This week, a lecture about Civil War Life on the home front and battles fought in Virginia

in the critical year of 1864.

Every time the Army of the Potomac advances in Virginia, they fight a battle, and they go back,

and they retreat. This time, they fought a battle against the Army of Northern

Virginia and they're advancing. It was a hard battle. Casualties were high. It was a very, very

unpleasant experience, but we won this battle. We're advancing. Coming up, more with Texas Christian

University professor, Stephen Woodworth. Well, today we're going to begin talking about your 1864, and we're going to start with

the action in Virginia in 1864, focusing especially now today on the action in May, in June,

and the famous duel between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, the big showdown

between, in each case, the best general that each side had. I think this campaign has been

more misunderstood and misinterpreted than maybe any other campaign in the Civil War.

I think the reason is because of expectations.

You know, today in politics you would see, say there's a presidential campaign, the primary

campaign is going on, and several candidates are seeking the nomination of one of the parties.

And they're coming up on one of the nominating, the primaries, the state primary.

And you'll typically, you'll hear some politicians say, oh, if I finish in the top three,

that will be a win. If I finish in the top three, I'll be very happy or something like that. And of course,

he's trying to manage expectations because if he does that successfully and if people and the press

and so forth buy it, yeah, top three finishes a win for him. And he finishes number two, you know,

oh, wow, that's great. You know, he exceeded expectations. But on the other

hand, if he doesn't bother to manage expectations, or if he's not successful at it, it doesn't get

people to buy it, then, you know, he finishes second. Oh, wow, what a loser. What a defeat for him.

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