>> is my pleasure to introduce -- it is my pleasure to introduce our friend lee white. he has been with the park service since 2000. lee hasiterally say spent his whole life on the battlefield because he was born in a hospital that sits on the battlefield grounds. this is a man who is deeply rooted in that part. he also has a passion for parks that reach -- that reach beyond the boundaries of his daily work life. he is finishing up work on a book for the emerging civil war series. earlier this afternoon, davis talked about the rise of john bell hood and we will talk about the beginning of the fall of that very same army. what is and gentlemen, mr. lee white -- ladies and gentlemen, mr. lee white. [applause] white: i have a special connection there and it is one -- ie reasons why i did tell that story. familiar with general patrick labor. my first really big civil war biography was on patrick labor and. claybourne. his story inset franklin. i have been interested in it one of the top experiences of my life is when i went to franklin for the 150th on the actual date, november 30, 2014, and i was there and i there was aat commemorative march. -- hold on a minute. is at the end -- this shirt is at the end. those of you who know ed, it was truly an amazing experience. i have seen him many times. following him literally, halfing him outpace men his age, so much younger than him, it was a truly amazing experience. things i have always been real keen on was the soldiers, the common soldier. i think franklin plays that out. chickamauga is said to be a soldiers battle. the soldiers suffer at franklin a great deal. this painting illustrates the army of tennessee as they would have appeared in the fall of 1864 when this campaign kicks off. another thing, we are talking about a battle toward the end of the war. we are talking about a battle in middle tennessee. why should that interest many of you around here? the rest of the story, so to speak. these are all commanders who will be at franklin who all have connections with this area of virginia. , general kimball who fought jackson in the valley. brigade commander. you have james wilson, whose last stance in the shenandoah valley. one of the confederate generals who died in franklin. a brand-new regiment. still bringing in troops that late in the war. a few miles west of here write cedar mountain, he is one of the soldiers there. he is a member of the seventh ohio. old allegany johnson. goes off to the prisoner of war camp. when he is released, he is transferred to the army of tennessee. this is the rest of the story, so to speak, with some of the local connections in northern virginia. franklin,eally study john bell hood and his coming into command, franklin is a tragic episode for his army, but also for him. good tried -- hood tried, he really did, just a guy way over his head. some of it in his is -- is its own making and some of it is the army he commanded. backstabbing, backbiting, these guys spend more time fighting amongst themselves than they do fighting the other side. general said should have known this. he expects the army to work like lee's army does. he said he was a man of the lee and jackson school. trying to do these flank attacks , tries to pull these things off but he cannot do it. hood, hising with army is unwieldy. when he starts the tennessee campaign after the fall of atlantic, he does not have any war -- veteran war commanders. his senior corps commander and has been in command since june. this thing kicks off in september. inthe campaign opens september, he has frank cheetham commanding. atlanta, hell of says, either he goes or i go. jefferson davis steps in and transfers hardy out of the army. the army's high command is new and it is suffering from within on the lower levels. the atlanta campaign had seen a slow bleeding of the army of tennessee's junior officers. the war was changing, just as it too.hanging in georgia, they marched out of dalton, georgia, preparing to fight the war the way harry -- the way they had been fighting. trench warfare is coming in. sharpshooters. repeating weapons. these are starting to change the face of the war. 1864, the of may, soldiers would not have recognized the war the year before, it has changed so dramatically. deal with this changing mode of warfare, he has now -- she has to contend with new officers -- he now has to contend with new officers who are not gelling together either. the bad luck the army of tennessee has. that is what a lot of this comes down to. they just have bad lot. i make the analogy that the army of tennessee is kind of like the charlie brown army of the civil war. every time they think they are going to kick the football, the football gets yanked out from under them. johnbell hood -- mcallister schofield, i am not a big fan of john scofield. he is a self-serving little guy. even with the battle of franklin, he is not so much the guy in charge of the army. he brings it there and he is worried about trying to get it out of franklin. coxe will actually do the defense. david stanley. we will notut -- spend a whole lot of time with schofield. we will talk about them here. we have the men who will fight this. example of the western federal troops that herdsman will be facing and the men -- that hood's men will be facing. this common soldier is one of the things that interests me. 3, ontimes around july the internet, facebook, you see a lot brought up about the intruder in the dust, being the little boy on july 3. mine is on november 30, on the afternoon waiting for the army of tennessee's great attack. showingl painting here the fighting. it was a horrific fight. and it tragedy and drama all plays out as some of the worst fighting in the war. hood suffers just under 7000 casualties. the key thing, of that number, 28% are dead. 20%.sburg, closer to 20% more men die as a result of the battle of franklin then died at shiloh. menend up with 702 captured. hood moved into the fight with .ot his whole army numbers inost equal the union army. 2500.s. loss is over it is pretty one-sided. the union army does not get out of it completely scot-free. what is also staggering, the number of officer casualties. this becomes a full on gushing wound. 55 regimental commanders are casualties in this battle, not clebuing general patrick rne. it is truly a devastating fight. today, there is not much left of it. there has been some extraordinary preservation efforts centering around the carter house. that becomes the heart and soul of the story. homeamily who finds their on the full-scale view of an attack. this is looking across the ground at which the attack occurred. looking from some of the union fortification lines. franklin is a sad story in a lot of ways because such a dramatic story, although great efforts there, still development going on. what remains behind, some of the haunted reminders of the battle. one of the most bullets marked buildings in north america. you can still see the bullet holes, still visible there today. dead of the battle of franklin buried on the plantation, visible in the distance. over -- it alld as the result of a long campaign that has really not gotten much attention. hood had to get from atlanta to franklin and it did not happen simply. it starts out, his initial plan, he will strike at the railroad. sherman had this fascination on destroying southern railroads. now it is hood's turn. striking at the railroad, trying to draw sherman northward. hoodhole idea, he will get to give up atlanta by following him north into the mountains of georgia. he can let sherman attacked him and beat sherman in north georgia. that does not really happen. then, he will move his army into northern alabama. a plan to strike into middle tennessee. cause shermann, to give up. he is going to eventually move over, developing another plan. hoodthis is all going on, goes to alabama and sherman throws his hands up in the air. his hands up and goes to atlanta and then starts moving on savannah. backs ons turned their one another and go in opposite directions. but he did not completely leave hood alone. he sent george thomas to nashville to gather a force to deal with hood. but that will take time, and time becomes a factor. if hood can cross the river, that could cause some real trouble. grant and sherman express a good deal of concern about what is going on. hoursn also detaches two o corps fromy -- tw his army. they end up in lasky, tennessee. the birthplace of the ku klux klan after the war. strikeswhere hood across the river and -- to drive off schofield. he has his reputation of being a john bell hood is not tactically innovative. -- there is only one frontal attack that john bell hood ever orders as an army commander -- franklin. most of his moves are trying to do flanking maneuvers. of it.ld gets wind there is a race to columbia, tennessee, and schofield gets in town just ahead of hood. columbia,then flank trying to hit the little town of spring hill, tennessee. hood, his army gets there and all he needs to do is pull the trigger, but something happens. this gives a little bit more clarification. one of the people at fault is general frank cheetham. he says, i don't do night attacks. only had to do was push his men across a few yards and it could have blocked schofield and history might've been a little different. everything to the evening of november 29. it in with such great potential for hood. by men have the opportunity 4:00, all they have to do is manage to get one division across the columbia turnpike, only a few hundred miles -- few hundred yards away most of one division out of the whole army and none of it happens. mess.a huge bumbled the union army slips right past. the confederates never push across. some commanders pleaded to let them push on and it does not happen. the next morning, how do you think john bell hood feels? he would later write in his memoirs, the best move of my ander as a soldier came knocked. the next morning, he has a breakfast meeting. that is the one thing about this late in the war, sometimes we do not have the records that give us these answers. when sam hood found these papers, it was such a great thing because they helped us understand. there is still so much we do not know. we do not know who was at this meeting. about johntle miss about john- myth bell hood was that he was addicted to opium. that is no period evidence hood was taking opiates. >> here, here. [laughter] white: one little story becomes accepted fact. anyway, he begins marching northward. willinks john schofield march on. he will march all the way into nashville. .e is gripping at this that is why he will be , and a littlenned bit belated, when he gets to he gets -- elated when to franklin. he sees that schofield is still there. wants to get back to safety. when he gets to franklin, the river has risen in all of the bridges are washed out. his army is stuck until his engineers can get his army across. hood is goingink orderack him but he will general jacob coxe to prepare the fence -- prepare the defense of the town. he will have a little bit to work with. there were some pre-existing fortifications on the south side of town but his men were veterans of that atlanta campaign. is wonderful to read how creative they are. they take all of the pews out of the chapel and start throwing dirt on top of them. they are taking parts of the railroad ties and adding them for fortification. he will have two natural advantages as well. on the eastern side of the battlefield, this area, some property owners have up -- have , osagetural barrier orange. how would you describe osage orange? >> [inaudible] thickite: it is a nasty, prickly -- they will align their line along that. a few feet in front of them. they will cut it in half. they will take the tops of it and lay it out, intertwining the branches together. they will have that advantage. on the other side, right in front of the works, they will do the same thing with it, leaving the natural barrier there. oute are going to play pretty devastating, have pretty devastating results. been -- had seen the presence of the union army before hand. there is a four. .t is not -- there is a fort it had not been in use since 1863. it will also play out devastating results as the confederates attacked. the natural barrier of the river , franklin is nestled in this bend through the river. hood will form his army down here. the ground will funnel his army in together. they will be condensed as they move in and that will play all sorts of problems with command and control and the unit will stack up and become a mob. this is the terrain itself. hood will arrive on the scene in the early afternoon of november union he will go -- the back.ard will fall that was general george wagner. he will pull his men across the valley to a point about half a mile from the main union line where he will stop and ordered his men to halt. two of his brigades do. his main brigade has been carrying the big load of the rearguard. this, theyn covering marched all night from spring hill. his men did not have breakfast. he tells wagner to take a flying leap. he will move his troops all through the mainline and form them back here. actd of insubordination -- of insubordination. he and wagner screaming at each other. as far ast that getting the way -- getting away with that with a commanding officer. play a pretty big role in things coming up. once the rearguard looks over the hill in the field, they decide to -- "we will make the fight." that is what -- he will meet with his commanders and tell them what they are going to do and they do not like it. it does not look promising. hood sees this is the last chance he has. , theyy get to franklin get to nashville and there is no them.g this will be a hail mary pass. it will be a frontal assault and hood will launch it with less than an hour of daylight. he may be looking back to his earlier career when a similar situation near richmond, that is where he earned his reputation. a lot of similarities. but it worked and he has been trying these flanking maneuvers. the semi-infamous confederate calvary men will urge another flank maneuver. let's go straight up the middle. what will play out is that hood will deploy his -- he only has two of his core with him. core and ap stewart's frank cheetham's court and they are going to deploy. stewart will deploy down here. cheetham will deploy here. the plan is to hit them in the center and try to center and tro break behind and try to drive the army into the river. what you are going to basically hood states about this, the country around franklin is open and exposed to the full view of the federal army. i cannot mask the movement of my troops so the out of flank of he enemy and if i attempt it will withdraw and precede me into nashville. while his immediate center is very strong his flight is we. is also trying to overrun the flanks of the army. he states that stewart's core will attack that side, cleburne and she them will attack the move the division northward before cleburne and brown in order to attack concurrently with them. that's basically what will happen. go back and have meetings with their commanders -- ask lane what will happen and explain what will happen. he said give orders sheer men -- in your front then press them and shoot them in the back while running to the mainline and fix your bayonets charge and breach the enemy's line at all hazards. claver looks at it and says general i will take those works or fall in the attempt. he is fatalistic in this campaign. at this point it is starting to really happen, sees the war .ffort falling apart he stated in an earlier speech that said this cause that is so dear to my her false -- may fall. that afternoon they start getting ready for the attack, centers, the union writing back to family noted, brother john is a few steps away , far to the south i hear a band. looking around i see willie crying and told he just received word of the dying of his only daughter by smallpox. i hear captain are saying to lieutenant, you think the war will be with us today? silently i said a prayer. some of the boys check hands with our captain. the air is hazy and i see a few rebels being deployed in the line of battle in the far distance. is 3:30 p.m., 30 fear -- 30 minutes before the attack again. the union soldiers don't believe this is happening. but it has happened. up andfederates form they are having the same type of reaction. some are shaking hands and going even in somelain, cases, sharpshooters that the , they arennessee had supposed to operate at a distance and even they start showing up, to go into this attack. there is a fatalism that has settled over the confederate cleburne's fall, they know their call -- cause is lost. many of them are willing to go down fighting. one of the harding hit his -- heating units the missouri brigade, kind of like marilyn stewart's troops, and the seen as orphans sense missouri was seen as a border state. they had a large number of st. louis irish and the soldiers are trying to break the heavy tension, one of this. that, england expects every man to do his duty today. one of the irishman says dam fine little duty that england will get out of this irish crowd. laugh wasst raised -- raised long and hard teethh laugh was long and harty. prospects don't look good. up,he meeting breaks general daniel who commands the arkansas brigade says well of usl, there are few boys going to get back to arkansas after this and claver , if we arem and says to god, let us die like men. and they ride down and start deploying at 4:00 the attack against and they step off the right shouldere shift arms, brigade forward, guide to center, quick time march. one soldier will note that their brass bands go into attack with them, saying it was an unusual toot to goe and charger with the shooters. s and they keep up for most of the way. the army starts off moving in this grad -- grand pageant. the flags are flying. men army has lost so many that the units are now very small and they start going across the field. be pickets said to charge of the west. attacks and they didn't work. and that is legends how this is. but they are covering two miles of open ground. it is not flat ground. you have these goalies. side and the east side, you cannot see the west -- rest of the army. as they stepped off the guns in start doing what they do best, long range fire. just rainingflank , they are being torn apart step-by-step. after the union infantry deployed at the warning the went artillery basically around the line and positioned the guns along the line at different points. , soreates these cross-fires it is devastating what will happen. some research that has been done on franklin that changes the perspective. they will have several small attacks and the whole army is not hitting at once. as she to is not -- is going forward, that will stall them a bit. divisions of stewart's core slowed down by some terrain while his leftmost division , he went intoion the attack with one brigade in front of the other. the first line here is part of wenders advance position and installs them out. the missourians go through them. at the beginning they have one brigade ahead of everybody else and they are going straight up and hit the union line alone. worse, they go in in front of a regimen with repeating rifles. they are here in front and in the flank and both flanks for a description ofe this fighting is unbelievably brutal. and -- officers are going down and it is devastating, these commanders and all. they are beaten back. then the rest of the line starts hitting. ,tewart's division catches up they are going in. will go inisions, and strike and so willed another brigade. it will slow them down and they can't get through it. a few feet from the work some of horrific descriptions of the battle, these guys charging forward and they can't get through that hedge. the officers are hacking at it with their sabers. they are trying to chop at it with axes. rear troops are pushing in and they are literally getting and getting stuck. notedldier in the attack said, the smoke had settled in such a dense bank over the field in front that friend cannot be distinguished from phone -- -- foe. it was tearing up the ground and knocking trees around us. the union soldier witnessing it noted, the right wing to commence firing still they never flinched. but defiantly moved on until they struck the head where they run up against a wall. they made desperate efforts to penetrate it to no avail. stand there could not destructive nature that was upon .hem when they reached the road they tried to force an entrance through the brush that had been cut down, i directed the fire of andcompanies down the road they were compelled to flank again. their --s are trying everything they can and they are just being slaughtered. up. attack will play stewart's men are not going to be able to move forward. here are things play out, striking where newsline, wagner is able are able to hold on for a few minutes. is one of the big debacles of the union army, his men are out front and blocking fire and the main line can offer to the center. one confederate who was going , they had gone forward this became in range of the yankees opened fire from we were first killed and wounded our men. the flag fell. said i will take the flag. look after your company. karo green carried the flag through without a scratch. he was the lucky one. they were killed and wounded men all around us so fast that no one heard the order charge given . when we saw the men rushing we raised our rebel yell and moved in double quick time but before we could reach the time, the yankees fled into disorder. so they are breaking and running now for the center of the union line here. the unit troops watch this in disbelief. they couldn't believe wagner had kept his men out in front but he did. and upon therging center and that's one of the to one of theons tennessee brigadier's george w. bush's division, no relation to john b gordon. into the works with them. this crowd was called up and foe through a thousand straining throats as we rushed on after the flying forces we had routed, killing some of their running. capturing some who were slow on foot and sustaining little lost ourselves. the main 100 paces of line the stronghold they opened fire and it seems like hell is self had exploded in our faces. the momentum of many of them carry them up and over the works , and they break through in the union center. but it doesn't go far. there had been a secondary line of works constructed. they will notugh be able to overcome it. indeed one soldier noted, these men on the second at the same time, -- whose men had been posted in the back, his would also charge. a simultaneous counterattack at this point. orderid not wait for an but spring over it the pits like tigers. with a shrill shout that was heard above the rebel yell, went pell-mell into the mass of confederates that had taken our line and did not know what to do with it. at the same time, charlie his whip cracked around the ears of his artillery and drove them back to his guns. this was on the second line. they started running. --it they went with it pickaxes and shovels. this type of thing, adding to it the fruits from the secondary line -- ceiling the breach. the breach. this will transpire in the yard of the carter house. one of the soldiers noted -- the contesting elements was held was hell turned loose. pandemonium reigned there for about 50 minutes. the scene we witnessed in that short time was so indelibly stamped upon the minds of the participants that even after a long time, we still remember them etched into our minds. it gives you an idea of this. this attack is going to be repulsed. most are falling back into the ditch. they are not retreating back. they are only separated by a few feet from one another. now, -- goes in. the same story will play out. chief films -- bates is going to charge forward and he will get a break in the line. two companies break and run. ohio counter attacks. clark will drive his men in. they start to seal the breach. clark is killed in the attack following at the age of 21 commanding a regiment. bates retreats. now, it is dark on the battlefield. .ut still not going to end night has settled over the battlefield. allegheny johnson's men. goes in andsd lee asks cheatham what he should do with johnson's men. he said -- that he had no orders to give. ed johnson leads in, and attack illustrated here. this is at 7:00 p.m. they are advancing with torches. it tells you how desperate this is. union soldiers could not believe what they were seeing. they had torches on the ends of the line to march -- to mark the center. and rapid- the lurid flashes. and the torches presented a surreal site. and it starts going to pieces again adding more casualties to the fight. brigade, the colonel of the regiment said manago went down and then the next one went down. no one knew what to do. he finally ordered his own men to lay down. -- adid not get a short share and the glory but he did not lose a lot of men either. and with those attacks, things die down until about 11:00 p.m. or so when the fighting finally dies out that night. many tragic scenes on the battlefield. the fighting in the carter frank yard. , the 40 -- theg 24th wisconsin was led by arthur of generalfather douglas macarthur. he would be wounded there. the most dramatic tales of this battle -- carter. the son of the carter family whose home has witnessed all of this. serving as a staff officer. he goes in with his hometown regiment. a short distance from his home, he is mortally wounded. he gets something many soldiers did not. he dies in his own bed. wounded five times. -- this is the legacy of the battle. the union army retreats leaving hud with the field but it goes to nashville. there has been the death of an army here on this field. claiborne is gone. officer losses. regiments were destroyed. but this is the hallmark. you have these generals dead or mortally wounded. after claiborne. high rim granberry. carter. john adams. he dies when his horse runs up onto the earth works of the union line and is shot down at that point. but then, you have three generals wounded. manago and one captured. general george gordon. he was made a prisoner. this is illumination that happened on the anniversary. one candle representing all of the losses. i am generally not a fan of giving casualty numbers has it is hard to envision. but ultimately, it goes down to the men that fell. cotton oforge w white the 37 georgia industry -- infantry. he is buried in that cemetery. chicamonga.l at the story ends there on the battlefield. then again, that is how it all plays out. so much of this is the story of the common soldier. white, cotton, and all of those others go down at this point leaving a legacy of their bravery on the battlefield and a legacy for john bell hood which leads to a lot of misconceptions about him over the years which are now hopefully being addressed and cleared up to give him a fair shake so to speak. thank you, all. [applause] >> questions for mr. white. >> thank you very much. i was wondering as you were researching this and studying it, it seems that the similarities between williamsport in the defense of bowdensport by general and when we got there and the setup of the river, the way the town is built into the river and the reverse symmetry of the union in an attacking position in the confederates defending in here. and then the union did not attack, of course to the consternation of lincoln. i am just wondering, i guess this is more of a comment than a question -- to me, it is seen able and i have not lot of comparisons. i am not familiar with franklin. could you comment a little on the similarities? is trying to slip across the river as well as go field so there are some comparisons in that but whether in have the advanced strings 1864. got more of a preponderance of rifle guns. so i think the works are heavier because these guys have now, entrenching experts at this point. >> what happened to the remnants of the army after this battle? did any of them ever play another role? hood pursues to nashville. at this point, throughout the campaign, could has been -- hood has been unaware that his is the only confederate army that has been maneuvering up and down and can do some things. he shows up in nashville and george thomas who had been passing the troops attacks a little over two weeks later and utterly destroys what is left of the army of tennessee. that is one thing that george thomas is known as -- the rock. he also accomplishes something else you do not see. after hood's army retreats from nashville, he pursues and rides them into the ground. >> other questions? yes. forest was involved in this, wasn't he? mr. white: to some degree. >> what was his role? >> he played more of a role at spring hill. he suggests to hud to make a -- to hood to have a flank attack. but he does not become heavily involved there. >> time for one more. >> they were in the process of buying property and restoring -- has that been accomplished in franklin? that andre still doing they are reclaiming large portions of the battlefield. the land has already been eric jacobsen, who has been instrumental in the efforts there has been able to orchestrate a lot of good work there. but one of the coolest things as -- geekingeeking out over is they have been doing some archaeology. they have found some foundations and they also found where the union trenches were and they have excavated them. they are finding dropped bullets, dropped henry repeating cases there in the bottom of the trenches. now that the archaeology is done, they are filling in the trenches with gravel so you can still see exactly where the trench lines rant which i think is pretty cool. >> thank you very much. [applause] >> december 7 marks the 75th anniversary of the japanese attack on pearl harbor. this weekend on american history tv, we're featuring programs remembering that day. sunday afternoon at four clock america,ern on reel the film "know your enemy: japan" were traced japan as an enemy that wants to rule the world. >> when the factories were producing for the war machine of japan, the japanese -- after 5:00, survivors from the uss arizona where 1177 crew members were killed on december 7, 1941, recall what they witnessed on that day. and then on american artifacts -- >> the missouri was commissioned and saw action in the pacific. she is often remembered for the surrender of japan at tokyo bay. >> we will tour pearl harbor attack sites. home of the uss arizona memorial. for our for a complete schedule, go to c-span.org. >> next, in honor of veterans day, friends of the national world war ii memorial cohosted ceremony with the national park service at the world war ii memorial on the national mall. ae keynote speaker served as messenger and company communications at sergeant at the u.s. army's 84th infantry division. the 55 minute program begins with like visitations to over 1000 world war ii -- over one dozen world war ii veterans in attendance. [applause] >> what we will do now as i call off each veteran, they will stand. we will have old glory, the flag

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