this leads into what happens at fredericksburg. we usually jump right to fredericksburg and 62 but i'd like to point out pelham fights off some gunboats on the rappahannock river prior to the battle itself so he's in fredericksburg helping to see what going on down there and will the army be making a movement further down the river which they ultimately don't put their unique gunboats on the river and pelham is one of the artillery units that helps to drive them off. he can move cannons from point to point along the river bank and keep those gunboats under fire until they get out of his range as the river bidens. a lesser-known point of his military service. fredericksburg december 1862 by this time the union armies had established the crossing and they had come over to the side of the rappahannock river and are getting ready to attack. they have come back to the fredericksburg area and jackson has also come back and is filling in the position along prospect he'll enjoining with division from longstreet corner which was already and

at the end of the battle of fredericksburg, jackson says to jack stewart, -- what happens at fredericksburg and with helen getting noticed in this action starts off the battle on december 13th, sweeps into find the account printed over and over. pelham is a name that is sweeping across southern homes, and news is discussed. he has done other things that have that really introduces the south and north to john pelham. in europe particularly, in england, we see his name is starting to have international spread. now before we move on to the final parts of the story, i do want to point out that it has been preserved by central virginia battlefields trust, and you can see -- on the cbd table that tell you how to get there from strange ways brewery. so if you are interested, it is a great place to visit and you can stand there and get an idea, you can see how far it will get from -- all right, so the final winter, of john harlem's life with stewart and he deceives stewart around march 16th, and have all his club, or is out there on some other military business. -- march 18th 1863. after pelham die

okay, so, fredericksburg, december 13th, 1862. at this time, union armies had established their crossings, they come over to the confederate side of the rappahannock river and they are getting ready to attack. stewart and cavalry, including pelham and his horse artillery, half come back to the fredericksburg area, stonewall jackson has also come back to the fredericksburg area. and is filling in the position along prospect hill and joining up with divisions from the corps of war longstreet, which was already in position so, in the morning of 1862, pelham gets this idea nothing much is happening. kind of a quiet, morning, it's foggy, but they know there are union troops out there in front of jackson's physician. pelham asks permission and gets permission to take a single cannon, out in front of the confederate lines quite away away, he finds some ground that he really likes. the account say it was a bit of a hollow, so he's using topography to help shelter himself a little bit, and the fog is hiding him as well as the land itself h

he's picked up the richmond in fredericksburg. lee blocks in it hanover junction. we takes a very good position lee is a very good general and i don't know if you can see that little upside down red v right there. that's the position that lee takes in order to get at that position grants troops will have to cross on either side cross the north anna river on either side of the apex of lee's v. and by doing that they'll be much separated from each other. so lee has essentially put a wedge into the union army. it's got a lot of potential but lee can't follow up on it because lee's army is getting worn out lee is getting worn out. he's suffering from heart disease and he may have had a heart attack in late 63. he's not in the greatest of health by this time. he's on his back in a cot in a tent and he's trying to command the army from there. his top subordinates have been went out to his his best support his first core commander james longstreet badly wounded in a friendly fire incident at wilderness his second core commander you will becomes basically a psychological c

another way is the richmond and fredericksburg railroad. you mount a quiet creek on the potomac there, straight down to richmond. it is short, it is direct, it's got problems to. in late 1862, december 62, ambrose burnside to try this with the army of the potomac and found that although you can force your way across at fredericksburg, it is almost impossible to force your way up out of the bottom lands of the river on to the lens beyond it. he lost a battle that way. and in the spring of 63, joseph hooker with the army tried going around fredericksburg that way. that didn't work all that well either. it maybe could have, but it failed. so there are real problems getting past the rappahannock river on the orange and alexandria railroad. another problem, by the way, with richmond and fredericksburg. on the orange and alexandria, there is a problem that robert e. lee has his army deployed and heavily dug in just south of the rapid around orange courthouse. that is a problem. you are going to have to do something about that if you are grand. we

so we're thinking in fredericksburg in 1752, 1753, the minute books are astonishing, survived. and when you think about how long those those many books have sat that lodge, this is a larger this continually existed for 200 years 230 years, i suppose. and the minute books are maintained. but the lodge spontaneously joined and as freemasons found themselves on the frontier, only later on, several years after washington was initiated, that they go get a proper charter from the grand. i just got on to formally organize themselves. so there was maybe ten or 12 men in the lodge when washington joined and because it's a frontier society and transient men are coming and going, some men are there, some of them are tobacco merchants or others. so they're going back to scotland, they're coming back depending on the season and the trade. and then of course, the the economy. then what's going on, on the frontier related to the war, especially in the 1750s. right. well, i want to skip to a different war, because you mentioned there's a big gap in washington's masonic participation between th

the only thing you can think of on the 26, is to retire towards fredericksburg. but, if he retires towards pratt fredericksburg, he believes he will be reduced in command. that he would be demoted for these actions. by the following morning on august 27th, he comes up with two other ways to get out of this predicament. he believes one of the things he could do, again, is to retire to fredericksburg, link up with burn sides command, but he feels that if he does that his army will be stripped from him. it will damage his reputation. so, he opts for option two. maybe i can go after individual pieces of the confederate army. -- defeat them, secure my reputation, have my start to continue to rise. it leads us to the battle of manassas. pope, admittedly, will commit numerous blunders. pope's biographer, will -- say at times that pope was erratic during the battle, that pope continues in a quote, wishful thinking -- he said pope was choosing to disregard both his senses and his better judgment. they're on the field with pope, lieutenant stephen well would say that gener

there were at least 16,000 casualties in the army of the potomac alone at fredericksburg and a similar number in chancellorsville. and as we all know by march the lincoln administration and congress managed to get through a draft why because who would want to join the army? nobody it has been nothing but a slaughterhouse. and there's been nothing gained. and so on the eve of gettysburg the white house was concerned about riots breaking out in the streets. and then suddenly a victory is given to them in the largest land engagement ever fought on the north american continent. and yet and yet after that. what happens? george meade is accused of not following the enemy. george meads accused of not having the moral courage to make decisions himself. george meade is accused of not attacking the enemy along the downsville line near hagerstown on the 12th and 13th of july. lacking the moral courage to do that instead. he called a council of war. and that's how mead has been remembered. i remember early on working on this book. that someone came up and asked me. you know, what are you working o

when he left for an apposite fans and uncles in fredericksburg were worried he might come back of his texas character and imbued with all sorts of yankee notions so of course they were horrified when he came home five years later with the young wife in tow of beautiful 20 world catherine vance freeman who is from brooklyn. [laughter] during that visit some of chester's relatives wanted to make sure she knew what was what down here in texas. as members of the family sat around together over coffee one of them pointedly asked chester what would he do now that he was an officer if texas again seceded from the union? would he fight for texas or for that federal government in washington? catherine remembered the woman looking directly at her when she asked this question as if to say now you will see where things stand, yankee girl. chester smiled graciously and answered quietly why of course i would fight for the united states against any rebellion. catherine said the woman dropped her teacup. now this is not quite the same as deciding to leave home on an hours notice and is hypothetical i

it was a sad day when john got transferred right up to frederick, down to fredericksburg and spotsylvania, national military park, where in time he became the chief historian of not one but three major battlefield. for 40 wonderful years, john has again and again proved himself to be a dedicated, historic in telling the history. but equally important, telling the personal stories of the men who fought in the battles and the civilians who had to deal with the carnage and misfortunes of that conflict. his book returned to bull run, the campaign of second manassas was written in 1993, and it has become the best volume ever written on that campaign. since we are starting the second year of this two year study of that campaign, i urge you to pick up that book if you do not own it. john has also written scores of articles on the various aspects of the american civil war and many of his video presentations are available on the internet. he is not only a great writer, but a fearless one who charges into controversial subjects without hesitation or regret. and i much admire him for that quality. s

stop and think about it, that army from the campaign in june and july of 1862 to second -- to fredericksburg, and to chancellorsville had not won an engagement against their enemy in any of those. yet, the casualties and those campaigns continue to climb. the 16,000 on the peninsula, there were at least 16,000 casualties in the army of the potomac alone at fredericksburg, and a similar number in chancellorsville. as we all know by march, the lincoln administration and congress managed to get through a draft. because who would want to join the army? nobody. it has been nothing but a slaughterhouse. and there has been nothing gained. so, on the eve of gettysburg, the white house was concerned about riots freaking out in the streets. and then suddenly, a victory is given to them in the largest land in the american continent. and yet, after that, what happens? george mead is accused of not following the enemy. george mead is accused of not having the moral courage to make decisions himself. george mead is accused of not attacking the enemy along the downs villa line near haters town on the 12th

to fredericksburg. and to chancellorsville had not won and engagement against that enemy of theirs in any of those. nothing. and yet, the casualties in those campaigns continued to climb. lost some 16,000 on the peninsula. there were at least 16,000 casualties in the army of the potomac alone at fredericksburg and a similar number at chancellorsville. as we all know, by march, the lincoln administration in congress managed to get through a draft. why? because who would want to join the army. nobody. it had been nothing but a slaughterhouse. and there is been nothing gained. and so on the eve of gettysburg, the white house was concerned about riots breaking out in the streets. and then suddenly, a victory is given to them in the largest land engagement ever fought on the north american continent. and yet, and yet, after that, what happens? george meade is accused of not following the enemy. george meade is accused of not having the moral courage to make george meade decisions himself. george meade is acc

the man replied that he had bought them in fredericksburg and he had never robbed a dead man. he pressed him, how do you know they were not taken from a corpse? the man replied, they might be, it could not be helped. this raises a significant question about the after lives. what does it mean to wear the clothing and use the personal effects found in the pockets of the dead? the minute fire that was many soldiers lives, and may have made it a little difference. heather seem to have been haunted or repulsed by the experience. a few soldiers wrote reflections on what it meant exactly to wear a dead man's clothes. one imagines that when putting on a coach previously worn by a soldier who had died, a man might have considered how it had been obtained. confederate soldier alexander hunter was proud of the coat he wore. so proud, in fact, that he later donated his coat to the smithsonian. the coach was that of a dead man. a hunter did not steal it. rather, that dead man's sister gave it to him when she saw that he was wearing a tattered jacket. in contrast, another soldier's reaction

this predict event and he believes that one of the things he could do again is to retire the fredericksburg link up with a command but he feels that if he doesn't his army will be straight from straightfrom him. and then transit on this campaign and in detail he speaks out of this and secure my reputation and and and my start and continue to rise it leads to the battle of the second and john pope admittedly will commit numerous blunders. his biographer peter will say at times he was erratic during the battle that john pope continued in wishful thinking rather than claim reasoning and continues to dictate gabby petito enter john pope's actions in choosing to disregard about his senses that his better judgment. and there in the field lt. when saying that general pope seemed wholly at a loss and what to do and what to think and he said that he did not know where his own men were or where jackson was buried we all know how the battle of the second played out. pope would retreat back to washington dc and eventually he would be relieved of command and we moved to the end of this program this even

you can go down down to old town, fredericksburg. you can see the humeruser medical apothecary shop. it's still there. he was a very famous doctor during the revolutionary war with the continental army personal friend of president, washington. patent patton wants to go to west point in the worst possible way. but he has dyslexia. and it's not until age 16 that he can read and write so before going to west point. what does he do? he goes to vmi to prep for a year. and when he walks into the tailor shop at vmi to be fitted for his uniform the taylor says oh mr. patton, i fitted your father. here's my log book and you have the exact same measurements of your father. and you say your grandfather went? to vmi. i'll get his measurements. they're the exact same as yours in your fathers this reinforces george patton's belief in reincarnation. he goes to west point. but he has a little bit of trouble that first year so he has to repeat it his plea beer. so he ends up graduating in 1909. in 1909 this fine looking young gentleman in the lower c

one former confederate described the transformation of the fredericksburg battlefield over the course of the battle and is aftermath he said before the fight there was just the field next it was covered all over with your fellows and blue clothes. saturday night the blue clothes were stripped off and only their white under clothes left monday night. these were stripped off and tuesday. they all lay in their naked skins. words describing the stripping don't capture the corporeality of the act or experience to take a bet dead man's clothes did not simply involve picking up an abandoned code from the ground. it required a looter to pull off the man's gear unbutton the code the pants the suspenders to reach into the pockets and sift through letters knives and trinkets it meant wrestling. with to remove that clothing from a body whose limbs had begun to stiffen in the prophecies of rigor mortis at times exacerbated by freezing conditions. so what were the consequences? such clothing theft had important cultural and political implications for the men involved soldiers journals and reflectio

last time i was in fredericksburg was back from my wife and i lived in maryland in 1996. and i remembered then all the antique stores and today i went down to fredericksburg and they're still there and it was a lot of fun. but anyway, thanks for coming out tonight. i know it's kind of a tough situation. i'm just getting back into the swing of giving talks. i've given about 40 or 50 zoom talks over the past two years and now i'm just starting to give talks in person. so this is really a thrill for me to have an audience. now pirates have long been among the most colorful and memorable celebrities in popular culture. a lot of that has to do with books that use pirates as a motif and the most famous example of that of course is robert louis stevenson's treasure island, which was published in 1883 stevenson weaves a wonderfully dramatic tale of the search for pirate treasure replete with a map of skeleton island. where an x marks the spot where treasure is to be found. treasure island is also the book that gave us that familiar sea shanty refrain 15 men on the dead man's ches

tell about the pregnancy health centers and the maturity and you talk about mary's shelter in fredericksburg and each one of you who considered ourselves pro-life as you were mentioning earlier, ryan, think what more can i do? there's so much more that needs to be done and i know i had a conversation with a reporter on friday and she didn't believe that there were any pregnancy care centers. i mean, honestly didn't believe-- and so we have so much work to be done and i want to thank you for the work you did and you did this book in an amazingly short period of time. i'm like the queen of blowing through deadlines myself and i'm incredibly impressed that you have this this moment. tearing this apart and how abortion, thank you for everyone watching here in person, or on live stream or on c-span, please buy the book and share it and please follow the work of alexandra and ryan, and heritage foundation for hosting us. [applause]. >> be up-to-date in the latest in publishing with book tv's podcast about books, with current nonfiction book releases plus, best seller lists, industry news and trend

tell about the pregnancy help centers and the maternity homes you talk about mary shelter and fredericksburgin the book and each one of us who considers ourselves for life needs to you as you were you were mentioning earlier ryan think what more can i do because there's so much more than needs to be done. and i know i had a conversation with a reporter on friday and she didn't believe that there were any pregnancy care centers. i mean really honestly didn't believe and so we have so much work to be done and i want to thank you for the work that you do and for this you did this book in an amazingly short period of time. i i am like the queen of blowing through deadlines myself. i'm very impressed that you have this ready for this moment tearing us apart how abortion harms everything and solves nothing. thank you alexander de sanctus and ryan anderson and thank you for everyone watching here in person or on live stream or on c-span. please please buy the book and share it and and please follow the work of alexander to sanctus and ryan anderson, and i'm catherine lopez from the national review

and the quality of the museum, i am hesitant to say except to say that i think the museum in fredericksburgrth a visit. as is the one in new orleans, which is of course absolutely wonderful an even larger. so i will advocate for both of those museums. there's a question here. >> thank you. was farragut fully aware of what gore was doing in the background to usurp authority? >> how did he handle that? >> yeah, he was mostly, where he. yes because it's a small officer corps prior to the civil war. there were 42 ships in -- and the size of the offices officer corps expanded commensurately. they knew everybody, everyone knew everybody. so there were some of that going on. he knows that his supporters not his strongest champion. and the big brother who always got -- you know, he is promoted ahead of me, it's a psycho historical or psycho analysis, whatever you want to apply to that, that could be appropriate. but then porter had other problems as well. he worked on the edge, a lot. in the red river campaign, of course, he was known for picking up a lot of that cotton along the banks. and seeing

they came to fredericksburg. and they married into the family. you can go down to old town and you can see the medical apothecary shop. it is still there. you can see that it was a very famous doctor there during the revolutionary war of the continental army. a personal friend of president washington. he was wanting to go to west point in the worst possible way. he has dyslexia. he is not able to until age 16 able to read and write. before going to west point what does he do? he goes to v am i to prep for a year. when he walks into the tailor shop to be fitted for his uniform the taylor says, oh, mr. patton, i fitted your father. here is my logbook. you have the exact same measurements as your father. you say your grandfather went? i will get his measurements. they are the exact same as yours and your fathers. this reinforces george patton belief in reincarnation. he goes to west point. he has a little bit of trouble that first year. he has to repeat it. so, he ends up graduating in 1909. in 1909 this fine looking young gentlemen in the lower cor

that his mother and i found it necessary to return to her family's plantation again down near fredericksburg, in what is now stafford county. and was an amazing woman in her own right. i wish we knew a little bit more about her. she never remarried, but she prioritized several things for her three young children, one of which was education. and while george never attended formal school and made sure that all of her children had access to tutors, and importantly for our story, george mason also had tremendous access to the library of his uncle. his uncle was a gentleman by the name of john mercer. john was one of the leading lawyers in the colony of virginia at the time, and he also had one of the largest libraries in virginia at the time. and george, we know from his writings, immersed himself in that library. he was a voracious reader and just really, as i said, immersed himself in learning as much as he could. and this was really the foundation of what became the expression of his ideas. later, when george turned 21, as a result of his father dying without a will, he inherited the entirety

if you get there, remember if you can, you know, i was at a seminar in fredericksburg, virginia, outthere, and that guy said william p rogers was up on that statue. i figure y'all need a reprieve. at carne, but confederate government lost faith in earl van dorn, no, really, and his ability to lead an independent army. they sent john c pemberton to supersede him. that's even more puzzling. [laughs] as the new army and department commander, van dorn received a core command as a result. beginning in november of 62, grants begins account offensive against vicksburg. and what happens here, ladies and gentlemen, is grant has not yet learned in his career that -- y'all are seeing something that not many people see. matt standing still. i hope you're and during this moment. i have to be tethered. i was about to walk off. there are two railroads right here. memphis is at the center top of your map. basically, grant is going to rebuild the railroad. he has not yet learned that he can forge the countryside. like they would later. so, he is tethering his army to a railroad. well, the confederate