direct line descendant my great, great grandfather was with the georgia 20th and he was there this day 150 years ago. he made his way back to georgia,al andon he became a farmer alongside former slaves. -- wh yourat book represents what happened and gives the true e, we storyal regardless of the person. every single person was involved in this and the great country. >> great comment. i want to pick up on one thing you said, and that's is, for me, what i want readers to take away. that's the importance of the service in this commemoration and the testament the heros had ver

in their efforts. i have two teenage kids in the age of electronic distraction, the days of throwing the kids intori thce back of the station wagon are long gone, but we have to i'll make an effort to older first folks to h convey how important it is to see the places firsthand. >> when you drive there the sign says where our nation reunited. what's the 1865 view and the abet 2015 view? >> well, again, the 1865 view, u

view of this is a moment of reunion and healing. from the very start coexists with a more complicated battle over the meaning of the terms.a batt i alluded to the battle fought out by politicians, by average citizens in the press and so on. the notion of a moment of reunion is very powerful for americans because it was a strong sense in 1865 that america was ending its civil warrs hav in a way societies had not generally ended civil nded with reprisals and the rest. our civil war never ended that way because in the minds of the victorian union people like abraham lincoln, again, the point was to make the union whole again, and soul reprisals were never in the cards.the peop it was a very powerful sense on the part of people in the union that confederates had been led tant astray by their leaders and if nal they could just be disenthralled

from the leaders, they would be brought back in the national fold with a profound hope that mercy and am anymorety would see the process, so we see in the same newspapers debating the congra nature of the terms, we see on americans congratulating themselves on the civil way theyrt of tw ended their civil war, and so these are sort of two sides of the story. >> let's see if we can get another call from joann in new york. >> caller: in new jersey. >> new jersey i apologize. >> caller: i was not aware that robert lincoln was at the taff. signing ceremony, and i did not know he was on grant's staff. what was his job on grant's staff, and what happened to except robert flincoln? you never hear about him other than the time he fell in front of the train, a booth brother saved him.

is there any literature on him? any way to know what happened to that man? >> sure. help the best lincoln biographies outox was there follow up the story. lincoln's role was not a major it one. he was a soldier who came to thent war late, important symbolically perhaps, what i mposit would like to say about the composition of the entourages is that you have in grant's entourage a large number of right hand men, these are hids rtan aids tot camp, most important generals, and they are there to moment bear witness surrender in this moment, interesting moment for them.confli they gave us perspective on whatby r happens there that conflicts with each other. we don't have a detaileding the diffe from robert lincoln, but by

others, and they differ in their interpretations of what e at thi happened. officers feel lee at this moment of surrender was capable of corgility. on lee's side, that's marshall, nfeder his aid to camp. there are not as many witnesses he to what happened in the room. marshall is prolific. i'll close with this observation that one of the challenges of who recreating this moment downwa to the challenge of figuring out who was in the room and what they tha were thinking has to do with the fact that grant as our at mom actor told us wrote a memoir, and heen tells us how he felt. lee did not leave such a sourcerrende sor. lee live the five years afterews

ha surrender, so lee's views have ose to to be reconstructed from sources i wi close to him from the ways people reacted to him and i'll say lee was a controversial figure. >> elizabeth, our guest, author of the victory defeat, and freedom at the end of the civil : than war. we thank you so muchk for being here and speaking with the viewers. >> thank you, all, for coming this afternoon. you are the loyal die hard. we've been here all day watching the magnificent tableau of the ve alrea reenactors in front of our eyes. they are irresistible. i already watched two marches ind that stacking of the rifles, and there's going to be a third, andy to g i'm toldet that's bigger after we get done here.. i'll try to get done in a hurry. not to be missed.

i want to first honor and praise the national park service, john all the other park service staffe today from battlefield sites, seen people here from other places you pulled off -- [ applause ] an amazing event. cal i've been calling home saying you have to see this to believe h c-span it. watch g, ac-span, i keep saying, and maybe you'll believe it. >> last night, i don't know how many you were here last evening when on the stage, choirs from d local black churches huge choirs performed black spirituals in the old way, and there was a mock symbolic livinge history funeral for hannah, the led on former slave woman who was killed on the morning of april 9th right here near. she

no one knew where she was buried, so she was given her due here last night.it it was a magnificent -- it's the most remarkable thing i've ever seen at the national park service. a great frankly, and it shows us a great deal of how the park service itself has come so far in tryinghat th toey broaden and strengthen the way they interpret this pivotal sout event of our history. now, everyone who came in here todaey and anyone from south side virginia knows the red buds are blooming. from i'm from connecticut where they are not blooming yet so it's been special for me. but the way nature's painted redbuddin buds on the budding spring greens this week is just magnificent, and we need to remember that they were blooming ag and budding 150 years ago today

too. confederate soldiers, union s soldiers, black soldiers 5,000 african-american soldiers were here with grant's army. 4600 slaves now former slaves, ere al in thisso county alone. they, too, were watching the red bud bloom on the spring green of the trees all around this region. we have to try to imagine what that means to them. the confederates, it must have been bittersweet as best maybe horrible. they had broken hearts, broken bodies, they were starving. what did the red bud of spring mean to them? it in t the union soldiers, they were going home with victory.dogwoo they couldds see in the red bud enewal and dogwood to follow the renewal of spring, the renewal of their country the renewal of the spirit life they were beginning to survive, most of st hav

them. for the african-american former slaves, they must have seen something only unique to them inve bee the red bud. did n they might not haveot known about redemption yet. they did not know where they knew life was going yet, but they knew they had just experienced tremendous change of their lives.ewal of so that renewal of spring means a new beginning like no other. in now, in magnificent essay pamphlet, robert, the great southern poet, novelist, historian, said many quotable things in legacy of the civil many gre war, still the best book to start with, ifst you have not read anything about the memory of this event first start with red warren's i legacy of the civil war, 1961, but in it he says the it he civil war, quote draws us as an

oracle darkly unriddled and poe pretentious of national as well a asmo personal faith. that's a mouthful, but what did he just say? soldiers shouting drums beating, and we'll hear that of trump, trump on the track over id war here of their feet, too, but what did warren say? he said this is, for americans, nt it our oracle. in th if he meant it in the greek t is t sense, and i think he did,he he event meant it's the place wear go. it's the events around which we gather to try to ask questions to get wisdom. so if the civil war, and if umbers you're here on this day and these many numbers somehow thiss, is event and this place among many ug

others isge probably an oracle for you of some kind. the c i can't suggest what it means to any one of you but if the civil war is our oracle place we go e? to ask, so who are we? what are we? what were we then? what have we become? where is that oracle for you? it might be this gorgeous dream spring land scape. it might be cemetery ridge at e in gettysberg or monument avenue inight be richmond for some people or st. gardens, most magnificent of all civil war memorials shaw memorial in boston common. magnificent is a work of art. might be the lincoln memorial. perhaps for the most people, over time that lincoln memorial

served as a kind of national secular cathedral. a place people go to ask so, mr. lincoln, what did it mean? you can look up on the walls and read the answer. from gettysberg or second inaugural. our oracle. it is probably why we are here. yes, we come to feel the awe authenticity of what the actors recreate.ppen yes,ed we come to commune with thedeep d places of where this happened, but deep down i hope we are also asking what did it mean? why did they fight it? what were its results? what's the aftermath?ctors. again, think of the reenactors.rd to they try so hard to get inside of the personal experience of th

soldiers, right? some of you are doing it. they live it authentically as ousand they can and thousands and thousands of us as historians and our readers try in every way we can to get inside the world of the people of the 1860s, and s. we think we do and we get very close. welose read there's hundreds of f thousands of letters.m a john just quotedcoup from one. a couple.study we think we know them because we study them so much. we find their voices. think for a moment about what wewhat cannot know. what do you think they would think of us?? how would they know us? if they could arrive right now and walk down the aisle, how would they know us? they would be bewildered by our

world, especially the technology, they would not get it. we've all gotmmunur universal p communication in our pockets. they would not get that. they would get industrializations, get cities, our not airplane travel yet, nope. they get some things about our society. but, you know i can't prove ual, but this, obviously, but if they were to watch or listen to a discuss on television or read the newspaper about the e politics, about the great issues of our time, debate on television among pundits, would they be mystified? would they feel lost and adrift? they might not.

they may say, there's a problem about race. they can't stop take talking about it. it's all over the place here. they got all kinds of rights my god, now, and there's, my god there's a black guy president but, god, they got problems withcal race. if they kept listening to tten o political commentary, more so perhaps, they'd realize we never got over state's rights and federalivesm federalism. they would hear debates all over the radio waves, all over television don't after debate lati after debate about the relationship of states to the federal government. they would say my god, they ederal never got over federalism. seemed like the civil war put that to rest, but by god, it didn't. they might not be surprised if they listened to our politics. john quoted from a couple

soldiers' letter and i want to quote from one as well. take us back to one of the people we tried to know back then.ne his name, uriah i love that ' name, that's a 19th century a name, a good biblical name. uriah was a 21-year-old junior at yale university he could not wait to get into the war. he enlisted in a new york calvary regimen because there was not one ready yet. he dropped out of yale the junior year. he grew up on a farm in connecticut, grown up in -- made him unusual in the yun your an a army, grown up in an during abolitionist family. he wrote to his brother in the

war, quote, i'm more an abolitionist than ever now, right up to the handle. if i had money enough to raise a few hundred contrabands, means escaped slaves, and arm them, i would get up an insurrection among the slaves.t." i told the captain i would desert to do it. that is bravado i suspect. he did not lead any mutiny that o we know of. -- organizers of a contraband to kept have an insurrection but letters kept flowing. and in 1861 and 1862 he denounces lincoln and the lincoln administration. he's impatient. he's angry that the war is not es officially a war to free the slaves. he does not get it. the thinks the war is caused by slavery, why not fight to free the slaves? he writes home in early 1862 i'm quoting him the president's

contest will indeed settle the wheth questioner as to whether union or secession shall triumph but slavery will not be reached. he's impatient. he's angry. by late spring 1862, he writes to his brother wishing, he had the said he had the miranda rule courage to dessert that the union army has not begun to fight against slavery? he did not desert. about a year later in march of 1863, obviously in the wake of the emancipation proclamation and official declaration in the war against slavery, he transformed. he refused a furlough. not many soldiers did that either, to stay in place. he writes home i quote, i do

not intend to shrink now that there is really something to fight for. i mean, freedom. this is thest first of january, it's become more and more evident to my mind that the war is hence force to be conducted are no on a different basis. those who profess to love the union are not anxious to -- preserve slavery and those who an end acknowledge the war and ul its actions that the continuous putsand in an end to the cursive system so i'm willing to remain and endure whatever may fall to my share. he was decorated for bravery three times and promoted by his commanding officers.hat. he joined a connecticut calvary unit shortly after that. after the lifting of the siege

of petersberg, the unit his connecticut unit was actually egion. coming south right down through this region. they condition at harper's ferry in february, stopped north of that s us, complains in a diary entry that some of his men had been wreckless and overdone it in the burning of a bridge and some houses. they kept marching kept going. he complains that another point in his diary that one of his buddyies lost his copy of shakespeare. then he talked about reading . every day, meditations on the essence of christianity. on march 2, he rejoiced over victory at waynesburough.

march 3 and 4, he records passing by jefferson's home. on march 4, he acknowledges in the diary this iscond the day of lincoln's second inauguration, and he remembers back four years earlier reading the first inaugural address among his college mates at yale. there was about three and a half. weeks of no diary entry because a they were constantly on the march across virginia to get to beetersberg. they never got there.e they didn't need to. after the siege was lifted they at 54 encountered the confederate forces. the last entry in the diary was march 30th and it reads, going

to camp, inspection of my company, very wet.to i clean off my horse and go to water with him. i went out alone. intellectual clearness. what might a man do with this state of mind habitually? two days later, he was killed invalry a calvary charge in a battle. at the eight days before the surrender here. his name is enshrined in yale at yale's war memorial. every day on the way to class i walk through there. it's on the way to everywhere, and i ru b his name. i start every course at yale by en the telling that story, and i urge students when they walk through to do the same.

why do we come here?became a why? as you all know, became a watch word. it became a markerit in time. it became a flashbulb memory. it maim a 9/11 or pearl harbor, a kennedy assassination. it became the news you never forgot where you were w when you heard about it.il the word appomattox as any other place, name in the civil war getty certainly as much as at least asurning p gettysberg or vicksburg or other major turning points in the war. this meant the beginning of one g

new world anhad end of another. something was over. something new begun. now, on november 5th 2008, president obama elected election president, on the morning after that election, he wrote a columndr called unfinished business drawing lincoln from lincoln's address there, but the opening sentence of freedman's column of course, what they do they stay up all night to write a topic instance, and the rest takes care of itself, but the sentence was basically it said last night grant park, chicago illinois, united states of america, the american civil war

ended. then he went on to use the fact sylvan thatia pennsylvania had been the state that had put lincoln over the top in the electoral that as college, and he misused all of that as he went on with the s friedm column, but what was he doing this? understandably, what was doing?was tr i think what he wasyi trying to represent was this urge that we l have in the countrywar to get that civil war over with. to find the time a place, a moment to declare it ended. dope. he probably thought i've never had this moment. a black man just elected there president. there was wadisbelief. there was also shock. and probably hatred. 52% of americans were crying for one reason and 48 % were cry frg

another reason. i don't know. i didn't do, i but that poll.representing there is this 150-year-old dilemma now to wish that war ended, get it over with. get done with it. we do come to appomatox to feel that, don't we? we want appomattox to stop us, make us solemn, and this place oadway does. i noticed all of us lining the roadway here during the stackingwe a of llarms, and we all go stone silent.ng of just as bruce said in the stone in the ending of the great book, he said, appomattox became the ements fight thousands of a soldiers with their weapons and cases on it became a place of enormous silence.

that's what we want the civil war to be. we want it to be done with.s but those of us with an eye open and those of us aware of our political debate if we sat with the people from 1865 who might join us today, watch the , we television debate with us about something. we might be having to explain something to them.g all whyof are we having deals about have muc federalism? now. i don't have much time left. but what i want to leave you with is basically this. jameis baldwin, one of my favorite writers, the great ovelist, essayist novelist, civil right, the voice of the civil rights least

t movement, written voice of the civil rights movement was always writing about the legacies in slavery and always writing about the legacies of this war.fran he wrotekl a line in 1962 which is frankly very poignant. he said, the problem with the way americans use words about their history is they use the words to u cover up the sleeper, but never to wake him up.od night we sometimes want our history to make us get a good night's . sleep. to not give us nightmares to cover us up.ood. give me a history that makes me feel good. give me aor history that makes me comfortable. give me a history want w to live in. give me a history where i know myself in it. don't give me a history that challenges me and shocks me.

if you look around you will find the legacies of the civil war, the legacies of the verdicts of appomattox. -- an if there were verdicts, and there were, someone really lost this war here, l and someone really won this war. that t affair of honor honor to soldie honor as it wasrs called among these soldiers was just that. and it should have been. that was a soldier's surrender. this was a military surrender. it was not a political treaty. what they proposed in terms was not a political treaty.n. that had to come later in something call reconstruction. the verdicts of