after every u.s. president, including one named franklin pierce, two millard fillmores. four men surnamed honesty and one named industry. these men were ready to it give their all for the republic, but the republic was not ready for them. thank you. [ applause ] okay. questions? >> folks, we've got microphones in the aisle. c-span is here so we need your questions on microphone.

>> no questions. oh? >> could you talk a little bit about -- is that loud enough? could you talk a little bit about the salary disparages between the white troops and the black troops and when it changed and why it changed. and was it legislation that did it or was it at the military level? thank you. >> yeah. the black troops at first did not receive the same -- i mean, starting pay for a private was

$13 a month. blacks were paid $10. this was purely the fault of congress and, you know, conflicting laws that they passed over time. it -- they finally straightened out the matter along about the latter part of 1864, i think, and brought the of black soldiers -- achieve ed parity wh the white soldiers. >> yeah. i wanted to follow up on the pensions. did they receive pensions? >> oh, yeah. yeah. i used a lot of pension

applications in the research for the book, yeah. there were god knows how many thousands of, you know -- but yeah. >> my name is ezra gordon. i'm secretary general to sons and daughters of the united states colored troops and with the african-american civil war in washington, d.c. and i invite you, i will be giving a lecture on the usct legacy of national redemption and democracy. it's about how the black civil war veterans, the roll they played in establishing democracy during reconstruction. so i wanted to cheat here a little bit here. can you give me an incident of the black role of the black civil war veterans in, say, policing the process that took place in trying to restore the

states to the union in the election process? >> that is -- now, you said veterans. i mean, they were still -- the colored troops were mustered out in '65, '66, and '67 so there were -- there weren't really enough of, well, troops of either race to police the south. the first thing -- oh, the first thing that the order went forth from washington, muster out all the mounted regiments because cavalry is expensive.

well, you know, klu klux klan, the klan was not organized at the time, but the forerunners, you know, night riders, they had horses. they just outran the infantry and, you know -- >> well, my lecture, by the way, is on january 31st at 7:00 to 9:00 at civil war memorial. there was one role in the united states colored troops -- i'm from the state of georgia. what happened there was interesting. the state of georgia refused to adopt a full team amendment in their constitution. so they -- military occupation and to add insult to injury, they put georgia under occupation in some of the states on the u.s. colored troops. in savannah, georgia, when the time came to try to vote, many of the former confederates were

disfranchised. whites were not allowed to come out on the day to vote in savannah and the united states colored troops oversaw the enrollment of former slaves to vote. and so, without that, the 14th amendment would not have been adopt in georgia without the oversee of the black veterans. black units in georgia. >> how much insight do you have regarding the p.o.w. experience of african-american soldiers versus their white union counterparts and how they were treated in p.o.w. camps throughout the south? >> some of them were -- well, since most of the regiments were

locally recruited, therefore, if anything -- if they were taken prisoner, they would be -- their local owners would often re-enslave them. sometimes good. sometimes bad. the -- and some of them, for example, who are taken prisoner in the central mississippi valley wound up working on the fortifications of mobile and so forth. a few of them from -- oh, i think some 54th massachusetts were taken prisoner in south

carolina did wind up in andersonville, but they had a lower death rate because the confederates were working them and they had to at least feed them enough so they could do the work. >> thank you. >> sure. >> i have a question historical nature. you had started off mentioning the two authors who had written works on the subject, in particular the first one noted his limited ability to -- >> he just couldn't get around. >> -- look at sources, right. i'm wondering if you could say a little about where things stand now, especially in terms of where the records are. obviously you've consulted here at the archives extensively, but

have new things come to light in the last 20 years with sort of the digital internet or local state archives thirngss of that nature? >> well, i was at the american anti kwair yum society in worcester, massachusetts, and the head libraryian, or whatever his title was, said, oh, say, we just successioned some stuff by u.s. colored troops, officer. want to see it? yeah. yeah. very much. well, by the time, you know, "freedom by the sword" came out, somebody else had already, you know, edited and published his

papers and annotated editions. you know, it's like a growth industry, like i said. yeah, you can -- well, the -- what is it, the library of american -- the official records are available online, and, yes, certain -- i don't know. you've just got to go look for it. >> in terms of especially like state archives? >> well, since these were all federal troops, the national archives is, you know -- has

their records. state historical societies, yes, have large numbers of -- i mean, i wrote the end of -- well, the account of the siege of mobile was heavily relied on stuff that i got from the minnesota historical society. so you never can tell where exactly it's going to pop up, but i didn't have to go west of topeka, kansas. [ inaudible ]

[ inaudible question ] >> you have a question? >> yes. do you happen you to have any information on the abolitionist frederick douglas' sons who were in the 54th regiment? >> well, yeah. there's a photograph of the 54th. i mean, i quoted a letter from one of his sons, but biographical information, things like that? no. no.

just what's in the book oh, yeah. >> i have a question if you could probably give us a difference in how those initial black units raised by the state's ajunt general -- directly by the war department and what happened to the ones raised by the states? >> well, there's quite a bit of difference between old regiments that were raised and -- well, what sort of difference are you looking for? >> well, first of all, the main reason behind why the war department decided to raise u.s. colored troops themselves and

what happened to, say, some of the all-black regiments raised by i think connecticut as u.s. volunteers or maybe those raised by the military governors like in louisiana and such. >> that in a way defies explanation. they -- it was such an ill-organized process. for example, there were two regiments numbered the 11th u.s. colored infantry, one in arkansas, one in tennessee. it took them months to get it straightened out. tennessee also had a first and second u.s. colored infantry

until they found out that there was two regiments being raised in washington with those numbers and they had to -- it's a mess. does that answer your question? >> pretty much. >> yeah, it's like the pay. i mean, one hand did not know what the other was doing. [ inaudible question ] yeah.

hello? no? >> one of my ancestors was a volunteer with the florida regiment, i believe it was in jacksonville. and i believe that was towards the end of the war. how common would that have been, or how dangerous would that have been for him to do in florida? >> in -- i didn't hear the last couple of words. >> how common or dangerous would that have been for a black person to volunteer in florida, although i think it was at that time occupied by the union. >> oh, yeah. it -- other than -- well, dangerous, he could die of disease, be captured or wounded than that --

yeah. yeah. they -- wherever union troops serve served, that was a fertile recruiting ground for black soldiers. any more? no? [ inaudible question [ . >> i don't know. does it? i should -- [ inaudible question ] >> on the internet. >> i should make clear that i have no financial stake in this because i wrote it while i was on the government payroll and

there are no royalties attached to it. so, yeah, i mean -- yeah. [ inaudible question ] [ applause ] >> as commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the civil war continues, join us every saturday at 6:00 and 10:00 p.m. and sundays at 11:00 a.m. for programs featuring the civil war. for more information about american history tv on c-span3, including our complete schedule, go to c-span.org/history.

and to keep up with us during the week, or to send us your questions or comments, follow us on twitter. so here we are at the marble house. it is the summer home, the summer cottage, of william and alva vanderbilt. it was built between 1889 and 1892. this was the first real mansion on bellevue avenue in newport, rhode island, and it was built by richard morris hunt, the architect, the same architect who built the brakers several years later. he was the most prestigious, well-respected architect really in the world. he had studied in paris, the first american to do so, and he was much sought after. this house was built, really, by alva vanderbilt with richard morris hunt.

it was a 39th birthday present from her husband, william, to her. and alva woman. she lived in paris, right during the civil war. she came from mobile, alabama and living in paris she became well informed about french art and architecture. she had a hand in what this building was going to look like and be like. it was a facsimile of the building. we are in the gold room of

marble house. this is the ballroom if you will. everything is guilded. the most important part of this room is the major preservation that the society took to replace the fabric on the furniture and to replace these curtains. the interesting story about this fabric is that it was made in france with the same loom with the same design which was used to create the tex titiles. it was a stroke of luck that we were able to use the same technique that had been here in the 1890s when the room was first pulled together and they are -- the thing that i think is

extraordinary about these curtains is the stonework along the edges. not real diamonds but look like diamonds. this is velvet on velvet, burned into place. beautiful. very big effort on the part of the preservation society to under take this project and i'm telling you this, because we are an organization that is designed to create an atmosphere that gives you the visitor a chance to understand what life was like in the 1890s in guilded age america but our job also includes restoring our building and the collections within the building.

we are trying to bring back the newport houses to their former glory. so the visitors get a sense of what this era of american history and it's changes what it was all about. we are in the gothic room of marble house and there are lots of interesting stories about this particular room. the first is that vanderbilt's daughter was consuelo and she went onto be married to the duke of marlboro. it is said that he proposed to her in this room. it was a bride that she

brought to the table so that the duke could use the money to restore his property in title the duke were married for a good long period of time. enulled even after children e she did a good job as the duchess however it was never meant to be. she desperately wanted to mary another young man, warren rutherford. her mother, however wanted her daughter to be married into royalty. she made sure that the duke and her daughter would be matched up. alva was a very interesting character. as i mentioned before, she grew

up in the south during the civil war her family moved to france warfare in the south. so she grew up with sentiment for france and married william vanderbilt. she did very well for herself. she forces her daughter to mary the duke of marlboro and later, when the divorce p forward. alva stepped forward and said please, judge please let this marriage come to alva divorced william finishing this house and went onto become one of the country's foremost

sufferjets. she fought for women to vote. she would gather thousands of women together and there would be speeches and she spent a lot of her money on the cause. working with other women to get the right for women to vote. women got the right to vote in 1920. and we celebrated the 90th anniversary of that just last year. so very interesting charactva h. i mentioned before that alva was an experienced thoughtful architect as well as collector. this particular room, she working with decorators was able to bring in hundreds of pieces of objects which for the preservation society were sold to john and mabel ringling. they were renaissance gothic

in nature. the america's cup races are coming up. very sad for newporters and actually the united states. the america's cup was lost in 1983 and the cup was handed from the american team to the australians right here. so next summer in june, the trails will come back to newport and it will be the first time in 20 plus years. we are very excited that newport will gain it's reputation for being the best sight in the world. one of the people who made that reputati

reputation was harold, the son of alva and william vanderbilt. this is the bed room. here is this young woman who is crazy about another man, not the duke. her mother has just what many believe has faked a heart attack. her mother's friend has said consuelo you need to do something to help get your mother back in good health. the only thing that is going to get her back into good health is agreeing to mary the duke of mar marlboro. her friends cannot get into see her. there are all of her letters that she writes to friends outside are not getting delivered. her father is traveling so she has no one to talk to. her brothers are too young to understand what it is like to be

forced into a marriage and so, i think that this bedroom must have been a place where she did a lot of soul searching and a lot of misery keeping if you will. trying to reconcile in her mind what her mother wanted for her and for the family and what she wanted and as we know from history. she agreed that the duke would be a good husband and went onto accept his marriage proposal but interesting life she led and part of it was lived out in this room. this was the sight of all of those women's rallies that alva herself organized. can you imagine a dias here with thousands of women chanting votes for women and