Garfield is one of the most intelligent president s we have ever had. He is up there in the top half dozen and when we go through his life, by the end of the middle of it, and youre going to say no, that cant be. He cant be that good in that field. Its just not possible, and then well find something else, and youre going to no. He is just incredibly bright, and the hope for his presidency was enormous, and were going to discuss an absolutely brilliant human being. I was chatting with a friend before, and he asked me if i thought garfield was the most intelligent. I dont know how you test Something Like that, and its not as if you give president s iq tests. Its a lot easier with things that are easy to measure, tall ask short. We all know that madison was our shortest president , lincoln was our tallest president because thats easy. I dont know how you know who the most intelligent. Certainly the two adams, jefferson, madison and Lincoln Garfield is right up there. So one of the reasons
At the unite naval academy, but he told me that his retirement failed, that he was no good at it at all. So he is now the distinguished professor at the United States Naval War College in new port, rhode island. He has written several books about the civil war. His books received the lincoln prize and the Abraham Lincoln book award. He also has just or actually done a biography of joe john so. Thats what his was about today. Lets walk joe simons. He was the a man who lacked the moral will to commit troops to battle unless he could be absolutely certain of victory unless the circumstances never obtained he seldom if ever sought battle at all. Johnston does have his defenders. It made it impossible to defend it any where and the confederate president s tendency to promote and protect personal favorites and therefore also made a contribution to confederate. Because johnson favored acting on the defensive and concentrating on a few vital points. His vurks that view was the more realistic o
They are returning to tables that had empty chairs around them throughout the war and now will be permanently empty, because many thousands of those men will not return back to their families. They are dealing with scenes like this, largescale property destruction, destroyed by battlefield engagements or by the destruction of military installations. The march to the sea, this particular image of richmond being destroyed as the union army marched in in a grand victorious manner. The smoldering ruins, if you will, left all across the south. We talked a little bit before about the crisis in faith that southern veterans had, that they had prayed to god in many ways for that speedy and big victory and now are returning home as defeated men, as losers, if you will. There are many ways sort of embodying if you will rem, sitting in the corner losing their religion because god had turned away from them. Some came home completely disillusioned, angry, frustrated. One veteran, though, remained so
Be sure to watch cspans washington journal beginning at 7 00 eastern on friday morning. Join the discussion. Next on American History tv, historians discuss general shermans march flew georgia. After that, historian dennis fry talks about the impact of john browns raid in the 1860 goals. The New York Historical society hosted this hour long event. Welcome, its great to be back in the same seats as we always occupy. For those of you who have come to a number of our sessions. We are promised and we are promising each other that well do more in the coming seasons. We have a topic today that we think is one of the best that weve come up with, its a neglected civil war story. Because of the focus on shermans march through georgia. Theres a little less attention on shermans other march, which followed the march through georgia. Take a look at this scowling man in a fantastic coat, as we begin talking about him. Im going to start with john who as you heard has written two wonderful books abou
Entries to actually tell us what all of this means in the grand scope of things. The other thing is that some confederates we can say well, we can go to the pension files, these documents when confederate soldiers will fill out documents to get money and prospects which we will talk about in a few minutes but those files in many ways are incomplete. They are also hidden from public view. In fact, some states actually still have medical seals on these documents because they contain private details. Medical details, about family members that you dont want necessarily to go public. So for the veterans who came home psychologically disturbed, some of them turned to alcohol abuse, some to drug abuse, particularly opium. We also see some contemplate and actually commit suicide. Bill hicks is one of these guys. He was described as the pristine man if you will, colossus in form. He lost a leg in the battle of shilo in 1862. He came home to a law practice that seemed promising but wasnt that gr