during its primary, stopping at grove city college, slippery university, washington and jefferson college and harrisburg area community college. professors and local officials learned about the road to the white house coverage. visitors were also able to share he ir thoughts about t upcoming election. in warrington, pennsylvania, schools to honor seven ninth graders in the student cam competition. a special thanks to our cable partners for their help in coordinating these community visits. you can view all the studentcam.org.t >> each week, american artifacts archives, rs into museums, and 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. lease note, some viewers may find images in this program

disturbing. mr. clarke: welcome to the national museum of house and medicine. i am tim clarke, i'm the museum's deputy director. we're here to spend a little museum's civil war medicine exhibit and a special show of other things to you. the national museum of health founded in 1852 and we were known as the army medical museum. the mission at the time was to of morbid cimens anatomy and to send them to washington for care and to ervation and study improve the care of the soldier. so at the time of the civil war, the museum's staff were doing learned.ness of lessons they were trying to understand the nature of battlefield, surgery, medicine and trauma and share those lessons with their colleagues and counterparts on the battlefield. this museum and its collection in ted during the war and

the early days, the museum was housed in the surgeon general's office. actually, the first museum artifacts were actually on a surgeon ind the general's desk, and then in a building that we know today as building near the white house. but it wasn't until after the tragic events of the assassination of president abraham lincoln in 1865 that the museum moved into its first long-term residence. they actually moved into ford theater where they stayed about 0 years before moving to what became the national mall and the thating built in the 1880s we familiarly call the old red brick, a building that is now no longer there, but was in the location where the hershorn gallery is today, and the museum now in 1968 from its former location on the national reed army medical

center in washington d.c., where it was housed for about 30 years its new home to here in silver spring, where we are today. the museum today is a museum of 25 million objects. most of those are in five major genesis of but the that collection, the core of the objects, is in civil war medicine, and that's the we're about to start today, and so come along. war e inside our civil medicine exhibit here at the health and eum of medicine and we are starting our visit in front of the school from a an individual particularly renowned regiment, stood up in 1863. we don't even know the name of he was a n, but

soldier with the 54th massachusetts, called up in boston and took various ifferent actions before arriving at the battle of of 1863, gner in july and this soldier would have been ith 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 confederate red by fores marshaled inside battery on the and was killed .attle field is remains actually stayed there, weren't buried properly, and he was recovered some 10 or 12 years after the war, which is indicated by the stained brown specimen itself.

what's particularly of import is the skull of an african-american union soldier to his in service country, but for view ers and maytors to the museum, they recall the movie "glory" with matthew brod rick and denzel washington and it 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 of particular interest when visitors come here to the museum. is near an exhibit about fragments and bullets and shrapnel, where we're able to alk about those objects that caused the injury, which was of much concern and interest to the curators of the medical army museum at the time, as well as skeletal remains and photographs and documentary records. they also wanted to collect that thing that caused the injury. collected some

very interesting other artifacts, like this breast here. that's mounted the breast plate belonged to a onfederate officer that wore this at the battle of gettysburg on the field in july of 1863. he probably hoped this breast plate might do him some good, ut as evidenced by the clear bullet holes, right in the center of the breast plate, and then down below, this officer was eventually killed. the breast plate failed. an effort to contrast that iron breast plate hich failed to save an officer with this small personal notebook mounted here, and the is y behind the notebook such that that notebook -- and you can sort of see torn at the a bullet.op we actually have several artifacts like this in the collection, and personsy get calls from interested in this type of interesting story.

e found that of interest and thought visitors would like toee it, so here it is. along this part of our civil war edicine exhibit includes numerous examples of the modern of the time. so you would see amputation saws and scalpals and blades and scissors of all manners and types, but you would also see requisition orders, because museum was interested in collecting the anatomical pecimens and the medical documentary images, they were also interested in collecting the business of military medicine at the time. and some of those are included in this part of the exhibit. we also include a particularly unique innovation. well sometimes not understood about how prevalent anesthesia and pain medication time of the civil war. sometimes, sort of considered a

myth that somebody might just bite down on a bullet before to ag a limb amputated due traumatic injury. but that was never really the case. medicine, pain ether, and anesthesia was available, but one of the that it was was hard to deliver this somewhat expensive medication into the system. display something by a surgeon, a confederate surgeon chism, who developed this tool which helped more of the anesthesia further into the nostrils of the patient, so that limited how much anesthesia was need and did it got it quicker into the nervous system. and so this is a particularly neat tool, and you can see it here on display at the museum. interesting, it's also where the army medical museum founded by the army, but even on display along this wall are several artifacts from confederate surgeons from the war itself. the other object of note here is

small pocket surgical kit. t belonged to a woman named mary walker, who was a contract soldier in the army during the war.l she volled teared, was discharged. again and was discharged. but remarkably, she persisted nd was recognized for her commitment and her service as -- and was named the first oman to receive the congressional medal of honor. unfortunately, that award was then stripped of her some years later. there are differing accounts of her service in the union army, and i would suspect there were concerns about her gender nt about the ntme role that she played. eventually, took as long as -- until the carter administration, the honor was restored back to mary. it's important to note, though,

returned her r medal. she resisted the plea to return the medal and retained that to and we remember her commitment and her service by displaying tools that she service to the union army back in 1864. right here on display. our civil wart of medicine exhibit is the whole wall of the display case that andbeen featuring artifacts images and specimens from each year of the conflict 150 years later. so we featured artifacts and specimens from the battle of gettysburg during the year 2013 and the battle for democracy in 2014. and in 2015, our exhibits will feature artifacts and specimens months of the ew visitors should look to see that on display when they visit. civilcontinue through our war medicine exhibit, we come across the story of captain

henry wertz. wertz is known for his infamous role as the commander of the andersonville prison. .o.w. camp run by the confederate army and known for conditions, and thousands of union soldiers, and stories r release, the came out about the treatment at the erwent andersonville prison. ertz himself was accused of a number of these crimes and claimed that he could not have committed some of those crimes ecause of an injury to his right arm. well, wertz was tried, convicted, and his claims failed to convince the jury and he was crimes.d for his after his execution, an examination of his arm, which we jar right there, showed no loss of use of any part of his arm, disproving the claim he'd made during his

trial. but also on display are the first and second cervical vertebra wertz' neck, during his execution. we have the artifact of wertz prior to his hanging so we offer see. here for the public to these two artifacts are right near a larger examination of the injuries and wounds during the civil war. museum sent out notes to medical officers in all the major battlefields, in all theaters of the war, with the instruction to send spen mens from their battlefield hospital to washington. they were instructed to keep careful detailed notes and they were also instructed to keep with the specimen the object that caused the injury. some of the k at objects and specimens on display, you'll see a miniball

fragments tacked into the prepared specimens on display. sometimes, the specimens would come to washington packed in casts, huge barrels full of alcohol with the specimens. this is prior to having been defleshed and treated and cleaned and prepared, packed into the barrels, for their arrival at the army medical offices, wherever they might have been in washington at the time, and the staff would have taken them out of the barrels, cleaned them, prepared them and mounted them and as you can see here, this is a particularly good example. only did they show the structure of the bone. you can see the missing bone, the shelllso included fragment itself that had caused that injury. though too example of the work that the museum did to follow advantage cases is barnham.major general this is his hip. barnham was injured in a gunshot

ound that passed through the bone and the surgeon healed up the skin injuries but put cord, passed it from barnham's front of his torso, out his backip and and you can see that in a photograph we have on display. nd over the rest of his life, barnham every once in a while reduced the size of that cord. the injury drained out the cord of years, went from a thick cord down to just a small thread and you can see that, as i said, in this great photograph. all of the work of the army edical museum was eventually coalesced into the signature late 19th of the century, the work of the army medical museum became known as surgical history on the war and rebellion. his is an iconic effort to understand the nature of battlefield medicine at the time of the war, the lessons that were learned. it tabulated the types and natures of injuries, the efforts

trauma and ir work e and documented the of those on the battlefield and years later after the war. of the the work battlefield history on display for all to see, and the effort that was made to understand military medicine at the time of the civil war, that effort was never capably duplicated in the followed, the spanish-american war, and the wars of the 20th century and t's an honor for us to be able to present and showcase the actual publication itself matched with the wood etchings, the carvings, the photographs, the illustrations that comprise ll that remain in the museum's care today. we're 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 greater understanding about how to deal with huge volumes of patients. better understanding of surgical treatment and the amputation, a better understanding of infection. the end of the civil war was led to a better understanding of general 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 army, the navy, about medical evacuation. this was a time where it became pretty clear to those involved a patient from the battlefield, returning them to a nt perly outfitted treatme facility, increased their

chances for recovery and for returning back to some quality of life. great sson alone had impact and effect as the country found itself involved in the spanish-american war and were lessons that were applied in world war one just 50 years later. we come to the story of dan fickles here in part of our civil war medical exhibit. fickles will be known by many. at theject is on display museum. dan sickles was infamous before the war. during the war stature, in a sense. he went on to live a long life, amazingly, despite the events at

the battle of gettysburg, which i can tell you a little bit more about. before the civil war, dan congressman, was involved in a duel of sorts with the son of francis scott key. key's son philip barton key had been engaged in a fickles' wife,th teresa, and sickles took issue with the affair and called key ut on lafayette square, and challenged key to a duel. sickles killed key and was put on trial. sickles made an interesting claim, the first of its kind in the country. he claimed that he'd become so enraged by learning of this ffair that he had become temporarily insane. he jury was convinced by sickles' argument, and sickles is now known as the first person reason of uilty by temporary insanity.

this is some years before the civil war. but sickles was already quite a name in washington circles. sickles, after the start of the war, talked his way into a commission and eventually was elevated to commander of the third corps, and found himself at the to play a role battle of gettysburg. and a story that is well recounted by folks who know the sickles g story well, was not inclined to follow ahead ofnd led his men the union line and suffered for it. unilaterallyalmost slaughtered in the peach orchard sickles himself was struck by a cannon ball, similar to the one we have on struck in his lower right leg, requiring amputation on the battlefield,

and we have here on display that lower right leg. it took an interesting journey to get here to washington. aware, as well as his medical officer thomas sims, of the request boy the medical army museum to collect specimen of morbid anatomy, and it sims, hisand required surgeon, to send it forward, and the leg was sent in a small box, acoffin of sorts, for -- with note, complements, major general d.e.s. there it was prepared by the useum staff and mounted in the fashion you see here. the story goes on. sickles would even visit the museum on the anniversary of the eg's amputation and he would bring his cohorts and his leg on to see the display, and there were records of his visits. nd there's even a record of a visit where sickles asked to see

what was left of his foot. he noted that just the leg itself had been displayed and time, george t the otis, responded to general sickles. general, we didn't preserve that part of the specimen because ust this part showed unique trauma and pathology that we wanted to showcase. sicklesrding to legend, didn't take that too well. o sickles remains here as a central part of the museum's exhibit on civil war medicine. of the most one frequently asked-after objects display by visitors to the museum here in silver spring. this part of the exhibit on civil war medicine, we also have bone specimen on us. shelf here in front of the bone belonged to a private cunningham, but it's notable, because this phone was something

that was recounted upon and the whitman.ound it by walt whitman was a nurse and served in washington-area hospitals and hospitals in virginia during and after the civil war. the museum point, staff was able to associate walt whitman's writings in poems and stories from that time with specimens that were held in the museum.ions here at the and so here's a case where we're able to associate a bit of a story from walt whitman, with person thatone of a he cared for in a hospital during the civil war itself. our final stop today is an exhibit on the assassination of braham lincoln and features artifacts that were collected during those hours that surgeons he was ating him after shot at fords theater, and autopsy thefter his

next day. remember that abraham lincoln is shot at ford's theater at about 10:30 on friday, the 14th of april, 1865. this is just a few days after surrendered to grant, civil vely ending the war. lincoln is at the play and is head by he back of the john wilkes booth in a small lead bullet. that bullet is actually on display here, and you can see it in that small glass globe. the bullet was recovered the next day at an autopsy performed at the white house. n the hours though, just hortly after lincoln is shot, the surgeon general, surgeon barnes, responds to the president's side. this is at the peteron's house from ly across the street

ford's theater. barnes calls for something neoton probe, and we've noted that on the back of the display. thatdea with the probe was it would be threaded into the ound, with the idea that depending on how far into the wound the probe would go, might or tify where the fragment bullet was. they weren't able to do so. found later ey lodged behind lincoln's right eye. it was retained and made its way museum's holdings and is part of the exhibit we have on display. general barnes and army medical museum staff john woodward and another surgeon named edward curtis were at the president's bedside in the hours died, which was about 7:22 the next morning. of april, 1865. it was decided then that a

post-mortem would be performed very quickly, and the removed to body was the white house, and the autopsy itself was performed in a room that today is one of the president's dining rooms in the residence.or of the it's 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. and as the story is recounted by r. curtis, dr. curtis lifted the brain out of the skull and held it over a china bowl and the bullet fell into the china bowl and made a tinkling sound curtis's notes and the notes of others in the room, there was a pause, a moment of silence. and with that sound of the ullet in the china bowl, was really the only sound making any noise at that exact moment. on it by saying something to the effect of this ball, or which we

an't measure the calamitous effect. the autopsy is completed, and some fragments of lincoln's skull were retained by surgeons and ssisted at the autopsy in one case, some fragment was curtis's ome of dr. tools, and as he was cleaning his surgical kit later that day, he found a bit of lincoln's of l fragments stuck in one the saws. we also have on display a bit of lincoln's hair removed from the site of the wound during the autopsy. are al locks of hair accounted for in the notes from those hours before lincoln died and during his autopsy. these are just a few of those away to cut and given different people. display object that's on relates again to dr. curtis. on the urtis, a surgeon staff of the army medical museum

as the assistant of the autopsy. when he got home that night pril 15, after the autopsy, he discovered that his undershirt leeve shirt cuffs were stained with the president's blood. and mrs. curtis cut those shirt into off and they put them an envelope which they signed and endorsed, and this is one of cuffs, both irt shirt cuffs are in the museum's holdings. display. one is on many of these objects have an history.ing and diverse the bullet was used as evidence at the trial of the conspirators. the fragments of bone and hair were in the care and holdings of others for many years, and most were collected in the early 1950s by an army medical museum curator named helen pirtle and have, for the most part, been on display at the army medical museum and now the national museum of health and medicine

for many decades. note that 2015to will mark the 150th anniversary assassination of president abraham lincoln. we hope you enjoyed this visit o our exhibit on civil war medicine, and the artifacts of ted to the assassination abraham lincoln at the national museum of health and medicine. share portant for us to these artifacts that convey the of ons and the history military medicine from 150 years ago, and that's the inspiration for much of the work that the museum does today to carry on that mission and legacy of military medicine today and into the future, and we hope that you will consider visiting the you're in the washington d.c. area sometime soon. announcer: you can watch this or other american artifacts visiting ny time by our web site c-span.org/history.

and afghanistan, both countries and constitutions a facilitator and agreement on key issues among iraqis or afghans. the influence is considerable, government very anxious to meet with you when you asked for the meeting. former u.s. q&a, mbassador to the united states and iraq, discusses his book, from cabal to the white house. journey to a troubled war. >> we saw the extremists such as zakawi exploited. and though we corrected it towards the end of the period surge, as there by the by reaching out to the sunis, by iraqi forces, by establishing a unity government, killing zakawai , and bringing wayt security, violence was

down. but unfortunately, violence we have isis now. announcer: tonight at 8 eastern "q&a.span's ". >> next, a panel of scholars discusses influential thinkers century, including russell .s. eliot, kirk. it was in grand rapids michigan, and it's about an hour. host: we'll move forward in time now to the mid-20th century with a look at some of that era's influential conservative hinkers as illuminated by the scholarship of ben latford, bradley berbinger and lisa zefil. i use the word influential on purpose. he trajectory of post-war