vote. that political activism started very early on. >> learn more about african-american history in our tour of the african-american seum of history and culture, sunday. you're watching american history tv, only on c-span 3. >> gary adelman of the american batfield trust tackles the whole civil war in 56 minutes. he begins with the lead-up to the war to bloody kansas to abraham lincoln's election. and then highlights the major bats from each year of the conflict and concludes with incoln's asass nation in 1865. >> our next speaker is gary adelman. he's a graduate of michigan state university as well as

shipenburg's university of pennsylvania. he's an award-winning author, co-author or editor of 27 civil war books and more than 40 related articles. he is the vice president of the center for civil war photographer. he's been a licensed battlefield guide for 25 years. he's appeared on numerous productions shown on the bbc, c-span, the pennsylvania public time as d works full chief historian or the american battlefield trusts. without any further introduction, i now present to you my friend, gary gear. [applause] leave your book here? gary: yeah, sure, i might need it. hello, everybody. this isn't easy during the whole

civil war in such a sort period of time. we'll see if it takes 56 minutes or whatever. i'm already wasting time for good luck for those of you who like to take notes. the seeds of the civil war are started in the constitution and there amp. then you have north and south starting to look at each other differently. southerners look to the north and although they speak the same language, worship the same god, everything like that but you see increasingly southerners looking north and being greedy. and the northerners are looking south and seeing people who are cruel and lazy slave holders and what north. really this is a war of perception as much as anything else. they did not trust each other and started looking at each other in different ways. even for northerners who looked souchts and thought south saves

-- slaves, it's not that way. nor sit south bad, north good. most of the people in the united states are rate racist by our definition of it. it's important to note and even among the south here you can see where slave holding portions are in the south. the darker tessitore tends to be where the highest concentration is you can see how somebody in southern missouri is going to feel a little bit differently than somebody in south carolina. there are a series of come prize -- compromises, starting with the missouri comp minneapolis miles in 181. matt turner's rebellion in virginia. the bat well new mexico and you start the the start people saying such a war of conquest, it must be seen as a war against freedom, humility, against the union. in the southern perspective people are saying hey, let's let

the states decide on what the future of slave holding will be in these particular territories this stuff bubbled up if or good 30 years until the compromise of 1850 where you're going to have the senate gain control. the fugitive slave law all of a sudden made northerners compliment -- complicit in slavery. you have uncle tom's cabin, the best-selling author of the time. when abraham lincoln met the author she said so you're the little lady to -- who started this great war? people coming from new england carrying what was called beacher's bibles. they were actually guns and a little civil war breaks out in what was known as leading,

kansas. almost every day in congress you have some sort of a pundit way -- say we're more divided than we've ever been. are you sure? i haven't quite seen the country break apart yet. people might feel like it sometimes. you have, of course, john brown's famous remained in october of 1859. he's going to lead a slave insurrection that fails similarly. u.s. colonel robert. lee bust down the doors of some of his marines. they wound some of john -- kill some of john brown's polices. they wound him and he goes to the gallows as a murderer. i, john brown am quite certainly that the guilty crimes of this country can never be purged away except by blood. all these things bricking us closer and closer to conflict. the dred scott decision saying

that a black man has no nights a white man is bound to respect. the republicans take the election and abraham lincoln is seen to being hostile to slavery and you're going to have to southern states sort to se sealed in december 1860. it's going to be a secession winter where more southern states are going to se sealed and that is how 1861 is beginning. it's not looking good for the future to have united states. this democratic experiment is coming to a head. can this work, can people self-govern? when jefferson davis is being inaugurated, he's a little skeptical about being able to avoid war. if we cannot avoid war, we at least may expect having engaged in it. .c. is surrounded by slave

states. many people theying abraham lincoln will never be inaugurated. winfield scott tut putting up cannons in and around the capitol. he said should that person be a legislator from his native state, virginia, he said he will manure the dwrounleds with his remains. he said limb will be inaugurated without trouble and that's what he givers one of thinks three most famous speeches of keeping the countrying to. you can have no war -- war about -- without being the aggressor but he's hopeful about it. once again it will swell the course of union when touched by the better angels of our nature. famous words indeed. it didn't last because you know the south is beginning to get

ready for the war. they seem to be more ready than the north and they're starting to gapter in pensacola, florida, in georgia and south carolina and they were ready when things came to a head in south carolina, in sumter harbor. the war is on. lincoln calls for 75,000 volunteers and seven more southern state secede. really important ones. virginia, north carolina and tennessee at that point. they cannot abide by having invading armies coming through their territory. this is how the stage looks at this time and lincoln spends all his early efforts trying to keep the border states, did everything to keep those states in the union. imagine if msmed and quinn had left the union. lincoln said to lose kentucky is the same as losing the whole

gang. he succeeded at this time fretting about whether or not southern troops would reach maryland. they did. but there was nothing to do for a while. the troops are in every corn of washington, d.c. they're spread out to baltimore, in parts of virginia and they're sewing and writing letters home, doing acrobatics and whatnot. battle1861, the greatest up to that time. you can go back to these places now because they're preserved as bat feeleds. which is pretty cool and out in the west things are favoring things. they wanted bull run or they call it that -- manassas and then the con fete raid -- confederate success out west. wilson creek.

the union is losing east and west at this point but they're going to come back a little bit. the confederates will win at ball's bluff you see there, near leesburg, virginia. and you the northern troops are planning on encircling the confed racy. winfield scott's great anaconda plan is being put into effect and it's going to become harder and harder for confederates to receive supplies. and now we're on to 1862 where a lot more is going to happen. when -- where? the union moves fwast in the west. everything favors the union. not only do the confederates have enough soldiers but the rivers act as major arteries. the union wins at kentucky, pee ridge, arkansas and captures donaldson and fort henry, which

results in the first confederate capital at nashville, tennessee. and although the union has captured 100,000 square miles of territory, people aren't really noticing. hold that thought for a second. in the east something that gets a lot of news is the great battle of the iron claleds. the c.s.s. virginia fighting the u.s.s. monitor, this new ironclad ship that hung low to the water line. it immediately made all other viffles all by obsleept and changed naval shims. because the union captured nashville they could start to move toward memphis, tennessee. they can go toward corinth, mississippi. a great rail line. they captured nashville here and

they can start to move all the y down toward corinth, mississippi. sherman will push the union all the way almost to the tennessee river. lashes back at the confederates and all of a sudden you have by five times the bloodiest battle to this point. 23,800 cardinalties or so. a bloody day but the union ended up winning. in the meantime the union has had its hopes on holding the pacific ocean, denying the confederates a port on the pacific ocean. the confederates want the reverse. at the gore yeta pass, and other actions the confederates are broing to be denied a pacific fort, even in a confederate-leaning southern california. further in the east, you have stonewall jackson, who received

that name at the battle of ma that is sis -- -- ma that ises is in 1861 is now doing his battle where all these stars are. if you drive from winchester up to mcdowell that takes three hours now by car on is interstate. imagine with his foot cavalry. a masterful campaign. operating with a small army in the midst of three other armies. stonewall jackson can operate independently and he does and keeps all those union armies this. -- there. . george mcklemmen amasses the largest unit. he brings them down to this place, fort monroe, the oldest fort in the union,ible. you can go stand right there and they're going to have a mighty union force assembling at this

place. in the meantime, this whole force assembles, the confederates try to block that from subterfuge, from theatrics. from a guy named mcgruder. eventually the confederates give up yo,town. shes on to the confederate capital. here is seven times or fair oaks battle in is fought among twin houses along the williamsburg road that. slows down the union for a while but the most consequential thing in 1862, is that the confederate commander joe johnston will be put out of action resulting in jefferson davis putting in his third most ranking gentle, rocket e. lee. everybody thought held be cautious. he would become the most important confederate thing of

anymore sort. soon after being put in, after riding around and gaining intelligence, he lashes out. loses at beaver creek. oses and then has some successes. mcclellan is eight miles on the other side of richmond and here is lee. 20 miles away from richmond. the yankees are countering under their gun goats -- cowering under their gun boats and robert e. lee has pushed them back. he feels richmond is safe and that he can leave. heir going to fight a terrible battle in august of 1861 called cedar mountain. the confederates almost lose. but ultimately the confederates hold on. photographers show up and show fresh graze and also dead horses at cedar mountain. they're capturing all sorts of

incredible things at this point. right from cedar mountain, the confederate continued on with a skeletal force and continued on at the second bull run where they did the same thing before. 18,000 casual -- casualties. the union will retreat and barely make it back to washington, d.c. mcclellan reinstalls the army and fight back. harper's ferry is particularly touch for the yoirnl. george mcclellan has found special orders 191 that shows that lee's army was dangerously divided at this point. ok. that was all one sentence. i thought i'd take a little break there. the confederates will hang out at south mountain but they meet at the terrible battle of antietam or sharpsburg. with 10,000 casualties, they push the confederates to the

brink in the west woods behind the dunker church. the union is going to capture the sunken road or the bloody lane at antietam. the union captures the burnside bridge. all the confederates are pushed to the limit. their last reinforcement under a.p. hill shows up and pushes the union soldiers back and rocket e. lee can claim a small tact cal victory. but the big victor is abraham lincoln who see is this as snuff of a victory to broadcast the emans pace declaration. who's going to fight against a nation trying to free the slaves? it will work pretty well as a result. in the meantime, the union has been in control of corn for quite a while. -- corinth. for quite some time. they confederates fame to take it back.

the confederates get the union capital at frankfurt, install their own governor but even that governor's speech is interrupted by cannon fire. they'll come to blows at a terrible battle at perry vail, beautiful field if you ever go there. braxton bragg's specialty is winning at the beginning and leaving after he won but that will eventually rob the confederates of kentucky for the rest of the war and bragg will fall further back into tennessee with nothing to show for it. a lot of these battles are really spread out. you see how there's a big clump over here? that clump in the right part of your jenal is called the east. this is what we call it now and what people called it back then. that's the east and everything else suspect west. if you go southeast from the east you're in the west. try to figure that out.

now? coastal south carolina is in the west. this is the way medium saw it. the media and people still today sort of tee it -- see it this way. it's really unfair. people during the civil war, abraham lincoln was like yes, we -- ured in 1862100 area square miles of territory and all of a sudden robert' lee wins one victory, it's as if that never happens. still people who work at historic parks in the western theater can't figure this out. why is gettysburg considered more important than vicksburg? this is important nomen clachekwlur to understanding the civil war. in the fall of 1862 when the union has a great opportunity to get around the confederate lines, but they're missing upon on the bridges to get them across. this is a terrible blood letting

with 18,000 casualties and something like 3/4 are quarterback casualties. lincoln said my god, what will the country say? freon tween fredericksburg and chickasaw bayou, it is only the fight stillingling -- spilling into the new year at a prails in middle tennessee called stone's river. where bragg bull pulled back. that's what he did. the yankees could claim one victory at the beginning of 1863. now, as 163 dawned, it's the day of jubilee. the emancipation progress medication goes into effect. -- proclamation goes into effect. suddenly union soldiers can have black troops. this is an incredible photo of union photographers taking a

picture of confederates in the field. it's practically unique. confederates pose fargo union camera in a hostile action but they're not actually shooting at each other at this point. eventually outside of fredericksburg you're going to have another union commander this is the fifth one. joe hooker came with you a great plan where he managed to get his army all of a sudden -- all the way around robert e. lee into his rear. his army is about twice as large. drawing lee into battle where hooker said he would fly or attack. this is a battle called cans loreville. you know it doesn't go that way. lee was an extraordinarily dangerous opponent. and hooker would find that out. lee ends with an incredible charge, a flanking maneuver around the union arm and -- army and even know the union captures the famous sunken road at

fredericksburg that doesn't matter. lee wins a great battle but loses his most trusted lieutenant stonewall jackson. men, wounded by he is own but mortally wounded. after chancellorville, robert e. lee is feeling good. these are the same guys that fought on the pens larks walked up to virginia, walked to cedar mountain, to second manassas, to antietam and now they're walking up here. there's going to be a terrible battle where lee is going to calculate that if he can win a major battle on northern soil. lee doesn't have to win but destroy the union will to fight. you'll have lee wanting to take the war away from virginia for a while. as lee moves north there's a battle at brandy station,

largest cavalry battle of the war. another battle at win chester and they come to grips outside of town here right here where we are. we're probably right around here. on the first day, the union retreats back through town to cemetery him and the hill next to it. although day where they hope to defend the wheat field, the round tops that you see here. the union is going to bloody itself and the confederates on the rose farm. on the second day of gettysburg, symmetary east field. and on and on. there's still one terrible day to go where the confederates are advancing across this famous field now known as the field of pickett's charge. the union will capture more than

they'd chaptured up to that point. lee won a strong battle here but lee is not easy to bag with 50,000 soldiers and there's a whole bunch of dead people left behind. 10,000 dead, another 41,000 captured and missing. by far america's bloodyest war onflict battle on our soil and 37 photos captured on the battlefield around boulders here that you can still see to this day. i'll show you one more view so you can see the individual cracks in the rocks. this is a work of a photographer who located all these places, mostly in the 1960's and 1970's. gettysburg is not heaching in a -- happening in a vacuum. u.s. grant has try roed to get

vicksburg. in 1863 he runs the gun boats at vicksburg, marches his army down with nose bolts, crosses the mississippi river and he is going to fight a series of battles, not going straight to vicksburg but rather relieving a threat on his rear, jackson, mississippi and then moves to fight at champion hill and big black before trying to capture vicksburg by storm and settling into a siege. after 47 days that will fall to the union. the largest confederate mass surrender until the actual end of the civil war. it's an astounding victory for the union cupped with another victory in louisiana. and now the anaconda plan started at the finning of the war is finally taking shame. the confederates not only are having trouble getting things into their ports, but they don't control the mississippi river. literally the confederates have no way to cross the mississippi

river with their men. with their slaves, with their beef, with their salt. where are the confederates supposed to get this stuff? somewhere else in the blockade. they choose florida. not as well as equipped. for the -- i at love gettysburg. but i don't know how people can call it nearly as important as vicksburg. in the mien meantime, the war is happening in a thousand other places. brownsville, texas. union bay in san francisco at alcatraz. they're all over the place in 45 minutes, you can't cover them all. in the meantime, technology is taking massive leaps. all sorts of naval advancements. ew balloons happening on the washington, d.c. mall, we call it today. audience the union army becomes

the most powerful in the world. the ship on the right is covered in smoke from having just fired. i believe that's the u.s.s. inalside firing in september of 1863 and by that time some black units has been railingsed. called the united states color troops or the famous 54th massachusetts here storming fort wagner and in these early actions suddenly americans can see that black troops can do the same things that white troops in forget that they did the same during the american revolution. troops 00 african joined the union army. in the same time, summer of 1863, you have the bloodiest battle and the west and the second most costly battle of the civil war at the battle of kick mauga, where two days, bragg's

union just holding on until longstreet's men pour into a gap in the union army. that gap had just been created by accident at that point. the union will end up calling -- falling back with a third of their army. only a staunch defense by george thomas will complete complete disaster to the union army at that point. the union falls back to chattanooga, tennessee. the confederates pursue but just the siege sort of the army at cat nothinga. in the meantime you have abraham lincoln deliver his gettysburg address playing -- laying out a new vision for the war, for the country. stick with me, we're going to see this through. it has to be considered his one best or second best speech and one of the best in all of american history. and then there's this happening at this time as well. i'll let you draw your own

conclusions. how'd that get in there? that's my biggest laugh of the day? in the meantime, you have -- things aren't going well for the union in chattanooga. the men are starving and the beef that is arriving is so sickened and starved from making the 60-mile juran johnny over really rough roads, it's known as beef on the hoof. men are reduced to eating corn that was found along the roadway. horses and cows had been marching on it. terrible situation. the union comes up with a plan that grant took credit for, called the cracker line and grant immediately lashes out at the confederates right as braxton bragg is sending out his most capable commander in long-street. the union the union will capture lookout mountain.

not easy to capture. captureerman fails to missionary ridge, they move up and capture it from the front. chattanooga will fall and set the stage for 1864. the year is not over. bragg fails to take knoxville, tennessee. two campaigns in the east you hardly hear about. people think they did not do anything for 10 months. that is not the case. you have the bristol campaign of runber 1863,t he mine campaign of 1863. they were not of much consequence. i am trying to cover it all, and you can't. you have nathan bedford's forest, others, some given all the way into ohio, some

disrupting union lines. how thisa story about guy donald out of prison. -- tunneled out of prison. 1861 was the bloodiest year in american history. here we come into 1964 that will make the others look like a warm-up. the union is well supplied. supplies the food and they need. the confederates are having a tough time. the confederacy is shrinking. it is tough for them to harvest. it is incredible how well they are able to write. this -- to fight. this photo one of many taken in 1864. grant comes up with a five prompt plan -- pronged plan.

unfortunately his first three will completely fail. if you have heard of the red river campaign, you know that is not going to go well. go through the shenandoah valley and expect that to work out. you don't send benjamin butler to attack richmond and petersburg. all of those fail. off,hrusts will get william tecumseh's group will move on atlanta, and the union's largest army under meed, they will travel to the capital. robert e lee's army of northern virginia is their main target. those were the two moves of consequence that start in early may 1864. you have troops marching at the overland campaign. that will result in the battle ketthe wilderness, a thic

that will reduce the viability of grant's numbers. you cannot deploy your troops in these wilderness. wounded men can't get away from fires. you have heard the story. the union doesn't do what they normally did. grant does not go back toward washington. ngther, his troops are cheeri him. they are marching south, even after eight bloodletting like that. the fight will move on to a worse spot call spotsylvania. photothan that, here is a -- this is where it was most intense. i'm not kidding, you have confederates and union on this side of a trench for 18 hours. it is a terrible struggle. if you have ever been tickled or in a fight for 30 seconds, you

know how painful that can be. read the accounts of spotsylvania. it is a terrible bloodletting. confederates are able to hold on after 30,000 casualties. all of these wounded at the wilderness are going to gather at fredericksburg in hospitals. here you have one said hospital. you can zoom in on these soldiers. of a companyieve of michigan sharpshooters. these are native americans fighting for the union. this is not just happening for the union. you have native americans famously fighting for the confederacy, fighting on both sides throughout the war. you have various tribes aligning with which side they think will do them the most good in the end.

it is a fascinating story to read about missouri and kansas throughout union and confederate troops trying to align with native american tribes. in the meantime, there are great enhancements being made in medicine. you often hear about the home front with women as nurses, but they are also working at factories, farms, all sorts of things. nursing was one of the most visible things they did. they did it both north and south. myths of theggest civil war was every amputation was made like gone with the wind, screaming with no anesthesia, when we know that over 90% of all amputations were done with anesthesia. it is tempting to think that if were back then, we would know how to fight better, because we are seemingly smarter. we can't help it.

they were like that for the people before them. back in timely go and warn them, you have to wash that saw. why? glad you asked, there are these little things, if the bad ones place, theyrong will make you sick -- they will lock you up. imagine going back in time and telling someone this. they were incredibly proficient at preserving life. on a four-page piece of paper, jonathan letterman layed out what is our 911 and trauma system that still what it is today. thank jonathan letterman for thinking about a few things. where do the ambulances go? how many go within an ambulance? who stocks those things? who is in charge of the hospitals? who is doing the surgeries?

everything in triage and trauma was figured out during the civil war. foreign countries who observed it took it over and we got it back from them. death and disease will still be the number one killer in the civil war. we can look at the pictures of the dead outside hospitals and learn where they were at least temporarily interned before they cemeteries.o if you are lucky, you were able alm your lovedemb one. the fight moves wherever the union moves forward. this at port royal virginia is the seed of a famous action -- byne of a famous action wilkes booth later on. here grant is in the middle of the overland campaign with

armybody all around as the passes by the church. incredible moment. lee's trap.into and the trap is not sprung. thank you for those who preserved this land, most of which has been conveyed to the richmond national battlefield. you can go on one of the days it is open and stand with your friends on the exact same road. really cool in understanding 90 minutesin 53 or is nothing like going to the actual spot. othert cold harbor is in two-week slugfest. it goes on for weeks where the confederates erected elaborate

entrenchments, sort of a foreshadowing of world war i. that is great's overland -- grant's overland campaign. is two of those weeks. check out the minesweeper. while sweeping the james river, will construct a bridge over the james river. an incredible engineering feat where the union will fall upon petersburg, virginia and lack of union will and confederate boldness pays off. the confederates holds petersburg and they will enter into a lengthy siege. here a photo of the famous brought to relieve the union of having to storm batteries at petersburg. grant figured, i don't know why i would do a prisoner exchange

anymore. if i have more soldiers than my mymy, why would i give back soldiers? prisoner exchange is stopped. prisons swell. grow.ison population it is a terrible situation north and south. of starvation in the north, die of exposure in the south, you choose. on toward new hope and kenesaw mountain -- incredibly the confederates are still holding. sherman's armies are so much bigger that no matter where johnson holds,, sherman is able to pull around to his rear. the union is trying to capture mobile bay.

alline having to defend on different fronts. full speed ahead, for you have massive union gunships hoping torpedoes will not get them. one takes down a ship calls the tecumseh. the others fail. they circle the ironclad tennessee. its boiler is hit, and fort morgan will surrender. have one fewers port. under a new can answer, johnson commander, -- a new johnson is replaced by sean copeland. john bell hood almost destroys the union army and mcpherson gains another foothold on circling atlanta. atlanta willful 1864. lincoln and everybody else knows

lincoln will not be reelected. atlanta and richmond had not fallen. here is one key. 864.nta has fallen in 1 robert e lee will detach a significant portion of his army early. they will go down the shenandoah valley and the battle that saved washington, a beautiful national park to go to, where the confederates will continue on, but get pushed back and the battle of fort stevens. and the district of columbia. . it was a one-day thing -- fort stevens at the district of columbia. it was a one-day thing. i don't know what the confederates soldiers would have done with washington at the time, but that is a moot issue because grant falls back to the shenandoah valley. commander who, a

will go after the army in a terrible campaign, the shenandoah campaign. the third battle of winchester alone will result in more casualties than jackson's entire valley campaign by triple. the union will follow up with another victory at fishersville. union hascreek, the complete control of the shenandoah valley, much of which military equipment and food they burned during this time. the union also captured fort harrison, which they renamed fort burnham, close to richmond. now plaintiff has fallen. -- now atlanta has fallen. the union soldiers are feeling good. abraham lincoln wins in a landslide. his opponent loses in a

landslide as well. a terrible siege at petersburg is happening at this time. in the meantime, john bell hood will try to strike at the union interior. he will strike at tennessee, then move east and meet with robert e. lee. he got slowed and lost an opportunity at springhill. they will fight the battle of franklin. the union gets pushed back and that results in the battle of nashville. hood is outnumbered three to one , basically destroying his army in 1864. by that time, william tecumseh sherman is marching toward the sea. they ended up at fort mcallister at savannah, georgia. this is the last fortress they

needed to get through to get to the sea. they are walking through confederate landmines known to be in their path. great site. there are a lot of great historic sites in the country. the march to the sea is complete. photographers take photos. clouds in the civil war, the spectacularly at the time did not capture clouds, so they were often burned in separately onto these plates. 1864, sorry to spoil the on.-- 1865 will come there is still a siege of petersburg. in the meantime, sherman isn't done. he will march to the sea and threatened to join u.s. grant's forces. he will go toward columbia.

charleston will have to evacuate nonetheless. columbia will burn. people argue whether it was yankees or confederates, i tend to think it was both. the confederates will be brought together with a scratch force. at the union, but eventually the numbers will tell. bentonville march 1865, johnson concluded, telling jefferson davis, i could do nothing but annoy sherman, i could not possibly stop him. robert e. lee wants to break out of petersburg out to the open field. he fights a terrible battle with 24,000 soldiers, his last great attack. grant repulses the attack. the union strikes back at wideout -- at white oak road.

they will break through confederate lines april 2 1865. lee will be forced to give up petersburg and flee to the west. excuse me. we are at 1865 already. west.ll flee to the he is trying to join joseph johnson. lee suffers a terrible defeat at the battle of sailor's creek where he loses one third of his army. has the army of northern virginia been dissolved? lee is forced to surrender at appomattox courthouse in virginia. that is not the only surrender. joe johnson will surrender too. a fascinating story if you read about the negotiations and what goes on at than it please. -- bennett place.

the civil war is effectively over at this point. what is left? a terribly burned richmond. this burnt district was fascinating to photographers. april 4, 1865, the union re-raises the flag over fort sumter. this is a consequential month in april. on that same day, you have union and confederate soldiers seemingly almost fraternizing in capital square, richmond. i don't think they are getting along super well, but i think they are ready to go home. that same day abraham lincoln goes to the theater. i think you know the story. he is sitting inside that with his wife. john wilkes booth sneaks up through a door, shoots the president, jumps onto the stage, runs out the back door. abraham lincoln will expire the next morning.

all of a sudden that fraternization in capital square is over. permission received from robert e lee six days after that to stand and sit for photographs on the back porch of his richmond helped. incredibly, this door is still there. in some of the pictures, you can see that crack in the door. it is still in a great state of preservation. it seems to be under a new owner that will take care of it, i hope. you want to emulate robert e lee, the great commander, right? ook, and get your lee l you will really fail. [laughter] garry: it gets worse. you don't just open your eyes and stir into the distance. maybe you figure out what breaks he is -- bricks he is standing on, and oh god, it gets worse. let's bring a robert e. lee

there in uniform, let's talk about the thing and get lee to sit down. it looks pretty good with a civil war camera. put on the uniform -- yes, maybe you can succeed a little bit. then you can get cocky, you can take selfies with him. you can make him stand next to you while you sit in his chair. [laughter] garry: but it takes 20 years to get all of the pictures to do this. in the meantime, you have confederate prisoners in their own prison and union prisoners outside. you have abraham lincoln sitting and geoffavis' chair, davis captured in a union present at fort monro -- prison at fort munro. you can put your friend in the same spot. they do a great job at the

museum there. there are still surrenders going on. there is a confederate ship that will not surrender for a while, but the war is over. still you have eight conspirators in the lincoln assassination. they will be tried in that room. you can't quite see it, but you can go back there today. four of them will be hanged outside the next day. it is a tennis court now, but it is on an army fort. maybe they won't rebuild the scaffold -- that would be messed up -- but hopefully they will reuse the tennis court. the nation has been through its greatest test. some census figures like to call it 650, 850, why not? there will be two to 70 inches by toilet paper. 000, 2% of the0,

population at that time. there are of course dead everywhere. the south will suffer particularly heavily. some young men from a town are completely gone. there are burials everywhere. they are trying to exhume them. people would try to continue to find remains from the civil war to this day. here is a temporary grave at manassas. you can see this waterhole still fills with water to this day outside the manassas battlefield visitor center. the union will now march in parade. but now weey won, will parade down pennsylvania avenue. there will be a review from the white house. people who have been learning about these troops for years can finally look on.

in the most incredible detail -- same photo off to the right -- while you have troops marching of the civilns war, guarding that area, you have eli parker, u.s. grant looking right at you. abraham lincoln is dead. you can barely see him, but the secretary of war, andrew johnson, the victor of gettysburg, william tecumseh sherman whispering to somebody. has there ever been a photo with the secretaries of the navy of all of the armies, the president, the grand commander of all of the armies and your two biggest army commanders in one photo. an unbelievable photo that sat unknown for some time. these are available free at the

library of congress. i encourage you to explore these photos of the civil war. there are a lot of tough times ahead, especially politically. the union had now ratified the 13th amendment. they will go to the 14th and 15th -- slavery is illegal, black people can vote. it will take a long time for these things to actually be felt and take shape. in the meantime, people will visit their departed. civil war soldiers trying to make sense of it. they march in parades, form newspapers, write books, erect monuments on those battlefields. we can go back to those monuments today and see those same monuments today on those battlefields. here is one dedicated to a guy that died at gettysburg. this one is not easy to find. you go out with the man who

runs the national civil war museum 40 minutes from here, you can go out with his bloodstained tactical manual, which was bloodstained at the moment he died. an incredible moment to take in the accounts and battlefield of the civil war if you ever get the opportunity. by the 1930's, much like the world war ii generation of today, people are dying off. they have one last grand reunion at gettysburg in 1938. about 200,000 veterans came to gettysburg. age, 94.rage people who planned the dedication of this event this hot weekend were happy that only seven veterans died coming to see the monument. they were happy it was only seven, these guys were old. if you look in the foreground, you can see a motion picture camera. these were civil war soldiers

see a motion picture camera. there are claims flying overhead -- planes flying overhead. there are tanks rumbling around. civil war soldiers saw color movies. i have been coming to these anniversaries for 32 years. i have been to 1/5 of the gettysburg anniversary. i bet there were at least one or two people in this room who met a civil war veteran. i have met at least 100 people who had shaken the hands of civil war veterans. all battlefield guy, we understand it wasn't long ago. these people were just like us. into the 1940's, 1980's, the promise of the civil war was still being realized. world war ii, korea, vietnam did nothing to get people to be interested in battlefield

preservation. battlefields were being paved over in the 1960's and 1970's. the franklin battlefield all but lost. on the 25th anniversary, suddenly you have reenactments, you have commemorations, you have the ken burns series and the birth of the modern battlefield preservation movement. in that fashion, battlefields are being preserved in a way that they were not. antietam is only half the size that it is now. acres are saved around gettysburg thanks to the federal government . we are losing 30 acres a day. we have cool animated maps. if you come across one that says the entire civil war in 27 minutes and you think it is stolen, i wrote that script. it is stolen from me. [laughter] garry: thanks for coming out tonight. i appreciate it.

[applause] i don't remember when i started, but i think it was close to 50 minutes, so i will take it. let me leave you with a few parting shots. civil war soldiers were not stupid. they were using the most modern tactics available to them at the time. this morning just real north -- more industrial north and agricultural south was as real as it gets. for every southern worker, the north had an entire factory. the war in the east consisted of only a few big moments. they fought around washington and moved toward richmond, fought in antietam, back to gettysburg and slowed down toward richmond and petersburg. all of these battles in the east -- casualty, killed, captured, or wounded -- 51,000 casualties

in gettysburg. 51,000 dead in vietnam. different story. you can take the french indian war, american revolution, war with mexico, world war i, world war ii and korea and into vietnam will finally equal the casualties of the american civil war. most civil war books are full of errors, if they get people interested, i am for that. the battlefield ghost stories are made up to make money. i am not saying there are no such things as ghosts. go there for entertainment by all means. [laughter] mostastly, honor is the difficult of all 19th-century concepts to grasp. understand we are like the past, but there are some differences. honor pervaded society in a way most people can't understand, unless you read their words,

just remember we are just like them. now i will take your questions. i am told we have to wait for the mic. the mic is coming your way. >> do you have an opinion about the harvest of dead photographs? is five photos taken by alexander gardner right after the battle of hattiesburg, the only gettysburg photos known to show dead on the battlefield. i have been looking at them for 30 years, and my opinion is yes, nobody knows where they are yet. there are 30 theories thrown out, and each one thinks they are right and they are mad. i sayon't like it when people's theories are wrong.

say one thing happened , and one cent another, you are going to go with the 60%, right? photo research does not work that way. all it takes is one person to disqualify you forever. on the gettysburg daily, type b and harvest of death you will in me usually being -- type harvest of death. you will see me being a little snide. what in the back, and one more after that. doing beforeee he was given the army? >> he goes with jefferson davis. he is selecting the main route, davisdefend the jefferson highway, let's make sure we can be at manassas, but we have to defend this artery.

he is laying out the keyway to defend the railroad. he is acting as the grand strategist and as an engineer to help the confederacy achieve its goals. that is the simplest way i can put it. it is incredible that the southerners could keep a road between charleston and savannah going that whole time, and to gound a way back and forth. he has a military adviser to jefferson davis, but he is also accomplishing all different feats that had an impact on the confederate army. last question, anybody? thank you very much. i will be around here. thanks to the gettysburg heritage center and to c-span. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> thank you also very much for

coming out tonight. announcer: learn 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. announcer: this weekend on "the presidency," from the university of virginia's miller center, three former white house speechwriter's about the process of turning a president's policies and politics into a speech. here is a preview. >> can you talk about how president obama would give the framework for a speech like that? he was a lawyer. he would give me .1 a, one b. how does that work? >> what's interesting about president obama's he himself is a writer, and if he had time, he would write the speech is better than we would himself, but a commander-in-chief does not have time. often, you would go in the oval

and sit down with him and he would just start the thing -- start riffing. maybe seven minutes in, he would say, this is what i'm thinking, and he would give you your opening. 1, 2, the . paragraph. 1a, go back. he would walk you through the outline. it would be irritating as a writer because you would work out a structure for hours and you spend 10 minutes with him and he's got the whole thing down. it was inspiring and incredibly annoying. what's also interesting is i think one of the challenges of being a president, really any elected leader -- i worked in the senate for a senator for three years and saw the same from a -- you are going very different event to a very different event in the course of a busy day. he might be having a meeting

with me about the national prayer breakfast speech, but right before then was in the situation room talking about china with people who are way more important and i am, and after that, he is going to a ceremony with the girl scouts. your mind has to quickly shift. announcer: learn more about presidential speech writing sunday at 8:00 p.m. and midnight eastern, on open the president's -- on "the presidency." next on the civil war, university of georgia professor stephen berry discusses his work on the digital history project private voices, which gathers, transcribes, and digitizes letters during the civil war. this was part of the civil war institute's annual summer conference. let me reintroduce myself to the c-span aude.