes my talk. are there any questions? [applause] >> we've got a couple of questions. you need to come down to the microphones and state your name and ask your question. this is on c-span. you need to come to the microphones please. please come to the microphones and asked the questions. >> excuse me, what happened to mosby after the war? >> he was a lawyer by trade. there were a few fits and starts initially. there was some question whether he would ever be paroled. he would a question if be charged and executed for a few things. when all was said and done, he would he paroled and go back to his law business. he began to stump for ulysses s grant when he ran for president. very much so 1872. he was vilified in virginia. he lost a great deal of his law business because many people saw him as a traitor. he thought grant was best for the south. that's why he tried to get him in as president. he was successful. the fact that he had become a republican, he was not the most affable man in the world, not the most friendly man and did not -- someone took a in 1876.hi grant was no longer president. hayes had become president. went to hayes and said they are going to kill him, can you help them. consulate tome the hong kong for seven years. when he got back to the west coast and his ship came into port in california, he was offered a job by leland stanford, working for the railroad. he stayed on the west coast for 15 years. he made his way back to washington city where he would work for the department of interior and for the department of justice. retired 1914.y he passed away in 1916. what kind of role that mosby play in the advanced to gettysburg, if any? , if you readart one of his books it talks about the gettysburg campaign. my feelings, he is shrill in his defense. mosby met stuart a couple of times during that movement when all of those things were going on. mosby had made a recommendation to stuart on what route he should take based on an operation mosby had been on. things changed over a couple of days and when stewart actually tried it to take that route, he found it was blocked by union forces. they were moving it through the area. it wasn't bad information. it was just no longer timely. mosby felt some guilt for that. that's about the only role he played. as i said it, as the union army came through, he told his men to get out of the way. this is bigger than we can address. once everyone had passed through, mosby did ride across the potomac. they got a short distance into pennsylvania. stuart, buto find he could not find him. he came back. there is no question of him out in front of the scouts. the cavalry did that mission. what kind of casualties did his unit occur during the war? >> his casualties were light if you compare them to other units. as i stated, of all the people rangers, aboutby 2000 men. close to 200 were killed in executed, or died in prison. several hundred were wounded. the numbers are not as accurate on the wounding's. being wounded as a ranger was the price of doing business. charlie dear is one of my favorite rangers. he left and he was 16. he joined mosby and was shot 12 times. he lived to be 82. i love this quote. another ranger was wounded seven times. about the rangers talks it briefly. awayne had a finger shot and he gets into the fight. where they probably lost more people than anything were pows. early on, they would be paroled. at the end of the year or at the end of the war with those 800 men in the unit, a little over 200 were sitting in boston harbor as prisoners of war. strength powshis and that one location not released until 1865. >> we will take one more question. it looks like we've got two more. did lieutenant aims face any repercussions from deserting his unit are -- new york unit after the war? >> no. he was dead. said, initially not trusted and then accepted. one-on-oneed in a --ht along today's south route 17. that's a good question. unfortunately, he was killed. one of the neat stories about that, he was buried close to where he fell in an unmarked grave. another ranger who was well-to-do in richmond had the toy disinterred and moved hollywood cemetery and put a stone up over his grave. likely, they did not even know each other. i don't think he was in the unit. i think one of the main reasons he did it was he was born and raised in new jersey and came south just before the war because he was in sympathy with the southern cause. he would eventually join mosby. he did all of that to honor a man who had the same view. that's a good question. he didn't make it. [applause] >> it resulted in a naval victory for the u.s. over japan just six once after the attack on pearl harbor. american history tv will be live all day from the memorial visitor center in virginia for the 75th anniversary of the battle of midway. watch the battle of midway 75th anniversary special live from the macarthur memorial visitor center on june 2 beginning at 9:30 a.m. on american history tv on c-span3. a 1977 documentary about the andem health fighters all-black unit who earned distinctions for the french army. they needed men and many white american soldiers refused to serve beside african-americans. the story is told through several interviews. they are holding out a argonne.ection of the we had listening posts. these are nothing like the korean or vietnam. when troops were holding a trench, every maybe 300 had a post, feet from the main body in the trench. they put two men out there just to listen. on this particular night, henry johnson, one of the greatest was out there when these germans attacked the listening post. approximately 24 germans he filed them off. he shot and swung his rifle around and he defeated the 24 germans. he had 21ut and wounds on his body, but he refused to die. finally got out there and drag their bodies back. they are both gone today. most all of them are gone. i am 75 years old and i was only 17 then. or 30are not many guys 25 that are here to tell. >> next, the 1864 shenandoah valley campaign during the civil war. he talks about the strategic importance of the valley to both the union and the confederacy. he discusses the battles and rates it took place in the valley during that year. he also describes the interactions of the valley between union troops, confederate women, and freed slaves. civil warwas part of history. emeritus of the university of richmon