Renowned Civil War historian and Virginia Tech Professor Dr. James I. "Bud" Robertson, Jr. addressed members of the Covington-Hot Springs Rotary Club and the Alleghany Highlands Chapter of the Virginia Tech Alumni Association during the groups' third annual Blue and Gray Banquet.

The banquet held at Dabney S. Lancaster Community College, featured Robertson as the speaker. He has spoken at all three banquets.

Robertson is an Alumni Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech and serves as the Executive Director of the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies.

A native of Danville, Robertson received his undergraduate degree from Randolph-Macon College and his Ph.D. from Emory University and is the author of several award-winning books about the Civil War. He has been the recipient of every major award given in the field of Civil War history.

He recently produced a three-hour documentary, "Virginia in the Civil War," for students and teachers throughout Virginia.

He teaches the largest Civil War Era class in the country, averaging 300 students per semester. He was also the chief historical consultant for the Warner Brothers movie "Gods and Generals."

"The Civil War is the only field that is saturated by the written word," Robertson said, noting that over 80,000 books about the Civil War have been penned. Despite the mountains of books, Robertson said four essentials of the war have been ignored - the emotions of the war, the weather, the health of the soldiers and the horses during wartime. He said the Civil War was a three-sided fight, the North, the South and Mother Nature.

Contrary to what people see in the movies, soldiers were not necessarily the primary target in battle.The horses pulling the cannons were shot first in order to stop movement of the artilleries. "No one ever said war was nice," Robertson commented. Over 1.5 million horses and mules dies during the Civil War.

Robertson noted that Robert E. Lee only lost his temper four times during the war - two of those times were when he observed someone being cruel to horses.

Source: Virginian Review, February 27, 2010.