The Civil War 1x2

1. Original production of "the civil war"

2. was made possible by generous contributions

3. from these funders.

4. And by the corporation for public broadcasting and by

5. contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you,

6. thank you.

7. Corporate funding for this special 25th anniversary

8. presentation was provided by.

9. Before thousands fell on the battlefield,

10. before millions were freed and before a country

11. forged its identity... A nation declared a new

12. birth of freedom, rededicating itself to the

13. proposition that all men are created equal.

14. Bank of America is proud to sponsor "the civil war,"

15. a film by Ken burns,

16. newly restored for it's 25th anniversary.

17. At the Willard hotel in Washington, D.C.,

18. the poet Julia Ward Howe

19. awoke from a spectacular dream.

20. That day, she had heard a new England regiment

21. singing on parade... And had fallen asleep

22. with the song John brown's body

23. ringing in her head.

24. Now, in the dark, she got up

25. and scribbled out the words with a pencil stub.

26. She sold her poem

27. to the Atlantic monthly for $4.00.

28. It became the anthem of the union.

29. By 1862, Russia had emancipated the serfs.

30. In France, Victor Hugo published Les Miserables,

31. and Jean Bernard Foucault measured the speed of light.

32. In America, the United States

33. passed the first national income tax

34. to pay for war.

35. The Gatling gun was invented,

36. and war itself was changing.

37. The shocking casualties

38. of bull run and Wilson's creek

39. were dwarfed by battle after battle.

40. And now there were new questions—

41. would the north's strength be offset

42. by incompetence and low morale?

43. Would England side with cotton and the south?

44. Who would control the Mississippi?

45. For a year, the nation, now two nations,

46. had torn itself apart.

47. From a bloodless duel

48. over a man-made island in Charleston harbor,

49. the war had spread along a thousand-mile line

50. from Manassas, Virginia,

51. to Shanghai, Missouri, and beyond.

52. As 1862 began,

53. over a million men were massing for war.

54. In a fierce struggle for Tennessee,

55. the people of Clarksville on the Cumberland

56. found themselves prisoners in their own homes.

57. Far north of any fighting,

58. the people of deer isle, Maine, suffered, too—

59. with sad news

60. from places most of them had never heard of.

61. By the end of the war,

62. the little town of Winchester, Virginia,

63. had changed hands 72 times.

64. Sam Watkins, a confederate private,

65. would see his first big battle

66. in April on the banks of the Tennessee.

67. Elisha Hunt Rhodes,

68. a clerk from Providence, Rhode Island,

69. would celebrate his 20th birthday

70. in a union camp.

71. Union general George McClellan,

72. the idol of his troops, would fashion a mighty army

73. and lead it south towards Richmond,

74. where Robert E. Lee was waiting.

75. "The struggle of today," Lincoln told congress,

76. "is not altogether for today.

77. It is for a vast future, also."

78. Now, in this, its second year,

79. the war was becoming a struggle

80. over the future of freedom.

81. It really is one of those, um...

82. One of those watershed things.

83. It was a huge chasm

84. between the beginning and the end of the war.

85. The nation had come face to face

86. with, uh, a dreadful tragedy,

87. and we reacted the way a family would do

88. with a dreadful tragedy.

89. Uh, it was almost inconceivable

90. that anything that horrendous could happen.

91. You must remember that casualties in civil war battles

92. were so far beyond anything we can imagine now.

93. If we had 10% casualties in a battle today,

94. it would be looked on as a bloodbath.

95. They had 30% in several battles,

96. and one after another, you see.

97. "this afternoon, seeing the general alone in the office,

98. "I stepped up to him and said,

99. "general, I want to go home.

100. "Want to go home? And for what? He replied.

101. "As I could not think of an excuse,

102. "I blurted out, I want to see my mother.

103. "Is she sick? He asked.

104. "No, I replied, I hope not.

105. "He then asked me how long since I left home

106. "and if I was ever away

107. "for so long a time before.

108. "I told him

109. "I had been in the service 7 months

110. "and never had been away from home alone before.

111. "Well, said the general,

112. "you have been a good boy,

113. and you shall have a furlough for 10 days."

114. Elisha hunt Rhodes.

115. "I always shot at privates.

116. "It was they that did the shooting and killing,

117. "and if I could kill or wound a private,

118. "why, my chances were so much the better.

119. I always looked on officers as harmless personages."

120. Sam Watkins.

121. The commander of Sam Watkins' company "H"

122. was captain William R. Johnston.

123. His immediate superior was colonel George Maney

124. of the 1st Tennessee.

125. From there, the confederate chain of command

126. ascended through colonel William H. Stephens

127. of the 2nd brigade

128. to general Benjamin Cheatham,

129. commander of the 2nd division

130. of general Leonidas Polk's 1st army corps,

131. then to general Albert Sidney Johnston,

132. commander of the army of the Mississippi,

133. above that, to war secretary George W. Randolph...

134. Finally, to Jefferson Davis,

135. President of the confederate states of America.

136. For one union soldier,

137. the chain of command descended from president Lincoln,

138. secretary of war Simon Cameron,

139. and general McClellan,

140. commander of the army of the Potomac,

141. to general Erasmus Keyes,

142. commander of the union 4th corps,

143. general Darius N. Couch of "couch's brigade,"

144. to colonel Frank Wheaton,

145. commander of the 2nd Rhode Island volunteers,

146. and finally to private Elisha hunt Rhodes.

147. "January 31, 1862.

148. "Mud, mud, mud.

149. "I'm thinking of starting a steamboat line

150. "to run on pennsylvania avenue

151. "between our office and the capitol.

152. Will the mud never dry so the army can move?"

153. "Of all detestable places,

154. "Washington is the first.

155. "Crowd, heat, bad quarters,

156. "bad fare, bad smells,

157. "mosquitoes, and a plague of flies

158. "transcending everything within my experience.

159. "Beelzebub surely reigns here,

160. and Willard's hotel is his temple."

161. George Templeton strong.

162. Throughout Lincoln's presidency—

163. and this is true of most presidents—

164. he was fairly run crazy by office seekers,

165. especially at the start,

166. when his campaign managers had promised jobs

167. to a great many people who came to collect them.

168. And one man saw him one day,

169. and he looked particularly worried.

170. The man said, "what's the matter, Mr. president?"

171. And Lincoln said, "there's too many pigs for the tits."

172. Abraham Lincoln's problems were not confined

173. to fighting rebels alone.

174. The president's unwieldy cabinet

175. included former conservative whigs,

176. freesoil whigs,

177. and union democrats.

178. 4 had been his rivals

179. for the republican presidential nomination.

180. Nearly all were privately sure

181. they could do a better job than their chief.

182. Secretary of state William H. Seward

183. hoped to replace Lincoln.

184. Secretary of the treasury Salmon P. Chase

185. wanted to replace Seward.

186. Mary Todd told her husband

187. to get rid of both of them.

188. Instead, Lincoln fired war secretary Simon P. Cameron,

189. a Pennsylvania boss so corrupt, said Lincoln,

190. that the only thing he wouldn't steal

191. was a red-hot stove.

192. The new secretary of war was Edwin M. Stanton,

193. an able, ruthless war democrat from Ohio

194. who worried about what he believed to be

195. Lincoln's "painful imbecility."

196. On one thing, the cabinet was agreed.

197. General George McClellan was not moving fast enough

198. against the confederates.

199. "The army," secretary of war Stanton said,

200. "has got to fight or run away.

201. "The champagne and oysters on the Potomac

202. must be stopped."

203. "dear Ellen,

204. "I can't tell you how disgusted I am becoming

205. "with these wretched politicians.

206. "They are a most despicable set of men.

207. "Seward is a meddling, officious, incompetent little puppy.

208. "The president is nothing more

209. than a well-meaning baboon."

210. George McClellan.

211. The president pored over military books,

212. asked officers for advice,

213. and in exasperation

214. suggested that "if general McClellan

215. "does not want to use the army,

216. I would like to borrow it for a time."

217. Finally, he ordered McClellan

218. to move on Manassas junction,

219. and then proceed overland to take Richmond,

220. but McClellan would not move

221. and took to his bed with a fever.

222. McClellan did not want to fight

223. the vast confederate army he had convinced himself

224. now occupied northern Virginia.

225. Instead, he proposed to float his army

226. to fortress Monroe

227. at the tip of the finger of land

228. between the James and York rivers,

229. then race up the peninsula

230. to seize the confederate capital.

231. Impatient for any action, Lincoln agreed.

232. McClellan would move in mid march.

233. It had been 8 months

234. since the northern army had crawled back

235. into Washington after bull run.

236. "February 9, 1862.

237. "Dear Mr. president,

238. "general McClellan has almost ruined your administration

239. "and the country.

240. "He is a do-nothing.

241. "He is thinking of the presidency in '64.

242. "He is placating the rebels—

243. "that's what ails him.

244. Depend upon it."

245. Joseph Medill.

246. "What shall I do?

247. "The people are impatient.

248. "Chase has no money

249. "and tells me he can raise no more.

250. "The general of the army, McClellan,

251. "has typhoid fever.

252. "The bottom is out of the tub.

253. What shall I do?"

254. "Washington.

255. "Dear Ellen,

256. "I went to the white house shortly after tea,

257. "where I found the original gorilla,

258. "about as intelligent as ever.

259. What a specimen to be at the head of our affairs now."

260. George McClellan.

261. In the midst of all his troubles,

262. the president delighted in his sons.

263. The oldest, Robert, was away at Harvard,

264. but Willie, 11, and 8-year-old Thomas,

265. known as tad,

266. had the run of the white house.

267. Willie was studious, liked to compose verse

268. and memorize railroad timetables.

269. He had raised a boys' battalion

270. from among his schoolmates

271. and invaded cabinet meetings with his "troops."

272. In February,

273. he developed what the doctor called "bilious fever."

274. His parents sat up night after night

275. to nurse him.

276. On February 20, Willie died.

277. For 3 months,

278. Mary Lincoln veered between loud weeping

279. and silent depression

280. and sought to communicate with her dead child

281. through spiritualists.

282. "if I had not felt

283. "the spur of necessity urging me to cheer Mr. Lincoln,

284. "whose grief was as great as my own,

285. I could never have smiled again."

286. The war left Lincoln little time to mourn.

287. He was soon back working 18 hours a day.

288. "as she came plowing through the water,

289. "she looked like a huge half-submerged crocodile.

290. "At her prow,

291. I could see the iron ram projecting straight forward."

292. The confederacy had begun the war

293. with no Navy whatsoever,

294. but by the fall of 1861,

295. confederate engineers were bolting iron plates

296. to the hull of the steam frigate Merrimack,

297. building a warship more powerful

298. than anything the union had.

299. News of the monster quickly reached the north.

300. Secretary of war Stanton

301. feared she would steam up the Potomac

302. and shell the white house.

303. There was probably only one man in America

304. who could stop the Merrimack,

305. and he was mad at the Navy.

306. The Swedish-born inventor John Ericsson

307. was proud, vain, and cranky,

308. and felt he had been cheated out of payment

309. for services to the government years before,

310. but when secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles

311. begged him to do something to stop the Merrimack,

312. Ericsson came up with an extraordinary design.

313. His ship would have only two guns

314. to the Merrimack's 10,

315. but they would be mounted on a revolving turret,

316. and though his vessel would be made entirely of iron,

317. Ericsson assured everybody

318. that "the sea shall ride over her,

319. and she shall live in it like a duck."

320. Professional Navy men dismissed the plan,

321. but Lincoln overruled them,

322. and just 100 days later, on January 30, 1862,

323. Ericsson's ship slid into Manhattan's east river.

324. He called her the monitor,

325. and there had never been anything like her.

326. The single vessel contained 47 patentable inventions.

327. "we ran first to the New York side

328. "and then to Brooklyn,

329. "and so back and forth across the river,

330. "like a drunken man on a sidewalk.

331. We found she would not answer her rudder at all."

332. Once at sea, water spilled in,

333. ventilators failed,

334. the ship filled with gas, her crew began to faint,

335. but the monitor kept limping south.

336. 400 miles away, off the coast of Virginia,

337. the Merrimack was waiting.

338. Saturday, march 8, was wash day

339. for the union fleet in Hampton roads, Virginia.

340. Laundry was drying on the rigging

341. of the union warships

342. when the confederate Merrimack

343. headed straight for the U.S.S. Cumberland.

344. The Cumberland opened fire,

345. but the shots bounced harmlessly

346. off the Merrimack's side.

347. The confederate ship rammed the Cumberland,

348. then stood in so close,

349. their muzzles almost touched.

350. The Cumberland sank in shallow water.

351. The Merrimack went on

352. to set the U.S.S. Congress afire,

353. drove the U.S.S. Minnesota aground,

354. then drew back for the night.

355. For one day,

356. the confederate Navy ruled the sea.

357. At 1:00 that morning,

358. the crew of the battered Minnesota

359. saw a strange-looking ship draw up alongside them

360. in the darkness.

361. "close alongside the Minnesota,

362. "there was a craft such as the eyes of a seaman

363. "never looked upon before—

364. "an immense shingle floating on the water

365. "with a gigantic cheese box rising from its center.

366. "No sails, no wheels, no smokestack, no guns.

367. What could it be?"

368. The monitor had arrived.

369. The next morning,

370. the epic battle of ironclads began.

371. Hull to hull, the two ships hammered away at each other,

372. so close, they collided 5 times

373. as the men inside, half-blind with smoke,

374. loaded and fired.

375. After 41/2 hours, the Merrimack drew off.

376. It was her only fight.

377. Two months later,

378. rather than surrender their ship,

379. the confederates blew her up

380. when they were forced out of Norfolk.

381. Both sides set to work building more ironclads

382. while Europe watched in worried fascination.

383. From the moment the two ships

384. opened fire that Sunday morning,

385. every other Navy on earth was obsolete.

386. "general Grant habitually wears an expression

387. "as if he had determined to drive his head

388. through a brick wall and was about to do it."

389. The year 1862

390. would introduce two great forces into the war—

391. unspeakable slaughter and Ulysses S. Grant.

392. While McClellan hesitated in Washington,

393. Grant, back in the field after months of desk duty,

394. won two crucial victories out west.

395. Launching simultaneous attacks by land and water,

396. he took first fort Henry on the Tennessee river,

397. then fort Donelson on the Cumberland,

398. where he issued an ultimatum to the confederate commander—

399. "no terms except unconditional

400. and immediate surrender."

401. The Tennessee and Cumberland rivers

402. were now in union hands.

403. The confederates had been driven from Kentucky.

404. Dozens of Southern towns

405. were now occupied by union troops.

406. In less than a year,

407. Grant had gone from clerk to union hero.

408. News stories described him coolly smoking under fire,

409. and admirers shipped him barrels of cigars.

410. A delighted northern public now thought they knew

411. what the initials in his name stood for.

412. They called him

413. "unconditional surrender" Grant.

414. But before Grant's men marched into fort Donelson,

415. confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest

416. slipped out of it with 1,000 men.

417. "I did not come here for the purpose

418. of surrendering my command," he said,

419. and led his troops 75 miles through the snow to safety.

420. Grant and the union army

421. would meet Bedford Forrest again.

422. After the confederate defeat at fort Donelson,

423. the female academy and Stewart college

424. at nearby Clarksville, Tennessee,

425. were converted to hospitals.

426. "Sunday the news came.

427. "Such panic-stricken people were never before seen.

428. "The wounded were being brought up.

429. "The citizens were running.

430. "There were already two hospitals here

431. "which were filled with the sick,

432. "and they, poor fellas, were crawling out from every piece—

433. "walking, going on horseback,

434. in wagons."

435. Nannie Haskins.

436. The union army was right behind the wounded.

437. They met no resistance.

438. A white flag flew

439. above tiny fort defiance west of town,

440. and mayor Smith came out

441. to inform the union commander

442. that the confederate army had retreated to Nashville.

443. Farmer John barker wrote in his diary

444. that there were nothing but lincolnites

445. throughout the county.

446. An uneasy federal occupation of Clarksville began.

447. Early in the war, some— um, a union squad closed in

448. on a single ragged confederate,

449. and he obviously didn't own any slaves.

450. He couldn't have much interest in—in the constitution

451. or anything else.

452. They said, "what are you fighting for, anyhow?" They asked him.

453. And he said, "I'm fighting

454. because you're down here,"

455. which is a pretty satisfactory answer.

456. On April 4, George McClellan at last

457. began to move for Richmond—

458. 121,500 men,

459. 14,592 horses and mules,

460. 1,150 wagons,

461. 44 batteries of artillery,

462. ambulances, pontoon Bridges,

463. tons of provisions, tents, telegraph wire.

464. It took 400 boats 3 weeks to land it all

465. at fortress Monroe on the Virginia coast.

466. "the whole region seems

467. "literally filled with soldiery.

468. "One of the finest armies

469. "ever marshalled on the globe

470. "now wakes up these long, stagnant fields and woods.

471. "General McClellan is here

472. and commands in person."

473. Reverend A.M. Stewart.

474. "I am to watch over you

475. "as a parent over his children,

476. "and you know that your general loves you

477. "from the depths of his heart.

478. "It shall be my care

479. to gain success with the least possible loss."

480. But at Yorktown, less than 20 miles away,

481. the confederates waited,

482. vastly outnumbered

483. but determined to defend their homes

484. and hurl back the invaders.

485. For the north, it was slow going.

486. Roads said to be bone dry were bogs.

487. Union officers,

488. forced to rely on store-bought maps,

489. lost their way.

490. Finally, on April 5,

491. the advance guard reached Yorktown,

492. where the confederates had taken over the building

493. used by lord Cornwallis as headquarters

494. during the revolutionary war.

495. There were just 11,000 Southern troops dug in—

496. not even 1/10 of McClellan's force...

497. But the confederate commander

498. was John Bankhead Magruder,

499. a showy virginian who loved amateur theatricals.

500. He now outdid even himself.

501. To fool McClellan into believing

502. that his small force was enormous,

503. Magruder kept up a sporadic,

504. widely scattered artillery barrage

505. and paraded one battalion in and out of a clearing

506. in an endless circle

507. until it seemed, to union observers, a mighty host.

508. Corporal Edmund Patterson, 9th Alabama.

509. "This morning, we were called out

510. "by the long roll, and have been traveling

511. "most of the day,

512. "seeming with no other view than to show ourselves to the enemy

513. "at as many different points of the line as possible.

514. I'm pretty tired."

515. "it seems clear that I shall have

516. the whole force of the enemy on my hands,"

517. McClellan telegraphed Lincoln,

518. "probably not less than 100,000 men,

519. and possibly more."

520. McClellan called for reinforcements.

521. General Joseph E. Johnston,

522. the overall confederate commander,

523. could not believe his luck.

524. "Nobody but McClellan," he said,

525. "could have hesitated to attack."

526. "once more, let me tell you,

527. "it is indispensable to you

528. "that you strike a blow.

529. "I have never written to you or spoken to you

530. "in greater kindness than now,

531. "nor with Fuller purpose to sustain you,

532. but you must act."

533. "The president very coolly telegraphed me

534. "that he thought I had better break the enemy's lines at once.

535. "I was much tempted to reply

536. that he had better come and do it himself."

537. George McClellan.

538. "I don't see the sense

539. "of piling up earth to keep us apart.

540. "If we don't get at each other sometime,

541. "when will the war end?

542. "My plan would be to quit ditching

543. and go to fighting."

544. But McClellan chose to dig in.

545. As he settled in for a siege of Yorktown,

546. union general Phil Kearny

547. took to calling his commander

548. "the Virginia creeper."

549. During the peninsula campaign,

550. uh, McClellan's working his way

551. up the York James peninsula, and he came to a stream.

552. And he and his staff were sitting there wondering

553. how deep it was, if they had to march across it.

554. And Custer, who was a junior officer on his staff—

555. just graduated from west point, a captain, I think—

556. rode out into midstream,

557. sat on his horse, and turned around in the saddle

558. and said to McClellan, "this is how deep it is, general."

559. "a man's conceit dwindles

560. "when he crawls into an unteasled shirt,

561. "trousers too short and baggy behind,

562. "coat too long at both ends,

563. "and a cap as shapeless as a feedbag.

564. "A photograph of any one of them,

565. "covered with yellow dust or mosaics of mud,

566. "could ornament any mantel, north or south,

567. as a true picture of our boy."

568. North and south, the average soldier

569. was 5'8" tall and weighed 143 pounds.

570. His chance of dying in combat was 1 in 65;

571. Of being wounded, 1 in 10.

572. 1 in 13 would die of disease.

573. The average age of a soldier was 25.

574. The minimum age for enlistment was 18,

575. but recruiting officers were not particular.

576. Drummer boys as young as 9 signed on.

577. There were more than 100,000 soldiers in the union army

578. who were not yet 15 years old.

579. William black was not yet 12 when he enlisted.

580. Shot in the left arm during battle,

581. he was thought to be the youngest combat soldier

582. wounded in the war.

583. "almost every known trade, profession,

584. "or calling has its representatives

585. "in our regiment—

586. "tailors, carpenters, masons, and plasterers,

587. "moulders and glassblowers,

588. "puddlers and rollers,

589. "machinists and architects,

590. "printers, bookbinders and publishers,

591. "gentlemen of leisure,

592. "politicians, merchants,

593. "legislators, judges,

594. "lawyers, doctors, preachers.

595. "Some malicious fellow might ask the privilege

596. "of completing the catalogue by naming

597. "jailbirds, idlers, loafers, drunkards,

598. "and gamblers...

599. But we beg his pardon and refuse the license."

600. "All the appliances of home life

601. "which are possible are being introduced

602. "into our encampment—

603. "a weekly newspaper,

604. "a photographic establishment,

605. "a temperance league,

606. "and a Christian association.

607. "We have a post office, letter box,

608. "postmaster, and mail carrier.

609. "Our boys write vastly more letters

610. "than they receive.

611. "You can hardly imagine the eagerness

612. "with which the mailman is looked for,

613. "the delight on the reception of a letter,

614. "the sadness, sometimes even to tears,

615. "with which those who are disappointed

616. turn away."

617. Reverend A.M. Stewart.

618. For the enlisted man,

619. army life meant periods of tedium

620. punctuated by moments of extreme terror.

621. It also meant long absences

622. from family and home.

623. "July 1862. Tupelo, Mississippi.

624. "Dear sisters,

625. "I would be the gladdest person in the world

626. "to see you and talk with you awhile,

627. "for I see nobody here but men,

628. "and they appear to be very sorry company.

629. "I think that I could enjoy myself at home

630. better than anywhere else in the world."

631. Benjamin Stubbs.

632. For those officers who took their families

633. with them to camp, life was somewhat better.

634. "there has been a great battle indeed

635. "in the southwest,

636. "a conflict of two days,

637. "closely fought and with varying fortune

638. "and by great armies.

639. "It seems entitled to a place

640. among the first-class battles of history."

641. George Templeton strong.

642. It was fought in early April.

643. The trees were leafed out,

644. and the roads were meandering cowpaths.

645. Nobody knew north from south, east from west.

646. They had never been in combat before, most of them,

647. especially on the Southern side.

648. So it was just a disorganized, murderous fistfight—

649. 100,000 men slamming away at each other.

650. In early April, as McClellan continued

651. to sit in front of Yorktown,

652. 42,000 union troops under general Ulysses S. Grant

653. were encamped on the West Side of the Tennessee river

654. near Pittsburgh landing.

655. Grant's invasion of Tennessee

656. had practically cut the state in two,

657. and now he was waiting

658. for Don Carlos Buell's army of the Ohio

659. to join him.

660. Their combined forces were then to plunge

661. into the heart of Mississippi,

662. but Buell was late,

663. and at Corinth, Mississippi, 22 miles away,

664. the commander of the western department of the confederate army,

665. Albert Sidney Johnston,

666. saw no reason to wait.

667. Their armies were still evenly matched,

668. and he would attack and end Grant's invasion.

669. "Tonight we will water our horses in the Tennessee,"

670. Johnston told his staff officers

671. on the morning of April 6.

672. The confederates quietly moved toward the union lines.

673. "it was a most beautiful morning.

674. "It really seemed like Sunday in the country at home.

675. "The boys were scattered around camp,

676. "polishing and brightening their muskets

677. "and brushing up and cleaning

678. their shoes, jackets, and trousers for inspection."

679. Private Leander Stilwell.

680. At the head of one union division

681. was William Tecumseh Sherman,

682. who had shaken off the melancholy

683. that had sent him home the previous year.

684. His ohioans were encamped on a hill

685. not far from a little log-built Methodist church

686. called Shiloh

687. when the 6th Mississippi attacked.

688. "I saw men in gray and brown clothes

689. "running through the camp.

690. "And I saw something else, too,

691. "something I had never seen before—

692. "a gaudy sort of thing with red bars...

693. A rebel flag."

694. "We were crowding them.

695. "One more charge, and their lines waver and break.

696. "They retreat in wild confusion.

697. "We were jubilant,

698. "and the officers could not curb their men

699. to keep them in line."

700. Sam Watkins.

701. The battle extended along a 3-mile front.

702. The worst fighting was in the center,

703. where the rebels came on and on

704. like "maddened demons," a union soldier said.

705. The generals didn't know their jobs.

706. The soldiers didn't know their jobs.

707. It was just pure determination to stand and fight

708. and not retreat,

709. and the bloodiness of it was just astounding to everyone.

710. It also corrected a Southern misconception which had said,

711. "one good Southern soldier

712. is worth 10 Yankee hirelings."

713. They found out that wasn't true by a long shot.

714. In a peach orchard, the federals lay flat

715. beneath the blossoming trees,

716. firing as the rebels came,

717. soft pink petals raining down

718. on the living and the dead.

719. By late morning, thousands of untried federal troops

720. had seen enough.

721. Most did not stop running until they reached the river,

722. where almost 5,000 men cowered beneath the bluff.

723. "We are sweeping the field," general Johnston told

724. his second in command, Beauregard,

725. "and I think we shall press them to the river."

726. Grant's back was to the Tennessee.

727. There was no sign of Buell and nowhere else to go,

728. but a thin federal line held in the center,

729. Illinois and Iowa farm boys mostly,

730. prone along a sunken road.

731. Their commander, Benjamin Prentiss,

732. understood the deadly seriousness

733. of Grant's order to "maintain that position

734. at all costs."

735. The confederates launched a dozen massive assaults

736. against what became known as the hornet's nest.

737. Albert Sidney Johnston himself led the last charge.

738. Uh, he came out of it with, uh, bits of his clothing nicked all up.

739. One boot sole was shot in half,

740. and he flapped his— on—on horseback there,

741. and said, "they didn't trip me up that time."

742. And very soon after that, they saw him reel in the saddle

743. and realized he was hurt,

744. and then someone said, "general, are you wounded?"

745. And he said, "yes, and I fear seriously,"

746. and he was shot behind the knee—

747. in the femoral artery, I suppose—

748. and bled to death.

749. They saw blood coming out of his boot,

750. and he could have been easily saved with a tourniquet,

751. but he had sent his—his surgeon off

752. to take care of some federal prisoners.

753. "advancing a little further,

754. "we saw general Albert Sidney Johnston

755. "surrounded by his staff.

756. "We saw some little commotion

757. "among those who surrounded him,

758. "but we did not know at the time that he was dead.

759. The fact was kept from the troops."

760. Sam Watkins.

761. The command of the western army

762. now passed to general Beauregard.

763. Albert Sidney Johnston was looked on by many people

764. at the time of Shiloh,

765. and especially before Shiloh while he was

766. holding that line up in Kentucky,

767. as the south's number-one field soldier.

768. Jefferson Davis viewed him as that,

769. and when he lost Albert Sidney Johnston,

770. he said, "I realized our strongest pillar had been broken."

771. Meanwhile, the center of the union line

772. bent back on itself

773. but would not break.

774. Confederates trained 62 Cannon

775. at point-blank range and opened fire.

776. The hornet's nest exploded in a hail

777. of splintered trees and shattered men.

778. At 5:30, Prentiss and the 2,200 survivors

779. of his division surrendered.

780. They had held up the Southern advance

781. for nearly 6 hours,

782. and it was growing dark.

783. Beauregard wired Jefferson Davis

784. that he had won a complete victory.

785. "I had general Grant just where I wanted him,"

786. he said, "and could finish him up in the morning."

787. Everywhere, wounded men lay in agony.

788. Neither army had yet devised a system

789. for gathering or caring for them on the field.

790. Scores of wounded collapsed and died

791. drinking from a mud hole near the peach orchard,

792. staining the water red.

793. It began to rain,

794. and flashes of lightning

795. showed hogs feeding on the ungathered dead.

796. "some cried for water,

797. "others for someone to come and help them.

798. "I can hear those poor fellows crying for water.

799. "God heard them, for the heavens opened

800. and the rain came."

801. Grant spent that night beneath a tree

802. rather than listen to the screams of the wounded men

803. in his headquarters.

804. It was there that Sherman found him.

805. "Well, Grant," he said,

806. "we've had the devil's own day, haven't we?"

807. "Yes," said Grant. "Lick 'em tomorrow, though."

808. "never to me was the sight

809. "of reinforcing legions so welcome

810. "as on that Sunday evening

811. "when Buell's advance column deployed

812. on the bluffs of Pittsburgh landing."

813. During the night, Buell's army finally arrived.

814. The union men marched ashore as a band played Dixie.

815. At dawn, the union force, now 70,000 strong,

816. drove into Beauregard's 30,000.

817. The confederates fell back, counterattacked,

818. fell back again,

819. and began to withdraw.

820. The union held the field.

821. Covering the confederate retreat

822. was Nathan Bedford Forrest,

823. who now turned to lead one last cavalry charge

824. headlong into the pursuing northern army.

825. And he landed square in the main body of the union troops.

826. He was surrounded by— one gray uniform in a sea of blue,

827. and, uh, they began to holler,

828. "kill him. Kill the goddamn rebel.

829. Knock him off his horse,"

830. and one soldier did, uh, stick his, uh, rifle out

831. into Forrest's side and pulled the trigger

832. and lifted Forrest clear of the saddle

833. with the impact of the bullet,

834. and Forrest, meantime, was slashing with his saber.

835. His horse was kicking and turning,

836. and Forrest sawed him around

837. and got him clear and took off,

838. and they were shooting after him,

839. so he reached down and grabbed one union soldier

840. and swung him up behind him

841. on the crupper of the horse to use as a shield,

842. and when he got out of range,

843. he threw the man off and rode back

844. to join his command.

845. That was the last shot fired in the battle of Shiloh.

846. The ground, Grant said, was so covered with dead

847. that it would have been possible to walk across the clearing

848. in any direction, stepping on dead bodies

849. without a foot touching the ground.

850. "when the grave was ready,

851. "we placed the bodies therein, two deep.

852. "All the monument reared to those brave men was a board

853. "upon which I cut with my pocket knife

854. the words 125 rebels."

855. 2,477 men were killed at Shiloh.

856. There were 23,000 casualties overall—

857. more than all the American casualties

858. in all previous American wars combined...

859. And it was only the beginning.

860. Shiloh had the same number of casualties

861. as Waterloo,

862. and yet, when it was fought,

863. there were another 20 Waterloos to follow,

864. and Grant, shortly before Shiloh, said,

865. "I consider this war practically over.

866. They're ready to give up,"

867. and the day after Shiloh, he said,

868. "I saw that it was going to have to be a war of conquest

869. if we were to win."

870. Shiloh did that,

871. and it sobered the nation up something awful,

872. the realization that they had

873. Avery bloody affair on their hands,

874. and it called for a huge reassessment

875. of what this thing was going to be.

876. Years afterward, a union veteran said,

877. the most a soldier could say of any fight was,

878. "I was worse scared than I was at Shiloh."

879. "Shiloh" is a Hebrew word

880. meaning "place of peace."

881. "April 11, 1862.

882. "I firmly believe that before many centuries more,

883. "science will be the master of man.

884. "The engines he will have invented

885. "will be beyond his strength to control.

886. "Someday, science shall have the existence of mankind

887. "in its power,

888. "and the human race commit suicide

889. by blowing up the world."

890. Henry Adams.

891. The armies that U.S. Grant and George McClellan led

892. were the best-equipped in history.

893. The productive capacity and technical ingenuity

894. of the north were now focused on weapons...

895. And the civil war would see

896. the first railroad artillery,

897. the first land mines and telescopic sights,

898. the first military telegraphs.

899. In 1862 alone,

900. 240 patents were issued for military weapons.

901. Lincoln was fascinated by new weaponry.

902. He personally tested new rifles

903. and ordered up 10 union repeating guns,

904. forerunners of the machine gun,

905. but he passed up a scheme

906. to manufacture canoe-shaped footwear

907. for walking on water,

908. and tactfully declined a herd of war elephants

909. offered by the king of Siam.

910. Oh, they had many crazy ideas,

911. uh, along with some good ones.

912. There was one plan to use two Cannon,

913. each with a cannonball

914. and the two cannonballs connected by a chain.

915. And you would fire the two cannons at the same time,

916. and the balls would go out,

917. and the chain between them

918. would just cut a swath through everything in the way.

919. The trouble was, one Cannon, of course,

920. went off before the other one did

921. with the result that the ball went around in a circle

922. from the other Cannon.

923. The most important innovation of the whole war

924. was the rifled musket,

925. along with a French refinement—

926. captain Claude Minie's new bullet,

927. an inch-long lead slug

928. that expanded into the barrel's rifled grooves

929. and spun as it left the muzzle.

930. The minie ball could kill at half a mile

931. and was accurate at 250 yards—

932. 5 times as far as any other one-man weapon.

933. The age of the bayonet charge had ended,

934. though most officers did not yet know it

935. when the war began,

936. and some had still not learned it

937. when the war was over.

938. It was brutal stuff.

939. The reason for the high casualties is really quite simple—

940. the weapons were way ahead of the tactics.

941. The rifle itself,

942. it threw a.53 caliber soft lead bullet

943. at a low muzzle velocity,

944. and when it hit—

945. uh, the reason there were so many amputations,

946. if you got hit here, it didn't clip your bone

947. the way the modern steel-jacketed bullet does.

948. You didn't have any bone from here to here.

949. They had no choice but to take your arm off,

950. and you'll see pictures of the dead on the battlefield

951. with their clothes in disarray

952. as if someone had been going—rifling their bodies.

953. That was the men themselves tearing their clothes up

954. to see where the wound was,

955. and they knew perfectly well

956. if they were gut shot, they'd die.

957. "April 25, 1862,

958. "Pittsburgh landing, Tennessee.

959. "Dear Julia...

960. "I'm no longer boss.

961. "General Halleck is here,

962. "and I'm truly glad of it.

963. "I hope the papers will let me alone

964. "in the future.

965. "If the papers only knew how little ambition I have

966. "outside of putting down this rebellion

967. "and getting back once more

968. "to live quietly and unobtrusively

969. "with my family,

970. I think they would say fewer falsehoods."

971. Ulysses S. Grant.

972. Ulysses S. Grant's reward

973. for the costly union victory at Shiloh

974. was to be removed from field command.

975. Grant's superior was general Henry wager Halleck,

976. a calculating administrator

977. who was jealous of Grant's success

978. and anxious to get rid of his chief rival.

979. After the battle of fort Donelson,

980. he spread rumors Grant was drinking.

981. After the fearful losses at Shiloh,

982. he had Grant reassigned.

983. Grant decided to quit,

984. but his friend William Tecumseh Sherman

985. talked him out of it.

986. "You could not be quiet at home for a week,"

987. he said, "when armies are moving."

988. Grant and Sherman were both Ohio boys

989. and west pointers who were fond of cigars,

990. scorned pomp and politics,

991. and had fared poorly in civilian life.

992. Grant enjoyed Sherman's rapid-fire brilliance

993. and was grateful for the dispatch

994. with which he carried out every order.

995. Sherman admired his friend's cool temper,

996. his steadiness in the midst of crisis,

997. and what he called Grant's "simple faith in success."

998. They trusted each other.

999. "I'm a damned sight smarter than Grant.

1000. "I know more about organization, supply, and administration,

1001. "and about everything else than he does.

1002. "But I'll tell you where he beats me

1003. "and where he beats the world—

1004. "he don't care a damn for what the enemy does out of his sight,

1005. but it scares me like hell."

1006. William Tecumseh Sherman.

1007. "any attempt now

1008. "to separate the freedom of the slave

1009. "from the victory of the government,

1010. "any attempt to secure peace to the whites

1011. "while leaving the blacks in chains,

1012. "will be labor lost.

1013. "The American people

1014. "and the government at Washington

1015. "may refuse to recognize it for a time,

1016. "but the inexorable logic of events

1017. "will force it upon them in the end—

1018. "that the war now being waged in this land

1019. is a war for and against slavery."

1020. Frederick Douglass.

1021. Letter by letter, speech by speech,

1022. month after month,

1023. Frederick Douglass tirelessly lobbied

1024. the government in Washington,

1025. urging Lincoln to emancipate the slaves...

1026. But the president still insisted

1027. the war was being fought for union

1028. and publicly avoided Douglass and the debate.

1029. "our Southern friend tells us

1030. "the north is fighting for negroes.

1031. "Our union friend says

1032. "they're not fighting to free the negroes,

1033. "but for the union.

1034. "Very well.

1035. "Let the whites fight for what they want;

1036. "We negroes fight for what we want.

1037. "Liberty must take the day,

1038. "nothing shorter.

1039. "We care nothing about the union.

1040. "We have been in it slaves

1041. over 250 years."

1042. "Whatever nation gets the control

1043. "of the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri rivers

1044. will control the continent."

1045. William Tecumseh Sherman.

1046. Out west, union naval strategy was straightforward—

1047. seize control of the Mississippi

1048. and cut the confederacy in two.

1049. On April 7,

1050. union gunboats and 2,000 troops

1051. took the confederate fortress at island number 10

1052. near new Madrid, Missouri,

1053. leaving the river open as far south as Memphis.

1054. Two months later, Memphis fell.

1055. On the night of April 24,

1056. a 60-year-old flag officer, David g. Farragut,

1057. started north up the Mississippi,

1058. intent on capturing New Orleans.

1059. But first, he had to get by the heavy guns

1060. at forts Jackson and St. Phillips,

1061. 70 miles below the city.

1062. When the moon Rose, the confederates opened fire

1063. and sent blazing rafts drifting into the union fleet.

1064. The first vessel was hit 42 times.

1065. Farragut's own flagship was set on fire,

1066. but somehow the entire fleet made it past the forts.

1067. New Orleans surrendered the next day.

1068. Farragut had the American flag raised

1069. over city hall.

1070. "New Orleans gone—

1071. "and with it, the confederacy?

1072. "Are we not cut in two?

1073. That Mississippi ruins us, if lost."

1074. Mary Chesnut.

1075. "tupelo, Mississippi.

1076. "I don't know how the war will be decided

1077. "if England and France don't interfere

1078. "and stop the war.

1079. "And if the confederacy

1080. "has to gain her independence by fighting,

1081. "I am afraid she will have to give it up,

1082. "for there are so few provisions

1083. in this portion of the confederacy."

1084. James Jackson.

1085. In the following months,

1086. Farragut's fleet gained control

1087. of the Southern Mississippi

1088. as far north as Baton Rouge and Natchez,

1089. but the north did not possess the whole river.

1090. The confederate stronghold at Vicksburg still held.

1091. "republics— everybody jawing,

1092. "everybody putting their mouths in,

1093. "nothing sacred,

1094. "all confusion of babble.

1095. "Republics can't carry on war.

1096. Hurrah for a strong one-man government."

1097. Mary Chesnut.

1098. From the Southern white house in Richmond,

1099. Jefferson Davis struggled

1100. to keep the war effort on track.

1101. Southern industry grew, driven by necessity,

1102. and the confederate government,

1103. founded on the principle of decentralization,

1104. found itself controlling everything...

1105. From the forging of Cannon

1106. at the big tredegar iron works in Richmond

1107. to the daily output

1108. of the women who spun cloth

1109. for uniforms in their parlors.

1110. In Charleston,

1111. Mary Chesnut's circle knit socks

1112. for stonewall Jackson's entire brigade.

1113. Women wove boots from palmetto fronds,

1114. and saved their urine

1115. from which to distill niter for gunpowder.

1116. Southerners grew poppies to yield opium,

1117. and made coffee from corn and peas,

1118. hypodermic needles from thorns,

1119. rope from Spanish moss...

1120. But the confederate army was shrinking.

1121. The term of enlistment for the earliest volunteers

1122. was up in the spring.

1123. Most men planned to go home.

1124. In April, at the insistence of Jefferson Davis,

1125. the confederate congress passed two laws.

1126. One extended all enlistments for the duration.

1127. The other required all able-bodied white men

1128. between 18 and 35 to serve for 3 years.

1129. It was the first national draft in American history.

1130. "the conscription act, at one fell swoop,

1131. "strikes down the sovereignty of the states,

1132. "tramples upon the constitutional rights

1133. "and personal Liberty of the citizens,

1134. and arms the president with imperial powers."

1135. Governor Joseph E. Brown of Georgia.

1136. "Mrs. Davis is being utterly upset.

1137. "She is beginning

1138. "to hear the carping and faultfinding

1139. "to which the president is subjected.

1140. "There must be an opposition

1141. "in a free country,

1142. but it is very uncomfortable."

1143. Mary Chesnut.

1144. Veterans were especially resentful

1145. because potential draftees who owned 20 slaves or more

1146. could be exempted.

1147. "a law was made allowing every person

1148. "who owned 20 negroes to go home.

1149. "It gave us the blues.

1150. "We wanted 20 negroes.

1151. "There was raised the howl

1152. "of rich man's war, poor man's fight!

1153. "From this time on till the end of the war,

1154. "a soldier was simply a machine, a conscript.

1155. "All our pride and valor had gone,

1156. "and we were sick of war

1157. and cursed the Southern confederacy."

1158. Sam Watkins.

1159. Nearly half the southerners eligible for the new draft

1160. failed to sign up.

1161. "April 21.

1162. "16 days have now been spent in this place.

1163. "Our grand army has again come to a halt.

1164. "Under the dry pine leaves where we encamp,

1165. "a great Secesh army of wood ticks have wintered.

1166. "Few are so happy as not to find

1167. "half a dozen of these villainous bloodsuckers

1168. sticking in his flesh every morning."

1169. Chaplain A.M. Stewart.

1170. "The firing from the confederate lines

1171. "was of little consequence,

1172. "not amounting to over 10 or 12 artillery shots each day,

1173. "a number of these being directed at the huge balloon

1174. which went up daily from general Fitz John's headquarters."

1175. "When about 100 feet above the ground,

1176. "the rope broke,

1177. "and the general sailed off toward Richmond

1178. "at a greater speed

1179. "than the army of the Potomac is moving.

1180. "He had sufficient calmness

1181. "to pull the valve rope,

1182. and gradually descended about 3 miles from camp."

1183. On the peninsula,

1184. general George McClellan's huge army

1185. sat in front of the smaller rebel force at Yorktown

1186. for almost a month.

1187. It rained 2 out of every 3 days.

1188. Hundreds fell ill.

1189. "I feel that the fate of a nation depends on me,

1190. "and that I have not one single friend

1191. at the seat of government."

1192. George McClellan.

1193. McClellan had moved more than 90 federal guns

1194. to Yorktown by may 3,

1195. some so massive that it took 100 horses

1196. to haul them up

1197. along hastily constructed timber highways

1198. called "cor-du-roi" roads.

1199. McClellan finally decided to act

1200. and carefully planned a massive bombardment

1201. for may 5,

1202. but on the night of the 3rd,

1203. general Magruder's confederate batteries

1204. suddenly intensified their fire.

1205. McClellan braced for an attack,

1206. but the next morning, the confederates had vanished.

1207. Disbelieving federal troops

1208. edged into the deserted Southern camps.

1209. Magruder had packed up his show and moved on,

1210. but McClellan declared it a union victory.

1211. "the success is brilliant,

1212. "and you may rest assured

1213. "that its effects will be of the greatest importance.

1214. "There shall be no delay

1215. in following up the rebels."

1216. The union men now cautiously

1217. followed the rebel army west towards Richmond.

1218. "may 20.

1219. "Richmond is just 9 miles off.

1220. "The negroes are delighted to see us,

1221. "but the whites look

1222. as if they would like to kill us."

1223. Elisha hunt Rhodes.

1224. From McClellan's lines,

1225. you could hear the bells of Richmond tolling.

1226. You could hear

1227. the church bells in the public clock striking,

1228. he was that close.

1229. A worried Jefferson Davis now prepared

1230. for a siege of Richmond,

1231. relying more and more on the advice

1232. of his close military advisor Robert E. Lee.

1233. When Davis asked where Lee thought

1234. the south's next defensive line should be drawn

1235. once Richmond fell,

1236. Lee said, "Richmond must not fall.

1237. It shall not be given up."

1238. Still, George McClellan refused to attack.

1239. Though his army still outnumbered the rebels,

1240. he remained convinced the opposite was true.

1241. One observer noted

1242. that McClellan had a particular faculty

1243. for "realizing hallucinations."

1244. He demanded another 40,000 men.

1245. "if he had a million men,

1246. "he would swear the enemy had two millions,

1247. "and then he would sit down in the mud

1248. and yell for 3."

1249. Edwin M. Stanton.

1250. With the year half gone,

1251. the union's grand strategy had stalled.

1252. The western campaign begun by U.S. Grant

1253. had ground to a halt in north Mississippi,

1254. and McClellan's mighty forces

1255. were paralyzed in front of Richmond.

1256. There was worse to come.

1257. The killing that would soon break out in Virginia

1258. would continue all year

1259. and come to a climax

1260. along a tiny creek in western Maryland

1261. called the Antietam.

1262. "we talk of the irrepressible conflict

1263. "and practically give the lie to our talk.

1264. "We wage war against slaveholding rebels

1265. "and yet protect and augment the motive

1266. "which has moved the slaveholders to rebellion.

1267. "We strike at the effect

1268. "and leave the cause unharmed.

1269. "Fire will not burn it out of us,

1270. "water cannot wash it out of us,

1271. "that this war with the slaveholders

1272. "can never be brought to a desirable termination

1273. "until slavery,

1274. "the guilty cause of all our national troubles,

1275. has been totally and forever abolished."

1276. Frederick Douglass.

1277. Corporate funding for this special 25th

1278. anniversary presentation of the civil war was provided by.

1279. Before thousands fell on the battlefield,

1280. before millions were freed and before a country

1281. forged its identity... A nation declared a new

1282. birth of freedom, rededicating itself to the

1283. proposition that all men are created equal.

1284. Bank of America is proud to sponsor "the civil war,"

1285. a film by Ken burns,

1286. newly restored for it's 25th anniversary.

1287. Original production of "the civil war"

1288. was made possible by generous contributions

1289. from these funders.

1290. And by the corporation for public broadcasting.

1291. And by contributions to your PBS station from

1292. viewers like you, thank you.