he is a historian with the central intelligence agency. he joined the u.s. government in 1986 as a staff historian at the army center of military history, where he served for 14 years before he joined the cia. during his time with the agency he also served in rotational assignments as deputy and chief historian at the national reconnaissance office and at the office of director of national intelligence. dr. laurie has taught at the american university and university of maryland at baltimore county. he specializes at the history of intelligence. he is the author of 40 articles on both military and intelligence history from the 19th century to the present. please join me give you a warm welcome to dr. clayton laurie. [applause] dr. laurie: i would like to thank you all for coming here tonight and i would like to thank the smithsonian associates. can you hear me in the back there? i wanted to point out as part of the introduction i am born and raised in iowa, so i come from a
[applause] if you live long enough you were interviewed a lot. this was absolutely great a in v you are going to ireland. were you born in ireland? my husband s family is 100% irish and we are going to celebrate her ten-year anniversary there. i couldn t be more grateful. [applause] now you can stand. [applause] up next on booktv after words with guest host james swanson author and heritage fellow. this week s james mcpherson and latest book embattled rebel jefferson davis as commander in chief. and it s the acclaimed historian present confederate president jefferson davis as an astute military strategist whose failures he argues are not the reason confederacy lost the civil war. this program is about an hour. host: gem lets start at the beginning. it s november 181860 and lincoln is president-elect. who is jefferson davis in the fall of 1860? guest: jefferson davis in the fall of 1860 as a senator from mississippi. he has served in that capacity off and on for ab
bell hood was written history and the u.s. colored troops compared to the sherman marched to the sea. this 90 minute event is part of theseries organized by tennessee sesquicentennial. thank you for attending featuring our same topic of the day, the last campaign in tennessee. , i am the van wes tennessee state historian. and a professor at middle tennessee state university. it was an easy drive over to join this event today. for our expert historians, they have all come quite a way to join and be part of this event. i m appreciative of that. this,y i would like to do so we have plenty of time for questions and comments, i am going to introduce all three speakers now in alphabetical order. come up in that order. ok. be chris speaker will lawson. i have known chris for 30 years. it goes back to his excellent work on frank cheetham, and his confederate division in tennessee s forgotten warriors. 1989.me out in he has been involved with us and then very generous of his time he
tennessee sesquicentennial. thank you for attending this session featuring our same topic of the day, the last campaign in tennessee. my name is van wes, i am the tennessee state historian. and a professor at middle tennessee state university. it was an easy drive over to join this event today. for our expert historians, they have all come quite a way to join and be part of this event. i m appreciative of that. the way i would like to do this, so we have plenty of time for questions and comments, i am going to introduce all three speakers now in alphabetical order. they all come up in that order. ok. our first speaker will be chris lawson. i have known chris for 30 years. it goes back to his excellent work on frank cheetham, and his confederate division in tennessee s forgotten warriors. that came out in 1989. he has been involved with us and been very generous of his time here for different civil war and franklin battlefield symposiums that we have worked with. welcome bac
. the other thing they could have done potentially was to cut off the kite so cut off the pike so they could be met by resistance. the thing there are two minus ascension made about with the federals would have done which is essentially they would have inevitably been destroyed. at spring hill, they had an opportunity of destroying or dismantling a large part of the union army. in some ways, this never gets the attention it is due, the yankees appear as unwitting accomplices of confederates who were bent on destroying them. these were veteran federal soldiers. these were battle hardened veterans of the atlantic campaign it elsewhere. the idea they would simply encounter confederate troops and meekly handed over the weapons is preposterous. there could have been a battle. it could have been at spring hill. i think the idea that the federals would have been dispatched with ease is simply nonsense. you can do what i did with my toy soldiers. you can do whatever you wan