throughout the weekend, c-span is featuring columbus, georgia. learn more about columbus and other stops at www.c-span.org/c itiestour. you are watching american history tv all weekend on cspan3 . announcer: with live coverage of the house and senate on cspan3 we complement that coverage by showing you the most relevant congressional hearings and public events. on weekends, cspan3 is home to american history tv including six unique series, visiting battlefields and key events of the civil war touring museums and used worksites to discover what artifacts reveal about america's past. history bookshelf presidency lectures in history with top college professors delving into america's past, and our new

series, "reel america"" featuring films from the 1930's through the 1970's. cspan3 created by the cable-tv industry and funded by your local provider. like us on facebook and follow us on twitter. announcer: each week, american artifacts takes viewers into historic sites around the country. next, we visit the national museum of health and medicine just outside washington, d.c., to look at items in their civil war collection. please note, some viewers may find images in this program disturbing. mr. clarke: welcome. i'm tim clarke and i'm the museum's deputy director and we are spending time on the civil war medicine exhibit and special other things to show you. the national museum of health and medicine was founded in 1862

. we were known then as the army medical museum and the mission was to collect specimens of morbid anatomy and send them to washington to study to improve the care of the soldier. at the time of the civil war the museum's staff were doing the business of lessons learned. they were trying to understand the nature of battlefield surgery and medicine, and trauma and share it with their counterparts on the battlefield. this museum and its collection started during the war and in the early days, the museum was housed in the surgeon general's office. the first artifacts were on a shelf behind the surgeon general's desk in a building that we know as the riggs bank building near the white house. but wasn't until after the tragic events of the assassination of president lincoln that the museum moved

into its first long-term residence and moved into fords theater before moving to what became the national mall in a building built in the 1880's that we familiarly call "the old red brick" in a building that is no longer there, but was in the location where the gallery is today. and the museum moved in 1968 from its now former location on the national mall to walter reed army medical center in washington, d.c., where it was housed for years before moving to silver spring, where we are today. the museum today is a museum of 25 million objects. most of those are in five major collections, but the general -- genesis of that, that

collection, the core of the 25 million objects is in civil war medicine and that's the tour that we are about to start today. and so, come along. we are inside our civil war medicine exhibit here at the national museum of health and medicine and starting our visit in front of the skull here of an individual from a particularly renowned african-american regiment stood up in 1863. we don't even know the name of this person, but he was a soldier with the 54th massachusetts. called up in boston and took various different actions before arriving at the battlefield of wagner in july of 1863 and this soldier would have been with the 54th when they made their initial assault on the evening of july 18, 1863.

but you can see that this soldier died instantly from a cannon shot from a 12-pound howitzer fired by confederate forces marshaled inside battery wagner and was killed on the battlefield. his remains were there and stayed there, weren't buried properly and he was recovered some 10, 12 years after the war as indicated by the stained brown color of the specimen itself. what's particularly of import here is here is the skull of an african american union soldier who died in service for his country. but for viewers and visitors they may recall the movie "glory” that recounts the story of the 54th massachusetts. and this skull from this soldier

would have been one of those characters portrayed in that movie and is in particular interest when visitors come here to the museum. the skull is near an exhibit about bullets and shrapnel where we are able to talk about those objects that caused the injury which was of much concern and interest to the museum at the time as much as the remains and photographs and documentary records, they also wanted to collect that thing which caused the injury. they collected very other interesting artifacts. the breastplate belonged to an officer at the battle of gettysburg in july of 1863. he probably hoped that it might do him some good, but as evidenced by the clear bullet holes, right in the center of the breastplate and down below,

this officer was killed. the breastplate failed. we made an effort to contrast that rest fleet which failed to save an officer with this small personal notebook with mounted here. the story behind the notebook is that the notebook, torn at the bottom, stopped able it. we have several like this in the museum's collection and regularly get calls from persons interested in this type of interesting story. we found of that interest and we thought visitors would like to see it. and so, here it is. along this part of our civil war medicine exhibit, includes numerous examples of the modern surgical kits of the time. so, you would see amputation saws and blades and scissors and

you would see requisition orders. while the museum was interested in collecting the specimens and the medical documentary images they were also interested in collecting the business of the military medicine at the time. some of those are included in this part of the exhibit. we also include a particularly unique innovation. it is sometimes not well understood about how prevalent anesthesia and pain medication was during the civil war. sometimes considered a myth that someone might bite down on a bullet before having a limb amputated. that was never really the case. there was pain medicine. ether and anesthesia was available. but one of the concerns was it was hard to deliver this somewhat expensive medication into the system. we have something on display by

a confederate surgeon who developed this tool which helped to deliver more of the anesthesia further into the nostrils of the patient. it limited how much was needed and got it quicker into the nervous system. this is a particularly neat tool and you can see it here on , display. we are the army medical museum founded by the union army, but honestly are several but on display are several artifacts by confederate surgeons from the war itself. this small pocket surgical kit it belonged to a woman named mary walker who was a contract soldier during the civil war. she volunteered and was discharged and volunteered again and was discharged, but she persisted and was recognized for her commitment and her service

as -- and was named the first woman to receive the congressional medal of honor. unfortunately, that award was eventually stripped of her some years later. there were differing accounts of her service in the union army. and i would suspect there were some concerns about her gender and some resentment about the role she played. but eventually, took as long -- until the carter administration, the honor was restored back to her. important to note, that mary never returned her medal. she resisted the plea to return the medal. and retained that to her death. and we remember her commitment and her service by displaying tools she carried when in service to the union army back in 1864, right here on display. another element of our civil war medicine exhibit is the

whole wall of the display case that has been featuring artifacts, images, and specimens from each year of the conflict 150 years later. we featured specimens during the battle of gettysburg in 2013 and 2014. in 2015, our exhibit will feature artifacts and specimens from the last few months of the civil war and so visitors should look to see that on display when they visit. so as we continue through our civil war medicine exhibit, we come across the story of captain henry wertz. he is known for his infamous role as the commander of the andersonville prison a p.o.w. , camp run by the confederate army and known for its terrible conditions. it interred thousands of union soldiers and upon their release, the stories came out about the treatments that they underwent

while prisoners of war. he was accused of a number of these crimes and claimed that he could not have committed some of those crimes, because of an injury to his right arm. well, wertz was tried and convicted and his claims failed to convince a jury and he was executed. he was executed for his crimes. after his execution, an examination of his arm, which we have in that jar, showed no loss of use of any part of his arm disproving the claim he had made during his trial. but also on display are the first and second vertical -- server cervical vertebrae of his neck, showing the effect of his execution. we contrast the actual specimen with the photograph of him just prior to the actual hanging. we offer that here for the public to see. these two artifacts are right

near a larger examination of the study of injuries and wounds during the civil war. the museum sent out misses to -- mrsmissives to medical officers in all the major battlefields and all theaters of the war with the instruction to send speaks specimens from their battlefield hospital to washington. they were instructed to keep detailed notes and instructed to keep with the specimen the object that caused the injury. if you look at some of those on display, you will see a mini ball or fragment tacked into the prepared specimens on display. sometimes, they would come to washington packed in whiskey casks. this is prior to having been cleaned and prepared, packed

into the barrels for their arrival at the offices in washington where the staff would have taken them out of the barrels, cleaned them, prepared them and mounted them, and this is a good example. not only did they show the structure of the bone, you can see the missing bone, but they also included the shell fragment that caused that injury. another good example, too, of the work that the museum did to follow individual cases is that of major general barnham and this is his hip. barnham was injured in a gunshot wound that passed through the bone. and the surgeon healed up the skin injuries, but put through a cord, passed it from barnham 's front of his torso, through the hip and out the back. and you can see it in on in the photograph we have on display. every once in a while, he

reduced the size of that cord. over the years, it went from a thick cord down to a thread. you can see that in this great photograph. all of the work of the army medical museum was eventually coalesced into the signature publication of the late 19th century. the work of the museum became known as "the medical history of the war of the rebellion." this was to understand the nature of battlefield medicine at the time of the war, the lessons that were learned. it tabulated the types of injuries, the efforts to repair trauma and disease and documented the work on the battlefield and tracked cases years later after the war. we actually offer part of that for the public to see and the effort that was made to understand military medicine at the time of the civil war, that

effort was never duplicated in the wars that followed, the spanish-american war, the wars of the 20th century. and it's an honor for us to showcase the actual publication itself matched with the wood etchings carvings, the , photographs, the illustrations that comprise that remain in the museum's care today. we are often asked what the long-term benefit, what did we learn, what did we understand about military medicine, about medicine in general because of the lessons learned during the civil war. medicine after the civil war had a grander understanding about how to deal with huge volumes of patients. there was a better understanding of surgical treatment and the rapid need for amputation, a better understanding of infection. the end of the civil war showed was prior to a better general

understanding of sanitary practices and conditions that would limit or eliminate most infections, but most military officers at the time came out of the war prepared and primed for those lessons that came just some years later at the end of the 19th century. civil war medicine also taught the military, the army, the navy, about medical evacuation. this was a time where it became pretty clear to those involved that removing a patient from the battlefield, returning them to a properly outfitted treatment facility increased their chances for recovery and returning back to some quality of life. that lesson alone and the had great impact and effect as the country found itself involved in the spanish-american war and were lessons applied in world war i, just 50 years later. we come to the story of dan

fickles. he will be a familiar name to many viewers and is this specimen on display is one of the most frequently requested objects by our visitors here at the museum. dan was infamous before the war. his activities during the war elevated his stature, in a sense. and he went on to live a long life amazingly despite the events of the battle of gettysburg. i can tell you a little bit more about it. before the civil war, dan sickles, as a congressman, was involved in a duel of sorts with the son of francis scott key. francis scott key's son had been engaged in a relationship with

sickles' wife, and he took issue with the affair and called key out on lafayette square. sickles killed key and was put on trial. he claimed that he had become so enraged by learning of this affair, that he had become temporarily insane. the jury was convinced by his argument, and he is now known as the first person not being found not guilty by reason of temporary insanity. this was some years before the civil war. he was already quite a name in washington circles. after the start of the war, he talked his way into a commission and eventually was elevated to commander of the third corps and found himself assigned to play a role in the battle of

gettysburg. it is a story well recounted by folks who know the gettysburg story well, he was not inclined to follow orders and led his men ahead of the union line and suffered for it. his men were almost unilaterally slaughtered in the peach orchard that way. he himself was struck by a cannonball, similar to the one we have on display, struck into his lower right leg, requiring amputation on the battlefield. and we have on display the lower right leg. it took an interesting journey. to get here to washington. he was aware as well as his medical officer of the request by the army medical museum to collect a specimen of morbid anatomy. it required his surgeon to send

it forward and the leg was sent in a small box, a coffin of sorts, for -- with compliments a note, where it was prepared by the museum staff and mounted in the fashion that you see here. but the story goes on. he would even visit the museum on the anniversary of his leg's amputation. and would bring his could hertz cohorts and cronies to see the leg on display. there are records of his visit , and there is a record of a visit where he asked to see what was left of his foot. he noted just the light itself had been displayed. the curator responded to the general, general, we didn't preserve that part of the speaks specimen because just this part showed the unique trauma and pathology that we wanted to

showcase. according to the legend, sickles didn't take that too well. so he remains here as a central part of the museum's exhibit on civil war medicine. as i said, it is one of the most frequently asked-for objects on display by visitors to the museum here in silver spring. in this part of the exhibit on civil war medicine, we also have on display this bone specimen on the shelf here in front of us . the bone belonged to a private cunningham. but it's notable because this bone was something that was recounted upon and the story around it by walt whitman. he was a nurse and served in hospitals in the virginia and at before and after the civil war. at some point, the museum staff was able to associate his writings in poems and stories from that time with specimens that were held in the collection

here at the museum. here is a case where we are able to associate a bit of a story from walt whitman with the actual bone of a person he cared for in a hospital during the civil war itself. our final stop today is an exhibit on the assassination of abraham lincoln and features artifacts that were collected during those hours that surgeons were treating him after he was shot at fords theater and during and after his autopsy the next day. you might remember that abraham lincoln is shot at ford's theater about 10:30 on friday, the 14th of april, 1865. this is just a few days after lee surrendered to grant at pap appomattox, effectively ending the civil war. lincoln is at the play and is

shot in the back of the head by john wilkes booth by a small lead bullet. that bullet is on display here and you can see it here in that small glass globe. the bullet was recovered the next day in an autopsy performed at the white house. in the hours after lincoln is shot, the surgeon general, surgeon general joseph barnes responds to the president's side. this is at the peterson house directly across the street from ford's theater. he calls for a probe and mounted that in the back here on display. the idea with the probe is it would be threaded into the wound with the idea depending how far into the wound the probe would go might identify where the fragment or bullet was. they weren't able to do so. the bullet, they found later

ended up being lodged behind lincoln's right eye. but the probe was retained and eventually made its way to the exhibit we have here on display. the surgeon general barnes and army medical museum staff john woodward and another surgeon named edward curtis were at the president's bedside in the hours before he died, which was 7:22 the next morning, april 15 1865. it was decided that a post postmortem would be performed very quickly. the president's body was moved to the white house and the autopsy was performed in a room that is today one of the president's dining rooms in the second floor of the residence. it is during that autopsy that the bullet is recovered. the skull would have been removed. the top of the skull would have

been removed from lincoln's head. as the story is recounted by dr. curtis p dr. curtis held the skull over a china bowl and made a tinkling sound as it fell into the bowl. and according to his notes and the notes of others in the room, there was a pause, a moment of silence and with that sound of the bullet in the china bowl is the only sound making any noise at that exact moment. curtis reflects on it saying something to the effect of this is a lead ball for which we can't yet measure the calamitous effect. the autopsy is completed. some fragments of lincoln's skull were retained by surgeons who assisted at the autopsy and in one case, one fragment was stuck on some of dr. curtis'

tools and as he was cleaning the tools, he found a bit of lincoln's skull fragments, stuck in one of the saws. we also have on display a bit of lincoln's hair removed from the site of the wound. several locks of hair are accounted for in the notes in the hours before lincoln died and during his autopsy. these are just a few of those that were cut and given away to different people. another object that is on display relates to dr. curtis. a surgeon on the staff of the army medical museum is the assistant at the autopsy. when he got home that night, the 15th of april after the autopsy, he discovered that his undershirt sleeve cuffs were stained with the president's blood. mrs. curtis cut those off and put them in an envelope and this

that they signed and endorsed. this is one of those two shirt cuffs. both are in the museum's holding. just this one is on display. many of these objects had an interesting and diverse history. the bullet was used at the trial of the conspirators. the fragments of bone and hair were in the care and holdings of others for many others and most the last for many years. most were collected in the early 1950's by an army museum curator and have been on display for many decades. it is important to note that 2015 will mark the 150th anniversary of the assassination of president abraham lincoln. we hope you enjoyed the visit to the exhibit on civil war medicine and the artifacts related to the assassination of president lincoln. it is important for us to share

these artifacts that convey the lessons and history of military medicine from 150 years ago and that is the inspiration for much of the work that the museum does today to carry on that legacy of military medicine today and into the future. we hope you will consider visiting the museum when you are in the washington, d.c., area. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] you can watch this program or other programs at any time by visiting the website. announcer: monday night, we met up with tim moynihan at the consumer electronics show in las vegas. he gave us a tour of the latest in t.v. technology. >> it stands for organic light emitting diode. led refers to the backlight

system. it uses that to cover liquid crystal displays. the viewpoint is using individual particles as a source of light. they can be turned on and off independently. with an led set, you will always have some sort of light seeping through. to my eyes, this is pretty amazing. this is for k and -- 4k and led this is sort of the holy grail of t.v.'s. announcer: monday night on c-span2. announcer colin, i discuss in on the last major speeches of lincoln and martin luther king jr. president lincoln delivered his second inaugural address at the u.s. capitol in march,