vicksburg. his book comes out this fall and actually is now out, and you can buy a copy of it out at our bookstore at battlefield center. so i'm pleased to introduce dr. timothy smith. [ applause ] >> thank you. appreciate that. appreciate the opportunity to be here. i've always heard about it and it's my first time to be here. i've always heard about it and how nice it was and i'm a believer now. i believe you. you've got a great place here and appreciate the invitation to be here. we're going to talk about the western theater today, vicksburg, champion hill. how many of you have been to vicksburg? i figured that. how many to champion hill? okay, not quite as many but a good number. champion hill is one of those great battlefields if you've been watching the news, listen to the civil war american battle trust now you know they're doing a lot of work down there. in fact, the state of mississippi has just turned over near several hundred acres to the national park service to make a unit of the vi

vicksburg, how many of you have been to vicksburg. she o he is one of the great battlefields, listening to the civil war american trust now, you know they're doing a lot of work down there. they turned over nearly several hundred acres. so there is a lot going down at champion hill. so we're going to talk about that battle in particular, the larger vicksburg campaign. and i do not have a power point either. i'm a little old fashioned. we have a map of champion hill which we will talk about in just a little bit. i tend to go overboard when i go into power points and i confuse everybody, so to keep from doing that, i don't do powerpoints when i can help it. and i'm beginning to realize that powerpoints can be useful. you see some that are very good and they can help you along a little bit. i had a good lesson in this recently. my 12-year-old has been after us to get her a puppy. she wanted a puppy, a border collie. no no, we don't need another dog. she made a powerpoint p presentation to convince us why we need a puppy. of course now we

vicksburg campaign is to actually get to vicksburg. the second major strategic effort in this larger plan, we talked about the strategic plan that was the anaconda plan and all that, the second major effort is to take vicksburg. first, you've got to get to vicksburg, which is extremely difficult due to the mississippi delta, due to the 300 foot bluffs on the river to the west. due to the logistical challenges to the south. the only good way to approach vicksburg is from the east, and that is better held territory. that is what grant took as we moved to the operational level of the war. it takes grant six or seven months to get to vicksburg, then you have to take vicksburg. there are two assaults involved in that, then the famous siege that we all know about. just getting to vicksburg is one major component of the strategic level of the campaign. this is why if you look at the rhetoric in some of the writings of the vicksburg campaign, you will see they divide this into two different operations. when grant and sherman finally reach the

, but arguably vicksburg is the more important one. cutting off the trans-mississippi confederacy to the rest of the confederacy. but i wanted to pull us back and stand where confederates stood and see to them what looks like an impregnable position, a preposterous this of imagining a union that would mount an offensive records somehow conquer this place that they called the gibraltar of the confederacy. and so the picture, at least right now, you imagine the picture taken on july 4, 1863, might help us get into the mind of those people who let the confederacy, who led the southern states out of the union and into a new nation, that they anticipated would survive and thrive and flourish. end, but thathe is not what they knew. difficult --f the hindsight is a very useful tool for us to understand things but it is also a super powerful drug and i tell my students you have to dose yourself very carefully with that because the more you take, the more it is impossible to think your way out of the possibilities and the potentialities of what

especially when vicksburg fell. secondly, what was the relationship with the texas units that fought in the western areas. susannah ural: great questions. on the first one, you could argue that they did not have homes to go to. texas was too far. except for the fact that when they did get some furlough time and they could not get across mississippi especially after the fall of vicksburg, they went to their extended families in virginia. most of these guys had moved west to texas. they would be allowed sometimes to go and spend a couple of months healing with a family member in north or south carolina and western virginia. they definitely had places to go to even -- a temporary desertion. they did not tend to do that. and i argue they just believe in what they are doing too much. an uglhat you see in e unit. and they are very well lead. they are not as miserable as some units. they are not going through what leslie gordon talks about in the broken regiment where there were huge problems with leadership and cohesion.

then civil war scholar timothy smith explores the 1863 battle of champion hill that was part of the vicksburgllowed by jeffrey hunt detailing the movement of general george mead and union forces as they followed confederates through virginia. american history tv tonight beginning at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span 3. >>> history professor gunther bischof examines world war ii summit which preceded the yalta conference in 1945. he reviewed the post war decisions made during these meetings and the political leaders in

in may it's vicksburg. and then chattanooga. we take troops from lee's army, which is the ohm real source of rein forcement and we send them west to try to redeem the situation or lee launches an offensive in west virginia to try to wreck the army of the chute, threaten washington, panic the north, pull troops from the westing defend the east to bring them to the capitol. we no what happened in may of 1863. as lee said, we can't get men to the western time. if we get them out there, they won't be used properly, so the smart thing do is an offensive in virginia. watch in september. exactly the same thing. exactly the same thing. davis decides to go with lee's advice to attack meade. the problem is just as soon as lee issues the orders to prepare for an offensive, chattanooga and knoxville fall and when they fall, davis changes his mind and he orders that longstreet's corps from lee's army be dispatched to reinforce it. the brigade is going to be shipped to charleston. longstreet feels he'll have a real desertion problem, but the

the new york historical society has a wonderful newspaper published in vicksburg in 18 623. i used it in the book -- 1863, called the civil war in 50 objects. they used wallpaper for the last edition and the historical society owns the last vicksburg paper. was lincoln an active churchgoer? draw heavilyem to and effectively on biblical and religious references? believe, and i have had arguments on this with historians and rabbis. was a genuinely religious all his life? did he become a more religious in the wake of this horrific unheard of conflagration? , he became unable to bear the responsibility and guilt of this without invoking a higher power. deathay have ordained the and destruction. that is just one take on it. , heo churchgoing assiduously did not join a church ever in his life. he was something of a nonbeliever in his early days and was attacked for it in his first run for congress. moment when he is running against a minister who says at a rally, with lincoln and the audience, he said all those in the audience who feel they are going to hell, stand up. and seven o

if gettysburg is this great momentous turning point, concurrent with vicksburg which occurs at the same time, then the war in virginia ought to look differently after gettysburg them before gettysburg. let me go find out what was going on in virginia following the battle of gettysburg. when i went to find secondary literature on it, i drew a blank, because there isn't any to speak of on what happens in virginia between gettysburg and the opening of the overlaying campaign. you can find a paragraph here or there and it will get mentioned in a biography for a few pages or a regimental history now and again. i was forced to go to the official record. i started reading regimental histories, newspapers, archives to find the answer i wanted. what i discovered was contrary to the way history is treated, which is to say nothing of important happened, meade and lee maneuvered around each other but it was essentially a stalemate after the armies lick their wounds following gettysburg. it is as though historiography hit the fast-forward button from middle july to early may of 1864. if you pay atte

vicksburg early on the outskirts of washington, the failure and the red river campaign. the confederates have a hope if they hold out for a few weeks, lincoln is going to go down and mclenlan is going to win and will make it impossible for the north to win the war. whether that is right or not, that was what the southerners believed. and so how do you get there? how do you get from early july when it seemed that the great turning point itr had happened, the north was inostably going to be won. to a year later the north is on the verge of going down the defeat and the south on the vernl of establishing this independence. there has to be something that bridges that period. it's the six months between lee's retreat across the patomac and the end of active campaigning in the december of 1863. another interesting thing about this period is that it also marks the only interval in which gorge meade is in sholtry command of the army of the patomac. technically he commands that until the end of the war, we know once grant shows up he is looking over meade's shoulder, treating him

then civil war scholar timothy smith explores the 1863 battle of champion hill that was part of the vicksburg campaign, followed by civil war scholar jeffrey hunt, detailing the movements of general george mead and union forces as they follow ed confederates through virginia. american history tv tonight, beginning at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span3. >>> michael bishop is the former director of george washington university's national churchill library and center. next, he looks at the february 1945 yalta conference between allied leaders winston church l churchill, franklin roosevelt and josef stalin. mr. bishop focuses on churchill's role at the meeting and how yalta impacted the british prime minister personally and politically. he also talks about the legacy of yalta and its role in the dawn of the cold war with churchill becoming one of the leading cold warriors of the era. the national world war ii museum hosted this event. >> our final speaker of the day is mr. michael bishop. michael is a consultant in the office of the chairman of the national endowment of the humanities. prior to that he

they used wallpaper for the last edition and the historical society owns the last vicksburg paper. was lincoln an active churchgoer? why did he seem to draw so heavily and effectively on biblical and religious references in his speeches? second part first. i believe, and i've had arguments on this with historians and rabbis. a rabbi is here. we talked about this. was he genuinely religious all his life? did he become more religious in the wake of this horrific unheard of conflagration? my view is he became just unable to bear the responsibility and guilt of this without invoking a higher power. that may have ordained the death and the destruction. that's just one take on it. as to churchgoing, he assiduously did not join a church ever in his life. he was something of a nonbeliever in his early days, and was attacked for it in his first run for congress. there's a great moment in his first congressional campaign when he's running against a minister who says at a rally, with lincoln in the audience, he said all those in the audience who feel they're going to hell, stand up. and all t

vicksburg and the c.s.s.ive propeller-driven ship built in secrecy in england for the confederacy. all are made precisely to scale. 1 inch here translates to 8 feet on the real vessel. where did this all begin? did dad buy a book on ship building? >> i don't remember anybody ever teaching him how to do this. it's just something you have to be born with. >> william atteridge jr. is born in 1929 in highland park, illinois, a suburb of chicago. from an early age, he's fascinated by the ships he sees on lake michigan and dreams of one day setting sail. in 1951, during the korean war, william joins the navy and travels the pacific on the u.s.s. valley forge. the 22-year-old specializes in cosmetic maintenance, doing the detail work. >> the "45" that you see on the u.s.s. valley forge, he was one of the guys that painted the numbers on the aircraft carrier he was on. >> william is honorably discharged in 1955, returns home, gets married, and starts a family. larry's the youngest of three kids. the family settles in

then civil war scholar timothy smith explores the 1863 battle of champion hill that was part of the vicksburg campaign followed by jeffrey hunt detailing the moments of general george meade and union force as they followed confederates through virginia. american history tv, tonight beginning at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span 3. >>> next harvard ukrainian history professor serhii plokhii outlines the 1945 yalta conference which took place in a crimea resort in ukraine. this talk is part of a national world war ii museum symposium marking the 75th anniversary of the yalta talks between winston churchill, franklin roosevelt and josef stalin. >>> welcome back, ladies and gentlemen for our next event. it's more or less the keynote of the day because it is the talk on the yalta conference though all of the programs, all of the sessions will be wonderful. we have serhii plokhii here from harvard. he's the professor of ukrainian history and director of ukrainian research institute at harvard. as i mentioned the morning he's been on our list for a longtime and we have finally found the right time to brin

then civil war scholar timothy smith explores the 1863 battle of champion hill that was part of the vicksburg campaign and followed by jeffrey hunt detailing the movement of general george mead and union forces as they followed confederates through virginia. american history tv tonight beginning at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span 3. >>> history professor gunther bischof examines world war ii summit which preceded the yalta conference in 1945. he reviewed the post war decisions made during these meetings and the political leaders in attendance. the national world war ii museum hosted the event. >> well, greetings, ladies and gentlemen. it is a pleasure to see you all here and it is always great to see -- i don't want to say so many -- probably all are familiar faces and we saw most of you in november and we hope to see most of you again in november and in between in september for our memory conference. as steven is said, unfortunately dr. stoller tried his best, slipped on the way and caught his balance. but all three flights from berlington, vermont, were cancelled to get him here yesterday. and

civil war scholar timothy smith explores the 1863 battle of champion hill, that was part of the vicksburg campaign. followed by jeffrey hunt, det l detailing the movements of general george mead and union forces as they followed confederates through virginia. american history tv, wednesday, beginning at 8:00 p.m. eastern, on c-span3. >>> next, national world war ii museum senior historian robert citino discusses how decisions made at the february 1945 yalta conference affected the ending of world war ii. this talk is part of a day long symposium marking the 75th anniversary of the pivotal meeting between british prime minister winston churchill, president franklin roosevelt, and soviet leader josef stalin. >> welcome back to the madeleine paul hilliard conference center here at the higgins hotel. i hope everybody enjoyed their lunch. we spent this morning doing some pretty high level analysis of the political and strategic situation that existed amongst the allied leaders. but as we all know, wars are fought on battle feels, not in board rooms, and these summits, though they dictated much

then civil war scholar timothy smith explores the 1863 battle of champion hill that was part of the vicksburg campaign, followed by civil war scholar jeffrey hunt, detailing the movements of general george mead and union forces as they follow ed confederates through virginia. american history tv tonight, beginning at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span3. >>> michael bishop is the former director of george washington university's national churchill library and center. next, he looks at the february 1945 yalta conference between allied leaders winston church l churchill, franklin roosevelt and josef stalin. mr. bishop focuses on churchill's role at the meeting and how yalta impacted the british prime minister personallan

then timothy smith explores the 1863 battle of champion hill that was part of the vicksburg campaign. followed by jeffrey hunt, detailing the movements of general george mead and union forces through virginia. american history tv, tonight beginning at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span 3. >>> next, a panel of world war ii scholars looks at the february 1945 yalta conference, at which allied leaders franklin roosevelt, winston churchill, and joseph stalin met to look ahead to the postwar era.

then timothy smith explores the 1863 battle of champion hill that was part of the vicksburg campaign. followed by jeffrey hunt, detailing the movements of general george mead and union forces through virginia. american history tv, tonight beginning at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span 3. >>> next, a panel of world war ii scholars looks at the february 1945 yalta conference, at which allied leaders franklin roosevelt, winston churchill, and joseph stalin met to look ahead to the postwar era. panelists compare yalta, to previous meetings between the three leaders, and examine the political motives that drove the deliberations. the national world war ii museum in new orleans hosted the event. >>> welcome back, as we begin to silence our conversations, please remember to silence your cell phones as well. i was thinking with yalta being an eight-day conference, we have almost made a full eight hours talking about it. the last session is often one of our favorites. and that is a roundtable discussion where we get all of the speakers up together to talk about themes, to ask each other questions, a

they fought at pea ridge and vicksburg and temporarily attached to hooker's congressmm because they had been at the battle of missionary ridge. so they had already done some pretty good work. they were in charge with lieutenant colonel frederick partridge. here is goldwait, waiting for the 13th illinois to get closer and closer. >> keeping silent and everything in the valley was in our sight railroad running like an arrow from our feet straight to it and to and through to the village in the background. cleburne and an aide were hidden behind us. cleburne behind a tree standing with field glasses watching. we were not to fire until he said so. as i lay in the gully i took a look at him now and then. i was looking at him when he gave the order to fire. the enemy had come within 100 feet of us. it didn't look more than that. on they came. carelessly not in line of battle but marching column. no skirmishes were thrown out. no sign of seeing us or suspecting our presence. what a sight that was. what a moment, according to private philip stephenson of the 13th arkansas. now then boys, gift it

health system, or where the health system is very, very deeply undermined, and this morning i heard vicksburg's repeat the view perhaps that between 40 and 70% of the world's population in one way or another will experience this. so it isn't something that the refugees are likely to escape. and this is clearly something that involves people all around the refugee areas. has there been any thinking about this, and any way to prepare for it? and secondly, is there any long shot here where the devastation of perhaps 10% of mortality in this kind of a situation could lead to some kind of ceasefire? we've seen this in other humanitarian tragedies in the past. short-term sometimes. sometimes long-term. sometimes leading to peace conversations. it's just an idea at this point. but no tragedy, i think, in one way or another, should be allowed to happen without thinking through the full range, and we'd love to hear your comments. >> well, look, tom, if you really want to know the way out of the syria mess, you should listen to him, not me, given your extraordinary service and experience and ideas. just

flotilla, played a key role in the capture of new orleans, and was cited for his role in the capture of vicksburg. his wartime achievements had enabled him to skip two ranks. he was promoted from captain to rear admiral and so at the time of the fort fisher campaign he was one of the north's most famous naval figures. porter was bright. he was resourceful. energetic. competent. he was also, critics said, gruff, opinionated, cocky, competitive, and fier fiercely ambitious. typically, porter acted quickly and decisively when given command of operations for the navy for the fort fisher expedition. drawing ships from the u.s. navy's north atlantic blockading squadron, he organized one of the largest fleets ever assembled in america. 56 war ships, including a 3, #h 00 ton colorado -- 3,400 ton colorado with its crew of 600. four monitor class war ships and what was at that time probably the navy's most famous vessel, the iron plated, heavily armed steam frigate u.s.s. ironsides. porter also provided butler's floating bomb. to do that he picked an aging blockading vessel, the u.s.s. louisiana from the

she was orphaned very early, around the age of six, moved to vicksburg, mississippi, with her sister. she then moved again to st. louis to work with her brothers who were barbers. there is no lockstep for what african american women's lives were during the turn of the century. many worked on farms. many were sharecroppers. but most were not able to get education and could not have the job of their dreams because of discrimination and segregation laws. and these were laws, as opposed to just biases and feelings. these were hard, codified laws that prohibited women from, in general, from living and working where they wanted to but particularly african american women. she went to pittsburgh and decided it was not a strong enough base for her. she came to indianapolis, the crossroads of america. and at the time, this was the crossroads for railroad, distribution into the south, into the east, into the midwest, and into the far west, so she thought this was a great location to start and grow her business, and it had a decent-sized population of african-americans. the growth for a business