© 2024 Texas Public Radio
Real. Reliable. Texas Public Radio.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
00000174-b11b-ddc3-a1fc-bfdbb1a20000The Schreiner University Department of History is honoring the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War with a series of short vignettes focusing on events from 1861 through 1865. The Civil War was the most destructive conflict in American history, but it was also one of our most defining moments as a people and as a nation. Let us know what you think about "This Week in the Civil War." E-mail your comments to Dr. John Huddleston at jhuddles@schreiner.edu.Airs: Weekdays at 5:19 a.m., 8:19 a.m., 4:19 p.m. on KTXI and 4:49 a.m., 9:29 p.m. on KSTX.

This Week in the Civil War - #910

  In early September 1864 with Philip Sheridan planning an offensive designed to economically punish the Shenandoah Valley, Robert E. Lee had no alternative but to request Jubal Early return troops loaned to him, since they were needed for the defense of Petersburg, Virginia.  Lee also wrote President Jefferson Davis, urging both that Negroes should be substituted for whites “in every place in the army or connected with it when the former can be used” and that exemptions be tightened for all Confederate forces, since our “ranks are constantly diminished by battle and disease….”  Lee counseled that “the consequences are inevitable….”  Davis, who had decided in 1862 to not include blacks in the Confederate military and had ordered his generals not to further discuss this issue, declined to respond to Lee’s request.