ken: thank you and welcome to the engaged series presented by highland capital. i m ken hirsch, introducer in chief. our goal here is to provide content you can t get anywhere else. we are honored today with this session to launch a wonderful insiders look at presidential retreats and a glimpse of what life looks like for a president outside of the white house. it s a fascination that some people have. a deepdelighted to take dive into camp david, crawford, kenny bump port and the lbj ranch. we have a series of guests who can give us that special insight. to kick us off, i would like to introduce the 43rd president of the united states. [applause] fmr. president bush: this is a special moment for laura and me, because we have such fond memories of the presidential retreat. one of the things about a presidency that is hard to explain is, what it feels like to be in a bubble. you are kind of in a bubble, particularly in washington. the presidential retreats, for any president,
of field hospital burials unearthed and appomattox at manassas national battlefield park. please welcome him. [applause] i really looking forward to sharing this unprecedented story with everyone here. again, i have the great privilege and humble privilege of being the superintendent of 5000 acres of some of america s most hallowed grounds. i feel that to give the obligatory 30 seconds of why manassas battlefield is an important place, we preserve the scenes of not just one but two incredibly significant civil war battles. the first large-scale battle of the american civil war of july, 1861, followed by just 13 months later, the second battle of manassas, bull run, which is much larger and largely overlooked compared to the first battle. between these two battles, about 4000 men died. and tens of thousands were wounded. those are some pretty powerful statistics. today, we will dive in a little more beyond the statistics and look at what happened to some of these poor, u
this year, c-span is touring cities across the country, exploring american history. next, a look at our recent visit to san luis o business pow, california. ou re obispo, california. history every weekend on c-span v. the railroad transported freight and passengers. if you were looking at a map from that time period, how would you describe the map? well, we were really isolated. we had vigilante committees until the 1890 s. mountains on one side. the ocean on the other. we had sailing ships at one time. he map would be very linear. it connected to los angeles seven years later. really dramatic changes. e would still be riding horses around here if it wasn t for railroad. the lush vegetations on the emerald akes them an green. we have rolling hills. this was all under ocean water a long time ago. the hills are now rounded off a little bit. very quaint. may 5, 1894 is when the southern pacific railroad finally made it over through all the items and bridges and arrived w
he will be, as you just heard, the topic of his talk today is the unprecedented discovery of field hospital burials unearthed and appomattox national park. [applause] i m really looking forward to sharing this unprecedented story with everyone here. again, i have the great privilege and humble privilege of being the superintendent of 5000 acres of some of america s most hallowed grounds. i feel that to give the obligatory 30 seconds of why manassas battlefield is an important place, we preserve the scenes of not just one but two incredibly significant civil war battles. the first large-scale battle of the american civil war of july, 1861, followed by just 13 months later, the second battle of manassas, bull run, which is much larger camera actually overlooks compared to the first battle. between these two battles, about 4000 men died. and tens of thousands were wounded. those are some pretty powerful statistics. today, we will dive in a little more beyond the statistics and
parks service. we re here to talk about the service at its history and also learn more about the special house and people who lived here and how it s being preserved by the national parks service. we re joined by robert stanton. biez, the former site manager here at arlington house. obviously a park service employee. he s also oversees a year long renovation of the estate. let me start with the story of how the national park service began. as the national park service was authorized by an act of congress, signed into law by president woodrow wilson, august 25, 1916. there we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the national park service today. and that legislation came about through the stellar efforts of many conservationists and civil leaders throughout the country. was it at all controversial at the time it was signed into law? it was in the sense there was sort of a misunderstanding in terms of some of the constraints that may be imposed by having one federal agenc