Next Speaker Today is one of the newest faces at emerging civil war one of our emerging voices if you will John Tracy has worked both at Fredericksburg And Spotsylvania national Military Park as well as gettysburg national Military Park. Hes done some fantastic work on the Website Forest this year particularly focusing on gettysburg, but spreading his wings hes going to talk today. You can find a Rabbit Hole and really fall in and thats what todays topic is today. Hes coming to us from the university of West Virginia where he is just finishing up his Masters Degree in public history. Ladies and gentlemen, John Tracy. All right. Hi so today were going to be spending just a little bit of time on the experiences and in the head of John Rankin who you see up on the screen there. Weve got a picture of him straight out of the regimental history taken when hes a sergeant because hes going to hold a couple different positions that well get to alongside a really nice period image again from the
Historical society. I am louise mirrer, New Yorks historical president and ceo. And im happy to see all of you this morning. Todays program Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and emancipation is the President Bill Clinton Lecture in american history at New York historical. And id like to thank our great Trustee And Benefactor Bernard Schwartz for his generosity in making this event, along with so many of our public programs possible. [ applause ] id also like to recognize and thank one of our trustees who has joined us today. And that is one of our panelists david blight. Ill take this opportunity to say how proud we are to count david among our trustees at New York historical. I also want to recognize Laura Washington and Mercedes Franklin who are cochairs of our Frederick Douglass council, and of Course Welcome all the members of our Frederick Douglass council who have joined us today. [ applause ] and i want to recognize a longstanding and very special friend of New York historica
Captioning performed by vitac we are delighted to welcome this Mornings Guest speakers. David blight is class of 1954 professor of american History And Director of the center for the study of slavery, Resistance And Abolition at yale university. Hes the author of a dozen books including editions of douglasss first two autobiographies. His most recent book won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction and 2019 francis partman prize. In 2001 he was awarded the Frederick Douglass prize. Edna Greene Medford is professor of history at howard university. She specializes in africanamerican history, the civil war, and reconstruction. Shes a member of several advisory boards, among them the association for the study of africanamerican life in history, the lincoln forum, Abraham Lincoln association, the Abraham Lincoln Institute and the group of president lincolns cottage. Shes the author of several books. Harold holzer is director of Roosevelt House public Policy Institute at hunter college. He co
If you will John Tracy has worked both at Fredericksburg And Spotsylvania national Military Park as well as gettysburg national Military Park. Hes done some fantastic work on the Website Forest this year particularly focusing on gettysburg, but spreading his wings hes going to talk today. You can find a Rabbit Hole and really fall in and thats what todays topic is today. Hes coming to us from the university of West Virginia where he is just finishing up his Masters Degree in public history. Ladies and gentlemen, John Tracy. All right. Hi so today were going to be spending just a little bit of time on the experiences and in the head of John Rankin who you see up on the screen there. Weve got a picture of him straight out of the regimental history taken when hes a sergeant because hes going to hold a couple different positions that well get to alongside a really nice period image again from the regimental history of their monument on the gettysburg battlefield, which again is going to be
The head of John Rankin who you see up on the screen there. Weve got a picture of him straight out of the regimental history taken when hes a sergeant because hes going to hold a couple different positions that well get to alongside a really nice period image again from the regimental history of their monument on the gettysburg battlefield, which again is going to become pretty important as we move along. So John Rankin is serving with the 27th, indiana during the american civil war. Hes one of the few of his regiment to get through the bloody fighting in antietams cornfield without being wounded though. He will be badly wounded in the thigh at the battle of gettysburg during that disastrous charge near Spangler Spring on the morning of July 3rd 1863, but what were really focusing on here. That after the war he later writes a couple short accounts of his service and these recolate recollections of combat often very much brutally honest about his experiences offer a lot of insight into