Are spending much time at all training for the crater. I think it gets back to how we tend to want to remember this story. The story of the black Union Soldier is front and center. I couldnt be happier about that. I think theres been a danger in the way the story has been pushed over the last few years. It is the moral narrative of our civil war memory. We want to correct for forgetting about them for so long. I think we tend to gloss over some of the darker sides of black soldiers. I dont think were comfortable talking about black soldiers massacrering others. That doesnt fit into our minds right now. I think we want to believe if those black regiments had been allowed to lead the assault that would have been it. We can imagine black soldiers charging over brandfield hill into petersberg. Thats a very soothing image. Anyone who has studied civil war battles, theres nothing that goes as planned. Is there any surprise given this massive detonation. No one can really predict what it will
Tonight watch as the National Park service commemorates 150th anniversary of the battle. Well also take a look at how the attack failed and why the u. S. Colored troops were unjustly blamed. Author kevin levine on the contribution of the u. S. Colored troops and immediately following the civil war. Here are some of the highlights for twheekd. Friday on cspan and prime time, well visit important sites in the history of the civil rights movement. Saturday night at 8 00, highlights from this years new York Ideas Forum including cancer biologist andrew hessel. On sunday, q a with new york congressman charlie wrangle 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 saturday, Lawrence Goldstone on the competition between the Wright Brothers and glen curtis to be the predominant name in manned flight. American history tv on cspan3 on friday at 8 00 eastern. A look at hollywoods portrayal of slav
You again and welcome you here to the park. I was remarking a few minutes ago, much like it was for the soldiers 150 years ago who were in the oberlin campaign that started in 1864, it has been a long road to petersburg. We started this 150th event for 3, atparks on may spotsylvania courthouse. We have moved south ever since. T has been quite a feat it is the first time three parks within a process of these commemorations have shared programming where we have tried to make a continual program of the oberlin campaign rather than look at it as the wilderness, spill something you spotsylvania, that this was one continual process for the soldiers 150 years ago. For some of you in the audience we have senior faces before. We know you have been on the road with us, and we appreciate that. [applause] this morning i would like to introduce to you the superintendent of Petersburg National battlefield, lewis rogers. In 1984,an his career a park ranger. He took his first herman it position at tho
Believe that if those black regiments had been allowed to lead the assault, that would have been it. In other words, we can imagine black soldiers marching, charging over blanford hill, right, into petersburg. Thats a very soothing image. I think that tells us more about how we want to remember the war than the battle itself, because anyone who has studied civil war battles, they never go as planned. Right . Theres always something that goes afoul. So is it any surprise that given this massive detonation that no one really can predict what it will do to the landscape and whats beyond it. Remember, its not just that front confederate line they have to deal with. This is a complex sort of maze of bombproofs, traverses. Part of the problem is in the 1920s, the crater battlefield was an 18hole golf course. So a lot of that battlefield has been smoothed over in one way or the other. You really are hardpressed to get a sense of what it would have looked like in the 1860s. So would it have ch
He was a great friend, the suezfriend of canal. That time spirit of that we would they would move on to panama and join the specific to the atlantic as the in any otherd done part of the world. Futures the wave of the and that they would simply repeat their success in this very different part of the world forgetting that panama was a vastly differenter the rare, typography,rent climate, everything. They were mistaken about knowing territory, as it were. Today frk you go to panama, see a lot of him, at thes a bust authority. Until a couple of years ago, was a steakhouse in downtown. Saw would he think if he the video that we just showed of the canal today . Hist would probably break heart because he was an extraordinary man. The loomingf figures beyond anyone else of his time. He was something of a rain maker. An engineer, he was a believer in a great the capacity of human beings to the untried and difficult. By his ownt up. Hetoric he had tremendous backing invested inne who the suez c