general s men. the president of the railroad is telling him it s a real threat and grant is going to move rather slowly. as the confederates will now move toward isolating the union troops, which evacuated harpers ferry on maryland heights and close in on frederick, maryland. on frederick, maryland, they have occupied it on the 8th day of july. a union army has been assembled there on the banks of the river and on the 9th day of july at the battle, who would write the most popular novel written in the 19th century by american author ben purr. when evacuates and leaves the battlefield he falls back on baltimore leaving washington uncovered. many of the thousands of men who had been manning the washington forts, the 87 forts and batteries had been called to fill the vacant ranks as we talked about in those wonderful songs we were led in as they are father abraham s call. and they are going to become instant infantrymen. many of them we have just heard from our lecturer, many b
i m 75 years of age folks. i remember things differently than when i was fighting or something like that at 20, 18, or what have you so the veterans may have been mistaken but they wanted to mark that spot and they got the stone out of the water reed area cameron creek and put that bar relief and that s their monument to the remembrance of lincoln on enemy fire. we don t know that the justice supreme court really uttered one of those immortal words, get that damn fool down. the records suggest there are six or five other people, veterans who also shouted get that fool down of the get that man down including horatio down because he told him i can t protect you. finally lincoln condesendedly getting down. still washington forts are yet another of washington s many monuments that have transitioned you purpose. they want recognition from all of us, appreciation. for commemoration for with a they did there an probably both sides lost thousands of people on both sides. so just what
directed the american heritage rivers initiative at the white house council on environmental quality. today miss newman will discuss the post war impact on the forts, on the surrounding neighborhoods in washington and their evolution into parks. and kim elder. miss elder is the national parks services program manager for civil war defenses of washington. she is responsible for the management, the oversight program development of 16 for 16 of the remaining forts and batteries opened and operated by the national parks service. so today ms. elder will highlight the parks today and provide us with a preview of this weekend s activities at fort stevens. so let me begin now with dr. cooling. [ applause ] good afternoon, folks. pleasure to be back in this lovely facility even if every time i come here i go in the wrong entrance to the national archives. as a researcher, i became very accustomed over 30 years or more of going in the other side. well, you don t want to hear about
assistant to president george bush graduate of yale university. [applause] thank you so much for that love and lovely introduction judy. as you mention i used to work as a presidential speechwriter before i started writing this book so you can imagine my shock when i learned that the subject of my new book didn t much care for my old occupation. in fact robert e. lee was so offended when he heard george washington might have used a ghostwriter to pen his famous farewell address that he refused to believe it. he said anyone who says george washington used a ghostwriter was quote injudicious. so if i ve learned nothing else from writing his biography it s that i should say a little bit less about my own biography. i m so pleased to be at this beautiful house and i m so grateful to the historical society for inviting me today. i had a chance to go over to see the historical society earlier today and it is such a wonderful facility and i m so happy to see it expanding. that s
thought lee was the very best soldier hit ever seen in the field. and robert e. lee certainly looked like a fine soldier. he stood just under six feet tall, powerful, broad shoulders a barrel chest. he had perfect posture. everybody who saw him said some version of the same thing, batman looks every inch the soldier. and so in april 1861 an emissary for abraham lincoln asked robert e. lee to come to the city of washington. that ms s name was francis blair and he makes an extraordinary offered to robert e. lee. he says will you leave the main union army to crush secession? and as lee remembered the store, blair tried in every way to convince robert e. lee to say yes. he said blair said to lee the country looks to you quote as a representative of the washington family to save the union george washington forged it and that was far from an exaggeration because year after all was the son of george washington s most famous eulogists and the son-in-law of george washington s adopted