The Civil War 1x3

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. Private Edwin Tennison,

18. killed in action at Malvern hill,

19. July 1, 1862.

20. During the civil war,

21. photographers followed the armies everywhere

22. to make proud portraits for the boys to send home

23. and to capture as much of the action

24. as cumbersome equipment

25. and slow shutter speeds allowed.

26. Near the battle of fair oaks, Virginia,

27. captain George Armstrong Custer

28. paused to have his picture taken

29. with J.B. Washington,

30. close friend and classmate from west point—

31. and now a confederate lieutenant

32. who had just that morning

33. been captured by federal pickets.

34. As 1862 dragged on,

35. the character of the war was changing,

36. and much of the country was changing with it.

37. By 1862, more than a million farm workers

38. had enlisted in the union army,

39. and travelers in the Midwest

40. saw more women at work in the fields than men.

41. The year, which had begun so promisingly for the north,

42. had now gone awry.

43. U.S. Grant's triumphs at Donelson and Shiloh

44. were being overshadowed by disasters in the east.

45. In Virginia, union general George McClellan's army

46. sat outside Richmond,

47. its commander in possession of vastly greater forces,

48. but without the will to fight.

49. Meanwhile, the confederacy was beginning to appreciate

50. the brilliance of a new commander,

51. Robert E. Lee,

52. who would soon establish a reputation

53. as one of the greatest military leaders of all time.

54. And there was still more trouble for the union.

55. At Blackburn, England,

56. a public meeting declared that it was impossible

57. for the north to vanquish the south

58. and called for a negotiated settlement of the war.

59. With Europe poised to recognize the confederacy,

60. the unthinkable looked increasingly likely—

61. the union was going to lose the war.

62. "We must change our tactics or lose the game,"

63. Abraham Lincoln wrote in 1862.

64. To Lincoln, it was clear now

65. that it was no longer possible

66. to restore the old union.

67. A new one had to be embraced.

68. By summer, he knew what tactic was needed

69. to win the war— emancipation—

70. but doubted whether he would ever have

71. the political or military opportunity to use it.

72. "I find it hard to maintain my lively faith

73. in the triumph of the nation and the law,"

74. New York lawyer George Templeton strong

75. confided to his diary.

76. "These are the darkest days we have seen since bull run."

77. What no one knew was that the year

78. would soon see the bloodiest day of the war

79. and then the brightest.

80. It could have been Avery ugly, filthy war

81. with no redeeming characteristics at all...

82. And it was the battle for emancipation

83. and the people who pushed it forward—

84. the slaves, the free black people, the abolitionists,

85. and a lot of ordinary citizens—

86. it was they who ennobled

87. what otherwise would have been meaningless carnage

88. into something higher.

89. Outside Richmond,

90. George McClellan continued to call anxiously

91. for more troops,

92. though his 110,000-man force

93. already greatly outnumbered Joseph Johnston's army.

94. Meanwhile, west of the blue Ridge

95. in the Shenandoah valley,

96. general Thomas J. Jackson

97. was keeping 3 federal armies busy.

98. "always mystify, mislead, and surprise the enemy.

99. "And when you strike and overcome him,

100. "never let up in the pursuit.

101. "Never fight against heavy odds

102. "if you can hurl your force

103. "on only a part of your enemy and crush it.

104. "A small army may thus destroy a large one,

105. and repeated victory will make it invincible."

106. General T.J. Jackson.

107. He was a true eccentric.

108. He believed that if he had pepper in his food,

109. it would make his left leg ache.

110. He would never mail a letter

111. that would be in transit on a Sunday.

112. He was a strict observer of the sabbath.

113. And yet so many of his battles were fought on Sundays

114. that the soldiers began to believe that he would fight on Sunday

115. because the lord would be even more with him.

116. Jackson was a pious, blue-eyed killer,

117. utterly untroubled by the likelihood of death.

118. It was a man's "entire duty," he said,

119. "to pray and fight."

120. "he would have a man shot at the drop of a hat,

121. and he'd drop it himself."

122. Sam Watkins.

123. He had a strange quality of overlooking suffering.

124. During one of the battles, he had a young courier,

125. and Jackson looked around for him,

126. and he wasn't there.

127. And he said, "where is lieutenant so-and-so?"

128. And they said, "he was killed, general."

129. Jackson said, "very commendable, very commendable."

130. And then put him out of his mind.

131. "all old Jackson gave us

132. "was a musket, 100 rounds, and a gum blanket,

133. and he drove us like hell."

134. His men did not love him.

135. He was too grim, too remote, and he demanded too much.

136. Some thought him mad.

137. He believed that only by keeping one hand in the air

138. could he stop himself from going out of balance.

139. And he sucked constantly on lemons,

140. even in the midst of battle.

141. Others worried that his religious fervor

142. would cloud his judgment.

143. His command, Jackson said,

144. was "an army of the living god,

145. as well as of its country."

146. But his men were willing to endure

147. the 36-mile-a-day marches he demanded

148. because he brought them victories.

149. It was Jackson's duty in the Shenandoah

150. to unsettle the union

151. and keep Washington from reinforcing McClellan.

152. Operating in the midst of 3 federal armies,

153. each with more men than his own force of 17,000,

154. Jackson lashed out at one army and then another.

155. Armed with a detailed map that stretched 81/2 feet,

156. he surprised them every time—

157. at Winchester,

158. front royal,

159. cross keys,

160. port Republic,

161. and a half dozen other places.

162. After routing Nathaniel banks' army

163. at the battle of Winchester,

164. Jackson chased it all the way to the Potomac.

165. "Stop, men!" Banks shouted to his retreating troops.

166. "Don't you love your country?"

167. "Yes, by god," said one,

168. "and I'm trying to get back to it

169. just as fast as I can."

170. Jackson's valley campaign was a triumph.

171. In just over a month,

172. his men marched almost 400 miles,

173. inflicted 7,000 casualties,

174. seized huge quantities of badly needed supplies,

175. and kept almost 40,000 federal troops

176. off the peninsula.

177. "he who does not see the hand of god in this

178. is blind, sir, blind."

179. "There is no doubt that Jefferson Davis

180. "and other leaders of the south

181. "have made an army.

182. "They are making, it appears, a Navy,

183. "and they have made what is more than either.

184. "They have made a nation.

185. "We may anticipate with certainty

186. the success of the Southern states."

187. William E. Gladstone.

188. Confederate gospel held that Britain and France

189. could not survive without Southern cotton.

190. Before long, one or both would surely intervene

191. on behalf of the confederacy

192. to end the union blockade.

193. To put more pressure on Europe,

194. the confederates cut cotton production 90%.

195. 2.5 million bales were burned

196. or left to rot on confederate wharves

197. to keep it out of English hands.

198. Now, in addition to directing a war at home,

199. Lincoln had to find a way to keep Europe

200. from coming in on the side of the south.

201. And increasingly, in the north,

202. there was pressure for emancipation,

203. and it came from unlikely people

204. in unlikely places.

205. On may 1, 1862,

206. Lincoln named general Benjamin F. Butler

207. military governor of occupied New Orleans.

208. Butler went right to work.

209. He hanged a man

210. suspected of having desecrated the American flag.

211. He closed a secessionist newspaper,

212. confiscated the property

213. of citizens who refused to swear allegiance

214. to the union,

215. and was given the scornful nickname "spoons"

216. for allegedly pocketing silverware.

217. New Orleans women routinely insulted his troops.

218. When a woman in the French quarter

219. leaned from a window to dump her chamber pot

220. on the head of admiral Farragut,

221. Butler issued general order number 28.

222. "As the officers and soldiers of the United States

223. "have been subject to repeated insults

224. "from the women calling themselves ladies of New Orleans,

225. "it is ordered that, hereafter,

226. "when any female shall,

227. "by word, gesture, or movement,

228. "insult or show contempt

229. "for any officer or soldier of the United States,

230. "she shall be regarded and held liable

231. "to be treated as a woman of the town,

232. plying her avocation."

233. General Benjamin Butler.

234. Southerners were outraged

235. and called Butler "the beast."

236. A New Orleans entrepreneur sold chamber pots

237. featuring Butler's portrait inside the bowl.

238. In Charleston, south Carolina,

239. a private citizen offered a $10,000 reward

240. for the capture of "beast" Ben Butler—

241. dead or alive.

242. But the harassment of his men stopped.

243. With the union army so near,

244. unrest on Louisiana plantations increased.

245. When desperate slave owners

246. began complaining of rebellious blacks,

247. Butler declared the planters disloyal to the union,

248. then took away their slaves.

249. "Go to the Yankees,"

250. one slave-holder told his slaves.

251. "They are kings here now."

252. "I have been reading so much about the Yankees,

253. "I was very anxious to see them.

254. "The whites would tell their colored people

255. "not to go to the Yankees,

256. "for they would harness them to carts

257. "and make them pull the carts around in place of horses.

258. "I asked grandmother one day if this was true.

259. "She replied, certainly not,

260. "that the white people

261. "did not want slaves to go over to the Yankees

262. "and told them these things to frighten them.

263. "I wanted to see those wonderful Yankees so much,

264. "as I heard my parents say

265. that the Yankees were going to set all the slaves free."

266. Susan king Taylor.

267. The slaves understood that that war was about slavery

268. before it was a war.

269. They made a nuisance for the army,

270. and they also made an issue that the army had to deal with.

271. And if the army had to deal with it,

272. the war department had to deal with it.

273. If the war department had to deal with it,

274. congress had to deal with it.

275. That means that every fugitive slave

276. who made a nuisance of himself

277. to the local commander

278. eventually made a figure of himself

279. to the congress of the United States.

280. Congress, controlled by Republicans,

281. now forbade the army

282. to return slaves to their masters.

283. And in June,

284. it outlawed slavery in the territories,

285. finally reversing the old Dred Scott decision.

286. "only the damnedest of damned abolitionists

287. "dreamed of such things a year ago.

288. "John brown's soul is marching on,

289. with the people after it."

290. George Templeton strong.

291. "The slavery question perplexes the president

292. "almost as much as ever,

293. "and yet I think he is about to emerge

294. "from the obscurities

295. "where he has been groping

296. "into somewhat clearer light.

297. So, you see, the man moves."

298. Salmon P. Chase.

299. "July 4, 1862.

300. "I would do it

301. "if I were not afraid

302. "that half the officers would fling down their arms

303. and 3 more states would rise."

304. Lincoln continued to back a plan

305. to pay $400 for every slave freed

306. and then encourage the freed men

307. to sail off to a colony in Africa or Central America.

308. The abolitionist Wendell Phillips

309. called Abraham Lincoln

310. a first-rate second-rate man.

311. I lose Patience with the argument

312. that because of someone's time,

313. his limitations are therefore excusable or even praiseworthy.

314. It is not true that it was impossible

315. in that time and place

316. to look any higher.

317. Think of Wendell Phillips, who,

318. commenting on Abraham Lincoln's proposal

319. to colonize black people out of the country,

320. was sarcastic.

321. He said, "colonize the blacks?

322. "A man might as well colonize his own hands.

323. "Or when the robber is in his house,

324. he might as well colonize his revolver."

325. "emancipation is the demand of civilization.

326. "That is a principle.

327. All else is intrigue."

328. Ralph Waldo Emerson.

329. On the Virginia peninsula, the rains came,

330. inundating the bottomlands.

331. Along the roads outside Richmond,

332. George McClellan's force was divided in two

333. by the flooded Chickahominy river.

334. The rebels saw their chance

335. and attacked the smaller force on may 31st.

336. In the fierce fighting that followed,

337. the confederates did best

338. near a crossroads called seven pines.

339. The union soldiers

340. were most successful at fair oaks.

341. When the battle of fair oaks was over,

342. the north had lost 5,000 men,

343. the south, 6,000,

344. and it hadn't changed a thing.

345. Joseph Johnston,

346. the overall confederate commander,

347. was himself severely wounded

348. and carried from the field.

349. "the shot that struck me down

350. "was the best ever fired for the confederacy,

351. "for I possessed in no degree

352. "the confidence of the government,

353. "and now a man who does enjoy it will succeed me

354. and be able to accomplish what I never could."

355. "His name might be audacity.

356. "He will take more chances and take them quicker,

357. "than any other general in this country,

358. north or south."

359. Now for the first time in the war,

360. Robert E. Lee was placed

361. at the head of a major army.

362. "I prefer Lee to Johnston.

363. "Lee is too cautious

364. "and weak under grave responsibility.

365. "Personally brave and energetic to a fault,

366. "he is yet wanting in moral firmness

367. when pressed by heavy responsibility."

368. George McClellan.

369. McClellan completely misjudged

370. the new confederate commander.

371. Robert E. Lee was a fighter.

372. Wanting to get at the union men

373. who had dared invade his state,

374. Lee renamed his force the army of northern Virginia,

375. seized the initiative, and never let it go.

376. First, Lee sent his cavalry chief, Jeb Stuart,

377. to reconnoiter McClellan's forces.

378. Stuart now led 1,200 troopers

379. on a pounding 3-day, 150-mile ride

380. around McClellan's huge army.

381. His men burned federal camps,

382. cut down telegraph poles,

383. took prisoners and horses and mules,

384. and slowed only to accept bouquets and kisses

385. from women along the way.

386. In vain pursuit

387. was Stuart's own father-in-law,

388. who had stayed loyal to the union

389. and become a general—

390. a decision Stuart said he would "regret but once,

391. and that will be continuously."

392. Throughout the whole campaign,

393. Lee carefully observed

394. McClellan's tentative advance up the peninsula.

395. As McClellan was preparing at last

396. to lay siege to Richmond,

397. Lee surprised him first,

398. at Mechanicsville on June 26th.

399. It was a daring move.

400. Defying all military convention,

401. Lee divided his tiny force

402. and then attacked the huge union army,

403. gambling that McClellan would be too cautious

404. to move into Richmond.

405. Lee's assault didn't work.

406. He lost 1,500 men at Mechanicsville,

407. but he would not let up.

408. Determined to drive McClellan out of Virginia,

409. Lee kept on the attack.

410. And so it went.

411. For 7 days, the two armies clashed.

412. From Gaine's mill...

413. From savage's station...

414. To Frayser's farm...

415. And Malvern hill,

416. where federal gunners stopped the confederates

417. who came at them up the long slope.

418. "our ears had been filled all night

419. "with agonizing cries before the fog was lifted.

420. "But now our eyes saw

421. "that 5,000 dead or wounded men

422. "were on the ground.

423. "A third of them were dead or dying,

424. "but enough of them were alive and moving

425. to give the field a singular crawling effect."

426. "each of the battles of those 7 days

427. "brought a harvest of wounded

428. "to our hospital.

429. "I used to veil myself closely

430. "as I walked to and from my hotel,

431. "that I might shut out

432. "the dreadful sights.

433. "Once I did see one of those dreadful wagons.

434. "In it, a stiff arm was raised,

435. "and it shook as it was driven down the street,

436. "as though the dead owner

437. appealed to heaven for vengeance."

438. All but one of the battles of the 7 days

439. were union victories,

440. yet McClellan treated them as defeats,

441. continuing to back down

442. until he reached the safety of federal gunboats

443. at Harrison's landing on the James river.

444. Union officers urged a counterattack.

445. Lee had lost 20,000 men.

446. McClellan refused.

447. One officer suggested

448. his commander was motivated

449. either by "cowardice or treason."

450. In just one week,

451. Lee had completely unnerved the union general

452. and demonstrated for the first time

453. the strengths that would make him a legend—

454. surprise, audacity,

455. and an eerie ability to read his opponent's mind.

456. In just 7 days,

457. McClellan had been totally out-generaled.

458. "I am tired of the sickening sight of the battlefield,

459. "with its mangled corpses and poor suffering wounded.

460. "Victory has no charms for me

461. when purchased at such cost."

462. On July 7th,

463. an exasperated Lincoln sailed down to see

464. his commanding general.

465. He had not lost, McClellan insisted.

466. He had merely failed to win.

467. He needed 50,000 more men, or perhaps 100,000.

468. No such numbers were available,

469. Lincoln told him.

470. If McClellan did not feel

471. he could resume the offensive,

472. his men would be withdrawn from the peninsula.

473. "If I gave McClellan all the men he asks for,

474. "they couldn't find room to lie down.

475. "They'd have to sleep standing up.

476. "Sending men to that army

477. "is like shoveling fleas across a barnyard—

478. not half of them get there."

479. "September 3.

480. "Today we took a steamer

481. "and went up the Potomac past Washington

482. "and landed at Georgetown.

483. "It is hard to have reached

484. "the point we started from last march,

485. and Richmond is still the rebel capital."

486. Elisha Hunt Rhodes.

487. Union guns battered fort Pulaski, Georgia, into surrendering

488. and choked off the Savannah river

489. to Southern ships.

490. There was fighting

491. at Foyt's plantation, north Carolina,

492. St. Andrew's bay, Florida,

493. Wartrace, Tennessee,

494. and at Albuquerque in far-off new Mexico territory.

495. "sea islands, Georgia.

496. "Here I am, surrounded by troopers,

497. "missionaries, contrabands,

498. "cotton fields, and serpents,

499. "in a summer climate,

500. "disgusted with all things military

501. "and fighting off malaria

502. "with whiskey and tobacco.

503. "No man seems to realize that here in this little island,

504. "all around us, has begun the solution

505. "of the tremendous nigger question.

506. "Some 10,000 former slaves

507. "are thrown upon the hands

508. "of the unfortunate government.

509. "They are the forerunners

510. of hundreds of thousands more."

511. Lieutenant Charles Francis Adams.

512. Stationed in places

513. like Hilton head and Beaufort,

514. new englanders got their first taste of the tropics.

515. None of the 2nd Massachusetts

516. had ever seen a palm tree before.

517. When union forces took parts of the south Carolina coast,

518. plantation owners fled,

519. leaving behind empty houses and 10,000 slaves.

520. Missionaries, teachers, and other volunteers

521. soon arrived to help the newly-liberated.

522. "We have come to do antislavery work,"

523. one teacher wrote.

524. "We think it noble work,

525. and we will do it nobly."

526. "my dear wife,

527. "this day I can address you,

528. "thank god, as a free man.

529. "I had a little trouble getting away,

530. "but as the lord led the children of Israel to the land of Canaan,

531. "so he led me to a land where freedom will reign

532. "in spite of earth and hell.

533. "My dear, I trust the time will come

534. "when we will meet again.

535. "And if we don't meet on earth,

536. "we will meet in heaven, where Jesus reigns.

537. "Dear wife, I must close.

538. "Rest yourself contented. I am free.

539. "Your affectionate husband.

540. Kiss Daniel for me."

541. John Boston.

542. At deer isle, Maine,

543. people were afraid to go to the post office,

544. where the casualty lists were posted.

545. "new Berne, north Carolina.

546. "March 20, 1862.

547. "To Mr. John Webster, Jr.,

548. "deer isle, Maine.

549. "Dear sir...

550. "It is with pain

551. "that I have to announce to you

552. "the death of your brother Charles gray.

553. "By his good conduct

554. "and bravery while with me,

555. "he had risen to the rank of corporal,

556. "and had he lived, I should have promoted him again.

557. "He was shot through the body

558. "at the battle of new Berne.

559. "His last words were, we will never give up.

560. "He is buried here.

561. "His effects I shall send home

562. "at the earliest opportunity.

563. "Yours truly, E.A.P. Brewster,

564. "captain commanding company 'a',

565. 23rd Massachusetts."

566. Deer isle had lost its first soldier.

567. A parcel containing Charles gray's personal effects

568. arrived in the mail—

569. his hat, promotion papers attesting to his valor,

570. and a cartridge box

571. in which someone had placed

572. the mangled bullet that killed him.

573. His mother refused to look at it.

574. The men of the reduced fishing fleet

575. struggled to harvest a catch.

576. Wives tended kitchen gardens

577. and scraped linen for the lint

578. from which army bandages were made.

579. More bad news arrived.

580. Private Alex Henderson had died of disease

581. at fort Jackson, Louisiana,

582. leaving a widow and several children.

583. At Clarksville, Tennessee,

584. tensions between the town

585. and the occupying union army ran high.

586. Federal troops vandalized Stewart college,

587. wrecking laboratories and stealing books,

588. then set up headquarters there.

589. Soldiers burst in on a church service,

590. arrested the preacher, commandeered horses,

591. and forced reluctant parishioners

592. to take a loyalty oath.

593. As much as possible, the residents stayed at home.

594. The answer to— a southerner would give you

595. as to why are you fighting if you were a northerner—

596. he would say, "I'm fighting 'cause you're down here."

597. He was being invaded,

598. and he fought, as he thought, to defend his home.

599. Lincoln had a much more difficult job

600. of sending men out

601. to shoot up somebody else's home.

602. And he had to unite them before he could do that.

603. And his way of doing it was double.

604. One was to say that the Republic must be preserved,

605. not split in two. That was one.

606. And the other one he gave them as a cause—

607. the freeing of the slaves.

608. On the morning of July 22, 1862,

609. the president called a cabinet meeting.

610. What he said took everyone by surprise.

611. After long thought, he told them,

612. he had decided to emancipate the slaves.

613. It was a stunning moment.

614. It was against everything

615. Lincoln had promised all the Republicans

616. and indeed the country—

617. that he would not become an abolitionist,

618. he would not strike at slavery where it existed.

619. And here, suddenly, he was changing

620. the character of the war.

621. But secretary of state Seward worried

622. that until the army had won a real victory,

623. emancipation would seem like

624. the last shriek on the retreat.

625. Lincoln agreed to wait for a victory.

626. It's hard to separate one issue from another.

627. Obviously, Lincoln had to win the war.

628. He had to keep his respectability

629. as president of a country

630. that would not allow itself to be defeated

631. by a group of rebels.

632. So that was always an issue,

633. and it was especially an issue, of course, in 1862.

634. He could not let himself be made a fool

635. and the union be made a fool

636. by standing up for principles

637. that could not be vindicated on the battlefield.

638. Desperate for a victory, Lincoln removed McClellan

639. and put tall, bombastic John pope in command.

640. Pope so often bragged

641. that his headquarters were in the saddle,

642. people began to say he had his headquarters

643. where his hindquarters should have been.

644. Lincoln was warned at the start

645. that pope was not to be trusted with telling the truth.

646. And Lincoln said, "I've known the popes back in Illinois.

647. "Known all of them. They're all liars and braggarts,

648. "but I don't know of any particular reason why a liar and a braggart

649. shouldn't make a good general."

650. Pope wasted no time charging into northern Virginia

651. after the rebel armies,

652. but he was in trouble from the start.

653. First, stonewall Jackson fought him to a stand-off

654. at cedar mountain.

655. Jeb Stuart hit him next,

656. raiding his headquarters

657. and getting away with $35,000 in cash

658. and the union commander's dress coat.

659. Then the rebels simply disappeared.

660. It took pope two days to find them,

661. dug in along an abandoned railroad

662. overlooking the old bull run battlefield.

663. On August 29th, pope attacked,

664. promising to "bag the whole crowd."

665. But the confederates held,

666. Jackson's men hurling rocks when ammunition ran low.

667. At 2:00 the next afternoon,

668. confederate general James Longstreet

669. sent 5 divisions storming into the union flank.

670. It was another union disaster.

671. 25,000 men were killed, wounded, or missing

672. at second bull run,

673. five times the figure

674. that had so horrified the country

675. the first time north and south fought there.

676. Lincoln sent pope west to Minnesota

677. to deal with an uprising among the sioux

678. and reluctantly put George McClellan

679. back in command.

680. "We must use the tools we have,"

681. Lincoln said.

682. McClellan told his wife

683. he had been called upon to save the country

684. once again.

685. "we would ask the north carolinians

686. "if they had any tar

687. "and call them tar heels.

688. "They would reply that they were just out

689. "as they had let us virginians have all they had

690. "to make us stick in the last fight

691. "and call us sore backs,

692. "as they'd knocked all the skin off our backs

693. "running over us to get into battle.

694. "And so it would go, but all in the best of humor,

695. knowing that all did their duty."

696. John Casler, 33rd regiment, Virginia infantry, stonewall's brigade.

697. You must remember they were all from the same state.

698. They had followed the same flag.

699. The battles they had fought in,

700. the names were stitched on that flag.

701. And there was a great deal of unit pride.

702. And I'm sure there was a great deal of sadness

703. over the losses that they suffered.

704. But there was a closeness among those men

705. that came from years of being exposed

706. to the most horrendous warfare that I know of.

707. "dear father, the next morning,

708. "we had our second battle.

709. "It was rather strange music

710. "to hear the balls scream within an inch of my head.

711. "I had a bullet strike me on top of the head

712. "just as I was going to fire,

713. "and a piece of shell struck my foot.

714. "A ball hit my finger, and another hit my thumb.

715. "The firing increased tenfold,

716. "then it sounded like the rolls of thunder,

717. "and all the time every man shouting

718. "as loud as he could.

719. "I got rather more excited

720. than I wish to again."

721. "I saw the body

722. "of a man killed the previous day this morning,

723. "and a horrible sight it was.

724. "Such sights do not affect me as they once did.

725. "I cannot describe the change,

726. "nor do I know when it took place,

727. "yet I know there is a change,

728. "for I look on the carcass of a man now

729. "with pretty much the same feeling as I would do

730. were it a horse or a hog."

731. "Sunday a soldier of company 'a' died and was buried.

732. "Everything went on as if nothing had happened,

733. "for death is so common that little sentiment is wasted.

734. It is not like death at home."

735. Elisha Hunt Rhodes.

736. Falling back from the bull run battlefield,

737. union troops skirmished briefly with rebel forces

738. at falls church, Virginia,

739. where the men stopped long enough

740. to scribble their names on the chapel walls.

741. "In great contests,"

742. Abraham Lincoln wrote as the summer waned,

743. "each party claims to act in accordance

744. "with the will of god.

745. "Both may be, but one must be, wrong.

746. "God cannot be for and against the same thing

747. at the same time."

748. "August 20, 1862.

749. An open letter to the president."

750. "We think you are unduly influenced

751. "by the counsels of certain fossil politicians

752. "hailing from border slave states.

753. "We ask you to consider that slavery

754. "is everywhere the inciting cause and sustaining base

755. "of treason.

756. "It seems to us the most obvious truth

757. "that whatever strengthens or fortifies slavery

758. "drives home the wedge

759. intended to divide the union."

760. Horace Greeley.

761. "August 22nd.

762. "My Paramount object in this struggle

763. "is to save the union

764. "and is not either to save

765. "or to destroy slavery.

766. "If I could save the union

767. "without freeing any slave, I would do it.

768. "If I could save it by freeing all the slaves,

769. "I would do it.

770. "And if I could save it by freeing some

771. "and leaving others alone,

772. I would also do that."

773. "it seems to me that time is fast approaching

774. "when some joint offer of mediation

775. "by England, France, and Russia

776. "might be made with some prospect of success

777. "to the combatants in north America.

778. "The proposal would naturally be made

779. "to both north and south.

780. "If both accepted, we should recommend an armistice

781. "and cessation of blockades,

782. "with a view to negotiation

783. on the basis of separation."

784. Prime minister Palmerston.

785. Lincoln had to have a victory.

786. "September 3, 1862.

787. "The present seems to be

788. "the most propitious time

789. "since the commencement of the war

790. for the confederate army to enter Maryland."

791. Robert E. Lee.

792. The brilliant Southern victories of spring and summer

793. had brought Lee's army international renown.

794. "One more successful campaign,"

795. he wrote Jefferson Davis,

796. "would force Europe to recognize the confederacy."

797. Now, for the first time,

798. Lee led 40,000 soldiers across the Potomac

799. and onto union soil.

800. "this body of men moving along with no order,

801. "their guns carried in every fashion,

802. "no two dressed alike,

803. "their officers hardly distinguishable

804. "from the privates—

805. "were these the men that had driven back again and again

806. our splendid legions?"

807. "They were the dirtiest men I ever saw,

808. "a most ragged, lean,

809. "and hungry set of wolves.

810. "Yet there was a dash about them

811. that the northern men lacked."

812. Lee's target was the federal rail center

813. at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

814. Hoping marylanders would rise up

815. against the union,

816. he instructed his men to sing Maryland, my Maryland

817. as they marched.

818. It didn't work.

819. Most residents of the small towns

820. stayed fearfully behind closed doors.

821. Then, on September 13th, in a Meadow near Frederick,

822. a union soldier found 3 cigars

823. wrapped in a piece of paper.

824. It was a copy of Lee's battle plans,

825. accidentally left behind.

826. McClellan now knew Lee had divided his army,

827. sending one part off to seize Harpers ferry.

828. McClellan had in his hands

829. the instrument with which to destroy Lee.

830. Still, he did nothing for 18 crucial hours.

831. On September 15th,

832. Lee and his confederates took up positions

833. along the crest of a 3-mile Ridge

834. just east of the town of Sharpsburg

835. and only 52 miles from Washington.

836. The Potomac was at their back.

837. In front ran a creek called Antietam.

838. "On the forenoon of the 15th,

839. "the blue uniforms of the federals

840. "appeared among the trees that crowned the heights

841. "on the eastern bank of the Antietam.

842. "The number increased, and larger and larger grew the field of blue

843. "till it seemed to stretch as far as the eye could see.

844. "And from the tops of the mountains down to the edges of the stream

845. gathered the great army of McClellan."

846. General James Longstreet.

847. Had McClellan hurled his army

848. at the confederates that day,

849. the war might have ended, but he did not.

850. "There was a single item in our advantage,"

851. an aide to Lee remembered,

852. "but it was an important one.

853. "McClellan had brought superior forces

854. to Sharpsburg," the aide conceded,

855. "but he had also brought himself."

856. "September 16th— that night, I lay beside the Charlestown pike

857. "and watched until morning

858. "the grimy columns come pouring up from the pontoons.

859. "It was a weird, uncanny sight

860. "and drove sleep from my eyes.

861. "It was something demon-like,

862. "a scene from an inferno.

863. "They were silent as ghosts,

864. "ruthless and rushing in their speed,

865. "ragged, earth-colored, disheveled, and devilish.

866. "The shuffle of their badly shod feet

867. "on the hard surface of the pike

868. "was so rapid as to be continuous,

869. "like the hiss of a great serpent.

870. "The spectral, ghostly picture

871. will never be erased from my memory."

872. Captain Edward Hastings Ripley.

873. "as night grew nearer,

874. "whispers of a great battle

875. "to be fought the next day grew louder,

876. "and we shuddered at the prospect,

877. "for the battles had come to mean to us,

878. "as they never had before,

879. blood, wounds, and death."

880. The battle that began the next day

881. was really 3 battles.

882. The first began at 6 A.M. on Lee's left,

883. where a federal force

884. charged along the Hagerstown pike

885. to attack stonewall Jackson's men

886. hidden in woods beyond a big cornfield.

887. The union objective

888. was a plateau edged with artillery

889. on which stood a small whitewashed church,

890. built by a German baptist pacifist sect, the dunkards,

891. for whom even a steeple was thought immodest.

892. The union field commander was major general Joe hooker,

893. a profane and hard-drinking Massachusetts soldier

894. known as fighting Joe.

895. As hooker cautiously advanced,

896. he noticed the glint of bayonets in the cornfield

897. and ordered 4 batteries to fire into it.

898. The rebels countercharged.

899. The battle surged back and forth

900. across the cornfield 15 times.

901. In a matter of minutes,

902. the 12th Massachusetts lost 224 of 334 men.

903. Hooker himself was carried from the field,

904. shot through the foot.

905. "the men are loading and firing

906. "with demoniacal fury

907. "and shouting and laughing hysterically,

908. "and the whole field before us

909. "is covered with rebels fleeing for life

910. into the woods."

911. Hooker's men were closing in on the Dunkard church.

912. At that moment, stonewall Jackson sent in his last reserves,

913. John bell hood's division— fierce fighters at any time,

914. but now enraged at having missed breakfast,

915. which had promised to be their first real meal in days.

916. Their first volley was

917. "like a scythe running through our line,"

918. one union survivor remembered.

919. And then the confederate counterattack came on.

920. "Every stalk of corn was cut as closely

921. "as could have been done with a knife,

922. "and the slain lay in rows,

923. "precisely as they had stood in their ranks

924. a few moments before."

925. Joseph hooker.

926. The northern troops ran back through the cornfield.

927. Hood's men ran after them, but were stopped

928. by a hail of shells and federal reinforcements.

929. When the confederates finally withdrew,

930. one officer asked hood where his division was.

931. "Dead on the field," he answered.

932. "I have never in my soldier's life

933. "seen such a sight.

934. "The dead and wounded covered the ground.

935. "In one spot, "a rebel officer and 20 men

936. "lay near a wreck of a battery.

937. "It is said battery 'a',

938. 1st Rhode Island artillery did this work."

939. Elisha hunt Rhodes.

940. By 10 A.M., 8,000 men lay dead or wounded.

941. Jackson's lines had wavered, but held.

942. After his part of the battle was over,

943. Jackson was sitting on his horse, eating a peach,

944. and his medical director, Dr. McGguire, was there.

945. And, uh...

946. He looked out over this field

947. where there were dead of both sides littered all over the place.

948. And as he's eating the peach, he said,

949. "god has been very kind to us this day."

950. The second part of the battle of Antietam

951. began at the center of Lee's line,

952. a sunken country road

953. that now served as a ready-made rifle pit

954. for two confederate brigades.

955. Lee ordered it held at all costs.

956. General John B. Gordon assured him,

957. "these men are going to stay here, general,

958. till the sun goes down or victory is won."

959. Then the union attacked.

960. "The brave union commander,

961. "superbly mounted, placed himself in front,

962. "while his band cheered them

963. "with martial music.

964. "I thought, what a pity to spoil with bullets

965. such a scene of martial beauty."

966. General John B. Gordon.

967. Gordon let the blue line

968. get within a few yards,

969. then gave the order to fire.

970. The union commander was killed instantly.

971. His men wavered, retreated, then came back

972. at the confederates 5 more times.

973. Gordon was hit twice in the right leg,

974. once in the left arm,

975. a fourth time through the shoulder.

976. He refused all aid,

977. limping along the line to steady his men

978. as the federals kept coming.

979. "I was finally shot down by a fifth ball,

980. "which struck me squarely in the face.

981. "I fell forward and lay unconscious

982. "with my face in my cap.

983. "I might have smothered in blood

984. "but for a yankee bullet hole

985. which let the blood run out."

986. Still the confederates held.

987. Unit after unit of northern troops

988. fell back from the sheets of Southern fire.

989. Finally, some new yorkers managed to find a spot

990. from which they could shoot down

991. on the road's defenders.

992. The tide of battle turned.

993. The sunken road,

994. remembered now as bloody Lane,

995. rapidly filled with Southern bodies,

996. two and 3 deep,

997. and the triumphant federals knelt on top

998. of what one called "this ghastly flooring"

999. to fire at the fleeing survivors.

1000. The confederate center had splintered.

1001. One more push might have broken it apart.

1002. General McClellan, however,

1003. decided it "would not be prudent" to attack again.

1004. All day long, in hastily constructed field hospitals,

1005. Clara Barton tended the wounded.

1006. She worked so close to the fighting

1007. that a bullet went through her sleeve

1008. and killed a man she was treating.

1009. "I had to wring the blood

1010. "from the bottom of my clothing

1011. "before I could step,

1012. for the weight about my feet."

1013. "I was lying on my back, supported on my elbows,

1014. "watching the shells explode overhead and speculating

1015. "as to how long I could hold up my finger

1016. "before it would be shot off.

1017. "When the order to get up was given,

1018. "I turned over to look at colonel Kimball,

1019. thinking he had become suddenly insane."

1020. Lieutenant Matthew J. Grohan.

1021. The third battle took place on the confederate right,

1022. where the union army, led by general Burnside's corps,

1023. tried to fight its way

1024. across a strongly defended stone bridge

1025. over Antietam creek.

1026. Ambrose Burnside was a genial, dapper man—

1027. his distinctive whiskers or sideburns set a fashion—

1028. but "he shrank from responsibility,"

1029. an admiring fellow officer said,

1030. "with Sincere modesty,"

1031. and he owed his position

1032. to his old friend McClellan, who now promised

1033. to support his assault across the bridge.

1034. Burnside had 12,500 men

1035. against barely 400 Georgians

1036. led by Robert Toombs.

1037. But the confederates commanded the bluff

1038. overlooking the bridge

1039. and poured a relentless volley of fire

1040. down on the union troops.

1041. It took 3 hours and 3 bloody charges

1042. for the federals to cross the creek

1043. and begin fighting their way up the slope

1044. towards Sharpsburg.

1045. 7 successive union color bearers were hit

1046. before the confederates finally broke,

1047. racing back into the town.

1048. "oh, how I ran.

1049. "I was afraid of being struck in the back,

1050. "and I frequently turned around in running

1051. "so as to avoid, if possible,

1052. so disgraceful a wound."

1053. Private John Dooley.

1054. Union victory again seemed certain.

1055. But while the union troops cheered,

1056. the confederate light division was arriving

1057. from Harpers ferry...

1058. 3,000 men, footsore from their 17-mile march,

1059. but otherwise ready to fight

1060. and commanded by general A.P. Hill,

1061. dressed in the red shirt he liked to wear in battle.

1062. "A.P. Hill is the fightingest division commander

1063. "in Lee's army.

1064. "Hill arrived at another one of those Nick-of-the-moment things,

1065. "and it was the last one,

1066. "and it succeeded in throwing Burnside back

1067. after he finally got across the bridge."

1068. Hill slammed into the celebrating union troops.

1069. Burnside begged McClellan to send up

1070. the reinforcements he had promised.

1071. McClellan refused.

1072. As night fell, Burnside withdrew

1073. to the stone bridge his men had fought so hard to seize.

1074. The battle was over.

1075. No ground had been gained.

1076. "before the sunlight faded,

1077. "I walked over the narrow field.

1078. "All around lay the confederate dead,

1079. "clad in butternut.

1080. "As I looked down on the poor pinched faces,

1081. all enmity died out."

1082. "There was no secession in those rigid forms,

1083. "nor in those fixed eyes staring at the sky.

1084. Clearly, it was not their war."

1085. "The sun went down. The thunder died away.

1086. "The musketry ceased.

1087. "Bivouac fires gleamed out

1088. as if a great city had lighted its lamps."

1089. It had been the bloodiest day

1090. in American history.

1091. The union lost 2,108 dead,

1092. another 10,293 wounded or missing—

1093. double the casualties of d-day 82 years later.

1094. Lee lost fewer men—

1095. 10,318 casualties—

1096. but that was a quarter of his army.

1097. "Why did we not attack them

1098. "and drive them into the river?

1099. "I do not understand these things.

1100. But then, I am only a boy."

1101. Elisha hunt Rhodes.

1102. McClellan had plenty of reserves

1103. waiting outside Sharpsburg,

1104. but he never used them.

1105. Lee, outnumbered 3-to-1,

1106. braced for a new attack all the next day.

1107. It never came.

1108. On the 18th, Lee and his army slipped back

1109. across the Potomac.

1110. McClellan could claim a victory,

1111. but he could have won the war.

1112. Lee's invasion had been halted,

1113. he had suffered terrible losses,

1114. but his army had not been destroyed.

1115. "the causes of the war were wide apart,

1116. but the manhood was the same."

1117. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, 20th Maine.

1118. Held in reserve outside Sharpsburg,

1119. the 20th Maine included farmers and lumbermen,

1120. seamen and shopkeepers and trappers.

1121. Its colonel was Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain,

1122. a 33-year-old professor of rhetoric, oratory,

1123. and modern languages at Bowdoin college.

1124. Denied a leave of absence to enlist,

1125. he applied for a sabbatical to study in Europe,

1126. then volunteered.

1127. On paper, his only qualification for command

1128. was that he was a gentleman of the highest moral,

1129. intellectual, and literary worth.

1130. Chamberlain was still at Sharpsburg

1131. when Abraham Lincoln came to see the battlefield.

1132. "we could see the deep sadness

1133. "in the president's face

1134. "and feel the burden on his heart,

1135. "thinking of his great commission to save this people

1136. "and knowing that he could do this no otherwise

1137. "than as he had been doing—

1138. by and through the manliness of these men."

1139. Watching the president review his troops,

1140. it seemed to Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain

1141. that a "mystic bond, wonderful in its intensity,"

1142. joined the men to their commander in chief.

1143. The object of Lincoln's visit

1144. was to get McClellan to pursue Lee.

1145. "I came back thinking he would move at once.

1146. "But when I got home,

1147. "he began to argue why he ought not to move.

1148. "I peremptorily ordered him to advance.

1149. "It was 19 days before he put a man over the river,

1150. "and 9 days longer before he got his army across.

1151. And then he stopped again."

1152. Lincoln at last had had enough of George McClellan.

1153. The president relieved him of command permanently.

1154. "they have made a great mistake.

1155. Alas, for my poor country."

1156. "September 21, 1862.

1157. "Dear Sam, Jr.,

1158. "a great many of your old friends and schoolmates

1159. "have died or been killed.

1160. "I will merely name Lem Ambercrombie,

1161. "Jeff Montgomery,

1162. "John Garrett,

1163. "Lem hatch, John hill,

1164. "Proctor Porter, Bill Humes,

1165. "John white,

1166. "Walter Maxey,

1167. "Angus Alston.

1168. "Old Mrs. Thomas of our neighborhood

1169. "has lost 5 sons.

1170. Your mother, Margaret Houston."

1171. You do have a big problem when you have units

1172. that are from states and counties and even towns.

1173. And one of those regiments

1174. can get in a very tight spot

1175. in a particular battle,

1176. like in the cornfield at Sharpsburg,

1177. and the news may be

1178. that there are no more young men in that town.

1179. They're all dead.

1180. In October of 1862, at his New York gallery,

1181. Mathew Brady opened an exhibition of photographs

1182. entitled "the dead of Antietam."

1183. Nothing like them had ever been seen in America before.

1184. "the dead of the battlefield come up to us very rarely,

1185. "even in dreams.

1186. "We see the lists in the morning paper at breakfast,

1187. "but dismiss its recollection with the coffee.

1188. "Mr. Mathew Brady has done something

1189. "to bring to us the terrible reality

1190. "and earnestness of the war.

1191. "If he has not brought bodies

1192. "and laid them in our dooryards and along our streets,

1193. he has done something very like it."

1194. Against the advice of his advisers,

1195. Lincoln reinstated U.S. Grant to field command.

1196. "I can't spare this man," Lincoln said. "He fights."

1197. 1,000 miles to the west,

1198. Vicksburg, high on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi river,

1199. remained confederate.

1200. "Vicksburg," Jefferson Davis said,

1201. "is the nail that holds the south's two halves together."

1202. That fall, Grant tried to take

1203. the heavily fortified city.

1204. He failed.

1205. The confederacy was on the offensive

1206. over a 1,000-mile front.

1207. Mr. Gladstone, a power in the English cabinet,

1208. is saying, "Jeff Davis has made a Navy.

1209. He's made an army," and, what's more important,

1210. intimating that he's made a nation.

1211. But the invasion of Maryland fails.

1212. Lee is defeated, falls back.

1213. They lose at Perryville in Kentucky.

1214. They lose at luka and Corinth in Mississippi,

1215. and even Newtonia in Missouri.

1216. And the confederate tide rolls back.

1217. Lincoln, as a result of Antietam,

1218. converted the war to a higher plane,

1219. again the master politician.

1220. He announces a preliminary emancipation proclamation.

1221. Of course, it doesn't free a single slave in revolt,

1222. frees only as a war measure

1223. and only frees the slaves in states

1224. where the confederacy is in control,

1225. and it will take effect on the first day of January.

1226. "On the first day of January,

1227. "in the year of our lord 1863,

1228. "all persons held as slaves within any state

1229. "or designated part of a state,

1230. "the people whereof shall then be in rebellion

1231. "against the United States,

1232. "shall be then, thenceforth, and forever free.

1233. Abraham Lincoln."

1234. On September 22nd,

1235. just 5 days after the battle of Antietam,

1236. the president issued his emancipation proclamation.

1237. "If my name ever goes into history,"

1238. Lincoln said,

1239. "it will be for this act."

1240. The south was outraged.

1241. Jefferson Davis called it the "most execrable measure

1242. recorded in the history of guilty man."

1243. At a Washington dinner, John hay,

1244. the president's 23-year-old secretary,

1245. noted that "everyone seemed to feel

1246. "a new sort of exhilarating life.

1247. "The president's proclamation had freed them,

1248. as well as the slaves."

1249. "it was no longer a question

1250. "of the union as it was

1251. "that was to be re-established.

1252. "It was the union as it should be—

1253. "that is to say, washed clean

1254. "from its original sin.

1255. "We were no longer merely the soldiers

1256. "of a political controversy.

1257. "We were now the missionaries

1258. "of a great work of redemption,

1259. "the armed liberators of millions.

1260. The war was ennobled. The object was higher."

1261. Abroad, the proclamation had the effect

1262. Lincoln had hoped for.

1263. Neither England nor France was willing openly to oppose

1264. a United States pledge to end slavery.

1265. "the triumph of the confederacy

1266. "would be a victory of the powers of evil,

1267. "which would give courage to the enemies of progress

1268. "and damp the spirits of friends

1269. "all over the civilized world.

1270. "The American civil war

1271. "is destined to be a turning point,

1272. "for good or evil,

1273. of the course of human affairs."

1274. John Stuart mill.

1275. "put not your trust in princes,

1276. "and rest not your hopes on foreign nations.

1277. "This war is ours.

1278. We must fight it out ourselves."

1279. Jefferson Davis.

1280. That December, Lincoln spoke to congress.

1281. "The dogmas of the quiet past

1282. "are inadequate to the stormy present.

1283. "As our case is new, so we must think anew

1284. "and act anew.

1285. "We must disenthrall ourselves,

1286. "and then we shall save our country.

1287. "Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history.

1288. "The fiery trial through which we pass

1289. "will light us down, in honor or dishonor,

1290. "to the latest generation.

1291. "We say we are for union.

1292. "The world will not forget that we say this.

1293. "In giving freedom to the slave,

1294. "we assure freedom to the free—

1295. "honorable alike in what we give

1296. "and what we preserve.

1297. "We shall nobly save or meanly lose

1298. the last best hope of earth."

1299. "December 31.

1300. "Well, the year 1862 is drawing to a close,

1301. "and as I look back, I am bewildered

1302. "when I think of the hundreds of miles

1303. "I have tramped,

1304. "the thousands of dead and wounded that I have seen.

1305. "But we hope for the best

1306. "and feel sure that in the end, the union will be restored.

1307. Goodbye, 1862."

1308. Elisha hunt Rhodes.

1309. "We shout for joy that we live to record

1310. "this righteous decree— free forever!

1311. "Oh, ye millions of free and loyal men

1312. "who have earnestly sought

1313. "to free your bleeding country

1314. "from the dreadful ravages of revolution and anarchy,

1315. "lift up now your voices with joy and Thanksgiving,

1316. "for with freedom to the slave

1317. will come peace and safety to your country."

1318. Frederick Douglass.

1319. On December 31st, a large crowd of abolitionists,

1320. including Harriet Tubman and Wendell Phillips,

1321. gathered together in the music hall in Boston.

1322. At midnight, the emancipation proclamation

1323. would take effect.

1324. On the stage, William Lloyd Garrison

1325. wept with joy beside Frederick Douglass.

1326. The cheering crowd called for Harriet Beecher Stowe.

1327. She stood in the balcony, tears in her eyes.

1328. At a Washington, D.C., contraband camp,

1329. former slaves testified.

1330. One remembered the sale of his daughter.

1331. "Now no more of that," he said.

1332. "They can't sell my wife and children anymore.

1333. Bless the lord."

1334. On the sea islands off south Carolina,

1335. federal agents read the proclamation aloud

1336. to former slaves

1337. under the spreading boughs of a huge oak tree.

1338. As the commander of a new all-black regiment

1339. unfurled an American flag,

1340. his men broke into song.

1341. "It seemed the choked voice

1342. of a race at last unloosed," he wrote.

1343. Corporate funding for this special 25th

1344. anniversary presentation of the civil war was provided by.

1345. Before thousands fell on the battlefield,

1346. before millions were freed and before a country

1347. forged its identity... A nation declared a new

1348. birth of freedom, rededicating itself to the

1349. proposition that all men are created equal.

1350. Bank of America is proud to sponsor "the civil war,"

1351. a film by Ken burns,

1352. newly restored for it's 25th anniversary.

1353. Original production of "the civil war"

1354. was made possible by generous contributions

1355. from these funders.

1356. And by the corporation for public broadcasting.

1357. And by contributions to your PBS station from

1358. viewers like you, thank you.