steve comes from an entirely different background. he has all the credentials for anyone going through medical and psychiatric work both in 5:00 deem ya and in public and private service. but, rather than go through a recitation of his ceil denble i'd rather give you some insight to steve as a writer, researcher, historian. in 41 years last 25, as the civil war specialist and lincoln curator, i entertained many prospective writers and very seasoned authors. we would talk and, occasionally, i really could be of some service. i was responsible for bringing in new material. neither purchasing or accepting donations of rare manuscripts. it had so few users on record. it was really a contest about a contest set up for civil war veterans who lost their right arm, many of them lost their right arm or leg. they applied -- the object was to stimulate them or train thems into the use of the opposite limb. with a $500 top prize and that was so successful, it repeated several times. the life writing of numerous veterans who had survived the war and had experienced the drama of losing a limb. usually, a right arm, sometimes a leg. steve started working with that collection. he stayed with it through 17 years. his book is coming out from florida university press either this fall or early next year. it deals with the effect of combat and military service on the individual soldier. i think it will be new, the original. it will be something different. it's something we'll all want to see. i've visited him at his home in new jersey. we have talked annually. i was an instigator in getting him to be part of the lincoln institute board and he has been a very fairful member. he's been a close friend and my psychiatrist. thank you. [ applause ] i wasn't sure which was more of an honor, and i think it's neck in neck, quite frankly. dr. sellers is one of those irreplaceable when he leaves public service. i've been in the museum sometimes, i've actually not been in the theater. this is really quite a place. one of the joys of historical research is to find out what is true and what is not true. the term, thinking bayonets has been atributed to lincoln by historians. but there's actually no drekt evidence of him using the term and he certainly didn't coin it. the term is derogatory. he warned government be ware when bayonets begin to think. when the quote was applied to union veter rans, and the first one i could find was may 7th 1861, it was positive from the beginning. it has always been a positive atribt. the term applies to union soldiers. and its example october 30th 1864 in relation to lincoln's re-election with us far from being a subject of fear it is our glory and pride that the wharf of the union has been upheld by a million of thinking bayonets. when people talk about union soldiers, they are often luched together. one of my mishsions is to change that. and to point out that the real rebels of the civil war with union soldiers. this was truly the people's army. the demographics of the union armies were citizen soldiers. of the white soldiers, approximately one quarter were foreign-born. the predominance being from germany, ireland and france. their back grounds were interesting. about 50% of them had agricultural backgrounds. only about 2% were professionals. but abraham lincoln made a distinction in his message to congress on july 4, 1861. and he pointed out that within any resonance, he of course, is actually right. they went into congress, they joined the professions, lawyers other professionals, engineers. that was, indeed, a correct reception by abraham lincoln. nearly half of the volunteers had lived with slave holders. he concluded that there was a direct connection slavery. slavery lay at the heart. brothers under the skin is sitly deferred under one issue. i'm sorry, folks, that's not what happened. confederate soldiers collectively abhorred northern soldiers, for the most part. seeing them as invaders, vandals, mercenaries or herbals. so who were the white, northern soldiers. he femt, as did millions of others, that the lamp of american liberty must go out an endless night. i forgot one disclaimer i forgot to mention. my views did not represent the department of defense. i shouldn't say that. the second point i'll make is i'm going to be using verbatim quotes. i do not change quote\s from times. as john mentioned, every time i mentioned a soldier was wounded, i mentioned the loss of their right hand or right arm. he talked about the difference between a monarchy and a republic. the yununion soldier had almost a religious belief. now, african americans were not banned from the navy, but there was a 5 pnt quota. once african americans were finally able to enlist, approximately 180,0 0 served. along with about 7100 of their white officers. only 20% came from northern, free states. now, the percentage, the best estimate i can find came from edward ranke and his marvelous book. it seems to be accurate. he figured about two-thirds of african american soldiers performed as slafs. predominantly illiterate. frederick douglas, of course, pointing that out. and the other third were predominantly free men of color from the north. the motivations for african american soldiers were different. an example of that is the fourth united states public troops. the usct. with the exception of a few states, most african americans served under the united states of a troop again including high-ranking noncoms being aufgsed will whites who came in. now, pinkney had been a slave in the border state, maryland. he enlisted in baltimore. he eventually lost his right leg at d-bottom in front of petersburg, 1864. although a devastating wound pinkney viewed it as a sacrifice willing to make. i have lost in the effort for the benefit of the generation to come. for free men of color, the motivation was different. free men of color in a racist state. several of them have property requirements. the government of ohio would not allow it. the black man's rights to untraveled manhood. it's an amazing statement. pin finally was given the chance to enlist in september, 1863. there was a question whether they'd be allowed to fiekt. they were going to be used as laborers. now, they had difficulties. the first issue was unequal pay. to his credit, secretary of war, stanton, attempted from the beginning to ensure that equal pay with enlisted men. it was $13 a month, three of which was a clothing allot 7. the militia act specified that black soldiers would only be paid $10 a month and they would only be used and paid as laborers, not as soldiers. you can imagine how this would sit with proud men of color from the north. they improved themselves in battle and they had done a soldier's duty. why can't we have a soldier's pay? it was not until 1865, march 1865, that those who had been slaves at the time of 1861 had been given the same benefits, including back pay. as i'm sure you rebel that great scene from glory where they refused to pay. that is 5:00 rat. you can imagine the hardship on african american families when they refused to accept pay lower than white troops. and they literally had to go through white and black bethen lant societies. the other thing was the fact that they had not become officers. it had, interestingly enough, a positive benefit. this is one case where bigotry had a benefit. what they did, though, was very interesting. they put the candidates, essentially, an officer candidate school were put through much more rigorous training. that was something that james henry gooding also mentioned. by the end of the war, approximately 100,0 0 were given commissions. it is among the tragedies of war he was killed in florida, february 20th, 1864. holding the flag of the country and equal pay of an opportunity to become an officer. however, that same nation, at long last, had given african americans a chance to fight. and that changed a lot of attitudes. and, among the biggest sector, it changed attitudes with fellow soldiers. july 1864, on his wae to city point after his right arm had been amp ewe tated. he saw prisoners in an open field in double file. this gaf me if great estest satisfaction. a month before, fisk had written commission aurves. miserable compromise. tlfgs no quarter given when confederate troops met black union troops. southern soldiers trapped black fiddle as a matter of course. however, it became a de facto policy by default. it was condoned, never punished. the only civil war battles involved confederates and black troops. the soldiers, the black soldiers and the white officers knew all too well what this meant. colonel thomas higgins commanded the first south carolina, proposed exclusively, of former slaves later wrote they all felt we fought with ropes around our necks. other union soldiers knew exactly what was going on. master and slave meet on equal terms. there is retrobugs justice. predominantly, they were democrats. abraham lincoln had a lot to do with that. talk about history being made, bruce cappen noted the incredible site. he fought for themselves. the men who voted in 1864. and it was disproportionately for lincoln. that was a vote 23r emancipation. lincoln had a relationship with the men of the union that was probably unique. what's interesting is that was east and west. lincoln never went to the west. he department go west because the armies in the west were never victorious. i tend to agree with jack davis. president lincoln and the general came down together to view the army. he was a good looking man and a splendid figure on horse back. you can do everything with an army but leave it. mine haven't. lincoln was rather awkward. he came to washington to recooperate. wilbur fisk met at the city coin. and he talked about the honor, how thrilled the men were to see lincoln. came e came from one of the divisions. a professor of rhetoric and modern languages who, the academics above you, when you go on sell bat kal, generally you don't go to war. that's what he did. he was supposed to go to europe, instead, he went to war. he literally had just come back from mathematics accepting the surrender. and the first thought that he had was how are my men going to respond he gets all of his officers in he informs his officers of the assassination. he swears them to secrecy. until they can be made secure against their own men. why? because chamberlain felt they could be trusted to bear any blow but this. he at no time have to worry. they were dealing with professionals. then arm bands in the same way they had honored other fallen presidents. they were mourning lincoln as a veter ran who had fallen in the civil war. they stacked their arms and what i found so beautiful and moving, they planted the fifth core symbol on a mound in honor of lincoln. this was replicated in other regimens, in other parts of virginia where the potomac was stationed. now, what about african american troops. one of their officers got the word actually two days later, two days after lincoln dying, 7:22 a.m. on the 15th he heard a rumor of an assassination. five days later, it was confirmed. now, what about black troops? again, whatever complaints black soldiers may have had about president lincoln's slow progress in e mans pating the slaves disappeared when he was killed. with anguish fully equal to that of white americans, blacks mourned the death of abraham lincoln. there was no greater legacy to abraham lincoln. he looked at how they honor lincoln. there were no reprisals against prisoners, civilians or property. they blaifed as the fine soldiers they had become. lincoln would have been proud of his men to have known that. oaf the next three days, an event took place right here. ambassadors, ministers of foreign lands. offices of the nations and states. but we miss the deep sad eyes of lincoln coming to review us. something is lacking to our hearts now even at the supreme hour. they were coming home. but 600,o 000 plus weren't coming home. american veterans had come back from war before. never so many with day bill tating injuries. nobody was prepared to this scale. but there's also something else. these men had predominantly left their homes green. they saw the element. they came home as profshl soldiers who had witnessed sites and performed deeds that no one ever imagined. the kaleidoscope of combat. and it is a kaleidoscope. to suffer the pain those endured on the battlefield, i cannot, in reality, tell. it is behind the human mind to express the horrors that are endured there. private david doyle, wounded, gettysburg. august 13, 186 the. 2. i turned away full of sadness. private john bryson. john bryson would visit the full battlefield. he became the curator of the union cemeteries after the war. there's another side to war that people sometimes don't want to hear or acknowledge. war has a grandeur. that's the flip side of the horror. more than 70,000 men in line in the full view. just think about that. they never forgot it. the men in the union who fought at gettysburg, always thought about watching those men coming towards them. and standing there. they said the site was beyond experience. may, 1864. even that as my rapture as i think of it. an american world war ii pilot wrote never did i feel so much alive. never did the earth and all the surroundings look so bright and sharp. i have my life. when you treat veterans and work with veterans, this must be acknowledged. in many ways, it's difficult to dealing with what's not in combat. how could one possibly approach that? by the way, they talked about fear. private frederick cut ler, the 72nd, pennsylvania. i had been asked how i felt going to battle. he says, well, the truth, i was scared. badly scared. but once in gauge with the enemy, my fear vanished. and then there are dwoo remarkable quotes. he wrote war is hell. that's not the half of it. war is also mystery and terror and adventure and coverage discovery, holiness, pity, despair, longing and love. war is nasty. war is fun. war is thrilling. war is grudgery. war makes you a man. war makes you dead. there is a love that's almost impossible to replicate in civilian life. i felt a tear roll down my cheek as the last three years of my life rolled off into the night. we were closing down one world and opening up a new one for all of its uncertainties. the men of the union faced very similar motions as all men and women returning from war. but there was special difficulties. there was no g.i. bill. eugene sledge got his doctorate on a g.i. bill. there was no v.a. it's almost impossible to conceive, there was no system of treating veterans. there was no rehabilitation program. the pension system was embryonic and also designed for those who were disabled in direct relation to combat experience. there were tens of thousands of men addicted to morphine and other opiates. african american troops nigh e knew that everyone was watching. that all african americans were going to be judged and watched by what they did. and they hate themselves with the relation. the feudal use of mercury led to one of the greatest adages of the civil war. a night with venus, a lifetime with mercury. they also brought home something else. they were alienated. again, the romantic views of the civil war don't match the reality. in 18 september, 186 h h, many civilians were fearful. sergeant william pen, the fifth ohio of every reserve corps. september, 1865, an increase of crime. it pains me to say these perceptions of veterans remain. there's also something else. sergeant major joseph savage, 64 new york, wounded gettysburg. i cannot find words to address the scorn and loathing for stabbing us in the back. and then unless we think homeless veterans are a new problem, within three months of war's end two disabled veterans demanded that lip service be paid to our ex-soldiers chlts they talked about seeing soldiers begging in the streets of boston. he was horrified by the sight. it is a shame for which they bled and suffered. civilians were as ambivalent about being veterans as the soldiers were about coming home. in june of 1866 in an article entitled they are both afraid of us. we must show them by our acts that we are not only brave and reliable fighting men in the field, but that we can become good, honest industrious, well-behave citizens. now we have returned. what was missing was the root of that skreer. what do men do when they go to war? they kill. nobody talks about this. we don't talk about it now much. and, yet these concerns were hardly unique. >> the majority of those kill eded any time in the past have done so in war. it's nothing to do with the kind of personal aggression that engages us as our fellow citizens. fears were generally unfounded. but union soldiers had been changed in positive and negative ways by the war they had been through. six days before lee surrendered, talked about not being able to forget the unpleasant thirpgs that happened, but they would stand firm as civilians as they have done in battle. he talked about the reception from home was wonderful and appreciated. but when you think of the rights and plijs, can we for a moment regret even the loss of our right arm involving the most sacred rights of humanity? as a nation, we had sinned. we had claim today be what we were not. our sin was great our punishment has been severe. of all men in history, these men knew what they were fighting for. and they only knew what they were fighting for in war they knew what they were going to fight for in peace. they also had something else that they had to face. for men who had lost the use of their right arms, who had predominantly been farmers, how are they going to earn a living? we can fill higher and better positions in life. this is what we call the warrior identity. it's as empowerful in peace as it is in war. i do not use regimental histories. i do not use distant memories. i try and use material at the time that it is used. thank you. these were not older men recollecting. these were young men facing the greatest challenge of their lives. what were the themes? they had become soldiers. even as wounded as they were, they were tremendously grateful that they were alive. the third thing those who survive war carry the burden of those who do not return. what people don't talk about enough, when you ask your fellow citizens to fight a war you better make sure the war is worth fighting. the causes don't just matter in waur, they matter in peace. that warrior identity is what led the soldiers to carry on the unfinished work as civilians. a free people must be a thoughtful people. a free people must be serious. abraham lincoln spelled out the unpished work. in his last public address, he talked about giving the vote to african americans. what was going to happen to black soldiers when they came home? well, soldier william thomas asked -- said that we asked if the evidence has been conclusive, that we've shared a like in the war, i will submit this to the american people. reconstruction as time went obama. . only another thing could understand. and they advocated for them. they also talked about concern in relation to confederacy. it will not through mortgage sympathy for traders to raise them and place in power. rather we should face in public sfrs. tlfts also something else and that was pervasive race im. ism. there's a certain party looking for employment. the first word that is said is they have no right to go and fight for [expletive]. this is the way brave men are scrutinized and structured in horror. we shall maintain and discyst from this cause. january, 1866 was the assistant superintendent of virginia of the freed man's bureau. there's a great story about him working all day and teaching at night in his wife's school for years, african americans talked about the one-armed cannoneer who had come and learned them how to read and write. i have lost the use of my right arm in this bloody war. for constitution, for freedom of country. as lincoln had said, the last best hope of earth. now, did that work continue? the answer is yes. lieutenant commander edward hayes, when they had a 25th reunion, this is what hayes told his comrades. you may drown its e tern dim comrades, ours was no such war. six years later a buckeye came to take his seat as a newly elected representative from the 15th district. i have today, worshipped at the shrine of the dead. i found every grave and stood beside an uncovered head. all of my men who fell under my command, for what they died, i fight a little longer. i get inspiration to stand upon government, freedom, equality, justice, liberty and protection to the homeless. where ever i am, lincoln 1. whatever he's thinking, bayonets have to say so long after the war. in 19623, in a preface for mr. lincoln's arm, he said the war in which the union soldier fought did settle something for us. started something which we, ourtss, have to finish. those words remain true. thank you. >> robert e. lee wanted blacks to be recross-suited into the southern army. can you expand on that little knowledge that i have? >> you can see how successful it was. he had a company that i believe marched in front of the federal capital. it was ludicrous. there was nothing that they could aural at tt some type of association with slavery. it's been reported he had nothing to do with it. he found the portion involved slav slave ray with higher. >> can we take one more question. >> can you speak to the fact that the vets i know, they are not complaining a lot of times. they feel as though they're stronger than that. they don't really get out there no push to get things done for them. >> it's been privilege to work with veterans. a portion of them come back with it but it is the minority. when you come back from war you are changed. remember the film deer hunter? the most beautiful and accurate scene is he is played by robert deniro. remember the scene where he sights on the deer and he won't pull the trigger. it's not an indictment of hunting but those who have come back with an appreciation for life that life is precious. they carry the burden of those who do not come back. they feel they have been given a gift because they survived war. they must do something with their lives that has value. this is in no way saying of all people, that funding is needed. veterans resent the portrayal of them. it's affecting employment and affecting the way people view them. we can talk about that more maybe during the q and a. i got to cut it. i promise we'll take questions later. thank you. [ applause ] you're watching american history tv in prime time and every weekend here on c-span3 experience american history tv starting saturday at 8:00 a.m. with congress out this week for their spring recess we continue american history tv in primetime on thursday night. they invited five historians to present who they would nominate to be person of the year in 1865. that begins thursday at 8:00 p.m. eastern. you need to be firm but flexible in the details. i think it reflects the solution the harsh po polarization. if all the congressmen and women and stagt legislatures can adopt, we can come together as a country and solve many of our pertinent issues. >> my favorite quote came from julie adams. she said remember to be humble and have a strong work ethic. be kind of the people you meet on the way up. you'll meet them again on the way back down. >> in congress we have a lack of true statesmen. john mccain did something impressive last year. he committed to the veteran reform affairs bill. >> high school students who rank in the top 1% of their states were in washington, d.c. as part of the united states senate youth program. sunday night at 8:00 eastern and pacific. more now from a recent symposium on abraham lincoln's life and legacy. she discusses how the president's death impacted the movement to grant rights to recently freed slaves. good afternoon. i'm the chairperson of the department of history at howard university. we've had a wonderful program thus far. thank you for returning for the afternoon session. i think you'll be delighted with what we have in store for you. it's my happy task to introduce our next speaker, professor of history, new york university. professor hodes is the author of the sea captain's wife. a true story of love, race and war in the 19th century which was a 2006 finalist in the lincoln book

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