Keynote speaker. You can speak in a disjointed way. Im going to do a disjointed speaker speech for you this morning, if i may. Lets start with a couple of reflections on the confederate title flag. If politically correct people were capable of understanding history, they would complain not cross. He southern emblem of a government, with slavery as is backbone. The bottle flag is different in another sense. Was not thee brigade, not the division. He served with friends and neighbors from the same area. What did the second, fourth, fifth, 27th and 33rd virginia have in common . Southerncame from the part of shenandoah valley. These units gained immortality as part of the stonewall brigade. In all during the war, 6000 men would serve in the stonewall brigade and at appomattox, 210 were left, none above the rank of captain. Every regiment went off with a flag. Nationalwas not a banner. Those flags borne by the 18th virginia, 26 new york, fifth alabama were insignia of state allegiance and state esteem. I think state pride, state existence has to be a player here. People were actually surprised this can drive sometimes reasonable folks to the point of reaction. That explains the reaction to the Confederate Flag. Folks dont understand its meaning. The biggest mistake made by those today who want to interpret history is that they view the past with the lens of the present. You cannot do that. To truly understand it events of yesteryear, likewise one to look. Hrough those blinders im an agreeable guy, but what gets against me is what people say, generally had not done that at gettysburg, things would have been different. If lee had had 150 years to think about it differently, he would have done something different. That is grossly unfair to lee and others to assume that you know better than they did. Understand how the south could take on this. The power concentrated in washington was solution or a it came from time and circumstance in the civil war was the big hop for the federal government. Had you lived in 1860, the federal government would have directed your life one way. It delivered your mail. That is the only contact you had with the federal government. You paid taxes. You settled your disputes in state and local courts. We had no familiar flag. The average american had never seen the american flag. We had no national motto. Anthem heardional there was nothing nationalistic about this country at all, especially the 16,000 men in the United States army. Nationalization starts with appomattox and has not stopped since. Of theg of the outbreak war, id like to make a comment about these anguished decisions about which way to go. In april 1861, when he turned down every soldiers dream, Supreme Commander of the army, in order to go with his native state. We virginians took talk all the time about our history. We do so because we have so much more of it than anybody else. 1787, when a nation was proposed, virginia was already 180 years old. We celebrated colonial thanksgiving. People inse massachusetts would get off that cake. In 1860, the United States was 70 years old. It was not old enough to have wisdom. At least family that time had been living in virginia 225 years. I do not think lee anguished at all over the decision he made that april evening. The three words that characterize lees entire life devotion to duty. His primary duty was to his family. His family had been virginians for over two centuries. The old dominion was lees birthright. In graduate school, i learned that antietam was the turning point of the civil war. The Gettysburg Chamber of commerce never ceases its claim. Facts and reflection say otherwise. On for 18d been going months when the bloodiest oneday battle occurred at sharpsburg. Thereafter, to an a half years of combat would follow. That hardly signifies a turning point to me. Gettysburg came in 1863. They make good magazine articles. Jefferson davis maintained from the beginning hostilities that the south should wage what he called an offense of defensive strategy. Confederates would defend their homeland using inner lines of communication. ,hen an opportunity came southern armies would counterattack. Davis reasoned that in a war, three things will happen. Side b will win, side a will up, or the war ends unresolved. Side a is the south, it could win. What about if the war ends up in a tie . Nobody has won strategic hold over the battlefield. Has not one side won . Stilluth won because it exists. As long as the Confederate Flag is flying in the breeze, the south is winning. This is what davis thought the war should do. Oflizing the advantages defense, the south would curl back the attack. It would make an assault when the situation was promising. Mountl losses would slowly. Federal morality slip away. The north would ask for peace. The confederacy would have its independence. That is not something unique. The first part of that 1234 scale, we side in vietnam. We hit them with everything we had in our arsenal, and they would not quit. Stopping the war because the will to continue just slipped away. Camengly, that scenario terribly close to success when in the spring of 1864, the south came as close as it would come. Despite two failures and northern invasions confederate victory was quite possible if the southern and comecould hold off sherman in georgia. Throughout may and june, men fought and blood flowed. Southerners sherman engaged in an 80 mile campaign. Cautious of rather found the union army in front of atlanta and seemingly content to stay there, while the Southern Army underwent a change in leadership. Union efforts in virginia were more complicated and far more bloody. But for a time, the end result seem just as empty. Were driven in flight from the shenandoah valley, thereby leaving pressure on that vital legion. The widely heralded grants was soundly defeated in the wilderness, beaten back in spotsylvania, and almost massacred at cold harbor. Krentz managed to slip across the chains and pulled up from the eastern outskirts of petersburg. Grants 100 mile Overland Campaign contained the most vicious fighting in the war. The once powerful army of the potomac stuck with 65,000 losses in six weeks. Northern morality limited. Democrats were announcing grant. S a bullheaded butcher they declared, patriotism is played out. We are gone. Another Union Official proclaimed, each hour is sinking us deeper into bankruptcy and desolation. Atlanta stood defiant. Grant was no closer this summer than George Mcclellan had been two years earlier. While northern republicans made excuses, northern democrats again searching for an 1864 president ial candidates. In midsummer, president lincoln admitted publicly that he expended expected to lose. Offensen daviss ofdefense of strategy was working. The union army was held back at every corner. If the two southern armies could hold their own until the november elections, northern Public Opinion would and the civil war and the confederate dream would be accomplished. High water mark of the war. , the timethree months it took for northern military might to effect a complete turnaround. Headlinesot the first. A change of commanders in the Confederate Army in atlanta proved disastrous. Soundly defeated in each engagements. Grant, put a stranglehold on leave. Grant kept widening the length of his lines. sis in turn stretched lee smaller defenses. Grantsortantly, strategy took away from the only effective weapon the southern journal had, mobility. As long as lee could maneuver, if he could get in positions he could use his forces to his advantage. For the next nine months, grant was quite content to let his associates handle the siege. Hunger,sociates being filth, disease, exposure to the bombardment,stant fatigue, loss of spirit, increased desertions. All of these slowly suffocating the army of northern virginia. Grant could never feel secure until confederates were deprived of all use of the shenandoah valley. There had always been a geographic avenue pointing straight at the heart of the north. In addition, the valley was immensely fertile. Fruitsuced grain, meat, that by 1864 were essential to lees army. Grant picked his most ruthless lieutenant to clean out the valley. Grant wanted the shenandoah so thoroughly destroyed that he said not a crow that a crow flying across it would have to take his own food to survive the trip. Shermans march to the sea has long been overshadowed by the devastation of the shenandoah valley. Sherman did isat still called the burning. He destroyed a good portion of the valley. On november 8, Abraham Lincoln won the election. The confederacys great hope in the spring had vanished. Sherman started towards the sea and gutted the southern nation. Grant tightened the news at petersburg. At petersburg, cutting off the confederacy from the outside world. And thereafter, it was going to just a matter of time. Are the worst of struggles, because no matter on which side you are fighting, the enemy is your fellow countrymen. Destruction you inflict is destruction of your own country. Those on the two sides are fighting for absolutes. The war is not going to end until one side is crushed. The atmosphere at celinda is usually filled with vindictiveness and subjugation. That is the natural course of a civil war. Such was not to be the case at appomattox. Overthrew million men had over three million men had borne arms in the civil war. Someway they would bring this country back together again. So much has been written about what lee and grant did that palm sunday at appomattox. I think a greater understanding might be gained looking at what they did not do that chilly day of 57 degrees. Lee could have followed the natural course after the civil war. One of his most reliable associates suggested it. Lee earlierme to that palm sunday morning. Tell the army to disperse. Love them men scatter into the hills and woods sides. Men scatter into the hills and woods sides. We can win, alexander said. We can win, if we dont lose. Lee shook his head. That was not his idea of the future. We must consider the country as a whole, he said. The menk your advice, would be without rations and under no control at all. They would become bands of marauders. We would bring on a state of affairs that would take the country years to recover from. No, lee concluded, i must go to general grant and surrender myself and take the consequences of my acts. Grant also had to show us at appomattox he had done what no other general had been able to do for 3 years. Broughtt lost last the legendary silver fox to bait. Grant could easily charge and with treason, humiliate him publicly, poor force him to casualtiesly for the he had inflicted over the years. Grant could have sent all the confederates to prison and some to the gallows. The shadowed south was helpless in stopping any of these probabilities. Grant himself had known personal defeat for a good part of his life. He could empathize with how lee felt. Unlikely, grant had a sense of history. And the judgments that come of the future. They tell a story that is not true. A much earlier president lincoln had visited grant at the city foreign headquarters. Had conferred on the climactic campaign about to get underway. As lincoln walked up, they lined up, taking him back to washington. Standingposedly onshore, munching a cigar, asked the president , what do you want me to do when i catch him . Lincoln answered, let him up easy. And that sam grant did. Lee was visibly surprised at the leniency of grants terms of surrender. Even today, they seem unbelievable in the face of so much killing and so much destruction. South would remain retain their amounts for the spring plowing. 25,000 rations would be issued at wants to lees starving army. Southern soldiers would sign paroles and go home. Long as they did not break the law, they were not to be molested by any Union Authorities for any reason. A grateful lee could only state that this will do much towards the reconciliation of our people. Wanted a badgrant war to be followed by a good peace. Lees decision to cease fighting from guerrillaon warfare that would have forever shattered any dreams of union. Grants generous offer made it difficult to hang lee and other southerners in postwar retribution. In that springtime afternoon, two notable soldiers served. April 9, 1965, the word appomattox had no meaning. You belong to a virginia river and county. After that sunday, appomattox would be a great word that announced a moment when sunset and sunrise came together. It took a long time in virginia as well as in georgia for the end. War to reconciliation, like a beautiful work of art, requires time and understanding and much personal effort. In the halfcentury after the passing of the war, former enemies found themselves linked. Engaging men of blue and gray began together for the unionists on the fields of battle. They found themselves no longer enemy soldiers. Survivors of a terrible time. They shared the same sympathies for the younger man they once were, and for the sacrifices that each had made. Those are member and sis offered the least controversial grounds upon which they could relate. Thousands began to realize that they had not been enemies at all. They had been brothers in suffering. Was theual respect gateway to a lasting peace in our nation. The never apologized for what they had done. The yanks never asked him to do so. Human commonality drove them together, which is almost blessed. They were living reminders of the greatest test to nationhood. The civil war, i would suggest, really ended july third, 1915. 2500 veterans gathered at gettysburg to mark the 50th ,nniversary of the great battle and the emotional peak in that multiday reunion came on july 3 at 3 00 p. M. Northern and southern veterans stood on opposite sides of the stonewall that had been the focal point of the charge. Some reached out and hug. At whattood and wept had been, and what was taking place, because they had survived so many thousands of their comrades had not. We say they are all gone now. That is not so. The past is forever speaking to us, and it speaks with many voices. Those civil war generations went through an indescribable trial to carve a pathway for the future. You and i are that future. Our nation began in 1865. To forget that is to make us undeserving of what we share with godsow, and blessings for all time to come. Thank you. [applause] when you do have a question, please wait until they can get microphone the boom so your audio can be recorded. When Porter Alexander was telling lee they should take the hills and play guerrilla war, his response was, wouldnt that be good for the country . Was he talking about the whole country meaning like the combined south and north . You think hes thinking pretty much the southern region. James he was talking about the whole country. Lee had been greatly misunderstood. I would assert strongly that between 1865 and 1870, no American Work harder towards reconciliation then robert e. Lee. He to go over the president ial position of a small college. Why he would want to get involved in social education in the south can only be answered devotion to words, duty. He said at the beginning of his presidency, i have led the young men of the south in battle. I have seen many of them fall at my feet. I have an obligation to lead those left into a new nation, and into peace. He worked hard at that. Of whate a living model to do, and what not to do. Lee was not an educator, he was a soldier. Let me tell you a couple of things he gave to high education. For the first time, we have elective courses in high education. It was lee who established the honor system at the university. When asked what the rules of the lee responded only that a man be a christian and a gentleman. He would not attend the unions. He would not go to the memorial services, not even a dedication of a monument. He would have nothing to do with the war. It was over. Did such a marvelous job that in 1860 eight the nations largest newspaper, the new york tribune, nominated lee for president of the United States. Had lee been elected, he could not serve. He was not a citizen of america. Yet in three years, this man who had led the Confederate Army was a president ial nominee. At his death in 1870, an entire nation mourned. A gallant foreman in the fight, a brother when the fight was done. Virginias son. Beautiful tribute. After the an american war, and he worked tirelessly for it. It pries my patients to hear people trying to pull him down. He should be an inspiration. We are not supposed to have inspirations today. We are all supposed to dwell on the same level of mediocrity. Going to the back. I grew up in virginia during the centennial as a little boy. The sesquicentennial got a lot of criticism of low attendance, this and that, all kinds of stuff. We want to tons of events and had just an outstanding event, something in atlanta was occurring every day, every night, every weekend. What were your thoughts at the sesquicentennial . I thought it was unbelievable compared to the 100th. James it did not get the National Attention the centennial did. Had it was a nationwide thing. Americans were in the mood for it. You come up on an anniversary and everyone should be involved. For one thing, we were not at war. 1957,ggest thing going in the construction of the interstate highway system, which in itself was a growing cohesive thing. Everybody was in the mood for it. The problem was, it got off on the wrong start. The root the director said, the south may have won the war, but winning the centennial, thats not the kind of anniversary it was meant to be at all. Historians american came on and he was a close friend of kennedy. Allen took over as chairman. The vicechairman of the commission was from a congressman from the First District of iowa. I had some cause of potential. In all that chaos, i was append appointed. I had to spend the first 6 months traveling around the country. Nobody was speaking to anybody. We got it straightened out. I think we had a very successful centennial. The sesquicentennial, youve got age against you. The centennial, a lot of grandsons and great grandsons were alive. U. S. Grant the third, the son of 50 yearsrant now, later, you have in essence 2 generations had passed and war is more distant. Life is more complex today than it was then. Werein the 1950s, we comparatively speaking, simple people. Now we are so complex. Its hard to concentrate on anything for long in this country. Had theirginia, we blessing on the fact that the two most powerful political leaders in the state were ardent civil war buffs. Chair and vice chair successively of the commission. We found we