At afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for being here today. My name is candace and i work with some of the events here in the store on behalf of the owners and staff i want to welcome you to politics and prose. I have a couple logistics to go over. If you would make sure your cell phones are on silent. We are recording this event this afternoon and we also have cspan here with us today, so not having any interruptions would be great. We will have about an hourlong presentation here with half the time given to our authors presentation and the other have given to your questions. We have one microphone on the side. If you wouldnt mind using them for your question we can pick it up on the recording and everyone will be able to hear you. Finally, we ask that you pulled up your chairs at the end of an event before getting in the signing line. If you could leave the chairs where we are we have another couple of events this afternoon. Im so pleased to be welcoming candace to discuss her new book. This book is a detailed and lively account of the over role of poor women during the civil war. Using letters, memoirs and her subjects were time travel report who burst group biography of jesse prima, nelly mccellan, jessis fremont and julia grant chose has these women influenced their spouses and threw them the present in the nation who present for storing, writer and the member of the Advisory Board for president thinking here in dc and the receipt grant and historical home in detroit. She has written articles for the New York Times and has been published in the journal of military history and also let me know before we started that she had a poem published with us in our district line. Is a yearly publication. She has received her ma in history from George Washington university and this is her first book is help me in welcoming candace shy hooper. [applause]. Being here today brings before circle. In late 2002, i came to politics and prose, my home away from home. Went to my favorite section of their, browsed it about the book that changed my life. The book that led me here today to talk to you about my book. Thank you all so much for coming. Its been said by recent biographers of Abraham Lincoln, including Sidney Blumenthal who was here to some of ago, that Abraham Lincoln wouldnt have been Abraham Lincoln without his wife. I can tell you that after eight years of research and writing the same is true of the most famous Union Civil War generals and their wives. John charles fremont, george, William Sherman and Ulysses S Grant were not have been they were without jessis fremont, nelly mccellan, ellen ewing and julia dents. I first approached the story 10 years ago in graduate school and learned Ellen Sherman sought help for her husband from president lincoln in january, 1862. From earlier reading i knew that Jesse Benton Fremont had lobbied the president on her husband behalf a few months earlier. As a former congressional aide and lobbyist, i was intrigued by their lobbying efforts and by the very different results they achieved. I wanted to know more about how these wives influenced their husbands career. I was confident that they had because i was raised in a military family and learned very early the strength, courage and resilience required of military spouses. I began with jesse and ellen and after initial research decided to also tell the story of the wives of two men whose career trajectory in the civil war roughly match those of fremont and sherman. Like prima, George Brinton mcclellan was one of lincolns very first points to the grade of Major General in may, 1861. By the end of 1862, neither of those men commanded any troops at all. Lincoln had relieved them of command. The same day fremont and more made Major Generals William Sherman was commissioned as colonel, grant received his first command as a kernel two months later in july, 1861. By 1865, sherman and grants spoiler alert, they were at the very top of the United States army command. They rose from obscurity to national in International Fame this ive a bit of bonus material. I think this graphically illustrates the trajectory of their career. This is fremont and more in 1861 and this is sherman and grant in 1865. You know the old adage, behind every great man theres a great woman. But, how exactly does that work and what about the not so great men of history and the women behind them. Even now, it seems to me more than mere coincidence that when i found these two matching sets of generals i found two sets of wives who shared some important characteristics also. Today i will only be able to talk about a few of those shared characteristics. Early on i realized none of the wives lived in one place during the war. Also that some of them had traveled widely even in the south. A long time math i decided to map their travels and began with rough calculations on my computer with mapquest. I then wisely as you could see hardy professional photographer, scott miller who worked with me on an earlier project. Scott, who was just accepted the position for senior map here in washington took my map point from letter, newspapers, memoirs and official military records and mapped the wives for time travel as others have mapped the generals. Scott believes, and i do too, that the maps in this book telling his story of the civil war. They also tell at a glance much about the relationship between these husbands and wives. Jesse benton fremont was the woman i thought i most admired as i started my research. But, i soon altered my opinion. From the start i thought i knew a lot about her. She was smart, savvy, born into a pluto family, raised by doting father who educated and groomed her to be the toast of washington society. At the age of 15, she fell in love with lieutenant john charles freeman. And explore for the Us Army Corps with no social standing and a little financial prospect. Senator thomas that in was not about to allow his daughter to marry so far beneath her station. Com. Or marry him she did, secretly in 1841, when she was 17 years old. In their 20 years of marriage before the civil war, jesses aggressive ambition for her husband resembled the unrelenting coaching of a stage mother. She carried on that way during the civil war. When her husband assumed command of the western military district in july, 1861, jesse followed him to st. Louis and established herself in a small office in front of his office at this as his unofficial chief of staff. In st. Louis, she was referred to as general jesse. When her husband issued an emancipation order in missouri, in late august, 1861, without advising president lincoln in advance it was general jesse who ordered a train east to convince the president that he should not revoke her husbands order even though Union Soldiers were laying down their arms in missouri, because at that early stage of the war they had not signed up to free slaves. Latenight encounter with lincoln in september, was one of the most famous meetings in the white house during the civil war. Neither she nor he handled it well. But, most of the blame goes to jesse who threatened lincoln who demanded lincolns confidential correspondence and even seemed to threaten that her husband when challenge the president s authority. She encouraged fremont. Lincoln soon relieved him of command. Though fremont was given another command in 1862, and western virginia, that also ended badly. Jesse was at his side there, also. She set up an office in his office fighting for him alongside him to the very bitter and. She fought hard for her husband always until the election of 1864, when she secretly derailed his candidacy for president against lincoln, prompted by cartoon in harpers weekly. George and nelly mccellan are a fascinating yet infuriating cusp couple. He was a child prodigy from a pulmonary class family in philadelphia who entered west point at the age of 15. Nelly, whose story has never fully been told before this book was a celebrated blueeyed beauty who turned it down a marriage proposals including one from before she accepted his second petition. On their wedding day in may, kind and was president of the Illinois Central Railroad to your half later the 34year old was general in chief of the United States army in the middle of a civil war. Dot mccellan were prominent on the party scene in washington dc in the summer in the winter of 1862. Even as the white house, congress and the newspapers fumed at his delays in confronting the enemy. In lincolns memorable phrase, mccellan had the slows. In fact, the general had serious mental problems, also. Mccellan daily letters to nelly revealed that he was often diluted, always paranoid and narcissistic in the extreme. Nelly said her husband this day for lincoln and his cabinet and her letters. Mccellan had his own problems to be sure, that she egged him on anti rates against his civilian and military superiors. Nelly might have realized that she married a complex and proud young man, but she could not have imagined the consequences to the nation of her unquestioning support for his work. Nelly had joined her husband and his luxurious headquarters in washington in late 1861, when he took command of all union forces. When mccellan finally moved his army south in april, 1862, nelly became traveling north to new york and connecticut and new jersey. Indeed, more than once she literally fled to new york city to avoid criticism of her husband. Lincoln relieved mccellan of command soon after the battle in late 1862 and mccellan fled to europe for a time to escape his humiliation. When they returned, they spent much time in the fifth avenue hotel in new york city. The wellknown haunt of the most fervent anti lincoln democrat who convinced mccellan to run for president against lincoln in 1864. After he lost that election, they fled it together again to europe. We know for certain that george loved it nelly, but did nelly left george . Though his biographers state that as fact, the answer is not obvious in my opinion. I tell the tale of her useful passionate engagement to the future confederate general ap hill, which was cruelly awarded by her mother. But, if an even convincing evidence of her ambivalence towards mccellan in her behavior during the war and later in life after her husband died. Unlike many civil war widows, nelly abandoned responsibility for defending mccellans reputation after staff. Nelly left her husbands legacy to the not so tender mercy of a very misguided literary executor who publish perhaps the most inaccurate and most criticized memoir of any civil war general. It included more than 200 of the wartime letters mccellan had written to nelly. In those letters, which mccellan had always asked nelly to keep private he had poured out his abuse of lincoln , the gorilla, the baboon, staton judas and how it, the devil. Its almost enough to make you feel sorry for george mccellan, almost. If jesse fought too hard for her husband, nelly fontenot at all. Unlike the otherwise, but when you and met her husband as a young child. They were neighbors in ohio where their fathers were best friends when williams or come to shermans only died of typhoid ellens father walked next door an offer to take in one of the 11 children left fatherless and painless. According to family legend, shermans mother chose him as he was always called because he was the brightest kirk ellen was four years old then. He was nine. For most of their childhood ellen was away in Catholic Boarding School and later he went to west point. They wrote to each other then and all their lives , long interesting letters that transformed their friendship and fostered sibling relationship into love. They were married in 1850, in washington across white house at francis blairs house, which her father who was the United States first secretary of the interior. I learned ellen suffered from numerous illnesses all her life. She died in 1882, at the age of 64 from heart failure. The only one of the wives to precede her husband. Her worst ailment struck her in her youth, a form of external tuberculosis it was a widespread disease in those days before pasteurization, which was invented in 1864. Since it was transmitted in raw milk from diseased cows. This is a terrible disfiguring disease marked by huge boils on the side of the neck and jaw, which swell and crept and then temporarily subside. Ellen was plagued by this her whole life. I think it speaks volumes about shermans character that this terrible disease did not prevent him from loving ellen and marrying her. They did love each other is obvious in their letters from the earliest days of the war when ellen was in ohio and he was posted here before the first battle of bull run she wrote him off 10 asking if she could bring her newest baby, their sixth child with her to washington and stay with him, but sherman was opposed to having women in camps. He kept with his men across the river and later criticized mccellan luxurious lodging in washington with his wife. Nonetheless, ellen did travel on more than one occasion to help her husband. In november, 1861, she raced to louisville, kentucky, when the first reports of concern of sherman reached her and she took him to see doctor. Sherman had been forced to take command of the department of the cumberland, when general Robert Anderson health failed. A post that three months earlier sure would have specifically asked lincoln he not be given and lincoln had agreed. Sherman feared his troops were badly outnumbered and began to show signs of a nervous breakdown. As he requested, he was relieved of command and moved to a stressful posting. As a consequence of that emotion, newspapers around the country carried the startling headline general William T Sherman insane. So, in january, 1862, ellen traveled again on his behalf this time to washington to ask the president of the United States for help in restoring her husbands reputation. That meeting was far more productive than jesses had been in large part because of ellens opinion of an attitude toward the president s. Sherman president lincolns advice as ellen reported it to him and soon was rising again in the ranks. Again and again ellen asked if she could visit him in the field. He consistently refused until after the great Union Victory in pittsburgh, when he wrote to her that she and her children could come to his camp on the banks of the big black river. Ever mindful of disease in those days like malaria, yellow fever in the typhoid that killed his father, he assured her in a letter i have a healthy camp and ellen took for their six children with her to mississippi. The shermans who had been apart for most of the previous two years had a great time together until grant ordered sherman to relieve the siege of chattanooga in early october. As the shermans left pittsburgh became clear that their youngest son, willy, was not well. Almost as soon as their boat arrived in memphis, the envoy died probably of typhoid. That was the last time ellen traveled to be with him during the war pic she went back to lancaster and buried her son answered her mother also. While he fought from chattanooga south. In june of 1864, ellen who had become pregnant while pittsburgh born other son, her seventh child before atlanta fell and sherman began his barge. Cut off from communication on the way he did not learn that baby Charles A Sherman died december 4, until he arrived in savanna at the end of december and read about it in the newspaper. For the rest of the war, ellen and her children divided her time between Lancaster Notre Dame where they were in school except for a trip to chicago to take part in the Catholic Church fundraising for soldiers medical needs. Ellen was a devout catholic her whole life and has often been accused of putting her faith ahead of her country and her husband. Thats not true. Lets me read a bit from the last chapter of ellens part of my book. The 19th century reverberated with ugly anti catholic prejudice , with charges catholics served only their pope and not the country. If there were any question whether a catholic could be a loyal american, Ellen Sherman was the definitive answer. In her words in private and public ellen displayed a passion for the United States of america at the most avid protestant might hope to match, but can never exceed. Ellen had instructed her son to wave the flag for lincolns election in 1860, even before the civil war began she urged him to rejoin army and defend the union. When he wanted to hide in the wake of the charge of insanity, she rallied his spirits in battle to keep him in the war. When sherman threatened to resign a year later, she sharply rejected that course of desertion , urged him to remain on duty. In her letters to sherman she wrote that she wished she were a man so she could fight. She wished her sons were old enough to fight. She wished her daughters were son so they could fight. Of her beloved brothers possible death at the second battle of run she declared, no greater glory than to fill a patriots grave. The thought of catholics secession grove her to pray fervently that vegans shall call upon them let her being fostered their country. Fortified by her faith, ellen weathered the tragic death of two young sons even as she urged her husband to stay in the field and wage unrelenting horror against the rebellion. So, jesse traveled in lockstep with her husband. Nelly traveled from her husband and ellen traveled to and fro, but julia grant was the simple wars road warrior. Every biographer of grant mentions she was with him a lot, so they dont really say more than that, but her memoirs are full of tales of being in camp with him and i learned that the confederates tracked her movements also. Julias map, like the other maps in the book is a rough approximation of her travels and doesnt show many of her shorter trips. No matter, its clear that julia traveled more than 10000 miles during the civil war to be with her h