know if there nurtured as well as boys could be equally productive, equally supportive, maybe even more so it helped to attenuate, certain to reduce legalized are encouraged or condoned assassination of baby girls. >> mr. president, thank you. >> thank you. [applause] >> a huge thank you to president carter on behalf of "washington post" live, which organizes all kinds of new words the discussion in washington all across the united states and now abroad. i want to thank you beauty can go to "washington post" live.com. very soon you'll see highlights of this very discussion. a big thank you to sally quinn

and david ignatius. in a few minutes president carter will be in the next room signing his books. thank you very much. [applause] [inaudible conversations] ♪

>> fort myers, florida on booktv. the city of palms, fort myers is noted for its beaches including. >> the river itself first became a boundary back in the 1830s and at that time we had the second seminole war going on. president martin van buren has become very concerned about the cost of the war so he sent general alexander make room, who was the commanding officer of the entire united states army at that point down to florida with the orders to stop in his seminal work. >> attorney general robert kennedy spoke at length on lott institute about the impact of gideon v. wainwright. this is what he said. if an obscure and clarence earl gideon had not sat down jail with a pencil and paper to write his letter to supreme court and

of the supreme court had not taken the trouble to look for mary and not one crude petition among all the bundles of mail at best receive every day, the vast machinery of american mob would've gone on functionally undisturbed. the gideon did write that letter in the whole course of american maker of history has changed. >> thomas edison first visited fort meyers and purchase this property for a seamless winter retreat. the absence of vacationing until thomas' death in 1931. in 1947 mrs. edison deeded the property to the city of fort myers. >> nobody else has read incredible book about fort myers and the addison which is here.

i didn't have time to do that. i had some difficulties, and i said well, the other half of the day of great while this research in the book, i was up in new jersey. i happen to go to a warehouse suber the original artifacts and i was in this warehouse in digging in your card or box full of original document and pulled out a handful in one of them fell on the ground. i reached over to pick it up and it was a 16 page account of the edison ford took to the everglades in 1914. it started out being a very nice day that led by sharon they had

in the company guard of the, charles hutchison at your door at sn. they have had her court and clara ford and ethel ford and several other friends. and they went first to develop and from the from the bell over to immokalee and rock lake which is a very scary place in the word and they said it was three tenths when she was at all ready for this trip. added 10 for the women for the

non. they had dinner that day were supper out in the words they said edison's wife said everybody should go to the 10. before she could finish her statement, it started raining like it ever seen before. the conversation that went on in madeleine's account is incredible. she handed over her toothbrush. then one of the violent and the unusual tropical storms on rare occasions that the country. the expedition came one by one

into the 10. by the time the full fury of the storm arrived, they contained everybody but the guys. theodore was later found wrapped in a pool of water at the fourth tab of the guys with advanced tab. he was here every year. his last project was what started, which was the broker project. the reason for that was he had had experienced during world war i is trying to get chemicals that he couldn't get because of world war i and being surrounded by german boats. he didn't want that shortage to

occur. so he also used rubber in the storage batteries. he needed a source for them. it is a lot of forever and the basic automobile and because it thought that they threw it together at this time to research corporation whose purpose and research for my vegetable that could be renewed, replanted every year and therefore if you had a cut off from the source is a forever, you would be in trouble and not what he was working for. he really wasn't working for a solution to rather. he was lucky in for the

emergency brought on by his experience in world war i. the only source is we had back then were in the far east and most of them were controlled by the japanese. they described their marital difficulties. they discredit their having for lunch and supper and she brought each one of her children now. she wrote letters to her son, charles saying i could test the people down here. i found this place to the bank. sometime in the early 20s, she had any if any and she became a part of the time.

she was involved in the plant go, for all the garden clubs in america. >> it was fun to come here and sit on the savings and to walk around. she liked to do that. she loved to ride around and see things and different people and was very curious about that and anything new she wanted to happen she wanted to be involved. she was very easy to know when to be with and she was curious about everything i wanted to know what was going on. we then went down on rodway

because she what was going on in sydney to occur guys but then she talked to lots of the people in there. >> edison died in 1931. she came back in 1932, the year after her husband died. when she was pulling out of the solution or the train, she wrote a letter to sidney davis and said to sidney, is extremely difficult to go to fort myers they have left me. the semi he came very near to me they are. there've been many other place. we are attached to those in fort myers in a different way from

others. >> attorney general robert kennedy spoke at doing a mock institute about the impact of gideon v. wainwright. this is what he said. if an obscure florida convict had not sat down jail with a pencil and paper to write a letter to the supreme court and if the supreme court had not taken the trouble to look for marriott in that one crude petition among other by most, the vast machinery of american mob would've gone on functionally undisturbed. they have been changed. because of this case and why we have public defenders available.

pdn was an interesting man. he was the semi literate drifter. he was definitely familiar with the law. he came in and out of trouble most of his life. his early history was he ran away from home around eight grades there is educated. he stayed there is in juvenile institution and after that he was one of those guys who seem to be in the wrong place him on time. june 3rd 1961 and the bay harbor pool hall had been broken into. gideon was supposedly there. eyewitnesses claim from the back alley when police investigated

the window had been broken. in fact, someone had broken into the vending machine, taken wine, cigarettes, some coke and approximately $65 in change from the vending machine. as i said, gideon was a shady terror. by that time he was approximately 51 years old and he pretty much lived by running card games, gambling. he was a gambler. they found him at a different buyer and he had about $25 plus some sense. but most of it wasn't coined and they just assumed knowing him, his past record, they arrested him for this larceny and what's interesting about struct me about the cases that breaky made

it a felony. and he asked the judge for a lawyer because he was -- had a drifter, couldn't afford an attorney and they denied it saying in a state of florida they only provided legal counsel when it was a capital case meaning rape, murderer of the defendant is convict to and so it was that key element of the break-in and that made it a felony. he wasn't given any time to repair. and of course the eyewitness -- there were two eyewitnesses that showed him the scene and so he was found guilty by a jury.

the judge sentenced him to five years after reviewing his criminal history. said he was adamant that the sixth amendment guarantees us the right to count low. the way that had been interpreted up until this time was that you have the right to hire an attorney if you choose, but yes you can have an attorney. you hire one. they are automatic if you couldn't afford an attorney, hire one yourself. so at this point, florida was among 13 state and interpreted the law the way they did say and it's only for a capital crime. they gideon felt the 14th amendment is our due process amendment. our rights for due process and he was adamant that his due process had been violated by the

denial of an attorney when he requested one. so that's what he is stuck on, too. that was in his head. he was a stubborn man, that that perseverance is what led to these events that unfolded when he sent to prison, he immediately found the library at the jail and he started studying. according to ana lewis who wrote gideon's trumpet, which became the movie, the hallmark movie in 1980, gideon admitted to not understanding a lot of what he read in one of the documents are used in research was his actual -- the documents that he sent, the letter he wrote to the supreme court, asking for the

case to be reviewed. you could tell that he was studying other court cases and trying to model them. he was actually submitted a writ of certiorari i, that he fell that means the court is going to review it. if they look at it, they said we would do this case. he didn't understand what he was asking. he was using the term, but what he thought as they were going to set, you get to be released from prison because you are to due process. so when that happened, when the supreme court said yes we will review the case, gideon was upset because he assumed he was going to walk out of the jail. exporters argued before the

supreme court in defense of gideon. the questions that the court was asking work in a lame man defend himself before or against a trained lawyer. that was his defense is that really we can't. that is how the tables turned. bruce jacob, what he worked for, the attorney general for the state of florida was sent to washington d.c. to argue for the state of florida. he had petitioned all of the states to say above, if this ruling takes place, the state of florida has roughly about 5000 inmates that might be a fact that it essentially had to defend themselves. what the state of florida was

lucky not was that impact is this going to happen estate in every state? said bruce jacob wrote to all of the other states he was really looking for support, saying this is how it's going to impact florida. this could happen, so let's band together. 23 of the states in support of gideon. it wasn't just the supreme court is realizing we need clarification on this law. it is these other states as well. so again, gideon was disappointed. he thought he was going to walk out the door. when the supreme court made the determination that gideon needed a second trial and this time at an appointed attorney, he needed a trained offender.

again, gideon was upset. he thought i don't want another trial. he then fell that his fifth amendment was being violated because now he was being tried for the same crime. so he thought it was double jeopardy. it's a perfect example of irony here because he didn't understand the law, but he has such an tensed beliefs on our constitution to protect its citizens and that's what i find so fascinating about this entire case and all of the steps that take place. so dave fordyce had actually written to two lawyers and asked if they would defend gideon in a separate trial. they didn't really cannot somehow. he was bitter.

he really felt he should not have a second trial. so he actually told the lawyer for the judge -- he told the judge he wanted to defend himself again, same lawyer. same judge. judge mccreery who is not going to let that happen. we are not going to do this two times. so they ended up finding a lawyer that gideon disco comp i've always been so crumbled and it wasn't that constitution said. in the end he was acquitted. just about every person alive has been seen any show on tv. miranda rights are red. the case could get thrown out. we see this all the time on tv. and of course steve is oversimplifying everything. the veranda was basically when you request it during

questioning. so it expanded it. that's about this spoke to talk about the books for this case or anything understand our constitution assert can act as a job job of the supreme court to constantly reviewing and interpreting how it is interpreted by the country in every state and that is again sent a gideon was not aware of. i think most people are not aware of that and it's to understand. that is why there is no cases in little adjustments made in expanding menace, clarifying how it's interpreted and if we understand not, we are less likely to take things for granted. we know we have a constitutional

right yet that is what gideon is stuck on. i have the right to an attorney, the right to due process in the right not to be tried for the same crime twice. he didn't understand those rights, but it got the gears rolling to what we all benefit from today. >> maxtor book tedious trip to fort myers, florida, with 52 locations in charles sobcazk spoke, "the living gulf coast." >> "the living gulf coast: a nature guide to southwest florida" the reason i wrote the book is by people getting to know these animals to get some love them. the book is divided into two seconds. the first sections cover the birds that are commonly found on here, the mammals, the reptiles and nubians including snakes and lizards and creepy crawley's and turtles.

the whole back section of the book is weak in the to southwest florida in sarasota, callier, to actually find them. it's kind of like a cheat sheet to nature. today we are going to see the national wildlife refuge, the main part of the refuge in silence we didn't visit it. we are going down the lovers key state park, which is far less known but some of the prettiest beaches and honestly has abundant wildlife as alligators, oscar, all kinds of birds. we're descending now in the national wildlife refuge and they have identified 230 species of birds. another 50 species of reptiles and amphibians and there's quite a number of mammals that come through here as well. in terms of the island itself, this preserve started in the

team 17. they start with what was called the wildlife reserve and over time after jay darling passed away they renamed it in his on her. he was a cartoonist from des moines, iowa. he won several pulitzer prize is and he was very, very much into nature and i think he was kind of a spinoff to follow through there and are trying to so he was very much into preserving this in perpetuity for people to enjoy. this 5000 disanto flats which were right behind me right now. you can see when the tide is low, all the birds coming here to see because they can get to the crustaceans. they can get to the and all the

different things to eat. the minister things to eat. the minister if you come in here ironically when the tide is high, there are no birds if you come in here ironically when the tide is high, there are no birds to be seen. sometimes you can drive through here and not see a single bird. he was such a common and this is the second most visited in the united states. the summers in montana and they're moving ahead and they don't dive site run pelicans. they feed with their beaks and they pushed the minutes ahead of them in the mouth and it's very rare to see them feed. you see them sitting a lot of times, but it is rare to see all three and you can see with their heads down they are trying to get the menace and also refill crustaceans down there. we are standing on the minutes

you overlook above is a state park. in choosing all the places we chose six counties recovered, sarasota, charlotte, lee, collier, whatever you do is contact a tourist and visitor's convention bureau and asked them if they were writing the book, what would they cover? as kind of an alternative i contacted all of the organizations and asked them what was your cover? we've got to hit the beach with one of the most beautiful beaches in all of southwest florida. there's no development, which makes it so wonderful because it just the beach and the bush and the trees and is also excellent for shelling. second only to senate bill island and all of fort myers area. and then we are going to go back and hopefully see some alligators back off one of the trails there's an alligator pond

will visit as well. we are still on my first key and kind of on the backwoods trail and we have the alligator pond. behind me i should be paying attention here, or seven alligators. one rather large mound in the corner and six little babies ranging in size from two feet to three feet. this is one of the only accessible freshwater pond on the island yet there's about 1.5 to 2 million alligators in florida right now. they were in danger years back and they're no longer doing a great recovery because we can be these little ones behind me. there's one important thing you have to take into consideration whenever you're at this alligator pond. please never feed them. don't feed them anything. not a crust of bread, nothing. what happens is they equate people with food and not the cause of most of the attacks,

some of which are fatal in florida because people feed them. they go down to the beach lovers key and his beautiful is one you can get anywhere in the world. i'm standing here on the edge of lovers key state park about 1700 acres. the beach is seven miles long and it is not affiliated with a national park. it is different from the body of water. if you go back off of montauk like long island, new york, it is almost instantly. here in the gulf of mexico to get to 100 feet of water, you have to go 40 miles. it is so shallow and in a shallow pan, that is for all the shells collect. we have thousands of species of shells right out here. when the storms churn up like they did this past weekend, the

shells breaks three. the animal inside dies in a washed up on the beaches here. you can find here probably 200, 300 varieties of shells. the reason i included lovers key and a living costco's in southwest florida is because a multitude of recreational opportunities. you've got the beach, which is a given and it's gorgeous. you've also got all this kayak and canoe trails. you've got boating access and the boating ramp and hiking trails. whatever nature that appeals to you on a given day, you can find it here at lovers key. >> hopes with a living gulf coast will teach people about the beautiful nature of southwest florida and in the end make them want to conserve it and appreciate it for what it is. >> up next, doug houck talks about his book, "peace river bondary," the story of war and peace in southwest florida.

with the help of our cable partners comcast. >> the book i wrote is called "peace river bondary" and it's based upon events that took place in this area from i would say the late 1830s up until the late 1860s. the river itself first became a boundary back in the 1830s and at that time we had the seminole war going on and it was a long war started in the early 1830s and went on throughout the 1830s into the 1840s. by 1839, president martin to was becoming very can learn about the cost of the war and it was taking up 10% to 15% of the entire national budget and he was very concerned about funding the national government not that

time. so he sent general alexander may come as the commanding officer of their entire united states army at that point down to florida with the orders to stop the seminole war. general may come really didn't know exactly how it would go about and it was suggested that the seminoles probably want something given to them. so he comes down, takes a number of weeks coming down, coming down through virginia, carolinas, georgia and near jacksonville and wants to find some seminoles to cut a deal. he doesn't find any seminole player and the people dare say well, you're probably going to have to go down to 14 and four king is where ocala is now. so he goes all the way down the

demarcation road and that demarcation road was set up any years ago after the first seminole war. the demarcation in those days meant from around jacksonville through ocala down through tampa. at that point, the seminole had been assured if they go south of that road they could stay a day or indefinitely. they actually went down in that area. they establish firearms, plantations. they had cattle, all that sort of thing. people were coming down from the north and realized there was a lot of good lan south of that demarcation road. so they got involved with this whole situation, battling over this territory, make them goes all the way down the demarcation road to 14 and four king was sort of ramshackle place and the

people who were assigned to four king, union army troops at that time, federal army were very happy to be there. at that time there were a lot of ways to die in florida and none of them were especially pleasant and that could be everything from malaria, yellow fever, been bit by one of the various snakes down here and get in bed here what happened in general makeup of god they waited until they came to pick up supplies and at that point anyone is to know if we could negotiate with the symbian and the indian agent bair said well, maybe one of them might be achieved. so what they decided to do as they put up a big sort of an

indian lunch outside the fort and general makeup went to the difficulty of bringing office very nice uniform down with him. so he got all dressed up in broad across the enmity brought down from the ferry and brand played hail to the chief. he goes out into the tent area and meet with the seminole and he did not seek seminole, so he wanted something to do the translation and they said they had a slave they had recaptured from the seminal and the slave could pick some and all. so they got out here in the big tent and it gets ready and general makeup gives a very long, flowery speech in the slave starts translating and when you finish, one of the indians there said he got most it right because the indians could speak english. so i guess the conversation went

on for a few days and at that point they finally offered them a solution. he said we will leave you alone, you can go down. they brought out her picture appeared ecosoc enhanced with pete creek. the river that runs about 100 some miles. come down through it comes into charlotte harbor and you go south and east and you could there in peace forever and as a matter of fact i thought there was such a good idea in the proclamation ending the second civil war in 1839 he referred to this reverse the peace river and does what some people say what the name came from. the idea being that the seminole on this side of the peace river and they can live here and be

here for forever and always on the way people could come down on that side of the peace river and it could be over there. the federal government even set up an armed occupation acts after that point in the armed occupation acts would give tracts of land on that side of the river that people would come down, establish a homestead, but they had to be able to carry weapons and a homestead. this took place in 1839. what we have then is a second seminole war that goes on probably until the early 1840s and finally the war comes to an end. we have the peace river out here, which is supposed to be the boundary for forever and always in that last for about 10 years before we have the third seminole war in the third seminole war occurs because they

find out there's a lot of good land on the side of the river and the third seminole war is a sort of guerrilla activity. in the book i talk about the ending of the second seminal. i talk about the third seminole. see, florida was initially a territory. it eventually becomes state. florida was kind of at the perimeter of all the decisions being made elsewhere at that time. the decisions -- many decisions being made in 10. other decisions were made in tallahassee and the impact of these decisions was following upon the people who live down here and that's what we get involved with in the book. to some degree i talk about what happens when very ordinary people get into positions of extraordinary power and we took a look at some of the policies

put through by the presidents, the members of the senate, what have you at that time. he eventually came to the point in the late 1850s, probably the most qualified and in the world to ever become president ever become president of the united states was james buchanan. .. mr. buchanan was really not

successful in this goal because at that point there was a new political party in the north, the republican party, which comes into power at that time, goes into, takes control of the united states house of representatives. and i would say probably the united states house of representatives was about as effective at getting things done at the time as they are these days, but that's another issue. nevertheless, all of this is going on in the 1850s, and then lo and behold because of the republican party rising to power up north, they pick out a railroad attorney by the name of lincoln and the running for president in 1860. he doesn't show up on any of the ballots down there. nobody had a chance to vote for him. they voted for up north, and the democrats have some difficulty in 1860. they went to upload charleston

and they had a convention and they had 56 votes trying to pick out a candidate to run for president, and they couldn't do it. so after 56 votes they go home. the northern democrats meet up in baltimore and they pick mr. douglas from illinois to run for president. southern democrats get together in richmond and they pick mr. breckenridge to run for president. the people who didn't like a douglas and the people he didn't like breckenridge, they met and they picked mr. bell to run for president. the democrats ran three candidates for president in 1860, an interesting situation. the republicans up north ran one candidate, and when the one candidate won the election, people in south were shocked, horrified, dismayed. they started dropping out of the union. south carolina dropped out. florida dropped out soon thereafter and had a big celebration up in tampa.

they were happy to leave the union, become a separate, independent state. that's when they get all involved with what was happening down there during the american civil war. as i said, there was a lot of support for the confederacy in north florida, but down in south florida we have a different situation. key west was the largest city in the state at the time, key west. people don't normally think about these days. it was the largest city in the state. key west was originally established like people coming out of connecticut, new york, new jersey. they had northern leanings, northern support and they were involved with the commerce and trade. it was a much different situation than what was the case of the north. the people coming into this region, southern florida,

slavery was not a big issue down here. the people did not own many slaves, whereas slavery was big in north florida, not an issue down here. the people down here work primary independent sellers, farmers, what have you. when the confederacy needed manpower and they needed money to support the civil war, they got involved with taxation. they sent the tax collectors down into this area to take people's cattle, things like that in lieu of taxes. and then they passed the conscription act, if you are between 18-40, you could be called up to serve in the confederate forces. them in debt here did not want to do that. many of the men left their land and then moved out to the islands. they all moved out there waiting for the civil war to end. the union navy controlled this

area, and the union navy that these people. a nice thing to do. as a result, the union navy supported them and they form a union the rangers organization using florida man, and that later on became the second florida cavalry union which was stationed over at fort myers. in the book itself a talk about how two of the characters up north at the time of the american civil war, up around fort meade, one fellow is running away because they are trying to get him into the confederate army but they found out that initially he was a yankee, so they chased them out of town and he ends up down by the peace river up in fort meade. he runs into the fellow he knew before, floyd, who was a black slave initially, and they come down the peace river in a dugout

canoe and they get into the mangrove swamps farther up the river, the mangrove islands and that type of thing. they encounter the armed union ship chasing a blockade runner, and they capture the blockade runner and after they capture the blockade runner, they take the two characters, floyd and harry come and because floyd happens to be black, they put them into the united states navy, which they were doing at that time, and they take kerry back to key west. because harry had the experience of being involved in the second civil war and what have you, harry is given a commission actually in a pennsylvania regiment, figure that out, and then later on he sent over to the island to organize the troops over there and they go back and they take over fort

meade. been at one point they take the people from fort meet up and they capture and take from fort myers up and they capture fort meade. but all of these things, all of these things happen here in this area from about 1839 up until roughly 1865. big impact upon what later on happened in american history, big impact upon what happened down here in years following that time. they're sort of a saying down here. when you come to the state of florida, the farther south you go the more northern it becomes. a lot of that has to do with the influence of key west and what took place back here in this area back in the late 1800s. but that's what the book is about and that's what the story is all about. and this of course is charlotte harbor. you can't see it but up north

you see the peace river coming on down through. that's what the book is about. >> next from booktv's recent trip to fort myers, florida, taken behind the scenes look at the southwest florida reading festival with festival coordinator marji byers. >> in its 15th year the southwest florida reading festival is an annual rate event sponsored by the lee county library system and fort myers, florida. the festival draws an average of 18,000 visitors from around the country from dozens of genre spanning authors. spent getting to offer just be a big jump in with a great reputation. we recruit the best sellers, folks of the books out there on tour that year. we reach a lot, we do entice and bringing the best selling authors. we don't always get to we asked for. we get elizabeth a news on tour

who's on tour, basically boil down to the calendar. we've got a great reputation to try to treat her authors really well so they'll spread the word and want to come back again. they donate their time. we don't pay them. we cover their expenses. that helps us but we know the bottom line they are there for the fans and to sell the books so we try to facilitate that as best we can. we started as a local and regional author festival but we've grown, and we still know that those people are very important to us, and so that's where the market place comes in. our marketplace is full of a lot of the local office. you can find their books as well. we go after the best selling authors. this year we had an author that is very popular right now. we've had, it's been that when the past as well. we hope for the best. we are always happy to have whoever. it takes three days to set with all the signs and the

marketplace and it takes two hours at the end for us, for the police to be taken. -- there's so much the goes into it after. you have to thank folks. we do surveys. we serve the authors, volunteers, staff, everyone to try to improve and make a better. at the end of may is when bea, book expo america, every year we go to book expo america in manhattan, the largest rich in north america for publishers and books and authors. our committees, they booked their flights. they are planning to they're going to go and see and their schedules. everyday is like every 10 or 15 minutes and there are for them to go. they filled it because they want to talk to every author and every publisher that's on the list. we start in may. we go after the sponsors and

keep going. the reading festival is 100% funded by grants, donations and sponsorships. there are no tax dollars that go to fund the reading festival. it's totally self-supporting so it's my job to raise about $100,000 every year on average. we generate that and it's been a media right back in the community college these authors the coming, issuing a record number, we had about 44 flights into and out of fort myers. we probably 70-100 room nights associate with that specifically just within this office. we do market throughout the state and we've had people fly in because the draw of the authors. in terms of the bottom line, we generate, i can tell you how much but there is a lot of tourism developed through the reading festival. some folks might wonder why the library does this. truly bringing literacy to the committee and bring our services

to the community is cordless. there are three goals. number one, to increase the awareness of the things the library does. we draw people in to a call our the library at the reading festival and explained all about our services like streaming video and free and legal music and e-books and all of our databases. that's really important because as the library changes and new services come on board, we need to keep people aware of that so the using the services. that's number one, library services. number two is increase literacy. immunities that embrace literacy have a much more upward and mobile society. they are healthier. they know more about nutrition, fitness because every, because they are concerned about their children. there's less crime. the whole community benefits from a literacy. so that's another reason. thirdly we want to bring the committee together. we are going to the people as

opposed to the people coming to the library. >> while visiting fort myers, florida, with the help of local cable partner comcast, here from the diary of civil war sergeant samuel gorsvenor captured by the confederate army in 1864. >> he goes into our like a lot of young boys did, only 21, and he enlisted in 1861, and in 1864 he was captured by the confederates. he served at andersonville prison which was the most horrific military prison still in history to have existed. he survived all the diseases and sickness, being homesick, questioning his faith with god, why is this war going on, et cetera, to finally the words over in 1865. he's on a boat coming home, and

the boat collides into another boat and he drowns. so he survived everything. he's almost home. he just didn't make it and it really wasn't anything to do with the war. he was just a young boy, 21. he was one of 11 children from joseph and and. the parents emigrated from england. they settled in new york. they have five children with them. when i got to nuke that another three and when they got to connecticut they had another two children. that was the whole family the enlisted with his brother, joseph, who was oddly joseph was just two years older than him. they enlisted together just a couple days apart. they served together in the same regiment. after the battle of sharpsburg, samuel was injured. he was in hospital to his brother joseph lost his life and he got killed during the battle. here you have samuel in the hospital recovering and having to write a letter to his parents

and family saying that we lost joseph to their older brother served from new york, and he only served six months and then he had health problems and they sent him home. he only served six month. on april 20, is when the confederate soldiers get close enough to him and they get into a small skirmish. and as he says, the reds took us all, and took their whole company and they started been traveling them down to georgia where they ended up going into the prison which was eventually canceled or but it became known as andersonville prison. on the fourth of may when they finally arrived at andersonville, he writes arose this one at sunrise imaging to look around. found quite a pleasant looking place. horror of horrors, i only got to look inside the stockade where i'm likely to stay quite a wild what my heart grows thick and my blood curled in my veins.

this half of prison for which i'm told to me. that's when he realized when he was but another description he says how dark, black and it had this stench to it and it was like a pall just over the whole prison at night. sometimes you couldn't even see the stars come is what he wrote at the height of it around june and july of 1864, there were about 45,000 men on just over 500 acres of land with hardly even room to lie down. of course, there's no sanitation. there's hardly any food. there was a band of men that got dubbed the raiders because the minute a new batch of purchase came in, to go up to the into anything they had, whether it is a pocket knife, a shirt, boots, whatever it was ahead, the a were robbing from the president. they brought him to trial and ended up hanging 16 of them. this was august 5 and 6th.

the weather clear and hot, breezy. david departed this life. many of our boys running down and i find that unless we are reduced soon, we will scarcely have a company left. the mortality throughout the camp is great. we hope for the best and all they can say is god help us. the reds still fortifying. the weather is cloudy without rain, another of our regiment has gone the way of all on earth. the rebels seem to be particularly desirous of killing all the men they can't at present. within three days, as many men have been shot by the guard. today, one man was killed just because his head went a few inches inside the line. when he says the line can he's referring to what they called the deadline. that was basically the boundaries along the 500 plus acres where they were imprisoned. you were allowed to reach over to some of the creeks that were there to get water, but if you

crossed the creek for that line to your automatically shot. they didn't fire a warning. he didn't yell at you to get back or anything. they just shot you dead the minute you crossed that line. he mentions it a few times. another thing i can't imagine him doing is from april to december what he was there, over 50 people that were part of his company that he knew from neighboring towns where he grew up, madison and clinton, et cetera, 50 people died within nine months or so. yet they are burying all these people, saying some words with the bible and things like that. you can imagine how may people you know and 50 of them end up dying in less than you. he writes, got up at 2:00, the stench was horrible and black cloud of smoke and steam on over us shutting the very stars from our site. then he says he washed his shirt anymore, shade, found an old

acquaintance. many rumors of exchange. that was something that almost every passage of there's something about there were always those rumors going around that this is going to be the day we get released or get exchanged. but obviously it was from april until december before he finally did get released. some of the men came out, they were skeletons with just their skin on it when they got released. everyone was released and they all left. they all started to go home to report back to the regiment. i just know from his diary i just don't you went straight home. at home at last, people overjoyed at seeing me. arose rather late, ate breakfast saw my brother and his wife. everybody seems glad to see me and ready to deny favored. i'm so glad to thank everybody well and that i can scarcely believe i am really home. but in 1865, president lincoln

calls for more volunteers to go and finish the war. so he reenlist in goes again answers about four months and then it was april when the war ended. he's on his way home when the boat accident happened and he drowned. originally i was researching my great-great-grandfather who served in the same regiment as samuel gorsvenor. in my research i all of a sudden found samuel gorsvenor, 1864, there was a diary at the connecticut state historical society. seeing he was from guilford and in the 16th regiment as was my great-great-grandfather, i thought, i will go to the library in the town of gilbert and about have a transcription of it and i can read through, maybe they knew each other. maybe he wrote some words about him so i could find out more information on my ancestor. i was surprised when i went there, they had nothing on that family. that nothing on the gorsvenor

family, nothing about them being in the service. that got me to not go up to hartford, the capital of connecticut, and start reading the diary. after reading it a few times i decided to start -- to start transcribing it. this way could be shared with a lot of people. i was fortunate enough on what my trips back to connecticut where i'm originally from and i grew up one town over from him, a very good friend of mine, the town historian, he knew the owners of the house where the gorsvenor family lived for about 50 years, with samuel went and spent his last christmas, his last few years, the last few years of his life before going into the war. he was able to introduce me to them, and they welcomed me into the house intimate tour of the home. which is kind of strange being in there knowing that he was standing right here. he was touching his fireplace and now i'm in this house doing

that. it was the same thing but i took a road trip up to andersonville. even though now it's a very nice quiet park, you can go and have a picnic and walk around, it's just know so much about what it was some 100 plus years ago. it's in theory feeling walking around knowing everything that happened there. >> for more information on booktv's recent visit to fort myers, florida, and the many other cities visited by our local content vehicles, go to c-span.org/localcontent. >> booktv is on facebook and twitter. like and follow us for book industry news, booktv schedule updates, behind the scenes looks at author events, and to interact with authors during live television programming. here are a few of booktv's posts from this past week.

>> many of you heard of the

terrible municipal bankruptcy in detroit which is the largest bankruptcy that's occurred in the nation. that the bankruptcy was predictable but it happened over a period of time and it happened because of circumstances are similar to california. liberal democrats were in control for a long period of time. they didn't use spending constraint, public employee unions control who got elected to the very's offices. the place was ranked with corruption. i got a lot of welfare into the city and the and the pain very high public employee salaries and had very high commitments to the public employee union pension funds. what happened was the city went completely bankrupt and is the largest inducible bankruptcy in the country. that california led the way because prior to detroit, the largest news of bankruptcy in the country was stockton in california. stockton would into bankruptcy for exactly the same reason, for paying its public employees too

much, for developing huge obligations to its public employee pension fund. and for doing incredibly stupid things like using public funds to build a hockey stadium. for a hockey team that didn't exist. it was a government version of building a baseball field and hoping they would come, but it's not like stockton ices over. hockey is a wonderful sport. i support the los angeles kings, but building a hockey stick included without hockey team precipitated the fact that the banks actually repossessed the city hall the day before they filed for bankruptcy. >> you can watch this and other programs online at booktv.org. >> you are watching booktv on on c-span2. here's our primetime lineup for tonight.

that all happens tonight on c-span2's tv. >> here's a quick because of upcoming book fairs and festivals happening around the country.

>> let us know about book fairs and festivals in your area and we'll be happy to add them to our list. e-mail us at booktv@c-span.org. >> we are at the southwest florida museum of history and in a similar in now is our agricultural exhibit. we highlight the three c's which is citrus, cattle and cane. those are the three big industries within agriculture that it really made florida what it is today. interesting, although those were richard brought over by the

spanish. the cattle was brought over as a food source for the settlement of florida. citrus and cane were later brought over as cash crops. the cattle establish itself is almost -- the early american settlers who came down here to herd the cattle, they were free roaming. so the florida cowboy or what we call the florida cracker would herd the cattle once a year during season we are bringing them to market but other than that they just kind of rome to the state. they adopted a very well to our environment. the florida scrub cattle that you see behind me here now was a species that was predominate here all the way up into the mid-1900s. and was very hearty, was able to withstand most of the cold in the winter town, the heat and humidity that we have a but also did very well in the swamps out

in the grasses, the sawgrass. it adopted very well. when the trendy purchase florida from the spanish, they started a transaction in 1819, completed in 1821 and at that point the government was encouraging people to suffer florida. one of the main draws for florida was to come down your and capture these free roaming cattle and use that as a monetary source, as a business. that industry really started in the early 1800s, all the way through the civil war and then became a very important issue during the civil war. spent this weekend at booktv and american history tv take a look at history and literary life of fort myers, florida, including a stop at the southwest florida museum of history. throughout the weekend on c-span2 and sunday at two on c-span3.

>> up next on booktv, "after words" with juan williams, this week syndicated columnist cal thomas and his latest book "what works: common sense solutions for a stronger america." in it he argues that solving the country's problems starts at look at what worked in the past and listening to voters. this program is about an hour. >> host: we are joined by cal thomas come his new book, "what works: common sense solutions for a stronger america." four by sean hannity. it tells you a lot about this book. >> guest: he is a very good friend of course and harpercollins which is publishing the book thought that he would be a very good person to have two right before. i was happy to do. nancy pelosi was not available, so i was glad to have this forward.