Transcripts For CSPAN3 American Civil War Museum Annual Symposium 20180224

The theme of this years event is ordinary people, extraordinary times. Historians explore how the war affected a Diverse Group of american people. The event is cohosted by the library of virginia, university of Virginia Center for Civil War History, and the American Civil War museum. In the first session, james robertson, Virginia Tech history professor emeritus, and the author or editor of more than 20 books will give a talk titled civil war echoes from the common folk. But first, the director of the center for Civil War History at the university of virginia will welcome the audience. This is live coverage on American History tv on cspan3. Good morning, im Gary Gallagher and i very pleased to welcome all of you this morning. To our symposium titled ordinary people, extraordinary times. I do this and welcome you on behalf of the library of virginia, the American Civil War the center for Civil War History at the university of virginia. Treadway, they library and would perform this task, but im here is director of the now center, which apart from being a cosponsor today, is very happy to be a partner in various other programs with ceo christie coleman, john koski, and all of this superb staff at the American Civil War museum. As all of you know very well, virginia stood at the center in many important ways of the turbulent political military economic and social events of the civil war. By far the largest and most important of the states in the breakaway slaveholding republic, he witnessed fighting on a scale far exceeding that of any other state or any other combination of two or three states. It was a measure of the centrality of what was happening in the commonwealth that the surrender of the Principal Army in the Virginia Theater at appomattox during the second week of april, 1865, essentially marked the end of the conflict. Just as virginia loomed so large in the narrative of the civil war, we are the now center believe that the american civil soon toums new exhibit, open, the historic trade our site, will be the best place in the United States for visitors to engage for the incredibly dramatic, complex, and important story of the most disruptive and consequential Episode International history. My colleague, Elizabeth Barron and i, and everyone else at the center, would forward to future collaborations with the museum. Caroline ejb will be replacing as director of the now center this coming august and she will bring great skill and energy to the position and carry shares with me a wish to maintain a very strong relationship with christie and with the museum. Before turning this over to christie to introduce todays program and speakers more specifically, i want to invite all of you and i have been given permission to plug another program very briefly. Now centers signature conference, which will be held in charlottesville on march 30. Its titled civil war lives and will include lectures by david life, stephen fishman, matt barren,joan want, was and myself. The subjects are u. S. Grant, frederick douglass, re lee, and james long street. We would be delighted to see many of you in charlottesville on march 30. , ases more information there always is about the Program Available on the now centers website. And with that, im very happy to turn this microphone and the floor over to christie coleman, so she can get the day going in earnest. Once again, welcome. [applause] ms. Coleman hello. We are delighted you are here and thent to thank gary library of virginia and the now center for cosponsoring todays program. And being such a wonderful partner with us over the years with regard to the symposium we have offered. Though,e let them go, let me just say i want to thank him on behalf of the museum staff, our board, remembers for being such an important part of not only are his teaching, but the Civil War Community for so many decades. Gary gallagher has only been a bona fide civil war rockstar you know you are. [laughter] at uva. Man before that, he was at penn state. Hes always been enthusiastic. Hes always been a valued partner, not only to us, but to the National Park service, the Civil War Trust come into museums and historical organizations across the country, large and small. He is one of the most popular and effective speakers and tour guides and consultant that the civil war Interest Community has ever known. One of the most important mentors of civil war scholars. Every civil war bookshelf and reveals hisam influence as a mentor and cultivator of your talents, yes use leaving the now center, but we know that he is still going to show up, somewhere, sometime, somehow, because thats what he does. He loves this. And understand for the next year, he is going to be out west at the Huntington Library doing some work. Not to though you were be necessarily close to herlottesville, i know that is always an email or phone call away, and that makes it very happy. Because again, gary is no stranger, i cant imagine him ever becoming a stranger. And i think i speak for everyone here, when we say thank you so much what you have done. I only for our institution, but for a field. Would you join me in thanking him . [applause] now, thean housekeeping. Please, center cell phones. Right now. [laughter] right now. Pull them out in silence them. Whether that Airplane Mode or the little button that you push, as i will come for you. [laughter] as you know, this program is being covered by cspan3, we thank you cspan in American History tv for covering this yet again this year. Having a series of breaks throughout the program that are laid out in your printed program on the back. We are sticking very strictly to the schedule. By all means, please be mindful of that. During the breaks, youre welcome to refresh coffee or purchase a book, but we will be starting explicitly in those 10 minute breaks. That being said, lets get started. The title of this years symposium is ordinary people, extraordinary times. The theme relates to the flagship exhibition that will be opening in our new Museum Building at historic trigger, which is now well under construction. If you have not been out to see it, it is a wonder. , of course,will address the big picture of the American Civil War and its continuing effects, but it will also highlight the experiences of real people and the effect of the war on real people. In planning for the exhibition and the experience the inner, but will also be a part of the new museum, we were struck by the words of lucy buck, a young girl from front royal, virginia, who observed we shall never, any of us, be the same as we have been. And certainly, while her sentiment for strictly related to her life as a young southern girl as part of the confederacy, the words do have residents for everyone else that experienced this conflict. That minds, with similar symposium speakers and asked them to develop a program to emphasize the experiences of people, both specific groups of people in the aggregate, and the specific individuals who experienced the war and the changes it rocked. Wrought. Ked it i doubt there is anyone in this room knows never heard a talk by dr. James robertson junior, were seen on television, or heard him on his longrunning radio program. Budd robertson as we affectionately call him has been a variable veritable institution of Civil War History and he played major leadership in the a roles sesquicentennial and you might be around for the bicentennial. Its only 43 years away and this man seems to be eternal. Knowcivil war students Budd Robertson for his work on stonewall jackson, ap hill, robert e lee, the stonewall brigade and the army of northern virginia. His current project is an encyclopedia of robert e. Lee. But he has spoken and written widely on the common soldier in the Common People of the civil war era. As you can see from the book titles listed in your program and availableforsale and on a graphic in the lobby outside, yes, i have to pitch for everyone. Most recently, he edited the publication of the book highlighting the letters, thates, and reminiscences remain in private collections throughout the commonwealth. The virginia civil war cisco to iel sis was continual they scanned these newly developed sources and they are available for researcher at the library. This is the kind of valuable works of Budd Robertson has performed throughout his long career. And for which we are deeply grateful. This morning, gentlemen and ladies, dr. Budd robertson will kick off our symposium with a talk entitled civil war echoes from the common folk. Ladies and him alone, dr. Robertson. [applause] ladies and gentlemen, dr. Robertson. [applause] dr. Robertson thank you, christie, for those undeserved but very deeply appreciated remarks. Many, many years going down the same path. And imore military than i more social than he is. So we complement one another rather than compete. Its a pleasure to be here for this particular occasion, because on one of those rare instances, we will be concentrating on the battles, not on the leaders, but on the common folk, who are the bedrock of this nation. History is the best teacher you will ever have. From it, we learn the mistakes and we learn the achievements of those who came before us. Ad from history, we gain better sense of direction and confidence as we make our journey through allies. Similarly, history is heritage. Tear down the basement and the whole house will collapse. Thus, meeting such as this have enormous value. They impart to us a vital fact, namely, the past is human. Its not red and blue lines on the battle map, and little box that says smiths division or joses brigade, the human beings inside those things. It contains living people who felt the emotions of their time. Ive always taught that an understanding of the emotions is critical to understanding the civil war. And heard in the struggle are so deep that unless we can grasp the feelings of those people and digest them to the point of understanding them, we will never absorb what the war was. And how deeply affected every facet of todays life in this nation. Certain ng is for when the present begins arguing with the past, you are likely going to lose the future. The largest of all civil war mortals as the commonwealth of virginia. It was the major battlefield of the conflict. Three out of every five battles were placed inside the old dominion. The state suffered more human inflicted damage than has ever occurred in the western hemisphere. And when the civil war centennial ended in the mid1960s, widespread feeling existed that we have found all the manuscript material that is, and we dont need to do further research. But historians know otherwise. And then came the 150th anniversary of the civil war, forvirginians, sometimes people, but we tend to be more interested in our history than we are and anything else. After all, without more of a. We have three times more history than that of the United States, so we brag about it, justifiably so. It should be no surprise that the Virginia Legislature was the first to be created in the civil war sesquicentennial years. And its eight years of existence, state Commission Accomplished more in commemorative effects or efforts than the rest of the nation combined. The federal government did more of the sesquicentennial, for which we shall ever be grateful here in virginia. It stayed out of our way and let us develop achievements that will live, literally, for generations to come. The sesquicentennial will never die, thanks to what the mission achieved. I like to pause to pay tribute to men without whom we would have accomplished nothing. One was speaker of the house, a republican, and the other was president pro tem of the senate, a democrat. Without those two men at the head, the state commission would never have gone off its feet, never wouldve had the resources and the green light to accomplish all that it did. And let me tell you, he did accomplish a great deal. No other state did a fantastic job, that far out the far exceeded what virginia did in the 1960s. We on the Sesquicentennial Commission resolved not to make the same mistake that the Centennial Commission made in the 1960s. It ignored the young and the first Major Projects we undertook was the production of a 180 minute documentary on the civil war in virginia. Which was distributed, free of charge, to all 3000 schools inside the commonwealth. The second project with which the commission undertook is the reason im here this morning. That therelieved were in private possession still many letters and diaries, photographs and minutia of civil , but familyants members, for understandable reasons, did not particularly want to expose them or to give them away. But we knew, at least i felt, that they were there, it would we could just find access to them. So the Sesquicentennial Commission partnered with a library of virginia to locate and preserve as much of this material as citizens were willing to share. And so in june, 2010, the legacy project got underway. Photographic teams crisscrossing the state, announcing well in say saturday from 10 onto 4 00 in the mall, there will be a Photographic Team or sunday from 1 00 to 4 00 at the your Photographic Team, we ask you to bring in any civil war material you have. We dont want you to give it away, we simply want to take a picture of it. And bring it all together and put it in the library of ,irginia for future historians not much today, but future historians to use. Over the next four years, those Photographic Teams went across the state. We have 134 legislative units in virginia, including counties and cities. Stops in those four years. And photographing stretch from Northumberland County which sits on chesapeake bay, to lee county, which is in annapolis, adjacent to kentucky. And collections ranged from a single item to a veritable collection. Hope was that we might amass 1000 pages of material. When the smoke cleared in 2015, ofhad over 33,000 pages manuscript material. It was an incredible compliment. Accomplishment. The legacy project begin the largest source of unpublished material amassed during the civil war sesquicentennial, if not in the last 75 years. And to call attention to the collection, the commission asked me to go through the entire legacy project and to produce a small book that might be an etizer, a sort of order orders the legacy project. 40,ther notes on hundred which is less than 10 of the collection. In the findings were so fascinating that i just found myself taking notes madly, and i used only one third of the notes i had used from less than 1 10 of the collection itself. Book, civila little war echoes, which went all the public schools, all numbers of the state legislature, and the remaining copies went to the library of virginia. I assume some are still available. Its a one print job, so i just assume they are there. I limit those in the book to three glasses, northern soldiers stationed in virginia, seven soldiers stationed in the state, and virginia civilians behind the lines. Limitations, i just want to give you a sample of some of the wonderful material that we discovered and applied. The men in uniform of course came from all walks of life, it in their writings, they are focused on always focused, was on the same topics. Sicknessle, they see a more than they feared they feared sickness more than they feared battle. For everyone men killed, two men died behind the lines of sickness. Bullets is not the biggest killer, dysentery would kill more. Number three title and fever. So sickness is always there. And yet men in blue and gray belittle the sickness. Leave an agent 62, he wrote that he had contracted jaundice, which is a form of viral hepatitis. He wrote home, i have taken quinine in a particular regiment , but have also got a disease a damn site worse than jaundice. Ive laid here and so i am all covered with body lice. They are as big as young calves and im afraid they will either carry me off or carry out my clothes and leave me naked. The sickness was always there. Hunger, lack of clothing, no pay, little communication, distrust of newspapers, nothing new. Homesickness, steady loss of comrades, desertions, executions, all added to ms. Reason the military. The reactor should glorify war, so misleading. They dont tell us the real side because it is too ugly. Throughout virginia, union atrocities upon healthy civilians were neverending and created constant anxiety and pain. Material and the legacy collection, for example, will not win the endorsement of the Richmond Chamber of commerce. Citizens in 38,000 1861. Three years later, the population was over 100,000. The city has grown three times in population. The confederate quartermaster wrote richmond is the pride and the disgrace of the confederacy. ,t is the grandest, noblest vilest, meanest, wickedest place in the confederacy. They are here in herbalism the patriots spartan and roman virtues are constant and here there are vampires who are preying upon the countrys vitals while they chant heians to its glory. Anything butnd was magnolia and moonlight. Lack of housing left refugees wandering in the streets. Galloping inflation made it difficult to purchase even the barest essence of life. Filth, occasional epidemics of smallpox and typhoid fever and tuberculosis made richmond a vestibule of hell. These three unique features appear in the legacy project collection, and all three of them have a special appeal to me. Lettersf, we have more and diaries covering the last two years of the war than we do the first two years. Which is quite opposite to what normally one finds. Tales,y, the personal some of them, provide fresh, indepth brandnew accounts of lesserknown engagements. There are three personal narratives on the september 1864 battle of fishersville fishers hill and there are three different accounts that reveal that battle as i have never seen it told before. Accounts ofo moving the march 25, 1865 desperation ,ttack by lee at fort stedman and that he does berg line, both of us details of that battle the never been published before. Brandneware two rather exceptional eyewitness accounts of what happened when robert e. Lee wrote back to his men after the surrender to grant. And thirdly, which i especially like, is an incredible degree, throughout the 700 collections, the phonetic spelling. Phonetic spelling for the uneducated, men still the way they pronounce the word, and the figure the accent, the more incredible the word appears. Throughout my professional career, and professors do quirky things, always kept a running cap of the different way soldiers spell diarrhea. Doesnto 22, and that include the s word. After a while, you get accustomed to seeing it that way. And some of the champion miss millers of the civil war are unquestionably in the legacy project. One was a 36 virginia soldier named samson meadows, who is from what is now West Virginia widowmehow he heard of a down in cumberland county, not too far from here, and he wrote her a letter proposing marriage. He never met her, he just knew she was a widow, had children and money. And then this long, long it isl i think it the only word he spoke directly. The lee turned him down. Their Constant Companion was loneliness. It british degrees out for letter writing in American History. Writing a letter was the only form of communication between a soldier in a loved one back home. And here, you see motion in its most pure form. This especially was the case with the common folk. Stoneumn, 1862, henry wrote his wife i should tears every time i get a letter from menfolk dont normally reveal such emotions. And not hearing from a loved one lead to painful frustrations and leads it to the Thomas Fisher collection. Its a wonderful collection by a soldier and a wife, thompson frances fisher. They were in southwestern virginia and the vote for semi literate and Thomas Fisher joined the southWest Virginias most famous unit, the 51st virginia. Camp and foro about two weeks the men heard nothing. They were writing letters home but getting nothing in reply. Thomas fisher wrote his wife complaining that quote we dont get letters enough. John campbell and offered me a quarter for my letter today. He said he had not got one for so long that he would have to buy one off somebody or else he would have to get none at all. James charles as if you dont get one, he intended to write a long letter, take it home and let his wife read it and then bring the answer back. Was the more amazing letters of his wife, frances. I wouldve paid to a known that woman, she was headstrong and aghly opinionated and she is pleasure it is a pleasure to reader letters. In her first letter to thomas in her first lighter to Thomas Fisher, letter, she asked Thomas Fisher, i want to know if you have washed yourself at this time, or if you have washed at all . Tot difference did it make her, but i guess she was concerned. She replied with, i have not week, but il thought i would not say anything about it but she did. And then she took a shot on his father, your father tries to quarrel with me a heap of times but i do not listen to the old man. He gets tired of quarreling by himself. She closed the final letter she wrote with a slight suggestion time will soone come when the yankees the south may run, when you can come and see your son sleep, and love, and sleep with me. Frances fisher. She died four weeks later. The intensity of combat by listing casualties suffered by the opposing sides, that seems impersonal. Yet, it is easy to glorify war. We do it all the time. With glamourling and excitement, and a sense of beauty. War distorts history, and it belittles the meaning of sacrifice, a word we too often reading about the civil war. Let me give you examples of soldiers riding back about battles you are familiar with, but it will differ from yours. We know that general mcclellan advanced up the virginia peninsula and ended at Southern Pines. There it ended with a today battle, in which we all know the commander was wounded and davis was promoted to command of what became the army of northern virginia. However, shortly after the i wentof Southern Pines, down toward the Southern Pine ground, about one mile, and it was full of wounded men. It would raise the hair on any mans head to see the wounded. I was present when they commenced cutting off one mans leg, and i had to leave. I cannot stand and watch the performance. Commanded themin not to larry battery commanded the battery, and after the union forces, gatlin went and the battlefield ground is torn up by shot and shell, the trees cut in torrent, the grass scorched and burnt and trampled, and leave men and horses scattered in every direction. Sometimes, they can be counted by the scores in the hundreds. Our own men have all been buried, but the enemies killed friday is,s, saturday capacity sites still live with putrid mortification, and some stripped completely naked. Horrible, gaffney, devastating scene. Two weeks later, lees army crossed the book, crossed the river in the first inversion into maryland. You where they crossed, and where they stop at sutherland. Inside the ranks, a member of the 55th virginia noted i do not believe there are two men in this regiment that have not blistered. We himself and lee himself was crippled throughout the campaign. Just before they crossed the river, he was holding the lanes of travel and the horse jumped and it threw him off balance and he fell to the ground and instinctively put out his hands to cushion the fall. He ended up breaking one hand and spraining the other. The broken hand was promptly put into a stint, and he was put in the carriage and he rode in the carriage. He was still so impaired, not by pain and swelling, but by the injury, that at the battle, he was on horse but in aid had to lead the horse. Hands, signse his his name, address, and here we have some historians calling this the climactic battle of the civil war, and the commanding general is crippled for the engagement. Smashing victories in seem to manyg, confederates, more than simple justification for an end to the war. Expressed frustration that the yankees seem to not to learn anything from it. He thought it difficult. Excuse me. He thought it difficult for the union army to undertake the parcel again with his being horse, but they seemed to be the most patient people on earth. It is a hard matter for us to teach them in a sense, though the army has exhausted most of its skill on them. It seems to do no earthly good. Gettysburg,ater, in it was not much news and there was not much letter writing after that battle, at least for the confederate state back into virginia. In buckingham county, mrs. Mosley, anxiously and patiently irradiate a letter from her son john terry chi had not heard from him since he wrote of crossing of the Potomac River and going to the north. About 10 days after the battle, she got a letter. I will read it in its entirety. The battlefield, july 4, 1863 year, mother, i am here, a prisoner of war and mortally wounded. I can live but a few more hours. I was shot about 50 arts from the enemys lines. They have been exceedingly kind to me. Enough toay live long hear the shouts of victory. I am very weak. Do not mourn my loss. I had hoped i had been spared, but a righteous god has ordered it otherwise, and i feel prepared to trust my case in his hands. Farewell to you all. Pray that god may receive my soul. The unfortunate son, john. Somewhere in the National Park at gettysburg. Men. Gettysburg was just a set back, no one thought it the climax of the civil war. Men, not trulye informed of an artillery informed his fiancee we are and expect then, yankees to advance any day. In ources are engaged fortifications. When they do come, we will give them hell to the tune of dixie. Excuse me, my dear, for writing such language. Wereopposing armies entrenched near one another, personal feelings often interrupted national interests. That fraternization occurred early in the civil war, and it is understandable why. Men from both sides are from the same country, they spoke the same language, worship the same god, had the same National Traditions and habits. They could hate each other at a distance. Sometimes it was difficult to be hostile at close range. River in 1863, it was stated the yankees is on one picket the river, and i on the other. We swapped tobacco for coffee with them. They get one plug of tobacco for two pounds of coffee. The order is that neither side talk to the other, so we talk in spite of all of those orders. Admission we all know about the harbor and thousands of men killed and wounded in a short space of time. The virginia cavalry rode over the field two weeks later and saw it in a different light. As we did fortifications, he wrote what horrible sight. We had to move 10 bodies are 12 bodies to get down below. They were left them they left them on the roadside. The horses would hardly pass. Bodies were piled here, eight and 10 deep as far along as we could see. This is the most catastrophic scene of dreadful disaster i have ever imagined. Again, this is cold harbor. Another devotion of that war is seldom mentioned and i think peter will talk about it this afternoon, but i would like to open the subject for you. George mcswain was a 34yearold North Carolina farmer. He had little interest in the break up of the union and the secession meant nothing to him. His wife, hannah, two children, and a small spread of farmland was all his works. When a large contingent of his neighbors enlisted in the army, mcswain failed to do the same. Took thereafter, he unauthorized leave to go home needsy to the urgent of this family. Each time he was gone for several months, but both times he returned voluntarily to service. 1864, from orange county, mcswain informed his wife this was the last letter she would ever get from him because on saturday, he was to be shot to death for desertion. When that thought i had i volunteered in the service of my country that my life would he taken by my own people, simply for up sending myself with the view of protecting my children and affectionate wife. After receiving the death penalty, mcswain continued, that penalty washed over me like the raging hellos against a lonely lock in the sweeping storm, and i felt well assured that i would at least be at rest. But, oh, my little children, and affectionate wife, may the lord see fit and prepare them to meet me in heaven, where there will be no more grief, no more pain, no more sorrow, no more trials, more war, no more partying partying with little children, but we shall all be at rest together, forever, and he was executed and buried in an unmarked grave near gordonsville. The legacy collection strengthens the belief that romance and literature deeply affected most civil war soldiers. Absence truly makes the heart grow fonder. The primitive communication of that age produced holland yearning for members of the opposite sex. Virginias of the 15th visited winchester for the first time, he was smitten. Beenld his sister, i have to chester today and i walked with the prettiest girl i ever saw. If i could stay with her always, i would never carry the peaches never got right. He died of disease six weeks later. Asilleryman john went as far to tease his fiancee. He was deeply in love but had a sense of humor, too. From camp, he declared to his fiancee i do not think i ever saw as many girls, and some of them are very pretty and interesting. You must not be surprised if you hear of my falling in love with some of them. I think i am entitled to three or four. Can you agree with me on this point . Well, i have nothing else to write about. [laughter] the largest sustainer of morale in every civil war army, north and south, was facing god. It is was faith in god. It is a recurring theme in many lenders. Itashton many letters was a recurring theme in many letters. Countless numbers of civil war participants would have suffered confession,incolns i have often been driven to my knees by the realization i had nowhere else to go. In the autumn of 1862, virginia soldier wrote i hope i will return back home again, but i must look to god on my health. God is the only true friend we have here. Fredericksburg, the same sentiment was echoed i have read the heard work of a soldier, faith in god, however, is all i need. And maintaining faith was not always easy. A soldier named Charles Thomas went off toirginia war, and dr. He was in service a few months, he wrote this to his wife he requested a need to the prepared to meet my god, which i am fine to do. I want you, if you aint, to do the same. I stopped drinking in the measure, and i am praying to god. O help me with the rest by the end of 1864, dreams of southern independence were fading. Survival was becoming an issue in the confederate armies. In the stonewall brigade, a soldier told his cousin this is a hard life to serve. We are hard up to find something to eat. I think we will have to go up the spout before long. We are a earned set of levels. Another recalled that inside the petersburg trenches during the last winter of the war, confederate soldiers, in his words, received a small quantity of taken with cornmeal twice a day bacon with cornmeal twice a day. The bacon call due to hold your nose when you would eat it and the cornmeal was no larger than a silver dollar. Beltf them twice, and your takes up another hole to make you feel like you were full. April 9, 18 to divide, the war thehe east ended 1865, war in the east ended. Thousands of soldiers remember that palm sunday as the most painful moment of their lives. 20yearold edward jones of the richmond howitzers was among the number. , the first letter time it has been made public later that april afternoon, jones wrote home this afternoon, the last cheer is heard a point on the light. We see generally riding toward us. The front of his shield seem to shake the earth. The general rode up with his head bowed and never did he look more noble than then. I tried to join in the cheer, but after a faint success, my voice stuck in my throat and i could not utter a sound. We rode over to his headquarters, where many followed him. Voice and aling moist eye, he made public the terms of surrender. Fromcused himself saying more. The crowd pressed forward to shake cans at them and then commenced the most affecting scene ever witnessed. Officers high in rank seized his hands with tearful eyes. Nor were they more welcome than the weeping that each of them could feel and the pain of separation. The old general said with tears in his eyes and welcomed them one by one. It seemed he was a grayheaded father taking a last farewell of his children. I never witnessed such devotion. I found myself sobbing like a child. Putting all parts together onto a new frame would take time. We are still working at it. Every dozen steps forward has a stumbler to. As more years became history, a new nationalism whittled away at the old tales of beauty. Cell, boundd in a by common memories by marches, battles, and endurance and survival, and in the 1880s, they began having battlefield reunions. By the 1890s, they were meeting together at the same battlefield , for the same reason, and with the same emotions. Author stephen king called a mysterious fraternity they developed. A growing sense of brotherhood between thousands of soldiers, north and south, that placed individual ill will. The bitterness remained just before one is. I have loved these noble confederate soldiers. We both fought for what we believe to be right. Both sides were equally honest about it. Well, not always honest. Oftentories also descended into fantasy. These Veterans Group old, and their memories were exaggerated, and i think one of the most extreme examples occurred in richmond in the 1912 reunion. Tree, and olda confederate in his 90s by them, 1864, andng july 30, a battle when federals grew up a large segment of lees lines, and he said when we was blown up at the crater, the and my men were thrown up in the air. We met our captain coming down. And as he went by, he hollered, let me know when you hit the ground. [laughter] today, on theide, west side of fredericksburg, is a site of the 1863 battle of salem church. Barely one acre of the battlefield remains. Everything around it is commercialism. On that clearing stands a monument, a monument to the 23rd new jersey. And the plaque on the front forains the usual figures the memory of our hero and comrades who gave their lives for that countrys union on the battlefield. Nothing unusual. But walk around the monument, and you will see another identical plaque. On it, are the words for the brave alabama boys and opponents on the field of battle, whose memory we are gone. Up anglish never put memorial to the french in waterloo. The germans did not create a monument for polish suffering in warsaw, but yet, here, in the greatest nation on planet earth we will ever know, north and south came together, in large enough numbers, and with a rather startling quickness to exchange feelings of respect, and even friendship as the last days approach. Indeed, the greatest display of patriotism, any of those soldiers perform, was what they did as gentlemen, not as soldiers, there, mutual appreciation became the gateway to a lasting peace. No other civil war has ended that way, and it says much about the foundation of this country. And no amount of criticism launched today by nearsighted activists or politically correct students in history can ever discolor the beauty of that reconciliation. Nd the civil war echoes there are close to 300 quotations published for the first time. Even more so, the legacy project in virginia gives us new, moving commentaries of human feelings of common folk during americas dramaticatic years years. Have people always prided themselves on a reputation for pragmatism . And it relies on compromise to settle differences in a democracy. Both disappear in the 1850s. The politicians failed because they allowed emotion to overcome intelligence. And so farmers, clerks, students, machinists had to become soldiers, and they had to die to settle issues politicians refused to face. Century, one can never understand the civil war until and unless you truly grasp the human feeling of the time. Only then can we see the past in full light. For an is remembered great number of oneliners. The one i like the most is his statement the best news i learned is the history i did not know. History is the best teacher you hopefully,ave, and the virginia legacy project will be a big boost in that direction. Alsoe of that country will and always be our greatest strength. 50 years ago, my mentor made this observation in the period that has elapsed, many people have gone through considerable trouble to establish dissent on high officers of the union and confederate armies. In view of the splendid conduct of the folk and the great prices of the 1860s, it would seem those who sprang from that clash would take even more pride in that origin, for it was these men whose strength was the respective causes, and whose greatness made that war one of the most inspiring in the history of embattled humanity. Thank you very much. [applause] thank you very much. I think we have a little time for questions, if there are any. Thank you. I enjoyed that very much. With regard to the legacy project, i was wondering, is the Library Still accepting contributions if people have information that they still want to get copied . I am not sure if the question is if people want to make additional donations i am sure the library of virginia would he delighted. They are short staffed because of budgetary problems, but i certainly would welcome, personally, any such donations. Send them to me. I will get them in the library one way or another. I would be delighted. It is an incredible collection. Believe me. I think younger historians and generations will go through these collections. Some of these individual collections should be published. There is one by a young girl who in virginia and she kept a diary throughout the war, and of recalled the atrocities soldiers looting, stealing, a very emotional thing. There were two brothers from richmond, one killed in the war, and another journal that should be published in its entirety. There are certainly letters were the of publication. You cannot imagine the wealth of this collection. The photographs are outstanding. Again, once more, i would like to offer my thanks to the dozens of people in virginia, some of whom stood in line for one hour or more to share their collections with the library, and with you, and with mankind. It is just a tremendous accomplishment that we made it. In many respects, the centennial began with the thinking of this as a celebration and not just commemoration, and they had all it wasf trouble, but just sheer joy and pleasure to work with them on behalf of history and the commonwealth. Justlegacy collection is great, and i do not think any historian can bypass it. You have to examine it. It is so huge, you cannot not look at it. Anything else . Thank you so much for your talk. Felt likeon, that the bad news in looking up these primary sources, i think it is very good attempted to romanticize attempted efforts to romanticize war, but many how could a historian sort of look at this material to be corrected to say that they will just concentrate on the negative more than the positive war . That could potentially replace an incorrect narrative that we had before that this was something to celebrate and replace it with another single narrative but it was something to the floor. First, a lot of soldiers had a good time the first weeks. They were away from home, family restrictions, and they could all hang out in the army. They were having a good time. Many such quotations in these letters, it is as the army lost its luster. And we much more are inclined to complain in writing that we are to voice something. It is human nature. It is much better to display negative things then it is to go out and honor positive things. It is in the nature of the species, i guess. I find both there. You have to remember the times, and contrary to what is taking place in too many quarters today, you cannot look at the past through the lens of the present. Generallyple say, if had done this a general lee had done the second is berg instead of this, what a change of the war. Of course, but general lee did not have 150 years to think about it. You have to see the war to the blinders that these men saw it. This is especially the case with sickness. To get sick meant you in all likelihood were going to die. Today is the opposite. You just do not feel good, call opposition and get something done. Bacteria did not exist as a word. It may in the future. And this is quite the case. In march of 1863, i spoke at a lot of medical conventions about civil war medicine and it does not take a genius to do because was so little was known. Suffered a heart attack, no question it was some form of a serious heart attack. And what did the physicians do . Nothing. They did not know about the workings of a heart. If a man gets sick, he was start feeling death. When you run into epidemics, which would take out 10 of , but you getts measles, smallpox, and if you get around water, you are going to get typhoid fever sooner or later. , thesel of that sickness soldiers are scared. I will add another to that, my own beliefs, i think another reason soldiers were afraid of water was few could swim. They seat of the extreme there, and they are frightened. Theater is not they seat stream there, they see a stream there and they are frightened. Begins to feel a little bad and that will exacerbate until he feels awful. Disease is something we take for granted. Typhoid fever, we take a shots. One third would die from typhoid fever. Tuberculosis we could control. Smallpox was our ultimate weapon. We do not need an atomic tom, just release smallpox in the territory, and you have done much more damage than a weapon. All of these diseases are there. They live in fear. As service goes on, it is less and less to be happy about, especially on the southern side. Dr. Robertson, and studying arewar, we all know letters such a wonderful primary source. Veado newspaper accounts ry vary and reliability, and did they vary north to south, or paper by paper . Newspapers were more onesided than they were at. They did not even make an effort. One of the few men who recognized this was robert e. Lee. They had nothing to do with him. This came largely because on two or three occasions when lee was trying to conduct a secret movement, one of the richmond papers with take it up and give you a day by day schedule hour the army was. In my opinion, where robert e. Lee gained his greatest achievements, after the war, he fought so hard for reconciliation. Newspapers are good for opinion back then, and i use them for opinion, but they are short on fact. They were exaggerated. Ys tendency was there much on africanamericans or other unrepresented groups . The legacy project did not, and that was our greatest disappointment. It did not contain views from africanamericans, other minorities were ethnic groups. It did not. Manyan probably guess americans were not writing or sending letters, and in certain areas, especially in the northern areas, that was blocked off. Other books controlled the atomic river, and you could put two cavalry regiments, but it is only 10 miles between the business, and you walk up the peninsula, so those people got no letters out or in. Have more minority reports. But we dont. Said, it would be nice to get different viewpoints, that we do not have been. Cleart collection, it is the chaplains, and im looking forward to hearing what they got. See why so very much for your attention. [applause] thank you so very much for your attention. [applause] i would like i would like to remind you we are taking a 10 minute break shortly. Next on our program for today is dr. Lee. I will tell you more about her as we move forward. Thank you dr. Robertson for that compelling conversation and talk, and sharing those resources with us. Since there are no other questions, we are running a little ahead of schedule. I will take two minutes to fill you in on a few other important dates that you may want to consider. A lot of this information is wm. Org, thet ac museum website. As was mentioned in the opening remarks, the museum is undergoing construction of its new facilities. I also wanted to know we are commemorating the 200th anniversary of the white house of the confederacy called house 200. Throughout that program initiative, we will be talking about the variety of people who lived, worked, and occupied that home before it became the Confederate Museum in the 1890s. There was quite a bit going on through the programs offered this spring and summer. If you are in our at the maddox region in charlottesville, i encourage you to visit the American Civil War museum, where we also have a series of book talks and tours. In addition to a new exhibition being planned now, with students from lynchburg college, taking over the gallery to tell the stories of the family in the immediate postwar years. That will also be extremely important. Later this year, the museum of the confederacy building on clay street will close, effective october 1. That gives us time to move into our new building, which will be complete in october and will be beginning to move all the collections, which have been inventoried multiple times to make sure we know where everything is. Those collections will move over into extraordinary new facilities in that building. We will also use that time to do the final installations on the new exhibition, and are temporary galleries that will open, our first that will be opening in partnership with the Andrew Mellon foundation. That particular program, and that initiative was an attempt to figure out how best to take new scholarships and turn it into a public product quickly. How can we do that . Truth be told, a lot of the exceptional work team produced in the field under traditional models with museums, the lifetime is usually five years to 10 years, and that is just not in this day and age can we afford that. This experiment that the museum put together in partnership with the Mellon Foundation has allowed us to put that much quicker. That was in partnership with the now center, who selected our fellows to help us to the work. The first on this called bring back america, and it looks like the overwhelming impact of changes in the Financial System and establishment of that dollar bill you carry in your pocket and how it changed the game, in terms of capitalism, how people traded, and expended in stabilizing the monetary system, so that sounds boring, but it is complicated. When i first read the manuscript, i thought, what have i gotten into . As we have worked through it, it is astounding. Our second team is fast at work, as well, and their work will be presented in early 2020. That work focuses on the scholarship of dr. Adrian battle, one of our questioners back there, that will look at the expansionist plans of the confederacy. That is an extraordinary piece. There is a lot coming in. If you are not a member of the American Civil War museum, regardless of where you live, get your membership now. Get it today. Renew, do all of that, today. Org. T our website, acwm. R with that said, you have 10 minutes. Thank you so much. [applause] you are watching live coverage from richmond, virginia, here on cspan3s American History television. After the break, we will be back with the founding curator of african American History at the Virginia Historical society and an adjunct liberal arts professor at the university of richmond. A childhood forgotten. For the next 10 minutes, we travel to the courthouse in virginia, where general lee surrendered to local to learn about the local africanamerican experience in transitioning from slavery to freedom. I am standing in front of perhaps one of the most famous court houses in the United States, where nothing of significance happens. The name is confusing. Courthouse is a building, like the one behind me, and it is situated in the village of Appomattox Courthouse, court House Village is famous because it is where general lee surrendered to ulysses s. Grant in 1865, effectively bringing an end or the beginning of the end to the civil war. This little town has a lot of history for its size. Today, we would like to talk about white Appomattox Courthouse is so famous and we would like to spend more time talking about Untold Stories. The courthouse is a village complete with a tavern, stores, offices and homes. It is not more than 130 people. N 1865 it is an unlikely place for large military forces to meet, with a total of 95,000 soldiers in a six mile radius of here. Unlikely because it is not where either army wanted to be but where they ended up. As fate would have it the general lee, his army was tactically surrounded by general grants forces, and on the morning of palm sunday, general lee around 1 30 in the afternoon, he would meet general grant at the mclean house, a nicer leader of the classroom in the village. Nicer maitre upperclass room in the village. It effectively brought the end of the war. That is certainly a crucial story, nationally significant, and no doubt the reason it has been designated a National Historic site. There are plenty of Untold Stories about it. For over 150 years, people have referred to it as the place where our nation reunited. For students in history, we struggle with that idea. If that were true, the 150 years that have followed the American Civil War to not make a lot of sense. Centennial,ing the the 100th anniversary of the civil war, a tremendous celebration took place here, marking the occasion. Meanwhile, the schools in appomattox county and across the state still are not even integrated. Was still five years away from integration in 1970. So why isnt it the place where our nation reunited . Wherewhy is it the place our nation reunited . Part of it is the large field behind me, where two battles were fought. General lees decision was not arbitrary. He was brought to that decision because of the realities that surrounded him. In the field behind me on the morning of april 9, the battle of Appomattox Court house was fought. A large federal force was engaged, that would put federal soldiers on the field behind me. During the battle the morning of april 9, there was one known civilian casualty, a woman named Hannah Reynolds. Reynolds, like 52 of all human beings and appomattox county at that time, was enslaved by dr. Samuel coleman. She lived in the home about one mile to the west of where i am standing in the epicenter of the battlefield on the morning of the ninth. She was unfortunate to be hit by a confederate artillery shell that morning and was attended to by surgeons from the eighth maine infantry unit. She was able to survive another three days and died on april 12, that wednesday. April 12 is a very important date in the history of appomattox because it was on this road i am standing on on april 12 that confederate infantry stack their arms, flags and ammunition along this road. You could say that the individual confederate soldier actually surrendered on this road and not in the parlor of the mclean house, where general lee did. Hannah reynolds dying on april 12 meant, in a way, she was mortally wounded as an enslaved woman, and in the way, she died and emancipated woman three days later. That is a powerful notion that struck these visitors during the 150th anniversary and has given us cause to explore this story and others more deeply. What did happen in this village and throughout the south and the country in the weeks and months that followed the surrender . In history, it seems to almost always be a good idea to ask the question, so what . General lee surrendered to grant on april 9, 1865, so what . What . S a date so so what about the enslaved population of appomattox and the rest of virginia . What was their future . Does the future former slaveholders . What about lower and middleclass whites that did not own slaves that would be deeply affected by what would happen . We will head down to the other end of the village of appomattox andt house and builders visit the kelly house, also known as the robinson house, and explore a story that sheds light of National Significance of what happened after the surrender. Here on the eastern edge of the village of Appomattox Court house, we find a contrasting village. Behind me, a house known as the kelly house. House, andmclean uppermiddleclass home, perfect for the surrender meeting, the kelly house far more represents what most people around appomattox county and southside virginia would have lived in in the mid1860s. It is down here that we find an excellent example of an untold story. We talked about what happened to Hannah Reynolds after the war. Unfortunately, she passed way from wounds in the final battle. Down at the kelly house on the eastern end of the village, we find an example of what happened after the surrender. The kelly house was completed in 1855. The kelly family was a large one. There were five sons and his family and all fought in the war in the army of northern virginia. At least one, maybe two, where he for the surrender in their andhome town on april 9, april 12, 1865. In the years that followed the war, eventually, this house would be purchased by a man named john robinson. We do not know a great deal about his early life, but this is a good example of what emancipation looks like in the weeks, months, and years that followed the surrender in appomattox. Perhaps two of the most tangible examples of emancipation you would have seen on the landscape that summer of 1865 would have been the development of a friedman school, the legalization of unification, and the ability of black citizens of appomattox county to form their own churches. Many of these cases were people who were members of integrated churches, at least physically integrated and congregations were separated, but it was a larger white church were many black residents attended but as a result, got permission to leave those churches and create their own. The first such church to be created in appomattox county was gallantly baptist church. One of the founding members of that church was john robinson. He was the first treasurer and trustee of the church. Initially, our understanding is in the months that followed the surrender, the congregation auld form what was known as meeting outside under the trees, but by 1867, the congregation had been able to form enough money and resources to build a log church that exist about one mile to the west of the courthouse. About 50 years later in 1916, a new church would be built on those same grounds, the same one that is there today more than 100 years later. The story of john robinson, not only a homeowner and cofounder of a church, but also a businessman. A shoe cobbler. Apparently, a good one because he ran a business here for more than 60 years. John robinson did not pass away until 1933, but after raising a large family of successful businessman, with some members buried in the backyard of the kellyrobinson house. Right here in the Little Village of appomattox county, we can see the so what of the surrender. It unfolds before our very eyes. We only have to look more deeply to see Untold Stories. Shortly we are back live at the library of virginia in richmond for the American Civil War museum symposium, featuring talks on how the conflict affected ordinary americans. Next is the visiting professor, dr. Laura lee. Welcome back, everyone. They are now beginning to sit back down to start. We are here 48 hours every weekend, bringing new lectures. You can find our schedule on their website at www. Cspan. Org history. Now, back to the symposium. Maytudying many of you know her as founding curator of african American History at the Virginia Historical society, or she curated or that one doesnt exhibitions over 15 years. Among her most important accomplishments was her role as project leader and historian for ,he digital genealogy project unknown no longer, a database of virginia slave names. Throughout her career as a curator, historian and consultants, she has focused on the lives of individual people, primarily africanamericans from the first arrival of the enslaved in 1619, through the civil war and emancipation through the modern era. Readers of the Richmond Times dispatch also know her from the front page of mondays paper, she was honored on sunday with the john jasper trailblazer award at bonsai on church. Leeany of you realize, dr. Is a late addition to our panel and we are grateful to her for agreeing to participate in the symposium, filling in for our originally scheduled speaker. I will say a little other short words about lauranett. She and i have been friends for oh, lord longtime, longtime. Probably 20 years. There are very few women of color who pursue this work, and we find each other often. It is a matter of not only being able to share resources, knowledge, but the way to find our voices went sometimes the voices not only of our subject matter, but also ourselves, are muted. With that, i am delighted to have her join our symposium today to share her recent work as she talks about children in the civil war. Thank you. [applause] dr. Lee thank you for being here and thank you for the warm introduction. I appreciate it. I am delighted to be able to share some of my thoughts about children. The children who went through war. Not only in the civil war, the children now living in war, all around the world. Often times and we think of history, we think about specific amounts of time. I encourage you to look beyond the civil war, to look at the experiences that children endure now, the plight they are suffering all around the world, and to think about how the civil war really gives us the opportunity to open our minds and consider what they are going through now. Wheree come over away tears have been watered, and through the blood of the slaughtered. Out from the gloomy past until now, we stand at last, where our white star is cast. Those words were written by Weldon Johnson in the early 20th century, part of the national speakanthem, and they poignantly about what was going on before, during and after the civil war, and now. We understand often times and we think of war, we think of those fighting the adults, but what about the children . We do know that it is very difficult to talk about children and think about them existing during a time when so much is going on, when tumult is everywhere. I encourage you, as you see images on the scene to look in their eyes. Really look in their eyes. Look at them. It is easy in our lives to bypass anything that is difficult, hard, tragic. We go on, we are busy, we had things to do, but what about the children . When i was called and asked to be a part of the symposium, i realized quickly that it is children that i really wanted to focus on, so as a virginian, our history means so very much to us , as dr. Robertson has said. It means so much more to those of us who have gone through something. Africanamericans, women, children are often left out of the narratives we hear about, so when we think about their experiences, we do not really know that much about them. As i began reading the literature, i was overcome with all the big all the things they experienced. In the middle of the night as i am reading, i hear the english in their loss i hear that english in their loss anguish in their loss in trying to find family. I see the separation when they are trying to look for any Family Member. I read newspaper ads when they ask people, help me find my family. I understand the trauma that they went through, not only after war, but during and before knowhere in richmond, we of a major slave trading center, where so many of the children were separated from their parents. We know of the interviews that were taken of parents who spoke about seeing their children leaving. We know also of the bitterness that left many of them as they tried to find their families to reconnect and reunite. We also know of the morning when they could not find family, when they were looking, when they often times encounter someone who told him that a Family Member had died, the desperation , in searching, and not really next, butere to go still putting one foot in front of the other. Being vulnerable. Being in a position where they had very little help and not knowing where to go for help. The grief. The powerlessness. The shock. The sadness. Confusion. Agitation. Depression. Terror. Uncertainty. Pain. Yearning. Agony. Fear. Dislocation. Dislocation. Anxiety. Hunger. Nakedness. Horror. Disbelief. Orphans. Sorrow. Dread. Wandering. Suffering. Suicide. Coping. And all of that, you wonder how is it that they made it through . These littlet forwardere able to push and keep putting one foot in front of the other . Because in a large part, they held on to hope. Hope unseen, but something kept them going. And often times, it was the faith that had been instilled in them from their parents. When parents knew they would not see their children again, they would tell them always know that god is with you. , lo, imible verses with you always, even until the nds of the world. And children would oftentimes keep repeating these bible verses and learning to pass these bible verses on to their children and the generations to calm. To come. Alm their faith in god kept them going, and it is the shared experiences across caller, time, and space that keeps children goading going. The shared experience of childhood. Often times forgotten, oftentimes not having one. , goinghrough slavery through the loss of family, and even experiencing the impact of not really knowing who family was. These shared experiences are human feelings during a tumultuous time. And it was during these times that these children began to see themselves beyond their current experiences. Virginia, there were more deaths than in any other place because of the fighting. And so we have an opportunity to really dig deep and consider what it meant to be a child, not only in war, but before war. Not only before and during war, but after war. And consider what it means for children living in war now, all over the world. , theto experience sickness diarrhea, the jaundice, the lice. Hunger, lack of clothing, homelessness, and in spite of all of that, they kept going. Children today keep going. The friends orphan asylum here in richmond was founded immediately after the civil war, and those papers are in the Valentine Museum. Lucy brooks was a major leader in that, because there were so many Homeless Children wandering the streets, not knowing where to go. And we began to see small groups of women all over the south, particularly here in virginia, starting these friend asylums to help the children. We know the freedom and Bureau Agency did what they could, but we have to recognize that labor was still an issue, and so there are very various apprenticeship contracts, and indentured contracts as well, where parents tried to keep their Children Free from the bureau. Former slave owners wanted to hold onto those children too for the labor they could provide. So we see the tension between parents and the freedmens , and thesets children caught in the cycle. We know about boy soldiers who fought, both black and white, union and confederate. And these are areas that need further explanations, further exploration. What were their experiences as children . Often times, many of the officials did not want to have children in contraband camps, nor did they want to have women. They saw them is a strange species that would weigh upon them. But yet and still, the women and children cap coming. And where they could, they worked, even the little ones, three and four years old. If you can imagine now a three or fouryearold working, and working to the best of their ability, it gives you some idea of what these children were going through. People, theymy often ask people. Help me find my people. Do you know where my people are . And they would wander as far as they could. We often hear people talking about walking miles and miles. These children did walk miles and miles. And even when they could not find their families, they made families wherever they could. They reconnected with those who call themselves family during slavery. And when they could, they created new families. They took in children. They banded together and created new communities. When we think about child slavery and the enforced exploitation of children, think about what it meant to finally labor, to claim your own to finally be able to claim your own children. These two parents who had not been able to do that, whose children had been sold away from , really beganants to try to be the family that they always wanted. When we explore the impact of war on Diverse Groups of people and narrate the stories of individuals who have navigated the challenges and opportunities of war, how do we include children in that . Have been oral interviews done, particularly during the 1930s with the Works Progress administration, and often times people want to discount those oral interviews. They say they could not have really remembered all of that. But who are we to say . These are their experiences, and their experiences are real to them. During the civil war and in its aftermath, children, both black and white, indoor hardships, similar to the hardships endurenced injured d hardships, similar to the hardships experienced today. Widespread social and cultural demoralization is something that we really dont want to face. We turn away from it. But it is all around us, just as it was all around them at that time. Former slavesf between 1861 and 1867 allows us to examine the relationship between latent slave beliefs and manifest slave behavior. What theseto say experiences were, but to look at their words and to consider what it meant to find family again. We know the abusive , where oftenps times parents would enter into contracts, sometimes with former slave owners, other times with neighboring whites, and specify that their children should be educated, that they should have clothing and be fed. And often times, when they visited their children, they found just the opposite. The children were in abusive relationships. And as parents tried to reclaim their children and get them out of their contracts, they understood the legal system had caught them in a way they could not move. When i worked at the Virginia Historical society, now called the Virginia Museum of history and culture, i was fortunate to be part of the creation of the , the database of virginia slave names. It was in those records that i really began to think about the children. It is difficult on a daily basis to pull those documents, now crumbling, inc. Fading. The writing almost illegible now crumbling, ink fading, the writing almost illegible, and listen to the parents who sold their children, sometimes to buy a horse, sometimes to give money to a relative, and not consider what that meant for the family, but those children to be sold away so easily. That is the kind of thing that stays with you past 5 00. You go home and you wonder what happened to them . Where did they go . It is the remnants that we have now and that we try to reconstruct. In many ways, we are not able to. But the memory of reading those. Ocuments still stays with me oftentimes, i would wake up from nightmares, scratches on me, like i had run through the fields. Because to read that every day wears on the spirit. I remember talking with my aunt who died last year. She was 100. I told her about the work i was doing and how difficult it was, and said i do not know how im going to get through this. She said you are not living it. Your calling is to tell us about it. And so i encourage you to go to that website, www. Unknownnolonger. Org, and look at the documents, just as you are looking at the eyes of the children here, and begin to tonk about what it means have lived through such a difficult time. And it is not only the black children, the enslaved children, what about why children white , who themselves were growing up in this institution of slavery . Who, in many ways, debased their childhood friends because they could, because of the caller of their skin. Of their skin, because this is what they saw all around them. Think about the applications of what that means today implications of what that means today. I am fortunate to be teaching in the richmond Leadership School and also in public history, and i engage my students in the process of thinking about the past. And its connections with our present. Us,an see that all around the equities, the health care, employment,ousing, and so many areas. It isd to remember that out of this institution of slavery that so many of the people are still having to live. That thiso understand history is not an easy thing to do. Just a couple of weeks ago, teaching tolerance came out with a report about the heart history of slavery, hard history of slavery, and we also meant at intague met at montpelier a summit with other scholars, to talk about how we can teach this heart history. When we consider how it is being taught now and the children are being taught to test, they have no understanding of what it meant to be living in such a difficult time. Consequently, they have no empathy. They have no compassion. They do not connect. But by showing children what other children went through during the civil war, in the wars that we are now living through, perhaps they will begin to get a glimpse of what it meant to live through a difficult time, and how the y,equities in our societ the disparities we see all around us, are born out of that. We understand that race needs to be discussed and look back very minutely at the ways that this nuanced understanding can better inform our lives and encourage us to be all that we were meant to be as a nation, as humans. Humanities ishat really something that is at the core of all of us. One of the documents i came across while working on the inabase is a list created august 9, 1865 in buckingham county. He lists 53 names. At the names, you can look at the family relationships. Look at their ages, what they did as laborers, and to consider how easily it was for slaveholders to break up families, and oftentimes did on a whim. And to consider that these families may never see each other again. The 1860s, 1865, the carrington family in Charlotte County listed all of the enslaved people that they owned. And that is where my family is from. When i look at that document, when i transcribe it, i was looking for my family. And i did not find them. Means,bout what that when we look for family and we cant find them. Think about what it meant for the children living during that technologyd not have , who oftentimes could not read someone, who had to get to tell them what they were reading. Think about how that impacted their lives and how hope kept them going. In charles city county, there skeltonst made by john ton at a plantation that we can go visit today. He listed the children of phyllis, a 34 urals. She had a 14yearold daughter. Amed margaret a 34yearold she had a 14yearold daughter named margaret, a oneyearold daughter named patsy. Edmund was oneyearold, and there was one person listed as a girl, one years old. Oneyearold. They had run off to the union army, and this man recorded their names. Imagine what it would be during war to leave all that you had known, the plantation where you had lived and worked and tried to raise your family, to go follow the union army, not knowing what to expect and oftentimes being turned away, not having enough to eat. Working where you could, trying to keep your family together. Listed at the phyllis did when she left with her children, and this is what so many other mothers and fathers did. Oftentimes fathers went ahead of the mothers to work in contraband camps, and when they could they got back word to their families that they had made it, and they would send for them. , the women and the elderly would leave and bring with them the children. Those contraband camps became overwhelmed with women and children. And even when they experienced harsh treatment from officials, they kept coming. They kept coming, putting one foot in front of the other. Oftentimes bracket oftentimes ragged, hungry, dealing with jaundice, all of the diseases that we heard about. And yet they kept coming, having hope that one day they too would be free. And would be reunited with their families. I read an account book created by richard epps in hopewell, only about 25 miles from here. He was out in appomattox manner, he was in an appomattox manor and spoke about his enslaved workforce, and his valet, which traveled with him. He was very different from many slaveholders, because after the war, he kept the formally enslaved groups together and paid them wages for their work. And many of the Family Members are still in hopewell and remember that history and pass it on to their children. 1860,is an inventory in which speaks about louisa, 12 years old and selling her. There are so many stories like this. And these children, not knowing oftentimes that they were being sent to richmond to be sold, would have a note pinned to them for the slave trader to read. Because they could not read, they did not know. And it was in getting to in , whichbeing is close enough for us to walk to understand what that meant which is close enough for us to walk too, they began to meant. And what that when they heard references to being sold down south, they know that it was reference to something worse than they had ever heard before. Oftentimes, they would be worked until they died. That was harder work, they did not have those familial ties. ,hey were in strange country and they may do the best they could. Why made do the best they could. Why . They kept the faith, they had hoped. When we think about they had hope. When we think about so many times that these children, not knowing what they were going to go through, would reach out to the former slave owners or the slave owners that still owned them, and begged them to keep them. Mothers would beg the slave owner to keep their family together, there begging and pleaseir begging and would fall on deaf years deaf ears. But one day, these families had hoped that they would be reunited. Themow that not many of were reunited, but those that were would oftentimes tell others of their experience. They would pass this down to their Family Members. It is the memories they keep alive in families and that we know of today. And we know that many times, these memories, though they may change over time, there is a nugget of truth in them. That truth is what keeps families together. In the 1880s,at when we began to see fewer black people owning land, those who did would always encourage their children to hold onto the land, to come back and be a part of the family that is Holding Onto Something that they had not had before. These are the children that they believed would make a better way , not only for them, but for future generations. And so, as they began to make a better way, moving into the 21st 0th century, they understood the legacy of slavery was still with them. Lynching occurred on a greater scale than it ever had before. And the horrors that we know of during the lowest point for africanamericans was worse than anything they had ever known in slavery. Wes is the hard history that do not want to face. We talk of war, and often times we glorify it. But there is nothing glorious about it, especially when we think of the least of these, the children, who through no fault of their own had to endure more than any child should. As children today still are in wars are all over the world in wars all over the world. Quote by aded of a man, who, when he found his family, reunited here in richmond and he told them i aint going to be a stranger no more. Because he would do everything he could to keep his family together. , yes,y roads to be trod with a steady beat, have not our weary feet. Come to the place of which our fathers and mothers died. We would like to think that we have come to that place, but when we look around us and see the disparities in our society, when we look at the walls wars around the world and consider what children are going through, we have to ask ourselves, what can we do to move people forward toward that star . Toward that northstar that so many of the enslaved people struggled to reach. How can we help make a difference to the children living today . What can we do . It is good to think of it think about the past, it is good to know the past, but think about the implications of today, of what the past can tell us, how it can inform us about how we move forward today. ,e have a lot to do before us and when we think about why history matters, it matters because we have a lot to learn from, and we have a long way to go. Remembering slavery is a difficult thing. We do not want to do it, oftentimes. We prefer to think of how we intoup, out of the past something really beyond slavery, but have we really moved beyond slavery . Have we really, when you look into the eyes of the children, you know that there is something more that needs to be done. The shared experience between , itk and white children tells us that those experiences, those memories of childhood, of family, are something that really should not be ever forgotten. We must move past it. So i encourage you to think about the past and its applications for today. Think about the consequences of the leasteans and how of these suffer still. Thank you. [applause] i am happy to take questions, comments, your concerns. Thank you, dr. , very much for your wonderful talk. My question is in thinking about strategies for students and how to overcome, how to get their empathy and understanding on this topic. I see there are three obstacles to understanding the plight of children in the mid19th century. One, the lack of evidence. We hear about this through adult voices. Secondly, the context, the very definition of childhood is very different in the mid19th century, indeed the idea of children is different. And i think that is reflected in attitudes to child labor and so on. Thirdly, it was a very Different Society demographically. The is a counterpart of orson of the copulation, portion of the population, and many more people. It transformed the way society was at that time, and i would be interested to hear your thoughts about on how to engage students when we are dealing with such a different time and context . Thank you. Thank you. I think it is extremely important to engage students with primary sources. And we certainly do have plenty of them. That is why our museums are so vitally important and can provide that help not only to the teachers, but the students as well. Oftentimes, we are finding now that the School Systems do not have the budget to have students come to museums, but with digital initiative, we can get these documents to the children, to the students. And to the teachers, teachers institutes as well. To help teachers grapple with give them an opportunity to interact with other teachers and talk about the way that they are introducing the subject through their classrooms. One of the things i would encourage teachers to do is to use these documents, these primary sources as the foundation to engage children in understanding and appreciating history. You start with the facts that are in these documents, and encouraging the children to use the facts to build the story around a particular named person in the document and perhaps create nonfiction with the facts as the foundation. In that way, they can see how history cant come alive. Its not just us on the pages. When we think about contexts also, particularly here in virginia, we are fortunate that we are surrounded by history. We walked on history. We had the opportunity to visit battlefields, memorials, visible places her in and sometimes invisible places. Parents to time for get out with their children and engage in the learning about history from the ground up. Here in richmond there are so many different places you can go. On one of the boards i serve on is the state review board of historic resources. Historicominations for properties that then go onto the national level. You can go on the website to look like to look at the nominations yourself. They are meticulously researched. Opportunity toe look at how scholarship is created, and also to go to these places and engage with History Survey personal experience. We also have the historic highway markers which you can see the acting landscape. Virginia length away in historic highway marker programs. We have the largest historic highway marker database. I am a virginia and i am very proud of that. I also reckon wise the recognize the warts in our history. There is a hard history that we overlook. Sources,the primary and going to these places, we can grapple with history from a different perspective. Though it is difficult, we can push through and put one foot in front of the other, and hope we can make a better virginia for the generations that are coming. I dont know if i answered your questions. Thank you. You said primary sources, thats always a very useful. You mentioned the Valentine Museum for Homeless Children . Friendss called the orphans asylum. , thereuments are there is a highway marker for the assignment. , ands to help the children some sources say at least 30 percent of the population were children who were without parents wandering the streets. Sewing group of women who decided to do something about it. Thank you for your wonderful talk. It was very powerful. Especially the images. As and your call to us difficult topic. Do you have suggestions about aw we can think about raising child and its relationship to capitalism, and consider how capitalism today continues to make dependent forms of labor. How should we think about andery and american jobs how should we think about the destruction of the slavery and forms of labor and how does capitalism relate to that. Capitalism and slavery capitalism was the foundation of slavery from americas founding. We cannot separate it. When we look at our Society Today look at the prison industrial system. At the business of incarcerating people. Look at the Justice System. Look at the inequities in the Justice System to look at the ways in which our schools are disproportionately resourced. ,he ways that housing neighborhoods have been created and gerrymandered. We see capitalism in every aspect of our lives. Prevalent that we almost overlook it. In our busy lives, we go along with what we have to do. But it is all around us. When we talk about crime in urban areas, what is the basis of that . That come from, where does it poverty come from . How do we eliminate the property . How can we distribute resources more equitably. Waysve to consider the that at its core there has always been a hierarchy of those who have and those who have not. Often times that is based on race, gender, class, and these are the things that we cannot more. In that way, i would encourage you to look at capitalism from an intersectional perspective. The highest rates of slavery today are in Central Africa and india. Where is the highest concentration today . Areas where 15. Here are wars around the world it is in those areas that we see the highest amounts of slavery. Also whenmalia, but myanmar, thedia, United States, i would encourage us to look at slavery in a more nuanced way. When you think about the old crowded urban areas and the way that people are held down from moving ahead, think about how that is in many ways similar to slavery. Prison talk about pipelines where children are into prisonshuttled pipelines at earlier ages, think about how that enslaves them and enslaves whole communities. To look at, we began slavery from a much more new kind of way. Ed we as americans here in the south, we have gotten over that or moved on. You cannot get over it until you deal with it. And we have not really dealt with it. The valentine is the is a place museum is a place we can go, are there other places you can go in virginia . At the virginia history is a very rich. Esource there were 8 million unprocessed documents. 2016, we hadn 15,000 names in the database itself arian. That is a small percentage of what is the largest collections of those documents. They hold the names of children and families, and it provides more information about the makeup of families, the ages, the work that they did, how much they were bought for and how much they were sold for, sometimes where there were sold and why. Thank you so much. I express she ate i appreciate you coming. [applause] thank you very much. I was curious listening to each other russians and thinking about the theme. I told you that our new exhibition will look at ordinary people their extraordinary stories. Talking about families being torn apart, i could not help but think about the ark and story about garland white. He was born in virginia sometime in the mid1850s. At the age of eight years old was taken to and he was sold to a georgia congressman to serve as a house boy in washington dc for this new congressman. He was taken to washington and it was there that he was able, this young child, to align himself with other freedom seekers and he runs away at age 13 and makes his way to philadelphia and eventually to canada and comes back through ohio where hes nice to become a minister. He wants to be a chaplain for the army. Of thee passage emancipation proclamation, he is assigned as a chaplain for an indiana unit. He is working very hard in his community and abroad to encourage the use of free black men and those who are self emancipating to join the union effort. In 1865, garland white enters richmond. Chaplain of the United States college. Out,e fires are being put garland white is approached by another member of his unit who says to him, didnt you say you were from richmond . He said yes. Youit you say the last time saw your mother was when you were eight years old . He said yes. Theres a woman here you need to meet. Him tollow soldier to , but forn, much older some reason was still an richmond and introduced him and said, this is your mother. Knew that wasr he his mother. He was fortunate area most people were sold out of richmond did not get to come back and find their Family Members there is a database, digital scholarship lack lab at the university of richmond, it looks at the patterns about what happened following the war and where people were going to try to reconnect with those families and missing children. These are the kind of stories that help us understand, help us understand the human toll, it helps us understand the core of r of war. Rro and helps us understand the transient nature of things. Before i go, and lunch is on the , i reminded of a fixed or a 1995 that was released in by dr. Myra gordon. She did something a little unusual around this topic of american trauma. I know our future speakers will also talk about this. Gordon is a sociologist, she studied the civil war for that. Applied the concept of what happens in trauma, the stages of grief to the war to try to explain how is American Society we deal with it. The wars about generation, being the one who goes through the shock, the moment of dealing with trauma. Then she moves us through that. Of anger where there are people who remain perpetually angry about what happened in the course of the law the war. The bargaining took on many shapes, as she would argue. She said that among some of the bargaining was in order to reconcile, we had to eliminate black people from the narrative. Another thing that she said was sometimes in the bargaining we say to ourselves the war wasnt about them to begin with. Other things that she said was black people themselves sent way will not talk about slavery, because that isnt us anymore. They themselves took away at narrative for self reservation. She moves us through the upper stages of grief and she said there are very few people in america that have reached a acceptance. Ed one has to be willing to understand all of the nuance and all of the trauma and all of the her and all of the perspectives to bribe that brought us to this place. I would encourage you to look at that work. This aftereminded of our first two speakers, here we are at lunch time. I have been associated with the Virginia Historical society, not the university of richmond. ,ake a look at emancipation that will give you a sense of the Movement Across time and space. Thank you, yes. An amazing piece. We are going to have a break now for lunch, those of you that ordered lunch your boxed lunches are outside. You can go across the hall and have seat or you can step outside and enjoy that. Amy taylor, who will talk about divided families in the civil war. Right now its lunchtime. We will see you at 11 50. Youre watching American History tv on cspan3. We will be back live for three more sessions from the library of virginia. Amy l taylor on divided families in the civil war. On hospitalulz workers. At 3 p. M. Peter carmichael on the common soldier. For the next hour we have selected two programs from our american artifacts series that highlight civil war soldiers and civilians. At of thea may 2015 1865 parade on pennsylvania avenue in the Nations Capital celebrating the end of the civil war. 150 years ago on may 23 and 24th of it defies to military processions called the grand review the armies through thousands of spectators to pennsylvania avenue. President andrew johnson, cabinet and officials and general grant watched from the viewing stand in front of the white house. On may 23, an estimated 30,000 soldiers drove by general meade took six hours to pass before the reviewing stand. On may 24 general sherman led 65,000 soldiers of the army of tennessee and georgia on the same route. Next on american artifacts, a reenactment of the raid that celebrated the end of the civil war. The name is dr. Malcolm beech, president of the history association. Today we are having a reenactment called the grand review parade. This is a reenactment of the victory parade that was held at the end of the civil war down pennsylvania avenue. However, at that particular parade the United States troops were not allowed to be in the parade. Today we are correcting that oversight. They will march in victory today down pennsylvania avenue. We have been planning this for 18 months. Trying to reach out across the , this will have over 1500 people today and 2000 different descendents. My name is lisa granberry, about 25 miles east of memphis. Today i am here honoring my great great grandfather from tennessee. In 1863. Ed is het i know about him enlisted in 1863 in lagrange, tennessee. Regiment,h the 59th. E had expeditions he was in memphis for a while and he had another expedition upelo. Elow t shooter. Canon he did have some hearing problems, but other than that after the war, listening to my aunt i asked her what job he had in he said he didnt have a job. He was a soldier. So that was his job. They said his occupation was a farmer, but after the war, thats all we know. You are going to walk down pennsylvania avenue i will be walking down pennsylvania avenue. Tell us about your organization . , most ofegular basis the numbers are reenactors. We have teachers, historians and other people who are interested in the africanamerican participation and the civil war to we go to all the reenactments, appomattox, and the parade much parade march. Any place where there is a major africanamerican troops participated in which i to make adriana. To make a reenactment. Line isnk our opening after the assassination there were lesser men in charge and ,here was an opportunity colored troops are only 20 miles outside of the city. Instead of asking them to join the parade they were sent back to the south to guard some of the areas that were recently surrendered by the confederates. They were not allowed to participate. Im James Hubbard from south jersey. Representing the descendents of my family who fought in the civil war. Tell us about your ancestors. He served in the sixth , they saw infantry action in raleigh, North Carolina and richmond. The taking of richmond and heaters work. Petersburg. I dont know what ship he served on. How do you find out about your relatives . I was here in washington dc when my grandson started school and we saw the civil war museum. I went to my cousin, and she said they had a couple of relatives that served in the civil war. She gave me some of the information and i did further research, i said we would come down. My family will watch me in the parade. They came down to see it. I think its very interesting. Im excited. How did you get your uniform . There is anm organization in philadelphia, he was with the fifth or sixth regiment and does reenactments. He had the uniform. I went online to try to find one and it was really hard. Thats how i got it. The uniforms are not 150 years old. Online order a uniform and get it in a matter of days. You areperson today i am ar, reenacting for lieutenant , aonel william read color troopsthe 36 out of new bern, North Carolina. In the battle in florida was the , theel was killed Lieutenant Colonel took his place and let the regiment in battle. William breed is seo i am reenacting for today. Some wounds during the battle and he died sometime after. U. S. Colored troops, think about it, they were from the south. And went tock home theyreas of the south, and were able to take their weapons with them. That provided some level of safety for as long as they could. What should people who dont know anything about the u. S. Colored troops, what should they know . Its a matter of selfrespect