the campaign out in the shenandoah valley. actually, there's the shenandoah river that's right out there. the campaign out in the shenandoah valley is entst to a german-born general in france eagle. now i think 20th century history. well actually 18 19th century history too is showed us that german-born generals can be very good indeed. but francisco was not. he was not very good, but he has this command. you just hope that maybe this time he'll perform better and he'll do something good, hopefully. and then the command of this smaller expedition along the james river this goes to a real american-born guy named benjamin butler. he's a massachusetts politician a democrat. and he's important so the lincoln needs these guys. he needs siegel because having siegel in uniform helps link and win the german-american vote. there's a lot of german-american voted that time. having been butler an important command helps secure lincoln the support of new england democrats or former democrats who might vote for lincoln. so ben butler's impo

but also, another union army is going to move the shenandoah valley. that's going to be an army under frank siegel. that's going to harass lee's flank, cut some of the supplies coming in from the valley and another army at the same time is going to move up the james river. that's going to be general benjamin butler's of the james threat in richmond, perhaps. take richmond, which would be a fantastic victory at least a good propaganda victory. but also, it would cut off lee's supplies, enable butler to move on into lee's rear. so basically grant has come up with a plan, a plan for virginia that sort of mirrors what he's thinking nationally. several armies, lee's army in northern virginia. we often think of billy as just facing the army, the potomac, actually. he's got all of these other forces to deal with. so this is grant's big plan. what about robert lee and the confederate army of northern virginia? well, they've had a since gettysburg now to get pretty much back up the strength some 65,000 soldiers in army very high morale when you read the letters

if you go to a place like the shenandoah valley or south carolina, where they have not forgotten. it struck me specifically because i spent so much time on the early war that i realized how the war had changed. then i thought ok, what if -- i wanted to write about the civil war. one of my book is really just about a time period? that last year? really from the moment grant arrives to take over the army and you have what is supposed to be the end-all fight between grant and lee in virginia. it was interesting, because i thought that would be a great idea. the book about the final year of the war. the first thing i think of is there have probably been 18 books done about it. i did what classically trained historians do, i googled it to see or amazon or whatever. there really had not been anything, not about that. not since bruce canton, he won the pulitzer prize in 1964. the first time anybody had done that. i was sort of the second. i wanted to do it for the i said earlier, but also because i thought it was an open field to play in. host: that comes out in 2019, the latest book ear

experimental year i spent with my family living in the shenandoah valley.he only technology for the year was 19000 or earlier. but we are here to talk to dean and king. i've known dean for decades now. since my earliest days in new york. i consider my mentor and a friend. you've got has boilerplate info. he's written books, magazine articles, produced a tv series, my five word description of his books are he brings history to life. a nonfiction writer of course. one of things i most admire is how he turned his personal passion went to his livelihood. we back in f the 1990s fell in love with historical maritime novels of patrick o'brien. during the napoleonic wars. he spent the next decade or more becoming the o'brien expert companion books of which i helped him with. i eventually published the first biography. it's a fascinating tale of a man who pretended most of his life. during that research using the new york yacht club at libra he discovered an old leather bound volume sufferings in africa is enough to spark another adventure. those 1817 account of ame

it's about an experimental year i spent with my family living in the shenandoah valley, using only the technology from the year 1900 or earlier. but we're here to talk to dean king. i've known dean for decades now, since my earliest days in new york. i consider him a mentor and a friend. you've got his boilerplate info, so i'm not going to reread that he's written many books and magazine articles. he produces tv series. my five word description of his books are he brings history to life. it's a nonfiction writer of. one of the things i most admire about dean is how turns his personal passions into, his livelihood. way back in the 1990s, he fell in love. the historical maritime maritime novels patrick o'brian set during napoleonic wars, and he spent the next decade or more becoming a maybe the o'brian expert. he published companion books, some of which i him with, and he eventually published the first biography of patrick o'brian is a fascinating tale of. a man who pretended most of his life during research. he was in the new york yacht club library when he discovered an old leather bou

is also theis shenandoah valley national historic district which despite its name is part of the programral. and they carry out battlefield preservation activities, interpretation at the visitor center, signage, marketers anything such as conferences and other research sharing events. so whatau don't they do? there is some confusion because they are tied to the park service whether or not they are units or how they're connected to thets spirit just want to be clear they do not become units of the park service when they're designated in nha. i did want to point out though on the right hear a photo or give an example how federal lands is connected to a heritage area. this is muscle shoals national heritage area in northern alabama. there is a wildlife refuge within the boundary of the heritage area, the wheeler national wildlife refuge. the heritage area works with the wildlife refuge when they were doing their planning and management planning and how they can provide more interpretation kind of fairness part of the state to the general public or to visitors. and so they were active partic

there's also the shenandoah valley battlefields national historic district. which despite its name is part of the program in general and they carry out battlefield preservation activities interpretation with a visitor center at third winchester battlefield signage walking tours and events such as conferences and other research sharing events. so what don't think do there is some confusion because they are tied to the park service whether or not they are units or how they're connected to us. so just wanted to be clear. they do not become units of the park service when they are designated in nha. i did want to point out though on the right here a photo or give an example of how other how federal land is connected to a heritage area though. so, this is muscle shoals national heritage area in northern alabama. there is a wildlife refuge within the boundary of the heritage area the wheeler national wildlife refuge. um, they the heritage area worked with the the wildlife refuge. and when they were doing their planning and management planning and how they can provid

his compulsory evacuation of pennsylvania, maryland, comma, and withdrawal from the upper valley of the shenandoah comma. and in the capture of three guns, 41 stands and 13,621 prisoners, 24,000 not semi-colon, 24,978 smaller arms were collected on the battlefield. he finds it to be a rounding success. lincoln don't feel that way. there's a whole lot of color in between here and grant to the east and so forth. and i could do the whole program on this. but suffice it to say, i do believe that the maid's failure to attack williamsport is the start of his demise. you can add in bristow station a little shout out to rob lawson right there, the bristow. thank you. thank you very much. you buy the book in the back if you'd like. can't remember what the name of it's called, but he's back there ready to sign right now. cash or check. that made has won the battle. gettysburg. now we're flipping away. i can tell you the mileage right now, because i just drove it last week. i drove hundred and 50 miles all the way down houston, mississippi. i got five miles within my house right there. i got two twin girls s