The Civil War (1990): Season 1, Episode 3 - Forever Free - full transcript
While Gen. McClellan sat outside Richmond, three Union armies were being kept occupied by Stonewall Jackson and J.E.B. Stuart in northwestern Virginia. Lee was named commander of the army of Northern Virginia and immediately seized the initiative and attacked McClellan at Mechanicsville. Growing increasingly frustrated at McClellan's lack of progress, Lincoln visited him on the battlefield. When the general told the President that hew needed yet more troops, Lincoln ordered him to withdraw. Cotton production was cut in the south hoping this would spur the major European powers, England and France, to recognize and perhaps even aid the Confederacy. Progress was being made on the issue of emancipating the slaves. Congress forbade the return of runaway slaves and in New Orleans, the military Governor would free the slaves of any landowner who complained. Lincoln realized that emancipation would have to be delayed until the Union had a major victory on the battlefield. That would not come until the battle of Antietam in September 1862.
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private edwin tennison,
killed in action
at malvern hill,
july 1, 1862.
during the civil war,
photographers followed
the armies everywhere
to make proud portraits
for the boys to send home
and to capture
as much of the action
as cumbersome equipment
and slow shutter speeds
allowed.
near the battle
of fair oaks, virginia,
captain george
armstrong custer
paused to have
his picture taken
with j.b. washington,
close friend and classmate
from west point--
and now a confederate
lieutenant
who had just that morning
been captured
by federal pickets.
as 1862 dragged on,
and much of the country
was changing with it.
by 1862, more than
a million farm workers
had enlisted
in the union army,
and travelers
in the midwest
saw more women at work
in the fields than men.
the year, which had begun
so promisingly for the north,
had now gone awry.
u.s. grant's triumphs
at donelson and shiloh
were being overshadowed
by disasters in the east.
in virginia, union general
george mcclellan's army
sat outside richmond,
its commander in possession
of vastly greater forces,
but without
the will to fight.
meanwhile, the confederacy
was beginning to appreciate
the brilliance
of a new commander,
robert e. lee,
who would soon
establish a reputation
as one of the greatest
military leaders of all time.
and there was still
more trouble for the union.
at blackburn, england,
a public meeting declared
that it was impossible
for the north
to vanquish the south
and called for a negotiated
settlement of the war.
with europe poised
to recognize the confederacy,
the unthinkable
looked increasingly likely--
the union was going to
lose the war.
"we must change our tactics
or lose the game,"
abraham lincoln
wrote in 1862.
to lincoln,
it was clear now
that it was
no longer possible
to restore the old union.
a new one
had to be embraced.
by summer, he knew
what tactic was needed
to win the war--
emancipation--
but doubted whether
he would ever have
the political or military
opportunity to use it.
"i find it hard
to maintain my lively faith
in the triumph
of the nation and the law,"
new york lawyer
george templeton strong
"these are the darkest days
we have seen since bull run."
what no one knew
was that the year
would soon see
the bloodiest day of the war
and then the brightest.
it could have been
a very ugly, filthy war
with no redeeming
characteristics at all...
and it was the battle
for emancipation
and the people
who pushed it forward--
the slaves,
the free black people,
the abolitionists,
and a lot
of ordinary citizens--
it was they who ennobled
what otherwise
would have been
meaningless carnage
into something higher.
outside richmond,
george mcclellan continued
to call anxiously
for more troops,
though his
110,000-man force
already greatly outnumbered
joseph johnston's army.
meanwhile,
west of the blue ridge
in the shenandoah valley,
general thomas j. jackson
was keeping
three federal armies busy.
"always mystify, mislead,
and surprise the enemy.
"and when you strike
and overcome him,
"never let up
in the pursuit.
"never fight
against heavy odds
"if you can
hurl your force
"on only a part
of your enemy
and crush it.
"a small army
may thus destroy
a large one,
and repeated victory
will make it invincible."
general t.j. jackson.
he was a true eccentric.
he believed that if he
had pepper in his food,
it would make
his left leg ache.
he would never
mail a letter
that would be
in transit on a sunday.
he was a strict observer
of the sabbath.
yet so many of his battles
were fought on sundays
that soldiers believed
he fought on sunday
because the lord
would be even more with him.
jackson was a pious,
blue-eyed killer,
utterly untroubled
by the likelihood of death.
it was a man's
"entire duty," he said,
"to pray and fight."
"he would have a man shot
at the drop of a hat,
and he'd drop it himself."
sam watkins.
he had a strange quality
of overlooking suffering.
during one of the battles,
he had a young courier.
jackson looked
around for him,
and he wasn't there.
he said, "where is
lieutenant so-and-so?"
they said,
"he was killed."
jackson said,
"very commendable,"
and then put him
out of his mind.
"all old jackson
gave us
"was a musket,
100 rounds,
and a gum blanket,
and he drove us
like hell."
his men did not love him.
he was too grim, too remote,
and he demanded too much.
some thought him mad.
he believed that keeping
one hand in the air
could stop him
from going out of balance.
he sucked constantly
on lemons,
even in the midst
of battle.
others worried
that his religious fervor
the character of the war
was changing,
would cloud his judgment.
his command, jackson said,
was "an army
of the living god,
as well as
of its country."
but his men
were willing to endure
the 36-mile-a-day marches
he demanded
because he
brought them victories.
it was jackson's duty
in the shenandoah
to unsettle the union
and keep washington
from reinforcing mcclellan.
operating in the midst
of three federal armies,
each with more men than
his own force of 17,000,
jackson lashed out
at one army and then another.
armed with a detailed map
that stretched 8 1/2 feet,
he surprised them
every time--
at winchester,
front royal,
cross keys,
port republic,
and a half dozen
other places.
after routing
nathaniel banks' army
at the battle
of winchester,
jackson chased it
to the potomac.
"stop, men!" banks shouted
to his retreating troops.
"don't you
love your country?"
"yes, by god," said one,
"and i'm trying
to get back to it
just as fast as i can."
jackson's valley campaign
was a triumph.
in just over a month,
his men marched
almost 400 miles,
inflicted
7,000 casualties,
seized huge quantities
of badly needed supplies,
and kept almost 40,000
federal troops
off the peninsula.
"he who does not see
the hand of god in this
is blind, sir, blind."
"there is no doubt
that jefferson davis
"and other leaders
of the south
"have made an army.
"they are making,
it appears, a navy,
"and they have made
what is more than either.
"they have made a nation.
"we may anticipate
with certainty
the success
of the southern states."
william e. gladstone.
confederate gospel held
that britain and france
could not survive
without southern cotton.
before long, one or both
would surely intervene
on behalf
of the confederacy
to end the union blockade.
to put more pressure
on europe,
the confederates
cut cotton production 9o%.
2.5 million bales
were burned
or left to rot
on confederate wharves
to keep it
out of english hands.
now, in addition
to directing a war at home,
lincoln had to find a way
to keep europe
from coming in
on the side of the south.
and increasingly,
in the north,
there was pressure
for emancipation,
and it came
from unlikely people
in unlikely places.
on may 1, 1862,
lincoln named
general benjamin f. butler
military governor
of occupied new orleans.
butler went right to work.
he hanged a man
suspected of having desecrated
the american flag.
he closed
a secessionist newspaper,
confiscated the property
of citizens who refused
to swear allegiance
to the union,
and was given the scornful
nickname "spoons"
for allegedly
pocketing silverware.
new orleans women routinely
insulted his troops.
when a woman
in the french quarter
dumped her chamber pot
on the head
of admiral farragut,
butler issued
general order number 28.
"as the officers and soldiers
of the united states
"have been subject
to repeated insults
"from the women
calling themselves
ladies of new orleans,
"it is ordered that,
hereafter,
"when any female shall,
"by word, gesture,
or movement,
"insult or show contempt
"for any officer or soldier
of the united states,
"she shall be regarded
and held liable
"to be treated
as a woman of the town,
plying her avocation."
general benjamin butler.
southerners were outraged
and called butler
"the beast."
a new orleans entrepreneur
sold chamber pots
featuring butler's portrait
inside the bowl.
in charleston,
south carolina,
a private citizen
offered a $10,000 reward
for the capture
of "beast" ben butler--
dead or alive.
but the harassment
of his men stopped.
with the union army
so near,
unrest on louisiana
plantations increased.
when desperate
slave owners
began complaining
of rebellious blacks,
butler declared the planters
disloyal to the union,
then took away
their slaves.
"go to the yankees,"
one slave-holder
told his slaves.
"they are kings here now."
"i have been reading
so much about the yankees,
"i was very anxious
to see them.
"the whites would tell
their colored people
"not to go to the yankees,
"for they would
harness them to carts
in place of horses.
"i asked grandmother
one day if this was true.
"she replied,
certainly not,
"that the white people
"did not want slaves
to go over to the yankees
"and told them these things
to frighten them.
"i wanted to see
those wonderful
yankees so much,
"as i heard
my parents say
that the yankees
was going to set
all the slaves free."
susan king taylor.
the slaves understood
that that war
was about slavery
before it was a war.
they made a nuisance
for the army
and an issue the army
had to deal with.
if the army had to
deal with it,
the war department
had to deal with it.
congress had to
deal with it.
every fugitive slave who
made a nuisance of himself
to the local commander
eventually made
a figure of himself
to the congress
of the united states.
congress,
controlled by republicans,
now forbade the army
to return slaves
to their masters.
it outlawed slavery
in the territories,
finally reversing
the old dred scott decision.
"only the damnedest
of damned abolitionists
"dreamed of such things
a year ago.
"john brown's soul
is marching on,
with the people
after it."
george templeton strong.
"the slavery question
perplexes the president
"almost as much as ever,
"and yet i think
he is about to emerge
"from the obscurities
"where he
has been groping
"into somewhat
clearer light.
so, you see,
the man moves."
"july 4, 1862.
"i would do it
"if i were not afraid
"that half the officers
would fling down their arms
and three more states
would rise."
lincoln continued
to back a plan
to pay $400
for every slave freed
and then encourage
the freed men
to sail off to a colony
in africa or central america.
the abolitionist
wendell phillips
called abraham lincoln
a first-rate
second-rate man.
i lose patience
with the argument
that because
of someone's time,
his limitations
are therefore excusable
or even praiseworthy.
it is not true
that it was impossible
in that time and place
to look any higher.
think of
wendell phillips, who,
commenting on
abraham lincoln's proposal
to colonize black people
out of the country,
was sarcastic.
he said,
"colonize the blacks?
"a man might as well
colonize his own hands.
"or when the robber
is in his house,
he might as well
colonize his revolver."
"emancipation is the demand
of civilization.
"that is a principle.
all else is intrigue."
ralph waldo emerson.
on the virginia peninsula,
the rains came,
inundating the bottomlands.
along the roads
outside richmond,
george mcclellan's force
was divided in two
by the flooded
chickahominy river.
the rebels
saw their chance
and attacked the smaller force
on may 31st.
in the fierce fighting
that followed,
the confederates did best
near a crossroads
called seven pines.
the union soldiers
were most successful
at fair oaks.
when the battle
of fair oaks was over,
the north had lost
5,000 men,
the south, 6,000,
and it hadn't
changed a thing.
joseph johnston,
the overall
confederate commander,
was himself
severely wounded
and carried
from the field.
"the shot that
struck me down
"was the best ever fired
for the confederacy,
"for i possessed
in no degree
"the confidence
of the government,
"and now a man
who does enjoy it
will succeed me
and accomplish
what i never could."
"his name
might be audacity.
"he will
take more chances,
"and take them quicker,
"than any other general
in this country,
north or south."
now for the first time
in the war,
robert e. lee
was placed
at the head
of a major army.
"i prefer lee
to johnston.
"lee is too cautious
"and weak under
grave responsibility.
"personally brave
and energetic to a fault,
"he is yet wanting
in moral firmness
when pressed
by heavy responsibility."
george mcclellan.
mcclellan
completely misjudged
the new confederate
commander.
robert e. lee
was a fighter.
wanting to get at
the union men
who had dared
invade his state,
lee renamed his force
the army of northern virginia,
seized the initiative,
and never let it go.
first, lee sent
his cavalry chief, jeb stuart,
to reconnoiter
mcclellan's forces.
stuart now led
1,200 troopers
on a pounding three-day,
150-mile ride
around mcclellan's
huge army.
his men burned
federal camps,
cut down telegraph poles,
took prisoners
and horses and mules,
and slowed only
to accept bouquets and kisses
from women along the way.
in vain pursuit
was stuart's
own father-in-law,
who had stayed loyal
to the union
and become a general--
a decision stuart said
he would "regret but once,
and that will be
continuously."
throughout
the whole campaign,
lee carefully observed
mcclellan's tentative advance
up the peninsula.
as mcclellan
was preparing at last
to lay siege to richmond,
lee surprised him first,
at mechanicsville
on june 26th.
it was a daring move.
defying
all military convention,
lee divided his tiny force
and then attacked
the huge union army,
gambling that mcclellan
would be too cautious
to move into richmond.
lee's assault didn't work.
he lost 1,500 men
at mechanicsville,
but he would not let up.
determined to drive mcclellan
out of virginia,
lee kept on the attack.
and so it went.
for seven days,
the two armies clashed.
from gaine's mill...
from savage's station...
to frayser's farm...
and malvern hill,
where federal gunners
stopped the confederates
who came at them
up the long slope.
"our ears had been
filled all night
"with agonizing cries
before the fog was lifted.
"but now our eyes saw
"that 5,000 dead
or wounded men
"were on the ground.
"a third of them
were dead or dying,
"but enough of them
were alive and moving
to give the field
a singular
crawling effect."
"each of the battles
of those seven days
"brought a harvest
of wounded
"to our hospital.
"i used to
veil myself closely
"as i walked to
and from my hotel,
"that i might
shut out
"the dreadful
sights.
"once i did see
one of those
dreadful wagons.
"in it, a stiff arm
was raised,
"and it shook
as it was driven
down the street,
"as though
the dead owner
appealed to heaven
for vengeance."
all but one of the battles
of the seven days
were union victories,
yet mcclellan
treated them as defeats,
continuing to back down
until he reached the safety
of federal gunboats
at harrison's landing
on the james river.
union officers urged
a counterattack.
lee had lost 20,000 men.
mcclellan refused.
one officer suggested
his commander
was motivated
either by "cowardice
or treason."
in just one week,
lee had completely unnerved
the union general
and demonstrated
for the first time
the strengths that
would make him a legend--
surprise, audacity,
and an eerie ability
to read his opponent's mind.
in just seven days,
mcclellan had been
totally out-generaled.
"i am tired
of the sickening sight
of the battlefield,
"with its mangled corpses
and poor suffering wounded.
"victory has
no charms for me
when purchased
at such cost."
on july 7th,
an exasperated lincoln
sailed down to see
his commanding general.
he had not lost,
mcclellan insisted.
he had merely
failed to win.
he needed 50,000 more men,
or perhaps 100,000.
no such numbers
were available,
lincoln told him.
if mcclellan
did not feel
he could resume
the offensive,
his men would be withdrawn
from the peninsula.
"if i gave mcclellan
the men he asks for,
"they couldn't find
room to lie down.
"they'd have
to sleep standing up.
"sending men
to that army
"is like shoveling fleas
across a barnyard--
not half of them
get there."
"september 3.
"today we took a steamer
and went up the potomac
and landed at georgetown.
"it is hard
to have reached
"the point we
started from last march,
and richmond is still
the rebel capital."
elisha hunt rhodes.
union guns battered
fort pulaski, georgia,
into surrendering
and choked off
the savannah river
to southern ships.
there was fighting
at foyt's plantation,
north carolina,
st. andrew's bay, florida,
wartrace, tennessee,
and at albuquerque in far-off
new mexico territory.
"sea islands, georgia.
"here i am,
surrounded by troopers,
"missionaries,
contrabands,
"cotton fields,
and serpents,
"in a summer climate,
"disgusted with
all things military
"and fighting off
malaria
"with whiskey
and tobacco.
"no man seems to realize
that in this island,
"all around us,
has begun the solution
"of the tremendous
nigger question.
"some 10,000
former slaves
"are thrown
upon the hands
"of the unfortunate
government.
"they are
the forerunners
of hundreds
of thousands more."
lieutenant
charles francis adams.
stationed in places
like hilton head
and beaufort,
new englanders first
tasted the tropics.
none of
the 2nd massachusetts
had ever seen
a palm tree before.
when union forces took parts
of the south carolina coast,
plantation owners fled,
leaving behind empty houses
and 10,000 slaves.
missionaries, teachers,
and other volunteers
soon arrived to help
the newly-liberated.
"we have come to do
antislavery work,"
one teacher wrote.
"we think it noble work,
and we will do it nobly."
"my dear wife,
"this day
i can address you,
"thank god,
as a free man.
"i had a little trouble
getting away,
"but as the lord led
the children of israel
to the land of canaan,
"so he led me to a land
where freedom will reign
"in spite
of earth and hell.
"my dear, i trust
the time will come
"when we will meet again.
"and if we
don't meet on earth,
"we will meet in heaven,
where jesus reigns.
"dear wife, i must close.
"rest yourself contented.
i am free.
"your affectionate
husband.
kiss daniel for me."
john boston.
at deer isle, maine,
people were afraid to go
to the post office,
where the casualty lists
were posted.
"new berne,
north carolina.
"march 20, 1862.
"to
mr. john webster, jr.,
"deer isle, maine.
"dear sir...
"it is with pain
"that i have
to announce to you
"the death of your
brother, charles gray.
"by his good conduct
"and bravery
while with me,
"he had risen
to the rank of corporal,
"and had he lived,
"i should have
promoted him again.
"he was shot
at the battle
of new berne.
"his last words were,
we will never give up.
"he is buried here.
"at the earliest
opportunity.
"yours truly,
e.a.p. brewster,
23rd massachusetts."
deer isle had lost
its first soldier.
a parcel containing
charles gray's personal effects
arrived in the mail--
end home
arrived in the mail--shall s
his hat, promotion papers
attesting to his valor,
and a cartridge box
in which
someone had placed
the mangled bullet
that killed him.
his mother refused
to look at it.
the men of
the reduced fishing fleet
struggled to harvest
a catch.
wives tended
kitchen gardens
and scraped linen
for the lint
from which bandages
were made.
more bad news arrived.
private alex henderson
had died of disease
at fort jackson,
louisiana,
leaving a widow
and several children.
at clarksville, tennessee,
tensions
between the town
and the occupying
union army ran high.
federal troops vandalized
stewart college,
wrecking laboratories
and stealing books,
then set up
headquarters there.
soldiers burst in
on a church service,
arrested the preacher,
commandeered horses,
and forced
reluctant parishioners
to take a loyalty oath.
as much as possible,
the residents stayed at home.
if a northerner
asked a southerner,
"why are you fighting?"
he would say,
"'cause you're down here."
he was being invaded,
and he fought
to defend his home.
lincoln had
a more difficult job
of sending men out
to shoot up
somebody else's home.
he had to unite them
before he could do that.
his way of doing it
was double.
one was to say
that the republic
must be preserved,
not split in two.
the other one
he gave them as a cause--
the freeing
of the slaves.
on the morning
of july 22, 1862,
the president called
a cabinet meeting.
what he said
took everyone by surprise.
after long thought,
he told them,
he had decided
to emancipate the slaves.
it was
a stunning moment.
it was
against everything
lincoln had promised
the republicans
and indeed
the country--
that he would not
become an abolitionist,
he would not
strike at slavery
where it existed.
here, suddenly,
he was changing
the character
of the war.
but secretary of state
seward worried
that until the army had won
a real victory,
emancipation would seem like
the last shriek
on the retreat.
lincoln agreed
to wait for a victory.
it's hard to separate
one issue from another.
obviously, lincoln
had to win the war.
he had to keep
his respectability
as president
of a country
that would not
allow itself
to be defeated
by a group of rebels.
that was always
an issue,
especially in 1862.
he could not let himself
be made a fool
and the union be made
a fool
by standing up
for principles
that could not
be vindicated
on the battlefield.
?? i have read
a fiery gospel ??
?? writ in burnished
rows of steel ??
?? as ye deal
with my contemners ??
?? so with you
my grace shall deal ??
?? let the hero
born of woman ??
?? crush the serpent
with his heel ??
?? since god
is marching on ????
desperate for a victory,
lincoln removed mcclellan
pope so often bragged
that his headquarters
were in the saddle,
people began to say
he had his headquarters
and put tall, bombastic
john pope in command.
where his hindquarters
should have been.
lincoln was warned
at the start
that pope
couldn't be trusted
with telling the truth.
lincoln said,
"i've known the popes
back in illinois.
"they're all
liars and braggarts,
"but i don't know
why a liar
and a braggart
shouldn't make
a good general."
pope wasted no time
charging into northern virginia
after the rebel armies,
but he was in trouble
from the start.
first, stonewall jackson
fought him to a stand-off
at cedar mountain.
jeb stuart hit him next,
raiding his headquarters
and getting away
with $35,000 in cash
and the union commander's
dress coat.
then the rebels
simply disappeared.
it took pope
two days to find them,
dug in along
an abandoned railroad
overlooking the old
bull run battlefield.
on august 29th,
pope attacked,
promising
to "bag the whole crowd."
but the confederates held,
jackson's men hurling rocks
when ammunition ran low.
at 2:00
the next afternoon,
confederate general
james longstreet
sent five divisions
storming into the union flank.
it was another
union disaster.
25,000 men were killed,
wounded, or missing
at second bull run,
five times the figure
that had so horrified
the country
the first time
north and south fought there.
lincoln sent pope west
to minnesota
to deal with an uprising
among the sioux
and reluctantly
put george mcclellan
back in command.
"we must use
the tools we have,"
lincoln said.
mcclellan told his wife
he had been called upon
to save the country
once again.
"we would ask
the north carolinians
"if they had any tar
"and call them tar heels.
"they replied no,
"as they'd let
us virginians have it all
"to make us stick
in the last fight
"and call us sore backs,
"as they'd knocked the skin
off our backs
"running over us
to get into battle.
"so it went,
in good humor,
knowing all
did their duty."
john casler, 33rd regiment,
virginia infantry,
stonewall's brigade.
they were from
the same state.
they had followed
the same flag.
the battles they
had fought in,
the names were stitched
on that flag.
there was unit pride.
there was a great deal
of sadness
over the losses
they suffered.
there was a closeness
among those men
that came from years
of eosure
to the most horrendous
warfare i know of.
"dear father,
the next morning,
"we had
our second battle.
"it was rather
strange music
"to hear the balls scream
within an inch of my head.
"a bullet struck me
on top of the head
"just as i was
going to fire.
"a ball hit my finger.
another hit my thumb.
"the firing increased
tenfold,
"then it sounded
like the rolls of thunder,
"all the time
every man shouting
"as loud as he could.
"i got
rather more excited
than i wish to again."
"i saw the body
"of a man killed
the previous day,
"and a horrible sight
it was.
"such sights
don't affect me
as they once did.
"i cannot describe
the change,
"nor do i know
when it happened,
"but i look on
the carcass of a man now
like i would were it
a horse or a hog."
"sunday a soldier
of company a died
and was buried.
"everything went on
"as if nothing
had happened,
"for death is so common,
little sentiment is wasted.
it is not like
death at home."
elisha hunt rhodes.
falling back from
the bull run battlefield,
union troops skirmished briefly
with rebel forces
at falls church, virginia,
where the men paused
to scribble their names
on the chapel walls.
"in great contests,"
abraham lincoln wrote
as the summer waned,
"each party claims to act
in accordance
"with the will of god.
"both may be,
but one must be, wrong.
"god cannot be for
and against the same thing
at the same time."
"august 20, 1862.
an open letter
to the president."
"we think you are
unduly influenced
"by the counsels
of certain
fossil politicians
"hailing
from border slave states.
"we ask you to consider
that slavery
"is everywhere
the inciting cause
and sustaining base
"of treason.
"it seems to us
the most obvious truth
"that whatever strengthens
or fortifies slavery
"drives home the wedge
intended to divide
the union."
horace greeley.
"august 22nd.
"my paramount object
in this struggle
"is to save the union
"and is not either
to save
"or to destroy slavery.
"if i could
save the union
"without freeing
any slave,
"i would do it.
"if i could save it
by freeing all slaves,
"i would do it.
"if i could save it
by freeing only some,
i would also do that."
"it seems that time
is fast approaching
"when some joint offer
of mediation
"by england, france,
and russia
"might be made
to the combatants
in north america.
"the proposal would be made
to north and south.
"if both accepted,
we should recommend
an armistice
"and cessation
of blockades,
"with a view
to negotiation
on the basis
of separation."
prime minister palmerston.
lincoln had
to have a victory.
"september 3, 1862.
"the present
seems to be
"the most
propitious time
"since the commencement
of the war
for the confederate
army to enter maryland."
robert e. lee.
the brilliant southern victories
of spring and summer
had brought lee's army
international renown.
one more successful
campaign,
he wrote jefferson davis,
would force europe
to recognize the confederacy.
now, for the first time,
lee led 40,000 soldiers
across the potomac
and onto union soil.
"this body of men
moving along with no order,
"their guns carried
in every fashion,
"no two dressed alike,
"their officers
hardly distinguishable
"from the privates--
"were these the men
that had driven back
again and again
our splendid legions?"
"they were
the dirtiest men
i ever saw,
"a most ragged,
lean,
"and hungry set
of wolves.
"yet there was
a dash about them
that the northern
men lacked."
lee's target was
the federal rail center
at harrisburg,
pennsylvania.
hoping marylanders
would rise up
against the union,
he instructed his men to sing
maryland, my maryland
as they marched.
it didn't work.
most residents
of the small towns
stayed fearfully
behind closed doors.
then, on september 13th,
in a meadow near frederick,
a union soldier
found three cigars
wrapped in
a piece of paper.
it was a copy
of lee's battle plans,
accidentally left behind.
mcclellan now knew
lee had divided his army,
sending one part off
to seize harpers ferry.
mcclellan had
in his hands
the instrument with which
to destroy lee.
still, he did nothing,
for 18 crucial hours.
on september 15th,
lee and his confederates
took up positions
along the crest
of a 3-mile ridge
just east of the town
of sharpsburg
and only 52 miles
from washington.
the potomac
was at their back.
in front ran a creek
called antietam.
"on the forenoon
of the 15th,
"blue federal uniforms
appeared among the trees
"on the eastern bank
of the antietam.
"the field of blue
grew larger,
"until it stretched
as far as the eye
could see.
"from the tops
of the mountains
to the stream edges
gathered mcclellan's
great army."
general
james longstreet.
had mcclellan
hurled his army
at the confederates
that day,
the war might have ended,
but he did not.
"there was a single item
in our advantage,"
an aide to lee remembered,
"but it was
an important one.
"mcclellan had brought
superior forces
to sharpsburg,"
the aide conceded,
"but he had also
brought himself."
"september 16th--
that night, i lay beside
the charlestown pike
"and watched
until morning
"the grimy columns
come pouring up
from the pontoons.
"it was a weird,
uncanny sight
"and drove sleep
from my eyes.
"it was something
demon-like,
"a scene from an inferno.
"they were silent
as ghosts,
"ruthless and rushing
in their speed,
"ragged, earth-colored,
disheveled, and devilish.
"the shuffle of their
badly shod feet
"on the hard surface
of the pike
"was so rapid
as to be continuous,
"like the hiss
of a great serpent.
"the spectral,
ghostly picture
will never be erased
from my memory."
captain
edward hastings ripley.
"as night grew nearer,
"whispers of
a great battle
"to be fought the next
day grew louder,
"and we shuddered
at the prospect,
"for the battles had
come to mean to us,
"as they
never had before,
blood, wounds,
and death."
the battle
that began the next day
was really three battles.
the first began at 6 a.m.
on lee's left,
where a federal force
charged along
the hagerstown pike
to attack
stonewall jackson's men
hidden in woods
beyond a big cornfield.
the union objective
was a plateau
edged with artillery
on which stood a small
whitewashed church,
built by a german baptist
pacifist sect, the dunkards,
for whom even a steeple
was thought immodest.
the union field commander
was major general joe hooker,
a profane and hard-drinking
massachusetts soldier
known as fighting joe.
as hooker
cautiously advanced,
he noticed the glint of bayonets
in the cornfield
and ordered four batteries
to fire into it.
[cannon fire]
the rebels countercharged.
the battle surged
back and forth
across the cornfield
15 times.
in a matter of minutes,
the 12th massachusetts
lost 224 of 334 men.
hooker himself
was carried from the field,
shot through the foot.
"the men are loading
and firing
"with demoniacal fury
and shouting and laughing
hysterically,
"and the whole field
before us
"is covered with rebels
fleeing for life
into the woods."
hooker's men were closing in
the dunkard church.
then stonewall jackson
sent in his last reserves,
john bell hood's division--
fierce fighters at any time,
but now enraged
at having missed breakfast,
which had promised to be
their first real meal in days.
their first volley was
"like a scythe running
through our line,"
one union survivor
remembered.
and then the confederate
counterattack came on.
[yelling]
"every stalk of corn
was cut as closely
"as could have been done
with a knife,
"and the slain
lay in rows,
"precisely as they
had stood in their ranks
a few moments before."
joseph hooker.
the northern troops ran
back through the cornfield.
hood's men ran after them,
but were stopped
by a hail of shells
and federal reinforcements.
when the confederates
finally withdrew,
one officer asked hood
where his division was.
"dead on the field,"
he answered.
"i have never
in my soldier's life
"seen such a sight.
"the dead and wounded
covered the ground.
"in one spot,
"a rebel officer
and 20 men
"lay near a wreck
of a battery.
"it is said battery a,
"1st rhode island
artillery
did this work."
elisha hunt rhodes.
by 10 a.m., 8,000 men
lay dead or wounded.
jackson's lines
had wavered, but held.
after his part
of the battle was over,
jackson was sitting on
his horse, eating a peach.
his medical director,
dr. mcguire, was there.
"captain commanding
company a,
he looked out
over this field
where there were dead
of both sides
littered all
over the place.
he said, "god has been
very kind to us this day."
the second part of
the battle of antietam
began at the center
of lee's line,
a sunken country road
that now served as
a ready-made rifle pit
for two
confederate brigades.
lee ordered it held
at all costs.
general john b. gordon
assured him,
"these men are going
to stay here, general,
till the sun goes down
or victory is won."
then the union attacked.
"the brave union
commander,
"superbly mounted,
placed himself in front,
"while his band
cheered them
"with martial music.
"i thought, what a pity
to spoil with bullets
such a scene
of martial beauty."
general john b. gordon.
gordon let the blue line
get within a few yards,
then gave the order
to fire.
the union commander
was killed instantly,
his men wavered, retreated,
then came back
at the confederates
five more times.
gordon was hit twice
in the right leg,
once in the left arm,
a fourth time
through the shoulder.
he refused all aid,
limping along the line
to steady his men
as the federals kept coming.
"i was finally shot down
by a fifth ball,
"which struck me
squarely in the face.
"i fell forward
and lay unconscious
"with my face in my cap.
"i might have
smothered in blood
"but for
a yankee bullet hole
which let the blood
run out."
still the confederates held.
unit after unit
of northern troops
fell back from the sheets
of southern fire.
finally, some new yorkers
managed to find a spot
from which
they could shoot down
on the road's defenders.
the tide of battle turned.
the sunken road,
remembered now
as bloody lane,
rapidly filled
with southern bodies,
two and three deep.
the triumphant federals
knelt on top
of what one called
"this ghastly flooring"
to fire at
the fleeing survivors.
the confederate center
had splintered.
one more push might
have broken it apart.
general mcclellan,
however,
decided it "would not
be prudent" to attack again.
all day long, in hastily
constructed field hospitals,
clara barton
tended the wounded.
she worked so close
to the fighting
that a bullet
went through her sleeve
and killed a man
she was treating.
"i had to wring
the blood
"from the bottom
of my clothing
"before i could step,
for the weight
about my feet."
[cannon fire]
"i was lying on my back,
supported on my elbows,
"watching the shells
explode overhead
and speculating
"as to how long i could
hold up my finger
"before it would be
shot off.
"when the order
to get up was given,
"i turned over to look
at colonel kimball,
thinking he had become
suddenly insane."
lieutenant
matthew j. grohan.
the third battle took place
on the confederate right,
where the union army,
led by general burnside's corps,
tried to fight its way
across a strongly defended
stone bridge
over antietam creek.
ambrose burnside was
a genial, dapper man--
his distinctive whiskers
or sideburns set a fashion--
but "he shrank
from responsibility,"
an admiring
fellow officer said,
"with sincere modesty."
he owed his position
to his old friend mcclellan,
who now promised
to support his assault
across the bridge.
burnside had 12,500 men
against barely
400 georgians
led by robert toombs.
but the confederates
commanded the bluff
overlooking the bridge
and poured
a relentless volley of fire
down on the union troops.
it took three hours
and three bloody charges
for the federals
to cross the creek
and begin fighting
their way up the slope
towards sharpsburg.
seven successive union
color bearers were hit
before the confederates
finally broke,
racing back into the town.
"oh, how i ran.
"i was afraid of being
struck in the back,
"and i frequently turned
around in running
so as to avoid
so disgraceful a wound."
private john dooley.
union victory again
seemed certain.
but while
the union troops cheered,
the confederate light
division was arriving
from harpers ferry...
3,000 men, footsore
from their 17-mile march,
but otherwise
ready to fight
and commanded
by general a.p. hill,
dressed in the red shirt
he liked to wear in battle.
"a.p. hill is the fightingest
division commander
"in lee's army.
"hill arrived at another
nick-of-the-moment thing,
"and it was the last one.
"it succeeded
in throwing burnside back
after he finally
got across the bridge."
hill slammed into
the celebrating union troops.
burnside begged mcclellan
to send up
the reinforcements
he had promised.
mcclellan refused.
as night fell,
burnside withdrew
to the bridge he fought
so hard to seize.
the battle was over.
no ground
had been gained.
"before the sunlight faded,
"i walked
over the narrow field.
"all around lay
the confederate dead,
"clad in butternut.
"as i looked down
on the poor pinched faces,
all enmity died out."
"there was secession
in those rigid forms,
"nor in those fixed eyes
staring at the sky.
clearly,
it was not their war."
"the sun went down.
the thunder died away.
"the musketry ceased.
"bivouac fires
gleamed out
as if a great city
had lighted its lamps."
it had been
the bloodiest day
in american history.
the union lost 2,108 dead,
another 10,293 wounded
or missing--
double the casualties
of d-day 82 years later.
lee lost fewer men--
10,318 casualties--
but that was a quarter
of his army.
"why did we not
attack them
"and drive them
into the river?
"i do not understand
these things.
but then,
i am only a boy."
elisha hunt rhodes.
mcclellan had
plenty of reserves
waiting outside sharpsburg,
but he never used them.
lee, outnumbered 3-to-1,
braced for a new attack
all the next day.
it never came.
on the 18th,
lee and his army slipped back
across the potomac.
mcclellan could claim
a victory,
but he could have won
the war.
lee's invasion
had been halted,
he had suffered
terrible losses,
but his army
had not been destroyed.
"the causes of the war
were wide apart,
but the manhood
was the same."
joshua lawrence chamberlain,
20th maine.
held in reserve outside
sharpsburg,
the 20th maine included
farmers and lumbermen,
seamen and shopkeepers
and trappers.
its colonel was
joshua lawrence chamberlain,
a 33-year-old professor
of rhetoric, oratory,
and modern languages
at bowdoin college.
denied a leave of absence
to enlist,
he applied for a sabbatical
to study in europe,
then volunteered.
on paper, his only
qualification for command
was that he was a gentleman
of the highest moral,
intellectual,
and literary worth.
chamberlain was still
at sharpsburg
when abraham lincoln
came to see the battlefield.
"we could see
the deep sadness
"in the president's face
"and feel the burden
on his heart,
"thinking of his commission
to save this people
"and knowing he could
do this no otherwise
"than as he had
been doing--
by and through
the manliness of these men."
watching the president
review his troops,
it seemed to
joshua lawrence chamberlain
that a "mystic bond,
wonderful in its intensity,"
joined the men
to their commander in chief.
the object
of lincoln's visit
was to get mcclellan
to pursue lee.
"i came back thinking
he would move at once.
"when i got home,
"he argued
why he ought not to move.
"i ordered him
to advance.
"it was 19 days before
he put a man over the river,
"and nine days longer before
he got his army across.
and then he stopped again."
lincoln at last had had
enough of george mcclellan.
the president relieved him
of command permanently.
"they have made
a great mistake.
alas,
for my poor country."
"september 21, 1862.
"dear sam, jr.,
"a great many
of your old friends
and schoolmates
"have died
or been killed.
"i will merely name
lem ambercrombie,
"jeff montgomery,
"john garrett,
"lem hatch, john hill,
"proctor porter,
bill humes,
"john white, walter maxey,
angus alston.
"old mrs. thomas
of our neighborhood
"has lost five sons.
your mother,
margaret houston."
you do have a problem
when you have units
that are from states
and counties and even towns.
and one
of those regiments
can get
in a very tight spot
in a particular battle,
and the news may be
that there are no more
young men in that town.
they're all dead.
in october of 1862,
at his new york gallery,
mathew brady opened
an exhibition of photographs
entitled
"the dead of antietam."
nothing like them had ever
been seen in america before.
"the dead of the battlefield
come up to us very rarely,
even in dreams."
"we see the lists
"in the morning paper
at breakfast,
but dismiss its recollection
with the coffee."
"mr. mathew brady
has done something
"to bring to us
the terrible reality
and earnestness
of the war."
"if he has not
brought bodies
"and laid them
in our dooryards,
he has done something
very like it."
against the advice
of his advisers,
lincoln reinstated
u.s. grant to field command.
"i can't spare this man,"
lincoln said. "he fights."
1,000 miles to the west,
vicksburg, high on a bluff
overlooking the mississippi,
remained confederate.
"vicksburg,"
jefferson davis said,
"is the nail
that holds the south's
two halves together."
that fall,
grant tried to take
the heavily fortified city.
he failed.
the confederacy was
on the offensive
over a 1,000-mile front.
mr. gladstone, a power
in the english cabinet,
is saying,
"jeff davis made a navy.
he's made an army,"
and, what's more important,
intimating
he's made a nation.
but the invasion
of maryland fails.
lee is defeated,
falls back.
they lose at perryville
in kentucky.
they lose at iuka
and corinth in mississippi,
even newtonia in missouri.
the confederate tide
rolls back.
lincoln, as a result
of antietam,
converted the war
to a higher plane,
again the master
politician.
he announces a preliminary
emancipation proclamation.
of course, it doesn't free
a single slave in revolt,
frees only
as a war measure
and only frees slaves
in states
where the confederacy
is in control,
and it takes effect
on the first day of january.
"on the first day
of january,
"in the year
of our lord 1863,
"all persons held as slaves
within any state
"or designated part
of a state,
"the people whereof
shall then be in rebellion
"against the united states,
"shall be then, thenceforth,
and forever free.
abraham lincoln."
on september 22nd,
just five days after
the battle of antietam,
the president issued
his emancipation proclamation.
"if my name ever goes
into history,"
lincoln said,
"it will be
for this act."
the south was outraged.
jefferson davis called it
the "most execrable measure
recorded in the history
of guilty man."
at a washington dinner,
john hay,
the president's
23-year-old secretary,
noted "everyone
seemed to feel
"a new sort
of exhilarating life.
"the president's proclamation
had freed them,
as well as the slaves."
"it was no longer
a question
"of the union
as it was
"that was to be
re-established.
"it was the union
as it should be--
"that is to say,
washed clean
"from its original sin.
"we were no longer
merely the soldiers
"of a political controversy.
"we were now
the missionaries
"of a great work
of redemption,
"the armed liberators
of millions.
the war was ennobled.
the object was higher."
abroad, the proclamation
had the effect
lincoln had hoped for.
neither england nor france
was willing openly to oppose
a united states pledge
to end slavery.
"the triumph
of the confederacy
"would be
a victory of evil,
"which would give courage
to the enemies of progress
"and damp
the spirits of friends
"all over
the civilized world.
"the american civil war
"is destined to be
a turning point,
"for good or evil,
of the course
of human affairs."
john stuart mill.
"put not your trust
in princes,
"and rest not your hopes
on foreign nations.
"this war is ours.
we must fight it out
ourselves."
jefferson davis.
that december,
lincoln spoke to congress.
"the dogmas
of the quiet past
"are inadequate
to the stormy present.
"as our case is new,
so we must think anew
"and act anew.
"we must disenthrall
ourselves,
"and then we shall save
our country.
"fellow citizens,
we cannot escape history.
"the fiery trial
through which we pass
"will light us down,
in honor or dishonor,
"to the latest generation.
"we say we are for union.
"the world will not forget
that we say this.
"in giving freedom
to the slave,
"we assure freedom
to the free--
"honorable alike
in what we give
"and what we preserve.
"we shall nobly save
or meanly lose
the last best hope
of earth."
"december 31.
"the year 1862
is drawing to a close,
"and as i look back,
i am bewildered
"when i think
of the hundreds of miles
"i have tramped,
"the thousands of dead
and wounded i've seen.
"but we hope for the best
"and feel sure that
the union will be restored.
goodbye, 1862."
elisha hunt rhodes.
"we shout for joy
that we live to record
"this righteous decree--
free forever!
"oh, ye millions of free
and loyal men
"who have
earnestly sought
"to free
your bleeding country
"from the dreadful ravages
of revolution and anarchy,
"lift up now your voices
with joy and thanksgiving,
"for with freedom
to the slave
will come peace and safety
to your country."
frederick douglass.
[bell tolls]
on december 31st,
a large crowd of abolitionists,
including harriet tubman
and wendell phillips,
gathered together
the music hall in boston.
at midnight,
the emancipation proclamation
would take effect.
on the stage,
william lloyd garrison
wept with joy
beside frederick douglass.
the cheering crowd called
for harriet beecher stowe.
she stood in the balcony,
tears in her eyes.
at a washington, d.c.,
contraband camp,
former slaves testified.
one remembered the sale
of his daughter.
"now no more of that,"
he said.
"they can't sell my wife
and children anymore.
bless the lord."
on the sea islands
off south carolina,
federal agents read
the proclamation aloud
to former slaves
under the spreading boughs
of a huge oak tree.
as the commander
of a new all-black regiment
unfurled an american flag,
his men broke into song.
"it seemed
the choked voice
of a race at last unloosed,"
he wrote.
?? in the beauty
of the lilies ??
?? christ was born
across the sea ??
?? with a glory
in his bosom ??
?? that transfigures
you and me ??
?? as he died
to make men holy ??
?? let us die
to make men free ??
??
?? while god is marching on
?? glory, glory hallelujah ??
?? glory, glory hallelujah ??
?? his truth
is marching on ????
private edwin tennison,
killed in action
at malvern hill,
july 1, 1862.
during the civil war,
photographers followed
the armies everywhere
to make proud portraits
for the boys to send home
and to capture
as much of the action
as cumbersome equipment
and slow shutter speeds
allowed.
near the battle
of fair oaks, virginia,
captain george
armstrong custer
paused to have
his picture taken
with j.b. washington,
close friend and classmate
from west point--
and now a confederate
lieutenant
who had just that morning
been captured
by federal pickets.
as 1862 dragged on,
and much of the country
was changing with it.
by 1862, more than
a million farm workers
had enlisted
in the union army,
and travelers
in the midwest
saw more women at work
in the fields than men.
the year, which had begun
so promisingly for the north,
had now gone awry.
u.s. grant's triumphs
at donelson and shiloh
were being overshadowed
by disasters in the east.
in virginia, union general
george mcclellan's army
sat outside richmond,
its commander in possession
of vastly greater forces,
but without
the will to fight.
meanwhile, the confederacy
was beginning to appreciate
the brilliance
of a new commander,
robert e. lee,
who would soon
establish a reputation
as one of the greatest
military leaders of all time.
and there was still
more trouble for the union.
at blackburn, england,
a public meeting declared
that it was impossible
for the north
to vanquish the south
and called for a negotiated
settlement of the war.
with europe poised
to recognize the confederacy,
the unthinkable
looked increasingly likely--
the union was going to
lose the war.
"we must change our tactics
or lose the game,"
abraham lincoln
wrote in 1862.
to lincoln,
it was clear now
that it was
no longer possible
to restore the old union.
a new one
had to be embraced.
by summer, he knew
what tactic was needed
to win the war--
emancipation--
but doubted whether
he would ever have
the political or military
opportunity to use it.
"i find it hard
to maintain my lively faith
in the triumph
of the nation and the law,"
new york lawyer
george templeton strong
"these are the darkest days
we have seen since bull run."
what no one knew
was that the year
would soon see
the bloodiest day of the war
and then the brightest.
it could have been
a very ugly, filthy war
with no redeeming
characteristics at all...
and it was the battle
for emancipation
and the people
who pushed it forward--
the slaves,
the free black people,
the abolitionists,
and a lot
of ordinary citizens--
it was they who ennobled
what otherwise
would have been
meaningless carnage
into something higher.
outside richmond,
george mcclellan continued
to call anxiously
for more troops,
though his
110,000-man force
already greatly outnumbered
joseph johnston's army.
meanwhile,
west of the blue ridge
in the shenandoah valley,
general thomas j. jackson
was keeping
three federal armies busy.
"always mystify, mislead,
and surprise the enemy.
"and when you strike
and overcome him,
"never let up
in the pursuit.
"never fight
against heavy odds
"if you can
hurl your force
"on only a part
of your enemy
and crush it.
"a small army
may thus destroy
a large one,
and repeated victory
will make it invincible."
general t.j. jackson.
he was a true eccentric.
he believed that if he
had pepper in his food,
it would make
his left leg ache.
he would never
mail a letter
that would be
in transit on a sunday.
he was a strict observer
of the sabbath.
yet so many of his battles
were fought on sundays
that soldiers believed
he fought on sunday
because the lord
would be even more with him.
jackson was a pious,
blue-eyed killer,
utterly untroubled
by the likelihood of death.
it was a man's
"entire duty," he said,
"to pray and fight."
"he would have a man shot
at the drop of a hat,
and he'd drop it himself."
sam watkins.
he had a strange quality
of overlooking suffering.
during one of the battles,
he had a young courier.
jackson looked
around for him,
and he wasn't there.
he said, "where is
lieutenant so-and-so?"
they said,
"he was killed."
jackson said,
"very commendable,"
and then put him
out of his mind.
"all old jackson
gave us
"was a musket,
100 rounds,
and a gum blanket,
and he drove us
like hell."
his men did not love him.
he was too grim, too remote,
and he demanded too much.
some thought him mad.
he believed that keeping
one hand in the air
could stop him
from going out of balance.
he sucked constantly
on lemons,
even in the midst
of battle.
others worried
that his religious fervor
the character of the war
was changing,
would cloud his judgment.
his command, jackson said,
was "an army
of the living god,
as well as
of its country."
but his men
were willing to endure
the 36-mile-a-day marches
he demanded
because he
brought them victories.
it was jackson's duty
in the shenandoah
to unsettle the union
and keep washington
from reinforcing mcclellan.
operating in the midst
of three federal armies,
each with more men than
his own force of 17,000,
jackson lashed out
at one army and then another.
armed with a detailed map
that stretched 8 1/2 feet,
he surprised them
every time--
at winchester,
front royal,
cross keys,
port republic,
and a half dozen
other places.
after routing
nathaniel banks' army
at the battle
of winchester,
jackson chased it
to the potomac.
"stop, men!" banks shouted
to his retreating troops.
"don't you
love your country?"
"yes, by god," said one,
"and i'm trying
to get back to it
just as fast as i can."
jackson's valley campaign
was a triumph.
in just over a month,
his men marched
almost 400 miles,
inflicted
7,000 casualties,
seized huge quantities
of badly needed supplies,
and kept almost 40,000
federal troops
off the peninsula.
"he who does not see
the hand of god in this
is blind, sir, blind."
"there is no doubt
that jefferson davis
"and other leaders
of the south
"have made an army.
"they are making,
it appears, a navy,
"and they have made
what is more than either.
"they have made a nation.
"we may anticipate
with certainty
the success
of the southern states."
william e. gladstone.
confederate gospel held
that britain and france
could not survive
without southern cotton.
before long, one or both
would surely intervene
on behalf
of the confederacy
to end the union blockade.
to put more pressure
on europe,
the confederates
cut cotton production 9o%.
2.5 million bales
were burned
or left to rot
on confederate wharves
to keep it
out of english hands.
now, in addition
to directing a war at home,
lincoln had to find a way
to keep europe
from coming in
on the side of the south.
and increasingly,
in the north,
there was pressure
for emancipation,
and it came
from unlikely people
in unlikely places.
on may 1, 1862,
lincoln named
general benjamin f. butler
military governor
of occupied new orleans.
butler went right to work.
he hanged a man
suspected of having desecrated
the american flag.
he closed
a secessionist newspaper,
confiscated the property
of citizens who refused
to swear allegiance
to the union,
and was given the scornful
nickname "spoons"
for allegedly
pocketing silverware.
new orleans women routinely
insulted his troops.
when a woman
in the french quarter
dumped her chamber pot
on the head
of admiral farragut,
butler issued
general order number 28.
"as the officers and soldiers
of the united states
"have been subject
to repeated insults
"from the women
calling themselves
ladies of new orleans,
"it is ordered that,
hereafter,
"when any female shall,
"by word, gesture,
or movement,
"insult or show contempt
"for any officer or soldier
of the united states,
"she shall be regarded
and held liable
"to be treated
as a woman of the town,
plying her avocation."
general benjamin butler.
southerners were outraged
and called butler
"the beast."
a new orleans entrepreneur
sold chamber pots
featuring butler's portrait
inside the bowl.
in charleston,
south carolina,
a private citizen
offered a $10,000 reward
for the capture
of "beast" ben butler--
dead or alive.
but the harassment
of his men stopped.
with the union army
so near,
unrest on louisiana
plantations increased.
when desperate
slave owners
began complaining
of rebellious blacks,
butler declared the planters
disloyal to the union,
then took away
their slaves.
"go to the yankees,"
one slave-holder
told his slaves.
"they are kings here now."
"i have been reading
so much about the yankees,
"i was very anxious
to see them.
"the whites would tell
their colored people
"not to go to the yankees,
"for they would
harness them to carts
in place of horses.
"i asked grandmother
one day if this was true.
"she replied,
certainly not,
"that the white people
"did not want slaves
to go over to the yankees
"and told them these things
to frighten them.
"i wanted to see
those wonderful
yankees so much,
"as i heard
my parents say
that the yankees
was going to set
all the slaves free."
susan king taylor.
the slaves understood
that that war
was about slavery
before it was a war.
they made a nuisance
for the army
and an issue the army
had to deal with.
if the army had to
deal with it,
the war department
had to deal with it.
congress had to
deal with it.
every fugitive slave who
made a nuisance of himself
to the local commander
eventually made
a figure of himself
to the congress
of the united states.
congress,
controlled by republicans,
now forbade the army
to return slaves
to their masters.
it outlawed slavery
in the territories,
finally reversing
the old dred scott decision.
"only the damnedest
of damned abolitionists
"dreamed of such things
a year ago.
"john brown's soul
is marching on,
with the people
after it."
george templeton strong.
"the slavery question
perplexes the president
"almost as much as ever,
"and yet i think
he is about to emerge
"from the obscurities
"where he
has been groping
"into somewhat
clearer light.
so, you see,
the man moves."
"july 4, 1862.
"i would do it
"if i were not afraid
"that half the officers
would fling down their arms
and three more states
would rise."
lincoln continued
to back a plan
to pay $400
for every slave freed
and then encourage
the freed men
to sail off to a colony
in africa or central america.
the abolitionist
wendell phillips
called abraham lincoln
a first-rate
second-rate man.
i lose patience
with the argument
that because
of someone's time,
his limitations
are therefore excusable
or even praiseworthy.
it is not true
that it was impossible
in that time and place
to look any higher.
think of
wendell phillips, who,
commenting on
abraham lincoln's proposal
to colonize black people
out of the country,
was sarcastic.
he said,
"colonize the blacks?
"a man might as well
colonize his own hands.
"or when the robber
is in his house,
he might as well
colonize his revolver."
"emancipation is the demand
of civilization.
"that is a principle.
all else is intrigue."
ralph waldo emerson.
on the virginia peninsula,
the rains came,
inundating the bottomlands.
along the roads
outside richmond,
george mcclellan's force
was divided in two
by the flooded
chickahominy river.
the rebels
saw their chance
and attacked the smaller force
on may 31st.
in the fierce fighting
that followed,
the confederates did best
near a crossroads
called seven pines.
the union soldiers
were most successful
at fair oaks.
when the battle
of fair oaks was over,
the north had lost
5,000 men,
the south, 6,000,
and it hadn't
changed a thing.
joseph johnston,
the overall
confederate commander,
was himself
severely wounded
and carried
from the field.
"the shot that
struck me down
"was the best ever fired
for the confederacy,
"for i possessed
in no degree
"the confidence
of the government,
"and now a man
who does enjoy it
will succeed me
and accomplish
what i never could."
"his name
might be audacity.
"he will
take more chances,
"and take them quicker,
"than any other general
in this country,
north or south."
now for the first time
in the war,
robert e. lee
was placed
at the head
of a major army.
"i prefer lee
to johnston.
"lee is too cautious
"and weak under
grave responsibility.
"personally brave
and energetic to a fault,
"he is yet wanting
in moral firmness
when pressed
by heavy responsibility."
george mcclellan.
mcclellan
completely misjudged
the new confederate
commander.
robert e. lee
was a fighter.
wanting to get at
the union men
who had dared
invade his state,
lee renamed his force
the army of northern virginia,
seized the initiative,
and never let it go.
first, lee sent
his cavalry chief, jeb stuart,
to reconnoiter
mcclellan's forces.
stuart now led
1,200 troopers
on a pounding three-day,
150-mile ride
around mcclellan's
huge army.
his men burned
federal camps,
cut down telegraph poles,
took prisoners
and horses and mules,
and slowed only
to accept bouquets and kisses
from women along the way.
in vain pursuit
was stuart's
own father-in-law,
who had stayed loyal
to the union
and become a general--
a decision stuart said
he would "regret but once,
and that will be
continuously."
throughout
the whole campaign,
lee carefully observed
mcclellan's tentative advance
up the peninsula.
as mcclellan
was preparing at last
to lay siege to richmond,
lee surprised him first,
at mechanicsville
on june 26th.
it was a daring move.
defying
all military convention,
lee divided his tiny force
and then attacked
the huge union army,
gambling that mcclellan
would be too cautious
to move into richmond.
lee's assault didn't work.
he lost 1,500 men
at mechanicsville,
but he would not let up.
determined to drive mcclellan
out of virginia,
lee kept on the attack.
and so it went.
for seven days,
the two armies clashed.
from gaine's mill...
from savage's station...
to frayser's farm...
and malvern hill,
where federal gunners
stopped the confederates
who came at them
up the long slope.
"our ears had been
filled all night
"with agonizing cries
before the fog was lifted.
"but now our eyes saw
"that 5,000 dead
or wounded men
"were on the ground.
"a third of them
were dead or dying,
"but enough of them
were alive and moving
to give the field
a singular
crawling effect."
"each of the battles
of those seven days
"brought a harvest
of wounded
"to our hospital.
"i used to
veil myself closely
"as i walked to
and from my hotel,
"that i might
shut out
"the dreadful
sights.
"once i did see
one of those
dreadful wagons.
"in it, a stiff arm
was raised,
"and it shook
as it was driven
down the street,
"as though
the dead owner
appealed to heaven
for vengeance."
all but one of the battles
of the seven days
were union victories,
yet mcclellan
treated them as defeats,
continuing to back down
until he reached the safety
of federal gunboats
at harrison's landing
on the james river.
union officers urged
a counterattack.
lee had lost 20,000 men.
mcclellan refused.
one officer suggested
his commander
was motivated
either by "cowardice
or treason."
in just one week,
lee had completely unnerved
the union general
and demonstrated
for the first time
the strengths that
would make him a legend--
surprise, audacity,
and an eerie ability
to read his opponent's mind.
in just seven days,
mcclellan had been
totally out-generaled.
"i am tired
of the sickening sight
of the battlefield,
"with its mangled corpses
and poor suffering wounded.
"victory has
no charms for me
when purchased
at such cost."
on july 7th,
an exasperated lincoln
sailed down to see
his commanding general.
he had not lost,
mcclellan insisted.
he had merely
failed to win.
he needed 50,000 more men,
or perhaps 100,000.
no such numbers
were available,
lincoln told him.
if mcclellan
did not feel
he could resume
the offensive,
his men would be withdrawn
from the peninsula.
"if i gave mcclellan
the men he asks for,
"they couldn't find
room to lie down.
"they'd have
to sleep standing up.
"sending men
to that army
"is like shoveling fleas
across a barnyard--
not half of them
get there."
"september 3.
"today we took a steamer
and went up the potomac
and landed at georgetown.
"it is hard
to have reached
"the point we
started from last march,
and richmond is still
the rebel capital."
elisha hunt rhodes.
union guns battered
fort pulaski, georgia,
into surrendering
and choked off
the savannah river
to southern ships.
there was fighting
at foyt's plantation,
north carolina,
st. andrew's bay, florida,
wartrace, tennessee,
and at albuquerque in far-off
new mexico territory.
"sea islands, georgia.
"here i am,
surrounded by troopers,
"missionaries,
contrabands,
"cotton fields,
and serpents,
"in a summer climate,
"disgusted with
all things military
"and fighting off
malaria
"with whiskey
and tobacco.
"no man seems to realize
that in this island,
"all around us,
has begun the solution
"of the tremendous
nigger question.
"some 10,000
former slaves
"are thrown
upon the hands
"of the unfortunate
government.
"they are
the forerunners
of hundreds
of thousands more."
lieutenant
charles francis adams.
stationed in places
like hilton head
and beaufort,
new englanders first
tasted the tropics.
none of
the 2nd massachusetts
had ever seen
a palm tree before.
when union forces took parts
of the south carolina coast,
plantation owners fled,
leaving behind empty houses
and 10,000 slaves.
missionaries, teachers,
and other volunteers
soon arrived to help
the newly-liberated.
"we have come to do
antislavery work,"
one teacher wrote.
"we think it noble work,
and we will do it nobly."
"my dear wife,
"this day
i can address you,
"thank god,
as a free man.
"i had a little trouble
getting away,
"but as the lord led
the children of israel
to the land of canaan,
"so he led me to a land
where freedom will reign
"in spite
of earth and hell.
"my dear, i trust
the time will come
"when we will meet again.
"and if we
don't meet on earth,
"we will meet in heaven,
where jesus reigns.
"dear wife, i must close.
"rest yourself contented.
i am free.
"your affectionate
husband.
kiss daniel for me."
john boston.
at deer isle, maine,
people were afraid to go
to the post office,
where the casualty lists
were posted.
"new berne,
north carolina.
"march 20, 1862.
"to
mr. john webster, jr.,
"deer isle, maine.
"dear sir...
"it is with pain
"that i have
to announce to you
"the death of your
brother, charles gray.
"by his good conduct
"and bravery
while with me,
"he had risen
to the rank of corporal,
"and had he lived,
"i should have
promoted him again.
"he was shot
at the battle
of new berne.
"his last words were,
we will never give up.
"he is buried here.
"at the earliest
opportunity.
"yours truly,
e.a.p. brewster,
23rd massachusetts."
deer isle had lost
its first soldier.
a parcel containing
charles gray's personal effects
arrived in the mail--
end home
arrived in the mail--shall s
his hat, promotion papers
attesting to his valor,
and a cartridge box
in which
someone had placed
the mangled bullet
that killed him.
his mother refused
to look at it.
the men of
the reduced fishing fleet
struggled to harvest
a catch.
wives tended
kitchen gardens
and scraped linen
for the lint
from which bandages
were made.
more bad news arrived.
private alex henderson
had died of disease
at fort jackson,
louisiana,
leaving a widow
and several children.
at clarksville, tennessee,
tensions
between the town
and the occupying
union army ran high.
federal troops vandalized
stewart college,
wrecking laboratories
and stealing books,
then set up
headquarters there.
soldiers burst in
on a church service,
arrested the preacher,
commandeered horses,
and forced
reluctant parishioners
to take a loyalty oath.
as much as possible,
the residents stayed at home.
if a northerner
asked a southerner,
"why are you fighting?"
he would say,
"'cause you're down here."
he was being invaded,
and he fought
to defend his home.
lincoln had
a more difficult job
of sending men out
to shoot up
somebody else's home.
he had to unite them
before he could do that.
his way of doing it
was double.
one was to say
that the republic
must be preserved,
not split in two.
the other one
he gave them as a cause--
the freeing
of the slaves.
on the morning
of july 22, 1862,
the president called
a cabinet meeting.
what he said
took everyone by surprise.
after long thought,
he told them,
he had decided
to emancipate the slaves.
it was
a stunning moment.
it was
against everything
lincoln had promised
the republicans
and indeed
the country--
that he would not
become an abolitionist,
he would not
strike at slavery
where it existed.
here, suddenly,
he was changing
the character
of the war.
but secretary of state
seward worried
that until the army had won
a real victory,
emancipation would seem like
the last shriek
on the retreat.
lincoln agreed
to wait for a victory.
it's hard to separate
one issue from another.
obviously, lincoln
had to win the war.
he had to keep
his respectability
as president
of a country
that would not
allow itself
to be defeated
by a group of rebels.
that was always
an issue,
especially in 1862.
he could not let himself
be made a fool
and the union be made
a fool
by standing up
for principles
that could not
be vindicated
on the battlefield.
?? i have read
a fiery gospel ??
?? writ in burnished
rows of steel ??
?? as ye deal
with my contemners ??
?? so with you
my grace shall deal ??
?? let the hero
born of woman ??
?? crush the serpent
with his heel ??
?? since god
is marching on ????
desperate for a victory,
lincoln removed mcclellan
pope so often bragged
that his headquarters
were in the saddle,
people began to say
he had his headquarters
and put tall, bombastic
john pope in command.
where his hindquarters
should have been.
lincoln was warned
at the start
that pope
couldn't be trusted
with telling the truth.
lincoln said,
"i've known the popes
back in illinois.
"they're all
liars and braggarts,
"but i don't know
why a liar
and a braggart
shouldn't make
a good general."
pope wasted no time
charging into northern virginia
after the rebel armies,
but he was in trouble
from the start.
first, stonewall jackson
fought him to a stand-off
at cedar mountain.
jeb stuart hit him next,
raiding his headquarters
and getting away
with $35,000 in cash
and the union commander's
dress coat.
then the rebels
simply disappeared.
it took pope
two days to find them,
dug in along
an abandoned railroad
overlooking the old
bull run battlefield.
on august 29th,
pope attacked,
promising
to "bag the whole crowd."
but the confederates held,
jackson's men hurling rocks
when ammunition ran low.
at 2:00
the next afternoon,
confederate general
james longstreet
sent five divisions
storming into the union flank.
it was another
union disaster.
25,000 men were killed,
wounded, or missing
at second bull run,
five times the figure
that had so horrified
the country
the first time
north and south fought there.
lincoln sent pope west
to minnesota
to deal with an uprising
among the sioux
and reluctantly
put george mcclellan
back in command.
"we must use
the tools we have,"
lincoln said.
mcclellan told his wife
he had been called upon
to save the country
once again.
"we would ask
the north carolinians
"if they had any tar
"and call them tar heels.
"they replied no,
"as they'd let
us virginians have it all
"to make us stick
in the last fight
"and call us sore backs,
"as they'd knocked the skin
off our backs
"running over us
to get into battle.
"so it went,
in good humor,
knowing all
did their duty."
john casler, 33rd regiment,
virginia infantry,
stonewall's brigade.
they were from
the same state.
they had followed
the same flag.
the battles they
had fought in,
the names were stitched
on that flag.
there was unit pride.
there was a great deal
of sadness
over the losses
they suffered.
there was a closeness
among those men
that came from years
of eosure
to the most horrendous
warfare i know of.
"dear father,
the next morning,
"we had
our second battle.
"it was rather
strange music
"to hear the balls scream
within an inch of my head.
"a bullet struck me
on top of the head
"just as i was
going to fire.
"a ball hit my finger.
another hit my thumb.
"the firing increased
tenfold,
"then it sounded
like the rolls of thunder,
"all the time
every man shouting
"as loud as he could.
"i got
rather more excited
than i wish to again."
"i saw the body
"of a man killed
the previous day,
"and a horrible sight
it was.
"such sights
don't affect me
as they once did.
"i cannot describe
the change,
"nor do i know
when it happened,
"but i look on
the carcass of a man now
like i would were it
a horse or a hog."
"sunday a soldier
of company a died
and was buried.
"everything went on
"as if nothing
had happened,
"for death is so common,
little sentiment is wasted.
it is not like
death at home."
elisha hunt rhodes.
falling back from
the bull run battlefield,
union troops skirmished briefly
with rebel forces
at falls church, virginia,
where the men paused
to scribble their names
on the chapel walls.
"in great contests,"
abraham lincoln wrote
as the summer waned,
"each party claims to act
in accordance
"with the will of god.
"both may be,
but one must be, wrong.
"god cannot be for
and against the same thing
at the same time."
"august 20, 1862.
an open letter
to the president."
"we think you are
unduly influenced
"by the counsels
of certain
fossil politicians
"hailing
from border slave states.
"we ask you to consider
that slavery
"is everywhere
the inciting cause
and sustaining base
"of treason.
"it seems to us
the most obvious truth
"that whatever strengthens
or fortifies slavery
"drives home the wedge
intended to divide
the union."
horace greeley.
"august 22nd.
"my paramount object
in this struggle
"is to save the union
"and is not either
to save
"or to destroy slavery.
"if i could
save the union
"without freeing
any slave,
"i would do it.
"if i could save it
by freeing all slaves,
"i would do it.
"if i could save it
by freeing only some,
i would also do that."
"it seems that time
is fast approaching
"when some joint offer
of mediation
"by england, france,
and russia
"might be made
to the combatants
in north america.
"the proposal would be made
to north and south.
"if both accepted,
we should recommend
an armistice
"and cessation
of blockades,
"with a view
to negotiation
on the basis
of separation."
prime minister palmerston.
lincoln had
to have a victory.
"september 3, 1862.
"the present
seems to be
"the most
propitious time
"since the commencement
of the war
for the confederate
army to enter maryland."
robert e. lee.
the brilliant southern victories
of spring and summer
had brought lee's army
international renown.
one more successful
campaign,
he wrote jefferson davis,
would force europe
to recognize the confederacy.
now, for the first time,
lee led 40,000 soldiers
across the potomac
and onto union soil.
"this body of men
moving along with no order,
"their guns carried
in every fashion,
"no two dressed alike,
"their officers
hardly distinguishable
"from the privates--
"were these the men
that had driven back
again and again
our splendid legions?"
"they were
the dirtiest men
i ever saw,
"a most ragged,
lean,
"and hungry set
of wolves.
"yet there was
a dash about them
that the northern
men lacked."
lee's target was
the federal rail center
at harrisburg,
pennsylvania.
hoping marylanders
would rise up
against the union,
he instructed his men to sing
maryland, my maryland
as they marched.
it didn't work.
most residents
of the small towns
stayed fearfully
behind closed doors.
then, on september 13th,
in a meadow near frederick,
a union soldier
found three cigars
wrapped in
a piece of paper.
it was a copy
of lee's battle plans,
accidentally left behind.
mcclellan now knew
lee had divided his army,
sending one part off
to seize harpers ferry.
mcclellan had
in his hands
the instrument with which
to destroy lee.
still, he did nothing,
for 18 crucial hours.
on september 15th,
lee and his confederates
took up positions
along the crest
of a 3-mile ridge
just east of the town
of sharpsburg
and only 52 miles
from washington.
the potomac
was at their back.
in front ran a creek
called antietam.
"on the forenoon
of the 15th,
"blue federal uniforms
appeared among the trees
"on the eastern bank
of the antietam.
"the field of blue
grew larger,
"until it stretched
as far as the eye
could see.
"from the tops
of the mountains
to the stream edges
gathered mcclellan's
great army."
general
james longstreet.
had mcclellan
hurled his army
at the confederates
that day,
the war might have ended,
but he did not.
"there was a single item
in our advantage,"
an aide to lee remembered,
"but it was
an important one.
"mcclellan had brought
superior forces
to sharpsburg,"
the aide conceded,
"but he had also
brought himself."
"september 16th--
that night, i lay beside
the charlestown pike
"and watched
until morning
"the grimy columns
come pouring up
from the pontoons.
"it was a weird,
uncanny sight
"and drove sleep
from my eyes.
"it was something
demon-like,
"a scene from an inferno.
"they were silent
as ghosts,
"ruthless and rushing
in their speed,
"ragged, earth-colored,
disheveled, and devilish.
"the shuffle of their
badly shod feet
"on the hard surface
of the pike
"was so rapid
as to be continuous,
"like the hiss
of a great serpent.
"the spectral,
ghostly picture
will never be erased
from my memory."
captain
edward hastings ripley.
"as night grew nearer,
"whispers of
a great battle
"to be fought the next
day grew louder,
"and we shuddered
at the prospect,
"for the battles had
come to mean to us,
"as they
never had before,
blood, wounds,
and death."
the battle
that began the next day
was really three battles.
the first began at 6 a.m.
on lee's left,
where a federal force
charged along
the hagerstown pike
to attack
stonewall jackson's men
hidden in woods
beyond a big cornfield.
the union objective
was a plateau
edged with artillery
on which stood a small
whitewashed church,
built by a german baptist
pacifist sect, the dunkards,
for whom even a steeple
was thought immodest.
the union field commander
was major general joe hooker,
a profane and hard-drinking
massachusetts soldier
known as fighting joe.
as hooker
cautiously advanced,
he noticed the glint of bayonets
in the cornfield
and ordered four batteries
to fire into it.
[cannon fire]
the rebels countercharged.
the battle surged
back and forth
across the cornfield
15 times.
in a matter of minutes,
the 12th massachusetts
lost 224 of 334 men.
hooker himself
was carried from the field,
shot through the foot.
"the men are loading
and firing
"with demoniacal fury
and shouting and laughing
hysterically,
"and the whole field
before us
"is covered with rebels
fleeing for life
into the woods."
hooker's men were closing in
the dunkard church.
then stonewall jackson
sent in his last reserves,
john bell hood's division--
fierce fighters at any time,
but now enraged
at having missed breakfast,
which had promised to be
their first real meal in days.
their first volley was
"like a scythe running
through our line,"
one union survivor
remembered.
and then the confederate
counterattack came on.
[yelling]
"every stalk of corn
was cut as closely
"as could have been done
with a knife,
"and the slain
lay in rows,
"precisely as they
had stood in their ranks
a few moments before."
joseph hooker.
the northern troops ran
back through the cornfield.
hood's men ran after them,
but were stopped
by a hail of shells
and federal reinforcements.
when the confederates
finally withdrew,
one officer asked hood
where his division was.
"dead on the field,"
he answered.
"i have never
in my soldier's life
"seen such a sight.
"the dead and wounded
covered the ground.
"in one spot,
"a rebel officer
and 20 men
"lay near a wreck
of a battery.
"it is said battery a,
"1st rhode island
artillery
did this work."
elisha hunt rhodes.
by 10 a.m., 8,000 men
lay dead or wounded.
jackson's lines
had wavered, but held.
after his part
of the battle was over,
jackson was sitting on
his horse, eating a peach.
his medical director,
dr. mcguire, was there.
"captain commanding
company a,
he looked out
over this field
where there were dead
of both sides
littered all
over the place.
he said, "god has been
very kind to us this day."
the second part of
the battle of antietam
began at the center
of lee's line,
a sunken country road
that now served as
a ready-made rifle pit
for two
confederate brigades.
lee ordered it held
at all costs.
general john b. gordon
assured him,
"these men are going
to stay here, general,
till the sun goes down
or victory is won."
then the union attacked.
"the brave union
commander,
"superbly mounted,
placed himself in front,
"while his band
cheered them
"with martial music.
"i thought, what a pity
to spoil with bullets
such a scene
of martial beauty."
general john b. gordon.
gordon let the blue line
get within a few yards,
then gave the order
to fire.
the union commander
was killed instantly,
his men wavered, retreated,
then came back
at the confederates
five more times.
gordon was hit twice
in the right leg,
once in the left arm,
a fourth time
through the shoulder.
he refused all aid,
limping along the line
to steady his men
as the federals kept coming.
"i was finally shot down
by a fifth ball,
"which struck me
squarely in the face.
"i fell forward
and lay unconscious
"with my face in my cap.
"i might have
smothered in blood
"but for
a yankee bullet hole
which let the blood
run out."
still the confederates held.
unit after unit
of northern troops
fell back from the sheets
of southern fire.
finally, some new yorkers
managed to find a spot
from which
they could shoot down
on the road's defenders.
the tide of battle turned.
the sunken road,
remembered now
as bloody lane,
rapidly filled
with southern bodies,
two and three deep.
the triumphant federals
knelt on top
of what one called
"this ghastly flooring"
to fire at
the fleeing survivors.
the confederate center
had splintered.
one more push might
have broken it apart.
general mcclellan,
however,
decided it "would not
be prudent" to attack again.
all day long, in hastily
constructed field hospitals,
clara barton
tended the wounded.
she worked so close
to the fighting
that a bullet
went through her sleeve
and killed a man
she was treating.
"i had to wring
the blood
"from the bottom
of my clothing
"before i could step,
for the weight
about my feet."
[cannon fire]
"i was lying on my back,
supported on my elbows,
"watching the shells
explode overhead
and speculating
"as to how long i could
hold up my finger
"before it would be
shot off.
"when the order
to get up was given,
"i turned over to look
at colonel kimball,
thinking he had become
suddenly insane."
lieutenant
matthew j. grohan.
the third battle took place
on the confederate right,
where the union army,
led by general burnside's corps,
tried to fight its way
across a strongly defended
stone bridge
over antietam creek.
ambrose burnside was
a genial, dapper man--
his distinctive whiskers
or sideburns set a fashion--
but "he shrank
from responsibility,"
an admiring
fellow officer said,
"with sincere modesty."
he owed his position
to his old friend mcclellan,
who now promised
to support his assault
across the bridge.
burnside had 12,500 men
against barely
400 georgians
led by robert toombs.
but the confederates
commanded the bluff
overlooking the bridge
and poured
a relentless volley of fire
down on the union troops.
it took three hours
and three bloody charges
for the federals
to cross the creek
and begin fighting
their way up the slope
towards sharpsburg.
seven successive union
color bearers were hit
before the confederates
finally broke,
racing back into the town.
"oh, how i ran.
"i was afraid of being
struck in the back,
"and i frequently turned
around in running
so as to avoid
so disgraceful a wound."
private john dooley.
union victory again
seemed certain.
but while
the union troops cheered,
the confederate light
division was arriving
from harpers ferry...
3,000 men, footsore
from their 17-mile march,
but otherwise
ready to fight
and commanded
by general a.p. hill,
dressed in the red shirt
he liked to wear in battle.
"a.p. hill is the fightingest
division commander
"in lee's army.
"hill arrived at another
nick-of-the-moment thing,
"and it was the last one.
"it succeeded
in throwing burnside back
after he finally
got across the bridge."
hill slammed into
the celebrating union troops.
burnside begged mcclellan
to send up
the reinforcements
he had promised.
mcclellan refused.
as night fell,
burnside withdrew
to the bridge he fought
so hard to seize.
the battle was over.
no ground
had been gained.
"before the sunlight faded,
"i walked
over the narrow field.
"all around lay
the confederate dead,
"clad in butternut.
"as i looked down
on the poor pinched faces,
all enmity died out."
"there was secession
in those rigid forms,
"nor in those fixed eyes
staring at the sky.
clearly,
it was not their war."
"the sun went down.
the thunder died away.
"the musketry ceased.
"bivouac fires
gleamed out
as if a great city
had lighted its lamps."
it had been
the bloodiest day
in american history.
the union lost 2,108 dead,
another 10,293 wounded
or missing--
double the casualties
of d-day 82 years later.
lee lost fewer men--
10,318 casualties--
but that was a quarter
of his army.
"why did we not
attack them
"and drive them
into the river?
"i do not understand
these things.
but then,
i am only a boy."
elisha hunt rhodes.
mcclellan had
plenty of reserves
waiting outside sharpsburg,
but he never used them.
lee, outnumbered 3-to-1,
braced for a new attack
all the next day.
it never came.
on the 18th,
lee and his army slipped back
across the potomac.
mcclellan could claim
a victory,
but he could have won
the war.
lee's invasion
had been halted,
he had suffered
terrible losses,
but his army
had not been destroyed.
"the causes of the war
were wide apart,
but the manhood
was the same."
joshua lawrence chamberlain,
20th maine.
held in reserve outside
sharpsburg,
the 20th maine included
farmers and lumbermen,
seamen and shopkeepers
and trappers.
its colonel was
joshua lawrence chamberlain,
a 33-year-old professor
of rhetoric, oratory,
and modern languages
at bowdoin college.
denied a leave of absence
to enlist,
he applied for a sabbatical
to study in europe,
then volunteered.
on paper, his only
qualification for command
was that he was a gentleman
of the highest moral,
intellectual,
and literary worth.
chamberlain was still
at sharpsburg
when abraham lincoln
came to see the battlefield.
"we could see
the deep sadness
"in the president's face
"and feel the burden
on his heart,
"thinking of his commission
to save this people
"and knowing he could
do this no otherwise
"than as he had
been doing--
by and through
the manliness of these men."
watching the president
review his troops,
it seemed to
joshua lawrence chamberlain
that a "mystic bond,
wonderful in its intensity,"
joined the men
to their commander in chief.
the object
of lincoln's visit
was to get mcclellan
to pursue lee.
"i came back thinking
he would move at once.
"when i got home,
"he argued
why he ought not to move.
"i ordered him
to advance.
"it was 19 days before
he put a man over the river,
"and nine days longer before
he got his army across.
and then he stopped again."
lincoln at last had had
enough of george mcclellan.
the president relieved him
of command permanently.
"they have made
a great mistake.
alas,
for my poor country."
"september 21, 1862.
"dear sam, jr.,
"a great many
of your old friends
and schoolmates
"have died
or been killed.
"i will merely name
lem ambercrombie,
"jeff montgomery,
"john garrett,
"lem hatch, john hill,
"proctor porter,
bill humes,
"john white, walter maxey,
angus alston.
"old mrs. thomas
of our neighborhood
"has lost five sons.
your mother,
margaret houston."
you do have a problem
when you have units
that are from states
and counties and even towns.
and one
of those regiments
can get
in a very tight spot
in a particular battle,
and the news may be
that there are no more
young men in that town.
they're all dead.
in october of 1862,
at his new york gallery,
mathew brady opened
an exhibition of photographs
entitled
"the dead of antietam."
nothing like them had ever
been seen in america before.
"the dead of the battlefield
come up to us very rarely,
even in dreams."
"we see the lists
"in the morning paper
at breakfast,
but dismiss its recollection
with the coffee."
"mr. mathew brady
has done something
"to bring to us
the terrible reality
and earnestness
of the war."
"if he has not
brought bodies
"and laid them
in our dooryards,
he has done something
very like it."
against the advice
of his advisers,
lincoln reinstated
u.s. grant to field command.
"i can't spare this man,"
lincoln said. "he fights."
1,000 miles to the west,
vicksburg, high on a bluff
overlooking the mississippi,
remained confederate.
"vicksburg,"
jefferson davis said,
"is the nail
that holds the south's
two halves together."
that fall,
grant tried to take
the heavily fortified city.
he failed.
the confederacy was
on the offensive
over a 1,000-mile front.
mr. gladstone, a power
in the english cabinet,
is saying,
"jeff davis made a navy.
he's made an army,"
and, what's more important,
intimating
he's made a nation.
but the invasion
of maryland fails.
lee is defeated,
falls back.
they lose at perryville
in kentucky.
they lose at iuka
and corinth in mississippi,
even newtonia in missouri.
the confederate tide
rolls back.
lincoln, as a result
of antietam,
converted the war
to a higher plane,
again the master
politician.
he announces a preliminary
emancipation proclamation.
of course, it doesn't free
a single slave in revolt,
frees only
as a war measure
and only frees slaves
in states
where the confederacy
is in control,
and it takes effect
on the first day of january.
"on the first day
of january,
"in the year
of our lord 1863,
"all persons held as slaves
within any state
"or designated part
of a state,
"the people whereof
shall then be in rebellion
"against the united states,
"shall be then, thenceforth,
and forever free.
abraham lincoln."
on september 22nd,
just five days after
the battle of antietam,
the president issued
his emancipation proclamation.
"if my name ever goes
into history,"
lincoln said,
"it will be
for this act."
the south was outraged.
jefferson davis called it
the "most execrable measure
recorded in the history
of guilty man."
at a washington dinner,
john hay,
the president's
23-year-old secretary,
noted "everyone
seemed to feel
"a new sort
of exhilarating life.
"the president's proclamation
had freed them,
as well as the slaves."
"it was no longer
a question
"of the union
as it was
"that was to be
re-established.
"it was the union
as it should be--
"that is to say,
washed clean
"from its original sin.
"we were no longer
merely the soldiers
"of a political controversy.
"we were now
the missionaries
"of a great work
of redemption,
"the armed liberators
of millions.
the war was ennobled.
the object was higher."
abroad, the proclamation
had the effect
lincoln had hoped for.
neither england nor france
was willing openly to oppose
a united states pledge
to end slavery.
"the triumph
of the confederacy
"would be
a victory of evil,
"which would give courage
to the enemies of progress
"and damp
the spirits of friends
"all over
the civilized world.
"the american civil war
"is destined to be
a turning point,
"for good or evil,
of the course
of human affairs."
john stuart mill.
"put not your trust
in princes,
"and rest not your hopes
on foreign nations.
"this war is ours.
we must fight it out
ourselves."
jefferson davis.
that december,
lincoln spoke to congress.
"the dogmas
of the quiet past
"are inadequate
to the stormy present.
"as our case is new,
so we must think anew
"and act anew.
"we must disenthrall
ourselves,
"and then we shall save
our country.
"fellow citizens,
we cannot escape history.
"the fiery trial
through which we pass
"will light us down,
in honor or dishonor,
"to the latest generation.
"we say we are for union.
"the world will not forget
that we say this.
"in giving freedom
to the slave,
"we assure freedom
to the free--
"honorable alike
in what we give
"and what we preserve.
"we shall nobly save
or meanly lose
the last best hope
of earth."
"december 31.
"the year 1862
is drawing to a close,
"and as i look back,
i am bewildered
"when i think
of the hundreds of miles
"i have tramped,
"the thousands of dead
and wounded i've seen.
"but we hope for the best
"and feel sure that
the union will be restored.
goodbye, 1862."
elisha hunt rhodes.
"we shout for joy
that we live to record
"this righteous decree--
free forever!
"oh, ye millions of free
and loyal men
"who have
earnestly sought
"to free
your bleeding country
"from the dreadful ravages
of revolution and anarchy,
"lift up now your voices
with joy and thanksgiving,
"for with freedom
to the slave
will come peace and safety
to your country."
frederick douglass.
[bell tolls]
on december 31st,
a large crowd of abolitionists,
including harriet tubman
and wendell phillips,
gathered together
the music hall in boston.
at midnight,
the emancipation proclamation
would take effect.
on the stage,
william lloyd garrison
wept with joy
beside frederick douglass.
the cheering crowd called
for harriet beecher stowe.
she stood in the balcony,
tears in her eyes.
at a washington, d.c.,
contraband camp,
former slaves testified.
one remembered the sale
of his daughter.
"now no more of that,"
he said.
"they can't sell my wife
and children anymore.
bless the lord."
on the sea islands
off south carolina,
federal agents read
the proclamation aloud
to former slaves
under the spreading boughs
of a huge oak tree.
as the commander
of a new all-black regiment
unfurled an american flag,
his men broke into song.
"it seemed
the choked voice
of a race at last unloosed,"
he wrote.
?? in the beauty
of the lilies ??
?? christ was born
across the sea ??
?? with a glory
in his bosom ??
?? that transfigures
you and me ??
?? as he died
to make men holy ??
?? let us die
to make men free ??
??
?? while god is marching on
?? glory, glory hallelujah ??
?? glory, glory hallelujah ??
?? his truth
is marching on ????