stir things appear after lunch, we are going to talk about the campaign as we get going. man who hass a shown me the inside and out of the wilderness batters -- battlefield.

starting things off, we are here at spotsylvania talking about the overland campaign and i am pleased to introduce a man who has shown me the ins and outs of the wilderness battle. kris' familiarity is routed to the fact that he has spent so much time on the ground. until you are on the ground, you do not understand the war. his encyclopedic knowledge is grounded in all the time he has spent there. the wilderness is particularly tricky. it is quite developed. once upon a time, it was about as impenetrable as you can find. it is one of the most confusing battles you can imagine. to shed a little ironic, introduce my friend and colleague. kristopher: -- totally full of it. that is why i love him so much. just to start off today, at the

national park service, i was the guy who went around the boundary of the park which was 102 miles. i put up those signs that say national park service. i was talking to some folks prior to my speech today discussing how wild the wilderness is and i would be walking through the woods going through some nasty vines and bushes. that is probably the summer that my wife heard me complain the most. at the same time, i learned the most. i actually got to walk the grounds. things have changed but walking the ground is something we always talk about here. it is something that our mentors taught us how to do. go to the battlefield, walk on them, and that is why our efforts here are so important. if you buy one of our books, all of those proceeds go to the friends of wilderness battlefield.

[applause] chris and i are working on a magazine article to follow up. when i was putting together this lineup, i thought of that one of the greatest attacks and the war. tomorrow, i get to talk about the second battle of fredericksburg. i also thought about the battle of the wilderness. i always thought there was a great attack here. that attack was not stonewall jackson's, it was james longstreet's. it is a very interesting story. if hollywood wanted to make a good civil war movie, you could make a fantastic story about the

battle of the wilderness. you can start it on the evening of may 5, with the villains not setting up their lines properly. you have the antihero long street showing up in saving the day. then, ulysses s. grant's first push into virginia. james longstreet, just like stonewall jackson, is wounded by his own men. the part we are focusing on tonight is the climactic part that we discussed on the field, when the texans come onto the field along with another division -- a fantastic story. i started off today without a picture. when we get going, you are going to learn that james longstreet is going to become the forgotten man. " that i chose is one of my favorites -- the quote that i chose is one of my favorites.

talk a little bit about james longstreet. matt atkinson just spoke about in, but, james longstreet -- i have two photographs here. james longstreet, west point graduate, near the bottom of his class, goes off to war, basically misses most of the battle and then becomes second in command after the peninsula campaign. he becomes second in command before the battle of fredericksburg on the defensive front where 30,000 soldiers attack his fortified lines are not one union soldier makes it into the sunken road. in my book, the union wins. it is a whole different story, though. for those of you going on the tour tomorrow, a usual have a chance to walk around the same grounds. long street goes on to

gettysburg. i gettysburg, he does not get a nice memento but i did get one of those wristbands -- whenever he goes onto the field, he becomes controversial.

after gettysburg, he is sent out west. he is going to do good work but the wheels start coming off during the winter. by the time the winter is ending in virginia, james longstreet's troops are greatly reduced. longstreet is yearning to come back to the east. longstreet many times wanted to

do battle in the west. it seems like he loved johnston. the longstreet men are finally going to get their wish to contact her virginia in april. -- to come back to virginia in april. one man is going to write, every day i and strengthened in the belief that when we leave the region we will coach of the virginia army and be back in front of our old enemy with whom we have so often and so frequently beaten.

everybody is brilliant -- bouyant at being at the field at the army of the potomac. there is talk of our moving today. his men will travel back east and everything is going to look a little bit different when we come back east. john bill livingood is -- john bell hood is wounded. lafayette macleod is going to have a falling out with longstreet that will carry over into the knoxville campaign and he is eventually going to lose his command. the first corps have two new division commanders. you also have charles field. he is also a west point graduate, who was wounded at

battle but it is going to take a long time for him to recover. in that time frame, his brigade is going to go on to some other man. when he received a first corps division -- where is george pickett? after gettysburg, he was shipped down to petersburg. part of his division is shattered. while he is there, george decides to ask robert e. lee if he can get married. robert e. lee refuses. george doesn't care and he goes off to petersburg to get married. unfortunately for him, there is nothing going on in petersburg. robert e. lee reason a lot of newspaper so he reads about his insubordinate general. take it goes to north carolina -- pickett goes to north carolina, making his way to virginia, but he is going to miss this battle. the outbreak of the 1864 campaign is an army that is similar to what you would have seen a gettysburg. the first corps has longstreet,

a veteran commander. he is also going to be that sounding board. very important, a sounding board for robert e. lee. they are going to work well together. when stonewall jackson was alive, robert e. lee cap his headquarters with longstreet. one of the reasons why is i think because jackson and his staff were sticks in the mud but longstreet -- those guys had personality. robert e. lee seemed to be entertained by the characters around him. he is going to give longstreet his nickname, my old war horse. the only other one will be jubal early, the one who was supposedly swear and smoke in front of robert e. lee. that is the high regard. for longstreet -- that is the high regard that he had for longstreet and early. the second corps probably has the best division commanders. you have early and ed johnson. early is specifically one of robert e. lee's favorite.

hill is probably the worst, who has henry heth, who came in last. then you have cadmus wilcox. he is a pretty good officer. his nickname is uncle billy fixin'. he fought very well at the battle of salem church, 50 miles north of where we are. then there is richard anderson, who eventually gets transferred when robert e. lee reorganizes.

this is what the makeup looks like in 1864. the union army of the potomac looks different. it is now down to three corps that are going into war. we also have a fourth corps under burnside. he is talking to a new unit commander, ulysses s. grant. when grant comes east and sees what is going on, he realizes one of the major issues is not the structure itself, but that it is so close to washington dc. she decides to be the buffer between washington and the army of the potomac. eventually, the alpha male that he is, he is going to keep pushing forward. the two armies will be facing each other across a river line. the union army will be at the top of your map around that brandy station battlefield. then we have the confederate army of northern virginia which is spread out through mainly orange county. richard ewell's line is the first line of defense behind

this large the myth. -- large behemoth. hill can go out to the valleys if he needs to or reinforce richard ewell. then we have james longstreet around gordonsville, virginia. it was one time known as the fried chicken capital of the world. they also have a pretty neat medicine museum. longstreet, depending on what grant comes up with, can reinforce lee's army or head out to the shenandoah valley. all told between the calvary, he has about 66,000 effective soldiers versus the one at a 23,000 men at the potomac. -- 123,000 men at the potomac. longstreet will be reviewed on april 29. the campaign kicks off on may 3. lee ghost town to see longstreet. -- robert e. lee goes down to see longstreet good one man wrote -- robert e. lee goes down to see longstreet. one man wrote, all of the ladies came out.

one man complained, it had been many months since we have seen our beloved chieftain and we beheld him, such a shout went out as a never before have heard. this was a command that was relieved to be back in north virginia. they have seen how the rest of the world works. the grass was not greener on the other side of the confederacy. the confederates are going to have to play to the tune of ulysses s. grant. his forces are looking at two different moves, want toward fredericksburg, one into the wilderness. abraham lincoln had knicked the idea of going to fredericksburg, so they decide to go to the wilderness. the wilderness is a dense forest of 70 square miles in spotsylvania, orange county.

this area was rich in iron and gold ore. you may have come down 17. this area was very rich in iron and gold ore. settlers are going to take down the old forest to feel their furnaces with that forest to make charcoal. by the time the american civil war arrives, the wilderness region, which you can see on this map, you can see very small subsistence farms. the widow catherine's field which is held by the lacey family, if you want to go out there. there are a few small openings. not a place to fight a napoleonic-style battle. grant does not intend to fight in the wilderness.

this region only has a few roads. what ulysses s. grant intends to do is move men through the forest, keep going until they get to open field. in orange courthouse, they should be able to take out robert e. lee because robert e. lee is now the objective -- it is no longer on to richmond. they both realize what they need to do is take robert e. lee's army out of the war here in the east. it is going to be mead's objective. if you can take at the principal army, it is easier to take the capital. that is the idea. coming through the wilderness is not an idea to battle. andrew atkinson humphreys who

has absolutely no personality -- you just cannot joke with him. i like him. he is a really stoic guy. he would not get along with matt atkinson. he is going to come through this area and push the army through this area in one day. he has a plan to get over 3000 supply wagons with more ambulances and horses coming this area. the idea is to push through the wilderness as fast as possible. there are two descriptions to this is a modern picture along

the orange plank road. this gives you an idea of how thick the woods are. the trees are dense. one man said, at the brightest point of the day, you cannot see the forest floor because the foliage was so thick. 1864, it is unseasonably hot and dry. it is still tough to move through. one staff officer said, a large part of the region extending east and west into the south, nearly to spotsylvania, is called wilderness, a most

appropriate term, a land of exhausted soil supporting dances -- dense growth. there are some spaces where our headquarters are marked. this is not a place to launch an offensive. visit be a perfect place to have a defensive battle, not an offense of battle. the infantry is going to describe this as, the wilderness is generally bear in, covered with -- is generally barren, covered with scrub growth. that is an idea of what the wilderness is going to look like. what grant intends to do is move into the wilderness to try and sweep down from brandy station, cross the river, turn west, and try to do battle somewhere near orange courthouse. while, at the same time, going around in old fortification . the optimal timetable is one day -- going around and old fortification line. the optimal timetable is one day. robert e. lee can see from

clark's mountain all the way up to brandy station. as they start to move, robert e. lee decides to notify their numbers -- nullify his numbers by moving some into the woods itself. marching along parallel routes -- modern-day route 20, leading general ewell onto the battlefield, and orange plank road will lead the other one out. word will be sent down to longstreet 27 miles away. his job is to get on the battlefield as quickly as possible and as soon as the army is together, possibly go on the offensive. he gives one of his great missives. who picked a fight? hill and heth?

they are going to do the same thing. they are going to start taking on some union calvary.

then, a regimen of the pennsylvania reserves. then, a fight at a road intersection in the wilderness. the idea is that whoever controls the intersection controls the inside track towards richmond. robert e. lee can try to bend the army of the potomac back against the river. that is the idea for grant. it is going to be a race. that is a race that will be one by the union forces. that will be won by the union forces. fighting will take place on that parallel route along the orange turnpike. richard ewell is going to have one of the best fights of any confederate general you will

see. he will put up a very stout defensive line and hold it for two days. hill's men will be waiting for james longstreet. 27 miles in one day is a herculean task. now they need to march to a battlefield, and the battle itself did not kick off until the late morning. longstreet is going to be pressing to get onto the field but not as quickly as some of his detractors think. in the morning on may 5, the fighting had been taking place

-- on may 6, grant is going to try to destroy the confederate third corps. he is learning that his best commander is winfield hancock. it is not that he is audacious or brave, he does one thing that seems to be eluding the other high commanders, and he can follow in order and attack. that is what we are going to see on the orange plank road. on the morning of may 5, hancock is going to have three corps under his command could these are some of the old men from the iron brigade. may 6, they are going to try to make up for a bad day. hancock is going to use the second corps and use that one division from george getty. there is supposed to be another name on this map, burnside. burnside, who was ordered onto the field to start marching at 2:00 in the morning, says, i

will move. he says, ok, i will move it to: 30. -- ok, i will move act 2:30 -- ok, i will move at 2:30. it is going to be bushwhacking on a grand scale third that is what the men are going -- it is going to be bushwhacking on a grand scale. that is what the men are going to call it. he had been behind a tree, the confederate on the other side, he shot the man dead, and walked up to his body. officers are going to fall at an alarming rate on both sides and what i attribute that to is the fact that during civil war battles, you are going to lead from the front and if you can only see 20 yards the first menu c is going to be that officer and that is going -- that is who is going to go down to so, the fighting will take place. as this fighting starts to erupt, the confederate third corps is going to rupture, break apart.

it is going to be one of those dramatic scenes. robert e. lee is going to be back behind a line of about 14 canons. -- cannons. he is going to hear the irruption on the frontline -- the irruption on the front -- the eruption on the frontline. the night before the action, these confederates were not permitted to make defensive lines. the two generals on the field who were supposed to be putting up --

putting up earthworks, the measly earthworks along orange plank road, are henry heth and hill and wilcox. hill is sick. heth and wilcox won't think out-of-the-box. lee wanted his men to think outside the box. the two men go back to hill, asking, "can we build defensive lines?" he said, "no, longstreet will be up here." they go back three separate times. hill finally yells at heth to go away. he tells the story about riding around for two hours, looking for robert e. lee, when the truth is lee's headquarters is a few yards away from hill. he can't find headquarters. this is what ewell does along the orange turnpike. we have a man here behind him, a photographer, showing how

formidable the earthwork is. nice earthenworks overlooking the field. he set the sign to dig in. it was because of poor planning by engineers. the line holds once it is rectified. down along orange plank road,

you can see the large pimple, showing scant earthworks going on along here. wilcox and heth don't build it. heth believes robert e. lee never forgave wilcox and meade for the blunder. he said the division commander should have his division prepared to receive an attack. his response to robert e. lee was this asinine comment. "that is certainly so, but we must also obey the positive orders of his superiors." general lee made no reply. this was his way of rebuking.

he wouldn't speak to you for days if he got mad. for him to sit and stare at you silently meant he was really mad. he had a fantastic temper. alexander will say on one occasion, "the old man has a wicked mood today." he has a pretty good temper. general lee made the reply. he knew that a splendid opportunity had been lost, one that would never occurred again. what he was talking about is the fact that, since the third corps doesn't hold, longstreet needs to march in and save the day. he can't make a counter attack and preplan the battle, like gettysburg. now, longstreet, who is marching

to the field, will start hearing sounds. longstreet has been marching cross-country to get to the widow tapp field, the first area of action on the battlefield for longstreet's corps. his men will arrive in this sector, the orange plank road. this is known as the widow tapp field. it is rented by 59-year-old catherine tapp. she lives in a very modest home along the orange plank road. she is renting it from mr. lacy, who owns the elwood plantation. she will eventually buy a small portion of the battlefield in october 1891, or her daughter will in 1891, for the grand total of $62.

these people are what we would consider at the time the epitome of poor white trash. the tapps, this is their house. this is what the house would look like in 1865. it is modest. this is phenie tapp, and this is ralph happel, an early historian. he will meet with phenie, and he has some fantastic stories about her that i cannot talk about on television. some of the things she said about what happened in this area, it is like the clampetts. catch me later, i will tell you off camera. it is interesting. this is phenie, four years old at the time.

she remembered hearing about her mother, complaining that there were some bad men in blue, and they needed to be whipped. she thought the men were throwing pebbles into the well, because that is what she got whipped for. turns out they have no shoes. they run into orange plank road on may 5, and run down the road. she sees one of the fifth new york cavalrymen out there, wounded. she said he went to take a drink from a canteen, and the contents came out of his throat. she thought he had two mouths. he is walking, bloody and barefoot, a mark on her memory. this is what the line from the confederate artillery position near where polk's battalion of artillery was. as the third corps line starts to break, lee looks out into the woods and sees masses of men running towards him, breaking completely. he sees macgowan leading the

south carolina brigade. he says, "the men are running like a flock of geese." macgowan says all that needs to be done is to find a place to rally, and they will fight as well as ever. chris will talk about them. this is an unlucky unit if you fought at fredericksburg. they got jumped by general meade in fredericksburg. they lost five commanders in 10 minutes. they came out here, get routed, and have to fight in spotsylvania. they didn't want to be part of the battlefield here. longstreet decides that he will get his men into action as fast as possible. longstreet, on the morning of may 6, started his march around 2:00 a.m. he is crossing country, not taking roads, going as quickly as possible. he has a guide, a local sherrif, who came out to help him. i like to think about in terms of movies, whenever i read

descriptions of the sheriff, he reminds me of buford t justice from "smokey and the bandit," jackie gleason. it is like him and junior, showing longstreet where to go. they are getting him lost for a short while. they finally get him on track. they arrive at parker store, set

up as a field hospital. it is right here at the intersection with orange plank road. longstreet, one of his men said in the text, breaking instantly into a double quick movement, pressed on towards the plank road. half a mile away, an order came to report with the texas brigade as soon as possible to general lee. "we found confusion, such as we had never witnessed before in lee's army. standing in moving wagons, horses and mules threading their way through the tangled mass. hundreds of men in the division were being driven from the line." he writes after the battle, looking at the sun coming up over the wilderness, the men

coming back, he is inspired. he is coming up to save the day. looking back, he says, there is the son of austerland. he is already thinking big, coming up on the battlefield. as longstreet's men come up, they chastise the men from the first, from the third corps. "do you belong to general lee's army? you are worse than bragg's men." a big slight. he is a new commander. he was wounded at chickamauga. he is heading the texas brigade, coming onto the field with lee at the front. here is longstreet hanging out in the back. up comes the brigade. they see the confederates fleeing to the rear.

lee is very excited. one man said, "he was very off this day." one man described, "i have seen general lee, but never did i see him so excited, so disturbed. never did anxiety manifest itself so plainly upon his countenance." he was almost moved to tears. lee's men are trying to send word back, "where is longstreet?" finally, they look down the road at the mass of men going to the rear. the only thing between the army of northern virginia and 14 guns of the battalion. they are firing into the masses of their own retreating men.

then they see a compact mass, eight ranks across. that is going to be the entire first corps, both divisions, coming onto the field. longstreet, knowing the crisis, swung both divisions side-by-side, knowing he would have to go into action. this is forethought, thinking on

the fly, something longstreet has never been given credit for. this is something you hear about from stonewall jackson, but longstreet is ready to go into action. lee sees john gregg, asks what brigade it is. they scream back, "texas," and he knows that is the only unit in the first corps he has from texas. don't forget the razorbacks from

arkansas. "i am glad to see it," he yells. "when you go in there, i wish you would give those men the cold steel. you will never move unless you charge them. the texas brigade has always driven the enemy. i want you to do it now, and tell them, general, they will fight under my eye. i will watch them, and watch their conduct. i want every man to know that i am here and i am with them." an awe-inspiring scene. you see these men pouring from the field, and you have robert e. lee riding with you into action. they realize, robert e. lee is riding into action with us. this isn't a good idea. he's the brains of the operation.

some men try to turn traveller, get him out of the way. a man grabs the the reins. when it comes about, lee has to be pressed to the rear to say we won't go forward without you.

it is like taking on a bandbox regiment. his men charge up, counterattack. they drive them back. on the south of the road, hennigan's brigade and humphreys' brigade go forward. it is a firefight. one man from the south carolina brigade claims he saw more dead and wounded in front of him than he had at fredericksburg. that is how close in this fighting will be. that says a lot about the severity. this is what the woods would look like. the men would be fighting to the north and south side of the road. this is a tough battlefield to be on, for command and control, to see your men. commanders will start falling left and right. some of the commanders will fall in the woods. this is where denning went forward through here, wounded in the shoulder as he engages baxter's brigade. he is also wounded. it will be a melee, a terrible battle.

commanders followed. james nance, a 28-year-old commander of the third south carolina, goes down. his is one of the few monuments in the wilderness. this was placed in 1912. he went to the south carolina military academy, known today as the citadel. 224 graduates fought during the war from the citadel, 209 for the confederacy. nance will be wounded, shot in the head, but it is so confusing. his second in command doesn't know for two hours that nance is down and he has command. you can't see your line. it is breaking up. you can see small fragments. the command and control is breaking apart.

the third south carolina, under frank gaillard, he graduated first in his class in 1849 from university of south carolina. he will have two kids prior to the war. unfortunately, because of the war, they become orphans. his wife dies prior to the war. gaillard is mortally wounded, and dies a few hundred yards behind his line. his son becomes a doctor and moves to texas. his daughter marries the son of preston brooks. the federal six corps is the only one able to hold on. longstreet's counterpunch presses forward, forward. the union army bungles a move by shifting a brigade. gates shifted into the road, and from here, kershaw goes forward.

this is where he earned his general, his major general star. he was a lion on the battlefield. longstreet's men stabilize the line, after two hours of heavy fighting. three officers come together and find an unfinished railroad cut that ran along the orange plank road. parallel to it, roughly. there, they decide to launch an audacious flank attack. four brigades go into the action late in the afternoon of may 6. they catch the union army in the flank, and smash them in the front, like stonewall jackson at chancellorsville. in the melee, longstreet, heth, wofford and another officer, ride forward and they ride in front of some of their own men. they ride forward and the virginia infantry wheels back to the brigade. they come face-to-face with their own brigade, but can't tell that they are confederates. and they fire.

they can't tell that they are their own men. into the middle rides longstreet. longstreet is hit in the right of his throat. the ball exits through his right shoulder. he is wounded, a grievous looking wound. jenkins, the south carolina general officer, will be shot through the temple. he dies a few hours later, barely clinging to life. the wilderness, his wounding site is available to visit. it is still heavily wooded. this is the road that would lead longstreet to his ultimate goal, the brock road-plank road

intersection. if they take that, the confederates can turn north, turn grant's flank, and take the initiative away. that is what lee tries to do. unfortunately, longstreet is second in command, and is felled by friendly fire. lee himself becomes a commander, and goes for broke trying to take the intersection. he fails. he makes massive attacks, frontal attacks. they will break through the union lines, but they are unable to take it. this is what the intersection looks like today. you have to find a successor for longstreet. a few men were up for it. field showed he did not have the propensity for command. jubal early is the ironic choice, he and longstreet hate each other. the first corps staff pushed for anderson, a third corps division commander. longstreet is replaced, as he is taken to the rear towards lynchburg, where he is taken to convalesce from his wound. longstreet is knocked out of action at the height of the moment.

so is stonewall jackson. these two men had immediate impact on the battles, but the impact on the war, i think longstreet is more impactful. looking at the wounding sites, we have the visitors center, where you can see a movie about the great battle, jackson's battle at chancellorsville. he used to be dedicated to him. the stonewall jackson wounding walking tour, you can go to longstreet's wounding spot, but you can't park for more than 30 minutes. there are three signs, one of which is devoted to longstreet. jump forward, jackson and lee, art everywhere, all the time. look at the last battle he fought, jackson and lee together, we have artwork everywhere. we have lee and jackson describing and discussing how to go into action. we have the awful movie where they ride forth like the

magnificent seven, going down the road. i love the fact that they put jackson's pistol in his hand. he couldn't draw his sword at cedar mountain, but he is going to ride down the road with a pistol in his hand? anyway, this is what it looks like. look at all these paintings. this is saying a lot about the way people perceive stonewall jackson. going to the widow tapp field, there are no monuments to longstreet. we look at the three, the only three sketches, longstreet is not really in it. this is supposed to be longstreet, or it could be john gregg. this is a bad rendition of lee. you have longstreet riding up behind him. this is his second in command, who saved the army. whenever they go forward towards spotsylvania courthouse, lee doesn't have a second in command.

it will be a terrible blow to the confederacy. here is one sign where longstreet fell by friendly fire. i talked with chris about the ides of may. we wrote an article about this. it was a bad time to be a confederate general in the army of north virginia. johnson goes down. but that is a good thing. then you have jackson, and now we look here. i want you to think about the impact of jackson's wounding. jackson when he goes down to chancellorsville, the battle ends a few days later.

lee has a period where he can plan and reorganize. he marches north. when longstreet goes down, in the midst of battle, they are taking on a different opponent. the opponent is keeping the throttle down. when longstreet goes down, lee has to make the decision to put anderson in charge, and that evening, they are already starting the march towards spotsylvania courthouse. there is no time to reorganize, to find someone suitable and competent. anderson does a pretty good job, but he is no longstreet. when lee enters the wilderness, this is what his staff looks like. when he leaves the wilderness, think about this. longstreet is in georgia, wounded. ewell is relieved of command. hill is sick. j.e.b. stuart is dead. by the end, he is on the b list of generals. he sits on his cot screaming, "they need to strike a blow." longstreet is not there. longstreet is not there to tell them not to do it. ewell is no longstreet. ewell says, "we can hold the line." twice, ewell is proven incorrect. to grant, there was no turning back.

taking the intersection and holding it, and the fall of longstreet, has a huge impact on the confederate army. i will close with two quotes, one from a union perspective, one from a confederate. from the union perspective, holding that road, losing longstreet, this is the impact. "it has of longstreet failure to take the intersection, if grant's armies attained a grip on the throat of the confederacy, it is a grip that will not be relaxed until treason, and death." edward parry has a different take.

this is a confederate general. think about this when i finish. think about jackson, longstreet, and what both their wounding had meant. perry says, "the evil genius of the south is still there, hovering over those desolate woods, where we almost seem to be struggling with destiny and self." i want to thank you folks for coming out today. if you have questions, chris will be around with a microphone. thank you for being part of the third annual emerging civil war symposium. buy chris' book. [applause] >> questions for my colleague. yes. >> you mentioned longstreet is wounded. he originally was a command [indiscernible] what shift occurs where he is in a position down there with longstreet? >> jenkins is a personal favorite of longstreet. he wants jenkins to have a brigade command. he is brought out to chattanooga

to try to fill a role, and at brown's ferry, he fails miserably. he and long get into arguments. long charges, and he is with the army here, but not commending a brigade. i'm trying to talk to you, but i can't. but he is going to be the pet he is trying to get into division command. it got so bad in the winter of 1863 and 1864 between longstreet and his general that they had to waive charges against a couple people because it was becoming stonewall jackson-like in pettiness, talking about the jackson-hill fight they had, and lee had to step between. that is how jenkins gets put in there. mica jenkins, his brigade is marching up right behind, they will be the reserve. according to one officer, they were in brand-new uniforms. they were very dark, black. they'll most looked blue.

-- they almost looked blue. when they were marching through the woods, one of the virginians fired on longstreet column. they think it was because jenkins' men looked like yankees. the was,uestion >> -- what regiments were with jenkins? we can check for you after the talk. other questions? ok, south carolina. very good. --this morning's lecture aght not have been under confederate commander. what is your opinion of him overall. as jackson. as good

he does not have is good publicity as you saw. and again ist time going to prove himself unable commodity. the probably run into is when he goes -- he starts the fight with bragg. he seems to be a petty, jealous guy. that carries over into some of the interpretations. if james longay street says that it is probably not true. i think it's wholly unfair. some people say he is a defensive minded one. but if you look in the weapon is, the guy can deliver a hammer like blow. whenever he delivers that hammer like blow, he can also be put on the defensive in fredericksburg. he was the double threat. he was not a triple threat. he's not a good independent commander. that is where jackson outshined him. jackson is a poor defensive

commander and a good offensive commander. they balance each other out. jackson can be held off the leash. >> there is a good reason why you should buy the book. brigade. sixth south carolina in the palmetto sharpshooters. all this and more in the order of battle. [laughter] do we have time for one more question? mr. chris gentlemen, white. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> you are watching american history to be all weekend every weekend on c-span 3. to join the conversation like us on facebook at c-span history. >> coming up next, author alison kibler looks at images of irish americans and african americans

used in popular culture, as well as the backlash to the book "the klansmen," the basis for the movie "birth of a nation." >> hello. good evening. thank you so much for being here. i am the deputy director of affairs for the kansas city public library. it seems all you need to do these days is turn on the television, and you can quickly hear what alison kibler talk about what we will talk about tonight, hate speech. reality television to the nightly news, we see examples in the headlines that show that hate speech is alive and well in our country. some would argue hate speech has a long and difficult history and our country, but also has a long way to go for improvement. others say it pits equality and free speech against each other.

alison's book is examining how our society has changed since the early 20th century to verbally recite, the country we live in, one nation, under all. hate speech is a complex issue and i am proud to be part of the kansas city public library, a place where, every day, offers a forum and an opportunity to engage and examine complicated issues, and debates, especially about free speech and the quality. it is what a library is designed to do. alison kibler's book is a great place to start. she is a professor of american studies and women's and gender studies at franklin and marshall, can -- currently at work on another project that is focused on second wave feminists and television reform.

particularly, their use of the federal communications commission's fairness doctrine, pressing television stations to improve the representation of women and feminism. please help me welcome alison kibler. [applause] dr. kibler: i want to thank the library for inviting me. i am from relatively far away, lancaster, pennsylvania. when i mentioned i have the privilege of coming here, my colleagues had heard about how wonderful the kansas city public library is, so you do have a great institution here. to show that this topic is relevant today, i want to start by asking you to take a short quiz. it is about some controversies surrounding hate speech in the news. it is a very short matching quiz.