c-span.org/history. you are watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. >> american history tv's real america bring you archival films that tell the story of the 20th century. ♪ >> from stem to stern watertight, flameproof compartments. below the waterline, engine rooms, fuel tanks, magazines packed with enough explosives to blow us all to kingdom come. the deck is like a giant tunnel two blocks long. ♪

>> the fighters take off first to form cover, then the bombers heavy laden with distraction. -- destruction. as our first fighters race towards marcus island, they stay low. then they climb suddenly and dive, is apprised strafing attack. these red ball's are antiaircraft fire. there are three times as much of it as we can see. they are tracers from our own wing guns. the antiaircraft fire is much heavier than expected, but

through it we go. we are looking straight down our own gun barrels. these pictures are taken automatically by the same mechanism that operates the guns. they even shake as the gun recoils. the eye is the eye of our fighting aircraft. the enemy's supply ships are thoroughly strafed. they are no longer bringing >>, sake, and munitions to markets. as the fighters and bombers swing away from marcus island, columns of smoke show that thorough job our boys have done. aboard ship, they are tracking

flowers with care to make sure that no enemy planes are trying to follow them out to our fighting lady. -- are trying to follow them out to our fighting lady. ♪ >> the pilot of a torpedo plane has been unable to release his load of incendiaries. the flames are near the tanks with 75 gallons of high uptown gas. this fighter and crew deserve every citation they get. ♪

>> american history tv featuring augusta, georgia. the canal is the only one in the world still used for its original purpose of providing power to textile mills. our cable partners worked with city tours staff when we travel to augusta to explore the rich history. learn more all weekend here on american history tv. >> today we are in the home of woodrow wilson in augusta, georgia. dr. wilson was originally from stephenville ohio, and had gone into the presbyterian ministry.

when he first came to augusta, he was making $2500 a year. they liked him so much and wanted him to stay, so they sweetened the pot so to speak and raise the salary to $3000 a year and but a new house, which is the one we are in today where the family moved in 1860. to give you an idea of what $3000 was in those days, most families in the united states, depending on where they lived and their circumstances, but most families lives on between $300 and $800 a year. he was making a large income. we own exactly the same property that they occupied in the 1860's. this is the pastor posterity where he would have spent a lot

of his time during his congregational work and sermons meeting with parishioners, keeping covered additional records, but it was remembered by woodrow wilson's younger brother of being lined with books and smelling of tobacco. the father smoked a clay bowl type -- typepipe. woodrow wilson not learn his letters until nine, and did not learn to read until 11. they believed he had dyslexia. they did not know what dyslexia was. he had trouble reading and was a slow, deliberate reader for the rest of his life. when wilson did not know the meaning of his -- a word, his father would send him to a

dictionary to look it up. he admonished him to use properly structured sentences. as a minister, that was an art for him. he would say that when you're framing a sentence and picking your words, do it as if you were shooting a rifle, with that one bullet you hit straight on with that word you intend to use. don't do it as if you are shooting a shotgun and you spray around the words, but they do not hit the mark. that is good advice for us today when you are trying to write or speak. president wilson's first memory was in november 1860, before he was four years old. he would stay at the front gate in the front of the house. two men came by in a hurry with very excited tones of voice and said abraham lincoln has just

been elected president and there is going to be a war. young tommy ran inside and asked his father what was war, what did that mean, why were they so excited. we think it is remarkable that his very first memory was about another president, abraham lincoln, and about another war the civil war, and of course wilson would have to leave the country for world war i. this family is representative of what we often hear about, the house divided. the wilson's were from ohio, the mother's family were also in ohio, although they had immigrated from england and scotland but the wilson's were the only ones on his side of the family who were in the south and took the southern side of the conflict. all of his brothers and sisters

were up north of the time. it created a bit of a division. the civil war affected them like it did most people. we often hear that the south was subject to huge inflationary situation with money because the confederate currency was getting more and more worthless, and we see that demonstrated in the church records. president elson haas father -- wilson's father was given to him quarterly -- the salary was given to him quarterly. the first part of a can 65, they paid him his regular installment, and then they started shoving money at him 5000 dollars here, 3000 dollars

there, but of course it was practically worthless. when the war was over, there was no payment until the u.s. currency started coming into play in the south and they got back on their feet. as he grew older, president wilson remember the war and reflected act on it from time to time. his father's church was turned into a stockade of sorts with the union and confederate wounded that came here after the battle of chickamauga, so he would have seen the wounded and dying soldiers in his father's church and surrounding yard. that would have a profound impact. he thought war of truly as h ell, and not a good thing. when world war i began to escalate and there was an effort to get america allied with one

part or the other, wilson resisted because he remembered war. he knew of its misery and what it could bring to the american people. he wants to avoid that if at all possible. this is the best room with the best space and the house that they reserved for guests. you have a bed in here, but it would also double as a sitting room for more informal visits they had with more intimate neighbors and friends. one interesting thing is this glass pane which has the word "

tom". he must've got his mother's diamond ring and scratched his name in the glass. it is something you find an old houses. the signature on the glass matches his earlier signatures. we are certain that was impaired his name was, woodrow wilson. he dropped his first name after he started law school at the university of virginia because he felt that one day he would become an important political figure. he thought he would be a senator at that time, but he did not think that tommy wilson sounded dignified enough, so with his family's permission he dropped his first name and went by woodrow wilson. back here are pictures of his maternal grandparents, woodrow thomas

wilson. at princeton, he was president of princeton and governor of new jersey. he was always examining the rules, the bylaws, the constitution, and trying to improve it. as president, some of the first things he did had economic impact. he established under his administration the federal reserve act, setting up a system of national banking, the clayton antitrust act, which took the antitrust laws farther than they had gone in previous acts. he enacted under his watch labor

laws, child labor laws, and also railroad worker laws, the eight hour day was established. the child labor laws had to do with the age limits on children working in factories. previously, they had no effect and there were no checks and balances on that. it had been coming along before, but the amendment that made senators elected directly by the people rather than by state legislatures was ratified by wilson in 1913. one thing that is important as historic preservation is that in 1916, he established the national park service, which -- the parks had existed before that, but he had best ever is what we now know as the national park force, organized it into a

systematic way of administering the parks. one thing that people probably don't appreciate that he did in the financial rome was the act that led to the establishment of the federal income tax. that is still with us. there are so many things today that we take for granted and don't connect them to the wilson administration and this time. in november 19 11 when president wilson was still governor of new jersey and was considering a run for president he went around the country talking to politically well-connected people, including newspaper editors, so he came to a guster and spend a weekend here. he had a tour of the city.

he watched ty cobb, who lived here at the time, in a play downtown. there was a reception and so forth. on sunday, he went to church as he always did. the pastor, joseph severe invited him to come to sunday dinner, which he did, and as he was having dinner, he said, this is the very table i set at as a child. he got under the table and show them some scuff marks that he had made with his feet. while he was here, he also had a photograph taken in the yard, and this is -- was taken during that visit. you can see that he is here on the right, and the lady is mrs.

severe and her daughter virginia and their son john and a friend, who was here that time, so we treasure this photograph because it is the only one that we have of him here at the site that was taken here. in a guster, we like to refer to certain quotes that wilson use from time to time. a boy never gets over his boyhood and can never change those subtle influences that were formed and him -- in him when he was a child. that is one. we hope that people who visit leave with a number of ideas about the man woodrow wilson. for instance, that his later life was affected by his childhood here in the civil war and during construction -- reconstruction how the federal government played an important

role in people's lives, his education, his religion. they all started here in a guster. also his leadership. his leadership ability started in augusta and eventually led to more and more organizations with more and more responsibilities and grander ideas, and so he was ignore -- organizing that. we think that is a very important thing that can be told here in augusta. >> throughout the weekend, american history tv featuring augusta, georgia. our staff traveled there to learn about its rich history. learn more about augusta and other stops on the two are at c-span.org/cities totour.

you're watching american history tv all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. >> each week, reel america brings you archival films until the story of the 20th century. ♪ >> the american revolution bicentennial commission was authorized by a joint resolution of congress to prepare an overall program for commemorating the 200th anniversary of the united states. the commission was asked to plan encourage develop, and coordinate observances and activities commemorating the historic events that preceded and are associated with the american revolution. it will give special evidence emphasis and implications for future generations.

the commission itself is composed of 17 public members appointed by the president. a congressional eight congressional members, for each from the house and in it, and 11 members who are secretaries of various agency. the charter is broad, its responsibility is great. the bicentennial is to be more than a ceremonial occasion. the way we as a nation choose to celebrate the 200th anniversary will have an imp airing on what we learn from it, and on the inspiration we draw from it. the bicentennial commission plans to emphasize the continuing effort to achieve the fulfillment of the ideals and ideas of the revolution as stated in the declaration of independence in the constitution , to inventory the progress of the last two centuries, and to state