The Battle of Gettysburg took place July 1-3, 1863, in Pennsylvania, as Union forces turned back an invasion of the North by Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. The Union victory inspired President Abraham Lincoln to call for “a new birth of freedom” in his address a few months later dedicating the Soldiers’ National Cemetery at Gettysburg. C-SPAN's American History TV was LIVE on June 30 from Gettysburg National Military Park covering events commemorating the 150th anniversary of the battle, including remarks by scholars such as Harold Holzer, Allen Guelzo, and Doris Kearns Goodwin, as well as your calls and tweets for Civil War Institute Director Peter Carmichael and novelist Jeff Shaara.
Here was the schedule (all times ET):
Remarks:
9:30am: Kent Masterson Brown, Civil War Historian and Author, “Retreat From Gettysburg: Lee, Logistics, and the Pennsylvania Campaign”
10:30am: Brooks Simpson, Arizona State University History Professor & Author, “Victors in Blue: How Union Generals Fought the Confederates, Battled Each Other, and Won the Civil War”
11:30am: Ethan Rafuse, U.S. Army Command General Staff College, History Professor & Author, “Robert E. Lee and the Fall of the Confederacy, 1863-1865”
12:30pm: Harold Holzer, Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Foundation Chairman & Author, “Lincoln: How Abraham Lincoln Ended Slavery in America”
1:30pm: Howard Coffin, Civil War Historian & Author, “Nine Months to Gettysburg”
2:30pm: Allen Guelzo, Gettysburg College History Professor, & Author, “Gettysburg: The Last Invasion”
3:30 pm: Joseph Glatthaar, University of North Carolina History Professor & Author, “General Lee's Army: From Victory to Collapse”
4:30pm: Tom Desjardin, Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands Historian & Author, “Stand Firm Ye Boys from Maine: The 20th Maine and the Gettysburg Campaign”
Viewer Calls & Tweets:
5:30-8pm: Guests include Jeff Shaara, Author, “Gods & Generals” & “A Chain of Thunder,” about the Siege of Vicksburg, Scott Hartwig, Gettysburg National Military Park Supervisory Historian, Hari Jones, African American Civil War Memorial & Museum Assistant Director and Curator, and Carol Reardon, Pennsylvania State University History Professor & Co-Author, "A Field Guide to Gettysburg."
Commemorative Ceremony:
8-9:15pm: “New Birth of Freedom” Commemorative Ceremony, with a keynote address by historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.” Plus “Voices of History,” dramatic readings of eyewitness accounts written by soldiers and citizens swept into the events of the battle and its aftermath. The ceremony ends with a candlelight procession to the Soldiers’ National Cemetery to see luminaries marking each of the more than 3,500 graves of Union soldiers killed in the Battle of Gettysburg.
Viewer Calls & Tweets:
9:15-10pm: Peter Carmichael, Gettysburg College, Civil War Institute Director