1 00:00:09,900 --> 00:00:12,190 "We believed that it was most desirable 2 00:00:12,240 --> 00:00:14,390 "that the North should win. 3 00:00:15,310 --> 00:00:18,240 "We believed in the principle that the Union 4 00:00:18,290 --> 00:00:19,990 "is indissoluble. 5 00:00:20,880 --> 00:00:24,120 "We, or many of us at least, also believed 6 00:00:24,170 --> 00:00:27,470 "that the conflict was inevitable 7 00:00:27,520 --> 00:00:30,640 "and that slavery had lasted long enough, 8 00:00:31,600 --> 00:00:35,330 "but we equally believed that those who stood against us 9 00:00:35,380 --> 00:00:38,100 "held just as sacred convictions 10 00:00:38,170 --> 00:00:40,140 "that were the opposite of ours," 11 00:00:40,740 --> 00:00:44,360 "and we respected them as every man with a heart" 12 00:00:44,410 --> 00:00:47,090 "must respect those who give all" 13 00:00:47,290 --> 00:00:49,040 "for their belief." 14 00:00:49,760 --> 00:00:51,960 Oliver Wendell Holmes. 15 00:01:03,850 --> 00:01:07,060 We are the veterans of the Civil War, 16 00:01:07,110 --> 00:01:10,690 '61 to '65. 17 00:01:10,840 --> 00:01:12,700 This flag 18 00:01:12,750 --> 00:01:16,950 is of the Hawkins' Zouaves, New York. 19 00:01:17,340 --> 00:01:19,100 Now salute. 20 00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:30,260 As a southerner, I would say 21 00:01:30,630 --> 00:01:34,330 one of the main importances of the war is that 22 00:01:34,380 --> 00:01:38,230 southerners have a sense of defeat, 23 00:01:38,780 --> 00:01:42,600 which, none of the rest of the country has. 24 00:01:42,800 --> 00:01:44,800 You'll see in the movie "Patton," 25 00:01:44,900 --> 00:01:49,190 the actor who plays Patton saying, "We Americans have never lost a war." 26 00:01:49,240 --> 00:01:52,160 That was a rather amazing statement for him to make as Patton 27 00:01:52,210 --> 00:01:54,550 because Patton's grandfather was on... 28 00:01:54,600 --> 00:01:56,900 in Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, 29 00:01:56,950 --> 00:01:59,110 and he certainly lost a war. 30 00:02:14,150 --> 00:02:17,080 In 1865 in South Africa, 31 00:02:17,130 --> 00:02:20,360 whites drove the Basuto tribe from their land. 32 00:02:22,150 --> 00:02:25,690 In Afghanistan, Russian troop movements along the border 33 00:02:25,740 --> 00:02:29,040 were a cause of great international concern. 34 00:02:30,480 --> 00:02:32,770 At a monastery in Austria, 35 00:02:32,820 --> 00:02:36,440 Gregor Mendel established the principle of heredity, 36 00:02:36,810 --> 00:02:41,000 and in Ireland, the poet William Butler Yeats was born. 37 00:02:44,180 --> 00:02:47,710 In 1865 in America, Samuel Clemens 38 00:02:47,760 --> 00:02:49,660 published his first short story 39 00:02:49,710 --> 00:02:51,500 as Mark Twain. 40 00:02:51,870 --> 00:02:54,370 The Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery, 41 00:02:54,420 --> 00:02:56,210 was formally ratified, 42 00:02:57,100 --> 00:03:00,020 and the Ku Klux Klan was formed. 43 00:03:03,510 --> 00:03:07,490 In 1860, most of the nation's thirty-one million people 44 00:03:07,560 --> 00:03:11,370 lived peaceably on farms or in small towns. 45 00:03:11,740 --> 00:03:15,590 By 1865, everything had changed: 46 00:03:16,090 --> 00:03:18,190 Sharpsburg, Maryland; 47 00:03:19,210 --> 00:03:21,460 Fredericksburg, Virginia; 48 00:03:22,470 --> 00:03:24,970 Murfreesboro, Tennessee; 49 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:28,400 Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; 50 00:03:29,190 --> 00:03:31,560 Vicksburg, Mississippi; 51 00:03:32,870 --> 00:03:34,930 Atlanta, Georgia. 52 00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:46,160 By the beginning of 1865, the Confederacy was dying. 53 00:03:47,120 --> 00:03:51,330 To the west, only the tattered Confederate Army of Tennessee remained. 54 00:03:52,390 --> 00:03:54,800 Its soldiers, like Sam Watkins, 55 00:03:54,860 --> 00:03:58,080 worried more about food and blankets and shoes 56 00:03:58,130 --> 00:03:59,600 than fighting. 57 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:02,740 Outside Petersburg, Elisha Hunt Rhodes 58 00:04:02,790 --> 00:04:06,690 and 120,000 other Union troops were dug in, 59 00:04:06,840 --> 00:04:10,230 unable to dislodge the stubborn rebel army. 60 00:04:11,300 --> 00:04:13,050 Atlanta had been razed, 61 00:04:13,100 --> 00:04:15,550 and Georgia and the Carolinas lay helpless 62 00:04:15,600 --> 00:04:18,550 in William Tecumseh Sherman's path. 63 00:04:19,950 --> 00:04:22,410 As the new year began, Robert E. Lee 64 00:04:22,460 --> 00:04:25,260 assumed command of all Southern forces 65 00:04:25,310 --> 00:04:29,670 and with it, the hopeless task of hurling back the huge Union armies 66 00:04:29,720 --> 00:04:32,870 now closing in from every side. 67 00:04:33,470 --> 00:04:35,750 With victory within his grasp, 68 00:04:35,800 --> 00:04:39,840 Abraham Lincoln looked forward to a second presidential term 69 00:04:39,890 --> 00:04:41,710 and a new challenge... 70 00:04:41,910 --> 00:04:45,050 healing the nation he had struggled so hard 71 00:04:45,100 --> 00:04:46,600 to reunite. 72 00:04:49,350 --> 00:04:53,300 "Here was the greatest and most moving chapter in American history, 73 00:04:53,450 --> 00:04:56,090 "a blending of meanness and greatness, 74 00:04:56,140 --> 00:04:58,270 "an ending and a beginning. 75 00:04:58,800 --> 00:05:01,220 "It came out of what men were, 76 00:05:01,590 --> 00:05:04,450 "but it did not go as men had planned. 77 00:05:05,570 --> 00:05:09,520 "Of all men, Abraham Lincoln came the closest to understanding 78 00:05:09,570 --> 00:05:11,070 what had happened. 79 00:05:12,230 --> 00:05:15,590 "Yet even he, in his final backward glance," 80 00:05:15,640 --> 00:05:18,550 "had to confess that something that went beyond words" 81 00:05:18,600 --> 00:05:20,650 "had been at work in the land." 82 00:05:22,000 --> 00:05:25,480 "The almighty had his own purposes." 83 00:05:26,140 --> 00:05:27,760 Bruce Catton. 84 00:05:58,960 --> 00:06:01,780 "My aim was to whip the rebels, 85 00:06:02,400 --> 00:06:04,300 "to humble their pride," 86 00:06:04,350 --> 00:06:06,580 "to follow them to their innermost recesses," 87 00:06:06,630 --> 00:06:09,470 "and to make them fear and dread us." 88 00:06:11,580 --> 00:06:13,720 "War is cruelty." 89 00:06:13,770 --> 00:06:16,100 "There's no use trying to reform it." 90 00:06:16,660 --> 00:06:19,780 "The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over." 91 00:06:20,490 --> 00:06:22,690 William Tecumseh Sherman. 92 00:06:25,290 --> 00:06:27,440 "War is all hell," 93 00:06:27,490 --> 00:06:29,890 William Tecumseh Sherman once said, 94 00:06:29,940 --> 00:06:34,040 and it was now his aim to bring that hell to the heart of the Confederacy. 95 00:06:35,690 --> 00:06:38,070 He saw from the very beginning 96 00:06:38,240 --> 00:06:40,400 how hard a war it was gonna be, 97 00:06:40,450 --> 00:06:43,180 and when he said how hard a war it was gonna be, 98 00:06:43,330 --> 00:06:46,790 he was retired under suspicion of insanity 99 00:06:47,660 --> 00:06:49,840 and then brought back when they decided 100 00:06:49,890 --> 00:06:52,250 maybe he wasn't so crazy after all. 101 00:06:53,220 --> 00:06:57,480 Sherman is maybe the first truly modern general. 102 00:06:57,530 --> 00:06:59,890 He was the first one to understand, 103 00:07:00,060 --> 00:07:02,950 in the present-day world, 104 00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:07,200 that civilians were the backers-up of things 105 00:07:07,250 --> 00:07:09,610 and that if you went against civilians, you 106 00:07:09,660 --> 00:07:12,550 deprived the army of what kept it going, so he 107 00:07:12,600 --> 00:07:15,360 quite purposely made war against civilians. 108 00:07:23,990 --> 00:07:26,790 From Atlanta in late 1864, 109 00:07:26,840 --> 00:07:29,940 Sherman proposed to march his army through the heart of Georgia 110 00:07:29,990 --> 00:07:31,990 all the way to Savannah. 111 00:07:32,560 --> 00:07:34,560 His army would live off the land, 112 00:07:34,610 --> 00:07:37,680 destroying everything in its path that could conceivably aid 113 00:07:37,730 --> 00:07:39,680 the faltering Confederacy, 114 00:07:39,900 --> 00:07:41,760 and a good deal that couldn't. 115 00:07:42,020 --> 00:07:44,340 "I can make this march," he promised, 116 00:07:44,490 --> 00:07:46,880 "and make Georgia howl." 117 00:07:50,670 --> 00:07:54,170 Lincoln's advisors thought Sherman's plan foolhardy. 118 00:07:54,220 --> 00:07:56,250 The president approved it. 119 00:07:56,570 --> 00:07:58,070 "If you can whip Lee 120 00:07:58,120 --> 00:08:01,020 "and I can march to the Atlantic," Sherman told Grant, 121 00:08:01,170 --> 00:08:04,110 "I think Uncle Abe will give us 20 days' leave" 122 00:08:04,160 --> 00:08:05,960 "to see the young folks." 123 00:08:08,120 --> 00:08:12,150 "There are rumors that we are to cut loose and march south to the ocean." 124 00:08:12,200 --> 00:08:16,530 "We're in fine shape and, I think, could go anywhere Uncle Billy would lead." 125 00:08:16,740 --> 00:08:18,790 Private Theodore Upson. 126 00:08:19,360 --> 00:08:22,660 Before leaving Atlanta, Sherman ordered all townspeople, 127 00:08:22,710 --> 00:08:25,080 white and black, out of their homes, 128 00:08:25,130 --> 00:08:27,690 then directed his men to burn or destroy 129 00:08:27,740 --> 00:08:29,840 anything of use to the rebels. 130 00:08:32,810 --> 00:08:35,770 Civilians looted the town and helped spread the blaze 131 00:08:35,820 --> 00:08:37,370 throughout the city. 132 00:08:39,440 --> 00:08:42,240 "A grand and awful spectacle is presented to the beholder 133 00:08:42,290 --> 00:08:44,800 "in this beautiful city, now in flames. 134 00:08:44,900 --> 00:08:47,760 "The heaven is one expanse of lurid fire. 135 00:08:47,810 --> 00:08:50,450 "The air is filled with flying cinders. 136 00:08:50,950 --> 00:08:52,959 "The city, which, next to Richmond, 137 00:08:52,960 --> 00:08:55,160 "has furnished more material for prosecuting the war 138 00:08:55,210 --> 00:08:57,010 "than any other in the South, 139 00:08:58,020 --> 00:09:00,310 "exists no more as a means for injury 140 00:09:00,360 --> 00:09:02,610 to be used by the enemies of the Union. 141 00:09:04,260 --> 00:09:07,140 Sherman began his march. 142 00:09:09,230 --> 00:09:12,400 Sixty-two-thousand men in blue were on the move 143 00:09:12,450 --> 00:09:14,350 in two great columns. 144 00:09:14,400 --> 00:09:17,750 Their supply train stretched twenty-five miles. 145 00:09:18,270 --> 00:09:20,940 A slave watching the army stream past 146 00:09:20,990 --> 00:09:24,230 wondered aloud if anybody was left up north. 147 00:09:26,090 --> 00:09:29,340 "The name of the captor of Atlanta, if he fails now," 148 00:09:29,390 --> 00:09:31,580 "would become the scoff of mankind" 149 00:09:31,630 --> 00:09:35,020 "and the humiliation of the United States for all time." 150 00:09:35,440 --> 00:09:39,320 "If he succeeds, it will be written on the tablet of fame." 151 00:09:39,790 --> 00:09:41,480 London Herald. 152 00:09:46,370 --> 00:09:49,350 "Reaching the hill just outside the old rebel works, 153 00:09:49,400 --> 00:09:51,400 "we paused to look back. 154 00:09:51,450 --> 00:09:54,230 "Behind us lay Atlanta in ruins, 155 00:09:54,550 --> 00:09:57,320 "the black smoke rising high in the air, 156 00:09:57,370 --> 00:09:59,450 "hanging like a pall." 157 00:10:00,020 --> 00:10:02,960 "Then we turned our horses' heads to the east." 158 00:10:03,130 --> 00:10:06,600 "Atlanta was soon lost behind the screen of trees" 159 00:10:06,650 --> 00:10:09,630 "and became a thing of the past." 160 00:10:12,980 --> 00:10:15,840 It had been cumulative evidence that an army 161 00:10:18,160 --> 00:10:21,560 on what was growing in the fields, winter or summer, 162 00:10:21,610 --> 00:10:23,750 and they were a... 163 00:10:23,850 --> 00:10:26,250 a moving city, like. 164 00:10:26,350 --> 00:10:28,470 They would grind their own corn 165 00:10:28,520 --> 00:10:30,600 at the grist mills along the way, 166 00:10:30,820 --> 00:10:32,750 butcher their own cattle. 167 00:10:32,900 --> 00:10:35,430 Sherman was perfectly satisfied he could make the march 168 00:10:35,530 --> 00:10:37,680 without difficulty with regard to supplies. 169 00:10:37,780 --> 00:10:41,490 In fact, they ate better on that march than they did not marching. 170 00:10:41,540 --> 00:10:45,790 Sweet potatoes were particularly prized, and pork. 171 00:10:45,960 --> 00:10:47,680 They had plenty to eat. 172 00:10:49,960 --> 00:10:52,180 "This is probably the most gigantic" 173 00:10:52,230 --> 00:10:54,730 "pleasure excursion ever planned." 174 00:10:55,000 --> 00:10:57,920 "It already beats everything I ever saw soldiering" 175 00:10:57,970 --> 00:11:01,230 "and promises to prove much richer yet." 176 00:11:03,000 --> 00:11:05,060 "We had a gay old campaign." 177 00:11:05,110 --> 00:11:07,470 "Destroyed all we could not eat, stole their niggers," 178 00:11:07,520 --> 00:11:09,900 "burned their cotton and gins, spilled their sorghum," 179 00:11:09,950 --> 00:11:13,540 "burned and twisted their railroads, and raised hell, generally." 180 00:11:15,750 --> 00:11:18,010 Sherman's men tore up railroads, 181 00:11:18,060 --> 00:11:21,260 heating the rails and twisting them beyond repair. 182 00:11:21,410 --> 00:11:23,250 It became a trademark... 183 00:11:23,300 --> 00:11:25,360 Sherman's Neckties. 184 00:11:32,340 --> 00:11:35,640 He forbade his men to plunder the homes they passed, 185 00:11:35,690 --> 00:11:39,550 but neither he nor they took the order very seriously. 186 00:11:41,000 --> 00:11:44,740 "I've got a regiment that can kill, gut, and scrape a pig" 187 00:11:44,790 --> 00:11:46,990 "without breaking ranks." 188 00:11:51,000 --> 00:11:53,280 "They say no living thing is found" 189 00:11:53,330 --> 00:11:56,030 "in Sherman's track, only chimneys." 190 00:11:56,080 --> 00:12:00,380 "like telegraph poles, to carry the news of his attack backwards." 191 00:12:00,850 --> 00:12:02,530 Mary Chesnut. 192 00:12:03,900 --> 00:12:06,680 "I doubt if history affords a parallel" 193 00:12:06,730 --> 00:12:10,630 "to the deep and bitter enmity of the women of the south." 194 00:12:11,090 --> 00:12:13,290 "No one who sees them and hears" 195 00:12:13,340 --> 00:12:16,490 "but must feel the intensity of their hate." 196 00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:24,400 "As far as the eye could reach," 197 00:12:24,450 --> 00:12:28,540 "the lurid flames of burning houses lit up the heavens." 198 00:12:29,160 --> 00:12:32,380 "I could stand out on the veranda and for two or three miles" 199 00:12:32,430 --> 00:12:35,010 "watch the Yankees as they came on." 200 00:12:36,080 --> 00:12:38,240 "I could mark when they reached the residence" 201 00:12:38,290 --> 00:12:41,170 "of each and every friend on the road." 202 00:12:44,460 --> 00:12:47,620 The troops looted slave cabins, as well as mansions, 203 00:12:47,670 --> 00:12:51,700 poked their ramrods into flower beds in search of buried valuables, 204 00:12:51,750 --> 00:12:54,570 and burned everything in their path. 205 00:12:57,940 --> 00:13:02,140 "The thousand pounds of meat in my smokehouse is gone. 206 00:13:02,700 --> 00:13:04,910 "My eighteen fat turkeys, 207 00:13:04,920 --> 00:13:08,060 "my hens, chickens, and fowl," 208 00:13:08,110 --> 00:13:09,880 "my young pigs," 209 00:13:10,030 --> 00:13:12,670 "are shot down in my yard" 210 00:13:13,290 --> 00:13:15,970 "as if they were the rebels." 211 00:13:22,010 --> 00:13:24,970 "The cruelties practiced on this campaign" 212 00:13:25,020 --> 00:13:27,010 "towards the citizens" 213 00:13:27,060 --> 00:13:31,010 "have been enough to blast a more sacred cause than ours." 214 00:13:31,870 --> 00:13:34,510 "We hardly deserve success." 215 00:13:45,850 --> 00:13:49,000 At Milledgeville, Georgia, Sherman's men boiled their coffee 216 00:13:49,050 --> 00:13:51,800 over bonfires of Confederate currency, 217 00:13:51,850 --> 00:13:54,270 held a mock session of the legislature 218 00:13:54,320 --> 00:13:58,430 that passed a resolution returning Georgia to the Union. 219 00:13:59,440 --> 00:14:03,190 Sherman's men were feasting on delicacies foraged from local farms 220 00:14:03,240 --> 00:14:07,150 when a band of emaciated men tottered into the firelight. 221 00:14:07,720 --> 00:14:11,310 They were Union escapees from Andersonville Prison. 222 00:14:11,360 --> 00:14:14,560 An Indiana colonel remembered that the sight of the starved men 223 00:14:14,610 --> 00:14:17,510 "sickened and infuriated" his troops. 224 00:14:18,330 --> 00:14:20,040 "When foraging now," 225 00:14:20,090 --> 00:14:23,690 "they think of the tens of thousands of their imprisoned comrades" 226 00:14:23,740 --> 00:14:26,020 "slowly perishing with hunger," 227 00:14:26,190 --> 00:14:30,620 "and they sweep with the scythe of destruction." 228 00:14:33,000 --> 00:14:35,500 Before they were through, Sherman and his men 229 00:14:35,550 --> 00:14:39,760 would cross 425 miles of hostile territory 230 00:14:39,810 --> 00:14:43,260 and wreak $100 million worth of havoc. 231 00:14:44,730 --> 00:14:47,350 The South would never forget. 232 00:14:49,930 --> 00:14:52,210 "We will fight you to the death." 233 00:14:52,260 --> 00:14:55,940 "Better to die a thousand deaths than submit to live under you" 234 00:14:55,990 --> 00:14:57,990 "and your negro allies." 235 00:14:58,310 --> 00:15:00,450 General John Bell Hood. 236 00:15:01,210 --> 00:15:03,780 Lacking a leg and the use of one arm, 237 00:15:03,830 --> 00:15:07,430 John Bell Hood had to be strapped to the saddle each morning, 238 00:15:07,480 --> 00:15:10,610 but he fought as hard and as recklessly as ever. 239 00:15:10,710 --> 00:15:14,740 Hood and his dwindling army now tried to divert Sherman's attention 240 00:15:14,790 --> 00:15:16,740 by moving north to join forces 241 00:15:16,790 --> 00:15:19,070 with Nathan Bedford Forrest's cavalry 242 00:15:19,120 --> 00:15:20,900 and invade Tennessee. 243 00:15:21,150 --> 00:15:22,980 Sherman was delighted. 244 00:15:23,090 --> 00:15:27,190 "If he will go to the Ohio river, I'll give him rations," he said. 245 00:15:27,240 --> 00:15:29,680 "My business is down south." 246 00:15:30,950 --> 00:15:33,510 Waiting for Hood in Tennessee was a fresh, 247 00:15:33,560 --> 00:15:37,120 well-equipped Union army a third again as large as Hood's, 248 00:15:37,170 --> 00:15:40,830 commanded by George Thomas, 'the "Rock of Chickamauga." 249 00:15:41,720 --> 00:15:43,110 At Franklin, 250 00:15:43,160 --> 00:15:46,450 Hood ordered a series of thirteen hopeless charges 251 00:15:46,500 --> 00:15:48,630 in which twelve Confederate generals 252 00:15:48,680 --> 00:15:51,510 and 7,000 soldiers were lost, 253 00:15:52,320 --> 00:15:56,450 more men than U. S. Grant had lost at Cold Harbor the year before, 254 00:15:56,500 --> 00:15:59,010 more than George McClellan lost in all the battles 255 00:15:59,060 --> 00:16:02,130 of the Seven Days in 1862. 256 00:16:04,140 --> 00:16:06,620 Franklin is a horrendous battle, 257 00:16:07,640 --> 00:16:10,470 and the flower of the army fell. These... 258 00:16:10,620 --> 00:16:14,590 There's a strong suspicion that Hood was trying to discipline his army 259 00:16:14,640 --> 00:16:17,270 by staging that charge, and there's some truth in it. 260 00:16:17,320 --> 00:16:19,440 His army was wrecked. 261 00:16:19,960 --> 00:16:23,490 The defeat at Nashville is in large part due to what had happened 262 00:16:23,540 --> 00:16:25,650 at Franklin a month before. 263 00:16:28,370 --> 00:16:30,870 At Nashville, George Thomas attacked 264 00:16:30,920 --> 00:16:32,870 what was left of Hood's army. 265 00:16:33,890 --> 00:16:37,650 "My boot was full of blood and my clothing saturated with it. 266 00:16:37,700 --> 00:16:39,780 "I reached General Hood's headquarters." 267 00:16:39,830 --> 00:16:42,230 "He was much agitated and affected," 268 00:16:42,280 --> 00:16:45,030 "pulling his hair with his one hand... he had but one..." 269 00:16:45,080 --> 00:16:47,240 "And crying like his heart would break." 270 00:16:47,290 --> 00:16:48,890 Sam Watkins. 271 00:16:49,950 --> 00:16:52,470 Hood's army had disintegrated. 272 00:16:52,730 --> 00:16:55,870 "I beheld for the first and only time," he confessed, 273 00:16:55,940 --> 00:16:59,300 "a Confederate army abandon the field in confusion." 274 00:17:00,810 --> 00:17:02,530 Hood resigned. 275 00:17:03,900 --> 00:17:07,090 Lee recalled Joe Johnston to active duty 276 00:17:07,140 --> 00:17:09,210 and put him in charge of patching together 277 00:17:09,260 --> 00:17:12,810 whatever Confederate forces remained outside of Virginia. 278 00:17:14,480 --> 00:17:18,420 "We were willing to go anywhere or to follow anyone who'd lead us." 279 00:17:18,470 --> 00:17:21,650 "We were anxious to flee, fight, or fortify." 280 00:17:22,060 --> 00:17:25,820 "I have never seen an army so confused and demoralized." 281 00:17:25,870 --> 00:17:29,170 "The whole thing seemed to be tottering and trembling." 282 00:17:33,710 --> 00:17:35,130 "Gentlemen, 283 00:17:35,180 --> 00:17:39,490 "you cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. 284 00:17:40,760 --> 00:17:44,490 "We cannot change the hearts of these people of the South, 285 00:17:44,540 --> 00:17:46,920 "but we can make war so terrible" 286 00:17:46,970 --> 00:17:48,970 "and make them so sick of war" 287 00:17:49,020 --> 00:17:51,320 "that generations will pass away" 288 00:17:51,370 --> 00:17:53,730 "before they again appeal to it." 289 00:17:53,780 --> 00:17:55,970 William Tecumseh Sherman. 290 00:17:59,520 --> 00:18:03,810 "Darkest of all Decembers ever my life has known," 291 00:18:04,060 --> 00:18:06,360 "sitting here by the embers," 292 00:18:06,460 --> 00:18:10,140 "stunned, helpless, alone." 293 00:18:10,810 --> 00:18:12,640 Mary Chesnut. 294 00:18:23,750 --> 00:18:25,880 "My name is Charles Jess. 295 00:18:26,600 --> 00:18:30,140 "I was born in South Carolina as a slave, 296 00:18:30,460 --> 00:18:32,240 "and I was freed 297 00:18:32,290 --> 00:18:35,020 "when Sherman's army came into the County of Chatham. 298 00:18:35,900 --> 00:18:37,620 "I was a Union man. 299 00:18:38,190 --> 00:18:41,350 "I's a slave and could not be anything else" 300 00:18:41,450 --> 00:18:43,800 "because I wanted my freedom," 301 00:18:44,020 --> 00:18:47,480 "and I hoped and expected it would give me my freedom," 302 00:18:48,000 --> 00:18:49,660 "as it did." 303 00:18:51,950 --> 00:18:55,810 "The Negroes followed the army like a sable cloud in the sky 304 00:18:55,860 --> 00:18:57,670 "before a thunderstorm. 305 00:18:57,720 --> 00:19:00,710 They thought it was freedom now or never." 306 00:19:02,240 --> 00:19:05,680 Twenty-five-thousand slaves fled to Sherman's army, 307 00:19:05,730 --> 00:19:07,980 jubilant he had come to liberate them, 308 00:19:08,030 --> 00:19:11,080 but fearful that if they strayed too far from his columns, 309 00:19:11,130 --> 00:19:13,780 they would be caught by Confederate guerrillas. 310 00:19:15,200 --> 00:19:18,890 "Perfect anarchy reigned," one plantation owner said. 311 00:19:19,350 --> 00:19:23,250 It was, said another, "the breath of emancipation." 312 00:19:24,620 --> 00:19:26,770 And the Yankees would come, 313 00:19:27,070 --> 00:19:28,880 then, after a while, 314 00:19:28,930 --> 00:19:32,500 there'd be a whole troop of men come. They said they were Yankees, 315 00:19:32,600 --> 00:19:35,130 all riding horses. 316 00:19:35,230 --> 00:19:37,280 So I asked them, I said, "where are they going?" 317 00:19:37,330 --> 00:19:39,410 They said they all going home now. 318 00:19:39,460 --> 00:19:42,830 They said, "Well, all of you niggers is all free now." 319 00:19:50,690 --> 00:19:52,620 "They gather around me in crowds," 320 00:19:52,670 --> 00:19:56,420 "and I can't find out whether I am Moses or Aaron, but surely," 321 00:19:56,470 --> 00:19:59,320 "I am rated as one of the congregation." 322 00:20:05,070 --> 00:20:09,150 "It seems the good people in the north are terribly worried about us. 323 00:20:09,200 --> 00:20:11,340 "They called us the "Lost Army," 324 00:20:11,390 --> 00:20:13,840 "and some thought we would never show up again." 325 00:20:13,890 --> 00:20:17,240 "I don't think they know what kind of an army this is that Uncle Billy has." 326 00:20:17,290 --> 00:20:19,830 "Why, if Grant can keep Lee and his troops busy," 327 00:20:19,880 --> 00:20:22,480 "we can tramp all over this Confederacy." 328 00:20:23,140 --> 00:20:25,290 Private Theodore Upson. 329 00:20:27,870 --> 00:20:31,790 Throughout the north, people wondered what had happened to Sherman's army, 330 00:20:32,140 --> 00:20:34,970 until suddenly, William Tecumseh Sherman 331 00:20:35,020 --> 00:20:36,870 emerged near Savannah. 332 00:20:37,850 --> 00:20:41,110 "December 25, 1864. 333 00:20:41,480 --> 00:20:43,680 "Dear Mr. President, 334 00:20:43,720 --> 00:20:46,600 "I beg to present you, as a Christmas gift," 335 00:20:46,650 --> 00:20:48,280 "the city of Savannah," 336 00:20:48,330 --> 00:20:52,410 "with 150 heavy guns and plenty of ammunition," 337 00:20:52,460 --> 00:20:56,630 "also about 25,000 bales of cotton." 338 00:20:58,690 --> 00:21:00,840 He then regroups at Savannah, 339 00:21:01,210 --> 00:21:03,340 and in the last week of 340 00:21:03,940 --> 00:21:06,740 January, he starts 341 00:21:06,790 --> 00:21:08,560 into South Carolina. 342 00:21:08,610 --> 00:21:11,850 South Carolina gets it even worse than Georgia 343 00:21:12,570 --> 00:21:16,160 because they figured that's where secession started. 344 00:21:17,570 --> 00:21:21,640 Sherman now turned his columns northward into the Carolinas. 345 00:21:22,500 --> 00:21:24,760 A relentless winter rain was falling, 346 00:21:24,810 --> 00:21:27,410 and Confederate generals were confident no army 347 00:21:27,460 --> 00:21:29,220 could march through the mud. 348 00:21:29,480 --> 00:21:32,880 But Sherman and his men made a steady ten miles a day. 349 00:21:32,930 --> 00:21:35,150 Battalions of ax-men led the way, 350 00:21:35,200 --> 00:21:37,230 hacking down whole forests 351 00:21:37,280 --> 00:21:39,600 to construct corduroy roads. 352 00:21:40,440 --> 00:21:43,950 "When I learned that Sherman's army was marching through the Salkehatchie swamps 353 00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:46,700 "making its own roads at the rate of a dozen miles a day" 354 00:21:46,750 --> 00:21:48,990 "and bringing its artillery and wagons with it,." 355 00:21:49,750 --> 00:21:52,910 "I made up my mind that there had been no such army in existence" 356 00:21:52,960 --> 00:21:55,220 "since the days of Julius Caesar." 357 00:21:55,640 --> 00:21:57,540 Joseph E. Johnston. 358 00:22:00,060 --> 00:22:02,900 Sherman's men were still harsher in South Carolina 359 00:22:02,950 --> 00:22:04,750 than they had been in Georgia. 360 00:22:04,800 --> 00:22:07,660 "Here is where treason began," a private said, 361 00:22:07,710 --> 00:22:10,460 "and by God, this is where it shall end." 362 00:22:11,480 --> 00:22:14,010 Few houses were left standing. 363 00:22:16,880 --> 00:22:19,520 "The wind moans among the bleak chimneys 364 00:22:19,570 --> 00:22:22,270 "and whistles through the gaping windows. 365 00:22:22,840 --> 00:22:25,340 "The market is a ruined shell, 366 00:22:26,140 --> 00:22:28,400 "its spire fallen in, 367 00:22:29,270 --> 00:22:32,460 "the old bell, "secessia," 368 00:22:32,570 --> 00:22:36,320 "that had rung out every state as it seceded," 369 00:22:36,580 --> 00:22:39,630 "lying half-buried in the earth." 370 00:22:42,780 --> 00:22:46,090 On February 17th, 1865, 371 00:22:46,140 --> 00:22:48,100 Fort Sumter was abandoned, 372 00:22:48,150 --> 00:22:50,290 along with all of Charleston. 373 00:22:51,920 --> 00:22:54,920 "This disappointment," Jefferson Davis admitted, 374 00:22:54,970 --> 00:22:57,120 "is extremely bitter." 375 00:23:06,910 --> 00:23:08,740 "A city of ruins," 376 00:23:09,460 --> 00:23:11,080 "of desolation," 377 00:23:11,540 --> 00:23:14,310 "of vacant houses, of widowed women," 378 00:23:15,940 --> 00:23:17,790 "'of rotting wharves, 379 00:23:17,940 --> 00:23:20,080 "of deserted warehouses, 380 00:23:20,650 --> 00:23:22,630 "of weed-wild gardens, 381 00:23:22,680 --> 00:23:25,480 "of miles of grass-grown streets," 382 00:23:25,680 --> 00:23:29,150 "of acres of pitiful and voiceful barrenness..." 383 00:23:30,300 --> 00:23:32,430 "That is Charleston," 384 00:23:33,450 --> 00:23:37,360 "wherein rebellion loftily reared its head." 385 00:24:00,270 --> 00:24:02,610 "Jack Middleton writes from Richmond," 386 00:24:02,660 --> 00:24:04,800 "'The wolf is at the door here.'" 387 00:24:05,360 --> 00:24:09,290 "We dread starvation far more than we do Grant or Sherman." 388 00:24:09,340 --> 00:24:13,290 "Famine... that is the word, now." 389 00:24:13,950 --> 00:24:15,620 Mary Chesnut. 390 00:24:19,850 --> 00:24:22,260 Everywhere the Union armies marched, 391 00:24:22,310 --> 00:24:25,690 the back roads filled with Confederate refugees. 392 00:24:27,660 --> 00:24:31,270 Thousands fled to Texas in search of a new start. 393 00:24:31,420 --> 00:24:33,630 Thousands more flocked to Richmond, 394 00:24:33,680 --> 00:24:36,800 hoping the Confederate government would care for them. 395 00:24:37,170 --> 00:24:39,130 There was little it could do. 396 00:24:39,180 --> 00:24:42,000 The Confederate government was coming apart. 397 00:24:43,170 --> 00:24:47,340 The governor of North Carolina refused to permit any but his own troops 398 00:24:47,390 --> 00:24:50,970 to wear the 92,000 uniforms he was hoarding. 399 00:24:51,120 --> 00:24:53,380 In Georgia, Governor Joseph Brown 400 00:24:53,430 --> 00:24:56,120 threatened to secede from the Confederacy. 401 00:24:58,080 --> 00:25:01,210 States' rights still came first. 402 00:25:04,700 --> 00:25:07,150 "If the Confederacy fails," 403 00:25:07,720 --> 00:25:10,360 "there should be written on its tombstone..." 404 00:25:10,830 --> 00:25:12,860 "'Died of a theory.'" 405 00:25:13,230 --> 00:25:15,500 President Jefferson Davis. 406 00:25:17,390 --> 00:25:20,070 "I have been up to see the congress," 407 00:25:20,220 --> 00:25:22,550 "and they do not seem able to do anything" 408 00:25:22,600 --> 00:25:25,280 "except eat peanuts and chew tobacco," 409 00:25:25,330 --> 00:25:27,710 "while my army is starving." 410 00:25:27,910 --> 00:25:29,770 Robert E. Lee. 411 00:25:30,880 --> 00:25:33,240 Lee begged for more supplies. 412 00:25:33,290 --> 00:25:35,680 Davis had none to give. 413 00:25:36,180 --> 00:25:40,130 A single stick of firewood cost $5.00 in Richmond. 414 00:25:40,180 --> 00:25:43,560 A barrel of flour had risen to $250 415 00:25:43,610 --> 00:25:46,610 and could rarely be found even at that price. 416 00:25:48,090 --> 00:25:51,670 "I daily part with my raiment for food." 417 00:25:51,720 --> 00:25:54,050 "We find no one who will exchange" 418 00:25:54,100 --> 00:25:56,500 "eatables for Confederate money," 419 00:25:56,550 --> 00:25:59,750 "so we are devouring our clothes." 420 00:26:02,410 --> 00:26:06,190 Hundreds of Confederate soldiers were deserting every day, 421 00:26:06,240 --> 00:26:08,570 cold, hungry barefoot, 422 00:26:08,620 --> 00:26:11,400 driven by desperate letters from home. 423 00:26:15,610 --> 00:26:17,470 Lee asked that slaves 424 00:26:17,520 --> 00:26:20,120 now be armed to defend the Confederacy. 425 00:26:20,220 --> 00:26:23,850 "We must decide," he said, "whether the negro shall fight for us 426 00:26:23,900 --> 00:26:25,510 "or against us." 427 00:26:26,470 --> 00:26:28,530 "Those willing to fight," he added, 428 00:26:28,580 --> 00:26:30,820 "would be freed after the war." 429 00:26:32,440 --> 00:26:35,840 The Confederate Congress finally authorized black troops 430 00:26:35,890 --> 00:26:38,280 because, as the Richmond examiner said, 431 00:26:38,330 --> 00:26:40,650 "the country will not deny General Lee" 432 00:26:40,700 --> 00:26:43,110 "anything he may ask for." 433 00:26:43,850 --> 00:26:45,450 Six days later, 434 00:26:45,500 --> 00:26:48,790 the citizens of Richmond saw an astonishing sight... 435 00:26:48,940 --> 00:26:52,850 a new Confederate battalion made up of white convalescents 436 00:26:52,900 --> 00:26:54,960 and black hospital orderlies 437 00:26:55,010 --> 00:26:58,950 marching up main street to the strains of Dixie. 438 00:27:01,060 --> 00:27:05,340 "You cannot make soldiers of slaves, or slaves of soldiers. 439 00:27:05,440 --> 00:27:07,400 "The day you make a soldier of them" 440 00:27:07,450 --> 00:27:10,210 "is the beginning of the end of the revolution," 441 00:27:10,260 --> 00:27:12,950 "and if slaves seem good soldiers," 442 00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:16,260 "then our whole theory of slavery is wrong." 443 00:27:16,310 --> 00:27:18,970 Senator Howell Cobb, Georgia. 444 00:27:21,580 --> 00:27:24,270 Earlier that winter, the United States Congress 445 00:27:24,320 --> 00:27:28,620 had voted 119-56 to pass the Thirteenth Amendment 446 00:27:28,670 --> 00:27:30,480 to abolish slavery 447 00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:33,740 and sent it to the states for ratification. 448 00:27:35,940 --> 00:27:37,550 Eleven months later, 449 00:27:37,600 --> 00:27:40,650 slavery was officially abolished everywhere 450 00:27:40,700 --> 00:27:42,600 and for all time. 451 00:27:46,250 --> 00:27:47,820 "Verily," 452 00:27:48,070 --> 00:27:52,020 "the work does not end with the abolition of slavery," 453 00:27:52,790 --> 00:27:55,050 "but only begins." 454 00:27:55,500 --> 00:27:57,220 Frederick Douglass. 455 00:28:03,380 --> 00:28:06,220 "I see the president almost every day. 456 00:28:06,990 --> 00:28:10,930 "I saw him this morning about 8:30, coming into business. 457 00:28:11,590 --> 00:28:14,260 "We've got so that we exchange bows, 458 00:28:14,310 --> 00:28:16,060 "and very cordial ones. 459 00:28:16,720 --> 00:28:18,510 "I see very plainly. 460 00:28:18,560 --> 00:28:21,409 "Abraham Lincoln's dark brown face 461 00:28:21,410 --> 00:28:23,310 "with its deep-cut lines, 462 00:28:23,370 --> 00:28:26,570 "the eyes always, to me, with a latent sadness 463 00:28:26,620 --> 00:28:28,430 "in the expression. 464 00:28:29,880 --> 00:28:32,150 "None of the artists or pictures 465 00:28:32,200 --> 00:28:33,800 "has caught the deep, 466 00:28:33,850 --> 00:28:37,620 "though subtle and indirect, expression of this man's face." 467 00:28:37,670 --> 00:28:39,250 "There's something else there." 468 00:28:39,300 --> 00:28:42,960 "One of the great portrait painters of two or three centuries ago" 469 00:28:43,020 --> 00:28:44,380 "is needed." 470 00:28:44,690 --> 00:28:46,300 Walt Whitman. 471 00:28:49,320 --> 00:28:50,810 "March 4th. 472 00:28:51,280 --> 00:28:53,470 "We captured twenty-five cannon. 473 00:28:53,570 --> 00:28:55,650 "General Mower fired them today in a salute 474 00:28:55,700 --> 00:28:59,350 "in honor of the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln for his second term." 475 00:29:00,160 --> 00:29:04,000 "His first inauguration was not celebrated in North Carolina," 476 00:29:04,660 --> 00:29:07,660 "but the glorification over the beginning of his second term" 477 00:29:07,710 --> 00:29:09,980 "goes to make up the deficiency." 478 00:29:10,390 --> 00:29:11,920 George Nichols. 479 00:29:24,410 --> 00:29:27,650 Inauguration Day was cold and windy, 480 00:29:27,700 --> 00:29:30,500 just as it had been four years earlier. 481 00:29:32,070 --> 00:29:35,090 But the U.S. Capitol was now complete, 482 00:29:35,150 --> 00:29:37,410 its great iron dome in place, 483 00:29:37,460 --> 00:29:39,730 crowned by a bronze Liberty. 484 00:29:44,040 --> 00:29:47,690 Just before the president began to speak, the clouds parted, 485 00:29:47,740 --> 00:29:50,430 flooding the stand with brilliant sunlight. 486 00:29:53,440 --> 00:29:55,520 "Fondly do we hope, 487 00:29:55,890 --> 00:29:58,180 "fervently do we pray" 488 00:29:58,450 --> 00:30:00,890 "that this mighty scourge of war" 489 00:30:00,940 --> 00:30:03,120 "may speedily pass away." 490 00:30:04,970 --> 00:30:07,790 "Yet if God wills that it continue 491 00:30:07,840 --> 00:30:09,900 "until all the wealth piled up 492 00:30:09,950 --> 00:30:13,660 "by the bondsman's 250 years of unrequited toil 493 00:30:13,760 --> 00:30:15,250 "shall be sunk, 494 00:30:16,020 --> 00:30:19,570 "and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash 495 00:30:19,620 --> 00:30:23,010 "shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, 496 00:30:24,230 --> 00:30:27,330 "as was said 3,000 years ago, 497 00:30:27,430 --> 00:30:29,770 "so still must be said," 498 00:30:30,130 --> 00:30:32,940 "The judgments of the Lord are true" 499 00:30:32,990 --> 00:30:35,360 "and righteous altogether." 500 00:30:38,480 --> 00:30:40,780 "With malice towards none, 501 00:30:41,590 --> 00:30:44,040 "with charity for all, 502 00:30:45,540 --> 00:30:49,820 "with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, 503 00:30:50,740 --> 00:30:54,380 "let us strive on to finish the work we are in, 504 00:30:54,650 --> 00:30:57,430 "to bind up the nation's wounds, 505 00:30:58,050 --> 00:31:01,350 "to care for him who shall have borne the battle 506 00:31:01,400 --> 00:31:04,620 "and for his widow and his orphan." 507 00:31:05,980 --> 00:31:08,590 "To do all which may achieve and cherish" 508 00:31:08,640 --> 00:31:11,860 "a just and lasting peace among ourselves" 509 00:31:12,010 --> 00:31:14,060 "and with all nations." 510 00:31:17,380 --> 00:31:19,580 Can it be anyone but Lincoln 511 00:31:20,200 --> 00:31:21,840 that any of us 512 00:31:21,890 --> 00:31:24,640 could be drawn to as the central 513 00:31:24,690 --> 00:31:26,470 figure of the war? 514 00:31:26,520 --> 00:31:28,220 Because, in a way, 515 00:31:28,270 --> 00:31:31,270 he comprehended both sides. 516 00:31:32,040 --> 00:31:35,380 "We must not be enemies." 517 00:31:35,680 --> 00:31:39,230 "We must be friends." 518 00:31:41,300 --> 00:31:44,590 "I'm a tired man," Lincoln said afterwards. 519 00:31:44,640 --> 00:31:47,960 "Sometimes I think I'm the tiredest man on earth." 520 00:31:57,810 --> 00:32:00,310 In the crowd just a few yards from Lincoln 521 00:32:00,360 --> 00:32:03,020 was the young actor John Wilkes Booth, 522 00:32:03,070 --> 00:32:04,890 a pistol in his pocket. 523 00:32:06,100 --> 00:32:09,260 His vantage point on the balcony, Booth said afterwards, 524 00:32:09,310 --> 00:32:12,410 "had offered an excellent chance to kill the president..." 525 00:32:13,180 --> 00:32:14,880 "If I had wished." 526 00:32:18,770 --> 00:32:21,430 John Wilkes Booth was a fervent believer 527 00:32:21,480 --> 00:32:23,850 in slavery and white supremacy, 528 00:32:23,900 --> 00:32:25,600 but during four years of war, 529 00:32:25,650 --> 00:32:27,350 he had not been able to bring himself 530 00:32:27,400 --> 00:32:30,150 actually to fight for the southern cause. 531 00:32:30,870 --> 00:32:33,480 "I have begun to deem myself a coward" 532 00:32:33,530 --> 00:32:36,210 "and to despise my own existence." 533 00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:40,960 His mind fixed on Lincoln 534 00:32:41,010 --> 00:32:44,190 as the tyrant responsible for all the country's troubles 535 00:32:44,240 --> 00:32:45,770 and his own. 536 00:32:47,290 --> 00:32:50,310 Booth hatched a scheme to kidnap Lincoln 537 00:32:50,360 --> 00:32:53,510 and gathered a worshipful band of dubious conspirators 538 00:32:53,560 --> 00:32:55,320 willing to help out: 539 00:32:55,790 --> 00:32:58,460 Lewis Paine, a wounded Confederate 540 00:32:58,510 --> 00:33:01,380 who had recently sworn allegiance to the Union; 541 00:33:02,440 --> 00:33:05,440 David E. Herold, a druggist's clerk 542 00:33:05,490 --> 00:33:08,530 who was thought by some to be mentally retarded; 543 00:33:09,250 --> 00:33:12,570 George Atzerodt, a German-born wagon painter 544 00:33:12,620 --> 00:33:15,780 barely able to make himself understood in English; 545 00:33:16,650 --> 00:33:20,860 and John H. Surratt, a sometime Confederate spy 546 00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:24,390 whose widowed mother Mary kept a Washington boarding-house 547 00:33:24,440 --> 00:33:27,530 where booth and his admirers sometimes met. 548 00:33:30,250 --> 00:33:33,730 Two weeks after the inauguration, Booth and his accomplices, 549 00:33:33,780 --> 00:33:35,360 all wearing masks, 550 00:33:35,410 --> 00:33:37,710 rode out toward the Soldiers' Home, 551 00:33:37,760 --> 00:33:41,800 where Lincoln often slept, hoping to intercept his carriage. 552 00:33:42,500 --> 00:33:44,630 The president never came. 553 00:33:44,840 --> 00:33:47,270 "So goes the world," Booth wrote. 554 00:33:47,320 --> 00:33:49,010 "Might makes right." 555 00:33:53,640 --> 00:33:57,280 Late in March, Lincoln sailed down to City Point, Virginia, 556 00:33:57,330 --> 00:34:00,860 to confer with his generals aboard Grant's floating headquarters, 557 00:34:00,910 --> 00:34:02,410 the River Queen. 558 00:34:02,980 --> 00:34:06,340 Sherman, who had interrupted his march through the Carolinas, 559 00:34:06,390 --> 00:34:10,360 had met Lincoln only once before, in 1861, 560 00:34:10,410 --> 00:34:13,880 and found him then a weak and partisan politician 561 00:34:13,930 --> 00:34:15,830 unequal to his task. 562 00:34:16,600 --> 00:34:19,000 The talks lasted two days. 563 00:34:19,220 --> 00:34:21,810 Grant, Sherman, and Admiral Porter 564 00:34:21,860 --> 00:34:25,160 detailed plans for one last major campaign. 565 00:34:25,210 --> 00:34:28,700 Lincoln, satisfied that victory seemed within reach, 566 00:34:28,750 --> 00:34:31,000 outlined plans for peace. 567 00:34:31,620 --> 00:34:35,120 "If the rebels would lay down their guns and go home," Lincoln said, 568 00:34:35,290 --> 00:34:36,860 "they should be welcomed back" 569 00:34:36,910 --> 00:34:39,480 "as citizens of the United States." 570 00:34:41,100 --> 00:34:43,210 "I never saw him again. 571 00:34:44,230 --> 00:34:47,490 "Of all the men I ever met, he seemed to me to possess more" 572 00:34:47,540 --> 00:34:49,690 "of the elements of greatness" 573 00:34:49,770 --> 00:34:51,720 "combined with goodness" 574 00:34:51,840 --> 00:34:53,610 "than any other." 575 00:34:53,830 --> 00:34:55,930 William Tecumseh Sherman. 576 00:35:10,890 --> 00:35:14,950 "My own corps was stretched until the men stood like a row of vedettes" 577 00:35:15,000 --> 00:35:16,800 "fifteen feet apart." 578 00:35:16,850 --> 00:35:18,560 "It was not a line," 579 00:35:19,380 --> 00:35:22,070 "it was the mere skeleton of a line." 580 00:35:22,230 --> 00:35:24,080 General John B. Gordon. 581 00:35:25,650 --> 00:35:28,210 Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee 582 00:35:28,260 --> 00:35:32,180 had faced one another in front of Petersburg for nine months. 583 00:35:32,230 --> 00:35:33,760 Slowly, steadily, 584 00:35:33,810 --> 00:35:37,210 Grant had extended his trenches around Petersburg. 585 00:35:37,770 --> 00:35:40,330 Lee's lines had been forced to stretch, too, 586 00:35:40,380 --> 00:35:42,870 but his army was shrinking. 587 00:35:43,140 --> 00:35:47,580 In nine months, 60,000 southern soldiers had deserted. 588 00:35:48,450 --> 00:35:51,000 "All of us think we're whipped now." 589 00:35:51,050 --> 00:35:54,100 "The men are ragged and they're getting half rations." 590 00:35:54,200 --> 00:35:58,160 "Some say we'll have to go to Georgey, but the men will not go there." 591 00:35:59,580 --> 00:36:02,530 The thinning Confederate lines around Petersburg 592 00:36:02,580 --> 00:36:05,580 finally extended fifty-three miles. 593 00:36:05,630 --> 00:36:09,040 Grant's forces numbered 125,000; 594 00:36:09,140 --> 00:36:12,120 Lee's had dwindled to 35,000. 595 00:36:14,870 --> 00:36:18,530 Lee's only hope lay in moving his army to the southwest 596 00:36:18,580 --> 00:36:21,710 to link up with Johnston in the hills of North Carolina 597 00:36:21,760 --> 00:36:23,260 and fight on. 598 00:36:29,880 --> 00:36:31,490 On March 25th, 599 00:36:31,540 --> 00:36:33,660 Confederates under John B. Gordon 600 00:36:33,710 --> 00:36:37,630 mounted a sudden night assault that briefly won possession of an earthwork 601 00:36:37,680 --> 00:36:39,420 called Fort Stedman. 602 00:36:39,680 --> 00:36:42,400 It was Lee's last advance. 603 00:36:43,200 --> 00:36:44,870 Grant counterattacked, 604 00:36:44,920 --> 00:36:49,190 racing around the rebel flank to block Lee's escape at Five Forks. 605 00:36:49,350 --> 00:36:51,110 There, on April 1st, 606 00:36:51,160 --> 00:36:54,430 he routed a Confederate division under George Pickett. 607 00:36:55,640 --> 00:36:58,190 The next day, Union forces attacked 608 00:36:58,240 --> 00:37:00,510 all along the Petersburg line. 609 00:37:00,610 --> 00:37:03,980 Slowly, relentlessly, and at great cost, 610 00:37:04,030 --> 00:37:06,810 they drove the Confederates out of their trenches. 611 00:37:08,870 --> 00:37:11,280 Among the Southern dead left behind 612 00:37:11,330 --> 00:37:14,500 were shoeless boys as young as fourteen. 613 00:37:20,460 --> 00:37:22,910 "The conduct of the Southern people 614 00:37:23,060 --> 00:37:25,570 "appears many times truly noble, 615 00:37:25,620 --> 00:37:29,150 "as exemplified, for instance, in the defense of Petersburg. 616 00:37:29,970 --> 00:37:34,190 "Old men with silver locks lay dead in the trenches side-by-side" 617 00:37:34,940 --> 00:37:37,870 "with mere boys of thirteen or fourteen." 618 00:37:38,930 --> 00:37:41,910 "It almost makes one sorry to have to fight against people" 619 00:37:41,960 --> 00:37:45,410 "who show such devotion for their homes and their country." 620 00:37:45,900 --> 00:37:47,720 Washington Roebling. 621 00:37:49,350 --> 00:37:53,560 A. P. Hill, who had served Lee faithfully in a dozen battles 622 00:37:53,610 --> 00:37:56,740 and staved off Confederate disaster at Antietam, 623 00:37:56,790 --> 00:37:58,920 tried to rally his men. 624 00:37:59,120 --> 00:38:01,040 Two Union infantrymen 625 00:38:01,090 --> 00:38:04,140 shot him dead as he rode between the lines. 626 00:38:07,740 --> 00:38:09,610 "He is at rest," 627 00:38:09,870 --> 00:38:12,840 "and we who are left are the ones to suffer." 628 00:38:22,080 --> 00:38:25,030 In Petersburg, the scene of nine months' siege, 629 00:38:25,080 --> 00:38:27,060 fell to Grant's army. 630 00:38:34,430 --> 00:38:37,330 As black civilians cheered the black soldiers 631 00:38:37,380 --> 00:38:40,030 that led the Union columns into the city, 632 00:38:40,080 --> 00:38:43,700 Lee's army slipped across the Appomattox River. 633 00:38:46,000 --> 00:38:48,210 In Richmond, Jefferson Davis was attending 634 00:38:48,260 --> 00:38:50,780 10:00 services that Sunday morning 635 00:38:50,880 --> 00:38:53,200 at St. Paul's Episcopal Church 636 00:38:53,400 --> 00:38:56,600 when the sexton handed him a message. 637 00:38:57,000 --> 00:38:58,730 "President Davis,." 638 00:38:59,130 --> 00:39:01,730 "My lines are broken in three places." 639 00:39:01,780 --> 00:39:05,090 "Richmond must be evacuated this evening." 640 00:39:05,760 --> 00:39:07,480 Robert E. Lee. 641 00:39:08,450 --> 00:39:12,030 "I happened to sit in the rear of the president's pew," 642 00:39:12,130 --> 00:39:15,130 "so near that I plainly saw this sort of" 643 00:39:15,180 --> 00:39:18,180 "grey pallor that came upon his face" 644 00:39:18,330 --> 00:39:22,560 "as he read a scrap of paper thrust into his hand." 645 00:39:23,630 --> 00:39:26,800 Davis hurried from the church and ordered his government to move to. 646 00:39:26,850 --> 00:39:30,250 Danville, Virginia, 140 miles to the south. 647 00:39:31,710 --> 00:39:33,460 On the evening of April 2nd, 648 00:39:33,510 --> 00:39:36,190 Davis and his cabinet boarded the last train, 649 00:39:36,240 --> 00:39:38,110 a series of freight cars labeled. 650 00:39:38,160 --> 00:39:41,320 "Treasury Department," "Quartermaster's Department." 651 00:39:41,570 --> 00:39:43,320 "War Department." 652 00:39:46,660 --> 00:39:50,250 "We tried to comfort ourselves by saying, in low tones, 653 00:39:50,300 --> 00:39:53,220 "that the capital was only moved temporarily," 654 00:39:53,270 --> 00:39:55,310 "that General Lee would make a stand" 655 00:39:55,360 --> 00:39:57,720 "and repulse the daring enemy," 656 00:39:57,770 --> 00:40:00,690 "and that we would yet win the battle and the day." 657 00:40:03,450 --> 00:40:05,400 A slave dealer named Lumpkin 658 00:40:05,450 --> 00:40:08,650 failed to get his fifty chained slaves aboard. 659 00:40:09,000 --> 00:40:13,070 He had to unlock $50,000 worth of property in the street 660 00:40:13,120 --> 00:40:14,730 and let them go. 661 00:40:16,700 --> 00:40:20,200 The retreating Confederates set fire to much of Richmond. 662 00:40:20,250 --> 00:40:24,150 Mobs plundered stores, broke into abandoned houses. 663 00:40:25,670 --> 00:40:29,070 The fire on land spread to the Confederate arsenal. 664 00:40:34,400 --> 00:40:36,330 The explosion rocked the city 665 00:40:36,380 --> 00:40:39,080 and shattered windows for miles around. 666 00:40:56,720 --> 00:40:59,390 "Everything was in the wildest confusion." 667 00:40:59,440 --> 00:41:03,670 "The low characters of the town had broken into everything and were looting the town," 668 00:41:03,720 --> 00:41:06,540 "being aided to a considerable extent by the soldiers" 669 00:41:06,590 --> 00:41:09,060 "who had broken through all discipline." 670 00:41:18,300 --> 00:41:21,970 "I saw a Confederate soldier on horseback pause 671 00:41:22,020 --> 00:41:23,480 "under my window. 672 00:41:23,530 --> 00:41:26,200 "He wheeled and fired behind him, 673 00:41:26,360 --> 00:41:28,160 "rode a short distance," 674 00:41:28,210 --> 00:41:30,210 "wheeled and fired again." 675 00:41:30,870 --> 00:41:32,670 "Coming up the street" 676 00:41:32,720 --> 00:41:35,120 "rode a body of men in blue." 677 00:41:41,840 --> 00:41:44,940 "Arriving at the capital, I sprang from my horse, 678 00:41:44,990 --> 00:41:48,230 "first unbuckling the Stars and Stripes from my saddle," 679 00:41:48,280 --> 00:41:51,080 "and with Captain Langdon, I rushed up to the roof." 680 00:41:51,370 --> 00:41:55,020 "Together, we hoisted the first large flag over Richmond" 681 00:41:55,070 --> 00:41:58,280 "and, on the peak of the roof, drank to its success." 682 00:42:10,280 --> 00:42:12,140 Mrs. Robert E. Lee, 683 00:42:12,190 --> 00:42:16,050 too crippled by arthritis to travel, remained in Richmond. 684 00:42:16,210 --> 00:42:19,610 The Union commander posted a guard before her house, 685 00:42:19,660 --> 00:42:21,350 a black cavalryman, 686 00:42:21,400 --> 00:42:23,920 to ensure no harm came to her. 687 00:42:26,120 --> 00:42:29,080 "April 3rd, 1865. 688 00:42:29,840 --> 00:42:32,970 "Thank God I have lived to see this. 689 00:42:33,440 --> 00:42:35,700 "It seems to me that I have been dreaming" 690 00:42:35,750 --> 00:42:38,520 "a horrid nightmare for four years," 691 00:42:38,770 --> 00:42:41,100 "and now the nightmare is gone." 692 00:42:42,050 --> 00:42:44,470 "I want to see Richmond." 693 00:42:48,330 --> 00:42:51,560 On April 3rd, Abraham Lincoln and his son, Tad, 694 00:42:51,610 --> 00:42:54,670 arrived at Rockett's Wharf aboard a small barge 695 00:42:54,720 --> 00:42:56,900 and were escorted through the smoking city 696 00:42:56,950 --> 00:42:59,290 by a unit of black cavalry. 697 00:43:01,260 --> 00:43:03,860 Freed slaves mobbed the president, 698 00:43:03,910 --> 00:43:06,370 laughing, singing, weeping for joy, 699 00:43:06,420 --> 00:43:10,020 kneeling before him, straining to touch his clothes. 700 00:43:10,480 --> 00:43:14,860 "I know I am free," said one man, "for I have seen Father Abraham 701 00:43:14,910 --> 00:43:16,320 "and felt him." 702 00:43:18,570 --> 00:43:21,540 The president walked about a mile through the crowd 703 00:43:21,590 --> 00:43:24,420 and loped up the steps of the Confederate White House, 704 00:43:24,470 --> 00:43:26,850 now Union headquarters. 705 00:43:27,350 --> 00:43:30,160 When he sat down at Jefferson Davis' desk, 706 00:43:30,210 --> 00:43:33,720 the troops outside burst into cheers. 707 00:43:37,160 --> 00:43:39,280 "Richmond has fallen, 708 00:43:39,430 --> 00:43:42,120 "and I have no heart to write about it." 709 00:43:42,320 --> 00:43:44,840 "They are too many for us." 710 00:43:45,610 --> 00:43:49,180 "Everything lost in Richmond, even our archives." 711 00:43:49,230 --> 00:43:52,180 "Blue-black is our horizon." 712 00:43:52,540 --> 00:43:54,290 Mary Chesnut. 713 00:45:11,460 --> 00:45:14,540 "There is a stillness in the midst of which Richmond, with her ruins 714 00:45:14,590 --> 00:45:18,620 "and her unchanging spires, rests beneath a ghastly, fitful glare. 715 00:45:19,240 --> 00:45:21,510 "We are under the shadow of ruins. 716 00:45:21,560 --> 00:45:25,330 "From the pavements where we walk stretches a vista of devastation. 717 00:45:25,380 --> 00:45:28,500 "The wreck, the loneliness seem interminable. 718 00:45:28,650 --> 00:45:30,480 "There is no sound of life 719 00:45:30,530 --> 00:45:32,680 "but the stillness of the catacomb. 720 00:45:33,450 --> 00:45:37,190 "Only as our footsteps fall dull on the deserted sidewalk 721 00:45:37,240 --> 00:45:39,750 "and a funeral troop of echoes bump 722 00:45:39,800 --> 00:45:43,300 "against the dead walls and closed shutters in reply." 723 00:45:44,170 --> 00:45:46,020 "And this is Richmond," 724 00:45:46,790 --> 00:45:48,900 "says a melancholy voice." 725 00:45:49,170 --> 00:45:51,290 "And this is Richmond." 726 00:46:00,300 --> 00:46:04,300 On April 8th, Abraham and Mary Lincoln took a drive together 727 00:46:04,350 --> 00:46:08,430 past a country cemetery on the outskirts of Petersburg. 728 00:46:09,230 --> 00:46:13,120 "It was a retired place shaded by trees, 729 00:46:13,170 --> 00:46:17,400 "and early spring flowers were opening on nearly every grave. 730 00:46:17,450 --> 00:46:19,460 "It was so quiet and attractive 731 00:46:19,510 --> 00:46:22,670 "that we stopped the carriage and walked through it. 732 00:46:23,530 --> 00:46:26,710 "Mr. Lincoln seemed thoughtful and impressed. 733 00:46:26,760 --> 00:46:28,740 "He said, Mary," 734 00:46:28,790 --> 00:46:31,640 "you are younger than I. You will survive me." 735 00:46:32,350 --> 00:46:33,900 "When I'm gone," 736 00:46:34,160 --> 00:46:38,090 "lay my remains in some quiet place like this." 737 00:46:44,100 --> 00:46:46,140 "General Lee was riding slowly" 738 00:46:46,190 --> 00:46:49,140 "along the line of tangled wagons." 739 00:46:49,400 --> 00:46:53,550 "He rode erect, as if incapable of fatigue." 740 00:46:57,580 --> 00:47:00,130 Lee's army fled westward. 741 00:47:00,900 --> 00:47:02,990 Grant was right behind them. 742 00:47:05,650 --> 00:47:09,250 "On and on, hour after hour, from hilltop to hilltop, 743 00:47:09,300 --> 00:47:12,380 "the lines were alternately forming, fighting, and retreating, 744 00:47:12,430 --> 00:47:15,260 "making one almost continuous battle." 745 00:47:15,360 --> 00:47:18,630 "A boy soldier came running by at the top of his speed." 746 00:47:18,680 --> 00:47:21,190 "When asked why he was running, he shouted back," 747 00:47:21,240 --> 00:47:23,640 "'I'm running 'cause I can't fly.'" 748 00:47:25,930 --> 00:47:27,990 From Danville on April 4th, 749 00:47:28,040 --> 00:47:31,900 Jefferson Davis issued a proclamation pledging to fight on. 750 00:47:32,710 --> 00:47:35,190 "Relieved from the necessity 751 00:47:35,290 --> 00:47:37,240 "of guarding cities, 752 00:47:37,610 --> 00:47:41,010 "with our army free to move from point to point, 753 00:47:41,180 --> 00:47:44,370 "nothing is now needed to render our triumph" 754 00:47:44,420 --> 00:47:48,250 "certain but our own unquenchable resolve." 755 00:47:48,520 --> 00:47:50,890 "No peace will ever be made" 756 00:47:50,940 --> 00:47:53,240 "with the infamous invaders." 757 00:47:55,220 --> 00:47:58,900 On April 6th at Sailor's Creek, Union cavalry and infantry 758 00:47:58,950 --> 00:48:02,230 inflicted 6,000 casualties on Lee's army 759 00:48:02,280 --> 00:48:06,600 and captured eight generals, including Lee's own son, Custis. 760 00:48:06,920 --> 00:48:10,180 He now had fewer than 25,000 men. 761 00:48:10,740 --> 00:48:13,840 One-hundred-twenty-five-thousand federal troops 762 00:48:13,890 --> 00:48:17,350 were now closing in on Lee from three sides. 763 00:48:19,410 --> 00:48:22,430 Union General Phil Sheridan wired Grant: 764 00:48:22,480 --> 00:48:26,300 "if the thing is pressed, I think that Lee will surrender." 765 00:48:26,550 --> 00:48:29,870 "Let the thing be pressed," Lincoln answered. 766 00:48:31,340 --> 00:48:33,940 An officer urged Lee to surrender. 767 00:48:33,990 --> 00:48:37,990 The general asked what the country would think of him if he failed to fight on. 768 00:48:38,290 --> 00:48:42,120 "The country be damned," said the officer, "there is no country. 769 00:48:42,170 --> 00:48:44,800 "There has been no country for a year or more." 770 00:48:44,950 --> 00:48:47,400 "You're the country to these men." 771 00:48:49,170 --> 00:48:51,600 "The few men who still carried their muskets 772 00:48:51,650 --> 00:48:53,990 "had hardly the appearance of soldiers; 773 00:48:54,090 --> 00:48:56,880 "their clothes all tattered and covered with mud," 774 00:48:56,930 --> 00:48:59,220 "their eyes sunken and lusterless,." 775 00:48:59,640 --> 00:49:02,060 "Yet still they were waiting for General Lee to say" 776 00:49:02,110 --> 00:49:04,480 "where they were to face about and fight." 777 00:49:04,750 --> 00:49:08,290 Magnus Thompson, 35th Virginia Cavalry Battalion. 778 00:49:11,630 --> 00:49:14,830 Lee's Confederate army was moving along one side 779 00:49:14,880 --> 00:49:16,570 of the Appomattox River, 780 00:49:16,620 --> 00:49:20,020 a willow-fringed run that any country boy could jump. 781 00:49:20,500 --> 00:49:23,710 His pursuers clung to the opposite bank. 782 00:49:35,440 --> 00:49:38,180 Five p.m., April 7th, 1865. 783 00:49:38,230 --> 00:49:39,730 "General Lee, 784 00:49:39,830 --> 00:49:41,570 "the result of last week 785 00:49:41,620 --> 00:49:45,140 "must convince you of the hopelessness of further resistance. 786 00:49:45,360 --> 00:49:48,510 "I regard it as my duty to shift from myself 787 00:49:48,560 --> 00:49:52,040 "the responsibility of any further effusion of blood" 788 00:49:52,590 --> 00:49:55,540 "by asking of you the surrender of that portion" 789 00:49:55,590 --> 00:49:57,840 "of the Confederate States Army" 790 00:49:57,890 --> 00:50:00,900 "known as the Army of Northern Virginia." 791 00:50:01,170 --> 00:50:03,070 Ulysses S. Grant. 792 00:50:06,570 --> 00:50:09,500 On April 8th, Grant again flanked Lee's army 793 00:50:09,550 --> 00:50:12,510 and captured two trainloads of supplies. 794 00:50:12,560 --> 00:50:16,460 The Confederates were living on handfuls of parched corn. 795 00:50:18,100 --> 00:50:21,320 That night, Lee and his weary lieutenants 796 00:50:21,370 --> 00:50:23,140 gathered around a campfire 797 00:50:23,190 --> 00:50:26,290 near the little village of Appomattox Courthouse. 798 00:50:26,660 --> 00:50:28,960 "We met in the woods at his headquarters 799 00:50:29,010 --> 00:50:31,330 "by a low-burning bivouac fire." 800 00:50:31,380 --> 00:50:35,340 "There was no tent, no table, no chairs, no camp stools." 801 00:50:35,390 --> 00:50:39,650 "On blankets spread upon the ground or on saddles at the roots of trees" 802 00:50:39,700 --> 00:50:42,040 "we sat around the great commander." 803 00:50:42,260 --> 00:50:44,350 General John B. Gordon. 804 00:50:45,070 --> 00:50:47,810 They were almost entirely surrounded, 805 00:50:47,860 --> 00:50:50,250 outnumbered nearly five-to-one, 806 00:50:50,300 --> 00:50:53,780 without hope of resupply or reinforcement. 807 00:50:57,100 --> 00:51:00,080 "By sunrise, we had reached Appomattox Station, 808 00:51:00,130 --> 00:51:02,180 "where we might cut Lee's retreat. 809 00:51:03,000 --> 00:51:06,120 "Already we heard the sharp ring of the horse artillery. 810 00:51:06,170 --> 00:51:07,710 "There was no mistake. 811 00:51:07,810 --> 00:51:11,460 "Sheridan was square across the enemy's front, holding at bay" 812 00:51:11,510 --> 00:51:15,770 "all that was left of the proudest army of the Confederacy." 813 00:51:16,640 --> 00:51:18,640 "It had come at last..." 814 00:51:19,050 --> 00:51:21,340 "The supreme hour." 815 00:51:22,630 --> 00:51:25,290 April 9th was Palm Sunday. 816 00:51:25,400 --> 00:51:29,340 Lee ordered Gordon to make one more attempt at breaking out. 817 00:51:29,910 --> 00:51:33,290 At dawn, just outside Appomattox Courthouse, 818 00:51:33,340 --> 00:51:36,340 Gordon's men drove federal cavalry from their positions 819 00:51:36,390 --> 00:51:39,140 and swept forward to the crest of a hill. 820 00:51:40,610 --> 00:51:44,420 Below them, a solid wall of blue was advancing... 821 00:51:44,470 --> 00:51:47,530 the entire Union Army of the James. 822 00:51:49,740 --> 00:51:52,090 "There is nothing left for me to do" 823 00:51:52,140 --> 00:51:54,720 "but to go and see General Grant," 824 00:51:55,180 --> 00:51:58,510 "and I would rather die a thousand deaths." 825 00:52:00,520 --> 00:52:03,290 Shortly before noon, Lee dispatched a letter 826 00:52:03,340 --> 00:52:06,340 under a white flag into the Union lines. 827 00:52:07,300 --> 00:52:11,130 Grant was resting in a field, nursing a blinding headache. 828 00:52:11,180 --> 00:52:15,110 Suddenly, a horseman galloped up, at full speed, a reporter noted, 829 00:52:15,160 --> 00:52:18,470 "waving his hat above his head and shouting at every jump." 830 00:52:19,140 --> 00:52:21,410 Grant opened the envelope, looked at it, 831 00:52:21,460 --> 00:52:25,260 then asked his friend, General John Rawlins, to read it aloud... 832 00:52:25,770 --> 00:52:27,900 Lee would surrender. 833 00:52:28,270 --> 00:52:30,250 Grant, himself, said nothing, 834 00:52:30,300 --> 00:52:32,790 "betrayed no more emotion," a witness said, 835 00:52:32,840 --> 00:52:35,060 than "last year's bird nest," 836 00:52:35,220 --> 00:52:38,090 but his headache had instantly disappeared. 837 00:52:38,910 --> 00:52:42,010 "No one looked his comrade in the face. 838 00:52:42,180 --> 00:52:44,950 "Finally Colonel Duff, Chief of Artillery," 839 00:52:45,000 --> 00:52:48,450 "sprang upon a log and proposed three cheers." 840 00:52:48,670 --> 00:52:52,010 "A feeble hurrah came from a few throats," 841 00:52:52,060 --> 00:52:54,860 "when all broke down in tears." 842 00:52:56,910 --> 00:53:00,990 Lee dispatched Colonel Charles Marshall to Appomattox Courthouse 843 00:53:01,040 --> 00:53:04,540 to find a suitable building in which he and Grant might meet. 844 00:53:04,590 --> 00:53:06,840 The streets were almost deserted. 845 00:53:07,300 --> 00:53:10,250 Marshall stopped the first civilian he happened to see, 846 00:53:10,350 --> 00:53:12,090 Wilmer McLean, 847 00:53:12,140 --> 00:53:16,410 who reluctantly agreed to loan the armies his house for the occasion. 848 00:53:17,650 --> 00:53:19,610 "By a singular coincidence, 849 00:53:19,660 --> 00:53:22,160 "the meeting of Generals Lee and Grant 850 00:53:22,210 --> 00:53:24,790 "took place in the house of Wilmer McLean, 851 00:53:24,840 --> 00:53:29,290 "the same gentleman who, in 1861, at the Battle of Bull Run, 852 00:53:29,340 --> 00:53:33,110 "had tendered his house to General Beauregard for headquarters." 853 00:53:33,230 --> 00:53:35,570 "He removed from Manassas after the battle" 854 00:53:35,620 --> 00:53:38,020 "with the intention of seeking some quiet nook" 855 00:53:38,070 --> 00:53:40,860 "where the alarms of war could never find him." 856 00:53:45,490 --> 00:53:47,330 "One o'clock came. 857 00:53:48,250 --> 00:53:49,960 "I turned about. 858 00:53:50,280 --> 00:53:54,580 "There behind me appeared a commanding form, superbly mounted, 859 00:53:54,630 --> 00:53:56,140 "richly accoutered, 860 00:53:56,240 --> 00:53:59,270 "of imposing bearing, noble countenance, 861 00:53:59,630 --> 00:54:02,300 "with expression of deep sadness 862 00:54:02,350 --> 00:54:05,260 "over-mastered by a deeper strength. 863 00:54:05,830 --> 00:54:08,590 "It was no other than Robert E. Lee. 864 00:54:09,860 --> 00:54:12,950 "Not long after appeared another form... plain, 865 00:54:13,000 --> 00:54:16,160 "unassuming, simple, and familiar to our eyes, 866 00:54:16,210 --> 00:54:19,810 "but as awe-inspiring as Lee in his splendor and sadness. 867 00:54:19,860 --> 00:54:21,600 "It was Grant, 868 00:54:22,000 --> 00:54:24,840 "sitting his saddle with the ease of a born master, 869 00:54:24,890 --> 00:54:26,390 "taking no notice of anything," 870 00:54:26,440 --> 00:54:29,560 "all his faculties gathered into intense thought." 871 00:54:30,380 --> 00:54:33,100 "He seemed greater than I had ever seen him," 872 00:54:33,370 --> 00:54:36,070 "a look as of another world about him." 873 00:54:37,840 --> 00:54:40,420 Lee arrived at the McLean house first, 874 00:54:40,470 --> 00:54:43,040 magnificent in a crisp gray uniform, 875 00:54:43,090 --> 00:54:45,680 an engraved sword at his side. 876 00:54:46,130 --> 00:54:50,570 "I have probably to be General Grant's prisoner," he explained to an aide, 877 00:54:50,620 --> 00:54:53,310 "and thought I must make my best appearance." 878 00:54:54,780 --> 00:54:57,660 He waited half an hour for Grant to arrive. 879 00:54:57,810 --> 00:55:00,930 The Union commander wore a private's dirty jacket. 880 00:55:00,980 --> 00:55:03,830 His boots and trousers were splattered with mud. 881 00:55:03,880 --> 00:55:05,690 He had no sword. 882 00:55:06,210 --> 00:55:08,710 The two commanders shook hands. 883 00:55:09,480 --> 00:55:12,910 "What general Lee's feelings were, I do not know. 884 00:55:13,120 --> 00:55:15,180 "As he was a man of much dignity 885 00:55:15,230 --> 00:55:18,790 "with an impassible face, his feelings were entirely concealed 886 00:55:18,840 --> 00:55:20,600 "from my observation. 887 00:55:20,810 --> 00:55:23,970 "But my own feelings were sad and depressed. 888 00:55:24,200 --> 00:55:25,920 "I felt like anything 889 00:55:25,970 --> 00:55:28,650 "rather than rejoicing at the downfall of a foe 890 00:55:28,700 --> 00:55:31,340 "who had fought so long and valiantly" 891 00:55:31,440 --> 00:55:34,060 "and had suffered so much for a cause," 892 00:55:34,430 --> 00:55:36,390 "though that cause was, I believe," 893 00:55:36,440 --> 00:55:39,760 "one of the worst for which people ever fought." 894 00:55:45,250 --> 00:55:49,620 Grant reminded Lee that they had met once before during the Mexican war. 895 00:55:49,680 --> 00:55:53,470 Lee said he had not remembered what Grant looked like. 896 00:55:53,690 --> 00:55:55,520 "Our conversation grew so pleasant" 897 00:55:55,570 --> 00:55:58,410 "that I almost forgot the object of the meeting." 898 00:55:58,780 --> 00:56:02,080 "General Lee called my attention to the object." 899 00:56:03,250 --> 00:56:05,080 They knew each other. 900 00:56:06,840 --> 00:56:09,150 Grant remembered Lee very well. 901 00:56:10,560 --> 00:56:12,870 Lee didn't quite remember Grant. 902 00:56:13,330 --> 00:56:15,100 That was understandable 903 00:56:15,270 --> 00:56:18,910 from the time that they were acquainted back in the early days, 904 00:56:19,930 --> 00:56:22,640 but I think it was the sensitivity that the... 905 00:56:23,100 --> 00:56:26,350 the two men had for each other and 906 00:56:26,750 --> 00:56:28,380 for the moment; 907 00:56:28,750 --> 00:56:31,210 enormous dignity, and yet, 908 00:56:31,260 --> 00:56:33,610 the necessary informality... 909 00:56:34,580 --> 00:56:38,130 Grant not wanting to get to the point 910 00:56:38,280 --> 00:56:39,830 too quickly; 911 00:56:40,190 --> 00:56:43,350 Lee bringing him up shortly 912 00:56:43,400 --> 00:56:46,250 to the point of why they're together; 913 00:56:46,620 --> 00:56:49,250 Lee dressed 914 00:56:49,300 --> 00:56:52,300 in his last good uniform; 915 00:56:52,620 --> 00:56:54,760 Grant apologizing 916 00:56:54,810 --> 00:56:57,750 that he was rushing from the field and didn't have 917 00:56:57,800 --> 00:56:59,750 time to change; 918 00:57:00,610 --> 00:57:03,350 the scribe being unable to 919 00:57:03,400 --> 00:57:05,420 hold the pen steady, 920 00:57:05,470 --> 00:57:08,270 and having it taken by another soldier; 921 00:57:08,790 --> 00:57:10,200 the... 922 00:57:11,270 --> 00:57:15,480 that... from Lee's point of view... awful moment, 923 00:57:15,590 --> 00:57:19,640 and from Grant's point of view, glorious moment, and yet for the two of them, 924 00:57:20,150 --> 00:57:23,670 a sad and quiet moment; 925 00:57:24,790 --> 00:57:28,260 and Lee taking his leave and 926 00:57:29,500 --> 00:57:32,120 doffing his hat from Traveller and 927 00:57:32,170 --> 00:57:35,370 riding back to his troops 928 00:57:36,940 --> 00:57:38,540 after securing 929 00:57:38,740 --> 00:57:41,340 those reasonable terms. 930 00:57:41,680 --> 00:57:45,890 It was the... it was the beginning of the unification of the country. 931 00:57:47,000 --> 00:57:50,520 The terms Grant offered were simple and generous: 932 00:57:50,570 --> 00:57:54,890 Confederate officers could keep their side-arms and personal possessions; 933 00:57:55,110 --> 00:57:57,740 officers and men who owned their own horses 934 00:57:57,790 --> 00:57:59,610 could keep them, too. 935 00:57:59,660 --> 00:58:01,670 It was planting season. 936 00:58:02,490 --> 00:58:04,990 Grant asked Lee how many men he had 937 00:58:05,040 --> 00:58:07,180 and if they needed any rations. 938 00:58:07,550 --> 00:58:10,380 Lee said he no longer knew the size of his army, 939 00:58:10,430 --> 00:58:13,040 but he was sure all his men were hungry. 940 00:58:13,200 --> 00:58:16,220 Grant offered 25,000 rations. 941 00:58:17,090 --> 00:58:19,960 "This will have the best effect upon my men." 942 00:58:20,010 --> 00:58:22,540 "It will be very gratifying and do much toward" 943 00:58:22,590 --> 00:58:24,730 "conciliating our people." 944 00:58:25,450 --> 00:58:28,300 Colonel Ely S. Parker, a Seneca Indian, 945 00:58:28,350 --> 00:58:30,170 and a member of Grant's staff, 946 00:58:30,220 --> 00:58:34,460 inscribed the articles of surrender for the two commanders to sign. 947 00:58:36,170 --> 00:58:38,530 The two men shook hands again. 948 00:58:38,730 --> 00:58:42,030 Lee left the house, mounted Traveller, 949 00:58:42,080 --> 00:58:44,420 and started back toward his army. 950 00:58:46,230 --> 00:58:48,730 The Union soldiers began to cheer. 951 00:58:48,830 --> 00:58:50,960 Grant ordered them to stop. 952 00:58:51,060 --> 00:58:53,780 "The confederates are now our prisoners," he explained, 953 00:58:53,950 --> 00:58:57,280 "and we do not want to exult over their downfall." 954 00:58:58,130 --> 00:58:59,720 "The war is over." 955 00:58:59,770 --> 00:59:02,600 "The rebels are our countrymen again." 956 00:59:05,630 --> 00:59:09,130 Lee's men lined the road to his camp. 957 00:59:09,900 --> 00:59:13,200 "As he approached, we could see the reins hanging loose," 958 00:59:13,250 --> 00:59:15,700 "and his head was sunk low on his breast." 959 00:59:15,750 --> 00:59:18,950 "As the men began to cheer, he raised his head, and, hat in hand," 960 00:59:19,000 --> 00:59:23,160 "he passed by, his face flushed, his eyes ablaze." 961 00:59:23,970 --> 00:59:25,590 "As he passed, 962 00:59:25,640 --> 00:59:29,600 "they raised their heads and looked upon him with swimming eyes." 963 00:59:30,560 --> 00:59:33,900 "Those who could find voice said good-bye." 964 00:59:34,000 --> 00:59:35,680 "Those who could not speak" 965 00:59:35,730 --> 00:59:39,210 "passed their hands gently over the sides of Traveller." 966 00:59:41,330 --> 00:59:44,330 "If one army drank the joy of victory 967 00:59:44,380 --> 00:59:47,250 "and the other the bitter draught of defeat, 968 00:59:47,320 --> 00:59:51,220 "it was a joy moderated by the recollection of the cost 969 00:59:51,270 --> 00:59:53,140 "at which it had been purchased 970 00:59:53,240 --> 00:59:55,040 "and a defeat mollified 971 00:59:55,090 --> 00:59:57,580 "by the consciousness of many triumphs. 972 00:59:57,800 --> 01:00:01,260 "If the victors could recall a Malvern Hill, an Antietam," 973 01:00:01,310 --> 01:00:03,690 "a Gettysburg, a Five Forks," 974 01:00:03,740 --> 01:00:07,610 "the vanquished could recall a Manassas, a Fredericksburg," 975 01:00:07,770 --> 01:00:11,020 "a Chancellorsville, a Cold Harbor." 976 01:00:14,220 --> 01:00:17,950 A crowd of soldiers waited in front of Lee's tent. 977 01:00:18,820 --> 01:00:20,530 "Boys," he told them, 978 01:00:20,580 --> 01:00:23,000 "I have done the best I could for you. 979 01:00:23,050 --> 01:00:24,550 "Go home, now, 980 01:00:24,720 --> 01:00:28,360 "and if you make as good citizens as you have soldiers, 981 01:00:28,410 --> 01:00:29,880 "you will do well," 982 01:00:30,030 --> 01:00:32,570 "and I shall always be proud of you." 983 01:00:32,670 --> 01:00:34,120 "Good-bye," 984 01:00:34,270 --> 01:00:36,420 "and God bless you all." 985 01:00:37,490 --> 01:00:40,430 He turned and disappeared into his tent. 986 01:00:50,700 --> 01:00:53,670 The formal surrender came three days later. 987 01:00:55,410 --> 01:00:57,200 General John B. Gordon, 988 01:00:57,250 --> 01:00:59,710 shot through the face and wounded four more times 989 01:00:59,760 --> 01:01:01,790 in the service of the Confederacy, 990 01:01:01,950 --> 01:01:05,920 led 20,000 men toward the Union lines for the last time... 991 01:01:06,040 --> 01:01:10,370 not to fight, but to stack their arms and surrender their battle flags. 992 01:01:11,640 --> 01:01:13,420 There to receive them 993 01:01:13,470 --> 01:01:16,800 was Major General Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, 994 01:01:16,850 --> 01:01:19,800 himself wounded six times for the Union. 995 01:01:19,850 --> 01:01:22,620 Promoted on the field at Petersburg near death, 996 01:01:22,670 --> 01:01:24,910 he had somehow survived. 997 01:01:27,430 --> 01:01:31,710 "On they come with the old swinging route step and swaying battle flags. 998 01:01:31,760 --> 01:01:35,600 "Before us in proud humiliation stood the embodiment of manhood... 999 01:01:35,650 --> 01:01:38,140 "thin, worn, and famished, but erect, 1000 01:01:38,190 --> 01:01:40,630 "and with eyes looking level into ours, 1001 01:01:40,790 --> 01:01:44,960 "waking memories that bound us together as no other bond. 1002 01:01:45,330 --> 01:01:47,670 "Was not such manhood to be welcomed back 1003 01:01:47,720 --> 01:01:50,550 "into the Union so tested and assured? 1004 01:01:51,510 --> 01:01:55,610 "On our part, not a sound of trumpet more, nor roll of drum, 1005 01:01:55,660 --> 01:01:59,210 "not a cheer, nor word, nor whisper of vainglorying," 1006 01:01:59,260 --> 01:02:01,030 "nor motion of man," 1007 01:02:01,750 --> 01:02:05,300 "but an awed stillness, rather, and breath-holding," 1008 01:02:05,720 --> 01:02:08,380 "as if it were the passing of the dead." 1009 01:02:08,620 --> 01:02:10,620 Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. 1010 01:02:12,500 --> 01:02:16,980 Now, Chamberlain made an extraordinary gesture. 1011 01:02:18,000 --> 01:02:20,370 "Chamberlain called his men into line, 1012 01:02:20,420 --> 01:02:22,620 "and as my men marched in front of them," 1013 01:02:22,670 --> 01:02:25,470 "the veterans in blue gave a soldierly salute" 1014 01:02:25,520 --> 01:02:27,660 "to those vanquished heroes," 1015 01:02:28,670 --> 01:02:32,570 "a token of respect from Americans to Americans." 1016 01:02:32,670 --> 01:02:34,650 General John B. Gordon. 1017 01:02:36,220 --> 01:02:39,400 "At the sound of that machine-like snap of arms, 1018 01:02:39,450 --> 01:02:41,350 "General Gordon started, 1019 01:02:41,400 --> 01:02:43,770 "then wheeled his horse, facing me, 1020 01:02:43,820 --> 01:02:48,110 "touching him gently with the spur so that the animal slightly reared, 1021 01:02:48,160 --> 01:02:49,820 "and, as he wheeled, 1022 01:02:50,380 --> 01:02:52,980 "horse and rider made one motion." 1023 01:02:53,030 --> 01:02:56,620 "The horses head swung down with a graceful bow," 1024 01:02:56,670 --> 01:02:59,880 "and General Gordon dropped his sword point to his toe" 1025 01:02:59,930 --> 01:03:01,680 "in salutation." 1026 01:03:13,900 --> 01:03:17,110 In Washington, fireworks filled the sky. 1027 01:03:17,160 --> 01:03:21,350 A great crowd gathered around the White House and called for Lincoln. 1028 01:03:21,770 --> 01:03:24,320 He was too weary to make a formal speech 1029 01:03:24,370 --> 01:03:26,770 but asked the band to play Dixie. 1030 01:03:27,390 --> 01:03:31,410 "I have always thought it one of the best tunes I ever heard," he said. 1031 01:03:33,430 --> 01:03:37,130 The next day, Lincoln walked over to Alexander Gardner's studio 1032 01:03:37,180 --> 01:03:39,340 at the corner of 7th and D Street 1033 01:03:39,390 --> 01:03:41,580 to sit for another portrait. 1034 01:03:42,750 --> 01:03:46,750 Somehow, the glass-plate negative cracked while being developed. 1035 01:03:47,080 --> 01:03:49,400 The photographer made a single print, 1036 01:03:49,450 --> 01:03:51,610 then threw the negative away. 1037 01:03:51,660 --> 01:03:53,420 Over the next four years, 1038 01:03:53,470 --> 01:03:57,200 there would be plenty of time to make more Lincoln portraits. 1039 01:03:58,810 --> 01:04:00,420 Just a few blocks away, 1040 01:04:00,470 --> 01:04:04,510 a friend found John Wilkes Booth alone in his darkened room 1041 01:04:04,610 --> 01:04:07,280 and asked him if he wanted to get a drink. 1042 01:04:07,630 --> 01:04:11,850 "Yes," said Booth, who was now drinking a quart of brandy a day, 1043 01:04:11,920 --> 01:04:15,230 "anything to drive away the blues."