as robert e. lee arrived on the field on the afternoon of july 1, 1863, it is one of the bloodiest days of the civil war already. lee comes upon a horrendous scene with dead and wounded dotting the terrain, hospital operations beginning, the union army in full flight back toward gettysburg, which made him happier that his side was winning. he would have seen a scene of incredible devastation, not only humans but also to the terrain, the structures, the fences. debris all over the place. this house was owned by a very famous individual, thaddeus stevens, a radical republican congressman. really into the abolition movement. he purchased this house in trust for a widow named mary thompson. thompson had eight children. by the time of the battle, they had all grown and she lives alone, probably with a small dog in the house. mrs. thompson is thought to have been here in the house as robert e. lee and the confederate army descended upon it. there are not really good accounts as to how she may have interacte

just as robert e. lee galvanized the union army after the second manassas, i would argue the most important thing of going to maryland and confront the confederates by antietam creek was robert e. lee. doing the one -- was robert e. lee. doing the one thing that would motivate them up off their backside and out into the field again by crossing into the now, -- into the north. now another external force rose , up because the army to began to see itself as a cohesive unit with a very specific goal. it was the rise of the copperheads. a number of state elections were held in the spring 1863. these are issues -- these were issues in new jersey and in connecticut where they would win elections or threaten to win elections extensively. the copperheads became a force against which the army began to coalesce. these cowardly traitors and scoundrels are afraid to take rhere muskets -- thei muskets and help us. they tread like midnight assassins to step us in the back. it is maddening for dozens of men each day. if t

this question, compare george thomas to robert e. lee in 1861. why did lee resign his commission and thomas stay in the army? i don't how much you know about george thomas, but take a crack at that. allen: george thomas was strongly tempted to go to the confederacy. he almost did. gary: his whole family did. they wrote him out of the family. allen: one thing that held him back was he had a northern born wife. that was one restraint. another restraint was simply the oath. at the end of the day, he cannot bring himself to go back on the oath. that he believed he had sworn and he believed, as lincoln said, it was registered in heaven. so thomas stays with the union, but it was not an easy decision. why does lee make a different decision? lee justifies it in terms of virginia. i've not been entirely satisfied with that as an answer, if only because lee spent so little of his time in virginia. most of lee's career is spent in other places. it is spent in georgia, in new york. it is spent in texas. st. louis. he actually spends a fairly small amount of

just as robert e. lee's army galvanized the union army after second manassas i would argue the most important factor in the ability of the army of the potomac to go into maryland and confront the confederates on antietam creek was robert e. lee doing the one thing that would motivate them up off their back sides and out into the field again, by crossing into the north. but now another external force rose up that caused the army to begin to see itself as a cohesive unit with a very specific goal. and that was the rise of the copperheads. now, a number of state elections were held in the spring in 1863. and so these were issues in the rise of these peace parties especially in new jersey and in connecticut where they would win elections, extensive, or threaten to win elections extensively. the copperheads became the force, the evil force, against which the army began to coalesce. these mean, low-bred cowardly scoundrels are afraid to help us. they try like midnight assassins to stab us in the back. it's maddeni

but many were there to protest the taking down of the statue of robert e. lee. i notice that stonewall jackson is coming down. is it george washington next week and thomas jefferson the week after? you really have to ask yourself where does it stop. but they were there to protest -- excuse me. you take a look at the night before, they were there to protest the taking down of the statue of robert e. lee. >> they showed up in charlottesville -- >> excuse me. you had some very bad people in that group. but you also had people that were very fine people on both sides. you had people in that group -- excuse me. excuse me. i saw the same pictures adds you did. you had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down to them a very very important statue and the renaming of a park from robert e. lee to another name. you had many people in that group other than neo-nazis and white nationalists and the press has treated them absolutely unfairly. >> we're saying that the press treated white nationalists unfairly? >> no. there were people in that rally, if yo

johnston wrote monthly, because he had to do a monthly report, but he did not do what robert e lee did in virginia. robert e. lee wrote davis nearly every -- every day. they are really hard to read these days because they say things like dear mr. president, i desperately crave your advice and guidance because you are a brilliant strategist and the most wonderful man, and handsome to, i might add. [laughter] they are a little thick, the davis love to this. johnstonin touch, but wouldn't do it. so johnston's dismissal might have been the end of the story. but much against his or her judgment, davis was forced to give johnston another chance. in the spring of 1865, the spring of 1865, the last months of the war, the confederate forces controlling only a small faction of southern territory. the southern public desperately socked miracles. and a number of individuals called for johnston's restoration of command. they were grasping at straws. johnston's arrivals within the confederate high command, in particular braxton bragg and john bell hood noted scornfully that things must be desperate

often i hear that robert e. lee was a fine man, that he had been for the union. he wasn't favor of slavery therefore civil war couldn't have been at slavery and so forth, an to those people i say let's think what would have happened had the south won. what if the men on the statues had won? jackson and stewart, and davison, lee. you would have the creation as a separate nation of the largest slave holdings country in the world that was at pivot of the world economy. that had a monopoly over simg most valuable commodity in the world. announced to thought to expand into cuba, maybe to central mexico and to america but what it looked like had had confederacy won. is a more useful way thinking about it than saying what were motives of the men and what were the character of them along way but i find other people don't want to think about the hard journey of how it was that the rights emancipation came about, and -- would wonder well maybe what we really should have is statue to 200 black men who fought people held in slavery or that we should acknowledge that nearly h

robert e. lee gave specific instructions to his field commanders -- "do not harm the b&o railroad. we want it for ourselves." when it became apparent maryland would not leave the union things , then turned around and the b&o railroad became a continuous target for the confederate operations throughout the war. but no railroad, because of its geographic position -- the only railroad that serves the nation's capital until after the civil war -- no railroad was more important then the b&o . these information panels give technical information about the locomotives and rail cars. they also introduce you to the personalities that were the operating people of the railroad. each of these people have been documented. they actually existed. we have eight of these lifelike mannequins. seven of which have personalities. three of them have the actual faces of the characters we are portraying from the civil war period. this is john somer. he worked in the rail yard. he was a german immigrant. baltimore at the time of the civil war was the third-largest city in the united states, second only to n

playing good cop, bad cop to woo the state of maryland into the union or into the confederacy, and robert e. lee gave specific instructions to his field commander from harper's ferry up to wheeling, do not attack or harm the b & o railroad. we want it for ourselves. once it became apparent maryland would not leave the union, then things turned around, and the b & o railroad became a continuous target for the confederate operations throughout the war. with no railroad because of its geographic position, the only railroad that serves the nation's capital until well after the civil war, no railroad was more important to the war effort than the baltimore and ohio. as you pass through the exhibit, you will encounter a number of information panels. panels give technical information about the locomotives and the rail cars and introduce you to the personalities that were the operating people of the railroad. each of these people have been documented. they actually existed. we have eight of these life-like mannequins. seven of which have actual personalities and three have the actual faces of the charact

the group returned to virginia at the statue of robert e. lee chanting, you will not replace us. since this event on october 7, the president has made many widely published statements about many things, including the national football league, but has not made one widely published statement condemning the hate groups for returning to the place where an innocent person lost her life at the hands of hate. on november 29, 2017, donald john trump shared three videos posted by a leader of a british political party considered by many to be an extremist group. the videos purported to show various violent acts committed by muslims and were entitled "muslim migrants -- muslim migrant beats up dutch by on crutches." let me restate that. "muslim migrant beats up dutch boy on crutches." "muslim destroys a statue of virgin mary." and "islamist mob pushes teenage boy off roof." -- off roof and beats him to death." the clearly inferable intent of the post was to demonstrate the allege prod pencity of muslim immigrants to engage in violent acts. even if the videos show what they purport to show a

let me dispel in their myths previously heard the myth that robert e. lee had no cavalry at gettysburg. wrong. withgade of calvary was the force and lead their way down from carlisle and is likely the first shots of the battle of gettysburg at 4:30 in the morning were fired by one of jenkins guys leading the way. they know this big forces coming. you have also always heard that ae battle of gettysburg is laundering together of two armies. a meeting engagement is where two forces come together unexpectedly and it develops into a general engagement. this was no meeting engagement. george gordon that the new command of the army of the potomac, lieutenant colonel joseph dickinson to go see buford. he hears what buford's plans are. rides to -- he briefs reynolds. reynolds tells dickinson what his plans are, and dickinson meets headquarters and tells george gordon meade what it is buford and reynolds have in mind. they have perfect intelligence and know the entire disposition. they know there is a big force coming from the west, two divisions coming from the nort

you got jeff stewart, you got stonewall jackson, you got robert e. lee. ashley: there has been maybe a little bit of controversy about some of the statues here. what are are the feelings in the city about the statues on monument avenue? mayor stoney: i think folks recognize this is part of the history. a terrible history it may be, a horrible history it may be, but it is a part of our history. as i've always said, would i shed any tears if the jefferson davis statue was torn down? no i wouldn't, but i think the , history of the past of richmond, that being terrible or not, shouldn't be a -- our anchor. it should be a foundation for us to build from. ashley: [indiscernible] mayor stoney: it's about an opportunity for history. [indiscernible] statues honoring or memorializing the figures, and i think the key is to tell the whole story. i think richmond can be the center of reconciliation. right? we do have a terrible past, but it's time to start writing that chapter to begin with the conversation about reconciliation. ashley: and what is the narrative that

they were there to protest the taking down of the statue of robert e lee. frastructure question could go that. >> should the statue of robert e. lee stay up? >> i say that's up to a local town, community or the federal government depending on where it is located. do you think race relations have gotten better or worse since you took office? >> i think they've gotten better or the same -- they have been frayed for a long time and you can ask president obama about that because he made speeches about it. i believe the fact that i brought in -- it will be soon millions of jobs. where companies are moving back into our country. i think that's going to have a tremendous positive impact on race relations. we have companies coming back into our country. we have two car companies that just announced. we have foxconn in wisconsin just announced. i saye many companies pouring back into the country. i think that's going to have a huge positive impact on race relations. we know why? its jobs. what people want now is they want jobs where they want great jobs with good pay

although their new commander, robert e. lee, had provided the capital of the confederacy more breathing room, the threat was far from over. the threat of the confederacy in the state of virginia came on three fronts. massive. mcclellan's army was still on the virginia peninsula, albeit further away from richmond. troops under the command of ambrose burnside where appearing along the rappahannock river in the fredericksburg area. and the army of virginia, under the new arrived at western theater general john, was moving southward and eastward from the northern part of the state. evere month of july pushed closer towards august, general lee to gain greater confidence that at least one of these armies no longer posed a serious threat to the confederate capital. seeking an opportunity to exploit and regain the military initiative, a hallmark of lee's command style, lee felt that general mcclellan no longer posed a threat to richmond. with that believe, he began to transfer troops to the virginia piedmont. first, he sent jackson wit

robert e. lee, i understand this controversy. ckson in new orleans, to me you can't take it down. >> martha: you can't take down robert e. lee either and i want you to do a book on him next. we should do that next. fantastic. and you know what you do and formed the conversation, it goes on around these figures want to highlight them and write about them and you do a great job, so we are thrilled for you and we look forward to seeing the movie this weekend. >> thank you very much. >> martha: i like calling it a movie. >> it's a mini documentary. if anyone wants to get it, i can sign it. i can sign it in person. but now she works later. >> martha: i love doing radio. thanks, brian, thanks jessica. still ahead, we all remember the violent riots and the looting and streets of baltimore that off by the death of freddie gray. but after months of investigation there was no evidence that any of the officers involved acted wrongly. none. as of today these officers are back at work, but they can't tell their story at. in an exclusive, you w

robert e. lee gave specific instructions to his field theanders -- do not harm b&o railroad. we wanted for ourselves. things then turned around and the b&o railroad became a continuous target. but no railroad, because of its geographic position -- the only one that serves the nation's capital -- no railroad was more important then the b&o railroad. these information panels give technical information about the rail cars. they introduce you to the personalities that were the operating personnel. each of these people have been documented. they actually existed during we have eight of these lifelike mannequins. seven of which have personalities. three of them have the actual faces of the characters we are portraying. this is john somer. he worked in the realm word. -- he worked in the rail yard. he was a german interest. the workforce of the b and o railroad was heavily laden with german and irish immigrants. yard man, he had the most dangerous job on the railroad. at that time, there was a lincoln penn system. they had to stand between the locomotive and elkhart, pulling and dro

though links and the connections are really [indiscernible] here in your state, the name lee, robert e lee, the lees live in england, went to barbados, and made their way to virginia. [indiscernible] a cartographer on barbados. one of my mothers came to alexandria and tried to set up a business. it didn't work. so he went down to barbados and history changed. and here i am [indiscernible] [laughter] barbados did not end up joining the united states. the power of the royal navy. because we were an island that had already been subjugated and invaded, we knew that would have been our fate. what do philadelphians say that excoriated barbadans? that we were cowards. ed: we have to end at this point. thank you. [applause] >> up next, textile historian natalie larson describes how various beds owned by george washington at his mount vernon home or on the battlefield affected his social standing and wealth. beds were a luxury item. even the wealthiest americans had to contend with various discomforts, including bedbugs. the reason why barbados did not -- the power of the royal navy. because it was

. -- robert e lee, he ,rote davis nearly every day and they are hard to read these days. president, i desperately crave your advice and guidance because you are a brilliant strategist and the most wonderful man and handsome. they were a little thick. lee kept in touch, just in one do it. -- johnston wouldn't do it. much against his better gents -- better judgment davis was forced to give johnson at another chance. the last months of the war, areederate forces controlling a small fraction. a number of individuals called for johnston's restoration to command. they were grasping at straws. noted scornfully that things us be desperate indeed. a deliberate slap in the face. naming robert ely as commander in chief of all confederate forces, even though of course the constitution says that jefferson davis -- >> you can watch the entire program on the civil war tonight at 6 p.m. eastern. this is american history tv only on c-span3. next, five vietnam war veterans elected by the u.s. army command and general staff college at fort leavenworth kansas. discussing their experiences du

go on first of all the stated reason why they were there in charlottesville was to preserve the robert e. lee statue they want to protest the taking down of the statue that's the official reason that is not the reason at all they were there and i can prove that to you give it a couple points here. they were there because they wanted to start the first steps of a race war it was all about hate it had nothing to do with the statue history will tell you in this country there were blacks and there were jews who also fought on the side of the confederacy during the civil war so whites jews and blacks fought to gather in the civil war to uphold the confederacy right now would it not add more weight to their cause to preserve the statue to have some blacks and some jews also marching with them since hey that's our heritage too because there are blacks and jewish descendants here today in fact i know some personally who have joined confederate organizations such as sons of the confederacy who want to preserve the confederacy because their great great great ancestors fought on that side but no these p

if african-americans are offended and if they have trouble explaining to their kids why robert e. leeis in their central square and didn't he fight to keep slavery, i understand that. should they be ignored? no. was robert e. lee a hero prior to that? absolutely. should there be a confederate museum where you go back and learn? yes. now, do i appreciate the need for us to make history again as a country and do what lincoln wanted to do and grant was determined to do and make sure there's no revenge, no revenge, you got amnesty, promise not to pick up guns against us. so that was important. so if we go back there and start destroying their stuff, the north starts destroying and dancing on their graves and destroying their farms and wiping out their history, we never would have come together as a country. having recognized that, now it's 2017. do you want to revisit? i get it. but if you want to revisit columbus, jefferson, washington, we heard about lincoln lately, you know, grant has a statue, they want to get rid of grant's tomb. he won, okay? he never had slaves. he made one anti-se

his previous work on president abraham lincoln and his current project on confederate general robert e lee. mr. guelzo highlights president lincoln's intellect and the importance of religion in everyday life during the civil war area. the university of virginia's center for civil war history hosted this conversation. >>

the tamarisk is now thee robert e. lee of trees. it is robert e. tree.erals suddenly have no desire to hug that tree than they do to hug charlie rose or matt lauer. the tamarisk is not just racist, it is nasty. >> the african-american, theus black families whose properties are adjacent to those trees, if you had done any research on thi tree, you know that that is one of the nastiest trees around and it's also been declared an environmental disaster by the federal government. >> what? wait a minute, slow down, now hold on, because that tree is a foreign tree, you are calling it nasty?y? >> mark: so to invert barbara walters, if this tree were ali celebrity, what celebrity would it be? >> i am a nasty woman! >> mark: the tamarisk is nasty and foreign. as we just heard, in california everything is foreign. an illegal immigrant can get a driver's license, free health care, and an unlawful immigrant can practice law in california. the one thing you cannot do is stand on the edge of a golf course covered in foliage. on that, everyone is a nativist. >> okay, s

so mississippi is one of only three states that celebrates robert e. lee's birthday. nd arkansas. basically they paired it with robert e. lee's birthday with martin luther king, jr.'s birthday. over and over and over again we celebrate black history month, but governor bryant has also declared april regularly during his tenure there as confederate heritage month. >>i wish we had more time. thank you guys so much. we're going to have to reassemble this panel and do it again. more after the break. my experience with usaa has been excellent. they always refer to me as master sergeant. they really appreciate the military family, and it really shows. we've got auto insurance, homeowners insurance. had an accident with a vehicle, i actually called usaa before we called the police. usaa was there hands-on very quick very prompt. i feel like we're being handled as people that actually have a genuine need. we're the webber family and we are usaa members for life. usaa, get your insurance quote today. >>> okay. so sometimes on a.m. joy, my producers put things in the tell i prom

by this point, robert e. lee is only sleeping three hours a night. grant, also running on fumes at this point. so we will see how this will start to feed into their own inability to execute their own excellent plan. so on the evening of may 20, grant sets the plan in motion. the second corps hums at a spotsylvania. they get here to the intersection of church road and route 1, telegraph road. then straight shot. jay, you would be in total big bad trouble if i was heading straight at you. in fact, one of the staff officers says, if grant had it treated it as a race to the north anna, things would've worked out entirely different. but instead, grant will not aggressively push to the river, even though it represents an excellent position, although it is the inside track to richmond, grant is thinking of offensive weight. he wants to lure lee into a a fight. instead of sending the second corps straight down the road, they will turn in this direction. first, fort guinea station. we have a vacant chair for stonewall jackson at the station. and as the men ma

next on american artifacts, we visit confederate general robert e. lee's gettysburg headquarters. the civil war trust, a nonprofit organization, purchased the house and surrounding land in 2015. we talk with jim lighthizer and garry adelman of the trust about the property's history and restoration. >> this house is significant to the battle of gettysburg. one of the most, if not the most important battle of the civil

what's also interesting is is that robert e. lee said e he didn't want any monuments. he didn't think it was appropriate to build them after the civil war. so that's what he said. it's complicated and so that's kind of my, but i got to tell you, my views are sort of evolving. i hope others are, too. so that's my take on that. yes, sir. >> you didn't mention john brown very much. was he a -- what did he do to help? >> he didn't do much to help kansas to be honest. >> i didn't think so. but the people -- >> he was a real debtriment to kansas. by killing the pro slavery people in potawami creek, he started bleeding kansas. that was the trigger that started bleeding kansas. he came back later and actually worked with this, my buddy john doy, dr. john doy. doctor, in quotes. john doy. to go steel slaves in missouri. in my mind, he was more of a debtriment than a help. he had an interesting relationship with amos lawrence. he had sold wool to amos lawrence years before, i don't remember exactly when, but years before the this whole story of kansas. and when he went to kansas

you look at lee county alabama, named after robert e. lee trump won that county, and doug won it by 17 points yet. african-americans have been the backbone of the democratic party, and when you lead with your values and you organize early and everywhere and the dnc got in early, we got in quietly but unmistakebly. you see new jersey and a bunch of other mayors races and this is undeniably a trend. >> it sounds as though you think you can glean some lessons for the democrats from this alabama race that you can apply to the m mid-terms, and it may not apply to other states. >> i respectfully disagree. the reason i disagree we have other evidence. there were three special elections in oklahoma this summer. these were beat red trump districts, one senate seat and two state house seats and we won all three, because, again, we had great candidates that listened to the voters and they cared about and talked about the issues that mattered most to voters, and there were other elections in new hampshire, florida, iowa and elsewhere. you look at kansas

senate on behalf of a state that still to this date celebrates robert e. lee day.o have an effect on the african-american vote, that's short sided. >> you said is this is a warning shot yesterday across the bough for the gop that you have been warning them about for years now. >> i think when you look at the fact, the golden opportunity. he needs to look at the kind of foul. we have been talking about this for years. you call nfl players kneeling sobs and act as if that doesn't have an effect on black mothers going to the polls. that's not the reason why they turned out in that black vote going up. i think you're shortsighted. if you start talking about the fact you have individuals out here. you don't think that has anything to do with the fact that congressman lewis got battered and bruised and bloodied. i think that hopefully, finally, we can't expect the president to change, the party must acknowledge the truth, you have to start dealing with these issues with communitieses of color much differently. >> the person in the white house who was supposed to help wit

robert eva lee pushed mcclellan -- robert e. lee pushed mcclellan back and it ended the effort to capture richmond. it left the war pretty much where it started a year before. first of all, i want us to talk letter toellan's lincoln he wrote, but i want to read this comment in a letter to his wife that he wrote about the same time. think i have began to see purpose in all that, and the events of the next few days will prove it. if i had succeeded in taking richmond now, the fanatics of the north might be too powerful and the reunion in possible. " this is a pretty amazing statement. "i think i have began to see god's wise purpose in all this, and the events of the next few days will prove it. if i had succeeded in taking richmond now, the fanatics of the north might be too powerful in the reunion in po mpossible." from distancing himself that, but it is an adjusting notion that if he had succeeded, the fanatics might have on by abolishing slavery -- might have won by abolishing slavery. a very interesting letter in many ways. let

in june 1865, right after robert e. lee's surrender, william tecumseh sherman did not get a vacation. william tecumseh sherman was reassigned to st. louis to assume command of a military department that extended from the mississippi river to the rocky mountains. let's return to sherman. that middle name should be telling you something. do you remember where sherman was born? what state he was born in? yes? student: [indiscernible] prof. kastor: very close. why would settlers in ohio named their son after an indian leader who had fought against white settlers? does anyone want to take a guess? do you want to try? student: they were more integrated with native americans. prof. kastor: that is a great point. it is different from st. louis, where there are mixed race children, but it is very much part of the regional culture. it is part of the way that people living in the old northwest lay claim to the territory. they will say, our history here was connected to our interaction and conflict with the indians. what i want to emphas

robert e. lee. stonewall jackson and william. and/or wellian use of double speak.names was needed in order to acknowledge history. no, replacing historical names and toppling statues isn't acknowledging history obviously it's erasing it why pretend these historical figures even the confederacy just never existed? why do that? well, of course, slavery we all know was abominable and eesm. what do we learn about the past by forgetting the past? america paid a dear price in blood to overcome her original sin. and our children have a and our children have a right to their ent this is electricity. and our children have a right to their ent ♪ this is a power plant. this is tim barckholtz. that's me! this is something he is researching at exxonmobil: using fuel cells to capture carbon emissions at power plants. this is the potential. reducing co2 emissions by up to 90%... while also producing more power. this could be big. energy lives here. >> laura: before we go, for a true understanding of what's >> for a true understanding of what's happening in the white house and the

lincoln and his grief stricken face, george pickett's charge at gettysburg, the battle were robert e. lee meeting cigar grant. and ulysses s. the rich sense of variety in american life during this time ranknfidence and crisis into focus of another event, other characters. the impounding of the ima pearl as it tries to see washington dc with a boatload of fugitive slaves. hungry women ran through the streets of richmond, begging for bread during the war. elizabethony and stanton riding on wagons without springs through kansas to secure the ballots for women. , pt barnumen embracing the anguished honesty of hermann melville, the popular editor oren's really his political strides bread the execution of the lincoln conspirators. the end of the anderson present. the impeachment of a president. dickinson, aty the art cooper union. the saga of the anti-slavery general fired from the friedman spiro by a soon to be disgraced chief executive. and the grander and no promise to mormons, or two men such as clarence king, who possessed nature in the wild. then there was the war, the terrible war. all t

of charlottesville and clashed over the city's decision to move a statue of confederate general robert e. lee from a public park. the author of the report is lawyer tim, a former u.s. attorney. he says he went into this project with one important city leaders not expect a whitewash or a witch hunt. so, where did those facts lead them? to the conclusion that critical mistakes were made, particularly in how police were prepared and deployed that weekend. both virginia state police and charlottesville city police. >> they were doing what they were told. i think the plans that were in place did not allow them to protect and serve. >> reporter: the result, violence, injuries and ultimately death when heather heyer was run down when a car plowed into i counter protesters on the mall. the car should have nefrp been there. police employees not sworn officers were assigned to block traffic into the mall. >> this wasn't a football game. this is not a block party, this is not the dali lama visiting charlottesville. this is bent on people hurting each other. >> reporter: eventually, one of those employee

robert e. lee. stonewall jackson and william. and/or wellian use of double speak.eded in order to acknowledge history. no, replacing historical names and toppling statues isn't acknowledging history obviously it's erasing it why pretend these historical figures even the confederacy just never existed? why do that? well, of course, slavery we all know was abominable and eesm. what do we learn about the past by forgetting the past? america paid a dear price in blood to overcome her original sin. and our children have a and our children have a right to their ent you won't see these folks at the post office. and our children have a right to their ent they have businesses to run. they have passions to pursue. how do they avoid trips to the post office? stamps.com mail letters, ship packages, all the services of the post office right on your computer. get a 4 week trial, plus $100 in extras including postage and a digital scale. go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again. >> laura: before we go, for a true understanding of what's >> for a true understandin

what's also interesting is that robert e. lee said he didn't want any monuments. he didn't think it was appropriate to build monuments after the civil war. so that's what he said. it's complicated. but that's kind of my -- but i've got to tell you my views are sort of evolving. i hope others are too. so that's my take on that. yes? >> you didn't mention john brown much. what did he do specifically to help kansas in is. >> he didn't do much to help kansas to be honest. >> i didn't think so. >> by killing the pro slavery people, he started bleeding kansas. that was the trigger that started bleeding kansas. he came back later and actually worked with my buddy john doy, dr. john doy, doctor in quotes, to go steal slaves in missouri. in my mind he was more of a detriment than he was a help. but what's interesting is he had an interesting relationship with amos lawrence. he had sold wool to amos lawrence years before, i don't s remember exactly when, but years before kansas. when he went to kansas, he went to see his buddy amos lawrence who wrote a letter introduction t

senate on behalf of a state that still celebrates robert e. leeay in conjunction with martin luther king day, i think that is shortsighted. >> you said that this was a warning shot yesterday across the bow for the gop that people have been warning for years. >> when you look at the fact, the growth and opportunity project, someone needs to call reince priebus and figure out what file he left those documents in. we have been talking about this for years, so when you sit here and act if as calling nfl players kneeling sobs and that doesn't have an effect on black mothers who go to the polls and think that's not the reason why turnout is not going up, that's shortsighted. when you talk about individuals out here in alabama going to the polls in record numbers, and you don't think that you have congressman lewis, who disavowed the president, after he got battered and bruised and bloodied, i think you're being shortsighted. so i think that hopefully, finally, we can't expect the president to change, but the party, you have to start dealing with these i

. >> reporter: investigators soon honed in on atchison and the leader of the robert e. leeof the clan of maryland. he had been busy burning crosses, making pipe bojz, making threats to people like martin luther king's he was charged and convicted for burning the cross on the butler's lawn and supposed to paid them $23,000 for the civil suit damages. the next time they heard about him was when he became a priest and his clan past became exposed. the parish in arlington would eventually write a letter apologizing to them for what he did to them. for barbara butler, the apology rings hollow. >> you're not sorry. you're sorry you got caught. >> reporter: this year he paid the damages from the civil suit. the attorney said that took so long other costs have accrued which haven't been settled and he's seeking that money from atchison's attorney. >> we believe that there is about $65,000 or more in interest owed to butlers. >> reporter: set almost is one thing, but the butlers say the money won't erase the hurt they felt, the cross burned on the lawn of their then dream home. >> t