The Civil War 1x8

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

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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. "We believed that it was most desirable

18. "that the north should win.

19. "We believed in the principle

20. "that the union is indissoluble.

21. "We, or many of us at least, also believed

22. "that the conflict was inevitable

23. "and that slavery had lasted long enough,

24. "but we equally believed that those who stood against us

25. "held just as sacred convictions

26. "that were the opposite of ours,

27. "and we respected them as every man with a heart

28. must respect those who give all for their belief."

29. Oliver Wendell Holmes.

30. We are the veterans of the civil war,

31. '61 to '65.

32. This flag is of the Hawkins' Zouaves,

33. New York.

34. Now salute.

35. As a southerner, I would say

36. one of the main importances of the war

37. is that southerners have a sense of defeat,

38. uh, which, uh, none of the rest of the country has.

39. You'll see in the movie Patton,

40. the actor who plays Patton saying,

41. "we Americans have never lost a war."

42. That's a rather amazing statement for him to make

43. as Patton because Patton's grandfather

44. was in Lee's army of northern Virginia,

45. and he certainly lost a war.

46. In 1865 in South Africa,

47. whites drove the Basuto tribe from their land.

48. In Afghanistan,

49. Russian troop movements along the border

50. were a cause of great international concern.

51. At a monastery in Austria,

52. Gregor Mendel established

53. the principle of heredity,

54. and in Ireland,

55. the poet William Butler Yeats was born.

56. In 1865 in America,

57. Samuel Clemens published his first short story

58. as Mark twain.

59. The 13th amendment, abolishing slavery,

60. was formally ratified,

61. and the Ku Klux Klan was formed.

62. In 1860,

63. most of the nation's 31 million people

64. lived peaceably on farms or in small towns.

65. By 1865, everything had changed.

66. Sharpsburg, Maryland.

67. Fredericksburg, Virginia.

68. Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

69. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

70. Vicksburg, Mississippi.

71. Atlanta, Georgia.

72. By the beginning of 1865,

73. the confederacy was dying.

74. To the west,

75. only the tattered confederate army of Tennessee remained.

76. Its soldiers, like Sam Watkins,

77. worried more about food and blankets and shoes

78. than fighting.

79. Outside Petersburg,

80. Elisha Hunt Rhodes and 120,000 other union troops

81. were dug in,

82. unable to dislodge the stubborn rebel army.

83. Atlanta had been razed,

84. and georgia and the carolinas lay helpless

85. in William Tecumseh Sherman's path.

86. As the new year began,

87. Robert E. Lee assumed command of all Southern forces

88. and, with it, the hopeless task

89. of hurling back the huge union armies

90. now closing in from every side.

91. With victory within his grasp,

92. Abraham Lincoln looked forward to a second presidential term

93. and a new challenge—

94. healing the nation

95. he had struggled so hard to reunite.

96. "Here was the greatest and most moving chapter

97. "in American history,

98. "a blending of meanness and greatness,

99. "an ending and a beginning.

100. "It came out of what men were,

101. "but it did not go as men had planned.

102. "Of all men, Abraham Lincoln came the closest

103. "to understanding what had happened.

104. "Yet even he, in his final backward glance,

105. "had to confess that something that went beyond words

106. had been at work in the land."

107. "The almighty had his own purposes."

108. Bruce Catton.

109. "My aim was to whip the rebels,

110. "to humble their pride,

111. "to follow them to their innermost recesses,

112. and to make them fear and dread us."

113. "War is cruelty.

114. "There's no use trying to reform it.

115. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over."

116. William Tecumseh Sherman.

117. "War is all hell,"

118. William Tecumseh Sherman once said,

119. and it was now his aim to bring that hell

120. to the heart of the confederacy.

121. He saw from the very beginning

122. how hard a war it was gonna be,

123. and when he said how hard a war it was gonna be,

124. he was retired under suspicion of insanity

125. and then brought back when they decided

126. maybe he wasn't so crazy after all.

127. Sherman is maybe the first truly modern general.

128. He was the first one to understand,

129. in the present-day world,

130. that civilians were the backers-up of things

131. and that if you went against civilians,

132. you deprived the army of what kept it going,

133. so he quite purposely made war against civilians.

134. From Atlanta in late 1864,

135. Sherman proposed to march his army

136. through the heart of Georgia all the way to Savannah.

137. His army would live off the land,

138. destroying everything in its path

139. that could conceivably aid the faltering confederacy

140. and a good deal that couldn't.

141. "I can make this march," he promised,

142. "and make Georgia howl."

143. Lincoln's advisors thought Sherman's plan foolhardy.

144. The president approved it.

145. "If you can whip Lee

146. and I can march to the Atlantic," Sherman told Grant,

147. "I think uncle Abe will give us 20 days' leave

148. to see the young folks."

149. "there are rumors that we are to cut loose

150. "and march south to the ocean.

151. "We're in fine shape and, I think,

152. could go anywhere uncle Billy would lead."

153. Private Theodore Upson.

154. Before leaving Atlanta,

155. Sherman ordered all townspeople, white and black,

156. out of their homes,

157. then directed his men to burn or destroy

158. anything of use to the rebels.

159. Civilians looted the town

160. and helped spread the Blaze throughout the city.

161. "A grand and awful spectacle is presented to the beholder

162. "in this beautiful city, now in flames.

163. "The heaven is one expanse of lurid fire.

164. "The air is filled with flying cinders.

165. "The city which, next to Richmond,

166. "has furnished more material for prosecuting the war

167. than any other in the south..."

168. "Exists no more as a means for injury

169. to be used by the enemies of the union."

170. Sherman began his march.

171. 62,000 men in blue were on the move

172. in two great columns.

173. Their supply train stretched 25 miles.

174. A slave watching the army stream past

175. wondered aloud if anybody was left up north.

176. "The name of the captor of Atlanta, if he fails now,

177. "will become the scoff of mankind

178. "and the humiliation of the United States for all time.

179. If he succeeds, it will be written on the tablet of fame."

180. London herald.

181. "reaching the hill just outside the old rebel works,

182. "we paused to look back.

183. "Behind us lay Atlanta in ruins,

184. "the black smoke rising high in the air,

185. "hanging like a pall.

186. "Then we turned our horses' heads to the east.

187. "Atlanta was soon lost behind the screen of trees

188. and became a thing of the past."

189. It had been cumulative evidence

190. that an army could subsist itself

191. on what was growing in the fields, winter or summer,

192. and they were a moving city, like.

193. They would grind their own corn

194. at the grist mills along the way,

195. butcher their own cattle.

196. Sherman was perfectly satisfied he could make the march

197. without difficulty with regard to supplies.

198. In fact, they ate better on that march

199. than they did not marching.

200. Sweet potatoes were particularly prized, and pork.

201. They had plenty to eat.

202. "This is probably

203. "the most gigantic pleasure excursion ever planned.

204. "It already beats everything I ever saw soldiering

205. and promises to prove much richer yet."

206. "we had a gay old campaign.

207. "Destroyed all we could not eat, stole their niggers,

208. "burned their cotton and gins, spilled their sorghum,

209. "burned and twisted their railroads,

210. and raised hell, generally."

211. Sherman's men tore up railroads,

212. heating the rails and twisting them beyond repair.

213. It became a trademark—

214. Sherman's neckties.

215. He forbade his men to plunder the homes they passed,

216. but neither he nor they took the order very seriously.

217. "I've got a regiment that can kill, gut, and scrape a pig

218. without breaking ranks."

219. "they say no living thing

220. "is found in Sherman's track,

221. "only chimneys, like telegraph poles,

222. to carry the news of his attack backwards."

223. Mary Chesnut.

224. "I doubt if history affords a parallel

225. "to the deep and bitter enmity

226. "of the women of the south.

227. "No one who sees them and hears

228. but must feel the intensity of their hate."

229. "as far as the eye could reach,

230. "the lurid flames of burning houses

231. "lit up the heavens.

232. "I could stand out on the veranda

233. and, for 2 or 3 miles, watch the Yankees as they came on."

234. "I could Mark when they reached the residence

235. of each and every friend on the road."

236. The troops looted slave cabins, as well as mansions,

237. poked their ramrods into flower beds

238. in search of buried valuables,

239. and burned everything in their path.

240. "The thousand pounds of meat in my smokehouse is gone.

241. "My 18 fat turkeys, my hens,

242. "chickens, and fowl, my young pigs

243. "are shot down in my yard

244. as if they were the rebels."

245. "the cruelties practiced

246. "on this campaign towards the citizens

247. "have been enough to blast a more sacred cause than ours.

248. We hardly deserve success."

249. At Milledgeville, Georgia,

250. Sherman's men boiled their coffee

251. over bonfires of confederate currency,

252. held a mock session of the legislature

253. that passed a resolution returning Georgia to the union.

254. Sherman's men were feasting on delicacies

255. foraged from local farms

256. when a band of emaciated men tottered into the firelight.

257. They were union escapees from Andersonville prison.

258. An Indiana colonel remembered

259. that the sight of the starved men

260. "sickened and infuriated" his troops.

261. "When foraging now,

262. "they think of the tens of thousands

263. "of their imprisoned comrades slowly perishing with hunger,

264. and they sweep with the scythe of destruction."

265. Before they were through, Sherman and his men

266. would cross 425 miles of hostile territory

267. and wreak $100 million worth of havoc.

268. The south would never forget.

269. "We will fight you to the death.

270. "Better to die a thousand deaths

271. than submit to live under you and your negro allies."

272. General John bell hood.

273. Lacking a leg and the use of one arm,

274. John bell hood had to be strapped to the saddle each morning,

275. but he fought as hard and as recklessly as ever.

276. Hood and his dwindling army

277. now tried to divert Sherman's attention

278. by moving north to join forces

279. with Nathan Bedford Forrest's cavalry

280. and invade Tennessee.

281. Sherman was delighted.

282. "If he will go to the Ohio river,

283. I'll give him rations," he said.

284. "My business is down south."

285. Waiting for hood in Tennessee

286. was a fresh, well-equipped union army

287. 1/3 again as large as hood's,

288. commanded by George Thomas, "the rock of Chickamauga."

289. At Franklin, hood ordered a series of 13 hopeless charges

290. in which 12 confederate generals

291. and 7,000 soldiers were lost,

292. more men than U.S. Grant had lost at cold harbor

293. the year before,

294. more than George McClellan lost

295. in all the battles of the 7 days in 1862.

296. Franklin is a horrendous battle,

297. and the flower of the army fell.

298. There's a strong suspicion

299. that hood was trying to discipline his army

300. by staging that charge,

301. and there's some truth in it.

302. His army was wrecked.

303. The defeat at Nashville is in large part

304. due to what had happened at Franklin a month before.

305. At Nashville, George Thomas attacked

306. what was left of hood's army.

307. "My boot was full of blood

308. "and my clothing saturated with it.

309. "I reached general hood's headquarters.

310. "He was much agitated and affected,

311. "pulling his hair with his one hand—

312. "he had but one—

313. and crying like his heart would break."

314. Sam Watkins.

315. Hood's army had disintegrated.

316. "I beheld for the first and only time," he confessed,

317. "a confederate army abandon the field in confusion."

318. Hood resigned.

319. Lee recalled Joe Johnston to active duty

320. and put him in charge of patching together

321. whatever confederate forces remained outside of Virginia.

322. "We were willing to go anywhere

323. "or to follow anyone who would lead us.

324. "We were anxious to flee, fight, or fortify.

325. "I have never seen an army so confused and demoralized.

326. The whole thing seemed to be tottering and trembling."

327. "gentlemen, you cannot qualify war

328. "in harsher terms than I will.

329. "We cannot change the hearts

330. "of these people of the south,

331. "but we can make war so terrible

332. "and make them so sick of war

333. "that generations will pass away

334. before they again appeal to it."

335. William Tecumseh Sherman.

336. "Darkest of all Decembers

337. "ever my life has known,

338. "sitting here by the embers,

339. stunned, helpless, alone."

340. Mary Chesnut.

341. "My name is Charles Jess.

342. "I was born in south Carolina as a slave,

343. "and I was freed

344. "when Sherman's army came into the county of Chatham.

345. "I was a union man.

346. "I's a slave and could not be anything else

347. "because I wanted my freedom,

348. "and I hoped and expected it would give me my freedom,

349. as it did."

350. "the negroes followed the army

351. "like a sable cloud in the sky before a thunderstorm.

352. They thought it was freedom now or never."

353. 25,000 slaves fled to Sherman's army,

354. jubilant he had come to liberate them,

355. but fearful that if they strayed too far from his columns,

356. they would be caught by confederate guerrillas.

357. "Perfect anarchy reigned," one plantation owner said.

358. It was, said another, "the breath of emancipation."

359. And the Yankees would come, and after a while,

360. there would be a whole troop of men come.

361. They said they were Yankees,

362. all riding horses.

363. So I asked them, I said, "where are they going?"

364. They said they all going home now.

365. They said, "well, all of you niggers is all free now."

366. "They gather around me in crowds,

367. "and I can't find out whether I am Moses or Aaron,

368. but surely I am rated as one of the congregation."

369. "it seems the good people in the north

370. "are terribly worried about us.

371. "They called us the lost army,

372. "and some thought we would never show up again.

373. "I don't think they know what kind of an army this is

374. "that uncle Billy has.

375. "Why, if Grant can keep Lee and his troops busy,

376. we can tramp all over this confederacy."

377. Private Theodore Upson.

378. Throughout the north,

379. people wondered what had happened to Sherman's army,

380. until suddenly,

381. William Tecumseh Sherman emerged near Savannah.

382. "December 25, 1864.

383. "Dear Mr. president,

384. "I beg to present you, as a Christmas gift,

385. "the city of Savannah,

386. "with 150 heavy guns and plenty of ammunition,

387. also about 25,000 bales of cotton."

388. He then regroups at Savannah,

389. and in the last week

390. of January,

391. he starts into south Carolina.

392. South Carolina gets it even worse than Georgia

393. because they figured that's where secession started.

394. Sherman now turned his columns northward

395. into the carolinas.

396. A relentless winter rain was falling,

397. and confederate generals were confident

398. no army could march through the mud,

399. but Sherman and his men made a steady 10 miles a day.

400. Battalions of axmen led the way,

401. hacking down whole forests to construct corduroy roads.

402. "When I learned that Sherman's army

403. "was marching through the Salkehatchie swamps

404. "making its own roads

405. "at the rate of a dozen miles a day

406. "and bringing its artillery and wagons with it,

407. "I made up my mind that there had been no such army in existence

408. since the days of Julius Caesar."

409. Joseph E. Johnston.

410. Sherman's men were still harsher in south Carolina

411. than they had been in Georgia.

412. "Here is where treason began," a private said,

413. "and by god, this is where it shall end."

414. Few houses were left standing.

415. "The wind moans among the bleak chimneys

416. "and whistles through the gaping windows.

417. "The market is a ruined shell,

418. its spire fallen in,

419. "the old bell, secessia,

420. "that had rung out every state as it seceded,

421. lying half-buried in the earth."

422. On February 17, 1865,

423. fort Sumter was abandoned,

424. along with all of Charleston.

425. "This disappointment," Jefferson Davis admitted,

426. "is extremely bitter."

427. "a city of ruins,

428. "of desolation,

429. of vacant houses, of widowed women..."

430. "Of rotting wharves,

431. "of deserted warehouses,

432. "of weed-wild gardens, of miles of grass-grown streets,

433. "of acres of pitiful and voiceful barrenness—

434. "that is Charleston,

435. wherein rebellion loftily reared its head."

436. "Jack Middleton writes from Richmond,

437. "the wolf is at the door here.

438. "We dread starvation far more

439. "than we do Grant or Sherman.

440. Famine—that is the word now."

441. Mary Chesnut.

442. Everywhere the union armies marched,

443. the back roads filled with confederate refugees.

444. Thousands fled to Texas in search of a new start.

445. Thousands more flocked to Richmond,

446. hoping the confederate government would care for them.

447. There was little it could do.

448. The confederate government was coming apart.

449. The governor of north Carolina

450. refused to permit any but his own troops

451. to wear the 92,000 uniforms he was hoarding.

452. In Georgia,

453. governor Joseph brown threatened to secede

454. from the confederacy.

455. States' rights still came first.

456. "If the confederacy fails,

457. "there should be written on its tombstone—

458. died of a theory."

459. President Jefferson Davis.

460. "I have been up to see the congress,

461. "and they do not seem able to do anything

462. "except eat peanuts and chew tobacco,

463. while my army is starving."

464. Robert E. Lee.

465. Lee begged for more supplies.

466. Davis had none to give.

467. A single stick of firewood cost $5.00 in Richmond.

468. A barrel of flour had risen to $250

469. and could rarely be found even at that price.

470. "I daily part with my raiment for food.

471. "We find no one who will exchange eatables

472. "for confederate money,

473. so we are devouring our clothes."

474. Hundreds of confederate soldiers were deserting every day,

475. cold, hungry, barefoot,

476. driven by desperate letters from home.

477. Lee asked that slaves now be armed

478. to defend the confederacy.

479. "We must decide," he said,

480. "whether the negro shall fight for us or against us.

481. Those willing to fight," he added,

482. would be freed after the war."

483. The confederate congress finally authorized black troops

484. because, as the Richmond examiner said,

485. "the country will not deny general Lee anything

486. he may ask for."

487. 6 days later,

488. the citizens of Richmond saw an astonishing sight—

489. a new confederate battalion

490. made up of white convalescents and black hospital orderlies

491. marching up main street to the strains of Dixie.

492. "you cannot make soldiers of slaves

493. "or slaves of soldiers.

494. "The day you make a soldier of them

495. "is the beginning of the end of the revolution,

496. "and if slaves seem good soldiers,

497. then our whole theory of slavery is wrong."

498. Senator Howell Cobb, Georgia.

499. Earlier that winter,

500. the United States congress had voted 119 to 56

501. to pass the 13th amendment to abolish slavery

502. and sent it to the states for ratification.

503. 11 months later,

504. slavery was officially abolished everywhere

505. and for all time.

506. "Verily, the work does not end

507. "with the abolition of slavery,

508. but only begins."

509. Frederick Douglass.

510. "I see the president almost every day.

511. "I saw him this morning about 8:30,

512. "coming into business.

513. "We've got so that we exchange bows, and very cordial ones.

514. "I see very plainly

515. "Abraham Lincoln's dark brown face with its deep-cut lines,

516. "the eyes always, to me,

517. with a latent sadness in the expression."

518. "None of the artists or pictures

519. "has caught the deep, though subtle and indirect, expression

520. "of this man's face.

521. "There is something else there.

522. "One of the great portrait painters

523. of 2 or 3 centuries ago is needed."

524. Walt Whitman.

525. "March 4th.

526. "We captured 25 Cannon.

527. "General mower fired them today in a salute

528. "in honor of the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln

529. "for his second term.

530. "His first inauguration was not celebrated in north Carolina,

531. "but the glorification over the beginning of his second term

532. goes to make up the deficiency."

533. George Nichols.

534. Inauguration day was cold and windy,

535. just as it had been 4 years earlier...

536. But the U.S. capitol was now complete,

537. its great iron dome in place,

538. crowned by a bronze Liberty.

539. Just before the president began to speak,

540. the clouds parted,

541. flooding the stand with brilliant sunlight.

542. "Fondly do we hope,

543. "fervently do we pray

544. that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away."

545. "Yet if god wills that it continue

546. "until all the wealth piled up

547. "by the bondsman's 250 years of unrequited toil

548. "shall be sunk

549. "and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash

550. "shall be paid by another drawn with the sword,

551. "as was said 3,000 years ago,

552. "so still must be said,

553. "the judgments of the lord

554. are true and righteous altogether."

555. "With malice towards none,

556. "with charity for all...

557. "With firmness in the right

558. "as god gives us to see the right,

559. "let us strive on to finish the work we are in,

560. "to bind up the nation's wounds,

561. "to care for him who shall have borne the battle

562. "and for his widow and his orphan...

563. "To do all which may achieve and Cherish

564. "a just and lasting peace among ourselves

565. and with all nations."

566. Can it be anyone but Lincoln

567. that any of us could be drawn to

568. as the central figure of the war?

569. Because, in a way, he comprehended both sides.

570. "We must not be enemies. We must be friends."

571. "I'm a tired man," Lincoln said afterwards.

572. "Sometimes I think I'm the tiredest man on earth."

573. In the crowd just a few yards from Lincoln

574. was the young actor John Wilkes booth,

575. a pistol in his pocket.

576. His vantage point on the balcony,

577. booth said afterwards, had offered

578. "an excellent chance to kill the president...

579. If I had wished."

580. John Wilkes booth

581. was a fervent believer in slavery and white supremacy,

582. but during 4 years of war,

583. he had not been able to bring himself

584. actually to fight for the Southern cause.

585. "I have begun to deem myself a coward

586. and to despise my own existence."

587. His mind fixed on Lincoln

588. as the tyrant responsible for all the country's troubles

589. and his own.

590. Booth hatched a scheme to kidnap Lincoln

591. and gathered a worshipful band of dubious conspirators

592. willing to help out.

593. Lewis Paine,

594. a wounded confederate

595. who had recently sworn allegiance to the union.

596. David E. Herold,

597. a druggist's clerk

598. who was thought by some to be mentally retarded.

599. George Atzerodt,

600. a German-born wagon painter

601. barely able to make himself understood in English.

602. And John H. Surratt,

603. a sometime confederate spy

604. whose widowed mother Mary

605. kept a Washington boardinghouse

606. where booth and his admirers sometimes met.

607. Two weeks after the inauguration,

608. booth and his accomplices, all wearing masks,

609. rode out toward the soldiers' home,

610. where Lincoln often slept,

611. hoping to intercept his carriage.

612. The president never came.

613. "So goes the world," booth wrote.

614. "Might makes right."

615. Late in march, Lincoln sailed down to city point, Virginia,

616. to confer with his generals

617. aboard Grant's floating headquarters,

618. the river queen.

619. Sherman, who had interrupted his march through the carolinas,

620. had met Lincoln only once before, in 1861,

621. and found him then a weak and partisan politician

622. unequal to his task.

623. The talks lasted two days.

624. Grant, Sherman, and admiral Porter

625. detailed plans for one last major campaign.

626. Lincoln, satisfied that victory seemed within reach,

627. outlined plans for peace.

628. "If the rebels would lay down their guns and go home," Lincoln said,

629. "they should be welcomed back

630. as citizens of the United States."

631. "I never saw him again.

632. "Of all the men I ever met,

633. "he seemed to me to possess more of the elements of greatness

634. "combined with goodness

635. than any other."

636. William Tecumseh Sherman.

637. "My own corps was stretched

638. "until the men stood like a row of vedettes

639. "15 feet apart.

640. "It was not a line,

641. it was the mere skeleton of a line."

642. General John B. Gordon.

643. Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee

644. had faced one another in front of Petersburg

645. for 9 months.

646. Slowly, steadily,

647. Grant had extended his trenches around Petersburg.

648. Lee's lines had been forced to stretch, too,

649. but his army was shrinking.

650. In 9 months,

651. 60,000 Southern soldiers had deserted.

652. "All of us think we're whipped now.

653. "The men are ragged and are getting half rations.

654. "Some say we'll have to go to Georgey,

655. but the men will not go there."

656. The thinning confederate lines around Petersburg

657. finally extended 53 miles.

658. Grant's forces numbered 125,000.

659. Lee's had dwindled to 35,000.

660. Lee's only hope lay in moving his army to the southwest

661. to link up with Johnston in the hills of north Carolina

662. and fight on.

663. On march 25th,

664. confederates under John B. Gordon

665. mounted a sudden night assault that briefly won possession

666. of an earthwork called fort Stedman.

667. It was Lee's last advance.

668. Grant counterattacked,

669. racing around the rebel flank

670. to block Lee's escape at five forks.

671. There, on April 1st,

672. he routed a confederate division under George Pickett.

673. The next day,

674. union forces attacked all along the Petersburg line.

675. Slowly, relentlessly, and at great cost,

676. they drove the confederates out of their trenches.

677. Among the Southern dead left behind

678. were shoeless boys as young as 14.

679. "The conduct of the Southern people

680. "appears many times truly noble, as exemplified, for instance,

681. "in the defense of Petersburg.

682. "Old men with silver locks lay dead in the trenches

683. "side by side with mere boys of 13 or 14.

684. "It almost makes one sorry to have to fight against people

685. who show such devotion for their homes and their country."

686. Washington Roebling.

687. A.P. hill, who had served Lee faithfully in a dozen battles

688. and staved off confederate disaster at Antietam,

689. tried to rally his men.

690. Two union infantrymen shot him dead

691. as he rode between the lines.

692. "He is at rest,

693. and we who are left are the ones to suffer."

694. Petersburg, the scene of 9 months' siege,

695. fell to Grant's army.

696. As black civilians cheered the black soldiers

697. that led the union columns into the city,

698. Lee's army slipped across the Appomattox river.

699. In Richmond, Jefferson Davis was attending 10:00 services

700. that Sunday morning

701. at St. Paul's episcopal church

702. when the sexton handed him a message.

703. "President Davis, my lines are broken in 3 places.

704. Richmond must be evacuated this evening."

705. Robert E. Lee.

706. "I happened to sit in the rear of the president's pew,

707. "so near that I plainly saw the sort of gray pallor

708. "that came upon his face

709. as he read a scrap of paper thrust into his hand."

710. Davis hurried from the church

711. and ordered his government to move to Danville, Virginia,

712. 140 miles to the south.

713. On the evening of April 2nd,

714. Davis and his cabinet boarded the last train,

715. a series of freight cars labeled "treasury department,"

716. "quartermaster's department," "war department."

717. "we tried to comfort ourselves by saying in low tones

718. "that the capital was only moved temporarily,

719. "that general Lee would make a stand

720. "and repulse the daring enemy,

721. and that we would yet win the battle and the day."

722. A slave dealer named Lumpkin

723. failed to get his 50 chained slaves aboard.

724. He had to unlock $50,000 worth of property in the street

725. and let them go.

726. The retreating confederates set fire to much of Richmond.

727. Mobs plundered stores, broke into abandoned houses.

728. The fire on land spread to the confederate arsenal.

729. The explosion rocked the city

730. and shattered windows for miles around.

731. "Everything was in the wildest confusion.

732. "The low characters of the town had broken into everything

733. "and were looting the town,

734. "being aided to a considerable extent

735. "by the soldiers

736. who had broken through all discipline."

737. "I saw a confederate soldier on horseback

738. "pause under my window.

739. "He wheeled and fired behind him,

740. "rode a short distance,

741. "wheeled and fired again.

742. Coming up the street rode a body of men in blue."

743. "arriving at the capital, I sprang from my horse,

744. "first unbuckling the stars and stripes from my saddle,

745. "and with captain Langdon, I rushed up to the roof.

746. "Together, we hoisted the first large flag over Richmond

747. and, on the peak of the roof, drank to its success."

748. Mrs. Robert e. Lee, too crippled by arthritis to travel,

749. remained in Richmond.

750. The union commander posted a guard before her house,

751. a black cavalryman,

752. to ensure no harm came to her.

753. "April 3, 1865.

754. "Thank god I have lived to see this.

755. "It seems to me

756. "that I have been dreaming a horrid nightmare

757. "for 4 years,

758. "and now the nightmare is gone.

759. I want to see Richmond."

760. On April 3rd, Abraham Lincoln and his son tad

761. arrived at Rockett's wharf aboard a small barge

762. and were escorted through the smoking city

763. by a unit of black cavalry.

764. Freed slaves mobbed the president,

765. laughing, singing, weeping for joy,

766. kneeling before him,

767. straining to touch his clothes.

768. "I know I am free," said one man,

769. "for I have seen father Abraham and felt him."

770. The president walked about a mile through the crowd

771. and loped up the steps of the confederate white house,

772. now union headquarters.

773. When he sat down at Jefferson Davis' desk,

774. the troops outside burst into cheers.

775. "Richmond has fallen,

776. "and I have no heart to write about it.

777. "They are too many for us.

778. "Everything lost in Richmond, even our archives.

779. Blue-black is our horizon."

780. Mary Chesnut.

781. "There is a stillness in the midst of which

782. "Richmond, with her ruins and her unchanging spires,

783. "rests beneath a ghastly, fitful glare.

784. "We are under the shadow of ruins.

785. "From the pavements where we walk

786. "stretches a vista of devastation.

787. "The wreck, the loneliness seem interminable.

788. "There is no sound of life

789. "but the stillness of the catacomb,

790. "only as our footsteps fall dull on the deserted sidewalk

791. "and a funeral troop of echoes

792. "bump against the dead walls and closed shutters in reply.

793. "And this is Richmond,

794. "says a melancholy voice.

795. And this is Richmond."

796. On April 8th,

797. Abraham and Mary Lincoln took a drive together

798. past a country cemetery on the outskirts of Petersburg.

799. "It was a retired place shaded by trees,

800. "and early spring flowers were opening on nearly every grave.

801. "It was so quiet and attractive

802. "that we stopped the carriage and walked through it.

803. "Mr. Lincoln seemed thoughtful and impressed.

804. "He said,

805. "Mary, you are younger than I. You will survive me.

806. "When I'm gone,

807. lay my remains in some quiet place like this."

808. "general Lee was riding slowly

809. "along the line of tangled wagons.

810. He rode erect, as if incapable of fatigue."

811. Lee's army fled westward.

812. Grant was right behind them.

813. "On and on, hour after hour,

814. "from hilltop to hilltop,

815. "the lines were alternately forming, fighting,

816. "and retreating,

817. "making one almost continuous battle.

818. "A boy soldier came running by at the top of his speed.

819. "When asked why he was running, he shouted back,

820. I'm running 'cause I can't fly."

821. From Danville on April 4th,

822. Jefferson Davis issued a proclamation

823. pledging to fight on.

824. "Relieved from the necessity of guarding cities,

825. "with our army free to move from point to point,

826. "nothing is now needed to render our triumph certain

827. "but our own unquenchable resolve.

828. No peace will ever be made with the infamous invaders."

829. On April 6th at Sayler's creek,

830. union cavalry and infantry

831. inflicted 6,000 casualties on Lee's army

832. and captured 8 generals,

833. including Lee's own son Custis.

834. He now had fewer than 25,000 men.

835. 125,000 federal troops

836. were now closing in on Lee from 3 sides.

837. Union general Phil Sheridan wired Grant,

838. "if the thing is pressed,

839. I think that Lee will surrender."

840. "Let the thing be pressed," Lincoln answered.

841. An officer urged Lee to surrender.

842. The general asked what the country would think of him if he failed to fight on.

843. "The country be damned," said the officer,

844. "there is no country.

845. "There has been no country for a year or more.

846. You're the country to these men."

847. "the few men who still carried their muskets

848. "had hardly the appearance of soldiers,

849. "their clothes all tattered and covered with mud,

850. "their eyes sunken and lusterless,

851. "yet still they were waiting for general Lee to say

852. where they were to face about and fight."

853. Magnus Thompson, 35th Virginia cavalry battalion.

854. Lee's confederate army was moving

855. along one side of the Appomattox river,

856. a Willow-fringed run that any country boy could jump.

857. His pursuers clung to the opposite bank.

858. "5 P.M., April 7, 1865.

859. "General Lee,

860. "the result of last week must convince you

861. "of the hopelessness of further resistance.

862. "I regard it as my duty to shift from myself

863. "the responsibility of any further effusion of blood

864. "by asking of you the surrender

865. "of that portion of the confederate states army

866. known as the army of northern Virginia."

867. Ulysses S. Grant.

868. On April 8th,

869. Grant again flanked Lee's army

870. and captured two trainloads of supplies.

871. The confederates were living on handfuls of parched corn.

872. That night,

873. Lee and his weary lieutenants gathered around a campfire

874. near the little village of Appomattox courthouse.

875. "We met in the woods at his headquarters

876. "by a low-burning bivouac fire.

877. "There was no tent, no table, no chairs, no camp stools.

878. "On blankets spread upon the ground

879. "or on saddles at the roots of trees

880. we sat around the great commander."

881. General John B. Gordon.

882. They were almost entirely surrounded,

883. outnumbered nearly 5 to 1,

884. without hope of resupply or reinforcement.

885. "By sunrise, we had reached Appomattox station,

886. "where we might cut Lee's retreat.

887. "Already we heard the sharp ring of the horse artillery.

888. "There was no mistake.

889. "Sheridan was square across the enemy's front,

890. "holding at bay all that was left

891. "of the proudest army of the confederacy.

892. It had come at last— the supreme hour."

893. April 9th was palm Sunday.

894. Lee ordered Gordon to make one more attempt at breaking out.

895. At dawn, just outside Appomattox courthouse,

896. Gordon's men drove federal cavalry from their positions

897. and swept forward to the crest of a hill.

898. Below them,

899. a solid wall of blue was advancing—

900. the entire union army of the James.

901. "There is nothing left for me to do

902. "but to go and see general Grant,

903. and I would rather die a thousand deaths."

904. Shortly before noon,

905. Lee dispatched a letter under a white flag

906. into the union lines.

907. Grant was resting in a field,

908. nursing a blinding headache.

909. Suddenly, a horseman galloped up at full speed,

910. a reporter noted,

911. "waving his hat above his head and shouting at every jump."

912. Grant opened the envelope, looked at it,

913. then asked his friend general John Rawlins

914. to read it aloud—

915. Lee would surrender.

916. Grant himself said nothing,

917. betrayed no more emotion, a witness said,

918. than "last year's bird nest,"

919. but his headache had instantly disappeared.

920. "No one looked his comrade in the face.

921. "Finally colonel duff, chief of artillery,

922. "sprang upon a log and proposed 3 cheers.

923. "A feeble hurrah came from a few throats,

924. when all broke down in tears."

925. Lee dispatched colonel Charles Marshall

926. to Appomattox courthouse

927. to find a suitable building

928. in which he and Grant might meet.

929. The streets were almost deserted.

930. Marshall stopped the first civilian he happened to see,

931. Wilmer McLean, who reluctantly agreed

932. to loan the armies his house for the occasion.

933. "By a singular coincidence,

934. "the meeting of generals Lee and Grant

935. "took place in the house of Wilmer McLean,

936. "the same gentleman who, in 1861,

937. "at the battle of bull run,

938. "had tendered his house to general Beauregard

939. "for headquarters.

940. "He removed from Manassas after the battle

941. "with the intention of seeking some quiet nook

942. where the alarms of war could never find him."

943. "1:00 came.

944. "I turned about.

945. "There behind me appeared a commanding form,

946. "superbly mounted, richly accoutered,

947. "of imposing bearing, noble countenance,

948. "with expression of deep sadness

949. "over-mastered by a deeper strength.

950. "It was no other than Robert E. Lee.

951. "Not long after appeared another form—

952. "plain, unassuming, simple, and familiar to our eyes,

953. "but as awe-inspiring as Lee in his splendor and sadness.

954. "It was Grant,

955. "sitting his saddle with the ease of a born master,

956. "taking no notice of anything,

957. "all his faculties gathered into intense thought.

958. "He seemed greater than I had ever seen him,

959. a look as of another world about him."

960. Lee arrived at the McLean house first,

961. magnificent in a crisp gray uniform,

962. an engraved sword at his side.

963. "I have probably to be general Grant's prisoner,"

964. he explained to an aide,

965. "and thought I must make my best appearance."

966. He waited half an hour for Grant to arrive.

967. The union commander wore a private's dirty jacket.

968. His boots and trousers were splattered with mud.

969. He had no sword.

970. The two commanders shook hands.

971. "What general Lee's feelings were, I do not know.

972. "As he was a man of much dignity

973. "with an impassible face,

974. "his feelings were entirely concealed

975. "from my observation,

976. "but my own feelings were sad and depressed.

977. "I felt like anything rather than rejoicing

978. "at the downfall of a foe

979. "who had fought so long and valiantly

980. "and had suffered so much for a cause,

981. "though that cause was, I believe,

982. one of the worst for which people ever fought."

983. Grant reminded Lee that they had met once before

984. during the Mexican war.

985. Lee said he had not remembered what Grant looked like.

986. "Our conversation grew so pleasant

987. "that I almost forgot the object of the meeting.

988. General Lee called my attention to the object."

989. They knew each other.

990. Grant remembered Lee very well.

991. Lee didn't quite remember Grant.

992. That was understandable

993. from the time that they were acquainted

994. back in the early days,

995. but I think it was the sensitivity

996. that the two men had for each other

997. and for the moment,

998. enormous dignity and yet the necessary informality—

999. Grant not wanting to get to the point too quickly,

1000. Lee bringing him up shortly

1001. to the point of why they're together;

1002. Lee dressed in his last good uniform,

1003. Grant apologizing that he was rushing from the field

1004. and didn't have time to change;

1005. The scribe being unable to hold the pen steady

1006. and having it taken by another soldier;

1007. The, uh...

1008. That, from Lee's point of view, awful moment,

1009. and from Grant's point of view, glorious moment,

1010. and yet for the two of them, a sad and quiet moment;

1011. And Lee taking his leave

1012. and doffing his hat from traveller

1013. and riding back to his troops

1014. after securing those reasonable terms.

1015. It was the— it was the beginning

1016. of the unification of the country.

1017. The terms Grant offered were simple and generous.

1018. Confederate officers

1019. could keep their side-arms and personal possessions.

1020. Officers and men who owned their own horses

1021. could keep them, too.

1022. It was planting season.

1023. Grant asked Lee how many men he had

1024. and if they needed any rations.

1025. Lee said he no longer knew the size of his army,

1026. but he was sure all his men were hungry.

1027. Grant offered 25,000 rations.

1028. "This will have the best effect upon my men.

1029. "It will be very gratifying

1030. and do much toward conciliating our people."

1031. Colonel Ely S. Parker,

1032. a Seneca Indian and a member of Grant's staff,

1033. inscribed the articles of surrender

1034. for the two commanders to sign.

1035. The two men shook hands again.

1036. Lee left the house, mounted traveller,

1037. and started back toward his army.

1038. The union soldiers began to cheer.

1039. Grant ordered them to stop.

1040. "The confederates are now our prisoners,"

1041. he explained,

1042. "and we do not want to exult over their downfall.

1043. "The war is over.

1044. The rebels are our countrymen again."

1045. Lee's men lined the road to his camp.

1046. "As he approached,

1047. "we could see the reins hanging loose,

1048. "and his head was sunk low on his breast.

1049. "As the men began to cheer,

1050. "he raised his head, and, hat in hand, he passed by,

1051. his face flushed, his eyes ablaze."

1052. "as he passed, they raised their heads

1053. "and looked upon him with swimming eyes.

1054. "Those who could find voice said good-bye.

1055. "Those who could not speak

1056. passed their hands gently over the sides of traveller."

1057. "if one army drank the joy of victory

1058. "and the other the bitter draught of defeat,

1059. "it was a joy moderated by the recollection of the cost

1060. "at which it had been purchased

1061. "and a defeat mollified

1062. "by the consciousness of many triumphs.

1063. "If the Victors could recall a Malvern hill, an Antietam,

1064. "a Gettysburg, a five forks,

1065. "the vanquished could recall a Manassas, a fredericksburg,

1066. a Chancellorsville, a cold harbor."

1067. A crowd of soldiers waited in front of Lee's tent.

1068. "Boys," he told them,

1069. "I have done the best I could for you.

1070. "Go home now,

1071. "and if you make as good citizens as you have soldiers,

1072. "you will do well,

1073. "and I shall always be proud of you.

1074. Good-bye, and god bless you all."

1075. He turned and disappeared into his tent.

1076. The formal surrender came 3 days later.

1077. General John B. Gordon,

1078. shot through the face and wounded 4 more times

1079. in the service of the confederacy,

1080. led 20,000 men toward the union lines for the last time—

1081. not to fight, but to stack their arms

1082. and surrender their battle flags.

1083. There to receive them

1084. was major general Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain,

1085. himself wounded six times for the union.

1086. Promoted on the field at Petersburg near death,

1087. he had somehow survived.

1088. "On they come

1089. "with the old swinging route step and swaying battle flags.

1090. "Before us in proud humiliation

1091. "stood the embodiment of manhood—

1092. "thin, worn, and famished,

1093. "but erect and with eyes looking level into ours,

1094. "waking memories that bound us together as no other bond.

1095. "Was not such manhood to be welcomed back

1096. "into the union so tested and assured?

1097. "On our part, not a sound of trumpet more

1098. "nor roll of drum, not a cheer nor word

1099. "nor whisper of vain glorying nor motion of man,

1100. "but an awed stillness, rather, and breath-holding,

1101. as if it were the passing of the dead."

1102. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain.

1103. Now Chamberlain made an extraordinary gesture.

1104. "Chamberlain called his men into line,

1105. "and as my men marched in front of them,

1106. "the veterans in blue gave a soldierly salute

1107. "to those vanquished heroes,

1108. a token of respect from Americans to Americans."

1109. General John B. Gordon.

1110. "At the sound of that machinelike snap of arms,

1111. "general Gordon started,

1112. "then wheeled his horse, facing me,

1113. "touching him gently with the spur

1114. "so that the animal slightly reared,

1115. "and, as he wheeled, horse and rider made one motion.

1116. "The horse's head swung down with a graceful bow,

1117. "and general Gordon dropped his sword point to his toe

1118. in salutation."

1119. In Washington, fireworks filled the sky.

1120. A great crowd gathered around the white house

1121. and called for Lincoln.

1122. He was too weary to make a formal speech

1123. but asked the band to play Dixie.

1124. "I have always thought it one of the best tunes I ever heard," he said.

1125. The next day,

1126. Lincoln walked over to Alexander Gardner's studio

1127. at the corner of 7th and D street

1128. to sit for another portrait.

1129. Somehow, the glass-plate negative cracked

1130. while being developed.

1131. The photographer made a single print,

1132. then threw the negative away.

1133. Over the next 4 years,

1134. there would be plenty of time to make more Lincoln portraits.

1135. Just a few blocks away,

1136. a friend found John Wilkes booth alone in his darkened room

1137. and asked him if he wanted to get a drink.

1138. "Yes," said booth,

1139. who was now drinking a quart of Brandy a day,

1140. "anything to drive away the blues."

1141. Corporate funding for this special 25th

1142. anniversary presentation of the civil war was provided by.

1143. Before thousands fell on the battlefield,

1144. before millions were freed and before a country

1145. forged its identity... A nation declared a new

1146. birth of freedom, rededicating itself to the

1147. proposition that all men are created equal.

1148. Bank of America is proud to sponsor "the civil war,"

1149. a film by Ken burns,

1150. newly restored for it's 25th anniversary.

1151. Original production of "the civil war"

1152. was made possible by generous contributions

1153. from these funders.

1154. And by the corporation for public broadcasting.

1155. And by contributions to your PBS station from

1156. viewers like you, thank you.