Washington post columnist and thriller writer and then the Pulitzer Prize winner last month and this month we are joined by jeff shaara military historical fiction author. Ranging from the American Revolution to the korean war and we will talk about all those in just a minute but we will start with a facebook comment that a viewer has posted on our facebook page. What exactly is historical fiction . Guest i have had this conversation with other authors it is an accurate historical setting but the people are totally made up thats a little different from what i do because i take you to these places with a lot of the real people with historical figures with names that you know like George Washington or Dwight Eisenhower were robert e. Lee it is fiction by definition because i put words in their mouth. My job is to tell you a story and not just do a textbook or names dates places facts and figures but to put you in the hands of the characters to tell you the story the way they would tell i
John f. Marszalek discusses his process for writing in his relationship with Abraham Lincoln and what he mainly focused on with civil war and not his presidency. Held at the lincoln form symposium, this is one hour. So, let us begin with our last session for the 23rd form. I am Frank Williams your coach. We are delighted to have with us once again, every other year, we have the john and craig show. applause and that is much deserved, because they get high grades, high marks from you. Deservedly so. Im not even sure what it is there going to talk about this morning. But we will be entertained. I can tell you that. What can we say about two of our very loyal members who have served for a long time. A long time on our board of advisers. John john f. Marszalek is our dear friend from Mississippi State, university. Executive director of the Ulysses Grant association and president ial library where i served as president. He is recently the editor along with david mullin and louis gallows of
Test captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2008 so his mind is on several things, i think that would be fair to say. Actually, what grant does, grant basically takes a look at whats going on, he calls halak, the commanding general in washington, gets sherman, theyre fighting in north mississippi, and the idea is they are going to move and attack vicksburg before John Mcclaren can get there. These soldiers are coming down to memphis. Guess who is waiting for them. William t. Sherman, come on boys, were going to go down and attack vicksburg. When mcclaren shows up, he looks around, he says, where are my soldiers, where are all these people that i just theyre not around. Theyre with sherman. What happens, of course, the real problem, as grant sees it, is that mcclaren outranks sherman, so if he comes down, he can take over that army. So what does grant do . Grant becomes the person who controls that army in mississippi completely because grant outranks mcclaren. You have this
, ranger at Petersburg National battlefield, where we first met as park rangers many, many years ago. He is worked in manassas, vicksburg, and gettysburg. He will tackle the elephant in the room about gettysburg versus vicksburg, which one of these two battles he considers being a native mississippian and having worked at both parks, which he considers to be the biggest turning point. Gettysburg or vicksburg . I will let matt get up here and explain. Matt atkinson. [applause] matt thats what it is. I understand you all had a row last night about something. Right there, right . The most important battle, a top the top 10 battles in the american civil war, and gettysburg was left off. Can you believe that . I want to tell you a quick story. I was invited down to a richmond roundtable. We were at the willow oaks country club. We had virginia ham. That is the only time they go out there. Anyway, i was having a great time. I was in richmond and the man who did the top 10 last night lives th
Vicksburg, which battle he considers being a native mississippian and having worked at both parks, which he considers to be the biggest turning point. Gettysburg or vicksburg . I will let matt get up here and explain. Matt atkinson. [applause] matt that is what it is. I understand you all had a role last night about something. Right there, right . The most important battle, a top 10 battles in the american civil war, gettysburg was left off. Can you believe that . I want to tell you a quick story. I was invited down to a roundtable in richmond. We were at the willow oaks country club. We had virginia ham. The only time they go out there. Anyway i was having a great , time, i was in richmond and the man who did the top 10 last night lives there and he did not show. So here is what you call poetic justice. [laughter] a slight i have not forgotten right there. [laughter] the top 10 battles in the american civil war. Im sure he knows more about the civil war than i do, im sure he did not l