The civil war photography. He is the Vice President of the center for civil war photography, hes been a licensed battlefield guide for 25 years, hes appeared on numerous productions shown on the bbc, cspan, Pennsylvania Cable Network and on history. He works full time as the chief historian of the American Battlefield trust. Without any further interruptions or excuse me introduction, i now present to you my friend, garry adelman. Thanks, tammy. Hello, everybody. All right, this isnt easy, doing the whole civil war in such a short period of time. Well see if i get it done in 49 minu49 minutes or 53, whatever it takes. Good luck for those of you that like to take notes. The seeds of the civil war are sewn in the constitution and soon after, slaves are partly a person, for some purposes theyre a person, sometimes theyre not a person. You have north and south starting to look at each other differently. You have the southerners look to the north and though they speak the same language, they worship the same gods, but you see increasingly southerners looking north and seeing greedy, you know, people that only care about, you know, money and business and dont care about family and the south, northers are looking south and seeing people who are cruel and lazy, slave holders and what not. So really this is a war for they did not trust each other, they started looking at each other in different i was. Among the south, for northerners who looked south and thought slave, it wasnt that way at all. Nor should we have this idea it is like south bad, north good. Most of the people in the country north and south are racists by our definition of it. It is not like people in the north wanted africanamericans gathering and joining armies and everything like that. It is important to note, even among the south here, you can see where slave holding portions are in the south. The darker territory tends to be where the highest concentration is. You can see how somebody in southern missouri is going to feel different than somebody in South Carolina. But you have a series of things throughout the 19th century that will bring these things to a real head. Series of compromises starting with the missouri compromise, 1820, you have nat turners rebellion in virginia. Basically a war with mexico and, of course, mexico is in the southern part of the United States now or to the south. You start seeing people saying, such a war of conquest, it must be seen as a war against freedom, against humanity, against the union. Now it is us against them, right . From the southern perspective, people are saying, lets let the states decide. This is the United States of america. Lets let the states decide what the future of slave holding will be in these particular territories. This stuff bubbled up for a good 30 years until the compromise of 1850, where youre going to have the union sort of gain control of the senate because now you have more free states than slave states but an exchange for that, the south got a fugitive slave law, some debts relieved and this fugitive slave law made northerners complicit in slavery, complex stuff, uncle toms cabin, bestselling book of the time, against slavery. When be a hacAbraham Lincoln me author, he said youre the little lady that started this great war. You have people coming down from new england, you know, carrying what is called beachs bible, these bibles are guns, theyre not beeachers bibles, theyre guns. And then bleeding kansas, you have violence erupting in the halls of congress. I love it when almost every day you have some sort of a pundit say were more divided than we have ev been right now. Are you sure . I havent seen the country break apart yet. People may feel like it sometimes and battering each other in congress and people applauding on either side depending who did it. You have, of course, john browns famous raid in october of 1859. Hell lead a slave insurrection, fails, youll have colonel robert e. Lee bust down the doors of some marines and jeb stewart there as well, bust in, kill a lot of john browns accompli accomplices. They wound him and hell be brought to justice in west virginia, then virginia at the time and goes to the gallows as a martyr. Im certain the guilty crimes of the land can never be purged away with blood. All these things are happening in the 19th century, bringing us closer and closer to conflict between the north and the south. The dredge scott decision, the puerto rico is saying a black man has no rights that a white man is bound to respect and then you have the election of 1860. The Democratic Party splits, the republicans take the election and Abraham Lincoln is seen as being hostile to slavery, whatever he said about what he would do or wouldnt do, he was seen as hostile to slavery and the southern starts he secede. That is how 1861 is beginning. Not looking good for the future of the United States. The democratic experiment is really coming to a head at this point. Can this work . Can people selfgovern . Can a conglomeration of states work . When Jefferson Davis is being inaugurated, hes skeptical about being able to avoid war. We may at least expect that posterity will acquit us of having to needlessly engage in. In washington, it is more controversial. It is seen as a southern city, surrounded by slave states in maryland and virginia and plain clothed officers walking through, many people think be a hac Abraham Lincoln will never be inaugurated. You have can nonz nons in and a the capital. He says should a person be a legislator from his native state, virginia, hell manure the grounds of arlington with his remains. Hes ready and be a hacabraham will be inaugurated. This great momentous question of civil war is in your hands, my dissatisfied country men, not mine. You can have no war without being the aggressor. Hes hopeful. The mystic cords of memory from every patriot grade and every living heart and heart stone will swell the course of the union when touched by the better ages of our nature. Famous words indeed. Didnt last. You know that the south is beginning to get ready for war. They know war is coming. They seem to be more ready than the north and they are gathering in pensacola, florida, in georgia, and in South Carolina. They were ready when things came to an end at fort sumter when the union will capitulate that flag will come down, replaced by a confederate flag, the war is on, lincoln calls for 75,000 volunteers and seven more Southern States secede. Really important ones, virginia, North Carolina, and tennessee go at that point. They cannot abide by just having invading armies coming through their territory. This is how the stage looks at this time. Abraham lincoln spends all of his early efforts trying to keep yellow states, border states, slaves, slave states that remained in the union, he did everything he could, legal or otherwise, to keep the states in the union. Imagine if maryland, if kentucky had left the union, lincoln himself said it to lose kentucky is just the same as to lose the fretting about whether or not troops would reach washington and they did. It took a long time for union troops to get there, try to get to a hostile part of maryland then or now and get to washington and see what happens. There was nothing ado for a while. The troops are in every corner of washington, d. C. Theyre sewing and writing lessers home, doing acrobatic in camp and what not. It would get real. July 1861, first great land badle and the bloodiest badle in all of American History up to that time with 4500 casualties fighting along and above this stone bridge and many other places. You can go back to the places now because theyre preserved as battlefields, pretty cool. And a lot of people in the room do that sort of stuff. In the west, things are favoring the south thi. They wanted bull run. You have the confederate success out west, Wilsons Creek in august of 1861. Hallows like this, nathaniel lions army defeated by the confederates and union is losing east and west. They come back a little bit. They will win at balls bluff you see up there. Near leesburg, virginia. The union is making incursions around port royal South Carolina and the big plan of encircling the confederacy, blocking the confederacy. The anaconda plan is being put into effect. Before long, it is hard and harder and harder for confederates to receive supplies, things they need to war, things they need to exist for a nation, it is tough as it go on here. And now were on to 1862 where a lot more is going to happen. Where . The union moves in west. They move fast and the west, everything favors the union. Not only do they not have enough soldiers for all the vast army, the rivers act as main arteries of invasion for the north. They have a good time of it. The union wins at mill springs, kentucky, wins at arkansas and captures henry and donaldson at nashville, tennessee. That will open up all sorts of great opportunities for the north and though the union captured 100,000 square miles of territory, people arent really noticing. It is far from washington and new york, all the papers are coming out, people are paying attention. Hold that thought for a second. In the east, something that gets a lot of news is the great battle of the iron clads, you have the css virginia fighting the uss monitor, this new iron clad warship that hung low to the ground and low to the water line, it is incredible, it made all ships all but obsolete and changed warfare forever. They will fight to a draw and no longer is the confederate iron clad virginia the most feared thing in the world. Now, because the union captured nashville, they start to move down toward memphis, tennessee, they can go toward mississippi, a great important rail line there, and you can see the union moving all the way down because they captured nashville over here, and then they can start to move over all the way down toward corinth, mississippi. The union barely holds on. U. S. Grant gets it back together, back to reinforcements he may or may not have needed, lashed back and you have by five times the bloodiest battle in all of American History at this point at shiloh. 23,800 casualties or so, terrible day. The union ended up winning, grant is roundly criticized for suffering so much, he should get used to that. There is more to come. In the meantime, the union has had its hopes on holding the pacific ocean. The confederates want the reverse at the battle of glory pass. Other actions, stanwyck station, the confederates are going to be denied a even in a confederate leaning southern california. In the east, stone wall jackson, named stone wall, received that name, at the bat of manassas in 1861 doing his magic in the valley, hes all over the place between where these little stars are, hes all the way up here and if you want to brave from winchester to mcdowell, it takes three ours or more than that, thats by car, thats on interstate. Maj doi imagine doing this, a masterful campaign, operating with a small army in the midst of three other armies. Jackson keeps all the union armies there in the spring of 1862. In the meantime, george mcellen amasses the largest army in the country, the army of the potomac, well trained, feeling good. He brings them down to this place, the oldest stone fort in america. You can take your loser friend and put him in the same spot today, and go right there. This isnt going to be televised, is it . You have a mighty union force assembling at this place. In the meantime, this whole force assembles, the confederates try to block that peninsula through subterfuge, theatrics, from a general who could march troops all around and make it look like he had more, but the confederates give up york town, the union moves on, wins at williamsburg, moves closer to washington, they have a fierce battle, terrible bat called seven pines or fair oaks. Here is the battle fought among some twin houses along the williamsburg road. That slows down the union for a while. The confederate commander, joe johnston will be put out of the action, resulting in Jefferson Davis putting in his third most ranking general, johnson is fourth, robert e. Lee. Everyone thought he would be cautious. Hes not going to do anything. He will been the most important confederate thing of any sort throughout the civil war. And soon after hes put in, he lashes out at the union ferociously after riding around and gaining intelligence, hes going to lose at Beaver Dam Creek and have some indecisive actions at savages station and glendale. Notice what is happening here, mcellen is eight miles outside of richmond and lee is lashing out and here is mcellen after seven days. 20 miles away from richmond where even though the union wanted the battle at malvern hill, the yankees are powering under the gunboats. Hes relieved the threat on richmond so much to the point he feels he can leave. He feels richmond is safe. He moves stone wall jackson up fast, they fight a terrible battle in august of 1862 called cedar mountain. The confederates lose actually, the yankees make a tough push. The confederates will hold on, photographers show up and show some fresh they show dead horses at cedar mountain. Photojournalism is being born in 1862 and capturing all sorts of incredible thing at this point. From cedar mountain, the confederates continued on with a Skeletal Force and reinforced that second bull run or second where they will do the same thing to the union they did before but more bloodily. 18,000 casualties. The union retreat barely makes it back to washington, d. C. Robert e. Lee had enough of that. George mcellen reinstalled to command around washington, d. C. , will give chase and fight at battles Harpers Ferry, South Mountain is a tough fight for the union, george mcellen is a little emboldened, special orders 191 that show lees army is dangerously divided at this point. That was one sentence. I thought i would take a break there. The confederates hang out at South Mountain. They come to what you know it as the terrible battle of antietam where it is going to be a terrible fight, especially in this corn field with 10,000 casualties, they fight around there. They push the confederates to the brink in the west woods. The union will capture the sunken road, or the bloody lane at antietam. The union captures burn side bridge, do the final attack, but just the confederates are pushed to the limit, their last reinforcement shows up, pushes the Union Soldiers back and robert e. Lee can just claim to a slight tactical victory, okay. Hes not the big victor here. The big victor is not even just the union army, but rather Abraham Lincoln who sees this as enough of a victory to forecast his emancipation proclamation. Both freeing the slaves and areas they didnt control, and keeping effectively keeping england and france owl of the civil war. Who fights against a nation trying to free the slaves, thats how he calculated it. It will work pretty well as a result. The union has been in control, the confederates try to take it back with no success. They fail here. The union holds on to that important rail area. The confederates move to kentucky under two separate armies. Can never quite join together. But they do get the Union Capital up at frankfurt. Install their own governor. Even that governors speech is interrupted by canon fire, not a good sign if youre installing your own governor. At perriville, the confederates win most of the day, theyre outnumbered. They leave. Thats the specialty, winning at the beginning and leaving after he won. That will eventually rob the confederates of kentucky for the rest of the war effectively and bragg will fall back further down into tennessee with nothing to show for it. A lot of these battles are really spread out. You see how theyre spread out over here, a big clump over here. That clump in the north in the right top part of the korean is called the east. This is what we call it now this is what people called it back then. Thats the east, okay. And Everything Else is the west. Thats right. If you go southeast from the east, youre in the west. Try to figure that one out, somehow coastal North Carolina is in the west, they were seen as the western armies. This is the way people saw it, the way the media saw it and how people still today see it. The east and then not the east. It is unfair. People during the civil war, Abraham Lincoln was, like, yes and robert e. Lee wins one victory outside of richmond, like that never happened. 100,000 square miles, bunch of victories equals one. Thats how it is. And still people that work at civil war in the western theater cant figure this out. Why is gettysburg seen as more important than vicksburg. I cant figure that out. This is important nomenclature to understanding the civil war. Still in the fall of 1862 and the union has a great opportunity to get around the confederate lines, bring them back and theyre missing one thing, pontoon bridges to get them across at the confederates. This is a terrible blood letting, you have 18,000 casualties and Something Like three quarters of them union casualties, lincoln said what will the country say. Between fredericksburg and another union loss, it is only the fight at the last day of the year, spilling into the new year in middle tennessee at a place called stones river where bragg was winning and he pulled back. Thats what he did. Lincoln could breathe a slight sigh of relief. It would have been a complete disaster to the union if they are winning on all fronts. The yankees claim one victory at the beginning of 1863. Now it is the day of jubilee, the emancipation proclamation goes into effect. The United States can have black soldiers, actually in their u t units and that work will begin around that time and Union Confederate soldiers are facing each other on a thousand fronts at this point. This one shown from falmouth, havirginia. This is a photo of union photographers taking a picture of confederates in the field. It is unique. You dont have anything like this. Theyre not shooting at each other at this point. Theyre going to have another union commander, keep counting them, this is the fifth one. Joe hooker comes up with a great plan. It is well executed. He managed to get his army all the way around, his army is twice as large. He can have a strong army over here and get into lees rear, drawing lee into battle out there, hooker said he will fly or attack as against our entrenchments, this is a battle called chancellorville. You know it doesnt go that way. Robert e. Lee is a daring and dangerous opponent. Hooker would find that out. He splits his army three times. And you know what happens. Hell end with an incredible charge. A flanking maneuver around the union army and even though the union captures the famous sunken road, that still doesnt matter. Lee turns on these forces, wins a great battle, lose his most trusted lieutenant, stone wall jackson at this point, wounded by his own man made maybe mortally wounded. But lee is deprived of his greatest independent commander at that point. Now, robert e. Lee is feeling good. These are the same guys, by the way, that fought in the peninsula, walked up to virginia, walked to cedar mountain, walked to antietam, went back and now walking up here again. There will be a terrible battle where robert e. Lee is going to calculate that if he can win a na major battle, lee doesnt have to win, he has to destroy the union will to fight. You have lee wanting to take the war away for a while, relieve troops coming from vicksburg and other places, pressure on other places as well. As lee moves north, a battle at Brandy Station. Then some cavalry actions, you know them. Before, another battle at winchester and come to grips outside of town here, right here, where we are, were right around here somewhere if i had to guess. On the first day, where the union retreats back through town to this hill you see here, cemetery hill, hill next to it as well. There is going to be another day where the union is going to hope to defend devils den, the wheat field, the round tops you see here. The union is going to bloody itself and the confederates on the rose farm not far from there. On the other side of the line on the second day at gettysburg, fighting on East Cemetery hill, and the next day, still goes on and on and had the battle end of after the second day, still the bloodiest battle. Theyre advancing across this famous field known as the field of pickets charge where the union decisively feets the confederates, capturing more battle flags. The union won a strong victory here. But the confederates escaped back into virginia, lee is not easy to bag with 50,000 soldiers and a whole bunch of dead people left behind here. 10,000 dead, another 41,000 captured and missing as well. By far americas bloodiest war conflict battle on our soil here. And some of the dead laid out in enough time to record 37 photos of them on the battlefield, many around boulders here, boulders you can still see to this day when you go, ill show you one more view of this, you can see the individual cracks in the rocks this is the work of william a. Who located all these places in the 1960s and 70s. Gettysburg is not happening in a vacuum. U. S. Grant has been trying and trying hard to capture vicksburg. Hes tried by canal, by river, by land, eventually on a plan in april of 1863 where hes going to run the gunboats at vicksburg, march his army down here with those boats, cross the Mississippi River and hes going to fight a series of battles. Not going straight to vicksburg but going and relieving a threat on his rear, jackson, mississippi, and fighting at raymond and jackson, move and foo trying to capture vicksburg by storm and settling into a siege. That will fall to the union. Just the largest confederate mass surrender until the end of the civil war. It is an astounding victory for the union. Coupled with a victory that happens a week later at port hudson, louisiana. Another siege is lifted. The anaconda plan started the beginning of the war, finally taking shape, the confederates not only are having trouble getting things into their ports, but they dont krolt Mississippi River. It doesnt just cut the confederacy in two in a symbolic way. The confederates have no way to cross the tennessee the Mississippi River with their men, with their slaves, with their beef, with their salt, where is the confederates supposed to get this stuff . Somewhere else in the blockade, they choose florida, not as well equipped as anything like this. A stunning defeat for the confederates and by far more important than gettysburg, i dont know. Im a gettysburg guy. I love this place. My ashes will be scattered here one day. In the meantime, the civil war is happening in a thousand other places. Here is the civil war photo of brownsville, texas, you got stuff happening at union prison out in San Francisco bay at a place you might know he called alcatraz. All over the place. In 49 minutes, cant cover them all though. Technology is taking massive leaps. You got all sorts of new weaponry, naval advancements, new balloons happening. Right on the washington, d. C. , what we now call the mall here at this point. You got war ships, patrolling harbors and the union navy will become the most powerful one in the world. Here is an actual photo of gat g combat. I believe thats the uss ironside firing on confederate positions at Charleston Harbor in september of 1863. And by that time, some black units have been raised. These are called the United States color troops or state designations like the massachusetts here, storming fort wagner and early actions suddenly, americans can see that black troops can do the same things that white troops can. Go figure that. We did that during the american revolution, everybody forgot it by then and you have more than 200,000 africanamerican, navy and Infantry Army soldiers join the use yonion effort. In the same time, summer of 1863, you have that bloodiest bat until the west, the second most costly battle of the civil war at the battle, september 1863, youre going to have for two days braggs army just assault the union army, just holding on until the most fortuitous assault, long streets men pour into a gap in the union army, that had just been created by accident at that point. The union will end up falling back with a third of their army, a staunch defense by George Thomas now known as the rock of chickamaga. The union falls back to chattanooga, tennessee, huddling under their defenses, the confederates pursue but besiege the union army at chattanooga. In the meantime, you have Abraham Lincoln, deliver his gettysburg address, not far from here at all. Laying out a new vision for the war, for the country, stick with me, well see this thing through and he did it in such a masterful way, has to be considered his one best or second best speech and maybe one of best of all American History, and this happening during this time as well. Ill let you draw your own conclusions, how did that get in there, thats my biggest laugh of the day. In the meantime, you have things arent going well for the union at chattanooga, the men are starving the beef that is arriving as so, you know, sickened and starved from making the 60 mile journey over really rough roads that it is known as beef dried on the hoof. Men are reduced to eating corn that was found along the roadway. You know where that corn came from . When horses and cows have been marching on, terrible situation, the union comes up with a plan, grant shows up, takes credit for the plan, called the cracker line and grant pulls his normal grantness where hes going to immediately lash out at the confederates as Braxton Bragg is sending away the most capable commander, weakening his force, it is baffling and frustrating to read about Braxton Braggs action for the confederates. Theyll capture look out mountain, anyone ever seen that, not easy to capture under joe hooker and while sherman fails to capture Missionary Ridge, thomass men, they move up Missionary Ridge and capture it from the front because of braggs dispositions there. Chattanooga will fall and set the stage well for 1864. The year still isnt over. James long street goes and fails to tries and fails to take knoxville, tennessee. They will be repulsed. Two more campaigns in the east, you hardly hear about, people t you will hardly hear about. People in the east say, i guess there was gettysburg and the Overland Campaign next may. Thats not the case. You have the bristo campaign, the mine run campaign. People dont talk about them. They were not of much consequence so they only get one slide. In the meantime there are all kinds of cavalry assault going on. You have of course Nathan Bedford forest and some getting all the way into ohio, some disrupting union lines. Theres an incredible stories of this, how this guy made that guy surrender and how that guy later tunnelled out of libby prison. Fascinating stuff. 1864 comes on and this is when things get really real. 1861 was the bloodiest year in American History and so it was 62 and 63, and here 64 makes the others seem like a warmup exercise. The union is well supplied, they have been in well comfortable camps, they have transportation facilities taking food and supplies to the union army. The confederates are having a tough time. The confederacy is shrinking, it is tough for them to be able to harvest. It is incredible, the fight that is still to come they will be able to fight it. This photo was taken at Brandy Station in that winter of 6364. In the meantime grant comes up with a fiveprong plan. He knows if he moves on all five fronts the confederates cant parry all fronts he makes. The first three fail. If you have heard of the Red River Campaign you know it is not going to go well. You dont send siegel through the shenandoah and expect it to work out, it doesnt. You dont send Benjamin Butler to attack between richmond and petersburg, all fail. The two main thrusts get off to a start. The army will move on atlanta and eventually grant will travel with it and they will move on toward the confederate capital. But robert e lee areas army, the army of Northern Virginia is the main target. Those are the two main moves of 1864 that are of consequence. They start in early may of 1864. Here they are marching on the first day of the Overland Campaign. That will result in the battle of the wilderness, a terrible thicket that will reduce the viability of grants numbers. It is a terrible place, of course. It catches on fire. Wounded men cant get away. You have heard the stories. After this, 30,000 soldier blood letting, the union doesnt do what they normally did. Grant is not that kind of soldier. He does not go back towards washington. Rather his troops are cheering him because grants going to fight with the army. Theyre marching south. Theyre continuing on after a blood letting like that and where they didnt achieve victory. Eventually the fight will move on to a worse spot called spotsiylania. This is where it was most intense around spotsylvania. You have the union on this side of the fence, it is a terrible struggle. They are throwing bayonets. 18 hours. If you have been tickled or in a fight for 30 seconds you know how terrible it can be. 18 hours, the accounts of that, if you get a chance read about spotsylvania. It is a terrible blood letting, it was the third bloodiest battle of the civil war. All of those wounded here will gather back at fredericksburg at the hospitals. Here you have one set hospital. You see some of the wounded soldiers. If you zoom in, you can see what clearly must be members of a company of the first michigan sharp shooters. These are native americans fighting for the union. We should not read into this that it is just happening for the union. You have native americans famously on eli parker on grants staff or stan whaley fighting on both sides. It is a fascinating story to read about what is going on missouri and kansas throughout the times, about the union and confederate troops trying to align with the native american tribes. I suggest i look into it if you can. In the meantime great advancements are made in medicine. Women are performing a lot of roles back at home, working in factories, helping keep the farms, doing all sorts of things, but nursing was one of the most visible things they did and they were lucky to be doing it, north and south, because there were incredible advances made. The biggest myth of the civil war sorry, theres a lot of myths of the civil war. One of the myths of the civil war is that every amputation like gone with the wind screaming through with no anesthesia when we know 90 of all were done with anesthesia. If you were to go back, it is tempting for us to think if we were back then we wouldnt fight in that seemingly stupid way because we are smarter than people back then. Better yet, we cant help it. We are like that and they were like that for the people before them. Better than that, i wouldnt go back to such conditions, i will go back and warn the surgeons, wait, you have to wash that saw. They say, why, oh, im glad you asked. Theres Little Things that you cant see, but theyre bad ones. If the bad once get in the wrong place bad stuff happens. They would lock you up. Imagine going back in time telling somebody Something Like this. On both sides they were efficient at preserving life. After the battle of antietam our entire trauma and 911 system is still used today. If you have dialled 911 or gone to a hospital, thank Jonathan Letterman for thinking about a few things. Where are the ambulances going . What goes in the ambulance . Who is going to stock those things . Who is in charge of the ambulance . Who is in charge of the hospital . What does the hospital do . Who decides to actually do the surgeries . Who is doing the surgery, things like that. Everything we do in triage and trauma was figured out in the civil war. We forgot about it later. Foreign countries on observed it took it over, we got it back from them and it is a system we use to this day. Sometimes it didnt work. There will be plenty of death and disease will be the number one killer in the civil war. We can look at the pictures outside of the dead outside hospitals and learn about where they were temporarily interred before being moved to national cemeteries. In the meantime lots of fighting is going on. The Overland Campaign will continue. It will go on wherever the union moves forward. They will have a new base. This one i believe at port royal, virginia, which is going to be the scene of a famous action with john wilks booth not long after this, but they will move forward. Eventually grant will decide to continue to go around the left flank, around lees right flank, and here he is incredibly sitting in the middle of the Overland Campaign with general George Gordon meade, john rawlins, dana and the army as it passes by. Incredible moment. Lee is sick here at north anna where the trap is sprung. Thank you to any of the members of the American Battlefield trust who helped preserve that land and all of this land, most of which has been conveyed to the Richmond National battle field, at least the easement has at this point. You can go to the military road you see being built right there and stand with your friends on the exact same road. Really cool. Understanding this stuff in 49, 53 or 90 minutes is nothing like going to the actual spot. After north anna, a terrible battle. A worse one at cold harbor. You know the deal. It is another twoweek slug fest. It is not one, two, three charges where people are pinning their names back on their uniforms. It goes on for weeks where the confederates erected elaborate entrenchments, kind of a foreshadowing of world war i will go on. For nine months the union and confederate ral armies will be in touch every day, and cold harbor is two of those weeks. Eventually the union while sweeping ofcheck out the mine sweeper here. While sweeping the james river for confederate torpedos or mines, it is an incredible engineering fete where they will fall on virginia, maybe a lack of will and confederate boldness pays off. Confederates hold until a lengthy siege. Here is a photo of a famous dictator gun that was brought up to try to relieve the union of having to storm the batteries at petersburg. In the meantime grant figured, i dont know why i would do a Prisoner Exchange anymore. It is a complex issue, but to put it simply if i have more soldiers than my enemy why would i give back my enemy soldiers. So prisons swell, whether it is andersonville or Castle Pinckney or Charleston Harbor or others. The prison population grows. It is a terrible situation in the north and south. Die of starvation in the south or exposure in the north, you choose. Theres famous places, rocky face ridge, on toward New Hope Church and picketts mil and kin saw mountain which they are Still Holding here, but shermans armies are so much bigger than joseph e. Johnson in the campaign no matter where johnson holds sherman continues to wrap around him, threaten his rear. Johnson has no choice but to fall back toward atlanta again and again. Imagine being the confederacy with resources running low and you have to defend on all of these different fronts. It is an incredible story. You have heard the story. Damn the torpedos, you are trying to hope that they wont get you. One took down the union ship called the tecumseh but all others got in without trouble. They started to circle the confederate ironclad uss tennessee. Fort morgan surrenders later. They are reduced to fort fisher in wilmington, North Carolina soon after that. In the meantime under a new commander johnson is replaced. Hood lashes out here at peach tree cook. John bell hood almost destroys the union army. The union comes back loses jersey city mac fehr son and gains a foothold on encircling atlanta. At that point atlanta will fall on september 2nd, 1864. Lincoln is psyched. He and everybody else basically knows lincoln will not be reelected. The war is still stymied down. Atlanta hadnt fallen, rich monday hadnt fallen, but here is a key. Atlanta has fallen in Early September 1864. Then you have robert e. Lee at stalemate around petersburg, detach a significant portion of his army. Under jub al early they will go down by Harpers Ferry and be held up at the battle that saved washington, a National Park where the confederates cannot on here. It was a oneday thing, almost certainly the u. S. Capital would have fallen except for this battle slowing down the confederates for the day. I dont know what jubal early and 10,000 soldiers would have done with washington at that time but it is a nonissue because eventually early will fall ban to the Shenandoah Valley where grant has had enough. He puts one of his most actionable commanders in sheridan who had a temper on him, a little guy, who is going after earlys army in a terrible campaign, the Shenandoah Campaign where the third battle of winchester alone, seen here, will actually result in more casualties than jacksons entire Valley Campaign by triple. After that the union will follow up with another victory at fishers hill and here at cedar creek seen then and now, this is the bell grove mansion. After cedar cream tek the union complete control, muchl of the military equipment and food they burned. It is known as the burning. They recaptured Fort Richmond and now atlanta has fallen, the union relieved pressure in the Shenandoah Valley. The soldier goes to Abraham Lincoln and he wins in a landslide. Mcclelland loses in a landslide as well but the fighting is still going on. A terrible siege at piecering bupiecering petersburg at this time. John bell hood lost atlanta but he is going to try to get into the union interior, try to capture nashville, tennessee and move east. It was a plan that had a chance of winning but he was slowed up here. They will fight the battle of franklin. They push the union army back that results in the battle of nashville and nobody can figure out what hood was trying to accomplish by being there. He is out numbered three to one. He is destroyed at that point by 1864. William tecumseh is march to the sea. It is the last stronghold they had to get to get to the sea. You can see the footprints of the soldiers walking in the sand to try to avoid the confederate land mines known to be in their path over there. They capture fort mcallister. A great reserved site, i recommend you go there. The march to the sea is complete. Photographers come in and actually take photos, something you dont see much. Clouds in the civil war. The type of photography at the time, the blue spectrum didnt capture clouds so oven they were burned in separately on the plates. Savannah falls. Sherman gives it to lincoln as a Christmas Present in late 1864 and the end finally comes up. Sorry to spoil the end for you. 1865 will come on. Theres still a siege at petersburg, it is nine months long. Imagine trying to suffer through that. In the meantime sherman is not done. He has marched to the sea but he is going to keep going. He is going to march and threaten to join u. S. Grants forces. Imagine that. Lee would no no hope at all. Charleston will have to evacuate. Columbia will burn. Of. People argue about who did it, was it yank east, was it confederates. I think it is both. The cradle of secession, the capital of South Carolina will burn and they will be out numbered but they lash out at the union and almost win on the first day of the battle of bentonville, but eventually the Union Numbers will tell and the confederates will lose the biggest battle fought in North Carolina. It is march 1865 and johnson concluded, i can do nothing but annoy sherman. Theres nothing i can do. I cant possibly stop him. Robert e. Lee wants to break out from petersburg and get out to the open field. He fights a terrible battle with 20,000 soldiers, his last great attack but grant repulses the attack and realizes he must have thinned his lines to do it. It is the union that strikes back at the break through at petersburg and they will break through confederate lines on april 2nd, 1865 and lee will be forced to give up petering burg and flee to the west. Excuse me. Wow. Were at 1865 already. Okay. So lee will flee to the west. He is trying to get and maybe join Joseph Johnson if only he can get around the union army here. Lee suffers a terrible defeat at the battle of Sailors Creek where he loses a third of his army. He sees what is happening and says, my god, has the army of Northern Virginia been dissolved in a certainly situation there. He will be brought and compelled to surrender at appomattox courthouse in virginia. Johnson will surrender in a larger surrender, a fascinating story if you have a chance to read what goes on at bennets place. It is not the last surrender but it is certain the war is effectively over at this point. Confederates burned richmond to keep most stuff out of union hands. This burnt district was fascinating to photographers and on april 14th, 1865 the union reraises the flag over fort sumter, even right when the war is ending. It is a consequential month in april, a lot of things are going on. On that same day, april 14, 1865, union and confederate soldiers almost fraternizing in Capital Square at richmond. I dont think theyre getting along super well, but theres not a lot of animus. That same day Abraham Lincoln decides to go to fords theater to see our american cousin. I think you know the story. He is sitting inside that booth with his wife and two guests. John wilks booth sneaks in the little door, shoots the president , jumps on to the stage and yells sic semper tyranus. You will have Matthew Brady receive permission from robert e. Lee six days after that to stand and sit for photographs outside his door at his richmond home. You can go back there if you have permission from the owner and in some pictures you can see the crack in the door. It is in a great preservation and now it seems to be under a new owner that will take great care of it i really hope. You want to go and emulate robert e. Lee, you will stand there and get your lee look and, oh, yeah, youre going to really fail. Stow you so youre going to look at lee again, go back a few months later and it gets worse. You dont open your eyes and stare into the distance. Maybe you figure out what breaks he is standing on and then you go back. But, oh, my god, it gets worse. Lets bring a robert e. Lee in uniform, talk about the thing, try the seated portrait. Get lee to sit down. Thats how it is done. It looks pretty good. You are going to get there, put on the uniform. Oh, yes. Maybe then you can succeed always bit. Once you have done that you can get cocky. You can pose with robert e. Lee. You can take selfies with him. You can make him stand next to you while you sit in his chair. But it takes 20 years to get up all of the pictures to do this. In the meantime it is a world turned upside down. You have confederate prisoners in their own prison in libby prisoners, you have Abraham Lincoln sitting in jeff daviss chair and jeff davis captured in 1865 in a union prison here at fort monroe. You can go to the case mate today, dust off your loser friend and put him in the same spot and he can sit on the same place today. They do a great job at the case museum there and still surrenders are going on at alabama, texas and the last are surrendering. A confederate ship is not going to surrender for a while but the war is over. Still, eight conspirators in the lincoln conspiracy, the lincoln assassination, tried. They will be tried in that room right up there. You cant see it inside there, but it is where it is today. You can go back there and four are hanged outside, like the next day. They built the scaffold in a few hours. It is a tennis court now. Maybe some day they might not rebuild the scaffold, that would be a little messed up, but i would like to see them remove the tennis court, it is not used anymore anyway. What is left . This nation through its greatest test. 680,000 dead. It is like an adams county snow forecast. There will be two to 70 inches, buy toilet paper, Something Like that. I use 620,000. It is 2 of the population or so at that time, it is still plenty. Of course, theres debt everywhere. The south will suffer particularly heavily in terms of human capital. Some of the young men of the towns are gone at this point. Burials everywhere, they are trying to exhume them here which you see africanamerican laborers doing outside richmond here at cold harbor. To this day it appears, there was a limb pit found at manassas last year. Here is a temporary grave at manassas. You see this water hole still fills with water to this day outside the Manassas Battlefield visitors center. During this time the union will march in ma raid. They won. The union has been kept together. There will be tough times ahead but we will parade down pennsylvania avenue to the capital. There will be a viewing stand in front of the white house where finally these people that have been seeing people, we have been learning about the troops for years now, can look on for two days as the troops past. You see Winfield Scott hancock in charge of some of the ceremony. To the right it is unbelievable. While you have troops marching by, while you have veterans of the civil war, the veteran reserve corps, wounded or incapacitated guarding that aerks you have on grants staff eli parker looking right at it. Right at the end of the civil war, Abraham Lincoln is dead at that point but he is watching his army marching by. President andrew johnson, George Gordon meade, secretary of the navy gideon wells, William Tecumseh sherman whispering to somebody. Has there ever been a photo of the secretary of the navy, the armies, the grand commander of the armies and the two biggest Army Commanders in meade and sherman all in the same photo. It was a detail that sat unknown at the time. It is not just me that can do it. Takes free photo at the like of congress. I encourage you to explore the photos at the museum. The union had already passed and ratified the 13th amendment. Then they will pack on the 14th and 15th. Slavery is illegal. Black people can vote. Women cant vote, but theyre moving along with the amendments, but it will take a long time for these things to be felt and take shape. In the meantime people are going to visit their departed family members at cemeteries. Civil war soldiers, trying to making sense of it all. They form groups, they march in parades, they go to battlefields and erect monuments on those battle fields. We can go back to the same battlefields where they dedicated that one in june of 1865 and see some of the same monuments today on the battlefields. Here is one to a guy that died at gettysburg. Not only can you, if you work hard to find this one, it is not easy. I see a few of you nodding out there. But if you go out there with wayne moths ws who runs the natl civil war museum, this is captain henry fuller. It is just an incredible moment to take the accounts and the battlefield and the artifacts from the civil war to increase our understanding. If you ever get the opportunity to hold some of those things, i suggest you do it. By the 1930s, much like the world war ii generation of today, people are dying off. Theres not that many civil war veterans left. They hold one last grand reunion at gettysburg in 1938. About 2,000 veterans came to gettysburg. Their average age was 94, which was extremely old then. The people who planned the dedication of this hot weekend were happy that only seven of the veterans died that weekend when they were coming to gettysburg to see the monument. They were happy it was only seven. Here they are unveiling the memorial. If you look in the foreground you see a Motion Picture camera. These are civil war soldiers seeing a Motion Picture camera. There are planes flying overhead. Remember, there was already a world war fought, another on the horizon. Tanks were rolling around. Civil war soldiers saw color movies. I have been to one fifth of gettysburg anniversaries, it wasnt that long ago, i bet people in this room, maybe one or two that might have met a civil war veteran. I only missed one by nine years or the possibility of doing so. I have bet at least 100 people and shaken their hands who shook the hands of civil war veterans. As a battle field guy here, drag the past forward so you all, we all understand it wasnt that long ago. These people are just like us and i like to keep that in mind. Of course, into the 1940s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80 itself, the promise of the civil war was being realized. I would say world war ii, korea, vietnam did nothing to make people interested in battlefields and preservation. Battlefield visitation was not at an alltime high. Battlefields were paved over in the 1960s, 70s and into the 80s. This is the Franklin Battlefield all by lost although some is reclaimed now. In the 1980s suddenly you have reenactments, commemorations, you have the movie glory and the ken burns series, you have the birth of the battlefield preservation movement. In that fashion battlefields are kept again. We are losing 30 acres a day. I hope you look at battle fields. Org. If you come across our animated map that says the entire civil war in 20 minutes and you think i stole anything from that, i wrote the script. It stole from me. Thank you for coming out tonight. I appreciate it. I dont remember when i started but i know it was close to 50 minutes so ill take it. Before i take any questions let me leave you with a few parting shots i like to get across. First of all, as i mentioned civil war soldiers were not stupid. They were using the most mod er tactics available to them at the time. The more industrial north and agricultural south was as real as it gets. Wrap your brain around this, for every southern factory worker the north had an entire factory. Try to fight that if you will. The war on the east consisted of a few big movements. Keep in mind they started around washington, they went down and fought around richmond, they moved and fought around fredericksburg for a while, back up to gettysburg and slow down to richmond and petersburg. Thats it. All of the battles of the east fit into those movements i just described. Kachlt casualties. 50,000 casualties at gettysburg. 51,000 dead at vietnam. 1812 war with mexico, spanish american world, world war i, world war ii, korea and voo vietnam will finally equal the civil war. Because were in gettysburg the battle 68d gho battlefield ghost stories are made up to make money. Go on the tours for entertainment by all means, and of course people ask this amendment the ghost tours. Lastly, honor is the most difficult of all 19th centuries to grasp. If you want to understand the past, understand we are like them but there are some differences and this one is the way honor pervaded society in a way people today cant even understand, unless you read their words which i encourage you to do. Remember, we are just like them. Let me continue back to the original screen with another thank you and then i will take questions. Thank you. I am told you have to wait for the mike. It will be you in the yellow shirt and the mike is coming your way. Make it an easy one, ones i can answer. Do you have an opinion about the harvest of death photographs . Oh, my god. I dont have enough time. He is asking if i have an opinion about the harvest of death photos. It is six photos, five photos taken by alexander the only one known sho show the dead on the batt battlefield. I have been looking for them for 30 years. My owe p my opinion is that nobody knows where they are. They love when i say other peoples theories are wrong but they dont like it when i say peoples theories are wrong. Photo research is complex and unlike other types of research when 60 say one thing happened and some say another, youre going with the 60, right . Photo research doesnt work that way. It is a complex thing. I tried to explain it on 24 videos on gettysburg daily, type in harvest of death and you they will come up. You will see me being a little even, but once or twice a little snide as well. He knows that gets my goat as well. What else do we have . One in the back and maybe one after that. What was lee doing before he was given the army . Incredible things actually. So hes working for Jefferson Davis. He tries a campaign towards west virginia, it doesnt go too well. Stonewall jackson had trouble doing that as well, so he is selecting the main routes, say, lets defend the Jefferson Davis highway, which is what it is called not, route 1. Lets make sure we can be at manassas but we have to defend this artery. He is laying out the key way to defend charleston and savannah and the railroad, keeping the union from incurring upon it. He is acting as the grand strategist and engineer to help the confederacy to achieve its goals. Thats the simplest way i can put it. It is absolutely incredible that the southerners could keep a railroad between charleston and savannah going the whole time and lee devised a way to move troops back and foorgt. Thats where he got his horse traveller is between charleston and savannah as well. He is a military adviser to davis but he is accomplishing other fetes that had a positive impact on the confederate army. Great question. Last one for anybody . Thanks to everybody. I will be around here. Thanks to Gettysburg Heritage Center and to cspan. You are watching American History tv, airing every weekend on cspan3, and on holidays, too. Here is a look at christmas at the white house in years passed. The christmas foods that we always have and this is our chef, walter schribe. He does all of the buffets. I think you all are going to get a chance to taste it in always bit, and he plans all of the foods that we have. And then this is our new pastry chef that im introducing you to, thaddeus dubois. This is his first Gingerbread House for the white house. It is not his first Gingerbread House, as you can tell. He has a lot of experience from Gingerbread Houses before. But you can see how great the Gingerbread House is. If you look here, you can find barny and kitty, our kitty, willie, all over here. They are doing something all over the house, which is sort of similar to what they are. Theyre singing with the carollers right here, which i think is really cute. Theyre up here on a little sleigh. I think theyre in another couple of spots. Where are they, thaddeus . We have five actually. Right here on the snowman. Oh, yes, here is barny building a snowman, or else eating the carrot, one of the two. Here they are in santas pack. It looks really cute. Do you want to talk about your Gingerbread House . Yes. The house, we took eight Christmas Songs and we did this worked the theme around the eight st. Johns and theyre listed on little brown signs here. We wish you a merry christmas, for instance, and frosty the snowman, rocking around the christmas tree, marshmallow world, which is in the back there, which is a world covered with marshmallows. On the corner there is toyland which a child sleeping in the bed with a bunch of toys. On top of the house we topped it off with the president s own, the marine band, six or five players on top there just to continue the music theme. You can watch this and other American History programs on our website where all our video is archived. Thats cspan. Org history. Over the course of 47 years the saturday evening post features 300 of Norman Rockwells paintings on its cover. Rockwell was 22 when he produced his first cover for the magazine in 1916. Next on reel America American illustrator, 1962 u. S. Information Agency Profile on the artist, tom glazer who provides the soundtrack, visits rockwell at his home and studio to learn about his working methods, influences and career