>> here's a look at our primetime schedule on the c-span networks. starting at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span, remarks from president trump at the national rifle association's annual meeting. live at 7:00 eastern on c-span2, author and historian take part in the month debate on future globalization and immigration issues. and on c-span3 at 8:00, a house hearing examining the pros and cons of building a wall along he u.s.-mexico border. >> c-span's "washington journal," live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up saturday morning, u.s. news and world report managing editor for opinion. we'll talk about president trump's first 100 days in office. then in our spotlight on magazine segment, author and keizer health news editor in chief will discuss her recent

piece in "the new york times" magazine examining key drivers of health care costs. be sure to watch c-span's washington journal, live at 7:00 eastern saturday morning. join the discussion. >> on saturday, environmental ac visits are holding a climate change march and rally in washington, d.c. we'll have live coverage starting at 3:00 eastern here on c-span. you can also watch live at cspan.org. or listen on the c-span radio app. also saturday, president trump marks his 100th day in office with a rally in harrisburg, pennsylvania. he'll be speaking to supporters starting at 7:30 p.m. eastern. we'll have that on c-span as well. and tomorrow night, live coverage of this year's white house correspondents dinner with entertainment by hasan minaj. and the announcement of several journalism awards and college scholarships. president trump will not be attending this year's dinner, making him the first president

to skip the annual event since ronald regean in 1981, who was recovering from having been shot. you can watch the event live saturday starting at 9:30 p.m. eastern. >> for the next hour and 15 minutes, an american history tv exclusive. our cities tour visits wilmington, north carolina, to learn more about its unique history. for five years now, we've traveled the cities across the u.s. to explore their literary and historic sites. and you can watch more of our visits at cspan.org/citiestour. >> it's called the cape fear because there are lots of shoals and it's fairly difficult to get into it. it was considered to be a fearful place to land. at least that's what most historians think. so wilmington, north carolina,

is the main city in newhanover county which is the sort of focus of the cape fear. the exhibit we're looking at today is called cape fear stories. and it explores the history of wilmington and the newhanover township from the earliest inhabitants up through the 20th century. when people came here what they saw was, some people described it as an ocean of trees them saw these majestic tall trees and these became the bedrock of the economy. the trees are called long leaf pines. you can still see them today but they used to cover a huge space of the southeastern united states. they have these really long pine needles, really big pine cones. they're totally different than anything would you have seen in england if you were coming here from europe. they're a great resource for lumber. you can make tar out of the

limbs of them. people came to the cape fear in the early parts of colonial period up until 1800. most americans lived within 50 miles of the coast. so here we have two things or three things going for us. we have the cape fear river which allows people to come up to where wilmington is because we're not on coast. we're protected. we have the ocean that allows us to transport people and then we have the land, the resources that are available through the forests, through the land, through the long leaf pine forests that were here when people first -- when europeans first came here. wilmington's economy is based on the large long leaf pines, ut what they develop is we manufacture tar which we create using a tar kiln and we tap the pines. that involves this process of basically, you cut a box in the bottom of the tree to collect

this resin that runs down. then you chip it and it starts to run into the part, then you take this dipper and dip it into the bucket. eventually you have enough buckets to fill a barrel and you ship this off to britain as part of the colonial economy. so naval store sounds like a weird way to describe something. but these products, this tar, which could be turned into pitch, and was also then turned into spirits of turn tine and rosin wasedth bedrock of the wooden ship industry. or actually maintaining those wooden ships. you used tar on the deck. you used tar on the ropes. you used pitch on the hull of the ship to try and protect it. so britain in the colonial era was really looking for a colonial source of that material. they didn't want to have to basically trade with sweden

which is another place you can get it from. wilmington became a hub of this industry and north carolina shipped the vast majority of tar out of the colonies to the motherland. and most of it came from around here. to make it, you used to have to sit up basically a tar kiln in the forest. you built it out of the wood from the trees. it's full of thises remain than burns -- resin that burns. you have to tend it all night and the tar kind of leaks out and we have this interact solve you can actually feel what tar was like. in part to get you to think about how it would have been to put it on a ship. but also it's very fragrant. and this is tar that's made the same way as they would have made it in the 18th and 19th centuries. it gives you that sensery experience on top of it. so we're a small cog in the british empire. but it was an important part of

he region's history. making tar and tapping pines took a lot of labor, as did making all the barrels. the vast majority of the folks who did this in our region were enslaved. throughout most of the 19th and 1th century histories, africans and african-americans were a majority of the region's population. this is a part of our history that we also wanted to explore here by making it clear to people that that's what our region's economy is based on. so most -- one in six coopers was an african-american. and most of the folks who would have worked out in the woods manufacturing tar or in the small woodland factories that created the spirits of turn tine would have been en-- term type would have been enslaved labor -- termen tine would have been enslaved labor.

in order to support the naval stores industry and facilitate it, the city of wilmington or the town of wilmington begins to grow and there's this commercial aspect. people make money off tapping those pines and making tar. and so one of the things that we wanted to show in our galleries was how colonial americans lived. the kinds of things that they would have. we have a recreated store here. it's not to scale. it's a little small. but it is based on the discrimination from a letter from the period of a merchant whose name was james murray. and he was -- moved here as a young man from england. he was a merchant and then a planter and he lived in the lower cape fear for about 30 years. and we have those records, those letters that he wrote. so everything that you see in this recreation is something that we found either listed in an inventory or a shipping record from the state, which is tracking what was coming in and going out.

inside this store there's glassware, there's light fixtures, there's pewter, a form of a -- i, and there's materials like pipes for smoking and all the kinds of things that we found listed in people's inventories on ships. it gives you the sense of the kind of rich material culture of the era, as well as some of the things that people used. and also let's us know that these folks who lived here, they weren't isolated. they weren't just sttsithing in a farm in colonial north carolina. they were connected to london, they were connected to boston, they were connected around the atlantic world. and they were looking for fashionable goods and looking for other goods to come into town. in fact, some of the ads talk about, come see our latest fashionable stuff from london. so folks that were living here were part of this atlantic world. they were connected. to the rest of the british empire. what we're looking at here is a

model of 1860's wilmington, the water front. this side is downtown wilmington today. the other side is eagles island. which is where the battleship is now. but used to have industrial stuff on it. this is one of the main pieces in our 19th century gallery. in the 1830's, wilmington became the biggest city in north carolina. in part because of the commerce that was going on here. and also the city was an early adopter of the railroad. so it was a big center of commerce and trade. this gives you a sense of kind of the range of different kinds of shipping that was coming in, but also sort of the bustling port city nature of wilmington in the 19th century period. efore the civil war.

>> it's a small colonial outpost. it's five blocks by four blocks. this side would have been the outskirts of town. anything above us would have been the wilderness. and it was kind of a seedy little town. a lot of sailors coming in and out. being in debt was a crime. we had a lot of poverty here. so on this property, on the corner of the market, was three stone and brick buildings that we still have today. that have been incorporated into the property in the house. on the house of criminals. you had general population, we have a subbasement that's underground. that would have been for more grievous crimes like murder and horse theiving, which was considered a grievous crime. and we had debtors prison. we also have, mostly in tact, the jealous quarters, where he and his family would have lived. our property today, our colonial reviral guard, seven of them. back then it would have been the gallos where people were hanged. stocks and pillrieser.

the whipping post could you rent by the hour to punish your endentured servants or slaves. that is the original property. once wilmington became more prom nenlt, obviously the corner is still the busiest intersection. it's the center of town. wealthy familiesed taking an interest. so it became really important to have a town house here in wilmington. they relocated up the street. on the outskirts of town then. and this house incorporates the walls of the jail as its oundation. so welcome to the house. you are in the center of historic wilmington on the corner of third and market. you're standing in the original property of the city jame of wilmington from 1744 to 1748 -- 1768. this property and the stone building you see behind were part of the city jail compound. the house that's by the on top of the jail was built in 1770.

by a man. he uses the walls of the jail as the foundation for his house. keep in mind that the cape fear river was a block closer. that's why we have a front street and a water street. water street is essentially over the water and it continues today. back then the river would have come as far as second street during high tide. the streets were much lower. it was really important for him to elevate his house, to keep it protected when the floods came through. or there was a lot of rain or a hurricane. keep in mind, that meant that when this was a jail, it often flooded with prisoners inside. so the jail had been relocated in 176 after a fire. essentially the wooden roof that would have been above where the house is today was burnt. at the time, wilmington had been here for about 30 years. more and more prominent families were moving into town. more people wanted to turn this

area into residential street rather than industrial. so it was perfect timing. the fire burnt the roof. the jail was relocated. and the lot in one of the most prominent areas of town is up for sale. one of the wealthiest men in north carolina at the time purchases it. and instead of demolishing the wall, he recycles them and incorporates them into his house. let me take you inside the house. if you were a guest of john, this would have been the first space you were introduced in and that's the great hall. at the time, these halls would have been considered massive. the sheer size of this hall is the footprint of a regular middle class home. many homes during this era, for lower and middle class, would have been one or two rooms, where the whole family would have shared the space. so to have all this in the

center of your home with the only purpose to greet people and lead them into other rooms was supposed to impress you. the whole purpose of this house was to impress you. he built this home in 1771 with one purpose. parties. parties translated into business. the more you entertained, the more connections you make and then in the morning, after the party, you might make a business deal. . he was a welsh immigrants here. he worked for the crown. he was the secretary to three royal governors and the treasurer for the colony. --married into a weather into a wealthy planter family and became a planter i default and continued being a merchant. when he moved here, he had connections importing goods. we know he had five ships, one , one tong to england new england, a couple to the caribbean, where he would import is it to north carolina and back to europe.

actively buydn't and sell slaves to make money, but he did transport. somebody woman can would say, i have some slaves that i've purchased in the caribbean. can one of your ships think them up and transported back your? he would do that. we do know the actively bought and sold them on a regular basis. to make money, that was not his trade. this house is a little different. this is from the colonial era. it is also owned by a wealthy georgian. this is a georgian society. unlike later on, houses were used a little differently. this not being the primarily home, it's only purpose being business, would have been built with that in mind. the first thing to notice is the walls are white, the trim is

colored, the opposite of today. we usually take our colors on the wall and the trim is white. during the colonial era, you are relying on natural light. going to the second floor, to the west would have been the public room. ladies would have come into the right. the east would have been your private rooms. this is the dining room. this room was meant to really impress you. you notice the columns on the wall are similar to the ones outside. a lot more bright. you've got the crystal chandelier and the view. urgwin wouldroom br have invited you and for dinner. -- you wouldo often take a break to get the mayor and stretch your limbs. usedroom would have been

in dinnertime. the yellow is very common. it is you've one bright, but it has a purpose. it keeps the room bright late into the evening. at the because of the season, the sunsets around 9:30 or 10:00. by candlelight, the yellow turns into more of a white, so it is functional. in this womb -- in this room, he would have wined and dined you were show you his private garden. once upon a time it was the gallows for the jail. he would entertain in the center of town. status symbols, private gardens, the church, the center of the street, the view of the river and his ships. when he would not have shown you is the back of the property. today, the back of the property is a colonial row model gardens. once upon a time, we did have slave gardens that burned down and the stables for the horses.

what you don't notice is the very large courtyard directly below us. the house is built at an angle to eliminate the view of that courtyard that connects the house and the kitchen. during a busy party, the kitchen doors are usually closed to get ready for the party. is omitting his views of the slave workers getting the food up from the kitchens. the kitchen is two flights down, and the enslaved workers would have had to carry the food to flights of stairs across the courtyard. on the door would have been the interest. they would have come in and served the guests. we are sitting in view of the dining room. what you see here is debtor's prison. there would have been to windows into a larger room similar to the one we are about to walk into.

debtor's prison was the only long-term punishment here. colonial justice is very swift. you come to jail, held in to the judge can see you, and in four to six weeks he would come from the courthouse. he had to come from out of town. he would come and try you. essentially, that day, you were proven guilty or innocent. if you owed money or had been fined for public drunkenness, you would be held in outdoor cells. the whole purpose was for people to come visit you and write your labor. youinstance, you owe money, can read your labor to a farmer and plow their fields. the money they pay you goes to the sheriff and towards your debt. as you work off your debt, you eventually free yourself. behind this area is the largest building. the left side would have been cages, and the right side was the sheriff's office.

the jailers quarters were here. he was the one that was on the making the/7, prisoners were taken care of and not escaping. thecompound itself and orchard would have been the beginning of the gallows were people were hanged. what have been stocks and hillary's. we know there was -- stocks and hillary's -- stocks and pillories. we do know there was an outdoor cage. the original lock is still here and functional from 739. we have the replica key here. the original is inside the house. we don't want to use it because we want to make sure it continues being functional. originally, in 1739, this was quarters, about the same size of the great hall in the house. he would have lived here with his family. that was pretty typical.

wellre either not doing so or living like john brcb -- like gwin. bur later on, when he moved on the property, it is here that the kitchen is. they can accommodate -- it can accommodate two cooks who can live and work here. during the revolutionary war, john was a loyalist. he had connections to the crown, was born in england. he is working for the crown. that is where his alliances are. a lot of wealthy planters in the area to that total -- tiptoe that fine line between being part of the cause and fighting with the english because there is money involved. burgwin was making business deals with people who consider themselves rebels and patriots. he is also doing business with the crown.

so it is about money. ultimately, when it came time to really make a choice, he went back to england, use a medical excuse for that departure. letters,fer from the and he is accused of being a loyalist. he has to come back from the after the war and seek pardon several years later. that the only time we know he left. when he came back and got the pardon, his three children also became american, and he stayed here until his death. whites are a prominent family during the colonial era. they were actually friends of john burgwin. several streets around town are named after them, and several houses in wilmington. many of the oldest families are connected to the right. -- to the whites. when john left to go to england,

he rented the house to one of , hisood friends, white business associate. he rented the house here during the revolution, and with the guys pardon after the war, he told it to the rights. rights were here until the 1870's. this was their primary home. in the 1930's, the last owner passed away. the house was being threatened with demolition. the heirs were not interested in the property. there was quite a bit of money to be made if you sold it. to buyd oil was trying corners in downtown areas for their gas stations. in 1930, when the last owner passed, the property transferred to the bank. the heirs wanted the bank to sell the property. standard oil wanted to buy just this corner here and demolish the house.

it took eight years for the national society of colonial america and wilmington campaigned to purchase this property instead of standard oil. it took eight years of campaigning and making counteroffers. finally, in 1938, they were able to acquire it. in 1951, when the house was ,estored to its colonial glory it was opened as a museum. it is one of the oldest historic houses open to the public in the south. 1951 -- march0th, 30, 1951. what i hope visitors learn is the rich history. a lot of people come initially for the architecture and furnishing. they are beautiful, but learning who the people were -- we have three types of people here in this property. we had prisoners, enslaved people, and one of the wealthiest men in the southeast.

so it is interesting to talk to them and bring the house to life by talking about the people, what their lives were like if you are a prisoner or enslaved person or a member of the 10%. >> we are here in the neighborhood called sugar hill. sugar hill got its name because of the prominent african-americans who lived in this community, suggest doctors, teachers, dressmakers, shoe repairman, carpenters, architects, and it was just a beautiful neighborhood. it still is a beautiful neighborhood with this nature and the old houses and a close community. after the civil war, african-americans were flocked to this area because of opportunity. there was a great need for

medical health. there was a need for rebuilding. that's why you will find a lot -- a lot ofural architects, you will find them in wilmington because, after the devastation of the civil war, wilmington had to be built back up again. we are going to take a walk through the cobbled streets of sugar hill, and we will be and to different era from 1865 1943, 1965, and to the present day. we are standing here on the corner of fifth and red cross, and front of saint stephen's african-american methodist episcopal church.

by freeuilt in 1865 african-americans, as well as by slaves. the property was originally an african-american cemetery that was donated by william campbell in 1840. 85th -- from 1840 to the church community separated from the walnut street location and begin building saint stephen's. as we stand here in front of saint stephen's, i feel so full because, when you think about slave boys, they would come out here and exercise before they

began their work or assisting with the building of saint stephen's church. when you go back and think about what it took in order for them to lay a foundation here on fifth and red cross, it actually meant removing the corpses and moving them to another cemetery. so they had to lay a foundation here before they could even begin to build. the church has been in operation from 1865 two today. right here on the corner we have the samson johnson's house, the screen and white house -- this green and white house. his father liberated him by bringing him to wilmington, and gave him several slave boys. he said, now teach them what i have taught you. if you study the architects and

buildings of wilmington, you will see that the samson family were not only instrumental in education, but also in the building boom here in wilmington. planter inther was a sampson county. he had several slaves. he had a big plantation, and his mulwas in the lotto -- was atto, so that child was born from a slave mother. samson was one of the wealthiest african-american men in north carolina. he made his money through building houses and different businesses here in wilmington. . sampson had several daughters who were teachers. he was an educator. he believed in education. he used his home to set up a school.

he almost got killed because, during this time of 1860's, african-americans were not , soitted to read and write they were many african-americans that could, and those that did and set upught schools and places of learning to teach others, but it was not made public. we are now here in front of the bellamy mansion, a couple blocks away from sugar hill. the bellamy mansion was constructed right before the 1861 for dr.59, bellamy. shortly after the civil war, when the union came into wilmington, they took control of the bellamy mansion. fortunately for bellamy and his family, they were not at home,

because the union sees the belly -- seized the bellamy house, as well as took care of the sick and wounded as a result of the civil war. the house was designed by james francis pope, and some of the thel neighbors such as taylor family, henry taylor, he was one of the builders of the bellamy mansion. valentine howls -- valentine howell's family was one of the builders and artists. there were many slaves and free african-americans that built the bellamy mansion. 1898 was an event that took wherehere in wilmington the republican party, which was

an all-black party, which form shortly after the civil war, and blacks were very proud to take on the role of leadership. they always felt competent and capable. after the blacks took office in leadership when the civil war was won by the union army, they held a lot of key positions. thomas miller particularly loaned money to blacks and whites, and it was rumored for a while that the whites wanted thomas miller out of town because they owed him so much money. we are standing in front of the home of thomas c miller. he was one of the ones that was given a ticket and push out of era of 1898.he

the african-american community formed the colored peoples committee. they weremmittee, taught how to walk, how to speak , and to maintain a good morality and become learned in a skill, because they knew they had to assume leadership roles in the community. they had to put their best foot forward. d'etat started with inflammatory remarks made in two newspapers. an ultimatum was issued by the governor that certain people had to leave wilmington, and if they didn't leave, that something what happened. "thepretty much wanted

daily record" shutdown because our manly was -- because our -- because albert was mulatto. they started with burning "the daily record," located on the south side of town, as well as taking the lives of people here in wilmington. there's a lot of stories and accounts as to how many lives were lost here in wilmington. a lot of the businesses that the african-americans owned in wilmington downtown were no , or moves closer within the city of the community. not only were their businessmen that were chased out of wilmington during the 1898 today,, but they were ministers , bute 1898 coup d'etat

they were ministers that had to hide or be killed. dr. kirk was run into the graveyard, hiding out because it was alex manly they were after. it was reverend kurt that gave alex manley a place to set up his newspaper. his wife was very angry because they were not white mayors, not white people in charge. it was blacks. it was run by african-americans that lived in the city. whites were very angry about that type of power, so they issued a declaration. i think it was called "the white man's declaration," that blacks

would never be in rulership in wilmington again. so the plot was conceived, and it was issued and done to this community. in the early 1900s or mid 1900s, seven physicians who saw a dire need for a new hospital. african-americans were dying and not receiving health care. dr. foster brunet was the founder of the first african-american hospital and school of nursing. dr. hugo ebert senior -- hubert he practicedand medicine out of his house from 1919 until 1943.

they provided health care, surgery, all of the community's medical needs, as well as social needs. in the house, they had a surgery,the-art pharmacy, and radiology department. in order to perform surgery, you had to have a thorough environment and instrumentation. you had to have staff. for the african-american physicians to practice medicine out of their houses, that wasn't enough. so the doctors came together as a group of concerned citizens and physicians wanting to practice their profession. so they came together to form the community hospital. the community hospital was located right across the street here. the hospital is no longer standing, but the community hospital school of nursing is.

foundation --seum the burnett eaton museum foundation honors the commitment to their community. there are many awards and recognitions that dr. hubert eaton senior received. we here in the african-american community felt that we needed to honor dr. hubert eaton senior for the things he has done for a community. we are here and downtown wilmington, standing in front of the 1898 monument that was built by the sculptor of this beautiful monument. 2008onument was erected in as a symbol of atonement to the city of wilmington.

the coup d'etat that took place on november 10, 1898. this atonement was a process. 1990, wherebegan in the state of north carolina had issued a grant for the community to set up studies with people in the community about what had happened in 1898, and to increase friendship amongst the different races of people here in the city. the memorial, there are six paddles that represent water. water is an african symbol that represents peace. since the installment of this monument here, the race relationship in wilmington has improved greatly.

at one time, it was something that was hush-hush. it was used as a form of intimidation on african-americans as to what could happen again. so with this symbol of the paddles standing here in the , itt of downtown wilmington lets the community know that the state of north carolina and the descendents of the 1898 coup about are very remorseful what took place here upon the african-american community. >> he published the daily record, north carolina's only daily african-american newspaper. he is an important figure in wilmington's history because his newspaper was the spark that

caused the 18 i made violence -- the 1898 violence and riots. starting indicate fear museum and moving to north carolina, these are three items from the museum's collection of artifacts. they were donated to us in the 1980's by members of the manly family. they are relations of alexander manly, who was a local african-american newspaperman from the 1890's. what we have here is a book, a printer's book. it says on the front that is a period piece given to us. it makes sense that somebody who is a newspaper editor would have it. it has different fonts and all kinds of things. the -- i don't know what you call them -- things that you put any newspaper before the photos are put in.

if you go to one of these pages, perhaps you can see this faint glue.of the remainder of alexander manly, or we believe it was alexander manly, cap a record -- kept a record of the events surrounding 1898 and stuck newspaper clippings into this book, as well as sliding hole copies of newspapers into the back of it. these are the clippings that came out of that blue book. they cover a whole range of things. some of them come from "the daily record," like this when sivan's --ut saint saint stephen's ame, a long-standing african-american church in wilmington. but there are also all kinds of other pieces in here. when you start going through, you see that he is collecting

materials about the state of african-american life in the south. this one is from "the new york journal." he has material talking about redshirts who were involved in violence against african americans during the late 19th century. this one was probably from "the philadelphia press." it gets more and more interesting as you go through. he is collecting articles after he has been run out of town, after the violence of 1898, to document that violence. one of the things that happened during 1898 was that alexander manly's printing press was burned. you is the victim of the first wave of violence -- he was the victim of the first wave of violence that came after african-americans gave the right to vote -- gained the right to vote.

intoves you this window what he was interested in, what he was thinking about, but the family was thinking about if it wasn't him. it also shows how this wasn't simply an event that happened in town. >> there is material that seems

to be from boston. there is one letter and it is a wonderful document that shows a terrible time but also gives you this inside look at the nation at the turn-of-the-century. folded into the back of this you see the book fits right like this. you can see that these newspapers were folded into this book. there are three full copies of the daily record. they are some of the only ones we know that are connected. these all date from 1898. the the most amazing one to me is one that is an article from 1898 it says what is there to fear? , october. they have talked freely of a election, for those who are not familiar with the people of the city that there is a danger of bloodshed and riot. he goes on to say that the rich

concern for whites in town would not do that and poor white people have no reason to do that either. says, honorable white people in the city, they are not responsible for the city. they happily constitute the large majority of the citizens. they know if lawlessness ever begins it will never solve the point at which it is aimed. it it will be like an avalanche before it. he wrote this, this came out two weeks, two or three weeks before violence erupted in the city. all the things that he was saying more going to happen came true. i think he was a voice for progressive politics for the african-american community, which not in the majority at the time. he provided a different voice than will you would have read in

other newspapers. there was a . there was a political coalition and town between fusion and republicans as well as the african-american population that managed to gain political power back. they had power through a it had had power through a lot of the 1890's. there was a power base here in wilmington for whites and people of color.

after two and a half days of

bombardment, ground forces attacked. they overwhelmed the confederate outgunned,ome outmanned, exhausted. turned theirces gun sights upriver to capture wilmington, and that is when fort anderson came into play. commandermental and withdreworts them to fort anderson. a division of troops sent from the petersburg lines to make sure wilmington remained in confederate hands.

it had to be safeguarded. if wilmington fell, he could not maintain his army, so you have troops here, directly across the cape fear river, but general grant wants to capture not just fort fisher and close the harbor. he needs to capture wilmington. why? at the time that the federal's were being defeated at fort 1864, the federal's had an important victory 300 miles to the south. sherman's army captured savannah. after capturing, occupying come and destroying atlantic, general sherman marched his 60,000 man savannah ontured december 21. he presented the city to president lincoln as a christmas gift. general grant wanted to transfer

sherman's army by see from petersburg -- from savannah to petersburg for one last push e. lee's army.ev's arm he came to the cape fear river and consulted with the leaders who had captured fort fisher, how do we capture wilmington? commandertask force admiral porter and the union said we have been here for two weeks and we have scouted that the confederate positions. the ground on the east side of the cape fear river is too narrow for military operations, and strongly defended by the

sugarloaf lines. us readse you send forces and will transfer to the .est side there is only one major obstacle between us in wilmington, and that is fort anderson on the but it will mainly provide elbowroom for our army so we can attack fort anderson from the river, attack it from the south. if possible, we can attack it head on with the protection of goingvy or outflank it by around the defenses. occurredhen the battle february 17, 18, 1865.

the flotilla of gunboats, almost 30, would unleash a bombardment .ver two days one of the vessels in the fleet .as a floating tank that vessel was able to get yards from the fort and fire its shells. in the meantime, grant to send reinforcements across the cape fortriver, approached the about two miles to the north where they made their landing and got within 600 yards of the fort. the ground between the fort and .he tree line was cleared out

the discovered this was a strong .ort attacking it head on would be , so while theys attack whether or not to it straight on, even with the protection of the navy, and african-american showed up at i know awaynd said around the pond and fort anderson, and so he got it. he guided the union forces around the fort pond and position themselves on the north side on february 18. the weakness of fort anderson was it was a two-cited work, so if union forces could get on the north side of the fort, they

could attack it more easily with less opposition. union soldiers who were captured and deserters and formed the toeral and so they decided .etreat towards wilmington so early morning hours february 19, they packed up their belongings abandon the fort, and headed towards wilmington. the united states army overran the fort at dawn on february 19. they heard the army just south of the fort had heard the sounds of evacuation throughout the early morning hours of february 19. as soon as the sun started , they fired a volley, charged the fort, stormed over the walls of the fort and times

to capture 40-50 guards who were protecting the main army in retreat towards wilmington. they also found the garrison , butlying on the ground union forces had captured and occupied fort anderson. the united states navy did not .now that they renewed their bombardment at sunrise. now they are exploding project was among union soldiers who rushed to the top of the fort, down to the river front where we are now in there waving their hands, waving their hats, blowing their bugles to signal the united states navy that the army has captured the fort. well, for admiral porter that is not good enough. he has a marine contingent row him to shore. he walks up to the top of the

fort. he plants his flag in the fort and declares that the united states navy has captured fort anderson. it is the only incidents in the civil war where the united states navy captured a confederate fort from the united states army. wilmington fell on february 22, 1865, just two days after fort anderson was evacuated, wilmington fell, and when robbie e lee surrendered his forces because he was no longer able to supply he was forced to abandon petersburg in early april and retreated westward, but was run down and forced to surrender on april the ninth two grant to >> forces.

grant's forces. that was only about six weeks after the fall of wilmington. most historians focus their attention on virginia or in terms of the seaports of charleston but wilmington played an incredible important role during the war, not that many people know about fort anderson. they hear about the fort's guarding wilmington and the hear about fort fisher and understandably so. if the site of the largest amphibious until d-day in world war ii, but we have this great earthen fort that is very very important in guarding the city too. ♪ >> the north carolina will stand in history as the first grade ship of america's new fleet. radar, remote operators for guns, airplanes, gyros and all this other stuff, but primarily the crew is

18-year-olds and 19-year-olds. they are guys off the farm working the family store. the navy did a fantastic job of training their sailors to operate this equipment. it was about 2400, 141 officers, 85 were marines. are on the fantail of the battleship north carolina and the ship has been the memorial for the state of north carolina since about 1962. the origin of the name was there would be a line of battleships and they would do battle with another country, said they were the biggest ships that any country had. nowadays we have aircraft carriers instead of battleships

so this is an extinct species. it was made in 1937 and commissioned in 1941 just prior to world -- pearl harbor. we had not build a new battleship in 16 years due to arms control treaties. those lapsed in 1937 so we started building ships the big advantage is that it is very fuel efficient. after pearl harbor we did not have many oil tankers in the pacific, so this ship and her sisters arrived just in time to support the military operations in the pacific. for the first time in 18 years, the united states commissioned a new battleship. >> this ship was built at the brooklyn navy yard. they would take the ship out to new york harbor and that is how

it got the nickname showboat. it would keep going out on trials, and they would say this thing needs to between, and they would go back up new york harbor, so everybody saw the ship come and go during the trials, and pearl harbor occurred during that timeframe. everybody got really serious about adding 20 millimeter guns and getting ready for war. at that time the big threat was germany. that is why we stayed in the period ofor a certain time. the ship transition from the atlantic to the pacific in august of 1942 to support the pacific campaign, which was just revving up by the invasion of guadalcanal.

the ship was designed to use the 16 inch guns which you can see behind me to do battle with another battleship that had big guns. after pearl harbor there were , not many battleships left. we transitioned to aircraft carrier warfare. what they would do is they would use this ship within a mile of an aircraft carrier. it would use its anti-aircraft guns to create a dome of protection. the primary armaments is this 16 inch 45 caliber naval rifles. in navy parlance that caliber of 45 means something different than most people are used to. you take 16 inches times 45 and it tells you the length of the barrel. so this barrel is 60 feet long. the reason this canvas is on the base of it, the barrel will recoils four feet into the tour

turrets. you can also see the armor on the base plate. most tu will rotate all ther way around, you can see how the superstructure isrets beveled. when this gun is fired 30 degrees off the bow of the ship. the two guns can also rotate around and shoot 30 degrees. if you look over here, this is the 2700 pound shell that ship fired. it could shoot this 21 miles. this is the kingfisher, it was a standard float plane for the navy during world war ii. it had the capability to be

launched by a catapult. that is what this structure is here. the catapult was 68 feet long, and they would drop the lifeline on the side of the ship, pointed into the wind come and shoot it off like a gunpowder charge. a zero to 70 miles an in hour 60 feet. when they landed, it would land will the ship was underway. they would drag a net in the water and they would have a hook. they would taxing the airplane up on the float. when they would cut the hook, it would engage. gunner in the backseat would get out and he had a harness behind his head rest. they would take the crane and swing it out on the side of the ship and put it up. this is all of a were doing 15

knots which is about 18 miles per hour. this is the 20 millimeter gun. this was developed interestingly enough by the germans during world war one. after the end of the war, the versailles treaty kept germany from having an armament industry. the company was about to go bankrupt, it was saved by the japanese navy. the japanese use it as a wing cannon in japanese airplanes. the crew on this was a .unner, a loader it was vertically seated not have to shoot straight up trade

there was the range of setter who would set the site. this is 40 millimeters, sometimes called the pom-pom gun. it is a swedish design that we managed to get out of the occupied countries before germany took over. we adopted it to american specializations. the primary gun is two barrels on smaller ships it would have two barrels. on bigger ships they would mount two of them together and put them a quad. each one of these barrels could fire 165 rounds per minute. 110 fulluld be 10 round clips mounted around the inside of this gun. if the guns were firing at their maximum capacity, they could find their entire ammo supply and 40 seconds. the gun was actually controlled, those of the backup. the primary, and this was a big

, thistion with this ship is the marked 51 optical site. it was connected hydraulically. optical site.uter there would be a gunner in the range setter. he would squeeze the trigger here to make the gunfire. this is the five inch 38 mouth. we had of these on the ship. 10it is a dual purpose gun that fires a 55 pound shell. it is dual purpose because we can use that for surface bombardment like shore bombardment to support the marines or it or they had an antiaircraft shell that had a fuse. the fire rate for this gun is 20 rounds a minute, so every three seconds a sailor is picking up a 55 pound projectile and putting it into the loading tray.

one of the fantastic things about the ship is not just the capabilities of the guns. when you sit there and say, ok, you can fire it once, but not do that 20 times per minute. it is pretty awesome. for these, the magazines are down below. they come up and we put them in the gun. this is the battleship north carolina. rotate and they would put the shells in the loading ring. the fire rate for these guns is one of the shells every 30 seconds for each barrel. so there was a lot of activity in here. theseare about 1100 of projectiles of this gun on the ship.

this is the uss north carolina. it rises up against the distance between the deck and the water is 20 feet, at the bow it is 30 feet. it keeps water from coming over the ship when the ship is plunging. on the bow, we have two anchors that way 2200 pounds. chain, each link weighs 85 pounds. we have 170 feet of anchor chain on either side. the interesting thing about the north carolina is when they brought it in here, they had to anchor off the coast. they did not have any power on the ship, so they could not raise the anchor. they cut it loose and brought the ship in here. the coast guard recovered the anchor, but left of the chain. if you go into the catacombs is less anchorre

chain on one side than the other. the most notable thing about this ship was that it was the protector of the uss enterprise. the uss enterprise at one point was the only aircraft carrier we in the pacific, so it was that one ship against the entire japanese empire. the ship was awarded 15 battle stars. a battle star is essentially awarded for participating in a campaign. guadalcanal campaign would have been a battle star. i think the enterprise which is the most decorated ship had 18. in the solomon islands the u.s. forces were participated to the wet of guadalcanal because were trying to say out of range. there were two task groups, the wasp and the enterprise, and a japanese submarine shot

torpedoes at the wasp and hit her with three. of the three that ms. went all , one the way across the intervening space between these tasks groups, hit a destroyer, and the other torpedo hit us. at the time we were going like 25 knots. it killed five sailors. the water went as high as the ship. they rapidly counter flooded. they got back up to speed, they stayed with it. around the end of the war, just before they dropped the atomic bomb, the navy got a message to hold off the coast and cease operations against japan. once japan surrendered, the ship went in to tokyo bay and had a

put a party for sure. the description is interesting because you have 10-12 guys and you are invading japan. you hope that everybody got the message that they were supposed to surrender. if they put up a fight, you don't have any forces with you. they did not have any problems. they were there for a few days. they went back on the ship came back through the panama canal and back to new york city. after world war ii, there were 10 fast battleships and we were the oldest. the iowa class was much bigger, much more capable. much faster. the navy did some studies to see how they could convert these ships to something else, then they decided they couldn't, so the north carolina did

1946-1947,cruises in went into the mothball fleet, and the navy was going to scrap the north carolina and it was a big campaign to save the ship. she came here in late 1961. carolina is an official memorial to the veterans of north carolina from world war ii. i am just awestruck with what was accomplished in 1940 in terms of technology, training, dedication to the mission. you could say the last war that everybody agreed on. i mean, everybody got behind the program and they accomplish great things.

we haveive years, traveled to cities across the united states. you can watch more of our visits at c-span.org. >> washington journal, live every day with issues that impact you buried -- you. transfers 100 days in office on saturday. then an editor in chief, elizabeth rosenthal will talk about her recent piece in the new york times magazine carried