Transcripts For CSPAN3 The Civil War The Whole Civil War In 56 Minutes 20240714

Battlefield trusts. Without any further introduction, i now present to you my friend, gary adelman. Leave your book here . Gary yeah, sure, i might need it. Hello, everybody. This isnt easy doing the whole civil war in such a short period of time. Well see if it takes 56 minutes or whatever. I am committed to get this done. Im already wasting time for good luck for those of you who like to take notes. The seeds of the civil war are sewn in the constitution and then you have north and south starting to look at each other differently. You have southerners look to the north and although they speak the same language, worship the same god, everything like that but you see increasingly southerners looking north and seeing greedy. People that care about money and business and dont care about family. The northerners are looking south and seeing people who are cruel and lazy slave holders and whatnot. Really this is a war of perception as much as anything else. They did not trust each other and started looking at each other in different ways. Even for northerners who looked souchts and thought south slaves, its not that way. Nor sit south bad, north good. Most of the people in the United States are rate racist by our definition of it. It is not like people in the north wanted African Americans gathering and joining armies. Its important to note and even among the south here you can see where slave holding portions are in the south. The darker territory tends to be where the highest concentration is you can see how somebody in southern missouri is going to feel a little bit differently than somebody in South Carolina. There are a series of things that will bring these things to our real head. There are a series of compromises, starting with the missouri compromise in 1820. Nat turners rebellion in virginia. Basically a war with mexico and mexico is in the southern part of the United States now and you start seeing people saying saying such a war of conquest, it must be seen as a war against freedom, humility, against the union. Now it is us against them. In the southern perspective people are saying hey, lets let the states decide on what the future of slave holding will be in these particular territories this stuff bubbled up if or good 30 years until the compromise of 1850 where youre going to have the senate gain control. The fugitive slave law all of a sudden made northerners compliment complicit in slavery. You have uncle toms cabin, the bestselling book of the time. When Abraham Lincoln met the author he said so youre the little lady who started this great war . Trouble in kansas. People coming from new england carrying what was called beachers bibles. Henry ward beechers people. They are actually guns. And a little civil war breaks out in what was known as bleeding kansas. Violence corrupting the halls of congress. I love it when i most every day he will have a pundit saying we are more divided than weve ever been right now. Are you sure . I havent quite seen the country break apart yet. People might feel like it sometimes. Literally battering each other in conscious and people plotting on either side depending on who did it. You have, of course, john browns famous raid in october of 1859. Hes going to lead a slave insurrection that fails similarly. U. S. Colonel robert e. Lee bust down the doors of some of his marines. They bust and kill a lot of john browns accomplices. They wound him and he goes to the gallows as a murderer. Martyr. I, john brown am quite certainly that the guilty crimes of this country can never be purged away but with blood. Prophetic indeed. You have the dred scott decision. All these things bricking us closer and closer to conflict. The dred scott decision saying that a black man has no nights a rights a white man is bound to respect. Then you have the election of 1860 for the Democratic Party split. The republicans take the election and Abraham Lincoln is seen to being hostile to slavery , whatever he said about what he would do or wouldnt do, he was seen as hostile to slavery and you have the seven states start to secede in december 1860. Its going to be a secession winter where more Southern States are going to secede and that is how 1861 is beginning. Its not looking good for the future to have United States. This democratic experiment is really coming to a head. Can this work, can people selfgovern . Can a conglomeration of states work . When Jefferson Davis is being inaugurated, hes a little skeptical about being able to avoid war. If we may not hope to avoid work we at least may expect having , needlessly engaged in it. Washington is seen as a seven city. It is surrounded by slave states. Maryland and virginia. You have officers walking through many people thinking Abraham Lincoln will never be inaugurated. He will be assassinated. Winfield scott putting up cannons in and around the capitol. Saying anybody disrupt the proceedings i will lash that person to a canon and fire them out the window the capital. He said should that person be a legislator from his native state, virginia, he said he will state, virginia, he said he will manure the grounds with his remains. Lincoln trying to keep the union together. The question of civil war is in your hands, my dissatisfied countrymen. You can have no work without being the aggressor. Hes hopeful about it. The mystic cores memory stretching from every patriot grave and every living heart but once again swell the course of the union untouched by the better angels of our nature. Famous words indeed. It didnt last because you know the south is beginning to get ready for the war. They know that the words coming. They seem to be more ready than the north and theyre starting to gather in pensacola, florida, in georgia and South Carolina and they were ready when things came to a head in South Carolina, in sumter harbor. The flag will come down, replaced by a federal confederate flag. The war is on. Lincoln calls for 75,000 volunteers and 7 more Southern State secede. Really important ones. We are talking about virginia, North Carolina and tennessee at that point. They cannot abide by having invading armies coming through their territory. This is how the stage looks at this time and lincoln spends all his early efforts trying to keep the yellow states, the border states, the slave states have remained in the union. He did everything he could to keep them in the union. Imagine if maryland and kentucky had left the union. Lincoln said to lose kentucky is the same as losing the whole gang. Game. He succeeded at this time fretting about whether or not southern troops would reach washington. They did. It took a long time for union troops to get their. There. There was nothing to do for a while. The troops are in every corner of washington, d. C. Theyre spread out to baltimore, in parts of virginia and theyre sewing and writing letters home, doing acrobatics and whatnot. 1861, the greatest battle up to july, great land battle of the civil war. 4500 casualties fighting along and above the stone bridge and many other places. You can go back to these places now because theyre preserved as battlefields which is pretty cool and i know a lot of people in this room do that sort of stuff. In the west things are favoring the south they wanted bull run called it manassas. Ofsons creek in august 1861. Nathaniel lammons army for be beaten the confederates and union is losing east and west at this point but they will come back a little bit. The confederates will win at balls bluff you see there, near leesburg, virginia. You see the union making incursions around port royal, South Carolina and encircling the confederacy. Winfield scotts great anaconda plan is being put into effect and its going to become harder and harder for confederates to receive supplies. Things they need for war, things they need to exist as a nation. It will get tough as it goes on. Now were on to 1862 where a lot more is going to happen. Where . The union moves fast in the west. Everything favors the union. Not only do the confederates have enough soldiers but the rivers act as main arteries of invasion for the north. The union wins at kentucky, pee ridge, arkansas and captures forts donaldson and henry, which results in the first confederate capital at nashville, tennessee. Although the union has captured 100,000 square miles of territory, people arent really noticing. It is kinda far from washington and new york where the papers are coming up and people are paying attention. Hold that thought for a second. In the east something that gets a lot of news is the great battle of the iron claleds. Ironclads. The c. S. S. Virginia fighting the u. S. S. Monitor, this new ironclad ship that hung low to the water line. Its incredible and is easily immediately made all other vessels obsolete and change naval warfare. The union captured nashville they could start to move toward memphis, tennessee. They can go toward corinth, mississippi. An important rail line. Unionn see the moving down. They captured nashville here and they can start to move all the way down toward corinth, mississippi. The confederates lash back at the battle of shiloh where Albert Sidney johnston will push the union all the way into the Tennessee River here and they barely hold on. And get some reinforcements lash back at the confederates and all of a sudden you have five times the bloodiest battle in all of American History at this point had shiloh. 23,800 casualties or so. A bloody day but the union ended up winning. Grant is criticized for suffering so much. He should get used to that because there was more to come. In the meantime the union has had its hopes on holding the pacific ocean, denying the confederates a port on the pacific ocean. The confederates want the reverse. At the battle of Glorieta Pass other actions the confederates port even a pacific , in a confederateleaning southern california. Further in the east, you have Stonewall Jackson, who received that name at the battle of manassas in 1861 is now doing his magic in the valley where he is all over the place. If you drive from winchester up to mcdowell, that takes three hours now by car on is interstate. Imagine doing this with his foot cavalry. A masterful campaign. Operating with a small army in the midst of three other armies. Stonewall jackson can operate independently and he does and keeps all those union armies there. George mcklemmen amasses the largest army in the republic. The army of the potomac. He brings them down to this place, fort monroe, the oldest stone fort in america. You can go stand right there and theyre going to have a mighty union force assembling at this place. In the meantime, this whole force assembles, the confederates try to block that subterfuge,rough through theatrics. A guy named mcgruder. Eventually the confederates give up yorktown. The union pushes closer to washington richmond, the confederate capital. Pintsible battle at seven or fair oaks battle in is fought among twin houses along the williamsburg road that. That slows down the union for a while but the most consequential thing in 1862, is that the confederate commander joe johnston will be put out of action resulting in Jefferson Davis putting in his third most ranking gentle, rocket e. Lee. Everybody thought held be cautious. Hes not going to do anything. He would become the most important confederate thing of any sort. Soon after being put in, after riding around and gaining intelligence, he lashes out. He loses at beaver creek. Then having some indecisive actions but notice what is happening. Mcclellan is eight miles on the other side of richmond and here is lee. Here is mcclellan after seven days 20 miles away from richmond. Even though the union wanted the battle of melbourne hill, robert e. Lee has pushed them back. He feels richmond is safe and that he can leave. He moves Stonewall Jackson up fast. They will fight a terrible they will fight a terriblealled battle in august of 1861 called cedar mountain. The confederates almost lose. The yankees make a tough push but ultimately the confederates hold on. Photographers show up and show fresh graves and also dead horses at cedar mountain. Photojournalism is being born in virginia. Theyre capturing all sorts of incredible things at this point. Right from cedar mountain, the confederate continued on with a Skeletal Force and continued on at the second bull run where they did the same thing before. Except for times more bloodily. 18,000 casualties. The union will retreat and barely make it back to washington, d. C. Lee has had enough of that. Mcclellan reinstalls the army fightll give chase and battles at Harpers Ferry. Georgia simpleton because he found special order 191 that shows that lees army was dangerously divided at this point. Ok. That was all one sentence. I thought id take a little break there. The confederates will hang out at South Mountain but they meet at the terrible battle of antietam or sharpsburg. It will be a terrible fight and this cornfield with 10,000 casualties. They push the confederates to the brink in the west woods behind the dunker church. The union is going to capture burnside bridge in the confederates are pushed to the limits their last reinforcement under a. P. Hill shows up and pushes the Union Soldiers back and rocket e. Lee can claim a small tact cal victory. But the big victor is Abraham Lincoln who see is this as snuff of a victory to broadcast the emancipation proclamation. England andctively france out of the civil war. Whos going to fight against a nation trying to free the slaves . That is how we calculated it. It will work pretty well as a result. In the meantime, the union has been in control of corn for several months at this point. The confederates try to take it back. The union will hold onto that important rail area. Ticket erates moved into kentucky. They install their own governor but even that governors speech is interrupted by cannon fire. Not a good sign. Theyll come to blows at a terrible battle at perryville, beautiful field if you ever go there. Braxton braggs specialty is winning at the beginning and leaving after he won but that will eventually rob the confederates of kentucky for the rest of the war and bragg will fall further back into tennessee with nothing to show for it. A lot of these battles are really spread out. You see how theres a big clump over here . That clump in the right part of the map is called the east. This is what we call it now and what people called it back then. Thats the east and Everything Else is the west. If you go southeast from the east youre in the west. Try to figure that out. Coastal South Carolina is in the west. This is the way media saw it. This is still the way some people see it. Its really unfair. People during the civil war, Abraham Lincoln was like yes, we captured in 1862 100 square miles of territory and all of a sudden robert lee wins one victory, its as if that never happens. 100,000 square miles. Still people who work at historic parks in the western theater cant figure this out. Why is gettysburg considered more important than vicksburg . I cant figure that out. This is important nomenclature to understanding the civil war. In the fall of 1862 when the union has a great opportunity to get around the confederate lines, but theyre missing upon pontoon bridges to get them across. This is a terrible blood letting with 18,000 casualties and Something Like three quarters are union casualties. Lincoln said, my god, what will the country say . Between fredericksburg and a loss of chickasaw value, it is only the last day of the year spilling into the new year in middle tennessee a place called stones river where bragg was winning and pulled back. Link it could breathe a slight sigh of relief. It almost would bring disaster to the union with the confederates winning at all points. The yankees could claim one victory at the beginning of 1863. Now, 1863 dawned, its the day of jubilee. The emancipation Progress Proclamation goes into effect. Suddenly Union Soldiers can have black troops. That work will begin around that time. Union and confederate soldiers are facing each other on 1000 front this is an incredible photo of union photographers taking a picture of confederates in the field. Its practically unique. You really dont have anything like this. Confederates posing for a union camera and a hostile action. Theyre not actually shooting at each other at this point. Incredible though. Eventually outside of fredericksburg youre going to have another Union Commander this is the fifth one. Joe hooker came with you a great plan where he managed to get his army all the way around robert e. Lee into his rear. His army is about twice as large. Drawing lee into battle where hooker said he would fly or attack. This is a battle called cans chancellorsville. You know it doesnt go that way. Lee was an extraordinarily daring and dangerous opponent. Hooker would find that out. Timeslits his army three and you know what happens. With an incredible charge, a flanking maneuver around the union army and even know the union captures the famous sunken road at fredericksburg that doesnt matter. Lee wins a great battle but lee wins a great battle but loses his most trusted lieutenant Stonewall Jackson. Maybe wounded by he is own men, but mortally wounded. After chancellorville, robert e. Lee is feeling good. He has one more chance to do this. These are the same guys that fought on the peninsula, walked up to virginia, walked to cedar mountain, to second manassas, to antietam and now theyre walking up here. Theres going to be a terrible battle where lee is going to calculate that if he can win a major battle on northern soil, lee doesnt have to win but destroy the union will to fight. Youll have lee wanting to take the war away from virginia for a while. Relief troops coming from vicksburg and other places. As lee moves north theres a battle at brandy station, largest cavalry battle of the war. Middleburg and upper ville. Another battle at win chester winchester and they come to grips outside of town here right here where we are. Were probably right around here. On the first day, the union retreats back through town to Cemetery Hill and the hill next to it. Another day where they hope to defend the wheat field, the Peach Orchard round tops that , you see here. The union is going to bloody itself and the confederates on the rose farm. On the second day of gettysburg, fighting on east symmetary hill. The next day it goes on and on. Thethe battle ended after second day it still wouldve been the Bloodiest Day in the civil war. Theres still one terrible day to go where the confederates are advancing across this famous field now known as the field of picketts charge. The unit will decisively defeat the confederates, capturing more battle flags and that captured in attire were up to that point combined. The confederates escaped back into virginia. Lee is not easy to back with 50,000 soldiers and theres a whole bunch of dead people left behind. Talking about 10,000 dead, another 41,000 captured and missing. It is by far americas bloodyest war conflict battle on our soil out ine of the debt laid enough time to record 37 photos captured on the battlefield around boulders here that you can still see to this day. Ill show you one more view so you can see the individual cracks in the rocks. This is a work of a photographer who located all these places, mostly in the 1960s and 1970s. Gettysburg is not happening in a vacuum. U. S. Grant has try roed to get vicksburg. He settles on a plan in april of 1863 where he will run the gunboats at vicksburg, march his army down with nose bolts, crosses the Mississippi River and he is going to fight a series of battles, not going straight to vicksburg but rather relieving a threat on his rear, jackson, mississippi and then moves to fight at Champion Hill and big black before trying to capture vicksburg by storm and settling into a siege. After 47 days that will fall to the union. The largest confederate mass surrender until the actual end of the civil war. Its an astounding victory for the union coupled with another victory week later at fort hudson louisiana. ,now the union has an unbroken line. The anaconda plan started at the beginning of the war is finally taking shame. The confederates not only are having trouble getting things into their ports, but they dont control the Mississippi River. It doesnt just cut the confederacy into two. Literally the confederates have no way to cross the Mississippi River with their men. With their slaves, with their beef, with their salt. Where are the confederates supposed to get this stuff . Somewhere else in the blockade. They choose florida. Not as well as equipped. It was a stunning defeat for the confederates. By far more important than gettysburg. I donthe place but know how people can call it nearly as important as vicksburg. The war is happening in a thousand other places. A photo of brownsville, texas. Union present out in San Francisco bay, place called alcatraz. Theyre all over the place. In 49 minutes, you cant cover them all. In the meantime, technology is taking massive leaps. All sorts of naval advancements. New balloons happening on the washington, d. C. Mall, we call it today. Warships patrolling harbors. The union army becomes the most powerful in the world. Here is an actual photo of combat. The ship on the right is covered in smoke from having just fired. Takes credit for the plan. Rent lashes out at the confederates as he sends away his most capable commander, weakening the force, charging them in for bullets. Braxton bragg has actions here for the confederate, capturing lookout mountain. Anyone seen that. George thomass men captured it from the front because of the bragg dispositions there. Chat is little fall for 1864. The year still isnt over. People in the east usually say that they didnt do anything with the mine run campaign. They were not of much consequence, they only get one slot. In the meantime, all sorts of cavalry actions going on. Im trying to cover it all and you cant. Quantrill, Nathan Bedford , others getting all the way into ohio, some disrupting union lines, incredible stories about how this guy made that guy surrender and back i tumbled out of the prison. Fascinating stuff. 1864 comes on and this is when things get really real. 62 and 63 were the bloodiest years in history and these make the others look like a warmup exercise. The union is much different than the confederates here. While supplies well supplied, they have been in comfortable camps with transportation facilities taking those to the union army. The confederacy is shrinking. With this photo here, one of several hundred taken in that winter of 63 and 64. In the meantime, u. S. Grant comes up with a plan. He knows that he if he moves on all five fronts the confederates cannot harry his moves. Unfortunately for grant the first three will fail. If you have ever heard of the red river campaign, you dont through thesiegel Shenandoah Valley and expect that to work out. Dont send benjamin butler, actually, to attack between richmond and petersburg. All of those fail. The two main thrusts are William Tecumseh shermans army moving on atlanta. Travel with robert e. And those of the main moves of consequence. Here you have an incredible picture of union troops marching on the first day of the Overland Campaign, resulting in the battle of the wilderness, a terrible thicket that will really reduce the viability of grants numbers. Grants of numbers dont really matter when you cant really deploy your troops in this terrible second growth thicket of the wilderness. Wounded men cant get away. You have heard the stories. After this 30,000 soldier bloodletting, the union doesnt do what they normally do. Grant isnt that kind of soldier. His troops are cheering him because grant is going to fight with this army, they are marching south, continuing on even after a bloodletting like that where they didnt achieve victory. Eventually the fight will move on to a worst spot called spotsylvania. Even worse than that, heres a fighting with a heres a spot where the fighting went on, were at was most intense where, im not kidding, you have confederates on the side and the union on this side for 18 hours. It is just a terrible struggle. Throwing bayonets at each other, grabbing the enemy, 18 hours. Ever been tickled her in a fight for 30 seconds, you know how painful that can be. 18 hours, the accounts from that, if you get a chance read about spotsylvania. Its a terrible bloodletting where the confederates will manage to take up positions after these 33,000 casualties. Of themeantime, all wounded that were at the wilderness in spotsylvania will gather back in fredericksburg at these hospitals. Here you have one were you can see the wounded soldiers. If you zoom in on them you can see what must be according to fredericksburg members of i believe a company of the first michigan sharpshooters. Native americans fighting for the union. We should not read into this that this is just happening for the union. Native americans are famously on grants staff, fighting for the confederacy, fighting on both sides throughout the war. You have the various tribes aligning with the side who will do them the most good at the end. Dont want to favor the loser at the end of this thing. Its a fascinating story to read about whats going on in missouri, kansas throughout these times, union and confederate troops find to align with native american tribes. In the meantime, there are great advancements being made in medicine. When you hear about the home front you hear about women as nurses but they are performing a lot of roles back at home, working in factories, keeping the farms, doing all sorts of things. Nursing was one of the most visible things that they did. There were incredible advancements being made and the biggest myth of the civil war sorry, there are a lot of myths of the civil war but one is that every amputation was made like in gone with the wind, screaming with no anesthesia when we know that 90 of all amputations were done with anesthesia. Let me say real quick that if you were to go back is tempting for us to somehow think that if we were back then, we would know how to fight at her, we wouldnt fight in that seemingly stupid way. We cant help it. We are like that and they were like that for the people before them. Better yet, i went to done amputation in such condition, so im going to go back in time here and im going to warn them, weight, wash the saw. You say why, and glad you asked, you cant see these little things, some are bad, some are good, if the bad ones get in the wrong place, they would lock you up. Imagine going back in time in telling someone like this. But on both sides they were incredibly proficient at reserving life and if i may, after the battle of antietam, Jonathan Letterman laid out what is entirely our trauma and 911 system that is still used today. 911 orhave ever dialed gone to a hospital, thank Jonathan Letterman for thinking about a few things. What goes in the ambulance . How many of each of those goes in an ambulance question mark who stops those things . Who is in charge of the ambulance, the hospital question mark who do the surgeries . Things like that. Everything that we do in triage and trauma was figured out during the civil war. We forgot about it later. A back from Foreign Countries and its the system that we use to this day. Of course sometimes it didnt work, there will be a lot of death and disease, still the number one killer in the civil war. We can look at the pictures of the dead outside of hospitals and learn about where they were temporarily interred. If you had enough money you might be able to embalm your loved one and send his remains home after the war. In the meantime, there are still lots of fighting going on, the Overland Campaign continues, going on wherever the union moves forward. The new base is in port royal, virginia, the scene of a famous action with John Wilkes Booth not long after this. Eventually grant will decide to continue to go around the left lees right flank, here he is incredibly sitting right in the middle of the Overland Campaign with gordon meade, john rollins, everybody read around here as the army passes by. Incredible moment there. The next battle where grant will fall into lees trap, we all get stomach troubles, thats what he had, he had no one else to rely on and the trap is not sprung near jericho mills. Thank you to the members of the American Battlefield trust to help dust to preserve this land, motion most of which has been conveyed to the richmond battlefield. Or at least east and has at this point. You can go to the military road on the day its open and stand with your friend on the exact same road today. Really cool. Of course, understanding this stuff in 49 minutes is nothing like going to the actual spot. Of course, after north anna, a terrible battle, there will be a worse one at cold harbor. Two week slugfest. Not just charges were people pin their names act on the uniforms. It goes on for weeks where the confederates have a have erected elaborate trenches, a foreshadowing of world war i. That is the Overland Campaign. For nine months the union and confederate armies will be in touch every single day for nine months and cold harbor is two of those weeks. Eventually the union, check out this minesweeper, sweeping the james river for confederate torpedoes and minds will construct a pontoon bridge over the river. This is just a thin spot near it , but an incredible engineering feat where the union will fall ofn petersburg with a lack union will, timidity, and confederate boldness pays off, the confederates hold petersburg until their big army can arrive and they settle into a lengthy siege. Wait until you see all the stuff that happens at this time. Hero photo of the famous dictator the union brought to try to relieve the union of having to storm the batteries at petersburg. In the meantime, grant figure i dont do a Prisoner Exchange anymore. Its a complex issue, but the put it simply if i have more soldiers in my enemy, why would i give them back soldiers . The Prisoner Exchange stopped. It has to do with what confederates are doing with black soldiers at the time. Prisons swell. The prison population just grows. Its a terrible situation, north or south. Dying of terrible exposure, freezing in the north, you choose. In the meantime, William Tecumseh sherman is moving on atlanta. Rocky face ridge, new hope picketts mill, kenesaw mountain. Incredibly the confederates are Still Holding it but shermans armies are so much bigger in this campaign that no matter where johnson holds, sherman continues to wrap around and threaten the rear. Johnson has no choice but to fall back further towards atlanta again and again. In the meantime union is trying capture mobile bay. Imagine being the confederacy depending on these different fronts. This is an incredible story, you have heard it, dam the torpedoes with massive union gunships protected by iron gunboats trying to hope that the torpedoes wont get you. One of them took down a union ship called the tecumseh. The union ships then started to encircle the great confederate iron confederate ironclad. It will go down or surrender eventually. The boiler is actually hit, i believe, fort morgan surrendering, the confederates are really just reduced to having fort fisher in wilmington, North Carolina soon after that. In the meantime under a new commander, johnson is come replaced by john bell hood, who lashes out at the union at Peachtree Creek and the battle of atlanta. He almost destroys the union army. The union comes back, loses their general and gains another foothold on encircling atlanta. Falling onto temper second, 18 624. Lincoln is psyched. He and everyone else everyone knows that lincoln is not going to be reelected. The war is stymied. Now here is one key, atlanta has fallen in early september. Then you are going to have robert e lee at stalemate, attaching a specific significant portion of his army around the Shenandoah Valley by Harpers Ferry and get help for one day at the bottle the bought battle that saved washington. The monotonous seat national park, where the confederates continue on and get pushed back of the battle of fort stevens, the only battle fought in the district of columbia. Almost certainly it would have fallen except for the battle slowing down the confederate base. Through the Shenandoah Valley grant has had enough, puts one of his most industrious and actionable commanders in. He had a temper on him. Angry, little guy. Hes going to go after the army in the terrible shenandoah campaign, where the third battle of winchester alone seen here results in more casualties than jacksons entire campaign by triple. After that the union will follow up with another victory at fishers hill. Here at cedars creek, this is the belle grove mansion. After that the army is destroyed. The union has complete control of the valley, with much of that military equipment and food burned at the time. In addition, the union captured Fort Harrison that they renamed fort earn him close to richmond. Now atlanta has fallen. The union has released pressure on the Shenandoah Valley and Fort Harrison has fallen. The Union Soldiers are feeling good. The soldier vote goes to Abraham Lincoln. He wins in a landslide. They were going to sue for peace, his opponents, they lose in a landslide. The fighting is still going on. Theres a terrible siege happening at this time. In the meantime you will have john bell hood, who just lost atlanta, hes going to strike out and try to get into the union interior, and then maybe even join robert e. Lee. An ambitious plan that had a chance of working except he got slowed up here for a while and lost an opportunity at spring hill, they will fight a terrible battle where his army is bloodied against the union host. The confederates eventually push back the union, resulting in the battle of nashville. No one can figure out what hood was trying to a come push by being there. Hes eventually outnumbered and it will be a disaster for his army, basically destroyed at that point in december of 1864. By that time William Tecumseh sherman had left atlanta and was marching to the sea. You have heard about that, but you may not have heard where they ended up, Fort Mcallister in savannah, georgia, you can see the footprints of the soldiers walking in the sand to try to avoid the confederate landmines known to be in their path. They captured Fort Mcallister, its a great site. I know i say this about a lot of places but there are a lot of great site. And youphers come in dont see much clouds during the civil war. They were often burned in separately to these kinds of plates. Savanna falls, sherman gives it to lincoln as a Christmas Present in late 1864. Sorry to spoil the end for you, 65 comes on and there is still a see hitters were. There is detritus all over the place. Isnt done, hes going to keep going and hes going to march and threaten to join u. S. Grants forces. Imagine that. Hes going to faint towards charleston. Charleston will have to evacuate nonetheless. Columbia will burn. People still argue who did it. I tend to think it was both. The capital, the capital of South Carolina will burn and eventually the confederates will be bought brought to battle brought to battle with a scratch together force. They almost win on the first day of the battle of bentonville but eventually the Union Numbers will tell and the confederates will lose the biggest battle ever fought in North Carolina. Bentonville, march of 18 625, johnson concluded that he could do nothing but annoy sherman. I cant possibly stop him. Nottually things are looking good. Robert e. Lee wants to break out from petersburg and get out into the open field. He fights a terrible battle at fort stedman. His last great attack. Grant repulses the attack and realizes he must have thinned his other lines in order to do that it is the Union Strikes back at the breakthrough at petersburg and they will break through confederate lines on april 2, 1865. Lee will be forced to give up petersburg and flee to the west. Excuse eight. Wow. We are at 1865 already. Flee to thewill west. Hes trying to get and maybe join Joseph Johnson if he can only get around the union army, but he suffers a terrible defeat at the battle of shamus creek where he loses a third of his army, sees whats happening in says my god, has the army of Northern Virginia been dissolved . Lee will be brought and compelled to surrender on april 9, 1865 at appomattox in virginia. Thats not the only surrender. Joe johnson will surrender to the William Tecumseh sherman in a fascinating story with a chance you can read about it, the different negotiations going on here at bennett place. Its not the last surrender, but its the biggest one. The civil war is effectively over at this point. Whats left . Unfettered burned richmond to keep this stuff out of union hands. It was fascinating to photographers in the union reraises the flag over fort sumter, even right when the war is ending. This is a consequential month in april. A lot of things are going on. That same day, april 14, 18 625, you have union and confederate soldier seemingly almost fraternizing in richmond. I dont think they are getting along well, but theres not much animus. They are ready to go home, but that same day abraham mccann decides to go to the theater, fords theatre to see our american cousin. He is sitting in that share in that booth with his wife. John wilkes booth goes in, sneaks up through a door there, goes up behind the president and shoots the president , goes on to the stage, runs out of the back door, Abraham Lincoln expires the next morning in the Peterson House and all of a sudden the fraternization in Capital Square is over. Nonetheless, you will have Matthew Brady request and receive permission just six days after that to stand and sit for photographs outside of and on the back porch of a richmond home. Incredibly, the door is still there. If you have permission from the owner you can go back there. You can see the crack in the door. Its in a great state of preservation. Now it seems to be under a new owner that will take a good care of it. I really hope. Of course, you want to go in you want to emulate robert e. Lee, the great commander, right . Youre going to get that will lead look and really fail. You will look there a few months later and my god, it gets worse. You dont just open your eyes and stare into the distance. Maybe you figure out what bricks he standing on and you go back and you think oh god, it gets worse. At least you can see me aging in these pictures. Ok, lets bring a robert e. Lee in uniform. Lets talk about the thing. Lets try the seated portrait, thats how its done. That looks pretty good with the civil war camera there. Get there, put on the uniform, yes. Maybe then you can succeed a bit. E bit once you have done that you can get cocky, you can pose with robert e. Lee. You can take selfies with him. You can make him stand next to you while you sit in his chair. [laughter] it takes 20 years to go with pictures to do this. In the meantime, its a world turned upside down. You have confederate prisoners in their own prison with the Union Prisoners outside. You have Abraham Lincoln sitting in geoff daviss chair and you have geoff davis captured in may of 1865 in a union prison here at fort monroe. You can go there today, dust off your loser friend and put him in the same spot as well and he considered on the same place today. They do a great job there at the museum. There are still surrenders going on in texas. Ship thatconfederate wont surrender for a while, but the war is over. Still, you have eight conspirators in the lincoln conspiracy. They will be tried in that room right up there. You cant quite see it in there, but thats where it is. You can go back there today, four of them will be hanged right there. Justbuilt the scaffold in a few hours. Its a tennis court now but it is on an army fort. They might rebuild the scaffold but that would be messed up but i would like to see them remove the tennis court, its not used anymore anyway. Whats left . This terrible nation gone through its greatest test. Some people like to call it 850, 750, why not . Of the two inches to 70 inches, buy toilet paper. I still use 620,000. Its still plenty. Its 2 of the population or so at that time. Now there are of course dead everywhere. The south will suffer particularly heavily in terms of human capital. Some of the young men from the town are completely gone at this point. There are burials everywhere. They are trying to exhume them. You can see africanamerican laborers doing this outside cold harbor. People will continue to try to find remains. To this day there was one found at manassas just last year. Heres a temporary grave at manassas. You can see this waterhole filled with water to this day outside the visitor center. And of course during this time the union will march in parade. They won. The union has been kept together. Tough times ahead, but we will parade down pennsylvania avenue from the capital. There will be a reviewing stand in front of the white house where these people who have been learning about these troops for years now can look on and for two days as the troops pass you can see Winfield Scott hancock in charge of the ceremonies. In the most incredible detail, same photo to the right, while you have troops marching by and veterans of the civil war, the reserve corps has been wounded or incapacitated guarding the area. On grants staff you have eli parker, looking right at you at the end of the civil war. Abraham lincolns debt at that point, but he is watching his armies marching by. You can barely see him, but president andrew johnson, wesley merritt, George Gordon meade, the victor of gettysburg, gideon welles, William Tecumseh sherman whispering to somebody, has there ever been us a photo with the secretary of the navy, of all the armies, the president , the grand commander of all of the armies and your in biggest Army Commanders one photo . An unbelievable detail that was unknown for a long time until i zoomed in. Its not just me. This is a free photo at the library of congress. I encourage you all to explore the photos of the civil war. The grand review is over, the war is over and there are a lot of tough times ahead. Especially politically. The union had passed and ratified the 13th amendment and then they will pack on with the 14th and 15th. Slavery is illegal. Black people can vote. Women can vote yet, but it will take a while for the sinks to be felt and take shape. In the meantime people are going to be visiting their departed cemetery family members at cemeteries. Civil war soldiers forming newspapers, writing books, going to battlefields and erecting monuments on the battlefields. We can go back to them today were they dedicated that one, june of 1865, they can see the monuments today on those battlefields. Here is one to a guy that died in gettysburg. Not only if you really work hard to find this 1 this one is not easy, i see some of you nodding out there, but if you go up to wayne who runs the National Civil war museum fort 40 minutes north of her, this is captain henry fuller and you can go out with his bloodstained tactical manual. Bloodstained at the moment he died, an incredible moment to take account of the battlefield and the artifacts from the civil war to increase our understanding. 1930s, much like the world war ii generation of today, people are dying off, there are not many veterans left. They have one last grand reunion a gettysburg. About 2000 veterans came together. The average age was 94, which in 1938 was extremely old. The people that planned the dedication of the event, this hot weekend, they were happy that only seven of the veterans died that weekend when they were coming to gettysburg to see the monument, they were happy it was only seven. These guys were old. Look in theyou foreground you can see a Motion Picture camera. These are civil war soldiers seeing a Motion Picture camera. Overhead planes flying. Remember, a world war was fought and another is on the horizon. Colorwar soldiers saw movies and in that sense it wasnt that long ago. I have been coming here for 32 to 1 5 ofhave been the anniversaries. It wasnt that long ago. I bet there are people in this room who might have met a civil war veteran. I only missed one by nine years and i met at least 100 people who have shaken the hands of civil war veterans and as my job at the American Battlefield trust and battlefield guide, dragging the past forward so that you understand it wasnt that long ago. These people are just like us and i like to keep that in mind. 80s, 50s, 60s, 70s, the promise was still being realized. Korea did nothing to make people be interested in battlefield isntvation, visitation at an alltime high. They are being paved over into the 80s. This is the franklin battlefield, all but lost, but some of it is being reclaimed now. With the anniversary in the late 1980s, you have reenactments ,eenactments, glory, ken burns the birth of the modern battlefield preservation movement. In that fashion battlefields are being preserved again in a way that they were not even in the 70s. Antietam was only half the size it is now. Saving 1000 acres around gettysburg working with the federal government. We are losing 30 acres a day. We have cool animated maps. If you call it come across our animated map the does the civil war in 27 minutes in utica stole something from that, i wrote that i wrote that script, it stole from me. [laughter] thanks for coming up tonight, i appreciate it. [applause] remember when i started, but remember it was close to 50 minutes you before i take any questions let me leave you with some parting shots i would like to get across. As i mentioned, civil war soldiers were not stupid, using the most modern tactics they had available to them at the time. Im sure that you will agree that this more industrial south industrial north and agricultural south was as real as a gets. For every southern factory worker, the north had an entire factory. The war in the east consisted of only a few big movements. Keep this in mind, they started around washington, went down and fought around richmond, antietam, fredericksburg for a to gettysburg and then they slow down. Thats really it. All of these battles to the east in those movements i described, casualty is not killed. At 51,000 casualties a gettysburg, 50,000 dead in vietnam. A different story. 1812, the more the war with mexico, world war i, world war ii, into korea and vietnam it will equal the casualties of the american civil war. Most civil war brooks books and productions are full of errors but if they get them interested in the subtext, im ok with that. And the battlefield ghost stories are made up to make money. Im not saying that they are theres a such things as ghosts, but these ones are made up. Go on the tours by all means and people do ask this after the go stores. Lastly, honor is the most difficult of all 19thcentury concepts to grasp. Want to understand the past . We are like them but there are some differences. The way that honor pervaded society in a way that people today can understand unless you read their words, which i incurred you to do. Remember that we are just like them and let me go back to the original screen with another thank you and then i will take questions. Thank you. [applause] im told you have to wait for the microphone, it will be you and the other shirt and the microphone is coming your way. Make it an easy one, i like ones i can answer. Do you have an opinion about the harvest of death photographs . Dont haved, i enough time. These are five photos taken by Alexander Gardner after the battle of gettysburg, the only ones known to show federal debt on the battlefield, the civil war photography greatest mystery. I been looking for them for 30 years. My opinion is yes, nobody knows where they are yet, there have been miniseries thrown out and each one thinks they are right and they are mad they love when i say that other peoples theories are wrong but they dont like it when i say that peoples theories are wrong. Photo research is very complex and unlike other types of research, when 60 participants might say that one thing happened and another says another, you go with the 60s, right . All it takes is one thing to disqualify your theory forever. Its a complex thing. Anyone who wants to look at that, i tried to explain this on 24 videos. Harvest of death, they will come up, you will see me being even and like a historian but once in once or twice a little bit snide. He knows that gets my get my goat. If anything. One in the back question mark one more after that . Doing before he was given the army . Incredible things, actually. Hes working for Jefferson Davis, hes campaigning in West Virginia and that doesnt go too well. Stonewall jackson had trouble with that as well. He is selecting the main route, say. Lets defend the Jefferson Davis highway, which is what its called now. Route one. Make sure that we can defend the artery. Hes laying out the key way to defend charleston and savannah, keeping the union from incurring upon it. Acting as the grand strategist and the engineer to help the confederacy to achieve its goals. Thats the simplest way i can put it. Its absolutely incredible that the southerners could keep a Railroad Going that hold time and lee devised a way to move troops of and forth and thats where he got his horse, traveler, between charleston and savannah. I would say that hes a military advisor to Jefferson Davis but hes accomplishing all sorts of other feats that had a positive impact on the confederate army. Great question. Last one for anybody question mark all right, well thank you very much. I will be around here. Thanks to the Gettysburg Heritage Center and to cspan. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] thank you all for coming out tonight. Labor day weekend on american ontory tv, today at 4 p. M. , real america, the film invasion of southern france. Monday, labor day, the commemoration of the 400th firstrsary of virginias General Assembly held at jamestown. Explore our nations past on American History tv every weekend on cspan3. The house will be in order. For 40 years cspan has been providing america unfiltered coverage of the white house, the supreme court, and Public Policy events from around the country, so that you can make up your own mind. In 1979, cspan is brought to you by your local cable or satellite provider. Cspan, your unfiltered view of government. The late 1850s americans generally trusted their congressman, but not congress as an institution. Nor did congressman trust each other. By 1860 many congressman were routinely armed. Not because they were eager to kill their opponents, but out of fear that their opponents might kill them. History professor and author Joanne Friedman will be our guest on indepth, today. Her latest book is the field of blood. Her other titles include hamilton, writings, and affairs of honor. Join our live conversation with your phone calls, tweets, and facebook questions. And in his latest book, immoral majority, are evangelicals being gestures in power over christian values session marked the lesser evil argument is tempting but dangerous. It contributes to keeping a system in place that takes accountability out of the system. It also is an easy way to bring in Something Like evangelicalism or any other faith and then use that as a way to get votes, which seems like about the worst possible way to use faith. Watchable tv every weekend on cspan two. Collects next, Stephen Berry discusses his work on the digital history project private voices, which gathers, transcribes, and digitizers letters written during the civil war. This talk was part of the Gettysburg College Civil War Institute summer conference. Again, let me reintroduce myself. To the cspan audiences, i am peter carmichael, the director of the Civil War Institute. Im also a member of the History Department here at Gettysburg College. Its my pleasure to welcome my. Ood friend Stephen Berry stephen bay area is the professor of civil war era history at the university of georgia. I have a few rules that i live by and our field and this is one of them