Encyclopedia Britannica - The Civil War (1954) - Henry Steele Commager, Re-enacting Retro

In 1861, three bowls, says I, in 1861, three bowls, in 1861, we licked the Yankees at Bull Run, and we'll all drink stone blind, Johnny, come fill the bowl. ♪♪ In 1863, a special train had come up from Washington, bringing a mighty important man who had a speech to make at a place called Gettysburg. Today, Gettysburg lies peaceful and quiet in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. But what happened there some time back is history. Not far from Gettysburg, there's a great valley lying astroth, calling it the Cumberland, and another south, the Shenandoah. And at Harper's Ferry, right where the valleys meet. I, Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave, but it marched on above the great valley, anticipating a deadly struggle between two ways of life. For the valley flowed north into an area both agriculturally rich and industrially productive. A land where factories were becoming part of the landscape. But in the southern part of the valley and the land beyond, a way of life depending on the hand labor of slaves. A different way of life that seemed to call for a different kind of government. This union was established on the right of the state to do as it pleased on the question of slavery, and every other question. A house divided against itself cannot stand. April 12th, 1861. Confederate guns fire on Fort Sumter. The war had come. South Carolina had seceded from the Union in December of 1860, and six other slave states had soon followed. But the state of Virginia hesitated, even after Sumter, and whether it would secede or not was of grave concern to a Virginian named Robert E. Lee. If Virginia stands by the old Union, so will I. But if she secedes, then I will follow my native state with my life. And so when Virginia seceded, five days after Sumter, the North lost more than a state. It lost a general. Through a mistake we lost Bull Run, three bulls, says I. Through a mistake we lost Bull Run, and we all skedaddled to Washington. And we'll all drink stone blind. Johnny, come fill the bowl. Neither side had wanted it, but the first battle was at hand. And man or boy, Johnny Red or Billy Yank, each soldier faced his own worst moments alone, waiting. And troops hadn't meant to run that day, but run they did. It wasn't going to be a short war. Bull Run was a defeat for the North, but not a decisive one. And by the spring of 62, McClellan, now with a tough and disciplined army, the Army of the Potomac, embarked aboard a huge fleet of wooden ships to the James River for a drive on Richmond. Hard fighting brought the Union army to within four miles of Richmond, the heart and symbol of the Confederacy. But with victory almost within his grasp, McClellan learned that his own capital was threatened by Confederate cavalry. They were stopped by Union forces, but McClellan, despite his superior numbers, was defeated by Lee in a series of battles known as Seven Days. Richmond was still threatened, but for that matter, so was Washington. Thus, the war in the East was indecisive. But things were going differently in the West. Here, where broad rivers cut into the Confederacy, an unknown Union general had surrounded Fremander asked this unknown for terms. The reply was, No terms except unconditional surrender. An unconditional surrender grant it was from that day on. But Ulysses S. Grant was not always to have things on his own terms. One Sunday morning in early April at his headquarters, his forces had been surprised, and thus began the terrible Battle of Shiloh. 40,000 Confederates pressed the Union troops to the very edge of the river towards what looked like an inevitable disaster. But Federal reinforcements arrived overnight, reinforcements which turned the tide of the battle. And when it was over, the Union army held the ground, but at a cost more terrible than could be imagined. General Grant looked over the field. I looked at a field over which the Confederates had made charges the day before, so covered with death. Now, after more than a year of hostilities, the grand strategy of the North began to emerge. Total blockade on the sea, and the splitting of the Confederacy by way of the western rivers. Thus, the West was to prove crucial in this war between North and South. But Lee in the East was a general to be reckoned with. He had crossed the Potomac just above Washington, and early in September of 62, his army met McClelland's at a place called Antietam Creek. And in two days, the cornfields of Maryland became one of the bloodiest battlefields of the entire war. It was not news of a decisive victory which reached the White House, but it was enough of a victory, and what Abraham Lincoln had been waiting for. All persons held as slaves within any state, the people of which shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free. Now, the fate of the Union and the fate of slavery were one and the same. The spring of 63 found the war moving into its third tragic year, with Federal troops deep in Confederate territory in the West. But once again, Lee's lieutenants were on the march in the Cumberland Valley. And in June of 63, the tides of war converged on a little town, which until then had been as peaceful as the seminary which stood nearby, a town called Gettysburg. Now, two determined armies faced each other. 75,000 men under Lee, 90,000 or more under Meade. The hardened veterans entrenched on Little Round Top waited. The Union sharpshooters in Devil's Den waited. The fertile fields of Pennsylvania waited. But Lee's first assault failed to dislodge the Federal troops from Cemetery Ridge. Meade's men got what sleep they could among the graves that night. The fighting had been hard. And when morning of the third day came, Lee mounted his fateful attack. They had moved with the steadiness of a dress parade. Their defeat was one which all but sealed the fate of the Confederacy. In the midst of a tragic war not yet won, a lot of folks gather in Gettysburg for a dedication. And among them is the President. He looks older now, seldom smiles. War's been so long, so many dead on both sides. After a while, after the main speaker, he has a few words to say. He speaks briefly, quietly, of the brave men, living and dead, who struggle here. Says we must resolve that they shall not have died in vain. That our nation shall have a new birth of freedom. And that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. But the terrible war went on. And once again, the West proved crucial. Vicksburg had surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant in July of 63. Then Grant took command in Chattanooga and stormed the Confederate positions on Missionary Ridge. East Tennessee, the way into Georgia, was now in Union hands, as was the Mississippi River. The Confederacy was divided. And in Grant, Lincoln had at last found a fighting general. Now placed in supreme command of all Union forces, Grant threw the Army of the Potomac into the wilderness campaign. Slashed at Lee's line, was pushed back, struck again and again. The South was slowly being worn down by the better equipped and larger armies of the North, by strangling blockade on the sea. And once again, word came from the West. Federal victories there were opening the way into Georgia. And the way into Georgia was taken by William Tecumseh Sherman. Atlanta fell to Sherman in August of 64. And then began a 300 mile march to the sea. A march whose mission was to destroy the productive heartland of the South. A march whose mission was accomplished. The garden area of the Confederacy was laid waste. In 1864, the rebels had enough of the war. And we'll all drink stone blind, Johnny come fill the bowl. The war could not go on much longer. Grant besieged Petersburg. And with Sherman's cavalry joining him, forced Lee to abandon his capital. It is April 3rd, 1865. Lee's armies are all but surrounded. Six days later, two former graduates of West Point meet in a small house in a town called Appomattox. And Ulysses S. Grant, whose initial stand for unconditional surrender, converses at length with Robert E. Lee, who hopes for something better than unconditional surrender. My men would like to take their mounts home with them for the spring plowing. Yes, it's doubtful if they will be able to put in a crop without the horses they are now riding. With malice toward none, with charity for all, let us bind up the nation's wounds. To care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan. To do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. Thanks for watching. If you'd like to help us produce more compelling historical content like this, please like, comment below, and share this video with fellow history buffs. And of course, be sure to subscribe to help keep history happening.