All language subtitles for The.Ultimate.Civil.War.Series.S01E07.New.Birth.of.Freedom.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

We kept up a
continuous artillery fire upon

the enemy around the whole line
including that north of the

James River, until it was
light enough to move,

which was about a quarter to
five in the morning.

At that hour Parke's and
Wright's corps moved out as

directed, brushed the abatis
from their front as they

advanced under a heavy fire of
musketry and artillery,

and went without flinching
directly on till they mounted

the parapets and threw
themselves inside

of the enemy's line.

Following the
Confederate loss at Five

Forks, Grant determined to
strike hard at Petersburg.

He ordered continuous
artillery fire along the enemy

line, throughout the night of
April first.

At four o'clock in the morning
on April 2nd,

the Ninth and Sixth Corps
would attack

along their respective fronts.

The Sixth Corps assaulted the
Confederate trenches along

Boydton Plank Road.

The Ninth Corps was to strike
at Confederate-held

Fort Mahone.

Major Oliver Bosbyshell was
with the 48th Infantry

Regiment, in the Ninth Corps,
and described the assault on

Fort Mahone, or as he named
it, Fort Hell.

Four o'clock on
the morning of the second

a heavy artillery fire was
opened all along

the rebel lines.

The skirmishers were pushed
forward,

and at half-past four the
troops...

advanced with great alacrity
and enthusiasm

upon the rebel fortifications.

Only half rationed, and with
scalding coffee hastily

swallowed, the Forty-eighth
moved toward the rear

of Fort "Hell,"...

with a savage rush the rebel
picket line was reached and

captured without much of a
struggle.

...the rebel Fort Mahone's
guns belched a very " inferno"

of shot and shell into the
ranks.

On, on, pushed the boys
determined to capture the dire

old tormentor who had troubled
them so the winter long.

The attack was almost
impetuous.

The initial attack
of the Ninth Corps was

successful, capturing three
Confederate batteries.

The southerners were low on
manpower,

their line was stretched thin.

But the Confederate
trenchworks that had hampered

Union offensive so often,
slowed progress to a halt.

Then the Confederates were
able to turn their own heavy

guns onto the federals.

But as Bosbyshell of the 48th
Regiment describes it,

the Union troops did not stop
fighting.

General Curtin,
apparently unconcerned under

the tempest of shot and shell
poured into the command...

had the regimental colors
brought to him...

The men rallied around their
standard,

and led by the brave Curtin...

renewed the assault, pushed
through the obstructing

abatis, over the moat, scaled
the earthwork,

securing a lodgment on the
walls.

Along came the Thirty-ninth
New Jersey,

the color bearer gallantly
springing right into the midst

of the rebels, an act of
bravery that excited the

admiration of all who
witnessed it.

Captain John L. Williams, of
Company F, shouted

"Forward, boys, and save the
Jersey colors."

With one bound the men sprang
forward,

a hand-to-hand encounter
ensued,

which lasted but a moment, the
rebels were overpowered,

the fort was captured, and the
enemy driven beyond it

for a considerable distance.

The Ninth Corps had
overrun the Confederate

trenches, but Southern
resistance was fierce.

It was hours before they could
overcome Forth Mahone

and hold it, and that was due in
large part to the success

of the Sixth Corps.

The Sixth faced Lieutenant
General A.P. Hill's

corps of veterans.

But again the Confederate line
was thin.

Before dawn, the Sixth had
smashed a hole in the

Confederate line at Boydton
Plank Road.

Into that hole poured the
Twenty-Fourth Corps.

They crossed Boydton Plank
Road, headed north.

Before they could reach the
city, the Twenty-Fourth had to

overcome Forts Gregg and
Whitworth.

They were able to capture
both, in hard fighting.

The battle cost the South
another of its generals.

A.P. Hill had rushed to the
scene upon learning

that the Union forces had broken
through his line.

He attempted to rally his men,
but instead was shot and killed.

Sergeant Major Osborne of
Carolina wrote later:

About 11 a.m. a battery
to the right of Fort Mahone

could be spared to run around
that rear of the fort.

It was quick work, for less
than 30 minutes there was not

one wounded Yankee left.

They retreated down the
ravine,

not stopping until they
reached their works.

The open space at Fort Mahone
was literally covered

with blue-coated corpses.

With that one break
through the Confederate lines,

the southern defenses around
the city were indeed untenable.

After nine long months of
trench warfare that would not

be seen again until World War
One,

the siege of Petersburg was
over.

The Confederate forces had
withdrawn

into the city's inner defenses.

Grant planned another artillery
bombardment to begin at

five a.m. on April 3rd, followed
by another assault

an hour later.

But General Robert E. Lee
evacuated the city in the night.

Lee retreated to the west,

hoping to link up with General
Joseph E. Johnston's forces

in North Carolina.

But his own army was
disintegrating,

shedding deserters as it
marched.

Whatever else it might still
have,

the Confederacy did not have
enough men to fight the north.

The southern forces were worn
out.

But in truth, there was one
source of manpower

to which they could still turn
to fill their ranks: slaves.

The Union had been recruiting
African-American men -

both slaves and free blacks -
since the Emancipation

Proclamation on January 1st,
1863.

In fact, some all black
fighting units were organized

even before that time.

A large concentration of the
United States Colored Troops

were involved in the siege of
Petersburg.

Fifteen of these men would
earn the Medal of Honor

for their fighting.

So if the North - which
certainly had its own racial

prejudices to overcome -
recognized the value of

African-Americans as soldiers,
why couldn't southerners?

A few southerners did.

In December 1863, Confederate
General Patrick Cleburne

prepared a memo to his fellow
officers.

Cleburne argued that, given
the overwhelming numerical

superiority of the Union
forces,

southerners must be willing to
give up their slaves,

rather than become slaves
themselves.

Some of Cleburne's fellows
agreed,

but others were outraged, even
calling him a traitor.

Eventually, though, the memo
found its way

to President Jefferson Davis.

His cabinet reacted so
harshly,

that Davis instructed Joseph
Johnston,

commander of the Army of the
Tennessee to squash all

discussion of Cleburne's
suggestion.

As the war dragged on,
however,

more southerners began to
consider the possibility

of offering slaves freedom for
service

in the Confederate Army.

By late 1864, General Robert
E. Lee,

and Secretary of State Judah
Benjamin were pushing to

give slaves freedom if they
would fight

for the Confederacy.

Although most were still
outraged by the idea,

the Confederate Congress
finally approved a plan for

enlisting slaves on March 13,
1865.

The Confederacy managed to
quickly assemble two companies

of black soldiers, but they
never saw combat.

Once Lee was forced to evacuate
Petersburg,

it was no longer possible to
hold Richmond.

The capital of the Confederacy
had to be surrendered.

As President Jefferson Davis
sat in church on April 2nd,

he received a dispatch from
Lee.

Petersburg would fall.
Richmond would follow.

The Confederate government
must evacuate immediately.

Davis and his Cabinet fled
Richmond on the last

available railroad line.

They brought with them the
city's defenders,

the treasury, and whatever
records that they could carry.

Everything else that might be
of military,

industrial, or intelligence
value was burned.

As the soldiers retreated,
their orders were to burn the

armory, the bridges, the
warehouses,

and any supplies remaining.

The fire spread out of
control,

destroying large portions of
the city.

As historian James McPherson
wrote,

"Southerners burned more of
their own capital than the

enemy had burned of Atlanta or
Columbia."

Finally, the next day, the
Richmond mayor went out to the

Union lines just east of the
city,

and officially surrendered the
capital.

Union troops then extinguished
the fires

set by the Confederates.

General Grant described the
situation his army found:

I received a
dispatch from General Weitzel

which notified me that he had
taken possession of Richmond

at about 8:15 o'clock in the
morning of that day,

the 3rd, and that he had found
the city on fire in two places.

The city was in the most utter
confusion.

The authorities had taken the
precaution to empty all the

liquor into the gutter, and to
throw out the provisions which

the Confederate government had
left,

for the people to gather up.

The city had been deserted by
the authorities,

civil and military, without
any notice whatever that they

were about to leave.

In fact, up to the very hour
of the evacuation the people

had been led to believe that
Lee had gained an important

victory somewhere around
Petersburg.

President Abraham
Lincoln was visiting

General Grant at the time that
Petersburg

and then Richmond had fallen.

On April 4, he, and his young
son Tad,

toured the fallen capital.

An aide-de-camp of General
Weitzel,

named Thomas Graves, assisted
with Lincoln's tour.

The President had
arrived about 9 o'clock,

at the landing called Rocketts,
upon Admiral Porter's flag-ship,

the Malvern, and as soon as
the boat was made fast,

without ceremony, he walked on
shore, and started uptown.

As soon as Admiral Porter was
informed of it he ordered a

guard of marines to follow as
escort;

but in he walked of about two
miles they never saw him,

and he was directed by
negroes.

At the Davis house, he was
shown into the reception-room,

with the remark that the
housekeeper had said that the

room was President Davis's
office.

As he seated himself he
remarked,

'This must have been President
Davis's chair,

and, crossing his legs, he
looked far off with a serious,

dreamy expression.

The war seemed all
but over.

But the dying was not yet
finished.

General Sheridan's cavalry
blocked Lee's flight southwest

to join Johnston, again and
again.

Meanwhile the Union army
maintained its pursuit.

And on April 3rd, a cavalry
division under Brigadier

General George Armstrong
Custer struck Lee's rear guard

at Namozine Creek.

Both sides took losses, but
Custer's men were able to take

three hundred fifty prisoners,
plus one hundred horses

and an artillery piece.

Another Union cavalry brigade
burned supply wagons and

skirmished with Confederate
forces

at Amelia Springs on April 5th.

The Army of the Potomac and
the Army of Northern Virginia

met for what would be their
last significant battle

on April 6th. Grant described
the action:

The armies finally
met on Sailor's Creek,

when a heavy engagement took
place, in which infantry,

artillery and cavalry were all
brought into action.

Our men on the right, as they
were brought in

against the enemy, came in on
higher ground,

and upon his flank, giving us
every advantage to be derived

from the lay of the country.

The enemy's loss was very
heavy,

as well in killed and wounded
as in captures.

Some six general officers fell
into our hands in this

engagement, and seven thousand
men were made prisoners.

With those losses,
Lee had run out of options.

He struggled to reach supply
trains at Appomattox Station,

but those had already been
captured by Custer's cavalry.

Grant wrote:

The Confederates
were surprised

to find our cavalry had
possession of the trains.

However, they were desperate
and at once assaulted,

hoping to recover them.

In the melee that ensued they
succeeded in burning one of

the trains, but not in getting
anything from it.

Custer then ordered the other
trains run back on the road

towards Farmville, and the
fight continued.

A sharp engagement ensued, but
Lee quickly set up a white flag.

Grant and Lee had
already been exchanging

messages, with Grant hoping to
avoid further conflict.

With the supply trains lost,
Lee was finally ready

to discuss terms of surrender.

They met in the village of
Appomattox Court House,

at the home of Wilmer McLean.

Brevet Brigadier General
Horace Porter

described the meeting.

The contrast between
the two commanders

was striking... as they sat ten
feet apart.

General Grant, then nearly
forty-three years of age,

was five feet eight inches in
height,

with shoulders slightly
stooped...

He had on a single-breasted
blouse made of dark blue

flannel, unbuttoned in the
front...

He wore an ordinary pair of
top boots,

with his trousers inside...

The boots and portions of his
clothes

were spattered with mud...

He had no sword, and a pair of
shoulder-straps

was all there was... to
designate his rank.

In fact, aside from these, his
uniform

was that of a private soldier.

Lee, on the other hand, was
fully six feet in height,

and quite erect for one of his
age...

His hair and full beard were a
silver-gray and quite thick...

He wore a new uniform of
Confederate gray,

buttoned up to the throat, and
at his side he carried a long

sword of exceedingly fine
workmanship,

the hilt studded with jewels.

Grant offered
lenient terms of surrender.

Lee's men would pledge not to
take up arms against the

Government of the United
States.

Arms and artillery would be
turned over to Grant's army,

but officers would be allowed
to keep their side-arms,

private horses, and baggage.

They would then be permitted
to return home, undisturbed.

This will have
the best possible effect

upon the men.

It will be very gratifying and
will do much

toward conciliating our people.

Grant also promised
to send Lee's men,

who were desperately
undersupplied and hungry,

twenty-five thousand rations.

As Lee left the McLean house,
some of Grant's soldiers began

to cheer, and fire celebratory
shots into the air.

Grant ordered them to cease.

The war is over,

the rebels are our countrymen
again,

and the best sign of rejoicing
after the victory will be to

abstain from all
demonstrations in the field.

Everyone present at
the surrender was aware that

they were present at a
momentous point in history.

Grant's policy of reconciliation
was in keeping

with his Commander-in-Chief's.

Throughout the war, Lincoln
was thinking about how to

bring the rebel states back
into the Union

as quickly and smoothly as
possible.

The Thirteenth Amendment,
abolishing slavery,

had been passed by the U.S.
Senate on April 8, 1864,

and it passed the House on
January 31, 1865.

On December 18 of that year,

it would be adopted into the
Constitution.

The Confederate states would
be returning to a very

different Union from the one
that they had left.

Lincoln wanted to make it
relatively easy for states

to return to the fold.

His policy was based on the
belief that states could not,

in fact, secede from the
Union.

They did not need to be
re-admitted,

they merely needed to be
restored

to their proper state.

His December 1863 Proclamation
of Amnesty and Reconstruction,

in addition to pardoning
almost all Confederates,

required only that ten percent
of a state's voting population

take an oath of loyalty to the
United States,

and then vote to re-establish
a legitimate

republican government.

New state governments would
have to abolish slavery.

The Thirteenth Amendment,
abolishing slavery

in the United States, had
already passed the Senate

and the House.

Three states - Louisiana,
Tennessee,

and Arkansas - had already met
Lincoln's requirements,

and established Lincoln
governments.

Congress resented Lincoln's
ten-percent solution.

Most wanted significantly
harsher terms imposed

upon the states in rebellion.

They disagreed with Lincoln's
belief that these states had

not left the Union, and they
believed that re-admittance

should not be easy.

Radical Republicans had passed
the Wade-Davis Bill in 1864.

That Bill would require a
majority of the state's voters

to take an Ironclad Oath,
proclaiming not only their

future loyalty to the Union,
but swearing that they had

never personally supported the
Confederacy.

Since roughly four out of five
white males of military age in

the South had fought for the
Confederacy,

this requirement was an
impossibility.

He wanted to maintain
presidential control over the

restoration of the states, so
he tried to accomplish as much

as possible while he could
claim the authority given to

the president in times of war.

On April 14, 1865, Lincoln met
with his cabinet to discuss

reconstruction, and how to
treat confederate leaders

after the war. Lincoln was
clear:

I hope there will be no
persecution,

no bloody work after the war is
over.

No one need expect me to take
part in hanging or killing

those men, and even the worst
of them.

Frighten them out of the
country,

open the gates, let down the
bars, scare them off.

Enough lives have been
sacrificed;

we must extinguish our
resentments if we expect

harmony and union.

There has been too much desire
on the part of some of our

friends to be masters, to
interfere with and dictate to

those states, to treat the
people not as fellow citizens;

and there is too little
respect for their rights.

I do not sympathize in these
feelings.

Less than twelve
hours after making that

statement, President Abraham
Lincoln escorted his wife into

Ford's Theatre, to attend a
play.

The mood was festive in light
of recent events.

The war was not technically
over, but the end was near.

Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln had even
begun discussing what they

might do now, now that the
mountainous burden of civil

war was removed from his
shoulders.

Then a little after ten p.m.,
stage actor John Wilkes Booth

fired a bullet into the
President's head.

Booth and a group of
co-conspirators planned the

assassination of Lincoln, Vice
President Andrew Johnson,

Secretary of State William
Seward,

General Grant, and others.

They hoped to revive the
Confederacy's spirits,

while General Joseph
Johnston's army

was still free and fighting.

Booth's co-conspirators
failed,

though Seward and his son were
wounded.

But President Lincoln died the
next day, April 15, 1865.

Andrew Johnson was sworn in as
President at eleven a.m.

on the 15th, about four hours
after Lincoln breathed his last.

After John Wilkes Booth was
killed by his pursuers in late

April, President Johnson
established a military

commission to try the
surviving conspirators.

They were tried, convicted,
and several were executed

before Summer's end.

Not surprisingly, people of the
North and South

reacted very differently to
the assassination of Lincoln,

as can be seen in diaries from
the period.

Caroline Richards of New York
wrote, on April 15th:

The news came
this morning

that our dear president,
Abraham Lincoln,

was assassinated yesterday,
on the day appointed

for thanksgiving for Union
victories.

I have felt sick over it all
day and so has every one

that I have seen.

All seem to feel as though
they had lost a personal

friend, and tears flow
plenteously.

How soon has sorrow followed
upon the heels of joy!

One week ago to-night we were
celebrating our victories with

loud acclamations of mirth and
good cheer.

Now every one is silent and
sad and the earth and heavens

seem clothed in sack-cloth.

The bells have been tolling
this afternoon.

The flags are all at half
mast,

draped with mourning, and on
every store and dwelling-house

some sign of the nation's loss
is visible.

Kate Stone of
Louisiana,

whose family had fled to Texas
during the war,

had a very different response.
On April 28, she writes:

We hear that Lincoln
is dead...

All honor to J. Wilkes Booth,
who has rid the world

of a tyrant and made himself
famous for generations...

Then on May 15th she
adds:

Poor Booth, to think
he fell at last.

Many a true heart at the South
weeps for his death...

Lincoln's fate overtook him in
the flush of his triumph,

on the pinnacle of his fame,
or rather infamy.

We are glad he is not alive to
rejoice in our humiliation

and insult us by his jokes...

Certainly not all
Southerners

had quite that reaction.

Sarah Morgan of Louisiana
wrote:

"Vengeance is
mine;

I will repay, saith the Lord."
This is murder!

God have mercy on those who
did it!...

And because I know that they
would have apotheosized any

man who had crucified Jeff
Davis,

I abhor this, and call it foul
murder,

unworthy of our cause - and
God grant it was only the

temporary insanity of a
desperate man

that committed this crime!

Let not his blood be visited
on our nation, Lord!

Though Southerners
such as Kate Stone might

record private celebrations at
Lincoln's death,

those living in areas occupied
by Union troops decided that

they should at least appear to
be in mourning.

Sarah Morgan noted that the
more thankful her neighbors

seemed to be about Lincoln's
death,

the more ostentatiously they
draped their homes in black.

And many Southerners
recognized that the

assassination of Lincoln could
mean disaster for former

Confederates, now that the
Union victory

seemed inevitable.

One such Southerner was the
President of the Confederacy.

Jefferson Davis had fled to
Charlotte,

North Carolina, which would
for a short time be the final

capital of the Confederacy.

When told of Lincoln's
assassination, Davis said:

I certainly had
no special regard

for Mr. Lincoln; but there are a
great many men

of whose end I would much rather
have heard than his.

I fear it will be disastrous
for our people

and I regret it deeply.

Davis was right to
be concerned,

for the people of the North
felt as much rage

as they did sorrow at Lincoln's
murder.

The desire for retribution, to
punish the South, was strong.

After Lincoln's death, Writer
Herman Melville captured the

anger and sorrow of the North
and the trepidations of the

South in his poem, The Martyr.

GOOD
Friday was the day of the

prodigy and crime, When they
killed him in his pity,

When they killed him in his
prime Of clemency and calm -

When with yearning he was
filled To redeem

the evil-willed, And, though
conqueror, be kind;

But they killed him in his
kindness,

In their madness and their
blindness,

And they killed him from
behind.

There is sobbing of the strong,

And a pall upon the land; But
the People in their weeping

Bare the iron hand: Beware the
People weeping When they bare

the iron hand.

He lieth in his blood - The
father in his face;

They have killed him, the
Forgiver -

The Avenger takes his place,
The Avenger wisely stern,

Who in righteousness shall do
What the heavens call him to,

And the parricides remand; For
they killed him in his

kindness, In their madness and
their blindness,

And his blood is on their
hand.

There is sobbing of the
strong,

And a pall upon the land; But
the People in their weeping

Bare the iron hand:

Jefferson Davis would
soon get

a sense of the people's anger,
as the war came to its end.

Though it is common to think
of Lee's surrender

at Appomattox as the end of the
Civil War,

in truth the largest Confederate
army,

with almost ninety thousand
men,

was still in the field, under
Joseph E. Johnston.

On April 17, two days after
Lincoln's death,

Union General William Tecumseh
Sherman met with General

Johnston to discuss Johnston's
surrender.

Sherman received word of
Lincoln's death only moments

before meeting with Johnston.
He later wrote:

As soon as we were
alone together

I showed him the dispatch
announcing Mr. Lincoln's

assassination, and watched him
closely.

The perspiration came out in
large drops on his forehead,

and he did not attempt to
conceal his distress.

He denounced the act as a
disgrace to the age,

and hoped I did not charge it
to the Confederate Government.

I told him I could not believe
that he or General Lee,

or the officers of the
Confederate army,

could possibly be privy to
acts of assassination;

but I would not say as much
for Jeff Davis...

I then told him that I had
recently had an interview with

General Grant and President
Lincoln,

and that I was possessed of
their views;

that with them and the people
North there seemed to be no

vindictive feeling against the
Confederate armies,

but there was against Davis
and his political adherents...

Sherman sought an
agreement similar to Grant's

and Lee's, pertaining strictly
to the military.

But President Davis pushed for
Johnston to get more of a

treaty than simply terms of
military surrender.

He wanted political promises,
such as agreements to

recognize existing state
governments,

and guarantees of property,
while making no mention of

accepting the end of slavery.

Sherman, in keeping with what
he believed Lincoln would have

wanted, agreed to the terms,
though he acknowledged that he

did not have final authority.

When the terms were sent to
Washington,

he discovered that the mood at
the White House was now very

different than a week earlier,
before a man calling himself a

southern patriot murdered the
President.

The new President, formerly
Vice President Andrew Johnson,

ordered Sherman to agree only
to purely military terms of

surrender, which Johnston
accepted.

Jefferson Davis did not want to
give up the fight.

Brigadier General Basil Duke
wrote about a meeting between

Davis and a handful of
brigadier generals,

days after Johnston's
surrender.

After some
conversation of a general

nature, he said: "It is time
that we adopt some definite

plan upon which the further
prosecution of our struggle

shall be conducted.

I have summoned you for
consultation..."

After we had each given, at
his request,

a statement of the equipment
and condition of our

respective commands, Mr. Davis
proceeded to declare his

conviction that the cause was
not lost any more than Hope of

American liberty was gone amid
the sorest trials and most

disheartening reverses of the
Revolutionary struggle;

but that energy, courage, and
consistency

might yet save all.

"Even," he said, "if the
troops now with me be all that

I can for the present rely on,
three thousand brave men are

enough for a nucleus around
which the whole people will

rally when the panic which now
afflicts them

has passed away."

He then asked that I should
make suggestions in regard

to the future conduct of the
war.

We looked at each other in
amazement and with a feeling a

little akin to trepidation,
for we hardly knew how we

should give expression to
views diametrically opposed

to those he had uttered.

Davis' generals knew
that the war was over.

Soon Davis would realize it as
well.

On May 10, 1865, Jefferson
Davis was captured in

Irwin County, Georgia.

He would remain in prison for
two years.

He was released on bail, and
the federal government

eventually dropped its case.

With the war over, and Lincoln
dead,

what was to happen with
reconstruction?

Lincoln and the Radical
Republicans in Congress had

struggled with each other over
Reconstruction.

Lincoln wanted it done
quickly.

He was adamant that states
must accept the effects of the

Emancipation Proclamation, and
outlaw slavery

in their constitutions.

But he wanted their return
into the federal fold to be

otherwise as smooth as
possible.

The Radical Republicans had a
much harsher view of how the

rebellious states might be
reconstructed.

Senator Charles Sumner of
Massachusetts,

who before the war had been
brutally beaten on the senate

floor by a southern congressman,

believed that they had
committed "state suicide",

and should be treated as
conquered land.

He strongly objected to
Lincoln's lenient policy.

But if he found Lincoln's plan
too lenient,

Johnson's policies completely
outraged him.

Under Johnson, the Southern
states quickly set up new

"Johnson" governments,
recognized by

the federal government.

The states quickly passed
Black Codes,

which denied freedmen the
right to vote,

serve on juries, or testify
against whites in court.

They could not overturn the
Thirteenth Amendment,

but they could resist it in
spirit.

Major General William Tecumseh
Sherman,

in January 1865, had issued
Special Field Order Number 15,

which provided land to former
slaves.

Heads of households would get
forty acres of land which had

once been part of a plantation.

Some would also get the use of
a Union Army mule, for plowing.

About 40,000 slaves were
settled on land under this

order, but it did not last.

Sherman's order had been made
as a wartime measure,

and for the policy to continue,

the civil government would
need to take similar action.

Instead, in the fall of 1865,
President Johnson

rescinded Sherman's order.

We can never know how Lincoln
might have handled

Reconstruction after the war,
or how he would have managed

the relationship with Congress.

But we do know that Andrew
Johnson's inability to work

with Congress, his patent
racism,

and his clear unwillingness to
support the rights of four

million freed slaves, meant
that the Executive Branch lost

all control over Reconstruction.

Throughout Johnson's
presidency,

Congress would take action -
such as creating the

Freedmen's Bureau - Johnson
would veto the Act,

and then Congress would
override his veto.

So how did these former slaves
survive in the

early years after the war?

Their individual stories can
help bring to light some of

the issues they - and the
nation - faced.

In the 1930s, as part of the
Works Progress Administration,

twenty-three hundred former
slaves were interviewed about

their lives before and after
slavery.

Here, Fannie Berry and Dora
Roberts

share their personal stories.

I was free a
long time 'fore I knew it.

My Mistess still hired me out,
'til one day in talkin' to the

woman she hired me to...

"God bless her soul", she told
me,

"Fannie you are free, and I
don't have to pay

your Master for you now.
You stay with me."

She didn't give me no money,
but let me stay there an' work

for vitals an' clothes 'cause
I ain't got nowhere to go.

After the war
broke out we was all carried

up to the plantation in Early
County to stay

'til after the war.

The day the 'mancipation was
read

there was sadness an' gladness.

The ole Massa he call us all
together an' with tears in his

eyes he say, 'You is all free
an' now you can go

just where you please.

I have no more jurisdiction
over you.

All who stay will be well
cared for.

But the most of us, we wanted
to come back to be the place

where we lived before, Liberty
County.

So he outfitted the wagons
with horses an' mules an' give

us what there was of
provisions on the plantation

an' sent us on our way to the
ole plantation

in Liberty County.

We get in such a bad fix some
of the people died.

It seem like the ole Lord
musta heard the prayers of his

chillun for 'long way down the
road we seed our ole Massa

comin' an' he brung men an'
horses to get us safely

to the ole home.

An' when we got up there, I
never see him no more 'cause

he went back up in Early
County...

Every freedmen's
story is unique,

but they all tell of the
hardships faced by a people

moving from slavery to
freedom.

Some slaves fared better than
others,

due to their own skills or
luck, or due to a sense

of responsibility to their own
former masters.

But it was clear that the
nation could not rely on all

former masters to demonstrate
such compassion.

During the Reconstruction Era,

the federal government
dissolved the governments of

most of the former Confederate
states,

and managed the states through
the Freedmen's Bureau,

which was a branch of the
military.

The Freedmen's Bureau was
established to help former

slaves obtain food, medicine,
housing, education, and land,

to aid in the difficult
transition

from slavery to freedom.

Initially, the Bureau's focus
was on providing the basic

necessities for survival.

Emergency food, housing, and
medical aid.

But its larger role was to
help freed slaves get an

education and find work, and
to try to ensure

fairness in labor contracts.

Prior to the Civil War, none
of the southern states had any

kind of universal public
school system.

The Freedmen's Bureau took on
the task of establishing

southern schools for former
slaves,

to teach basic literacy.

By 1870, over a thousand of
these schools were operating

across the south.

They also established two
dozen colleges and institutes

of higher learning for
African-American youth.

Many of these historically
black colleges and

universities are still
operating today.

Another issue was that since
these freedmen were no longer

slaves, they would count as
full citizens in the

determination of
representation in Congress,

rather than the three-fifths of
a person.

But would they be allowed to
vote?

If they were not, then the
voting power and

representation of white
southerners would be even more

disproportionate to northern
voters than it was

before the war.

Yet few in the south were
willing to give

African-Americans the right to
vote.

Southern Democrats were angered
by the federal

control of their states.

Many took their anger out on
the freedmen.

Some whites formed secret
societies to resist

and disrupt the new order.

These vigilante groups - the
most infamous being the

Ku Klux Klan - included former
Confederate soldiers,

and were essentially insurgent
forces in opposition

to the federal government.

They used terrorist tactics of
violence and intimidation to

keep blacks - and white
Republicans - from voting.

The Ku Klux Klan would attack
at night,

wearing masks and robes to
hide their identities.

They intimidated workers for
the Freedmen's Bureau.

Across the south, thousands of
African Americans and white

Republicans were killed by
members of the Ku Klux Klan

and similar organizations.

Former general, now Senator,
Benjamin Butler drafted

legislation referred to as the
Ku Klux Klan Act.

Another former general,
President Ulysses S. Grant,

signed it into law.

The act authorized the use of
federal troops rather than

state militias to enforce the
law in the south.

It also empowered the federal
courts to try Klan cases,

and authorized the suspension
of the writ of habeas corpus.

Grant took full advantage of
these powers,

and dismantled the Klan.

It would be several decades
before the organization

would rise again.

The Civil Rights Act of 1866
granted citizenship

to all persons born in the
United States,

with equal rights regardless
of color.

This act was passed over the
veto of President Johnson,

and the policy was further
cemented into law by

constitutional amendments.

The Fourteenth and Fifteenth
amendments clarified that the

blacks were expected to have
the same rights

as white citizens.

The Fourteenth amendment,
ratified in 1868,

stated that all persons born
in the U.S. are citizens

of the country and of the state
in which they live.

It further required states to
provide equal protection under

the law to all their citizens,
and prohibited states from

depriving any person of life,
liberty,

or property without due
process.

The Fifteenth amendment,
ratified in 1870,

prohibited any state or local
government from denying

citizens the right to vote
based on race,

color, or having been a slave.

It is certainly true that
governments stretched and

broke these restrictions over
the following decades.

But the amendments gave
African-Americans - and others -

the tools needed to
eventually force state and

local governments into
compliance.

Therefore, blacks gained the
vote across the southern

states, and began putting
African-Americans

into elected office.

During this period, hundreds
of African-Americans

were elected to state
legislatures.

Twenty-one were elected to the
U.S. House of Representatives -

including ten former slaves -
and two were sent to the

U.S. Senate, one of them a
former slave.

But these gains did not last.

Once southern states were
"redeemed,

and freed from federal
oversight,

they began finding ways to
restrict the new rights

of black citizens.

The KKK and similar
organizations had suppressed

the black vote in the late
1860s and 1870s.

In the 1890s, states created
new constitutions that changed

voter registration in ways
that effectively stripped the

right to vote from most blacks
and many poor whites.

Most prominent were literacy
tests and poll taxes.

Literacy tests should not have
kept most blacks from voting,

since the schools created by
the Freedmen's Bureau had

succeeded in driving down the
illiteracy rate

amongst the blacks.

But somehow literate blacks
were often unable to pass

literacy tests administered by
white voter registrars.

In some cases, grandfather
clauses were added to the

voting requirements, allowing
a man to register to vote if

his grandfather had possessed
the right to vote.

This allowed illiterate whites
to skip the tests,

but could not help black
citizens whose grandfathers

had been slaves.

African American leaders such
as Booker T. Washington

worked to have such practices
challenged in court.

But in the first years of the
twentieth century,

the courts - as well as
Congress - were not willing to

fight southern power on this
issue.

Successful challenges occurred
in 1915,

1939, and 1944, throwing out
pieces of the voting barriers

that states had erected.

But these states would then
find new ways

to reach the same goals.

It would not be until the
Civil Rights movement,

culminating in the Voting
Rights Act of 1965,

that these barriers would be
swept aside,

and the intended goal of the
Fifteenth Amendment

would be realized.

Though the Civil War ended in
1865,

it has never been far from our
memory.

And that memory itself quickly
became a new kind of

battleground, as interested
parties sought to control the

memories of what happened and
why.

Proponents of the Lost Cause
movement - including Jefferson

Davis himself - emphasized the
noble character of southern

resistance to federal
oppression.

They minimized the importance
of slavery,

insisting that the war was
only ever really

about state's rights.

Others focused on the
emancipation of four million

slaves, and remember the war
as being the only way -

in hindsight - to free the
slaves from their bondage,

and free the nation from its
dependence on slavery.

And still others looked past
the arguments of who was

right, and sought to bind up
the nations wounds through a

shared mourning for the over
six hundred thousand

killed in the war.

Many Americans love and
respect Abraham Lincoln

as they do no other president.

And many others feel that same
love and pride when they look

on an image of General Robert
E. Lee.

And odd as it may seem, many
Americans

love and honor both men.

Thousands of Civil War
landmarks and memorials,

large and small, dot the
country roads,

and rivers, and bridges, and
towns of modern America.

Every year, thousands of
reenactors don Union and

Confederate uniforms, and
replay the great and terrible

battles of that war.

Americans may never completely
reconcile their feelings

toward the Civil War and its
participants.

But they will never forget.