All language subtitles for The.Civil.War.S01E05.The.Universe.of.Battle.1990

Original production
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Before thousands
fell on the battlefield,

before millions were
freed and before a country

forged its identity...
A nation declared a new

birth of freedom,
rededicating itself to the

proposition that all
men are created equal.

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

a film by Ken burns,

newly restored for
it's 25th anniversary.

There's a photograph
I'm very fond of.

It shows 3 confederate soldiers

who were captured at Gettysburg,

and they have posed in front of
or alongside

a snake-rail fence.

And you see exactly how

the confederate soldier
was dressed.

You see something in
his attitude toward the camera

that's revealing of his nature,

and one of them
has his arms like this,

as if he's having
his picture made,

but he's determined to be
the individual he is.

And there's something
about that picture

that draws me strongly
as an image of the war.

More than once
during the civil war,

newspapers reported
a strange phenomenon.

From only a few miles away,

a battle sometimes
made no sound,

despite the flash
and smoke of Cannon

and the fact
that more-distant observers

could hear it clearly.

These eerie silences
were called acoustic shadows.

In the summer of 1863,

a union warship,

hunting a confederate
commerce raider off Yokohama,

attacked a Japanese fleet

for harassing the colony
of westerners there.

The United States won
its first naval battle

against the empire of Japan,

but the confederates got away.

In Paris that year,

new paintings by Cezanne,
Whistler, and Manet

were shown at a special exhibit
for outcasts.

In Russia, Dostoyevsky finished

notes from the underground,

and in London,

Karl Marx labored to complete
his masterpiece,

Das Kapital.

For the first 6 months of 1863,

Robert E. Lee
and stonewall Jackson

had carried out
one of the most extraordinary

military campaigns in history,

smashing huge federal armies

at Fredericksburg
and Chancellorsville

and winning the undying love
of the south.

But by late may,
confederate luck had changed.

Jackson was dead.

A thousand miles to the west,
Ulysses S. Grant's siege

of the rebel stronghold
at Vicksburg

had gone on so long

that Grant himself had taken
to the bottle out of boredom.

As June began,

the confederates inside the town

somehow managed to hold on.

Now, to draw federal troops
away from Vicksburg,

Lee led his army
onto northern soil again,

looking for the right moment
to attack.

When it came,
on the morning of July 1, 1863,

it would be
in the most ordinary of places.

For 3 days,

150,000 men would make war
on each other

in the gentle farmland
of south Pennsylvania.

When the third day was over,
it would prove to have been

the most crucial day
of the entire war.

In the south,
the war had ruined the economy,

and yet the Southern
fighting spirit

was stronger than ever before.

In the north,
where industry was booming,

angry working men would soon
take to the streets

in protest against
emancipation and the war.

At the end of the year,
Abraham Lincoln would travel

to the now-quiet fields
at Gettysburg

and struggle to put into words

what was happening
to his people.

When a black soldier
in New Orleans said,

"Liberty must take the day,
nothing shorter,"

he said, in effect,

that when we count up
those who have died,

when we survey the carnage,

it must be for something higher

than union and free navigation
of the Mississippi river.

During the summer of 1863,

a convention of free
black people demanded the right

for black men to take part
in the struggle as soldiers,

and their key resolution said,

"it is time now
for more effective remedies

"to be thoroughly tried

"in the shape of warm lead
and cold steel

duly administered
by 100,000 black doctors."

Early in the war,

a fugitive slave
named Alex Turner

had made his way north

and joined
the 1st New Jersey cavalry.

In the spring of 1863,

he guided his regiment
back to his old plantation

at port royal, Virginia,
and killed his former overseer.

When the war was over,

he went to new England
and found work as a logger.

In 1883, his daughter Daisy
was born.

"Dear madam,

"I am a soldier,

"and my speech
is rough and plain.

"I'm not much used to writing,

"and I hate to give you pain,

"but I promised I would do it,

"and he thought it might be so,

"if it came from one
that loved him

"perhaps it would ease the blow.

"By this time,
you must surely guess

"the truth I feign would hide,

"and you pardon me
for rough soldier words,

while I tell you
how he died."

"this army has never
done such fighting

"as it will do now.

"We must conquer a peace.

We will show the Yankees
this time how we can fight."

Private William Christian.

Late in may, Lee's army

marched toward Pennsylvania.

Union troops sent to see
what they were up to

completely surprised Jeb Stuart
and his confederate cavalry

at Brandy station, Virginia.

21,000 mounted men
clashed along the Rappahannock

for 12 hours.

It was the biggest
cavalry engagement

in American history,

and it was a stand-off,

but the north had learned

the confederates
were on the move.

The flamboyant Stuart,

embarrassed at having been
caught off guard

and determined
to redeem himself,

now took off on another daring
ride around the union army

with strict orders to stay
in close touch with Lee.

Lee's 70,000 men
were divided into 3 corps.

The first was commanded
by James Longstreet, "old Pete,"

whom Lee called
"my warhorse."

The second corps,
stonewall Jackson's old command,

was under Richard "baldy" Ewell,

who had lost a leg
at second Manassas.

The third was led
by A.P. Hill,

a new corps commander
from Virginia

who had helped stave off
disaster at Sharpsburg in 1862.

On June 16, Lee's advance column

crossed the Potomac
into Maryland.

An even larger
union army followed,

careful to keep between
the confederates and Washington.

The new union commander
was George Meade.

Blunt and bookish, he was
referred to by subordinates

as "a damned, old,
goggle-eyed snapping turtle."

If the union generals were
not sure where Lee was going,

Lee had no idea where
the union army even was.

Jeb Stuart's cavalry

had ridden too far
from the advancing army

to keep him informed.

The confederates marched through
Maryland on into Pennsylvania.

It's very handsome
country there.

The barns are magnificent

and the green fields
and everything,

and the people watching
these confederates go by.

And there was
a black body servant

in the column,

and they stopped, just a halt,

and the people in the house
asked him

what he thought
of this country around here.

And he said,
"this is a beautiful country,

but it doesn't come up to home
in my eyes."

Panic spread
throughout the countryside.

Lee's men seized livestock,
food, wagons, and clothing

from civilians,

giving them worthless
confederate scrip in exchange.

They also seized free blacks

and sent them south
into slavery.

"My friends,"
a Southern officer asked

the frightened inhabitants
of one Pennsylvania town,

"how do you like this way

of our coming back
into the union?"

"It was in the morrow's battle

"fast rained the shot and shell,

"I was standing
close beside him,

and I saw him
when he fell."

"And so I took him in my arms,

"and laid him on the grass.

"It was going against orders,

"but I think they let it pass.

"'Twas a minie ball
that struck him,

"it entered at his side,

"but we didn't think it fatal,

till this morning,
when he died."

The greatest battle ever fought
in the western hemisphere

began as a clash over shoes.

At dawn on July 1,

a confederate infantry officer
led his men toward

the little crossroads town
of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania,

within view
of a Lutheran seminary,

whose high cupola
offered a fine prospect

of the surrounding farms
and rolling hills.

There was rumored to be
a supply of shoes at Gettysburg,

and the footsore rebels
were there to commandeer them.

The south came in
from the north that day,

and the north
came in from the south.

On the outskirts of town,

the confederates ran headlong

into general John Buford's
union cavalry.

While both sides sent couriers

pounding off for reinforcements,

Buford tried desperately
to hold his ground,

but the confederates
finally overwhelmed him

and pushed the union forces
back toward town.

"people were running
here and there,

"screaming that the town
would be shelled.

"No one knew where to go
or what to do.

"My husband went to the garden
and picked a mess of beans,

for he declared the rebels
should not have one."

Sallie Broadhead.

Every confederate
and union division in the area

now converged
on Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

By midafternoon,

confederate troops
occupied Gettysburg,

and union forces had been
driven back south of the town.

There, major general
Winfield Scott Hancock

managed to rally
the fleeing troops

into defensive positions

on Culp's hill
and cemetery Ridge.

A sign near
the cemetery's gateway read,

"all persons found
using firearms in these grounds

"will be prosecuted

with the utmost rigor
of the law."

During the battle,

the artist Alfred Waud
sketched the action,

sending his drawings
back to New York for engraving.

Meanwhile, Sam Wilkeson
of the New York times

filed dispatches,

sitting next to the fresh grave
of his son.

Lee arrived in the middle
of the afternoon,

set up headquarters,
and urged Ewell

to renew the attack
before nightfall.

Ewell chose not to.
His men needed rest.

By the end of the day,

the union army
held the high ground.

Rather than attack it headlong,

confederate general Longstreet

wanted to swing around
the union position

and take a stand between
Meade's army and Washington,

then let the union attack.

Without knowing
the enemy's strength,

Lee overruled Longstreet.

"No," said Lee,
"I'm going to whip them here,

or they are going to
whip me."

He had always counted on

Stuart and his cavalry
for intelligence

as to enemy positions
and movements,

and he was lacking that.

He was groping around
the landscape blind.

And people would come up to him
in the field

all through those days, "can you
tell me where Stuart is?

Have you seen my cavalry?"

Very strange thing
for a commander to have to ask.

So when Stuart arrived,

all he had to show for all this

was a couple of hundred
wagons and mules

and everything else.

And he saw Lee standing there,

sternly looking at him
arriving late,

and he blew the thing by making
his announcement at the start.

He said, "general, I brought you
200 brand-new wagons."

And Lee said, "general,
they're an impediment to me now.

I asked you to help me
whip these people."

And it was a severe
admonishment from Lee,

and Lee saw
he'd hurt his feelings,

so he said,
"come. It'll be all right.

It'll be all right."

"I cannot sleep.

"We know not what the morrow
will bring forth.

"I think little
has been gained so far.

Has our army
been sufficiently reinforced?"

Sallie broadhead.

Compared to what was coming,

the day had been a skirmish.

"my dear son Albert,

"I received your affectionate
letter yesterday.

"And I assure you, my dear son,

"it gives me
great relief of mind

"to hear that you
and your dear brothers

"were still in the land
of the living.

"I had not heard
one word from you

"since Barlow Rodgers
returned home.

"May god bless you,
my dear Albert.

Your devoted father,
Thomas Batchelor."

Through the night,

the two armies
continued to gather.

After a 35-mile,
all-night march,

union general John Sedgwick
arrived with his 6th corps.

By morning,

65,000 confederates
faced 85,000 federal troops

commanded
by general George Meade.

Hills overlooked
the federal position

at either end--

to the north,
on the union right,

Culp's hill and cemetery hill;

To the south,

the big and little round tops.

Lee wanted them taken.

Meade was no less determined
to hold his ground.

"all commanders are authorized

"to order the instant death

of any soldier who fails
in his duty at this hour."

It took Longstreet all morning

and most of the afternoon

to shift two divisions
into position

for the assault
on the round tops.

Assigned to hold
the union position

was general Dan sickles,

a turbulent,
ex-tammany hall politician

best known before the war

for having shot and killed
his wife's lover.

Now sickles disobeyed orders

and marched his men further out
from little round top

to the devil's den,
the wheat field,

and into the peach orchard
beyond.

He was 1/2 mile
in front of the union line

on a flat, exposed position

that left the round tops
completely undefended.

The rest of the army

was amazed.

Someone said he stuck out
like a sore thumb.

I think it was Hancock
who saw him go out,

and he said, "wait awhile.
You'll see him tumbling back."

And, of course, he did.

The confederates
finally attacked

at 4:00 in the afternoon.

As they swept forward,

the 15th Alabama regiment
scrambled up big round top.

From there,
well above the fighting,

colonel William C. Oates
saw his chance.

Little round top
was completely undefended.

From that position, Oates said,

he could blow
the whole union army apart.

"within 1/2 hour, I could
convert little round top

"into a Gibraltar
that I could hold against

10 times the number of men
that I had."

Meanwhile, Meade
dispatched general G.K. Warren

to the summit.

He immediately saw the danger.

Only a handful of signal men
held the hill.

Oates' confederates
were moving down and around

the union left.

Warren sent at once
for reinforcements.

4 union regiments
raced up little round top.

"in a moment,
all was excitement.

"Every soldier seemed
to understand the situation

"and to be inspired
by its danger.

"Away we went,

"under the terrible
artillery fire.

"Shells were exploding
on every side.

"But our men appeared to be
as cool and deliberate

"in their movements,

"as if they had been
forming a line

"upon the parade ground in camp.

"Up the steep hillside we ran,

and reached the crest."

At the extreme left
of the union line now was

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain's
20th Maine.

Oates' alabamians were already
moving between the two hills.

Chamberlain's orders were

to "hold that ground
at all costs."

"imagine, if you can,

"9 small companies of infantry,

"numbering perhaps 300 men,

"in the form of a right angle,

"on the extreme flank
of an army of 80,000 men,

"put there to hold the key
of the entire position

against a force
at least 10 times their number."

"Stand firm,
you boys from Maine,

"for not once in a century

"are men permitted
to bear such responsibilities

"for freedom and justice,

for god and humanity,
as are now placed upon you."

360 Maine men
now took cover behind boulders.

They had less than
10 minutes to spare.

At the last possible moment,

Chamberlain sent his company B

across the hollow
between the hills

to bolster his left flank.

Before they were in place,

Oates' confederates
charged up the slope.

Chamberlain assumed
company B had been wiped out.

He could not afford the loss.

The Maine men opened fire
into the charging rebels.

Oates' men staggered
but regrouped

and came at them again.

"the line had broken
because of the timber

"and the first fire
of the hidden federals.

"A long line of us went down,
3 of us close together.

"There was a sharp,
electric pain

in the lower part of the body,

"and then a sinking sensation
to the earth,

"and, falling,
all things growing dark.

"The one and last idea
passing through the mind was,

this is the last of earth."

Private W.C. Ward,
4th Alabama.

Fire!

"the enemy was pouring
a terrible fire upon us,

"his superior forces giving him
a great advantage.

"The air seemed
to be alive with lead.

"The lines at times
were so near each other

that the hostile gun barrels
almost touched."

The southerners
drove the Maine men

from their positions 5 times.

5 times they fought
their way back again.

Saplings were gnawed in two
by bullets.

"at times, I saw around me

"more of the enemy
than of my own men--

"gaps opening, swallowing,
closing again--

"squads of stalwart men who had
cut their way through us,

"disappearing as if translated.

"All around,

a strange, mingled roar."

In an hour and a half,
1/3 of Chamberlain's men fell.

Sounds of battle now increased
behind the 20th Maine.

Chamberlain assumed

little round top
was being surrounded.

"our ammunition
is nearly all gone.

"We are using the cartridges

"from the boxes
of our wounded comrades.

"A critical moment has arrived

"and we can remain as we are
no longer.

"We must advance or retreat.

"It must not be the latter,

but how can it be
the former?"

Chamberlain's
only choice was to attack,

and now, he conjured up
an unlikely textbook maneuver.

With his men
almost out of ammunition,

he ordered them to fix bayonets.

Then, while the right
of his line held straight,

he had his left plunge
down the hillside

all the while wheeling
to the right--

"like a great gate upon a post,"
an eyewitness said.

The confederates were taken
completely by surprise.

Those in the front ranks
dropped their weapons.

Those behind turned and ran.

"many of the enemy's first line

"threw down their arms
and surrendered.

"An officer fired his pistol
at my head with one hand

while he handed me
his sword with the other."

The confederates
had gone only a few paces

when from their left came
a second horrifying surprise.

Chamberlain's missing company B,

which had found protection
behind a stone wall,

now Rose and fired.

"while one man
was shot in the face,

"his right-hand comrade
was shot in the side or back.

"Some were struck simultaneously

from two or 3 balls
from different directions."

Colonel William C. Oates.

Oates' men wavered, broke,

and ran for their lives.

"my dead and wounded were
then nearly as great in number

"as those still on duty.

"They literally
covered the ground.

"The blood stood in puddles
in some places on the rocks.

The ground
was soaked with blood."

Joshua Lawrence
Chamberlain's scanty force

captured 400 confederates.

Little round top held.

"the regiment
we fought and captured

"was the 15th Alabama.

"They said they never
were whipped before

and never wanted to meet
the 20th of Maine again."

Corporal
William T. Livermore.

On the slopes of
little round top,

farmers from Talladega, Alabama

had fought fishermen
from Presque Isle, Maine.

The two towns were each
650 miles from Gettysburg,

which lay almost exactly
on a direct line between them.

Throughout the day's fighting,
colonel A.S. Fremantle,

a British observer
traveling with Lee,

was surprised to hear the sound
of a confederate band

playing polkas and waltzes

amidst the hissing and bursting
of the shells.

But far out in front
of the union lines,

general sickles and his men
were in desperate trouble.

The rebels were closing in
from 3 sides.

Confederate shells tore branches
from the peach trees

and bounded among the men.

"the hoarse
and indistinguishable orders

"of commanding officers,

"the screaming and bursting of
shells, canister, and shrapnel

"as they tore through

"the struggling masses
of humanity,

"the death screams
of wounded animals,

"the groans
of their human companions,

"wounded and dying
and trampling underfoot

"by hurrying batteries,
riderless horses,

"and the moving lines of battle.

"A perfect hell on earth,

"never perhaps to be equalled,

"certainly not to be surpassed

"nor ever to be forgotten
in a man's lifetime.

"It has never been effaced
from my memory, day or night,

for 50 years."

Private Robert H. Carter,
22nd Massachusetts.

"the balls
were whizzing so thick,"

a texan remembered,
"that it looked like a man

could hold out a hat
and catch it full."

"I was within a few feet
of general sickles

"when he received the wound
by which he lost his leg.

"A terrific explosion
seemed to shake the very earth,

"instantly followed by another.

"I noticed that his pants
and drawers at the knee

"were torn clear off to the leg,
which was swinging loose.

"He was carried from the field,

coolly smoking a cigar."

Sickles' men counterattacked,

fell back, held,
pushed the confederates back,

then retreated again
through places still remembered

for the ferocity of the fighting
that happened there--

the wheat field...

The slaughter pen...

Devil's den...

The valley of death.

Finally, the fighting subsided.

Of the 262
in one Minnesota regiment,

only 47 survived unhurt.

82% had fallen
in less than 5 minutes.

No union regiment in the war

suffered greater casualties.

Company F of the 6th
north Carolina lost 100%.

"dear father,

"finally I came to poor Albert
lying on the ground,

"wounded under the left eye.

"He had also had a ball
shot through his left leg.

"I had no one to help me
bear him from the field.

"I then called a captain
of another company to assist me,

"and we bore Albert 600 yards
through a dense swamp,

"all bleeding and sore
with pain,

"before we could find
any of the ambulance corps

"to bear him off
to the hospital.

"Taking him in my arms,
I assisted him in the stretcher.

"Dropping a tear of grief
upon his bleeding face,

I bade him good-bye."

Charles Batchelor.

"Last night I wanted so to live,

"I seemed so young to go,

"last week I passed my birthday,

"I was just 19, you know.

"When I thought
of all I'd planned to do

"it seemed so hard to die,

"but now I've prayed
to god for grace

"and all my care's gone by.

"And here his voice grew weaker,

"as he proudly raised his head,

"and whispered,
'good-bye, mother.'

and your soldier boy
was dead."

"who was victorious

"or with whom the advantage
rests, no one here can tell.

"Some think the rebels
were defeated,

"as there has been no boasting
as on yesterday,

"and they look uneasy
and by no means exultant.

"I fear we are too hopeful.

We shall see tomorrow."

Sallie broadhead.

As the sun set,

the union left and right
still held.

Lee was sure an all-out
confederate attack

on the center the next day
would work.

"When the
second day's battle was over,

"general Lee
pronounced it a success,

but we had accomplished little
toward victorious results."

General James Longstreet.

The first day's fighting
was so encouraging,

and the second day's fighting,

he came within
an inch of doing it.

And by that time,
Longstreet said,

Lee's blood was up.

And Longstreet said

when his blood was up,
there was no stopping him.

Longstreet tried to stop him.

Lee said, "no, he's there,"
meaning the enemy,

"and I'm going to strike him."

General Longstreet, I think,

had good reasons to worry

about attacking the union
position at Gettysburg.

After all, it was
his corps at Fredericksburg

that mowed down the union troops

in front of the stone wall.

He could realize what
the rifle musket could do

held in the hands
of determined troops.

The next day
was Pickett's charge.

Lee, by the summer of 1863,

had come to believe
that he was invincible

and so was the army
of northern Virginia.

The record
would almost invite that

when you see how
they had pummelled

one union general after another

and had defeated--

or at least fought to a draw
the army of the Potomac

almost in every battle
up to that point.

Lee really did think that if he
asked his boys to do something,

they would do it,
that they would do anything.

He had come,
by Gettysburg, then,

to believe in his invincibility

and that of his men,
and it was his doom.

The third day
began badly for Lee.

Ewell's men were driven back
from Culp's hill.

Jeb Stuart was supposed
to get behind the federals

and attack them from the rear,

but union cavalry
stopped and held him,

thanks in part
to a series of reckless charges

led by 23-year-old
general George Armstrong Custer.

Everything now depended
on Longstreet's attack

on the union center
on cemetery Ridge.

Meade saw it coming
and was ready for him.

The man Lee chose
to lead the assault

was dashing, perfumed
general George E. Pickett,

who had never before taken
his division into combat.

It was an incredible mistake.

There's scarcely
a trained soldier

who didn't know it was a mistake
at the time it was done

except possibly Pickett himself,

who was very happy
he had a chance for glory.

But every man who looked out
over that field,

whether it's a sergeant
or a lieutenant general,

saw that it was
a desperate endeavor

and, I'm sure, knew that
it should not have been made.

Pickett's men
filed into the woods

west of the Emmitsburg road

and waited in the stifling heat.

To relieve the tension,

some of the men pelted
each other with green apples.

They knew what
they were going to do,

but they had to wait.

And while they were waiting,
formed and ready to move out--

they were in defilade
among brush and things--

and a rabbit jumped out
of the bushes and took off,

a real one,

and one of the soldiers
looked after him and hollered,

"run, old hare.

If I was an old hare,
I'd run, too."

It wasn't all valor.

Exactly at 1:00,
a giant artillery barrage

intended to soften up
the union defenses

before the attack

began with
a deafening explosion.

Fire!

Meade had
just left his commanders

finishing their lunch.

As an orderly
served them butter,

a shell tore the man in two.

"the storm broke
upon us so suddenly

"that numbers of soldiers
and officers

"who leaped from their tents
or lazy siestas on the grass

"were stricken in their rising
with mortal wounds and died,

"some with cigars
clamped between their teeth,

some with pieces of food
in their fingers."

"The flying iron
and pieces of stone

"struck some men down
in every direction.

About 30 men of our brigade
were killed or wounded."

Elisha Hunt Rhodes.

To keep up his men's courage,

general Winfield Scott Hancock
rode up and down the line

without flinching
at the screaming shells.

A brigadier urged him
to take cover.

Hancock refused.

"There are times," he answered,

"when a corps commander's
life does not count."

Union artillery
began to fire back.

"we sat and heard in silence.

"What other expression had we
that was not mean

"for such an awful
universe of battle?

"All in the rear of the crest
for 1,000 yards

"was the field
of the shells' blind fury.

"Ambulances passing down
the Tarrytown road

"with wounded men were struck.

The hospitals were riddled."

Frank Haskell.

Suddenly,
the union guns fell silent

to conserve ammunition

for the attack Meade
was sure was coming

and to lure the enemy
out into the open fields.

It worked.

At about 2:00, Pickett asked
if his men should go forward.

Longstreet, convinced
the charge was folly,

unable to bring himself
to speak,

only nodded.

If you stop to think about it,

it would have been much harder
not to go than to go.

It would have taken
a great deal of courage

to say, "master Robert,
I ain't going."

Nobody's got that much courage.

Now Pickett gave the order.

"Up, men, and to your posts.

Don't forget today that
you are from old Virginia."

At 3:00, 3 divisions,
13,000 men,

started out of the woods
toward the stone wall

a mile-and-a-half away,
at a brisk, steady pace,

covering about 100 yards
a minute.

They were silent
as they marched,

forbidden this time to fire

or even to give the rebel yell

until they were
on top of the enemy.

"more than 1/2 mile
their front extends,

"man touching man,
rank pressing rank.

"The red flags wave.

"Their horsemen gallop
up and down.

"The arms of 13,000 men,
Barreland bayonet,

"gleam in the sun,

"a sloping forest
of flashing steel.

Right on they move,
as with one soul."

"None on that crest
now need be told

"the enemy is advancing.

"Every eye
could see his legions,

"an overwhelming
resistless tide,

an ocean of armed men
sweeping upon us."

"All was orderly and still
upon our crest,

"no noise and no confusion.

"General gibbon rode down
the lines, cool and calm,

"and in an unimpassioned voice
he said to the men,

"do not hurry, men,
and fire too fast.

"Let them come up close
before you fire

and then aim slow."

"it was,"
a union colonel recalled,

"the most beautiful thing
I ever saw."

Fire!

Suddenly, the union artillery
on cemetery Ridge

and little round top
opened fire,

and a great moan went up
from the confederate line.

"We could not help
hitting them at every shot,"

a federal officer recalled.

As many as 10 men at a time

were destroyed
by a single bursting shell.

A confederate lieutenant
cried out to his men,

"home, boys, home!

Remember, home is over
beyond those hills."

The waiting union troops
began chanting,

"Fredericksburg! Fredericksburg!
Fredericksburg!"

When the first southerners
came within 200 yards,

union general Alexander Hays
told his men to fire.

11 Cannon and 1,700 muskets
went off at once.

Entire regiments disappeared.

"the rebel lines
were at once enveloped

"in a dense cloud of dust.

"Arms, heads, blankets,
guns, and knapsacks

were tossed
into the clear air."

Still the confederates came on.

They reached the union line
at one place only,

a crook in the stone wall
known as the angle.

"seconds are centuries,
minutes ages.

"Men fire
into each other's faces,

"not 5 feet apart.

"There are bayonet thrusts,
sabre strokes, pistol shots,

"men going down
on their hands and knees

"spinning round like tops,

"throwing out their arms,
gulping blood,

"falling legless,
armless, headless.

There are ghastly heaps
of dead men."

"Foot to foot,
body to body, and man to man,

"they struggled and pushed
and strived and killed.

"The mass of wounded
and heaps of dead

"entangled their feet,

"and underneath
the trampling mass,

"wounded men who could
no longer stand fought,

drowned in sweat, black
with powder, red with blood."

The confederates were led by

general Lewis A. Armistead.

He stepped over the wall
waving his hat on his sword

and seized a union battery
before he was shot down.

All the confederates
who breached the wall

were killed or captured.

The union line held.

Pickett's charge had failed.

Lee's army would
never again penetrate

so far into northern territory.

"cheer after cheer

"Rose from the triumphant
boys in blue,

"echoing from round top,
from cemetery hill,

"resounding in the vale below

and making
the very heavens throb."

Private Jesse young.

As the rebels staggered back,

Lee rode out to meet them.

"All this has been my fault,"
he told them.

Probably his finest hour

was after the repulse
of Pickett's charge.

He walked out into the field,
met the men retreating,

and said,
"it is all my fault."

He told them that.

He wrote to the government,
to Jefferson Davis,

and said, "it was all my fault.

I asked more of men than
should have been asked of them."

Pickett was horrified.

When told to rally his division

for a possible
union counterattack,

Pickett answered, "general Lee,
I have no division now."

Pickett never forgave Lee.

Years later he said,

"that old man had
my division slaughtered."

Gettysburg was
the price the south paid

for having R.E. Lee.

That was the mistake he made,
the mistake of all mistakes.

6,500 men had fallen
or been captured,

half of those who marched
out of the woods.

All 15 regimental commanders
had been hit.

So had 16 of 17 field officers,

3 brigadier generals,
and 8 colonels.

Every one
of the university greys,

a company made up of students

from the university
of Mississippi,

had been killed or wounded.

"Gettysburg," Longstreet said,
had been "ground of no value."

"That day," he added,
"was the saddest of my life."

Almost 1/3 of those engaged,
51,000 men, were lost.

The north suffered
23,000 casualties...

The south, 28,000.

The 2,400 inhabitants
of Gettysburg

now had 10 times that number
of dead and wounded men

to care for.

"wounded men were
brought into our houses

"and laid side by side

"in our halls
and first-story rooms.

"Carpets were so saturated
with blood

"as to be unfit for further use.

"Walls were bloodstained,

as well as books
that were used for pillows."

Jennie McCreary.

The confederacy could
not afford such sacrifices.

All hope of invading
the north was ended.

The next day,

Lee began the long retreat
back to Virginia

as a summer downpour
washed the blood from the grass

and pelted the wounded
who rode in a wagon train

that stretched 17 miles.

"July 4.
Was ever the nation's birthday

"celebrated
in such a way before?

"I wonder what the south
thinks of us Yankees now.

"I think Gettysburg
will cure the rebels

of any desire
to invade the north again."

Elisha hunt Rhodes.

Despite urgings from Washington,

Meade refused to attack
Lee's retreating army.

Another opportunity

to destroy the army
of northern Virginia was lost.

Once again, Lincoln was furious.

Meanwhile, Robert E. Lee
wrote Jefferson Davis,

offering to resign.

"Dear president Davis,

"I cannot even accomplish
what I myself desire.

"How can I fill
the expectations of others?

"I generally feel the growing
failure of my bodily strength.

"I anxiously urge the matter
upon your excellency

"from my belief that a younger
and abler man than myself

can readily be obtained."

Robert E. Lee.

The offer was not accepted.

William Faulkner,
in intruder in the dust,

says that
for every Southern boy,

it's always in his reach

to imagine it being 1:00
on an early July day in 1863.

The guns are laid.
The troops are lined up.

The flags are already
out of their cases

and ready to be unfurled,

but it hasn't happened yet.

And he can go back to the time

before the war
was going to be lost.

And he can always
have that moment for himself.

"Hospital near Gettysburg.

"My dear father,

"it has pleased
the god of battles

"that I should number
among the many wounded.

"Through his infinite
kindness and mercy,

"I am permitted to inform you
that I have recovered.

"I was wounded in two places.

"First, through the hip,

"second, the ball entered
the inner corner of my left eye

"and came out at the lower tip
of my right ear.

"Both are doing fine
and healed up.

"Write to me.
I may get the letter.

Your devoted son,
Albert Batchelor."

After Gettysburg,

the residents
of deer isle, Maine,

began scanning the casualty
lists for familiar names.

Two privates,
John gray and Isaiah Eaton,

were badly wounded
and soon died in hospitals.

Both were buried
in the new national cemetery

at Gettysburg.

The streets grew quiet
when news of Gettysburg

reached Clarksville, Tennessee.

The 14th Tennessee regiment

had left town two years before
with 960 men.

When the battle
of Gettysburg began,

only 365 remained.

By the end of the first day,
there were 60 men left.

By the end of the battle,
there were only 3.

"a gloom rests over the city.

"The hopes and affections
of the people

"were wrapped in the regiment.

"What a terrible
responsibility rests

upon those who inaugurated
this unholy war."

On July 26, 1863,

Sam Houston, first president
of the Republic of Texas,

unshakable supporter
of the American union,

died at Huntsville, Texas.

"I ask of him who buildeth
up and pulleth down nations

"to unite us.

"I wish, if this union
must be dissolved,

that its ruins be
the monument of my grave."

"I carved him out a headboard
as skillful as I could,

"and if you wish to find it,
I can tell you where it stood.

"I send you back his hymn book,
the cap he used to wear,

"and a lock I cut the night
before of his bright curly hair.

"I send you back his Bible.

"The night before he died
I turned its leaves together,

"and read it by his side.

"I'll keep the belt
he was wearing,

"he told me so to do,

"it had a hole upon the side

"just where
the ball went through.

"So now I've done his bidding,
there's nothing more to tell,

"but I shall
always mourn with you

the boy we loved so well."

"our hired man left to enlist

"just as corn planting commenced,

"so I shouldered my hoe
and have worked out ever since.

I guess my services
are just as acceptable as his."

"no conflict in history,"
a journalist wrote,

"was so much a woman's war
as the civil war."

North and south,
women looked for ways to help.

In the north, citizens formed
the sanitary commission

and the Christian commission
to organize private relief

and check the spread
of disease in the army.

The disease rate
was cut in half.

Sanitary commissioners
prowled the camps,

demanding they be cleaned up,

reforming hospital conditions,

insisting on better food,

making sure blankets,
shoes, medicines,

and packages from home
were distributed fairly.

Prominent men ran
the sanitary commission.

New York lawyer
George Templeton strong

was its treasurer.

But hundreds of thousands
of women

in 7,000 local chapters
all over the north

did the work--

sewing, knitting, baking,
wrapping bandages,

raising funds,
organizing rallies.

"if this war developed some
of the most brutal, bestial,

"and devilish qualities
lurking in the human race,

"it has also shown us
how much of the angel there is

in the best men and women."

Mary livermore.

Mary livermore,
a Chicago minister's wife,

organized midwestern volunteers

into 3,000 chapters

and, when the army
was threatened with scurvy,

sent so much food south
that one reporter said,

"a line of vegetables connected
Chicago and Vicksburg."

Clara Barton,
who stood barely 5 feet tall,

distributed supplies
by mule train,

ministered to the wounded
from cedar mountain

to Antietam,

and tirelessly
lobbied Washington

for better care for the men.

In a letter home,
Katherine Wormsley,

a nurse on a hospital ship,

decried the confusion
and chaos on board,

but she ended,
"good-bye. This is life."

George Templeton strong's
wife Ellie

went south to serve
on a hospital ship, too.

"Ellie's tact, sense,
good nature, and energy

"conquered the USA surgeon
in charge at once

"and coerced
all his official dignity

"into hearty, grateful
cooperation

"in the care of his cargo
of 500 cases,

"mostly bad ones.

"I've never given her credit
for tithe of the enterprise,

"pluck, discretion,
and force of character

"she has shown.

God bless her."

"we had no sanitary
commission in the south.

"We were too poor.

"We had no line of rich
and populous cities

"closely connected by rail.

With us, every house
was a hospital."

Southern women
worked as nurses, too,

despite criticism
that it was unladylike

for them to care for ruffians.

Sallie Thompkins of Richmond
and a staff of only 6

nursed 1,333 wounded men
in her private hospital

and kept
all but 73 of them alive,

a record unmatched
by any other civil war hospital,

north or south.

Mary Ann Bickerdyke,

a quaker widow
and sanitary commission agent,

traveled with the union army
through 4 years

and 19 battles,

assisting at amputations,
brewing barrels of coffee,

rounding up cattle
and chickens and eggs

to feed the grateful men

who called her
mother Bickerdyke.

By the end of the war,
general Sherman said simply,

"she ranks me."

Every day since late may,

U.S. Grant's 200 union guns
had pounded Vicksburg from land,

while admiral David Porter's
gunboats

battered it from the river.

"they fire at the city,
thinking that they will

"wear out the women
and children and sick,

"and general Pemberton will be
obliged to surrender the place

"on that account,

"but they little know

the spirit of the Vicksburg
women and children."

Civilians dug caves
in the yellow Clay hillsides,

some with several rooms

fitted out with rugs
and beds and chairs

and staffed with slaves.

But food ran low.

The city's defenders
were reduced to eating mules,

horses, and dogs.

The Vicksburg gazette
had to be printed

on the back
of flowered wallpaper.

There was no more newsprint.

"we are utterly
cut off from the world,

"surrounded by a circle of fire.

"The shower of shells goes on
day and night.

"People do nothing
but eat what they can get,

sleep when they can,
and dodge the shells."

Dora Miller.

It was "living like
plant roots," one woman said.

Union troops began calling
Vicksburg "prairie dog town."

Finally, after 48 days of siege,

on July 4,

the same day that Lee began
his retreat from Gettysburg,

31,000 confederates surrendered.

Confederate general
John C. Pemberton said

it would be
an act of "cruel inhumanity"

to subject his men to
the terrible ordeal any longer.

Besides, he added,

"I am a northern man.
I know my people.

"I know we can get better terms
from them on the fourth of July

than on any other day
of the year."

The stars and stripes was raised

above the Vicksburg courthouse.

At the celebration
aboard admiral Porter's flagship

on the Mississippi,

Grant was the only one who did
not touch the wine offered him,

but contented himself
with a cigar.

"Grant is now
deservedly the hero,

"belabored with praise by those
who accused him a month ago

"of all the sins in the calendar

"and who next week
will turn against him

"if so blows the popular breeze.

Vox populi,
vox humbug."

William Tecumseh Sherman.

"it is now conceded that
all idea of British intervention

"is at an end.

"I want to hug the army
of the Potomac for Gettysburg,

"I want to get the whole army
of Vicksburg drunk

"at my own expense,

I want to fight some small man
and lick him."

Henry Adams.

The confederacy was cut in two.

The Mississippi had become
a union highway.

"The father of waters,"
Lincoln said,

"again goes unvexed
to the sea."

"we have lost the Mississippi,

"and our nation is divided,

and there's not enough left
to fight for."

The fourth of July would not be

celebrated in Vicksburg again

for 81 years.

"I found for my substitute

"a big Dutch boy of
20 or thereabouts,

"for the moderate consideration
of $1,100.

"My alter ego could make
a good soldier if he tried.

"Gave him my address
and told him to write to me

"if he found himself
in the hospital or in trouble,

and that I would try to do what
I properly could to help him."

George Templeton strong.

In July, Lincoln issued

the first federal draft call.

All able-bodied men
between 20 and 45 were enrolled,

but the law
favored the well-to-do.

Any man willing to pay $300
as a "commutation fee"

or hire a substitute to serve
in his place

was exempt.

"the law is a rich man's bill,

made for him
who cannot raise that sum."

Senator Thaddeus Stevens.

The fathers of
Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt

hired substitutes.

So did Andrew Carnegie
and J.P. Morgan

and two future presidents--

Chester a. Arthur
and Grover Cleveland.

Bounty jumping
became a profession.

Men signed up from one district
long enough

to receive a reward
for enlisting,

then deserted
to do the same elsewhere.

One man repeated the process
32 times before he was caught.

Shaker elder Frederick Evans
came to see Lincoln,

hoping to have his
pacifist community

excused from military service.

"We need regiments of such men
as you," Lincoln said,

but granted
elder Evans' request.

The shakers were among the first
conscientious objectors.

On deer isle, two prominent
local citizens

began going house to house
delivering induction notices.

149 men were called
for the new draft.

42 never showed up.

33 were exempted
for medical reasons.

Two paid substitutes.

And one man sold his house

and left his wife and several
children homeless

rather than desert them
for the front.

New York City contemplated

secession from the union, too,

and they wanted
to be declared an open city.

There was a great deal
of resentment

of the influx of blacks

and a lot of resistance
to the draft,

because men could get
better-paying jobs

than they'd ever had,

and the last thing they wanted
was to go to the war.

There was a good deal of
resentment, too,

that if you could
scrape up $300,

you could be exempt,

and all those resentments
flared up

into what's called
the New York draft riots.

No group was more outraged

than the immigrant Irish
of New York,

who feared the blacks

who competed
for the lowest-paying jobs

and for whose freedom
they did not wish to fight.

Democratic politicians
fanned their anger.

"remember this,

"that the bloody and treasonable

"and revolutionary doctrine
"of public necessity

"can be proclaimed by a mob

as well as by a government."

Governor Horatio Seymour,
New York.

On Sunday, July 12,

when the names
of the first draftees appeared

in the newspapers

alongside long lists of those
who had fallen at Gettysburg,

a mostly Irish mob attacked
and destroyed the draft office,

then fanned out across the city.

For 3 days,

the east side of Manhattan
belonged to the mob.

Blacks were their main targets.

They burned
black boarding houses,

a black church,
a black orphanage,

then lynched a crippled
black coachman

and set his corpse on fire

while chanting
"Hurrah for Jeff Davis!"

"July 14, fire bells clanking

"as they have clanked
at intervals

"throughout the evening.

"Many details come in

"of yesterday's brutal,
cowardly ruffianism and plunder.

"Shops were cleaned out

"and black men hanged
in carmine street

for no offense
but that of negritude."

George Templeton strong.

Finally, exhausted
troops from Gettysburg arrived

to impose order.

More than 100 people
had been killed.

Bloody riots broke out
throughout the north

as opposition
to the war increased.

"The nation," wrote the editor
of the Washington times,

"is at this time
in a state of revolution--

north, south,
east, and west."

"You say you
will not fight to free negroes.

"Some of them seem willing
to fight for you.

"When victory is won,

"there will be some black men
who can remember that

"with silent tongue
and clenched teeth

"and steady eye
and well-poised bayonet,

they have helped mankind on
to this great consummation."

Abraham Lincoln.

"the negro is
the key to the situation,

"the pivot upon which
the whole rebellion turns.

"This war,
disguise it as they may,

"is virtually
nothing more or less

"than perpetual slavery
against universal freedom,

"and to this end

the free states
will have to come."

Frederick Douglass.

"will the slave fight?

"If any man asks you,
tell him no,

"but if anyone asks you
Willa negro fight,

tell him yes."

Wendell Phillips.

Since the first shots
were fired,

abolitionists had been pressing
the government

to put blacks into battle.

Congress authorized
colored troops in 1862,

but a year went by

before the first black men
put on blue coats

to serve under white officers.

"this, with
the emancipation of the negro,

"is the heaviest blow yet given
the confederacy.

"By arming the negro,

"we have added a powerful ally.

They will
make good soldiers."

Ulysses S. Grant.

Black privates
were paid $10 a month,

$3.00 less than whites.

Several regiments
served without pay

rather than submit
to that inequality.

Blacks were rarely promoted.

Many of the union soldiers

who began with stereotypical
assumptions about black men,

who assumed
that they couldn't fight,

that they would hand
their weapons over to the enemy,

that they would run and so on,

had their minds changed
in the grimmest circumstances.

And some of the documents
that tell the story

of how people's ideas
were transformed

are not the sort of documents
that you enjoy reading

because they speak of how people
became companions in death,

of how white soldiers learned
to respect their black comrades

when they watched
how they reacted

as people all around
were being killed,

being butchered.

On July 18, just 3 days

after the draft riots ended,

650 men of the all-black
54th Massachusetts regiment

assaulted a confederate position

at battery Wagner,
south Carolina.

Their commander was
a Boston abolitionist's son,

colonel Robert Gould Shaw.

"it is not too much to say

"that if this Massachusetts
54th had faltered

"when its trial came,

"200,000 troops
for whom it was a pioneer

"would never have been put
into the field,

"but it did not falter.

"It made fort Wagner
such a name for the colored race

"as bunker hill has been
for 90 years

to the white Yankees."

40% of the regiment
did not return,

including colonel Shaw.

Shaw led their attack
on battery Wagner.

They were cut to pieces.

They never should have made
that charge either.

And when it was over,

the confederates
were in control.

And there was very hard feeling

against the white officers
of black regiments.

Shaw was simply thrown
in a burial pit

with his soldiers.

Shaw's father later said
he was proud

to have him buried that way.

When the flag bearer fell

and the order to withdraw
was given,

sergeant William carney
seized the colors

and made it back to his lines,

despite bullets in the head,
chest, right arm, and leg.

He was the first of 23 blacks
awarded the medal of honor,

though he had to wait 37 years
to get it.

"fort Wagner.

"My dear Amelia,

"I have been in two fights
and am unhurt.

"I am about to go in another,
I believe, tonight.

"Our men fought well
on both occasions.

"How I got out of that fight
alive I cannot tell,

"but I am here.

"My dear girl,
I hope again to see you.

"I must bid you farewell.

"Should I be killed,

"remember, if I die,
I die in a good cause.

"I wish we had 100,000
colored troops.

We would put an end
to this war."

Sergeant Lewis Douglass.

They constituted less than 1%

of the north's population,

yet by the war's end,

they would make up nearly 1/10
of the northern army,

most of them freed blacks
and runaway slaves.

85% of the eligible
black male population

had signed on.

180,000 fought
to free their people.

"once let the black man
get upon his person

"the brass letters U.S.,

"let him get an eagle
on his buttons

"and a musket on his shoulder
and bullets in his pockets,

"and there's no power on earth
which can deny

"that he has earned
the right to citizenship

in the United States."

"The whole army
of the United States

"could not restore
the institution of slavery

"in the south.

"They can't get back
their slaves

"any more than they can get back
their dead grandfathers.

It is dead."

William Tecumseh Sherman.

Once a black union soldier
spotted his former owner

among a group
of confederate prisoners.

"Hello, massa," he said,

"bottom rail on top
this time."

"folks talk about
the fighting being nearly over,

"but I believe there's
a heap yet to come.

"Let the colored man
accept the offer

"of the president and cabinet.

"Take arms, join the army.

"Then we'll whip the rebels.

"Even if Longstreet and all
the streets of the south

concentrate at Chattanooga."

Jerry Sullivan.

Hard against the Tennessee river

at the meeting point of two
strategically crucial railroads,

the city of Chattanooga
guarded the gateway

to the eastern confederacy

and the rebel war industries
in Georgia.

For 5 months,

union general William Rosecrans
resisted Lincoln's urgent calls

to drive Braxton Bragg's
confederates out of Tennessee

and seize Chattanooga.

When summer came, Lincoln
demanded more decisive action,

and at long last
Rosecrans moved,

launching a series

of brilliant and almost
bloodless flanking maneuvers.

In 10 days,
he drove Bragg 80 miles

through a relentless
Tennessee rain.

"No presbyterian rain, either,"
a soldier remembered,

"but a genuine
baptist downpour."

In September,

Bragg abandoned Chattanooga

and kept backing away

until just over

the Tennessee line in Georgia,

where he gathered his forces--

now bolstered by Longstreet's
Virginia veterans--

along a meandering creek
called Chickamauga.

Chickamauga,
like all Indian words,

is interpreted to mean
the river of death.

God knows what it really means.

Chickamauga was
a horrendous battle,

a lot of breakthroughs,
a lot of hand-to-hand combat,

a long, ragged retreat,

a glorious Southern victory
which was unexploited.

All the western heroes
were there,

from Forrest on down.

It's a great battle.

At 8 A.M. on the
morning on September 18,

Nathan Bedford Forrest's cavalry

ran into a brigade of federals

heading for little bridge
over the creek.

By noon, one of Forrest's
officers reported,

the dead were piled upon
each other like Cordwood

to make passage
for advancing columns.

By nightfall, both lines held.

On the second day
of fierce fighting,

Rosecrans committed
a fatal mistake--

ordering his troops
to close a gap

in the union line

that wasn't there.

In the process,
he opened up a real one,

and Longstreet's confederates
stormed through.

The union forces broke and ran.

"They have fought their
last man," Longstreet said,

"and even he is running."

But George Henry Thomas,
a union man from Virginia,

refused to retreat

and organized
a stubborn last-minute defense

that kept the battle
from becoming a rout

and earned him the nickname
the "rock of chickamauga."

The northern army limped back
into Chattanooga.

Rosecrans was "confused
and stunned," Lincoln said,

"like a duck
hit on the head."

Bottled up in Chattanooga, the
union forces were miserable--

cold, vermin-infested,

cut off from all but a thin
trickle of supplies.

They demolished houses
and hacked down

every tree and fence
in town for fuel.

The confederates
besieging the city

were in no better shape.

"in the very acme of our
privations and hunger,

"when the army was most
dissatisfied and unhappy,

"we were ordered into line
to be reviewed

"by the honorable
Jefferson Davis.

"When he passed us
with his great retinue

"of staff officers
at full gallop,

"cheers greeted him
with the words

'send us something to eat, massa
Jeff, I'm hungry, I'm hungry."'

Sam Watkins.

In October,
Ulysses S. Grant,

now in command
of all union armies

from the Appalachians
to the Mississippi,

hurried to Chattanooga and
immediately replaced Rosecrans

with Thomas.

Braxton Bragg's confederate army
now occupied

the 6-mile crest
of missionary Ridge

east of the city.

Confederate guns were massed
on the 2,000-foot summit

of nearby lookout mountain
south of town.

Grant, down in Chattanooga,
resolved to drive them off.

The battle of Chattanooga
began on November 24.

Union troops stormed
lookout mountain,

fighting through such dense fog

that it was remembered as
the "battle above the clouds."

During the night,
a besieged Bragg

withdrew from the summit
of lookout mountain

to nearby missionary Ridge.

Just before dawn
the next morning,

federals stepped out
onto an overhanging rock,

and as the sun Rose,
unfurled their flag.

Thousands of union men
in the valley below

broke into a thunderous cheer.

The union had won.

The next union task
was to take missionary Ridge.

In command
at the bottom of the hill

was 115-pound
general Phil Sheridan,

who pulled a flask
from his pocket

and toasted the confederate
gunners above him.

"Here's at you," he said.

The rebels opened fire,

spattering him and his officers
with dirt.

"That was ungenerous,"
Sheridan said,

"I'll take your guns
for that."

"Who ordered those men
up the hill?" Grant asked.

"No one," an aide replied.

"They started up without orders.

"When those fellows get started,

all hell can't stop them."

"those defending the heights

"became more and more desperate

"as our men approached the top.

"They shouted chickamauga

"as though the word itself
were a weapon.

"They thrust cartridges
into guns by the handsful.

"They lighted the fuses
of shells

"and rolled them down,

but nothing could stop
the force of the charge."

"John Williams, south Carolina,

killed at missionary Ridge,
Tennessee, November 1863."

Under Grant's leadership,

the union army had broken

the confederate siege
at Chattanooga.

It was another triumph
for Grant.

"It was a great victory,"
Sherman said,

"the neatest and cleanest battle
I was ever in,

and Grant deserves the credit
of it all."

In the weeks that followed,

everybody posed
on lookout mountain.

General Thomas ordered
a union cemetery laid out

on a hill called orchard knob

that had seen savage fighting.

A chaplain asked if
the burials should be by state.

"No, no. Mix them up,"
Thomas said,

"I'm tired of states rights."

At the capitol in Washington
at noon on December 2, 1863,

a 19-foot bronze goddess
of "freedom triumphant"

was at last hoisted into place.

The great dome was finished.

"I like to stand aside

"and look a long, long while
up at the dome.

It comforts me somehow."

Walt Whitman.

"in camp, December 3, 1863.

"It is now just 21 days
till Christmas.

"I would give anything
if I could be there

"to take Christmas with you.

"Martha, if you get this letter
and have any chance,

"I wish you would send me
an old woolen quilt,

"for I've not got any blankets,
and we can't get any,

so I fare bad
of a cold night."

Benjamin Franklin Jackson.

"Christmas day, 1863.

"General Buckner had seen
a yankee pictorial.

"Angels were sent down
from heaven

"to bear up stonewall's soul.

"They could not find it,
flew back, sorrowing.

"When they got
to the golden gates above,

"they found stonewall,
by a rapid flank movement,

had already cut his way in."

Mary Chesnut.

"this year has
brought about many changes

"that at the beginning would
have been thought impossible.

"The close of the year
finds me a soldier

"for the cause of my race.

"May god bless the cause

and enable me in the coming year
to forward it on."

Christian Fleetwood.

It was
an extremely religious age.

Both sides wanted
to get right with god.

John brown said he was
an instrument

in the hands of god

to bring him to Harpers ferry
to free the slaves

and perhaps begin the civil war.

Abraham Lincoln finally felt
that he, too,

was an instrument
in the hand of god

and that god was
punishing the country

for the crime of slavery.

Robert E. Lee said that
he was an instrument

in the hands of god

and said at Gettysburg
that it's all in god's hands

and then sent the cream
of his army to its doom.

They really felt that Providence
was at work in this war.

As Lincoln said,
"we both pray to the same god.

"We both invoked him.

We both said
we were on his side."

But it wasn't until 1863,
indeed at the end of the war,

that it became clear

where god's judgment
was coming down--

that was on the whole country.

It must now atone in blood for
its complicity in wickedness,

the wickedness of slavery.

The civil war
was fought in 10,000 places--

at big bend, big Sandy,
and the big sunflower river,

from bunker hill, West Virginia,

and blue Springs, Tennessee,
and Cairo, Illinois,

to Golgotha church, Georgia,
and Christianburg, Kentucky,

at citrus point
on the Cimarron river,

and along Cowskin bottom,

at pebbly run
and la Glorieta pass

and Gettysburg.

I think if I had my choice
of all the moments

to be present at
in that war period,

it would be at Gettysburg

during Lincoln's delivery
of his speech,

maybe to have seen him
craft those beautiful words,

those marvelous healing words,
and then deliver them.

They were for everyone
for all time.

They subsumed the entire war
and all in it.

It showed his compassion
for everyone,

his love for his people.

That's where I'd like to be.

On November 19,
Lincoln traveled to Gettysburg

to dedicate
the new union cemetery.

The featured speaker was
Edward Everett of Massachusetts,

a diplomat, clergyman,
and celebrated orator.

The president had been invited
almost as an afterthought

to offer a few
"appropriate remarks."

Everett spoke
for not quite two hours,

then Lincoln Rose.

A local photographer
took his time focusing.

Presumably the president
could be counted on

to go on for a while.

But he spoke just 269 words.

He started off
by reminding his audience

that just 87 years had passed

since the founding
of the nation,

and then he went on
to embolden the union cause

with some of the most
stirring words ever spoken.

Lincoln was heading back
to his seat

before the photographer
could open the shutter.

He felt that he had failed,

that it was a poor speech,

that the people didn't like it.

It was so brief--
less than two minutes.

He felt that he had failed.

Lamon--
his friend, ward lamon--

was sitting next to him
on the stand.

When he sat down, there was
just a sprinkling of applause.

And he said, "lamon,
that speech won't scour."

That's what you say
about a plow in the prairies

when the mud doesn't
come off it.

"the cheek of every
American must tingle with shame

"as he reads the silly, flat,
dish-watery utterances

"of the man who has to be

"pointed out
to intelligent foreigners

as the president
of the United States."

Chicago times.

"Dear Mr. president,

"I should be glad
if I could flatter myself

"that I came as near
to the central idea

"of the occasion in two hours

as you did in two minutes."

Edward Everett.

"Four score and seven years ago,

"our fathers brought forth
upon this continent

"a new nation,

"conceived in Liberty
and dedicated to the proposition

that all men
are created equal."

"Now we are engaged
in a great civil war,

"testing whether that nation

"or any nation so conceived
and so dedicated

can long endure."

"We are met here on a great
battlefield of that war.

"We have come to dedicate
a portion of it

"as a final resting place for
those who here gave their lives

"that their nation might live.

"It is altogether fitting
and proper

that we should do this."

"But in a larger sense,

"we cannot dedicate,
we cannot consecrate,

we cannot hallow this ground."

"The brave men, living and dead,

"who struggled here

"have consecrated it
far above our poor power

to add or detract."

"The world will little note
nor long remember

"what we say here,

"but can never forget
what they did here.

"It is for us,
the living, rather,

"to be dedicated here
to the unfinished work

"which they have thus far
so nobly carried on.

"It is rather for us
to be here dedicated

"to the great task
remaining before us--

"that from these honored dead

"we take increased devotion
to that cause

"for which they here gave

"the last full measure
of devotion,

"that we here highly resolve

"that these dead
shall not have died in vain,

"that this nation, under god,

"shall have a new birth
of freedom,

"and that government
of the people,

"by the people, for the people,

shall not perish
from the earth."

Corporate
funding for this special 25th

anniversary presentation of
the civil war was provided by.

Before thousands
fell on the battlefield,

before millions were
freed and before a country

forged its identity...
A nation declared a new

birth of freedom,
rededicating itself to the

proposition that all
men are created equal.

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

a film by Ken burns,

newly restored for
it's 25th anniversary.

Original
production of "the civil war"

was made possible by
generous contributions

from these funders.

And by the corporation
for public broadcasting.

And by contributions
to your PBS station from

viewers like you, thank you.