first reports that the president had been shot. teresa: imd curator and director of collections at the museum and we are in the new lincoln exhibit called president clinton is dead. -- president lincoln is dead. this exhibit has a tight focus on seven editions of the new york herald which was the most widely circulated newspaper at the time that were published in the 18 hours immediately following lincoln's assassination. it is the minute by minute story of the news as it happened about the assassination of lincoln. one of the ways that we hope people understand not just time but place is through this great map on the floor in the center of the gallery. because we are almost in this

building at the epicenter of things. the museum is on the site of the national hotel which is the hotel where booth stated before he committed the horrible crime. you can take a look on the floor of this room after you read through the newspapers and place yourself in all the different spots that are being restaurants, from the national hotel, the ford's theater, the hotel where lincoln was taken after he was shot. it's right across street. it is the spot where he ultimately died, to the telegraph offices in newspaper row where the new york herald office work, to the white house. you can place your self among all these significant spots that are part of this story.

the first edition is the regular edition of the morning paper at that time. essentially it is the breaking news, the flash moment of the president has been shot. interestingly enough it uses the word assassination already in that paper, because at the time, that word meant a surprise, violent attack on someone that didn't necessarily mean something that ended in death. it just reports the shooting, as well as some other tidbits of information. it reports that the secretary of state has been attacked as well. gives you the first blush of what has gone on that evening. the second edition is a 3:00

a.m. 3:00 a.m. edition. it's just an hour later. the new york herald is working to get information to people. in the second edition, the main thing is the new information it reveals, that they have identified john wilkes booth as the assassin. the next edition as an 8:45 edition and it actually is the first to announce the death of the president. this comes out just 90 minutes after the death. so that is really fast. you know that the telegraph wires were just on fire between washington and new york to get that kind of information out and around and for them to get it in the newspaper. one of the exciting things for us and for lincoln scholars everywhere is that this was an addition that was previously unrecorded to modern historians. it is a newspaper we have had in

our collection for a long time. but we just sort of uncovered it significance during the force of doing some resorts -- some research in creating this exhibit. it had long been thought that there were six editions of the new york herald, and historians and scholars had believed that for decades, but we were able to unearth this from our own collection and bring it to the forefront and also to researchers and scholars of the program, which is great. the next edition is the 10:00 a.m. edition, and it has significance for a couple of reasons. it is the first one to have what are called the morning borders so you can see the lines between the different columns of text are wider than the aren other prior editions. that is a function of the printing that was done specifically to signify that the

country was in mourning for a reason. so the 10:00 a.m. morning edition comes out and it is the first to reveal there was a plot, a conspiracy. it wasn't just a whim on the part of john wilkes booth that evening, that he had made plans and was in cahoots with others to pull off the assassination. the fifth one is another 10:00 a.m. edition. we further -- refer to all these by the last date line, the last time stamped piece of information in it. it's the same timestamp, still at 10:00 a.m. edition and it includes information about the reward being offered for the capture of booth and the conspirators. at this point in time it's

offered at $10,000, a significant amount of money at this point in time. as we move through the manhunt for all of these people that reward offer increases to $100,000. our next edition comes in the afternoon at 2:00 p.m. and it is interesting from one standpoint because this is the point in time where the breaking news moves to the back page of the newspaper. so the front page, they just left at the same, and they started loading their news onto the back page. so the way the print is happening at that point in time is that every letter is being laid one by one. it's not lines of type, it's not you and your computer. it's every single letter being laid in to the chase, which is what they call the big part that

holds all the print materials. and a certain point the front page is full. they can't put any more news on there. there's nothing insignificant left on the front page to scrap or pull off. now the breaking news is happening on the back page. so you don't see the big banner that says the new york herald you see a small back page notification that it is the herald. oddly enough it's the one where they haven't managed to change the date, it still the 14th on the back page but it is of course the 15th. the big news that is revealed to us in the 2:00 p.m. edition is that the vice president has been sworn in as the president. so the country as a whole has a new president.

and it is lincoln successor who moves up. so there has been a peaceful transfer of power the unique thing that we depend on in this country. there was not a coup that subsequently happened, there was not a wrestling for power nothing. it was a simple transfer of power to the next in line. there's still one more edition that the new york herald publishes after this on this day. it's the 330 edition and it announces information about you all preparations, as you might imagine, but the most striking thing that it reports is that booth has been captured, which is not true, because booth is not captured for another 11 days. he is on the run, on the lam and he is successfully evading authorities for a good amount of time.

as we've seen along the way it was not true that secretary of state seward was assassinated. so the last one has that is a false report. many of the reports in these newspapers come from the ap, the associated press, which we still have today, and it was established as a conglomerate cooling -- pooling their resources, the herald being one of them, to be sure they're getting as much information from around the country as they possibly can in any point in time. you can see it's at the apex of the early significance here. i reporter is actually the ap correspondent in washington and huge doing much of the reporting.

so much of their original reporting is coming from him and then through the ap and into the herald. also we see the secretary of war giving his official dispatches and they are recounted in the paper as well. so stanton would go to the war telegraph office and dispense information officially coming from the government and the newspapers would report that as well. i can't purport to know precisely what people's reactions were, not being there, but certainly there are reports in subsequent editions of the frenzy and despair. this was a much beloved figure, leader in parts of this country so there was certainly a bit of worry and mayhem. in addition to that, because of other reports coming out that

the secretary of state had been killed. when he was not killed -- he was severely i njured. there was uncertainty as to whether this was an attack on this nation from an act of terrorism, a foreign attack, was it some greater plot that was going to result in murder of other individuals in the government? it was unclear, especially just coming off the civil war what exactly this all meant. so, certainly there was this hunger among the citizenry to get as much information as they possibly could. "the herald" was working to supply that. you will see that things are very similar from edition to edition. in the left column of each paper, you see it starts with important and followed by a series of text. and the new information gets loaded in.

column by column, with little things they feel they can sacrifice or they have gotten new information and new text is loaded in. it is a very physical process. we think of this now as the characters, you have to put them in one by one. that is not what is happening here. you can see spots where there might be a column that starts with a big headline. you never see a banner headline, which i think is fascinating. you do not see anything running across five columns. lincoln is dead. which, of course, 100 years later, you see with president kennedy. those are banner headlines all over. you got to almost look inside to get more details. but that is not what is happening. technology is not at that spot for banner headlines to run across multiple columns.

in the 2:00 p.m. edition, we also get some reports that "the herald" has taken from other newspapers. so relied heavily on the ap, lawrence gobright. the official dispatches from stanton, secretary of war. as we keep moving to the day they look to other sources. they look to, i think there are reports from the evening "post" and the "daily chronicle" which are local d.c. papers. where we get reports of the crime scene, which is some interesting information that comes out of "the chronicle." then we get the notes from the doctor at the bedside, which "the herald" gets from the

"washington star." not in a malicious way. maybe not overly collaborative but certainly it was with permission. the report from the chronicle, "the star," so the information is getting out because that is seen as the most critical thing. in the final edition, we get reports of not just mourning which we know is going on, but people celebrating. it was still -- the civil war was over and there were still divisiveness within the nation. and not just among the conspirators and booth. there were others who were apparently happy to see the end of lincoln. there were reports of arrests of people celebrating the death.

and there are reports that say things like, all happy here from louisiana. so, those are interesting little elements that we don't see, with the newspapers as your primary source, you get more than you can get in the broader strokes of a history book. which is nice to be able to let people read for themselves. there were suddenly other newspapers who were publishing and certainly doing additional editions, doing extras, but the "herald" seems to have held the high water mark for that kind of the fastest presses, the most up-to-date. they had a huge number of pressmen, more than any other newspaper that we see recorded. they have a large squadron of reporters. so, they have many resources to

be able to make that happen. the "new york herald" is the most widely replicated -- maybe not reproduced -- but replicated newspaper reporting lincoln's death. so, there are editions that were made as commemorative pieces in the years after the assassination. that come out and are sold at the time not to fake anybody out. they are so just as commemorative pieces. everybody. at the time knows who what they are getting a compilation of the news from " new york herald" on this day. none of them specifically replicate any of the front pages you will see in this exhibit but they utilize that news and the typeface and the information of that era.

like if he went to the gift shop at the museum and you bought it, it would look old timey, but you would be fully or where you're not buying a copy of the constitution. in the intervening 130 years people have come to believe as they are passed on within families, that what they have is an actual "new york herald" that reports the news of lincoln's assassination. in most instances, that is not the case. one of the way we can tell the difference between the replica in the papers is that even in the 15 years after the assassination, paper changed a lot. and these papers that are part of the exhibit, part of the originals, were printed on paper with a high cotton content and a very low wood pulp content. as we progress into the 1890's, and there is much more demand

for the penny press, and there is much more hotly contested many more newspapers, and the industry is a lot more hotly contested and everybody is trying to save as much money as they can, they move in the direction of using paper that has a high -- low cotton content. that high wood pulp content make the paper age rapidly. a paper from the 1880's are in the worst condition we find in our collection as a whole. much of the collection dates from the 1490's to present day. so the 1880's are the worst of it where the wood pulp content is high and they are as old as dirt. they. are beginning to crumble and yellow and they are brittle and they are sometimes really hard to salvage. the papers here still have that nice hot and cotton content.

they look good. they do not age in the same way. the acid content is lower. that is what is the case with your newspaper today. it's very acidic and it has the capacity to age rapidly. you let your papers hang around for a couple months and they are already yellowing. it is the same with the papers in the 1880's. six of seven editions are from the newseum permanent collection. in the course of research and being in touch with scholars to run across a collector who had the edition we did not have. it was a known edition, reviewed by scholars and part of the historic record, but we did not happen to have one. and that is the 3:30 edition. we were able to and the exhibit

just as the "new york herald" ended it, thanks to a loan from a collector of the 3:30 edition. few the course of the seven editions that cover the 18 hours immediately following the shooting, it carries you through those hours so that you understand the key strokes of history which we fully comprehend today but with much more nuanced detail along the way, that there was a trip to the theater. there was the shooting, the death, a new president was installed, and funeral preparations were in order. one of the things that i hope people comprehend as they move through the exhibit is that they get the understanding of how people at the time were getting news. this is really a moment in time

where everything had come together. you can -- see how this was unfolding for a confused and scared nation, many of whom were coming off a victory. some of whom were coming away from a crushing defeat. but how they got this information about the assassination and how it was conveyed to them and understood. in addition, we want people to understand the significance of the speed of news at this moment in time. news moves incredibly fast. nowadays. so quickly between twitter and all of the electronic media but this is really a moment in time where everything has come together. the proliferation of the telegraph. there was an incredible squadron of reporters coming off the war. the capacity of the "new york herald" to move so swiftly with

a number of pressman they had and the speed of their presses to be able to push this much news out this rapidly. and for it to come to people in that way. so those are among the things we want people to be able to take away from this exhibit. we give them a chance also to take a little stock of where they are in this city and consider that many of these things happened right here right here in this town. and almost right here in this neighborhood. this is also really exciting for us. our exhibit opened on february 13 this year, just right before presidents' day. and it will run through the early part of next january january 10 of 2016. so there is a good while to see it. to the best of our knowledge this is the first time all seven editions of "the herald" have been together since they were

printed. that sesquicentennial anniversary of the assassination is the reason for the timing of this. lincoln always fascinates people to this day but this year in particular is important because it marks the 150 anniversary of his assassination, the first president in our history to be assassinated. it is a really important marking time. >> you can watch this and other american artifacts programs by visiting our website. >> american history tv was live today from appomattox courthouse in virginia, where confederate general robert e lee surrendered his army to union general ulysses s grant 150 years ago effectively injuring the civil war.

first we will hear from the two living historians who portrayed general grant and lee at the parks event commemorating the surrender at appomattox. our coverage is just under three hours. >> a live look from the appomattox courthouse national historic park, if the site where 150 years ago, confederate general robert e lee surrendered his army to union general ulysses s. grant, effectively ending the civil war. we will be live from the park for the next three hours as the commemoration continues with reenactments of the gun stacking that took place on this day in 1860 five when more than 22,000 of general lee's infantry troops turned over their weapons and battle flags.

we will bring you the sights and sounds of the ceremony throughout the coverage and later in the program, you will hear remarks from historian david blight who will talk about the legacy of appomattox. we will also give you a chance to call in and talk with him and elizabeth varon from the university of virginia. we are joined by two men who played a starring role in the surrender ceremony you just saw. ulysses s. grant and robert e lee. general grant is portrayed by kurt field and general lee by thomas jesse. you want to invite you to be part of the conversation. here's how to do that -- call us at the numbers on your screen. send us a tweet at c-span history and you can also join us on facebook. this moment our viewers just saw on american history tv gentlemen, what were you

thinking as general lee wrote away? guest: sadness. i knew how much they were suffering with the surrender after they had fought so hard for four long years. i felt it was almost anti-climactic. one of the things i noted was the silence. there were no guns, no candidate in, no shouts, no battle sounds. the silence was a sound we had not heard for four years and it approached the eerie. host: general lee, as we watched that site just moments ago, you seemed to pause for a moment before mounting traveler. what was going through your mind? guest: at that particular moment, i was concerned for my horse. we were putting the bridle on

and i removed the forelock from under the bridle but what was going on in my mind for most was how i was going to tell my soldiers they were surrendering and be able to do it, to actually say the words and let those men that had followed me for four years, sacrifice everything, marched in the rain and the mud from petersburg and finally tell them you are surrendered and it is over. that is what was going through my mind. host: a reminder to our american history tv viewers, we will be here for the next 20 or 25 minutes talking to ulysses s grant and general robert e lee. we will talk to them both in and out of character and we invite you to do the same. let's go to donald in jacksonville.

i don't hear that. let's continue on and we will get to your calls in just a moment. general lee, in the days before the surrender on april 9, i had read in your memoirs you had a severe headache. but the moment you received the news, you became instantly well. guest: the headache immediately disappeared, never to return again. i expect it was because of the great relief for the note i had just been given from general lee -- it was the first time he had used the word surrender and i knew the end was near. the relief was tremendous. the stress of pounding through the virginia countryside to stop the killing. host: what was the final straw in your decision-making, general lee, for calling for a meeting with general grant?

guest: i sent general gordon forward to see if we could break through. general long street and myself decided we were going to give it one more time and see if there was any way out and stop when general gordon sent me the message back that the way was blocked by infantry, i knew right then it was time to meet general grant. host: i think we have donald on the line from jacksonville. go ahead. caller: what i am trying to find out is after all these years the confederacy was and is today still flying the flag around this country, which is kind of disrespectful to blacks and

people who fought and died to represent the union. why is the confederate flag -- it is a bit offensive. if a swastika was flying around in somebody's yard, you know what is going to happen. today, it is 2015 and i have a couple of granddaughters coming -- i don't want the confederate flag lying around. it is offensive. can you comment on that? is offensive. can you comment on that? host: any thoughts on the meaning of the flag? caller: -- guest: i have no comment on that. host: there was an unfurling of the flags. guest: what i should point out is the flags were treated with reverence by the army