VFW Building – Ketchum Hall
200 Maryland Avenue NE
Washington, D.C. 20002
Please join us for an in-person and live-streamed book talk with author Dr. Robert Watson hosted at the U.S. Capitol Historical Society!
Dr. Watson’s newest book, Rebels at the Gates, recounts the Confederacy’s last-ditch desperate effort to sack Washington in order to salvage the Civil War and Southern independence. When Grant had Lee boxed in with his massive siege at Petersburg (next to Richmond), Lee cooked up a plan to send a cantankerous general named Jubal Early in command of Stonewall Jackson’s old army on a secret mission to take the Union capital and capture or kill Lincoln. The Rebels came within hours of successfully seizing Washington. Grant had taken all available men off the walls of the forts around Washington, believing the city to be safe, and redeployed them to his siege outside of Richmond. As such, the Rebels found the capital largely undefended.
However, they were suffering from the pace of the march to the capital and from a few days of boozing after they looted stores in the area. General Early decided to let his men rest and sleep off the hangovers. He planned to hit Washington the next day. However, alerted to the threat, Grant rushed the VI Corps and XIX Corps on the fastest steamers down the James River, through the Chesapeake, and up the Potomac. As the Rebels arrived at Fort Stevens on the NW corner of Washington the next day, so did Grant’s reinforcements, who stopped the rebels.
Like all USCHS programs, this in-person and live-streamed webinar is free and open to the public; registration is required.
Speaker Bio:
Dr. Robert Watson is an award-winning author, professor and Avron Fogelman Research Professor at Lynn University and historian and analyst for numerous media outlets. He has published over 40 books on history and politics, five works of fiction and hundreds of scholarly journal articles, book chapters and reference essays. Several of his books have won national and international book awards and been featured at major literary festivals and on C-SPAN.
Watson has been interviewed multiple times by news outlets in the U.S. and abroad, appeared in many televised history documentaries and served as a visiting scholar with leading historical sites including the Smithsonian, the Pentagon, West Point, the National Archives Museum, the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library, the U.S. Capitol Historical Society, The White House Historical Association, the Gettysburg National Military Park, The National Civil War Museum, Mount Vernon and the Museum of the American Revolution to name a few.
He has been named “professor of the year” many times at two universities and is the recipient of multiple awards for his media commentary, efforts to combat incivility and anti-Semitism, and programs for youth.
A master storyteller, Watson entertains, informs and inspires us with the lessons of the past that have made us who we are today.
