we are now inside the parlor of the home of william maclean, the appomattox county resident who move here in the fall of 1862. general lee and general grant corresponded over three days and after being effectively surrounded, generally wished to have a meeting to surrender his army. lee sent charles marshall into the village to find a suitable place to meet and encountered wilmer mclean. he sat here at this marble top table and general grant also arrived at about 1:30. he sat at the oval wooden table. the two had met each other in the mexican war and that was their first discussion. they talked about the mexican war for quite a while and the conversation got quite prevalent that -- got quite was in. generally reminded general grant the nature of the meeting and asked general grant to put his terms in writing. grant sat down and said his terms in writing for general lee, that confederal officers would be paroled and allowed to go home. he would allow officers to keep their side arms and personal baggage. general lee later requests that his men can keep their horses. rand initially say

[laughter] timothy: he got his kicks in maclean, to montanan. i was drawn to the story about writing about the dustbowl because, as was said in the introduction, i love these clashes between human beings and nature. and, you know, you couldn't have anything really more elemental than human beings against fire. it is as old as humanity itself, as old as anything. and to tell you the truth i was really going to write initially just a fire story. and to tell you the truth, more , i was just going to write kind of a cool fire story. because i was attracted to the perfect storm quality of this firestorm. we have never had a fire like this in our history. 3 million acres in a day and a half. the state of connecticut burns in 36 hours. now by comparison, a few months ago you had these fires raging in east of l.a., in the angelos national forest. big fires, burned for two weeks. at their peak those fires are 100,000 acres and blanketed most of the l.a. basin. so these are 3 million acres. 2000-degree temperatures, they estimated. a crown fire going from

we heard about the maclean's and how they were affected. can you elaborate on what happened to the bennett family? >> i was reminded by ron wilson's inventory of all of the stolen items from the maclean house that the bennett's underwent a similar pilferage. it was so bad that james bennett applied for restitution from the governor of north carolina, william holden. not just once but twice to recover his stone artifacts. that included the table that the surrender documents were written and signed on. james then at and william maclean would have a lot to talk about if they ever got together. >> a question about the supplemental -- the schofield supplement to the surrender terms. how were they received in washington and were they successfully carried out? >> what i think happened is when they reached washington about a week later, they saw it as an accomplished fact. the most controversial provision would have been letting 1 in 7 confederates keep their weapons. i think they felt that would not be too harmful. i would say that -- and i did no

we heard about the maclean's and how they were affected. can you elaborate on what happened to the bennett family? >> i was reminded by ron wilson's inventory of all of the stolen items from the maclean house that the bennett's underwent a similar pilferage. it was so bad that james bennett applied for restitution from the governor of north carolina, william holden. not just once but twice to recover his stone artifacts. that included the table that the surrender documents were written and signed on. james then at and william maclean would have a lot to talk about if they ever got together. >> a question about the supplemental -- the schofield supplement to the surrender terms. how were they received in washington and were they successfully carried out? >> what i think happened is when they reached washington about a week later, they saw it as an accomplished fact. the most controversial provision would have been letting 1 in 7 confederates keep their weapons. i think they felt that would not be too harmful. i would say that -- and i did no

after lee and grant that at the maclean house on april 9, they appoint commissioners to work out the details of how the surrender will take place. that is done by commissioners on april 10. the confederate cavalry is set to surrender their sabers and carbines on april 10, artillery on april 11, and the bulk of general lee's army, the infantry, surrenders on april 12. over 22,000 men with the infantry. i will take you to the road where they surrendered now. we are again standing on the stage road. on front of me is a confederate artillery piece that signifies where the last artillery shots were fired on the morning of april 9. also in front of me is the home of george pierce, the county clerk. on the evening of april 11 1865, he had a special guest for dinner general joshua chamberlain who had set up his headquarters in his yard. at this dinner, chamberlain brought with him coffee, real coffee that pierce had not had in over a year. over dinner conversation, pierce undoubtedly learned chamberlain was in charge of the actual surrender ceremony on the morning of april 12. chamberlain ha

of their dinner conversation, -- chamberlain has the lee-grant meeting site all the way up to the maclean house. his men are out here for several hours before the confederate approach and start leaning on the rifles, talking among themselves. as the confederate troops approach, general chamberlain calls his men to attention. they straighten up and called out shoulder arms. he's got about 4500 men lining the road on the north and south side and is presenting this loop. general gordon at the head of the confederate column calls on his men. they come up a division of time and face front, stack their arms and turnover their flags. that's one of the hardest things for those confederate soldiers. giving them up symbolize the end of the war. the confederates would counter march, go back to the appomattox river valley and would put everything in line and reform. there are eight or nine divisions that came on this morning into the afternoon. very emotional and touching but simple on both sides. they returned to their camps and were allowed to start their journey home. the war was over for those so

don maclean's lyrics from the iconicle "american pie" here is mclane singing it ♪ long long time ago ♪ i still remember how that music used to make me smile ...♪smile...♪ . >> it's rare to see behind the curtain. >> reporter: tom said it's remarkable to see how don mclean edged through the lyrics page by page. long long time ago i still remember how that music used to make me snil. >> reporter: "american pie" was a mash in 1991. it spent four weeks at number one on the charts and is the longest number one record at 8.5 minutes. whoever buys the documents will have access to stuff never seen in public. don mclane wrote this verse which in the end he crossed out. reading the manuscript it's clear mclean wrote by hand and typed as the song panned flipped. february made me solicitor. -- shiver. >> in the lyrics you see it in the order we are used to it and then reverse with the shivering before the delivering. >> reporter: mclean never explained what the lyrics were about. it's one of the most analysed songs. people interpret it in different ways much because the players tried to take th

he was born to be the war hero he obviously is all stop when i met him in the parlor of the maclean house, i was disheveled muddy as you find me now, and general lee was resplendent in a uniform that had never been more before with a jeweled presentation sword. i was nervous. in fact, and chatting with him i tried to break the tension and general lee had to cough and say we must be about the business we are here to attend to. guest: i have been trying to recollect what i looked like from the mexican war. i do have a very good memory but i remember in the incident of meeting him, but it was briefly and i cannot recall a single feature. guest: i was clean shaven at that time. i had not yet grown a beard. guest: more importantly when he arrived, i was relieved he was there and i was not concerned with his appearance. i was concerned with mine because i did not know what the terms would be. there was a possibility i would be his prisoner. i am a gentleman and you make your best appearance. our wagons had been burnt and the uniform i wore, as new as it was an fine as it was was the last unifor

when lee crossed the threshold and into maclean's yard, he walked into a landscape awash with jubilation and sadness. for union soldiers union -- jubilation for their effort and sacrifice, joy for the union joy for the promise of home and safety. for slaves, jubilation at the prospect of freedom, although the road ahead seemed unsure indeed. for confederates despair and a cause loss. in the man unrewarded, the reality that they believe appomattox with no more than pride after four years of toil. they would return, the communities and towns often ravaged by war, to the empty beds and the terror of lost brothers, sons, and fathers. few places have other and body so many emotions at odds as did appomattox, 150 years ago, this moment. but when property crossed that -- when robert e lee crossed the threshold onto the porch, he did more than confront that place of deep emotion, he answered a new world, one in which the southern confederacy was no longer a possibility. the end of slavery was real, and the united states confronted the immense challenges of reconstruction reconciliation, and just

the events at the maclean house on april 9, general grant's generosity to generally and the events on the rich -- the richmond stage road set a positive course for the nation and allowed for a stronger country to emerge. please pay us a visit or make a special pilgrimage to visit our site. >> you can watch this or other american artifacts program by visiting our website -- c-span.org/history. >> up next on american history tv, a discussion on the challenges catholic immigrants have faced in america as well as their efforts to adapt to their sometimes unwelcoming adopted homeland. this session from a daylong conference at catholic university of america is about 90 minutes. >> i am juliette young, one of the co-organizers of this conference. i'm a professor of history and study and am very interested in migration to the united states and the involvement of the catholic church. i am very excited to be moderating our second panel on culture and religious life where we will talk to let the similarities and differences between the migration that's happening today in regards -- on the last d

chief maclean: we did not have any actionable information. no information regarding mr. hughes coming to this area prior to our officer patrolling in witnessing the aircraft. rep. walberg: mr. chairman, that leaves me with a great concern that when information is given crackpot or otherwise, then the day of the event takes place, we have information that is given and still this person was able to make it all those miles and more importantly, across the restricted airspace coming across our monument area, leading up to our capital itself, and then land and nothing happens until this person is on the ground. the yield back. chairman chaffetz: i recognize mr. lynch. mr. lynch: this is not good. this is on top of a lot of other incidents we have been talking about at the white house as well. i get the feeling that justice before 9/11, if you visited an airport men's united states, we had very little security going on. if you visited leonardo da vinci airport or heathrow, those countries had dealt with terrorism before us. they were all tooled up, they were ready. they had he

robert maclean chief of the united states park police and mr. kim dine chief of the united states capitol police. we welcome you all. approximate you are sunt to committee rules all witnesses are to be sworn before they testify. mr. blojet you are included as well. we would can:that all members -- or all of the panel please rise and raise your right hand. do you solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony you're about to give will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth? thank you. you may be seated. let the record reflect that all the witnesses answered in the affirmative. >> all of your written statements will be entered into the record. we would ask that you would limit your verbal comments to five minutes. we're going to recognize mr. irving first. at the conclusion of those remarks we are going to excuse him so he can tend to the duties of escorting the prime minister into the house of representatives. mr. irving you are now recognized for five minutes. >> thank you. good morning mr. chairman mr. cummings and member of the co