a perfect joe johnston has the highest rank, but it didn't distinguish between staff and line. and so johnston believed he was the senior officer. davis ignored this. he simply appointed the people that he thought were the best in the order in which he basically judged their military ability. johnston sends a crazy number of letters. he didn't have email or text. he was physically writing letters saying, hey, i don't think this is fair. davis received each letter, wrote insubordinate in on it, flipped it over and moved it to the side of his desk. davis wasn't about to hear it from joseph johnson, and they come to loggerheads, right? but this is how davis manages his military resources, right? he has five generals. he needs to keep them all happy. and he's not even able to do that. and the first shots of the war haven't even been fired at fort sumter. and davis has already got issues with managing his generals. i just need to give you a sense of how obstinate jefferson davis could be when it came to these issues and these two figures, davis and johnston, are going to be all over

my question is why not have joe johnston come up and meet at lynchburg? then you've got the mountains at your back. you're on the other side of the james river and you know, maybe there's a better chance of doing that. now, joe johnson has got 15,000 men. we don't, i personally don't know what his supply situation was. i don't know how many wagons he had and so on, but why not bring joe johnson up and meet with him in lynchburg instead of lee traveling with his men with 1000 wagons and 200 caissons, 1000 supply wagons with uh animals that have not been fed properly for at least three months. they're very weak on, on roads in, in march. why not? why not the lynchburg option? but anyway, that's just me. and some other things to consider, lee is not physically. well, he's emotionally exhausted. he's a very old man at the age of 57. he eventually dies at the age of only age of 62. the odds as i mentioned are very, very, very small and the the odds of achieving independence are even smaller in 1865. and i think this is key in march 28 breckenridge sends a tele

joe johnston has 15,000 men. i personally do not know what his supply situation was or how many wagons he had. and so on. why not bring joe johnson up and meet with him and lynchburg instead of lee traveling with his men with 1000 wagons and 200 caissons. 1000 supply wagons with animals that have not been fed properly for at least three months. they are very weak on roads in march. one of the lynchburg option? but anyway, that's just me. >> some other things to consider, lee is not physically well. he is emotionally exhausted at a very old man at the age of 57. he eventually dies at the age of six d2. the odds as i mentioned are very small. the odds of achieving independence are even smaller in 1865. this is key. march 28th, breckenridge sends a telegram. i've given the necessary orders in regard to commencing the removal of stores, et cetera. but would like to know if possible could probably count them on a period of 10 to 12 days, notice he is asking lee, can you give me 10 or 12 days to get organized and richmo

joe johnston coming to raise the siege. this turns out there's nothing to worry about.e washed his hands of the whole situation. at the first thing he says i'm too late. he washes his hands of this entirely but he knows his reputation from the old army and the reputation precedes the person and people make judgments on their reputation rather than what they are capable of and i think that is what happens a lot with johnston. i don't think he is quite as fearful but grant is calling the shots with well over a third of his army to take care of the situation. the memoirs are fascinating. both are highly complementary. johnston in the memoir and my theory the better they make johnston look, the better they look for meeting johnston. so sherman does bend over backward in the memoirs, and they did become great friends based on the idea they were going to settle the war and all thisre but they felt their surrenderr mattered more and thy would come together on this subject. sherman's numbers, he's constantly talking about after the war and why didn't you attacks me here. what a

union army bentonville and should get some credit for that that for a rarely aggressive moment for joe johnston and that probably caught sherman off guard i know it did. okay. one last question from the audience at deborah hamer from williamsburg and i the question i have is sicily touchstone is now one of the find out what your opinion is about the political consider that went into the into this the ivus going forward how much did did lincoln's depend upon quote unquote his political in order to unite the country and bring into into the fight the democrats that are living the north. how much did that affect their ability to win the war that's a that's a complex question to unravel obviously the political generals serve an important function because when you have armies of citizens that are professional soldiers they respond much better to citizens who they recognize as public figures rather than martinet. regular point trained officers. so the generals have an important function in that regard. we're going to hear from zach fried tomorrow. his book makes a really compelling case that it was ac

joe biden acted correctly to help his son's overseas business dealings. they need to see the evidence before they are willing to vote to impeach and that will be the challenge for speaker mike johnston. he said he is not made a decision about whether or not to move ahead and impeach joe biden over these issues but there are republicans that set for impeachment and that will be a challenge for mike johnson. how far do they go, do they decide to pull back in anyway. huge questions as they moved down this road that will take them into 2024. >> as you were speaking we are watching live video from the house for where jerry nadler is right now debating the premise of the impeachment inquiry where the house is set to vote leader tonight on the impeachment inquiry of joe biden. let's go to evan perez. republicans are set to initiate contempt proceeding for hunter biden. what are they saying and what happens next? >> the republicans are upset because hunter biden did not show up for the deposition that they said he was supposed to show up for at 9:30 this morning. instead, what we had was he kept them guessing right up to the minute he was supposed to appear and instead appeared over on the