The American Civil War was a brutal conflict that, while fought with immense bravery and conviction on both sides, was ultimately decided by the North's superior industrial capacity, logistical prowess, and technological adoption, fundamentally transforming warfare and American society.
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the civil in war history
victory will take far more than brute
technology communications
logistics it's what happens behind the
front line
that will ultimately decide this battle
for america's future
we are pioneers and trailblazers
we fight for freedom
our struggles will become a nation [Music]
1862 the civil war is at its height
north and south locked in a bitter
conflict for the future of america [Music]
[Music]
a new kind of bullet has brought this
bringing death on a scale never
previously seen in warfare
here at a metal works in springfield illinois
illinois
to becoming a lethal instrument of destruction
destruction
this crude piece of lead is the primary reason
reason
for the unprecedented levels of
slaughter in this war
invented in france just an ounce in weight
weight
and half an inch across one person can
each one of these simple bullets can rip
through a man's body in a fraction of a second
the mini ball is used by north and south alike
alike
demand for this killer bullet runs so high
high
that an entire industry springs up
in total the north makes over half a
billion mini-holes
ready to be fired from the 2 million
muskets it supplies to its men [Music]
in many ways the civil war was the first
modern war
because it was the first war that took place
place
after the industrial revolution had
it will take over 33 hours for a bullet
in this box
to travel the 800 plus miles to the battlefield
battlefield
the new musket is much faster to reload
than traditional weapons
and it's ready to fire [Music]
[Music] [Applause]
[Applause]
imagine warfare where your ability
to load a musket faster than the guy
with the other musket would determine if you
you
lived or died [Music]
grooves on the inside of the barrel rifling
rifling
the improved accuracy and range are a
one second everything's great the next second
second
your guys your buddy's head's gone
you don't want to know what a soft metal
musket ball does when it enters the
causing further damage to muscle and tissue
more often than not the result of a
but for all the miniballs technological edge
edge
the army still uses traditional military tactics
what made it particularly tragic was
modern technology
meeting much more ancient tactics so
that the death rates were truly appalling
appalling
the troops still face one another openly
but the mini ball is accurate over a
and it can be reloaded eight times
the kill rate increases dramatically
across the battlefield the results are carnage
carnage
blood and death on a previously unseen scale
scale
they killed each other in droves
in lines and in piles [Applause]
[Applause]
soldier alexander hunter writes
one lay on his face with his body almost
another was shot just as he was taking aim
aim
one eye was still open while the other
was closed and one arm extended in the
position of holding his rifle
the troops on both sides must live in
the middle of this untold
death and suffering horatio chapman
records the experience in his diary
the dead in some places were piled upon
each other
and the groans and moans of the wounded
were truly saddening to hear
some were just alive and gasping but unconscious
unconscious
others were mortally wounded and were
conscious of the fact that they could
by the time of the north's final victory
over six hundred thousand men
on both sides are dead some two percent
of the entire u.s population in current
population terms
that's the equivalent of six million people
almost half of the dead remain unidentified
the fear of dying forgotten on the
battlefield leads soldiers for the first
time to begin pinning their names and
these crude early versions of the dog tag
tag
will make it possible to identify their
for the first time america's growing
postal service
means soldiers can write to their loved
ones from the front
with none of today's military censorship
it allows soldiers like robert stiles
to relay the terrifying realities of
life on the front line
the sights and smells that assailed us
were simply indescribable
corpses swollen to twice their original size
size
some of them actually burst asunder with
fueling this carnage lies the deep
political animosity
that has led to this war
in a bitter conflict that is pitted
brother against brother
the south is determined to defend its independence
independence
but the north will not allow it to leave
we fought and lost hundreds of thousands
of men on both sides
fighting for what they believed was right
the unholy alliance of new weapons and
outdated battle tactics
means a body count on an industrial scale
the war is locked in a bloody stalemate
[Music]
august 1862 over a year into the war
general robert e lee's confederate army
is readying to launch a wide-ranging assault
assault
highly motivated these men are fighting
on their home turf
and are ready to die for southern
independence its traditions
its prosperity is built around a simple crop
cotton
known as white gold the south accounts
for two-thirds of the world's supply of cotton
it brings extraordinary wealth to the
but it is wealth built on the backs of slaves
now lincoln's victory at the ballot box
[Music]
rather than submit to northern rural the
south decides to fight
general robert e lee takes command at
the head of the newly formed army of
northern virginia
lee a brilliant graduate of the elite
west point academy
and highly regarded for his
effectiveness on the battlefield
lee could intuit the battlefield
in a way that almost resembles rommel in
world war ii or
patton and as a result he could he could
sort of almost sense where the place
would be to take the gamble and where to hit
manassas virginia 1862
confederate troops gather ahead of the
second battle of bull run
but this virginia woodland his home
territory these volunteer troops
know like the back of their hand rigid
training and strict discipline
have turned them into a formidable
if you'd been a betting man back then
you would bet the south would have won
the south only had to hold its territory
the north had to come and take it away
the north had to be the occupying force
at bull run lee easily demonstrates his
[Applause]
in one engagement lasting just 10 minutes
minutes
the yankee 5th new york regiment loses
more men than any other regiment
all told these men kill over 1700 union soldiers
determination and local knowledge give
the south their greatest victory in the
but lee and his commanders have
underestimated the nature of this conflict
and of their opponent president abraham lincoln
lincoln
because lincoln is fighting a totally
new kind of war
and his southern adversaries just don't
a packed train speeds on its way south
ready to replenish the union army
with fresh troops and supplies
lieutenant george benedict writes home
we were stowed away in freight cars and
started out of the city
the train took 600 other troops besides
our regiment
the railroad one of lincoln's hidden
weapons in this war [Music]
[Music]
in one key operation ordered directly by
25 000 fresh troops are sent on a 1200
by road it would take over two months
by rail it will take these men just
following its introduction in the 1830s
america's rail infrastructure has
gradually spread its tentacles across
lincoln realizes it can revolutionize
he strikes a deal with the rail owners
to put the north's railroad network
it turns the railroad into a weapon of war
instead of armies being limited to the
speed at which they could march
all of a sudden you had armies be able
to move
to uh to the front by rail and more importantly
supplies
supplies and troops pour out of the
north towards the battlefront
some busy lines carry 800 tons of
supplies a day
the equivalent of 80 railroad cars
in lincoln's hands the 24 000 miles of
rail track in the north
[Music]
but the south has a far smaller network
just 9
000 miles at the start of the war and it
in the four years the war lasts the
north adds 4
000 miles of new track to its network
this inability to coordinate rail
supplies will prove disastrous for the south
south
even though they're just 30 miles from
their capital in richmond
in the winter of 1863 four rail links
mean southern troops in virginia starved [Music]
for all their brilliance and
determination in battle the south simply
lacked the logistics
to deliver a decisive blow
lincoln realizes that victory depends on
mobilizing the entire industrial might
of the north
production of clothing in the north
doubles during the conflict
pitchfork manufacturers start making swords
swords
while the number of patents doubles in
manufacturing technology
infrastructure it will change the face
for the first time in history industry
is put behind the war effort
an approach to conflict that america
will exploit in the first
it is the beginning of a new integrated economy
economy
age
in a building just across the road from
the white house
is a small room that will become
and at its heart a simple device
that will transform how this war is fought
fought
the invention of morse code in 1844
turns the telegraph into america's first
quickly encoded the basic system of dots
and dashes
[Music]
like twitter today it needs just seconds
where messengers previously took days on horseback
horseback
over hundreds of miles and across every
now the country's 50 000 mile telegraph network
network
means communication is almost instantaneous
as telegraphed poles snake out alongside
the railroad lines
it will transform the nature of this war
as information and decisions
can flow backwards and forwards at
lightning speed
it became kind of the early version of
email suddenly it was possible to get a
message to somebody from st
louis you know to get a message to new
york in a shockingly short amount of time
lincoln immediately realizes the
telegraph's potential
he insists on the installation of
telegraph lines directly into the war department
and he quickly acts to place all
telegraph facilities in the union
the telegraph office becomes the central
hub of lincoln's war operation
his command and control center
he even takes to sleeping here at busy times
the telegraph office manager david homer bates
bates
describes how lincoln obsesses over
every scrap of news from the front
sometimes reading dispatches word by
lincoln's habit was to go immediately to
the drawer each time he came into our room
room
and read over the telegrams beginning at
the top
until he came to the one he had seen on
the north's telegraph network spreads
its tentacles far and wide
sucking information back to lincoln and
it gives him a vast strategic overview
providing him an unrivaled insight
lincoln himself was able to stay on top
of literally
hour-by-hour developments in in the
course of individual battles
to the irritation of his generals it
even allows him to issue his own direct orders
orders
in one campaign with general lee's
forces threatening washington
lincoln responds by telegraphing direct
[Music]
the exposed position of general banks
makes his immediate relief a point of
paramount importance
you are therefore directed by the
president to move against jackson
at harrisonburg this movement
must be made immediately
in the course of the war lincoln sends
almost a thousand telegrams from this small
small office
but the south never grasped the
potential of the telegraph
in creating a centralized command and
it means southern generals like lee must
plan their battles without that kind
[Music]
as the war continues lincoln brings down
industry lines of communication and supplies
supplies
manpower and firepower are all
marshalled to deliver blow after blow to
the confederate army
but the south bolstered by the belief in
the rightness of its cause
as a result the death toll just keeps rising
at ann tatum in 1862
over four times as many as during world
the carnage will trigger a revolution in
battlefield medicine
three quarters of all operations
conducted by army surgeons during the
civil war
letters from surgeon william watson
record what these battlefield ers were like
like
day before yesterday i performed 14
amputations without leaving the table
i do not exaggerate when i say i have
performed at the least calculation
50 amputations there are so many severely
severely
wounded through the joints there are so
many operations yet to be performed
surgeon theodore diamond describes the
hideous wounds left by weapons like the
mini ball
the shattering splintering and splitting
of a long bone by the impact of the mini ball
ball
an experienced surgeon can hack off a
limb in just 10 minutes
ether and chloroform are used as anesthetics
if a bullet doesn't kill you then
gangrene is the greatest killer deprived
of oxygen
wounds become an ideal breeding ground
a bacteria that releases a poisonous
approximately 60 000 amputations are
performed during the civil war
more than in any other war america has
fought in
twice as many soldiers die from infected
wounds and disease
this unprecedented carnage forces a
complete rethink of traditional
looking after the well-being of soldiers
becomes as central to the war effort
large numbers of women sign up as
battlefield nurses [Music]
[Music]
one of them is clara barton [Music]
[Music]
clara barton is untrained and unpaid
when she starts
most nurses are men is a menial occupation
occupation
the remedies she proposes for the care
of the wounded are simple
but revolutionary in their effect [Music]
[Music]
they want food clothing shelter medicines
medicines
and a few calm practical persons to administer
administer them
she insists the injured have a ready
supply of clean bandages [Music]
[Music]
first aid the sorting of the wounded
the civil war brings in a series of
innovations that form the basis of
twenty thousand women sign on as nurses
clara barton herself goes on to found
standards of hygiene begin to
dramatically improve
this caustic chemical is effective
against the bacteria that cause gangrene
as a result nearly three-quarters of
amputees survive
surgery and gangrene becomes rare by the
war's end
with the war dragging on without a clear
lincoln is increasingly forced to fight
on a very different front
the spread of portable cameras means for
the first time
gory images of the battlefield can now
reach every home
while these simple cameras rule out
dramatic action scenes
they are ideal for capturing the
gruesome aftermath of battle as many as
1500 photographers
flood the battlefield their images are
sold widely to members of the public
there was war photography coming back
from the civil war that captured it in a
way made it real and made people recognize
recognize
the the really extraordinary
america's growing newspaper mass media
reproduces simple
more than 200 correspondents cover the war
war
filing over 100 million words of copy
this deluge of information about the war
ensures the grim reality of this
conflict is seared into the public consciousness
consciousness
never again will politicians be able to
the war means a soldier is five times
more likely to die
than a civilian where families used to
grieve for the dead at home
it forces a fundamental shift in the
nat bowdich dies on a battlefield in virginia
yet his family in boston can still say
goodbye to their son
even though it has taken a week for his
body to travel from the battlefield
his father describes how it is free of
any signs of decomposition
though the marks of closely contested
battle was still upon the face
the features were placid as if he was sleeping
that's because of the new technique
known as embalming
chemicals like arsenic and zinc chloride
are injected into the corpse to halt the
the business of death and the
preservation of bodies
turns undertakers into overnight millionaires
millionaires
one undertaker boasts i would be glad to prepare
prepare
private soldiers they were worth a five
dollar bill apiece
but lord bless you a colonel pays 100
and a brigadier general 200.
200. [Music]
[Music]
if you've got the money all sorts of new
techniques are available
airtight coffins and embalming are most popular
popular
and for the wealthiest even elaborate
the war drags on lincoln is determined
to end it
in september 1862 he gives the south an ultimatum
rejoin the union he threatens to
forcibly liberate their slaves
if they refuse but the south
having tasted independence
does not want to rejoin a union where
slavery would be at risk
if the south won't free their slaves he
will do it himself
for white southerners it was a
confirmation that their thoughts about
lincoln all along
that he was in fact somebody who was
bent on destroying what they thought was
in the north in a sense it gave people a
different understanding of what the war
on january 1st 1863
lincoln issues a proclamation abolishing slavery
slavery
in the rebellious southern states thanks
to the telegraph
the news quickly spreads on the first
day of january
in the year of our lord 1806 lincoln had
totally grown
to where he said that not only should
blacks not be slaves
they should be treated as equal citizens
with full
enfranchisement right to vote right to participate
participate
all persons held as slaves shall be then
[Music] [Applause]
in the wake of lincoln's emancipation of
the slaves
black american soldiers rushed to enlist
for the union
almost 200 000 sign up by the end of the war
war
general james blunt describes their
i never saw such fighting as was done by
the negro regiment
they make better soldiers in every
respect than any other troops i have
the emancipation proclamation changes
the dynamics of the war
the union army becomes a force for
liberation now
they understood that saving the union
would give them
some sense of freedom some sense of dignity
dignity
it was the dignity that i'm a soldier
i'm not just a servant i'm a soldier i
have a uniform i have stripes
lincoln follows the proclamation with
his master stroke
his address in 1863 dedicating america's
first national cemetery for soldiers at gettysburg
gettysburg
is perhaps the single most famous piece
four score and seven years ago our
fathers brought forth upon this nation
conceived in liberty and dedicated to
the proposition that
that we here highly resolve that these
dead shall not have died in vain
that this nation under god shall have a
new birth of freedom
and that government of the people by the people
people
and for the people shall not perish from
it is an emotional thing to think about
people sacrificing given their lives
for an ideal and it's
lincoln at his absolute best the genius
the simplicity that conveys a great amount
it's spiritual in a way it's a hymn to america
america
and it's the hymn to the possibilities
and the great
with an election looming and a challenge
coming from those who want to negotiate
a peace with the south
lincoln knows he needs to land a
at some point somebody gets tired
somebody blinks
somebody makes a mistake and when you're
talking about
lincoln puts the north's entire
the man who will lead the charge from
chattanooga to atlanta
william sherman his orders to stop
for nothing i would make this war as
severe as possible
and show no symptoms of tiring till the
south begs for mercy
advancing under the cover of night
sherman's march is sustained by one of
the greatest logistical operations yet
sherman knows he needs to throw
everything he's got at the confederate army
army
while he uses his own supply lines to
maximum effect
he destroys those of the south ripping
up their railroad
and bending it beyond use
in one day the north supply lines
replace 200
while the south is left scavenging on
the battlefield
for spent rounds food even old boots [Music]
[Music]
sherman calls it total war a scorched
earth approach
that becomes the trademark of modern warfare
finally with atlanta under siege
confederate forces set fire to their own
before abandoning their city to the
sherman's tactics of total war have won out
his victory helps secure lincoln's
election in the fall
with atlanta and ruins he just keeps going
going
now launching what will be his final
assault the march to the sea
in the 19th century equivalent of shock
and awe
62 000 union soldiers wreak a 60-mile
from atlanta to the coast at savannah [Applause]
[Applause]
supply lines are cut villages are sacked
anything of military value is destroyed
within six months general lee has
tendered the confederate army's surrender
the rebellion is over the south will
have to submit to the union
by the act of winning the north both
validated freedom and validated the
industrial model
and so you have an american confidence
an american sense of achievement
an american willingness to go out around
the world
for all the confederacy's commitment its
inferior logistical infrastructure
has been no match for the north's
its industrial heartland its growing
network of railroads
its telegraph network all
[Music]
within a week lincoln lies dead from an
assassin's bullet
but america has pulled back from the brink
brink
the nation is once again united
and out of that unity now grows a modern
industrialized economy that will reach
right across this great continent [Music]
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