Support and being able to invite so many people. I would also like to thank our trustees. Who if they are not here that i do they plan on coming. All of the chairs and Council Members who have put forth rework. One hour welasts will have a question and answer session, following that a book signing. Welcome theled to distinguished professor of Mississippi State university. He is the gentleman on your right. We are thrilled to welcome him back to the historical society. Hit he is the management director of the ulysses s. Grant foundation. The Mississippi Historical society presented him with the whale award for the National Distinction in history. Welcomelso pleased to the man in the center who has his sunglasses on the Professor Emeritus at the Naval Academy where he taught for more than 30 years and served in the History Department chair. He is the author and editor of many books. The lifetime get Achievement Award from the naval historian foundation. James mcpherson was supposed to be here, he is not here. Craig, thank you so much for coming in his place. Welcome you and are thrilled to have you with us. Violate we have the director of the rose feldhaus. The author and owner of many books, he is part of the glamorous rise and the goldsmith book prize at Harvards Kennedy school of government. There they are awarded the National Humanities medal. I would like to ask that before we begin if you would turn off your cell phones or any beeping devices. And joining welcoming our guests. [applause] about all of you i am exhausted from the introduction. The titles and awards. Doing our civil war thank you for keeping these going. We hope you will keep coming, we of the civilseries war programs examining the lesserknown battles and incidences. Chattanooga, it may seem like a Johnny Mercer song or a place in tennessee, it has a real impact on real importance. For those of us who have spent our lifetime in the east, we know how eastern centric life can be. Coverage of the civil war was much the same way, the west is is a great deal more attention, we cannot have two better people to talk about it. We have craig and john who will are great guest. That is one whole other story. That is setting the table, along with our title slide. We start in 1863, a lot of this focused on gettysburg. And vicksburg which was important. Isant to ask both of you why this particular seti city strategically important. Is it just one of those accidental places of conflict. It is not accidental. This can be answered in a single word. Was a relatively new city at the time of the civil war. It was small still. What made it important was if location, its that on the bank of the tennessee river. There is river transportation available. Ways butost important not just for men, as well as supplies. It keeps that in the field. Whether by the river or railroad. There were critical railroads at chattanooga. Atlanta which was then called terminus of all things, that Railroad First reached chattanooga. Atlantic went to the in charleston, the only trunk throught right chattanooga. Across and and made itroad is what such an important military price. Small, imazing is how would not call it a count. It was at the time when these came together. I think that is very true. It is not a big place when you consider when craig mentions the size. You look at nashville at the same time that is about 40,000 people. That is a much larger place. I think the location is crucial. There are a couple of other things we can mention as well. Number one by the time the civil war came chattanooga was the third highest producing region in the country. Only new york and pennsylvania produced more iron. I think as well that vicksburg is argued that they cut the confederacy and a very substantial way almost in half with the mississippi river. The interesting thing is that chattanooga, the capture of it also sliced because of the railroads and river another part of the confederacy in half. As aally, more importantly future, we will not get into this now, looking into the future, the capture of chattanooga was made possible by shermans Atlantic Campaign. Guye he fought against some named joseph johnson. You are giving away the ending. Way for theen the atlantic cap playing campaign. Lets stick chronological if we can. Actually we are not going to state chronological or. Painting. James walker this and about why the army moved on. If you go to chattanooga today, in the civil war you will ist to go to a place that not that far away. It was a very particular place because what happened was that a outmaneuvered the confederate commander to the point that he was in a good situation close to chattanooga. Whatever elsedo needed to be done. The strange thing, one of the acts of war happen. Union troops were lined up as they should have been. , the Union General ordered one unit to move over thinking there was ample that needed to be filled area as it turns out, when they moved over a created a opening. Lock the confederates attack, what their does he find but this enormous gap. His troops poured through it, the next thing you know they union troops are broken. They are running back towards chattanooga. What happens then is we will talk about it. That gives you an overview of what was going on. Here is some trivia you can use at a bar in the single Bloodiest Day of the war was at antietam. Daysingle bloodiest two was at this place. 1863, the union and confederate armies fought in forest it to rain. Thebility was horrible, left hand can see with the right hand is doing. There are only a few roads, they are narrow and they wind around. Two days for 48 hours, they slug it out in this environment. They produced 38 thousand casualties, it is the bloodiest two days of war. Is thatinteresting people remember gettysburg and antietam but they do not remember this battle. It was a horrendous confrontation. One of the reason for the confusion that he mentioned his this whole. It is very difficult to figure out what is going on. Fact, there were two young men, they were both 21 years old, they were responsible for this. They were not generals or commanders, one was a private area was recently became important is because they were the guys who created and gave messages to commanders. Because there is no communication on the battlefield there is no radio or telegraph. You cannot see the talk. They made a decision and rode it out, they gave it to a kid who went galloping off to the woods to deliver it. The recipient had to respond to that notice, that is what happened when he was holding a position on the union line and he got this message that said you need to move immediately to your left. He did. That created the opportunity for the break of the union line. This sounds like an organized confrontation, keep in mind that much of it to ways with people fighting and not knowing what was happening on the left right or the rear. There is ground smoke, flawed, trees, there is a lot of casualties. We have been looking at this here. They are going to move on. Over to chattanooga, here is another wonderful picture of chattanooga. Picture of you his the confederates in a minute. He has 60,000 men. And what you see in the background. He is a Missionary Ridge area it is an interesting place topic graphically. I got to visit it. As we approached, there is a hurricane. The trays were down and we were not able to visit it. We blame that on you. We are forgiven you now. You can see the mountain which is visible, here he is. In the defensive position, who is laying siege to what is happening at the beginning of this . Probably or argue with the single most competent general. Famously is unpopular. He does not look too bad here. Everybody said he was ugly. Repulsive is it worth it is often used. His demeanor was much the same. You asked how does this man become a commander. What answer is because he got along well with Jefferson Davis. He was a leader and commander, his subordinates did not like him. He had a plan that was sure to work. He issued those messages through the careers and nothing worked out the way it was supposed to. He was furious, he landed on the couriers, one of them got lost and never gave it to the guy during he blamed him. Andaid he sent him an order you did not move. You are under arrest read a number of his subordinates and him put a man under arrest that is not good for an army win all of your subordinate generals are in jail. Word of this gets to Jefferson Davis, he tries to calm him down. Cannot doneral you this, maybe they did not do it they were supposed to and cant. E let by god the bygones he said they is going to prosecute and make them pay. While he is doing this, the federal army which he just a fetid is going back towards chattanooga. Concentrated on pursuit rather than revenge against his former officers he would have accomplished more. By the time he got to chattanooga, which he expected to be evacuated, he beat them after all. They were not evacuated. They were taking in, they were fortifying. Now he is going to have to fight his way in. Toy are not Strong Enough fight their way out, it becomes , a siege withege an asterisk. It does not go all the way around. Not. It does i just wanted to Say Something about him. Some of you have heard the story. The first time it has been ulysses s. Was in grant memoirs, we have not been able to find anything before that time. That hey goes this way was a Company Commander in a precivil war regiment. He was also the supply officer for that regiment. So as Company Commander, he as ad a note to himself supply officer saying he needs such and such. Writes fact officer that you cannot have that. Back to himself, this goes back and forth. That hees so frustrated goes to the Regimental Commander and tells him this. The Regimental Commander says by god you have argued with everybody in his regiment and i you are arguing with yourself. Problem, tove that get back to more important things. It is a siege at it is not a siege. The confederates do not really an circle the union troops, they do not have enough people. As greg pointed out he was so busy arguing with people, but he was also arguing for force. He was also arguing with james long street who he did not want to send. He sent him to the west anyway. It right on put perfectly, you have a situation where instead of worrying about worrying about his enemies inside his own army andid the result is a mess the result is Jefferson Davis shows up. We have to figure something out, nothing is then figured out. He gets rid of him. Dont jump ahead. We have mentioned long street a couple of times here. I want to mention the curious circumstances his presence begins. He was associated with the army of northern virginia. His old war horse. , he waseen to the army a critical player at gettysburg. He knew he would never ever get army command as robert e lee heed area he lobbies that cents to the eastern theater, where he will get command. Thehows up the night before battle began. His army came by train, he rides his horse right onto the battlefield, it is his force that bursts through that whole and wins the battle. In his mind he is the hero. Day, heome to save the is Robert E Lees left arm. Surely he should be the one to command the army. People say he is not healthy, perhaps he should be put in place. A decent stable as a presence in the army. Not only are they unable to surround the city, but there are not enough forces to fight their way and that there is this tension between bragg and long street. Lincoln then gets into the fray with an interesting letter. Here is a picture of the terrain. To burnside of all people. He said you should save him from being fleshed out, it was not in order but a plea. Happene what begins to with this movement. As well as this gentleman, why dont you start with the arrival of york euro. Is an incredibly intriguing individual. The term of sideburns comes from his facial hair. One of the things that is going that things are happening in knoxville, he has knoxville. It looks like and sounds like everything points to the fact want to go away. That is when he had to go to upgrade that was a major mistake. That somebodyried take knoxville away from birdseye. Worried islincoln is because tennessee as a state is divided between union and confederate. East tennessee, the area around it is a union area. Lincoln is dying to get some union troops in to rescue those unionists. It does not look like it is going to happen. Is worried that he is going to knoxville. At the same time, the fact that he sense into knoxville means that bragg is wake her. There is a lot of confusion here. Just like on the terrain. There is a lot of confusion between these various people. Then grant comes forward. I am going to let john talk about grant. I want to mention the terrain. Was, it as chattanooga was down the bank of the river. There is this spectacular scenery. You can see the lookout mountain. There is a railroad you can take , you can see seven states from there. West,untain is to the is there. Ridge that are a couple places to the east, on this high ground, are all these confederate troops looking down on the union. North of the river they do not have coverage so supplies art sneaking in. Not many but some. A hard time supplying my men in the city because i can only bring met in onbase we will trail. Evacuate,ear the word lincoln and others get very nervous grade they determined he is not going to cut it in that city. The famous line from lincoln at he is Walking Around like a duck hit on the head. Andgeneral is relieved Ulysses S Grant comes in. Tell us where he was before he was assigned to this point. Actually just take and vicksburg. Are talking about is happening in september october and november. Comeant is ordered to through chattanooga. Sherman is also order to come through chattanooga. As he movesrdered to repair the railroad. This really slows him down. What happens is grant shows up at chattanooga, as one of the soldiers said. Things begin to happen. We have a situation where grant had a minor has problem. ,e has been down to new orleans a horse fell on his leg. Importers, right . What did i say . [laughter] whatever it is lands on his leg. Walk, he is into a hotel room for a week. Just in terrible pain. He has to get back to vicksburg. The point is for grant to get into chattanooga he has to ride this terrible road that we talked about. Suffering, his leg is absolutely killing him. He had to be lifted up and put on his horse. When he shows up in chattanooga, people realized that something is happening that was not happening before. One of the first things that is happening is that the supply route we will go right to that. Bite should talk a little about the other replacement. We talk about him because he is the rock of this battle. He is an interesting guy. He is interesting in a couple of ways. He is a virginian by earth, he stays loyal to the union. That also creates a certain amount of suspicion to those who are willing to be suspicious that he is maybe not in this. He saves the union army at this site. Fleeing,ybody else was standds firm, it is his that allows the rest of the army to get away and fortify themselves in chattanooga. If it was not for that stand, they would have fled to chicago. Thats was very much to his credit. Loyal to thed previous general. He thought he was cast aside and grant coming in was disgraceful. When grant arrived, like wounded, cold, he comes into the headquarters and because he is he isarily in command and kind of abrupt. He says general you need a blanket, he was not that nice. Tension that emerged between the two of them. Instead of a cooperation emerging between grant and thomas, grant relies on sherman, whom he trusted. Who was repairing the railroad and nevertheless on his way. Thomas is still there to grapple put his faith in german to break out of this sherman to break out of this trap. Confederates are still on the high ground. Grant is determined we will break out of this and i will use sherman to do it. Both of you are describing two generals at odds. Its an interesting thing to talk think through as run through this long and very complicated story. It is not an easy one. Thats one of the reasons we have the visuals to walk through it. I want to show one more favorite,y, my general william smith, old baldy. I think he is a very nice, over. Combover. I should know it. He got his nickname, baldy, at west point. He had a full head of hair. We wont call him any names. At there were so many smiths west point they had to come up with a nickname. He was losing hair. He was a great engineer. Which is important in this. We began to talk about the cracker line, building the supply line is one of the early things that grant initiates. Lets talk about that for a moment. You, greg. The cracker line. The soldiers given that name. Every army travels on its stomach. That is an old cliche but absolutely true. If you can supply your army with food and ammunition, you cannot stay there. Grant new his first job was to open the supply line. He madeosecrans credit steps in this direction. Led. Ad lumbar mil to get the food into chattanooga you cannot do it on the north. River, but come by then you cannot go past Point Lookout because the confederates. They had to come by the river. Then build a bridge across the river to the other side to get the food. It is a complicated engineering feat. Baldy smith gets this done. Supposedly a grants direction. Rosecrans was aware of this was necessary. Grant puts a new sense of urgency to it and it gets done early on. He gets most of the credit for doing it, so this works to help enhance the reputation he has already built at vicksburg and elsewhere. Open up the supply lines so the confederates that is job one. Job two is to break out and dry the confederates off the high ground. That is a harder job. Thats an excellent point. Sometimes we dont think about this because logistics is boring. How are we going to feed this and how are we going to do this . What about hay for the horses . One of the things about grant and sherman is the understood the importance of logistics. You consider what grant and