Military career before and after the civil war. This talk is part of the university of Mary Washington great lives lecture series. [applause] good evening and welcome to the great lives lecture, one of the most controversial figures in civil war history, williams tecumseh sherman. This was helped in part by our good friends. Speaking this evening, mr. Oconnell, who received his degrees from the university of virginia, which is where i first met bob as a fellow graduate student. Obviously, many years ago. [laughter] in fact, Lyndon Johnson was president of the united state. Let me emphasize to these students that this was Lyndon Johnson, not andrew johnson. [laughter] [applause] in any case, bob has fashioned a very distinguished career, including 30 years with the intelligence community, where he held significant assignments, including arms control and a member of the delegation on the disarmament, and he has also taught to 2004. He was in monterey, california. A prolific scholar and w
Williams comes to William Tecumseh sherman. Part by ourped in good friends. Evening, mr. Oconnell, who received his degrees from the university of virginia, which is where i first met bob as a fellow graduate didnt ask a student. Obviously, many years ago. [laughter] in fact, Lyndon Johnson was president of the united state. These emphasize to students that this was Lyndon Johnson, not andrew johnson. [laughter] [applause] case, bob has fashioned a very distinguished career, including 30 years with the intelligence community, where he held significant assignments, including arms therol and a member of ,elegation on the disarmament and he has also taught to 2004. He was in monterey, california. A prolific scholar and writer, the author of several works, one novel and histories. , fierceof those patriot the tangled lives of William Tecumseh sherman, a New York Times bestseller. Of it was also the recipient a 2015 award for excellence in civil war biography. At the time of its publication
Theyve left a large train of munitions in the Eastern Central portion of atlanta that obviously cant get out. And so they set it on fire. This is 18 boxcars full of explosives. And you can imagine the sound that was heard 15, 20 miles away. This is the scene incidentally thats depicted in gone with the wind when red is in the wagon trying to get scarlet and the baby out, and theres all the sets burning in the background. I told my kids some of those sets were from the wizard of oz, which was true. They dont care anything about gone with the wind, but they were upset that the sets from the wizard of oz burned in this movie. Its worth pointing out here that the destruction of atlanta cannot be attributed solely to uncle billy sherman, that hoods army in fact began the process with the evacuation and the destruction of the firing of this train. And sherman took it a good bit further just before the march to the sea. On september second, the mayor of atlanta surrendered the city. Sherman a
Than 200,000 complete suits of uniforms to its soldiers in the field just in that time period. I do have to note a few qualifications. It was not always the most perfect system. The Southern Railroad network as it deteriorated often meant that Raw Materials and finished products would be delayed in either reaching the factories or reaching the destination points. It also meant that some alternate materials had to be used instead of the preferred all woollen outer garments, the confederates had to reply very extensively all on what was commonly called jean cloth, a mixture of wool and cotton, what was often called negro cloth. In the antebellum cloth this cloth was used to produce clothing for slaves in the south. In the production of shoes, teen agricultural south had a shortage of leather and could not make two standard infantry footwear that jefferson brogan or jefferson booty. That had been developed in the United States army in the 1850s. The southern style shoe had to produced a l
Didnt have any confidence that they could hold this position in this, so, yet, the army retreated yet again. Sherman, at this point, is pretty optimistic about the course of the campaign up to this point. And in a wonderfully e voktive phrase, he writes this is at the beginning. With are like a vast hive of bees and expect to swarm over the chatahoochie in a few days. Johnsons army was in the alatoona mountains. Sherman was very familiar with the entire section of georgia. He had spent time in the 1840s. He had been stationed here. Sherman knew it would be foolish to try and attack johnson in the alatoona mountains. So what johnson tries to do is execute another flanking march. This one would involve some risk because it would move the union army some mimes away from the western atlantic. The objective of this march would be the town of dallas. Johnsons calvary informed him in pretty timely fashion of this Movement Toward dallas. And johnson shifts away west ward to try and block sherm