this is one of many sign that is the confederate government has that there's a unionist underground in richmond that defined them, but they can't seem to catch. it speaks at the fact there's these questions that are at work on both sides. the union espionage are poor and feckless. by the end of the war, the union espionage machine is working well and the confederates are wringing their hands, particularly because of the symbolism of this great resurrection of the this slain union soldier. any other questions? that will be the last one. thank you so much. [ applause ]

>> you are watching american history tv all weekend. today, we are focusing on the civil war, showing you a recent forum on the 1864 election hosted by the lincoln group of washington, d.c. abraham lincoln ran for election on the reform of restoring the union and emancipation of slaves. our coverage of the forum will resume in a moment. each week, we take viewers into ar kooifs. washington d.c. was a lightly defended city and vulnerable to attack. by the end of the war, however, the nation's capitol had become one of the most fortified cities in the world with 70 armed forts and batteries encircling the

city. next, some of the surviving forts, we visit forth stevens under direct attack in july, 1864. >> this is fort stevens, 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. originally, this was known as fort massachusetts. the people who built it immediately after the battle of first manassas which scared the washington, d.c. area and they started getting serious about building defenses around the city. so, fort massachusetts was built in this area by massachusetts troops. it was about a perimeter of 168 yards and encompassed 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 seventh street, which is georgia avenue today. a lot of people used it. it was important to protect it. they made it larger, so it was 375 yards perimeter. as i mention, it was, perhaps, the most famous fort. that's because of the battle of fort stevens on july 11th-12th of 1864 when they brought troops up through the valley up around frederick, maryland and in toward washington, d.c. on july 11th, he came near the fort here itself. his men were pretty exhausted. they could kind of feel it out a little bit that day but decided they would have a demonstration in force the next day.

now, i have explained before that these defenses were mutually supported so if you attack fort stevens, you are going to catch fire from the fort's on both sides. even jubal early in his demonstration on the 12th realized that and decided to actually leave. the defenses, as i mentioned, started being built in 1861. this is kind of an 1864 with the battle of fort stevens. this is a cull money nation of the defenses following the attack in july of 1864. really, they pretty much went on the line. they still had some troops but they weren't worried about that. lee was more or less headed south and the other confederate troops were doing the same in other parts of the country.

so, in 1864, it was probably the cull m nation of the forces. it went on to the war and some of them afterwards. interestingly, in the 1930s, the civilian conservation corps was brought in to work on this fort. after the civil war, it was abandoned. it wasn't until the turn, around 1900 that some of the veterans of the sixth corps which 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 they could, the ccc, you will notice, the revetment of the logs, fake logs, are made out of concrete.

basically, what we are seeing is this area over to about here and then on the front side you will see the ditches still there. but this area is cut off over on this side. it was never fully finished in the rear. it was more less like the net. they did have logs in the back to try to close it in to support it. while the quote battle of fort stevens was going on july 1th to 12th, abraham lincoln, not that far away came out to the fort and he actually got up to look out to see where the troops were. there were actually some sharp shooters who took shots at him. they did not hit him.

the story is, i have often wondered if this is true or not. oliver wendell holmes who became famous later was said to have said, get down you fool, meaning get down before you get shot. i doubt that happened, but there are people that said that is what oliver wendell holmes said. but, abraham lincoln standing here to look to see where the enemy troops actually were. you can watch this and other american artifacts programs anytime by visiting our website, c-span.org/history. this thanksgiving weekend, we continue our four-day book tv and american history tv programming. saturday, at 10:00 eastern on book tvs after words, the history of the birth control

pill, then bill nye the science guy. and american history tv on c-span 3, saturday night before 9:00, george washington and benedict around and sunday afternoon at 4:00, between 1914 and 1930 from henry ford's film collection. find the schedule at c-span.org and let us know about the programs you are watching. e-mail us at comments.c-span.org or tweet us. join the c-span conversation. like us on facebook and follow us on twitter. now, we continue the look at the 1864 presidential election between abeham lincoln and george mcclellan. it was marked by casualties and the end goal of emancipation.