and one named industry. these men were ready to give their all for the republic, but republic was not ready for them. thank you. [ applause ] >> okay. questions? >> folks, we've got microphones in the aisle. as we said c-span is here. we need to get 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 disparities 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. >> yes the black troops at first did not receive the same -- i mean a private starting pay for a private was $13 a month. black were paid $10. this was purely the fault of congress and conflicting laws that they passed over time.

they finally straitened up the matter along about the latter part of 1864, i think. and brought the pay of black soldiers achieved parity with the white soldiers. is that -- >> yes i wanted to foul on the pensions. could they receive pensions? >> oh, yes yes i used a lot of pension applications in the research for the book. yes there were god knows how many thousands of -- but yes. >> my name is asah gordon. first a commercial.

i'm secretary jones of sons and daughters of the united states colored troops with the african-american civil war in washington, d.c. and i invite you -- i will be giving a lecture on the uset legacy of national redemption and democracy. it's about how the black civil war veterans, the role they played in establishing democracy during the reconstructions. and so i wanted to cheat here a little bit. can you give me an incident of the black roles 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? >> now, you said veterans. i mean, they were still -- 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 ku klux klan was not organized at that time. but the forerunners, night riders, they had horses. they just outran the infantry.

>> well, my lecture by the way is on january 31nd at 7:00 to 9:00 at the african 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 the 14th amendment in their constitution. and so they put them under military occupation. and they added insult to injury, they put georgia under the occupation in some of the states on the u.s. colored troops. and in savannah, georgia when the time came to try to vote, many of the former ex confederates would disfranchise. whites were not allowed to come out to vote in is a van namt 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 adopted in georgia without the

oversight of the black veterans. black units in georgia at that time to oversee the elections. thank you. >> yes thank you. >> hi. what insight do you have regarding the p.o.w. experience of african-american soldiers versus their white union countser parts and how they were treated throughout p.o.w. camps throughout the south? >> some of them were -- well, since most of the regiments were locally recruit ed, therefore i anything, if they were taken prisoner they would be -- their local owners would often

reenslave them. sometimes good, sometimes bad. the -- and some of of them, for example, who were 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 that 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, historic graph cal nature. you started off mentioning the two authors who had written works on the subject. particularly first one noted his limited ability to -- >> 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 record are. obviously you've consulted here at the archives extensively. but have new things come to light the last 20 years with the sort of the digital internet or local state archives, things of that nature? >> well r, i was at the america

antiquarian society in word chester, massachusetts. the head librarian or whatever his title was said, oh, say, we just excessioned some stuff by a u.s. colored troops officer. want to see it? and yeah. yeah. very much. well, by the time "freedom by the sword" came out, somebody else had already edited and published his papers and an notated editions. like a growth industry. like i said. yes you can well, 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 like especially state archives, do you feel that there are things there that hadn't been consulted back then which are now becoming more available? >> oh. well, since these were all federal troops, the national archives is -- 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 ]. putting up records about [ inaudible ].

>> you have a question? >> yes do you happen to have any information on the abolitionist frederick douglass's sons who were in the 54th regiment? >> well, yes. there's a photograph of the 54th. i mean, i quoted a letter from one of his sons. but biograph cal information? things like that? i don't, no. just what's in the book. >> oh, you had one. >> i have a question if you could probably give us a difference in how those initial black units raised by the

state's as djutants general as u.s. volunteers might have differed from the ones raised by u.s. colored troops and what happened to the ones raised by the states? >> well, there's quite a bit of difference between oh, the regiment that is were razed. well, what sort of difference are you looking for? >> well, first of all, the main reason behind why the war department decided to raze the u.s. colored troops themselves and what happened to say some of the all-black regiments razed by i think connecticut as u.s. volunteers or maybe those razed by the military governors like in louisiana with the corps d's

afrique and such. >> in a way it defies explanation. it was such an ill-organized process. for example, there were two -- there were two regiments numbered the 11th u.s. colored infantry. one in arkansas, one in tennessee. it took them months straightened out. tennessee also had a 1st and 2nd u.s. re until they found out that ther wo regiment washington with those numbers. it's a mess.

does that answer your question? >> pretty much. i just -- >> yes it's like the pay. i mean, one hand did not know what the other was doing. >> [ inaudible ] became the 73rd, 74th, 75th. i think the 74th was the only state that was given the honor of retaining their state [ inaudible ]. >> do we -- 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?

>> i didn't hear the last couple of words. >> how common or dangerous would that have been for someone, for a black person to volunteer in florida, although i think it was at that time occupied by the union. >> yes. well, other than, well, dangerous. he could die of disease, be captured or wounded or killed in battle. but other than that -- [ laughter ] >> yes. i mean, yes. they -- wherever union troops

served, that was a fertile recruiting ground for black soldiers. anyone? no? >> [ inaudible ]. >> i don't know. is it? i should -- >> [ inaudible clr i have no financial stake in this because i wrote it while i was on the government payroll. attached to it. so, yes. i mean, yes.

>> [ inaudible ]. [ 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-span 3, 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 and comments, follow us on twitter. we'rty. so here we arehouse. it is the summer home, the summer cottage of william and

alva vanderbilt. it was built beee 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 breakers several years later. he was the most prestigious, well-recognized, well-respected architect really in the world. he had studied at in paris, the first american to do. so 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 was a great francophile. she lived in paris right during the civil war. she came from mobile, alabama.

and living in paris she became quite the francophile and quite well-informed and french art and architect. so she had a very strong hand in what this building was going to look like and how it was going to be decorated. it is very much in the french style, designed to look like a facsimile of the petit petite trianole. we'll see that many remembrances of her paris experiences come into place as alva designs and build this house. >> we are in tgold room of marb house. everything is gilded. the most important part of this room recently is the major restoration that the preservation society undertook to replace the upholstery on the

fabric of the replace these curtains. and the interesting story a this fabric is th lyon, france m with the same design that initially was used to create the first textiles. so it's an extraordinary stroke of luck that we were able to use exactly the same weaving techniques to create what had been here in the 1890s when the room was first pulled together by alva vanderbilt. hnd they are -- the thing think is extraordinary about these curtains is along the edges. the not real diamond, but look like diamonds. this is velvet on velvet, burned into place.

beautiful, beautiful. very big effort on the part of the preservationist society to undertake this restoration 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 ined age america. but our job also includes that of restoring our buildings, taking care of them, preserving them, and then restoring the collections within the buildings. so we're trying to bring back all of the newport houses to their former glory so that americans and visitors from around the world really get a sense of what this era of american history, a very important part of our country and its changes what it was all about.

so we are in the gothic room of marble house. and there are lots of interesting stories about this particular room. the first is that alva vanderbilt's daughter was consuelo. and she went on, as she grew up, to be engaged and married to the duke of marlboro. it is said that the duke of marlboro proposed to consuelo in this room. it was a dollar bride wedding, if you will. consuelo vanderbilt brought to the table a great amount of wealth so that the duke of marlboro could use the money brought to the wedding to restore his property in england, lenham castle.on the same turn,

gained a title. and she and the duke of marlboro were married for a good long period of time. but in the end their marriage was annulled, even aftere d a duchess. however, it was never meant to be -- consuelo vanderbilt desperately wanted to marry another young man, warren rutherford. her mother, however, wanted her daughter to be married into royalty. and so through a lot of machinations made sure that the duke of marlboro and her daughter consuelo would be matched up. alva vanderbilt was a very interesting character. as i mentioned before, she grew up in the south during the civil war. her family moved to france to get away from all of the warfare in the south. so she grew up with a lot of sentiment for france. she then married william

vanderbilt. he was one of the richest men in the world so she did very well for herself. she forces her daughter to marry the duke of marlboro. and later, when the divorce proceedings were going forward, it was alva vanderbilt who stepped forward and said, "i am responsible for the marriage of my daughter. please judge, please, let this marriage come soon after finishing this house actually. she went on to become one of the country's foremost suffragets. she fought for the women to vote. on the lawn of marble house she would gather thousands of women together. there would be speeches and speechifying and she spent a lot of 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 90 anniversary of that just last year. so very interesting character, alva and con swasuela. this particular room she was able to bring in hundreds of pieces of objects, which unfortunately for the preservation society were sold. they were ren a sense and gothic in nature, thus the gothic room. you know, the america's cup races are coming up. the trial is next summer in newport and in other sailing capitals around the world. very sad for newporters and actually the united states. the america's cup was lost in

1983 and the cup handed to the american team to the australians right here. so next summer in june the trials will come back to newport. we're very excited that perhaps newport will gain its reputation as being the best site for sailing anywhere in the world. and one of the people who made that reputation occur was harold vanderbilt, having been a skipper of an america's cup yacht, having won over the ye s years. he's the son of alva and william k. vanderbilt. this is consuela's room. she's crazy about another man,

not the duke of yarborough. her mother has what many believe has faked a heart attack. her mother's friend said you need to do something to help get your mother back in good health. the only thing that's going to get her mother back into good health is conswaleos agreeing to marry the duke. 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 really too young to really appreciate or understand what it's 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 of marlborough would be a good husband and so she went on to accept his marriage proposal. but very, very interesting life she led, and part of it was lived out in this room. this was the site of all of those women suffraget wallies that alva vanderbilt herself organized. can you imagine a diet here with thousands and thousands of women chanting "votes for women "and alva handed out pieces of china that had written on it "votes for women" and we sell tea cups and dinner plates with "votes for women" on it. it's one of our more popular items in our museum