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A good speech (no matter who wrote it)..and I wonder how many of our citizens today can understand phrases like, "the allurements of demagogic folly...". Not enough I fear.

Rumor has it that President Grant had the most corrupt Administration in history - odd juxtaposition given the heaping praise delivered here.

The Stock Market crash did not cause the Great Depression...the Federal Reserve did because it withdrew more and more dollar bills from the economy over the next 3 years until it incompetently collapsed 1/3 of America's banks. Milton Friedman proved this...and thank you kindly for these letters (and speeches) in people's own words...our forbears...

God Bless RE Lee.

Thank you Ron. I so greatly appreciate you and the way that you share history with others. Your readings are heartfelt and show the humanity of these people who were people of their OWN TIME and who lived so long ago. Unfortunately, there are many ignorant people who oversimplify the complexities of history and humanity, and who cannot do anything but criticize people no longer living who are not able to defend themselves, and that seeth hate and condemnation for people they never knew, in a time that they were not born into or ever lived. And they should be ashamed of themselves. How easy it is to criticize others with the benefit of hindsight and judge others from another time through the lens of today. By some estimates, there are some forty million people enslaved worldwide today, ten times the number of enslaved people in the United States at the time of the American Civil War. And, seriously, WE ALL have ancestors who were enslaved at some time in history. All of us. If you weren't born into that time you have no right to judge those people of the past. I certainly hope that history will judge those that do with the same measure of blind disregard. Thank you again, for what you do, Ron. You bring those figures from the past and make them more alive and relatable as human beings that we might share in their humanity. God Bless!

Little did everyone at the 70th anniversary of Gettysburg know that another major war was looming on the horizon called WW 2!

This was a great speech! My parents lived through the great depression in abject poverty! They lived in a tenement in the Lower East Side of Manhattan! They used old newspapers for toilet paper and shared a toilet with a hundred other people! They bathed in the sink in the kitchen!

Sickles was a glory seeking a hole....his selfishness cost thousands...of union lives....

Lincoln's law partner once described him as "the greatest infidel" (i.e. atheist). Though not being a Christian was acceptable in the days of Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin (who argued that Hell was more useful than real), it had ceased to be so during "the Age of Reaction" that began in 1815.

They information I gained here in from this story changes so much what was feed to us in school in the 1940-70's 😧 Making Sherman a tyrannical Military General Burning his way through every encounter and city. This presents a compassionate side I had not attributed to him or his match ... Thank you Whereas History is often written by the victor, many times the scholars might have an axe to grind or mark to make. ... God Bless America ... May we all deserve the HUGE Sacrifice that Hundreds of Thousands of soldiers and innocent civilians gave to secure what we now enjoy without much afterthought or attention in our own growing problems. Amen

It was about slavery. If you can't acknowledge it, you are an apologist for racists.

Sickles was not supposed to cover the Round Tops. At that point, Meade's interest was in extending the line to the S, which meant occupying a relatively low point between the current line and the Round Tops.

So… McCllellan was there and developed his opinions from first hand experience and perceptions. But… we… 159 plus years later no better… right?

Greatest Civil War generals: 1. Grant 2. Sherman 3. Thomas 4. Jackson 5. Lee

Wonderful material for this episode. General Robert E. Lee must have been a spectacular figure to encounter. His upbringing and social environment certainly prepared him for great things. We are all the beneficiary of Wise's memories.

Thank you for this history lesson :). It made Sherman a human being and not the General he is made out to be. The southerners set fire to their own cotton. It was Sherman’s soldiers who went wild, although, could he have stopped them? He set free Union soldiers, thank goodness - the southern prisons were horrific!! And he had compassion for others - e.g. Bryers :) My first time here - very well done. Have a great day! :) ☁️🌷🌱

Thanks!

My father's uncle John Coiner Henkel, a Valley Ranger, "often declared that he was present at Appomattox and saw the last Yankee fall from his horse after being struck by a Southern bullet."

Grant dressed like Zachary Taylor, whom he serv ed undder in Mexico.

2 very revealing words about this war not being about slavery. Corwin Amendment.

My Parents said that during Hoover's administration people had to go out into the wooded areas of Western Maryland and pick Berry's just to have something to eat.

Grant is the father of modern warfare. He never made the same mistake twice and was always thinking of ways to defeat the enemy. Sherman is the father of total warfare defeat your enemy will to fight.

His decision to surrender is why Western man is in its twilight today

Hello Ron, please don’t take this the wrong way but I have heard a lot of negative comments about Mr Hoover. Looks to me like he was full of word salad that could have put food in hungry stomachs. Thanks for your program, I enjoy listening to them every morning. Ed from Lynchburg

That was quite a speech by President Herbert Hoover. An appropriate message for us today. Thanks for bringing it to us Ron.

Great speech from one of America's total failed presidents.

Great choice Ron. Thoughtful words well worth considering still, some 94 years later.

Impressive speech. I wonder who wrote it. Most presidents had the help of speech writers, and still do. Whatever or whoever, it was very good.

Resolute is probably his character trait.

One thing the movie The Wild Wild West got right is that Kevin Kline does looks like Grant.

Thank you for breathing life to these wonderful historical figures.

Strange that he was excluded from regimental history, but was helped by his comrades in GAR and was listed as present multiple times on the muster rolls.

A man, U.N., siss. All the best.😊

Sounds like sour grapes.

Thank you for bringing stories not only about generals, but also about the common soldier. To me these are examples of ordinary men doing extraordinary things. To watch a young boy in Gray die or young boy in blue die doesn’t really bring home politics anymore. It just means that two boys died and that’s a tragedy.

This is a follow up to my previous comment. I did some research and the story is starting to make more sense. Rusling's account of his visit to Gilson on a boat at White House did not seem plausible if he was claiming it took place "immediately after" the Battle of Seven Pines. However, if we consider that it may have taken place "sometime after" the battle, and presumably before the Seven Days Battles, then his account seems more plausible. He simply said "after" the battle without giving a specific date in June, so there are clues to when he actually visited Helen Gilson. June 2: Rusling describes how busy he was during the battle on May 31 and June 1. By June 2, the date of the letter, he says he still cannot leave the battlefield: "I chafe very much under the necessity which compels me to be here; but the orders of McClellan are stringent, and require every division, brigade, and regimental quartermaster to remain with his train, under penalty of being court-martialed and dismissed from the service." June 7: In his official report, Dr. Tripler wrote: "Immediately upon the commencement of the battle the boats at White House were ordered to be in readiness to receive the wounded.... The transportation of the wounded was begun that night and kept up steadily until completed. This was accomplished by the 7th of June." June 8: Rusling describes the aftermath of the battle in a letter. June 10: Katharine Prescott Wormeley wrote in a letter: All the wounded have come down and gone, and we have nothing to do, at least for to-day... such armies of queer people turn up! Quartermasters are among the queerest. June 11: Quartermaster Rusling said that he had written a letter on Wednesday, which would have been on June 11. This letter was dated Sunday, June 15: “You are not entitled to a letter to-day, as I wrote Wednesday --- I think it was --- from the White House.” .

I always thought his two secret weapons were Sherman and Sheridan...

Lee was maybe the fourth or fifth best general in the Civil War. He knew, or should have known, the war was lost in the early winter of 1864 when his defeated army, starving and dressed in rags, was bottled up in Richmond and Petersburg. Thousands died unnecessarily due to his pride and unwillingness to surrender. We must extinguish the cult of Lee and the cult of the Lost Cause.

Robert is definitely right. This is how Southerners prefer prefer to remember Lee. However, I vividly remember him, stating after reconstruction began that he would not have surrendered if he had known what lane store for the south. We’re not talking about mouse, hangings a confederate leaders. We’re not talking about masochist Acacian‘s of rebel soldiers, even the ones who committed atrocities against black people and union prisoners. No, Lee is objecting to the fact that these federal soldiers occupying the south, or protecting the rights of black people. That’s what stuck in his craw

The economy of the South depended upon slave labor. That was the reality, however morally reprehensible it may or may not have appeared to its beneficiaries. Everyone was born into their roles - but Lee had the choice to lead the Union - and yet took the lesser, morally questionable path he certainly would have perceived. Is it revisionism to condemn him for making that choice, even with this revelation that he knew it from the beginning to be futile in effect ? I think to discern his, and his peers' reasoning, we have to imagine they could well imagine how destabilizing & economically ruinous abolition would be to their interests. His 'duty' was self-interest and tribalism, admixed with a real fear of chaos.