This 45minute talk was part of a daylong conference hosted by the university of virginias center for Civil War History. So we will begin this mornings lecture with gary w. Gallagher. As many of you know, we owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to professor gallagher. He was the founding director of the nau center, retired just last spring from uva where he held the john l. Nau chair in Civil War History from 1999 to 2018. He is the author or editor of at least 39 books, including the union war, the american war and most recently civil war places which, too, is in the back, beautiful book, his son will took the photographs and this is an absolute treasure if you havent had a chance to see it yet. So with that id like to welcome gary gallagher. It yet. So with that id like to welcome gary gallagher. Thank you, carrie. We are on a very tight schedule today which carrie has made clear to all of us in the front row, especially steve. Steve asked me to say that he will be signing 8 by 10 glossees in the back of the room after his talk so just keep that in mind. Im delighted to be back at the nau center for this years signature conference and i will start by thanking carrie and liz barron for inviting me and thanking will curts, this is redundant, will, but will seems to all the details seamlessly and with amazing good humor. I really appreciate that. Its also fun to see so many friends here this morning, its like a homecoming and that is very nice. Being here is also a reminder ive been at the Huntington Library in california for seven months and getting off the plane in dulles reminded me that here in the east you have what might be called weather, which i havent been used to dealing with and so my feet are back on the ground. My charge this morning is to present an overview of theaters during the civil war. I have 30 minutes to accomplish that, then ten minutes for lectures, we will each reinforce those time constraints as we go along. I have divided my lecture into two parts, the first will describe the major theaters and some key characteristics about each. In the second part of my talk im going to share my thoughts about the comparative importance of the principal theaters and that part of my talk is guaranteed to offend, im sure, a number of people in the audience here and im ready for that, in fact, i welcome it. You have a handout or you should have a handout that shows the theaters that im going to be talking about and it has the title civil war military theaters, just in case you wonder what it is. Theater is a term that can be defined in many ways, as this conference makes clear, as the look at the roster of talks youre going to hear. Its en tiefrl proper to explore the theater of emancipation or the theater of occupation by Union Military forces, the guerrilla war theater or theaters of naval warfare, blockading, commerce raiding and on and on. There are many ways to approach the war under the rubric of theaters. Im going to focus on the three theaters most often discussed by the generation that experienced the war, as well as by historians and others who have written about the conflict in the past 150 years. The military story of the civil war played out in three principal geographical theaters, they are the ones marked on your map. The first of those is the Eastern Theater and you will just have to pardon me if some of this seems so rudimentary, im going to go through this any way. The Eastern Theater embraced most of virginia, parts of western maryland, the lower tier of counties in central pennsylvania. That theater experienced by far the most concentrated combat of the war. Eight of the ten cost least battles for United States armies took place in the Eastern Theater. More casualties took place within 20 miles of fredericksburg, virginia, than in any other state in the confederacy. 19 of the 20 Union Regiments that suffered the highest percentage of casualties during the war fought in the Eastern Theater, as did 10 of the 15 con federal regiments and eight of the ten con federal brig aids that earned that grisly distinction. Several factors conspired to focus attention on the east in the United States, in the confederacy and in in europe and by europe i mean london and paris, the rest of it didnt matter. The Eastern Theater among these factors are the Eastern Theater, and you know this, the Eastern Theater contained the two national capitals, they are only 100 miles apart. It also contained the wars two most famous armies, the army of the potomac and the army of Northern Virginia. It was the theater closest to most large cities in the loyal state and thus to newspapers with the largest circulations in the United States. British and french observers habitually gauged the progress of the war by what, if anything, happening in the Eastern Theater. They had a view of the United States thats very similar to the view that new yorkers have of the United States. When they looked at the separates from london and paris they could see everything to the op latch ans and then its instinct around there. Everybody in new york can see all the way to the hudson then it becomes undistinct and way out there somewhere is something and it might be los angeles. A final factor that brought greater attention to the Eastern Theater is the presence of r. E. Lee whose emergence in 1862, 1836 as the preeminent rebel general gave additional weight to what happened this this theater. It was a measure of the predominance of the Eastern Theater in the minds of people in the United States and in the confederacy that appomatics where lee sur rend to grant in april 1865 marked the effective end of the war despite the presence in the field of scores of thousands of other confederate soldiers after april 9th, 1865. And appomatics as everyone in this room knows after 150 years remains the widely understood moment at which the war came to a close. Second theater is the western theater, which sprawled across many states and offered a portable feast of military action as u. S. Armies penetrated ever deeper into the confederacy. Early in the conflict it sfrechd from the ohio river on the north to the gulf of mexico on the south. With eastern and western limits defined by the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River. By the end of the conflict western armies had fought through kentucky and tennessee and georgia, into the carolinas. Setting up a final scene at durham station near raleigh where general William Sherman presided over the capitulation of the last significant confederate field army, commanded by Joseph Johnston in late april 1865. The army of tennessee initially called the army of the mississippi, carried the burden of confederate defense in the west while on the union side three armies named after prominent rivers, the armies of the tennessee, the cumberland and the ohio projected u. S. Power into the rebellious states. They carried out the third part of the overall Strategic Plan that Winfield Scott had offered in april of 1861, blockade the coast, cease control of the Mississippi River and if that isnt enough project United States military power into the confederate heartland, thats what these armies in the western theater did. It contained crucial logistical resources as well as new orleans, the confederacys largest city and most important port, nashville, memphis, atlanta and other Vital Centers of commerce and communication. The third and largest theater was the descriptively named trans mississippi which extended north to south between the border with canada and the republic of mexico and east to west from the Mississippi River to california and the pacific ocean. Although it courted some attention in Strategic Planning by both sides operations west of the mississippi never rivaled in scale or importance those in either the eastern or the western theater. The most consequential military and political events in the transmississippi occurred in arkansas, missouri, western louisiana, texas and indian territory. Of course, in indian territory there was an active role played by the five socalled civilized tribes who had removed there in the 1830s and 1840s, there is one native American General in the confederacy, so in present day oklahoma thats an active arena in that part of the transmississippi. U. S. Earlees gained early control in portions of this region, especially those closest to the Mississippi River, while other places most notably texas experienced almost no federal incursions. The long border between texas and mexico allowed movement of goods into the confederacy and french intervention in intervention in mexico added a diplomatic dimension to affairs in the transmississippi. 1865 near brownsville, texas, a heavy skirmish marked the final significant clash of the war. The part of the transmississippi theater that lay west of the 100th meridian and thats marked on your map, embraced everything from western kansas, nebraska territory and the dakotas to the pacific coast. From the texas panhandle across modern day new mexico and arizona to california. That area beyond the 100th meridian remained peripheral to the civil war. This sprawling and lightly populated region witnessed very little military action between the United States and the confederacy, none that had any appreciable effect on the conflicts outcome. A rebel force under general sibly moved up the rio grande from el paso in 1861 and 1862 as many of you know and reached the vicinity of santa fe in Human Resources territory before retreating back to texas in the spring, that i think spr. In 2017 i wrote a piece for civil war times that suggested that campaign and even smaller operations in the far western area and i will quote myself here, i learned to do this from steve, quote, scarcely rise to the level of inconsequential, closed quote. That statement spurred a rather dramatic reaction from a number of people, i think some of them probably needed counseling, but i will stand by that statement. And i love that part of the world, thats where i grew up, that is my part of the world. That is where my heart lies, just didnt matter. Now, let me offer some more detailed kparty of thoughts about which theaters loomed largest in terms of impact on the conduct and course of the war. I was convinced by the age of 12 as a young civil war nerd living on a farm in southern colorado that military events in the Eastern Theater far exceeded in importance anything that happened west of the Appalachian Mountains. I based this conclusion on my reading of douglas freemans tenets of study and command and a buying grease of the potomac trilogiy and biographies and memoires devoted to generals in the army in Northern Virginia and the army of the potomac. However, interesting the sad records of defeat foshlgd by the army of trn and other rebel forces in the west or the series of triumphs crafted by grant and she are manned and george h. Thomas and other Union Commanders from ft. Donaldson through vicksburg, atlanta, nashville and elsewhere, however important those, however sad what was going on with the confederates in my mind operations in the western theater simply seemed less dee sis sieve than the bloody succession of eastern battles that included the seven days in an treat dumb and chancellorville and gettysburg and the overland campaign. More than 50 years of Additional Reading and research is very painful to speak those words, have brought me to a more considered but not a different conclusion. On this much disputed topic. This fact leaves many people to look at me as a kind of hopeless fossil, a kind of relic from the past who read something when he was 11 rand then never really understood anything else. And i think its fine that they think that because, as my girlfriend jane austin would say, what do we live for about you to provide sport for our friends and to look at them and left in our turn. Here is my conclusion after all these years, in terms of political impact, affect on morale behind the lines in the United States and the confederacy, perceptions in london and paris and many other ways the Eastern Theater predominated. My assessment goes against much historical writing of the past 40 years. A good deal of which which lee and his army, the battle of gettysburg, the surrender at appomattox, and other elements of the war in the east have chastened americans understanding of the war. And im the first to say, and many people in the room know this, i have no patience with people who think that gettysburg was the turning point over the civil war or was that important. It simply was not. I will call them aficionados who just wait by their mailbox every day just waiting a new book about the first 15 minutes on the railroad arrives. Because the 300page one we have just isnt enough. Thomas book, remains the standard treatment, complained of what he called the virginia pattern of interpretation, regarded by writers as early in the 1870s continued in the 20th century, most notably by friedman, that pattern, connelly asserted, is synonymous with the battle of virginia. Jones reminded readers in their book, how the north won, which remains a splendid onevolume treatment, 700 pages, but its a good place to go i made my graduate students you may have been in that class, where you had to read sherman and archer jones, and i think you actually did. That is a very important book that henry w hallett, who presided over the first period of Union Success and later served as general in chief and chief of staff wielded great influence over the entire course of the conflict. Quote, not only a western outlook, but how a western general, wrote hattaway and jones, dominated. When the war concluded, halletts general, only george g meade. D not belong to halletts original command. Richard mcmurray admired his general ship, insisted that the war was actually lost in the western theater between 1861 and 1863. By the time lee took command of the army in Northern Virginia on june 1, 1862, suggests mcmurray, union armies had dealt their opponents a series of serious, arguably mortal blows along the western rivers, over the next 12 months, continues mcmurray, with a touch of humor, rebel support continued to slide down, it became less and less likely that the confederates would avoid defeat by not losing since they were, in fact, losing. Richard is a very droll fellow. A great deal of firstrate scholarship over the past quarter century has deepened our understanding of the armies, leaders, and battle in the theater. Including a brandnew and by the university of North Carolina press that arrived at my house this week, larry j daniels why the Confederate Army failed. It has been seriously challenged by recent scholarship. Unlike richard mcmurray, whose work i admire a great deal, i believe the war was far from decided in the summer of 1863 or in the summer of 1864. The key for the confederacy lays in convincing a majority of the citizens in the United States is to endure the rebellion would be too costly. Three times the confederates came close to doing just that. In each case largely because of what lee had accomplished in the Eastern Theater. The first of these xhoemts moments, came in the late summer and early autumn, following the Second Bull Run Campaign and lees subsequent invasion of the United States, first invasion of the United States, a period in which british leaders came closest to getting involved in the conflict, to mediate an end to the war, to use their language. The second moment came in 1863 as construction and emancipation roiled the political situation in the United States, and lee won his victories at fredericksburg and chancellorsville and took his army across the National Frontier for a second time in june. The third and most important of the crises of this type came in the summer of 1864, the incomprehensibly bloody summer of 1864, when the casualties of the campaign and grants inability to capture richmond, outside atlanta, sent civilian morale in the north spiraling downward to its wartime neighbor as all of you know well, on august 23, 1864, lincoln had his cabinet sign his famous blind memorandum that said we, the republicans, are not going to be reelected this year. We have to win the war before the democrats take over next year because we know theyll not win it. Something if the democrats had won, everybody in this room knows this, not only would Union Success have been in place but emancipation, it would have been over if democrats were in challenge. Evidence abounds on how people on both sides thought about the Eastern Theater. Lee and his army supplied almost all of the