freedom in the antebellum period . highlighting the 10th armored division known as the armored division involved in the 1944 battle of the bulge. that >> onto our last talk for the evening. student of military history, scott is a graduate of the james madison university in the shenandoah valley at harrisonburg. he is not a stranger to this conference. as i can well remember introducing him as an up-and-coming young historian in 20 was on our history panel lummis study the 1864 valley campaign that year.

in 2007.ed and again in 2009. us for ahe was with look at the 1863 battle. in 2013. scott has written numerous articles and books. the forgotten fury, the battle of piedmont. shenandoah summer 1864 valley campaign. manassas long streets attack and the struggle for the rich published in 2011. also that year, the battle of piedmont.

2013, the last battle of winchester. in addition to his articles and onks, he served for 10 years the board of the battlefield association. on thetwice served president of the bull run civil war roundtable. it for the past 10 years, he has worked for the shenandoah valley battlefield foundation on updating and correcting the battlefield interpretation for the third winchester battlefield. -- now, over 600 battles acres of battlefield have been saved thanks to the battlefield foundation and the civil war trust. an accomplishment that has virtually saved an entire battlefield from certain destruction. he has recently completed the

editing of the journal of union kernel, a division commander and general george crooks eight core which was in service under the army of the sherman donna -- shenandoah. scott tells me he is now completing a volume on the battle of jonesboro and sherman's capture of atlanta. we look forward to the publication. he is not only an accomplished battlefield guide, but also knows his way around the revolutionary war sites from new york to georgia. we are truly lucky to have him with us on sunday. scott as he tells us about a shenandoah summer from the perspective of the united states.

[applause] >> good evening and thank you for having me back here. it is always a pleasure to spend -- speak to the heritage foundation. of july 14, 1864, as the first rays of the sun came through in the eastern men of thee tired army of the valley district

splashed into the cool waters of the potomac river and crossed over at white's ferry. the army would spend the next 36 hours resting near big spring north of leesburg, virginia. withd been a hard campaign a lot of hard marching on extremely hot days during the march in washington, d.c. and the returned back to the old dominion. one north carolinians later wrote, if the old gentleman did marches very hurt and if we did say some emphatic themes -- things about him at the time when the hot sun was overcoming bag the old back -- gentleman's pardon. he was indeed a unique personality. i have a couple of anecdotal stories. we will hear a lot about him throughout the weekend.

a couple of stories will sum up the type of guy he was. time during the shenandoah valley campaign in 1864 when a group of the senior officers were all sitting around and a lot of it officers from prominent virginia families. they refer to their families as the first families of virginia. one from kentucky, he was asking these families what is it with all of these ff these? happened to the second families of virginia? one chimed, they moved to kentucky. [laughter] 1965, hein early attended a service down around waynesboro, virginia with a staff officer.

outside of this church was a large graveyard. as part of the sermon that day, the pastor asked a question to the congregation. he said, what would you do if the lord came down right now and he raised every man in the graveyard up from the dead? early leans over and he thinks he is whispering into the year of the staff officer but he is speaking so everyone can hear. he says i would conscript every day and of them into the army. he was certainly a character. one thing i want to say about him is, he was highly motivated to serve robert e. lee. with that mission he was on, he was at his best. arlie was at jewel the pinnacle of his career in the army of northern virginia. this man pictured on the screen is major general horacio right

commander of the six core. they came up to washington to save it from the capture. that'srly slips a rate slips away from washington, horacio right is going to take 21 hours before he can get his troops almost a full day so he's going to have an easy time with the exception of a rearguard action. that only have the sixth core but he will have the vanguard of the 19th army corps which was supposed to go from louisiana to st. petersburg but was diverted to washington because of the crisis induced by the invasion. time, right isn going to pursue him to the potomac river. at that time, he will find that

he has already begun to retreat from leesburg. he had alluded to hunter's field but after lynchburg was forced to retreat into west virginia, he's going to show up in western andland about 13th and 14th coming up in harpers ferry in martinsburg which was off the map, there's going to be a large union force of 14,000 union men approaching him from the west. at the same time that horacio right is going to get up to 15,000 men moving on him pursuing him out of washington dc. major general george

command ofaced in the troops from west virginia. that's hunter's fourth. he's going to have 8000 men stationed around hillsboro, virginia. his job is to intercept the retreat of the army. it he's going to send cavalry -- from hillsboro. i just wanted to show you how close of a run thing it was that jubal early escaped. one of the things that is often lost to history is the reason that he is able to escape and

doesn't have the entire army blocking his path, the rivers in west virginia were at low water. a thought they were going to be able to take riverboats and get on the railroad and the back in time to confront the threat. however, mother nature helped the confederacy at that time and cost them several days. it is because of that that jubal early will slip by. wright point, horatio would have been content to stay on the east bank and head back to washington. his orders were to ensure that the confederate were in full retreat. to make a good campaign of it. asht just heard get back fast as you can. horatio wright was a beautiful

social. when he heard they were out with 8000 men going against early was 6000 men, he would promptly cross over. they would unite on the 17th and they would begin advancing toward the stickers cap. the cavalry discovered that the ford is blocked by john gordon's division of infantry. the federals are going nowhere. the going to wait until the next a and report back to horatio wright who was the overall commander. horatio wright is going to formulate a plan. george crook is going to take the lead. his orders are to cross the river and attack the enemy if practicable. it than the rest of the army would follow suit.

he tells them i am going to attack the enemy. practical's in george crook's communication. if iten to say that weren't for crook's presence, i don't think there would have been much in the way of any military action that would have come out of the pursuit of jubal early. 18th, the cavalry is already in position and him and hunt her, him and horatio wright are going to study the layout of the confederate position from and atop stickers cap confederate to the strong force in position here at the shenandoah river crossing but i think what we should do is march our troops northward about two miles, cross them over at island

are on once our troops the west bank of the shenandoah river, they are going to head back self toward snickers or castleman sperry, take john b gordon's division and its northern flank, drive it away, clear the crossing of the river than the race -- rest of the army will march across the river and they will pursue jubal early and attack him as the opportunity persists. such was the plan. as we know, plans on the battlefield seldom lasts once the reality of the situation hits. george crook would place this flanking force about 5000 men doctor- he was a medical from west virginia. it reorganized for the duration of the work later in 1861, he

was selected to be the kernel of the regiment. as a brigade commander under john popes army of virginia. he returned to the scene of operations in 1864. this man is quite an experienced combat officer. july 18, 1864 is the first opportunity as a division commander in crooks army.

when he gets down to the river, he is going to get to the river crossing at 3:30. he's going to get his troops across. it away, he realizes that he is getting reports in from skirmishers and scouts that there's large federal confederate forces coming into position all around him. he halts any further pants and begins positioning his troops on the bluff immediately in front of the shenandoah river. he sent a courier back saying this plan is not going as expected i don't have a clear by aback i am blocked in division approaching from the west and there are dust clouds off to the north which seem to indicate that a large confederate force is moving toward my northern flank.

this courier quickly takes the information back to george crook at his headquarters overlooking snickers fairy and crook is alarmed. he turns to horatio wright and asked him for permission to withdraw the division back to the east bank of the river. horatio wright says no we have the six core we are going to reinforce him with another division. that division had just come to the gap and it's going to be more than an hour to 1.5 hours before he is going to arrive on the scene of the battle. before that can happen, all fury is going to be unleashed on the division. his right flank is going to be attacked by a division of 3500 men strong. it will be smashed. unfortunately, manning that they were 1000 dismounted cavalry men.

composed of hodgepodge units and individual men from every regiment in the cavalry corps. they had been sent up to washington dc as a unit and armed as infantrymen and they broke at the first fire and retreat back across the river in confusion. the entire force is going to be knocked into a position along the riverbank. they're going to fall back after taking heavy losses. they're going to be in a set -- sunken road that was a tour boat -- path for boats. at the top of that road was a stone walls of the head -- behind them on the east bank are going to be several batteries of union artillery that are going to preclude large state of large-scale troop movements by reinforcements and an attempt to move forward. rhodes's men will attempt to charge down and drive him into the river that they will hold out until darkness.

filbert will leapfrog his troops across the river and -- in darkness leaving a regiment on the island than sending another one back across until finally his entire army is safe on the other bank. now i'm going to come back and talk about general james ricketts and george crook. scene, herives on the is going to find everything in confusion. the men are coming back across the river in confusion. he has to make it tough military decision. from a military perspective, what was there to gain by taking his 3000 men attempting to cross the river in the face of not only the retreating fugitive but the gunfire of roads men on the west bank? nothing.

nothing could be saved except that he would get caught up in the confusion. he makes the hard decision. pull full burn back eventually and he was told by right that rickets would go over and help him. he appeals to him to overrule the situation. from a humid perspective and from the soldier's perspective, they never forget the men who work caught over there never forgive rickets for not coming to their aid. it would be something that crook held a bitterness toward the six core until the day he died. whichy after this battle caused both sides 400 men, the fight along the riverbank was all that was a clear tactical that -- victory, those men held out until darkness and put an

end to the fighting. they had a moral victory that they always relished as they grew older and went to their reunions. day, the action is going to shift nine miles to the he's going to send the cavalry to break through the confederate lines where route 50 goes to ashby's gap and crosses the shenandoah river. he would meet with no better success to the south. at this point, the campaign seems as though it's starting to end. he's feeling pressure. hunter is starting to send

troops down threatening the flank and rear. he has two brigades under a general that going to the moving self. jubal early is feeling the pressure on both his flanks and the rear of his army when he is stationed at berryville. ,e realizes that to stay there it's a risky business. he decides right then and there on the night of the 19th of july he is going to begin a retreat 20 miles to fishers hill. jubal early is going to send one

division. the commander will go to winchester. he is an aggressive young tar heel and he has only been a division commander for a couple of months. himad an attack that cost hundreds of men killed and one -- wounded. he gets report from the cavalry that there is a small force of federals coming down the pipe toward winchester. infantryet's take her and go down there and wait these guys out. 4500ther has 4000 or

cavalry and artillery under his command. the other who is moving southward only has 2000 men. the odds in his favor. be that as it may, he goes out against orders as he is deploying his troops to attack, he hits the left flank of the line and that is pretty much all she wrote. this was the only success that the union had in their pursuit of jubal early. north toward winchester when he hears of the disaster, one of the commands under him was jubal early's old brigade and they were mattis hornets and they see him writing

forward and they say don't blame us, the other is to blame. a number of the soldiers choked afterwards. they talked about this battle. one virginia cavalryman who was part of the confederate force their wrote in his memoirs, he said with a name that stuck amongst the soldier was the battle of ram servers but. point on the 20th that horatio wright makes the decision. that jubal early is in fuel -- full retreat to washington -- richmond. he was not in full retreat. begins anight

overnight march back to washington, d.c.. many of the veterans thought it was funny that the advance had taken so long and it was so slow while they were pursuing him out to the valley. they wondered what was happening in washington that they were heading back so quickly. that hille floating was driving over lands toward alexandria in the six core had to get back to save washington from hell. there was no threat to washington. cricket is going to take command of a consolidated force. all the troops that hunter had been sending southward toward winchester plus all of the west virginia troops at the battles of snickers -- b's gap would consolidate. it all comes to 12 maybe 13,000 men strong.

jubal early and his force, he's going to have a lot of his cavalry remounted and it's going to grow significantly in strength. he will have an army of 16,000 men at fishers hill on july 27. july 22 is in interesting time because in the official records menhe war, both of these have interesting correspondences that are going to set the stage for the rest of this campaign. , he writes back to his department commander hunter at harper's ferry and tells him that jubal early, this force is too strong i don't have the manpower nor the combat experience for the little army of west virginia to go toward otero the army of the valley district in the open field.

i'm going to hang out at winchester for a couple of days and hopefully early is going to send his troops back to richmond. he has a very accurate assessment of the situation in the valley and crook also has a proven plan of action of how he is going to a couple his mission. which is been reemphasized by general grant is to pursue the enemy. but to stay between the enemy and the potomac river because the last thing he wants is a replay of the maryland raid. carry outg to try to those orders to the best of his ability. jubal early, he gets communications from robert e. lee on july 22. robert e. lee is full into the midst of the siege of petersburg in richmond against the army of the potomac. him, he stay out in

the shenandoah, you can stay as long as you want to make sure the troops under horatio wright, 18,000 men, make sure they don't show up back in petersburg. day, early is going to send his cavalry out in force and they are going to drive the union cavalry back to winchester. they're going to capture several officers. from these officers, they are going to learn that horatio wright headed back to washington a couple days ago. jubal early wastes no time and he gives the order for his army to go on the offensive against george crook the following day. the vanguard of his army will be stationed around a village three miles south of winchester. the senior officer of the infantry division is colonel james mulligan from chicago,

illinois. he was very popular and well-known during the civil war. one of his fellow division commanders noted that he was perhaps more popular out of the army and was in the army. mulligan longed for a battlefield command. he started off the war in 1861 as the commander of a garrison in missouri and he was surrounded by a large confederate force that outnumbered him four to one. he held out for about a week and he earned a lot of praise at a time when bull run was going on and there was a lot of negativity. he showed some gusto. he will be surrounded and forced to capitulate. while he is going to be paroled and in this which is an extended

time of six months, he is not allowed to take part in active military operations. what he does is travel across .he northern states war, he became prominent in the democratic political machine of chicago. he was eight stephens democrat. when that election was going on, back in the day there were no tv interviews or going city to city. the candidates would have spokesman. it was important for you to have good spokesman in various communities telling those people about your stand and rallying them to vote for you. mulligan came onto the scene as a prominent and fiery speaker on

behalf of stephen douglas. he has some popularity and fame throughout the north even though military wise, he really doesn't have much to experience to reach the table. thought hen 1862, he was going to get his chance to join the average brigade from the army of the potomac. this is in the days just after the battle of antietam. the 23rd illinois which he called the irish brigade of chicago is put on the trains. off short ofed joining the army of the potomac. the army of the potomac would march away leaving mulligan for the next two years in the mountains of west virginia which brings us to the shenandoah valley in 1864. mulligan served under

[indiscernible] crook's being under command. he said i'm tired of serving under general sue have little english and little sense. he found a creek to be a breath of fresh air initially. he called him a quiet and unobtrusive gentleman. later, mulligan is the senior colonel and crooks army. therefore he should be entitled to the largest infantry division. officers two other that were experienced and familiar with the army and mulligan was brand-new. nobody knew the guy. he gives them the smallest division. mulligan the day that happens he writes in his journal he says i

am taking further measure of general crook. his name says it all. [laughter] mulligan is an unhappy camper. going into the battle of kearns town. his men on the morning of july 24, 1864 are going to be posted on richards hill. he's going to have 1800 men with him and 2000 cavalry. the cavalry are out of couple miles south of kearns town toward newtown were there have been driven from the day before. they're up on the top of the hill and it's a sunday morning and mulligan being a devout thereic had lamented that chaplin had resigned so he and his men were doing their best with their prayer books.

clubbing -- started clowning around a little bit. he was a non-smoker and non-drinker but he got a cigar and was described as with the flair of a broadway smile he was pretending to smoke and make his men left and joke around with him. it's a close net headquarters. as welldes his nephew as his brother-in-law. there's a lot of family connections. suddenly, they hear the sounds of the gunfire. it's no longer picket fire in the distance but a rolling fire as the confederate cavalry is once again driving the men back toward kearns town. mulligan is going to advance his troops self down toward a place

known as martin's would. there he will back up the cavalry and they will be forced to halt their advance in the woods. at this point, mulligan is going to send young lieutenant nugent back to winchester to confer with general crook. and he crook is there doesn't have any idea what's him hen and nugent tells says there's a massive force of confederates moving towards us. it's just like happening yesterday evening. crook says i haven't heard as many as half a dozen shots from the frontline. he challenges the veracity of mulligan's report. he shoots back at him and says general, if you were a little closer to the front you might have heard as many as a dozen. as crook gets

angry and he's as young man, i will do with you tomorrow. right now, you tell colonel mulligan to instantly and persistently advance and join -- drive the bushwhackers out of the woods. shortly after nugent leaves, crook thinks better of the situation. he realizes i better come up with a plan. there's probably something going on it didn't turn out too well for our cavalry yesterday. he decides that he needs to send reinforcements to the south. , i remember when i was a kid i saw a cartoon where there was a guppy and a fish and the fish eats the guppy than a big whale comes along and it's the fish. george crook is like the fish. he is seeing the confederate troops in the center under gordon and they are in a wooded lot. at the time that's all he could see. jubal early is doing a great job of using terrain to mask his

troops from crooks vision. crook gets tunnel vision and he is focused on gordon's division directly in front of mulligan. he comes up with a plan again he developed this plan from winchester for he'd been on the battlefield and had a chance to see it firsthand. if you lookdeas is to the right of the map you will see the cavalry that it will get sent down the front road. mind, onlyrook's confederates there are gordon with a few cavalry covering either flank. there should be nothing in his way to prevent him once he gets out of the creek to cross over to newtown thing, behind gordon. at the same time, he is going to reinforce mulligan with a grade -- the brigade of rutherford b. hayes. it is the division is going to be sent out to the west to take position on sandy ridge the scene of the first battle

against stonewall jackson in 1862. the whole plan was, mulligan was going to go head-to-head against gordon, distract him and hold his attention while hayes comes in from the east and feldman slams into him from the west. but anybody that manages to escape that attack would be scooped up by the cavalry which by then would be moving northward on the pike toward gordon's rear. that is not the situation. but that is the plan that crook is attempting to enact. would rutherford b. hayes starts going into position, he has never met mulligan before on mulligan's left flank. he sees an officer writing toward him in a green shirt with no coat but he knew of

mulligan's reputation and he said that has to become a mulligan. he calls out and mulligan shouts back you must be colonel hayes. they start conferring and both bothave got reports that of their respective flanks, hayes has information to the east john breckenridge's command under the command of gabriel warden is going to be moving forward. mulligan's troops have reported seeing another division moving to the west on sandy ridge. it's about this time that a staff officer -- the staff officer had one job. hayes looks at mulligan and says at this stage in the game, either way we are going up. that is exactly what is going to

happen. morgan's men are going to come and hit the left flank of rutherford b. hayes. it's going to be 3000 confederates firing into the underof the brigade rutherford b. hayes. as fate would have it, the regiment on the left flank was the 36th ohio. and 1862 when crook was still a kernel, that was his original command. he drilled it into a finely honed combat unit. regularrilled with a army training that he had learned as a regular army officer. these men were veterans of south mountain antietam chickamauga and chattanooga. they reported that the hottest spot they ever stood on the battlefield was a kearns town

when 3000 virginians stood atop that ridge and every single one of them was taking aim at the flank and the battle flag of the 36th ohio. over 130 men would be killed and wounded out of that regiment. nearly a 50% loss ratio. as you can imagine, his men are going to quickly retreat in confusion. and a fallback. the entire line is going to come undone. fortunately, as soon as that rings off, the proverbial light goes off in george crook's head and we get back to the reliable capable officer that we know george crook could be. stripaway, he's going to the division from the line and send the southern outskirts of winchester where if you look up there you will see the ball in position and they are going to form a rear guard to protect the retreat.

the other think that is a testament to rutherford b. hayes , they are going to fall back and up to get out of the fire and they are going to quickly reform and join in the rearguard action. a lot of the cavalry will initially take a role that will allow hundreds of troops to escape. the division is going to start closing in and cut off mulligan's men. another is going to launch several cavalry charges into the right flank and rear into gordon's division. that is going to allow them to retreat. for all practical purposes, the battle is over. the only troops left fighting are a small bunch under mulligan. he tells them stand firm brave

virginians. as he is doing so, he waves his hat in the air and he is shot. the first one hits him in the leg. the next one hits him square in the torso. he knows he is mortally wounded. the color sergeant takes the colors and hands them to a young lieutenant and rushes over to mulligan and helps them down from the minimum. -- down from the force. as he is doing this, a bullet strikes him in the head killing him instantly. the flag of falls on the ground. it seems to be forgotten for a few moments. not by colonel mulligan greeted mulligan calls out to his men, lay me down and say the flag. they refuse, they argue, they do not want to leave their

commander. confederates are closing and all around them. finally, mulligan issues his last command, they laid him up against the tree and rush back to save the flight from captured then head out and retreat over the hill toward winchester. in the battle of second kearns town is over. this battle is called by the confederates the most easily one victory of the war. the casualty disparity play that out. loses no more than 200 men killed and wounded. men killedlose 1200 wounded and captured. why do you have that large of a casualty disparity? because jubal early had a willing accomplice. he was so honed in on attacking gordon's division and was paying no regard to the information coming in from his subordinates.

largely because i don't think, i know he did not -- he held averell in low esteem and the others in lowest team and it sounds like he didn't care too much for mulligan. because he didn't like these guys, he didn't trust the information that they were giving him. it turns out that had he listened to them, he would have been able to avoid this embarrassing defeat. as mark mentioned earlier, the summer of 1864 is important for president lincoln because it is an election year. if you think that just the defeat at kearns town was bad enough, the ensuing replay of the next invasion is going to make things even worse. george crook is going to get his army back together. back to the gap, across the potomac river and it will fall back into the gap of the south mountain pass.

trying to do? they are trying to prevent early from coming through the mountains and rating washington or baltimore as he had done a few weeks earlier. and the 19thore core are going to head out. jubal early has fulfilled his mission of making sure that horatio wright doesn't go to petersburg. he is doing exactly what general robert e. lee wants them to do. david hunter as mark had mentioned earlier, the week before the battle of kearns town he is going to burn the homes of several prominent succession list. result, jubal early is sped up. he has seen the path of destruction hunter has left in the shenandoah valley during his march to lynchburg in june and he is going to send a general with the confederate cavalry with two brigades, 3000 men

north to chambersburg. chambersburgive at on july 30, 1864. he has orders to exact retribution but he will give the people of chambersburg an opportunity to pay for the damage hunter had done first. $100,000 in gold or $500,000 in greenbacks will save chambersburg from being burned to the ground. chambersburg has felt the hand of war a couple times earlier during the other campaigns and they had to drill down. any time it was reported that the confederates were approaching, all of the reserves in the banks in chambersburg were put on the train and headed north to harrisburg for good keeping. mccausland arrives, the people of chambersburg don't know what to do so they don't

respond. they know they don't have the money. mccausland realizes something is up and he burns the town to the ground. hundreds of homes and businesses are going to be destroyed. families are destitute. watchinglk about entire cows being consumed by the flames. it was a hideous scene. at thehers were away army and no one was there to take care of the mothers and children afterwards. this is what abraham lincoln is trying to get reelected on. if things work that enough on july 30, 1864, that's the same date of the catastrophe of the mine in petersburg but cost the lives of thousands killed wounded and captured. things are heading south for abraham lincoln and this action is going to bring on the memo that mark had mentioned earlier, the blind memorandum about

having to win the war between the election and the swearing-in of the new president in the spring of 1864. to come back here and do a little bit of reassessment. after chambersburg, ulysses s. grant, let me back up. at the same time the battle of kearns town is raging on july 24, ulysses s. grant sends a communique of to the war we need toand says get back on reorganizing the valley in defense of washington we kind of let that lie and now is a good time to get reorganized. little did he know, he was actually a little late. in the aftermath of that, he is going to end up sending more divisions of cavalry, 6000 more union troops plus their commander, major general shared

in -- sheridan to take care of all of the forces in the valley. he will have the troops to go after jubal early and his men. what that means is, when jubal early left cold harbor in the middle of june with 10,000 men from the second army corps, he is now -- he has now forced ulysses s. grant to detachment from the army of potomac for everyone that robert e. lee sent away from petersburg to save lynchburg from capture. and phil shared end up in the shenandoah valley. the is the mission and assignment the jubal early had been out here for and he succeeded at it wildly. troops, theral rank-and-file of the federal troops, they knew that their campaign had been a failure. one soldier of the 12 west

virginia spoke of the battle at kearns town on sunday which is sometimes called the battle of winchester. can portray the scenes that occurred on that day at winchester. nor had i the time or inclination what i want to make them public. a soldier of the sixth army this road home and said, campaign has been a disgraceful failure. another soldier wrote of the retreat and said bull run was nothing in comparison hurry at it would remain at this point jubal anderson early was the king of the valley. he would see how lucky to keep up his command of maneuver and quick lightning marches and avoid being trapped by larger forces once still shared and took command. thank you. [applause]

>> if there are any questions, raise your hand and we will have the people from c-span bring the microphone over. >> i think we are good. >> thank you. [applause] more about the people and events that shaped the civil war and reconstruction every saturday at 6:00 p.m. eastern only on american history tv here on c-span3. >> monday night on the communicators, congressman mike doyle. surer concern is to make that we close the digital divide that exists in our country and

we have an opportunity to do that now. i think that is important we do that. there are kids literally 40% 50% of their homework requires internet access and they can't get it where they live. they go to mcdonald's or to a library to find a hotspot to do their homework. these young people are being greatly disadvantaged in our country when they don't have access to broadband. that's what i think we're going to be focusing on is how do we do that? how do we close the homework gap? how do we close the digital divide? how do we get deployment out to these underserved arias? >> watch the communicators on c-span2. >> military assistance command vietnam were often a small group of u.s. army teams assigned to remote areas supported by south vietnamese forces. two teams recently held a 50th

anniversary reunion in charleston, south carolina. next on american history tv, to team leaders who were in their early 20's and 1969, used photographs from the time to discuss their day-to-day experiences and responsibilities as military advisers in world vietnam. -- rural vietnam. >> hello. i was a soldier wants and young. >> i was the director of two teams in [indiscernible] province. all i could do is make it ring.