maybe vicksburg. what happened in vicksburg? well, vicksburg, and entire confederate army was captured, just like here. and the mississippi river was open. that's a pretty significant event. they took them several months to do it. but that's significant. the fconfederate army was attacked and that caused a chain reaction for the rest of the confederate armies to fall. antitum, big battle. what did that accomplish? not bad. they went to fight again. gettysburg. they invade pennsylvania. get us all the way up to cause some havoc. they meet them in a three-day pitch battle. very dramatic. i'm not trying to undercut the heroics and the sacrifices these gentlemen made in these battles, but what did gettysburg prove? nothing. they fought again. here's is fort donelson. the army is intact. that's a big army at that time. 16,000 guys were captured. middle tennessee lost. western tennessee, gone pretty much after that. they withdrew without firing a shot. eastern tennessee wasn't really friendly to the confederate cause anyway. so you ca

maybe vicksburg. maybe appomadox but that was at the end perform those two, what happened in those two? well, vicksburg, entire confederate army was captured, just like here. and the mississippi river was open. that's a pretty significant event. took them several months to do it, but it's significant. appomadox the confederate army was captured and attacked and that caused a chain reaction for the rest of the confederate army to fall. more harassy. tetum, big battle, bloodiest in american continent, certainly up to that time. what did it accomplish? nothing. lee's army was able to retreated n takt. army potomac retreated and they went to fight again. gettysburg, lee invades pennsylvania. he gets all the way up to -- causes some havoc, army potomac meet them in a three day pitch battle, and i'm not trying to to undercut heroics and sacrifices these gentlemen made in these battles but what did gettysburg prove? nothing. both sides broke contact, went to their respective sides to regroup, rearm and they

they don't like to remember vicksburg, either, but that one's hard to brush aside. for the southerners, this was kind of an embarrassment. the loss of both the rivers was just so tremendous and traumatic. and they never got it back. so it was hard for them to want to really remember this kind of thing. the generals who fought here, the commanding generals on the southern side, two of them escaped, pillow and floyd. they never received a command after this. and they spent a great deal of their lives afterwards. general floyd didn't live much longer after the battle, by the way. general pillow tried to exonerate himself out of this. but his conduct was fairly questionable. so he never got a command. general buckner, who was the one who actually surrendered the fort, he was up in fort warren, massachusetts for six months. so he was kind of -- he was not allowed to communicate with anybody. so it was his after action report was able to be passed through. but by and large he was out of reach. and bushrod johnson who walked out of here on his own, he was pretty quiet abou

elsewhere union armies were capturing nashville, new orleans, memphis, vicksburg, port hudson, chattanooga, and for the purposes of our story, the colored troops in virginia were overwhelming ly recruited n the northern states and were no more use than at first than an equal number of new white regiments. this is an important point. because as i found out while researching the book, escaped slaves were a source of expert local knowledge to union armies going at least back to the landing in south carolina in the fall of 1861. an escaped slave known only for us as brutus viewsed captain gilmore, an officer of engineers. he called brutus "the most intelligent slave i have met here, quite familiar with the riffers and creeks between savannah city and tibe,island. he made his escape last week in a canoe." two years later when the commander of a union raid up the yazoo river in mississippi wanted to send a message to his headquarters in vicksburg, two sashlg ents of the third mississippi colored cavalry dressed as slaves, which they had been until recently, and delivered the message. in march 18

several troops came over from vicksburg to helena and operations began to take a little rock. there were 6,000 cavalry out of southeast arkansas that came down crowley's ridge. 6,000 infantry from helena that march across the country. fake continued on and the majority of the fighting in this campaign was done by the cavalry on both sides by necessity for the confederate because their infantry was so torn up at helena and so many desertions after that that they were barely a factor in the little rock campaign. john davidson was the commander of the union cavalry. he was a virginian who remain loyal to the union after secession. he was a west point and he brought army discipline to his volunteer soldiers. he was not very popular at the start of the campaign. one boy from missouri wrote to his father and said some of the men are planning to kill general davidson in which measure i hope they are successful. but davidson -- started marching across country. they had a skirmish in a place called brown's vote on the twenty-fifth of august of 1863 which was the first real opposition o

now, there are active tornado warnings across dozens of towns including these very large one, vicksburgmississippi, hat teaseburg, mississippi, rome, georgia, chattanooga, tennessee, gatlinburg, tennessee, charlesburg, west virginia. if you are in and around those town the national weather service warns you to take cover immediately. immediately. 78 tornadoes reported so far today, continuing coverage next. susie's lemonade... the movie. or... we make it pink ! with these 4g lte tablets, you can do business at lightning-fast spes. we'll take all the strawberries, dave. you got it, kid. we have a winner. we're definitely gonna need another one. small sinesses that want to grow use 4g lte technology from verizon. i wonder how she does it. that's why she's the boss. because the small business with the best tecology rules. contact the verizon center for customers with disabilities at 1-800-974-6006. good gravy, bill. our insurance company doesn't have anything like it. magnificent, isn't it? with progressive, it's easy to cover all of your favorite rides. progressive has truck insurance? nu

commander of a union raid up the yazo river in mississippi wanted to send a message to commanders in vicksburg, two commanders of the colored cavalry, dressed as slaves, which they had been until recently, and delivered the message. in march 1865, seven civilians, parenthisi, end quote, guided a party of the third colored infantry up the st. john's river in northern florida to burn a sugar mill and free 91 slaves. gilmore, who by this time was a general, mentioned the raid in one of his orders. this expedition planned and executed by colored men under the command of a colored noncommissioned officer reflects great credit on the brave arp ants and their leader. major general commander thanks these courageous soldiers and scouts and holds up their conduct to their comrades in arms as an example worthy of em you lags. local knowledge was important to the union army through the end of the war. besides, as one federal officer stationed in northern alabama wrote, the negros are our only friends. the question of former slaves aiding the union advance brings up an amusing argument and academic circles

and they leave vicksburg, come down the mouth of the river, have trouble coming into the red river. once they cross, they then ascend rapidly. they come upon a forward that was built two years before by the confederates. it was designed to hold upwards of the division, maybe 5000 mink. there are only 200 men, between 20300 men at this fort and they will take this pretty easily. sherman segments are going to sneak behind afford while the the navy is going to try to pound it from the beginning, and although the papers in new york and washington, philadelphia really describe this as an armageddon like battle, it's more of a skirmish. they then make a leap forward, and they send one of their ironclad monitors to osage on a river to alexandria. right in the middle of the thing. alexandria falls without a shot do this very formidable ironclad. the captain of it, lieutenant commander, since a chore your back by boat to admiral porter saying please come up here. they don't know that they can take this stuff. as they get into alexandria, porter is waiting around for banks was supposed to be

again until 11 months had passed when grant tried want same thing as he moves his army jackson so vicksburg. in arkansas the great black hole of american historiography. during the sif war wartime journalists celebrated events in the east, down-played events in the west, and they basically ignored events in the trans-mississippi. when the war ended, historians simply continued that mindset, that attitude, that approach. things are changing now these last 20 years. there's a really good book on pea ridge here. everybody should have a copy. this development is new, and it's going to take a few decades, i think, before we really begin to grasp how important, how interesting, how significant events were in the trans mississippi. now, kurtz advertise was a modest man, a very methodical man. really he had the heart and soul of a civil engineer. he did not like to blow his own horn. he never made much of this revolution in military operations. inside curtis knew what he had accomplished in a private letter to his brother in ohio, a lawyer, and we know it's private because curtis wrote on the outsi

mississippi river had about seven major fortifications starting with columbus working down past memphis to vicksburg. there is about seven of them. they're 30 to 40 feet wide. they're massive construction. and then you see the little chicken scratch out here in the water battery and fort donelson, you can see where the confederate majority of effort was. when they were concentrating on was the mississippi river. because they knew that's what the federals wanted. they wanted control of the mississippi. so they built fort after fort after fort on the mississippi river. for the tennessee river, you had fort henry and fort heiman which are across the river from each other, that's it. that's all they had. and fort henry is built on a swamp. columbus had dozens on the river. you can just see where they're focusing their effort. it wasn't on the tennessee or cumberland river. it was on the mississippi. cut the rail line off. once that's done, whoever is stuck up there in columbus is trapped. >> so there wasn't much of a battle. >> there was zero battle. they just pulled back. thnext battle was on the tenne

tonight to hear excerpts from, civil war campaign in the west, university of north carolina press, vicksburg is the key, the struggle for the mississippi river, university of nebraska press, and the virginia militia in the 17th century, louisiana state university press. let's give a good saline county welcome to dr. william l. shea. [ applause ] >> i understand that i am honorable to everyone in the room and possibly this part of the county. before i begin my canned presentation will some what tie me to my notes, i want to pound out this masterpiece of cartography. almost arkansas. what the arrow depicts is essentially the movement of the united states army of the southwest in the first half of 1862 as that army moved from missouri, just off the top of the map, the board, through springfield, to the battle site at pea ridge, in benton county, arkansas, and then a long circuitous route almost, but not quite to little rock, probably to the cabot/jacksonville area today. and then looping back around and across the delta to helena on the mississippi river. and what we'll do tonight is explain ho

mississippi river had about seven major fort fictions, starting at columbus down past memphis to vicksburg. there was about seven of them. and they're all fairly substantial works. if you get to columbus, kentucky, it's well worth the trip. if you see what they have built there and what's still around there, you see these walls that are 20, 30 feet high. they're 30 to 40 feet wide. they're massive construction. then you see the little chicken scratchings in the water battery at ft. donelson. you can see where the confederate majority of effort was. where they were concentrating was the mississippi river. they knew that's what the federals wanted -- they wanted to control the mississippi. so, they built ft. -- ort on th mississippi river. for the tennessee river, you had ft. henry and hyman, across the river from each other. that's it. that's all they have. and ft. henry is built in a swamp. ft. hyman was uncomplete, on the kentucky side. ft. donelson was stronger, but even then it only -- 14 guns along the river. columbus had dozens on the river. you could just see where they're focusing t

where did he win, you know, did he win in vicksburg, hattiesburg, jackson, mississippi, is the rural vote going to go to rick santorum what we've seen in all the other states? >> absolutely. the break down will tell the story, if there is a victory anywhere. what is very interesting is that he and santorum both left, so not only are we saying it's too close to call, i don't think they feel it's something comfortable, otherwise they would be down there ready to give their spin and rah, rah, rah. he's on his way to missouri and new york, he's not confident he will win. >> i tell you what, i think if mitt romney wins the southern state tonight, he will land the plane fast and want to talk about it. no doubt about that. these states, mississippi and alabama had the largest percentage of evan yell i cal voters so far. 81% in mississippi, 73% in alabama. it would seem to me there is also a higher percentage of evangelicals in all states than 2008. 48% this year, compared to 37% in 2008. is this going to be rough terrain for mitt romney? it would seem to me, chris, if mitt romney were to ge

men from the mississippi valley campaign to really protect the navy from being abandoned and daily vicksburged river and have trouble coming into the red river. once they cross, daytime ascend rapidly. they, todd is forward is still two years before by the confederate was designed to hold up words in the tradition, maybe 5000 men. nearly 200 men -- between 20300 men and they are going to take this pretty easily. sherman's banner going to sneak in behind the fort while the navy is going to try to pound it from the beginning and not those of papers in new york, washington, philadelphia, described this as an armageddon like battle, they then make a leap forward and they send one of their ironclad monitors to osage, on a river to alexandria. write the middle of the state. and alexandria follows a better shot to this very formidable ironclad. the captain that it, kenneth mander sends the carrier back by boat to admiral porter, saying please come back here. they don't know that they can take this. as they get into alexandria, porter is waiting around for banks who is supposed to be there. hanks is

tornado warning that has just been lifted, but you can see that cell really active pushing through vicksburgg around 55 miles per hour. wewe had an active tornado warning, they have just lifted that, but again, this is an ongoing situation as the slow-moving storm continues to press eastward wringing not only the threat for tornadoes, large hail, damaging winds and incredible amounts of rain over the same areas. so little rock, flash flood warnings for you, down towards alexandria. 1-2 inches in a very shot period of time. this is what we have seep really over the last 48 hours, in some ways over 8 inches. 12 inches of water on the ground, so this can be very destructive. people are urged to, you know, really prepare for this and do not drive over water that you cannot see the bottom of, okay? the other big story, one of the reasons that we are seeing the severe weather, is the incredible departures from average. in some cases 20-30 degrees above what we typically see this time of year. places like chicago have seen 80-degree temperatures, today is no exception. 85 degrees. st. louis, 83, de