winfield scott was a student of, as far as infantry tactics go, he was a student of tol kick, en. actually he had a whole library that he carried around with him, and he, scott had fought in the war of 1812, and he'd been forced into a couple of situations where he'd had to fight defensively, and he was wounded, and it was really a bad situation and campaign in qanta. he vowed -- canada. he vowed he'd never fight defensively again. he'd always go on the offense. so he studied napoleonic tactics and came up with his method was to never attack the front, always attack the flank, you know? feint going this way, move this way. taylor was just the opposite. he would fix bayonets and charge straight ahead. but scott was, he was not only a strategist, but he was an excellent -- he was probably the best tactician in the war. and i would say he's the best general the united states had between the revolutionary war and the civil war. yes, sir. >> senator william haywood of north carolina, he and polk were at chapel hill together. and i've read that he was considered one of the most powerful

winfield scott calls robert e. lee to washington and he says, look, i want you to take command of these forces that we're organizing, the u.s. forces. lee thinks about them but then he writes and says, ica not march on fellow southerners. he goes home. he resigns his commission in the u.s. army and he will later rise to the leadership of the army of northern virginia and eventually to the leadership of all confederate forces. that's the situation by the time we're in late -- once you have the secession of all the upper south, by the time we're in late may, june 1865. when y'all get back on monday is when we'll pick up with the start of the war. now do you want to go ahead? we can open up the mic if you want to be able to record any of the questions. y'all are going to freeze at this point. don't make me talk on television. all right? do you have any questions? go for it. >> ft. sumter was held by the north? >> it's a u.s. military installation. it would be like fort hood in texas. if texas secedes and you have a u.

and by the end of april, they've captured new orleans which was according to the great winfield scott, that was the key to winning the war was to capture new orleans. and at that point, lincoln is having william seward write letters proposing the exact opposite kind of solution, where the europeans withdraw their recognition of belligerent rights from the south because they're about to lose anyway and that will get the cotton moving. so they're up at this height . and then, bam, right back into the depths symbolized by the second battle at manassas where the union military leadership actually turns on each other to lose a battle within ear shot of the white house and the confederates invade kentucky and maryland and at that point both in paris and in england the leaders of both countries are talking about this is the time to intervene. fortunately europeans love their summer vacations. this is a key point of american history. they all went on vacation and said we'll deal with this when we get back in october. by october, the united states had won the battle of antidum and the confeder

and general taylor, stack i are taylor, winfield scott, old feathers, grant wore all the uniformsthe law would allow, patrician background where eisenhower on the other hand is like zachary taylor, who was perfectly happy to go around in denham trousers and mingle with the troops. eisenhower was perfect for commanding a volunteer army. he was not part of the army hierarchy, the army aristocracy as macarthur was. they were both brilliant but in parallel ways. >> rose: my impression of eisenhower is that, you know, he ultimately was viewed as someone whose whose abilities had to do with understanding personality relationships but beneath the surface of like david eisenhower was ambition, was talent, and was a real sense of how he could achieve all of his ambition. >> well, yes, eisenhower, eisenhower worked a seven-day week from the time he graduated from west point. and he was focused, he was able, he was intel intelligent and had a very good command of the language. macarthur's speeches were written by eisenhower. and he had a marvelous command of the english language. and was ver

this is his commanding general here, winfield scott. and this is the first letter, and you read part of this for today. this is from april 25th, 1861. i want you to react to the language. how does it strike you? it's hard to read so we'll read through it together. i therefore conclude that it is only left to the commanding general to watch and await their action, the maryland legislature, which if it shall be to arm their people against the united states, he is to adopt the most prompt and efficient means to counteract even if necessary to the bombardment of their cities and in the extremist necessity the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. let this be a lesson to all of you when you do the blue back exams have good penmanship. fortunately lincoln's handwriting is good and we can even make out how he did editing. he even wrote, even if necessary to the bombardment of their cities, and of course the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus and he changed of course and wrote in the extremist necessity. some historians look at this and