0:02 From the bloodiest day in American
0:05 history to the emotional surrender of a
0:07 Confederate general to the president
0:09 saving America from the brink of
0:11 collapse and then getting assassinated
0:13 [screaming] 5 days later. This is the
0:16 American Civil War explained. A war so
0:19 violent it killed more Americans than
0:22 any other war in US history. And if it
0:24 wasn't for some legendary heroes, we
0:26 wouldn't have made it out alive. But
0:29 let's go back cuz wars don't just pop
0:32 out of nowhere, they simmer, they stew.
0:35 And by the time 1861 rolled around,
0:38 exploded. Cuz the United States was
0:41 basically two worlds living under one
0:43 flag. Up north, it was speeding towards
0:46 the future with factories, big cities,
0:49 and railroads. And down south, well, the
0:52 economy ran on cotton, an empire powered
0:55 by 4 million slaves. But it wasn't just
0:58 about dollars and cotton. It was about
1:01 power, morality, and who got to define
1:04 America. And this flared up every time a
1:07 new territory joined the Union. Would it
1:10 be a free state or a slave state? And
1:12 here's the thing, whoever controlled
1:15 more states controlled Congress,
1:17 controlled policy, and basically
1:20 controlled the future. So for decades,
1:22 presidents just slapped duct tape on the
1:24 problem. The Missouri Compromise. The
1:27 Compromise of 1850. It was like patching
1:30 a sinking ship with a band-aid. Sir,
1:32 we're going to need more tape. And by
1:35 election day 1860, it finally blew its
1:38 lid. Cuz unlike most presidents before
1:41 him, Abraham Lincoln wasn't born sipping
1:44 tea on fine china. He came from the
1:46 dirt. Literally. He grew up in a one
1:50 room log cabin in Kentucky. His mother
1:52 died when he was nine. And he had less
1:55 than a year of schooling. But Lincoln
1:57 had something you just can't teach.
2:00 Grit. Cuz after a full day of chopping
2:03 wood, he taught himself law. And by the
2:05 time he stepped into politics, people
2:08 called him Honest Abe. A lawyer that
2:11 actually stood by his word. In fact, Abe
2:13 once walked miles to return six cents of
2:16 change to a customer he accidentally
2:18 overcharged. That's the kind of guy this
2:21 dude was. A man of character. But what
2:23 made Lincoln so dangerous to the South
2:25 is that he opposed the expansion of
2:27 slavery. Cuz when he got elected
2:29 president without a single southern
2:32 state, it was basically game over for
2:34 the South. And South Carolina didn't
2:36 wait around for the welcome speech. Cuz
2:38 before Lincoln could even unpack his
2:41 bags, they seceded from the Union. And
2:44 within weeks, six more states followed.
2:48 Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia,
2:50 Louisiana, and Texas. who all got
2:53 together and formed a brand new nation,
2:56 the Confederate States of America. But
2:58 Lincoln didn't jump the gun and invade
3:01 the South. Instead, it all started with
3:03 an island fortress off the coast of
3:05 Charleston, South Carolina, Fort
3:08 Sumpter, one of the last Union outpost
3:11 in Confederate territory. The problem,
3:14 both sides claimed it. So Lincoln faced
3:17 an impossible choice. If he sent
3:19 supplies, the South would call it an
3:21 invasion. If he abandoned the fort, the
3:24 North would see him as weak. So, he
3:27 chose a middle path and sent only food.
3:31 No guns, no ammo, just bread, beans, and
3:33 the hope that the Confederates would
3:35 just look the other way. My man was
3:37 basically trying to deliver Door Dash to
3:40 avoid the Civil War. But unfortunately,
3:43 the South wasn't hungry for compromise
3:46 cuz Confederate General PGT Bogard gave
3:50 the order. Open fire. And for 34
3:53 straight hours, cannons thundered across
3:55 Charleston Harbor. Yet somehow,
4:00 miraculously, no one died. Ouch. But
4:02 when the Union commander surrendered,
4:05 the message echoed across the nation.
4:08 War had begun. So Lincoln didn't waste a
4:11 second and called for 75,000 volunteers
4:14 to crush the rebellion which ironically
4:17 poured more fuel on the fire cuz four
4:20 more states Virginia, Arkansas,
4:22 Tennessee, and North Carolina joined the
4:24 Confederacy. Sir, I think that
4:27 backfired. But Virginia was the big one,
4:30 the crown jewel. Cuz its secession
4:32 didn't just double the Confederacy's
4:34 size, it delivered their greatest
4:38 military weapon, Robert E. Lee, the son
4:41 of a Revolutionary War hero, a West
4:42 Point graduate who finished second in
4:45 his class and a decorated veteran of the
4:48 MexicanAmerican War. Believe it or not,
4:50 when the Union needed a commander,
4:53 Lincoln actually offered Lee the job,
4:56 but he turned it down. And not for the
4:58 reason you might think, cuz Lee opposed
5:01 secession and even called slavery a
5:03 moral and political evil. But when
5:06 Virginia left the Union, Lee faced his
5:09 own impossible choice. Fight against his
5:12 country or fight against his home. and
5:14 he sided with Virginia, gifting the
5:17 Confederacy one of the sharpest military
5:20 minds in history. But here's the crazy
5:22 part. Both sides assumed the war would
5:25 be over pretty quick. Cuz when Union
5:27 troops marched toward Virginia, the mood
5:30 was almost festive. People from DC
5:33 actually packed picnic baskets and rode
5:35 out in carriages to watch the battle.
5:38 Anyone have some popcorn? Ooh, don't
5:41 mind if I do. But the good vibes didn't
5:44 last long cuz the Battle of Bull Run
5:47 began with the two armies colliding. And
5:49 at first, the Union pushed the
5:51 Confederates back. But when Brigadier
5:53 General Thomas Jackson arrived with his
5:56 brigade, the Confederates rallied. One
5:58 Confederate officer even pointed and
6:01 shouted, "There stands Jackson like a
6:04 stonewall." And the nickname stuck.
6:07 Stonewall Jackson had arrived, allowing
6:08 the Confederates to regroup and
6:10 counterattack, where they broke the
6:13 Union line and forced them to retreat in
6:15 a full-blown panic. And it was so
6:18 chaotic, civilian carriages were bumping
6:20 into Union troops in the rush to get
6:22 home. Hey, wait up. [screaming]
6:25 Can somebody give me a ride? But this
6:28 was only the beginning, cuz 1862 would
6:31 unleash a level of violence America had
6:34 never seen before. Down in Tennessee, a
6:36 quiet cigar chewing Union general named
6:39 Ulissiz Srant was making his move. He
6:42 captured Fort Henry, then Fort
6:44 Donaldelsson. And when the Confederate
6:46 commander asked for surrender terms,
6:48 Grant replied with the line that made
6:50 him famous. No terms except
6:53 unconditional and immediate surrender
6:55 can be accepted. Translation: I'm not
6:58 here to negotiate. I'm here to win. But
7:01 Grant's real test came at a place called
7:03 Shiloh, where Confederate forces
7:05 launched a surprise attack and Union
7:08 lines buckled. But Grant didn't panic.
7:11 He never panicked. That night,
7:13 reinforcements arrived. And at sunrise,
7:17 Grant counterattacked and hard cuz by
7:19 the end of day two, the Confederates
7:21 were the ones retreating.
7:24 A close call, right? Well, not exactly.
7:26 Because when the smoke cleared, it
7:30 revealed over 23,000 casualties, more
7:32 than all previous American wars
7:35 combined. I just can't believe it. So,
7:38 with war heating up, Lincoln desperately
7:41 needed someone to lead his main army.
7:44 And in comes General George Mlen. Young,
7:47 brilliant, and a guy convinced he was
7:51 Napoleon 2.0. But Mlen's confidence came
7:54 with a fatal flaw. He hated taking
7:56 risks. If the stars weren't aligned, the
7:58 weather wasn't perfect, and the odds
8:02 were 110% in his favor, he just wouldn't
8:05 attack. GET BACK IN LINE, FLAPPY.
8:08 SORRY, SIR. MEANWHILE, Lincoln was
8:11 losing his patience. He sent Mlelen a
8:13 note saying, "If you don't want to use
8:15 the army, I would like to borrow it for
8:19 a while." Ouch. So Mlen finally launched
8:21 the Peninsula campaign. A massive push
8:23 to capture Richmond, the Confederate
8:25 capital. And for a moment, it looked
8:28 like the crazy kid might pull it off.
8:30 Union troops got so close they could
8:32 hear Richmond's church bells ringing.
8:35 But that's when everything changed cuz a
8:37 new commander took charge of the
8:41 Confederate army, Robert E. Lee. And oh
8:44 boy did he not waste a moment cuz Lee
8:46 went straight on the attack and hammered
8:50 Mlen's army. Mud, bayonets, forest on
8:54 fire. It was straight up madness. Yet in
8:56 the end, Lee actually lost more men than
8:59 Mlen, but he didn't care. He'd achieved
9:02 exactly what he wanted. The Union Army
9:05 pushed away from Richmond, and Mlen's
9:07 confidence was shattered. and shattered
9:10 is the perfect way to put it cuz Mlen
9:11 walked away convinced he'd been
9:14 outnumbered, outmatched, and crushed by
9:17 some massive Confederate force. But in
9:20 reality, Lee's army was smaller. So,
9:23 riding high from his victories, Lee made
9:25 a bold move and took the war into the
9:28 north by invading Maryland. But that's
9:30 when fate dropped a plot twist so crazy,
9:32 Miss Flappy thought I was literally
9:35 making this up. But I'm not. I swear.
9:38 cuz a Union soldier stumbled across an
9:40 abandoned Confederate campsite and found
9:42 a copy of Lee's battle plan. There it
9:45 was, the full blueprint. Mlelen
9:47 literally held the Confederacy's
9:50 playbook in his hands. So, with this new
9:52 advantage up against Lee's tactical
9:54 genius, we finally got ourselves a fair
9:57 fight. And what came next was the
10:00 bloodiest day in American history, the
10:03 Battle of Antidum, where Union troops
10:05 surged into a cornfield and faced a
10:09 storm of lead. Men charged, fell, and
10:11 charged again. Bodies dropped
10:14 everywhere. And one soldier later said a
10:16 man could walk from one end of the field
10:18 to the other without ever touching the
10:21 ground. Horrifying. But just when you
10:23 thought the battle couldn't get worse,
10:26 it moved to Bloody Lane, a sunken road
10:29 where Confederates packed in and mowed
10:31 down wave after wave of Union soldiers
10:34 charging straight into the rifles.
10:36 Eventually, Union troops flanked the
10:38 road and fired downward into the trapped
10:40 Confederates below, creating a mass
10:43 grave carved into the earth. But the
10:46 final push came at Antidum Creek, where
10:48 Union forces crossed the bridge to
10:51 finish Lee's army for good. until out of
10:53 nowhere, surprise reinforcements
10:56 appeared and forced the Union back. The
10:59 cornfield changed hands 15 times and
11:02 bloody lane stacked three deep. And when
11:04 the sun finally set, there were more
11:06 than 23,000 [music]
11:09 casualties. The single bloodiest day in
11:13 American history was over. And on paper,
11:16 Antidum was a draw. But strategically,
11:19 the Union forced Lee to retreat. Sir,
11:21 I'll be flying the flag at half mast for
11:24 the next decade cuz that was just
11:27 devastating. But back in DC, Lincoln
11:29 wanted to use this momentum to his
11:32 advantage. So he issued the Emancipation
11:35 Proclamation declaring that all slaves
11:38 are and henceforward shall be free.
11:41 Woohoo. Well, the only problem was it
11:42 didn't actually free anyone in
11:45 Confederate states yet. But it did give
11:47 Union soldiers a moral cause worth
11:49 fighting for. It allowed black men to
11:52 enlist with the nearly 200,000 answering
11:55 the call and shut the door on European
11:57 intervention cuz Britain and France
11:58 could no longer side with the
12:00 Confederacy without openly defending
12:03 slavery. Yep, Lincoln had officially
12:06 changed the game. But he had another big
12:09 problem on his hands. A general problem.
12:12 Cuz Robert E. Lee was on the move again.
12:15 This time merching 75,000 men into
12:18 Pennsylvania. And Lincoln was desperate
12:20 for a commander who could finally stop
12:22 him. So he made another change at the
12:24 top and replaced his general with George
12:28 me just three days before battle. Me
12:31 wasn't a genius, but he was solid, calm
12:33 under pressure and the kind of guy who
12:36 wouldn't panic if I misfired my gun.
12:40 Sorry, sir. But it all kicked off when
12:42 Confederate and Union forces collided
12:44 near a quiet little town called
12:46 Gettysburg. And by nightfall, the
12:49 Confederates had the upper hand. But on
12:51 day two, the battle didn't just
12:55 continue. It erupted into chaos. Kazi
12:57 launched massive assaults on both Union
13:00 flanks. And one of the fiercest attacks
13:02 came at Little Roundtop, a rocky hill
13:05 that anchored the entire Union line. If
13:08 it fell, the battle and maybe even the
13:10 war could have been lost. But that's
13:13 when Colonel Joshua Chamberlain in his
13:16 20th main made a heroic stand.
13:18 Outnumbered and out of ammunition,
13:20 Chamberlain had nothing left to shoot.
13:23 So he ordered one final desperate move.
13:27 A bayonet charge downhill. And against
13:30 all odds, it worked. Meanwhile, on the
13:33 other flank, Confederate forces stormed
13:35 Cemetery Hill and Culps Hill as night
13:38 fell. The fighting devolved into
13:40 ruthless hand-to-hand combat in the
13:43 dark, but again, the Union refused to
13:46 break. Lee had thrown everything at me's
13:50 flanks and failed. Enraged, Lee made a
13:53 fateful decision. Attack the center. So
13:56 on day three, Confederate artillery
13:58 unleashed the largest bombardment ever
14:01 seen in the Western Hemisphere. Cannons
14:03 thundered. The earth trembled. And the
14:06 sky turned to smoke so thick it
14:11 swallowed the sun. And then silence.
14:14 Out of the drifting haze. 12,000
14:16 Confederate soldiers emerged and began
14:19 their march. Pickicket's charge. The
14:21 last gamble.
14:23 So the Union line waited and then
14:26 unleashed a storm of bullets. Men fell
14:29 by the hundreds, but still the grrey
14:32 line pushed forward and somehow a few
14:34 hundred Confederates actually broke
14:38 through. Led by General Lewis Armistad,
14:40 they reached the Union guns and in an
14:43 effort to flip the battle, Armistad
14:45 placed his hand on a Union cannon and
14:47 shouted for his men to fire the enemy
14:50 cannons back at him. But little did he
14:52 know, this was the furthest any
14:54 Confederate would ever get on northern
14:56 soil. Because when Armistad turned
15:01 around, he was completely alone. Bang.
15:04 The charge had failed. Of the 12,000 men
15:07 who began that march, less than half
15:09 returned uninjured. And when Lee rode
15:11 out to meet the survivors, tears
15:14 streamed down his face. "It's all my
15:16 fault," he quietly said to himself.
15:19 "It's all my fault." The Battle of
15:21 Gettysburg proved to be the deadliest of
15:24 the Civil War, resulting 50,000
15:27 casualties total. But while Gettysburg
15:29 shook the east, another battle was
15:33 roaring 900 m away. Cuz General Ulissiz
15:36 Srant had spent months trying and
15:39 failing to capture Vixsburg, the last
15:41 Confederate fortress on the Mississippi
15:44 River. So, he decided to change it up
15:47 and do something borderline insane. At 2
15:50 am, Grant rolled the dice and sent Union
15:53 gunboats right past Vixsburg's cannons,
15:55 fully aware that if even one was hit,
15:58 the whole plan would collapse. But it
16:01 was so dark, the cannons couldn't see a
16:04 thing. And the boat slid right past him,
16:06 allowing Grant to finally tighten his
16:08 grip around Vixsburg. Cuz inside,
16:11 Confederate soldiers ran out of food.
16:14 They ate mules, dogs, and eventually
16:16 rats. Hey boys, maybe stay away from the
16:19 Eagles. All right, ready please. But by
16:23 July 4th, 1863, the Confederates in
16:25 Vixsburg surrendered. Now with
16:27 Gettysburg in the east and Vixsburg in
16:31 the west, the war had officially turned.
16:34 Cuz now it was clear as day. Lincoln had
16:36 finally found his general, Ulissiz
16:39 Srant, who he promoted to command all
16:43 Union armies. and Grant wasted no time
16:45 setting his strategy. In the west, he
16:47 handed command to William Sherman with
16:50 the order, "Destroy the Confederate army
16:53 in Georgia and take Atlanta." Meanwhile,
16:56 in the east, Grant set his own sights on
16:59 Robert E. Lee. And they both locked
17:02 horns in a blood bath across Virginia.
17:04 First, at the wilderness, they fought in
17:07 a thick forest with gunsm smoke so thick
17:08 soldiers could barely see in front of
17:11 them. And after two days of combat,
17:14 Grant's losses were enormous. Every
17:16 Union general before him had retreated
17:20 after facing Lee, but not Grant. He
17:23 marched south, still attacking, still
17:26 pushing, and still grinding Lee down. At
17:29 Spot, bodies piled so high they had to
17:32 be dragged away just to keep fighting.
17:35 One oak tree, 2 ft thick, was cut down
17:39 by rifle fire alone. Then came Cold
17:42 Harbor where Grant ordered an assault
17:45 turned disaster cuz more than 7,000
17:47 Union soldiers fell in less than an
17:50 hour. Grant later admitted it was the
17:53 one attack he truly regretted. But
17:56 here's one thing Lee couldn't do. Stop
17:59 him. Cuz every time Grant lost men, he
18:02 replaced them. And every time Lee lost
18:05 men, he didn't get them back. So by the
18:07 siege of Petersburg, the fighting
18:10 dragged on for nine brutal months. Lee's
18:13 army was pinned down, starving, and cut
18:16 off. And at the same time, northern
18:19 newspapers called Grant the butcher for
18:21 wasting tens of thousands of Union
18:24 lives. But Lincoln understood what
18:27 others didn't. I can't spare this man.
18:30 He fights. In other words, Grant is the
18:32 first general willing to do what it
18:35 actually takes to win. Meanwhile, in the
18:38 West, General Sherman took things in a,
18:41 let's call it, a unique direction cuz he
18:44 believed in something called total war,
18:45 which means not just defeating the
18:49 enemy, but breaking their will to fight.
18:51 War is cruelty. There's no use trying to
18:54 reform it. The cruer it is, the sooner
18:57 it'll be over. So throughout the summer
19:01 of 1864, Sherman pushed toward Atlanta
19:04 and by September it fell. Afterwards,
19:06 Sherman sent a simple telegram to
19:10 Lincoln. Atlanta is ours and fairly won
19:12 and the timing couldn't have been better
19:15 cuz Lincoln faced reelection in November
19:17 and things weren't looking too good. War
19:20 fatigue was high, casualties were
19:22 staggering, and public confidence was
19:25 slipping away. But when Sherman achieved
19:28 victory in Atlanta, everything changed.
19:31 Lincoln won re-election in a landslide.
19:34 Woohoo. But wait, the war wasn't over
19:37 yet. And Sherman knew it. So instead of
19:39 stopping in Atlanta, he proposed
19:42 something radical. March across Georgia
19:45 to the Atlantic and destroy everything
19:48 of military value along the way.
19:51 I can make this march, Sherman told
19:54 Grant, and make Georgia howl. Grant
19:58 approved and unleashed him. So Sherman
20:00 set Atlanta ablaze and began his
20:04 legendary march to the sea, where 60,000
20:07 soldiers moved in two massive columns 60
20:10 mi wide. They ripped up railroads,
20:12 burned factories, and everywhere they
20:15 went liberated slaves. With thousands
20:17 joining the march, singing songs of
20:20 freedom. And by the time Sherman reached
20:23 Savannah, his army had carved a path of
20:27 destruction nearly 300 m long. He sent
20:29 Lincoln a telegram that simply read, "I
20:32 beg to present you as a Christmas gift
20:36 the city of Savannah." By 1865, the
20:39 Confederacy was on life support. Lee's
20:42 army was starving. Men were deserting
20:44 and ammunition was almost gone. When
20:47 Union forces broke through at Five Forks
20:49 and severed Lee's last supply line,
20:53 within days, Petersburg fell, then
20:56 Richmond. As Confederate officials fled
20:58 the capital, they set fire to their own
21:00 warehouses to keep supplies from falling
21:03 into Union hands. But the flames raged
21:06 out of control, burning Richmond to the
21:09 ground. Lee fled west with 30,000
21:13 starving men, but Grant was everywhere.
21:15 He cut off every road, bridge, and hope
21:19 of escape. It was the end. Lee was
21:22 completely surrounded. So, with no
21:24 options left, Lee asked for a meeting
21:26 with Grant, [music] and they met at
21:29 Appamatics Courthouse. The contrast
21:30 between the two generals couldn't have
21:33 been more stark. Grant arrived in a mud
21:35 stained uniform, looking like a soldier
21:38 who hadn't slept in days. Whereas Lee
21:41 wore his finest dress uniform, every
21:43 button polished to a shine. He was
21:46 sending a message. I may be defeated,
21:48 but I'll surrender with dignity. And
21:51 Grand offered pretty generous terms.
21:53 Confederate soldiers could keep their
21:55 horses. Officers could keep their
21:57 sidearms. And every man would be
21:59 parrolled and allowed to go home. No
22:02 executions, no treason trials, no
22:06 revenge. Lee's face softened. This will
22:08 have a very happy effect on my army, he
22:11 said quietly. Lee then asked if Grant
22:14 could spare rations. Grant nodded.
22:18 Certainly. How many men? About 25,000.
22:21 Without hesitation, Grant sent 25,000
22:24 rations to Lee's starving soldiers. And
22:26 when the meeting ended, the two men
22:29 shook hands. But then came one of the
22:32 most human moments of the entire war cuz
22:34 Lee mounted his horse and rode back to
22:37 his army where soldiers crowded around
22:40 reaching for his hand as tears streaked
22:43 down their faces. Lee couldn't speak. He
22:46 simply removed his hat and salute. The
22:49 Civil War, America's deadliest conflict,
22:52 was finally over. But there was one
22:54 [music] final tragedy no one expected.
22:57 Just 5 days after Lee's surrender,
22:59 Abraham Lincoln attended a play at
23:01 Ford's Theater where Confederate
23:03 sympathizer John Wils Booth slipped into
23:05 the presidential box and shot Lincoln
23:07 [screaming] in the back of the head. But
23:09 it wasn't just Lincoln's tragic death
23:12 that makes it so sad. It was the timing.
23:15 Abraham Lincoln guided America through
23:18 its darkest hour, preserved the Union,
23:20 and struck the chains of slavery from 4
23:23 million people, only to die just before
23:26 he could see the promised land.
23:29 We'll miss you, sir. But in the end, the
23:31 American Civil War didn't just change
23:34 America, it defined it. because over
23:37 600,000 Americans died, more than all
23:40 other American wars combined until
23:43 Vietnam, which is insane to think about.
23:45 But from its ashes, the United States
23:48 was given a second chance. A chance to
23:50 live up to the founders ideals that all
23:53 men are created equal. God bless
23:55 America, man. I freaking love this
23:57 place. But speaking of tragic
23:59 presidential deaths that changed the
24:02 course of America, this is how every US
24:04 president died and their final words.
24:07 From eating raw cherries to contaminated
24:09 water at the White House to getting
24:12 assassinated in broad daylight. If you
24:14 thought Lincoln's death was crazy, just
24:16 click this video right here and subscribe.
