sherman, was a friend of braxton bragg in these days. you probably know that sherman was hired as the director of the institution that later evolved into louisiana state university. that was created in the late 1850s at alexandria, louisiana. bragg was on the board of directors. he was delighted that sherman was hired. he knew sherman from his pre, from the time when he was in the army. i get the impression that bragg thought his friendship with sherman was deeper than sherman thought because sherman was a little cold in some ways to him. there's a collection of half a dozen letters in the 1850s that bragg wrote to sherman and he's revealing his personal views of life. he's writing to sherman as a very close personal friend. the emphasis on those letters we need discipline. the south needs discipline. he was upset over these young turks who grew up in big wealthy plantation families and didn't take responsibility for working hard and wasting their family's living. the only thing that can save the south is discipline. i will argue this att

these understand, this book is not a whitewash of braxton bragg. his image among historians is too low. it needs to be balanced. my attitude was when i started this that if you look at bragg fairly it is inevitable that his stature will rise because he is starting from zero anyway. as far as most people are concerned. [laughter] -- they can be seen as a rehabilitative biography of bragg. at the same time, as i was talking earlier, you cannot afford to let the pendulum go all the way to the other side import trade bragg as the second robert e. lee or anything. he was not that. somewhere in the middle. nathan bedford forrest is the opposite situation. so much that any balanced biography would inevitably bring him down a few pegs. anyone who wrote a book like that would have to have state police escort when they drove across tennessee. i don't think i'll be doing that. [laughter] bragg i don't mind. i don't need to do that. well, one thing i arguing here, in terms of bragg's inability to win battles and campaigns, my gosh. how many other confederate ge

army of tennessee under the command of braxton bragg. we'll talk more about the armies as we go. it's a battle that was summed up by president abraham lincoln in the late summer of 1863 when he wrote to rosecrans, he says i cannot forget will i remember anything that at the end of the last year and the beginning of this you gave us a hard-earned victory that had it been a defeat instead the nation could have scarcely lived over it. . that's a huge statement and that makes the experience and the defense that rosecrans's army puts up at stones river to my mind one of the great defenses not just of the civil war but one of the great defenses in american history because one what are the two things that make a great defense? the first is context. the stakes, are the stakes high. the other aspect if there's a drama or sublime aspect to the defense. if you put the two factors together as i submit they are in stones river then off great defense not just of a conflict

they always fall back on what, it's either braxton bragg or george g. mccullen to get off their cheap jokes. those cheap jokes over time

, who is the butt of all jokes, they always fall back on what, either braxton bragg, or george b. mcclellan to get off their cheap jokes. but those cheap jokes

william stark rosecrans' 35,000 men against the confederate army of tennessee under the command of braxton bragg. i'll talk a little bit more about the armies here as we go. it was a battle summed up by president abraham lincoln in the late summer of 1863 when he wrote to rosecrans. he says "i cannot forget, whilst i remember anything that at the end of last year and the beginning of this, you gave us a hard-earned victory, that had it been a defeat instead, the nation could have scarcely lived over." that's a huge statement. and that makes the experience and the defense that rosecrans' army puts up at stones river to my mind one of the great defenses not just of the civil war, but one of the great defenses in american history, because what are the two things that make a great defense? the first is context, the odds, the stakes. are the stakes high? the other aspect is if there's some sort of drama, some sort of sublime aspect to the defense. and if you put the two factors together, as i submit that they are at stones river, then you have a truly great defense, not just of a conflict, but in som

and it was under the command of braxton bragg. we'll talk more about the armies here as we go. it's a battle that was summed up by president abraham lincoln in the late suppmmer of 1863. he says, i cannot forget, lest i remember anything, that at the beginning of last year and the beginning of this, you gave us a hard-earned victory. had it been a defeat instead, the nation would have scarcely been over. that makes the defense that rosecrans' army puts up at stones river, one of the great defenses in american history. what are the two things that make a great defense? the first is context. the stakes are high. and if there's some sort of drama or sublime aspect. if you put the two things together, you have a truly great defense. not just of a conflict, but in some ways, one for the ages. the escape from the near-death experience. the army of the cumberland endures one of the great death experiences of any large federal army, certainly to that point in the war, and only the war of gettysburg is near to it in terms of the death experience that the potomac has. how they do -- if y

designated as that in the battle and it is under william stark rose rosecrans under the command of braxton bragg and we'll talk more about the armies here as we go. it is a battle that was summed up by president abraham lincoln in the late summer of 1863 when he wrote to rose krans acrans a cannot forget that at the end of the last year and the beginning of this, you gave us a hard-earned victory that had it been a defeat instead, the nation could have scarcely lived over. that's a huge statement and that makes the experience and the defense that rosecrans' army puts up at stone's river, to my mind one of the great defenses and not just of the civil war and one of the great defenses in american history because what are the two things that make a great defense. the first is context, the odds and the stakes, and are the stakes high and the other aspect is if there's some sort of drama and sublime aspect to the defense and if you put the two factors together as i submit that they are at the stone's river then grew have a truly great defense not just of a conflict and in some ways, one for the ages

. >> reporter: look around the fort bragg history museum and you won't see much of braxton bragg. that's because this town was founded by lieutenant horatio gates gibson up from the presidio and he decided to name a fort after his commanding officer in the mexican-american war. >> then the mexican war bragg was considered a hero. >> reporter: so bragg himself never set foot in fort bragg. he was actually retired when the civil war started came out of retirement to be a confederate general and proved to be pretty awful at it, suffering a crushing defeat at the hands of ulysses grant at the battle of chattanooga. >> the killers on your true hits channel skunk thank you for tuning in. we have some great things lining in. >> reporter: the mayor of fort bragg says this issue comes to town whenever current events collide with confederate history. >> it's always funny because it's someone from the outside that brings this issue to us. >> i think anytime you ask any group to make a change to a name of a school, um, of a athletic team, um, there are a lot of emotions involved. >> reporter:

cartoonist thomas naft a thomas nast and his illustration during the civil war and the impact of braxton bragg and the commander of the army of tennessee and called the most hated man of the confederacy. american history tv continues tonight in prime time with recent civil war conferences. tonight, programs from day three of the gettysburg college civil war institute conference including discussions on union general george g. meade and the experiences of escaped union prisoners of war. american history tv prime time begins at 8:00 p.m. eastern. >> coming up this weekend on american history tv on c-span3. saturday at 10:00 p.m. eastern on reel america, the 1944 u.s. office of war film why we fight. the battle of china. three facts must never be forgotten. china is history china is land and china is people. on sunday at 11:30 a.m. eastern, political economy professor and author robert wright on alexander hamilton's views of the national debt. >> hamilton advised the creation of an energetic, efficient government, one that did one thing well for as little money as possible and that one thing was

is aware of other confederate movements in the western theater of the war with kirby smith and braxton bragg are moving into kentucky and things are starting to stir around northern mississippi and lee is fully aware of those movements and does view his movement into maryland as a piece of that and it's basically a confederate offensive off a thousand-mile front and he thinks at least at the time, certainly, that this is the best chance the confederacy is ever going to have of having the war and getting its own independence. the second question about jefferson davis and lee being in did lee have any leeway, so to speak. it's often portrayed that when lee writes his very famous september 3rd letter, saying to jefferson davis i'm going to cross the potomac river that lee continues to move forward with his invasion of maryland in the first place even without receiving permission from jefferson davis. it's not exactly the case. lee and davis have been talking about this for quite some time and the confederacy had been talking about a movement into maryland for quite some time and even going back

of course, kirby smith, braxton bragg are moving into northern kentucky. things are stirring around northern mississippi as well. lee is fully aware of those movements and i think does view his movement into maryland as a piece of that. it's basically a confederate offensive along a 1,000-mile front. so lee is well aware of that, and i think that's another reason why he throws so much into this campaign, that he thinks, at least at the time, certainly, that this is the best chance the confederacy's ever going to have of winning the war and getting its own independence. the second question about jefferson davis and lee being -- did lee have any leeway, so to speak. it's often portrayed that when lee writes his very famous september 3rd dranesville letter to jefferson davis, basically saying i'm going to cross the potomac river, that lee then continues to move forward with his invasion of maryland in the first place, even without receiving permission from jefferson davis. it's not exactly the case. lee and davis had been talking about this for quite some tim

cartoonist thomas nash and his illustrations during the civil war and later, the impact of general braxton bragge commander of the army of tennessee and called the most hated man of the confederacy. >> american history tv continues in prime time with recent civil war conferences. tonight, programs from day three of the gettysburg civil war conference including discussions on general george g. meade and the experiences of escaped union prisoners of war. american history tv prime time begins at 8:00 eastern. >>> coming up this weekend on american history tv on c-span3, saturday at 10:00 p.m. eastern on "reel america," why we fight, the battle of china. >> three facts must never be forgotten. china is history. china is land. china is people. >> on sunday at 11:30 a.m. eastern, political economy professor and author robert wright on alexander hamilton's views of the national debt. >> hamilton advised the creation of an energetic, efficient government, one that did one thing well for as little money as possible and that one thing was to protect americans' lives, liberty and property from tyrants, for

and later the impact of general braxton-bragg, called the most hated man of the confederacy. >>> american history tv continues tonight in prime time with recent civil war conferences. tonight programs from day three of the gettysburg college civil war institute conference including discussions on george g. g.meed. american history tv prime time begins at 8:00 p.m. eastern. >>> coming up this weekend on american history tv on c-span 3, saturday at 10:00 p.m. eastern on real america, the 1944 u.s. office of war film, why we fight, the battle of china. >> three facts must never be forgotten, china is history, china is land, china is people. >>> on sunday at 11:30 a.m. eastern, political economy professor and author robert wright on alexander hamilton's views of the national debt. >> he wanted an energetic, efficient government, one that did one thing well for as little money as possible. and that one thing was to protect american lives, liberty and property from tyrants, foreign and domestic. >> at 7:00 p.m. eastern, new jersey residents and activists discuss the 1967 newark rebelli rebellio

today about a topic and i am pleased to see we are not going to hit crickets because the topic is braxton bragg, the but of all jokes. not of particularly humorous crew. -- fall back on the chief jokes accumulated and led to this really distorted