55. >> thinks to all the members of the amanda history center and to use the trustees of the lecture fund to make this possible for me to come and visit again here in atlanta in this beautiful city what it is a pleasure to be here especially at the atlanta history center as devoted as it is to the history of the city in the state of georgia and of the united states for but it is great to be back again. i wonder if we could have the lights down a bit? we have pictures to see. looking back over 20 years alexanders' to our web

declared the battle of gettysburg was aided is now throughout the world known to be the waterloo of the rebellion. certainly he had the right to speak with authority about gettysburg he was 26 when the civil war broke out in even though this grandson of the man of bunker hill was only six years out of west point he rocketed up to brigadier general one week before the union and confederate army collided at gettysburg. and to command the union brigade as the spear point of the battles climax the great charge by the rabil division in web would survive with a fatal wound

to the head one year after eventually go want to become president of the city college of new york. but in his memory the fattest ring of the tree would always be gettysburg. this contest was a constant recurrence of scenes of self sacrifice especially on the part of all engaged in the third and last day. still 150 years later they might just be possible to wonder if alexander webb was suffering from a touch of memory myopia and flooding -- inflating of peacetime middle-age the name of gettysburg is still powerful enough to have the recognition even of the most reluctant grade schooler but really doesn't deserve to

stand beside waterloo? except of course, that it does. call gettysburg if you like the high water mark of the confederacy or the beginning of the end but there really was the last this gm's that broke up the confederate states they had to win the war and their independence and in the first 10 months from april 18613 to 62 nearly everything seemed to go the way of the confederacy. "gettysburg" states wrote a constitution and elected president jefferson davis and their the assembled rb met at bull run in virginia. but in the early spring a

current began to swerving and union armies in the union navy conquered all of the few stretches of the mississippi river valley to reoccupy and in the east robert e. lee led the forces to one victory after another the union army of the potomac to that they were all one on virginia soil id with the feeble economy but robert t. the new better than any other that the resources for too limited to keep offending of the confederacy enemy indefinitely only by carrying the war into the union states and by leveraging the of war

weariness of the voting public with peace negotiations with the confederacy hope to win. but this was not a far fetched taupe and in the fall of 1862 dissension over abraham lincoln and its patients proclamation had caused unhappy voters in new york here new jersey to install democratic governors and a new round of anti-ward democratic candidates were due to run in the fall of the governors' elections in pennsylvania and if they would also turn against the war they could force it remington to begin peace talks or resign. so's the lee army 85,000 strong went north word in the first week of june crossing the potomac river and sweeping in a long arc

of to the valley until the advance guard was perched on the susquehanna river overlooking the pennsylvania state capital of harrisburg. but his real goal was not harrisburg what lee really hoped was to lure the army of the potomac northwards after him and as soon as the yankees from themselves beyond the ability to help each other to turn and smashed the union army piece by piece, even if all he did was lead it on a merry chase he could simply let the politics of the argument take their own course thereafter. nearly worked the morale of the army was never more favorable for offensive or defensive operations.

victory will inevitably hit with any collusion but true to the expectation the 95,000 men panting set off and is soon as he was satisfied he frantically march themselves in june disarray he had a concentration of his own army ready to pounce on the first part of the potomac that wandered within his reach. but the lead elements may have got to gettysburg first and when his own advanced units arrived on july 1st they found union troops holding on to the ground for dear life. true, not many of the three of the seventh infantry portal and on july 1st he

could clear them out put at the end of the day the union soldiers were still holding a strategic fight in lee assume they could wait for daylight to finish the job by the morning of july 2nd 3 more had raced to gettysburg in lee was forced to mount a bloody and ambitious assault on a series of union soldiers little round top whose harmless names belie the vicious character that raged around them. his attack on july 2nd came within an ace of succeeding so the next day the launch when he assumed

would be the knockdown blow with the union army was already on the ropes. lee said three divisions straight to the nape of the neck just behind the cemetery hill. the rebels indeed punched holes in the union defenses but could not hold them. and maystadt the failure of his gambit and appalled at the cost of lives, lee ordered a retreat back across the potomac. just of those terms alone, gettysburg was the unmistakable sign of confederate disaster. the campaign is a failure in the worst failure that the south has ever made wrote one of the confederate survivors note below has been so telling. as a soldier and 11th

georgia wrote his mother that the army is broken hearted and now don't care which way the war closes because we have suffered very much. across the south with the southern literary messenger there is great depression and in many states, positive disaffection. and at the close of gettysburg the last confederate outpost surrendered to ulysses s. grant giving the union and abraham lincoln the happiest weekend they had yet it enjoyed. that is what captain smith said on the titanic. [laughter]

now i say something else. [laughter] and do we have a technical person who is that that this moment galloping to rescue? i am hoping that c-span can edit this part out. i saw him galloping at 1.. maybe he will come in the other door where he will come in behind me? si? >> that was not the question

i wanted to hear him ask. [laughter] i will go mandala pitchers catch up. in fact, robert e. lee would never gave the admission although fighting would go on another 21 months the confederates were confined to the defensive warfare that they can least afford and after gettysburg this said would never shine for the south again. but there were other cost to the confederacy imposed and beyond the defeat in the army of northern virginia reported 2,592 killed, a 12,700 wounded and 4,150 captured or missing after gettysburg.

20,451 casualties in all based on the data that we have collected from the army of northern virginia chief medical officer. alexander webb has come back. that is encouraging but the mouse that i was going to click has not. [laughter] [applause] a powerful little thing. isn't it? there is our numbers. they look even worse och --

in cold print. given the inadequacy of military record keeping for instance no graves registrations for these losses suffered by the army of northern virginia may have been even higher than these official figures. but even beyond the simple numerical shock, and these army suffered dead body blow to the commander for structure from which it never adequately recovered. this will give you some idea of the damage done of these 52 general's one-third became casualties of some sort. of the 18th virginia, 29 of the 31 officers were killed or wounded. said lieutenant colonel and major were all wounded and

three company captains killed and to capture. the john bell division lost for the colonel of the second, ninth, 20th georgia while khrushchev south carolina brigade to more regimental commanders were killed. and another lost the brigade commander who was mortally wounded and died in a farmhouse that still stands on the battlefield along with a colonel of the eighth louisiana in 38 georgia. robert rhodes division saw three colonels killed and seven wounded two of them were also captured. and ambrose's had the worst hits to the senior officers. for a modified if -- four out of 54 wounded.

and worst of all every one of the colonels in the north carolina brigade was killed or wounded or captured as were all of those in joe davis mississippi and north carolina brigade. as individuals all of these casualties could be replaced him, but the months and years of experience and familiarity and networking and confidence could not. of course, if we want to measure gettysburg purely by the numbers than the battle imposed even higher cost of the union army. george reader who commanded the army at gettysburg cited 200834 of his own men were killed. 13,000 wounded and 6,643

missing. two months later he adjusted the numbers slightly and then submitted final figures that set the totals at 3,155 killed, 14,529 wounded wounded, 5,365 captured or missing. in his testimony before a congressional committee the following spring he rounded the numbers up at 24,000 men killed for, wounded, and missing in 1900 thomas livermore painstakingly recalculated you reports for the army of the potomac to put there reckoning at 3,903 dead, 18,735 wounded missing. so the entire butcher's bill edged up at 28,063.

michael jacobs a mathematics professor at pennsylvania college on the outskirts of gettysburg estimated there were 9,000 dead after the two armies moved on. if we grant jacobs the high and estimate if he was a mathematics professor in except the ratio based on the official statistics of five wounded for every man killed, then we have to reckon on each journey at gettysburg suffering something like 4500 killed and 22,500 wounded. which translates into approximately one-third of the germy dead or maimed in some way. in other words, , three times the bloodletting

suffered in percentages from the allied forces of waterloo. unlike the confederates the damage to the upper command echelon was substantial. when major general was killed, and in another was mangled 2.0 of action. but even without cost gettysburg meant something entirely different for the union. what do the people of the north think now of the old army of the potomac exulted one soldier? , commander broke the results of the war seems no longer devil in the beginning of the end. the victory at gettysburg gave proof space in the art of war were over gave a

contributor to the new include review and at last we could develop in direct or forces coming as gettysburg did hand in hand with the victory of vicksburg think is the chief of staff noticed how public feeling has been wonderfully improved by our recent successes at gettysburg and vicksburg and lincoln himself addressed in the ec demonstration of well-wishers on july 7th by a drawing a symbolic white line between independence day and the gettysburg victory. how long ago is said he asked the crowd, 80 years since on the fourth of july for the first time in the history of the world the nation by its representatives assembled in declared itself evident truth all men are created

equal? the victories of gettysburg and vicksburg come on the anniversary of the self-evident truths have now put the cohorts of those that opposed the declaration that all men are created equal on the run. even the newspapers crowed any escape from our army would be great difficulty in the newspapers predicted if lee was pursued and brought to day, eggcrate if not a decisive victory would follow. a better way to more -- measure the importance from green to the union a second wind would be to consider the alternative. richard henry dana the prominent lawyer, believed gettysburg was the turning point in our history.

not so much for winning the victory but avoiding the defeat of voiding the last defeat and had lee gained that battled the democrats would have not stop the war with new york he and the governor new jersey in the majority of pennsylvania they would have crippled the us as to end the contest. that they would have attempted it that we no. that would have been only the best scenario. the do not hesitate to express the conviction said one observer of the battle that had the army of the potomac been quick it would have been dissolved. doubtless, some of the other volunteer regiments would have held together and made some sort of free sheet to

the susquehanna but the others will leave the rebel chieftain to go do what he pleased. half of that would have been the key issue for a mob rule over the whole chain of atlantic city's and thus paralyze the whole mission of our government. captain alfred lee dreaded the prospect of the northern sympathizers current to establish a mob rule in to tear up the railroads and destroying supplies to cut off reinforcements and as it was new york city blew up in draft riots 10 days after

the battle. if robbery lee was crossing the susquehanna river on that day instead crossing the potomac in retreat, then it might have well been the army of northern virginia called in to restore order rather then union veterans fresh from their victory. gettysburg did not in the war in one stroke but it was a decisive be enough to restore the sinking morale of the union in to keep at bay the forces that hoped lincoln could be persuaded to evoke emancipation and decisively enough to make people look back a and understand the confederacy would never be able to mount a serious invasion began. spelling can however was not satisfied with a decisive be

enough result. why do i have a strange feeling that there may be unreconstructed confederate veterans? [laughter] who are getting in their last words on this subject? [laughter] lincoln was not satisfied with a decisive be enough result. after a 10 day pursue which ended with the army of the atomic packing lee's into the pocket no knockdown blow was struck and lee's army could slip across an improvised and bridges and barely usable fjords. we had been in our grasp

lincoln will comb the us stretch with our hands in they were hours. a great deal of the blame for lee's escape was laid by lincoln and others at the feet of george meade. i don't believe appreciate the magnitude of the misfortune involved weekend wrote in and begin the image of the enclosed hand came to him. he was within easy grasp into close upon him would in connection have ended the war. but instead to be grateful for what he had won we can file bell venture away scribbling on the envelope to you general meade, never said or side but the failure to make it the complete

victory that lincoln was hoping for has always hall i'd like a cloud over george reid. there is the element of the injustice. need was only shoved into command three days before the battle and he was compelled by circumstances to pick up the army where he found it using a staff he had no time to replace and andrew the unappreciative days of the other generals who saw no reason to give him automatic difference, there had been serious efforts to refashion meade in more glowing colors as the and some genius who bettered robert e. lee. his most recent biographer portrayed him as the ride the danger of what -- dangerfield of civil war

generals. [laughter] he gets no respect. the major causes of that lies primarily with meade himself figures cited aristocrat might have been taken for a presbyterian clergyman, that is of less one approached him when he was mad for meade possessed a volcanic temper. behind his back and then called them a gobble i'd snapping turtle for good no one questioned meade personal courage confidence that he was not a dashing commander in his disciplinary behavior would have made pat and look like a wus.

meade chase down a private which she had pilfered and he demanded to know where the accord had come from and talked himself into such a rage that he struck kim aside the head and almost knocked him over. the unabashed the private picked himself up in nearly returned the favor of but stopped and said if it weren't for them shoulder straps seven give you the darndest thrashing you ever had in your life. meade was just as hard on his subordinates and superiors. i of tired of this playing war without risky declared a gritty. we must encounter risk that we cannot carry on without fighting. but their real flaw of george meade was not his temper ironically office

save a version to taking risks that he complained about of the other generals. once in command of the army on the potomac he saw his task is purely defensive, to shadow lee's army as it moved into pennsylvania, but keep between the rebels and washington and the susquehanna river. i can only say now it appears to be imus moved to the susquehanna hero to keep the washington and baltimore well covered. only if the enemy is checked in his attempt to cross the susquehanna or turns to baltimore would meade try to give him battle once he turned away to the

gettysburg he considered himself done and then was going to go 25 miles to the southeast to keep a shield in place between the confederates and the capital. he was not inclined to go hunting for the high noon encounter with robert e. lee. having released harrisburg in north -- philadelphia it is now time to look to his own army to assume positions for offensive and defensive as the occasion requires or rest to the troops that is the collecting of our troops behind pipe creek. it was not meade taejon reynolds whose pitcher, i do not have a peer of last. [laughter] unless my faithful assistant wants to kick for

me, yes, he did. but that is george meade. [laughter] click some more. there rigo. john reynolds. he was directing the three army corps of the left wing and he really precipitated the counter against gettysburg and he complained to one of the divisions that if he said gave the rebels heim by taking up defensive positions, they would strip pennsylvania of everything. reynolds was eager to attack the enemy at once and in his last message to meade on july 1st because in a few minutes reynolds would be shot dead by a confederate

as the battle opened west of gettysburg, he said while i am aware it is not more desire to force the engagement at that point, still i feel at liberty to a finance and develop the strength of the enemy. even after his death meade still try to recall his pre-richer troops from gettysburg and reynolds success for -- successor, howard, was rumored to receive five distinct orders from general meade to withdraw forces and not attempt to hold the position he had chosen on cemetery hill. not in tel meade said of his own eyes and ears in the form of major general hancock did he finally relented and order a concentration. even then after the battering given the army on

july 2nd which rifled a antietam as the single bloodiest day of the civil war, meade was still debating to fall back to pipe creek to call a war council to consider. they refused. but not without expressing an element of surprise that meade even wanted to talk about withdrawal. could guide explained that commander he will not retreat, is he? no. for the credit may not belong to meade as much to a hefty list of line officers who'd time and again during the three days of the battle seized the initiative on their own to keep the army of the potomac from falling apart names of most of us

have never heard before. green, carol, web, keith, or work, the incident incident, warren, hall, and one who you probably have heard, and joshua chamberlain. these names introduce union man who over and over with dracula's spontaneity turn the corner for a dime at the right moment to save the day. they became almost routine for officers at gettysburg the by comparison meade behavior was almost entirely reactive the confederates acted in he responded but

not the other way around. and above all, meade failed to run the army of northern virginia to ground at the moment when it was out the weakest it would ever see before. taking a little of his own device might have made george read the most famous general and american history. it remained for lincoln to be the ultimate significance in here if i could have been assessed, one more. another. [laughter] give it one more. everything will be a fair. see what a wonderful place the atlanta history center is i just say something and

it appears. it is marvelous if only my students in in class could deliver like that. it remained the alternate significance in the words he spoke at the national cemetery lay down on this cemetery hill for the words of his address have been so familiar with usage shipmate be hard now to realize the depth of meaning in his view brief remarks all 272 words at that dedication 1863. but in his mind the fundamental significance and importance of gettysburg and the civil war may in the survival of democracy itself and whether any nation so

conceived or dedicated but remembering in 1863 democracy was by no means a given. by no means would call the end of history. every experiment launched in the heyday of popular revolutions had gone up in smoke with the most emerging in 1863 monarchies and privilege seem to be on the march. while the last outpost shot itself through the head in the civil war and thereby demonstrating democracy is inherently unstable and argue the aristocrats could they help but be unstable?

they are run by the consent of the governed by the ordinary people of a nation themselves in as aristocrats well know, ordinary people can be ordinary the very selfish aunt cowardly ways. american democracy exhibited signs of dysfunction ever since the founding by a the abolition of slavery how could they speak of all men created equal when some of those were allowed to own and others the way they might own a horse or a pig? but lincoln saw the rainbow and the war was testing

whether continental dimensions could try and put these survive or perish. gettysburg with the dead had proof there ever otherwise dull or ordinary people to make your ultimate sacrifice to preserve the solidarity of their nation and the right to self-government and the propositions around which it was bill. lincoln could not look out across the semicircular avenues of the dead in the cemetery where fully one-quarter of the men buried there were unknown. into not feel confirmed of the longevity of democracy to call of living americans to dedicate themselves to

that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion to insure all the monarchy and aristocracy to the contrary that the government of the people, by the people for the people shall not perish from the ears. that brings us to the real answer of the question. yes has military sycophants to give the union army there second wind in the sheer scale of the carnage and death but on every family and households' linked to the soldier, that impact and importance of the calculating what numbers can

do but gettysburg still sings for us because of abraham lincoln translated the black hole of battle into the of them of democracy. so was alex weber wright? was really the waterloo of the rebellion? what is waterloo? they key very much. [applause] >> a professor will take questions as a wave may try to frustrate your ability

maybe somebody can ask a question in we can frustrate them better. >> an excellent speech. my great-grandfather the roanoke invisibles was of the 70 odd. >> i have been to your home town. is breathtaking and i could not see where my great-grandfather because he plays golf over there. [laughter] but my question is studying this the aryan brigade which

is the unit that based on date number one previously faced the 13th alabama at the stonewall in fredericksburg or doubleday was thrown off but then in the cornfield a and it strikes me it is highly unusual for one little regiment from alabama and another from wisconsin to face off in three of the most important battles of the area. what do you suppose was the reason for that? [laughter] >> somebody didn't like somebody else. [laughter] is there a particular reason? probably not unless you know, something that your ancestors have revealed that the rest of us have not been privy to. kim and 13th alabama as

one of the lead units be leaving at best what they're up against was is yankee cavalry and at worst some pennsylvania militia and as they moved down the ravine up to the aside what do they see coming after them but second that ain't no militia is the black hat fellow the army of the potomac so a big an unpleasant surprise to find out for not only with a facing the aryan free gave but if the infantry was therefrom they were ushered off the zero elements of the army were anything closer than a day's march away. that was the ultimate big

surprise at gettysburg. second wisconsin was just a means to deliver it. >> while reviewing your book which i have already bought and waiting for your autograph. [laughter] it with the study of my own family history my great great grandfather was sent off to the island to be entered for the rest of the war at for delaware. when i went there to see that area, how heathery and actors there from the historical society pointed out that archer was actually a prisoner at for delaware and tried to lead a rebellion and i noticed on page 150 you don't mention that you mention he went to ohio see you might want to look at a revision. [laughter] >> he went to for delaware

along with most prisoners after gettysburg a because he was the officer he was then segregated out and sent to sandusky ohio where he came down with the disease even after he was exchanged, it killed him. we are both right. [laughter] unless you like me to use deliver a book twice the size, some details i cannot put in their. but it does give you something of the idea of the intensity with which the battle of gettysburg has been studied and it is a charitable to american memory that all other civil war battles we could talk about what individual regiments and companies were doing were asked people what

would you like? regimen leveller company level depending how detailed you want to get but of that is said to detail that is on offer the study of the battle you get together to really have a fun time. by the way, the golf course? it is gone. it went bankrupt and only there couldn't put a golf course out of business. [laughter] >> i a enjoyed your talk very much. the lan ancestors had a front row seat the.

>> they did have anything to do with this? [laughter] you place importance on the battle that i see it in a new light the way to entertain the idea that had the british not sees to that the south had a fighting chance could have won the day? >> people sometimes ask me what i think the turning point of the civil war was. i answer mathematics. ahead is the safest because it is true there any number of factors even in 1864 which might have pointed to a different result. supposed george mclellan was elected president rather than lincoln in the election at that point the confederacy is bleeding from every pore but it is still

there and with mclellan and a place it would have led to the opening of some kind of negotiation and months that began no one would start shooting again not what people had gone through the previous three years and even as late as that point the confederacy polls the chestnuts from the fire to achieve independence but this is of the extraordinary situations that could teach braille be the locomotive. but it points to the station in barring the extraordinary intervention in the real result is in the cards that it might have come quicker

if george reid was quicker. he was not but have after that the confederacy flights a defensive campaign that drain the last of the strength the way to make the end if not outright inevitable then about as predictable as we can make historical even spee. >> i have to it commits that as soon as i got the book i did does start at the beginning, i turn to the part about stewart's ride because it wanted to see how you handle that. you'' to a statement by mosby that no one could define the half that lee did a did not do because stewart's activity. it is a two-part question i would like your analysis.

is that true? has someone been able to come up with what lee did did not do because of stewart's absence? then i would like to follow-up on that. >> the story of jeb stuart and his absence from the army became important after the battle because people in the confederacy were looking for a scapegoat and someone to whom they could point the finger. there were a number of nominees. and stewart was only one but over time he is one of the real guts of the game and the argument runs like this. jeff stuart sets off on a joyride he shed be covering the far right flank but manages by his own ineptitude to get diverted to the other side of the army and righted himself right out of the campaign

thus leaving robert e. lee to fumbler ryan and blindfolded in pennsylvania then bump into the army of the potomac by accident and he loses the battle and the south was the war and it is all just diverts all. -- jeb stuart's fault. but lee was not rendered blindfolded by his absence simply because calgary does not function as the intelligence arm. cavalry from the european armies it is entirely like calgary and in fact, the proportions are much proportionate in the european armies and the chief function is to fold of

screening and rating. stuart was not responsible and never had been to gather intelligence for robert e. lee in that function was performed to buy first, the spies, second, individual scouts. and in the case of robbery ely, a third source of northern newspapers. of lee love to to read the northern newspapers because they printed the exact movements of the army of the potomac in their columns. so intelligence gathering came from other sources is not jeb stewart. the fact he wrote himself as recklessly as he did have contact with the lee's army did not mean breeder really did not have any idea what he was doing he knew very

well but he was doing even knew where jeb stewart was in fact, he complained to george kimball brown, the stepson of one of the staffers say he was reading from the newspapers that teetwo was riding around baltimore in washington. he knew where he was the was irritated and not he was not providing him with intelligence but he was violating the principle of concentration of forces. it was not intelligence that he wanted but it was jeb stewart and his calvary and that is what irritated robert e. lee. so was he responsible in the respect, no. really knew exactly where he was doing when he ordered the concentration of the army at gettysburg rather chad stuart disappointed by mishandling the role he was

supposed to have to provide screening for the right flank but it was not a case where robbery lee wondered because he left him blind around the countryside. that became a convenient excuse for hanging the results of the campaign on jeb stewart and that in turn informed to those spee comments to defended jeb stewart and was critical of charles marshall to was lee's military secretary in the principal speaker pointer at jeb stewart after that they were back and forth but jeb stewart of course, is dead and was killed or mortally wounded in the tavern in 1864 but most be kept pointing all much to the point his absence is not a critical factor.

lee knew what he was doing he was not being led by strings and the decision to fight was robert e. lee's not by default because of jeb stewart. >> let me explore with you but the book makes a wonderful description of the geography of the battlefield i never had it explained so well the significance of cemetery hill and seminary ridge. but he was there of the 26 of june so my question is had lee known as early as the 26 or the 27 the army of the potomac is where was could he have concentrated beginning then to be a much better shape? >> he certainly could have but lee does not order the concentration until the 27 the june. not until that point he finally has sufficient

intelligence that confirm for the army of the potomac is stronger now than and vulnerable and it has been brought far enough north he can now turn the corner from where it was at carlisle to bring up the others were they were positioned to bring them all together to concentrate at gettysburg then bites off the head of the army of the potomac as it wonders. lee may have done that earlier but did not have the need but not until the 27 that he orders the concentration and does not see cemetery hill because reynolds bush is in there to see if first. it was a missed opportunity in that respect.

is so psyche could have hit that concentration in the could have changed history. >> more so throughout the battle of gettysburg you get intervals of 15 minutes in which the entire event hazings that timing is everything. >> weber question please. >> this is not a question that a quick story we are northerners in during the battle word came out we had to get troops down there and my ancestor had broken his leg and he was about to recover it was called up to go down and fight to. and he ran into a blind man who also was called up to fight. [laughter] so they got together the

blind man says several help you if you tell me where to go. whether it is true or not but it has come down through generations of the family. [laughter] . . >> it's something more simple, and that is ineptitude. the american civil war armies,

as much as we bathe them in the romantic remembrance, brave as they were and honorable as they were, nevertheless, these were civilians. the prewar arm consisted of 16,000 men. not musk better than frontier constabulary. now cadres of existing formations, noncomecomes or anything, for newly recruited volunteers to move into. everything had to be made up on the spot. everything was improv. with the result that large parts of the armies, officers officerd generals, as much as men, had never commanded large formations before in their lives. many of them have only the dimmest idea of what they're

doing. some of them are drilling their men while holding tactics text books in their hands, and while that sounds at first slightly amusing, it's no joke when you're under fire. when the shells are screaming overhead. the great -- says the civil war was like two armed mobs chasing each other around the countryside. not very complimentary but unfortunately close to the truth. these were not well-disciplined, well-organized armies. one thing that concerns roberten lee, his army is going to turn so happily to looting that they would be able to do -- dissolve

his army into an undies minimummed mob of ban publish bandits. they're commanded by inexperienced people. each those who were professional soldiers at the top of the armies, many of them, like dicky wolf, confessed once he graduated from west point he spent the next 15eers of his life forgetting everything he learned except how to command a company of 50 dragoons. and what was more the education you got at west point was not an education in combat, in tactics or strategy. west point was an engineering school. still is. still is maintained under the aegis of the corps of engineers. so the education was about building things, ports and bridges, not about combat, not about training. in these armies, they didn't

even hold target practice. for the most part. something which comes to the -- as you remember from one part of the book i'm talking -- you calculate how many shots are fired versus how many actually hit a target? and the average is something like -- takes about 125 fired shots before you wing somebody. that's not a compliment to marksmanship. that's about how well i do shooting trap. and it's all a function of the lack of discipline. lack of training. just not professionals. and so that ineptitude means they never quite get things together for the knock-down blow. at it kind of like watching amateur boxing, where two people that might be good at slugging each other but don't know how to bring it all to a conclusion. that said, these were still

armies that fought with the most extraordinary kind of raw courage. it awed ulysses grant at shilo, to see perfectly green volunteers in the line, and old noncom showing them how to load and fire their guns, and the extraordinary part is not that they had -- they were there in the middle of combat and were getting rifle instruction. just in all of them didn't break and run for their lives. they don't, and they don't gettysburg either. and that's the remarkable thing, in all the inexperience, what is sublime about we soldiers was the all-starness with which they did their duty. they weren't a guard which got a thrill out of killing. anything but.

time and again on the batfield you see people shooting at each other one moment and ten minutes later they're lifting up the wounded on the other side and giving them a canteen of water. their humannant is manifest. they were performing a duty they felt they had been call the to do. not a duty they wanted to do. they did not want to kill each other. they wanted the war to be over. they wanted peace to come, but aalso wanted it to come honorably and that sense of duty and honor is what kept them at their bloody task, and in its own way, every 150 years, still ennobles what they did. [applause] >> please join us in the atrium. buy a book and even buy a drink. look forward to seeing you next

time. thank you for coming >> the montment behind me is the monument to the 24th michigan infantry. they belonged to a larger organization that had become famous throughout the army as the iron brigade. they had a reputation for being pretty hard fighters. they brought 496 men on to the field. 363 of them will remain here as casualties. in 1889. on michigan day at gettysburg, over 115 survivors of the 24th 24th michigan who were wounded or captured here, returned to this spot for the ted indication of their monument. the major of the unit was the speaker on that dedication day, and as he looked out over the assembled veterans, he grew a little quiet, and then he said this: volumes have been written

with the battle of gettysburg the sole and only topic but the whole star not been told. the planning has been omitted. the living gave their version of what they witnessed but if the dead lips could be unsealed, what truer and large testimony might be spread upon the payments of history. >> the -- on the pages of history.

>> the publisher called twelve. one of the imprints of the bk group. we're previewing some of their fall 2013 titles with brian mcclinton the associate publisher. i want to start with dallas 1963. a book you were excited about. >> guest: when it came in our first thought was assassination book. we're not touching it. we brought it home, pre-empted the next day. at it actually a buy agograph of the -- biography of the city of dallas after the assassination, and showed what was going on at the time that made the assassination inevitable. the head of the american nazi party, the head of the kkk, and you also had a very conservative

rabid right wing political faction. the hero of the book is stanley marcus. husband client tell were the men and men -- he had to quietly support the democratic party because of his clients but as things got more and more out of hand in dallas, he had to step up. and the book takes you up until the day. and this is coming out in november -- coming out the end of october to lead into the 50s in anniversary of kennedy's assassination. >> who are the authors? >> guest: two major texas guys. bill worked at almost eave newspaper across the state of texas. most famous for writing the first biography of george w. bush, back in 1998 after he was just governor of texas. and they know anyone in texas. interviewed anybody who is still

alive. so family members and heirs, and walked into a treasure trove of archival letters, camouflets. the pamphlet on the pack was being handed out in dallas the day that kent -- kennedy was coming. >> another book, call me mel by. >> guest: february 2014 will in the centennial of william us bur rows, and barry miles is a premiere. beat biographer and he has basically had access to all of the papers, archives and letters and interviewed anyone who was still alive at the time, or even before they died he interviewed alan begins burg to bring the store to us. he wrote naked lurch.

-- naked lunch. he was famous in the first season of "saturday night live." but his input in american culture is unprecedented. >> host: now your october title. >> guest: by tom hartman, a radio host. writing about the crash of 2016. it is a large book looking at the cycle of crashes and boom and bust times in american history and argues that after the crash of 2008, which is just a prelude to the big crash in 2016, and how that the big money, the people who own the government, are heading us towards disaster. >> host: that's a preview of some of the titles coming out by 12. this is booktv on c-span2. >> author and vietnam war veteran tim o'brien has been awarded the 2013 pritzker

military literary award. mr. o'bryan is the author of, the things they carried, and if i die in a combat zone, box me up and ship me home. peninsulas recipient of the lifetime achievement award. this is the first time the award has been given to a fiction writer. the award medallion and a $100,000 honorarium will be presented to mr. o'brien on november 16th. for more, visit pritzker military.com.

>> now, tamim ansary, author of games without rules, the often interrupted history of afghanistan, and atta arghandiwal, the untold afghan story. they discuss the past, sprint future of their country. this event was hosted by the commonwealth club of california.