Transcripts For CSPAN3 American Artifacts 20141201

You are watching American History tv all weekend on cspan3. To join the conversation, like us on facebook. You are watching American History tv all weekend, every weekend on cspan3. 10 00, the00 and historian and curator use artifacts and photographs to trace the history of women in the house beginning with the election in 1917 and ending with the story of Margaret Smith today at 6 00 and 10 00 eastern on cspan3. Each week, American History tv visits museums and historic basis. 200 years ago on september 11th, 1814, british and American Naval forces clash for two half hours in Cumberland Bay near plattsburgh, new york. The battle was the culmination of six days of conflict. Up next, we travel to plattsburgh where retired author david fitzenz, author of the final invasion plattsburgh, the war of 1812s most decisive battle, takes us on a tour of key locations to tell the story. I have something to show you that is very rare. To fight the british when across the border. Only several hundred showed up. The son of a Lieutenant Colonel in the militia decided he had all these weapons and know when to use them. Was in thersenal basement of st. Johns academy, he went upstairs to see the to see thed asked class that consisted of boys and girls and teenagers. He said to the boys, your fathers have all gone forward to fight the british. Ou are here you could help out. I have plenty of weapons downstairs. If you come with me, if you volunteer to come with me and come downstairs and get these weapons, i will show you how to shoot them. I will show you how to do the military drill. This afternoon, we will join the militia and defend these girls and other members of the city right here in plattsburgh. Of course with that, the boys looked around at all the girls. Every one of them volunteered. Andeenagers went downstairs learned how to use the rifles. As the regular army passed by, they joined the end of the column. This little platoon of teenagers led by a 20yearold captain. They fought for five days. Ran stayed when the militia. At the end of the battle when he was successful, he was so impressed that he gave them their rifles. He granted them the rifles. Of course, the army being the army, nothing ever changes. The quartermaster said to the general, you dont have the authority to give away these rifles pick these are government property. They had to recover all the rifles from the boys and left. But in 1825, Congress Granted decorative rifles to the boys. This is the only one we know of in existence. This is Martin Aikens decorative rifle. It looks a little unusual because it was the first of the rifles to have been assembled online. The lock, stock, and barrel are all separate and interchangeable. This lot, rather than being fed from the side, is fed from the top. With the release mechanism here, the entire lock comes out, can be replaced with a good one, snapped back in place, and the rifle is functional again. The longer would the rifles be made individually. Congress wanted people to know exactly what this rifle was people and they granted him the rifle, they put the decorative plate on the butt of every rifle. One of these showed up on the antique roadshow a couple of years ago. The second one we know exists. I bet there are more. Have you ever seen one with a plate like this . You are watching American History tv. Pilot joseph baron. 48 hours of programming on American History every weekend on cspan3. Follow us on twitter for information on our schedule, upcoming programs, and to keep up with the latest history news. Night, cofounder of paypal. I would say the