father kicked off last year's symposium with a typically vigorous speech knotting gustav tutant beauregard. he did not do a great job and he did not finish high in the vote. that is the basic concept for this symposium. the talks you will hear today are speeches nominating candidates for the person of the year of 1862. the person who most influenced events. at the end of the day we will pass out ballots and you will get to vote. as i was last year, i am very pleased that so many of you came to an all day symposium without even knowing who the lecture topics were going to be. and that c-span is interested in not only recording the symposium but broadcasting it live. yes, we are live, without knowing the subjects of the lectures. we thought that not divulging the nominees in advance would enhance the suspense. and you've confirmed this with your attendance today. we thank you for trusting us to arrange an interesting and worthwhile program and are confident that you won't be disappointed. the person who won last year's vote was abraham lincoln, which surprised a lot of people. abraham lincol

jennings who were squabbling from different states had assembled 40,000 men under generals bragg and beauregard. my hero william sherman my maternal grandmother claimed ancestry to albert sydney johnston. i grew up hearing in the morning that william sherman was a monster and johnston was a saint. it has always been in my mind as well as the death oft victor hanson in okinawa. i had a personal relationship with these battles. when the battle was over two and a half days later the world took note. this was the first mass battle with rifled musketry. there were more casualties than all the bat unless the history of the american republic up to that time put together. 24,000 casualties and at least almost 2,000 killed. this is child's play compared to the wilderness or antietam or gettysburg. but at this period it was shocking. what the south tried to do with this army was to go up the tennessee river, reclaim the border states and go into southern ohio and threaten cincinnati. they almost did it. sunday morning they got this army. no one thought they could do it. johnston brought it within a few h

it was beauregard's fault. it was hardy's fault. there was one person who was nobody's fault. it was nathan bedford forrest who was the bravest man on the battlefield. he was made brigadier and given command in the tennessee theater. and for the next three years he was quickly came in the words of sherman that devil forrest. and he embodied the lightning mobile raids of southern cavalry. he tied down 10,000 union trohi. he cripped the assault on atlanta. and unlike the rest of the southerners he never surrendered to a union army. he said i'm going in the -- after the war the slave owning class had lost there was one man, a pop ewe list who embodied the average working southerner who never lost and was defiant and became. and during the period of reconstruction in 1866 and 1867 there was a suspension of habeas corpus. and no one defined this better than forrest. the man who almost single handedly on a horse kept the southern cause alive. look what he said. this is in 1867 with a foundation of the ku klux klan. they would have been like any other failed white group. the order of

in wisconsin, jimmy the groundhog predicted an early spring, as did general beauregard lee.ck didn't see his shadow either. don't even get me started on connecticut chuckles. he said winter is cancelled entirely. not since how much wood could a woodchuck chuck, there -- so with all these contradictory groundhog predictions, what are we supposed to believe? i would be inclined to go with punxsutawney, but i would ask an expert. >> if you believe a rodent, i have something else to tell you. >> i listened closely to nose top hatters, it's not necessarily whether we see the shadow, it's if the rodent sees the shadow. >> gobblers knob. this is actually another time honored tradition where meteorologists imitate bill murray in "ground hog day." >> this is pitful, 1,000 people, freezing their butts off waiting to worship a rat. this is one time where television really fails to capture the true excitement of a large squirrel predicting the weather. >> meteorologists of america take heart. maybe nobody puts on top hats or drinks predawn which is whisky when you do your job. next year

the groundhog predicted an early spring, doesn't have quite the same ring to it, as did general beauregardand chuck didn't see his shadow either. staten island chuck, really? don't even get me started on connecticut chuckles. he said winter is cancelled entirely. not since how much wood could a woodchuck chuck has there been so much confusion. so with all of these contradictory predictions, what are we supposed to believe. i would be inclined to go with punxsutawney phil, but i'd ask an expert. >> if you believe a rodent, i have something else to tell you. i listened to closely to the top hatters, and it's not necessarily whether we see the shadow, it's if the rodent sees the shadow. >> gobblers knob. this is actually another time honored tradition where meteorologists imitate bill murray in "ground hog day." >> once again, the eyes of the nation have turned here to this tiny village in western pennsylvania, blah, blah, blah. this is pitiful. 1,000 people freezing their butts off waiting to worship a rat. this is one time where television really fails to capture the true excitement of a la

in georgia, cloudy skies get general beauregard lee from seeing his shadow. his prediction, an early spring. >>> u.s. troops are going to stop their active combat part of the mission in after. that is happening next year. that is what defense secretary leon panetta told reporters on a flight to europe just a few hours ago. no more combat. a shift to training, helping afghan forces to get ready to take the lead in their own country. so let's talk some numbers real quick. today, there are almost 90,000 american troops deployed in afghanistan. the withdrawal plan is to cut that by 68,000 by the end of this year. at the same time the afghan security force is getting bigger. it should be more than 350,000 troops strong this year. want to go straight to the pentagon. barbara starr, she is there, and barbara, explain to us what this means on the ground. the time line that panta is describing. is it any different than what we've heard before, this initial plan that he laid out? >> reporter: well, you know, yes and no. like so many things. a lot of military politics,

beauregard lee in georgia, he didn't see his shadow, early spring and staten island, they have theire they are arguing against that. definitely wintertime there. across eastern europe we're seeing a deadly cold in some cases. across the ukraine, 31 people died because of the cold. over 700 injured and in hospital because of cold there. poland, through turkey. some snow there, and the cold persists all through germany and even italy as well so this is a nasty, nasty cold snap for those folks, and it looks to continue. a little bit closer to home. cold air out to the west as well, and a storm is developing across the four concerns and colorado. we're starting to see it now as far as the radar is concerned here. lighter snow is in the money taps, but as time goes by here in the next 24 to 48 hours, we've got a storm that's going to dump at least 12 inches if not more across the high plains. blizzard warnings now that have been posted for eastern colorado and parts of kansas and western parts of nebraska, and the impact for this will be later tonight and through the day tomorrow. there's