bob krick said during his session on the phone with the c-span audience, they were getting questions from across the country. i think it is a great way to reach our wonderful audience with the great series of historians. so there we have it. two of the five. we have stonewall jackson and frederick douglass. let's go have lunch. lunches are in order of alphabet. look for your name and i hope you know how to spell it. we will reconvene here at 12:40 to get restarted with jim mcphearson. >> american history tv on c-span 3. we are bringing you coverage from the library of virginia in richmond with a look at the person of the year 1862. the premise is if "time" magazine was around in 1862, who would they choose as person of the year. we heard from robert krick and david blight. david blight choosing frederick douglass for his choice of person of the year 1862. robert krick chose thomas stonewall jackson. we will open up our phone lines here to take your calls so you get a chance to talk to david blight momentarily. if you are on east coast, the number is 202-585-3885. mountain and pacific

krick. bobhe elder was for more than 30 years chief historian at the fredericksburg and spotsylvania national military park and in that capacity was extremely active as a researcher, a writer, a speaker, and especially as one of the country's leading battlefield reservati preservationists. in his so-called retirement and so-called retirement bob will never retire, he has continued his research and writing and occasional speaking. we are very pleased to have him with us here today to make the first nomination. bob krick. [ applause ] >> the years do move right along. for many decades, my son, a young historian, was introduced as my son. now, almost inevitably, i'm introduced as his father. so these things come and go and change. i was instructed by my longtime friend john coskey that it would be a good idea if i maintained some suspense about who my nominee was. ed bart and others used that ploy last year and john thought it worked well. i don't see, however, how i can do that. as i look around,

bob kricks, hero, and he had 25 votes and i am here to pronounce that robert e. lee with 71 votes was promoted from the king of spades to the ace of spades. robert e. lee is the man of year for 1862, and i'd like to thank all of you for coming and please get home safely. >> so the winner at the library in virginia in richmond for person of the year is the selection of robert e. lee as person of the year 1862. again, the nominees today were from robert krick, who is the chief historian of fredericksburg for 30 years, david blight of yale nominated frederick douglas who came in third, nominated by james macpherson came in first and he was dead last in the voting in virginia and we congratulate professor thomas and we'll open up the phone line again for our viewers. professor thomas, you earn a big trophy or a big prize? no, i got a handshake for the director of the museum of the confederacy. >> we have callers waiting to talk to you. you talked a little bit about this in your nomination for robert e. lee. when general lee turned down the command of the union army i

like bob krick, he's becoming known as the father of another civil war historian, dr. clay mountcastle, a product of class of '94. clay is the author of "punitive war." i had pleasure of reading that book early and plugging it for the book seller. it's a fabulous read. i recommend it to all of you. but a lot of local folks know that jack mountcastle retired from the u.s. army as a brigadier general. fewer people know that he also earned his ph.d. in history so i never have known whether to call him dr. general or general doctor. but ladies and gentlemen, here's jack mountcastle and did i remember to tell you that he's a product of vmi? [ applause ] >> i agree with the applause. i think he did a superb job. we just keep training him year and year out. he's getting better and better at these all-important introductions. goodness. mid afternoon and you're all still here. i think that's great. john, great job. excellent. [ applause ] like everyone else who has had the privilege of nominating a person of the year for 1862, i'm very, very pleased to be here with you and like

it was the climatic event in the series of union victories that winter and spring that bob krick talked about this morning. the fall of new orleans at the end of april was the climatic event in a series of event of union victories that winter and spring which dampened the french emperor's pro-confederate sympathies. there is little more said just now about the proprighty of early recognition of the south. his early orders after capturing new orleans, take advantage of the panic to push a strong force up the river and take all their defenses in the rear. you will also reduce the fortifications which defend moeb mobile bay and turn them over. a tall order indeed as future events would demonstrate. faragate preferred to attack b moble before going up the mississippi. but his orders specified priority for opening the river before attacking mobile. so he informed wells in early may, i have sent seven gun boats up the river to keep up the panic as far as possible. the large ships, i fear, will not be able to go higher than baton rouge. in fact, as we'll see in a moment, they did go much highe

bob krick said, by the way, what they're doing now is taking questions from all across the country on the c-span audience. and bob said during his session on the phone with a c-span audience, they were getting questions quite literally from all across the country. i think it's a great way to reach a wonderful audience with a great series of historians. so there we've got it. we've got two of the five, stonewall jackson and frederick douglasss. let's go have lunch. i would remind you that your lunches are in order of alphabet. so look for your name and i hope you know how to spell it. we will reconvene here at exactly 12:40 to get restarted with jim mcpherson. on american history tv on c-span3, we're bringing you all-day coverage from the library of virginias in rich monday with a look at the person of the year, 1862. the prem if "time" magazine had been around in 1862, who would they have selected as pair person of the year. so far we've heard from two historians, robert krick and david blight. you heard david choosing frederick douglasss as his choice for person of the year 1862 and