and so hardy was transferred out of the army that left potentially robert e lee lees said, thank you know, i'm happy you're in virginia, although i don't know how happy he was at the time either. but certainly he did not want to go to georgia. lee did not, and that left really beauregard as the most senior available potential commander. problem was, beauregard was on davis, his naughty list already. these two men did not like each other at all. and beauregard, by 64, was apparently pretty desperate. redeem himself. he wanted anything, anything the president might be willing to give him any scrap. and beauregard was willing, i think, to jump on that opportunity. and so it would be beauregard beauregard to be given command of a new department called the department of the west, which encompassed territory in five states, including territory across the mississippi river, as well as hood's army of tennessee. now, the department of the west sounds very impressive. it's a paper department. there's really not much to it. it's a title. and that's about all the extent of of beauregard authorit

second only to robert e. lee. it was interesting how the people in the north admired him and admired him because they thought he was a gentleman and a christian, a real christian. they admired his military skills which were in terms of bottle fighting without peer in the war. there were church bells who ran in the north and a number of places, the northern view of him was very interesting. there is a view of him that he has a traitor, why even bother riding a book about him -- writing a book about him? he was a christian that fought for the wrong side. he should not have done that. there is a multilevel redemption going on if you will. that is the best answer i can come up with. host: following that, he died in 1863, 1864 the book barbara french he comes out out of the story of barbara frenchy, she pulls up the flag that had been shot down and holds it and the poem reads that she says to the marching troops she would if you must this old great head bus barrier country's -- shoot if you must this old gray head, but

wife, amy holds down the fort and allows me to do that. >> talk about grants relationship with robert e lee. how they knew each other. >> they obviously fought together in the mexican american war. there was a mutual respect and they communicated during the war by telegram. and he had a moment. and, lee, by the way, met all the picturesque thoughts of the perfect general. he was dressed to the nines and had a sword. he was perfectly immaculate and well shaven. he looked the part, and grant did not, at all, to the point where, when he is winning battles, some of the early photographers cut off his head of the picture and put it on a different general who is sitting upright and looked better. that was like the first photoshop. but, they did have a relationship and it continued after the war and he invited lee to the white house, which was quite a moment, and if i was in the press, that would've been a good thing to cover. >> they only spent something like 15 minutes together. >> they did, but they kept in touch and there was a mutual respect. there was a lot of debate about who was the better

>> zachary taylor, robert e. lee a number of the confederate generals at the audience of fighting against. that's where the interesting intersections between all of these guys and battles because they have fought with each other before and so they have these established relationships. i will jump forward again. it grants funeral just to show you how well respected he was across the land a million people show up in new york city and lined the streets and they bring out their old uniforms the union and confederate uniforms and they lined the streets of new york city. his pallbearers are to union generals into confederate generals. at the end of his life and that's the relationships they have that went back all the way to the mexican-american war. >> in the book you cover the fact that lincoln wasn't envious but he looked over his shoulder at some point and saw grant and said oh my gosh this guide may run for president against may, right? >> yeah you did but grant thought he was that popularity was that popular with the

were black and brown workers, who would stand in the morning under a giant 60-foot-tall statue of robert e. lee when contractors would pick them up and take them out to do the rebuilding of the distant dark corners of the gulf coast. that's what i was doing. those were the workers i was talking to when i got the mysterious phone call. the person who called me was unlike most of the workers who called. he wasn't from mississippi or louisiana. he wasn't either white, black or latino. he was an indian man, flown in from india, calling from the mississippi gulf coast. and i thought, "what was an indian man doing coming here to clean up after hurricane katrina, all the way from north india?" i discovered that he was one of 500 workers who had been recruited to come to mississippi and texas to work for a large oil rig builder to clean up, rebuild shipyards and oil rigs. and when he arrived in the gulf coast, he found himself in atrocious conditions. these men had been promised green cards and good jobs in india and had been told that they would get those if they paid $20,000 apiece. $20,000. i mean,

everybody was fired up about comments in charlottesville and he said it's nothing ending with robert e. lee or stone wall jackson or with the connecticut soldiers and sooner they're going to come and i'm paraphrasing for jefferson and washington and lincoln and you live in new york city. the city is about to go burbank erupt. this remind ghee the san francisco school board during covid weren't open and wouldn't let kids go because they were terrified that most of them would get covid and be fine. you're more dangerous driving to and from school in a school bus than actually get covid and have an wish your kid but they tried to rename every school in san francisco and even left wing people there were like this is bonkers, i have to believe that there still are enough sane people saying we are going to have 10s of thousands of illegal immigrants flooding in. >> let's put up a statue of the illegal immigrant who just committed six felonies last week. that should be the priority of the new york city council and the woman who was talking to johnny didn't know columbus was taltdian. he sailed und

year at the united states military academy at west point there was a 20-foot high portrait of robert e. lee in his confederate uniform with a black slave holding his horse. that was given by the daughters of the confederacy in 1954, soon after black cadets started matriculating at west point that hung in the cadet library until this year. the second thing i want to say is just to briefly illustrate one of the soldiers for whom one of the bases was renamed, william henry johnson, who fought in world war i. he was an american soldier. because the american army would not permit blacks to serve in combat because they did not want them to get the social acceptance of that service, his unit harlem health fighters, actually thought attached to a fridge unit he was the first american soldier awarded the -- and subsequently the medal of honor. and it is now renamed for him. >> a while back. [applause] >> i suspect this will be a political football of sorts. what we named them and sort of that vein, so the conversation is not over even with the amazing amazing work of the commission of work will need

here is how the windows used to look, stained glass depicting confederate generals robert e lee and stonewallthey were removed after being deemed too offensive. today depicts a march of justice reminiscent of black lives matter protesting, with signs saying no foul play. tammy bruce. >> tammy: we've had this conversation for years about the fact that the south in the country matters, fight matters, context of history of what everyone went through to save the south and the progress that part of the country made. we worry about erase your of history. we've become a better nation. i think those historic movements that saved the country should be addressed and can be discussed. when it comes to racial justice, this is what a lot of churches are going through. i'm not a church goer. i believe in god. it is a statement that church wants to make. >> harris: i loob at this in a particular way. i was born in georgia. i think this is an effort of erasing the power of red states. if you take away voices in those states about the history we share as americans, you quiet a part of the country, quiet the s

. >> he fought along zachary taylor and robert e lee. a bunch of generals that he ends up fighting against. those are interesting intersections between all of these guys with battles. they have fought with each other before. they have these established relationships. jump forward, at grant's funeral, just to show you how well respected he was across the land, 1 million people show up in new york city. they lined the streets. they bring out their old uniforms. union and confederate uniforms. they lined the streets of new york city. his pallbearers are two union generals and two federals. that is the relationships that he had that went back all the way to the mexican/american war. >> in your book, you covered the fact that lincoln looked over his shoulder as some points and saw grant and thought, oh, my gosh, this guy might run for president. >> he did. grant, he thought he was that popular and he was, with the american people. grant never had that aspiration. he really did not want to run for political office. he was asked all the time to

you dive into robert e. leeh. >> tell us more about that debate, but also the impact of the decision that was made. >> sure. so, you know, robert e. lee, it was an interesting position. in the initial amnesty offered by president johnson, it excluded 14 categories of people, including the leaders of the confederacy. those people were still subject to potential prosecution and so on. three years go by, and president johnson issues another amnesty, this time including everyone. but he does not extend the citizenship for people. they have to actually apply for their citizenship and have it readmitted. that never happened in robert e. lee's life. it was gerald ford who reinstated robert e. lee's citizenship posthumously. what it meant was that, in a conflict in which 700,000 plus americans died, no one went to prison. it was the idea that you just move on. we can see what the implications of that are, you know, that precedent. >> katty? >> jelani, jack goldsmith, a lawyer who wrote in the bush administration, wrote

flushing robert e lee from maryland and ending his to bring the war north, perhaps even into pennsylvania pennsylvania union soldiers when it was all over, confronted a staggering on the antietam battlefield. the landscape was otherworldly almost surreal. if phantoms from the spirit world could ever come forth bewilder mortals. one union brigade commander insists it sure never was their time or place or site so seasonable men their eyes as they survey the mangled bodies littering, the field, the odors of burning animal flesh, annexing their nostrils, the death moans of, wounded men drumming in their ears war, its glories. one ohioan remarked. but it has 10,000 demons in these human tortures that makes eyeballs ache. the heart bleed, the lips and the brain real indeed the sensory overload showed that this soldier tantalize ingly described for us exacted often a physical toll. corporal bernard f blakeslee reported that many soldiers detailed to the burial parties from his regiment the newly formed 16th connecticut became owing to the nature of their work, 24 year old major rufus dawes, the

this was designed for people like robert e. leerrectionists. >> jonathan: i want to turn to the situation in congress. speaker mccarthy under enormous pressure for fear of impeachment. impeachment for what? unclear to me. you also have talk of a government shutdown. how real is the threat to mccarthy, and what will he do to save his speakership? >> this is the clash i think we have been waiting for since he took all those something 15 or something ballots when he had to cobble together this very uneasy coalition. there's people saying shut it down, and the governor are saying, let's impeach joe biden or impeachment inquiry which they mocked when it was the democrats doing the same. if you do those things, they still might careen toward a shutdown. he's in the driver's seat to an extent, but he only has as much power as they'll let him have. if he's going to have to navigate something, he'll be in the uneasy position of not knowing where his own members will go. >> jonathan: remind us how this goes. the term is motion to vacate. >>

their leader robert e lee and lee knew his men knew his commanders very different than the situation grant was himself in. we think of lee, though, as being a general who liked to maneuver, who like to take the. and this time he couldn't do that. he was sort of stuck. and here's why. here's the union army of the potomac rapid n river, lee's army in virginia. lee, know what grant was going to do with federal was going to go attack him head or were they going to try to come either side of him basically going down river or upriver and, then come around? he wasn't sure. he was also worried about general sigel. general butler. the army's there in, the shenandoah valley. and then down on the james river. and concerned that he might have to send reinforcements, support them. so what he ended up doing was taking general longstreet's first corps basically third of his insurgency force and his best moving it down to gordons ville several miles south of where the rest of his army was stationed, so that it would be on the orange and all i'm sorry, would be on the central railway and could either

and he's acting like he's the second coming of robert e. lee.me. he doesn't understand the military of 2023. he sounds like he's trying to make the military of 1853. he sounds like he's trying to create the confederate army rather than the american army of 2023. this is much bigger than just our military. his radical, political agenda he is trying to jam down our pentagon. >> mitch mcconnell has expressed some discomfort with this and unhappiness with it. what do you make of the fact that he hasn't actually done anything. he is the one person who might have the power and authority to stop tubberville but doesn't seem willing to do it. >> it's cowardice and understand mining our national security every day. i'm an independent. 49% of the country is independent. this is the kind of stuff that drives people out of the republican party. especially veterans, especially people in the active duty, especially people who care about national security. this is bad for their politics. and i think it's starting to ratchet up against them. the question is can

the races as they march to protest the long-overdue removal of robert e. lee charlottesville, they screamed jews will not replace us. so you see, the fates a black and jewish communities in america they are intertwined. they are indivisible. that is why for more than a century, adl has believed fiercely you can not fight anti-semitism without countering antiblack racism. we do so because we know communities will never be safe unless we are all safe. our country will never live up to his promise. if anyone group is denigrated or dehumanize, we are made to live in fear. 60 years ago, right before dr. king spoke here on these steps in this place, a leader in our community rabbi prince said a few important words. he said when god created man, he created him as everybody's neighbor. that neighbor is not a geographic term. it is a moral concept. it means our collective responsibility for the preservation of our dignity. 60 years later my friends these words still resonate. they still tell us to stand up and speak out in the place of hate. it is our duty, our respons

whether it is a bigger battle set of the poultry 1100, or in september of 1862 robert e lee and the other generals came and visited kind of pushing off other memories unless they are officers who had been here. but nevertheless, those individuals are both great and small made an impact here at harrison hall. and perhaps they can still be felt today. >> did you add that last bit because it is october and we need to get spooky? >> it is october we need to get spooky. you can hear more about those spook him, scare them at the museum haunting store. >> i like that segway. on sale next weekend bring. >> i'm getting a cut. and now were going to pass things over too dana here to continue our civil war stories. to me too hold it? works i'm going to need help at some point. i think it might be a theme tonight. remember that name he's going to come up. he also was involved, went below the bluff and captured a number of federal soldiers. he really use that, those exploits he'd made a name for himself and he's going to raise a partisan unit. i'm going to talk about, kind of giving it away a little bi

. >> where was robert e lee from? >> he was from virginia. a west point graduate. that remains up.scholars discussed today. lee was a great soldier. a hero in the mexican-american war. an l absolute hero. the argument was, you know, lee being a west point grad, an officer, a gentleman, why did he join the confederacy? we considered himself a virginian, first and foremost. one thing we need to remember, if you can take a time machine to go back to 1776 and meet thomas jefferson and ask him about his country, he would say, virginia. that way of looking at it. and grant had much respect for lee. so did lincoln. they when they did not like was jefferson davis, he was said to be more cold-blooded than a reptile. davis was a monstrous human being. hard to say anything good about the guy. lincoln even wrote that if davis ran away to flee the country, i won't stop him. davis dressed as the skies as a woman and was caught. that was an embarrassing comeuppance for him. but he would be eventually pardoned as well. president andrew johnson pardons most everybody around 1868. >>

so where was robert e lee from? africa. he was from virginia. levers of virginia. west point grad, you know. and that remains a point that scholars discuss today. you know, lee was a great soldier a hero in the mexican-american econ war, an absolute hero in the mexican-american war. and the battle of chapultepec to take what is today mexican, mexico city. so the argument was, you know, lee being west point grad, you know, an officer, a gentleman, why did he join the confederacy? lee considered himself a virginian. first and foremost. you know, one thing we need to remember if if could take a time machine, let's say, and go back to 1776 and meet thomas jefferson, ask him about his country. he would say virginia. so that way of looking at it. yes. so and grant had much respect for, lee, and so did lincoln. the one they didn't like was jefferson davis, who was said to be more cold than a reptile. davis was a monstrous human being. it's hard to say anything good about the guy. and lincoln even wrote, if davis should run away and flee the country. i won't stop him. you k

after a holiday, the holiday being thanksgiving and an old holiday in georgia that honored general robert e. lee. is thacann vote. the secretary of the state said our hands are tied. i decided to untied their hands, i sued them. after i sued them, the folks who said their hands were tied then showed us their hands. they went and appealed the ruling. in a matter of days, we had to sue them again and win again. just so people could vote. the first weekend, about 100,000 people voted, which was about the margin of our victory. we are witnessing an assault on our democracy. we need that congressional black caucus to continue the work we have always done, nothing can be more important or precious. humankind capacity for justice makes democracy possible. our capacity for injustice makes democracy necessary. democracy of the political enactment of a spiritual idea. we ought to have a voice, the way to have a voice is to have a vote. i believe a vote is a kind of prayer. a world we design for ourselves and for our children. we are not about to give up on this fight, which is why we introduce the freedom

e are the ukrainians. but he told how they were waiting for the train. uh, with robert lee saw a huge number of ambulances that drove up to the station. they asked if this was a bad day? there are so many nos, it's a good day , these are there, 70 ambulances and which drove up to pick up the wounded, usually there are more than 100 of them, so er, so to speak, those with ears will hear you. i think you are absolutely right. i didn't mean to attack the blood, who i respect and i feel like when he gives the facts. he tries to give them objective. he's definitely not among the falsifiers, which is why we, uh, discuss his statement. there must be found many funny and frankly propagandistic statements in the american press. they, especially in kievskaya and cosmona, are just one of the people who should be taken seriously. and therefore we are seriously analyzing it and the fact remains that he says there is no ukrainian breakthrough, ukrainian losses are very high. and if he says that the success of the ukrainian offensive should be regarded not because of how far they managed

the surrender, lincoln's son robert -- his oldest son, rather -- lincoln gave him orders to help him take his e. sword, firearm and just go home. lincoln grant did not -- lee, rather. tell lee to take his horse and just go home. he did not want to see him drive through the streets in chains. go home and he became the president of a college and only then told his fellow seminars r to surrender. te most senior confederates were pardoned. turner would have been tried i think if they caught him as the common andersonville works was tried and hanged. he would have been, but he escaped. nick turner, the deputy warden was put in libby, but afterwards they pardoned him. g they pardoned the guards and let them go. lincoln wanted to not just win the war, but when the piece. reconstruction, one country and lincoln even saying both sides through the sword and we were ag both guilty, but let's work together. ne again, some of the former prisoners spent years trying to find the whereabouts of turner, thomas turner. i think some might have wanted n to killed him. >> where was robert lee from? gi like he was from virginia. lee is a virginian. u that remains a point that s