Killed in action, and yet one day at williamsburg 80 years later, volunteer soldiers will do that. That is morbidly impressive. The first confederate battle flag of the war is captured here. Seven medals of honor are issued for meritorious actions, including robert brody, 26 years old, from the 40th North Carolina. Other men carry their wounds with them. Powhatan bowling little on the righthand side will be wounded in the right leg and return to action in malvern hill, where he would lose an arm, and he argued to go back into the fight. Mcclellan would telegraph lincoln, hancock was superb today. So this brings us to kerfuffles. And i have five minutes left to do it. Four. [laughter] mr. Gruber why is the battle of williamsburg forgotten . We already addressed memory. You go to Colonial Williamsburg because of the rockefellers. Williamsburgs memory is a tough one. When the president of the u. S. Drives down the duke of gloucester street to open Colonial Williamsburg in the 1930s, one, one woman stands on her porch wrapped in a confederate battle flag saying there will be no yankee president in my town. [laughter] mr. Gruber we have no maps so i cant take you to the battlefield and say, you are standing on the excelsior line. This battle sets into motion several weeks if not several months of continued combat, so when you flip open official records, you only find a few. We have no maps. We have no impact landscape. We have no photographs to argue about. Although we know civil war photographers come through town and take pictures, but they dont survive. This battle for the combatants is one of the most confusing but will set the pace for them to understand what the rest of the war is about. Today the biggest reason we have not preserved the Williamsburg Battlefield is because the physical evidence is gone. No physical evidence, good maps, or photographs. So you must rely on one thing, and that is archaeology. In the williamsburg region, archaeology is mandated. When i go before a Zoning Commission and start screaming that is my battlefield, dont put in a hotel, they say never fear, we will send archaeologists. And they find nothing. So the 21,000 rounds of ammunition expended by one brigade in one hour has been picked up by other people. And there is one more reason why williamsburg is forgotten, and that is because all of you have not asked for it. You have not called williamsburg and said, tell me your civil war stories. You have not written and said, please preserve the battlefield at williamsburg. Get involved. The one thing i have seen today and yesterday about forgotten battles is that there has yet to be a call for action. So i put you on notice. Lets make sure they are no longer forgotten. Thank you. [applause] we have time for a couple questions. Stand and introduce yourself. Im dave from stafford. Quick question. You made a brief reference to a machine gun. Mr. Gruber yes. Could you explain that . Mr. Gruber no. Thank you. [laughter] mr. Gruber all we know is that there were one or two guns possibly deployed with the excelsior line. Thats all i got for you. Apparently, they were not effective. It is suggested they jammed halfway in the battle. That is what i got, man. For full swat at home, im going to recreate his answer. No, and that is all i have for you. Others . In the back. I have warned ted i am going to stop giving him the microphone if he doesnt remember to stand and introduce himself. Ted williams, williamsburg. You mentioned also briefly in your presentation free negroes. How many of them were they, and were they loyal to the southern cause . Mr. Gruber loyal as they would have to go back to the institution of slavery. They dont have a choice. They are either going to be paid for their work as free men, or if they dont show up, severe penalty, i. E. Sold, because the local plantation owners, good southern citizens and supporters of the confederacy, will not give up their own property to build earthworks to defend their new countries. That is why lee is put in a situation where he has to impress free men. Did i answer your question . Were there many of them . Was this a Large Community . Mr. Gruber great question that i cant directly answer. By about 1860, there are one or two pockets of free communities in and around williamsburg. Those are going to grow in coming years when the union army shows up, but documentation on them is scant. The census taker for that area is not thorough when it comes to freed communities, but you said you are from williamsburg . Baltimore. I was down there six weeks ago. Mr. Gruber lets dig into the archives together and see what we can find. [laughter] mr. Gruber and if you dont show up. [laughter] mr. Gruber severe consequences. We have time for one more question. Dr. Drew, if i were to show up at williamsburg and want to see trenches, you said for the most part, things have vanished, but there are couple of places i can go into the remnants down there, correct . Mr. Gruber new quarter park, you can play frisbee golf around the earthwork. No fighting took place there because they dont like to charge earthworks. You have quarter path road, which are two earthworks that were not fought over. Because nobody wanted to charge earthworks. You can visit those, a great example of the topography. The excelsior line was documented by archaeology up until about three weeks ago, when it was paved over. So that is gone. There is one core area of the battlefield left, and it went up for public sale about three months ago. So time is of the essence, friends. To answer your question directly, there are a couple areas with earthworks, but not within the core battlefield boundaries because the guys, even though this is early in the war, are not fond of charging entrenchments, nor will the Confederate Army use them. Of course, they go down in the ravine to try to fight that day. Fort mcgruder, the central earthwork, is preserved, but it is gated and access is limited. Please bring your friends and fellow nerds who come to williamsburg. Im happy to show you around what little is left, but there are only a few acres left on time is ticking. If any of you were at the American Battlefield trust conference in newport news, i stood you on the excelsior line, and that is no longer. So every day, it happens. Sorry to be a debbie downer. Wow. That is a really uplifting note to end on. Ladies and gentlemen, drew gruber. Mr. Gruber thank you. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] you are watching American History tv covering history cspanstyle with event coverage, archival films, lectures and college classrooms. And visits to museums and historic places. All weekend, every weekend on 3. Span happy earth day. This song was written 20 years ago. But spring has already broken and he doesnt really care fast, it doesnt last for long but the colorado Rocky Mountains hi i have seen it raining fire in the sky the starlightrom is softer than a lullaby Rocky Mountains hi, colorado high, coloradons he climbed the mountain and saw silver clouds below saw everything as far as you can see and they say he got crazy once and tried to touch the son friend of melody solitudelost in quiet the serenity of a clear Blue Mountain lake in the colorado Rocky Mountain high ive seen it raining fire in the sky to can talk to god, listen the casual reply high colorado colorado in high now life is full of wonder, but his heart still knows fear of the triple pain he cannot comprehend people or stars upon the land highado Rocky Mountains ive seen it raining fire in the sky if they never saw an eagle fly Rocky Mountains high its a colorado Rocky Mountain high ive seen it raining fire in the sky campfire andd the everybodys high coloradontain high coloradontain high coloradontains high [applause] cspan covered over seven hours of this rally on the 20th anniversary of the first birthday. You can watch more on our website including appearances by richard gere, the indigo girls, and ll cool j by going to 1990 earthand type day rally in the search bar. The president , from public affairs. Available now in paperback and ebook. Presents biographies of every president , organized by their ranking by noted historians from best to worst stop and features perspectives into the lives of our nations chief executive and leadership styles. Visit our website, cspan. Org the president s to learn more about each president and historians featured. Order your copy today wherever books and ebooks are sold stop are sold. American history tv is on social media. Follow us at cspan history. Next, jason stacy and matthew ellington, coauthors of fabric of a nation a brief history with skills and sources, for the ap course. They host a study session for the advanced placement u. S. History exam. They explain how this years exam is structured differently, provide strategies for response answers, and demonstrate how to analyze historic documents. They also take student questions. Jesse once again, we are back. We are helping Highschool Students around the country prepare for the ap u. S. History placement exam. We are here with jason stacy and matthew ellington, who are going to help our students prepare for the test. Good morning, gentlemen. Guest good morning. Guest good morning. Jesse this is the first year we have done the u. S. History cram for the exam for advanced placement test here on cspan. The first question everybody wants to know, what is changing this year for this test, because of the coronavirus pandemic . Guest there is quite a bit that is changing this year. Probably the biggest change is that it is a shorter test. This test will only be about 45minutes long. It is going to be an online test for students. In addition, it is just one documentbased essay question with five documents. And finally, it is an exam that students can take at home from their computers. So in this era of distance learning, colleges have modified the test while keeping the same skills students need to be successful. And finally, this test is an opennote test. The College Board is not going to try to prohibit students from using the notes, so students may refer to the notes as they take the exam. Guest and i think it is really exciting the changes they have made. They have kept the documentbased questions. The dbq in a lot of ways is the crown jewel of the test. It allows you to show off your writing skills, your ability to make arguments, to interpret documents and bring in all the good information you have learned this year. It is important also to remember that this year is a modified time period that will be covered, concentrating on period three, which starts in 1754, and ending in period seven, which ends in 1945. Jesse we will open up our phone lines for Highschool Students only. We want High School Students students to call in with questions about u. S. History for our distinguished teachers. So if you have questions about the test, or if you want to attempt one of our practice questions on air this morning, we want to hear from you as well. So High School Students only. We are going to open up regional phone lines. That means if you are a highschool student in the eastern or central time zones, we want to hear from you at 2027488000. If you are a highschool student in the mountain and pacific time zones and you have a question about the test, about u. S. History, or a question about how you should answer this question, we want to hear from you at 2027488001. Once again, eastern and central time zone, 2027488000. Mountain and pacific time zones, 2027488001. Now, gentlemen, i was looking at some of the questions. And the first question that immediately popped to mind is, since this is an essay test, how much are you expected to write . Guest that is a great question, jesse. The amount you are expected to write is enough to answer the question. There is no number of words required. You should expect to write an essay that is multiparagraph and has a clear argument and the argument is probably going to be proven through a number of paragraphs. You should plan on having an introduction, and if you have time for it, a conclusion. Guest thats right. All essays are graded on a rubric. So students need to make sure they are familiar with the rubric, and that they are writing in a way that they can accomplish the various tasks and demonstrate that they have the skills being asked of them on the ap advance history exam. But nobody is counting words or pages, nobody is counting characters. Jesse you said this test will be taken by students at home. Tell me, can you take this at any time at home, or is there only at certain time periods let the test will be open to students at home . Will everyone be taking it at the same time or at different times . Guest goahead, matt. Guest this test will be taken by everyone across the world at the same exact time. It is going to be given on friday, may 15 at 2 00 p. M. Eastern, 11 00 a. M. Pacific time, and whatever local time people are. So for folks in the u. S. , it will not be bad. For folks overseas, they could be testing at odd hours. The College Board is doing this to ensure the test can be as secure as possible. Guest thats right. And as i understand it, there is a number of ways students can record their answer. They can write it in a word file or some sort of text file, and turn it in as a file that they upload. They can handwrite it and take a picture of their responses and upload those with a phone, or they can even, i believe, right into a text box College Board will provide. They can type it right into a text box that College Board will provide. Jesse how long will students have to write this essay and get it submitted . Guest students will click on their exam ticket, it will open up their exam. The College Board strongly recommends students log in 30 minutes prior to the exam, because there will be some security screens and questions they have to verify their identity. When the exam begins, students will see the full question. So they will see the direction, they will see the five primary source documents that go with the question, and then there will also be the submission window that students can use to either cut and paste, as jason was mentioning, or they can attach their document to that. Jesse well, we have some students waiting on the line to talk to you gentlemen, or perhaps to ask some questions. We start with julia, from montclair, new jersey. Good morning. Julia, are you there . We seem to have lost julia. Lets move to sarah calling from bay city, michigan. Good morning. Caller good morning. Guest hi, sarah. Caller hi. Jesse sarah, do you want to try one of our sample questions and see how you would write your essay . Caller i have a question. How long is the exam this year, and what is the format for it . Guest sarah, it is 45 minutes you will have to write. And it is just one dbq that you are going to answer, and that dbq is going to have five documents. Guest thats right. So this exam is basically a shorter, more condensed version of the traditional ap exam. Its the same skills, its everything you would have learned in your class, but you are only going to have one dbq to show what you know on the exam. Jesse a question for both of you gentlemen. Are only High School Seniors taking the ap test this year, or can juniors take it as well . Who is taking the test . Guest actually. Guest goahead. [laughter] jesse lets start with you, jason. Guest teachers, we love to talk. [laughter] anyone who has signed up for a test in high school. It is usually High School Seniors who take the test. But juniors can take it, and i assume this will can also have sophomores who have signed up. I dont believe there is a designated age as long as students are in high school. Usually, it is juniors who take this exam. Guest that is correct. My classes are all junior classes. Most high schools i know test juniors. Jesse now, here is a question for you. Are either one of you suggesting that any of your students wait until next year to take it, or are you saying, go ahead and do this . Lets start with you, matthew. Guest absolutely not. I dont recommend waiting, because there is a lot of content student need to remember, and that is a long time to go, because of those students will not be enrolled in ap u. S. History next year, so i definitely recommend students take the exam this year. As i said, it is the same skills as on the regular exam, it is just shorter and in an online format. Guest thats right, matt. I agree. If youve prepared for it, if youve spent all this time in your classes, reading your textbooks, practicing your essays, learning the information over the course of the academic year, the real reward is to take the test. And the College Board made a great choice in choosing the dbq as the feature they will keep in this unusual year, because it allows you to show off all the skills, your knowledge, your ability to make arguments, your ability to interpret documents. That dbq is going to allow you to show off all the work you have done. Host lets talk to another student, thelma, calling from cambridge, massachusetts. Guest good morning, thelma. Jesse thelma, are you there . Good morning. Caller good morning. My question is, what is meant by the revolution of reconstruction . And what are the points to get the extra complexity point on the essay, if we are asked about radical reconstruction or the revolution of reconstruction . Jesse lets start with jason. Guest i will start with the first part of the question and i will go to matt for the complexity point, because he has a lot of good stuff to say about it. The revolution of reconstruction is in reference primarily to the primarily to the amendments that come after the civil war, the 13th, 14th, and 15 amendments. The 13th amendment abolishing slavery in the united states. 14th amendment, establishing civil rights that will be protected by the federal government against state powers, specifically those in the former confederacy that are oppre