so grant began his campaigning against vicksburg.it went through several months, several phases, certainly don't have time to get into all of those. what grant learned, he was very deeply depressed about what happened after shiloh. it was when he figured out that the people in washington -- he had a good friend, congressman, named washburn, who was always on his side in washington. and so when he figured out that every time he stubbed his toe that lincoln and halak and ed win stanton, the second of war, were not going to fire him. when he got at confidence from the support he was getting from washington, that pushed him to what he became, very fine general. he had his good -- good things as a general, some things he was not so good at. but the main thing about him as a general, which is the point i always emphasize, and i think the point that the -- the main point that makes me admire him so much is that he never gave up. it did not matter how many times he had setbacks. it didn't matter how many times things went wrong. it didn't ma

at vicksburg, the life and case was very real. i think they get a lot of publicity that people think is just stories that people make a. i think there are at least two caves over there still identified in still in existence but they will not let you go when they and you shouldn't want to. so they are not barred to them they are not part of the park or anything. they are just the bare and people that live over there a long time, they can tell you exactly where they are. those caves were kind of fancy places in some instances. they might have three or four rooms back in their. so it was interesting dilemma for these people. sometimes the union army would stop showing during the siege and they usually had a certain amount of time that they would quit doing that. and when they did, the civilians understood that said they would come out of the caves, run home and see if home is still there and then get back to the case as quickly as they could. a lot of the homes were damaged. some more so than others. it's an interesting fact that the

the union realizes they have new orleans, but they got to capture vicksburg and port hudson to really control the mississippi. weitzel's given command of the second brigade, first division, occupying the far right of port hudson. after a 48-day siege and several battles where weitzel's men suffered many casualties, vicksburg falls. when vicksburg falls, the commanding officer of the confederacy of port hudson realizes grant is now free to send all his troops down to port hudson. so the white flag is flown over port hudson, and port hudson surrenders. general nathaniel banks chooses weitzel to accept surrender of port hudson. he says weitzel has been more influential to the campaign than anyone else. weitzel humbly declines. the next day, he is sent to flush out taylor, who had crept back into the region. he engages in a second battle there, this one not so good. general tom green meets them head on. weitzel's first defeat. he is made a division commander at the age of 27 on the heels of that battle. his next battle again did not go well. it's the battle of sabine pass. it's the river

[laughter] matt: but when they do focus upon it, i was at vicksburg one time. i don't mean to overplay this. but the unique thing about it to me was that when people got focused on the civil war, mostly southerners and locals, they would drive three or four hours to come to vicksburg. during that time in that car ride, they have figured out somebody had mistreated their ancestors. by the time they got to vicksburg, that somebody would be the federal government. [laughter] despite myself having plenty of confederate ancestors, i became the representative of that. so they would tee off on me about the transgressions of 150 years ago, 140 years ago. it was quite unique to see it. one of the kids down in the deep hats, these are civil war and that we sold 10 to one confederate to union caps. up in the north i bet it's completely reversed. and that's a legacy of the civil waffer, because people come to these historic sites and they are basing their interception on their ancestry. like you were walking -- talking about fredericksburg 6r789 you were proud of that. the

. >> about 4 hours north in vicksburg mississippi, the army corp of engineers scientists are studying the exact impact coastal vegetation has on storm surge. jane mckee smith is a civil engineer. she's been studying the louisiana coastline since katrina. >> there's a lot of effort ongoing now to restore wetlands because that will help to dissipate not only the waves but it will also attenuate the surge but if we're going to include that into our designs we have to know how much. >> now as the waves are coming in explain to me what's happening? >> what we're seeing in this case is the waves coming in we see it traveling through...and it travels through the vegetation it's mobile ...so what we want to show is not only how the waves change as they go through but we want to have the dissipation as a function of distance, the height of the vegetation the width of the vegetation and also the density of the vegetation. >> since katrina the high security coastal and hydraulics lab has faced an added sense of urgency... says ty wamsley, the chief of flood storm protection. >> we really advance

he stopped at a fort that they called walnut hill, but is now vicksburg. he entered spanish territory at new madrid. he had to show passport. he did the same at baton rouge. finally, he got to new orleans thatril 24, and he noted in his journal. and then his entries in the diary just about stop. --would write things like wrote,r days, he "huh." for 19 days, he wrote "nothing extraordinary happened. oh wait. he is selling cargo. he is making money. a extensive a blue, this was a business venture. where is the information -- obst businessthis was a venture. where's the information about his product? he sold a hogshead of tobacco. a hogshead was a standard container for tobacco. if you are familiar with the 55 gallon drum, they put them out on the highways, the hogshead was probably more like the height of this podium. it would hold maybe 70 or 80 gallons. they were filled with tobacco. clark said so little about his cargo. i thought, well, what was he doing? i thought, maybe i had better check the spanish archives. at least this was about money and the spani

as good as experiencing chancellorsville or vicksburg.s, they run the winning side. but they want also be counted as victors, even though they can't show the same battle scars there other comrades could. it's difficult because x pows really weren't seen and perceived as the same as other veterans. this is true not just for the 16th connecticut. i'm really exploring how they cope with the experience, how they wanted the memory to be crafted. this was a lingering issue for them. they came back here, the veterans, many of them in the early 1900s to commemorate the monument to their state. i argue this is really a monument to their regiments. effort,arheaded the they led the state commission, they were mostly manning the monument commission. one of their members, robert kellogg, was very influential also in the effort. this was so important to them that people remember what happened here. and not forget it. host: professor gordon, as part of that, there was paper stars in there to the tune of 13,000. professor gordon: yes, that was remarkable

they want that to be as good as fighting at gettysburg, as good as experiencing chancellorsville or vicksburghey're on the winning side but they want to also be counted as victors even though they can't show the same battle scars that their other comrades could. it's difficult because p.o.w.'s really weren't seen and perceived as the same as other veterans. this is true for not just the 16th connecticut. in my book i'm really exploring how they coped with the experience here and how they wanted the memory to be crafted and this was a lingering issue for them. they came back here, the veterans, the survivors many of them in the early 1900's to commemorate the monument to their state. i'll argue this is really a monument to their regiment because they spearheaded the effort. they led the state commission. manned the stly monument commission. one of their members robert kellogg was very, very influential in the -- also in the effort. and so this is so important to them that people remember what happened here. and not forget it. >> and, professor gordon, as part of that there was a casket during

and as i did with the book on grant at vicksburg, the general and the siege. i like to focus on him on a daily basis, what was he doing. never really read anywhere, what was he doing during the seeming of vicksburg on a daily bay is? what roles did he actually play? and i will do that in -- with him in virginia, too. so, i think to use one of the phrases we're used to these days-grant went from rags to riches and did it the hard way. he earned it. and he had to really fight and scrap, but he made it. >> a question toward tom here. involves one of mississippi's own guys, earl van dohrn, i hear he is quite the lady's man, and suspect, general? >> easterly van dohrn is a fascinating individual. he is at the heart of what i do at the civil war interpretive center because he is the army commander, army of west tennessee, his campaign is to retake all of west tennessee but he has to take the garrison at corinth first, and he has got a lot to live up to. much is thought of him at the beginning of the war. he is the second ranking jenna mississippi, only to jefferson