populace agrees it is something we should subsidize, put it on the balance sheet. make a clear and make it evident and make everybody aware of how much it is costing. when you deliver it through these third-party enterprises, fannie mae and freddie mac, when you deliver the subsidies through a public company with private shareholders and executives who can extract a lot of that subsidy for themselves, that is not a very good way of subsidizing homeownership. collects -- >> christopher hitchens, a few of the 41 engaging stories and c-span2 sundays at eight, now available at your favorite bookseller. >> founded in 1999, the united states army heritage education center is part of the u.s. army war college in carlisle, pennsylvania and is supported by the private nonprofit army heritage center foundation. the center is a primary research facility for u.s. army history

and includes exhibits and a library open to the public. american history tv visited to see a selection of artifacts in the storage facility which is not open to the public. >> i'm the curator of the uniforms and equipage. we are currently in the storage facility. i brought out some items we bring up for groups to come through through our storage facility. here at the storage facility at the army heritage museum, we house all of the artifacts for the army heritage and education center. the facility holds about 65,000 pieces plus or minus that relate to the army's history and specifically soldiers of the army throughout its entire

history. everything stored here is in boxes or tissue paper, kept out of light. the temperature and humidity is controlled so it's a state of the art museum and storage facility. the materials that are part of our collection have been acquired since the mid 20th century when the organization first really started here at the war college. and they have come in through primarily donations through veterans surveys, a little purchasing that the army would allocate money to. but primarily donations. the first item i pulled here is a presentation grade saber, civil war era, and it was given to colonel hugh judd son kill patrick, who became a famous civil war cavalry channeler during the war.

this particular saber was given to him by the men and officers of the second new york cavalry, nicknamed the harris light guard. and it was very much a high end presentation saber. common for the upper officers of a unit to be given a sword or a saber as a memento from their men. kilpatrick was, he graduated from west point in 1861 shortly after the war started and was commissioned as second lieutenant in the field artillery. and, but shortly there after he became an overs in the fifth new york infantry and was actually the very first american officer wounded in the war at the battle of big bethel in june, 1861.

there after he helped to raise this unit, the second new york cavalry, and went on to command cavalry units for the rest of the war. he was a colorful figure, got himself into trouble a couple of times. and his men either loved him or hated him. he earned the nickname during the war as kill cavalry because he often would be a little reckless with his men under his command. but for the most part he got the job done, and his superiors generally recognized his talent as a cavalry officer. presentation swords or sabres, depending on their branch, generally were more for dress occasions, maybe for display. certainly some officers would have used them, but in was one

of those kind of trophy things that would have been meant more for display and for the real fancy occasions in their service. next we have a rather beat up looking slouch hat, also from the civil war period. while it's not exactly a lot to look at, it has a very interesting story. the hat was worn by general william tecumseh sherman during his famous march to the sea in november and december of 1864. after he had sacked atlanta. what happened was once hits army got to fort mcallister outside savannah and before savannah fell, he ended up meeting with general foster who was in command of union forces at

hilton head island, basically in trying to determine how they were going to take the city, how they were going to capture the city for the union army. and during that exchange in mid december, 1864, there was a treasury agent that was there and he had become familiar with sherman, they were on friendly terms and at that meeting this agent's name was albert brown, he commented to general sherman, he said something to the effect of general sherman, for a man of your rank and reputation you have a shocking bad hat. and sherman didn't necessarily take offense to it, but he said in response to agent brown, he said, well, brown, you have a decent hat, i will swap you. and brown said, done, and they traded hats. and brown took this particular hat with him, sent it home to a

nephew in massachusetts as a trophy, as a memento. and that's where it remained until 1970 when the collection of the military order of the loyal agent of the united states, which was a veteran organization after the civil war, sent their collection to us here. mollus, which was the veterans organization, every state had a mollus commandery, which was made up entirely by union officers after the war. and just like a v.f.w. is today, more or less the same thing. and they would have these grand halls in every state that they would collect war memorabilia, be able to meet, just like

veterans do today, to talk about their experiences. and often you would find pictures of these halls just decorated with all of these various types of souvenirs and memorabilia from the war, and this is definitely one piece that we know has a fairly concrete story to it, corroborated by both mollus and the family that it came from. >> my name is jim mcnally and i am the curator of art of the united states army. my responsibility is to collect, preserve and interpret army art history. what that means is specifically is my concern is where art images and army history come together to tell the story of the american soldier. what i want to say is that about 10 years ago when we started the

project, one of our very first exhibits was called the army in your attic. and what that was, it was a plea to the american public to take a look at what's upstairs, what's in the old trunks and before it winds up on the sidewalks to be thrown out, maybe it just might help us tell our story. it's interesting because the painting i'm going to show you now came to us from that source. this is a painting that was done in country, in vietnam, by the s2 section of the 9th infantry division. this hung in the headquarters at second field force. and i got a phone call from a colonel wally williams in 2003 and said he saw our message, our call to arms, on the internet and he called up saying they might want something like that. as we were talking and trying to prepare for this, all of a sudden the communication stopped. and i called a number of times,

finally when i got through a family member picked up and said we're sorry to tell you that colonel williams has passed away. and i said you know, we were talking about a donation of an important painting done in theater on army tarp, you know, by the guys in the unit of all the places they worked at where they were deployed during the war. and they told me, tell you what, let me get back to you. in a couple of days i got a call from a colonel john hook, and colonel hook said, look, he says i promised colonel williams if it's the last thing i do, i'm going to get that painting to you guys. and about two weeks later it shows up and its amazing story of the 9th infantry and their operations. now, the 9th, they were all over that area, and when we look at it you can see the eagles bear, you can see the different fire support bases, the angels wing,

the parrot's beak, very important in the invasion into cambodia. but what i want to tell you is that they were very famous for working down into the delta. they were one of the large divisions, the 9th in the delta, very dangerous vietcong strong hold, working in the jungles of that area, and their job was to protect the vietnamese locals and to keep the somehow to keep back the viet cong during what they called their pacification program. this hanging, painting is hanging in our vietnam exhibit and we're very proud to have it. it's almost like the last will and testament of colonel williams, was to get that here and that's what we have. next we have two items that relate to an officer edward good free -- godfrey. who spent time during the indian

wars in the 1870's and 1880's. the this is constructed of silk and it was from his command, he was part of the 7th cavalry, the famous unit that custer led at little big horn. at the time he was a lieutenant in company k of the 7th cavalry. and this flag came from that portion of the command. edward settle godfrey, later in his career as he was serving, was leading elements of federal forces at the battle of bear paw mountain in 1877 which is present day montana.

during that action, he was leading some men trying to take, they were fighting the nez pierce indians at the time and he was wounded and continued to lead his man and therefore won the medal of honor, which is what this piece is. the medal of honor that we was awarded in 1894 for his actions at that picture battle in 1877. here we have another medal of honor, we have i believe four in the collection. this one is the mid 20th century pattern which was different from godfrey's. it was awarded to colonel johnson, who was a fight in the 8th air force during world war ii. and he earned this medal of honor for hits actions during the raid on the oil fields in romania in august, 1943. the unit, the bombardment group,

which had actually been temporary placed under the command of the 9th air force, were moved to north africa, and they were part of operation tidal wave, which was this bombing mission. and during the 2400-mile flight from north africa to the oil fields, a number of the bombers were forced to deal with serious cloud cover. so there was a little bit of a mixup in terms of their formations. and leon johnson's group broke away a little bit, he refound where he was supposed to be going and decided to continue his specific bombing mission. once he realized and got back on

track, they found that leading elements of the bomb group had already bombed his particular target, and therefore he had lost the element of surprise basically. and he made the decision to continue his bomb run with his other planes under his command. and as a result, he lost some additional planes. his plane, the susie q., received significant damage and he was able to directly bomb his target and make it back with a successful bombing mission. i believe the 44th bomb group in that particular mission, they lost 11 planes out of 37 or 39 that they had sent in. and they were flying the b24 liberators at the time. >> we have probably the largest collection of american military posters anywhere in the country here. and world war i, world war ii, allies and adversaries, so we do

have a collection of british and canadian and, we have some german, italian. we have a wonderful collection of french world war i posters. and that would probably be the primary area of our concentration. we're eclectic in everything else, we have images from the revolutionary war, right up to the vietnam image, and even some current things that are coming in now. we have about 7,000 pieces in the art collection. i'm going to show you a very unique portrait that we have in the collection here. and it's little known and hasn't been seen by a lot of people, but we have here the 1932

student portrait of george s. patton. and this amazing image, you can see how pencive it is. we remember patton as a larger than life figure and we can see here that he's thinking about something and it's almost like he could step right out of that picture for you. the amazing thing about this picture, it was donated to the army war college in 1954 by his daughter. his daughter and her husband was in the class of '54 and they made that presentation. they thought this was the place it should be. i do have a photograph, which is kind of neat, that shows that presentation. here is major general james moore and he was the commandant in '54. here is general patton's daughter. and this is totten. if you were to cover her hair, you can see the family

resemblance right there. over here is her husband, colonel totten. and they made that gift in '54 so it's been here being cared for and protect forward the last 60 years. >> what we're looking at here is a presentation grade colt 1911. in and of itself it's pretty fancy, but more importantly, as we can see from the card right next to it, it was given as a cress present -- a christmas present from elvis presley to general of the army omar m. bradley in 1970. the bradleys at the time were living outside hollywood and he was retired.

and bradley kind of hobnobed and elbowed with other hollywood stars. so he was well-known in that circle and certainly in the army circle. he was well-known, he was the army's last serving five-star general, still today is actually. and so he had met certainly had met elvis presley before on a number of occasions. and elvis presley being a former service man certainly respected omar bradley and likened him as a friend. he decided to give bradley this 1911.45 caliber automatic pistol as a christmas present. and i would say in the past we have had just as much excitement, not only over the pistol but all the over elvis presley's signature and card.

the card states to general bradley, with love and respect, elvis presley. >> this is the most amazing flag here, this is the confederate flag that as captured at the battle of an teeth am, and of course what happened here is you can see it's got this marvelous six-sided folk star, which was somewhat rare. and it is on silk. during that battle at antietam, this flag was dropped in the field by the 11th mississippi. it was picked up by sergeant major kidd and handed to colonel white. and he see let me have this, and of course as you notice this comes right out of the story of "dances with wolves." when you ride across the confederate line with their flag, it makes them very angry, and they were all shorting at colonel dwight and he was hit twice.

and in real life you do get shot, and he died a few days later, he bled out and died. and this flag was given to his mother and she kept it for many years and then do indicated it to the mollus collection in boston, which is the military order of the loyal legion of the united states. a fraternal organization founded upon the death of lincoln, it's still active today. and the flag came to us, and we have it here in the collection. it was a marvelous collection and an image from that time that evokes all of that passion and commitment to the defense of the country. we do have a painting of colonel wilder dwight that carried that flag and we're going to walk over and take a look at that now. i do have a letter that he wrote, and it's on the 17th of september, 1862 on the field, he says this.

dear mother, it is a misty, moisty morning, we are engaging the enemy and are drawn up in the support of hooker who is now banging away most briskly. i write in the saddle to send you my love and to say that i am very well so far. there's a break in it because now they are ordered into combat. puts his letter away and he moves with the troop into bats. he picks up the letter again, dearest mother, i am wounded so as to be helpless. goodbye, yet so it must be, i think i die in victory. god defend our country, i trust in god and love you all to the last. dearest love the father and all my dear brothers. our troops have left the part of the field where i lay. mother yours, wilder, and then he has a postscript. he says all is well with those

that have faith. of course these portraits were done by the mollus collection as commemorative portraits, often done from photographs that were taken and they were made to commemorate the victories and the ordeals and the defeats of the fallen union officers. i suspect there is no date on this, but most of them were done in the 1880's and cynthia is working on it. >> i'm the objects conservator here. i take care of the museum objects to keep them from degrading and to heaven sure that they will be here for another 50 or 100 years. so we do repairs. we clean them.

anything that might be needed for that object to last as long as possible. the painting was actually conserved in the 70's at another facility. but what i'm working on is trying to remove all of this dark, all of this black on the frame. is soot, and cigar smoke, pipe smoke, from when it hung in kind of a gentlemen's library. so it was late 1800's. so my challenge is to get the soot off, get all the dirt and the staining and cigar smoke, without removing the paint. so what i've been doing is testing different solvents. water, acetone, ethanol, but i'm testing them up here where they won't be seen.

until i can figure out what works. but i want to test an inconspicuous place. but right now actually it's been going on for several months trying to find the right solvent to get this stuff off. because i believe, we have no paperwork of what this frame was painted with. from the way it's reacting i think it a water-based paint, so it's trial and error, what's it all is. trial and error. >> finally what we have here is a pair of model 1942 jump trousers. they date to world war ii. and this is part of a recent donation that we recently received here at ahec. and they were worn by a man named richard fulvey who was a

new yorker. he grew up watching airplanes do barn storming events and early forms of parachuting. when he enlisted in 1942 he told his recruiter, that's what i want to do, i want to be an airborne parachute jumper. so in 1942 he ended up becoming one of the founding members, first service personnel of the 506th parachute infantry, which famous the band of brothers mini-series and steven ambrose's book. he was originally part of easy company. shortly after his training and his basic training he was transferred to the headquarters and headquarters company of the second battalion 506th parachute infantry.

and these particular trousers he wore during d-day on his, during the jump during the d-day invasion. which are particularly exciting for us. d-day and normandy artifacts are relatively rare, certainly a well-known event, but finding, being able to receive this collection was quite a joy. we have a number of other materials in the collection, which is certainly one of our primary missions. it contains three dimensional artifacts, photographs, archival documents, letters, diaries i believe. so it's really a rich collection that will aid our ability to tell the story of world war ii and specifically normandy and the d-day invasion.

the army comes from civilian population, and if the civilians don't understand or cannot learn what the army and military as a whole has done for them, then they will not be able to respect that force or even volunteer as well. the army has to know its history. the american public has to know its history, military history, so that future wars, future conflicts, future peacekeeping operations or even domestic missions can be learned upon and used to better aid basically in not committing the same mistakes. i would also say that it's an honor thing as well, a privilege to learn about the army's history.

and your forbearers, your ancestors and what they've done for this country. and us to inspire, certainly, for the younger generations. >> this program was one of a multipart look at the united states army heritage and education center in carlisle, pennsylvania. other american artifacts programs will visit their library and their soldier experience gallery, a permanent exhibit chronicling the army's history from the spanish american war to present day. >> 200 years ago on august 24, 1814, british soldiers abroad and american troops at the battle of bladensburg outside washington, d.c. left the capitol wide-open for british forces which burned down the white house and the u.s. capitol. you can learn more about the burning of washington during the war of 1812 this thursday from

anthony pitch at an event hosted by the zillion -- by the smithsonian. it starts at 6:45 p.m. eastern on saturday, august 23 as we bring you live to bladensburg park for a panel discussion on the event 200 years ago. that is live on c-span history v on c-span3. >> each week, american history tv sits in on a lecture with one of the nation's college professors. you can watch the classes here on saturday at 8 p.m. and midnight eastern. next towson university professor , martha joynt kumar talked about presidents and their relationships with the press, focusing on the ways the white house press corps and coverage of presidents have evolved from the mid-19th century into the 20th century. the class also traces changes in press access to presidents and the growth of the public's interest in stories about the first family's perso