autistic. he had great relationships with family members. but whether or not they're that way, that's part of what makes us all different, and maybe some day they will have chemicals and pulls, ands dr. percy would say, they could take away all your quirks and disabilities and cure you of being borderline aspergers or whatever. i'm not sure we want those devices because then we wouldn't have great leaders and agreed great -- great heroes. thank you. [applause] ...

this talk from tester county book company in west chester pennsylvania is just under an hour the need >> the military christmas theme -- the military christmas theme is a strange one, you may wonder how this came about. the answer is accident. in all four cases. usually describes from curiosity about something else. and my reading over many years

has been activated basically by curiosity. it leads me to something that might turn into a book and if it doesn't it might be an article and it doesn't at least my curiosity might be satisfied. working on a book on the end of world war ii the armistice in 1989 discovered for example but there had been a truce at christmas in the first year of the war. i have never heard of it. i wondered what it was about, and i read some things about it it was mostly a myth so i began looking at it and ended up writing a book silent night about the christmas trees of 1914 which i think is a very moving story. but i hadn't intended writing the book. it's now in a paperback edition so it is still going on. there's something there. there is no life at all -- minn if at all.

then i began working on the american revolution as it was seen from england usually a loser never writes the history so i thought this was an unusual tactic to take and i began working on how the english viewed general washington and holiday viewed the american fight for independence, and at one point in the progress of this book and the research on the book i was visiting my grandchildren in the eastern washington and asked by their teachers in elementary school to talk to them because writing is riding and i had to learn something about it that riding was exciting to do. and so i visited the first grade and fourth grade and began to talk about washington's role in the world and how at the end of the war with only new york city to reoccupy washington did that on the fourth of december 1783

and then went home to mount vernon to resign from the army and be a private citizen again and that he came home on christmas eve and the children were all very excited about it, the idea washington would have come home on christmas eve and they have all kind of questions for me. first grade, fourth grade. they didn't know much american history but they had studied the beginnings of america in each case. they wanted to know how washington got home. did he write a horse? how did he do it? did they have christmas trees? what was the name of his horse? that really baffled me, the name of washington's worse. i looked it up and found out his horse's name was nelson because the governor of south carolina, whose name was nelson had given him a horse so he named the horse nelson and at the end of the war he returned nelson to

nelson. the horse arrived as washington did. and i decided i will take out the ending of this book i was planning and write a whole book about that ending about washington going home for christmas. so they're came a second accidental book. i was working after that on a book on world war ii a triple biography of macarthur, marshall and eisenhower who were interconnected during world war ii. chapter 11 dealt with a battle of the bulge. it became so long that it was on balancing the book. and so i took out chapter 11 and wrote 11 days in december about the battle of the bulge which happened to end the day after christmas. it became in effect the third christmas book. writing about the war again i began a book which i am still

working on on the reelection of abraham lincoln in 1864. lincoln didn't expect to get reelected. he fought with a war going badly he was going to be free place and he was very fatalistic about it. it turned out the soldier boat during the war the first time there was a soldier vote for the presidency in wartime helped to re-elect lincoln and it turned out working on that that the election of lincoln made it possible for general sherman to leave atlanta and head to the sea to savannah which he hoped to get to buy christmas. he wouldn't do it because at the first because he thought if lincoln were not really liked it there would be no point in his taking 62,000 troops on a 300-mile march to atlanta because the peace candidate

would end the war and confederacy would have its own nation. and so again, i use just a little bit of the soldier though in the beginning of the book and wrote a book about savannah for christmas because when sherman got to savannah he wanted to let lamken know that he had made it but he couldn't because the telegraph lines had been cut, the railway tracks had been cut and he had done so himself. he tried to separate the army from any communication. he had to get this message to clinton. that meant sending a boat up the atlantic coast to virginia and in virginia there was a telegram office that could reach washington, d.c.. and so, the note went to virginia and became a telegram and in the beginning of my book,

ali quote sherman to lincoln. the telegram not surprisingly tells lincoln you have savanna for christmas. and i hadn't expected to write this book. he says to his excellency president lincoln washington, d.c. i beg to present you as a christmas gift the city of savannah. and as i said i hadn't expected to write this book. i was working on the soldier vote and so i was at a book signing for one of the books you see up there on the battle -- eleven days in december and one fellow came to the signing and said have you thought about writing the civil war? and by selling working on the civil war right now and explain

why was doing. he said no i mean writing about the civil war and christmas. what do you mean? and he said lincoln as a telegram from sherman saying you have savanna for christmas. well, i took my research and turned it around, and i hope to have a book signing i'm going to in about ten days this fellow whose name i don't know will turn up and i can thank him for the idea for the book. maybe some of you have ideas for another one that at this point i am not planning on another book out in military christmas. i'm not succeeded with military christmases but there is so much of this subject perhaps readers can assimilate and i have other things i do want to do. so now i am working on some other things another civil war book and the book of world war ii and who knows what will turn

up. sherman expected to go to savanna eventually or at least to the atlantic coast but it was a problem he had to face when he captured atlanta early in september of 1864. this was just after lincoln had been renominated for president. he wondered what was he going to do after the atlanta? to consider its despite the information that you get from the film gone with the wind and probably all of you have seen gone with the wind at sometime or another remember the opening of gone with the wind and burning from ventura with clark gable and lillian washing away in a carriage with flames all around them. everybody to this day, almost everybody seems to think the union army burned atlanta and it's gotten to the point and a

fan as respectable infamous at this point from my standpoint english historian john keegan has written about the civil war in which he says that not only sherman burned atlanta but he pushed through georgia the way hitler went through russia. i don't understand that other than its america bashing by somebody in england. the english have been very unhappy about the united states despite the so-called special relationship for a long time. they were unhappy because we left them in 1776. they were on happy because the war of 1812 turned out to be a draw rather than a victory and they were on happy again because during the civil war they had hoped that the two americas would split and that the south would be a separate nation that

the americans would be less of a commercial rival to the british and that the south could get coffin for its textile industries cheap from the south because the south had no industry and could send cotton for exchange of manufactured goods. they almost went to war with the united states early in that civil war and the fall of 1861 and the americans stopped a british real ship, the trend on it was carrying to british -- was carrying to confederate emissaries to england and france. they were looking for recognition as a nation from france and england and the british called it kidnapping on the high seas and there was talk of war and they began recruiting trips to go to canada to fight

the united states and it took a lot of effort on the part of lincoln and on the part of queen victoria's husband, prince albert to stop it. prince albert i had written a biography by the way of prince albert and another victoria. prince albert was on his deathbed dying probably of stomach cancer and despite that, from his deathbed he rode a watered-down ultimatum to lincoln that would save face for lincoln and return the two emissaries from prison, they were in prison in boston. they were released. there was no war and i think a lot of people in england were on happy that there was no war. but they continue to supply the confederates with arms and munitions despite federal blockade. a blockade runners were sent through to the south to pick up

cotton and they got through the english would supply munitions and trade. the english and french even lent money to the confederacy to buy munitions and arms, hoping they would get the money back when the south became its own nation. this continued on and there was great hostility between the two nations and it became very funny at the end -- at the end of my book -- when sherman is in savannah finally and discovers all of these stockpiles of cotton that are piling up waiting to be shipped to england by blockade runners. he has his man secure them, and suddenly an english man dressed in the height of the fashion comes to see him and says sir, this is mike cotton, and maybe i

can find that passage in here and read it to you because i think it is a humorous episode. he explained, he said this coffin was protected by the british flag that had been purchased by british merchants and he had the bill to prove it. still, sir, said sherman, not pure cotton, sir, but my cotton and the name of the united states government, sir. but sir there's scarcely any cotton in such an ad that does not belong to me. there's not a pound of cotton here, sir, that does not belong to me for the united states, said sherman. well, sir, my government shall hear about this. i shall report you to your -- your conduct to my government. who are you, sir, said sherman? consoles to her british majesty,

sir. his superior of washington, he said was the british minister. england had only low-level representation in the united states. it didn't want to recognize the u.s. enough to have an ambassador. it only had a minister. the superior in washington, the minister was sir richard fly-in's who had needed all of his considerable diplomatic skills since 1861 to keep the nation's from over at war. indeed, said sherman. i hope you report me to your government. if british subjects paid for the cotton i know what they purchase it for. they gave them shot and cannon. you will please say to your government from the i've been fighting the english government all the way from the ohio river to vicksburg and then to this point. i've encountered british arms, british munitions of war and british goods of every description at every step, sir.

notice, sir was always present in this gentlemanly argument. i've met them, sir, in all shapes and now, sir, i find you claiming all the cotton. the names of any will be taken and be probably the subject of future action. but they're the matter must rest for the present triet good day, and that was the end of the british cotton. it was sequestered by the united states. but to go back now to atlanta atlanta had been destroyed by the confederates. what had happened is that the munitions and weapons of war and real way station in atlanta couldn't be taken out of atlanta because of the entel was besieged. what they do? jset fighter to the railway station, and all the trains in

the station just loaded with ammunition were burned. they exploded. they created a firestorm over atlanta and that firestorm over away untouched is what you saw in gone with the wind. it was done by the british and by sorry, it was done by the english. i will keep trying. [laughter] it was done by the confederates and the confederates had to get more supplies eventually from the english and blockade runners. even the blockade runners were built by the english and turned over to the confederates to bring supply from england. but most of atlanta was destroyed. there was nothing there. very few people remained because there was little to ease, little of anything to keep them going.

a few factories remain in the outlying areas, race mills, cotton gins and before sherman of the land he burned them. he wanted nothing left for the confederates to reuse. but what was he granted in the devastated city? he couldn't stay there. he had about 80,000 troops that had to be fed. they had to be housed, they had to go somewhere. they had to somehow in the war with those troops. he wanted to get to the city. if he got to the city the atlantic ocean he would cut off the confederacy, cut off the confederacy in half. it would mean that general lee in virginia would have few sources of supply to keep his troops going just south of washington, d.c.. if he caught savanna, if he cut the south of savanna he would

also make it impossible for one of the ports the british had been using to be used to further and savannah was also and 8-yard for the confederates. they have little ships left but the did have some in the port of savannah. to get to savannah meant moving troops 300 miles. they couldn't stay any way because there was nothing there. the union navy was off the coast. if he could get to the coast the union navy would help supply his troops. in the meantime they would have to live off of the land. the land between atlanta and savannah. he worked this all out. he sent telegrams before she cut off the telegraph lines to the department of agriculture in washington asking for information on the produce of the farms between atlanta and savannah so he could find out if there was enough to go on and

general grant said of him he bones all the time, boning meaning studies. he bones all the time. images, he did. he boned up the produce of georgia so he knew he could do this. then he arranged to send all the tricks he did not need particularly those in poor physical condition back north. he sent them to tennessee by the last trains he let go and he was left with 62,000 troops of which nearly 60,000 were infantry. the rest were calvary. then he arranged to have all the railway lines torn up and to make sure the state torn up between north and south, he had one of his engineering officers named orlando poe durham the

tracks in such a way they were cheated by the railway ties and then twisted. they were twisted while they were hot to such a point that people began calling them sherman's neckties. he didn't do it but they were sherman's neckties and orlando poe didn't device this himself. the confederates had done this in virginia and in southern pennsylvania and maryland early in the war facility had a little bit of knowledge as to how to do this. he cut off the telegraph lines, too because he didn't want the confederates to know where he was going and it meant that he didn't let his own forces know where they were going so someone asked lincoln now one point where is sherman? and lincoln said he didn't know but maybe it was like a mole in your garden where suddenly you find a whole and up pops the

mole. he said in one of his home expressions that's what will happen with sherman. he will pop up somewhere. but he sent alvan into different corrections. he sent troops toward augusta in the north and troops south but he wasn't going to either place. he had his two-pronged army marched straight toward milledgeville which was then the state capital and on from there to savannah. at first, the way was easy. there were few confederates are now. he could get his troops marching. he wanted to get at least 15 miles a day but how do you march 15 miles a day if you have 62,000 troops and no roads and your beef on the hoof marching behind you? he had thousands of cattle shipped in from chicago which

would literally march behind the army. after all they had no refrigeration and this was the way you have fresh meat so they marched with the troops but marched behind them. that slowed down the event and and he was under constant threat from confederate calvary which could try to punch at him from different directions but there was actually very little lefferts the confederates could put into it because he had a wonderful guards that turned away most of the confederates including general wheeler who was a tough confederates calvary officer. they marched on. there's a song called marching through georgia many of you know something about at least the title marching through georgia which was written a year later in 1865 talks about how sherman

marched through georgia even the sweet potatoes lifted themselves out of the ground to watch the horses go by, and of course they didn't lift themselves out of the ground. the became part of the rations for the troops. and the troops picked up whatever they could from the plantations of either side. and this of course devastated those plantations and sherman knew this was going to happen that he said that the war was held and he wanted to make georgia howl -- mcgeorge cowal and he didn't mean mcgeorge how will by bringing it down but he meant making the people of georgia on a great that they were paying for the war in this way. one thing he happened to pick up on the way to savannah that he didn't want were slaves. this leaves brann of the

plantations and tried to join his army yelling quote carow jubilee, jubilee." and he didn't know to do with him because it meant not only did he have to feed $62 soldiers but he had to feed the slaves and he tried to send them back saying you will be better off with your plantations. stay there until the end of the war. he will be free at the end of the war. but they wouldn't go they remained and they were called contraband's by him because they were not wanted. they were not wanted. they were a legal additions to his army. he didn't punish them by any kind of jail term sending back forcibly to the plantations and about 10,000 of them eventually got to savanna with his troops.

so he had to live with that extra weight behind him. why did he send his army this way? the army could not retreat back words. it could not go back to the atlanta. there was nothing there. it could not go north to tennessee because some of the troops confederate general who would have led to what tennessee. he couldn't go to this house because some of the troops the confederates still had were in alabama and mississippi so he had to go forward and what he used was a device that had been used since time and memorial because maybe that is the right term for it. i don't think he knew of eight but there was a case in china 2008 b.c. when the general shane knew what his troops across the

river into the nm enemy territory. when the debarked he ordered his forces to pack three days of russians and then crushed cooking pots and burn their boats. they were to push forward living off of the land. there was no way back for them. retreat was not an option and so what did they do? de one. it was the option. sherman was the tough guy and the picture you see of sherman here shows what a tough guy he was. i think he acted tougher than he was or he showed that scowling look because he wanted to appear tough but his troops called him uncle bill lee and they didn't call him that to his face obviously but what actually did. there were drummer boys in the

union armies and probably also in the rebel army. you could be a drummer boy as young as 13. once you got too big and age 16 you were drummed out of the core and that was the end of your service. but i found the memoir of one drummer boy whose name was corydon foot who had enlisted the day after his 13th birthday in 1862 and he recalled a red beard a veteran in cap and slouch hat sitting over the company watching in the rain as they were trying to light a fire. as he dropped to his knees to blow the sputtering twigs into the flame for a scruffy soldier had sliest try a poncho over it, blaze, and i think you will get it and he reached out to help hold it at the flames flickered. there you have it he said pleased recognizing him, cord

flew to blurted out boldly despite his surprise thank you, kunkel billy. laughter could was probably the only time and was the 13 year old who did this. and reminded me and i noted in the book of shakespeare in henry v who had written of a little touch of harry in the night when henry fight traveled before his troops to see how things were going and again he wore a cape and slouch hat and they were not supposed to know who he was and his own garden harvard behind him so they wouldn't give him away. here was a touch of. in the night in the case of on called billy sherman. so he was a humane guy after all. but he wanted the georgians to how -- spurring howel to read a

lady of the farmer and not to him and said german have stolen my chickens. and he said he will have to hang them higher. it was the case how sherman ran his army. when he got to savannah, it turned out he didn't run that are me at all. he was gone. he went out in a boat to meet the union navy going out of the day at savannah to try to meet the ships at the sea to let them know he had arrived. he had sent rockets so they would know about it and they sent fliers to let them know he was in the area but they had to get together and he went out there and it was while he was out looking for the navy that the confederates tried a neat

trick. general harding, william harding, the commander of the garrison at savannah wanted to try to get his troops of. he knew they were trapped. he didn't want savanna captured. savannah didn't want the troops either. he didn't want all those men to feed, and so what happened is that general harding are arranged and improvised a bridge, pontoon bridge across the savannah river made up largely of royce rafts, big long draughts tied to get their to make a bridge and they went as far as one of the islands in the savannah river and then they went across the island to the other side of it and another pontoon bridge was erected. they knocked down the walls and used them on top of the rice

flats for a surface and since they couldn't get the trains out of savanna they took the wheels off the trains as weights to hold down the pontoon bridge and this was done very ingeniously and it's almost certain sherman's man knew that it was being done that they wanted them out of savannah. meanwhile harding, trying to fool the americans had built bonfires all the way through the environment of savannah to look as if the troops were camping out near the union troops and so would looked as if there was an actual troop presence at the time they crossed in the middle of the night. they crossed, durham boats, burned the pontoon bridge and they could be seen crossing the bridge by some of the union troops at night but nevertheless they got across. i think only one bed and fell

into the river. the authors managed to get across. they burned the opponent's and exploded the one big ironclad boat called the georgia which was not seaworthy and they couldn't get it out any way and it went out with such a blast sherman saw it at sea and had the idea what had happened that savannah was either under fire or something close to that have happened and he tried to get backed into the admiral to cam back as far as he could and they got stuck in the low water and couldn't get back and had to be rescued but this was fortunate with the people of savanna because general theory took over. general g-e-a-r-y may be a man familiar to some of you in san francisco. there is a geary street in san francisco. he was the mayor of san

francisco before he became general. and geary led the troops into savannah which was not touched. the city remains a beautiful city as it is now, and he became the military mayor of savannah, the second city that he had been the mayor of after san francisco. when sherman returned he found everything in apple pie order. the city was functioning fine. the only thing he had to do is find a hit quarter for himself. a hotel and wanted to take over the hotel but the hotelkeeper insisted on rent and sherman knew him from the past because sherman served in the military in the south before and he said he wouldn't pay rent. but in a blocked several gentlemen one of whom was an english merchant who'd been living in savannah for a long

time. he said why don't you take over my house. just leave me to rooms for myself. i'm a bachelor. take over my house while you are in savannah. i don't need all that space, and besides, he said, then you won't be an enemy to any of the southerners because you won't have taken any overt -- over any of their homes, so that house is beautiful. i pass by about two weeks ago. it's still in fine shape and has a big plaque saying sherman's headquarters was here. where would the troops go? what do you do with 62,000 troops? this was christmas. you had to put them somewhere. they wanted to celebrate christmas. some of them had tents outside the land was swampy. some of them had tents in the park. savannah has great parks and

squares that are still in existence and they tended -- tented. they got christmas trees themselves and put them next to their tents and next to the crude pots that they had built. they did a jury peaceful job of all of its. the churches were filled on christmas day and there was only one problem. some of the ministers had fled. others had remand and not all churches were open. but there is a place in the service where you say a prayer for the president of the united states and they didn't know what to do and sherman said i don't care if you say a prayer for geoff davis but if you say one also for the death -- for the

devil and they left that out but christmas was celebrated peacefully. one church at 1,000 people including soldiers. the ladies of savannah put on their best finery which was not very good anymore. it lasted then threw a lot of years and they were a little bit dowdy so they felt that the soldiers thought they looked great. they had not seen women and finally in a long time. they also, the soldiers also found some liquor the last was a flicker in savannah and they celebrated new year's eve very noiselessly, some of them in their diaries and i quote at night getting very drunk indeed and yet there was very little trouble. savannah survived christmas very nicely. one lady was very stubborn about it. she refused to pass under one

generals flag flying outside his office. this was general how word for whom howard university in washington is named. a white general one very much involved with abolition was involved with the freeman's office after the war to help the slaves find something to do and he had lost an arm at shiloh. he had only one arm. a soldier came in and said this lady will not cross under your flag. she walks out into the street and howard said call her in. and i quote the conversation in the book but i am not going to read it to you. in any case she said she would not cross under the flag and if she were restricted to her home she would send a servant for which she needed. and the servant wouldn't cross under the flag either end howard

laugh and let her go. there was no problem. there were few problems. the only problem that really was sevier was getting food to them because the confederate money was nearly worthless. the confederate money was worth 5 cents union level and the soldier bought all lot of it at 5 cents to use for playing poker. and they had a good time with this monopoly money that they bought but was considered it money. but on whole it was peaceful. no houses were burned and one of the strangest things about seven and at christmas kiss sherman discovered people coming to his headquarters in the private house he had acquired including the wives and families of four generals, confederate it generals, general hardee wife among them, the generals had

left their families behind assuming sherman was going to treat them kindly. that is not the picture you have of sherman in many histories written by southerners. not only that but sherman's brother who is a merchant in savannah, i'm sorry, hardee's brother a merchant in savannah state behind, too and was treated fine. she may have lost his cotton but he was treated okay. there was no difficulty with him. but general grant sent a very surprising message to sherman. it came in fact before sherman occupied savannah but he hadn't gotten it then. don't stay in savannah, don't even occupy savannah, just keep a few troops there and said all of your trips north to help me in virginia. sherman didn't want to do that. he wanted the glory of his own victory and to march north and punish south carolina because

south carolina started the war. that is where fort sumter was in charleston and he wanted to march through south carolina and south carolina is where they did a lot of damage. not in georgia and certainly not in savannah. but the savannah people were fed and clothed and the people nearby who were having heart times discovered they could celebrate christmas, too because the union troops would help. the union soldiers sent out oxcarts in to the boondocks with food for the people, and before they left the tight twigs to the heads of oxen to make him look like reindeer. [laughter] let me stop there. you might have questions. all i should mention these two things before i forget. an artist in savannah gave me

this portrait of sherman when i was there so now and then you pick up things you don't expect to, and also to my left and you're right is an unpublished letter of sherman's written on christmas day that belongs to someone who right here that belongs to david model. you're first name? >> joyce. j-o-y-c-e. >> it is a note by sherman. he gave it to a ship captain on his way to new york on christmas day saying always welcome to all the people of new york to send a suit of clothes i had made. so he was planning on winning an

donner meeting that dress suit. he had one item of dress clothes with him and used it for the new year's day parade of his troops down the streets of savannah. so here are too often take souvenirs of christmas at savannah. you never know what you are going to find when you travel around talking about your books, and here are two examples. i will be glad to answer questions if you have any. anyone. yes. >> bob from pennsylvania. an observation and a question. the observation i would make is that u.s. grant during the vicksburg campaign was the first general in our history to live off the land which gave an example to sherman who got approval from the commander-in-chief who was abraham lincoln to do that and it's just an observation. and then in regards to your book

research that you did talked about the civilians in savannah celebrating christmas. based on your research to the civilians exchange cards? did they sing carols? linus santa claus was a yankee but was that even recognize that the particular type? >> there was no santa claus in the south. that was something new. christmas trees were also basically a number invention. that was new and the first christmas carol britain and america wasn't written until about four years later in philadelphia and was a little town of bethlehem, so many traditions we associate with christmas or easter number or nonexistent. what the southerners like to do is shoot off their guns on christmas eve, and they would fire of their guns and then on the morning of christmas day, before they would give presence,

to the people of a family of the web gannet dee dee to -- the mcginn and fire their guns, so it was a different kind of christmas the celebrated in the south. any other question? i should add about what you said about tax vicksburg is true grant had left off the land in that area and sherman learned from it but sherman wanted to make sure he had the wherewithal to live off the land and that is why he sent to washington for information about the forms because he knew he was coming through georgia at harvest time and was their anything to harvest? if he found out there was but some of the things they harvested they shouldn't have done. the stealing of watches and jewelry and so long was done by some soldiers disapproved but sherman called the soldiers

bummers. these were a legal harvesters of supply and they were called bombers because all of the trips were german and the word bumbler in german means somebody who runs about town, and idler who runs a downtown is a bumbler. so they became bombers and there were disapproved but sherman couldn't control 62,000 men who rushed off in different directions. and so some people lost valuables. a lot of them probably did and the bumblers even tried to steal pianos but there was no way they could put a piano in a knapsack or carry it with them. so the pianos were left abandoned in swamps and other things like that were stolen and misused and abused. they did look for money though

not confederate money. basically they were looking for watches and jewelry. they were small things the or portable and in effect what they were doing is buying preliminary christmas presents to send to their family. now, that is not on justifiable, but nevertheless it was a christmas time activity from their standpoint. any other? yes. >> i would like to know what is your daily routine for her writing? >> i don't have a daily routine for her writing. if i have something active that i want to work on volume usually intensely to receive to get going and write something during the day. but the days go by when i don't write anything because there are things to do and i will write when i can. some days i will write for

hours. other days are mistakes. but the most important thing is not writing, it is rewriting. and a lot of activity is given over to read writing and rewriting and you want to get it right. finally when you get a sentence that you like but you think is really good that makes you feel good. but a lot of it is we've writing and a lot of free riding is not writing of reading and doing research and archives and a lot of this is not helped by the internet. i can find out a lot of things on the internet i used to have to travel for. i could go through the collection and manuscript collections of many libraries online actually looking at individual pieces of paper because they are just as happy to have you not come there and mess up the paper and put your finger earmarks of at. you can see the paper if you want to look at it more closely

of course you are allowed to examine it by going down there. some places though are interesting enough that you want to go to. for example of a new abraham lincoln presidential library in springfield illinois where i felt a number of soldier diaries that i had to look at in person. but while i was there if you go to springfield you will discover that they are in the state of the art as the computer -- we were at a presentation by a library archivist who stood in front of shelves and shelves of books the discard them to us and then we realized he wasn't there at all. neither were the books. this was a computer image. this is what could be done now. maybe that makes it less exciting to do research. but it's easier in some ways to read a lot of things require

your hands on work and travel. >> i was wondering if you have any thoughts of taking up sherman in your next book. >> i'm not going to take sherman through the carolinas and another book. i do want to finish the book i am working on on the soldier vote in 1864 because it is fascinating to see the soldiers felt in the first time there was a presidential election in wartime and i'm going to follow it up with another book on a soldier vote that i started working on. and that will be the soldier vote in world war ii, 1944. the next time there is a soldier from this was roosevelt running for a fourth term against governor tom dewey so i'm trying to do to books simultaneously on soldier votes. and maybe they came about.

you never know but maybe they came about because i was involved in still another soldier vote. i was in the army in korea in the early 1950's during the of war in fact i spent two christmases in korea during the the war. the second one was during the 1952 presidential election between eisenhower and adamle stevenson and since i was an officer i had to countersign absentee ballots and the soldiers were all supposed to tell you who they voted for. but when i countersigned a ballot, a soldier would say i voted for eisenhower because he's sending me home. [laughter] and i don't know if that happens anymore, but so i've been involved in three soldier boats and i'm going to write about two of them. >> [inaudible] >> i think the fellow appear -- no?

yeah i am looking for soldiers old enough to have voted in the war of 1984. they would have to be about 87 or older. so if any of you listening are old enough and want to tell me where you were and how you voted and why you voted the way you did i would like to hear from you. >> you had talked about kagen's book about comparing sherman's march with the nazi invasion of russia. do you have some kind of figure on the casualties as a result of this march among the civilians? >> the casualties and sherman's march from atlanta to savannah on both sides were only in the hundreds. the casualties in hit for's march to russia were in the

millions. it's just a ridiculous exaggeration for john keegan to have compared the two. >> when you are researching a topic frequently at some point it is very easy to get diverted because you found something unexpected and new. what did you find in your research on this particular topic that either supply -- surprised you or me to simply pleased to have discovered? >> i like to put a human face on the war. that is my game writing about the war, and i think i found a much more humane sherman then the stories tell about sherman, the history tells about sherman and i think i also found there are gross exaggerations' about that march from atlanta to savannah. that was actually very orderly and the soldiers called it a

grand pyknic because so much of it was not fighting but just stopping at the end of the day and camping and roasting your meat for dinner and getting up at dawn and going out again. until they got to the swamps of savannah they found a ferry pleasant excursions and many of them were glad they joined the army because they had that opportunity. i don't know how to consider its felt about it but there are not many consider its in the story because there were not many that harassed sherman on the trip. the soldiers who escapes savanna and south carolina found a very very bad time and it was cold, snowing, it was miserable. they had little food and one group said this is the second christmas we have spent that way in south carolina. they were very eager to and the war, and fortunately the capture

of savannah man to leave was trapped and it would end about 80 days later. thank you for being with me, for coming out of the brain to listen to this and i hope it was worthwhile. [applause] >> this event was hosted by chester county book company in west chester pennsylvania. for more information, visit ccbmc.com. coming up next book tv presents "after words," an hour-long book discussion between the coast and book author mac. this week jane goodall famous

for her work with chimpanzees talks about her book quote for animals and their world on the people who were helping save endangered species. she discusses her book with john nielsen of the world wildlife fund. he's the author of condor the life and times of one giant bird >> host: welcome, jane goodall. just to list things to accomplish would probably take most of this interview. so we will move through an abbreviated version of that, founder of the jane goodall institutes, author of a groundbreaking studies of the chimpanzees that you have observed, the author of several books including hope for animals and their world which we are here to talk about today and we might as well get to it. this book is a series of case

studies and they are case studies of species that have so far been saved from extinction. why did you write this? why did you choose these particular species? >> i wanted to help people understand that in spite of all of the doom and gloom and there is no question we have done so much damage to the planet and is right to be concerned and very concerned, but there are too many people who take this all aboard and give up. they lose hope and decided is not worth doing anything. and my creasy truffles that take me 300 days a year all over the world has enabled me to meet some extraordinary people who have done extraordinary things who've become passionate about a particular species or even an ecosystem and even when they are told there is no way you can see this it is too late they won't give up.

and so these are success stories and they are deliberately selected mostly from the people i have actually met or have introductions to the book could be many times longer. there is more stories than this and in fact some of the book is on the web site. the publisher said know you have to cut, you can't have everything. so, it is chosen to give people hope to help people understand even though in some cases we have reached almost the end of the road with a certain species just have some determination and some obstinacy and courage to withstand all those who say it is a waste of money, the animals will die, let them die with dignity in the world and leave them be. they refuse to listen and somehow find the money and energy and save them. >> host: you can see that cash in the people who have been working to save these animals felt