Transcripts For CSPAN3 Confederate General Edward Porter Ale

Partnership, the largest private repository of civil war archives in the world. [applause] imagine, that comes with a great cost and lots of work. This is a 3 million effort to andide storage, process catalog the collection, and in doubt this so it can be available to the largest possible audience. Were halfway there, and we welcome your help. Professor gallagher has received many awards, including the prize for the best book on the civil award for contributions to civil war studies, the lincoln prize, and the award for the best Nonfiction Book on the civil war. He was the founder and first president for the fou ndation of preserving civil war sites. Please join me in welcoming professor gallagher. Prof. Gallagher i am going to switch microphones. I am delighted to be here. It is always fun to speak in this room. Jamie wouldnt tell you how old he was when i was a mellon fellow here. I will reveal i had brown hair. It was a long time ago in deed. It was about that time i gave a lecture in the mural gallery, which i dont think happens anymore, a lecture about the lost cause. The vibe in the room was right for that lecture. The vibe in this room is perfect because it is filled with booksellers and those of you who are friends of the library and interested in history. I will talk about the best. Onfederate memoirs that is Edward Porter alexander. That is not just my view, it would be unanimous of people who know what books confederate soldiers wrote. By himself. These accounts are unrivaled among those published by men who fought for the confederacy. They were written over a decade beginning in the late 1890s, but appeared more than 80 years apart, in print more than 80 years apart. A critical narrative was first 07. Lished in 19 the next was published in 1989. Brought to his books and a little coal acuity, a gift for describing key scenes and dramatic and memorable fashion, and the perspective of one who toterly fought from manassas appomattox. He served on the staff of general beauregard. Lee, beforeand distinguishing himself as the ist in theillerys i confederacy. He wrote with almost none of the lost cause special pleading that was evident in the writings of s. St of his former comrade i want to convey a sense of why alexanders books are remarkable. I will start with a little biographical information before moving on to address how he wrote the books and what audience he had in mind for each of them. He had very different audiences in mind. I will close by reading passages from the books that will illustrate their great strengths. His narrative skills. I will open and close with three of his finest narrative passages. They are great, gripping, fine narratives. Every part of his book this is true. They convey interesting information about the army, its makeup, and its character. I will use passages that illustrate his willingness to convey the heard, the dark side, of the civil war. I will quote a couple of passages that show his sharp criticism of lost cause icons lee and jackson at a time when confederates didnt do that. He is not all alone in his willingness to do that, but he doesnt have much company. I will offer other passages that he deviated from what people generally expected to get in an account written by a former confederate. Before getting on with the substance of my talk, i will give you to personal observations. I spent four years editing fighting for the confederacy. I worked on them through the late 1980s. Of all the projects, that was the most enjoyable. The only one i was sorry to finish here use only usually are not only happy to finish but staggering to the end wondering if life is worthwhile. In fighting for the confederacy, it was not that way because i knew id would not be in Porter Alexanders company anymore. This is interesting to the audience because of the booksellers, but as a confirmed bibliophile since i was 10 years old, i have had the chance to own many copies of the memoirs of fighting for the confederate. The First Edition in 1907 that had a dust jacket on it. The person that sold that timmy is in this audience, but i had Porter Alexanders own copy with his annotations. 2 very nice copies to own. Now i will stop talking about that. Just to set the scene, he was born into a prominent slave owning family in washington, georgia on may 25, 1836. He received his education at tutors at home before going to , graduatingn 1853 third in the class of 1857. He was marked from the beginning as someone that would go somewhere. And the three years following at westuation he taught point, participated in the last days of the mormon war, and developing the system of motion telepathy ghat would be the wigwa system of motion that would be used in the war. He left in february of 1861 and made his way to richmond. Upon arrival found out he had the commissioned in confederacys fledgling army. No other officer played such a varied roles or worked closely with such prominent officers as ep alexander. He joined beauregards staff as the chief signal officer in june of 1861. He also made him chief of ordinance in his army. He held both posts in johnstons thatand under re lee after. He served in both capacities through much of 1862. He did so during the peninsula campaign, second bull run, and during the Maryland Campaign of 1862. He was also frequently called upon to perform engineering tasks. He was really smart. Smart. He was really you could tell he probably found ways to let other people know he was really smart. He was really smart, so people valued him and asked him to do things that were not necessarily related to his official portfolio within the army. Lee was one of those. Lee and the others figured out while he was doing these things figured out where his real aptitude was, was with artillery. We have no more accomplished officer, wrote the chief of and recommending alexander be promoted to command one of the battalions of artillery in james long streets first corp. He gathered the batteries into battalions in the autumn of 1862, a much more efficient way to deploy artillery. It is one of the great innovations in artillery during the war. Now he has been given a battalion. Lee thought that was where he belonged and he was promoted to a colonel in 1863. He now had a secure place in the branch where he would make his reputation. Themost famous historian of army of Northern Virginia, wrote of alexander, he was far and away the superior of all others in this arm. He was the best confederate artillerist. Ive made that. 4 times. I wont tell you again, but you can file that away. He immediately excelled in his position at he plays the guns in fredericksburg that played such a significant role during the battle of fredericksburg on december 13, 1862. He was the key person on may the third. Hazel grove, they key ground that gave the confederates one of the few opportunities during the war to obtain artillery superiority in a major battle. He was in charge of the bombardment in gettysburg on july 3, 1863. He is everywhere in lees campaign. He is in the first corp, but while half was near suffolk, alexander was with the army. All throughhem those campaigns. He went to north georgia in september of 1863 with long first corp. On all of those fields he functioned as the tactical chief of artillery in james long first corp. That position. This was a difficult situation. It made sense in a practical way because the best person is in charge when it counts the most, but not all the time. There was a little bit of tension. That was a situation that. Nvolved frustration that ended in 1864 when alexander was promoted to Brigadier General and became the official head of the artillery. There are only three biggest Brigadier Generals of artillery. He maintained his position through the seizure of petersburg and on his way to appomattox near it he helped to lay out part of the defensive line in richmond in the last part of the war. Lee and eventually put him in charge of all the confederate artillery between the james and appomattox rivers. As the army made its way to appomattox and went on the ninth of april, federals were pressing in several directions against lees troop. Porter alexander drew the last battle line on the army in Northern Virginia and ended his. Emorable military career despite the demands of a successful postwar career, he was an educator and railroad executive i wont go into that. Despite supporting his family, he had a large family, he had the opportunity to study the campaigns of the war. He was originally going to write a history of the first corp but was too busy. He didnt push through with that. He cannot find enough cheerio as he wanted and enough material as he wanted. He dropped his plan to write a history of the first corp in the late 1860s. He returned to the history of the war in the 1870s and contributed several pieces. To the century2 companys landmark series. He began thinking about perhaps writing more than just essays. Heall of the things that wrote, he showed a scrupulous absencen to detail, and of special pleading that showed him to be very different from most of the men writing about the war. Most people sought to get even. Now i will get even with him. I will write this article, and it will feel so good to get even with him. He will know how good it makes me feel, and that will make him feel even worse. Life is rich. Robert underwood johnson was one of the editors and aptly described alexander as a man of integrity and candor. Anything he writes can be relied upon. A fuller undertook memoir in the late 1890s. He was sent to net for wobbler to adjudicate a boundary dispute by grover cleveland. Nicaragua to adjudicate a boundary dispute by grover cleveland. His daughter said i want you to ,tart writing them for us meaning his children. So, he decided that would probably be a good idea. He didnt have a lot of time on his hands. He had a small library. He had brief diaries that he had kept during the war. He corresponded with fellow confederate soldiers as he went along and he began to retrace the campaigns of the army of Northern Virginia. He intended to let no one but his family read that account. That is important. He is not writing this for publication. He does not think anyone will read this except for his children, perhaps their children, and perhaps a very small circle of his closest friends. He still wanted to get things right. As he explained to one of his sisters, i intend not to publish, but only to let my children see these. So, of course, they are very personal, he wrote to his sister. Even though they were personal, he said he wanted to get things right. I have written with my own viewings a critical narrative of the military game being played. I have not hesitated to criticize our moves as i would in chess, no matter what general made them. Returning home he would revise the manuscript. He wanted to finish a first draft for leaving th nicaragua. He thought he would polish it and let his family see it. S when iust fill in gap get home. He thought it would take 2 years. He did finish a draft before he left in october of 1899. It was a shade more than 1200 pages long. He has a beautiful hand. When i edited it, there was one word that we couldnt figure out. Porter alexander seemed to take a different view. How about writing a night in a legibleiting hand . It offered innumerable insights aso lee and his campaigns, well as a supplied antidotes about alexanders activities. Bluntly honest in a text he believed very few people would see, except family and friends. He did campaigns with an impartial and analytical eye. In the literature. Re lee, Stonewall Jackson, and others in the southern pantheon came in for close analysis. He admired both of them a great deal and there is a great amount of praise, but also very telling critiques of them. Characteristic of southern accounts influenced by the myth of the lost cause have almost no place in the great town recollections, almost none. 90 years after alexander wrote published them. There is a long period when no one knows this existed. The only reason i found out is because stephen roe saw a passage and showed it to me. Crick who showed it to we discussed which would edit it. Crick because he is such a Stonewall Jackson guy, said why dont you go look in chapel hill . He would not have said that if you knew what was there. I think he deeply regrets this. I decided to give myself one week to figure out what it was. The manuscript for fighting for the confederacy had been pulled apart and the chapters filed with topical writings with other of his papers. This 1200 page manuscript disappeared. People who did see it believed it was a draft of campaigns. I found a letter to his wife that said i am sending the gettysburg chapter. Aps. S 115 pages with 2 m i found that an began to look for other pieces. It was friday afternoon when i found this letter. Quicklyed my vistit, and had a manuscript that went from page 1 to 1200. It was remarkable. It was fun. Some might say, big fun. The great town reminiscences are the first ones. N as thethe graytow basis out of which military mamaemoirs grew. 1899eath of his wife in and of a daughter five months later cast alexander in a very depressed place. What pulled him out in the end was the decision to revise his reminiscence into another book. He decided to make it a different kind of book. He talked to leading historians at the time, it is always dangerous to talk to historians. He talked to them and they said it is interesting, but why dont you get rid of the personal make ithy dont you more of the history of the army of Northern Virginia. Alexander took out most of the really personal stuff, he left some in, but made it a more analytical, almost scholarly of northernthe army virginia. It took him almost 6 years. Wt differed from the grayton manuscript inn important ways. Most of the personal stuff is gone. A lot of the really blunt assessments are gone. He toned those down. He is still critical, but not the kind of language he used in fighting for the confederacy. Of the text to events before gettysburg. Military memoirs, 57 . They gave 13 to gettysburg. Graytown had 47 after gettysburg. Military memoirs, 28 . It was published in 1907, and it made an immediate impact. It gained the status very quickly of that overused word classic. Something could be a classic on thursday. It happens on monday, it is a classic . Really . Three days later . This one was perceived quickly as a classic. Theodore roosevelt informed alexander shortly that i must write to tell you that i have thoroughly enjoyed your military memoirs. The army and navy journal announced it one of the most valuable of all books on the war. Though many southerners complained of alexanders sometimes too harsh evaluations of lee, or took exception to his lack of regret over the decline of the confederacy, but most had a deep admiration for what alexander accomplished. Later stories echoed that an initial enthusiasm. In a reprint, t. Harry williams during thetroduction centennial years. Williams was one of the towering figures in civil war scholarship at that point. He said, no book by a participant in the war has done so much to shape the historical that. Of conflict as alexander drew lessons from the battles, lessons can be drawn from his book. That the finest military history can be written by a soldier who is also a scholar. The criticism from modern scholars pre1989 was that he had not put enough of his own experiences in his book. We wish we had gotten more from him. Rates whenism event you put fighting for the confederacy along with military memoirs from the confederacy. They complement each other and are a matchless contribution to the literature on the military side of the war. Now, i will review some passages from the two books to give you a sense of why i think it is so good. I will open with a passage from military memoirs dealing with fredericksburg. Not the battle on december 13, but the scene on december 11, 1862 as the United States Army Engineers are throwing pontoon bridges under fire over the rappahannock river. Alexander has this incredible on. Of what is going this scene of fredericksburg was never duplicated. It is an amp a theatrical where you can see more men than any other place at any other time in the war. This is how alexander talked about the Union Artillery bombarding the city because confederates are using the links in the city as shelter to resist the Bridge Builders on the union side. The city steeples were veiled in the midst that settled in the valley. It showed the round, high clouds of bursting shells. Out of its midst there rose three or four columns of dense black smoke from houses set on fire by the explosion. The atmosphere was so column and still that the smoke rose vertically for several hundred feet before spreading out in black sheets. The opposite bank of the river for two miles to the right and left was crowned at frequent intervals with blazing batteries canopied in clouds of white smoke. Beyond these, the dark blue masses of 100,000 infantry and columns and numberless white wagons and ambulances in orderly ranks, all awaiting completion of the bridges. The earth shook with the thunder of the guns. 200 feet above it all hung immense ulletins. Balloons. It gave the vast resources of the nation that scented forth. An amazing scene of what could be seen that day. Let me give three samples of how alexander was willing to reveal the really hard, bloodthirsty, part of the war. The first from may the third at chancellorsville here just after his guns had achieved superiority over the union guns come the United States army in retreat, hooker has been stunned by around. The federals are retreating to the north. Alexander moves into position. I will pick up his writing. By the time we good get over, the enemy had abandoned his 25 gun pits. We opened on the fugitives infantry, artillery, wagons, everything swarming around the house and the broad road leading to the river. That is the part of Artillery Service that might be denominated, to fire on the swarming fugitives who cannot answer back, one usually has to pay for that pie before he gets it, so he has no conscience of chivalry. We ceased firing, and ordering the guns to follow as they could limber up, several wounded federal soldiers were lying here who had been quartered inside and removed when it caught fire. I remember a beautiful newfoundland dog that had been killed lying in the yard. Staffl lee and his rode up, and the two portions of his army was united. You dont get many telling how much delight they get in killing people running away from them and not in a position to fight back. His blunt and he describes the f