For three days in july, 1863, the union and confederate armies faced off in gettysburg, pennsylvania. One of the most decisive battles of the civil war. Next on american artifacts, we visit confederate general robert e. Lees 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 propertys history and restoration. This house is significant to the battle of gettysburg, one of the most, if not the most important battle of the whole civil war because it was the epicenter of the confederate effort. This is the headquarters. This is where robert e. Lee was. This is the building in which he made crucial decisions during the course of those three days of that battle that literally determined the outcome of the battle. This property, when we bought it, looks nothing like it does right now. It was a Hotel Complex with a brew pub restaurant attached to it. So it was roughly envision a 40 or 50room 1950sstyle motel with a restaurant saloon attached to it. All surrounding this building that im standing in that was lees headquarters. So lees headquarters was hidden in plain sight. What we did to restore this site, if you will, was first we had to get rid of the 20th century, and that was tear down, move out all the debris that encompassed a hotel or a motel to be more precise, a restaurant brew pub. Then we had to restore the topography. We had to tear out Something Like 15 different structures including a Swimming Pool and a whole bunch of other a gift shop, those types of things. This thing was just layered with 20th century commercial establishments. We tore that stuff out, restored the topography. Now it looks the way robert e. Lee would recognize it in the 19th century. Civil war trust essentially is an American Heritage Land Preservation organization with the emphasis on saving the battlefields from three different wars, the revolutionary war, the war of 1812, and of course the civil war, saving the battlefields where the issues that created and defined this country were settled. We saved that land. In addition to that, we have a strong education component because we use that land as an educational platform, an outdoor classroom to teach americans about their history. The National Park service is our number one partner. We work very closely with them to buy land that they either cant buy for whatever reason. They cant move fast enough. They dont have the money appropriated, et cetera. We come in and buy the land. We restore the land, and then we turn the land over wherever possible to the National Park service to add to National Park Service Parks that already exist. We enhance their product if you will. Gettysburg is not such a small town at the time of the civil war. Theres gas lighting. Theres several churches, banks, two educational institutes of higher learning, and there are houses like this one dotting the countryside. You have, like a lot of america at the time, rural living with people tending small farms, and this is along one of the ten roads that led into gettysburg and one of the many houses where youre going to have one, two, or more occupants tending a small garden and living life out. Of course the battle of gettysburg would descend upon this town and forever change it. As robert e. Lee arrived on the field, its the afternoon of july 1st, 1863, one of the bloodiest days of the entire civil war already. Lee comes upon a horrendous scene with dead and wounded dotting the terrain, with hospital operations already beginning, the union army in full flight back toward the town of gettysburg, which made him a little bit happier. His side was winning. But he would have seen a scene of incredible devastation to not only humans but also to the terrain, to the structures, to the fences and just debris all over the place. This house was owned by a very famous individual. His name is Thaddeus Stephens. Hes a radical republican congressman, really into the abolition movement, and he purchased this house in trust for a widow named Mary Thompson. Thompson had eight children. By the time of the battle, they have 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 interacted or not interacted with general lee and his staff and anybody else around here. But we know she is supposedly active in the recovery and hospital operations. This house became a hospital after the battle. Shes here and active but we dont know a lot more than that. By the time robert e. Lee arrived at seminary ridge, he had selected this facility as the headquarters of his army. So the headquarters location was already selected. What a headquarters is, is a very difficult question to answer. Is the headquarters where the general actually is . Is it where the headquarters tent is . Is it where the general is conducting most of his work . Its really tough to answer. Heres how it comes down. We know that general robert e. Lee used this house. We also know that he was a man who went about the field and would have conducted numerous tasks on horseback, in his tent, and things like that. So incredibly we dont have a great detailed account about what he did where other than that we know he used the house. We know his tent was somewhere outside the house. And we know he used that, and we know he also made critical decisions in the field. The battle of gettysburg lasts three days, and the first day, the confederates win overwhelmingly. No doubt about that. As the confederates buckled the union flanks, the union army pulled back to this ridge on which we stand, seminary ridge. There are 25 cannon along this ridge, thousands of troops line up here as the southerners started to push on either side. The union line in this particular area just west of the house was particularly strong, a few cannons are blazing away at north carolinians trying to push into this direction. Eventually the flanks are so crumbling that this is the last position to hold. In other words, on the first day of the battle of gettysburg, this is the last union position. The southerners finally drive the union army away from this ridge. The union retreats down what is now route 30, an Unfinished Railroad bed. The southerners lay out their cannons on this ridge as well because its a very commandsing rid commanding ridge. We know all this because the battle of gettysburg is the greatest battle of the civil war and people tended to write a lot about it. There was an early historian who collected peoples stories right away. There are maps made within years of the battle. Theres a map of the burials made within a year of the battle, and that actually shows a union and a confederate shoshoe soldier actually more than that on this property itself. That testifies to the severity of this fight. The postwar history of the house is really interesting as well because here you have one of, you know, numerous houses on the battlefield. Remember, civil war battles are usually fought in peoples backyards whether it be in a rural setting on a farm or right outside somebodys house in a town. You know, the civil war is fa h fought in peoples houses and on their lands. This was no exception of the nobody thought of preserving all of every bit of every battlefield of the civil war. Even the Civil War Trust doesnt feel that way. You cant do it. But this became one of numerous places right along a major route where people could stay and receive travel services. It eventually became a tourist area. They had cabins here, and eventually a full motel complex. During that time also there might have been some untoward things going on in the house to the point where battlefield guides a century ago and more stopped taking people to lees headquarters, stopped telling people about lees headquarters because there might have been a body house running out of the house, and if they talked about lees headquarters, they would have to explain why they couldnt go in. They didnt want to expose their tourists to Something Like that. Thats one of the many reasons. You also have this is a northern victory in a union state. And while they preserved the the governments preserve by the time people considered it a priority, it had already become an expensive motel and motel complex. When the Civil War Trust acquired lees headquarters and all of the complex around it, the former owners were generous enough to deed to us the numerous art facts that they still had in their holds from when this house served as general lees Headquarters Museum for about eight decades. It was a very popular people for the time. Right away we wanted to identify everything that was associated with the house and deed those in turn to the National Park service, who will be the ultimate steward of this property. So we wish there was more, but were really happy to have the few things we have. We have the original deed to the house, and it says that Thaddeus Stephens is purchasing the house in trust for Mary Thompson. Its great stuff. I think some of the maybe best artifacts would be a lock plate from a door that is known to have been removed from Mary Thompsons house and taken across the road or out to a tent to serve as a map table. So almost certainly something that robert e. Lee and other Staff Members and generals would have used to, you know, conduct the battle of gettysburg. We not only have a lock plate from it, but there is also a piece of the door, well documented from that and it matches up with another piece of the door that suppose tdly came from the door as well. This is what the park service and other curators do to ensure the provenance is correct. Its really cool. The door itself became so famous it was sort of removed from the headquarters and then used as a map table. So it became of great interest to people. In the 19th and early 20th century, people were really interested in mementos. I would say the craze was even bigger back then. People would crave a piece of the door robert e. Lee and his staff used. So it was at least in part cut up and sold to people. And to tell you the truth, i guess im glad Something Like that happened. I wish we had the whole door, but if you cant have the whole door, ill take a small provenanced piece of it. One of the most compelling things to come out of the collection associated with the house is a pair of bullet riddles shutters. We know or at least from the photos we can see from the three sides of the house, there arent shutters on the Mary Thompson house itself. The provenance goes back. Theyre really compelling when you see this visual example of the battle of gettysburg, that it affected peoples houses, even going through their shutters and hitting their stone. Imagine being a family, a civilian at gettysburg at the time. Timely were real finally were really pleased to have a chair, a mid19th century chair known to have been in the house and happily was not in the house during the fire that gutted this place. So to have any furniture and theres more than one chair. I believe theres a table and a tablecloth that was thought to be here when robert e. Lee was here. Were fortunate to have any of this. There were another hundred artifacts and we opened up to the National Park service to have and add to their collections anything they wanted. Ultimately we ended up deeding most of it to the National Military park hire at gettysburg but also to places like fort mchenry and to, i believe, cedar creek, other battlefields which could benefit from things in the collection that were provenanced, that were traced to people that fought at those places. The Civil War Trust purchases and preserves the Hallowed Ground where citizen shoeoldier made this one what it is today. Some of the major decisions of American History have been decided on battlefields through military victory, victory by citizen soldiers. The Civil War Trust preserves that land where the soldiers struggled, not 234eznecessarily the otherwise very important prisons, hospitals, forts, cemeteries. Those places are very important. We save those places if there is also fighting at those places, Hallowed Ground where americans fought and bled. As the Civil War Trust became interested in this property, historians had already long known that we would be lucky to have the resources that we have, the famous photographer Matthew Brady arrived on the scene within two weeks of the battle of gettysburg and recorded six photos either of or from this property. He recorded four of the house itself, one of which shows Matthew Brady with the widow, Mary Thompson, in it. And then he went to a home next door own and took the most famous panoramic photo of the tone of gettysburg just as it appeared during the battle. Then he went across the road and recorded maybe the most famous photo of the civil war. You may have seen it before. Its of three confederate prisoners standing dignified with, you know, some of the hills of gettysburg in the background. So we have a very not only compelling story to tell with these photos but a really great ability to get down to the details of which stones in the house were where and what features, such as a barrel or a dog house, were actually part of the complex at the time. This stone house is not unlike a lot of other mid19th century stone houses in the vicinity. So you have an idea of what these things look like inside and out. Unfortunately this particular house was look like inside and house. Unfortunately this was gutted by a fire about 120 years ago and it burned to almost a shell at the time. All the outdoor stones and indoor configuration of the stones are in the same place, but the house itself we dont have a good record of what it looked like because of this fire. However, afterward this became part of a tourist complex. The house itself changed, especially so that they could put a guest room upstairs in the house. They added dormers to the house. We knew there were no dormers at the time of the civil plan, and our restoration plan really focused on the exterior. How can we remove the dormers, put the right fences in. But when it came to the interior we acquired this house and it had been a museum for eight decades. We knew we had to remove the cases. Once we did that we wanted to open the house into likely what it was at the time. A four room house. We think it was a duplex. There are two different fireplaces. We have good reason to think, very good reason to think it is approximately in its original configuration. The reason its important to save parcels of land like we have here at lees headquarters is because its American History. This is the place, these are the places where america was created and defined. This is who we are. The battle fields, whether youre talking about the declaration of independence, the United States constitution, the emancipati emancipation proclamation, documents that were huge in American History and yet useless unless theyre ratified by winning wars. What these pieces of ground do is they teach American Public about how to become better citizens. Because it teaches them about their history. These are where the great things happened. And i personally believe that humans crave a sense of place. They want to be there. They want to be at authentic places where real important things happened. Real important things happened on these places, on this ground. Americans can come to those places and stand where great events happened to be there. For more information about lees gettysburg headquarters, visit their website, civilwar. Org. American history tv on cspan3. This week in primetime starting at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. Tuesday night u. S. Army special forces detachments stationed in Berlin Germany during the cold war. Would remain in the city just to give the russians and the east germans a hard time, destroy critical targets like radio stations and power plants while the other guys would crossover the walls to hit these targets. Rail yards. Yesterday night, black Voter Suppression in the 1940s. During the congressional debate representative of indiana said, quote, what a travesty. Negros by the thousands to the firing line to die and fight for freedom while telling them they should have no part or parcel in freedom at home. Thursday night president Andrew Jacksons political struggle to challenge and even cripple the powerful bank of the United States. Already by 1829, june of 1829 when hed been president all of three months, jackson was writing friends that the only thing that can prevent our liberties to be crushed by the bank and its influence would be to kill the bank itself. And friday night an interview with senator john mccain on the vietnam wars impact on his life and the country. I dont hold a grudge against the north vietnamese. I dont like them. At the same time i was part of a conflict. I thought they were some of the meanest people i met in my life and i never want to see again. But there were several that were good people and that were kind to me. So thats why it was much easier for me to support along with president clinton and others the normalization of relations with our two countries, to heal the wounds of war. Watch American History tv this week in primetime on cspan3. Next on lectures in history, Jeffrey Morrison teaches a class on the role of religion in the american revolution. He explores the meaning of words and phrases in the declaration of independence. He also highlights the importance of great awakening, a religious revival in the 1740s that influenced many founding fathers. This hour 45 minute class took place at Georgetown University and was organized by the James Madison memorial fellowship foundation. Good morning, everyone. Arent you a smart looking set this morning. The topic today is religion in the american revolution. You recall from our last session together, i laid out what i think are some head waters of early american constitutionalism. That what i was calling them. We
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