today, we continue to bring you unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme public policy event in washington, d.c. and around the country. c-span is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. the effects of the american civil war were far-reaching. ,s the town of visalia california was over 2100 miles away from the conflict, tensions were high. historian terry ohman shares this piece of visalia's history. >> this town was so hostile, that it was almost like we fought the civil war on the streets of visalia. when visalia was founded in 1852, the town was attracting a

lot of settlers. many of the settlers came from southern states. they brought their believe system with them in most cases. history, a visalia's number of the settlers were supportive of states rights and slavery because of where they came from. there was obviously a conflict. california was a free state. visalia had split loyalties. some were union supporters, some were southern sympathizers. in the middle of basically nowhere. we are about 200 miles north of los angeles. sacramento.uth of we were in the middle of what i

would consider the frontier of california. that became important. a number of people used our area as hideouts, southern groupsizing gangs, and used the town and mountains east of town as hideouts in their travels. forere pretty wide open some problems with conflict dealing with especially the civil war. at the same time, we had some native american issues. that theccupying lands native americans occupied. as a result, there were some hard feelings and some problems. to 1860.p forward

have high emotions on both sides. we have the southern sympathizing being terribly emotional about their side. of course, the union folks believe strongly in what president lincoln was doing. for the most part, we had a terribly divided town. in those days, we had two newspapers in 1860. one was the delta newspaper, one was the son. often times, newspapers picked political sides in those early years. the delta attended to support the southern cause. the sun supported the northern cause. both sides,was that

editorially, attacked each other on a regular basis. john shannon ran the delta newspaper. william governor morris was a contributor to the sun newspaper. those two had a standing feud going on editorially. in fact, a humorous story, the son had a motto. "it shines for all." to.t was the newspaper moto shannon wrote in his newspaper a criticism of that, "shines for all yes, and like mannered as decayed fish in a dark night. it shines and stinks and shines to stink again." 2 menember of 1860, the confronted each other.

both of them were armed. both of them were very upset with each other. john shannon was killed by william governor morris right on the streets of visalia. i think that was probably the first battle in visalia in the civil war. later the same year, another newspaper came to be. the delta was there, the sun was there. now we have the equal rights expositors. another newspaper supporting the south. they were so critical of the lincoln and his d the equalion banne rights expositors from the u.s. mail. it meant the paper could only be distributed within the town of

visalia and could not leave on the stage delivering u.s. mail. he wanted to isolate the problem. they mr. bryce:anne -- they banned the equal rights expositors. it continued to lambaste the union side. in year later in 1918 6 -- 1863, it was destroyed by an angry mob of visalia. they went to the newspaper, threw the equipment in the streets, and that was the end of equal rights expositors. hadr to that, the town received such bad press and folkcity that loyal union decided to tell the u.s.

government "you have to do something about this town. our town is going over to the other side. you better deal with it before it gets even more out of hand." 1862, a couple dozen union troopers from camp independence crossed the sierra and marched into visalia. the union folks supporters celebrated. the southern sympathetic folks were angry at that move. eventually, the soldiers created bavot, one of the few civil war posts created in california. it was set up right here in visalia. severaloint, there were

hundred troopers stationed here. it was marshall law. they were right on the edge of town. when they were off duty, they would come into town in their uniforms, which would antagonize the southern sympathetic folks. they called them lincoln's pups. they would antagonize them to know and. adam would bel, very angry toward them. intentionally rude for geoff davis, who happened to be the president of the confederacy. that would antagonize the soldiers. they had these people openly supportive of the enemy. citizensd arrest the

that made those comments and take them to the camp at the guardhouse. they would now put them into the guardhouse. they would have to leave and recite the oath of allegiance for the union. the southern sympathizers realized early on that it was a ticket out of the guardhouse. emotion,ny real strong it would go through the motions of reciting that both of allegiance and off they would go. wouldy would leave, they horrah for geoff davis again. it became almost a game.

weapons involved often times. one incident that really became nationally covered, and became very well known here and elsewhere, was the incident involving a sergeant with the union troopers and a businessman named james wells. james wells had been one of the original founders of the town. he was well-established, well-respected. he was a strong southern sympathizer. keep in mind, the loyalties and the emotion was so high. friends would turn into enemies over the issue. james wells and charles strobel one day met each other on the streets of visalia, the main street. they exchanged words. hostile words.

confronteds then james wells. james wells says "i am unarmed, i didn't mean anything by it, i was critical of you. emotions are high. -- emotions are high." the soldiers began to walk away. wells pulled out a hidden revolver and shot charles strobel after the soldiers were walking away. that incident was covered nationally. the violence -- the violent reputation the town had. by this time, the town was known as the charleston of the west. it was because of its strong southern sympathies.

they pointed to the visalia incident as the incident that was going to drive californians to the slavery side. friends becamee enemies. about on the east coast brothers fighting against brothers. we almost had the same thing here with the citizens of visalia. it was pretty nasty times. there were some pretty dark years for visalia. i always find it interesting that when abraham lincoln was 1865, you would have

thought there would been a divided town. some would have cheered, some would have been saddened. the town actually came together. visalia had a little bit of class, in the sense that they said assassination is not the way to go. processionremonial for abraham lincoln with a symbolic coffin and wagon. in both the north and south -- and both the north and south joined in the procession. it was a high point for a rather low time in visalia history. that was a positive step. it had become so hostile that i really doubted whether our town

that has only -- that had only been a town for a decade, i couldn't see how it could survive what they were going .hrough 1861-1865. -- theree they were was capable leadership on both sides of the issue. they said "we have to do something to save our town." they did it. >> our cities to her staff recently traveled to visalia, california to learn about its rich history. learn more about visalia and other stops on our tour at c-span.org/cities tour. you're watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. history,n lectures in the landscape painter before the civil war enlisted with the union armies second vermont

volunteers and witnessed the 1862 battle of antietam firsthand. shepherd university professor james brimhall teaches a class about his life and art, focusing on his paintings of antietam's bloody lane, and the artillery. this class is about 70 minutes. afternoon,l: good everyone. we are going to continue our discussion of the maryland campaign, but instead of the topic itself, we're going to deal with the idea of representation and memory. in some ways, it deals with the broader course themes of the class, so today's lecture is a bit of a departure from what we .ave done thus far i want to start with a vignette from one soldier, a private, calvin leach. he is a soldier in the first