The Civil War S01E06 - Valley of the Shadow of Death: 1864 (1990)

Episode six begins with a biographical comparison of Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee and then chronicles the extraordinary series of battles that pitted the two generals against each other from the wilderness to Petersburg in Virginia. In 30 days, the two armies lose more men than both sides have lost in three years of war. With Grant and Lee finally deadlocked at Petersburg, we visit the ghastly hospitals north and south and follow General Sherman's Atlanta campaign through the mountains of north Georgia. As the horrendous casualty lists increase, Lincoln's chances for re-election begin to dim, and with them the possibility of Union victory.

Forever Free: 1862

Prologue
Walt Whitman worries about the coming battles, the "awful loads … of bloody, pale, and wounded young men."

6.1 Chapter 1 - THE CIVIL WAR Series Title
There is no real end in sight for the war. And, as William Tecumseh Sherman says, "the worst of the war is not yet begun."

6.2 Chapter 2 - 1864: Valley of the Shadow of Death
Letter from Spotswood Rice, escaped slave and Union soldier, to his enslaved children.

6.3 Chapter 3 - Grant
Ulysses S. Grant's background: Born in 1822 to a tanner in Ohio. Graduates from West Point. Marries the daughter of a Kentucky slave-holder. Fights in the Mexican War. Unsuccessfully tries farming, real estate, and works as a clerk for his father. Re-enters the Army when the war begins.

6.4 Chapter 4 - Lee
Lee's background: Born in 1807 to a very prominent Virginia family and raised by his mother. He is nicknamed "the marble model" at West Point and graduates in 1829 without a single demerit. Marries Mary Custis, George Washington's granddaughter. Serves in the prestigious Army Corps of Engineers during the Mexican War. The captor of John Brown at Harpers Ferry, Lee is the most promising soldier in the nation at the start of the war.

6.5 Chapter 5 - In the Wilderness
Grant plans a four-pronged assault on the Confederacy: Sherman will move on Atlanta, Sigel will advance up the Shenandoah Valley, Butler will work his way up the James River, and Meade will head south to Richmond. Lee and Grant clash for the first time at The Wilderness, near Chancellors Ville, Virginia, "in many ways the most terrible battle of the war." Grant loses 17,000 men. But the next day, instead of retreating, he gives orders to march. Now the war will wage non-stop for 30 days.

6.6 Chapter 6 - Move By the Right Flank
Lee and Grant fight continuously as Grant's flanking maneuvers force Lee south towards Richmond. At the Battle of Cold Harbor, Grant makes his worst mistake, sending 7,000 troops to be slaughtered by entrenched Rebel troops. In one month, the Union loses 50,000 men. But Grant tricks Lee and makes it to Petersburg, just south of Richmond. The siege of Petersburg begins - it will last ten months.

6.7 Chapter 7 - Now, Fix Me
Both sides organize hundreds of hospitals to care for the wounded. Walt Whitman volunteers in hospital wards in Washington. Dorothea Dix is in charge of all the nurses for the Union army and serves all four years without pay.

6.8 Chapter 8 - The Remedy
William Tecumseh Sherman moves south from Chattanooga to wards Atlanta. Lincoln's chances for re-election hinge on Sherman's campaign. Sherman's advance is a masterpiece of planning and Joseph E. Johnston cannot slow his advance. He makes one mistake at Kennesaw Mountain he loses 3,000 men in a series of doomed frontal assaults. Then, Sherman also stalls outside of Atlanta.

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Episode Seven: Most Hallowed Ground (1864)
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Prologue
Shelby Foote on Nathan Bedford Forrest.

7.1 Chapter 1 - THE CIVIL WAR Series Title
With the Union Army stalled outside Petersburg, and the casualty lists growing longer, Northern opposition to the war increases.

7.2 Chapter 2 - 1864: Most Hallowed Ground
Lincoln's chances for re-election hinge on Union victories.

7.3 Chapter 3 - A Warm Place in the Field
The siege at Petersburg is taking a toll on the inhabitants. To relieve pressure on the city, Lee sends Jubal Early north to attack Washington and the Shenandoahs.

7.4 Chapter 4 - Nathan Bedford Forrest
Forrest - according to William T. Sherman, "the most remarkable man our Civil War produced on either side" - is on the move, slowing the Union advance to Atlanta.

7.5 Chapter 5 - Summer, 1864
It is the North's darkest hour with Grant stalled outside Petersburg and Sherman stalled outside Atlanta. Lincoln's chances for re-election are slim. The Democrats nominate George McClellan on a peace platform, and the election becomes a referendum on the war.

7.6 Chapter 6 - Spies
Both the Confederacy and the Union have secret services, run by William Norris and Alan Pinkerton. During the war, spies are everywhere: many Southern slaves spy for the Union, and the Confederate spy network extends as far north as Montreal.

7.7 Chapter 7 - The Crater
In an effort to end the siege of Petersburg, Northern troops dig a tunnel and pack it with gun powder. But the plan is doomed because of bad planning. Scores of black troops are killed as they try to surrender.

7.8 Chapter 8 - Headquarters U.S.A.
The seamier side of life in camp - soldiers gamble, bet, play cards, and visit whore houses.

7.9 Chapter 9 - The Promised Land
Black soldiers are finally given equal pay with whites. Union Admiral David Farragut, wins another naval victory in Mobile Bay. Sherman's troops arrive outside Atlanta. Jefferson Davis removes General Joseph E. Johnston from command and replaces him with John Bell Hood. At the Battle of Atlanta, Sherman's favorite general, 35-year old James McPherson is killed. But with the next Union attack, Hood withdraws into the city, and Sherman puts Atlanta under siege. A week later, Hood abandons Atlanta and Sherman enters the city.

7.10 Chapter 10 - The Age of Shoddy
The Northern war effort has created an enormous industrial machine and many astute businessmen are making big profits off war industries. Ruthless war profiteers are getting rich, too.

7.11 Chapter 11 - Can Those Be Men?
In Tennessee, Nathan Bedford's men attack Fort Pillow and kill 300 black troops after they have surrendered. In retaliation, U.S. Grant ends the system of prisoner exchange, until the Confederacy agrees to treat black and white prisoners the same. As a result, prisons North and South become overcrowded. In the South, already inadequate prisons become nightmares. Andersonville in Georgia is the worst of all.

7.12 Chapter 12 - The People's Resolution
Union General Phil Sheridan triumphs over Jubal Early in the Shenandoahs. Lincoln is re-elected by large majorities. The Confederacy is now "a lost cause."

7.13 Chapter 13 - Most Hallowed Ground
Lincoln calls for more men to finish the war. The South has no men left. The Union dead have now completely filled all the military cemeteries. Montgomery Meigs, Quartermaster General, chooses the grounds of Lee's home for the new military cemetery. It becomes Arlington National Cemetery, the Union's most hallowed ground.

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Episode Eight: War is All Hell (1865)
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Prologue
Shelby Foote discusses one of the main importances of the war: the Southerner's sense of defeat - of having lost a war.

8.1 Chapter 1 - THE CIVIL WAR Series Title
The Confederacy is dying. Robert E. Lee assumes command of all the Southern forces, but the Union is closing in on all sides.

8.2 Chapter 2 - War Is All Hell
William Tecumseh Sherman - the first modern General - purposely makes war against civilians to deprive the enemy of what kept it going. "War is cruelty … the crueler it is, the sooner it will be over," he says.

8.3 Chapter 3 - Sherman's March
In late 1864, Sherman decides to march his army from Atlanta to Savannah, living off the land, and destroying everything along the way that could aid the Confederate army. On the march, Sherman's army causes $100 million worth of damage "the South would never forget." John Bell Hood moves his forces into Tennessee, and at the Battle of Franklin clashes with Union troops under General George Thomas. Hood loses 7,000 men. At the battle of Nashville, Hood's army is destroyed. Joseph E. Johnston is put back in command.

8.4 Chapter 4 - The Breath Of Emancipation
25,000 slaves flee to Sherman's army during the march, jubilant that he has come to liberate them. On December 25, Sherman emerges near Savannah and starts for South Carolina, where secession began.

8.5 Chapter 5 - Died Of A Theory
The situation in the South becomes desperate. Hundreds of soldiers desert. As a last resort, the Confederates decide to use slaves as soldiers. Earlier in the year, Congress had passed the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery.

8.6 Chapter 6 - Washington, March 4, 1865
Lincoln is inaugurated for a second term. John Wilkes Booth hatches a scheme to kidnap Lincoln. Lincoln travels to City Point, Virginia to meet with Grant and Sherman and discuss the final campaigns of the war and the Union's plans for peace.

8.7 Chapter 7 - I Want to See Richmond
Grant finally conquers Petersburg and moves quickly towards Richmond. Jefferson Davis is forced to evacuate the Confederate government. The retreating Confederate army sets fire to much of the city and mobs loot what remains. The Union army enters the city. Lincoln arrives in Richmond. Lee and the remains of the rebel army flee westward, with Grant in hot pursuit.

8.8 Chapter 8 - Appomattox
April 7, 1865 - Grant writes to Lee. April 9, 1865 - Lee sends word that he will surrender. Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant meet at Appomattox to work out the terms of the surrender. The formal surrender comes three days later. In Washington, Lincoln quietly rejoices. A few blocks away, John Wilkes Booth plots.

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Episode Nine: The Better Angels of Our Nature (1865)
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Prologue
Barbara Fields and Shelby Foote discuss the meaning of the war.

9.1 Chapter 1 - THE CIVIL WAR Series Title
The war is over and the soldiers are going home.

9.2 Chapter 2 - The Better Angels Of Our Nature
Word of Lee's surrender spreads across the country. In the North there is joy and exaltation. In the South, despair.

9.3 Chapter 3 - Assassination
On April 14, 1865, a ceremony at Fort Sumter marks the end of the war. On that same day, John Wilkes Booth learns that Lincoln will be attending a play at Ford's Theater that evening. That night, he assassinates the President at the theater. Lincoln is moved across the street to a boarding house, where he dies the next morning. All across the country people are horrified. Lincoln's funeral train makes its way from Washington back to Springfield, Illinois.

9.4 Chapter 4 - Useless, Useless
Union cavalry capture and kill John Wilkes Booth in a Virginia barn. In Georgia on May 10th, Union soldiers arrest Jefferson Davis. On May 23, victorious Union troops parade down Pennsylvania Avenue in the Grand Army Review. Booth's conspirators are tried and executed.

9.5 Chapter 5 - Picklocks Of Biographers
The war took a heavy toll on the country - three and a half million men fought in it and 620,000 men died. Now, the survivors are going home. We learn of the fates of major characters - Elisha Hunt Rhodes (Union soldier); Sam Watkins (Confederate soldier); William Tecumseh Sherman; Joe Johnston; Mary Chesnut; Jefferson Davis; Alexander Stephens; Mary Todd Lincoln; Clara Barton; Henry Wirz (commandant of Andersonville Prison); Phil Sheridan, George McClellan; Pierre G. T. Beauregard; Nathan Bedford Forrest; Dan Sickles; John Bell Hood; James Longstreet; George Pickett; Frederick Douglass; Julia Ward Howe; Robert E. Lee; U. S. Grant. At the 50th reunion of the battle of Gettysburg, in 1913, the veterans stage a reenactment of Pickett's Charge.

9.6 Chapter 6 - Was It Not Real?
Barbara J. Fields, James Symington and Stephen Oates sum up the meaning and legacy of the Civil War. Shelby Foote makes a closing statement on the war.

More Info: http://www.pbs.org/civilwar/film/episode6.html