eugene wrote his mother. he was a mama's boy, he wrote his mother that he's people need help and i'm saving my brother and i'm going to stay and help. eugene stayed. most of the doctors were there and he faithfully served. he thought he was going to be okay and felt okay. he stayed with the same folks who were in this plot and he comes down with it very quickly. skeapt 28th. he gets it by september 29th at 9:00 p.m.,dead. the city wrote his mother and said we would like to send his body home. the telegraph lines were up and she said no, that's where he wanted to stay.

they allow him to stay in this lot and eugene is a true hero. not only in reconstruction, but in the city and the south as well. >> there is a new website for american history tv where you can find the schedules and preview the upcoming programs. watch video from the weekly series as well as access to the history tweets. history in the news and social media from facebook, you tube, twitter and 4 square. follow us every week online at c-span.org/history. . >> hosted by our comcast cable partner, c-span's local content vehicle recently visited many sites in shreveport. louisiana's 30 largest city. learn more about shreveport all weekend long on american history tv. >> we are in the doctor's office

here. pioneer medicine is a long stretch from what it is today. modern medicine of course has just evolved over the short amount of time where as the pioneer medicine stayed stagnant for a while without a lot of changes. it was still pretty archaic and some of the things they were doing from early on. they were doing blood letting and using leaches and doing things that modern medicine has frowned upon and come full circle. you consider the things that we take for granted today when we go to the doctor for things like the instruments being as germ-free as possible or the doctor has washed his hands before he decides to work on us. the tools are sterilized. modern pain killers and anesthetics. a lost these things were nowhere

even on the radar yet for the doctors that were practicing. we use the term loosely for doctors when we are talking early medicine. a lot of the doctors were self-taught. or they worked under somebody else that was self-taught and getting ready to retire. they would learn as they went. this would be the room that you would come into for possibly a tooth pulling if they were going to take tonsils out or remove an appendix or deliver a baby. if you were going to do an eye exam. you came into the one exam room they had. warmer weather, better days and people sat outside and waited. if it was cold or nasty, middle of winter, everybody could be crammed into the exam room with a sheet pulled across the patient. privacy was not that huge of an important thing to have when you went to the doctor. other things that make scare to

come to the doctor during this time, if you look at the table we hav the exam table is all metal. this is a metal exam table. would they sterilize it or have clean paper like when you go to the exam table? no. we have our mannequin on here, but under the mannequin, there is a groove bent into the center tray of the exam table that runs into a pan which is basically called a blood pan. if they were removing an appendix, the blood runs around the side under his back into that groove and into the pan. in the pauler pan would allow the smaller pan to drip into the larger pan. did they sterilize it? no. a bucket of water and a rag and that's about as clean as they

get it. the same for the tools. they have a wash basin where they have water and soap that is not anti-bacterial. basically homemade lye soap. it's more than nothing. they would wash up and start to do their work. think about this. x-rays, nothing to render you unconscious for surgery and nothing for pain. really good pain killers. morphine was not invented ether. we will say this mannequin was breaking horses and got thrown off a horse and landed wrong. the thing was when he landed he maybe broke his leg. we know it's broken because it's pointed in the wrong direction. they load him up and bring him in maybe seven or seven miles in a rough bumpy road with him bouncing around. they get him to the doctor and

the doctor gives his best medical opyes, it's broken. the doctor said the first thing we have to do is going to have to try to get his boots off. our mannequin doesn't have them on, but they have to remove the boots. in order to do that is the first thing is to rotate the leg into the right position. that would entail the doctor just rotating the leg back with him screaming and entire time. something else that they don't do today is ask his buddies that brought him, i will need your help. their job is to pin him to the table while the doctor did his work. say i was the person who brought him in, my job is to do this and pin him to the table while the doctor rotated the foot into the right position. the doctor gets ready to take his boot off. he digs around in his bag and may pull out and go to cut the leather on the boot.

he may moan and grown and ask the doctor not to cut his boots off. why not? simple reason. it may be the only pair of shires he had. the doctor would have to make the decision whether to cut the boot off and go by his wishes. he goes by his wishes and manages to wrestle the boot loose. he hears a nice slurpy sound. when it does, he gets the boot off and the pants are all bloody and there is a bulge and the boot is full of blood. the reason is because the bone is exposed through the skin. so the doctor does his best. remember, no pain killers, no x-ray, and the doctor has to try to set this bone and the only way he knows how. the first effort is going to be he is going to take the heel and the foot and apply pressure and

see if he can pull the bone back under the skin. that works somewhat, but it doesn't work as well as it should. then what is he going to do? grabs the ankle and take his finger and put pressure on the bone and push it back through the hole it made through the skin and push his finger in there to feel the bones and rotate the bones and foot around until he thinks he feels the bones come back together. at that point he is going to bandage it up. no plaster cast at this time. he is going to splint it. that involves two boards. he would take two boards, one on each side of the leg and the wound would be bound. he would take the two boards and lay them side by side and take dressings and tightly wrap the board on and that is the cast. to get him home and within ten

days or a little longer, the house starts getting this foul odor and flies are buzzing around the wound. the biggest fear is maybe it is infected. an infection was not something you wanted to get on any major scale because with gang green setting in, they didn't have antibiotics or to try to fight the infection, you have had hope your body is strong enough. the cure all for infection was amputation. you bring him back to the doctor and the doctor said i was afraid this was going to happen. why would it get infected? because the doctor had his fingers in the wound. he had to do what he had to do to save the leg. now the infection is there and the doctor would have to come up above the infected area and remove the leg and it would generally be at the knee. they would come up maybe part of

the thigh and use something very crude and very what we would say very crude. it would be an amputation kit. the amputation kit has everything needed to remove the limb. most doctors would be pretty practiced in amputation, especially after the american civil war because they just had hundreds of thousands of patients to work on. amputation was the route to do g. they would take the tools and the first they would have to use is the scalpel. these are not nice and delicate as you can see. it's long and very narrow and very sharp edge on it. the reason for the length is because this blade here would have to be pushed through the thigh. through the top and out the bottom. they would take the bone saw and the bone saw is very small teeth

that would be used to like it said, to saw through the bone and saw the bone as close to the top as they could. what they would do is cut the bone higher than the flesh when they folded it back over. they would fold the flesh back over the shortened bone and stitch that and that would make the stump. you would think a lot of patients would die, but it was very effective, done properly. we talk about a doctor's office, but a lot of times like i mentioned, they would help farmers. there were saddle bag doctors. they were doctors that not only stayed home bound at their doctor's office, but they would roam the countryside and go to the small communities and we have a great example of what the saddle bag doctors would carry. not only the surgical kits and

what not, but this is a great example of a kit that has all the medicines he would have had and needed at the time and you see they are each individually held by a leather strap and there viles and the bottles. the bottles lean out so they can gain access. the top would have been area for spoons or smaller portions of medicines and what not. this would have all been closed up and carried by the doctor on horseback. this would be his medical bag. a lot of the medicines were based on and had coca or opium base. they didn't have true medical properties, but it made you feel real good that they were there. locally things they would use for medicines, they would lose dandelions which was great for when you were constipated.

bark was the basic ingredient for an aspirin. one of my favorites was a tree called tickle tongue. that's what they would use prior to dental work. you suck on it and it makes your mouth feel young. not as good as nova cane, but we move to the back here and this is the dental office and also the pharmacy. there were big jars and vials of ground up powders and what not. he would make his pills and his own medicines that way. they used things that grow naturally. some of them did have medicinal purposes and did work. some of them did not. a lot of these recipes that they used come from things that are

poisonous. they are recipes that require that you put poison in it. several that you recall are crushed up buckeye seeds. buckeyes were poisonous. the rule of thumb was a little could cure you and a lot could kill you. the doctor would have had his pharmacy and scales for weighing the powders and what not and measuring out the way he would have needed it. this was also the dentist office as well. depthal work is in my opinion outside of surgery one of the scariest things they would have had to do. our dental chair and drill. they refer to it as a treadle drill. it runs like a sewing machine and it would have had a series of belts. you would use foot power to get the belts turning and you can

hear it's nice and squeaky so you can imagine that drill sound. that would go up and of course that would cause the drill bit to turn and they would drill your teeth. the chair that you see here is a true dental chair and medical chair that would have been used. this was used around 1856. it was used by a local doctor south of town here. the true blue medical chair and the reason we know it's true blue is number one, by the design and by the function. we know if you have the foot pedal here, the chair can lean back and you can get a lot of angle to the patient who is laying in the chair. the big thing is the absence of any arms built in the chair.oct

a tooth, he had to keep you as immobile as you could. the patient would sit back and the doctor himself would step over the patient and pin him to the chair so he could work on the patient's mouth and basically keep his body from moving around so much. the pulling of teeth, kind of like today. pliars were used to remove an impacted tooth, one of my favorite was a tooth called a tooth key. the tooth key was a handle and a hook. it's a hinged hook and we will pretend that the coness tip is a tooth and you hang that at the base of the gum and rotate it around. then using just manpower and leverage, you would rotate the two out of the gum line.

we always hear about george washington's wooden teeth. they were not always wooden. as the years would go by, eventually they started making dentures and false teeth. if we look, ivory teeth would be used. or porcelain was used a lot too. the unique things about these dentures are that they are toxic. the base that they made was lead to hold the teeth in place. you put these in your mouth and your gums are pulling toxins out left and for a few weeks and you feel sickly. the doctors didn't know about lead poisoning at the time. he said to stay off your feet and you will get to feeling better. you are not going to wear your dentures in bed and you are feeling better and you put your teeth back in and you get sick

again. you can get lead poisoning from wearing your dentures at the time. we talked about the doctor ook 1830s to the 1930s, if we go 1849, the roars show there were only 87 doctors in the western half of louisiana. that's pretty scarce when you talk about a state. the doctors you talk about them moving around, they were much-needed and the next time you go to the doctor, tell them thank you for the schooling and anything they have done to bring us into this modern world.

all weekend we are featuring shreveport, louisiana and find out where the local content vehicles are going next. online as c-span.org/local content. you are watching american history tv all weekend every weekend on c-span 3. >> watch personal interviews on oral histories. our history bookshelf has the best known writers. revisit key figures and battles and events in the 150th anniversary of the civil bar.

>> i am head of c-span's lcv project. local content vehicle. we have three of them. the purpose is to collect programming from outside of washington, d.c. how do we do it? staff each with one person with a small video camera and a laptop editor so they can roll, produce, and edit from the road. that's what we are doing. why i want to do this is to collect programming for all of the networks. we are doing a cities tour. we will have all three vehicles. one will do history programming and historic sites and the other is book tv catching up with authors and the third does community relations events. they are important to us because we work with our cable partners. the last thing that is important to know is not only does this go on the air, but it's on our

website. you will see the four square and people where we are going. you will see us on twitter as well. a chance it get out the message not only on air, but online and through social media as well. it's important it get outside of washington, d.c. and get into places we don't normally do programming and make a commitment. >> this crazy world of ours, we have adam. the question is not how to use them, but how you restrain yourself from using them. you are commander in chief and any fool can get this country into trouble. it takes a wise man to get it out. >> as candidates campaign for

president, we look at 14 men who ran for the office and lost. go to our website to see video of the contenter who is had a lasting impact on politics. >> shouldn't your president have the highest moral and ethical standards and be an example to our children and young people? shouldn't his life make him a role model for future children? shouldn't anyone you elect to this office always keep his promises? >> c-span.org/the contenters. . >> in a city who is dominated by states men and generals on horseback, this bronze rendition of scientists stands out. even if it does stand 12 feet tall and weigh four tons. his distinctive style had

critics label him the bubble gum sculptor gives us the most playful einstein. sitting on topf the north adopting his te, he holds it in most significant theories. the same bench contains quartz and unwavering belief in human tolerance and quality of the la his findings no matter where they lead. it features a map showing much of the universe on the date of its dedication. that also coincides with einstein's 100th birthday. visitors are drawn to the iconic figure of the grounds of the national academy of science. children are enjoying the specific genius and the smile of a grandfather.

>> there is a new website where you can find our schedules and preview the upcoming programs. watch featured video from the regular serious as well as khtv history tweets and social media from facebook, you tube, twitter and 4 square. watch us every weekend on c 3 than and online. each week american history tv visits museums and historic places to learn what artifacts can reveal about the history of the united states. next, a visit to the first lady's exhibit at the smithsonian's national american of american history.

. >> tell us where we are at. >> this is the first lady's exhibit since it again in 1913. we are almost 100 years old and the longest exhibit in the smithsonian institution. >> tell us the concept behind it. >> we tried a few new things and the challenge is always to balance. to balance the great interest in the dresses and the china. with other kinds of stories about the first ladies. i hate to say married because they love to talk about marrying the presidency, but to marry the two things, you get a fuller picture of the first lady and still get to see the things you want to come to see. the beautiful dresses and the lovely china.

we tried a different arrangem t arrangement. the first time we used the palette of gray and white. the idea was to make the objects stand out. it's a colorful show and it comes from the objects and not the paint on the walls. they want to highlight the gowns and for the first time make them a star. >> talk more about the history of the first lady's exhibit. your responsibility in creating this latest edition. >> the first late's collection began in 1913 by two volunteers and they are washington socialites who had an inn at the smithsonian. they wanted to dedicate this exhibition to women. the idea was to show costumes throughout time. a decentent of james monroe will

use the first lates. they sought out the descendents of the presidents and first ladies. by the time they opened a show, they amassed a good amount and had something to represent every former first lady. it did create what i called the smithsonian definition. that was not the white part of the president. it's the person who played the official role of white house hostess. usually it's a wife, but it can be a daughter or daughter in law or family friend. it's all of those things and the exhibition is featuring the clothing of the mist ress of the white house. >> there were examples in this exhibit today of those that weren't the spouse of the president. talk about them. >> as i look behind me to see who is in this exhibition, this case is mostly wives. in the china and the back

section we will go through case studies. you will see dolly madison. she served as the first lady for the widowed -- the widowed thomas jefferson. his daughter would also serve as the hostess, but so did mrs. madison, the secretary of state's wife. in mixed company at the time you had to have a hostess. you couldn't entertain ladies unless there was a hostess. there was a need to have a woman to perform that function. so much even now, so much of washington life is carried on not on the floor of the house or the senate or an official place, but an informal gathering where you can talk in a more casual manner. they help all the women of washington to be responsible for keeping the networks open. >> is that the point of showing

the dress? that there is much more meaning behind the dress. >> there is. it's beautiful and people love them, but why do we care what the first lady wears? we look to her clothing for clues. about what she is like as a person and what the administration may be like both in the style and is it formal or informal or extravagant or simple? >> possibly something about her politics or the administration politics. american designers and american-made clothing. harrison is the end of the burgundy gown made a point of only wearing american fabrics. if you look to the back, you