dr. mcpherson is going to take your questions. and earlier speakers had a great time handling a national audience. thank you. >> live on american history tv on c-span 3, all day live at the university of virginia, in conjunction with the museum of the confederacy is asking the question who would be the person of the year 1862 following after what time magazine does in their person of the year. we've heard from three historians so far. including just heard from james mcpherson. we'll give you a chance to speak to the professor in just a moment. the nomination so far from robert crick, was stonewall jackson. david blight from yale choosing frederick douglass and james mcpherson with admiral david farragut. we're going to open up our phone lines for your questions and comments to james mcpherson in just a moment. 202-585-3886 for mountain and pacific. make sure you mute your television when you call. in you can also send us a tweet. twitter.com/c-span. our hashtag today if you want to jot this down #poty 1862." post your choice on pe

dr. mcpherson, thank you about some of the examples that you provide in your great study, of the individual decisions made by people like david faragate, why do you think that as many officers especially of the naval forces, marines and sailors, made the decision in 1861 to stay with the old flag? >> there are some other good examples of that. i mentioned lee. he was a virginian. drayton is one of my favorite examples. a naval officer whose brother, thomas, was a confederate general defending ft. walker and port royal bay when drayton was commander of one of the union ships that attacked that came from wealthy south carolina family but remained loyal to the union. i think that one of the reasons why you find a fairly substantial number of naval officers doing that is that they had spent much of their life at sea as representing the united states rather than living onshore in the south where their allegiance might be more to the local or state body politic. they spent 50 years under the american flag. most of it away from the united states. they had a more national outlook. a more national p

dr. mcpherson, i would like to ask you a question. this question is about gettysburg in 1863. i hope it's appropriate. when stonewall jackson had died, had he not died, who do you think he would have sided with at gettysburg, general lee or longstreet? >> i think he would have sided with lee. like lee, jackson always wanted to seize and hold the initiative and take the offensive. he was more of an offensive commander than a defensive commander in contrast to longstreet. so i'm fairly confident he would have sided with lee on those decisions. >> james mcpherson, we appreciate you joining us this afternoon. we'll wait with all of the rest of our viewers to see if your choice, admiral david farragut is picked as person of the year 1862 and remind our viewers that we have covered a number of events with james mcpherson in the past of his many books and you can find many of those in our video library. thank you for joining us this afternoon. >> thank you for having me. >> we are going to stay live. we'll go back live momentarily to richmond. we'll hear from john mountcastle. he is

dr. mcpherson, thinking about some of the examples that you provide in your great study "battle cry of freedom" are the individual decisions made by people like david farragut, tennessee-born, virginia not bred but wed, why do you think that as many officers, especially of the naval forces, marines and sailors, made the decision in 1861 to stay with the old flag? >> there are some other good examples of that, too. i mentioned samuel phillips lee although he had married into the blair family, maryland family but he was also a virginiaen. principal dreighton is one of my favorite examples. his brother thomas was actually a confederate general defending fort walker in port royal bay when percival dreighton -- came from a wealthy south carolina family but remained loyal to the union. i think that one of the reasons why you find a fairly substantial number of naval officers doing that is that they had spent much of their life at s sea. as representing the united states. rather than living on shore in the south where their allegiance might be more to the local or state body politic. and as a consequ