oh and welcome to what's going on i'm jan knight and with me today is al smith from the civil war roundtable of greater boston al welcome and thank you for being here thank you for having me eight when i first joined i've always been a fan of the civil war began when i was a teenager and i was about fifteen which is some six decades ago and i have always had an interest but i had no outlet for it and then one day on a sunday paper the sun the globe a star magazine article about a group that would meet at the statehouse in boston room twenty seven and i said that sounds interesting so i went to his next meeting and i actually fell  member of the sons union veterans the civil war i'm also a member of the ball run around the table which is located down in virginia the only group of boston i really you know i think really dived into the civil war over these years and i find it to be the most interesting you know part of my history that i want to learn about and my favorite character of all the characters of the civil war was abraham lincoln and i try to read about m lincoln as much as possible and to learn about where or how he was we became the president of states and how he acted at the civil war in order to put an end to it and it's to me it's the most fascinating the round table movement is located all over the country in fact one of the oldest roundtables and existence is a round table in england wow there are something like eight round tables located here in massachusetts or colony down by quincy new talk we have speakers who talk about some aspect of the civil war being events a person some aspect of a tillery navy and we encourage anybody who has any interest in the civil war to come join up with us and and see what we're all about information about iraq table just go into you know the net and punch in c w r t g b and be able to get all the facts and figures about the great abbas around table and how you can join up or join any of the functions that we do and talk a little bit if you would about the goals in the projects of the civil war roundtable i goal is to preserve civil war sites our goal is to educate the public about the civil war the civil war was and i are opinion was the biggest change and i history even greater than than the revolutionary war even though the revolution important to us but the civil war was responsible for many many changes in our way we live today such as because of the civil war advancements in medical attention nowadays you know we were involved with places like iraq and afghanistan and all those terrible places about soldiers who get you know hurt with bombs and bullets and everything that their war brings in but they can be evacuated within seconds of their injury and brought to a medical attention and nowadays you could see that soldiers who have been safe from battle who have lost limbs but they're still alive today and they're able to recover their lives and and  changes in the legal rights seven hundred fifty pregnant the newly revised figure is the price of the seven hundred fifty thousand soldiers died in the civil war well the death of the so many men have had a great effect on our society today why because back in the civil war property was owned by a man women do not have rights the property so when the soldiers die was killed in action the farm that they were living in or the house they were living it did not go to the wife they went to the next surviving male family member and with that became the movement to change the constitution for equality and that's why you get t twenty third amendment to the constitution if a woman back around civil war times was kind of uppity and the husband didn't like it he has a legal right to send her away for rehabilitation so with that you've seen changes in the way women are receiving equality and even today there are still some issues about women's equality that are still being fought over but to see the change from eight that would be that would rise up a few hundred feet and they were able to survey all the battle fields well now you see jet planes who can take off and fly thousands of miles and thousands of miles per hour the changes in the the quality of people the gettysburg address which is probably the most famous speech ever given in our american history by abraham lincoln was based upon the philosophy no of the constitution but on the declaration of independence the constitution did not allow for the freedom of slaves what the declaration of independence that did allow that all men are created equal and that's the philosophy that abraham lincoln used when he devised the two hundred seventy two words speech probably the most famous speech in american history so you see many many changes have occurred because of the civil war not the act of war because since the civil war we've been in america's been involved in many wars the korean war world war one vietnam afghanistan pakistan  korea i mean all these all these places and so but the changes in the way we consider what the with the civil war is done for us has been massive and will continue to grow so much of what you're doing is around the issue of education and i know that you've gone into some of the schools and had special events there to help educate the students right and reactor of generally and general grant and how they reconciled from apple maddox their explanation of what happened it happened maddox two years ago three years ago i think was now we had the reenacted michael crutcher who came comes from kentucky he's a re an actor of frederick douglass and he dresses the party looks the part he's an exact duplicate of frederick douglass and he came in and he he held the students of the lynn school system in the palm of his hand as to what he was teaching them about the life of frederick douglass and what he was able to accomplish it was frederick douglas who was able to change abraham lincoln's philosophy of the civil war and other words when the war broke out and eight hundred sixty one lincoln wanted his only purpose was to bring the states the confederate states back into the union and he thought that that was the only purpose was to bring the states back in and from that philosophy came he idea that the what was fought over slavery but that's not the real truth about why the war was fought the war was fought after frederick douglas convinced him that in order to win the war which would eventually bring the states back into the union you had to abolish slavery that was a state's rights you had to abolish slavery and because lincoln was the commander in chief of all the armies that's when he used that he brought all the armies to bear on the confederate armies and by by eliminating this confederate army he was able to abolish slavery and bring this the states back into the union and that's the is the true purpose and we try to educate the public as to the various aspects of the war they had you know particular men women  possess is to preserve much of the civil war battlefields are being eaten up by developers yes which is to us a crime so what we do is in every possible way we try to preserve civil war battlefields so that they cannot be dug up and billings put up the shopping malls put up the try to put a shopping mall up in gettysburg a couple years ago with a wal mart and we fought against and said you stay away go somewhere else you know you don't need a wal mart in gettysburg gettysburg is one of the most fascinating battlefields you do want to say i had the pleasure years ago back in the but when i first joined the organization i met a man is name was joe keith he had visited gettysburg over one hundred times in his life and fact he visited so often that they nicknamed him get his mojo and over the course of a few years we became good friends and joe presented me with a book about the one nine hundred thirty eight reunion of the confederate soldiers and the union soldiers that was eight but also in one nine hundred thirteen and eight hundred eighty seven eight hundred eighty eight was a reunion of southern and northern soldiers and what they felt and what they brought into the bed that battlefield for reunion  it was a fascinating story and the history of that book that he gave me as a fellow by the name of paul roy who helped put the whole reunion together why because even in one thousand thirty eight southern soldiers refused to gettysburg because they didn't want to join up with the northern soldiers but it was paul roy who was a fire volunteer fireman to gettysburg who went to the commanders of the southern forces and said it's you've got to we've got to have this reunion it's important and they've changed their mind and they all came to gettysburg in one thousand third july first second third fourth in gettysburg and i had a finer unit because at that time all the soldiers was a union soldier albert wallsten died in one nine hundred fifty six wow and just as a little tidbit of f y r life fact there are two surviving pension has from the civil war really of they arrived at that well back in one nine hundred thirteen or one nine hundred thirty eight these old men were looking for women because they wanted to get married so what they would do is they would marry some fourteen or fifteen year old girl and they were like eighty or ninety so today these thirteen year old girls fourteen year old girls are you know well into this eighty's or ninety's so they're still collecting that so their husbands pension of like what twelve or thirteen dollars a month but they're still still two surviving with us i wonder is that about here or go wow from three and i was on a two they would have an interesting story to tell a married young child bride so much and so at such fire reaching areas yes and speaking of far reaching can you name some of the sites that people would be interested in visiting in this area boston i rich in civil war in fact next tuesday but i know i was told that this program won't air until afterwards but boston will be celebrating the return of flag ceremony at the state house  twenty second on the twenty second of this month and it's the return of the flags armani occurred back in december twenty second of eight hundred sixty five when the troops return something like five hundred forty regimental flags to massachusetts to the governor governor andrew and what makes it a one of a kind of vent is that the state house doors are only opened when the governor leaves the office for the last time so if in order for us to get the door opened we had to have special legislation passed for them to open the door for non governor business so with that the doors of the state house will be open on the twenty second and we will return something like thirty six flags to the state house as as a reenactment and it's going to be it's never going to happen again it's a once in a lifetime occurrence so i would recommend  i'll be there in my little blue on blue uniform but other things that we get involved with as in november of each year as a member of the sons of union veterans and in collaboration with other roundtables we go to gettysburg pennsylvania in which we participate in the remembrance ceremony of the battle of gettysburg and which we remember this fall in massachusetts soldiers and what makes it a great deal is the other states also to go to gettysburg with us anybody is welcome you know if you ever want to go to gettysburg in the vampyr to see the remembrance ceremony because we do a tour of gettysburg or surrounding areas i would imagine the parade we have the remembrance ceremony we pay tribute to albert wilson the last survivor of the civil war and a few other things go on that see the v o r t g v and you can learn about the the know the moral courage of probably october but you'll be able to see what we're going to be doing in november and then the roundtable here in boston sponsors a trip to various civil war sites this past may we will visit it after maddox and petersburg in which the war ended up a maddox and the surrender generally and general grant and that was a highly successful trip at that time you know i'll go i'll get stand up and i'll ask you know where would you know you folks like to visit the next time and the first thing that popped out of the people on the bus was can we do a five day trip and i said to them i can do anything you need so the dishes may trip i put together a five day trip and i put it together a trip that will cover the shenandoah valley in which stonewall jackson the eight hundred sixty two campaign we're going to visit some of the battlefields there in winchester the battle winchester and this is in the four years of the civil war changed hands seventy i believe was seventy three times wow the people on that bus and anybody else who's who's interested i've done that with your group the civil war ground table and that was a fascinating absolutely fascinating trip really i take great pleasure in putting together the drips and what made it kind of neat was when he began the trip we would go again go visit you know civil war sites we would hire yankee bus line how here they're located out of i think salem salem arbor and it was of neat to be driving down to virginia or maryland or whatever and this brown and yellow bus would have the word yankee on it and we had more fun driving through all the little side streets of virginia and there's a big yankee bus so we had some chuckles there i hope people enjoy some fabulous trips through the civil absolutely and one trip that you did this last year through the the senior center in belmont was a trip out to  island which is one of my favorite places and that was back in this you talked about that that guilt there are so many sites located here in massachusetts and even surrounding you know the surrounding states like a couple of months ago i put together a trip for the government seen his citizens and which we've all went to visit fort warren and i have a cruise was great and it was we went out to the fort and we walked around with it and then we had the tour guide from the city of boston and we learned about fort the the cemetery the mount auburn cemetery has a lot of civil war history and it is well and anyway so people who have an interest in the civil war and in history in general but especially in the civil war would be well advised to be in touch with your group because it you do such fabulous trips and there's just so much to learn and it's a very enjoyable group i m there are some wonderful trips right here and out in boston one a civil war trip and one even revolutionary war and along with of course the usual boston you know one of the my first fondest memories of the civil war route was over by joyce street and charles street yes behind the state house yes back in the civil war when you had slaves scaping from the south they travel through a one of the streets up by child street it's old boston yes and the sidewalks are up here and the entrances to the homes go down yes below sidewalk level yes and what the slave would do in order to avoid the slave hunter would be to get up by child street and go down the steps and then it's a sidewalk and through the entrances to the various homes in their escape route to get up to bedford and l and so once you go down the stairs you don't see anybody anymore so it's a it's an absolutely fascinating route that the slaves would take to get plus the african americans museum as and joyce street yes so that's a interest in it and researched it so well and just open it up for everybody to to learn more about this is the tip it of information for you folks might have been cemetery which is a fabulous thank you very much i think we've about run out of time here but that was that was fascinating and and i thank you for for being here and i thank all of you for being here with us and to any end and so until next time what's going on