that is, he's got to get the president off the banquet, the firing step, getting him down where he's not exposed. there are two versions of how he does it. one, that he will ask the president politely to please step down. the other is, that he will put his hand on him, might have been bad for him in the days when we had secret service around, and they help him down off and he sits on the level ground, the step just back from the paraben and sits down with his back to the parapin. after a while he'll go over and talk to mary. mary will swoon and the

president will say, mary would not make a very good soldier, as she swooned. so while the president has been under fire, a man has been shot near him, and by 4:00, the 6th corps is ready to take the offensive. and they will move out from in front of fort stevens, moving across the ground that slopes down to where walter reid is now, beyond battleground cemetery, where 40-odd men of the union soldiers who were killed here are buried and the union troops and the confederates pulled back. lincoln will not take his eye off the big picture. tuesday is the 12th.

on the 14th, he is back out at the -- taking care of business. so he is going to do, and i want you to play another little tune there, because he's going to sign a bill calling for 500,000 more men. and there's one of the tunes in that, we are coming father abraham, 500,000 more. so he's showing his commitment to continuing the war. he's also curtailed negotiations carried out through on the same day with mr. blair, through frank blair, and horace greeley with meetings up in buffalo, where they are going to meet

with confederate representatives and he's going to order them, direct them, they will not -- there are two things he will not compromise on. he will not step back on the emancipation proclamation or that bill that's working its way through the house and the senate abolishing slavery by congressional amendment, and he will not step back on the confederacy having an independent nation. so great things have happened here. it's wonderful to see the group out here today to talk about these events. too often these events here in washington are kind of forgotten. and as early pulls back to

virginia, he's going to say one thing. well, we didn't capture washington, but we sure as hell scared the hell out of abraham lincoln. things are going -- we have to remember what abraham lincoln is going to write on the 24th day of august. that is five weeks after this day. and that day things are still not going well. meed and butler's army and grant are stymied in front of richmond and petersburg. sherman is stymied in front of atlanta. and the president will write a letter to the files and he will say, and the democrats have met in chicago, adopted a peace declaring the war a failure and

nominating for president george b. mcclellan and george h. pendleton of ohio as vice president. and the president will write that day, as of this day we will probably lose the election. therefore, we will have to work with the president-elect to save the union after election day and before he's inaugurated as president on march 4th, because he will not be able to say it at the day. but, of course, just like everybody could remember, my age or younger can remember harry truman on the night, on election eve, a little after 12:00 in 1948 when he pulled out the headlines of "the chicago tribune," dewey wins.

lincoln would do the same thing with that letter he'd written to the files. cabinet member -- put it in an envelope, members of the cabinet signed their names on it, he opens it up and reads it to what they had signed, because with that election, father abraham will be in for another term, and it's wonderful to come out here and be with this group here and think of the great events that took place here. thank you so much. [ applause ]

>> thank you, mr. bearss. before closing, we have a few announcements. >> thank you again, mr. bearss, mr. gibbs, everyone for joining us again today. we do want to acknowledge some -- we have a lot of special guests in the audience, but we actually have the great grandson of captain simon e. chamberlain of company k., the 25th new york calvary, the first calvary to deploy here on july 11th here at fort stevens when early's troops arrived. with mr. -- i'm sorry, taylor chamberlain please stand. [ applause ]

we will close with the benediction, but we do hope each of you will come over and join us just across the street. you'll get some instructions. it's the moment to join us for the first fine of the civil war here in the district of columbia since 1864, 150 years ago today. fire a canon, yes. >> please welcome again reverend louis as he leads us through the benediction. plz >> let us stand.

now, lord, we ask for your blessings that as we leave this place, that the street fellowship of the holy communion will rest, rule and abide with us now and forever more and all god's people said -- amen. american history's look at the civil war continues tonight with the battle of the crater occurring during the siege of peters burg, virginia. the attack failed with heavy losses for union troops. tonight watch as the national park service kmem rates the 150th anniversary of the battle. we'll amgs take a look at how the attack failed and why the u.s. color troops were unjustly blamed. and awe tore kevin la bin on the color troops and how they were remembered immediately following the civil war. that's all tonight at 8:00 eastern here on c-span3.

here's a great read to add to your summer read listing with "sunday's at eight." >> i always knew that there was a risk in the bohemian lifestyle and i decided to take it because whether it's an illusion or not, i don't think it is. it helped my concentration. stop me being board and other people from being boring, to some extent. it would make me more awake, to make the evening to go on longer to prolong the conversation. if i asked would i do it again, the answer is probably yes. i would have quit earlier, possibly, hoping to get away with the whole thing. easy for me to say. it's not very nice for my children to hear. it sounds irresponsible if i said i would do all of that again to you. but the truth is it would be hip

kate call for me to say no i would never touch the stuff if i had known because i did know. everyone knew. >> many of the problems that we saw at the end begin at the very beginning. i spoke already about the attempt to control all institutions and control all parts of the economy and political life and social life. one of the problems is that when you do that, when you try to control everything, then you create opposition and potential dissidence everywhere. if you tell all artists they have to paint the same way and one artist wants to paint another way, you've made him into a political disdent. >> if you want to subsidize house in the country and we want to talk about it and the populous agrees it's something we could subsidize, put it on the balance sheet and make it clear and evident and make everybody aware of how much it's costing. but when you deliver it through these third-party enterprises,

fannie mae and freddy mack, when you do this with private shareholders and executives who can extract a lot of that subsidy for themselves, that is not a very good way of subsidizing home ownership. these are a few of the engaging stories in c-span's "sundays at eight" now available. each week american history tv series the civil war makes the 150 anniversary of the conflict by bringing you lectures, discussions and battlefield visits. 150 years ago in july of 1864, a confederate army of 12,000 troops nearly invated washington, d.c. next, marc leep sn takes us on a tour of battlefields in maryland

and washington, d.c. to tell the story where the con fed rates were delayed by union forces in their approach to the nation's capitol. and the battle of fort stephens with general early probed the defenses before deciding to turn bac back. over 60,000 dead and wounded casualties. there was war weariness especially in the north. but general grant who was in charge now, he had been in charge since february of 1964 was determined -- this was his grand plan to end the war. after wilderness and after cold harbor, he had richmond and petersburg surrounded.

his plan was to choke robert e. lee inside and force him to come out and fight what he thought would be the battle that would end the war. lee knew this too and he came up with a bold plan of his own. he took the troops outside of the defenses of washington on a four part plan that he hoendz would mess up general grant's grand plan to end the war. the first part was to kick the union forces out of the valley. at this time of the war, robert e. bee's biggest problem was supply, including food, and most of their food came from the valley. so the u.s. forces had taken over the entire shenandoah

valley. the second was to threat washington, d.c. the third part of the plan was to free confederate prisoners. and the fourth part of the plan -- i think the part that lee considered the most important was to take troops out of richmond and petersburg and ease the chokehold that grant had on him. in the early morning hours of july 13th, 12,000, an entire corps of troops left the defenses of richmond, a third of the troops. they marged 70 miles to virginia. they arrived at lynchburg on june 17th. and on june 18th came the battle of lynchburg which many people did hear of because it didn't last long. hunter fled once he saw early's troops.

early thought about chasing him. they didn't. but he took one look and saw the entire shenandoah valley was cleared of union troops. this was big. so early marched his troops down the shenandoah valley. they were very -- they were not very well supplied. third to a half of the men did not have shoes. they tied burlap around their feet. they waited two days along the route for a shipment of shoes. they got up to harper's ferry in virginia where the union -- he was a political general. he was made a general. he was the one who had the not very good experience at new mark on may 18th when we lost when

the entire corps of the cadets came up from lexington and defeated segal. he's known as the french dutchman for his propensity to fly. they had a nice fourth of july, the southern troops did, eating all of the yankees food. on the next day they crossed over the pa to mack river. this is the third invasion of the north. gettysburg in 1863 into what would become this battle in 1864. he fled to maryland heights which is on the other side of the river from harper's ferry. early thought about going after them but he didn't. he turned, made a right turn. he was 50 miles from washington, d.c. and they did rest for a couple

of days in maryland and then he headed towards washington, d.c. jubal early was quite a character. he went to west point but not to be a military man. it with us a good education at the time. he did take part in the seminole wars and the mexican war but didn't see any action. he was a lawyer. and then before the war started he was part of the virginia succession council. but one var var succeeded, he became a confederate die hard. he was an aggressive leader. became a general. he was kind of a cantankerous

guy. he was a hard drinking, tobacco chewing. famous for his cursing. he hated women. he was not a pleasant man to be around. he didn't get along with his fellow officers or generals. the men sort of loved him and hated him. robert e. lee really liked early. he called him my bad old man. lee liked him because he was an aexpressive general. it's interesting that lee should depend on and admire early so much because he was a 90-degree opposite. he didn't drink or disrespect women. he said it's good that war is so horrible otherwise men would love it compares to early if

there was something to the opposite to be said, he would have said it. this is the man that lee trusted to go on the mission. he was an aggressive general. it's interesting what happened later. washington was just across the river from virginia, the 0 miles from richmond. from the beginning of the war, the june onwas concerned about a southern invasion of the nation's capitol. and then after the battle of first manassas, the defeat 30 miles in washington, they started building a series of forts that by the time a couple of years later, washington was completely ringed by an interconnected series of 67 fots. they were called the defenses of washington. they were a beltway and they even went across the potomac. now those forts, only one of

those forts exists today and that's fort ward in virginia. fort stevens where we're going later has been built. but these forts were very well built. connected by berms. they were designed to be manned by about 30,000 troops. but now we're in the summer of 864. just about every able bodied troop is down there. we tonight know the exact number but we think about 10,000 troops were on the barricades at waurk washington, d.c. they were members of what was called the veteran reserve corps. the veteran reserve corps had just changed their name. before that it was known as the

invalid corps. they changed the name for obvious reasons. most people i think know there were so many casualties that washington, d.c. was one giant hospital during the last years of the war. as troops got better but couldn't go back to the field, they were given these pale blue yawn forms and became members of the veteran's affair corps. that's who was defending washington, d.c. when jubal early came here on july 9th and the battle started. this was not a good example of union high leadership, what happened here during this. first of all, union intelligence was a dismal throughout the war. the union did not know that robert e. lee had take an entire corps of troops outside leaving richmond. they left on june 13th. they didn't know really that an

sbir corps had left until july 5th. then yaw had a little bit of panic going on. especially when the word got out that early was heading towards washington or maybe baltimore. he didn't let people know. here it's stra tej cli a northwest and east to south transportation connection. we have the 355 over here which was here then. i was called the georgetown pike and it goes directly on a line to washington, d.c. today it's called the urban that pike. it becomes rockville pike and then wisconsin avenue. goes right into washington. a little further we have the national pike which goes right to baltimore. then we have the railroad line straight down here from baltimore. you have a north/south, east low

pressure west suburb. there was pan nick the streets in baltimore and washington. the rumors started flying. early gained troops, had about 14,000 on july 9th. the rumor was that he had 35,000 troops. the command structure was fragmented. there were a lot of generals in washington, d.c. in fact general hallic said we have plenty of generals. we need privates here. we need people to fight to get to the barricades of washington. so that was the situation in washington. now back down in richmond, grant, hen he learned what was happening here, did not want to sends troops outside of richmond and petersburg. you can read the telegrams that went back and forth.

you can real the memoirs of the people who were on his staff. you can read the letters that they wrote. grant would not send -- finally he gave in at the last minute and he sent two regiments of the sixth corps, woke them up in the middle of the night and marched out to james river. they got on the steamers, they went down the james river, out into the chesapeake bay, into baltimore harbor. they got off the shoips, marched to the railroad station and they got on the railroad trains and they arrived here at the junction at 1 clock in the morning on july 9th, 1864. union intelligence was not very good but one man figured out what was happening and that was lew wallace. he was from indiana.

he was from a prominent family. he did serve in the mexican war as a lupt but he had no other experience other than that when the war started. he was their leader and he scored an early victory at romney, west virginia, right after first manassas, when the union was looking for heroes. and the press played him up really big and he became a general. that was his high point. the low point happened at the battle of shiloh, when he regiment got lost, probably not his fault, rough terrain, dark. but grant and hallic was very upset with wallace after shiloh. he did fight the second day but he was shoved to the side f that. his job at this point in the

war, he was the commander of the union's middle atlantic department which was -- basically his job was he was military governor of baltimore. well reading the same intelligence that the high command got and didn't do anything about, wallace did something. the other thing that help him was the head of the b and o railroad, john gar rot, he had his network of intelligence all around the b and o railroad and they're sending telegrams back saying there's a an entire corps of troops out here, headed on your way. wallace found that out, he gathered up 2800 men, about all he could get, and came down to the western most point of his jurisdiction, which was right here. and he set up on the eastern bank of the river in a little high ground.

lew wallace after the war became a novelist and he wrote the second most popular novel of the 19th century which was "ben hur." he also wrote a memo memoir. hey here you get lew wallace who writes his memoir, you know, 40 years after the fact, writes it in a flowery 19th century novelist style. and you know, when wallace says that they araved here in the morning and they lit their campfires. he'll say something like that the steely sky gave way to a brilliant orange sun as we made our way down to the junction and the campfire smoke curled up. which is great. you have to balance what he says in his memoir with his

telegrams, his after action report the day after and two weeks after. he had a way of making himself sound really good. and, you know, he did a very brave thing here. can't get away from that. as i said in the book, i believe and i think the judgment of history is that what wallace did here did save washington, d.c. so this battle took place on july 9th, 1864. right now it's november 2 nt of 2007 and it's a beautiful fall day. one thing to keep in mind about this battle was that it was very hot. it had to be in the mid to upper 90s and very humid. wallace set up headquarters on a very good tactical spot and that was on the east bank of the river in high ground. so he could overlook the entire battlefield and he was on the other side of the river, which made it difficult for him to be attacked. it was good defensive position.

he had 2800 men. they were hundred day's men. they had joined just for a hundred days. none of them had ever fired a web in anger before. it was a gutsy thing. here's the intelligence saying a corps of troops maybe as many as 35,000 is headed your way and he sets up this troop. and he's begging washington to send him more troops. that's what finally happened when grant sent up the troops. the troops got here at 9:00 in the morning on july 9th ap and now he had about 6500 troops. he knew what to do about them. we're going to go down to the river and talk about what happened when the battle started. >> we're at the edge of the battlefield and this monument was dedicated at the 50th anniversary of the battle to

honor the confederates who died here. there are 800 cop fed rate casualties. route 855 today runs through the battlefield as it does today. what didn't go through the battlefield back then, of course, was interstate 270 which is -- i think you can see it right over there at the enl of the horizon. this is where the confederate artillery was arrayed during the battle. it's just an unfortunate thing that an interstate highway runs through this entire battlefield. i think they've done a terrific job interpreting it. they have a lot of the farm fields. but it's a difficult battle to envision, one reason being it took place in several places at the same time and the other reason being that an interstate highway goes right through it. this is the actual junction itself. you can see it down there. and the bridge on route 355 was

the old covered bridge over the early's troops for hours before they finally had to flee. and they had to flee back up the railroad track and then over the old railroad bridge which we can't see from here. the railroad bridge did not have a bed. it had just railroad ties. the vermont soldiers were being

fired upon by the confederates had to run across the railroad ties over the river with the water 40 feet below. it was a dramatic point of the battle. two vermont soldiers received a medal of honor for their actions that day. right where we're standing now is where the men put up their stand against the confederate troops that came stieth down that way from where the tracks are. this is where they held them. this is the junction. it says frederic. the old train station was was right blind us over here. and in fact these were the tracks that the troops came down from baltimore. after the vermonters couldn't take it anymore, they fled down the tracks, around the bend and the bridge over there where they

had to flee for their lives while they were being shot at by the confederates. the farm that you see behind me has been restored by the national park service to the way it looked the day of the battle, july 9th, 1964. what you're hearing is interstate 270 in the background. but what was here then was corn fields and wheat fields and they were crisscrossed by farm fences. it was not an ideal place to have a battle, especially if you were attacking, which the southerners were. behind me, general mccausland,

they came right behind me and they got off their horse. because, i guess, of the conditions in the field here. so there was a dismounted calvary and they charged the union through the farm fields over here. they didn't know it was the sixth corps men. the sixth corps men experienced union soldiers who war waiting for them and it was carnage. the southerners got chopped down and had to retreat. now most of gordon's brigade was way back at the best farm where we first started here, where the artillery was here. they didn't think they were going to get into battle. jubal early did not want to fight a battle here. we wanted to invade washington. he's only 40 miles away from it now. but wallace blocked him along the river. early wasn't even here when the battle started. he was in the city of frederic

extorting money from the fathers. mccausland's charge does not work, they flee back here, charge again, then gordon brings all of his troops here and this is where the most fighting of the battle took place. gordon called it the sharpest fight he was in in the civil war. and he was in the wilderness. the river ran red with blood. when it was over there were about 1300 union casualties killed, wounded and captured and about 800 confederate killed and wounded. most of it took place here and on the thomas farm, which is the next farm over. a young -- the family hid in the basement during the fight, and a young six-year-old boy named glen worthington saw everything that happened, adds did his father and family, and he wrote a book about it later.

it's one of our best descriptions of what happened on this battle. and later in life glen worthington was one of the people that influenced congress to set aside this lang to be a national battlefield. back to the battle itself, of course early prevailed, he outnumbered 14,000 to 6500. wallace about 4:00 retreated, went up towards baltimore. it was very hot. early let his men rest on the battlefield that night. they buried their dead, took care of the wounded, took prisoners toward frederic and then south. on the next morning, july 10th, 1864, they started their marge towards washington, d.c. it only took us about an hour to get here. but we'll pick up the story.

early -- they spent that night on the battlefield. july 10th they march as far as rockville which is about ten or 15 miles, maybe 20 at the most. don't forget, i was really very hot and they were tired and they had been marching since june 13th. so they camped in rockville and gaite er hersbur gaithersburg. rockville was a little town and early tried to get some money from the city father es of rockville. some units from washington came out to . the next morning he made it out here to the outskirts of fort stevens. if you can picture washington, d.c. shaped like a diamond. we are right at the top of the diamond in northwest portion of washington, d.c. early at about noontime was at the gates, out of the gates of

fort stevens right out here. we had the capitol dome in his sights at noontime. what did he see? he saw this fort and was connected to several other forts around here. it looked impregnable. and he saw troops there. early did not know that these were hundred days' men. and the call went out for civilian to come out and help man the barricades. so you had clerks from the state department, men from the quarter master corps, people who had never fired a weapon in their life. when you read about descriptions of who was at the forts, the word motley comes up more than once. but early did not know this. his men were strung out way along back on the georgetown pike -- sorry, the 7th street pike that they had cut off the georgetown pike is what is now wheaten, maryland and they cut over here to 7th street pike

which is georgia avenue. so early, unchark ris cli for him decided not to invade. but early did cause trouble. they had their artillery and there were fighting that went oun with artillery that day, july 11th and into the night. this was all -- we are now in the city of washington, d.c. it's not urban washington, d.c. but it's definitely city. and -- but back then this was all farms out here. this is hardly considered part of washington, d.c. because washington was down there where the white house is and downtown and georgetown and so on. they had cleared trees out for firing along the outside of fort stevens. but this was all farmland. and people from washington came out to see what all of the excitement was about, including president lincoln. fort stevens was one of -- it might have been the most

extensive of the defenses of washington. now there were 67 of them. not all of them were as extensive as this one. there was a magazine. there was barracks. it was enclosed on all four sides. some of them weren't even enclosed. some of them were pointing out towards the defenses. kind of rudimentary. but they were built up very heavily and they were all connected. but fort stevens -- it was at the gate of washington, d.c., at the tip of the northern diamond if you think of washington as shaped like a diamond. it was heavily defended or heavily fortified and wasn't heavily defended until the sixth corps got up here late in the afternoon on july 11th. this has been reconstructed but it's more or less what it looked like with early's artillery out there, the union artillery here

and the citizens of washington coming up to see what it was all about. and that included president lincoln. and the plaque that you see says, lincoln under fire, fort stevens. now that also happened on july 11th. july 11th, lincoln was here and this represents the only time in american history when a sitting u.s. president came under fire in a shooting war. right here on this very spot. and this confederate sharp shooters were out there. don't forget, this was all farm land. it was cleared. and back there, trust me, is walter reid army medical center. and on the grounds at walter reid there's a tree with a plaque on it that supposedly says that this is where the confederate sharp shooter shot at lincoln. the same thing happened on the

second day, on july 12th. that's what that plaque represents, a union surgeon by the name of crawford was standing next to lincoln, probably right here. and was shot in the leg. that's when lincoln was ordered down. lipping con was 6'4" and the stove pipe hat made a pretty tempting target. the legend has been that someone yelled get damn your fool ore get down your damn fool. instantly regretted saying it. i have a whole chapter in the book about that incident and basically, well, i came to the conclusion that that's a story. it didn't come out until 1928. it wasn't published -- it was published in an article in "atlantic nontly" 1928. supposedly holmes had been telling it privately. you have to be suspicious of something that comes out after the fact.

i looked into it going back to letters that were written at the time, memoirs that were written shortly after the war. someone yelled at him to come down. more than likely it was general wright who was the commander general of the troops here who said this in 1866. he didn't say get down your fool or say that he said that. but i go over that in the book. it's an interesting story and i's not true. early is at the gates over here outside fort stevens with the capitol dome in his sight. at that moment grant, the day before had finally aseeded and sent the rest of the sixth corps along with 19th -- the 19th corps wu down in new orleans. they were going to the outskirts of richmond. instead they stayed on the train, went up to city point with the rest of the sixth carps, got on ships, went out james river, up the potomac

river, got off at sixth street. visits were there to greet them, including president lincoln. gave them ice water and sandwiches. they cheered we have been saved. the sixth corps was here. because people were panicking when they heard that the confederates were out at the gates. the sixth corps marched up georgia salve, went by the places we know, the smithsonian and government buildings out here. they took part in the fighting that happened on july 11th and that fighting went on into the night. after that early heard a council of war out in silver springs which is a couple of miles from here, at the mansion of the blair -- it's not the blair mansion. it's called silver spring. it was the blair mansion. the blair family, they owned blair house down by the white house. they were out of town.

they had gone fishing in pennsylvania. now early held a counsel of war that night with his generals, rhodes, gordon and breckenridge. john c. breckenridge was the former vice president of the united states under buchanan. he was a confederate general. he had been in that house before and knew where the wine cellar was some so early and the men drank up the blair's wine that night and decided on the next morning, july 12th they would come here bright and early and decide whether or not to attack. they did that. this time early could see that the sixth corps was here. they had a distinctive patch. he again did not invade. however there w was more fighting, there was artillery exchanges, men were killed. there were 300 union casualties. we're going to union cemetery a little later. we don't know officially how

many confederate dead and wounded. but it had to be that many or more. when the union troops got up on the morning of july 13th, they looked out here and early's army was gone. he retraced his steps, went through montgomery county and crossed thecc rh$f(ç potomac at ford. there's a ferry boat now that goes across the potomac and the name of that ferry boat is called jubal early./bk that's where my story ends, a month after early left rich monday to go on this four-part mission. this is georgia avenue that you just looked at which is the route that early came down. and two years after the war this

cemetery was built. it's the second smallest national cemetery. 40 union soldiers are buried in graves behind me there in the circle. and these are monuments to some of the units that served at the battle of fort stevens. but it's a place that i would easily estimate that hundreds of thousands of people drive by every year and do not even know is here. i mean we're just off of george ga avenue. there's only a small sign. and it's the final resting place for 40 union soldiers killed at fight here in washington, d.c. in a battle that people just don't know about. if you're stuck at the traffic light where 16th street hits georgia and you're in the right-hand lane and you turn to your right, you can read the inscription on this monument to the confederate soldiers that were killed. it's a monument to a mass grave of confederate soldiers who were

killed outside of fort stevens. it was moved there when the church was moved in the earlier 20th century, i believe. and it also stands right off of georgia avenue, which is a heavily traveled commuter road in and out of washington, d.c. consider what could have happened with an entire corps of troops let loose in washington, d.c., lean and hungry confederate troops. the treasury was there for the looting. the treasury department. they could have burned the capitol. you know, the navy department, which lincoln did not know, had a ship waiting provision for him in the potomac to take him out of the town. think about what could have happened to the union cause had there been confederates running loose in the streets of washington, d.c. don't forget, lincoln was fighting for his political life at this time. the presidential election of

1864 was just a few months away. he had to choose a democrat for his running mate, andrew johnson of tennessee. no one thought he was going to win that so low no one thought he would win the election. this really could have killed any chances that lincoln could have gotten re-elected. think about this, too. the english and the french were sort of looking for an excuse to come in on the side of the confederacy. you diplomdn't have cnn or c-sp back then. so number one, i do believe that what lou wallace did did save this from happening. wallace was relieved of his command after he lost that battle. within two weeks grant had reinstated him. grant writes in his memoirs that

had wallace not blocked for the day early very well could have caused havoc in washington, d.c. this is a battle that saved washington and changed the course of american history. think about it. lee's fourth objective and probably his most important in his mind was to try to force grant to try to take troops out. grant didn't want to do it. the number of troops went down drastically from like 137,000 at the end of june to like almost 70,000 two months later. this was grant's grand plan to end the war. it didn't work until april of '65. if lee had not forced grant to do this i really believe that the war could have ended sooner. maybe much sooner, maybe a matter of six months sooner, maybe three months sooner.

it is a what if and can never be proven one way or the other t. was a what if that came close to happening. it also goes to show that nothing is inevitable in history and nothing is inevitable in the civil war. it didn't have to come out the way it did. lots of other things obviously had to do with it. this one piece of the puzzle i think was very important in the timing of the end of the civil war. if you want to remember it this way you can remember that all this one thing to remember about this whole thing is that early was one day late. early was late.

american history tv's look at the civil war continues tonight with the battle of the crater. union forces detonated explosives to create a gap in the defenses but the attack failed with heavy losses for union troops. tonight watch as the national parks service commemorates the 150th anniversary of the battle. we will also take a look at how the attack failed and why the u.s. color troops were blamed. and then a look at how they were remembered in the years immediately following the civil war. 200 years ago on august 12

the victory left the nation's capitol wide open. you can learn more about the burning of washington during the war of 1812 this thursday from author and historian anthony pitch at an event hosted by the smithsonian. our live coverage starts at 6:45 p.m. eastern. more about the burning as we take you live for a panel discussion on the events of 200 years ago. that is live at 1:00 p.m. eastern here on american history tv on c-span 3. here is a great read to at, "sundays at eight" a collection of stories from some of the nation's most influential people. >> i knew there was a risk and i decided to take it because whether it is an illusion or not i don't think it is.

it helped my concentration and stopped me from being bored. it would keep me awake. if i was asked would i do it again the answer is probably yes. i was hoping to get away with the whole thing. easy for me to say. not very nice for my children to hear. it sounds irresponsible if i say i would do that again to you. the truth is it would be hypocrital. i did know. everyone knows. >> soviet union and the soviet system in eastern europe contained the seeds of its own destruction. many of the problems we saw at the end begins at the very beginning. i spoke already about the attempt to control all institutions and control all parts of the economy and political life and social life.

one of the problems is when you do that, when you try to control everything then you create opposition and potential dissidence everywhere. if you tell all artists they have to paint the same way and one says i want to paint another way you made him into a political dissident. >> if you want to subsidize housing and we want to talk about it and the populous agrees it is something we should subsidize then put it on the balance sheet and make it clear and evident and make everybody aware of how much it is costing. when you deliberate through these third party enterprises, when you deliver the subsidy 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 subsidyizing homeownership. >> a few of the 41 engaging

stories in c-span's "sundays at eight" now available at your favorite book seller. each week american artifacts takes viewers into archives, museums and historic sites around the country. at the outbreak of the civil war in the spring of 1861 washington, d.c. was a lightly defended city and vulnerable to attack with only one fort located 12 miles south of the city and the confederate state of virginia just across the potomac river. by 1865 the nation's capitol had become the most fortified in the world. we vizzed three of the surviving forts with dale floyd, author of a study on civil war defenses of washington for the national parks service. >> right now we're in the museum which has a variety of different

artifacts. one of the nice things is we have a map of the fences of washington and gives you a good idea of where they are today.. fences of washington and gives you a good idea of where they are today. and today we are also going to go to fort foot which is down here. and all the way up to fort stephens which is up there. the reason that the forts were built was basically to protect the capital of the united states. it first started in may, may of 1861. soon after virginia succeeded from the union. the troops moved over one night across the potomac over into arlington and alexandria and started building fortifications. after the first battle of manassas in july of 1861 in which the union was actually defeated, the men came streaming

back into the city and the city literally the con fed rats could have walked in and taken the city. so after that with the fear, more and more fortifications were built and general john g. bernard who you might call the war defenses of washington and he was in charge of them for almost the whole war started developing the system for fortifications around the capital and how they would actually defend the city from enemy invaders. after second manassas, which was also a union defeat, fear again and some more impetus to make sure that the fortifications defending washington were doing their job. over the year, the four years, many of the forts were changed. they were made larger.

guns within them. they were changed to get the best function out of each fort and out of the system itself. the defenses were tested in july of 1864. now before i say that, there were raids on the forts guerrilla forces where they steal horses or supplies or whatever. but the only real attack and it really wasn't an attack, it was a reconnaissance in force took place in july 11th and 12th of 1864 when early had marched up through the valley, fought out near frederick, maryland, and then watched -- marched towards washington coming in on the northern side and eventually came up and faced these forts up there, the main one fort stephens where abraham lincoln actually came out to watch what was going on. he was not successful.

he realized he couldn't do what he wanted to do and he eventually turned around and went back down into the valley. and after that, basically, nothing really tested the fortifications after that. besides the forts themselves, you had the batteries that were on both sides and the rear or whatever of the forts. you also had trenches that connected the forts all the way around the city. you can see up here where in between you had the covered ways going all the way from one fort to the next to the next battery and on. so troops could move back and forth without being seen. besides the forts, they also built other types of defenses such as block houses and certain places along railroads, channel attacks.

and they had other things that they actually built for protection within the whole system of the defenses of washington. so it was actually a system of fortifications and if you attacked one, like if you attacked here, you would catch fire from the forts on both sides of that fort. so they were mutually supported. and it was -- it would have been fort because of all the fire that you would receive coming from the various forts. so it's not important necessarily about how many forts there were, it's the system and the mutual defense that was there that would really stop an enemy from getting into the city. if you look at some of the pictures they have here, you'll

see an interior of fort stephens. and then the low end is a photo of fort slemer which is my favorite photograph of the civil war defenses of washington because it shows you what a fort looked like on the outside. vegetation has been removed. but you have the front. this is the sally fort where the troops coming out. you can see over into the fort where the guns are mounted. so that's really one of my favorite photographs. so this is very helpful for a start. fort ward is a good place to actually start our tour of the civil war defenses of washington. before we go out and actually look at fort ward, i want to point out this is an 1864 plan of the fort. the part that has been restored here is the northwest corn cher is right here. and you'll see that. the rest of the fort is not as

distinct when you walk through it. but the northwest section is. this is a model of the fort as it might have looked. notice around it is the outside of the ditch. and then the fort itself and this is the northwest bastian here. and the fort, itself, and this is the northwest bastion here. this is the gate, or sally port, to ft. ward. it was on the rear wall of the fort. it's been redone a number of times. the army down at ft. belvoir, especially when the engineers were there, helped redo this gate a number of times. but this is your entrance to ft. ward. i want to point out, if we look around, there were buildings here. they are based on plans and photographs of buildings that were actually in the defenses of washington.

but there were other gates like this at some of the other forts, too. they may not have been as nice, but some of them were, you know, with the name up above like you see here. the 1865 probably would not have been on the original gate. above it is the engineer castle. that's the logo of army engineers. and as i told you, the local -- the engineers at ft. belvoir helped rebuild this gate a number of times so they put the engineer castle on top. and, of course, they oversaw the construction of the original defenses of washington. this is one of the best preserved of the various forts that were in the defenses of washington. these parts of it are fairly well taken care of, but once we get to the northwest bastion, you will see what the fort would have looked like at the time of the civil war.

but these are all parts of the fort that we're actually in. it was a large one, so you have a large area. there is also signage that we will see as we walk through explaining what each resource we run into was. such as a sign here which is pointing out that there was a bombproof right here which collapsed in. but a bombproof basically was for men to go in when the fort was being shelled and it would protect them. depending, it would at least be made out of earth. sometimes they had a basement from something they used or bricks or whatever they used in it, but it had dirt over top with grass growing on it, and if you got inside the bombproof, you were pretty well safe. that's what's underneath here. we are coming to the northwest bastion, and first of all,

notice the revetment, the wood that is there to strengthen the fort. besides the earth, you have the wood that helps keep it in place. you can see the guns, and they are a variety of guns that you will see. and this is what happened at a lot of forts. it's what guns you could get ahold of. you have everything from field artillery to some bigger guns. the fort, itself, was supposed to cover the little river turnpike, the orange and alexandria railroad and the leesburg and alexandria pike, but we are on a high point, so the guns can fire for a long distance and they can cover those areas. the original fort that was built for 24 guns when it was redone

finally in 1864, it held 36 guns and was the perimeter of 18 from 54 yards to 818 yards with the bigger fort and 12 additional guns within the fort. they started building it very early and kept working on it and changing it to the place where it was eventually the fifth largest. you had basically during the war green guns and black guns with bronze and the iron. usually the bronze was smooth ore and the black guns were rifled guns. and the rifled guns, of course, had a better range and actually fired better. but a gun like this was a good anti-personnel weapon. there were various types of ammunition you could use in this, plus even at times you could put chains and everything else in here and fire it at an enemy.

and, of course, the chain, or whatever, would -- could mow town a number of men. so this became a very -- this type of gun became a good anti-personnel weapon. with this platforms, you can get up and take a look at the fort without actually walking on the walls. as we get up here, you can see the ditch and the embracers as they come out of the fort which is what the gun would have fired out. on the inside, that's called the scarf. on the outside, that's called the counter-scarf. at the top, they have those bushes running along. that's to keep people from walking in the mote and trying to walk up the parapet. the bushes are sort of like abatee which were pointed sticks and stakes that they would have outside of a lot of forts. so it has two purposes.

to keep the people out and to kind of give you an idea of what abatee might have looked like, and these platforms that they built, you can walk right down into the mote and get a view along it, but you're not actually walking on it and helping to destroy it. so if you attacked, you came across open ground. these trees would have been cut down. that would have been all open ground. you can see -- they can start hitting you with artillery and even rifle fire way back. you would have had to come up, hit the abatee, hit the ditch, down, and try to climb up. you would have had infantry on the other side as well as artillery firing at you. so it was not an easy task in

trying to take one of forts in the defenses of washington, plus you're catching fire from the other forts on both sides of this one. a lot of these forts in the defenses of washington, when i first came to this area in the late '60s, there were a lot of them still here. but in the years that have passed, a lot of them became housing developments or whatever. interest over the years has actually increased, but it was a problem in this area because these were union forts and most of these people in virginia had southern sympathies. they couldn't see any good reason for saving a northern fort. we're now at ft. foote on the potomac river in maryland. we came from ft. ward across the potomac river to ft. foote. and on this map you'll see it was the anchoring, the defenses

on the potomac river down here. across the river is in alexandria was battery rodgers and the two of those then covered the potomac river in case ships or raiders would have come up. this fort was actually built and constructed between 1863 and 1865. unlike most of the other forts, it was not abandoned at the end of the civil war. they continued to maintain this fort and man it until 1878 because it was on the river. the only other fort on the river, of course, you had battery rodgers across the river, but on toward the chesapeake bay was ft. washington which is basically located about across from mt. vernon, george washington's home. at the beginning of the war, it was manned actually by marines

and was manned in one sort or another during the war but was not actually part of the civil war defenses of washington, the circle of forts. but if there would have been ships trying to come up, it would have had an effect also. if you look at the map here, or actually plan, it will give you an idea of the way the fort was located on the river. you have the fort, itself, and some of the buildings associated with it behind. its main focus was the river, itself, even though it anchored the other civil war defenses of washington. this is the way it would have looked to have someone that would have come here during the civil war.

this is a national park. at times it has been quite overgrown. right now, you can see if you look around, it still needs some manicuring, but it is better than i've seen it in the past. but you saw at ft. ward how well taken care of it is. it's a city park, actually, and the city does a very good job of taking care of ft. ward. other forts, depending on who maintains them and how good a job they do, you can see a lot. some places it's completely overgrown and you really don't have a good idea of what you're actually seeing. we're coming down to the water, to the potomac river, and if you look across the way, you'll see

alexandria in virginia where i mentioned that at jones point was battery rodgers. jones point would have been up in this direction on the other side of the bridge, actually, where jones point with battery rodgers was, then the forts went off from there. it anchored the defenses on the virginia side and the forts went on through alexandria and on over toward arlington and then back to the potomac river and across. they actually had a chain that they could put across here, across the potomac, to keep ships from coming up the river. as far as i know, it was never actually laid out, but they did have it here that they could use a chain across the river. this is a map.

there's ft. foote right on the river, jones point over here. then back over toward ft. ward. and then we are going to go to ft. stevens which is right here. so to give you an idea, see these black marks point out where the different forts were. so to give you an idea on the map. and the city more or less imposed on the map, itself. we're coming up on one of the 15 inch rodman guns. you can see how large it is. there were guns like this that had actually a 360 degrees shooting area because you can move it all the way around this ring. now, these guns were left here when they left the fort and when i saw them they were off their carriages sitting on the ground.

what had happened was during world war ii when they were scrapping metal for the war, they came out here and started dismantling the guns. they took them both off the carriages. they cut up one of the carriages. and then a national parks service ranger showed up and said, wait a minute, what are you doing? and they said, and they said, no, no, no, these are protected. we don't want these guns cut up. so they left, but they just left them sitting here on the ground. and for many years, that's the way they were. finally, a congressman from pittsburgh, where these guns were actually made, said, well, if the park service is not going to remount them, i want them back in pittsburgh. so at that point, the national parks service decided to remount them and so they built the new rings and the new carriages for

the guns and they have been remounted as they would have looked. so it's quite -- it was quite a job, but it gives you an idea of the way these guns would have looked at the time of the civil war and after. 15 inch rodman guns. the problem with world war i and world war ii, so many guns were melted down, there are few guns left, big guns especially from the civil war period. there are some. as a result, it's very valuable to have these two here in ft. foote. all the guns have markings on them with the serial number at one place or another. this says it was made in 1863. this is the initials of rodman. thomas rodman. he was also an inspector, so he may have inspected it. it depends on the fort, itself, as to what guns might actually be in them.

this one had 2 15-inch rodman guns. they had 4 200-pounder rifles would which have been large. 6 30-pounder. i mentioned a lot of places, there were some vacant platforms, there were 11 vacant platforms where they could have had guns. so it depends on the size of the fort and what you're trying to as to how many guns are actually in them and how many guns are available. john g. bernard, the man who kind of oversaw the fortifications during most of the war, as they redid and reconstructed some of these forts, he decided new guns would go in and help cover this which it wasn't doing before. so your plans for the fortifications, the system of fortifications did change over the four years of the war.

coming back, i told you we would stop and i would show you what some of the 360-degree angle guns look like. see, the carriage is a little bit different, but this shows you, and you notice the bottom, that gun could be turned 360 degrees so you can fire. now, if the gun is mounted, basically you're probably only going to want about 180-degree turn, but it could be fired the other way if needed. so that gives you a good idea. but you can see the abatee. notice the abatee coming up, the pointed stakes that i mentioned on the outside. so it's in the ditch on the outside to try to keep enemy from coming in. but you can see that it is clear field of fire in front. this is ft. stevens which is one

of the many forts in the defenses of washington. this is probably the most famous, and i'll explain why in a little while. now, originally this was known as ft. massachusetts. the people who built it immediately after the battle of first manassas which really scared the washington, d.c., area, and they started getting serious about building defenses around the city. so ft. massachusetts was built in this area by massachusetts troops. it was about a perimeter of about 168 yards and encompassed about 200 men in the fort. after second manassas in august of 1862, they decided to make this larger because of its location. it's very -- it's on a high ground, plus it covers 7th street which today is george avenue.

it was the 7th street extended which a lot of people used. so it was important to protect it. so they made it larger so it was about 375 yards perimeter. as i mentioned, it was, perhaps, the most famous fort. that's because of the battle of ft. stevens on july 11th, 12th, of 1864 when jubal early brought troops up through the valley, up around frederick, maryland, and then in toward washington, d.c., on july 11th. he came very near the fort here, itself. his men were exhausted. they did kind of feel it out little bit that day but decided they would have a demonstration in force the next day. now, i've explained before that these defenses were mutually supportive, so if you attacked ft. stevens, you were going to catch fire from the forts on both sides.

even jubal early in his demonstration on the 12th realized that and decided to actually leave. now, the defenses, as i mentioned, had started being built in 1861. this is kind of an 1864 with the battle of ft. stevens. this is kind of the culmination of the defenses, following the attack in july of 1864. really they pretty much went unaligned. but they still had some troops in them to man them, but they weren't worried about that. lee was more or less heading south and the other confederate troops were doing the same in other parts of the country. so in 1864 was probably the culmination of the defenses themselves. even though construction went on right through the end of the war and some of them even afterwards.

interestingly, in the 1930s, the civilian conservation corps was brought in to work on this fort. after the civil war, it was abandoned and it wasn't until around the turn -- around 1900 that some of the veterans of the 6 corps which had manned the fort raised money to try to buy the land. as you will see, when looking around the fort, it's by no means all here at this time. but they tried to restore it as best as they could. you'll notice the revetment, those logs, those fake logs are made out of concrete. okay. basically what we're seeing is this area over to about here, and then on the -- on the front side you will see the ditch is still there, but this area is

cut off over on this side. it was never fully finished in the rear. it was more or less like, what's called a lanet, and they did have logs in the back to try to close it in to support it. while the, quote, battle of ft. stevens was going on july 11th to the 12th, abraham lincoln, not that far away, came out to the fort and he actually got up on the parapet to look out to see where the troops were. and there were actually some sharp shooters who took shots at him. they did not hit him. one of the story is, and i've often wondered whether this is true or not, oliver wendell holmes who became very famous later was said to have said, get down, you fool. meaning get down before you get shot.

i doubt that that happened, but there were people that said that that is what oliver wendell holmes said. this is the only time that a president of the united states has actually been under fire while president of the united states. so abraham lincoln here standing on the parapit looking out to see where the enemy troops actually were. >> you can watch this and other "american artifacts" programs any time by visiting our website, c-span.org/history. american history tv's look at the civil war continues to the with the battle of the crater occurring during the siege of the battle of virginia union forces create a gap in the defenses but the attack failed with heavy losses for union troops. tonight watch as the national parks service commemorates the 150th anniversary of the battle.

we'll also take a look at how the attack failed and why the u.s. colored troops were unjustly blamed. and author kevin lavenon the contributions of the u.s. colored troops. that is all tonight at 8:00 eastern here on c-span 3. here are some of the highlights for the weekend. saturday night at 8:00 highlights from this year's new york ideas forum. and on sunday q&a with new york congressman charlie rangle at 8:00 p.m. eastern. friday night at 8:00 on c-span 2 "in depth." saturday on "after words" at

10:00. american history tv on c-span 3 a look at hollywood's portraying of slaveriry. saturday night at 8:00 the 200th anniversary of the battle and burning of washington. and how presidents make decisions. find our television schedule one week in advance at c-span.org and let us know what you think about the programs you are watching. call us or e-mail us at comments.cspan.org. histor yns and park officials discuss washington's civil war forts. this event hosted by the national archives and the national planning council is about an hour.

>> good afternoon. thank you archivists for hosting us as we look -- take this fascinating look into washington's civil war history. on behalf of the national capital planning commission, let me add my welcome to everyone in attendance and watching online. the commission's role as the federal government central planning agency in washington, d.c. and in the suburbs of virginia and maryland, we seek to protect and enhance the capital city's rich historic and cultural resources which include fort circle parks. national capital planning commission we recently celebrated 90 years since our organization was chartered by congress. one of the early responsibilities involved acquiring the property that has become fort circle parks.

in terms of when we do, i would like to mention one current project, one relevant also to the national archives. we just started work on what we call the pennsylvania avenue initiative. we will discuss the near term needs for pennsylvania avenue and the capitol and develop a new vision for this iconic street which is home to so many national treasures including this building, the national archives. i want to extend a special thanks to the park service for fort circle parks and especially recognize peter may. peter is a fellow ncpc commissioner. locals may recognize these names as parks, neighborhoods, and

even metro stations. but many are surprised to learn about their civil war history. the civil war, of course, is a milestone in our nation's history. the role of famous battles such as gettysburg and antitum are very well known to all of us. but today we're going to learn about another important and less well known battle that took place not far from where we are sitting today. were it not for the earth and defenses built to protect washington, d.c., and the battle of fort stevens that was built to defend washington, d.c., the city of washington, d.c., could be a very different place today. today we'll learn about the development of washington's civil war forts, the role in the war, and their ensuing transformation that today we know as the fort circle parks. so let me begin by introducing you to our terrific group of precenters.

dr. b. franklin cooling, he is a well regarded military and able historian and professor of national security studies at the national defense universities eisenhower school and national security and resource strategy. he has written extensively on the national capital region, tennessee and kentucky and the roles these regions played in the civil war. x the development of the civil war defense of washington and their impact on the war. loretta newman, co-founder and vice president of the alliance to preserve the civil war defenses of washington. she worked for the house interior committee where she handled national parks, public lands and preservation legislation and during the clinton administration she also directed the american heritage rivers initiative at the white house council on environmental quality. today ms. newman will discuss the post war impact on the forts on the surrounding neighborhoods in washington and their evolution into parks.

and kim elder, miss elder is the national park services program manager for civil war defenses of washington. she is responsible for the management and oversight program development for 16 of the remaining forts and batteries owned and operated by the national park service. so today miss elder will highlight the parks today and provide us with a preview of this weekend's activities at fort stevens. so let me begin now with dr. cooling. >> good afternoon, folks. it's a pleasure to be back in this lovely facility even if every time i come here i go into the wrong entrance. as a researcher, i became very accustomed over 30 years or more of going in the other side. well you don't want to hear about that today.

i'll mention the national archives in just a second in a different context. i am happy to say that for four days now i have listened to the national park service and the city and frederick county regale me with how the battle saved washington from confederate capture. now having been privy to this -- or also developer in this area with a couple books on the subject, i fear i'm also part of the problem. but today i want to tell you that the real battle that saved the city of washington is what we're going to talk about to some degree. we'll talk this afternoon about fortress washington. abe lincoln, fort stephens and the bat that will really saved the union on the 11th and 12th of july of 1864. it's ironic that not 50 years plus a month before -- 50 years

and a month before -- i guess that's 49 years and 11 months, but anyway, the british, you will recall, captured washington and burned the public building setting a day in infamy that was not 911 and not 7 december 1941. 50 years later, an enemy almost did it again. an enemy even though they were fellow americans was the enemy of the state, the enemy of the united states, the confederacy. we forget both, 1814 and 1864 despite an inextricable linkage between then and now through the commemoration of the centennial and next month the commemoration of a bicentennial. and let me say this. without the national archives and this is not pandering to the united states, without the

national archives, without the national capital planning commission and the national park service, the task of remembrance, preservation which we're going to be speaking of also today and public use indeed public recognition would be infinitely harder, public records, public planning and foresight links together then with now and into the future. and we're not there yet for the future, believe me. what we have is using the laboratory of historical site and event. the records official and private or unofficial. the awareness, the education, the furthering of agendas is what the centennial must be about. he said preservation of land will outlive all of us, including, of course, machine readable and print readable records.

go back to 1814. washington was a small insignificant village that purported to be the capital of a new nation. it was the seed of government. by 1864, washington, of course, is much more than that. it is the fortress of washington, a fortified mr. lincoln city. 60 odd or more forts, 93 arm the batteries, miles of roads, entrenchments, infrastructure for logistics, hospitals as well as the political capital of the

nation, the united states. had it not been for 1814 and the battle of bladeensburg there would not have been the attention paid by 1864 in part to protecting the city. indeed through the intervening years, there had been constructed in the area of the most possible threat to the capital that, is to say the river approach, fort washington. by 1861 it was completely neglected and of no use whatsoever in a brother's war of civil war, especially where, in fact, maryland, a southern slave holding state was five miles away from us right here surrounding the capital of the union. or the old united states. by 1864, there is a ring of fortifications by the city. they're preserved. we have something we can point to from the civil war and suggest that it's still using -- still being employed usefully for the city and the population today.

nationally, locally and the residence of the district of columbia. now these were unearthed -- i should say these were earthen fortifications, for the washington was a masonry fortification. but these were field fortifications. there were contra bands, hired labor. we had private military contractors even back then, you might say. maybe halliburton didn't have anything to do with it. but it's interesting to think about. an interlocking communication system of signals, roads, wagon parts, store houses, arsenals where i work was the ole washington arsenal that figured prominently in this story. but why do we consider this symbol, sword and shield, symbol of the union, washington, d.c., the shield, the protected the

fortifications that protected the city and the sword, the union armies in the field that were supposed to work together with the fortifications as important in our particular story. by 1864, these forts and heavy armament down at fort foot which you must visit because it's a superb fort restored and preserved with heavy ordinance of the period. by 1864, we had an episode that is as the duke of willington would have declared if he had been here instead of about waterloo, he would have said about fort stevens, it was a damn close run thing. despite lessons learned, despite all the fortifications, despite the thousands of public dollars expended on this fortification system, it was a critical summer of 1864, a critical month of july. ten critical days of which right now if we had been in the city at this particular time -- i

didn't get there yet. give me a chance. if we were here on july 10th, 1864, we would be panicked in the streets without air conditioning, without refrigeration because the rebels were close enough to be in rockville, gaithersburg and on up the line to the menocacy. but we're here today. this is the third confederate invasion of northern territory. but it was a pretty critical preelection summer for the president of the united states. and after all, abraham lincoln was a man that had the same kind of problems as president obama has, a not so loyal opposition

of his own party called the radicals that had sent to him by this date a drastic reconstruction bill that would have been punitive and completely unpalative to his scheme of reconstruction. this period of time was the storiyed risk taking event that change the strategic balance in the war in the east. not just militarily but also politically. though militarily robert e. lee thought predominantly through the state of his whole career, he wanted to break the stranglehold of u list is s grant and others on the richmond petersburg line. you may recall in the west the atlanta campaign had become bogged down on the coast lines, mobile bay and wilmington north carolina and others were not blockaded by the union.

in this election summer of 186 4shgs everything was kind of at a stand still. the war had not been won after gettysburg. forget gettysburg. fee eforget antetum. they all hung in the balance. it all hung in the balance on an afternoon here at fort stevens. my favorite confederate general hard swearing had children out of wedlock, spit tobacco. lee's bad old man of which i have a biography coming out shortly pointing out many of the foibles. he was a fighter. it was the last thing he had as an instrument of war. he appeared with about eight to

ten, maybe 12,000 men battle hardened veterans and was becoming a game changer here in the war in the east. how close the invasion, the time line, the citizens soldier, the lawyer, the uniform who oppose succession but went with a state much like robert e lee, never understood that. he was a west pointer. after the war in canada, he used to look across to fort niagra and complain about that barber pole flag, american flag they had to look at every morning. he swore allegiance to it when owe graduated west point. i don't have much truck for early and his comments on the american flag. it's all a matter of delays. it all begins with the previous week starting the fourth of july when they begin the repast that set out for them by the union soldiers at harper's ferry and mart inzburg and so forth. he loses three days. he loses another day at

frederick. a bat that will cost him services of one of his best divisions, but early by this time has become the confederate incarnate of hard war. he's the great extortionist of the civil war. he decides he's going to extort capital from all these northern cities and particularly by '64 maryland cities like hagerstown and middletown and frederick. he wastes a lot of time when the primary mission is to get to washington, change the scope of the war, capture the city, disperse the lincoln administration. but he's dialing around in frederick extracting 200 grand from them. okay. priorities. a second factor, on july 10th, the thermometer out here at georgetown university or up in maryland at a farm near sandy springs stood in the mid 90s.

drought had been in the region for weeks on end. water was in short supply. and the marching columns went through six inch dust on even a concrete highway. probably took them just as long to get as it takes us to get up 270. just about as unpleasant too. but all the delays get to our main point about the battle of fort stevens. i don't want to go on too long because we have other things we want to talk about this afternoon. fort stevens had been set up as fort massachusetts based on a camp bright wood out here in the bright wood section of washington as early as 1861. after the previous invasion of maryland in 1862, they expanded fort massachusetts who obviously had been built bypass mass soldiers, volunteers in part into fort stevens.

you can still see and we'll talk about that the restored part at fort stevens. otherwise everybody goes out and says where is the fort? they're thinking they're going to find a western stockade;¡d]÷ like fort mchenry or fort washington. but fort stevens was an expanded earthen fort with a stockade back side. it was manned this time not by a veteran ar till rift but 150 day men out of ohio who had come to a neighborly artillery to be shipped to grant as fire for the battles in virginia. these 150 day men, that manned fort stevens, were equal to the heavy artillrists because they trained the 150-day people.

let me just tell you one moment in time before i kind of wrap this thing up and we let kim have at it here. early afternoon, july 11th, monday afternoon. the moment when the two forces will meet at fort stevens, there's early's men coming in from frederick and there are reinforcements finally coming up from the petersburg lines by boat that are down at the docks at sixth street at this very moment. at this very moment early rides down what we know of as georgia avenue. it is the seventh street road, and there is a medical center, one of the great traffic situations of our time giving up walter reed so we can cause more traffic congestion in bethesda, walter reed is situated on what

is going to become the battlefield. the only battlefield in the district of columbia. early hunched over from arthritis through the mexican war and the dos and damps pulls out the binoculars and peers down at the union lines from his left fort slucum, to his right that would have been fort durissy. he peers through the binoculars and he senses the moment of opportunity to change the course of the war, my career, american history and the future of the confederacy beckons right then and there. can you imagine that career opportunity for any of us at that time? not robert e. lee, not grant, jubel early. who ever heard of him? the soldiers knew him. the enemy was finally going to know about him. and he turns to bring up his army and there is no army that he can bring up because of the heat and the dust and they're straggling up to gaithersburg. would we have pressed that issue? here's your moment.

you would have pushed the momentum and found something more than a guard to go forward and push through those thinly held lines at the time? more than a corporal's guard to go forward and push through those thinly held lines at the time? he doesn't. maybe he was just as tired as jaded and fatigued. he hated the yankees by this stage. but he couldn't push forward. so what does he do? next best. what most of us would have done. he retires back to silver spring, the mansion of francis preston blair and the sylvan spring there and the rum cellar and he calls command conference to await developments. he loses the initiative here at fort stephens. well the next day, in fact that day a man who doesn't lose an initiative, not that he's necessarily my hero, but he doesn't lose the initiative, abraham lincoln. the adolescent comes out to fort

stevens to see what's going on. he also wants to be with his boys. if you think lincoln was not a consummate politician, then you may be a little too idealistic. in any case, he comes out. he's there on the first day july 11th. the second day he comes out and comes up to the fort, rear end of the fort and who are -- horatio wright, who was mentioned to us before is the sixth corps commander who brought troops in there. and he writes, mr. president, i'm so happy to see you here. you would like to see a battle? would you like to see a battle? no sooner were the words out of his mouth and he realized, oops, that could be his career. good heaven if the president gets shot. think about it. who becomes vice president? never heard of hannibal hamlin. what happens to the nation? what happens to the city? et cetera, et cetera. all kind of things can happen. abe goes up there, nearly gets shot. maybe not where that boulder is placed. maybe not in that configuration, the great what ifs of history

based on the records legends and myth and story telling. history never repeats itself. historians just repeat each other. this any case lincoln is almost shot down, a surgeon cut down nearby, but, again, a missed opportunity for the confederacy. yes, lincoln was nearly shot. early's escape that evening was planned by the time he realized he would not breach defenses at fort stephens from grant's army. this episode scathes or does nothing much for lincoln's re-election chances that summer. lincoln had on his mind those days douglas reconstruction bill more than anything else. the fate of his secretary of

state's one son who was nearly captured and was wounded at monocacy. remember the blind memorandum by august, deadly summer of near defeat, largely because of early before washington, the president gets his cabinet to sign on the back of a memorial saying they don't know it but promises everybody will abide by secession that will come when he doesn't get re-elected. north taken aback. there's maybe he set this whole thing up for some reason. that sounds familiar, doesn't it? conspiracy theory. scathing criticism of the war entirely. grant going nowhere, navy doing nowhere, only confederates going

somewhere but they blinked and it falls to an autumn campaign in shenandoah, a change of command in monocacy who brings the team together of grant, sheridan and early. early was to his staff, i guess we scared lincoln like hell. douglas who represents most of the force at this time is ticked off because he didn't get in washington and capture aid, turns to his superior and says, well, gentlemen, on the afternoon of the 12th, you can see on the map here a couple of brigades against us in the counter-assault, there was somebody else scared as hell i

suspect. spits out of the side of his mouth, utters more profanities. well, i guess so but won't make it into the history books. it has made it into the history books, if not by official records. memoirs, reminiscences which fill out, flesh out official records, in fact, i venture to tell you there are probably more records in the national archives now not in the official war of the rebellion published by the war department and navy counterpart for the benefit of the veterans, though they used it in war planning and probably more that can be found on this thing. let me wrap up by suggesting this. grant may have declared early's lost opportunity didn't change the summer plan, if only to finally seal the achilles heel

of the shenandoah valley and approach to washington. the soldiers in these 49eforts, were still cleaning up, not the battlefield but overgrown and neglected fortifications, kind of locking the barn door after the horse had been stolen, if you will. make no mistake, however, a number of these union veterans, the high mark of the confederacy was not vicksburg, gettysburg, a little toll house, tollgate house at the corner of georgia avenue and piney branch road. that was the fullest extent that the confederate forces here at fort stevens came afternoon of july 11th and 12th capturing washington and changing the course of the war today and us today, quite frankly.

works roaded. we'll hear about that in a moment. we don't yet know where lincoln stood. i think he stood all over the place. he was over at fort stevens, but we really don't know for sure despite the lovely stone at fort stevens. where the veterans remembered seeing lincoln. i'm 75 years of age, folks. i remember things differently than when i was fighting, or something like that, at 20, 18. who knows? veterans may have been mistaken. they wanted to mark that spot and got the stone out of the walter reed area, one of the ugliest monuments in washington, but that on there and that's their monument of that's this monument to the remembrance of lincoln under enemy fire.

we don't know oliver wendell holmes, jr., justice of the supreme court really uttered one of those immortal words, get that damn fool down. the records suggest, that is to say reminiscences and so forth, five or six others as well as owner of the fort stevens property said get that fool down. horatio wright got him down because he couldn't protect him. mr. president, i can't protect you. finally lincoln gets down off his perch. urbanized washington took over the last civil war battlefield. still washington forts are yet another of washington's many monuments that transitioned in purpose. testament to survival of national unification and particularly in fort stevens and its decisive battle they want

recognition, appreciation, commemoration after 150 years for what they did there. and probably both sides lost over 1,000 people in casualties, many of whom or some of whom at least buried at battleground national cemetery and the little confederate at grace episcopal church out in crystal spring. just what they had become and what their soldiers brought there 150 years ago certainly warrant our gratitude today, our recognition, and some consideration in the pantheon of heroes of the nation, heroes of the southern confederacy, officers and enlisted personnel. veterans who came back like lewis cast white did from 102nd pennsylvania after the war, worked in the pension bureau, the most immediate great

entitlement program, built a house, and helped preserve what loretta is going to tell you about right now. thank you. [ applause ] >> well, thank you, frank. he is amazing. everything i'm going to show you, and i'm the picture girl, i've learned from him and a few others like him but especially frank. especially the civil war defenses from washington, there's a bible and frank and co-author wrote mr. lincoln sports. if you really care about the issue, that's the book to read. i wish i would have brought it with me but i encourage to get that book. i'm going to go as fast as i can. the nice thing about youtube, you can watch it later and pause and l