some people don't come looking because they don't live in virginia. they're maryland runaways or delaware slaves. of course, there are free blacks from the north who have enlisted. so they'll be kept in these slave pens right down here in shockoe bottom. and they'll be there if they survive until the war ends. some of these people rejoin their regiments and they go from missing in action to, you know, what happened to you? so we get the details of what happened to them. not very great details but at least, you know, which slave pen they may have been held in. and as far as why the confederates don't actually implement their may 1863 law, it's the law, i think people forget this. white officers had to be executed if they're found leading black men to combat, and blacks when captured, which already suggests you don't really need to take them prisoner, are going to be turned over to the state authority in whichever state they've been

captured in and dealt with as if they were leading a slave insurrection. it's just easier to kill them. as seen at poison spring, as seen at ft. pillow. as seen for many at crater. as will be seen in other battles during the war. thanks. >> this is a lesson learned question. during meade's conversation with grant, and grant being the commanding officer at vicksburg, and during the vicksburg siege there was another mine attempt there as well. didn't succeed. in your research, is there any conversation that has been recorded where grant reflects back the vicksburg and said, you know, we tried it there, didn't work, maybe we should not try here. just as a lessons learned. because, again, one big thing, all militaries do, you capture your lessons learned, try not to repeat mistakes. >> i spoke with terry when he was still at vicksburg.

i can't find any evidence of grant saying anything about this vicksburg mine that was a disaster. when the petersburg mine came around. because he's not overly enthusiastic about it, i think in the back of his mind he's, this might work and it might not work and whatever. but i don't get any real sense he's really reflective about it. yes? >> you mentioned several times about the additional fortifications built behind the salient that the union was not aware of. one of the new technologies that arrived in the civil war was balloon observations. were there any balloons that they might have used to observe? >> no, no balloon use in 18 1864-1865 by the federals or the confederates for that matter. pete has a question.

so rob ert e. rhee is his question. can he hold him accountable for the killing of u.s. colored troops after they stop the battle? lee is very near the battlefield the whole time, less than a quarter mile away, right behind the busted hole in the confederate line. they come out onto the field for an unreally clear amount of time after the battle. it's my observation that lee and borg must have seen some of this killing. what i do hold them accountable for, and grant and meade, is that they leave their wounded, the federal wounded out there on the battlefield in the 100-plus degree heat because meade doesn't want to admit defeat, and it's preposterous to leave

these people out there bleeding, crying out in agony. by the time they have been recovered, the other comment meade staff says is that the bodies are so black from the sun, they're bursting now. also white because maggots are eating their flesh, all of that could have been avoided if the letter that meade did write, he had just immediately sent it over to the confederates. and so there's all sort of intricacies if you want to talk about more, we can, of where the letter is going and how we're going to arrange the flag of truce and it takes almost a day and a half, almost two days. it's really disgusting. i say to those people, these men are not heroes. i guess that's it. thank you. [ applause ] thursday night, a look at the civil war's atlanta

campaign. in may 1864, union general william sherman marched into georgia with a goal of capturing atlanta. after a series of battles through the summer and a siege of the city, atlanta fell to the union on september 2nd, 1864. we'll hear about general sherman's march to the sea through georgia as well as joseph e. johnston who led confederates in the summer of 1864. also a look at confederate weapons manufacturing in central georgia during and after the fall of atlanta. that's all coming up thursday night here on c-span3. 200 years ago on august 24th, 1814, british soldiers routed american troops at the battle of boydens brg just outside washington, d.c. the victory left the nation's capital wide open to british forces who marched into the city and burned down the white house and the u.s. capitol. you can learn more about the