The former residence in Richmond, Virginia of Confederate President Jefferson Davis has been restored to look as it did during the Civil War. American History TV visited to learn more about President Davis, his family, and the many political & military leaders who once walked through the front door.

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This second of a two-part look at the wartime home of Confederate States of America President Jefferson Davis features the second floor of the mansion, where Davis spent many hours in his office, and his children played nearby in a large parlor.

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Author and University of Pennsylvania history professor Stephanie McCurry speaks about her book, “Confederate Reckoning: Power and Politics in the Civil War South.” She says the South sowed the seeds of its demise in creating a regime that excluded white women and slaves, who together comprised a majority of the population. 

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Professor Mary DeCredico teaches a history course on the Civil War at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis. In this class, she focuses on early Confederate victories leading up to the year 1863, which is considered by many to be the military peak of the South.

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Historian Peter Carmichael is a specialist on the Civil War and Southern history. He is currently the Director of the Civil War Institute and teaches history at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania. In this week’s class, Professor Carmichael looks at the complexity of the Confederate soldier.

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This June marks the 50th Anniversary of two of President John F. Kennedy’s most memorable speeches. On June 10th 1963, JFK delivered the commencement address at American University known as his “Peace Speech.” He called for high-level negotiations with the Soviet Union, a nuclear test ban treaty and an end to the Cold War.  On June 26th 1963, President Kennedy took a harder line in West Berlin, famously stating that as a free man he took pride in the words “Ich bin ein Berliner.” This is a discussion from the Kennedy Presidential Library about the significance and lasting influence of these two addresses.

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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.

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American History TV joined historian Carol Reardon and Col. Tom Vossler to learn the story of the three-day Battle of Gettysburg through a selection of their favorite monuments.

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Virginia Commonwealth University professor Deirdre Condit teaches a class on the history of reproductive law in the U.S. Professor Condit touches on the 1965 U.S. Supreme Court case Griswold v. Connecticut, about the prohibited use of contraceptives and the right to marital privacy. The class also examines rights and access to abortion, looking at the 1962 story of actress Sherri Finkbine, who had taken medication she later discovered causes birth defects, prompting her to fly to Sweden for an abortion. Also discussed is the historic 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion case.

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The Siege of Vicksburg took place from May 18th to July 4th, 1863. After failing to take the city by force, Union General Ulysses S. Grant and the Army of the Tennessee laid siege to the city, held by Confederate General John C. Pemberton and his forces. On July 4th, after 47 days, General Pemberton surrendered; and Vicksburg—the last major Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River—was turned over to General Grant and the Union. In this program, we tour Vicksburg National Military Park with Tim Kavanaugh, the park's supervisory ranger for interpretation.

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