think about it, they were from the south. and went tock home theyreas of the south, and were able to take their weapons with them. that provided some level of safety for as long as they could. what should people who don't know anything about the u.s. colored troops, what should they know? >> it's a matter of self-respect.

prior to the emancipation proclamation, the south was winning most of the battle. it allows african-americans to fight with the armed forces of the union. over 200,000 that joined the navy, the infantry, artillery, .nd cavalry if you have fresh recruits coming in in 1863. north or the union began to win more battles. all major role in the overall union victory. -- a major role in the overall union victory. >> can you tell me your name? >> i'm working on the civil war project.

i have been photographing the wars battlefields throughout the country. attending reenactments of a 19th-century photographer, photographing those reenactments as if the photographer was in the battle with the soldiers. >> fly a pinhole? >> i find that the pinhole camera, there is no lens on this camera. it creates these blurry soft that i believe lends some imagining to this period. pictures yout the can't tell what century you are in. this whole idea that there is the civil war landscape.

they have been protected for 100 something years now. many of the reenactors are descendents of -- .here is a coastal connection to commemorate the service of your great-great-grandfather. i realize i needed to become a reenactor to get the pictures. i became a reenactor to do this project. i had my own impressions of what reenacting was. after doing it for four years now i think i'm quite impressed with these men and women who do this. i've done a ton of research for my project, but i realize i'm quite a novice among many of these men out here. these reenactors could

teach a course on the american civil war. think it's something americans don't really realize. many of them take it quite seriously. and they had a coursing through their veins, this conflict. this was a personal project. it began in 2011. i had worked for a year and a half or so and then launched a blog. and of course the photographs i've been taking. i was contacted by the library of congress about the acceptance >> howe national archive does this camera work?

>> this is the most rudimentary camera you can take a photograph with. the film goes in the only working part on the camera is shutter.le it basically blocks the lights from coming in. there is no lens, just light thisg into the pinhole technology dates back to the renaissance period. this is the camera obscura. been traveling throughout the country, photographing the subjects exclusively. at www. civil it war --

>> thank you very much. >> thank you. >> i'm from baltimore maryland. >> can you tell us about these wagons? >> these are accurate reproductions of civil war period ambulances. we took these from the confederates in virginia.

then this lovely model here is one of our personal issue federal ambulances. you can see on the side we have stretchers. we can mount up to four stretchers at a time. sometimes even six when it's nasty. >> we see these types of wagons would be in the parade 150 years ago? >> absolutely. the army doesn't move without supplies. when the battle starts raging these are used primarily for getting those men who were wounded on the field off the >> how do you go about rebuilding these? >> between you and me the amish do a great job. they were just used for this period, they would have been the 1890's.hat into

there's plenty of government requisitions and patents. pretty easy to trace the actual appearance of them. up.e flip these are not just here in front and back that you can hang the stretchers onto. this board comes up and tailgate. we don't use that for football games. tell the obvious difference between the two is the confederates generally paint their wagons with an unnecessary expense. these sources were bred to be thick and strong. these are some certainty -- some

sturdy strong animals. then we have the federal team. this one is perl. i want to see late 1400s. they continue to breed best-of-breed -- they continue because they are the best. there were courses literally. the breed is with certain to north america. and dr. mike is a veterinarian. actually breeds. for hours ifnd

needed. but they do get tired of standing around. >> must be a lot of trouble to get out here. when mexico through the trouble? >> love of history, love of country. educational benefits might not -- hauling trailers through one of the cities in north america. we give you the opportunity for market interest. >> on from a night in new york. we represent the 146 new york state volunteer infantry.

>> tell us about your uniforms. happening is 63 -- i met the 136 and three universe -- three uniforms. >> they were always intended to be from the very beginning. the colonel was at the west point when this regiment was born. they talked him into taking command of the regimen. they fought alongside the regular army in the fifth corps. >> why are you making the trip here today? >> because we want to represent the men who gave so much for our freedom that we have here today.

>> they were commemorations of everything else in the civil war. our commemoration of the end of the war is a grand review. that's a very important testament to the fortitude and the bravery. --'s case

>> i think the largest family out there -- the graham berry family from tennessee, can they give us a shout out? and the johnson family. >> you're the person behind all this. >> that's right. like this for a long time. how -- >> you genuinely have to write and read and think a lot about it. along the way you build friends and build connections. they still believe in that freedom in america.

it's really a wonderful time to be celebrating. they have done a lot to gain a lot. >> do you know how they reacted? >> i know they were very disappointed. the leader wanted to be involved. he asked for his men to be involved. they had been involved in the battle of pocahontas, the battle bloomington. to march.anted grant,aying to general -- i know they wanted to march. america would have seen them is

the crown jewel of the army. marching along at a special time. at a time when the country was forming a new opinion and new nation. they gave this country and oppression worthy of being in the parade. i'm pleased a playing a role in doing that here today. >> the 150th anniversary of the civil war. now?an the public move for >> i saw a bunch of young people , they were standing and waiting on a program on abraham lincoln.

behind them is slavery, ahead of them is freedom. they don't know much about what is ahead of them. i feel like that's today. this is a country that has come a long ways, the future is bright for the people who love it. i'm proud to be a part of that. ♪

[laughter] -- [applause] >> in 2010, the liljenquist family of virginia donated their civil war photographs to a museum. in 2011 american artifacts met his sons brandon and christian to learnary congress

the story behind this collection. >> this is the very first photograph that we bought in maryland right here. the soldier cradling his weapon and had a solemn look on his face. that's always one of my favorites. there's -- the photograph that we used on the library of congress website for our photograph was one of the least expensive photographs that we purchased. i'm trying to locate it right now. oh, here it is. it was $200. we won it on ebay. if you can get a close-up and look at it, it didn't bring much money. it's an amber type and it's cracked right down the middle if middle in two places and reminded me of the nation. you know, cracked in two. he's a 16-year-old boy cradling

a musket and the american flag billowing in the background. of the painted backdrop. where it cracked, the red that was painted on the stripes of the flag, you can see it leeching just like the blood of the nation flowing and who did the nation turn to to save itself? these young boys. just very, very powerful photograph. you can blow up that photograph to a real high resolution and get a really close look at his face. it's incredible. >> when the family asked to have the exhibition at the library of congress and they proposed that the 400 photographs were laid out as if they were a beautiful patchwork quilt, and that quilt has come to be very special to me in that it tells what the stone monuments to the civil war and all the history books cannot convey. it's that opportunity to look directly into the faces of the people who fought or were close relatives to people directly engaged in the war. on the surface, it might look as if each of these pictures is similar.

but not only were the photographers talented at making the soldiers look like unique individuals, you'll notice how incredibly young many of the soldiers are. you'll see how much they actually look like your brother, or your cousin, or someone you could see on the street today. the past is much -- so much like the present sometimes. you feel a kinship or a friendship for them. but finally, the photographers that opportunity to have -- they called it having your shade or your shadow captured, you could bring to that event how you wanted to be remembered. not how someone else told you. but your own idea. so they would bring knives and guns, their hat, their best dress uniform.

even if they had borrowed parts of it from a colleague or the photographer himself, just from the expressions on their faces you get a sense for how they wanted to be known. it's like the past talking to you directly. >> this is my son brandon and my son christian. i have one other boy who is not with us today. he's a freshman in college and his name is jason. we have collected civil war photography for the last 15 years. this is the -- our exhibit that you see behind us which we donated to the library of congress. i'll tell you how we got started and what happened to us 15 years ago. we lived in arlington on a hill. called upton's hill and below it was bluemont park. in the summer of 1996, jason who was 5 years old and brandon who was 3 years old and i were coming up the creek bed off four mile run and my son brandon right here, he picked up this bullet. we were really shocked to find a bullet in the sandstone bed of the creek.

after looking around for a fewmore minutes, we found three more. so we found these first three or four bullets here. they were very heavy, made of lead. we didn't know what they were. we weren't sure if we had stumbled on a murder scene or what they were. so we took the bullets and about a month later i was at the maryland historical trust, and i showed them to a friend of mine there, and he said, i'm going to take these next-door and see. i think i know what these are. let me check. he came back and said these are civil war mini balls, lead bullets and they were probably fired during the civil war. we researched the hill and we found out there was a confederate outpost there, the beginning of the war guarding the bridge at four mile run.

later in the war, fort ramsey was built on top, a signal fort. so there had been a lot of activity, and we thought we had perhaps discovered a skirmish site. we were very excited and we later learned a private was killed on this hill. we have his records from the national archives. so anyway, unknown to us at the time, christian was also with us that day and he was in his --his mom was pregnant, and we just learned about that. ok. that sparked an interest in the civil war, having this personal experience. we bought metal detectors, went back, dug up about 40 bullets. we began going to civil war shows and visiting shops in gettysburg that sold civil war memorabilia. we collected rifle musket.

we bought a photograph while on in a family outing up here. it was of a union soldier cradling his musket. it sat on the kitchen table for a couple of weeks. we just really realized at that point in time that this relic was much more important than the other relics we were collecting. so, after a while, we just began collecting civil war photography only and stopped collecting the other relics. over time, christian began buying them on ebay. christian and brandon. we loved doing the countdowns and christian clicking at the last second to win the item. we got some amazing -- i think about 30% of the collection came from ebay. they had a real golden year there where a lot of this stuff, when ebay first came into existence, a lot of this stuff was coming out of attics across america. we even -- i recall getting one photograph from alaska, another one from canada.

>> my favorite photograph is right here. it's a little girl. she looks like she's about 6 or 7 years old. and she's holding a picture of her father. she's wearing mourning ribbons. and when people wear mourning ribbons that usually means that someone died or a tragedy has happened. so, she's holding a picture of her father because her father's dead, and he probably died at war. and you can see when you look in her eyes that she's just devastated, and she just -- i mean, just so sad and depressed that her father's not around anymore. >> do you have a favorite here? >> my favorite photo's right below it, of the

african-american family with the black soldier. we got this photo in baltimore. and it was one of the most expensive photos we paid for, but hands down it was definitely worth it because of how meaningful the picture is. the look on everyone's face, everyone has a very solemn look on their face. and you sort of get the feeling that this could be the last time the family's meeting together. the guy's fighting for the union, and he may never return to his family. and also, it's very significant because of our president today. this man has a wife and two young girls just like our president today. so it just shows how far a country can come in 150 years. and -- >> the cost of our collection, the photographs range anywhere from a couple hundred dollars on up to $19,000 was the most that we paid. which is -- the only known photograph today of a black union soldier with his family.

i bought it from the gentleman ross kelbau who wrote the book on civil war photography. it surfaced out of cecil county, maryland. it was actually given to a gentleman who bought a gun and the dealer couldn't change -- give him $8 change so he gave him the photo in lieu of eight dollars change. that was about 30 years ago. so it's quite famous, the photograph. >> my name is cheryl reagan. i'm an exhibit director at the library of congress in the interpretives program office. we do the exhibits here at the library. you're able to look at individual images in each of the cases. this photograph, very important photograph of an african-american family. we can see that he's probably wearing a campaign button.

abraham lincoln campaign button here. we know that because we have the campaign buttons. they were deposited for copyright in our collection. it is a tribute to the beauty of these photographs and the fact that so many of them are sharp. i mean, we are blowing this up now to 30, 40 times its original size. i mean, this young girl, the end daughter here, it's incredibly moving. but realize that in the actual photograph she's probably a quarter inch high. now we are blowing it up to this size. >> i believe the photographs are sharper from the 1800s. they had more silver in them. so there is more grains reflecting the light. they had wonderful lenses at times. but it's also the case that mr. liljennquist has a pretty good eye. there are -- he chose pictures that would resonate or have a particular strength of

composition, expression on the person's face. these are not just any old civil war photographs. they are the best. >> this young boy, he's a confederate holding a flint lock rifle. i like this one because he's probably not older than me. i'm 14 years old. he's probably maybe 15 or maybe 14. but he looks mean and angry. but i mean, he could also be sad. but i really like this picture because he's young and i can relate to him because i'm probably his age. >> i'll show you what an amber type is. the photograph is actually done on glass. this soldier is identified. he was -- we have his name here. thank goodness. he actually rode with moseby's rangers later in the war. i will show you this.

i will take it out of its case here for a minute and show you how fragile and amazing these pieces are. this is called -- let me get this out here. this is a ruby amber type. the emulsion is on a piece of glass. let's hold it up to the light. you'll see -- can you see how the --? it's really an amazing process. you know how they did that. but i think most of the collection is amber types. yeah. i believe about two-thirds of the collection are amber types. see? and then they're inside a little frame that holds, and then they get stuck in the case here. you can read here the case manufacturer. you know, this case was patented in 1856. by ap and company. very nicely done. photographs

back then were little treasures. you know? not like our computers today. >> an amber type is actually a photograph on a sheet of glass. that is the actual piece that would have been in the camera. as soon as you put a dark background behind it, now you can recognize it's a man with pink, painted cheeks. it is then added a brass matte cover for protection and there would have been a cover sheet of glass, too, all in a decorative case, often with beautiful velvet on one side so that it becomes a precious object, like a jewelled portrait, i think. can you tell from the size of my hands, it's something you can hold close? it's also a very intimate portrait.

this is a typical example of a young soldier. one of the new additions to the collection. >> this is really a neat photograph. this soldier is -- he's holding -- a cavalry soldier holding a very rare gun. it's a colt pistol with a detachable stock on the back. then he's got another colt 44 in his belt. he's got his cavalry sword right there. handsome young man. this is on tin. i'll show you what a tin type is. just on a little piece of iron. it's a misnomer calling it a tin type, but that's what they were called. see it up close? after the photograph was taken, this soldier would have paid extra for the photographer to colorize his uniform. in this case in dark blue here, light blue on the pants. he touched up the hilt of the sword with gold leaf. his collar and the buttons on his uniform. it's amazing how with primitive technology and the long exposure time that we are just so lucky

photography was invented right before the civil war. we are so lucky to be able to see what these young men looked like. >> it's actually a photograph but on an incredibly thin sheet of metal. the photographic emulsion was poured onto the sheet. there are wonderful youtube videos now where you can watch a tin type made. people used this technology into 20 century. it survived a long time. amber types, the glass was just cumbersome enough as a technique that they were replaced by paper photographic prints by the end of the 1850s, 1860s. these are demonstration pieces. so that's why i'm using my bare hands to touch them. usually we would have the wonderful white gloves. >> this is a 9th plate. this is a six plate. this is called a quarter plate. this one, you have four union soldiers on lookout mountain, tennessee.

that's the tennessee river, a big bend. there was a photographer named lynn down there. the lynn brothers, i believe. they had set up camp taking pictures of the army of the cumberland when they were down there. there are quite a few photographs taken from this particular spot. i think what a viewer sees here when they look at this exhibit is the humanity of the war that walt whitman discovered. the young men, their wives, their children, you know, who did the fighting and dying. you know, you can see in the expressions. this expression right here of the soldier and his wife, you can see the paint, anxious expression on her face. you can see the confidence in

his face. in their eyes, there are messages here that these soldiers are still imparting upon the decades. as you look at these soldiers, do you see any difference between these and -- i mean, this could be an exhibit on one of our current wars. i mean, except for the clothing and the uniforms are different. you see the sacrifice. look at these three women in front of the american flag. they are each one is wearing a black band with their wedding band. you can see it on the blow-ups if you go to that photograph and do a high resolution scan on the website. we feel they are letting everyone know their husbands have been killed in battle. that was a custom, we believe, at the time. there's just all kinds of little things we're going to learn about these photographs. look at this young man down at lookout mountain, tennessee.

that's one of my favorite photographs. he's a cavalry guy who's got his cavalry sword across his lap. here's one with a little poem of a young bride in her patriotic case with a poem talking about how love never dies even though they are separated by fate. >> this is, i think, one of my top favorites because if you look closely, there is one soldier in the middle. that's one soldier that i have -- the first one i have seen smiling in a picture. i mean, every other picture that i have seen has been a frown or just no smile at all. just that one person is smiling. >> yeah. the second one. 6th massachusetts infantry there with their end field rifle muskets. we concentrated on families. there are other photographs in here besides the ones of civil war soldiers. occasionally, you know, we'll have a picture of a bride with a poem, you know, about being

separated from her husband or a little note from -- this photograph right here of that young confederate right there, in the back of the case there is a note and it says, given to me by my darling beau bobby. died october 5, 1862. and then it's dated september 29, 1863, with her two initials. what i believe it was, i believe she was packing the photograph away after a year of mourning. it led in, "prized with my most highly treasured," were the opening words to that and she was packing it away as she was moving on with her life. we are trying to find him now. many researchers are trying to find out who he was. there were 650 bobbys from virginia who died in the civil war. one of the first things you will

see when you see the photographs is how young the soldiers really were. the privates and the corporals. when students see these photos, it really brings them into the war because they see kids their own age having an incredible part of history and it just really draws them into the whole aspect. >> you have been watching a portion about the civil war photograph collection. you can watch the entire program by visiting our website. next, historian amy morel taylor will be discussing divided families in the civil war.

while we wait for them to start, we want to remind you you can watch all of our coverage on today symposium by visiting our website. while there you can find our tv schedule and share your thoughts on our programming. do that by connecting with us on twitter at c-span history and on facebook at facebook.com/c-span history. this is live coverage on american history tv only on c-span three. only on weekends.

>> again this is american history tv on c-span3. while we wait for the symposium held by the civil war museum and university of virginia to get underway. silenta portion of a film showing memorial day

activities at arlington national cemetery in 1920. [no audio]

.> and we are back live if the next speaker up is amy morel taylor, whose talk is divided families in the civil war. they are waiting to get underway. this is american history tv on c-span3.