epicenter of the confederate effort. this is the headquarters, this is where robert e lee was. this is the building in which he made crucial decisions during the course of those three days of that battle that literally determined the outcome of the battle. this property when we bought it looks nothing like it does right now. it was a hotel complex with a brewpub restaurant attached to it. envision a 40 or 50 room, 1950 s style motel with a restaurant/saloon attached to it , all surrounding this building that i am standing in that was lee s headquarters. lee s headquarters was hidden in plain sight. what we did to restore this site was, first we had to get rid of the 20th century. that was to tear down and move out all of the debris that encompassed the hotel, or motel to be more precise. the restaurant/brewpub. then we had to restore the topography. we had to tear out something like 15 different structures, including the swimming poor and gift shops,f those types of things.
it coincides with the american civil war sesquicentennial. anduns for five years changes each year to address that your of the war. interesting aspect of our exhibit is the fact that we are one location that many of the events took place in these exact area. we have the very equipment used by the railroad in the civil war. we present a bottom up history of the b&o railroad. we present the technologies and the people involved guarding, destroying, building, and operating the railroad during the civil war years. this would be an entire area of activity. there were paint shops, carpentry shops, car shops. they were casting the rail. there were machine shops. they were building bridge parts. continuously loading things on trains. as the confederates would damage a section of track, or blow up a bridge, the repair crews would go out, pull out the damage, load it on a car and recycle it. i firmly believe that at the outbreak of the war, the first 90 days, the baltimore and ohio rai
that year of the war. the interesting aspect of the exhibit is the fact that we are on location, that many of the events that took place with the b & o railroad were in this exact area. we have the very equipment used by the railroad during the civil war, and we present a bottom up history of the railroad during the civil war by presenting the technologies and the people that were involved with riding, guarding, destroying, building, and operating the railroad during the civil war years. this would be an entire area of activity. there were paint shops. there were carpentry shops, car shops. they were casting of rail. there were machine shops. they were building bridge parts, rails, continuously loading these things on trains. and, as the confederates would damage a section of track or blow up a bridge, the repair crews would go out. they would pull out damage. they d load it on the cars, bring it back here, and recycle it. i firmly believe that at the outbreak of the war, the
theater, national archives staff and volunteers will present each of you with a lapel pin. united states of america vietnam war corporation is an initiative and the lapel pin is the nation s lasting memento of thanks. tonight s program is one in a series of events we are presenting in conjunction with our new exhibit, remembering vietnam, which just opened upstairs. the exhibit is a media rich exhibition of the vietnam war, featuring historic analysis and newly discovered iconic original documents, some footage, and artifacts illuminating 12 critical episodes in the war that divided the people s of the united states and vietnam. remembering vietnam draws on remembering vietnam draws on national archives records for all parts of our agency. presidential library, still photography, sound recordings, electronic records. the title of the exhibit, remembering the non - bering yet non- vietnam was inspired by a quote, all wars are fought twice, the first on a battlefie