pierce, two millard filmore, but two men surnamed honesty and one named industry. these men were ready to give their all for the republic, but the republic was not ready for them. thank you. okay. questions? >> folks, we have microphones in the aisle as we said c-span is here, we need to get your questions on microphone. >> no questions.

>> could you talk a little bit about the salary dispair i go between the white troops and 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. starting salary for whites was 13 a month. blacks were ten. this was purely the fault of congress and, you know,

conflicting laws that they passed over time. they finally straightened up the matter along about the latter part of 1864, i think, and brought the pay of black soldiers achieved parody with, you know, the white soldiers. is that -- >> yeah. i wanted to follow up on the pensions. they received 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 -- but, you know, yeah. >> my name is aca gordon, first commercial, secretary-general to sons and daughters of united states colored troops, with african-american civil war in washington, d.c. and i invite you -- i will be giving a legislature on usct legacy of national redemption and democracy. and it's about how did black civil war veterans, the role they played in establishing democracy doing reconstruction. so i wanted to cheat here a little bit to tap your -- can you give me an incidence 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. 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, you know, 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

was -- but they were organized at that time but night riders just outran the infantry. >> my lecture, by the way, is january 31st, 7 to 9:00. there was one role in the united states colored troops, i'm from the state of georgia, and what happened there was interesting. the state of georgia refused to adopt a limiting their constitution, so they put them under military occupation. and to add insult to injury, to put georgia under occupation in om of the states under u.s. color troops. in savannah georgia, when the time came to try to vote, many of the former ex-confederates were disenfranchised. whites were not allowed to come out that day to vote in savannah and united states color troops oversaw the enrollment of former

slaves to vote. so, without that, the 14th amendment would not have been adopted in georgia without theovthe oversee of the black veterans, black units in georgia at that time to oversee the elections. thank you. >> thank you. >> what insight do you have regarding the p.o.w. experience of african-american soldiers versus their white union counterparts 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 recruited, therefore, if anything, if they were taken

prisoner, they would be -- their local owners would often reenslave them. sometimes good, sometimes bad. and some of them, for example, who were taken prisoner in the central mississippi valley, wound up working on the fort ficti ifictions from mobile and so forth. a few of them -- i think 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. >> i have a question, history nature. you started off mentioning the two authors who had written works on the subject. particularly first one noted his limited ability to look at -- >> couldn't get around. >> 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 this sort of digital internet or local, state archives, things of that nature?

>> well, i was at -- i was at the american antiquarium society in worcester, massachusetts, and the head librarian, or whatever his title is, said, oh, say, we just -- we just successioned some stuff by u.s. color troops officer. want to see it? yeah, yeah. very much. well, by the time, you know by the time "the freedom of the sword" came out, somebody else had edited and published his papers and annotated, you know, like a growth industry, like i said.

yeah, you can -- well -- what is it, the library of american -- the official records are available online. yeah, certain -- i don't know. you just got to go look for it. >> well, 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 or -- >> 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 crop up. but i didn't have to go west of topeka, kansas. [ inaudible ] >> official records. there are states that are putting up records about -- [ inaudible ]

they are records the state maintained and made available. >> you have a question? >> yes. do you happen to have any information on the abolitionist frederick douglas' sons in the 54th regiment? >> well, yeah. there's a photograph of the 54th. i mean, i've just -- i quoted a letter from one of his sons, but biographical information and things like that? 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 generals as u.s. volunteers might have difed from the ones raised as u.s. colored troops by the war department and what happened to the ones raised by the states? >> well, what sort of difference are you looking for? >> well, first of all, the main reason behind why the war department decided to raise the u.s. color troops themselves and what happened to, say, some of the -- the all-black regiments raised by connecticut as u.s. volunteers or maybe those raised

by the military governors. >> in a way, that defieanion. it was such an ill-organized process. for example, there were two -- there were two regiments numbered the 11th u.s. colored infa 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 one two regiments being raised in washington with those numbers, and they had to -- it's

a mess. does that answer your question? >> pretty much. i just -- >> it's like the pay. one hand did not know what the other was doing. [ inaudible ] any state that was given the honor of retaining the state? >> do we -- hello? no. 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? >> yeah. well, if -- other than -- well, dangerous. he could die of disease, be captured or wounded or killed in battle, but other than that -- yeah. yeah, i -- they -- wherever

union troops served, that was a fertile recruiting ground for black soldiers. anyone? no? [ inaudible ] >> i don't know, is it? >> look, i should -- >> on your website. on the internet. >> yeah, 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 ] >> thank you. >> all right. 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 toyspan.org/history or to send us your questions or comments, following us on

twitter. we're @twitter.com/cspanhistory. the summer cottage of william vanderbilt. between 1889 and 1892. this was the first mansion on bellevue avenue in newport, rhode island. it was built by richard morris hunt, architect, the same architect that built the breakers several years later. he was the most prestigious, well recognized, well respected architect really in the world. he had studied in paris, 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 was a great

frankophile. she lived in paris right during the civil war. the civil war. she came from mobile, alabama, and living in paris she became quite well-informed about french art and architecture. 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 sack sfacsimile of a building i paris. we are in the gold room of marble house. this is the room for entertaining. this was the ball room, if you will. everything is gilded. the most important part of this

room is the major restoration that the society undertook to replace the upholstery on the fabric of the furniture. and to replace these curtains. and the interesting story about this fabric is that it was made in france on the same loom, 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. and the thing that i think is extraordinary about these curtains is the stonework along the edges.

the -- not real diamonds, but look like diamonds. this is velvet on velvet, burned into place. beautiful, beautiful. very big effort on the part of the preservation 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, in gilded 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 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 marl hou marble house. there are lots of interesting stories about this room. the first is alva's oldest daughter, conswello, went on, as she grew up to be engaged and married to the duke of marlboro. it was said that the duke of marlboro proposed to con swale oh in this room. it was a dollar bride wedding if you fl. consuelo vanderbilt brought to the table a great amount of wealth, so the duke of marlboro could use the money brought to the wedding to restore his

property in england, blenham castle. in the same turn, consuelo 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 after children. she did a very good job as the duchess. however, it was never meant to be. consuelo disprattly wanted to marry another young man, 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. 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, let this marriage come to an end. alva vanderbilt divorced william vanderbilt. soon after finishing this house, actually, and she went on to become one of the country's foremost suffragettes. she fought for the right for women to vote. on the lawn of marble house, she would gather thousands of women together, and there would be speeches and speechifying, 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 characters. alva herself and her daughter -- alva was an experienced, thoughtful architect as well as a collector. this particular room, she, working with decorators, she was able to bring in hundreds of pieces of objects. which unfortunately for the preservation society were sold to john and mabel ringling. they were renaissance and gothic in nature, thus the gothic room. you know, the america's cup races are coming up. the trials 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 was handed from the american team to the australians, right here. so next summer, in june, the trials will come back to newport. it will be the first time in 20-plus years. we're very excited that perhaps newport will regain its reputation as being the best site for sailing anywhere in the world. and one of the people who madend vanderbilt, have been been a skipper of an america's cup yacht, having won over the years and he's the son of alva and william k. vanderbilt. this is consuelo's bedroom.

here's this young woman who is crazy about another man, not the duke of marlboro. 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. of course, the only thing that's going to get her back into good health is consuelo agreeing to marry the duke of marlboro. her friends cannot get in to 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 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 marlboro 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 suffragette rallies, that alva vanderbilt herself organized. can you imagine a dias here with thousands and thousands of women chanting votes for women, and alva made it part of her custom to hand out pieces of china that had written on it, votes for women. and we