Generals men. The president of the railroad is telling him its a real threat and grant is going to move rather slowly. As the confederates will now move toward isolating the union troops, which evacuated Harpers Ferry on Maryland Heights and close in on frederick, maryland. On frederick, maryland, they have occupied it on the 8th day of july. A union army has been assembled there on the banks of the river and on the 9th day of july at the battle, who would write the most popular novel written in the 19th century by american author ben purr. When evacuates and leaves the battlefield he falls back on baltimore leaving washington uncovered. Many of the thousands of men who had been manning the washington forts, the 87 forts and batteries had been called to fill the vacant ranks as we talked about in those wonderful songs we were led in as they are father abrahams call. And they are going to become instant infantrymen. Many of them we have just heard from our lecturer, many by the black men and of what becomes originally fort massachusetts but is now fort stevens. So the day or the 10th day of july is an unseasonably hot day. The men are wearing more uniforms and im an honorary member of company b of the mts regimen. The proudest things i have is attending some of their rallies. Im glad to see they are here in full strength. [ applause ] the forts were e departure of the heavy ar till riss, one of them being fort massachusetts. Heavy artillery which becomes a trivia pursuit question. You dont like to be. What Union Regiment lost more men in 15 minutes in the civil war . Its the first massachusetts heavy artillery. One of these ones at the forts against lees lines at peterburg. Well lose 642 men out of a little over 850, losing more men in a single battle than any other unit in the civil war. Thats a trivial pursuit question that you dont like to be one of the victims in it. So as they sweep down, they are tired and the confederates are going to reach rockville, just up the road from where we are wn the evening of the 11th. On the 5th day of the month, the president ial family and their close advisers move from the white house into the soldiers home. On the night of the 10th, secondary staten, hes a rough customer. I heard the people weep about secretary rumsfeld. You dont know what a tough secretary of war staten is. If you wept about secretary rumsfeld, youll commit harry caray over secretary staten, as he sends the message out, directing the president and his family to remove back to the white house. The guard, in company of the 150th pennsylvania, the buck tails, have left the soldiers home and will be stationed in another fort. The president will be up early on the morning of the 11th. The confederates had paused at rockville and john mccauselin with his calvary sweeps down the georgetown pike, now wisconsin avenue, arriving at tenially circle while the rest of the Confederate Army moves crosscountry on farm roads leading from rockville to turn in to the 7th avenue extended, now georgia avenue. And by noon, they are approaching silver spring. The president , i can imagine the secret service. Now, the secret service will not be responsible for the president s security until two other president s have died at the hands of an assassin. Not until the summer of 1902 does the secret service become responsible for the big man in the white house. You can imagine him on that day as the president goes out and visits fort stevens and other forts. Yes, he is here at fort stevens on the afternoon around 1 00 on the 11th day of july. The confederates are in silver spring. Men moved across into the district line, moving into occupying ground now embraced by walter reid. And the president is going to be shot at, but this isnt the important one. The important one he gets shot at is going to be on the next day, as he circulates. He makes a stop down at there is no haines point at that time. Where haines point is now, he watches the boats and ships arrive with the members of the 6th corps, two divisions of them under wright and detachments of the 19th corps that have come all the way from louisiana to hampton road and have joined the troops up. And some of the troops could remember this tall man, seven foot tall when he has his top hat on, now if we knew we were going to have two 64 president s, we would have had a better measurement of them. We have two 64 president s, one is Abraham Lincoln, the other is Lyndon Baines johnson. You do not know which is the taller, because they dont go to have any such things as that. And they see the president nibbling on a piece of hard taft. They then move out throughout georgetown pike, out through georgetown, because the first reports the general received, the confederates are in the area of rockville. But they are going to be detoured, turn in and move out 7th street extended georgia avenue. Theres a lot of excitement in washington that night as the 6th corps arrive to help out with the militia, the 108 men, the imbi corps of the next day. The confederates are having a real ball up in silver spring. Montgomery blair is going to lose his house, franklin, to the confederates, who show that they can burn houses pretty well, too. Francis blair, adviser to all president s from Andrew Jackson to Abraham Lincoln, hes not at home, but he has a good liquor closet, and some of the confederates, particular jubal early, is a good drinking man, and they are consuming francis p. Blairs liquor supply, and they are very delighted as they get more and more, because one of the confederates there is john c. Breckenridge. Who is the youngest man ever to be Vice President of the united states. Being Vice President under james buchanan, and the confederates are feeling good. Now, lincoln had kept construction going on the capitol dome. The dome has been completed. You can see it from the soldiers home, and they are debating, because breckenridge had been expelled from the senate in october 1861 as when he left the vice presidency and then the senate. As they get more and more influenced by what they are drinking, they boast, tomorrow well march down massachusetts avenue and well escort general breckenridge into the capitol, into the senate chamber, which he had presided over and place him back there. Well, the president is going to pay a visit out here again on the wealth. Hes going to arrive out here and hes going to bring mary with him. Now mary and he, there have been causalities out here, and close to the walls of fort stevens is a hospital. They go in and visit several Wounded Union soldiers there and then mary sits down. Out here also is the secretary of state. The secretary of state, of course, is william seward. Soon to arrive is going to be gideon wells, secretary of the navy, and his wife. Now mary gets the one cabinet member that mary gets along well with, mrs. Wells. She doesnt get along with others. The president will go up and stand on that paraben, where in the 1960s theyll put up a monument there. The principle speaker there will be one of breckenridges soldiers that they put up that monument to commemorate where lincoln is standing there in his top hat, seven feet tall, looking out over the sloping ground in front of him, where the confederates have taken shelter in the house in a grove about a quarter of a mile away. As hes standing there, theres a spat. Standing next to him is dr. Crawford of the 102nd pennsylvania. He is shot in the thigh and blood spurts over the president. Now i often wonder what the secret service would do now, because the president has blood on him and now horacio g. Wright has a tough job. That is, hes got to get the president off the banquet, the firing step, getting him down where hes not exposed. Theres two versions of how he does it. One, that he will ask the president politely to please step down. The other is, that he will put his hand on him, might have been bad for him in the days when we had secret service around, and they help him down off and he sits on the level ground, the step just back from the paraben and sits down with his back to the par apin. After awhile hell go over and talk to mary. Mary will swoon and the president will say mary will not make a very good soldier, as she swooned. So while the president has been under fire, a man has been shot near him, and by 4 00, the 6th corps is ready to take the offensive. And they will move out from in front of fort stevens, moving across the ground, the slopes down to where walter reid is now, beyond battleground cemetery, where 40odd men of the Union Soldiers who were killed here are buried and the union troops and the confederates pulled back. Lincoln will not take his eye off the big picture. Tuesday the 12th. On the 14th, he is back out at the taking care of business. So he is going to do, and i want you to take another little tune there, because hes going to sign a bill calling for 500,000 more men. And theres one of the tunes in that, we are coming father abraham, 500,000 more. So hes showing his commitment to continuing the war. Hes also curtailed negotiations carried out through on the same day with mr. Blair, through frank blair, and Horace Greeley with meetings up in buffalo, where they are going to meet with confederate representatives and hes going to order them, direct them, they will not there are two things he will not compromise on. He will not step back on the emancipation proclamation or that bill thats working its way through the house and the senate abolishing slavery by congressional amendment, and he will not step back on the confederacy having an independent nation. So great things have happened here. Its wonderful to see the group out here today to talk about these events. Too often these events here in washington are kind of forgotten. And as early pulls back to virginia, hes going to say one thing. Well, we didnt capture washington, but we sure as hell scared the hell out of Abraham Lincoln. We have to remember what Abraham Lincoln is going to write on the 24th day of august, that is five weeks after this day. And that day things are still not going well. Butlers army and stymied in front of richmond and petersburg. Sherman is stymied in front of atlanta. And president will write a letter to the file and he will say, and the democrats have met in chicago, adopted a peace declaring the war a failure and nominating for president george b. Mcclennan and pendleton of ohio as Vice President. And the president will write that day, as of this day, we will probably lose the election. Therefore, we will have to work with the left to save the union after election day and before hes inaugurated as president on march 4th, because he will not be able to say it at at day. But, of course, just like everybody could remember, my age or younger can remember harry truman on the night, on election eve, a little after 12 00 in 1948 when he pulled out the headlines of the chicago tribune, dewey wins. Lincoln would do the same thing with the letter hed written to the files. Cabinet member, put it in an envelope, members of the cabinet signed their names on it, he opens it up and reads it to what they had signed, because with that election, father abraham will be in for another term, and its wonderful to come out here and be with this group here and think of the great events that took place here. Thank you so much. [ applause ] thank you, mr. Bearss. Before closing, we have a few announcements. Thank you again, mr. Bearss, mr. Gibbs, everyone for joining us again today. We do want to acknowledge, we have a lot of special guests in the audience, but we actually have the great grandson of captain simon e. Chamberlain of company k. , the 25th new york calvary, the first calvary to deploy here on july 11th here at fort stevens when earlys troops arrived. With mr. Im sorry, would mr. Chamberlain please stand. [ applause ] we will close the benediction, but we do hope each of you will come over and join us. Just across the street youll get some instructions. Its the moment to join us for the first fine of the civil war here in the District Of Columbia since 1864, 150 years ago today. Fire a canon, yes. Please welcome again reverend louis as he leads us through the benediction. Please stand. Now lord we ask for our blessings that as we leave this place, that the street fellowship of the Holy Communion will rest, rule and abide with us now and forever more and all gods people said amen. American history tv in primetime continues wednesday with the civil war battle of the crater, which took place during the siege of petersburg, virginia, on july 30th, 1864. The battle failed with heavy losses for union troops. At 8 00 p. M. , the National Parks service commemorates the 150th anniversary of the battle and honors the role of u. S. Color troops. At 9 20, emanuele dabny discusses how the attack failed and why u. S. Color troops were unjustly blamed. And at 10 15, author kevin la vigne discusses how color troops were remembered immediately following the civil war. The battle of the crater at 8 00 p. M. Eastern here on cspan3. Here are some of the highlights for this weekend. Friday on cspan in primetime, well visit important sites. Saturday night at 8 00, highlights from this years new yorks ideas forum. And on sunday, q a with new york congressman Charlie Rangel at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. Friday night at 8 00 on cspan2, indepth. Saturday on afterwards at 10 00, retired neurosurgeon and columnist ben carson, and sunday at 11 00 p. M. Eastern, Lawrence Goldstone on the competition between the Wright Brothers and glenn curtis to be the predominant name in manned flight, cspan3 on friday at 8 00 eastern, a look at hollywoods portrayal of slavery. Saturday at 8 00. And sunday night at 8 00 p. M. , former white house chiefs of staff discuss how president s make decisions. Find our Television Schedule one week in advance at cspan. Org and let us know what you think about the programs youre watching. Call us at 2026263400 or email us. Join the cspan conversation, like us on facebook, follow us on twitter. Each week American History tvs series the civil war marks the 150th anniversary of the conflict by bringing you lectures, discussions, and battlefield visits. 150 years ago in july of 1864, a Confederate Army of about 12,000 troops under the command of general jubal early nearly invaded washington, d. C. Next, historian and journalist marc leepson takes us on a tour of battlefields in maryland and washington, d. C. To tell the story of the battle of monacacy, where confederates were delayed by union forces in the approach for the Nations Capital where early probed the defenses of the heavily fortified city before deciding to turn back. July 1864, to give you a Bigger Picture of the war, this was just after the bloodiest six weeks of the civil war, the wilderness campaign, spots of wilderness, over 60,000 union causalities dead or wounded. About 40,000 confederates dead or wounded. There was war weariness, especially in the north, but general grand grant, u. S. Grant, was determined to this was his grand plan to end the war. He had richmond and petersburg surrounded and his idea, his plan, was to choke robert e. Lee and force him to come out and fight what he thought would be the battle that would end the war. Lee knew this, of course, too, so lee came up with a bold plan of his own and that is on july on june 13th in the Early Morning hours, he took about 12,000 troops under general jubal early and took them outside of the defenses of washington on a bold plan, a fourpart plan that he hoped would mess up general grants grand plan to end the war. The first part was to kick the union forces out of the Shenandoah Valley. Now, at this time of the war, robert e. Lees biggest problem was supply, including food, and most of their food came from the Shenandoah Valley. So the union forces under general david hunter had taken over just about the entire Shenandoah Valley. Second part of the plan was to quote unquote threaten washington, d. C. The third part of the plan was to free confederate prisoners at the Point Lookout prison camp, which was on the very tip of Southern Maryland in the chesapeake bay. And the fourth part of the plan, and i think the part that lee considered the most important, was to force grant to take troops outside of richmond and petersburg and to ease this chokehold that grant had on him. So in the Early Morning hours of july 13th, 12,000, an entire corps of troops, left the defenses of richmond, about a third of lees troops. They marched 70 miles to charlottesville, virginia, got on a rickety old train and arrived in lynchburg on june 17th and june 18th came the battle of lynchburg, which didnt last very long, because hunter who wasnt one of the great Union Generals to say the least, fled once he saw earlys troops. So hunter fled over the mountain into West Virginia, what is now West Virginia. Early thought about chasing him, they didnt, but he took one look and saw the entire Shenandoah Valley was cleared of union troops. This is big. So early marched his men down the valley, north because of the way the river flows, so they began to march down the Shenandoah Valley. They were very they were not very well supplied. A third to the half of the men did not even have shoes. They tied burlap around their feet. They waited two days along the route for a shipment of shoes. They got up to Harpers Ferry in martinsburg, both in West Virginia now, then in virginia, where another dim bulb of Union Generals, he was a political general, a german immigrant, he was made a general because he could bring in germans, he was from st. Louis. He was the one who had the not very good experience at new market on may 15th, where he outnumbered the confederate troops and lost when the entire corps of v. M. I. Cadets came up from lexington and defeated sigel, unofficially known as the flying dutchman. Sigel fled martinsburg and Harpers Ferry and they had a nice 4th of july, the southern troops did, eating all the yankees food and drinking whatever beverages they found. The next day on july 5th, they crossed over the Potomac River into maryland. This is the third invasion of the north by confederate troops. 1862, 1863, into what will be the battle of monacacy in 1864. Seagal fled to the other side of the river from Harpers Ferry and were pretty well embedded up there. Early thought about going after them, but he didnt. He made a right turn, now 50 miles from washington, d. C. And they did rest for a couple of days in maryland. Then he headed towards washington, d. C. Jubal was quite a character, to say the least. He went to west point, but not to be a military man, it was a good education at the time. He did take part in the seminal wars and mexican war, but he didnt see any action. He was a member of the Virginia Assembly at one time, he was a warrior, and before the war started, he was part of the virginia secession convention. Once virginia seceded, he became probably one of the most ardent confederate die hards. He quickly gained a reputation of being aggressive leader, he became a general, he was in all the battles in the Eastern Theater from manassas onward, and he was kind of a cantankerous guy. He was a hard drinking, tobacco chewing, he was famous for cursing, hated women. Didnt get along with fellow officers, didnt get along with generals. The men sort of loved him and hated him. Robert e. Lee really liked jubal early. Lee called him my bad old man, even though lee was older than early. Early had arthritis, kind of hunched over, scraggly beard, wore the slouched hat and lee liked him because its interesting that lee should depend on him and admire early so much, because lees personality was 180 degrees opposite. He was a godfearing man, he didnt curse, respected women, and so on. Robert e. Lee said its good war is so horrible, otherwise men would love it, compares to jubal early, who probably, if there was something the opposite of that to be said, he would have said it. Sths a man lee entrusted to go on this mission and he was one of the more aggressive southern generals, and its interesting because of what happened later at washington, his aggressiveness. Washington was just across the river from virginia. 90 miles from richmond, from the very beginning of the war, the union was very concerned about a southern invasion of the Nations Capital, so immediately troops were sent down into washington, d. C. , and then after the battle of first manassas, the feet 35 miles from washington, they started building a series of forts and fortifications that by the time a couple of years later, washington was completely ringed by interconnected series of 67 forts. They were called the defenses of washington. They were kind of like a beltway. They even went across the po potom potomac. Those forts, only one of those forts exists today and thats fort ward in alexandria, virginia. Fort stevens, where were going to go later, has been partially rebuilt and thats where the end of my story happens, outside of fort stevens. But these forts were very well built. They were all connected by fortifications and berms, and they were designed to be manned by about 35,000 troops, but now were in the summer of 1864, just about every ablebodied union troop is down outside richmond in petersburg in the Eastern Theater. We dont know the exact number, but we think only about 10,000 troops were on the barricades at washington, d. C. Who were these 10,000 troops . Well, they were members of what was called the veteran reserve corps. The veteran reserve corps had just changed its name before that. Before that it was known as the invalid corps. They changed the name for obvious reasons. Who wants to be named the invalid . Most people, i think, know there were so many causalities that washington, d. C. Was basically one giant hospital during the last years of the war. As troops got better but couldnt go back to the field, they were given these pale blue uniforms and did rear echelon duty. So thats who was defending washington, d. C. When jubal early came here to monacacy on july 9th and the battle started. This was not a good example of union high leadership, what happened here during this. First of all, union intelligence was abysmal throughout the war and it was not good here. The union did not know that robert e. Lee had taken an entire corps of troops outside leaving richmond where they left on june 13th. They didnt know really that an entire corps had left until july 5th, when they crossed the Potomac River, then you had a little bit of panic going on. Especially when the word got out that early was heading towards washington, or maybe baltimore. He didnt let people know. Here at monacacy, strategically northwest and east south transportation connection. We have the 355 over here, which was here then, it was called the georgetown pike, and it goes directly on a line to washington, d. C. Today, its called the irbana pike here, it becomes the rockville pike, then becomes wisconsin avenue. Goes right into washington. Up the monacacy river we have the pike that goes straight to baltimore. Then we have the railroad line, which comes straight down here from baltimore and the spur that goes straight from frederick, so you had north, south, east, west railroad hub and two roads that went right to baltimore. So it was not clear. There was panic in the streets in baltimore and in washington when they heard. And, of course, the rumors started flying. Early had gained troops. They had about 14,000 troops on july 9th. The rumors were that he had 15,000, 20,000, 35,000 troops. So washingtons command structure was fragmented. There were a lot of generals in washington, d. C. In fact, general hallock, henry hallock, who was the army chief of staff, at one point said we have plenty of generals, what we need is privates here. We need people to get to the barricades of washington. So that was the situation in washington. Now back down in richmond, grant, when he learned what was happening here, did not want to send troops outside of richmond and petersburg, this was his grand plan to win the war. You can read the telegrams that went back and forth between washington and outside of richmond. You can read the memoirs of people on his staff. You can read the letters that they wrote. Grant would not send troops, and finally he gave in at the last minute and he sent two regiments of the 6th corps, woke them up in the middle of the night, marched out to city port, got on these steamers, went down the james river, out into the chesapeake bay, up into baltimore harbor, they got off the ships, they marched to the railroad station, camden station, now camden yards where the baseball stadium is, and they arrived here at the monacacy junction at 1 00 in the morning on july 9th, 1864. Union intelligence was not very good, but one man figured out through the intelligence and more or less what was happening, and that was lou wallace. Now lou wallace was an interesting character and he was the other main character of this story. He was from indiana, he was from a prominent family. He did serve in the mexican war as a 19yearold lieutenant, but he had no military experience other than that when the war started. He did have a unit in indiana before the war. Those were those drill teams that dressed up in these colorful uniforms. They became the 11th indiana when the war started, he was their leader and he scored an early victory at romney, West Virginia, right after first manassas when the union was looking for heros. And the union press played him up really big and he became a general and that was sort of his high point. His low point happened at the battle of shiloh when his regiment got lost the first night. Probably not his fault. It was rough terrain, bad weather, et cetera, dark, kind of a fog of war situation, but grant and hallock were very, very upset with wallace after shiloh. He did fight the second day, but they sort of shoved him to the