things that things have been fought to a frazzle? he says, unless we unite in this these forces from coming up on my rear, i cannot long go forward. and what he is talking about is these guys here. custer and devon, the fifth core coming in on their left flank. as the fifth core advances, they are taken -- taking confederate fire. a shell strikes this young fellow, 19 years old and listed in 1864 from pittsburgh, pennsylvania. he dies two weeks later here in farmville at the hospital. a bullet finds the chest of james haran, of the 189th new york. joshua chamberlain is leading the skirmishers of the fifth core. he has with him not the 20th maine, but his new brigade after his wounding at petersburg.

the 185th new york, hundred 90 if pennsylvanian. he is taking casualties. this guy here. look at that. artillery shell takes off his foot. and some toes on his other foot. some of that artillery fire is coming from the yard of george pierce, at the eastern edge of the village. men in those batteries are members of the richmond howitzers and salem flying artillery. here is an illustration of the firing of the last gun. william brown is with the salem flying artillery. one of those shells finds this fellow here. hiram clarke. kimberlin claims him to be the last casualty. don't know that that is necessarily true. but it is a rather tragic story. hiram clarke is from marathon, new york. he is sick with jaundice in the

hospital. he finds out his regimen is moving out i campaign, he absents himself from the hospital and joins his resident -- regimen. arching all the way to appomattox, and is hit by an artillery shelled and killed outright. we always knew about this -- this illustration. a couple years ago, found a photo of him. one of the last casualties of appomattox. 6'3" inches -- 6'3". as they are falling back, there are 25 men of the fourth and 14th north carolina volunteer to sacrifice themselves while gordon's men retreat. they are led by this fellow here, captain wilson jenkins. and they put up a defense on the western edge of the village. most of them and of getting captured. the confederates are falling back into the appomattox river valley, and they are forming a

line of defense around alexander's guns. mahone has brought his division over for support. what we are going to look at here now real quickly is the ridge to the south. we turned up this photo a few years ago. coming over this ridge is the federal fifth core. about 12,000 men. you have a thousand calvary men under constant and devon riding atop that rate. you can see that ridge from the appomattox river valley where these confederate troops are forming. you see 20,000 federal infantry coming or that ridge, you go there today, there are trees. must have made quite an impression on the confederate soldiers. custer is going down that road. and this fellow here, martin gary, is not too happy. custer's men are advancing. and a white flag is sent out. martin gary lent about that white flag being sent out to stop the fighting. he rather disavows it.

makes the comments that south carolinians never surrender. send some men from the seventh south carolina charging down the road towards custer's advance. they get cut up pretty bad. custer's lead regiments over here have spencer repeating carbines. that is the last fighting around appomattox courthouse. the situation is this. gordon mahone, alexander all back here in the appomattox river valley. here is gary, out protecting the left flank. long street cannot help in this because he is about three miles away, around a place called new hope church, facing the federal second and sixth core. the last thing i'll touch on real quick is this confederate cavalry. they flank out to the north. the federal cavalry is watching them.

they hit their lynchburg stage road to the west and there is fighting right around the walmart. they are battling over the walmart. [laughter] that is where the walmart is today. at the time, there was a house called the robinson house. this is where the last casualties at appomattox -- the battles of appomattox take place. at the robertson house. the federal cavalry commander henry davies, right there facing off against tom's mad. and there are casualties in this fighting. what gets captured and taken to lynchburg. norm reynolds is wounded three times in this fight. he is a lieutenant. there are confederate casualties. many killed. these are the last man to die at appomattox courthouse. william parker. robert parker, second virginia cavalry. william price, first maryland

cavalry. and there is the first maryland cavalry making their last charge down that road. some federal troops and officers received promotions for galyon service in this action. that is captain -- . federal troops actually send out white flags to stop that fighting. let mumford know that readily is going to meet with general grant and surrender his army. the confederate calvary, they don't surrender, they disband in lynchburg. dying has not collect -- quite come to an and. this guy much as all the way to appomattox, dies the next day april 10, of diphtheria. joe coleman, 61st pennsylvania, is loading surrendered weapons into wagons. one of those weapons exploded, discharges into his chest. he dies right there at

appomattox courthouse. last soldier we know of to die of his wound at appomattox is edward baker, the first maine cavalry. i think the most touching and maybe the most moving story is that of james wilson of the 14th virginia cavalry. he is mortally wounded in that fight on the morning of april 9. a comrade of his, goes out onto the battlefield after the fighting stops and finds wilson. wilson says to him it is hard to die now that the war is over. put yourself in wilson's shoes. he had been wounded so bad, you know you are not going to survive. but you also know that lee has surrendered his army. that is his situation. these other men -- are the men that are the last to die. confederate forces make no

reports of their casualties. estimates for the fighting range between 700 and 800 men killed and wanted. about another thousand men are captured. atrophic fight to the death that could of happened at appomattox never occurred. lee meeting with grant resulted in magnanimous terms for the remaining soldiers paroled at appomattox. but for the 700 or 800 men killed or wounded april 8 and april not, the surrender, and generous terms, came too late. thank you. [applause] you know, i covered it pretty thoroughly. i would like to stay on time for c-span. i am going to be around here all day today. all morning tomorrow. if you have questions regarding this let's talk informally here after the program.

let's get our 10 minute break in here, and we will come back with ron wilson, the former historian at appomattox, to talk about the surrender. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [indistinct chatter] >> welcome back to longwood university. up next, we join our c-span cities tour on the road as they explore the history of cities around the country. >> alexandria contraband and treatment cemeteries served as the burial place for about 1800

african-americans who came here to escape bondage in the civil war. in january 1865, a group of black soldiers were disinterred from friedman cemetery and moved to a national cemetery nearby. the remains of those left behind were eventually forgotten and paved over. this is the story of the two cemeteries, and alexandria's efforts to reclaim the history of one of them. >> today, we are here at alexandria national cemetery, which is at the western edge of old town alexandria. many people have never heard of this national cemetery. in fact, alexandria national cemetery is one of the oldest in america. and older than arlington cemetery itself. one of the main reasons that we are here today is to be able to say that there is a u.s. color troops