museum of the civil war soldier located near petersburg, virginia. he previously served as the first president of the association for the preservation of civil war sites from 1990 to 1994, an early version of what today we know as the american battlefield trust. he s also spent time as a historian including local fredericksburg in spotsylvania. he s also served in other capacities. dedicated researcher, a prolific writer, he has published more than 20 works on the civil war, on stonewall jackson, st. petersburg, virginia, 1861 to 1865, and my favorite, the final battles of the petersburg campaign. his latest book, a campaign of giant is certainly a must-read a campaign of giants is certainly a must read for all civil war enthusiasts. i was fortunate enough to have an opportunity to do the maps for buck. i said, you know what? you re doing good work and he gave me an opportunity to showcase that so that i m most grateful. will is certainly a historian that we all look up
talk about congressional staffing and the history thereof. as indicated, i and lee created the legislative branch working group a couple years ago. our rather cheeky motto is make congress great again. there are those who will ask me, when was it ever great? and i say episodically. that s an important thing to remember about a legislature. you can only expect it to be episodically great, not relentless the great. but, humor aside, our undertaking is serious. with congress being the institution supposed to most reflect the diversity of the country and serve as the wellspring for the laws that govern us, and direct our spending. lee and i were concerned about the health of congress, and troubled that it seems to increasingly struggle to find its footing in the 21st century and adapt to shifting demands. so we have monthly discussions on the hill, to which you are all invited, and we announce the dates and topics on our website. we write papers, op-eds, the typical think tank
he is on the board of the petersburg battlefield foundation. he is a conservator and former board member of the emerging civil war. edward has a bachelors of arts degree in history from the university of illinois. and currently resides in richmond, virginia. ladies and gentlemen, please help me welcome ed alexander. [applause] ed: let me first go ahead and say what a pleasure and privilege it is to be here once again addressing this growing group of civil war enthusiasts. every single year we have done our annual symposium it keeps getting larger, it keeps becoming more organized. every year we see exponential growth and hopefully everyone has continue to enjoy what we have been able to author, offer. before i start to talk about how grant s crossing the james is the turning point of the civil war, i m going to undermine my position by rebutting a comment made yesterday mocking rappahannock station as a possible turning point as the of the station as a possible the american
fantastic factbook of all of the different sites you can visit and everything from hospital sites and talked about the different battlefields in the different laces that are associated with richmond slave history and is just a rich rich resource for richmond it was a delight to work on the project. at a time when covid-19 in the publishing business basically shut down, barnes & noble part about this book and ordered a whole bunch of copies in the middle of january which is not time for books so it was like we ve got to get this done in the book is done very well for them and is really kind of neat at a time that was pretty quiet for all of us to have is very neat project them up. and when we talked about this for edward tonight, and they were eating pizza and looking at each other and, how hard could be right. [laughter] so, partially because they are so well-informed and so fluid with a story that takes place in richmond, they were able to pull something together for us toni
recent one is called embattled capitol, the guide tube richmond during the civil war and is a fantastic factbook of all of the different sites you can visit and everything from hospital sites and talked about the different battlefields in the different laces that are associated with richmond slave history and is just a rich rich resource for richmond it was a delight to work on the project. at a time when covid-19 in the publishing business basically shut down, barnes & noble part about this book and ordered a whole bunch of copies in the middle of january which is not time for books so it was like we ve got to get this done in the book is done very well for them and is really kind of neat at a time that was pretty quiet for all of us to have is very neat project them up. and when we talked about this for edward tonight, and they were eating pizza and looking at each other and, how hard could be right. [laughter] so, partially because they are so well-informed and so fluid wi