Antietam Documentary with James Earl Jones

September 5th 1862 the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia launches an invasion of the law their goal but few in the ranks know it is Harrisburg Pennsylvania on the Susquehanna an important communications and manufacturing center for the northern war effort in Pennsylvania Confederate leaders hope to play upon northern disaffection with the war they plan to make a direct appeal to the northern people to end the fighting by passing the political leadership in Washington southern troops on northern soil might also cause panic in the stock market it would gain the attention of the rest of the world might even result in recognition of the Confederacy never have the prospects or the stakes been so high while unaware of the political ramifications the average southern soldier knows something just as important his side is winning and one more victory might win it all imagine a river about five hundred yards wide two to three feet deep and very swift as full of men as it can be all apparently jolly I imagine some of them contemplated the serious side of the situation while I was deeply impressed in the movement yet I could not for the life of me suppress the feeling of sadness as I beheld that vast concourse of humanity waiting the rhythm apparently never once thinking that their feet many of them would never again press the soil on the south side of the Potomac private John Stephens hoods Texas Brigade well now we're here Oh sir we are ready all right gentlemen perfectly still you the Union Army in September of 1862 that falls back into the defenses of Washington is not the army that we're going to know later in the war as the Army of the Potomac this is a collection of three armies that were all thrown together in Washington DC in September of 1862 but they were not a cohesive fighting force if you were with the Union Army as it was retreating from the defeat at Manassas you would have encountered men who were shuffling along demoralized they were angry because they didn't feel in their hearts that they'd been whipped on the battlefield and it's just at this moment when Union morale seems to be at its lowest point that word begins to filter down the line of march as these men are dejectedly straggling back toward Washington as a courier will come riding down the line waving his cap and shouting the news the George McClellan has once again been restored to command everybody said he was there that it just created tremendous uproar men were throwing their hats in the air and cheering and grabbing each other and as one man said it was like a savior had come in 1862 George McClellan is only 36 years old younger than all of his immediate subordinates his popularity with the men comes from the pride he's instilled in them and in their belief that he will not waste their lives for the last year MacLaren's plan has been to prepare the huge citizen army for war to make them soldiers for yfiles luck then methodically maneuver the Confederate Army back on the capital at Richmond and force it to capitulate for a while in the spring of that year it seemed to be working then a Yankee bullet removed the Confederate commander Joe Johnston and put robert e lee in his place at this point in the Civil War Lee was in his mid-50s he was the very picture of good healthy and Villanova been ill Sicily all the day in his life he was in the words of Winfield Scott the most handsome man able to put on the uniform of an American soldier by the 1st of September 1862 Lee had produced one of the greatest turnarounds in military history think back if you will three months early on June 1 the battered disorganized Confederate Army had been driven right into the earthworks at Richmond and McClellan's powerful Army of the Potomac seemed on the verge of seizing the Confederate capital and ending the war but three months later Lee had defeated one army defeated another army sent to the 1st time is rescued and now was poised on the banks of the Potomac River to launch an invasion of the North itself there is nothing in American military history that compares with this 90-day turnaround with the defeat of federal forces near Richmond and aggressive Confederate moves in both Maryland and Kentucky the war is taking a grim turn in the south there is the need to get the war out of Virginia to gain European recognition and to defeat the Union Army before it has a chance to recover in the north pressure comes from a growing coalition of hard war advocates abolitionists and the host of former slaves who flocked to the Union Army wherever it goes President Lincoln wants a limited war one which preserves the Union that keeps pre-war institutions intact gradually as Union defeats mount Lincoln begins to favor new ways of defeating the south including emancipation but to free the slaves now when everything is going wrong might seem like desperation so he will wait for the one thing that has been eluding him a union victory in the east September 9th 1862 in the Army the potomac is on the move across the state of maryland i'm going to come to grips with robert e lee and his army of northern virginia and now at this moment this was the payoff from McClellan because now he needed those men he needed them to shake off the despondency and the cloud that have bloomed and it settled upon them and pick up their musket lift their head and the march forward again to do McClellan's bidding because the country needed than that then by Thunder came the mighty six Wisconsin and tell me laddies what does the boy say these invasion leaves a large federal garrison some 13,000 men stranded at Harpers Ferry the small Arsenal town made famous by the abolitionist John Brown Lee had expected this force to be withdrawn when he moved north but since they've remained he wants to capture the garrison he sends have his army back to the Potomac under Thomas Stonewall Jackson it is at Harpers Ferry that Jackson the artillerist emerges he had been an artist in the Mexican War he had taught artillery had Virginia Military Institute and it is that Harpers Ferry that he arranges his guns so beautifully so magnificently that early on the morning of September 15th when he opened fire Union Garson quickly surrendered it was Jackson the gunner at his magnificent best Lee's desire to capture Harpers Ferry was set in motion the chain of events that results in the bloodiest day in American history Lee dictates his complicated plan and a communique entitled special order one nine one through a breakdown in communication an extra copy of the order is prepared and then lost it's found wrapped around two cigars in a farmer's field by two soldiers of the 27th Indiana McLaren now knows exactly where these army is and moves to crush party before it can be brought together in an all-day battle McClellan pushes Lee's rear guard off South Mountain and sends them streaming that pour the Potomac it's a small but decisive union victory Lee's retreat from South Mountain brings his army to the small town of Sharpsburg between the Potomac and Antietam Creek a couple of bends in the Potomac helped lead to firmly secure his flanks are still leaving him room to maneuver he is encouraged by the fall of Harpers Ferry but surprised at McClellan's quick response to his invasion he had hoped to give battle near Harrisburg or even Baltimore now he is resigned to fight at Sharpsburg if anything goes wrong one of the widest rivers in the country will be between his army and safety in evaluating the situation Lee correctly predicts that McClellan will not be ready to attack on the 15th or even the 16th toward evening McClellan sends Jo hookers first Corps across the Antietam north of these left flank in an effort to get around the Confederates the immediately counters by strengthening that end of his line among the unity sends north are John hoods Texans and a battalion of artillery under Stephanie one of his battery commanders is a Richmond physician Captain William Parker his command is made up of neighbors friends patients and the sons of patients the battery deploys on a rise of ground along the main road running north out of Sharpsburg on the other side of the road is a modest little whitewashed church built by a pacifist sect of German Baptists the dunkers it seemed an ironic place to prepare to do battle it was a beautiful night and no man who lay upon that field and realized the deep tragedy to be enacted on the morrow that but be sad and thoughtful we thought of dear ones far away and were glad that they knew not of the trying hour that the setting stars are bringing rapidly on at the moon Parker it's about 5:30 in the morning when you start to get a little bit of light like we have right now so the entire brigade was ordered to its feet with the six Wisconsin in the lead followed by the second and at the 19th and the Indiana in the seventh Wisconsin their commander was John Gibbon given ordered the brigade forward and it's near this point that Gibbons going to encounter Joe hooker and hookers going to give him his orders the orders are simple because you don't know anything about where anybody is the Rebs are that direction go go it's gone we're on the Miller farm it had been raining the night before just like it did last night it was ground fog along that along the hollows just like it is here today we're on the front of the Confederate line this is where Georgia Brigade was positioned they knew there were Federals out here in the cornfield artillery fire had opened before dawn and so artillery shells were flying overhead the Confederates knew something was going to happen it was going to happen soon and suddenly there was strong movement coming through the corn coming in their direction every man and often ranks lay low with his gun ready to do a die then a grand Satan in our eyes regimental standards floating in the morning air indicating the advancing enemy Isaac Bradley 21st Georgia it's six regimens along here Colonel Marcellus Douglas felt it was the right moment he gave the command for the men to rise and as they rose he gave the order at that point to fire directly into their front our companies were marching forward through the thick corn as we appeared at the edge of the cornfield long line of men in butternut and gray rose up from the ground major Rufus Dawes 6th Wisconsin volunteers this was the signal for the Confederates to open simultaneously hostile battle lines opened a tremendous fire for each other in cannot say fell they were knocked out of ranks by the dust major Rufus Dawes sext Wisconsin volunteers come on bro come on as the human mind of battle emerges from Miller's cornfield a Louisiana Brigade flows along the west side of Hagerstown pipe to Wisconsin regiments wheel about lining up on the east side of line for a few terrifying moments his units on victory eyeball-to-eyeball this became the scene of one of the most bitter small action fights of the entire Civil War you can imagine the picture the Confederates felt back across the pike they had the call through and over the fence soon there was a battle between these two units face-to-face only a few yards apart on no-man's land and the road men were falling further than a potato fence would line this was one of the most brutal eyeball-to-eyeball fights the war was to see where their attention totally focused on the enemy in front of them the Louisiana troops failed to see the rest of Gibbons Brigade swing around behind me the surface of Wisconsin was moving through this area which at the time was a woodlot part of the West woods open ground with very little underbrush and this rock ledge here which is going to be an ideal defensive work for the seventh Wisconsin like making come up here drop right down behind this fence work up there about 180 yards away from him along in Hagerstown Pike or the backs of soldiers fighting the six-second Wisconsin and the other groups there how you've got the drop we were brought up in the rear of a rubber burgade laid woods fire 20 rounds or we was discovered piling them and heaps as they lay behind fence after they discovered our position well then they threw down their arms broke woods what was left then we had fun taking them on we might have taken them all prisoners but he wasn't in for that even a wounded man could not be seen creeping off without being plugged by many more private Hugh Perkins 7th Wisconsin infantry the action on the north end of the battlefield is a series of moves and counter-attacks but slowly the Union forces are gaining ground and advancing toward their main objective the dunker Church this forces the Confederate left wing commander Stonewall Jackson to call on his only reserve hoods division including the Texas Brigade it's morning the Sun is rising lighting up the east face of the dunker Church just as it is now hoods men are in the woods behind the church they're hungry they're tired they've been marching for days very little to eat for three days finally in the early morning those food wagons come up hoods men finally have a chance to eat they start to light their fires they're going to get what water and food they can ug typical teachers raw wheat on this fire I'll wait on you [ __ ] and then suddenly that rumble of artillery grows and the orders come it's time for them to go into the fight damn wood is so wet there no leave it Big Jim Jenny I had nothing to tell it's no time now leave it yeah these lank and lean and famished Texans were angry as a bunch of Hornets but within five minutes say it formed up into their company and regimental commands into the brigade formations and they began to move out from behind the junk church move out along the Smoketown Road where they farm up in their Brigade formation it must have been magnificent to see those those men as they formed along here almost 800 threats a little over 800 men that morning as they formed up and prepared to march in this direction right into battle this is one of the classic charges of the American Civil War these Texans full-throated are pushing across these fields they're having to go through the broken ranks of Lawtons and Trimble's men they're also having to push back the Federals that had gone through the first Texas entered a patch of corn and pursued the Federals to near the far side the regimen of its own notion and a water cord advanced loading and firing at will unmindful the galling and deadly fire into its ranks Colonel Philip work commanding first Texas infantry there was an appalling confusion of shattering sound unending chaos of violence and heat and intense combat it feels and cliff it's wrapped in shifting layers of blinding smoke so that no man could know and understand any more of what was happening and the party could see immediately in front of him attack and counter-attack took place in every conceivable direction and in no recognizable time sequence northerners and southerners wrestling back and forth in the cornfield one tremendous free-for-all falling back to the southwest limit of the corn we rallied upon our battle Flags its bearers were all shot down and we returned without them Colonel Phillip boy in support of hookers first core is Joseph man's eels 12 the 12 core is exactly what hooker needs even more troops the second core are coming up to join him a well coordinated attack now could completely break the Confederates on that part of the deal and hooker is the man to lead it but at this critical moment a stray bullet hits his foot and the loss of blood puts him out of action at about the same time Mansfield the only officer who knows what hooker has in mind is mortally wounded just as the Union Army's grand plan is beginning to take effect it's powerful right-wing for they half the army has left without a leader the Confederates continue their tenuous hold on the dunker Church in the fields across the road from the church Pakistani is still in position firing a shot at advancing Union soldiers switching to canister when they get close we're walking along dunker Church Ridge this is the very place where Stephan dealies our Tillery was sighted protecting the flank of Lee's army it was aimed across the fields over here to my left where hookers men were expected to come from a great site for controlling those fields but it was not only a blessing but it was also a curse well for the batteries that were strung across here they have a panoramic view of the areas to the north where the Federals are going to be coming from but they also are in a position where they're going to receive a lot of counterbattery fire counterbattery fire from the north as well as from the federal artillery to the east that's right this place was called an artillery hell because the shells were pouring in from across the river those big guns with the propellant had over there take a special kind of a man those Confederates Manning these Confederate guns to fire at the Federals charging across the fields trying to ignore their artillery coming into them this was this was truly a terrible place to be in it if I'm killed here you tell my wife I've never been happier in my entire life the advance of the 12th Corps forces parkas battery whoo it's Texans in the rest of the Confederate left-wing to fall back beyond the Hagerstown Pike giving up their hold on the dunker Church and to this void comes the lead division of Edwin Sumner's 2nd Corps Sumner is an old Dragoon officer and he treats his infantry as horse soldiers slashing straight forward hammering their way through the enemy line of battle for gain front each division and column for days like this and this and this one after the other do you understand yes sir very good carry on it's about 9 o'clock in the morning and the battle action now is going to change it had been from the north to the south through Miller's cornfield which we can see right over here to our right Union troops moving in this direction but now the attack from the Federals is going to be coming from the east to the west it's going to be Sedgewick's division the 2nd army-corps 5500 strong advancing one brigade right behind the other than three parallel lines on the far left of the center brigade is going to be the 7th Michigan Infantry this field is littered with the dying and wounded and dead soldiers that have been in the earlier combats across this ground the litter and debris of battle and they are feeling very confident in themselves and in this attack they see no organized body of Confederates in front of them they've got very strong formation they've got artillery support behind them along the edge of the East and North Woods everything essentially for tens that this is going to be the final sweep for victory here the soldiers in the second and third line of says which division are relaxing basically at the front lines firing these men have been under firing or they've heard shoot it before yeah look they moving up there where all the shootings going on we can't get up them down here yeah can we never fought lines like this generals know what they're doing then I'm gonna sound rebel yell rising south onto thunder church and then the volume of fire dramatically increased much of the maneuvering and strategy of the American Civil War involves getting on the opponent's flank the goal is to place a large formation of riflemen in line firing at the end of the enemy's line of battle sometimes this maneuver is accomplished by design and quite often it occurs by accident in the West woods and near the dunker Church a Confederate division under Lafayette McLaws accidentally what's the flanking concept to perfection the attack pause will be launched at almost exactly the same moment the Federals break into the West woods minute they'll slam into each other at that point it becomes a cat our tactical crew for the Confederates the federal line snaps here the Confederates will sweep them across the road behind the dunker Church and keep hurting them north but the antenna is totally destroying every federal soldier in the area can you imagine the exuberance these Confederate soldiers whose voice from South Carolina Georgia Mississippi as they come sweeping through these fields and they can see out front they can see these Union soldiers running up the Hagerstown Turnpike to the north they've got them on the run oh it's got the second Manassas all over it most often you'll see official documents saying that my regiment retreated grudgingly giving ground only when forced to by superior numbers that I brought my command off in good order and did not leave until the regiment on my left had retreated that's complete garbage these soldiers got out of there as fast as they possibly could and many of these men good soldiers were completely panic-stricken and running for their lives the only option they had left to them mr. Wein and that's precisely what they did our regiment was practically an island my men fell around me like dead flies in a frosty morning Lieutenant James peacock 59th New York - Peter Zacharias in Rome Michigan dear parents brothers and sisters I am wounded mortally I think the fight rages around me I've done my duty this is my consolation I left not the line until nearly all had fallen in colors gone I'm getting weak my arms are free but my chest all is numb the enemy trotting over me the numbness up to my heart goodbye to all Allen Zacharias captain Company e 7th Michigan volunteers the fighting began at 5:30 in the morning by 9:00 a.m. the Confederates had withstood the assaults of three separate Union Corps and beaten all of them back more than 12,000 men have been killed or wounded one American every single second and some of the worst fighting is yet to come the bloodiest single-day battle in American history is fought in a series of actions each disconnected from the one that came before or after immediately south of the little white church there's an old sunken farm Lane it's a ready-made fortification and the Confederates fully expect to use it new federal formation will surely slide to the south looking for an opening and they'll run into Daniel Hills Confederates in the road almost four hours at Wednesday morning the North Carolinians and Alabamians posted here in the sunken Road waited wondered how this invisible man worried the sound of bottle up in the East and West woods and in the cornfield in the earlier land the dunker Church was clearly audible for it was less than a mile away and as the hours of battle ward off to their left they could heal the sound of combat coming closer and closer and closer they knew full well that by mid-morning they too were likely to be under fire themselves approaching the Confederates in the sunken road are the rest of Sumner's second Corps two divisions on the generals French and Richardson these troops have lost track of their lead division under Cedric the one that McLaws beat in the West woods the instructions are the form on Cedric's flank a Cedric is no werden see he's taking some units of the 12th Corps as their only division French and Richardson Gor the line of battle will to the south and advance into a whirlwind and as this long line of men shoulder-to-shoulder is coming forward it's like the curtain is rising on this landscape you don't know where the enemy is you're waiting you know you're getting close to the enemy you're keyed up many Confederates who survived the second stage of that bottle said that the waiting was worse than the actual fighting manner by rightness flamed in Ward in the federal faces like a blinding blaze of lightning accompanied by the quick and deadly Thunderbolt the effective of poly the entire frontline with few exceptions meant down in the consuming glass Colonel John B Jordan commanding 6th Alabama volunteers as the First Union line of battle melts away the second pops the ridge and comes under fire temples brigade comes up so you have eventually all of French's division and the battle settles into this slugfest both sides just blazing away at each other explores on the crest the Federals take enormous casualties and eventually fall back to the safety of the back side of the hill there they meet the next regiment coming for eighth Ohio unlike the green troops in the front ranks these men are veterans when they reach the top of the hill they remain just below the crest needing undercover too low and exposing themselves only when ready to fire the din is frightful our men are falling fast we've seen a great deal of service before now but our fighting had always been mostly of the de sultry skirmishing sort what we see now looks to us more like systematic killing sergeant Thomas Galway 8 Ohio volunteers by about 11:30 or so French is attacked here against the sunken Road has stalled completely and at that point the last of Sumner's divisions is going to arrive on the field to reinforce French right that's Richardson's division and his leading unit is known as the Irish Brigade and is commanded by Brigadier General Thomas Marr a brave man commanding brave soldiers but Marr is going to lead his men just like French did straight forward against the enemy no attempted manoeuvre this is just a frontal attack that really is sort of senseless of what he's going to do is sacrifice many of the best men in a brigade Hey the Pope of Sumner's divisions now engaged the fighting becomes general all along the sunken Road gradually the weight of Union number begins to tell and Confederate casualties mount and you imagine what it must have been like on that morning Confederates were down in this particular section of the bloody wings rollin Alabamians was settling down to the grim business of dealing out death as fast as they could the Federals are crossed away there was a line of Alabamians laid in the grass right across the edge of this vent firing up at the Federals as fast as they could men behind him we're loading muskets and handing them up to the better shots who are up in the front that those barrels were heating up men were screaming as they got hit by the bullets on either side Colonel Gordon was passing back and forth trying to keep up the spirit of these men the smell of death was in the air this is why this place was called a bloody Lane once the Federals are able to extend beyond the end of the Confederate right flank and cross the lane and be able to fire down the length of it that's when this Lane becomes a deathtrap the entire Confederate front is beginning to flaps it was like this fragile dam that have been holding back the Union tide suddenly cracked broke and as that Park gave way the entire line left the Confederates began to withdraw from the sunken road and much like the shadow of the clouds which were cast on the ground and rolling in our direction the Confederates were coming toward us moving across this area look as though a cloud had settled over the Army of Northern Virginia because if the center gave way the army would have to fall back as a Confederate began to move in this direction they would stop momentarily load their must at the fire that was a major concern from they didn't want to be shot in the band at the piper farm halfway between the sunken road and the town of Sharpsburg Daniel Hill rallies his shattered division with a scratch force of some 200 men he personally leaves a forlorn hope that toward the sunken road federal forces their faded back with ease meanwhile general Longstreet sets an example which those who witness it will never forget riding forward his foot in a carpet slipper because an earlier injury wrong Street orders his own staff to man and abandoned artillery piece holding their horses one Street helps direct their fire the actions of long street in Hill are pure bravado but they hold the federal advance and save the center of the Confederate line the attention of both armies now moves south again to a little stone bridge across the Antietam the most tardy and most uncoordinated of all the union attacks that bloody Wednesday came here now they spanned since called bone sized which Antietam Creek now doesn't look like a formidable stream but back then it was wide and deep and swift-flowing burnshaw was a native of Indiana he had gone through West Point in kind of lackadaisical fashion what he lacked an ability he more than made up for in Congeniality everybody loved good ol burn the fact of the matter is quite simply that Burnside squandered the organization of his troops here and in southern sending them across and Peterman Maher see something false in little spurts which made them find targets for the Georgians are failing the hill Burnside's 9th corps makes four separate attacks to take the lower bridge the initial assault force gets lost and ends up well north of the bridge next the 11th Connecticut is sent in south of the bridge captain John Griswold leads a hopeless assault across the river straight into the rifles of the second Georgia posted on the hillside Griswold and other members of his unit are left floating in the water guess you won't be trying out again the third assault uses the farm road leading to the bridge unfortunately for the Federals the road runs along the edge of the creek for over 200 yards exposing the men to the Confederates on the other side what the hell you doing down you say at that line forgot my car as the federal column came down this old farm road there Pike columns for there double-quick and for the Confederates over on this side it's like hitting targets and shooting gallery I the federal column disintegrates before it is halfway rich pressure to take the bridge mounts two regiments with the same numerical designation map are picked to make a head-on assault straight across the field leading to the entrance to the bridge this is the 251st 51st New York in the 51st Pennsylvania which are going to try to take the bridge where everyone else has failed 51st Pennsylvania is going to move over to the Stonewall here the 51st work up to the rail fence here these men here are going to have the best cover of all because the stone walls can stop a bullet a heck of a lot better than the rail fence over here absolutely and it's going to give them the chance to be able to load their muskets in a sheltered position so they're only exposed for a few seconds of firing and it's going to make a difference it's got all this fire detergent on the Confederate defenders up along the bluffs above us it's going to start to take its go these men here are going to sense the slackening of the fire over there now comes the time for them to get up from their cover and start to get over the bridge come on boys let's go for the bridge this really is a turning point the fighting here at Burnside Bridge the enlisted men themselves sense that there's a weakening that there's an opportunity and without orders more leader they're just going to get up and dash them on their own through the gate and onto the bridge itself by one o'clock this federal movement which began at 10 o'clock in the morning finally was completed it took three hours for the 9th corps general Burnside's to cross this small creek to come across this little bridge and to finally take a position that was held by perhaps four hundred five hundred men those Georgians put up a heroic fight here against overwhelming odds here mid-afternoon Burnside finally broke through the Confederate line took the heights and was driving tunes as men back these armies stood in rightful position to be destroyed because Burnside's thrust would cut off his retreat for the south and then in one of those great moments have live always in warfare up Kane ap Hill pal Hill was then 36 a product of Virginia high stock recei West Point graduate a hard driving aggressive fight on Jackson had left him at Harpers Ferry to mop up the situation there and then leave it summon him early on the morning of the 17th he'll blow of his men hard 17 miles up here so hard in fact that he left fully half his division panning along the roadside in exhaustion we're on the southern end of the battlefield late in the afternoon on the 17th on the extreme right at the Confederate mine this was a critical and dramatic moment the Federals were streaming toward Sharpsburg the southern end of Lee's line is in peril then suddenly troops show up on the roadway on the ridge ahead it was the kind of event that seems I could have been staged only by Hollywood because the Confederates that suddenly appeared to save the Army of Northern Virginia belonged to AP Hill's light division these were the shock troops of Lee's army they had marked some 17 miles from Harpers Ferry and had taken them about eight hours and they were ready for a fight and these were the creme de la creme of Lee's army it was a coincidence but a critical coincidence because the very men the best fighting truth that Lee needed to save him we're going to show up at exactly the right place exactly the right time when the long day finally ended and darkness settled over the guns quieted down and then began the worst sounds of all the screams and moans and cries of thousands upon thousands of wounded men the casualties of that they beg a description 5000 men are dead another eighteen thousand five hundred wounded and it's reasonable to assume that 20% of them we're going to die aa finale of their wounds in short casualties will exceed 23,000 men which are more dead and wounded in this one day at this one spot then occurred in the American Revolution the war of 1812 and the Mexican War combined this battle just stops you in its shock and it's Hall and it's human cost that's bring up the next one did September 18th the day after the battle it's a dark wedding day there's a drizzle in the air the terrible aftermath and the war is bloodiest day to be seen all about nowhere was the carnage on this battlefield more evident than around a little dunker Church the dunker Church at this time was located in a no-man's land between the two armies when it became evident that there wasn't going to be any more fighting at least not for this day the armies declared a truce the men from both armies went into that area to bury the dead to bring back their wounded like to arrange mutual exchange of the wounded that would be acceptable for you agreed the men marveled at how friendly the truth had become the day before soldiers on each side had been trying to kill each other they had been shooting wounded man they've been shooting men who were trying to surrender this day they were brothers once again they were exchanging thoughts about what had happened with each other we're talking they were exchanging tobacco and other items it seemed very curious to see the men of both sides come together and talk to each other when day before we were fine at each other Kelvin leach private fourth North Carolina among the witnesses to the truce on the 18th is the artist Alfred Walt the next day two new artists arrived Alexander Gardner and his assistant James Gibson are employed by Matthew Brady who operates photographic galleries in Washington and New York with the two armies operating in union territory the seams of fine chance to capture some new images of war what they find and photograph changes the way the public will think of warfare forever throughout the campaign and the battle Robert Ely has been outnumbered by at least two to one and on September 18th the disparity is unchanged but since Lee remains ready to resume battle McLaren suspect he has good reason to do so McClellan waits until all of his forces arrive in the area adjusts his shattered divisions and prepares to resume the attack on the 19th but during the night leery crosses the Potomac and a campaign which holds so much promise for the Confederacy is over the battle is a draw but with a rebel army back in Virginia it looks like victory enough flavor ahem Lincoln he allows the Confederacy three months to give it up otherwise he will declare emancipation in all those areas still in armed rebellion it's a step toward full emancipation freed black Americans and runaway slaves will take it the rest of the way ten months later men of the 23rd Virginia find themselves on familiar ground Lee's Army is on the move again and the rout of the 23rd takes them back to the old battlefield near the Antietam barely a mile from where they fought the year before dear father mother and family I have been this mornin over the old Sharpsburg battlefield and have witnessed the most horrible sights that my eyes ever beheld I saw the dead in any number just lying on top of the ground their bones bleaching and they by the many hundreds oh what a horrible sight for human beings to look upon god grant that the time may speedily come that peace may return to our once happy country and our lives be spared to meet each other again on earth George Harlow private company D 23rd Virginia as the 23rd Virginian reaches the intersection in front of the dunker Church they turn right to the north toward Harrisburg and the road to Pennsylvania once more the Army's goal is Harrisburg but again Lee will failed to reach the Susquehanna instead two weeks later he'll fight the Army of the Potomac at another small farming community a town called Gettysburg you you Oh

Channel: Tony Willoughby Civil War Tours

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Keywords: Antietam, 150th, Jame Earl Jone, tour, James Earl Jones (Author), History, Battle of Antietam, Documentary, civil war

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Length: 57min 3sec (3423 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 23 2013