Captioning performed by vitac seeds that bear ill fruit. Because on january 11th, against the advice of his staff, he sends a message to his core commanders and basically says you advised me to retreat. Please publicly say so. Put it in writing. We had a conference about it. You told me about it. Put it in writing and let us stand together against the news coming from the press. But he also says something else. He says if i find that i have lost the good faith and confidence of my generals, i will retire without a murmur. And please talk to your division and brigade commanders as well and get their opinions as well. If you are a ceo and you put yourself in front of your subordinates for a referendum on your fitness for leadership, even if you win, that vote of confidence you can never command the same respect, okay . This is a capital error on the part of brag. The replies are very quickly coming. Polk is on leave. Hes got a couple of lawyers and they take a look at this and say is brag really asking us two questions or one. They wait until late january to get back. But the Division Commanders, they get back and say, yes, we advise retreat. Were happy to see that and were convinced as well that a change in the command of this army is necessary, unquote. Poke gets back at the end of january and writes to brag and says, the feedback were getting is this one request or two . Brag says i only meant one question in there. Tries to shut it down. Poke meanwhile decides that its a good idea to write to president davis. Packages all of this correspond which hardy has provided copies for, sends a message to davis and packages it up and says we didnt give your response about the fitness of the command of the army but our opinions, quote, coincide with those of the other corps, unquote. And when davis gets this, he is angry. Hes like, what is this . And he says this, why brag would submit himself to that tribunal is beyond me. And he tells the commander in the west johnson, go to tullahoma, figure out what the heck is going on. So in early february, joe johnston arrives and he meets with the commanders and they provide their very frank views. Theres some evidence that brag wanted to be relieved at this point but he doesnt force the issue by resigning. What johnston finds, he finds morale is pretty good. Theyre feeling confident about their next round against the yankees. Among typical commanders he figures out some of that, but also people are putting on a pretty good face as well even though brag maybe a can can tankerous man, hes still the officer. He writes a favorable report and disappears. You think its smoothed over now, right . Well, now comes the time to do the paperwork and the battle reports for the battle just concluded, okay . Just as these wounds are beginning to scab over, now its time to refight the Stones River Campaign. How many of you have really looked at the official records of the Stones River Campaign . This spills back out into the open. The records for stones river are really, really interesting for two parts. First of all several of them allow their feelings about the emancipation proclamation, the friends, a bunch of other language about the enemy that show up. It makes sense that you consider these reports were written in february of 1863. What you need to understand, brag, who gets all of these reports and writes his own, takes the opportunity, he cannot resist the opportunity to start striking back at those people and painting the people who were most against him in that referendum of sorts in january in the worst possible light. To the point, and ive seen this nowhere else in the official records, to the point when John Breckenridge of kentucky reports his divisional report, brag proceeds to use the polite equivalent of lie as much as he can pointing out where breckenridge was wrong and at fault and pins the loss of the battle on John Breckenridge. He doesnt care for kentuckians anyway. The year before, we must leave the spot of kentucky. It tells you how he feels about the bluegrass face and the fact that breckenridge is from kentucky certainly doesnt help matters. All of this when it gets to the War Department and confederate senate, once again puts publicly this fisher that has opened in the army of the tennessees high command. And jeff davis at this point decides to act. He tells joe johnston, go to tullahoma, take command, and send brag to richmond for consultation. I think we could all ring between the lines on that. Brag is out. Johnston is going to be in. Joe johnston, he would pen it on an exhulted sense of honor, he doesnt like to create the impression hes pulling down a brother officer so he can take the job that he really wants. When he shows up, he has a convenient excuse not to execute the order. Why . Mrs. Bragg is with the army and she has i think drunk some bad water and is down with typhoid. Its very serious illness. Its a very serious illness. She cant travel for a few weeks. So johnston says, mrs. Bragg cant travel. Bragg cant travel to richmond so were going to suspend the orders for the time being. For the next six weeks until midapril heres the situation in the army of tennessee headquarters in tullahoma. You have johne johnston in command, bragg is present, hes not been relieved from the army command, but hes still there, whos in charge . I dont think they ever figured it out. Now, who is the one person that would referee all of this and solve the whole problem . Jefferson davis. And the fact that Jefferson Davis does not is a severe indictment on him as a commander in chief on the confederacy. I do not withdraw the comment now, dereliction of duty. Finally when mrs. Bragg is ready to travel, its early april of 18 getting on toward midapril of 1863. Problem is now, Joe Johnstons virginia wounds have player flared up. Hes unfit for field duty. Is anything else going on in the west that might demand his attention at this point . Thats when grant run the batteries and it becomes clear that the mississippi front is about to get really, really active, which of course it does with the campaign. And so johnston is ordered away with elements of braggs army to go and counter that and that will be the army will be defeated in may of 1863. So where are we as an organization in the army of tennessee at this point . Do you think this is a functioning, happy, organization . Do you think theyre ready to take the field, a good team of leaders . No. Emphatically no. The wounds begin to heal over again once johnston leaves and everybody realizes bragg will still be here and we have to continue to work together. The wounds begin to heal but a few weeks later the scabs are ripped off again. I invite you at some point to go look at the Kentucky Campaign official records. Half of the reports were done in the fall of 1862. The other half were done in the spring of 1863. It rips all those scabs back off again. And at this point bragg, even though in 1862 he had no problem with polks decision to act on his observe initiative in october of 1862. He decides, its the best of the cause, were going to courtmartial polk. He gathers all the evidence, gets everything together and at the last minute decides, were not going to courtmartial general polk. Im hearing some chuckles in the background. Thats the only reaction you could have. And it would you have to laugh because its a tragedy because so many mens lives will depend on this ability of this army to function well and you can see whats happening to it. Do you know when the last actual correspondence related to the campaign was dated . June 20th, 1863. So this is going on literally right up to 96 hours before rosecrans moves to begin the campaign. And theres a letter dated may of 1863 and hardy tells polk, if you want to rip up the Kentucky Campaign, now is the time to do it. In other words, the impending court partial. Polk writes back and says its not the time to do that, but youre right, we need to watch tullaho tullahoma. What does that mean and why is that important . Why is that line important . Who is there . The federal army. The enemy. The army of the cumberland. You need to watch them. Theyre going to advance at some point and youre going to fight another battle with them. Whos in tullahoma . Wheres the army of tennessee headquarters . Its tullahoma. So what hardy and polk are basically saying is, we have two enemies, we have an enemy in the front, but we have an enemy in the rear as well, our boss, bragg. These seeds that were planted in january of 1863 are bearing bitter fruit and they will bear bitter fruit as the campaign progresses. And we will talk more about that as we get closer. Over in murphryboro all is not well either. It doesnt move out of there in force. He will send infantry parties here and there. Sometimes they get the better of the confederates. A lot of times they dont. They will be in that area and they wont move until june of 1863. How do you think that looks in washington, by the way . Second largest army in the federal service, doesnt move for six months. That does not look good, does it . Rosecrans gets in trouble with washington. He can manage people below and around him. One of the essential elements of a ceo or any leader is the ability to manage your relationships above you as well. Managing your relationships with your superiors. And rosecrans finds time to lecture the commanding general and secretary of war about warfare. How well do you think that goes down . Theres considerable evidence that rosecrans did not entertain the personal animosity towards lincoln. But rosecrans is there in 1863. Hes planning a campaign. I will say this. He has a couple of points. The first point is most of his cavalry needs remounts. Theyve been run down. But hes also got another problem and this is something actually i think when people consider the army of the cumberland, they neglect to point out this one thing, and that is this, how far is the army of the potomacs line of communication at any point in its career. 50 miles to washington or to one of the river ports in eastern virginia. Okay . How about the army out in mississippi . They could rely on the United States navy going up and down the mississippi river, right . Good, short, secure lines of supply. What about the army of the cumberland . The army of the cumberlands forward base is nashville. You can supply in through the Cumberland River but the river can be very fickle, shall we say and there are times because of the shoals downstream of the city of nashville, you cant get steamers up as well as you can. The other option you have is the Louisville Nashville Railroad and picks up the nashville and ch chattanooga railroad. Everything you need is going to ride the rails. And theyre going to ride that railroad. Now, once you leave louisville, between louisville and nashville, at best you are going through neutral territory. Even though kentucky has voted to remain loyal to the United States, it is at best neutral territory. And John Hunt Morgan had made a career at this point of cutting that railroad. As a matter of fact from july 1, 1862 to june 30th of 1963, do you know how much that railroad was fully operation . Seven months, 12 days. Almost five full months of that period this railroad was not fully operational. And its not just bridges, taking up rails, there is a 2,000 foot long tunnel which is about 30 miles north of nashville that John Hunt Morgan had blown up and burned and destroyed and blocked and it was out of commission for two months in the fall of 1862. Whenever you think about the army of the cumberland, you must remember when everybody looks and says why does rosecrans operates fits and starts, the reason is because of that nature of his lifeline. Back to nashville, and then back to louisville. Thats why his army always stops to repair the railroad, bring up supplies. Thats not just rhetoric. Thats not just an excuse. He needs it. And the other thing about that railroad is what do you think that does to the armys reverses . The army, by the way, during the winter of 1862 is down to three days worth of reserves in their warehouses. Theyre not far from starvation because of the railroad insecurity. Rosecrans is not going to move before he has good cavalry and hes not going to move before he has sufficient supplies on hand. Especially because hes got forest to his south, to the west of shelbyville, the west of the army of the tennessee, army of tennessee, and who does he have on the eastern flank . Who does he have over in hills aiming back to his ohm state . John hunt morgan. Two of the great raiders in the history of the confederate cavalry. Joe wheeler is not bad either. I would be worried about my railroad too, wouldnt you . One of the things that rosecrans builds up, this is important to remember, he builds up three weeks of supplies, constructs a major fort, you can visit it today, but more importantly, when his troops leave the area, theyll take 11 days of supplies with them. He is going banking on a big reverse. Hes going to ride on a big cushion of supplies and i think this is prudent on his part because he knows theres a pretty good chance hes going to lose communications with the rest of the hes going to lose railroad communications at some point. Now of course what this this look like in washington . Particularly what happens in may of 1863. We talked about what happens in may of 1863, vicksburg. What happens here in virginia in may of 1863 . Of course the battle of chancellorsville. Largest still, by the way, by land area, largest single engagement in north American History. Meanwhile, rosecrans sits in dashville and by june of 1863, the War Department threatens him with relief. Are you going to move any time soon . And rosecrans writes back if now means in se five now means tomorrow, no. But if it means in five days, yes. And so looking for the right opportunity, looking for the right away to go begins to cast his plans to go after general brag. To understand the story im about to tell you, you have to understand something about the geography. You can see the north center part of the map. The major towns, shelbyville, tullahoma, 12 miles straight south, tullahoma, manchester to the north. From tullahoma you go the rail line to the key rail bridge at estl springs. You go through deckard and start climbing up into the mountains to university at University Place which is now the home of the universe of the south. At the time, it had been dedicated, the cornerstone had been laid. And the cornerstone was laid in 1860 by polk who weve been spending time with already in this presentation. The big thing that you need to know about this ground, really two things you need to know. If you look between shelbyville, youll see some dark spots on the map and notations, guys gap, liberty gap, hoover gap. That is known as the high land rim. Those mountains extend anywhere from 500 to 900 feet and theyre very steep. Theres one all weather road that runs out of murphrisboro through beach grove down to manchester and continues southeast towards chattanooga. Thats the ground were going to be fighting over. Forest and joe wheeler are going to be the west along the duck river and out toward columbia. You can see them marked on the map. Up in the Northeast Area between wood berry will be John Hunt Morgan. At least until june 20th of 1863 and then will disobey orders and go into indiana and ohio and be captured. Hes going to disappear right before the Campaign Starts and rosecrans has kind of been waiting for that so he can make a move. Pokes corps is going to be in shelbyville. Hardys corps is going to be camped in and around beach grove and fairfield. And the area around fairfield is going to be alexander p. Stewarts division of about 6,000 men holding that area right there. There are cavalry, the first confederate kentucky cavalry protecting the lines, kind of being an alarm force in case the federals decide to move out, the idea is warn them, theyll have plenty of time to move up into the gaps and stop the federals. Thats the basic plan that braggs army has come up with. Let me read you what rosecrans plans to do. This comes right out of the official records. I want you to follow along on your map and ill unpack a little bit more of what he says. This is rosecranss plan for the operation. Positive information from various sources concurred to show the enemy intended to fight us in his entrenchments at shelbyville. Should we advance by that route and he would be in good position to retreat if beaten which lead up into the barrens and inflict loss to the mountains towards their base. I was determined to render useless their entrenchments and if possible secure their line of retreat by turning their right and moving on the railroad bridge across elk river. Where is the railroad bridge across elk river . Thats estel springs. That is the key ground, the keep point of the entire campaign. Thats rosecrans objective. If he takes that, braggs army is going to be in very deep trouble because they will be cut off from chattanooga. He says this, after that bridge, taking that bridge, it will compel a battle or drive them in a line of retreat. To accomplish this it was necessary to make bragg believe we could advance on him and keep up the impression if possible until we had reached manchester with the main body of the army. Let me translate those orders for you, or that plan. Gangers corps, grand total of 25,000 man, all told. Along with alexandra mccooks corps and keep polk thinking theyre going to try to force guys gap and liberty gap. The bulk of the army, george thoms 14th core, 25,000 men are going to march east and southeast, get through the hills and aim for manchester. At which point they will be in a good position to either operate directly against tullahoma or operate down toward the rail bridge across the elk river there. What do you think of the plan . Good plan, isnt it . Its a good plan. One problem, speed is the vital factor. Its been a real nice, dry summer. But when these troops start marching out on the morning of june 24th, 1863, it starts raining. Of the 17 next days, it will rain at least once, and im not talking about a sprinkle. A good thunder storm at least once 14 of those 17 days. So what do you think these roads turn into . And, by the way, when its not raining, its overcast, 90something degrees with 100 humidity. This is miserable. Those of you familiar with the gettysburgs retreat, the horrible rain they have to go through starting july 4th, well, some of that comes from middle tennessee and meets the other armies in pennsylvania later. This is atrocious weather and should always be remembered when you consider the tullahoma campaign. Early Morning Hours of june 24th, the army gets in motion. The decoy forces begin to move into their area and do their job. They skirmish at liberty gap on the 24th and 25th of june. Meanwhile the Main Elements of thomass corps begin to move southeast. In the front is a very special unit of mounted infantry. They dont want to be called cavalry. Of mounted infantry under the command of a 33yearold indiana colonel named john wilder. He said this isnt going to work. I want to get as many horses and mules as i can and he actually fronts the money, its later reimbursed by the government, he fronts the money to give them rifles. And they have gone out and done very good work and they are now in front. Of course, some of the real cavalry is like, youre tadpole cavalry. And thats the word they use. Were the real boys. On this day, wilder wants to prove himself and they are out front as the rains start to come in. About seven miles out down towards hoovers gap, they run into the first pickets of the First Kentucky cavalry. How do you think they do charging forward with spencers against confederates with single shot rifles spread out. Its very quickly over. The kentuckians collapse. They fall back under the pressure. Hoovers gap is fortified. As they send a courier riding back toward fairfield to wake up stewarts division, get them moving. Wilder realizes the situation and he sends his unit into the attack. They scatter the confederates and push into the gap itself. His orders are to stop and wait for the main body of the federal infantry to come up and complete the assault. But he realizes, those trenches arent occupied. If i wait, they might be occupied by people unfriendly to me. He orders his men into the gap and through the gap and actually takes position on a ridge just on the other side right around where you see jacobs store, just before jacobs store. Its where if you go there today, thats where the confederate cemetery is right off of exit 97 on or 107 its one of the exits right there on i24. They take up position right there. They will be there in the afternoon because they can hear the long roll in the distance thanks to wonderful acoustics of the confederate infranty coming up. And they will with stand several attacks that afternoon. Austral they said we went at it shooting. Theyll lose a grand total of 60 men in that fight and they will inflict over 200 casualties. This is veteran good confederate infantry and they will hold their own at 1 to 3 odds. Thomas when he gets up with the main body, dusk is falling and he surveys what wilder has gone. George thomas is not a demonstrative man, but he comes over to wilder and says you saved me 20,000 men. And then the next day he publishes an order because of their fast move and quick strike and hard strike, this brigade shall ever after be known as the lightning brigade and that is where they get their famous name which they will carry onto greater glory. Thomas will consolidate there. Most sides expect bragg to make a counter offensive. He doesnt make a counter offensive and rosecrans decides to break out and move toward manchester on the morning of the 26th and that is what will happen. Its the largest battle of the campaign. Thomas men will shove aside confederates, push them south and begin to progress southeast and reach manchester on the morning of the 27th of june where they find the core. Theyve had to march up a slope like this, 45 no joke. 45 degrees. There have been orders put out decrease your wagon train, decrease your baggage as much as you can. Tommy wood, one of the Division Commanders obeyed that order to the letter, but the guy in front, john palmer, no, i know better. Were taking everything. I dont know whats on the other side of the hills. They are marching through roads that, no joke, are knee high. One of the commanders would say, we were marching between marching through the fields and marching on the road. I didnt know where the road was anymore because it was that much mud being churned up. What do you think happens to those wagons and artillery. Even on flat land, they start sinking, dont they . And it takes them two days to get up that height. And how do they do it . You line up men on both sides of the road and then with the teamsters, lashing their animals as hard as they can, they start on flat land, they run up to the hill and start up, as they start faltering, the men push and turn and crank them up, crank them up the hill. It takes them two days to do that. And one of the officers who had saw many fights on many battlefields would say that was the worst march of the war for us. This distance, dry weather should only be covered, its about 15, 20 miles excuse me, 30 miles. Two days, three days march. It takes them four full days. What do you think their condition is when they get to manchester . They are exhausted. They are blown. This is always the day, by the way, where bragg finally decides hes going to do something. He sends a message to general polk on the 26th and comes to see general polk and says, look, i have a plan. I want you to take the 15,000 men of your core and i want you to advance up through guys gap and turn right and i want you to fight your way up towards murphy. Do we know whats on the other side of the hills . You can take care of it. You will be fine. The word man trap polk used to describe what poke what brag was proposing. He said this is something short of sending us into a man trap. And hes right. Hes absolutely right. Brag gets back to his headquarters. What does he find waiting for him there. He finds news of the defeat at beach grove down toward fairfield. And i think the wording is significant of braggs quality of leadership. He says movement proposed for tomorrow is postponed. First of all, he had ordered the movement. Why did he say he was proposing it. Now hes postponing it. And then he sends a series of questions to polk. Should we try to fight it out somewhere . I leave you to unpack that as you so see fit. Heres where the bitter fruit of january, february, march, april and may come really to roost. Theres another Confederate Army that has defended twice in this war will defend behind a Major Military obstacle expecting the federals to try to cross that obstacle and will already have two or three plans ready to engage when the yankees start to get active. That of course is the army of Northern Virginia in 1862, winter of 1862, 1863. Whatever the federals do, lee is ready. Hes thought it out. Hes talked about it with his team. He knows what he needs to do. Its a matter of activating the plan depending on what the federal commander is going to do. Thats called good communication coordination and collaboration. Thats what a Successful Organization needs to be able to achieve its objective and get done what it needs to get done. Do you think any of that is present in the army of tennessee . Absolutely not. You see it in the flatfooted reaction of general bragg. Here we are almost 72 hours into active campaign and bragg is only now thinking about what he needs to do, cobbles together a counter offensive under a general that he just tried to courtmartial a couple of weeks ago. This is one of the saddest stories in Confederate Military history. In American Military history, i would submit to you as well. But that is they spent so much time in the spring and summer fighting paper battles over what has gone before that they forget the enemy right in front of them wearing blue uniforms. Theyre caught flatfooted. One option that i would submit to you is the best option that bragg has. Once they get out of the rim, the advantage is all rosecrans. What bragg should have done is ordered polk to move from shelbyville up to fairfield and make a dawn attack on the 27th of june north to beach grove and try and retake hoover gap. Why would you do that . Because if you managed to even threaten that area, you force rosecrans at manchester to turn around and reopen his line of communications back to murphybomurph murphyborough. Thats a decent plan, isnt it . Im not fishing for compliments. But isnt that a reasonable contingency that they might have thought about before the campaign started . Theres no evidence that they ever even considered that in the press of events. And so on the night of the 26th, bragg orders everybody to concentrate on tullahoma. The rest of the campaign, after they leave the high land rim at this point is somewhat anticlimatic. Because with rosecrans at manchester and bragg at tullahoma, bragg is ready to fight it out there in the trenches of tullahoma. Rosecrans is feeling out bragg and so he decides the best way heck do that is to send wilders mounted infantry into the confederate rear and its a day and a half odyssey. You can see the lines running down. Some of those creeks, by the way, they actually have to swim the horses across. Its been that flooded because of the rains. They get down there, they cut the rail line. They threaten the they probe the bridge and the protection thats there. They raise a lot of havoc and then they find out that forest is after them and buckner is coming up through train. And they said lets report to general rosecrans. And on june 30th, he walks into the headquarters, rosecrans is amazed to see him and wilder says not only do i have the intelligence that you need, i did it without losing a single soul. Without a single causality. It is an incredible odyssey in the civil war. On the other flank, one of the best days they have in the war is the battle of shelbyville where they force joe wheeler to swim for his life on june 27th, 1863. You can read a great chapter about it in my book. Bragg at this point is not worried. The railroads reopen as june ticks down. He says were going to fight it out. They have reservations about that and they start to talk about that and polk says, what about the railroad . The railroad is reopened. And polk says this, how do you propose to maintain your communications . Border line insubordinate question in the tone that he puts. Theyre reopened. Ill string infantry along the line. Bragg says, what do you think about all this . You can do what you want but i endorse the merit of polks views. Bragg says were going to fight it out. Then he changes his mind overnight. This is june 29th that conference takes place. He says were going to withdraw. And so on the night of june 30th, the Quarter Masters move the wagons out of tullahoma and that means one thing, retreat. That night, the Confederate Army evacuates tullahoma, crosses the rail bridge, the last guard passes out on the morning of july 1th. Abo the federals have been probing in and enter the city fairly quickly. Rosecrans sets up a per suit. Theres a short skirmish. Bragg says were going to fight it out. They get together and say you know what, we may have somebody may have to take command of the army from him. Bragg changes his mind. Retires and breaks and rosecrans pursues and breaks off the pursuit on july 4th, 1863. Two days later, troopers blow up the cornerstone of the university of the south and tullahoma is over. The conquest of middle tennessee has been cheap. In 11 days of operations from june 24th to july 4th. 575 federals were killed. Braggs army show 5,000 men lower than on june 20th. Half of that number, 2,500 covered morgans raiders, still 2,500. The federals captured more than 1,600 prisoners while stew we are thes division lost 181 men at hoovers gap. The balance of the army of tennessees loss is about 600 more. Consisted of battle casualties, sick or deserters. And a lot of the deserters and prisoners are tennesseans from this area realizing, i dont want to leave home that far behind. Its a sign of the decent immigration of tof the army. Theyre graf rosecrans is congratulated and then stanton says this, you and your army have now have the chance to give the finishing blow to the rebellion. Will you neglect the chance . And this illustrates right here the tullahoma is obscured even in 1863 as opposed to 2019. This is what rosecrans says in reply, i just received your dispatch announcing the fall of vicksburg. You do not appear to observe the fact that this noble army has driven the rebels from the area. I beg on behalf of this army that the War Department may not overlook so great an event because it is not written in letters of blood. I have now to repeat that the rebel army has been forced from its position and driven over the cumberland mountains. My infantry advances within 16 miles. No organized rebel force within 25 miles of there nor on this side of the cumberland mountains. Braggs retreat doesnt stop until their back at chattanooga and never again, except for that last death ride will the army of tennessee penetrate middle or western tennessee with any hope of sustained success. That makes this campaign a great victory and when you consider the events of the first week of july 1st, first ten days of july, gettysburg, vicksburg, tullahoma, port hudson and you look at the body below that that put on the confederacy, that they never fully recover, that makes this Campaign Just as important an element of the civil war as any of those other three names that i just gave you. And i will leave you with this, tullahoma is a huge link in that chain of events that leads from the ohio river all the way to savannah, the atlantic coast. If you consider the chattanooga, tennessee, its the dagger thrust against the invitelvitale confederacy, they won with hard marching in july of 1863. Its not written in letters of blood, but the tullahoma does not deserve the obscurity that its been placed to. Thank you for your attention. Thank you very much. [ applause ] we dont have time for questions. Just to keep us on schedule. I will ask my brother to comment on one thing as we wrap up. Why has this then been forgotten and how much of that is a factor of rosecrans being his own worst enemy in some ways . I think thats a part of it, rosecrans being his own worst enemy. Everybody views the battles between bragg and rosecrans through the prism of in september of 1863. And it tends to overshadow everything thats gone before. Heres the real fight in north georgia. When in reality, the two rounds before that, stones river and tullahoma really deserve far more attention. Thank you very much. [ applause ] all week were featuring american hirt American History tv programs. Lectures in history. American artifacts. Reel america, the civil war, oral histories, the presidency, and special event coverage about our nations history. Enjoy American History tv now and every weekend on cspan3. This week, American History tv is on cspan3 every day with prime time features each night at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. Tonight, the 75th anniversary of the battle of the bulge where adolf hitler launched a surprise attack. American history tv products are now available at the new cspan online store. Go to cspanstore. Org to see whats new for American History tv and check out all of the cspan products. The house will be in order. For 40 years, cspan has been providing american unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court, and Public Policy events from washington, d. C. And around the country so you can make up your own mind. Created by cable in 1979, cspan is brought to you by your local cable or satellite provider. Cspan, your unfiltered view of government. American history tv continues its look at the civil war with remarks from kristen paullack at the battle of Wilsons Creek in august of 1861. She explained that the conflict is significant because it was the first major battle west of the mississippi river. This was part of a symposium on forgotten battles of the civil war hosted by theem