enough, not enough, not enough. whether he could have on the 12th specifically broken through? i don't know. he's i'm going to launch my own attack so lee's got his eye over here. does that answer your question, mike? do we have time for one more? >> one more. after his initial attack, does he stay involved? or do they pull back for refittic? >> he does. after this breakthrough, they're actually going to be a part of this -- shifted around to several positions over here on the 12th. three be thrown back into the fight. he's going to go on to try to capture miers hill a few days later. we could seat it quite from here, but outside you would sigh

a radio tower, that's miers hill. upton's men will successfully capture that, but again provides a great deal union artillery position, but strategically doesn't break things open. upton will go on to a highly successful arm, a very influential tack 'tis. but he has a very unfortunate personal life, has problems with his wife. what we think is my gran sparked by a brain tumor, and will eventually commit suicide out of the presidio. so a very promising young man, who goes on to a very unfortunate end. thank you so much, ladies and gentlemen. i really appreciate it. ire watching american history tv on c-span3 every

weekend, on congressional breaks and holidays, too. find our programs and schedule on our web side cspan.org/history. between 1892, and 1954, about 12 million immigrants seeking a new life in america were taken to ellis island for processing, questioning and health screening. millions of americans visit the island and statue of liberty. up next on "american artifacts" we visit ellis island immigration museum to learn about the immigrant experience. good morning, i'm peter urban. ear a park ranger here. for this island, this is where their american story began. 12 to 13 million americans came to this island and to this building in order to be given the okay to go out and start their lives in the late 1800s

and early 1900s. a lot of people don't know about ellis island before that time. today we're 27 acres in side. in the form form, it was 3 acres, a small i'd in the middle of the harbor basically above sea level at high tide. for moth of its life it was a military installation u. first as a forte during the war of 1812, and later as a storage depot. somewhere around 1890, it was decided this would be the place they would institute the first building specifically constructed for the processing of immigrants. and so they did construct that building between 1890 and 18920. the building is not the first processing center. it's actually the second. the first was a large wooden structure that lasted for five years and burnt to the ground in about three hours due to a furnace fire in 1897.

the federal government decided at that point they need to do built something more permanent, something that would reflect the grandeur of a government building. the structure made here of brick and limestone was built between 1898 and 1900, and it opened in december of 1900. it was already too small for what it was about to face. constructed to handle about half a million people a year, it ended up handling in 1907 alone 1,200,000 people. if you look at the building, there was no third floor on the original structure. it was two stores with the four towers that we have here. as we had more and more people come through and they realized they were really too small to handle the flow, is it they began to add structures. the three-story structure is called the baggage and dormitory

building. that was added on, was the overflow of people being detained or wait fog detained members of their family was so enormous that the dormitories on the balconies in the great hall were too small. we found out that two third of the people coming here ended up going to other parts of america. only about a third would go to new york city. this building we have here was constructed and added on as a place for immigrants to buy their tickets in order to go and start their lives in other parts of the country. a large polish population heading out to chicago. a large czech population heading to nebraska. a large group of germans and slovaks headed to texas, for example. there were tickets to the 12 railroads, and they would go across the harbor to the central railroad of new jersey terminal, where they would eventually find

a train to take them out to most likely friends and relatives who had already settled in those areas. the other third will be heading to new york. those people will find different ethnic neighborhoods that oftentimes will welcome them with open arms. says to leave sometimes everybody they knew behind and to make a journey here to this country. for most of those immigrants who came to ellis island, this would be a place they had to save for quite a long time the money just to be able to buy a ticket and

make their way through this building. >> just for a ticket, for a spot on an osliner never meant for any human being. even if you had just a bit less money, you could get a second-class ticket that would give you a modest but private room, but the shipping companies began to realize that so many people who were poor wanted to come here, they had to acday that demand, so they looked at their ships, they figured they could sacrifice cargo holes below they now house the bunk beds, sometimes three or four

high, packed in tightly, and the immigrant who was coming to ellis island would be a passenger in those lower decks. those lower decks were not pleasant. very little light, very little ventilation, about 1,000 to 1500 of you packed down there, and your ship ride could take anywhere from a week to a month. so coming to america was a great challenge. they would be leaving port cities where shipping companies had their offices. very important part of the immigrant story is when they boarded the ship they had to answer 25 to 30 questions about themselves to a shipping clerk from the company on whose boat they're about to board. those answers are a very important part of the immigrant story. that's the information that will be used in the great hall to interrogate the immigrants to determine if they have the legal right to land here. we'll return to that story story

a bit later. we're at the harbor for a reason. we're going to assume the immigrant ship has made is across safely. the first place they will intern new york harbor is the verrazano bridge, an area we call the narrows. there's the first place that inspectors will board ships to check to see if this ship has a raging epidemic of a disease. they don't want to let immigrants bringing diseases into this country, which is one of the things we're checking inside in the great hall. inspectors aren't likely to find anybody with tremendous amounts of illness or even a shipful, because shipping companies will already done some preprocessing. they knew pretty quickly that american law stated if a shipping company brought somebody here who was to be deporteds, they had to bring them back at the shipping company's cost, so many companies had their own small processing before you got here

it didn't mean people might get sick on the ship. your oceanliners will move into this harbor. this is about the most peaceful site you're ever going to want to see, but if you use your imagination, think about the fact that basically your international travel is all on ship at this time. so this harbor would be full with commercial vessels, private vessels, oceanliners, especially at peak time here in the mid 1900s to 1910 time period there would be noise. there would be a dingy atmosphere. there were no environmental laws back then. a poor little immigrant farmer, and many of them are going to be from rural areas, they're going to be absolutely amazed at the sight. they're going to look at the skyline of new york.

they don't look very big compared to one world trade, but for an immigrant who has never seen anything more than a couple stories in a building, it's going to be like something from out of space. their welcome is twofold. this gorgeous sight, threefold, actually, this harbor and absolutely amazed at lady liberty. this is the first thing that welcomes them, this absolutely gorgeous sight. so a lot of people come here think the ships docked here and led people out and that's not true. our inlet is just too shaggo for something like that. so the ships make their way up the harbor. they go to docks up, today where the "uss intrepid" is moored, for instance, as a museum. in america money talks, because our first and second-class passengers are going to be given a very quick inspection as the

boat moves its way up the harbor. unless they have a glaring problem that needs attention, they're going to be let out to start their lives. the thinking was this -- if you have a slight illness, you've got the money to pay for a doctor. you'll be able to go and get the care you need. you'll also be able to afford a place to live. the steering class passenger, in their pocket hopefully another couple hundred dollars that they have to prove they have when they get inside. still not enough to prove they will not be a problem for society. they're afraid of being overwhelmed by the population. that's what ellis island does. it serves as a way to clear of steerage class passengers to come into this country and start their lives. there's a very clear delineation for the immigrants. if you have the money you're in. if you don't have the money

you're going to get checked. so when we head everyone side in just a couple minutes, we're going to start the story of those immigrants who have come off the ship, been brought down here by the ferry, and are going to enter the front door and come into the first do recall of ellis island. okay. we're about to enter the main entrance of ellis island. across the way here, it might be a point of note. these beautiful buildings now abandoned were the hospital complexes that were run by the united states public health service, which was just a fantastic crew of doctors who cared for immigrants who were detained for medical reasons. about 10% of the people who came through here were detained for medical reasons. the string. buildings we see right here were for noncontagious diseases. behind at about 30 yards is a string of buildings for

contagious diseases. so there was a measles ward, a tuberculosis ward, there was an insane asylum. there is a morgue that is one of the scariest places i've ever been in in my life. the public health service was so good at their jobs that occasional hospitals in new york would send cases out here to be taken care of. they did a great job of nursing people back to health who had diseases that were curable. that was a very big standard. if you had a disease that was incurable and contagious, you're definitely going back. if you have an incurable disease, it's more likely that you're going to go back. it's a very big part of our complex. it's not open to the public yet. it's being worked on. el is island is definitely a work in progress. slowly by surely we will get that complex up and open for the

public to see, too. we're walking up the ramp underneath the canopy here at ellis island. this spot would have a place where immigrants who had just gotten off the boat would have lined sup to go in the door and begin their process. the original canopy had black slate roofs. people lined up here, and what they had with them was virtually only what was important to them. for many who are bringing their entire families at the same time, they had to sell everything they owned back in europe. the farmland, the cattle, all the supplies, the farm itself, just to be able to afford all of the fares for everybody coming here. >> you'll see inside a beautiful picture, everything that the family owns that is of value for

them will come with them. so let's take you inside. the room we're entering right now is the baggage room. here's the place where immigrants got their first sight of ellis island. to be honest with you, this room looked very different depending upon the moment you came. in 1907 according to some floor plans, immigrants who came in this door had to immediately go over to our left, their right, where medical examination would take place. eventually they would end up in the staircase, originally right up in the middle of the ceiling that took you into the middle of the great hall. as i mentioned earlier, this building was really planned to handle a lot less people than they thought. over the years, the process of having all the medical processing here, immigrants going up the stairs here became

highly impractical. they had to figure out how to make it work more officially. a wood been staircase was built right where we have the modern staircase, taking you upstairs to the sect floor. it wasn't just to make the flow go faster. it was also a way to make the medical processing more official, to. so give credit to the people who were here. they handled a highly chaotic situation in a really efficient and i think in many cases compassionate way. it doesn't mean it wasn't scary or terrifying, but i think there was a lot of care put forward to make things better. in the early 1900s, this could be a place that was very tricky for an immigrant to get through. the people who were bringing their baggage in.

baggage handlers could hold your luggage, make sure it got on your boat or train, but early on, we had conkecessionairs, sometimes they would give -- the food conkegs people dressed up somebody liking likee like an snipper, he went in the crowds and said if they didn't buy a lunch from the food stand, they would get deported. give credit to one of our early commissioners, william williams, he es dressed up emsome of hi best inspectors, to go into the crowd and investigate, and he got rid of the corrupt he

concessionairs. we're going to go upstairs and talk about the processing. i think you'll see the room that most of you have come to know as the symbol. it's officially the registry room, but we call it and i think most people call it the great hall of ellis island. it's a majestic piece of architecture, but first follow me up the stairs, if you will. as i said, this is a modern staircase, but imagine there being a wooden staircase that immigrants would walk unin large crowds. some had refused to give their bag are baggage to the handlers, so they still have their suit case or perhaps a sheet with their belongings in it. the one thing they don't realize is they're already being

inspected as they walk up the stairs. they might be limping because of a bad foot. maybe they stubbed their together. they might be holding their chest and have heavy breathing. they may be happy, looking wonderfully ecstatic. all three of those conditions would be observed by inspectors who would be at the top of the stairs, and they would be watches. as you got to the stop of the stairs here, those inspectors would come up to you with one of their tools of the trade, a piece of chalk, and they're going to mark your coat with initials that signify exactly what they feel may be the condition you have, the stubbed toe gets an l for lameness. the person holding their chest might have a heart problem, h.

the person who's so ecstatic took here they're singing a dancing, we feel they may have a condition that needs to be checked mentally, so they have an x put on their coach. so immigrants didn't expect it. i sometimes do this on my tours, i ask somebody to do it, and when they don't do it, i say we have to check their hearing, because they weren't listening. not to make them feel bad about themselves, but it's all about the idea of understanding inspection. the doctors will give you about as fast a medical inspection as you'll ever get. sometimes they were called the six-second specialists. anywhere from five to ten seconds, maybe 15, they're a highly skilled members of the united states public health service who can spot even the smallest sign of anywhere from 50 to 60 ailments that normally

afflict an immigrant. any doubt that you have something means more initials are going on your coat. the one set of initials you don't want on your coat is ct. "ct" represented an illness called tracomma. it city customers, it maid the underside of your eyehis as sandpaper. it was highly contagious and incurable. they had to check the eyes. they would use button hooks and they wee catch your eyelid and look to see if the telltale signs of exttra coma were there. it didn't mean you were automatically sent back. it did mean that down these

hallwa hallways, they will take you to individual medical exam rooms. all of these initials were about making this process more official. they didn't have the time to give you a thorough exam, but the doctors down the hall could look at you and check you out most special. the vast majority it would be no problem. the man with the stubbed toe, he'll be treated and come back out here. for some, it may mean an internment in the hospital of days weeks, even months. for some i said it may mean the doctor's report will rule in fact they need to be sent back. this is step one in the process. as they walked into this room, as terrifying as this moment keg, you're also? a room which is the grandest room that some of you have ever seen in your entire life.

this is the great hall of ellis island. it has been restored to the way it looks roughly around 1918. our american flags have 48 stars, because in the early 1900s, we only had 48 states. we try to get a little accurate right to the point of 1918 and what we had. the ceiling, those tiles were put up here by a family company called the gustavino family, whose work is still famous in places like carnegie hall, grand central states, and the cathedral of st. john the divine in new york. in a faulted ceiling, in a patented styling that was all their own. in the restoration was done they checked every tile for the integrity, and only 13 had to be

replaced. their work is legendary and solid. when they wax this floor, it looks brand new. tiles on the columns all around here are part of the room as it opened in 1900, as are the chandelier, first chandelier here, and other in the middle of the room. the third one you could never guess was a reproduct, but apparently it was destroyed by a cable snapping, and i get they figured you couldn't go up and check, but anyway these are the original chandeliers. to get a sense of what the room was like when people came here, you have to use your imagination. today we don't have much in here, because we want people to be able to roam and enjoy and look at the room. if you were here as an immigrants, i would have entered a room after 1912 that was absolutely full of rows of benching here. we have benching in the front,

the darneller ones are original, the lighter ones were reproductions done by a high school program up in new york state, and the benches would have been rows coming all the way down to here, and the rows would have come into the middle of the room. once you got past this medical inspection, you're going to sit and wait. when you got off the boat in new york, a tag was put on your coat with a number that corresponded to your ship's manifest. when your ship's manifest book is brought to the desk, they call numbers and send inspectors out, they line you up and you're abouting to retested to see if you are in fact the person who you say you are when you got on the boat. that's where we're going to head next. we're get to head to that inspector's desk, and we'll talk a bit about the questions that were asked and what happened to many people when they got there.

here's the spot where you go through the last part of the processing. we talked a bit about a ship manifest outside. manifests were a list of answers to questions that immigrants gave. 25 to 30 questions were asked. what's your name? what's your age? what's your nationality? where are you going to live in america? and with whom? how much money do you have? that's a tricky question. it wasn't always known by immigrants that inspectors were looking for you to have about

$25 in the time period, a couple hundred in today's point. it may be stolen, you might have lost it. if you don't have anywhere near that amount that could be a reason to detain you. s they don't want to let people in america with no money. this was a tricky question that a lot of people wouldn't take. by home was your passage paid? most of them would say i paid myself. i start working for my new boss tomorrow. it may seem like an impressive answer, because the inspector would let you in, because you already have a job, but you just admitted to been a contract

laborer. the fer ran act of 1885 made that illegal. to admit that would be a certain trip back to europe, and a hefty fine for your american employer. some of these answers i can observe. for the vast majority of people, this is going to be a pretty easy process. they'll -- if you look too special, that alone could be -- but about 80% of the people who come through will eventually leave here to start their lives after an experience of about

three or four hour, 20% are detained, 10% for the legal processing. another 10 percent. so we're going to take you to the room where they had their chance for essentially a day in court. we'll go down to the hat to the board of special inquiry. it's been resore to look pretty much like it did in the early 1900s. this wing you are heading into is the legal wing of ellis island at the time period. there were four operating courtrooms. offices were here for lawyers. for those who would be detained

in some way. there are three inspectors seated here. they are your judges. a stenographer would be here to keep a record of the case, and an interpreter would be seated at the end here to help the inspectors inds. imgrands were not allow to have a lawyer in this first hearing. they had to plead their own case. oftentimes there were members of immigrant aid societies, groups set up by specific ethnic groups to help people of their back

growled to get through this process. they could serve as the interpreter for the immigrant themselves. an immigrant could you will cass witnesses. let's say the young person, the judge woman lost her money on the boat befriended by a nice man who ended up stealing her money. she would send a telegram into new york to her brother who lives in new york who she's going to go live with, and ask him to come out to testify on her behalf. they would never allow the two family, brother and sister in the same courtroom at the same time. they would interrogate them separately so they would not be in i kind of story created between the two of them. if you brother said she's my sister, i will take her in, she will stay under my wing until she has enough money to get a place of her own and has a job.

that would oftentimes be more than enough to assuage or calm the fears of the inspect oshs. for the 20% of the people who came through here it's a terrifying moment. they have not seen many justice. many have come from brutal rejeeps. but they're going to be given a wonderful introduction to an american justice system which gives them a real good shake. of of 20% in this room, only 2% would eventually be sent back. that means 18% had enoughen an sxlags many explanation for the reason for their detention it would be if you have for inspectors to allow them to come

in and stay. the room was also always one that create add sense of terror and fear, but for most it's a room that really causes a great celebration and join as they're told they can go out and start their lives here. 18 of though 20% could be here a day, a week, a month or more, but eventually. story would start for me? for me, i have three grandparents who came through here, and it's a very special experience to work here, because i know i'm telling their story. i can only imagine what they would think if they knew 100 years later that their grandson would be here given tours and telling their story.

the items in this exhibit area, which is called treasures from home were donated to us by people whose ancestors had come here, and the items are actually organized by theme, so here we have a case of clothing that was worn by many people who came here. a beautiful rich textures, and the craftsmanship is gorgeous. as we walked down, we had a case of personal papers that were a part of many immigrants, so a lot of these are going to be -- legal documents from the old country that had been put in here, and just representative of

the type of things you would find if you find some family research and look for documents overseas. the case i believe is religious items. these religious items are, again, it's the type of things that immigrants would bring here that they would not dare left behind. for many you see the rosary beads here and many of the other items that are -- the clothing that's religiously based. these are things they would not leave behind. if they had that one steamer trunk, this is definitely something that would be here. here, of course, pictures. so many pictures of so many people back in the old country or perhaps here when they finally came, would definitely be something to send pictures

back to the old country of your life here in america. there are so many pictures like this, i think any family has it at home. i have a shoebox at home i'm still sorting through. so many different images, so many different backgrounds. so many different people with so many dreams of something better. you can really absorb and appreciate. the last case here brings in what they call family life items, things that people would bring that they used in everyday life. cutlery, sewing machine, camera, just a sampling of the tremendous amount of items that were actually donated to us here. some families gave us so much

that cases were dedicated to those families specifically. so we have about six or seven of these here and behind the photographs that are dedicated to specific families who literally gave you a steamer trunk of illustrate stems and asked us to tell their story and the important to their family and culture and backgrounds. the processing center opened in 1892. for the next 30 years or so operated at future tilt as a massive plezing center. somewhere during 919 tos, there was the beginning of the process of restricting immigration that brought of flow of people here almost to a halt. world war i helped to do that,

too, but by 1924, a very restrictive quota law, in conjunction with the creation of the consulate system that we have today, really brought ellis island to a close as a mass processing center. it remained open for another 30 years. it would be a place where those detained in port in new york would be brought out and held until their case was adjudicated. by 1954, we're in the middle of a strong anti-communist surge a fear of foreign elements. by that time the building really lost its total purpose and use, so in november of 1954, the building closed. it would be really empty for the next 11 years until 1965, when president johnson issued the order to add ellis island as part of the statue of liberty

national monument. for the next 15 years, the building would be administered by the park service, but not restored or opened to the general public. you had to arrange for what they called a hard-hat tour. they did bring people out here, walk them through the abandoned structures, but i guess in conjunction with the crennel tenial of the stat tour of liberty and its -- money was raised by the foundation both to restore the statue as well as to restore this building. so the statue will be rededicated in 1986, and this building will open in october of 1990, i believe vice president quayle came out to officiate at the opening of the museum. we've been open ever since. so all told, 98% of the

people who came through this building were able to get out and start their lives in america. 98% of 12 to 13 million people will translate into about 45% of the american population today, who can tell you honestly that one of their ancestors came through this building, went through this process, and began their family's american story. for so many people it's the reason they come here, to visit ellis island. they've heard so much about it. they come back to see the moment or place where grandma or great me have grandfather came to america, answered the questions, passed the medical processing, and began their family's american story. i think in all the discussions of immigration that we have going on today, i think there needs to be the context that this story of people coming here

being from a different cultural background, starting their lives here, and in many cases becomes successes, that's a great american story and it will continue. i think that sometimes we lose track of that, that some of us who are the descendants of those immigrants from the late 1800s have kind of forgotten about grandma and grandma's journey. i hope a visit will reawaken that. that's what ellis island is about, a story of americans looking for something better, really the american dream. so thank you for coming along. we glad that you did, and we hope you get to visit and we'll see you personally.