we are standing on the historic richmond lynchburg stage road which was a critical part of general lee's retreat on april 8 and april 9, 1865. many people wonder why general lee wasi/w even heading toward appomattox court house after leaving lynchburg and petersburg on april 2nd 1865. the idea was he was going to concentrate his army at amelia courthouse and link forces with general johnston in north carolina. general grant was a bit different than former generals of the union army and he blocked general lee's line of retreat, thus general lee had to continue further west, searching for rations and hoping to get around grant's army. the next place general lee could gather supplies was about three miles from us here at appatomattox station. supplies had been brought over from lynchburg to feed general lee's army. it's everything the army really needed. hundreds of thousands of rations, new uniforms equipment, and that's where they're heading for on april 8 after leaving cumberland church on the night of april 7. general lee's advance is led by confederate reserve artillery under general r

we are standing on the richman --- richmond-lynchburg stage road part of the retreat on april 8 and nine 1860 five. people wonder why it lee was heading towards appomattox courthouse after leaving richman and petersoburg. the idea was to concentrate his army at a million courthouse and linked forces in north carolina. he blocked general lee's line of retreat and generally had to continue west searching for rations and hoping to get around grant's army. the next place generally could gather supplies was three miles from here at appomattox station. supplies have been brought over from lynchburg, everything the army needed, hundreds of thousands of rations, new uniforms, and that is where they are heading for april 8 after leaving cumberland church on the night of april 7. generally's advance is led by confederate reserve artillery. they go into camp about a mile from appomattox station, on the afternoon of april 8. in general custer's calvary captures the supplies and then encounters the reserve artillery and fights for about four hours the battle of appomattox station. a unique battle and

we're once again standing on the richmond lynchburg stage road. before me is an artillery piece that signifies where the last artillery shots were fired on the morning of april 9. also in front of me is the home of george pierce, the county clerk. and on the evening of april 11, 1865 he had general joshua chamberlain who had set up his tent in his yard. and at this dinner, chamberlain brought coffee, something pierce hadn't had in well over a year. and over the course of the dinner conversation, pierce undoubtedly learned that chamber land was in charge of the surrender ceremony for the confederate infantry on the morning of april 12. chamberlain has his men lining this road from the lee/grant meeting site all the way to the mcclain house on april 12 at about 5:00. his men are out here for several hours before the confederates approach. and they start leaning on their rifles talking amongst themselves but as the troops approach, they have their attention. they straighten up. and he calls out shoulder arms lift the rifles from the ground to this po

live coverage on american history tv, as we see soldiers beginning to walk by on the richmond-lynchburg road. what was the long-term physical and mental and societal a fact of the injuries, mental and physical, by soldiers? what was the impact will be on the civil war? david: the impact on soldiers was absolutely profound and on a scale of almost no other war we experienced. there were hundreds of thousands of civil war veterans on both sides. thousands came out of this war with what today we would call posttraumatic stress, combat fatigue. there are recent books out on that. what a my former students brian jordan has a book called "marching home," which is a withering story of union veterans and what they experienced in terms of sickness and disease and alcoholism and the inability to get jobs. the estimate is, in the union army alone, among union veterans alone, there were 30,000 amputees that lived out their lives in one way or another. these men could not get jobs. this was in the 19 century. the united states had nothing resembling social security veterans associations. there was n

house on april 9, general grant's generosity to general lee and his men and the events on the richmond-lynchburg stage road during the stacking of arms set a positive course for the nation and allow for a stronger country to emerge. please pay us a visit or make a special pilgrimage to visit our site. >> you can watch this or other programs at any time by visiting our website. >> next, a discuss and only challenges catholic immigrants have faced in america as well as their efforts to adapt to their sometimes unwelcoming homeland. this conference is about 90 minutes. julia young: i am a professor here and in interested in migration to the united states and involvement of the u.s. catholic church. i am excited to be moderating our second panel on culture and religious life where we will talk about the similarities and differences between late 19th and early 20th century and the migration happening today in regards to -- the last panel focused on legislation and policy. now we will be focusing on the experience of catholics and the catholic church at the grassroots as different waves of immigrants

the tavern served travelers on the richmond to lynchburg stage road as it had for decades.rancis meeks ran a common general store across the lawn from the tavern right behind you. he also served he did, as the village's postmaster and pharmacist. one thing rendered appomattox different than many villages. it was the county seat. it's an undeniable curiosity that when in 1845, the virginia legislature created appomattox county and designated the county seat at this village then called clover hill. it's an undeniable curiosity that local leaders decided to build the jail before they built the courthouse. once the courthouse opened in 1846 appomattox commenced a distinct rhythm that persisted for decades. monthly court days brought life to this community once a month as citizens gathered from across the county to conduct business to run for office, to sell goods, to sell slaves. to witness court proceedings. it's likely and probably that the only world famous residents at that timec probably made appearances at court days here prior to the war. sheriff wilson went about his bu

the tavern served travelers on the richmond to lynchburg stage road as it had for decades.s ran a common general store across the lawn from the tavern right behind you. he also served he did, as the village's postmaster and pharmacist. one thing rendered appomattox different than many villages. it was the county seat. it's an undeniable curiosity that when in 1845, the virginia legislature created appomattox county and designated the county seat at this village then called clover hill. it's an undeniable curiosity that local leaders decided to build the jail before they built the courthouse. once the courthouse opened in 1846 appomattox commenced a distinct rhythm that persisted for decades. monthly court days brought life to this community once a month as citizens gathered from across the county to conduct business to run for office, to sell goods, to sell slaves. to witness court proceedings. it's likely and probably that the only world famous residents at that timec probably made appearances at court days here prior to the war. sheriff wilson went about his business in e

casey is a professor at lynchburg college and editor of the james dickey review and is english graduate director. a richmond native who grew up and appomattox county, he has editor of the multivolume "best creative nonfiction of the south," "texas review press" and a variety of other things. one of the editors of the encyclopedia of virginia, which is online. he's had a number of fellowships and received a number of awards. he has published over 100 works in anthologies and periodicals such as the sewanee review, the virginia quarterly review and so on. author of " confederados: a novel of the americas." the confederates that left the u.s. at the end of the war and went to brazil. i remember from 30 or 40 years ago reading an article about that. bill maybe wrote that and i have never heard of it and i got interested. i'm looking for to hearing his top. -- his talk. his talk today is entitled " confederados. casey clabough. [applause] professor clabough: thank you dr. coles. thank you all for being here and for inviting me. to extend the last speaker's eloquent comment about the end of the war being a time o