the surrender took place at appomattox courthouse. the actual slaying took place in the house of mclean. if you're talking about the building, courthouse would simply be one word. this is where the most significant events with the military took place in the spring of 1865, april 1865, with lee's surrender. now we're going to walk down the richmond lynchburg stage road and discuss the battles of appomattox station, the battle of appomattox courthouse which effectively ended lee's retreat. we are standing on the historic richmond lynchburg stage road, which was a critical part of general lee's retreat on april 8 and april 9, 1865. many people wonder why general lee was even heading toward appomattox court house after leaving lynchburg and petersburg on april 2nd, 1865. the idea was he was going to concentrate his army at amelia courthouse and link forces with general johnston in north carolina. general grant was a bit different than former generals of the union army, and he blocked general lee's line of retreat, thus general lee had to

the surrender here at appomattox was actually a multiday process. after lee and grant met, they appointed commissioners to work out the details of how the surrender will take place. that is done by those commissioners on april 10, and the confederate cavalry is set to surrender their sabres on april 10, the artillery on april 11 and the bulk of general lee's army, the infantry, surrenders on april 12. over 22,000 men would infiltrate, and i'm going to take you to the road where they surrendered now. we are once again standing on the richmond-lynchburg stage road. in front of me is confederate artillery piece that signifies where the last artillery shots were fired on the morning of april 9th. also in front of me is the home of george pierce. he was the county clerk. and on the evening of april 11, 1865, he had a special guest for dinner, general joshua chamberlain, who had set up his headquarters tent in his yard. at this dinner, chamberlain broughtwoman him coffee, s&l real coffee that pierce hadn't had over the course of a year. and over the cours

the surrender here at appomattox was actually a multiday process. after lee and grant met, they appointed commissioners to work out the details of how the surrender will take place. that is done by those commissioners on april 10, and the confederate cavalry is set to surrender their sabres on april 10, the artillery on april 11 and the bulk of general lee's army, the infantry, surrenders on april 12. over 22,000 men would infiltrate, and i'm going to take you to the road where they surrendered now. we are once again standing on the richmond-lynchburg stage road. in front of me is confederate artillery piece that signifies where the last artillery shots were fired on the morning of april 9th. also in front of me is the home of george pierce. he was the county clerk. and on the evening of april 11, 1865, he had a special guest for dinner, general joshua chamberlain, who had set up his headquarters tent in his yard. at this dinner, chamberlain broughtwoman him coffee, s&l real coffee that pierce hadn't had over the course of a year. and over the cours

lee's status among his soldiers only was elevated after his conduct at appomattox. if you read their accounts of being there and seeing him, they are overwhelmingly blowing. whereas thompson, as you would imagine, they do not have any nice things to say about him. the extent to which they carried it down to what they did later is difficult to ascertain. that is a good question, though. >> from chicago, illinois. this is a vaguely formed question. forgive me. i worked at harpers ferry. we get a lot of visitors and we tell them about how the soldiers had surrendered, they are paroled. and largely left to their own devices. then eventually exchanged for confederate soldiers. people, they walk away from the story, i guess honor meant a lot more back then than it does now. that is their main take away. i thought this was fascinating talk and thought, i am not sure exactly what i am asking but is there more that visitors should take away about 19th century honor? mr. silkenat: you are talking about this interesting period in the history of the war in which they have a pri

at appomattox. it's published by currier & ives, and they published several different versions of it. it appears to be for sale in new york less than a month after the surrender. for those of you who have been to appomattox or have seen the actual artifacts in the smithsonian or read the surrender recognize almost everything about this image is wrong. they didn't sit at the same table. those aren't what the chairs looked like. that's not what the wallpaper looked like. grant's uniform is wrong. there are lots of details about this that are completely off. what i like about this image though, i think it sort of tells us something about the way the war ended, or at least one version of the way the war ended. here are two men sitting at a table having a conversation as equals. they're having a conversation as equals at the point in which they are the most unequal. lee's army is broken, grant's army is not. if they walk out of this table without an agreement, bad things are going to happen to lee's army

the surrender took place at appomattox courthouse. the actual slaying took place in the house of mclean. if you're talking about the building, courthouse would simply be one word. this is where the most significant events with the military took place in the spring of 1865, april 1865, with lee's surrender. now we're going to walk down the richmond lynchburg stage road and discuss the battles of appomattox station, the battle of appomattox courthouse which effectively ended lee's retreat. we are standing on the historic richmond lynchburg stage road, which was a critical part of general lee's retreat on april 8 and april 9, 1865. many people wonder why general lee was even heading toward appomattox court house after leaving lynchburg and petersburg on april 2nd, 1865. the idea was he was going to concentrate his army at amelia courthouse and link forces with general johnston in north carolina. general grant was a bit different than former generals of the union army, and he blocked general lee's line of retreat, thus general lee had to

using the appomattox terms as a template. the trip from st. louis to the confederate trans mississippi capital took nearly a month, far longer than he anticipated. he repeatedly delayed en route before received permission to enter confederate lines. crossing into rebel territory on may 8th, sprig traveled up river via steamboat, sharing the vessel with confederate general simon buckner who had surrendered in 1862 and now served as kirby smith's chief of staff. also on board were several exchanged or paroled soldiers from lee's army who were now headed home. sprig hoped that pope's letter and developments over the past month would make kirby smith's paths forward clear. lee had surrendered on april 9th. johnson had surrendered at bennett place in north carolina on april 26. general canby accepted others in ensuing weeks. sprig expected them to bend the logic of events. kirby smith read pope's message closely. although he anticipated its contents he refused to respond immediately explaining that he was scheduled to meet with western confederate

they findley resting under an apple tree at the appomattox river. general lee's artillery are on the hills behind this apple tree and they see general lee talking with him under it. he dispatches his orderly to come into the village, find a place to meet, and eventually lee, babcock and dunn ride into the village to the mclean house. the next time the confederate soldiers see general lee, they learn they've been surrendered. they mistakenly assume that the federal officer talking to lee under the apple tree was general grant. so they went over and started to cut the tree down for souvenirs. before long, federal troops came over and asked the confederate soldiers why they were cutting down the tree, and he said this is the tree where general lee surrendered to general grant. the confederate soldiers said, i want part of that tree, too. they went to work getting souvenirs off that tree. that night all the roots had been dug up and there was nothing but a hole in the ground where the apple tree stood. visitors will come through and bring pieces of the

popular stories about appomattox history civil war with peace and reconciliation. this romance of reunion offereds robert e. lee his sword to greater returns the blade and shared military honors. then we are told that union soldiers confirmed the sentiment by saluting confederates while they stacked arms and hold flags. homee end, southerners go with a federal promise not to be disturbed as long as they maintain peace and uphold the union. for confederate veterans, surrendering and returning home was more emotional and more complicated than the fiction suggests. confederates coach with defeat by demeaning the enemy as barbarians, by arming themselves as the her rope remnants of a legendary army. remnants of a legendary army. the victors helped it would ease union by this plaintiff moral superiority. leniency embolden diehard rebels to resist change. the only union superiority the confederates would admit was numerical superiority. diehard rebels cherished themselves a sign of reunion, but as proof that they personally had never abandoned the cause. returning home p

two days later general lee surrenders to general grant at appomattox, and within two days lincoln isssassinated. this is a very historic photo that reflects the fact in summer of 1889 mr. and mrs. blaine shown in the photograph in the center, mrs. blaine in the white dress, james blaine to the right, they invited the president of the united states, benjamin harrison, to spend several days with them at their summer home in bar harbor on mount desert. one of the reasons for this presidential trip to maine was the fact that james g. blaine at that time was serving under benjamin harrison's cabinet. blaine had been u.s. secretary of state under garfield and briefly under president arthur, but then in 1889 benjamin harrison appointed him secretary of state and he held that position through most of the harrison administration. >> where did blaine get most of his money from? >> well, there is a lot of discussion about that. his political detractors would have said that it was ill-gotten in some ways. that was one of the issues he ran into when he was trying to get the nomination in 1876 at

the manakasee battlefield and the appomattox courthouse and that starts on american history tv. ♪ ♪ 100rs ago president woodrow wilson signed a bill creating the national park service and thursday we look back on the past century of these care takers of america's natural and historic treasures. beginning at 10:00 eastern and throughout the day we take you to national park service sites throughout the country as recorded by c-span. at 7:00 p.m. eastern we are live from the national park service's most visited historic home and the robert e. lee memorial at arlington national cemetery. join us with your phone calls as we talk to robert stanton and brandon byes and the former site manager that would oversee the upcoming restoration of the mansion, slave quarters and grounds. thursday, the 100th anniversary of the national park service live from arlington house at 7:00 p.m. eastern on american history tv on c-span3. >>> next on american history tv's reel america, from 1935, the land of the giants. this 24-minute interior department film documents the efforts of the civilian conservation cor

include congress hall in philadelphia, the monocacy battlefield in frederick, maryland, and the appomattox courthouse. that starts on c-span3's american history tv. >>> next on american history tv's reel america, from 1939, "a nationwide system of parks," the 16-minute interior department film profiles the civilian concentration corps and work that was being done to develop state and national parks during the great depression. ♪ >>> in 1933, the chief concern of the american government was to break the back of a bad depression. among the conditions to be remedied were two president roosevelt recognized at once. employment for hundreds of thousands of young men and war veterans was imperative. soil erosion had shown the necessity of the immediate restoration, conservation and further development of the country's natural resources. as one solution for both problems, the organization and work of the civilian conservation corps was undertaken. and in two years through this unique plan, both problems were well on their way towards solution as great aids to economic recovery. the saving of natur

real estates -- rename streets named for confederate figures but they don't remember removing the appomattox statue. the group will consider the recommend next month. coming up at 6:00, the new problem facing thousands amid historic floods in louisiana. and the local efforts to send help. plus, an image spreading around the globe. a child sitting stoically in the midst of war. what we know about him ahead. first, though, there was no robbery. what police say really happened the night four american swimmers say are learning breaking news in this case. doug: a beautiful thursday evening. sunshine, blue skies, clouds and no thunderstorms out there. we will tell you when they are coming back. they are coming back. that is in the forecast still to come at "abc7 news at 6:00". maureen: breaking news in the investigation into what happened u.s. olympic swimmers and rio police. we have just learned that ryan lochte and jimmy feigen are being indicted on charges of filing a false report. today police in brazil said the group which also includes rockville's jack conger was never robbed. it instead it

worked at the railroad, had a project in an adjoining county and his wife helped him rent a house in appomattox county and it was a rundown house that was habitable. they set out to make that house appear habitable. he worked in the front yard cleaning it up, repaired broken windows, burgundy curtains to hang in the front window but it wasn't until the school year was about to begin that dorothy realized they were not going to move to the house, live in the. instead her dad was going to drop her off behind the house each morning and they were to stand behind the house until they heard the bus going down the county road and then and only then were we to go through the back door of the house, through the house, out the front door, through the front yard and up the steps and never to tell anyone they didn't live there because if they did their education would be at stake. that story gives me shivers every time i think about what she had to endure to get an education and what her parents were willing to sacrifice. years later that woman, dorothy holcomb became a school board member and worked her c

lee was writing early and gordon and quite a few other generals in the years immediately after appomattox to try to obtain copies of their reports, and lee was also particularly interested in getting strength figures to help bolster the argument that his army had always been grossly outnumbered by the armies at the potomac. >> which is an important part about lee. he was working behind the scenes and if he hadn't been working behind the scenes and if he in fact gone public. >> in what respect? >> in his views, if he had written his memoir like he intended to do. >> confederates were urging him. >> we all know, when you go >> we obviously all know when you go public and engage in that kind of debate, no one ever looks good. so in a way, lee's standing behind the scenes and dying in 1870, to a degree, that preserved his reputation. >> but he's also extraordinarily busy as a president of a struggling college. that's one of the big factors that prevented him -- >> of course. >> and failing health from writing the book. >> of course, but he also thought entering the fray was distasteful. he di

an adjoining county, and some of his white peers at the railroad helped him to rent a house in appomattox county. and it was rundown house that really wasn't habitable, and they set out to make that house appear habitable. he worked on the front yard cleaning it up, and he repaired broken windows, his wife sewed curtains for those windows. but it wasn't until the year the school began, her dad was going to drop her off behind the house each morning with her brother, and they were to stand behind the house until they heard the bus coming down those county roads. and it was then and only then that they were to go through the back door of the house, through the house, out the front door, through the front yard and up the steps of that big bus. and they were never to tell anyone that they didn't live there, because if they did, their education would be at stake. that story just gives me shivers even today every time i think about, you know, what she had to endure to get an education and what her parents were willing to sacrifice to make sure that happened. years later that woman, dorothy holc

there's also the view that appomattox is objective which is to say there was one right answer and you don't have to worry about opinions, subjectivity, bias and things like that. there is something else going on. mathematics has else and biases not so much the subject but the way we assess it and value weighted. one thing we know, the chapter in the book called gender gaps in mathematics. girls and young women actually get higher grades in math courses than the guys do great they do. we have enough across-the-board to show that and we both know that. the boys get higher grades but when it comes to the tests, s.a.t., the s.a.t. and in time common core the men are always ahead. i would really ask you mathematics teachers to find some way of having tests. they give girls and young women a chance to show what they really know. for the last half-century girls have been 30 points behind boys on the s.a.t.s and by the way there are consequences. one consequence is the national merit scholarships. i went into this. the national merit scholarship, given what they are. they do not give a gender

and practical application, if you will, the two went hand in hand and in the 50 years following appomattox, the leaders of the u.s. military came to embrace that duel end state. one major way they did that was to study the campaigns of the civil war, indeed, the post-war american military looked primarily to the lessons of leadership conveyed by that recent cataclysm, both to educate its officers and to deal realistically with the military challenges confronting them in the years prior to world war i. the occupation of the defeated south, the indian wars, the spanish american war, world wars and ii. all of them owed some degree of their character to the civil war. pushing towards the middle of the 20th century, the insights of 1861-1865 were relegated more and more to the educational mission of the military academy and war college than to operational doctrine and practitioners in the field. but even so, the legacies of the war for the union were still studied and persevered in a very real and practical manner through battlefield staff rides where officers gleaned nuggets of value about the

not every confederate soldier ended the war at a place like appomattox. men whose units dispersed in other places in order to not appear like they were deserting, they left together. they left in military order. almostt in a way that anticipates what you are finding, that they are using this community experience in war to handlemartial host this transmission into peacetime. if you left cap alone, you are a deserter. if you left camp with your company, you are not. >> i'm the descendent of two confederate veterans who were both wounded in the war. prior to the war, both were and i was wondering if there had been another study about returning veterans who were farmers. a lot of veterans coming home were not whole and healthy, but -- butre not expected they were expected to be farmers. >> one man can tell you there is wanted toa farmer who still be a farmer, and his wife takes them out and ties him to a plow. -- came i came off across who were amputees were still trying to farm in stone -- some capacity. looking for limbs to farming wise. i'm not sure how fa

two days later general lee surrenders to general grant at appomattox and within a few days, april 14, lincoln is assassinated. this is a very historic photo that reflects the fact that in the summer of 1889 mr. and bls blaine, shown in the photograph, mrs. blaine in the white dress, james g. blaine to the right, that they invited the president of the united states, benjamin harrison, to spend several days with them at their summer home in bar harbor. one of the reasons, of course, for this presidential trip to maine was the fact that james g. blaine at that time was serving in benjamin harrison's cabinet. blaine had been u.s. secretary of state under garfield and briefly under president arthur but then in 1889 benjamin harrison appointed him secretary of state and he hold that position through most of the harrison administration. >> where did blaine get most of his money from? >> well, there's a lot of discussion about that and his political detractors would have said that it was ill-gotten in some ways, that was one of the issues that he ran into when he was trying to get the nominat

conklin gets up and names grant, citing him as the hero of appomattox. at this point, then, it's time to nominate sherman, and it's a remarkable speak, he says it is time for america to live up to the true principles of the constitution, namely that all men white or black shall be free and stand equal before the law, and the place goes nuts and everybody says, maybe we are picking the wrong guy from ohio. this guy, he is brilliant and wonderful, and sherman, he's okay. the first at that time, each convention, as you know, always determines for themselves how the procedure works. in 1880, in order to get the nomination you needed 379 votes of delegates, unlike today, for the most part, today's convention is a big party, and in those days they went and nominated people. they went to the convention and needed 379. on the first ballot, grant gets 284, and sherman gets 83, and nobody is even close. so they take a second ballot and a third ballot and a fifth ballot and a tenth ballot, and it's the same three, and they shift five or six birth nothing is changin

virginia tourg to fredericksburg to appomattox. a end, it is in extraordinary service that the park service provides the american people. that piece of our history is so critical and pivotal in changing the country. >> preserving great chunks of land and historical sites starting with ulysses s. grant and through teddy roosevelt and president obama that is in investment in ourselves and protecting history, protecting wilderness, protecting for future generations. i can't say i am grateful for decisions made in the early -- i can say i am grateful for decisions made in nearly part of the century for the grand canyon, the badlands, and so many other extraordinary feast us. when visitors come to america and see that their eyes get big, they're just rough. they cannot leave the expanse into the beauty. because of the national park service. >> our coverage of the national park service centennial begins thursday at 7:00 a.m. eastern on eastern. later, the centennial marked by going to arlington national cemetery. >> green party president

conk ling gets up and nominates grant citing him as our former president, the hero of appomattox. at this point then, it is time to nominate sherman and garfield gives the nominating speech and it is a remarkable speech. he says it is time for america to live up to the true principles of the constitution, namely that all men white or black shall be free and stand equal before the law, and the place goes nuts and everyone says, maybe we're picking the wrong guy from ohio. this guy, he is brilliant and he's an orator and he's wonderful and sherman, he's okay. the first at that time, each convention, as you know, always determines for themselves how the procedure works. in 1880, in order to get the nomination you needed 379 votes of delegates, unlike today, for the most part, today's conventions are big party. we know in advance by the time you get to the convention who the nominee is going to be. in those days, they actually went and nominated people. they went to the convention and needed 379. on the first ballot, grant gets 304, blaine gets 84 and sherman gets 93. and assorted oth