Mr. Johnson then projected americas policy in vietnam, saying the United States was ready to begin without conditions diplomatic discussions to end the war in vietnam. He calls it the only path for reasonable men. Johnson demands and independent south vietnam, secure guarantees, and able to shape its own relationships to all others, free from outside interference, tied to no alliance, a military base, or no country. He called on Southeast Asian nations for Economic Development and he asked the United Nations to join in the plan. Johnson on our part, i will ask the congress to join in a billiondollar American Investment in this effort as soon as it is under way. [applause] president johnson and i would hope that all other industrialized countries including the soviet union will join in this effort to replace despair with hope and terror with progress. The president said the task is to enrich the hopes and existence of more than 100 million people. He pointed out that education in trades and modern agricultural methods are vital. Food is ever a problem, as is modern medicine, in countries where Life Expectancy is 40 years. Mr. Johnson further proposes to make u. S. Farm surplus available, even to north vietnam, if they desire it. Mr. Johnson then quotes the bible. President johnson we may well be living in a time foretold many years ago when it was said i call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that i have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live. Well, we will choose life. And in so doing, we will prevail over the enemies within man and over the natural enemies of all mankind. For the First Time Since the red blockade of west berlin, in 1948, access routes to the city are shut down by the communists. Soviet authorities gave varied reasons for the blockade including the one that traffic would interfere with east german wargames. The real reason was communist resentment over meeting of the German Parliament in west berlin. They did all in their power to harass this demonstration of democracy in action. As the bundestag met, russian fighter planes swooped over the city, at times, darting within a few hundred feet of the hall. They buzzed commercial airliners, disrupted air transport, and broke windows on the ground. As they shattered every safety regulation. The reds lost. Parliament stayed in session until the scheduled recess. American history tv recently visited Longwood University in form one virginia for a seminar on the closing of the civil war. The program was cohosted by the university and appomattox historical park. Next, author chris talks about the military maneuvers of the union and confederate armies that brought them to appomattox. Following the fall of richmond. Our final speaker tonight is christopher calkins. Many of you know chris. He is a detroit native and a proud graduate of Longwood University. Longwood college when you went here. You were one of the first male graduates of longwood. Right, chris . Chris, as you all know, has had a long career with the National Park service. He worked at appomattox, spotsylvania, and was chief of interpretation at petersburg for many years. But in 2008 he took over the position of park manager for battlefield state park. And Sailors Creek only 15 minutes from here. He has done an amazing job in revitalizing Sailors Creek. A new museum has opened up in the last year or two. As i mentioned in the beginning he will be available tomorrow for some tours out there. He is responsible for the lees retreat route. Where they have the poll also with audiotape you can listen to pull offs with audiotape you can listen to. He is actively involved in battlefield preservation, the association of preservation for civil war sites, particularly building up petersburg in the past getting a large amount of land for petersburg battlefield. Received an award for marriage in 2014 for his leadership and the history awards committee. And again, authored numerous books on sailor creek and appomattox. Also a study of the 29th division in world war ii. The new picture book that he was one of a coauthors of. His talk tonight is entitled the Appomattox Campaign. Please welcome chris. [applause] chris this is deja vu for me. When i went to Longwood College back in the mid1970s, as dr. Cole said, as one of the first males, we were day students. This stage here was used for all kinds of performances. And when i was in the Drama Department i work this stage here with such groups as the grassroots. And i even remember the countrywestern fellow from roy clark, performed on this stage. This is kind of weird to be back here doing this. Back in 1971 i was living in detroit, i was 20 years old. And i had a chance to come down to virginia and work for a summer at Appomattox Courthouse at the National Historic park. I remember the fact that i didnt have a car, i got to live in one of the houses in the park, and one thing in particular i remember is the large number of staff at the park for these beautiful young ladies. I fake appomattox county has per were these beautiful young ladies. I think appomattox county has per capita the best looking women. Josie, with the blackandwhite stripes, she is one of them. I ended up falling for one of them. I went back to detroit, found out there was a job opening. I applied for it, got it, and the day after christmas 1971 i moved back. Unfortunately the young lady i was interested in was not interested in me. Or at least her parents werent. You have to remember i had long hair and was from michigan. Anyways, i ended up marrying her, dating her 15yearold cousin. That was 43 years ago. We have been married that long. Anyways, when i was at appomattox at the National Park there, of course our story began in petersburg. And went to appomattox itself. There wasnt much information about the final campaign. Of course, more commonly known as lees retreat. The only book that attempted to give the story of those final days was called to appomattox. I use that in my talk today. This book is what inspired me to write most of my other books. When i read this book i had a lot of questions. You know, what does he mean by this, what is he talking about . And i was fortunate enough in that living in this area i could read about what happened here at Sailors Creek or whatever and go out and study the land and talk to people. And the story of how i found Sailors Creek will be tomorrows topic. With a lot more personal stories to it by firstperson accounts. Anyways, with this in hand and a lot of questions coming from this, i began researching this campaign and continue to do so to today. Anyway, what i thought we would do tonight, because tomorrow we are going to talk about the minutia of Sailors Creek, appomattox, the battles and everything and so im going to just give a tactical, strategic explanation of what this campaign was all about and how they got to appomattox and why it happened there. Also when i worked at appomattox at the park i worked with a gentleman who was in the 29th Infantry Division in world war ii. He had this young son who they used to bring to the park occasionally and i would end up babysitting. This young fellow would come and sit down on a bench next to me. Listen to me talking to the visitors. You met him first this morning or this afternoon. He was a little kid then. And when i was at petersburg, i was his boss. Although i have retired. It is kind of interesting how local folks got interested in it. Well, to begin with and talking about the Appomattox Campaign, we will go into detail but basically it is march 29, 1865 to april 9, 1865. Nine april days. As the book said. But i found that the nemesis of this campaign really started as tracy talked about, the siege of petersburg when lees army , or the union army was besieging the Confederate Army outside of richmond to the northeast at cold harbor. Grant, being unsuccessful in attacking the city, breaking into the city, changed his tactics and moved around and crossed over. And, of course, the petersburg as tracy told you. Attacked petersburg as tracy told you. It was at that point that lee prophesies it will become a siege, meaning if he gets to petersburg it will become a siege and then will become a mere question of time. And in a one sentence line i always refer to the siege of petersburg as the wearing down of lees army. Anyways, foreshadowing what happened in spring of 1865, on february 22 general lee wrote to secretary of war john c. Breckenridge of the confederacy. He said, grant is preparing to draw out his left flank with the intent of enveloping me. He may wait until his columns approach near or he may be waiting to anticipate my withdrawal. I cannot tell yet. I am endeavoring to collect supplies convenient to birkdale. Any of you that come from the east no know burkeville is just down the road, it is still a railroad junction. The same day we also sent a message to general james long street. One of his commanders. He said, with the army concentrated at or near burkeville, our communications will be through railroad, that is the railroad that did come through farmville recently. We might also seize the opportunity to strike at a grant before they could unite. I desire you to make every preparation to accumulate all the supplies you can. General grant seems to be preparing to move out by his left flank and he is accumulating his army near hedges depot hedges run depot of supplies. With those two messages, general lee now prophesized that he was going to have to leave petersburg and head towards North Carolina. Again, the Appomattox Campaign overlaps the petersons campaign. March 3 to april 65. And of course the Petersburg Campaign runs from june 15 to april 2 1865. At the time the Army Commander of Northern Virginia that was born in 1807 was 15 years old. 58 years old. Grant, commending the army of the potomac and the army of the james, was born in 1822 and he was 43 years old at that time. As the campaign was winding down at petersburg and again, as tracy pointed out, the two strategic points of contest at that time were a roadway and a railroad. Bringing supplies from North Carolina and the deep south. The roadway is now presentday route one. It was called the road and supplies were being brought in from the confederate lines through in and then of course the south Side Railroad, which ran from petersburg through farmville here. And then through appomattox on to lynchburg. It terminated there. And so the battles of lewis farm ok, what we are talking about over here is the fighting to the west of petersburg. Lewis farm is right in here, the client road. The plank road. All the fighting is around here and the south Side Railroad is running along here. This was the final objective when the south Side Railroad was caught. Was cut. The battle that took place where the railroad was physically cut was on april 2 at sutherland station. That was on april 2 and that means lees army would withdraw. The fighting that led up to it lewis farm on march 29, and on april 1 the straw that broke the camels back. Five forks. Just a sidelight on five forks when i began working at petersburg it was private property. Even though a wellknown battle. The National Park have spent six efforts to try to bring that into the Petersburg National battlefield. All were unsuccessful. One day i got a phone call from the Carnegie Mellon foundation. They wanted to know if there was any battlefield land around petersburg that needed to be bought. Just so happened that the fellow who owned the 2800 acres was my accountant. So i went to him and i asked him if he was interested. A year later, the Petersburg National battlefield acquired five forks battlefield. That is where tracy works. For the most part now. The most interesting thing is i found out that two new stamps are coming out in the next couple of weeks. One on appomattox and the other one is going to be five forks. I bought a battlefield that is now on a stamp. The beginning of the Appomattox Campaign and the ending of the 2 at which time the evacuation of the confederate lines at richmond and peterson began to take place on the night of april 2. When lees army left the site there were four main routes from petersburg here who had general gordons corps and longstreets corps or heading in that direction. Coming from near chester through chesterfield. General mahones division. Here, coming out of richmond was general ewells command. This line is a wagon train of general custis lee gets captured. And the other line is this one here, which stays south of the of the river and goes to familiar courthouse. Those of you who drive our lees retreat driving tour, that is the route that you follow. The reason that we chose that is you can see here that along that route they were pursued by union troops so they will be fighting a long way in places to see. Mahones division leaves Bermuda Hundred line. It is part of a confederate line between the appomattox river and the james river. That is bermuda hunter. Lung streets first and third, the third corps was under ap hill. As tracy pointed out on april 2 he was killed. His troops were added on to long street. All of those will then come from the petersburg area. There was a Fourth Quarter under richard anderson. Of course had escaped from this area down here. From five forks. And they are going on this right here. Along with anderson and pickett was was the confederate calvary. In the federal army you had general George Gordon mead three army corps, and other groups, and they will be following for the most part here the army of the james. Following what is basically route 460. The army had 76,000 effective and by the time they get to appomattox they will have 63,000 with a loss on this entire campaign of 8600 men. On the other hand the Confederate Army ran between 55,000 and 58,000. General lee will surrender about 30,000 of his men at appomattox, their casualties will number 28,000. Most of those will be prisoners as we talk about tomorrow at Sailors Creek. When lee pulled his army they would all consolidate and move upon here. Amelia courthouse you can see runs along the Richmond Railroad and then crosses the south Side Railroad at burkeville. That is what he hoped to have supplies waiting for him. When he gets to amelia courthouse he expects to find ration trains waiting for him there through some mixup they are not there. Lee decides to spend a day in that area asking his troops to go out and ask the local people if they have any surplus food items if they could provide for the Confederate Army. Because he spends the day here he loses the one days lead he had on grants army, which does not pull out of the richmond petersburg area until the next day. After those two cities fell. By losing that, when he pulls out of amelia, he begins his movement. His goal was to follow the Danville Railroad and crossover to North Carolina and to join up with general joseph johnstons army. That was the immediate goal at that point, to continue down like this. Had his wishes taken place and burkeville supplied, he could have continued his continuous march. By losing that one day lead the union army swings around to the south and cross the railroad at jetersville station. When lee pulls out of amelia, he finds the union army in front of him. He becomes a third night march in a row. From that point on until he gets to appomattox his army will be marching day and night. So what he does is with the union army here he swings around to the north of it and here he heres at amelia springs that there are 120,000 rations waiting by the southside depot. Rations of meat and mail. What he hopes to do at that point is to take the night march and go around the union army. They will continue to move into farmville. Hopefully he can get there before the union army tails him. He gets to farmville, has the supplies issued here, and then cut south to keysville and reenter sets reintersects the railroad at keysville and continues his march to danville. That is what he is looking for. As he moves in making his night march to farmville he plans to go in this direction. Late on the evening of april 6 , the Union Calvary pulling hitandrun tactics. Whenever they came to a crossroads, Union Cavalry would attack the confederate line of march, burn wagon trains, retreat and go to the next crossroads. That is basically what happens here at Sailors Creek. That is part of tomorrows talk. Keep in mind one thing we point out in our museum. The battle for Sailors Creek. Its spelled sailors not saylers. Think of it as three three separate engagements, all going on at the same time. One is a mile from another. Both of those are two miles from the third. There are three separate engagements. The warned that the majority of the park