>> guest: i hope it doesn't sound too trite but for me it was sincere. it was the bth of my own son inecember 2002i was workings a reporter livina fast-paced life as a newspaper journalist writing to be the guy that i thought my dad never was, at interest, risk-tang, then you have your own son and began to k yourself questions about your own relationship with your own dad and i began to wonder if there was anything i could dor whether it was to leave or not to try to make amends for the bratty kid i was who pushed him away and didn't want ything to do with it. ..

and so, he never was able to see his homeland other than through a child's eyes and i think that left a very deep, very profound impression on him and one that he would never forget, and so maybe he is a littl sentimental about it but think the fun they understand that now that was one of the things i wouldn't have gotten if i had left my job to write this book. >> host: when people see this in the bookstores they ll see it with a little sticker because he won the 28 national bo

critics circle award for autobiography. >> guest: thank you. i hope so. i am still in the state of disbelief but iwas a wonderful honor and i'm grateful to the book critics for plucking it out of the many books that are published and there are a lot of fine autobiographies. >> host: what will tha mean r you? >> guest: it means for me this is a group of people who are so obscure. the jews of kurdistan,ost people are shocked even well-educated people i have found, there were jews in iraq? how could that be? this was a place full of hatred towards jews. the kurdish people particularly for a model that, you could speak your language, you could believe in your own god but still be part of the larger community and those i think our values that are much broader that people do need to hear now and that this isn'tust a story about an obscure group of people but about immigration, about the identity, about what it means when you lea an ancient

culture like the hil of kurdistan and move first to israel and then to the united stes. in a way it is an american story about immigration and identity and what it means to leave the past behind, what can you take with you, would you have to leave behind? >> host: the book is "my father's paradise." the author is ariel sabar. >> guest: thank you very much. >> marc rtman recounts the battleford landess, the gates i the south during the summer of 1864 that led to the deaths of tens of thousands of union and confederate soldiers because of the atlanta history center hosted this event. >> yeah, this is a tremendous crowd. i am really honored to see you all out tonig. i don't think i've seen a crowd this big since i went to bob dylan and the willie nelson concert but i promise not to

take a swey bandana all but willie nelson and tossed it into the crowd unless there's the big call for that. i imagine, if i named my book "the bonfire" the siege and burning of atlanta it probably would not have such a big crowd tonight, but i am gl to be in atlanta and it is wonderful t see you he. it is also great to be back at the atlanta history center. i spent seval wonderful weeks here. this is an amazing institution and you should be veryroud to have such a place in your town. they have a beautiful collection that is just a scholar's dream and i only wisthat i had more weeks to spend there. w, i am sure people in atlanta know that there is a very significant event coming up. and to my mind, it may well be the most significant event in

american history. you of course all know what that is, don't you? well, this september 2nd is the 100-- the 145th anniversary of the fall of the atlanta in 1864. on that day, the confederates departed. they blew up a munitions train, which caused an enormous amount of destruction in theitand although shermanakes the blame for the land is burning, this was in fact the first great bonfire. and you remembethat scene in gone with the wind, where those great seized victims, rhett butler and scarlett o'hara are racing through t flames and befalling imburse and that was in fact as presented in the

movie, was that first great bonfire caused by the departing confederes. now you might ask why is the fall of atlanta of the most significant events in american history? why would i say more so than say independence day or the fall of the battle of gettysburg or the election of fnklin delano roosevelt, or ve-day or-j day? wellthe fall of atlanta men's that the confederacy's heart had been pierced. northerner ps democrats, who had hoped to have a negopiated settlement to the war were finished. lioln would win a second term and all but the diehard

confederates understood that the war was over. there was eight months more war to be fght, but when sherman would make sure that the confederates the word die-hard would indeed die. his rch to the a departing from a plant of at which she set off the second great bonfi of thelans of would begin the following november and that was merely an exclamatn pot on the defeat marked of the confederacy marked by the fall of atlan. that meant thenited states would connue to be one nation. the ght of atlanta's fall, a dinner took place here in town. iould love to have been sitting at the table.

mayor james m. calhoun, who had been the mayor of the plants of for most of the civil w, who was a cousin of john c. calhoun, the philosophical bedrock of southern states' right to james calhoun was also a slaveholder. he was the father of a badly wounded confederate captain who fought in the tranches of vicksburg and against sherman's army in the north of georgia, a n whose own nephews from atlanta or killed in virginia the fighting. that night, when the confederate army moved out and the union army moved in, he had dinner th lieutent colonel charles morris and captain newton tony of the second massachusetts voluntary infantry regiment. they would provost marshal and the captain of the day who had moved into calhoun's city hall

office. the yankees were shocked to learn that the mayor opposed secession. and i am sure the mayor was equally shocked to discover that these men hated-- gone ofor the past almost 40 days. that dinner to my mind marked the beginning of the possibility that out of the civil war, out of that, out of all that bloodsoaked grams, one nation, permanent and insoluble wycherley emerg know the story of a plan tub, which is so central to this story of the civil war and the story of the united states has been plagued by too many myths in the popular imagination. we can thank that in part to

margaret mitchell and the xanax gone with the wind. those myths of the gentile city of bills and cavaliers, of a solid confederate nation protecting and enduring social order, of domiciles slaves and then later on self-serving carpbaggers came down to us through the years. and those were just a few of the i am getting ahead of my story here. i came to atlanta the same way millions of people do. i flew here. [laughter] it is the world's busiest transit hub. that was predicted when the former site once revered by the cherokee and creek native americans as the center of the cosmos was surveyed to be the

terminus of the government-owned railroad. you could call that the earliest government stimulus projects that created atlanta. it was destined to be a tnsit hub from the start. it was a place in which goods coming from the mississippi valley could be shipped across georgia and outo the coast. d the coastal goods could be shipped to the est. and of course the trains that eventually found their way through atlanta, the four major rail lines that ran throu atlanta during the civil war still cross in the center of a plan to. you can hr the trains, see the ains all the time running through there. like most people coming to atlanta from the outside akeem here onusiness. as a historian, i wanted to take some time look around and see where the civil war had been fought here.

and i was surprised to find there was very little evidence from the civil wareriod. in fact there was almost none. there were a few trenches in granite park north of here and probably the besplace to find evidence of the war, the battlefield is there and many atlantans te me stories about growing up in the city and finding civil war relics in their backyard. where i grew up in the washington d.c. area, history is so palpable. i could ride my bike over to fort stevens in see the spot where raham lincoln had made nearly been shot during jubal early's code was shot-- char right to go to the antietam battlefield and the same with

mannasas and it really wasn't but a day trip to give up to gettysburg and in the number of places and then within washington itself of course there is so much evidence ofhe history that was the civil war. here it seemed truly it was all gone with the wind. so, i began to wonder where it had gone and i realized i needed to look beyond the absence brick and wood. i needed to look at the real lives as lived. i began to read papers and look into it and i discovered that atlantaoday, this place we think of as such a dynic business hub plays a continuous renewal, a hodpodge of people so racially ridge, a place of sprawl and rapid development.

that atlanta was all thererom the very beginning. in other words, nothing was gone with the wind. except some buildings and the chains oflavery. atlanta'sistory really the history of the origins of the new south, hadn't been told except in fiction in many years. is a story about people as much as it is a tale of generals and the armies in battle and grandommanders. and whenou think about the frustration that thenvading army feels in coming up against the ramparts that they can't breach and the terror and pity that there at the center of the lives of people who are being besieged, when you think of these emotional course of seige whether it is the greeks at troy in the trojan war or malta,

where the german army agents stal grad or the americans attacking baghdad. atlanta had all of that. had all of what i call and intimate epito it. so i decided to tell that intimate epic in the interwoven lis of a few exemplary people in atlan. then, as now, atlanta was a place where a man came to make his fortune whout havinto worry about his past. the social hierarchies that mattered s much in the coastal areas and in the plantation regions really didn't have the same sy in atlanta. remarkably, that was as true for many blacks as it was for white frontiers man.

there are two main he rose to my story whose lives crossed remarkably at the most dramatic moment of the whole story, when atlanta, when they went out to surrender atlanta. one was white and a slaveholder, the other was a slave. the white man was james calhoun. the man who was the cousin of hn c. calho. heas anrphan when he left south carolina, a feeling south carolina farm without a penny in his pocket at the age of 17 annie rd. west. he rode into the frontier. that was that the time, western orgia. that was the boundary between theopean american advance and the receiving indian territory. that boundaryas very near

atlanta then. he was much like another south carolina born frontier usman, andrew jackson, althou jackson was born many years before him. he came here, he became, he was an indian fighter. he grew rich as a lawyer and then he beme aolitician. james cal hen had it all. and he seemed to be destined for great things, like his corts in the state legislature, alexander stevens, robert tums and how cob, all of whom went on to important national office in the u.s. government prior to the civil war and then of course play major roles in the confederate government. by james calvin never made more than local and state office. why was that?

though he supported states' rights, and considered himself the great southern patriot, he believed in the union above all. and he ledhe opposition in atlanta succession. and in fact it lends the went with him. the atlantvoted fairly strongly against this decision candidates i they breckenridge in the 1860's election. abraham lincoln was not even on the ballot. and that is only one of the paradoxes of what becamehe most important city of the lower self. other came when this man who opposed secession was elected mayor. four times during e war. there is another paradox of what became known as the fidel ofhe

kemp better see. avery had only a small place in that. don't get me wrong, it's a man got rich in atlanta he bought land and the bought slaves. still,tlanta was different from many places in the self. there railroad town was an industrial center. skilled labor was very valuable in high demand. manylaveholders actually trained their slaves in crafts in order to hire out their time to factories or industrial shops and in some cases, they en allod the bondsman to rent their labor in return for which they only ask that the bondsman pay rent, a monthly fee and was then able to keep the rest of whatever he earned. in otheror, you might be a

slave, but you could still go to a job like alst anyonelse, except as a slave, it was illegal for you to have an education, and you had no true freedom. wives and husbands were sold a part, children were sold out of families. if a black man was caught writing a carriage through town carrying a lighted torch, being atight without a pass, the penalty was as high as 39 flashes. still, an industrious bondsman could work extra hard in may, they beyond his rent and save money, and many did. there were still cobblers, carriage makers, blacksmiths, barbers in town who drove their white competitors czy.

a campaign to the city council, but it wasuch a widespread practice that the city council ignored their complaints. there was a nascent form of black li@eration going on in town. there were black institutions established here, especially urches and the seeds of a glances future role as the home of the civil-rightsovement for being planted. i said there were too he rose to my book. the other was a man named robert bster. during much of his life heas often called bob bnc. yancey was a slave. he was bn at the old national hotel on pennsylvania avenue an wagton d.c., right down from capitol hill. he called a man who frequented the hotel and worked on

capitol hill father. dad, it apprs to b was massachusetts senator daniel webster. the philosophical bedrock of constitutional unionism. talk about the contrast there with james kelton's coast in there. now there is no way to know this for sure at this point, but daniel webster was notorious as a womanizer and a drunk, as well as being one of the greatest orators in american history. and he was reputed to have a mixed race famy, a large mixed-race family that he supported. now, as a young boy at the national hotel, bob, thelave, who learned many skills. he learned cooking, barbering, he learned to get along with white society and he learned to why not cards. is owner, the hotel's sonner,

gave him to his son and his son wasn't anywhere near as good that carts and theromptly lost bob eddie game of poker. the winner tk him and oioned him, this sophisticated washingtonn teenager and optioned him to weigh south carolina dirt farmer. and come aubuchon only imagine the shock that that young man must the phelps when he found himself suddenly in a country of south carolina. from there he wa sold aga, and finall once more to a wealthy politically connected planter named benjamin yancey. hence, his last name for coint the one back his rightful father's name after the war. president jamesuchanan, t predecessor to abraham lincoln, sent then yancey to be his

minister to argentina. argentina milan moorehead slavery, so ben yancy sent bob up is the barbour here in town in this growing city of atlanta, a small cy at that time, a very small city. now, but couldn't read or write, but he was a brilliant businessman. soon this flav s running to sandy had seven employees. even bought a house. so it was illegal for a slave to hold the deed and in fact in later yea, after his death, there was a major dispute as to hum the house belongs to because there was no deed for his ownership. now, he made good money as a barber and paid his rent to then

yancey but he made even more money loansharking to the gamblers playing cards in his shop. and n the war came, soldiers came to mcclintock by the thousands, all those rove roads running fruitland tutt made it vital as the transit hub for sending soldiers out to the front. and it also ended up bei the way in which soiers when they were wounded came back to the hospitals. and came back to recover. he wasn't alone ang the slaves who gre rich, loaning money t gamble in town. at land subwas a hard scrabble place. in 1860 census reported that there were nine professional gamblers in the city. there were 23 bar keeps and

there were 49 admitted prostitutes. that was in 1860, and that w before the army got there. needlesso say the trade flourished during the war. now, the war opened up an enormous amount of opportunity for the people of atlanta, including for some of the slaves. bob ndfu other bondsman grew rich, or richer still than they did to the loan sharking into what we know called currency arbitrageurs. amazingly, as invisible men, these slaves could shuttle into the ion prison barracks in there, they would bring confederatcurrency to the prisoners it wanted to ke that to get confederate money in case they managed to escape oro buy

thei way, or to b goods as they were going in prison. the confederates wanted to get their hands on thenion greenbacks, so somebody like bob bnc could go in, a tradeith the union prisoners, a trade with their confederate neighbors. once-- one slave made more than five to 6,000 confederate dollars on a good day. and, claims to hafe made more an 100,000 confederate dollars during the war. of course we have to rember shortly before the end of the war the exchange rate was about 300 confederate dollars to one greenback so it is for helsel little less impressive than it seems, but it isonetheless a substantial amount of money. those slaves going into the

union barracks also helpethe union priners in some cases to escape and they also treated the wounded. often at great risk to their own lives. w amazingly, after the war, robert webster as he noaa insisted on being called, now a free african-arican, gave his former owner, then yancey, his plantations hve been devastated by the war, sent his former owner $100 igold and $100 in silver to get back on his feet. and it is really an indication of just how possible even in those moments shortly after t emancipation of slaves that truly one nation could be merged. no, webster and other sexlaves

supported blacks institutions forming in atlanta and made it lancet a beacon for former slaves who came to town. and that as a result resulted in a ry largenflux of african-americans into atlanta which is so, has been so important to the composition of atlanta the city. now, this backdrop of an tisecession city, where slaves were in the progress-- in the process of liberating themselves, was one against which the confederatds impose their order. now don't get me wrong, atlanta was a confederate city. this was a city that sense at least early in the war more troops than any other county, fulton county was, send more troops than any other county in

the state to the confederat army. now, still there was areat dealf descent in the city and the confederate, not surprisingly dided that they needed to repress it d it often took the form of threats and violence. the confederate provost marshal, conel george washington lee, joined the confederate army and then eventually recruited a 700 man private army of unemployed teens and others fleeing service,nd he imposed marshall law on the city. that was even after mayor calvin protested it and the confederate government from richmond agreed that marshall law was unconstitutional. there was a small active circle of unionis, many from among

the business leaders in the community who carried on a clandestine resistance andelp them out jailed union prisoners and wounded. lee's men through some of them in jail, shattered many and beat one at least one to death. mayor calhoun intervened and got the release of several who had been jailed. now, the war made it lance of a boom town. it was far removed from the front and so it was a place to which the confederates, where the confederate army set up munitions factories and contract it out a friday of things, artillery, i am plating, swords, uniforms and is attracted thousands of people from the countryside who had come for the jobs. there were 11,000 people at the start of the war in atlanta and

tens of thousands more passing through and the population doubled within one year closer to 25,000. atlanta was the boom town, and it had hutspah, o the 1862 equal declared the neyork times when the chamber of commerce sent a letter to their london chamber of commece counterpart declaring themselves the center of the new nation to open for business with all lands and informing the london chamber of commerce that the new york city in the meanwhile had grown inoperative. [laughter] no, atlanta was the new nation center for busins. through t first three years of war, atlanta was well removed

from the front. so, it became a thriving place and a place that troops passed through and spend money and refugees arrived by the hundreds each d. more and more, is the union army advanced into tennessee a into mississippi and along the coast, the result was that the city became increasingly chaotic, crime became rampant, for sanitation was a big problemnd eventually epidemics of scaet fever d smallpox broke out. but, atlanta still seemed to be a refuge from the war. however by january 14, general william tecumseh sherman in teessee ha@ atlanta in his sights. the union army which had fumbled for the first three year of war finally under the new commander

of general ulysses s. grant, decided that it was time for a coordinated strategy. grant would command the army in virginia, a union army in virginia attacking richmond. grant's protége, sherman, would leave the army and attacking georgia and with atlanta as his goal. sherman gathered 110,000 men for the invasion. they faced off against buer then 60,000 confederate defenders. however the confederates defended their homeland and so they had that advantage that they were constantly fighting behind fortifications. however, they were badly overmatched. they fought and fell back. sherman did not want to hit the confederates had on, so he was

continuously engaged in flanking operations, using his superior numbers to hold the confederate army in plac while trying to get from behind to deliver a death blow, and shall be foot in his wonderful history of the civil war has t section on the clinton campaign and calls a day brad clay minue which is a beautiful way of describing it, but it really was more like a ultimaighting, like we see on television now. there is one man who has the other in a death grip around the neck and the one who is in that death grip is constantly trying to hammer his way out with. this was war. this was not a dance. the army of tennessee, the confederate army of tennessee fell back and fought and fell back but t army never lost a

battle. and in fact, at the keenness of mountain battle line inflicted grave casualties on the union army. but, each time the union army danced around them and then they ware forced to fall back and theyell ba all the way behind the chattahoochee river and entually into the ramparts surrounding atlanta. those were earthworks that 10 miles, a 10-mile circle built by slave labor, massive red clay mounts with reinforced forts for artillery placement with a killing field cut out in front of the ramparts with tree branches, unshaved then pointed that out towards any attacker. so, sherman's army came up and

could not get through. it was a battle resulted common situation very much like what would occur0 years later during world war i, the kind of trench warfare that we associate th that. sherman decided in early august, after having fought, got little ahd of the story. general johnston, who w the commander of the army of tennessee during its fall back, was eventually released by president jefferson davis. general johnston had been carrying on the strategy of trying to fal back in the hopes of reaching a point at which he could defend his army so successfully, or in such a successful defensef placement at the unionrmy would effectively be bled to death.

wilke, when cfl back in to it land said it became clear that he was probably going to abandon atlanta d predent jefferson davis said that is enough, and he turned to general john bell hood. general hood was in the very picture of a confederate general. he had a great beard down to his ches he was missing a leg from battle. he had an arm, one arm could not be used. it had been shattered in battle. he had to be lifted up and tied onto his horse. but that spirit of aggressiveness was something that he needed, that the army was then prepared f and he carried on several battles in which he'd started out. he sent h army out from the ramparts, the battlof the plans of being the most famous, peachtree creek. these series of battles though

resulted in horrific conferate casualties. they retreated it back within the ramparts andthat point, general sherman began his sie. he broughtn siege guns and he began shelling the city. he lied. he said there were no or civilians in atlanta. is officers told him so that they could hear people screaming in town. for nearly 40 days, a hellaoes shelling rains down on atlan. as many as 5,000 shells every day. i will tell you a little bit about what that was like. let me read from the bk. the canon fire most damaged property by people died too. in the first days of the siege a shell came whizzing down at the

corner of wide hall andel streets. when the ironically named solomon lucky happened to walk out of this nearby. the popular barber was among the handful of free blacks in the city, a shell bounced off of one of the long extinguished cast-iron gast lamp's on the corner, now to be foundn underground atlanta, and ricocheted off the street before ploding. fragments shot out around the crowded corner. one written to thenfortunate lucky's like. several passers-by picked up the badly wounded man into cam to a hospital where, despite his surgeon's cutting o the mangled leg, he soon bled to death. john warner, the superintendent of the defunct atlanta gas works had remained the union loyalists, despite having been briefly forced into confederate service. during a furlough home he

desert. now do i euro-- wit aware helped to hide out until the kid flee north with his 8ear-old daughter lizzie. a woman who helped take care of the grow recalled, the officers were then threatening his life. the first union candidate quickly drov the oner household members underground. 48 feet down a ladder in the well to a neck warner had carved into its side. out of fea that conscript officers wou come looking for him in the night he descended at sunset into the underground space with his daughter while the members of the household slept in their own beds. in the first weeks of august though little visi fell ill and warner, fearg the dampness o the well would sit in a frail girl decided to return to his bed with his daughter beside him. in the middle of the night, the woman who helped woke with the

start to the sound of groaning coming from warner's room. she rushton to find the room demolished and they still show laying on xploded on the floor. the bomb had plunged down to the bed, killing the little girl instantly. her father lay there with both his legs severed. he had a few minutes to write out his will before he to died. a heavy bombardment commenced shortly after that with the distraught serevent wrote the missiles of that flowing in every direction, sheeft the pair lying in thei bloodsoaked death bed. she grabbeher o young son sleeping sndly in bed and dragged him down the ladder to the shelter deep in the well. once there, she fell apart. is that down and wept, cing at the top of my voiceut there was no one to come to my relief or even to hear me.

no general sherman's mental stability was questioned early in the war and he may well have suffered a nervous breakdown. and he was the person who was constantly in motion. he was nervous, he mov, he moved all t time. he spoke so rapidly. he was a brilliant man. but, he was also a person who was completely impatient. with moon continuing to die or fallout every day and is progress haltesherman came to view the sge as a personal affront. he w losing his detachment and now wanted vengeance on the city. he raged, the city has done and contributed more to carry on in sustain the war than any other since they perhaps richmond. we have been fighting atlanta l the time in theast, have

be capturing guns, wegmans, that greve marc to atlanta and made here all the time and nelson's they have done so mu to destroy us in our government, we have to destroy them. understood h will that combination of the siege and the avanta conquest of atlanta had come a political imperative. he was about the business of convincing the rebel soldiers that the federal army could outlast them and that they faced the other destruction should resistance continued here. he was a person who was widely read in the classics. he understood the significance of what he was doing. he understood that it was a fight for the ages. he shared his sentiments with ulses s. grant still besieging peteburg in virginia. any sign of a let up on our part he wte is surely to be falsely construed and for this reason i

have always reminded the confederates that the siege of troy lasted six years and a clinton is more valule town then troy. he would outlast them and out fight them down to e very last man. now, i am going to conclude because with one more bit because something amazing happened. at absolutely as amazing as the trojan horse arriving at the gates of troy. on friday, august 26, atlantans woke up startled. they ltene intently to something they had not heard in months. silence. no gunfire, not a single cannon report. at everything is as still as death in our front this morning and has been since 3:his

morning, a stunned militiamen in the confederate linesending in wonder. the sheing ceas altogher recorded samuel richards an atlanta businessman not long after. rumors flew that the enemy was retreating and had deserted their camps around the city. that morning great hooded scouts fe their way forward expecting shots to bring out at any instant until they scrambled into the empty union lines. finally and ecstac mishel-- militiamen confirmed the rumors, sherman isompelled to fall back forant of supplies for his army. the yanks are gone now and they e not likely to return soon. bafled, stunned, delighted, atlantans streamed out of their bombproof shelters and walked and rode to the lines. thousands of tourists venture

into the fields to inspect the camps and pick up souvenirs'. dayed supped when they saw them writing in of these with light winning coats. where, oh where were they in their holes in this city? that fighter apparently won. he began to dream of going home. i am coming home and play with my wife and babies before a great while and sleep on a featherbed too. now, won't that be a great luxury of drag it used to it? i am reminded of eatg strawberries and cream with plenty of sugar mixed. over the next two days the clinton intelligencer, the leading confederate newspaper's correspondent explored alover the yankee workand i did not seek yankee in all of my rambs. it is said the enemy has massed his forces on our left but i doubt that very much. i am of the opinion that the

whole yankee army is in the western banks of the chattahoochee ricrd-- river. atlanta was reborn. the city he reported has already begun to fill up. today the streets are as crowded as they were of old, officers, soldiers, citizens, women and children are crowded on the streets and everyone wears a smile on their countenance. however walking through the desolate enion camp he found a note written in a large bold hand with coal on the headboard of one of theankee bonds. it read, goodbye johnnie we are going to see you soon. and whene come to georgia, we will remember key nassau. it w signed. thank you very much. [applause]

now, sell promise me that this is a very intelligent audience, so please don't undermine my claim to intelligence too much. seriously i welme your questions. yes, sir. we need to have the people use the microphone? [inaudible] ishe most detailed we have read in confederate sources. congratulations sir. i have bought your book. kenniston une-mail and will you share your sources? [laughter] >> i belie that that, along with virtually everything else in the book that is in any way

source of oil has been sourced. the footnotes are there. but i am more than happy to get into any, afterwards i will b available signing books and please come up and i will give you e-mail address as long as you promised us to put me on any spam list. yes, sir. [inaudible] >> how did they store it? well, i think as quicklys possiblehey converted it to gould, and the they would put it in their mattresses, although in many cases they actually bought goods and tried to turn it into real good. one of these slaves, who was

most active in the currency trading after the war, according to his claims of the seven claims commission which are in at t national archives. their papers from southerners whose property was confiscated by the union army but to claimed not to have supported the confederates. they made claims r restitution and one of these slaves,rince ponder, listed an incredible amount ofoods, bales and bales ofay, hogs, bacon, two horses and buggies, 14,000 bales of fodderreallyn entire storehouse of goods that he had come in and win the uon army occued it lance the they didn't really care what your loyalties had been. they took whatever theyted.

and so, in many of their cases they lost everything. in some cases they came through th some, with some money and ods, but much of it was lost in taken byhe union army. yes, sir. >> i'm a lite bit confused with the paradox of having the black barber wanting to greenbacks but the union prisoners one of the conferate money. if they livedn the same economic milieu, the fact of the greenback's seem to be worth a lot more money. >> the population of atlanta, especially as the war went along, began to realize anybody who did n close their eyes and blind themselves completely began to realize that the confederate cause was unlikely

tourvive, and they also saw that inflation, the worst inflation in amerin history was rampant. mewhile, greenbacks, union dollars, could still be traded in the nber four a spc, so they understood that u.s. dollar's continued to hold the value and the was a an underground economy tha accepted greenback currency although it was illegal and so, well, for the union soldiers the principal way in which they could purchase things was throug confederate money. it still was the standard currency of the land. so i hope that answers your estion. thank you. yes sir please.

>> did sherman ever actually send-- [inaudible] >> well, yes, sherman made himself quite at home in atlanta. he was outside of atlanta of the day of its surrender to the self of around the town of jonesboro, the railroad town of jones borrow ande eventually made his way into the city a few days later. before even got their recent the telegraph to president lincoln saying atlanta is ours and fairly one and those words were spread, this very simple words went out throughout the nth to newspapers throughout the north. he moved intoown, took up resdence in a mansion on city

hall's where the corner of washington and mitchell streets, and within a few days issued an order expelling the entire civian populatn of atlanta. a little more than half of the population chose to go south and there was an armistice declared with general hood's army and they chose to go self and many went to the south of georgia and en nearl half of the population remaining, many of whom in many cases where a union loyalists, choose to go north and receive free passage to the north. then, general sherman decided that his army was exhausted. they hadeen fighting for 100

continuous days, and so he decided it was time to rest. he had evacuated the civilian population because he wanted to basically turn it into a place where his men could relax and every d on city hall square bands played. he sat out on the brandeth and smog. the union soldiers who had been living in the dirt for months stayed clean and eat well. they sent out foragers out into the countryde who came back loaded down with everything they could take from the surrounding farms and it was a good time to be a union soldier in atlanta. yes, sir. >> do you think lincoln really would have lost the election had atlanta not fallen? >> my understanding is that lincoln thought he would lose the election. devotee memorandum basically

stating that. my understanding of the way the political, thisolitical siion was shaking out is it is highly unlikely that he would have lost the election. he certainly would not have lost the electoral college. that said, it was more than just a questioof the election. the north and peace democrats and their prospects for a possible victory voided the southern resistance. it was the way in which people and the confederacy could hold onto a shred of hope that a negotiated settlement might be ssible that if by not losing the self could win. so,nlikely that lincoln actuly would have lost but it might not have mattered. anybody else? yes, please.

[inaudible] >> yes, he did. i don't know the specifics of their meeting. mayor calvin was accused in the pages of the mcclinton intelligencer of attending a dance with general sherman and others and making lively with the union army. that would not have bn possible becausehe date e dance that plays general sherman was still out in the fld. mayor calhoun wrote a letter to general sherman begginhim not to requirehe civilians to evacuate, sang there were sick people, old people, pregnt women andeneral sherman wrote him back this very powerful letter talking about the necessity for cruelty is the way he put it.

he said the war is cruelty and you cannot refine it. and he said at this point you might as well appeato the thunderstorm as appealo me to stop this war. the way this war will stop this when the confederates, or the soh, stops fighting. now, in la years, amazingly general sherman came back to atlanta 15 years after the war. heame back on eight tour of the self and when you arrired, in atlanta, he received a new di but not hostile welcome. it was after the end of reconstruction. it was before sherman as the devil was widely sort of the wide reputation that he had goen, or that he came to have. he was the commander of all of the united state