it needs support from everyone. >> thank you, robert krick. the first of five historians here at the library of virginia in richmond talking about the person of the year 1862. mr. krick, thanks for taking phone calls from our viewers. >> yes, sir. >> in a couple of minutes, the program will resume with a different perspective. david blight, from the center for the study of slavery and abolition. we will hear his nomination. we will be back with phone calls in 45 minutes. you can continue the conversation online if you can go to twitter.com/c-span. you can use the #poty1862. we will look at some of those tweets after the next historian speaks. also at facebook.com/c-span. we will read those questions as well. you are watching live coverage from the library of virginia in richmond. it is an event co-hosted by the museum. robert krick, the first of five historians speaking. david blight is next. we will hear from james mcphearson here on american history tv on c-span 3. >> ladies and gentlemen, if you could return to your seats, we'll get restarte

once again, robert krick the first of five historians who will speak today. we'll hear everywhere james mcpherson, all of that on the way today here on american history tv on c-span3. ladies and gentlemen, if you could return to your seats, we'll get restarted in just a moment. okay. let's get restarted if we could. our next speaker, i mentioned earlier, he's a i detroit tigers fan. i think the reason that he particularly likes rich monday is that we sent justin verlander to the tigers. but david blythe is a familiar face here in richmond. coming down from connecticut quite frequently to speak with us in the virginia historical society and the american civil war center. david has done quite a bit to help our understanding here and nationally about the civil war. david is the class of 1954 professor at yale university. excuse me, professor of american history at yale university and he's also the director of the gilder lehrman center for the study of slavery resistance in abolition. best knowntom civil war audiences as the author of the 2001 book spb race and r

bob kricks, hero, and he had 25 votes and i am here to pronounce that robert e. lee with 71 votes was promoted from the king of spades to the ace of spades. robert e. lee is the man of year for 1862, and i'd like to thank all of you for coming and please get home safely. >> so the winner at the library in virginia in richmond for person of the year is the selection of robert e. lee as person of the year 1862. again, the nominees today were from robert krick, who is the chief historian of fredericksburg for 30 years, david blight of yale nominated frederick douglas who came in third, nominated by james macpherson came in first and he was dead last in the voting in virginia and we congratulate professor thomas and we'll open up the phone line again for our viewers. professor thomas, you earn a big trophy or a big prize? no, i got a handshake for the director of the museum of the confederacy. >> we have callers waiting to talk to you. you talked a little bit about this in your nomination for robert e. lee. when general lee turned down the command of the union army i

we heard from robert krick and david blight. david blight choosing frederick douglass for his choice of person of the year 1862. robert krick chose thomas stonewall jackson. we will open up our phone lines here to take your calls so you get a chance to talk to david blight momentarily. if you are on east coast, the number is 202-585-3885. mountain and pacific, 202-585-3886. if you want to tweet us us, #poty1862. we have a tweet from someone who agree was professor blight. i think frederick douglass should be person of the year 1862. we are posting the question on our facebook page. if you want to look at facebook and post your comments, you are welcome to do that. a couple here. steven says, lincoln was person of the year every year he was president. i suppose next to abe in 1862, you have to choose robert e. lee. david blight joins us from the library in virginia. he will take your phone calls. david blight, welcome to american history tv. >> thank you very much. glad to be here. >> frederick douglass was born a slave, but in e

the nomination from robert krick was stonewall jackson. david blight choosing fed rick douglas and james mcpherson with david furrogate. the phone lines will be open in just a moment. make sure you mute your television when you call in. you can send us a tweet. our hash tag today if you want to jot this down is poty1862. post your choice for person of the year on facebook. facebook.com/cspan is where you go. ben says that his choice would be greely and second choice would be robert e. lee. on facebook a look at our facebook page, james saying that it's george. let's go back to the library and james mcpherson who just nominated admiral david furagate. he would be the only admiral on that list. you talked in your speech about the political implications of his victories in 1862. were they the main reason that france and britain looked at the confederacy that year. >> certainly the main reason why they delayed what looked like would be recognition in the spring of 1862. the capture of new orleans was the most important in a series of union vic

robert krick, the chief historian and military historical park, his nominee earlier was thomas stonewall jackson. two out of five historians so far. we have opened the phone lines throughout the day, too. we will do that later as well. also online at twitter.com, we have tweets if you want to give us your thoughts. send us a tweet. it is #poty1862. we pose the question on facebook.com/c-span. while we continue to work on the signal from richmond, virginia, we are working on that. we hope to bring you the rest of the event. in the meantime, a look at the civil war on c-span tv. >> this week on american artifacts, we visit the center for education and leadership across the street from ford's theater where john wilkes booth shot lincoln. the center is the newest edition to the ford's theater campus on 10th street in washington where you can learn about the life, death and legacy of lincoln. paul tatro talks about the center's purpose and goals. >> we are in the center for education and leadership. directly across the street from historic ford theater on 10th street in washington d.c. behind

however, let me say a few things about robert k. krick. day he's best known as the father of robert e.l. krick. bob the elder was for more than 30 years chief historian at the fredericksburg and spotsylvania national military park and in that capacity was extremely active as a researcher, a writer, a speaker, and especially as one of the country's leading battlefield reservati preservationists. in his so-called retirement and so-called retirement bob will never retire, he has continued his research and writing and occasional speaking. we are very pleased to have him with us here today to make the first nomination. bob krick. [ applause ] >> the years do move right along. for many decades, my son, a young historian, was introduced as my son. now, almost inevitably, i'm introduced as his father. so these things come and go and change. i was instructed by my longtime friend john coskey that it would be a good idea if i maintained some suspense about who my nominee was. ed bart and others used that ploy last year and john thought it worked well

aga again, the nominees today were from robert krick, who is the chief historian of fredericksburg for 30 years, david blight of yale nominated frederick douglas who came in third, nominated by james macpherson came in first and he was dead last in the voting in virginia and we congratulate professor thomas and we'll open up the phone line again for our viewers. professor thomas, you earn a big trophy or a big prize? no, i got a handshake for the director of the museum of the confederacy. you talked a little bit about this in your nomination for robert e. lee. when with general lee was the command of the union army in the spring of 1861, did he have inkling that he would take over command of the southern army? >> i don't think so. i think he turned it down because there was some irony here because he really just did not like conflict. he doesn't respond well to conflict and he does so because he can't handle conflict, what kind of conflict, you ask. he would have had war on his neighbors and relatives and he's going to do that. he would have spent the rest of his life explaining to the

so far we've heard from two historians, robert krick and david blight. you heard david choosing frederick douglasss as his choice for person of the year 1862 and robert crick who was the chief historian at fredericksburg for 30 years chose thomas stonewall jackson. we're going to open our phone lines here and take your calls. so you can get a chance to talk to david blythe momentarily. the numbers are if you are on the eastern seaboard, if you're eastern and central time zones, 202-585 i 3885. mountain and pacific, 202-585-3886. make sure you mute your television. if you want to tweet us, our hash tag is poty 1862. and we will have one tweet from kashia who agrees with professor light that she says i think douglass should be the person of the year 1862. also at facebook.com/c-span, wes are posting the question there, as well. if you want to take a look at facebook and post your comments, you're welcome to do that. a couple here stephen grill says in a sense, lincoln was person of the year every year he was president. i suppose next to abe in 162, you wou