well ripley and longstreet. beamus of kentucky took care of lee in 1863, he had an on set of illness, dr. gill being absent, himself sick, wrote a couple letters home to his wife and children in kentucky and he waxed as enthusiastic as any worshipper after the war could have created. he was writing at the time. he is so noble a specimen of men that even if he were not so distinguished you would be attracted by his appearance and manner. i know you would all love him if you saw him with a deep quiet admiration that would find expression in a desewer to immitate his actions and arrive at his excellencies. on every visit my admiration for him increases. dr. beamus reported lee recovered from what ailed him that winter which runs counter to the modern notion, much expressed. lee's failing health, stymied operations during that year. an idea circulated primarily in a popular novel which really isn't all that stout a foundation for any kind of historical architecture. quoting beamus and young, and york, and alexander

c w he rarely mentions--the name longstreet, general longstreet, crops up in one of his civil war pieces, but that's highly unusual. he deliberately omitted all antt bsewaes specifics, to make his battle a type in order to do what he was trying to do, which was to, as i said, portray fear. c-span: when shelby foote was wrthvir esust h en ahetlld on the same day that the battles were fought. >> guest: mm-hmm. c-span: and i notice that stephen crane did some of the same, you say in your book. when did he go to the battlefields? >> guest: that was actually later. that was much later than "the red badge." he didn't have the money to travel there when he was wting he ry s wco through his shoes, just like henry fleming's in "the red badge." after "the red badge" was published, was commissioned to do some magazine pieces or newspaper pieces on e civil wrg orse te was interestn disie ledsn and he did exactly what shelby foote did. he visited the btlefields at the time during which the battle occurred. c-span: did it have any impact on him? teea "thli me w ie y based on the--on fredericksburg it'

one officer who quickly dismissed such reasoning was confederate general james longstreet. old pete knew grant well. he had been his best man at his wedding. long street warned those who would listen that man will fight us every day and every hour till the end of the war. as for grant facing the already legendary lee, the "new york times" asked rhetorically, that is true enough but do these people ever think that if it be true grant has never fought lee it is equally true that lee has never met grant. by march 27th, grant had established his field headquarters at culpepper. he was near but not next to the army of the potomac, a decision of his choosing. his war aims in the forthcoming campaign were twofold. first, grant announced to use the greatest number of troops practicable against the armed forces of the enemy. secondly to hammer continuously against the enemy and his resources until by mere attrition, if in no other way there should be nothing left to him but surrender. in other words, grant was going to strike everywhere at one time. he was convinced, he said, that i

including that capital soldier james longstreet. [ laughter ] and ultimately, his success underpinned -- his success in doing so effectively underpinned his ultimate command authority. when he was asked about it, he once said, "my job is to bring my men to the right place at the right time. and then i leave it in the hands of god and my subordinates to win the great victories." he had a great deal of faith in those men. of course, lee took great pains to identify the strengths and weaknesses of all his generals from corps to brigade command. he led by example and he taught by example. he believed that officers must see and be seen by the soldiers. he held generals accountable for readiness at all times. he wrote his lines frequently. and when he traversed a segment he deemed insufficiently prepared to receive an enemy attack, he immediately sought out the errant commander. when lee found one such general relaxing in camp, he -- who was not able to explain the status of the earthworks along

lee's army was evacuating the capital and alexander who commanded the artillery of james longstreet's first corps had just watched the last of his batteries cross the bridge. we turn to take a last look at the old city for which we fought so long and so hard. remembered alexander. of the it was a sad, a terrible and a solemn sight. i don't know any moment in the whole war impressed me more deeply with all its stern realities than this. the whole riverfront seemed to be in flames amid which occasional heavy explosions were heard and the black smoke spreading and hanging over the city seemed to be full of dreadful portents. i rode on with a distinctly heavy heart and with a peculiar sort of feeling of orphanage. i don't know of any passage written by anyone who served in the army in northern virginia that captures the essence of the connection between the men and that institution and their commander better than that passage from porter alexander. critics of military history often question the need to dismiss what they deem as drums and bugle topics. people in noon academic world likely

lee, joseph johnson, james longstreet, and augusta smith. . union general george mcclelland had a 100,000 man army at york down. the confederates had maybe 10,000 on the other side of a forest. the confederate was john mcgruder, prince john. he was quite clever, an interesting, flamboyant, theatrical man. all qualities that served him very well during the siege of yorktown. magruder put on a show for george mcclelland. he marched his men in a circle around and around in front of a gap in the forest that separated the two armies. he told those men as they were marching around to be as noisy as they possibly could. he told them to shout out orders to nonexistent units. he had men in the back of the lines chop down trees, strip from branches, paint them black and set them up horizontally on hillsides so they looked like cannons. all this stuff worked. george and his spies were apparently fooled by these tricks being played on them by general magruder. they didn't move for a month, due in large part to these tricks. davis and his advisers were ple