Sandusky, which served as Union Headquarters during the battle of lynchburg. To the house was central 1864 civil war battle of lynchburg. While the battle raged all around the house, the union used this as its headquarters. Lets take a look at how this house got its name. The house was built in 1808 by a young man named Charles Johnston. Life as a business merchant, stockbroker, clerk. When he was a young man, he went to kentucky. That was his goal to accompany to survey his loss some land that his boss had bought. They bought a boat and picked up some passengers. They travel down the ohio river with the goal of reaching kentucky. Along the way, they had been warned about hostile native american indians. They were careful to stay in the middle of the ohio river. Two men came to the banks of the river screaming help us. They decided to go to the bank to try to aid these two white men. It had been but a decoy. They were led into a trap. They were instantly attacked by 40 or 50 indians. Two of the six were killed. Charles and several others were taken prisoner. They were trundled through the ohio territory northward for about five weeks. They were finally carried up to a percent dusky, which upper sandusky. There they entered a trading post that was run by a frenchman. Charles pleaded for the frenchman to help him. He was a prisoner and did not know what the rest of his life might. Tohe frenchman was able strike a deal with the indians purchasing Charles Johnston out of bondage. Charles johnston was free literally on his 21st birthday. He then sought to come back home to virginia. That was a difficult thing to do through the wilderness and the front tier near lake eerie back to virginia. He had to wait till he could find transportation back from one who was skilled in guiding them. It took them about five months to get back to virginia. On his way back, he passed through new york city, which was the capital of our country in 1790. He was interviewed by president George Washington and secretary of war henry knox who wanted to know what was happening out on the frontier. There were continuous struggles out on our front tier between indians and french and british and between the colonists which would later come into play during the war of 1812. Rles. Back to virginia charles got back to virginia and resumed his life. He did a lot of his business in tobacco trade. At some point, he decided to come to this point of virginia. Now it is lynchburg, virginia. Sandusky,his house, in 1808. It was a fairly opulent house for a young man in his 30s. He made his wealth off the tobacco trade. He brokered the sale and transportation of tobacco from a lynchburg to richmond and points onward. He did a lot of these tobacco transactions for Thomas Jefferson who was getting into growing and selling tobacco at his nearby home. When he built this home, he named it sandusky, which was a Shawnee Indian word that means by the cool waters meaning lake erie. That episode in his life had such a profound affect on his life that he named his estate after that place where he won his freedom. He also wrote a memoir about his captivity at the hands of the Shawnee Indians. It is a fascinating account. Charles made his fortune in the tobacco trade. That was very important to virginias economy. What goes up must come down. In 1818, the Tobacco Market crashed in virginia. Charles went from prosperity to poverty practically overnight. He was forced to sell sandusky. He cannot afford to keep it up. Him showingdeed of where he sold it in 1818 to christopher clark. Now we are going to take a look at some of the later owners of historic sandusky. This is the formal parlor of historic sandusky. It is restored to the 1850s era. This is our third interpretive. This is our third interpretive period. This is when the Hunter Family owned the house. They owned the house during the battle of lynchburg. We are restoring the house to the civil war area era. Civil war area period. They immigrated from pennsylvania and prior to that germany. This war this worm this room was used for entertaining. This is where guests would be received for business purposes. For entertaining, music, conversation. Even weddings and wakes took place in this room. This was not used on a daily basis. It is decorated in a fairly opulent style because this is how the family presented itself to the world. You will find the finest furnishings in this room between the carpet, the candleholders, the silver baskets, the mears, althoughears paintings reflect the style and taste of the family and what the family wanted to present to the public. One of the central pieces of any formal parlor was the pianoforte. This was the 1840s chicory piano. They made thousands of pnos in the 19th century. This was the Entertainment Center of a 19th century home. Pno ters had a chicory piano. Reader wrote a piece of music in honor of sandusky and in honor of mrs. Hutter. In sandusky poco was written 18 62. It was published when she was only 14 years old. The musichas its own if you will in the sandusky polka. It is a pretty smart piece of music. We are very fortunate here and that most of the furnishings in the house are original to the house. They were collected and donated to us by the hutter family who are still great supporters of what we do. Tables, and even this painting are original to the house. This painting tells a very unique story. There is damage to the painting. The tradition passed down through the family is that this painting was slashed it was vandalized by Union Soldiers during their occupation here during the civil war battle. We did find some written accounts of the vandalism that took place here during the battle. This painting was passed down to familyugh the hutter from the greatgranddaughter of ada hutter. She was a teenage girl who lived here during the battle of lynchburg. We will talk more about ada, for family, and the battle. This is the family parlor of sandusky. This is the room where the families would spend most of their time sitting, reading, relaxing, talking with each other, and here over the mantle, we can see portraits of George Hutter and his wife, harriet. Owned the house during the civil war battle of lynchburg. Lynchburg was very important to the confederacy. It was an important transportation center, a manufacturing center, it was a pow camp for Union Soldiers. Grant4, general ulysses s decided it would be very good to take lynchburg and sees it that for a day. He sent general david hunter to march upon lynchburg and attack it. Thed hunter marched down lynchburg salem turnpike and met his first resistance at the quaker meeting house. After that first days battle, he wrote it to sandusky he rode over to sandusky and commandeered the house. Generals like to sleep and couches rather than on the hard ground. This house became their headquarters. The hutter family were made prisoners in the house. Try to imagine an army camped all around this house. 18,000 soldiers. House, there are dozens of officers and men. Theyre walking in and out of the house with muddy boots. They are taking over the house. They are eating all of the food. They are sleeping in the beds. Try to imagine if this was your house and all of a sudden you had all these uninviting guests taking over your house and abusing it. We know a lot of what happened here through the writings of , which wein her diary are fortunate to have and was donated to us by heard great granddaughter. What she writes in her diary is very fascinating. She writes about the battle. She writes about her concern for her brother. She has three brothers all serving in the confederate army. Their fate is unknown to her. She writes about the things a teenage girl would write about. She writes about not getting along with your parents. She writes about what her hopes and dreams are for her future. We learn from the diary that she was very proconfederate. When the union army was defeated, she gloats about it in her diary. Battle, david of hunter and his soldiers were defeated. They retreated. Lynchburg was saved. Lynchburg has a unique history of being the only Virginia City during the civil war that was not captured during the war. Lynch were caused some damage and fandom was him to the house and to the fields and the surroundings of the house. The family recovered pretty well from the battle. Continue to own the house until 1952. The house was then broken up among the family members. That is why we have so much of the furniture and decorative arts. They stayed here in the house until 1952. Older, she sought to sell the house, which she did. It to a small group of concerned Community Citizens who formed a Nonprofit Organization led by dr. Peter houck to purchase the house to turn it into a Public Museum. That effort has been ongoing since 2000. Two years ago, the house was acquired while at Lynchburg College who operated as a Public Museum but also as a history lab for learning and teaching todents about history, how run a museum, how to run a business. On any given day, we have several students working here and giving tors, doing bookkeeping, doing research, working in our archaeology lab. It is very exciting to see the site served a dual function of andg both the public site also as a Higher Learning center for people interested in history. Our cities tour step recently went to lynchburg, virginia to learn about its history. Learn more about lynchburg at cspan. Org citiestour. You are watching American History tv, all weekend, every weekend on cspan3. Text, henry hank thomas, a Founding Member of the student nonviolent coordinating committee, recounts his experiences as one of the original 13 freedom writers, civil rights activists freedom riders, civil rights activist who traveled on interstate buses to challenge racial segregation. He also