antietam is only half the size that it is now. acres are saved around gettysburg thanks to the federal government . we are losing 30 acres a day. we have cool animated maps. if you come across one that says the entire civil war in 27 minutes and you think it is stolen, i wrote that script. it is stolen from me. [laughter] garry: thanks for coming out tonight. i appreciate it. [applause] i don't remember when i started, but i think it was close to 50 minutes, so i will take it. let me leave you with a few parting shots. civil war soldiers were not stupid. they were using the most modern tactics available to them at the time. this morning just real north -- more industrial north and agricultural south was as real as it gets. for every southern worker, the north had an entire factory. the war in the east consisted of only a few big moments. they fought around washington and moved toward richmond, fought in antietam, back to gettysburg and slowed down toward richmond and petersburg. all of these battles in the east -- casualty, killed

this battlefield is different and antietam. it's different than chickamauga. it's different than perryville. it's different than shiloh. 51,000ttle, producing casualties in three days, is the bloodiest conflict in american history. the man in the slide is a soldier from the fifth massachusetts who was wounded in the fight at gettysburg. his name is john chase. he got hit at least 48 times. he loses his arm and his eye. era. unprecedented carnage. this should be a familiar photo. impact onowing the the civilians. over 10,000 horses and mules die .n this battlefield the men, union and confederate soldiers are very where they fell. ,hallow, trench graves something like this. when the fight is over, when the guns and the , are killed in the fight. they are left on the battlefield, as i mentioned, in graves like this where they are laid to rest. the northern pennsylvania to honor those who died so the nation might live. on a very cold pennsylvania fall of thee dedication national cemetery. linking comes up from washington, d.c. to deliver,pre. so, the history of th

it is all connected to antietam. he didn't know why. things got so bad he had to leave the regiment, check himself into a home in harpers ferry, his weight declined to 120 pounds. i'm still quite weak, my nerves are all unstrung and it requires an effort to make my pen go right. he received a letter from hala, but it appears she was unmoved by all the letters of antietam. this is beam writing back to hala. he has received a letter from her, we don't know the contents, but he's clearly unhappy. you won't hardly believe when i tell you one third of your letter october 4th is taken up by complaining that some of father's folks received a letter one day when you didn't happen to get one. now i'm willing for you to complain when you feel like it, but if you believe i tell the truth when i say i write two letters a week don't you think often enough and don't you think it would save you some labor in writing to leave your complaints out and make your letters that much shorter? i'm going to fast forward a little bit and simply say if you can im

maryland,in western pretty close to gettysburg and the antietam battlefield. as pete mentioned, i got the opportunity in 2002 as an undergraduate to do an internship here at gettysburg national military park. that summer, i spent 12 weeks on the battlefield, giving tours to thousands of people from around the country, and ultimately around the world. i was interested in history at that time, but i did not know that i wanted to be a civil war historian. turned intoernship eight more summers of working for the national park service at gettysburg, and ultimately defined my professional career. any undergraduates or high school students in the audience listening to this, do an internship. there is no experience like it. i was interested in gettysburg. i got my phd from auburn. i was talking to my dissertation ken, about it topic i wanted to write on. after your coursework, your dissertation should be the common knitting project of something original. i was sitting in his office one day, and i said, "i have an idea. i am going to do something on the battle of getty

this battle, this battlefield particularly is different than antietam. it's different than perryville. it's different than shiloh. this battle producing 51,000 casualties in three days is the bloodiest conflict in american history. the man in the slide is a soldier here from the fifth mass who was wounded, his name is john chase. he was wounded by exploding shrapnel. he loses his arm and eye in the process. 51,000 casualties making the battle of gettysburg the bloodiest of the american civil war. and for many men in the army of the potomac, gettysburg becomes the defining point in the civil war. this is the battle that defines their experiences. and you see that play out in the years after the civil war during the commemorative era. unprecedented carnage, this should be a familiar photo. this is the trossel farm. the impact on the civilians. over 10,000 horses and mules die here in this battlefield. the men union and confederate soldiers are buried where they fell. shallow trench graves. something like this. and finally after the fight is over, when the

chattanooga in 1890 antietam same year, shiloh in 1894, gettysburg becomes preserved or federal status at least on february 11, 1895 and i bet you know the individual who initiates or spearheads the legislation to make gettysburg a national military park. sex and the last is going to be vicksburg. now, we all, during the civil war institute talk about books you should read like i tell my students, i'm writing it down. read david blight's recent reunion. this is a beautiful conversation, an important conversation of how civil war battlefields or national memories are created and talks about reconciliation. battlefield that gettysburg tangible manifestations of reconciliation. so, the war department preserves the battlefield first and foremost as a memorial to the men who fought there. and, the battlefield, gettysburg particularly, the iconic union victory becomes a place where union veterans and confederate veterans can meet and you can see some of the historic photographs before and you know some of the stories, this is a photograph on e cemetery hill of union and confederate veterans,

antietam isn't the key battle. antietam gives the occasion to announce that preliminary proclamation, but it's the seven days and mcclellan's failure and mcclellan's retreat at the moment of potential victory that -- the potential of united states victory that convinced both lincoln and the congress that it's going to take a longer, harder war. it's going to put slavery on the table for the confederacy. once you do that, everything is on the table. you cannot overemphasize how big a shift that is in july of 1862. and that flows from a single military event, because the hell or the confederates momentarily, even in places that don't matter, like where i grew up. yes, henry sibley wandered up the rio grande, and then he wandered back. [laughter] gary: that didn't change the course of the war. the seven days did. and all the bad news in the west, within the civil war context, the theater between the mississippi and the appalachians. if mississippi had fallen, as it should have, that would've ended the war. that would'

the extraordinary embodiment and as a union officer in the civil war he barely escaped death at antietam when musket balls tore through his chest and neck meese missing his heart and his spine and carotid artery. pnc lincoln dodge enemy fire in the raid on washington as a boy he knew ralph waldo emerson is a family friend and remember a summer neighbor as a gruff and taciturn man traveling europe after the war and the father of virginia woolf and then became friends with henry james and brother william to become respectfully the novelist and philosopher of their generation to homes they were hairy and bill. also meeting john stuart mill churchill and washington bertram russell would stop by more than once you're taught philosophy a quiz show in the sixties pose the question which american met during his lifetime both john quincy adams and alger his? of course it was homes who had met six presidents of the united states and another family friend when he was five years old and when to employ the future soviet spy as the favorite law secretary in 1929 but the civil war was the touchstone. i

. -- fortugh we lost antietam is still specil. i volunteered and joined to united states army.e were still fighting all over the place. december.in paul joined up too. we fought all over virginia and spotsylvania,e in and i took a bullet in my left shoulder and i ended up in the hospital here in washington. you have to realize that almost every building was a hospital. i ended up at the armory hospital which took up about 2.5 acres near that smithsonian castle that you may have seen there. mythat time a fellow from home state of new york was the secretary of the smithsonian, a guy by the name of joseph henry. so i am there in the hospital and i am lucky because i still have all of my limbs. because a good one third of everybody in the hospital not come away with everything they went in with. part of the problem was that theydidn't have a -- didn't have a very sophisticated surgical system. there were only three things that they used back in those days. there was a hacksaw. there was a bottle of whiskey and a bullet. the bottle of whiskey was for the anesthesia. sometimes it wen

opposed to us citizens, at least from my experience that seems to be but if you go to places like antietam, you go right the burnside bridge because used to read about it with bruce cavins civil war history or when i went to san antonio for the first time. even when my train came in in the middle of the night around midnight i went right to the alamo, took a photograph of it with the full moon in the background because i grew up idolizing dede crockett. and i think there's a disconnect in american now. >> i agree that some of the mystique is gone from those nights. people who grew up with dede crockett and the alamo, it's a powerful experience. i think if you don't have that story and you don't have an understanding of what happened, the alamo is kind of this little theme in the middle of antonio, having been there. there's an interesting question there also about history and nature and whether they are related at all. i think they are. your appreciation of the natural world is also your appreciation of things that came before and are also part of the culture. may not be tangibly there. i

even though we lost 23,000 plus at antietam, it is still pressure.nd it would all be over. we would be doing fine again. but we got to 1863 and we were still fighting all over the place. i reupped in december. my baby brother paul joined up too. we fought all over virginia and in may of 1864, we were in spotsylvania, and i took a bullet in my left shoulder and i ended up in the hospital here in washington. when i say the hospital in washington, you have to realize that almost every building was a hospital. i ended up at the armory hospital which took up about 2.5 , acres near that smithsonian castle that you may have seen there. at that time, a fellow from my home state of new york was the secretary of the smithsonian, a guy by the name of joseph henry. so anyway, i am there in the hospital. i am lucky because i still have all of my limbs. because a good one third of everybody that was in the hospital did not come away with everything they went in with. part of the problem was they didn't have a -- they didn't have a very sophisticated surgical syste

it's important to to realize that part of the antietam campaign though technically a strategic defeat for the south, did include an operational victory it of high magnitude which is the capture of harpers ferry which would in the result jackson's doing. as i mentioned in the book, it was the capture of harpers ferry probably seven let if i'd that lead jackson trust. a professional level of trust because lee then realized this man actually can do it and i can rely in him. he had tried them out in previous campaigns did not do well in the seven days around richmond and his debut with lee. then he did very well at second and asses and there is a period of time in between where they try to captured a union army not because of jackson, that did not work out. now at the fall of harpers ferry jackson has proven to robert e. lee, that he can be relied upon indefinitely to achieve these theater ends. in the east therefore the confederacy is slightly winning the war. but in the west, pittsburgh is threatened and tennessee has been taken almost two thirds by union armies, and the united states t

and with that antietam battle to see what the reaction was. and lincoln knew what he was up to. and asked him the questions and to convey specific messages as the data had to get going but there were several letters to lincoln who was the abolitionist at one time proposed with outrage that blacks in the district of columbia being treated unfairly like in southern maryland that other than that very little dealings with lincoln i don't even know if lincoln even knew he got thousands of letters so the intelligence report those that got forwarded to washington very often and ended up at the war department and on lincoln's desk so he knew about sharp. keyword interrogate our officers to get a sense of what conditions were like out there. maybe he had been made aware that grant of course and greatly appreciated that after the war paid a visit and when union troops moved in, he ordered a contingent of the mansion so it would not be burned down. >> so those efforts were ridiculously impressive with those conditions so it seems a little odd to already be identified that the bad guy would

if you go to places like antietam, you go right to burnside bridge because you used to read about it with ruth histories or, war when i went to san antonio for the first time, even when my train came in in the middle of the night, i went right to the alamo and took a photograph of it with the full moon the background, because i idolized the park from davy crockett. i think there is a disconnect in america now. guest: i hate to agree that some of the mystique is gone from those sites. people who grew up with davy is aett and the alamo, it powerful experience to see the alamo. if you don't have that story and you don't have an understanding of what happens, the alamo is this thing in the middle of san antonio, having been there. there is an interesting question about history and nature, and whether they are related at all. i think they are. your appreciation of the natural world is your appreciation of things that came before and are thata part of the culture may not be tangibly there. i think an appreciation of the io go hand in hand, and, as said, statistics show attendance at nation

military thought in the civil war north and to field guide books of the battle of gettysburg and antietam. next on the line is edward ayres who is a professor of humanities and president of the university of richmond. the most recent publication is a thin line of freedom and in the heart of america, they won the 2018 lincoln prize. the louisiana state university and the author as you know most recently from the calculus of violence, how americans fought the civil war and to my far right is steve barry, gregory professor of the civil war era at the university of georgia the author and editor of six books lincoln and the family divided by war and a book of essays that had a significant impact of what goes on in the world titled wording the war stories from the civil war's ragged edges. here is the dust jacket and i'm proud to do so that all the images in this book were taken by my son, will gallagher who is a photographer in austin, texas. it was in a wonderful opportunity for willing me to spend a good deal of time together and it was a great joy to work on this book with him. i've gotten

there is a lot of debate, and folks like james pearson have discussed as to whether or not antietam itself was responsible for shutting the door, but it plays a huge role, you know, napoleon iii still has these vain hopes that maybe he can nudge the british to be supportive in some kind of intervention, but it is really hard to be on the side of the british, who abolished slavery in 1883, now that the war has been won to "end slavery," how do you introduce that into the part of the south? prof. fleche: there is some confusion about the emancipation proclamation because it did not free all slaves in the united states. some saw it as a hypocritical measure. it becomes clear that slavery is on the way out. it certainly has an impact on the public opinion, no doubt about that. >> john keegan at the end of his book about the civil war said we have never had a revolution in the united states because of the intensity of the national civil war and the exhaustion. what do germans another radical -- and other radicals think about after supporting the union, and more power wound up in the hands of th

there is a lot of debate, and folks like james pearson have discussed as to whether or not antietam itself was responsible for shutting the door for european recognition. but the emancipation proclamation and its issuance played a huge role. napoleon iii still has these vain hopes maybe he can nudge the british to be supportive of some sort of intervention, but it gets really hard to be on the side, if you're the british, who abolished slavery in 1983. now that the war will be to "end slavery," how do you introduce justify intervention on the part of the south? prof. fleche: there was some confusion about the emancipation proclamation, because it is not free all slaves in north america. some saw it as a hypocritical measure, just to win the war. there was no doubt, as the progress of emancipation progresses and it becomes clear slavery's on the way out, it certainly has an impact on european public opinion, no doubt about that. at the end of, his book about the civil war, said we never had a massive socialist revolution in the united states because of the intensity of the national civil wa

if you go to places like antietam, you go right to burnside bridge because you used to read about it histories or, war when i went to san antonio for the first time, even when my train came in in the middle of the night, i went right to the alamo and took a photograph of it with the full moon the background, because i idolized the park from davy crockett. i think there is a disconnect in america now. guest: i hate to agree that some of the mystique is gone from those sites. people who grew up with davy is aett and the alamo, it powerful experience to see the alamo. if you don't have that story and you don't have an understanding of what happens, the alamo is this thing in the middle of san antonio, having been there. there is an interesting question about history and nature, and whether they are related at all. i think they are. your appreciation of the natural world is your appreciation of things that came before and are thata part of the culture may not be tangibly there. i think an appreciation of the io go hand in hand, and, as said, statistics show attendance at national parks i