civil war figures which includes the residences of jefferson davis, robert e. lee, clara barton and frederick douglass. this is about an hour. >> good evening. i'm from the presidential library. i'm really glad you guys are here. i have been looking forward to this because this book, houses of civil war america is freely

fascinating. anyone who likes to travel is going to places where people live that have been so tied to history. i think just going to abraham lincoln's home. almost you walk in and some of the dark wallpaper and defiance of the time just kinds of things to take you back into the time that you've kind of got in a sense of the people from the places they've lived. what is really neat is how he took on architecture. his first book, the preservation was a collection of profiles. that was taking a look at the architectural biography and he

partnered with roger straus to take the photograph and was followed is a series of books that are not only stunning to look at but fascinating to read. we had the houses of the founding fathers as one of the things looking at the founding fathers fathers and the houses they've lived in. he's written a number of books but this is a timely anniversary of the civil war and as i said the photographs are spectacular. it's interesting so please join me in welcoming hugh howard. bosco thank you for those nice

words and for coming out this evening. >> in the months since i finished writing this book, i thought about what i wanted to say when i went out to talk to people about it and had a little trouble deciding which path i wanted to to take a. an e-mail arrived from my publicist about a month ago and she wrote to say she had been hired to another publisher. amelia is her name. she's about 25, really smart, full of energy and clearly on her way someplace and i was sorry to see her go. i said i wished her well and i thought that was that. however i got another e-mail from her and she wrote i've never been one for history

because i felt that it lacked human character and i have a special place in my heart for your buck because you put it back. i was a little stunned and flattered. here was this talented person who said something very nice about my book but her words also got me thinking. he and she had put her finger on what i think may be the central point of the book. it's about people. so again, thank you. let's meet some of the characters that you mentioned. first is mississippi. they occupied a place on the top rung of the society. his wife grew up in the town and

he was a graduate of the university of virginia and a scientist father who developed a strain of cotton. the holdings included five plantations. they worked along 40,000 acres. he was needless to say a very rich man. he regarded himself taken from unionist but found himself alone with secessionist friends -- in the war. in 1860 to get the highest per capita income of any city in the united states. but the war would bring that back shocking and. by the way the story might also be called the tail of folly. they wrote to samuel sloan and the time was right into the

philadelphia architect. they have chosen an existing design that they chose years earlier called the model architect and they wanted him to design 49 that we are looking at to accommodate the family that is from 18 and one year with another. the house was to be built not far. it would be a suburban villa that would be different from the other suburban houses in that they would be instructed as the top footprint. the details would be different rather than on the style they

would have the elements. the plans in the featured rooms that measured 20 by 34. there were 44. the most in the pressing was in the center with the success stories. they were large in every way. it would be $115, 125 windows the 24 closets and on and on. but construction proceeded normally as the crew was in the existing house and dug a mammoth. the team of 15 men idiot boys made of bricks on-site and guided by four philadelphia mason is and began to rise. but as they did, the shift in american politics was underway elsewhere on the continent.

in illinois, the sworn enemy into new territory state made a run for the presidency. they saw the arrival that included more than 100 columns with almost 2 miles. they built the houses into there was a lot evolving. but events elsewhere continued to unfold because after the november victory, south carolina succeeded from the union in september 1860. it was like frosting to take and mississippi withdrew from the union in january of 1861. the four yankee masons left before the master carpenter smith worked along with them in

from philadelphia. when the last of the yankees departed to finally for good, the office was completed but it was only a child that wasn't vast empty material. and they left the workbenches behind a. it was of the assemblies in the services. not damaged to complete the interior of the seller it turns out into a liberal space where the family moved in that in the earlier dreams it would ever be finished. three generations lived in the house. he died however in 1864 crushed by the pressures into debt and property. they lived on and three grandsons who make the best of the quarters until 1868 along

with the museum and the most visited site. the former designation as a historic landmark. but it's also a place of personal heartbreak. it's not for us in the century and a half to be bewildered but not to go ahead and build on the eve of the war. should we have known better sensing the country's unrest backs that's probably not fair. they didn't know what we know. instead what we see is inhabiting nothing less than the perfect architectural metaphor suddenly changed.

the war isn't only about the competence of courts and how they are not the only ones out of uniform. in the book we visited the shakers and we were withdrawn by the diary that the elders kept for 1,000 et days of the civil war and made it possible to make her character in the story. but so did her circumstance. kentucky was a border state. they woke up to find bedford along with 86 of the calgary man the union soldiers helped

themselves to the community provisions said they were in the middle of the war, like it or not. yet they were pacifists sympathetic to the union yet also they also reflect the y. and the rest is for the sisters and brothers. meanwhile, nancy recorded what she saw. she and her family were caught in the middle and i think stories like hers are an important part of understanding is a voyeur. i want to go next to a grand house of the single-family home where we will find a well remembered man facing a dilemma. it was on the hilltop mansion that was inherited in the

panoramic view of the federal city class of potomac. just days before the outbreak of standing upon the arlington house of course with its colossal columns he gazed upon the unfinished capitol dome. the beautiful feature of the landscape to colonel robert e. lee remarked to the visitor has ceased to charm me as much and i fear the mischief that is brewing. it is april, 1851. having graduated from west point in 1829 have done stints as the chief deed to general winfield scott during the mexican war. he'd also been the commander of the troops that had recaptured the arsenal of harpers ferry. in the first 54 years his son had felt an absolute allegiance

to the country and of course the thought of george washington during the revolutionary war during the friendship of the general first president. meanwhile, on his wife's side, mary's father. the intensity of the patriotic roots would be. april 14 of 14 to the union surrender of the fourth and we have to keep an unwelcome decision. the first of april 18 april 18 delivered by the intermediary inquirer whether he would accept the command of the new google army. as he recalled the conversation

later i declined the officer stating as candidly as i could that i could take no part in the invasion of the state. we regard first and foremost as virginia but he called the state will end and that was inconceivable to him. scott was a virginian and field commander reacted not be named or about the sadness. you have made the greatest mistake of your life that i feared it would be so. when he left the office this future was yet to be decided as he faced another question if he couldn't oppose the region could he fight the that he cited the nation he had served with all those years. he had been offered a commission by the confederacy a number of weeks before that he had refused

it at that point because virginia had yet to succeed which brings us to the evening he learned of the surrender the delegates finally voted to become the confederates ate steak so we are here at the arlington house and we is upstairs painting back and forth shaking his head and mumbling to himself. his wife downstairs in the parlor and listens as he tries to make up his mind. it would be the most severe struggle with his wife she would later recall. we know the outcome of course. april 221861 robert e. lee rode away from the arlington house for lost time.

he departed for richmond in a black suit with his top hat. two days later he accepted the command of the military force. neither would've no healthier leave the decision would cost and one of the consequences would be the loss of the mansion the overlook on the capital meant that the union had to take it over for military reasons and the soldiers proceeded to chop down old gold and chestnuts to build barracks and burden would. they constructed the roads over the pristine agricultural landscape. the hospital was constructed on the property in 1863.

it became buried ground and today is that the centerpiece. the town fathers were wide enough to surrender, so no battle took place. the same cannot be said. if bear on the battle of n. t. m. that we can make the acquaintance of one claire burton. for months that the military had been saying that they would create a panic at the first site. one general but the 40-year-old

burton wouldn't take them for an answer. if they were looking they were looking at the second battle of manassas and the full ten days had been required to get all from the battlefield to the hospitals in washington and she knew they couldn't wait that long so she accumulated medical supplies and by the time she found she had filled the warehouses. they write in the secret message delivered by hand and although she would live another 50 years she never revealed who it was in the army of northern virginia was marching from maryland.

they had been into the team started the reins teamster had the reins but the small woman wearing a bonnet was running out of time. they took place in the supply line at 1:00 in the morning on tuesday, september 1862 and they took to the road passing some 10 miles of the supply vehicles. they caught up. the battle of antietam began despite the deafening war debate code or are they made their way to the battle. they bought the old bond advantage doctrine of she knew. he showed heard that makeshift operating tables. they have nothing in the instruments that we brought in

the pockets. in the absence. the wagon was brought to good use and never before had it looked so quiet. they administered chloroform and distributed food stanched. i do not suppose a surgeon would have pronounced it a scientific operation. when the lips of another wounded soldier she felt her sleep which is then slumped. appearing before before ripping into the chest killing it in an instant.

at the end of the day her skirt was about her waist and her hair jumbled and when the doctors complained and continued surgeries she summoned the winters from her wagon. no wonder i suppose the one doctor susan wrote to his wife in my feeble estimation, the general mcclellan with all his morals decided to the true heroine of the angel of the battlefield. this is a picture that alexander took of the battlefield. contact matthew brady's gallery. people use magnifying glasses with very detailed images into the first at the scene were

suggested. the images are of clara barton into postdates the war but then the founder of the american red cross in 1881. now it's time to get the most important player. they come to america to take the tour in the strange lands of canada and the united states. they found them beautifully proportioned. still he dismissed washington as

nothing more than a military disco which of course was essentially true. he had two goals in particular he wanted to see niagara falls but the other thing was to meet abraham lincoln and to accomplish that he prevailed upon the new friend or to arrange a visit with the president. the plan was soon in place for the daughter of an undersecretary of the treasury to take us up on the evening to link in's country seat. the destination wasn't a great country house of the sort that the the countrymen and habitat. true, it stood as it was reported in the park but he observed that it was guarded by the troops in the grounds. the principal building on the 300 plus acres of the soldiers home was an institution for the

disabled army veterans. the first family inhabited this structure at the hilltop that was simply an escape for the heat and humidity. arriving after dark they could see little of the houses exterior but assured of them into the furnished trying room. although they had gotten him out of bed, he was still surprised that he was wearing slippers. he was very awkward but there were handshakes all around and be found in all of my uneasiness before the genial smile which

accompanied it a brisk conversation ensued and he asked what we thought of the great country he spoke of england. it's between the governments of the two countries. he thought his commentary was a very lucid and intelligent. thinking us cordially for coming to see him he gave been a grip on the hand and it was much more than a shake. it seemed they reported on the buck to sit down and talk with him for an hour to talk about the british readers and noticed the instinctive timeliness to see if you have known a warmer heart had nobler spirit.

but before we leave, he played checkers with his son as the third lieutenant and it was here in my opinion that the outcome of the war became inevitable. in the summer of 1862, lincoln slept hardly at all. he took place by brambles to the property that has been declared on had been declared on a national cemetery and of course there he saw the boys that he doesn't war. the document was again in my opinion would be like today to call the tipping point. for the first time it was

established at the north and south of this was about slavery. the proclamation also meant the south couldn't get national recognition from great britain or france that became a moreland. so with no help coming from the workers the outcome i would argue is that the south could not find. there was also a disagreement and i think it is very worthy i found it in writing that every book it's an opportunity to go back to school and certainly this one was no exception. the biggest lesson i learned is just as the symphonies and paintings can be left unfinished, so can the war. a disagreement and debate over what happened and why still goes on in the civil war. for example, i was taught growing up in new england that massachusetts went to war to end the slavery.

i imagine those of you that were educated in the south thought that it was about states rights. as it happens we were mostly misinformed on both parts. the cottage is one of the good places to begin understanding how because for lincoln the war was about the unions until it became expedient to make it about emancipation. the evolution of his way of thinking was an ambiguous journey into the emancipation proclamation draft as it was during those june and july weeks on the hilltop in 1862 was primarily a war measure designed to stanched the loss of life and win the war sooner by hauling the confederacy's efforts that relied upon the slaves. but i need to move on since this is a complicated argument that

could go on and on as indeed it has. we will come back to it in a minute. i would like to take us to an unexpected presidential place. we were in biloxi mississippi. the new earner first were given to mac nobody is in the gallery in the house and stated the obvious and decided on the spot to rename the main house together it was completed in about 1853.

they would put that david had the advantage not high enough to protect it from katrina as it happens but high enough to pass beneath the house making it a habitable place. the house has a very clever floor plan with the galleries. they greeted the visitors as joseph blitzer in the newspaper magnet. john adams came to visit and came knocking on the door it all came to see the retired president. the history of the nation with the attempt to be found in a different way today the place in

the cabinet between his admirers and those who still see him as the enemy is still called that it is still called that president jefferson davis library which you see on the right behind the building behind the house. it's been recently constructed after it was obliterated by hurricane katrina and it has a gift shop and offices and an auditorium of the facilities. for those of you just be this and i think today fair number still do the library is a peculiar paradox. davis never won the presidency of the united states so they could never be entitled to the

honor of the presidential library. on the other side of the divide stands to some of the confederates in the presidential library as a sign. consistent with the whistle sounds from the arena davis they maintained the property as the a mission statement and a perpetual memorial sacred to the memory of the late president of the confederate states of america and to the memory of his family and a lost cause. so where does that leave us? for me it represents lots of things. all of the story elements i look for.

in the 1950s they had their raising of the capitol dome and for the two in for the two decades he diligently served as the nation's soldier, senator chris secretary of war. however leaving the senate and in doing so he came to some of the yankee peers. he became a political prisoner in the shackles and many in the north wanted the news about the next for the presumed role.

there was no evidence against him in and the assassination co-conspirator and nonetheless he would spend two years to the equivalent in the tower of london. the story also has family and here they are. that would be just a test for his wife, daughter, grandchildren. perhaps it is the perfect place to go back to that of the the fact the fact that i mentioned a lost cause. it is that the great culture is unfairly wiped out by the war in fact it is almost as old as the board itself because it was first used in the book titled the lost cause published in 1865

by richmond newspaperman. he argued that the south were notably superior to the unions and the confederate army wasn't beaten that overwhelmed by that robert e. lee was godlike and stonewall jackson a marker at a butcher. interestingly, contrary to what winston churchill much of the victories get to write the history of lost cause but actually animate mainstream tech for most of the 20th century the north and south had it. that's changed quite a bit as the research in the north and south discount. and the most essential of his assertions went cannot preserve slavery but states rights and it's now regarded by most

historians as i will put this carefully a disingenuous overstatement. one who bears some responsibility for that as jefferson davis himself and was pictured over the mantle because tellingly in his 1881 memoir arrived to the fall of the government which he wrote here he originally wanted to call our cause all of which is to say it is the flipside of the misunderstandings i grew up with about why my ancestors put on blue uniforms. so just in that vein i want to take a quick detour. one of the places i visited was in concord massachusetts. this was the home of ralph waldo emerson and it was here i grasped how wrongheaded it is to

presume that average mid-19 century farmers and factory workers in new england, harvard sympathies. they didn't. just the word abolitionist made people angry at that age. in fact in the congregationalist church of my childhood in central massachusetts the archives revealed they were excommunicated the dean of the church because they thought the abolitionist sympathies were too extreme. to most northerners of the time the goal seems to be to solve other people's problems at the expense of their own prosperity which of course relied upon the coffin to fuel the mouse. at emerson himself who already reviewed as the united states greatest philosopher discovered for himself the depth when he went public with his opinions in 1844. the townspeople were reluctant to let him speak in the first place and when he did, calling

slavery the habit of oppression he was labeled a fanatic and most people shunned him. this picture was taken much later in 1879. by then his remarkable memory and capacious mind were failing and walt whitman put it rather well when he wrote in the same year that this photograph was taken and he found the old philosopher in the modest twilight of his old age. a rather kind of label for what was very likely alzheimer's. by then of course the war was long over into the construction was ending and the views of the civil war were shifting in both the north and south and all of which is to say the president davis's story isn't a simple one and it's a mistake to believe that it's all been nicely resolved and congressmen to

waste from the the northern or the southern perspective and if that is true of the civil war and for that matter the race relations of the 21st century america. we don't have time to visit the fraction of the site we would like to take you to or introduce the feud of the other characters but in the freewheeling way i would like you to meet marina howell davis. she married geoff davis when he was on the way to congress and would be a great asset in richmond as the first lady of the house, first lady of the south, i'm sorry. we see her at the white house confederacy in richmond. but my favorite piece actually occurred either after her husband's death. she was approaching the end of her life having moved to new york with their youngest child

of a she had befriended another new york widow this was ulysses s. grant. this remained her husbands staunchest defender and she also become a good writer writing a memoir and many articles but on her deathbed having lived long which she knew high times and very hard ones, her sense of humor seemed to have survived her tribune patients. lying on the bed she offered some advice to her only surviving child on how she should be mourned when she was gone. don't wear black she said. it's bad for your health and it will keep us your husband. thanks to doris kearns goodwin's team of rivals, the bestseller and steven spielberg movie lincoln based on the buck, william henry seward has been rescued from obscurity.

he was the secretary of state though he fully expected to win the presidency himself and he survived by his family home in upstate new york. but the image i like best is not at his house for the man himself. here he is looking a bit shoveled as photographed during the civil war and this time the words come from the historian henry adams. he said he had a big nose, shaggy eyebrows, an orderly hair and clothes. adams concluded he looks like a wise call. true enough, don't you think? i like the old aphorism about john calhoun's political clout as it was observed when he took stuffed south carolina's needs. when i looked at this i thought i can't believe it. and by the way, given the

determination on that i can almost hear him uttering his words slavery is a good, positive good. his old plantations arrived. after the death of property came to his daughter and son-in-law. upon their death, there will be cleaved the financial estate to the state of south carolina for the establishment of a technical and agricultural college and today clemson university is the result where the present terms of his will the old calhoun house is an unexpected survivor than the large landscape of the world-class research. in doing my research about calhoun, i came across one of those ironies that if i were writing fiction i'm not sure i could have waited out. in 1988 the university celebrated the centennial of his generosity.

one of the events was a symposium about the victorian women in the south with a number of fine scholars delivering papers on the studies and material culture but it wasn't what the professor said that caught my attention. the very week of the conference clemson was chosen for homecoming. her pretty and popular face of course adorned the front page of the student newspaper. she was maybe you just african-american. one can only wonder what the old reaction might have been. it's pretty hard not to love history. i want to end with the end of that is that the maddox but i want to look at it much later in 1850 to be exact. the eminent historian douglas friedman was at the podium and before him 20,000 people crowded

the streets where four or five years later the generals met to end the war. as the breeze was hitting the flags many of them stars and battle flags and they discarded the final days of the army in northern virginia. the last week in uniform it's reported that virginia pursued a strategy to follow junction with the army of the general johnston of north carolina. but he had found wherever he turned the scouts brought word free mint with his audience that there is a blue line ahead of us. the author of the four volume biography of the south's great general robert e. lee of 1934 and 35 speaker brings great authority more than might be expected even as a pulitzer prize-winning historian because for him, this is also a family affair.

his father a twice wounded veteran at age 22 had stood with him. on april 8, 1965, walker freeman hungry, exhausted had climbed nearby the site of the countless federal campfires brought in the realization he later told his son that may be generally couldn't get us out of this one. at the site to the much later addressed a younger freeman is the mclean house centerpiece of the courthouse national historical monument. the house looks new in 1950. the paint barely dry due to the meticulous reconstruction engineered by the national parks service. as doctor freeman speaks of the reunion brothers, but to listen hold a particular honor. the brigadier general, ulysses

s. grant third retired. a veteran of both world wars. remember this is 1950. when freeman finishes speaking, a 25-year-old salesman from san francisco named robert e. lee, not for smith's the red flag and the blue ribbon essentially opening up to the public on the farmhouse. i find that coming together, generations after the war ended here e. and yet wonderful. in the years after the dedication of course it's become a place of pilgrimage yet in examining the civil war literature best as it is the recent scholarship concerning the appomattox condo for the historical site suggest how problematic our remembering candy. i will give you one tiny example. the man that owned the house where the grant met face target

times after the war. he made a pretty good living during the war speculating that he was casting about the news sources and he settled upon the publication of a surrender to picture. he wrote asking if he would grant him a couple of sittings and he declined because he truly wanted the war behind him. in the memoir unlike so many other participants, but he carried on with his plan borrowing money commissioned and printed and imaged. his room in the house of appomattox as it is titled proved no bonanza and even wouldn't make back his investment. still, the print is of no small interest. he got the architectural helps correct, but despite the fact,

he confused the cast of characters as reproduced lee and grant pictured with his aide and generals including george armstrong custer but he wasn't there. he was miles away during the surrender with his troops on the field. in addition to the wrong clerk was pictured riding out the terms of surrender. as such may seem minor but they remained symptomatic of the larger carelessness in the troops. appomattox was and is a retrospective place, as are all this high-tech talking about and written about in the book. all are suitable settings considering the humanity of the men and women as they wrestled with the war over race and the union. and making the acquaintance of the players we see they increased contradictory

positions but it is clear that to understand them they must not be seen through the lens of the self-satisfied righteousness nor the mythmaking. two employees of his paraphrase of the quoted words of the british novelist, the civil war era is after all a foreign country and they did things differently. our grasp on how differently can be tenuous. it's a mix of indisputable truths, emotional truths of interpretation of unsolved mysteries all of which can be covered by subjectivity and we need in short to question continually what we've been told and what we are being told because they are almost

certainly almost complicated than at first glance but we thought we saw and understood. at the time i spent visiting has left me with a deep respect for the passions and courage of both sides and most of all with a new appreciation for the simple truth that the past is hardly a fixed destination. get traveling there is very worth the effort, that i am very firmly convinced. thank you for joining me on this evenings little journey. [applause] >> we have time for some questions from the audience. >> we have a microphone coming your way. >> there was a small controversy the past week. there is a marker outside of the property here on the hill honoring the start of the sea.

todd gross, the head of the georgia historical society took the lead trying to set the record straight as he was quoted in the papers saying sherman didn't really destroy all that much arbitrarily along the route. he was practicing hard work. did your research into the civil war shed any light onto how much destruction was perpetrated against the houses and other properties from here to savanna and what did you learn? >> this was an area of lots of people have been asking lots of questions and doing good research and to summarize what i've read which is by no means all of the work we've done that a fair amount of it i think it is true that in general she tried to avoid private property but anything that had any

military value the felt was very much care game and it was appropriate to destroy in some way. i think that was true of both sides in the various times and campaigns. i think interest james mcpherson points out in his book when it comes to south carolina, he was a little tougher i think because there was a perception on the part and it wasn't as if he was a little tougher but his men and so things did get a damaged once they hit the sea of savanna and took a left turn and went north because it was the perception among the soldiers that there were -- south carolina started the war. so i think this is a very complicated area and a lost cause to you at a certain impact exaggerating the damage that sherman had done. on the other hand there were some individual units but

probably committed a more mayhem than he would have approved of it it wasn't for/and burn campaign as some would characterize. >> following up on that, are at their houses or were there houses that you wished were still there that you would have liked to have profiled in your book but for whatever reason they are no longer there? >> i don't know of any that were demolished that we would have liked to have seen but of course the majority of my research began with what's there. we always look at finding a mix of interesting players who can add to narrative into places that are interesting architecturally. certainly some are gone. there's a place called middleton

place, and in fact fact there's a house in south carolina that's in the book that's in the same family that was burned by the yankees in 1865. it was one of the great 18th century houses which is gone and would have been fun to see. there were others but -- i don't know them all. any other questions? >> [inaudible] >> the white house and the confederacy the question is where was the white house confederacy? its enrichment and it's now called the museum of the confederacy and it is restored to more or less the status condition that it was and when jefferson davis resided there between 1861 and 65. and it's a lovely house.

it still a family that owned a substantial middle and other properties and it was leased by the confederacy for use in the president's house. >> maybe we can finish up with one last question. you profiled a number of houses in your book. did you find you have a favorite weather is from the architectural standpoint or the character of the person who lived there? >> i guess it is hard to pick which is kind of what this is because when you spend the time i did looking at these places, i think from an architectural standpoint it is hard not to stand in awe that before long wanted the great octagon in part because it is empty.

it's a skeleton shell and yet it has survived. and it's this enormous place that boggles the imagination of how great house would have the house would have been with those enormous rooms and details. on the other hand, much humble places have great appeal. i love the shaker community itself and also simple places like one of the stops we made in connecticut at. beecher stowe's house and lincoln said this is the little lady that started this great big war. it is a rough paraphrase. she lived in a very modest and comfortable house in hartford connecticut. so there were a yankee houses and houses down here that were quite wonderful and revealing and helped of the story of this completed its -- complicated

war. >> are any of these places homes available to be seen today? >> yes, every one in the book. we chose been specifically because they are the same houses and can be seen and visited and you can have the experience yourself. i recommend it. i think it is a wonderful way to immerse yourself in the past, to wander into these houses. they are so different in the characteristics and decorations and colors and furniture and these are all significant structures. >> with architecture, i noticed one photograph of a column in the background in the photo. is there a reflection of people having an affinity for columns so much that they would put a column in the background of a family portrait? >> i think you might be talking about the marina davis image

that does definitely have a column. that is a classic, classical way of painting a portrait, great commonplace very commonplace in the 18th century and it carried through here. but also very suitable in the sense that the greek revival was the predominant architectural style in the 1820s, 30s and into the 50s. so in the years leading up to the civil war the columns of the architectural language people spoke that they were most familiar with was the greek revival so it would be very suitable and familiar and people would recognize it and it added a kind of status in the sense of taste which doesn't everyone want to convey that in the portraits that they just commission someone to paint? >> if you haven't already seen his book it is really fascinating. with the stories and photographs

he's going to be signing copies of them in the library. so let's give him a round of applause for the wonderful trip tonight to the houses in the civil war america. if you will join us in the lobby. thanks very much. ..