minds of the african-americans, of slavery, the racial superior superiority, and all it stood s here a for, the army looms large as t invo freedom day. there are two stories here that involve african-americans both liberators and liberated here, and that makes this is very very powerful symbol.ver >> just to let the caller know, our cameras a are all over. we have colored troops here as slave well as reenactors of the freed slaves here. be able a lot of sooigts and sounds from the historical park.ab we hope to be able to see them as well. >> well, and the color is right to know this is a very important subject with a great deal to learn. >> let's go to linda in florida. >> caller: yes, first of all, c-span thank you so much, and i saw

elizabeth, y if i may call you that, please. i bought your book at the ds to ge lecture. i have no question. i have a comment. >> sure. >> caller: the book, everyone y needs to get it. whatever your interest is or if you're watching now, obviously, you're interested in the civil he civ war. i had the honorr. of going there.k and i had the honor of reading your book and it is the best book ever written about this moment in time, and i thank you so much on y for what you did and the time emba and sacrifice of your family i'm sure, and i don't want to ally embarrass you, but the reason i i read it initially was not only cenden from your lecture, but i am a w 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 to the 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