first and foremost you should all know that jack mountcastle is a product of the virginia military institute class of '65. [ applause ] >> jack is another of those retirees who is working as hard as retirement as he did when he was working. he teaches classes for the university of richmond and the virginia historical society. and like bob crick, he's becoming known as the father of another civil war historian, dr. clay mountcastle who's product of vmi class of '94. [ applause ] >> clay is the author of "punitive war, confederate guerillas and union reprisals." i had the 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've never 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? [ cheers and applause ] >> i agree with the applause for wade r

gee whiz, jack mountcastle, george mcclellan, what an interesting choice. it's my great pleasure to introduce our fifth and final nominator, emery thomas. he drove up from athens, georgia, where he's a professor of history emeritus at the university of georgia, but he's really coming home. he and his wife fran are native richmo richmonders. as a matter of fact, emery starred on the thomas jefferson high school football team as the center and the quarterback was james henry benford p.iii who is now the superintendent at the virginia military institute. emery went from thomas jefferson to the university of virginia, where he was a two-sports star. one as the center on the football team, and two is the captain of the party team at the deke house. emery has written widely and perceptively on many aspects of confederate history and biography including the volume about the confederacy in the new american nation series, an acclaimed biographies of jeb stewart and robert e. lee. he's an old friend of the museum of the confederacy and has written and lectured about