vicksburg wasn't even commemorated on the day of the actual surrender, july 4, 1863. for those of you don't know or don't care. matt: black people who lived in vicksburg did commemorate. john:gary: what about california? has there been a big sesquicentennial push? joan: by me. gary: she has her own logo. i have been asked to remind you again that you still have time to put your questions in if you like, blue sheets out in front. those of you who are watching on c-span, you have the two ways i mention this morning, e-mailing and tweeting that you get a question to us. we will now adjourn for 15 minutes and then reconvene. [applause] civil war getting back underway here. this goes till about 4:30 this afternoon. our live coverage on c-span3 continues. >> we are discussing african-american memory of four. i am joined by fitzhugh brundage barbara gannon and thavolia glymph . we want to begin with a discussion of the scope and significance of the service in the u.s. army of african american troops. barbara, maybe want to get us started. matt: the --prof. gannon: u.s. color

. >> the uss vicksburg carries awesome firepower.ecks house more than a hundred cruise missile launches. we were off northwest scotland. they are leading a nato maritime group including ships from germany and canada. they have joined 50 other ships and submarines. joint warriors. huge british-led exercises involving around 13,000 personnel. put forth in countries. >> nato says this exercise is not a response to any particular threat but comes as a time when the russian military is consistently pushing an testing this region's defenses. over the last year, russian long-range bombers repeatedly approach nato airspace without turning on responders or filing flight plans. nato jets frequently intercept them. brad williamson commands this nato maritime group. he said today's tensions remind him of when he first went to sea during the cold war. >> it was an us or them mentality. i think we saw forces patrolling areas back then that we now see them doing again. and again, it reminds us that we have to be ready as an alliance. i think that's

vicksburg wasn't even commemorated on the day of the actual surrender, july 4, 1863. for those of you don't know or don't care. matt: black people who lived in vicksburg did commemorate. john:gary: what about california? has there been a big sesquicentennial push? joan: by me. gary: she has her own logo. i have been asked to remind you again that you still have time to put your questions in if you like, blue sheets out in front. those of you who are watching on c-span, you have the two ways i mention this morning, e-mailing and tweeting that you get a question to us. we will now adjourn for 15 minutes and then reconvene. [applause] >> we are live here all day from the university of virginia in charlottesville, another break in this all-day conference on the end of the civil war. we will be back in about 15 minutes or so with a panel on african-american memory. at 4:00 eastern, there will be a question-and-answer session, the program wrapping up about 4:30 this afternoon. live coverage will continue here on american history tv on c-span3. >> we are standing in the olde

multitudes of people, when you look at vicksburg records natchez, mississippi, places in louisiana. over and over again, almost everywhere, you find people who say they're lace of birth is, eastern shore of maryland. frederick, maryland. baltimore, maryland. washington dc. that represents the internal or domestic slave trade that occurred after 1808. after 1808, the transatlantic slave trade was ended. in this region, which was formerly based in the cultivation of tobacco tobacco cultivation was no longer as lucrative as it once was. but this was the oldest area of what was considered the south. they considered themselves to have a surplus slave population. this is where the largest amount of slaves was. virginia, at the end of the civil war, has the largest black population. but what occurred during that time is, many slaveholders in the region no longer needed that surplus labor. they began to sell that surplus enslaved labor to the new states of the expanding cotton belt. initially, they would sell them to georgia. you can hear frederick atlas -- frederick douglass talking in his

you look at the vicksburg records, natchez, mississippi. over and over again, you are finding people when asked for their place of birth they are saying eastern shores of maryland. frederick, maryland, baltimore ireland, washington, d.c. with that represents is the internal or domestic slave trade that occurred after 1808. after 1808 the transatlantic slave trade was ended so in this particular region which was formally based on the cultivation of tobacco, tobacco cultivation was no longer as lucrative as it once was. this was the oldest area of what was considered the self so they considered themselves to have a surplus slave population. as is were the largest amount of slaves were. virginia have the largest black population. but what occurred during that period is that many of the slaveowners that no longer needed that surplus labor, they began to sell that surplus enslaved labor to the new states of the expanding cotton belt. initially they would still them -- so them down to georgia so you would have frederick douglass talking about bei

chattanooga will be the first federally preserved battlefield, shiloh, gettysburg then vicksburg.hese sites are managed by the war department and funded by the federal government. so if you like going to civil war battlefields, the early preservation occurs as part of the fame of -- the theme of reconciliation. the monuments that go up, they part of the theme of reconciliation. congress is eager to find money to buy land for preservation activities, because who is in congress? veterans. they are eager to allocate this. the veterans preserve these battlefields as tangible physical landscapes to commemorate the men who fought and died there. they are living memorials. there is absolutely no intent to have conversations about why the war was fought on these battlefields. you want to talk about slavery it will not happen at the battlefield. they are disassociating it. battlefields are preserved to talk about heroism, valor, a story we can create and agree on. where all our brave. that is the consensus. >> they say these -- in these dedications, they will ignore it. jennifer murray: ye

any other place name in the civil war, certainly as much as at least as gettysburg or antietam or vicksburg or some of those major turning point in the war. appomattox took on a powerful symbolic, lasting significance as something that meant the end of this, but it also meant the end of one world and the beginning of another. something was over. something new had begun. now on november 5, 2008, the morning after barack obama was elected president, thomas friedman in the new york times a regular columnist, very good one -- on the morning after that election he wrote a column called "unfinished business." drawing language from the gettysburg address. the opening sentence of the column -- and this is what columnist do. the rest of the column takes care of itself. his topic sentence was -- basically -- last night, 10 p.m. grant park, chicago, illinois united states of america, the united -- the american civil war ended." then he went on to say that pennsylvania had been the state that put lincoln over the top. that gettysburg had been a great turning -- he misused all of that as he went on with

before the attack in 1861 as well as preceding battles of bull run, wilmington and the surrender at vicksburg. lincoln believed that this dream portended great results hopefully involving sherman's army. generally grant was present at the meeting that day and pointed out that stone's river was certainly no victory and knew of no great results that followed from it. however that might be, lincoln replied, the dream preceded that fight. sitting at the cabinet meeting that morning secretary wells didn't think much about the dream but remembered it shortly thereafter and wrote it in his diary. great events did follow he wrote. for within a few hours the good and gentle as well as truly great man who narrated that dream closed forever his earthly career. the dream is quite good four witnesses recorded it on separate occasions. the most frequently cited account comes from wells' diary. secretary of war also told the dream to charles dickens in 1868 and dickens wrote about it in a letter to a friend in england. the assistant secretary of state was at the meeting since his father had just had a carri

we've bene at vicksburg. [indiscernible] what about the trenches here in petersburg? of course, we know about the trenches in world war i over in france. they were quite elaborate. the germans had wooden reinforcements. they had rooms that were carpeted, dug into the soil in belgium and france. what about the trenches in petersburg? tracy: it is a great question, and it always -- whenever -- my programs at petersburg we do with the united states military. the united states army has one of its largest combined support bases at fort lee, adjacent to us, and fort lee started in 1918 as camp lee because we were getting ready to send young men over to europe to fight in the trenches of world war i, yet we did not have anywhere to train for trench warfare, so they look in their magic ball and said there are these trenches left in petersburg from the civil war, let's go there. that is what literally brings camp lee to petersburg, the study of trenches here. the trenches at petersburg will be similar, to an extent, to what you would find in world war i. the soil around peters

bell ringing ] >> the third year of the war ending in the spring of 1864, the year of gettysburg vicksburgcampaign. i call cadet warren jackson of the virginia military institute who saw so many serve here and alvin parker, the great great parker grand nephew of lieutenant colonel eli s. parker.t-gr >> the fourth year of the war, ar of endingt in the spring of 1865, sherman's march, the toils of petersbu petersburg richmond falling, fall the war's end, relief, grief, and rejoicing. i call forth sergeant clark b. hall great, great grandson of charles h. hall a u.s. marine corps veteran of vietnam and first lieutenant samuel moseley, a korean war veteran winner of kore the silver star and the purple heart. >> >> and now at precisely 3:15 on 3:15 the afternoon of april 9th, 2015, bells will ring across america.ing [ applause ] >>> join american history trch on sunday for live coverage of ceremonies marking the 150th anniversary of the surrender at appomattox. in april 1865, robert e. lee met union general ulysses s. grant in the village of appomattox courthouse and surrendered his army of nor

bell ringing ] >> the third year of the war ending in the spring of 1864 the year of gettysburg, vicksburg campaign. i call forward cadet warren jackson of the virginia military institute who saw so many serve here and alvin parker the great-great grand nephew of lieutenant colonel eli s. parker. [ bell ringing ] [ bell ringing ] >> the fourth year of the war ending in the spring of 1865, sherman's march, the toils of petersburg richmond fallen the war's end, relief, grief and rejoicing. i call forth sergeant clark b. hall great-great-grandson of charles h. hall of the 13th mississippi infantry. a u.s. marine corps veteran of vietnam and 1st lieutenant samuel mosley, a korean war veteran and winner of a silver star and a purple heart. [ bell ringing ] [ bell ringing ] >> and now at precisely 3:15 on the afternoon of april 9, 2015, bells will ring across america. [ applause ] >> join american>> history tv for live coverage marking the assassination of abraham lincoln. the president was carried across 10th street to the peterson house, where he died the next morning. we will be live from 10t

[bell sounds] >> the third year of the war ending in the spring of 1864, the year of gettysburg vicksburgoverly campaign. i call forward warned jackson -- warren jackson, who saw so many serve your. and alan parker, the great great grand nephew of lieutenant colonel eli parker. >> [bell sounds] >> [bell sounds] >> the fourth year of the war, ending in the spring of 1865 sherman's march the toils of petersburg, richmond falling the war's and -- end. relief and rejoicing. i call forth sergeant hall, great-great-grandson of charles h hall of the 13th mississippi infantry, a u.s. marine corps veteran of vietnam. and first lieutenant samuel mostly, -- mosey, a korean war veteran and winner of a purple heart. >> [bell sounds] >> [bell sounds] >> and now, at precisely 3:15 on the afternoon of april 9, 2015, bells will ring across america. [applause] [applause] [indistinct chatter] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] >> join american history

bell ringing ] >> the third year of the war ending in the spring of 1864, the year of gettysburg vicksburgi call cadet warren jackson of the virginia military institute who saw so many serve here and alvin parker, the great great parker grand nephew of lieutenant colonel eli s. parker.t-gr >> the fourth year of the war, ar of endingt in the spring of 1865, sherman's march, the toils of petersbu petersburg richmond falling, fall the war's end, relief, grief, and rejoicing. i call forth sergeant clark b. hall great, great grandson of charles h. hall a u.s. marine corps veteran of vietnam and first lieutenant samuel moseley, a korean war veteran winner of kore the silver star and the purple heart. >> >> and now at precisely 3:15 on 3:15 the afternoon of april 9th, 2015, bells will ring across america.ing [ applause ] >>> join american history trch on sunday for live coverage of ceremonies marking the 150th anniversary of the surrender at appomattox. in april 1865, robert e. lee met union general ulysses s. grant in the village of appomattox courthouse and surrendered his army of northern virg

bell ringing ] >> the third year of the war ending in the spring of 1864 the year of gettysburg, vicksburg. i call forward cadet warren jackson of the virginia military institute who saw so many serve here and alvin parker the great-great grand nephew of lieutenant colonel eli s. parker. [ bell ringing ] [ bell ringing ] >> the fourth year of the war ending in the spring of 1865, sherman's march, the toils of petersburg richmond fallen the war's end, relief, grief and rejoicing. i call forth sergeant clark b. hall great-great-grandson of charles h. hall of the 13th mississippi infantry. a u.s. marine corps veteran of vietnam and 1st lieutenant samuel mosley, a korean war veteran and winner of a silver star and a purple heart. [ bell ringing ] [ bell ringing ] >> and now at precisely 3:15 on the afternoon of april 9, 2015, bells will ring across america. [ applause ] >>> you can watch today's ceremony tonight along with other programs looking at the surrender at at mat ox and its legacy. it's coming up at 8:00 p.m. eastern here on c-span3. each night this week at 9:00 p.m. eastern conversat

i wonder how the park system feels about his lost opportunity to unite us by going to vic vicksburg or going to gettysburg or going and celebrating the 260,000 -- let me change that -- 360,000 dead union soldiers who died for the national stated policy of freeing the slaves that they never met. >> well two things. first off, i don't have the slightest -- the national park service doesn't really have a mind of its own. it is a collection of people with a lot of their own minds. and secondly the president of the united states is my boss. so i would be a little bit hesitant to -- no matter what my opinion was -- to enter into that discussion with you in this setting. i'll be happy to when i'm off my uniform and walking the streets sometime, i'll be glad to offer up my opinions on that, but not here and now today. i hope you'll excuse me for that. >> my name is a.j. douglas virginia. i hope you don't mind me doing this. it's kind of long but i'd like to say i don't really think the civil war was completely about slavery. why? because throughout history people didn't really care about black