Transcripts For CSPAN3 The Civil War 20141109 : comparemela.

Which received the bronze award from forward magazine in 2010. In his 12 years at the National Portrait gallery, he wrote over 200 articles for print and the web. More than 40 of which were on the American Civil War. He recently received one of 10 secretarys Research Raises the 2013 from the Smithsonian Congress of scholars. We are very proud of him for that. He is founder and director of the Perry Library of theater. That is in knoxville, tennessee. I would also like to introduce amy bracewell, the site manager at the historical park. She will make a few remarks, and then well have warren come up here. Thank you. Thank you. I would like to thank you so much for coming out. Cedar creek and belle grove historical park was excited to partner with the smithsonian for this lecture. Thank you for agreeing to speak on this great history. We think it is such a perfect fit to be able to marry the resources that the smithsonian has with the battlefield. Cedar creek and Belle Grove National Historical park is a small park in the Shenandoah Valley. We are one hour outside of the beautiful valley. The park was established in 2002 to share the history and spectrum of history in the Shenandoah Valley. We have a 1790 Plantation House Plantation House, leading up to the battle of cedar creek and beyond, the modern culture and vibrancy of the valley. We will like to welcome you out to all of our 150th anniversary events. This part of our lecture series happening throughout august through november about various topics on the valley campaign. We will also be commemorating the battle specifically on the 19, ourof october anniversary. We encourage you to check out our website and our Facebook Page to the schedule and follow along on all of the events. As you may know, we have several items outside for information. The National Park service developed the free sentinel guide. This edition is for the washington invasion and the Shenandoah Valley campaign of 1864. We have various materials on the events happening in october and also the latest event coming up this weekend is the battle of third winchester that we are commemorating this weekend in winchester. We encourage everyone to come out and visit and a special thanks to Elizabeth Wilke and the Smithsonian Associates for hosting us, and for warren perry for sharing this information in and for the great resources. Thank you. Hi, good evening. My name is warren. I would like to thank you for inviting me to talk about cedar creek and the smithsonian collection. I would also like to thank the Smithsonian Associates and the National Park Service Staff in virginia for allowing me to speak this evening. As i conclude my own time at the smithsonian, it was wonderful it is especially wonderful for me to be able to address this audience and tell everyone how much i have enjoyed this work. I would like to thank a couple of other folks. Iii, a greatr, colleague and friend who invited me invited many people along on the production of the smithsonian civil war book. I would also like to think jim barber, one of the smithsonians great civil war for, who has taken time to enlighten me over the years often. His door was always open to me. I am grateful to him for that. Michelle delaney made it is to happen and i am thankful to her , as well as to linda thrift, my boss at the National Portrait gallery. Linda is the chief archivist of portraits and she put up with me for 12 years. I have always been grateful to her. And ben bloom for being a great partner in a lot of our efforts, filming the battlefields them of putting things out on the smithsonian website. I would also like to thank the marty whothe late gave me a lot of time and assistance to complete a lot of lot of the work i wanted to finish. In the past few years, i have been to many battlefields and taken a lot of photographs. I have taken my wife, shannon, and my daughter. They have eaten a lot of National Park hotdogs. Shannons first battlefield with me was chancellorsville when we first moved to this area 14, 15 years ago. Our daughter was two weeks old when we dragged her out of the crib to go to antietam on anniversary of that battle. Also my brother, dr. Patrick perry, i have dragged them out him out many days after christmas for a trip from memphis to shiloh and nothing says christmas more than 100 mile jaunt to a battlefield. First, i want to talk about this war that we are produced. This work that we produced, this mighty work that so many smithsonian individuals participated in. And i am honored to have a part in producing this book here to a wrote fourpart i articles. There were 150 articles. There were editors, photographers, archivists, so many people. I want to speak briefly about the going ons after we talk about the book, about 150 years ago included in notes on sherman and the war in the south. Last, i would like to talk about the experience in the east, the siege of petersburg, and how that experience dovetailed into our discussion of the battle of cedar creek which happened 150 years ago next month. First, this book. Generations of americans are drawn to the history of the civil war. This volume, smithsonian civil war inside the National Collection, is indicative of the fact that war was more than battle. But the battles were central to the horror and experience. That is not all the war was about. It was about slavery, certainly, and states rights. Was aboutwar families, about men leaving to fight and homes being torn apart by separation and loss. And considering the obvious in the smithsonian collection, the objects which represent the war are as diverse as the experiences of the war. This work was assembled by 50 scholars from the smithsonian and a handful of editors and the support of scores of other staff, photographers, researchers, librarians. Many historians would argue that the American Civil War was the most important event in our nations history and the moment that would take shape from the as early as the signing of the declaration of independence. Others would argue the possibilities of such a war found his first moment with the arrival of the first captured africans at jamestown. The civil war was transformative and horrible. While the goal was to keep the union together and eliminating slavery was met, more than 600,000 men were killed and land s throughout the south were ravaged. It is impossible, john meacham notes in the foreword, this was the time of too much importance to the civil war. History is not a fairytale and nothing is inevitable. The war started with cannon fire at fort sumter in 1861 and culminated in the death of president lincoln in 1865. Just as the nation was shackled to the tragedy, so the National Collection of the smithsonian is tied to the war. Director of the institutional history division, states in the first chapter of asithsonian civil war, storm clouds gathered over washington, d. C. , in 1861, the smithsonian which was a single building housing joseph henry and his family, along with the museum or library, and other facilities, experienced the first to mold of a divided nation. He faced questions about his loyalty to the nation. He had Close Friends who favor secessionist including regents who were expelled from the board for confederate sympathies. Even jefferson davis, the man who served as the president of the Confederate States of america, had ties to the smithsonian. He was a regent to the institution. The range of attention represented in the civil war collection is astonishing. It is not just guns and uniforms, though there are many both on display and in storage. Its not limited to photographs and flags. There are many of them, also. There are signs announcing slave auctions, and there are identification badge is worn by slaves which further signify the injustice of the time. There are political posters, printing plates, pistols, postage stamps on letters to soldiers and letters to those Soldiers Left behind, and there however, we will discuss the horse later. I should not flash general butler of their at the same moment. [laughter] first, i would like to talk about the object i am most familiar because i contributed for the volume. The first piece is the National Portrait gallery. Its called the vanity of beast butler. Few men on either side collect as much ire as Benjamin Franklin butler. When he arrived, his reputation was already in place. That was in new orleans in 1862. The administration of the city augmented with everyone already believed which was he was difficult and argumentative. However, he was also an inordinately vain individual and unskilled in the craft of generalship, widely accused of corruption in his administration of new orleans, though he displays a keen understanding of the marshall method of bringing a city into order. Butler came to be called beast butler by issuing edicts as general order number 28 which declared women in new orleans found to be overtly disrespectful to the occupied occupying union forces would be regarded at how liable to the treated butlers authority with mostly went mostly unchallenged. He was placed at odds. President lincoln removed butler from command in 1862. During a hiatus between assignments, butler selfserving biographyipated in a which was meant to increase his presence in favorable posture. Upon being reassigned to the army in virginia, he failed terribly in the assault on forces at fort fisher, and he was again discharged by president lincoln. This bust of general butler was the work of sculptor edward brackett. It concerns the generals vanity and the letter he sent to his wife in 1863 while on duty at fort munro, virginia. And the note, general butler stated do you want to see me . Do the next best thing. And gethat marble bust a handsome pedestal for it. After the war, he served as governor of massachusetts and a congressman it lost a bid for presidency. He died in 1893. As a biographer notes, both hated and loved, butler remains a figure immensely amusing and muchmaligned. Heres a great picture of the general. This one i particularly like it shows him on the field and you see his wearing slippers. Oops. I have got to go back. I might have messed something up here. There you go. My second contribution to this large collaboration is called a haunting relic of gettysburg. This object is a poignant piece. A confederate victory at gettysburg wouldve changed the course of the war. Many in the north were growing tired of the fight in 1863, and robert e lee believed that there were those in the north who would happily capitulate and bring it to a close. Denied to they approve or disapprove that notion. Lee outgeneral his union counterparts. The Confederate Army was out number at gettysburg and lee fought against long odds. He should have known the lesson of gettysburg instinctively, having fought hard to protect virginia. He fought hardest and protect the his own home. Also, Union General made chosen george meade widely chose the surroundings of gettysburg positions and many of the officers made excellent and brave decisions during those three days fighting. Historically, the great battle like gettysburg place a burden on war leaders to justify the carnage. In Shakespeares Henry the fifth, we died at such a place, some swearing and some crying. Some upon their wives. Behind left poor them. Some upon the debts they owed, some upon their children. There are few that i will in battle to charitably dispose of anything when blood is their argument. The number of lives lost in any of the major engagements is staggering. The descriptions of the troop movements, the engagements and encourage displayed at place like Little Round Top is the largest discourse of the glories of the conflict. Though the antiquated image here is clear enough, this is a mans loved ones was awaiting his return, his call. Again, poignant. Human resonance of this lost photo goes beyond the battlefield. Theot know the fight fate of this soldier, nor do we know if he was from the north or south. Our imagination tells us it might be the last object from home he consider before you marched to his end. Our imagination tell us it signifies that yearning of the woman pictured that yearning and waiting for her husband more presumably who has his last letter which spoke about taking part in a mighty battle in a tiny village called gettysburg. The third piece i have in this book is on the fall of fort fisher. Germane to the war immediately after cedar creek. Cedar creek occurring in october of 1864. This sums up the last of the major fighting in the deep south and the Northern Army seizing control across georgia and going up the east coast. One of the great names associated with the union naval success is doing the war is at role david dixon porter. Porter was a key player at both new orleans and vicksburg. Later, while sherman submerged georgia in complete war, a plan was devised by general butler and porter to take fort fisher by sending a boat with 215 tons andowder on to the water then to blast the powder, taking out the fort in one mighty explosion. Fort fisher, south of wilmington, was important to the southern supply line. Because of its unusual sand wall construction on the side that faced the water, it made it more difficult to penetrate. However, the powder plan, a , nottic design, failed only because the powder to not create the damage of which it was believed to be capable, but also because butler failed to follow up the explosion with a proper assault on the very dense fort. Ofecond attempt in january 1855 was more successful. Butler had fallen out of favor and was removed in command and replaced by Brigadier General alfred terry. Terry joined the order in executing a new attack. It was a deliberate shelling of the fort with dozens of ships porter had under his command, after which terrys men launched an assault. Both sides suffered heavy casualties. With the fall of fort fisher, the flow of goods which had been smuggled into wilmington, north carolina, since the earliest days of the war, suddenly stopped. Also, one of Robert E Lees chief sources of supplies was eliminated. In this photograph, admiral porter, actually, incidentally, gardner isurner imaged, but porter is on the ship where he planned to the assault on fort fisher. It sealed off the last major port in the south, assuring the union army that lees pipeline was severed. The last essay i contributed to this volume is the one which somewhat segues us into the battle of cedar creek. Grant andis called his generals. It is more than a painting. At the front of the group of mortals is ulysses s. Grant , while the men who saved the union ride alongside their field commander. None could have known the number of lives it would take. Armiesnderstood that would battle, and unlike mcclellan, he pushed his soldiers into the field. Grant was irreplaceable. This man fights, said lincoln. Understanding war, fighting and of the life were part price to be paid for victory. The unions heroes, pictured in this ride of glory, are not in formation, but they are keeping a pace of their leader. Is one inguration which we see a classical arrangement where the heads are kept level with each other, as the figures would be depicted on a adamant. Among the warriors represented, custer we seeng with the golden hair on the far left. There is a lightcolored horse, sherman off on our left, grants rate. And then again, you see general sheridan. This portrait captured it captured in this tribute were painted from life by a norwegian american artist. Not only is the scope of the war encompassing the portrait of no less than 27 jewels but also the 27 generals, but also the scale of the work is grand. 16measures 10 feet high by feet wide. The initial sketches of the men depicted in this painting were done in the autumn of 1854 at field headquarters in virginia gradually forced lees army into capitulation. He was a volunteer resident and completed the final final oil painting in 1865. Peter hansen bolling consider grant to be his masterpiece. President Abraham Lincoln granted him permission to begin work on this Group Portrait while he visited the generals after the various stations of duty. Mounted within a specifically, specially fabricated sitespecific curved frame, this work embraces the northeastern stairwell of an old building which is now the Donald W Reynolds center, home of the National Portrait gallery. The connection of his work to cedar creek can be found and the in the generals accompanying general grant not all of them, of course. This is a big picture. But those generals accompanying general grant into his legacy. Two of the critical players, we see sheridan and George Armstrong custer and well talk more about that in a few moments. Right now, i want to move up to cedar creek by look at things by looking at things that were going on. Where was the field elsewhere at this time . By early 1864, the endgame of the civil war was in progress. In the deep south, William Tecumseh sherman would be placed in charge of the army that will sweep through georgia and into the carolinas, and we talked for a moment about sherman. Shermans record was marginal. He was a colonel at bull run in july of 1861. Against strong forces, he had rallied his men. Ultimately, his brigade left the field in much the same way as the rest of the union troops that day, fleeing from the rebel onslaught. His first large comm