It is amazing to me that Grant, being battle worn and decidedly exhausted from 4 years of war, was still a proper gentleman. By allowing Lee to surrender with dignity and respect shown to those who were once enemies, Grant showed himself to be a very honorable general and man. In the modern day, it is hard to find someone in power with the qualities and honor, like those found in Grant and Lincoln. Thank you for such a great video.
Grant was a man of honor. Lincoln was a tyrant only fondly remembered because the war was won and he was killed. Sherman was a psychopath who should have been nailed to a tree.
@@matterman7662 you mean the union that was planning to expell all the blacks to Africa (Lincoln), or the union that used Irish immigrants fresh off the boat as cannon fodder? Or the one that used free blacks on useless suicide attacks? The one that massacred indians? Get bent.
@@Nope_handlesaretrash The Confederacy had a draft months before the Union did and while the Union draft had the provision that you could hire a substitute (thus exempting the rich from the draft) the Confederate draft exempted most slave owners. It's always important to keep that in mind when someone argues that most Confederate soldiers didn't own slaves. That's true. If they had owned slaves they would have had cushy jobs in the Home Guard and never gotten anywhere near the Army of the Potomac. And most Irish and German (a lot more German than Irish) immigrants volunteered for the Union Army.
@@Nope_handlesaretrash sherman understood modern war, his attrocities are greatly exagerated in the 'lost cause' except for SC his march was only 60 miles wide but people well outside that claimed they were robbed by him, in NC they were very careful becasue NC had voted to seceed by only 1 vote so they were much more careful. learn your facts before spouting off.
@@dmathmothtutinean8950 never really lost a war period. Can argue Vietnam but we just pulled out because of public opinion not because we would actually lose.
You guys left out the most interesting bit about where Lee surrendered. Wilmer McLean formerly lived on a farm lived in Manassas and was part of the opening battle of the war, Bull Run. His house was actually commandeered as a Confederate headquarters and hit by a Union Shell. He moved to Appomattox Courthouse to get away from the war.
@@aaronstark5060 Well I consider firing cannons at each other a battle. So does history. Fort Sumter is the first battle of the war, no matter how McLean wanted to put it. Considering that Fort Sumter's battle literally reached the point of pot shots.
Lee was the last great Napoleonic general, while Grant was the first modern general. Lee was a pure battlefield genius in the manor in which he exercised agility in battle. Grant saw the war in a strategic sense and in depth. He rightly reasoned that to defeat the enemy in the field, you have destroy his economy, moral, and ability to perpetuate the war. Grant, appointed battle captains (Sheridan, Sherman) and gave them the authority to pursue the war on multiple fronts at once. The Confederates could not match that agility of battle. Grant believed in cross service coordination with the Navy. Grant was a master of logistics, utilizing rail, ship, and wagon to supply his armies in the field. The Confederates may have had a great battle captain in General Lee, but they lacked a Grant, logistician, and strategic thinker.
Grant unlike previous Union generals kept constant pressure on Lee’s army until the bitter end. Like Lincoln said of Grant “ I can’t spare this man, he fights” History shows us that was true. What a god awful war.
There is a story that after a major battle, the troops were expecting the usual few days for R&R. The next morning the call went out to move out, and the troops cheered.
Grant for reasons I will know never got his due. I’m from Georgia and I can tell you he is highly regarded and respected by many southerners. His treatment of Lee and his army at Appomattox - the civility he showed - has not been forgotten.
Lee”s men adored him. Even Union soldiers were blinded by the “invincibility” of Lee. GRANT FELT HE HAD TO make Lee conquer-able when he took over he Army of the Potomac.
While they treated each other with dignity, let us not forget how bloody and terrible this war was. To not romanticize it. I re-watched Ken Burns Civil War docu-series again recently and it was a reminder of how inhumane our society can truly be. That’s why I love history, reminds us not to repeat it in our struggle to “form a more perfect Union” as the late John Lewis used to say.
@@Ghost12314 The generals on both sides were all upper-class West Pointers. What I find interesting is not that they were civil to one another, but that they were still willing to lead hundreds of thousands of men to their deaths (while being civil to one another). It's a lot easier to understand a war (like the Eastern front of World War II) when it's an all out war of extermination between two nationalities who despise one another. It's much more difficult to understand a war that killed a million people fought in such a "gentlemanly" manner.
@@stanleyrogouski It’s always seemed to me that as one gains in years and you physically weaken, your mind is what is forced to strengthen. Human beings are capable of some CRAZY influences. Isn’t there a saying about how the older fight their battles with the younger or some thin’? I dunno. Hope you’re doing well and staying safe!
I feel that the romance surrounding the War of the Rebellion/War of Northern Aggression is played up a lot by modern education systems and media. No body looks at either World War in very positive light, but the United States and UK are almost never made to be villainous, no matter how heinous their atrocities were against their enemies, because history is written by the victorious, and the loser laments without end. A far more fascinating abuse of humanity and unsung hellscape of warfare would be the endless pursuit of the Cherokee, Apache, Arapahoe and Dakota in the years leading up to, during and following the Civil War. What America did to the First Nations is unforgivable. We soaked our hands in their blood and it is never mentioned
My entire 8th grade year history class was the civil war. We studied 100s of battles. We knew the dates, the generals and the outcome. Why we don’t study the civil war that in-depth now is a crime. It was our bloodiest war ever. We wouldn’t be America without it. Brother against brother.
That sounds so interesting, what a privilege to have that kind of education. My school was in a lower income area and we were lucky if we had access to decent books.
@@HazeCarver Actually, Sherman offered Johnston even milder terms than Grant offered Lee.....Congress berated Sherman and took back some of his terms...
@@daviddavenport9350 oh damn i actually didnt know that. Youd expect something different from old Willy T. “I will make georgia howl” Sherman. But i guess he was going for the caesarean approach of “crush your enemies then forgive them”
Read the latest biography on Grant. It is a wonderful read of a truly flawed but incredibly decent man. He was an overcomer and did more to promote the rights of the freed slaves than any president.
@@geebeeinga Til recently I didnt realize in what hight esteem Grant was held all over the world! He was feted everywhere he and Julia went on their Grand Tour.
grant was a drunk, closer to last in his class at west point. lee was third in his class at west point. grant had bad scandals later when he was president
@@leepenlack5548 1) Grant was not a drunk. He only drank out of sheer loneliness or boredom. But never during battle. 2) Grant graduated in the middle of his class at West Point. 3) Lee graduated second in his class, and he did not earn one demerit while at West Point. 4) Grant was not corrupt. But his cabinet members were.
Grant hated slavery. His wife Julia was the daughter of a southern slave owner. When he died, he willed one slave to Grant. When the man arrived at Grant's house, he was taken the next day to the county courthouse where a document of Manumission was drawn up, registered with the county clerk. He gave his now ex-slave a copy and a handshake telling him he was a free man, and then returned home.
I feel that Christians on both sides knew slavery was wrong, but the South was fighting for its financial independence. I cannot imagine the South winning this war.
In all seriousness, I hope he gave that slave some money too, to get on his feet. Imagine leaving the former slave destitute, no money for a meal, hotel, or train ticket, standing at the front of the county courthouse.
Great video ... here are cool follow up facts. Licoln, like Grant wanted to be gracious to the surrendered Conferates. Lincoln gets shot and the new President, Johnson, wants to put Lee on trial for treason. Grant throws a fit saying "They surrendered due to the terms I proposed. We can't change the terms and do a hokey doke on them!" Johnson backed down. Grant was one of the greatest Americans ever.
Grant threatened to resign his office of General-in-chief, which would have been a political disaster for Johnson. Even at that stage, Grant was a shoo-in to win the 1868 election.
@@BillMorganChannel That would be a ten yard penalty. My father's father was Levi Grant LastName. My father was plowing a field on Little Round Top at the Gettysburg, PA battleground with a mule (and a plow) when someone drove up and told him the Japanese had just attacked Pearl Harbor. The attack began at 12:45 PM Eastern Time. He was too young to get in on the fun before it was all over, though. One day when I was maybe in Jr. high school, I was sitting on the low cement wall along the long staircase leading up a hill to the Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery. Maybe around 2/3 of the way up the left side of the stairway as one walks up the hill. In my line of sight was the Custis Lee Mansion of Robert E Lee, on their former plantation at the bottom of the hill. My hands were on the top of the low wall I was sitting on, one on either side of me. Some boy around my age came running down the stairway from the top of the hill, stopped suddenly, and vomited on my left hand. Later, I won the New England High School fencing championship. I'm left handed.
The crazy true story about the owner of Appomattox courthouse is really interesting. Wilmer McLean had a house he and his family bought in 1854 in Manassas where the first battle of the Civil War the First Battle of Bull Run began in 1861. McLean's home was used as Confederate General Beauregard's headquarters during that time. After the Second Battle of Bull Run McLean moved his family for safety reasons away from the fighting and bought the Appomattox courthouse in 1863. It was there that Grant and Lee would meet and finally end the war. So basically the Civil War started and ended in McLean's front yard.
I wasn't aware that his front lawn was Charleston Harbor. The Civil War began at Fort Sumter. Sure Maclean tried to claim it started on his front lawn, but that wasn't what happened.
Ok, this is great. Lee let his pride get the better of him. He was fully committed to the cause and devotion to his army. He hoped to link up with forces in the Carolinas and fight elsewhere. It was not to be. Sheridan's cavalry thwarted his efforts. The Army of the Potomac was on the chase in getting Lee to surrender. Grant was on his heels. The surrender at Appomattox was the domino effect. Other forces were still in the field. Lee's surrender was a chain reaction. It saw to it that fighting on was pointless. Peace and reconciliation was what the country needed after a bloody civil war.
Yea i also belive the president wanted lee to be the general for the union but he turned it down because of his family in the south, i believe. Im his great great great grandson Jaren Lee
This video glossed over a lot. Immediately before Appotmattox, Lee's army was besieged at Petersburg, starving and without hope. When Union forces broke through Lee's lines and Lee's position became impossible, the goal for Lee's army was to fall back quickly and link up with General Johnston's army in North Carolina. That's why he refused to surrender, until surrounded at Appomattox Courthouse.
@D Sullivan Johnston still had about 90 000 men in the field at that point. If I remember correctly, the idea was to merge the armies, and try and deal with Sherman first. If succesful, they would then turn around and try to go on the offensive against Grant. If not able to take offensive action, then solidify their position, and aim for a political end to the war, meaning negotiated peace. I seriously doubt it would have worked. Grant and Sherman would have done whatever it took to not allow Lee and Johnston to form a new army in peace and quiet. If it had worked, it could have extended the war for who knows how long.
@D Sullivan Well, Confederate armies, particularly the Army of Northern Virginia, had pulled off some unlikely victories against vastly superior Union forces in the past - 2nd Manassas/Bull Run and Chancellorsville f.example - and there was a small hope that they could repeat it.
“The war is over - the rebels are our countrymen again. The war is over, the Rebels are our countrymen again, and the best sign of rejoicing after the victory will be to abstain from all demonstrations in the field.”- General Ulysses S. Grant.
Probably his and Lincoln's most shortsighted viewpoint. It allowed for the intransigence of the rebels to continue and they are still a scourge upon the U.S. today. It's almost like they were allowed to think they won.
@@Treklosopher I doubt that racism was extremely common in the north. Racism developed because of slavery it didn't matter where north or south. You act like a huge majority of southern people nowadays are racists when that is just false. Racism still exists but it's a fraction of what it used to be I hate people like you giving yourself a false sense of reality.
@@Treklosopher As a historian: You are 100% wrong. It was their longsightedness that saved thousands of American lives! Had they tried & hung Lee, Longstreet, etc etc? Never mind; I was going to explain to why Lincoln & Grant made that decision but why bother, besides I’m not in the mood to talk history today.
i wish this was true nobody told everybody up north . instead they want erase all the souths history. and it was not a civil war it was war between the states. hey heres a thought some of yall should look at some of the contributions of confederate soilders officers and enlisted.
Because of class privilege, the West Point graduates who had taken oaths to defend the U.S. Constitution, but chose to be traitors and join the rebellion, instead were allowed to carry on with their lives when the war ended, some being honored to this day, when any rank and file enlisted troops who did the same, would’ve been hung for treason.
This is seriously my favorite channel. I learn so much and it's downright interesting. This is the type of content that I wish the History Channel produced. Nope. Instead we get reality shows about pawn shops and aliens.
This is why many people barely watch regular tv anymore. I watch more UA-cam channels on topics I am interested in rather than the trash they have on mainstream cable for the most part.
And yet Neoconfederates would have you believe that the Northerners overwhelmingly delighted at the humiliation at the South when really it was more of a relief that the war was over. This narrative serves as a rationale for their revisionist theories that brush aside any insinuations that the war was fought primarily over slavery. This gives them a victim status that justifies their ignorance and their ancestors bad decision for being on the wrong side of history.
Little do they know but when Grant shook Lee's hand as he surrendered Grant gave Lee a hidden check for One Million Dollars to surrendered. I told that to my daughter as a joke when she was young and in school and during a teaching on the Civil War in class she told the teacher that thinking it was the truth and not a lie. My daughter is 29 now and we still joke about that.
The schools are too driven to teach fake leftist propaganda then to teach real history they want to follow their God Marx who said if you can get a people to forget their heritage you can pursade them , this from a retired public school teacher
@@hambam7533 Geez that is stupid. If you had paid attention, or maybe even have attended classes, all you would have heard is fascist capitalist propaganda.
one of the last battles of the Civil War didn’t happen down in Virginia at that campaign it happened a month after the surrender down in Brownsville Texas which is the battle of Palmito Ranch in May of 1865
Lees forces were in Virginia waiting for a trainload of long awaited chow. They hadn't been resupplied in weeks. The train arrived as expected except the cargo was weapons instead of chow resupply. The war ended right there. General Lee had his runner contact General Grant for surrender terms. After that, General Grant dispatched 3 trains of chow.
The war didn't end at Appomattox. Sherman and Johnson were negotiating a surrender in North Carolina. In Texas, the battle of Palmito Ranch took place in May. The raider CSS Shenandoah was in the pacific sinking whalers and traders until November.
Yes. Everyone always says that the war ended on April, 9th but Lee's surrender represents only 27,000 men whereas Johnson's represents 90,000 men and no one know that.
@@hugodegrand2198 Johnston, Joseph. He was known for using delaying tactics, so he lost fewer men, gave up much ground in the process. If he could have joined Lee, the South thought they might have a chance. But there was no way they could win, thank God. God was with the North. Another Johnston, Albert Sidney, also a Southern general, died at Shiloh.
I have an ancestor who was one the officers who accepted the Confederate Flag on behalf of the Union. Grant wanted to reward his officers and so they drew straws.
@@SLG-jt1rd the vast majority of confederate soldiers neither owned slaves, nor agreed with it. They were fighting to keep the war from spilling onto their farms, and coming to the feet of their wives and children. They were also fighting for their individual home state more than anything. You can hold your head up high.
It was not the loss as much as the terrible period of reconstruction that followed. After Lincoln died, many in congress and the Army sought revenge against a defeated South. Many ex-confederate soldiers were executed without trial. The whole South was destroyed and "Carpetbaggers" and other opportunists reaped rewards for preventing any real reconstruction. Vicksburg was in ruins. Sherman burned a trail 60 miles wide from Atlanta to the Atlantic. Scorched earth took on new meaning. Yankee troops wreaked havoc plundered and pillaged South Carolina out of revenge because SC was the first state to secede. Defeated Confederate soldiers were tired, broke, destitute and had nothing to come back to. Had there been real reconstruction and rebuilding of the South from day one, bad memories and feelings would not have run so deep for generations. General MacArthur and Eisenhower realized this at the end of WW2 and expedited rebuilding of Germany and Japan.
@@golfhound Those are excellent points and make sense but we are talking about a war that's been over for at least 150 years. The other issue is that as harsh the reconstruction period was... what about the period of slavery? As an adult, I've done reading on the practice of slavery in the South and I was shocked and appalled that this actually happened. I read in about how slaves were treated as farm animals to include breeding farms for southern landowners to increase their wealth. I was never taught this in school and slavery was a subject that was superficially covered. If anybody's got a right to be pissed it's African-Americans. Now I know why they call it "America's original sin."
@@retromoto9456 what about the black slave owners? Should they be mad too? Owning slaves is bad whether you're black or white, my friend. I dont believe for a minute that the war was fought so black and white people could own slaves. That was a side issue that needed dealt with and changed. The major thing was that the tyrant Lincoln and the north were going unconstitutional on southern states. There was bad and good on both sides. And not everyone condoned what they're fellow brothers were doing on either side at all times either. That war is way more complex than just trying to free slaves, my friend.
I did a quickie Internet search, and it doesn't seem there actually was a battle there. The northernmost land battle of the war was probably fought at Salineville, Ohio in 1863.
you are correct Blitz,this week in Virginia i watched the General Lee statue taken down and cut to pieces,the va governor said he was glad to see this traitor go then he placed pictures of Mr. George Floyd, and LGBTQ material in the pedestal
And as a southerner, Grant is one of the historical figures I respect the most. His gracious terms paved the way for a reconciliation of a whole nation
Lee is often described as a reluctant, but honor and duty bound participant in the Civil War. Some of these letters make him sound quite a bit more zealous.
He fought like hell, but once he surrendered he didn’t tolerate further fighting and spent much of the rest of his life advocating that the south put aside the hatred and bitterness of defeat and to be one nation with the north again.
He also made it clear, he didn't believe in equality, he was against blacks having Civil rights, and when given the chance to speak out against the KKK terrorizing people of color, he refused. He was a white supremacist, who fancied himself a christian and a gentleman, so he sporadically threw out virtuous expressions to fool himself and others. When he was a typical sanctimonious southerner, who failed miserably to practice what they preached.
I have read accounts that Lee was heard pacing all night long by his wife before he made the decision to join the confederate cause. Lee had spent his entire career in the US Army. He graduated second in his class at West Point and was later the superintendent there. He was considered by Gen Winfield Scott to be the most gifted officer in the army.
Great video, wish it had covered just a day or two longer, when the Union Army (under Chamberlain) did a very respectful acceptance (soldier's salute) of the surrendering Confederate troops. Completely improvised, and undoubtedly helped with reconciliation.
They may have been true a generation or two ago think your wrong currently it’s the left that fans the flames of hatred . Dividing is a necessary step in the destruction of the country .
@@hoponpop3330 That's laughable. Trump incited an insurrection and you have idiots like Boebert , Margery Taylor-Greene, Gosar, Gohmert, Ted Cruz, the list goes on. Keep up the gaslighting, though.
The Appomattox Courthouse Surrender was only for the Army of Northern Virginia. There were numerous other armies and groups of militia and son on that continued to fight long after the war ended. All good though. It was pretty much the end of the BIG WAR.
Yes. Although some shooting went on into June in isolated areas, the last formal surrender was in May 1865 when Confederate Lieutenant General Richard Taylor, son of President Zachary Taylor surrendered his army in Southern Alabama to Union Major General Edward Canby. The other surrenders including Joseph Johnston to W.T. Sherman all had terms that mirrored the terms at Appomattox. Grant and Lee ended hostilities with honorable terms and both urging their men to work toward reconciliation as responsible citizens. Civil wars have ended a lot worse, with bitterness, guerilla warfare, and enmity lasting centuries with no end.
I feel that General Grant was the bigger of the two men. It’s too bad that his presidency didn’t go so well. I guess military genius doesn’t equal political genius.
Yup, historically military leaders have made for terrible kings, presidents or dictators and vice versa. I guess running an army is very different from running a country.
He got a bad reputation for many decades from the Southern school of historians (Freeman et al.) as well as the Marxists. More recently, he has "risen in the rankings", especially when you consider his work in starting the first national park (Yellowstone), backing extensive surveying and exploration of Central America (for a canal) and beyond, opposition to racial and religious bigotry and violence, etc. His administration included many talented people such as Fish, Bristow, Ammen and others, as well as the people whom he wrongly trusted.
@@kevinaguilar7541 Unfortunately, that included Sherman. But arguably, Grant can be seen as the best Civil Rights President of the US. Although Jim Crow was becoming reality with Andrew Johnson, Grant being the president after him did all he can to stop that from happening. But the scandals that happened due to the people that manipulated him and the overall tiredness of both the North and South of the Civil War just let Jim Crow happen and run its course.
The final Confederate forces only surrendered on the 6th November 1865, when the CSS Shenandoah sailed into Liverpool, UK where Captain Waddell handed over his ship to the Royal Navy and presented a letter offering his formal surrender to the British Government. Interestingly, Liverpool also has a connection to the start of the war, as the first shot fired at the Battle of Fort Sumter came from a mortar made in Liverpool. During the war, despite Britain being officially neutral, Liverpool supported the Confederacy as it had strong economic and political connections with the cotton industry in the South. It provided shipping for the Confederate Navy (CSS Alabama) and financing to their diplomats who were based at their 'unofficial' embassy in the city.
Yea your not wrong but at that point there were no large scale battles. Also the capital fell, the president fled, and the two best remaining generals Lee and Jonson surrendered. It’s like how there was still German troops fighting after its surrender during WW2
Environmentalists should note that in the summer of 1865, CSS Shenandoah sailed into the Bering Sea and wiped out the Yankee whaling fleet, thereby saving the lives of countless whales.
Maybe a little known fact, but 42 Australians joined the CSS Shenandoah as crew, when she pulled into Melbourne, Victoria in Jan 1865 for repairs and resupply. They were on board when they captured those Yankee whaling ships in the Bering sea, and stayed with her till the surrender. Edit-apparently 19 of the Shenandoah's crew jumped ship, whilst in Melbourne, with most handing themselves into the Union US embassy there.
Australia also has a Confederate connection when the commerce raider CSS Shenandoah visited Melbourne and refitted there, the officers and crew were feted and made to feel welcome during their stay.
Could you do a video on the history of messenger birds and also how they trained these birds. I have always been curious and it would be greatly appreciated
The senior officers on both sides of the United States Civil War were not only the same nationality (American), the same religion (Protestant), the same ethnicity (Anglo Saxon) and the same class (bourgeoisie). They all graduated from the same school, West Point. So of course they were going to be civil to one another. It was like the Army Navy Game, or the Yale Harvard Game, or the Stanford Cal Game, only bloodier. But compare how Grant and Sheridan treated Lee to how the United States government (often led by the very same officers who commanded the Union Army during the Civil War) treated the leaders of the Plains Indians. There were no negotiations, no chivalry, no elaborate rituals of surrender. There was simply a brutal war of conquest where the defeated tribes were herded into reservations and the leaders treated like common criminals.
@R. P. Well the Cherokee expelled from the Southeastern United States during the Trail of Tears had already adopted the values of white Americans. They were literate, Christian, and many even held slaves (a lot of them fought for the South in the Civil War). And yet Andrew Jackson still felt it was his right to clear them off the land and send them to Oklahoma. A "war for civilization" was little more than an excuse for genocide. It's worth noting that as barbaric as the Southern Plantation class was, buying and selling human beings, they were still treated as gentlemen by Lincoln, Grant and even Sherman. West Point, founded oddly enough by Jefferson, created an elite that transcended even the bloodiest war in American history.
@R. P. I'm just pointing out that white Americans had too much experience with "civilized" Indians to believe the rumors about the Plains Indians. But even if we exclude the Cherokee you can find plenty of white men who acted like savages. Nathan Bedford Forrest massacred black union soldiers after they surrendered. And yet he was never tried for war crimes. I think the only Confederate officer who was was the commandant at Andersonville, who it's worth noting was a Swiss immigrant and not a West Pointer. Jefferson Davis spent a year or two in jail and since he was a West Pointer and an ex secretary of war it caused outrage in the north. Even the abolitionist Horace Greeley led a campaign for clemency.
@R. P. I think Charles Pomeroy Stone, who Lincoln set up as a scapegoat after the disaster at Ball's Bluff, wound up spending more time in prison than any Confederate officer. And he was completely innocent. All he did was enforce Lincoln's orders not to admit escaped slaves into the Union ranks. Yet when public opinion turned towards abolitionism in 1862, Lincoln had no trouble ruining his life. I think by the end of the war people in the North just wanted to be done with it. I wonder sometimes if Lee had organized a guerrilla war and extended the Civil War by a few more years if Northern public opinion would have turned more vindictive.
@R. P. And those contemporary accounts should be a lesson to us all today. Whenever the media tries to fill us all with fear of some other (be it the Chinese, Russians, Muslims) we should call it out for the propagandistic bullshit that it is. But that fear didn't limit itself to Indians. Think of the Haymarket Martyrs. The newspapers also promoted hysteria about immigrant (at the time largely German) radicals and Catholics. The same Union Army officers who destroyed slavery turned on a dime after the Civil War and became muscle for rich capitalists. Lee betrayed his oath and fought for slavery. But Grant, as President, was pretty much the Barack Obama of his day. He liked being around millionaires and oligarchs and largely served their interests instead of the people. The same army that crushed slavery crushed the Homestead Strike. It makes me wonder how different it would have been if slavery had been ended by a popular uprising and not a professional army commanded by West Pointers. Of course that wasn't going to happen. Crushing slavery took state power (which is what Lincoln means when he talks about "Saving the union," saving the state power needed to end slavery). But that same powerful state in the following decades was used to steal land from the Indians and serve as muscle for the wealthy.
My gg grandfather was Joseph Howard Powell, Company H, 5th Alabama Cavalry. He was mustered out in the summer of 1865 and took his family and what was left of their possessions ( their home and most of the belongings, livestock was destroyed by the union army) to Itawamba County Mississippi. He passed away there in 1923 at the age of 91
Glad you are preserving & passing on those memories. My parents were border state unionists. (Lincoln had been too). There was an expression in the South "thieving Yanks" - It financially destroyed some white southerners when thousands of collarrs worth of human capital were freed (or freed themselves) when Yanks came through. Some of Sherman's defenders brought up Chambersburg PA, when Sherman wreaked destrucction from Atlanta to Savannah. Morally, southerners and their defenders had a strong argument against guerre à l'outrance. The Bible commanded, don't destroy fruit trees, don't destroy crops or farm animals. Only take the food you need. Shermans troops wreaked havoc.
@@robertshepherd8543 Sherman wasn't a Christian, and neither were most of his men, and most whose crops were destroyed weren't Christians either. To know and quote the Bible is not salvation. Living godly is. You can't be for slavery and please God. He made all men and women free. You don't please God, you don't go to heaven. But they all faced Bible retribution for their sins, even in beliefs. God took care of His own, which for some, the burners and the pro slavers, meant repenting, changing their minds to what God approved of.
TBH, most of that livestock was probably taken by confederate taxation and more killed by confederate deserters and other thugs. Mind you the majority of Northern Alabama was pro-Union.
@@OldHeathen1963 it wasn't. Southern desertion rates skyrocketed to a point that by early '62 they had it introduce a draft which exempted me who owned a certain number of slaves. They took most of the food as "tax in kind" to feed the army (it wasn't enough) and the currency was about as valuable as toilet paper. Georgia threatened to seceded from the Confederacy when the governor found out that Georgia troops were being sent to Virginia and not kept in Georgia to defend that state. The south was a damned mess from day one, and only the Postal Service worked correctly mostly due to the Postmaster General actually taking his job seriously.
In 1860 Grant was pushing 40 years old. He was married with four children. A West Point graduate that had resigned from the army in 1854, he had failed at everything he had tried afterward, and had finally in desperation moved back home to work in his father store as a clerk. There, he was a subordinate to his two younger brothers. With the outbreak of the Civil War, Grant volunteered and received a commission as Colonel of Volunteers. He was given a command of 100 men. By 1862 he was Major-general of Volunteers and second in command of the Western Theater. Two years later, he was Commanding General of all Union armies. Four years later he was President.
An incredible man who made the most of circumstances. People sometimes think their lives follow a linear path but we never know what we’re capable of until the moment arrives.
@@newerafricanThinking we somehow follow a linear path is something I have struggled with and recently came to terms with. Amazing I saw your comment right now
The picture at 7:16 is of Lee's office at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, VA. Virginians still venerate Lee, but there are crazy things going on in Virginia now. Lee's office has been kept exactly the same as it was the last time he was there.
And once the civil war has come to an end, the country resumed the wars on the western frontiers against the natives, thus leading to the westward expansion we all know today. Feel bad for the natives who are being driven out of their homelands by those colonists. May they be safe and sound.
Some of the tribes actually turned on each other and supported the US Army in their conquests, the Crow being the most famous of these. The Pawnee even protected the Union Pacific Railroad for a while because the Lakota was their mutual enemy. Furthermore some western lands were genuinely purchased from the tribes or from Mexico. I'm NOT defending all of the US government's actions, but history is seldom black and white.
Grant, when he became president, actually tried to secure equal rights for natives. Sadly, Congress wasn't interested and when he told people to stop stealing land they chose not to listen to him.
He died a few days after finishing his book. He worked in constant pain so he could finish his memoirs so that his family did not have to live in poverty.
@@Elitecommando501 he is completely wrong American troops were killed on American soil and that was why we went to war because Americans on American soil across the rio grande where shot and killed by Mexican troops
@@TexasNationalist1836 It's crazy how most Americans don't know Mexico started the war and instead whine about American imperialism. I'm not even American and I know.
What a facinating story of how such a bloody war was ended with the elegance and honor that the 2 generals handled themselves. Very interesting and it set an example of how pride and bitterness can be put aside while seeking a higher honorable end for the good of the nation.
The manner in which Lee surrendered was perhaps one of his greatest pieces of leadership. It ended a war full stop that could have descended into a "bushwhacking" insurgency that would've added to the death toll and meant that the Union would destroy the South completely in order to ensure full capitulation. Grant knew this, hence the generosity of the conditions of surrender that he offered. Both men knew that getting the South back on its feet economically and restoring peace was far more important than gloating or score settling.
I know, right? I especially like the way James Thurber captured the events at Appomattox Courthouse: General Lee said, "I should like to have this over with as soon as possible." Grant looked vaguely at his aide, Corporal Shultz, who walked up close to him, frowning. "The surrender, sir, the surrender," said Corporal Shultz in a whisper. "Oh sure, sure," said Grant. He took another drink. "All right," he said. "Here we go." Slowly, sadly, he unbuckled his sword. Then he handed it to the astonished Lee. "There you are, General," said Grant. "We dam' near licked you. If I'd been feeling better we would of licked you." - From Thurber's story, "If Grant Had Been Drinking at Appomattox".
except he only surrendered his own force. Johnston is the one who should get the credit for ending the war. and giving all remaining csa soldiers a way to go home in peace without fear of being prosecutor for treason.
The graphics used for this video get an F. No effort at all was made to use relevant graphics. Lot's of quickie You Tube videos are now doing this. It's as though they assume the under age 45 viewers either can't tell.. or just don't care.
In Freeman's Vol 3, the description of Confederates' marching in to stack arms the next day was movingly written...Chamberlain, Gordon, the Stonewall Brigade...
The end of the War Between The States marked the beginning, not the end of reconciliation between former enemies. It defined what America would become and placed what it was in historical context, where it properly belongs. How fitting that it would be two solders trained at West Point would bring the horror of that conflict to an end. It set the tone for the present and the future we now enjoy. Even though it's not perfect, our land is truly united for all think of themself as Americans first regardless of where they live. This is one huge reason why the symbols and monuments of either side, Union and Confederate, should be acknowledged because they all tell a very powerful story and give to us a big lesson that should never be forgotten.
Sad to say the influx of illegal aliens with the government supporting their self segregation as Spanish speakers and socialist dependence on coerced taxpayers' $$$$ instead of self responsibility, has un-united the United States again.
Lee and Grant were both excellent Generals and the way Grant handled the surrender allowing southern soldiers some self respect was instrumental in my opinion.
I went to Appomattox and the museum of the confederacy about 5 years ago! Fascinating to see! Also just down the road 1/8 of a mile was a cemetery of soldiers(both union and confederate)who died the morning of the surrender. They literally were fighting until the end.
The failings as a man that are mostly brought up were his drinking, which was highly exagerrated and used by his enemies who had political ambitions. There were many Union Generals who had political ambitions and saw Grant as a rival for their miltary careers which were highly important to their political ambitions. Many general were political appointees. Halick was one who constantly tried to undercut Grant. He even wanted him arrested for taking Fort Donaldson without his approval. One reason the south and Lee were so successful is that they constantly went agains political appointees and inferior generals. There was also a Union officer who constantly wrote his wife that he was the one that kept Grant sober. Those letters were used to build up his importance by denigrating Grant. @@jacob4920
Lincoln was determined to reintegrate the South back into the Union and had ordered Grant to offer generous terms. Grant had requested Lincoln's guidance in regards to the surrender terms. Lincoln's response was to "Let them up easy. "
This isn't really weird, it's factual. I'd like to add what I consider to b an important event on the 12th when Gen Gird lead the brave Confederates into the Courthouse grounds to stack their arms: Gen Chamberlain received them, and Gordon and Chamberlain acknowledged themselves and their men by these 2 officers saluting each other with sword salutes. That era as bloody and disfiguring as it was, was far more gentlemanly and respectful than the lunatics n Washington DC now.
Nothing honorable about the traitors down south. They were and still are a disgrace. But the north had blood on its hands as well, they were all talk, and either took part or condoned slavery. It was the lesser of two evils.
Richard, that's fine but at the end of the day, this channel can not provide you a diploma nor degree therefore your school is not toxic at All. Furthermore you will regret later in life on not wanting to go back into the school of your teen age years, all adults wish that later on. Don't think you won't.
@@supportyourtroopsathletes6460 that may be true but an education is very overated. I work with a professor and someone with many college debts. Long story short we all make the same with the exception of the professor. I just have to pay off any debts like the both of them. If you do get an education at least get something that you can find a job for
@@cryptoknot I can agree with that on picking a education that leads to a long term steady career with decent income and benefits for oneself as well as their family.
Lee demonstrated courage by openly accepting clear defeat. True cowards refuse to do so, spreading lies and dissent, and defrauding their supports by taking their money under the guise that they're going to fight a battle that has long since ended.
This is Ted from Texas. I am a civil war re-enactor in my off time. Remembering history is a big part of my life. Both the good and the bad. We must remember both and not rewrite history. Some people in our government and some of the public want to destroy histories past. It is very important to keep all of it. Our country is facing a turning point in all life at this time. I pray that we don't have another civil war, but they are pushing and pushing and pushing to break the Constitution of the United States and rewrite history as how they see it. Please Lord, male leaders both in government military and civilians make smart decisions and saving our country.
I totally agree with you. I disgusts me to see hategroups like the United Daughters of the CSA try to rewrite history. The United Daughters of the CSA is the reason why we have so many unfortunate statues of TraitorTrash of Lee and his crew. Thankfully people are waking up and ditching these monuments.
@@RocKnight11 . When you have time, see how Abraham Lincoln wanted to reunite the country. Everybody at that point, in our country, we're Americans. Both north and south are one. Remembering the Confederacy and what they were fighting for is equally important is knowing what United States was fighting for. This South fort for states rights. The North Fort to keep the United States as one. We are now stuck in that dilemma again. States rights over country rights. State law over government law.
@@tedebear108 Also, you bring up a good point, both the North and South were Americans. Lee and his crew ki//ed many more Americans than the TaIiban or any group like them. Yet, I get the feeling you have more admiration for Lee.
@@RocKnight11 . I do not agree with the Civil War. But we was a better General did any of the generals in the north at that time. The South had only two major Commanders of the Civil War. General Joseph Johnston , he was the first. And then General Robert E Lee. I do admit he was a good General as far as figuring out how to win a battle. The north did not get a winning General until Ulysses S Grant became in charge of the North Army. I just lights to know the history of the Civil War. I understand why General Lee resigned his Commission in the United States Army. He was offered the job being a charge of the United States Army defending against the Confederates. But he could not raise his arms against his home state of Virginia.
It’s worth reading about the life of Robert E. Lee in his post-war years. A lot of people shit on him today and that’s truly sad. He was one of the most unifying forces between north and south and vigorously upheld that commitment he made at the surrender for the rest of his life while never compromising his honor and integrity. He really was one of the finest Americans that ever lived.
to his credit once it was over, he worked for reconciliation to put away southern pride. he fought to the end but having lost dedicated his remaining years to healing the breach.
I have a theory that Lee made his decision to fight for the Confederacy based on economic reasons-what I mean is he needed money. My theory needs more research but I am just throwing it out there.
@D Sullivan My point exactly. Mrs. Lee inherited wealth ( She was Martha Washington’s Great-Grandaughter I believe) but R E Lee was very poor, his Father Lighthorse Harry Lee, squandered his fortune, and died. Once you start following the money it’s fascinating. A great Masters thesis is out there and untapped.
@D Sullivan R E Lee did not gain as much as it appears. Mrs. Lee inherited Arlington House and vast acres of land plus slaves. But her Father, G.W.P. Custis left plantations to his grandsons and money to his granddaughters that his estate, at the time of his death, could not pay. Also, the mansion was unfinished and needed expensive maintenance. Lee turned down President Lincoln’s offer to become General of the Army for the Union. He had a more lucrative chance at wealth as eventual President of the Confederacy (following George Washington’s example). Although our first President did not become wealthy from the position, by the 1860’s this had changed. Remember R E Lee was a risk taker.
@D Sullivan I don’t think he could have become a president of the US because no one in the South would have voted for him if he had been the victorious Union General. A Confederacy victory would have been a different matter. I apologize, never my intent to push you to defend somebody you do not admire because I not a big fan either. Not so noble.
You are absolutely correct! In 1860 or so the members of congress became more polarized. The same is happening today in Washington. Civil war #2 here we come.
Not really. It's the wicked elites who control things with the Dem support. Look for the rapture soon and then the 7 year tribulation before Armageddon. Worst time this earth will ever know. But pray, if you love your family and country, 2 Chronicles 7:14. God cares...but do we?
the big deal would be how RE Lee didn't want monuments to the confederacy and ordered no one at his funeral should be in grey. the 'lost cause' was pushed by the likes of Jubal Early who went into politics
Why the truth is it was economical warfare on the southern states, they were economical superior in every facet. if the southern states kept paying taxes after seceding from the union. The antebellum south would still be prevalent. Follow the money , no one had any moral epiphany neither.
Ummm they do. You need to understand that the majority of their families took part in the war. And if you have ever bothered to study the war you would understand that people who had family who had fought on either side have alot of pride in how they had fought in the most brutal conflict in American history. I have family that fought for the north and south. I have no hatred for my family that fought for the south.
@@simplelogic9090 I have friends and relatives that went through the public school system in the south from the Carolina’s to Mississippi, that were taught that the south won the civil war.
@@yurdp weird cause when I was in the Marines I would routinely hear the opposite from dudes from the south. Literally they say they lost the war but not their rebel spirit. Is that what you mean?
@@shadysif6220 Lee gave up his slaves before Grant. He was a complex man and slavery WAS complex then- its simple for us today. But many slave owners personally disliked slavery- kind of how we as Americans buy phones made by child slaves in Asia but its a convenient part of our way of life. Not every slave owner was a cartoon villain. Washington was a slave owner. So was Jefferson and he did more to put an end to slavery than probably any other American- even though it was not totally abolished in his lifetime, he paved the way. Learn history and learn to be forgiving and gentle towards the men of the past. And hope that future generations will be as generous towards us.
Yo U.S Grant kept it all the way gangsta .. He lead the North to a victory and still allowed Lee to surrender with honor and respect !!! True definition of a man if you ask me .. He was a super decorated veteran who did more than we can imagine for the USA no cap at all !! 💯💯💯✌🏾✌🏾✌🏾
Grant was not a great general. His army suffered massive casualties in 1864...but he knew that in order to win he would have to sacrifice soldiers....the north had more men and material. He simply threw in more soldiers and disregarded the casualties.
@@russlanedixieland 1st off the whole civil war had major casualties .. and in the midst of war what do u do if you have more men and material !? .. you use em lol like wtf are u saying ..
@@russlanedixieland Actually..Grant was the only general to never lose a major campaign throughout the war....look at his remarkable string of successes in the Western theater....from Shiloh on, it was just a matter of time....
@@daviddavenport9350 look at his losses at the wilderness and Spotsylvania.. he also got obliterated at cold harbor....may not have lost an entire campaign but sacrificed men to win...no strategy, just had more men. But maybe that's what it took to defeat Lee.
@@daviddavenport9350 I'm a 6th cousin of stonewall Jackson so you know where my loyalty is at. 😉...but grant did fight, and thats what put an end to the Army of Northern Virginia
The burning of the mile-long covered bridge in Wrightsville, Pa (6-28-1863) was the turning point of the Civil War. When the flames caught the town on fire, John B. Gordon's men actually helped save the town with an improvised bucket brigade. Having been denied access to Lancaster county and then Harrisburg, the Rebels would eventually converge on Gettysburg, three days later. This event would make a great story for your channel.
That is very possible, makes sense. God wanted the north to win, end slavery. Reminds me of the Confederates losing orders about their troops movements and them orders being found by Union troops, before the battle of Antietam. God is in control.
They weren't;'t denied access to Harrisburg. Ewell's corps was there, which included my Great Great Great Grandfather (who was captured the following May at The Muleshoe). They had to do a force march most of the day with little to no water, then made it to Gettysburg the evening of the 1st and tried to take Culp's Hill. Which they were never going to do.
Grant and the Union's leniency to the South may have eased the reunification process at the time but allowed confederate pride and sentiments to continue to this day.
it would be interesting to see how the South Carolina legislature would vote today on secession. Me thinks more than a few might be unable to resist the temptation to once again "stick it" to the Yankees. And I believe Texas still has a law on the books that gives it the right to leave the union, should it so desire.
Because preservation of the Union was the point of the war, not abolishing slavery or crushing Southern nationalism. Once it was clear that the Confederacy would not be revived, that was it. Once the planter elite realized that they would retain political control in their states, they had no need to revive the Confederacy.
These are few of Lee quotes: "While we see the course of the final abolition of human slavery is still onward, and we give it the aid of our prayers, let us leave the progress, as well as the results, in the hands of Him, who chooses to work by slow influences, and with whom 1000 years are but as 1 day." >Note< *What Gen. Lee meant was not that slavery should last 1000 years, but rather to trust that slavery will end according to God's timing, and that he(Lee) was praying for it to end soon.* "So far from engaging in a war to perpetuate slavery, I am rejoiced that slavery is abolished. I believe it will be greatly for the interests of the South. So fully am I satisfied of this, as regards to Virginia especially, that I would cheerfully have lost all I have lost by the war, and have suffered all I have suffered, to have this object attained." "What a cruel thing war is... to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our or neighbors."
With the capture of Richmond, Lee should have accepted defeat. Lee's stubborness did cause additional loss of life on both sides as well as suffering for his troops. Lee's vanity has been amply recorded for history.
In reference to Lee as a man and a field commander I feel that he conducted his responsibilities as a field commander he went into it with a full heart believing that his cause was just not so much as assuring slavery but to defend the community of Virginia which is now known as Virginia and West Virginia a great leader no matter what side you're on will not participate in such matters with a half a heart someone with half a heart would have gave up long before he did
He was deceived to support states rights when the main right they wanted was slavery. Yet a few years after the war, at church, a call for salvation was made, and a lone black man came up for salvation, no one moved, but Robert E. Lee got up, walked up to the man and put his arm around his shoulder as the man accepted Christ.
There used to be an engraved bronze plaque on a large stone at Appomattox Court House that said something like Lee and his 8 thousand and something army surrendered to Grant's army of 109, 000 on such and such a date .... Last time I was there it had been removed.
11:30 No kidding, the actual War dragged on for at least a month until the news reached every state. Confederates in Alabama and Mississippi didn't surrender until May 4. General Edmund Smith surrendered in Texas on June 2. Stand Watie was the last Confederate general to surrender, in Oklahoma on June 23.
It is amazing to me that Grant, being battle worn and decidedly exhausted from 4 years of war, was still a proper gentleman. By allowing Lee to surrender with dignity and respect shown to those who were once enemies, Grant showed himself to be a very honorable general and man. In the modern day, it is hard to find someone in power with the qualities and honor, like those found in Grant and Lincoln. Thank you for such a great video.
Grant was a man of honor. Lincoln was a tyrant only fondly remembered because the war was won and he was killed. Sherman was a psychopath who should have been nailed to a tree.
@@Nope_handlesaretrash the south should have burned more
@@matterman7662 you mean the union that was planning to expell all the blacks to Africa (Lincoln), or the union that used Irish immigrants fresh off the boat as cannon fodder? Or the one that used free blacks on useless suicide attacks? The one that massacred indians? Get bent.
@@Nope_handlesaretrash The Confederacy had a draft months before the Union did and while the Union draft had the provision that you could hire a substitute (thus exempting the rich from the draft) the Confederate draft exempted most slave owners. It's always important to keep that in mind when someone argues that most Confederate soldiers didn't own slaves. That's true. If they had owned slaves they would have had cushy jobs in the Home Guard and never gotten anywhere near the Army of the Potomac. And most Irish and German (a lot more German than Irish) immigrants volunteered for the Union Army.
@@Nope_handlesaretrash sherman understood modern war, his attrocities are greatly exagerated in the 'lost cause' except for SC his march was only 60 miles wide but people well outside that claimed they were robbed by him, in NC they were very careful becasue NC had voted to seceed by only 1 vote so they were much more careful. learn your facts before spouting off.
One of Lee's first requests to Grant was to feed his men . Grant accepted without hesitation
That was before it had become a crime to lose a war
@@jonsnowight9510 well its not a crime because Americans are familiar to losing wars.
@@nicksosicc are you French?
@@nicksosicc
In 1865?? No… not USED to losing wars after becoming a nation and I am Canadian 🇨🇦.
@@dmathmothtutinean8950 never really lost a war period. Can argue Vietnam but we just pulled out because of public opinion not because we would actually lose.
You guys left out the most interesting bit about where Lee surrendered. Wilmer McLean formerly lived on a farm lived in Manassas and was part of the opening battle of the war, Bull Run. His house was actually commandeered as a Confederate headquarters and hit by a Union Shell. He moved to Appomattox Courthouse to get away from the war.
I couldn't remember all of that story and was hoping they would bring it up! Thank you for telling it :)
McLean liked to say that the war “started in my back yard and ended in my front parlor”. 🧐
The first LAND battle. Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor was the first battle of the war.
@@thegoldfly1
Fort Sumter was more of a skirmish. It wasn’t a full scale battle.
@@aaronstark5060 Well I consider firing cannons at each other a battle. So does history. Fort Sumter is the first battle of the war, no matter how McLean wanted to put it. Considering that Fort Sumter's battle literally reached the point of pot shots.
Lee was the last great Napoleonic general, while Grant was the first modern general. Lee was a pure battlefield genius in the manor in which he exercised agility in battle. Grant saw the war in a strategic sense and in depth. He rightly reasoned that to defeat the enemy in the field, you have destroy his economy, moral, and ability to perpetuate the war. Grant, appointed battle captains (Sheridan, Sherman) and gave them the authority to pursue the war on multiple fronts at once. The Confederates could not match that agility of battle. Grant believed in cross service coordination with the Navy. Grant was a master of logistics, utilizing rail, ship, and wagon to supply his armies in the field. The Confederates may have had a great battle captain in General Lee, but they lacked a Grant, logistician, and strategic thinker.
pickets’s charge. Not a genius.
@@HHH-td3nzno ones a 100 percent correct in war
Grant and Moltke were based
Grant unlike previous Union generals kept constant pressure on Lee’s army until the bitter end.
Like Lincoln said of Grant “ I can’t spare this man, he fights” History shows us that was true.
What a god awful war.
Exactly, Previous Union commanders would lose a battle and than retreat giving Lee time to regroup, But Grant would lose a battle but keep fighting
What a waist
All his life, Grant hated to be turned around. If he lost his bearings whilst on the road he would cut across country rather than re-trace his steps
There is a story that after a major battle, the troops were expecting the usual few days for R&R. The next morning the call went out to move out, and the troops cheered.
@@terryfont9468 did you mean waste? Good lord.
Grant for reasons I will know never got his due. I’m from Georgia and I can tell you he is highly regarded and respected by many southerners. His treatment of Lee and his army at Appomattox - the civility he showed - has not been forgotten.
They both were West Pointers and officers of the United States Armed Forces will and always do maintain the standard of AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN.
I’m from Georgia, too! I am just finishing the biography of Grant. Grant won the war; Lee won the myth. They say.
Lee”s men adored him. Even Union soldiers were blinded by the “invincibility” of Lee. GRANT FELT HE HAD TO make Lee conquer-able when he took over he Army of the Potomac.
While they treated each other with dignity, let us not forget how bloody and terrible this war was. To not romanticize it. I re-watched Ken Burns Civil War docu-series again recently and it was a reminder of how inhumane our society can truly be. That’s why I love history, reminds us not to repeat it in our struggle to “form a more perfect Union” as the late John Lewis used to say.
Yeah sure, saying people to not romanticize it will definitely make them to not romanticize it.
@@Ghost12314 The generals on both sides were all upper-class West Pointers. What I find interesting is not that they were civil to one another, but that they were still willing to lead hundreds of thousands of men to their deaths (while being civil to one another). It's a lot easier to understand a war (like the Eastern front of World War II) when it's an all out war of extermination between two nationalities who despise one another. It's much more difficult to understand a war that killed a million people fought in such a "gentlemanly" manner.
Love that series! Ken burns is so amazing
@@stanleyrogouski It’s always seemed to me that as one gains in years and you physically weaken, your mind is what is forced to strengthen. Human beings are capable of some CRAZY influences. Isn’t there a saying about how the older fight their battles with the younger or some thin’? I dunno. Hope you’re doing well and staying safe!
I feel that the romance surrounding the War of the Rebellion/War of Northern Aggression is played up a lot by modern education systems and media. No body looks at either World War in very positive light, but the United States and UK are almost never made to be villainous, no matter how heinous their atrocities were against their enemies, because history is written by the victorious, and the loser laments without end.
A far more fascinating abuse of humanity and unsung hellscape of warfare would be the endless pursuit of the Cherokee, Apache, Arapahoe and Dakota in the years leading up to, during and following the Civil War. What America did to the First Nations is unforgivable. We soaked our hands in their blood and it is never mentioned
My entire 8th grade year history class was the civil war. We studied 100s of battles. We knew the dates, the generals and the outcome. Why we don’t study the civil war that in-depth now is a crime. It was our bloodiest war ever. We wouldn’t be America without it. Brother against brother.
What scares me is that. Today we have rhetoric as hot as back then. But when it happens again, the bloodshed would be MUCH worse
Who needs history, it's playing out in the present,
It's about to happen again on a far larger scale.
That sounds so interesting, what a privilege to have that kind of education. My school was in a lower income area and we were lucky if we had access to decent books.
@@007Julie blame your parents for putting you in that school or living in that area. Don't blame privilege.
Two great rival generals showing their utmost respect, compassion and trust to each other...traits that every leaders must learn.
no one great general, that other thing was a slave driving traitor
@@5103jerry Lee is just lucky it wasnt sherman who caught up to him :)
@@HazeCarver you is right on, i wish it would have been sherman
@@HazeCarver Actually, Sherman offered Johnston even milder terms than Grant offered Lee.....Congress berated Sherman and took back some of his terms...
@@daviddavenport9350 oh damn i actually didnt know that. Youd expect something different from old Willy T. “I will make georgia howl” Sherman. But i guess he was going for the caesarean approach of “crush your enemies then forgive them”
Ulysses S Grant is my favorite human being of all time. I did a whole report on him in English class just cause I could.
Grant had his faults, but he was one of the best men of his time.
Read the latest biography on Grant. It is a wonderful read of a truly flawed but incredibly decent man. He was an overcomer and did more to promote the rights of the freed slaves than any president.
@@geebeeinga Til recently I didnt realize in what hight esteem Grant was held all over the world! He was feted everywhere he and Julia went on their Grand Tour.
grant was a drunk, closer to last in his class at west point. lee was third in his class at west point. grant had bad scandals later when he was president
@@leepenlack5548
1) Grant was not a drunk. He only drank out of sheer loneliness or boredom. But never during battle.
2) Grant graduated in the middle of his class at West Point.
3) Lee graduated second in his class, and he did not earn one demerit while at West Point.
4) Grant was not corrupt. But his cabinet members were.
Grant hated slavery. His wife Julia was the daughter of a southern slave owner. When he died, he willed one slave to Grant. When the man arrived at Grant's house, he was taken the next day to the county courthouse where a document of Manumission was drawn up, registered with the county clerk. He gave his now ex-slave a copy and a handshake telling him he was a free man, and then returned home.
I feel that Christians on both sides knew slavery was wrong, but the South was fighting for its financial independence. I cannot imagine the South winning this war.
In all seriousness, I hope he gave that slave some money too, to get on his feet. Imagine leaving the former slave destitute, no money for a meal, hotel, or train ticket, standing at the front of the county courthouse.
@@thehighllama8101 The slaves possessed something much more than money to start a new life; they had freedom.
Sometimes being a slave was safer. A free man has to protect and provide for himself. A slave.... that's a mans property/income you're messing with.
@@EskenRock so how old were you when, you voluntarily became a Slave, in exchange for someone else being responsible for your health and welfare.
Great video ... here are cool follow up facts.
Licoln, like Grant wanted to be gracious to the surrendered Conferates. Lincoln gets shot and the new President, Johnson, wants to put Lee on trial for treason.
Grant throws a fit saying "They surrendered due to the terms I proposed. We can't change the terms and do a hokey doke on them!"
Johnson backed down.
Grant was one of the greatest Americans ever.
Wow - hokey doke became okey dokey. Okey doke.
@@beavercleaver7848 To quote my Grant: "Nopey wopey on hokey dokie, free Lee or I give you my knee ...agree?"
Grant threatened to resign his office of General-in-chief, which would have been a political disaster for Johnson. Even at that stage, Grant was a shoo-in to win the 1868 election.
@@BillMorganChannel That would be a ten yard penalty. My father's father was Levi Grant LastName. My father was plowing a field on Little Round Top at the Gettysburg, PA battleground with a mule (and a plow) when someone drove up and told him the Japanese had just attacked Pearl Harbor. The attack began at 12:45 PM Eastern Time. He was too young to get in on the fun before it was all over, though. One day when I was maybe in Jr. high school, I was sitting on the low cement wall along the long staircase leading up a hill to the Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery. Maybe around 2/3 of the way up the left side of the stairway as one walks up the hill. In my line of sight was the Custis Lee Mansion of Robert E Lee, on their former plantation at the bottom of the hill. My hands were on the top of the low wall I was sitting on, one on either side of me. Some boy around my age came running down the stairway from the top of the hill, stopped suddenly, and vomited on my left hand. Later, I won the New England High School fencing championship. I'm left handed.
Johnson kept backing out. He was almost killed too. Same with Grant
The crazy true story about the owner of Appomattox courthouse is really interesting. Wilmer McLean had a house he and his family bought in 1854 in Manassas where the first battle of the Civil War the First Battle of Bull Run began in 1861. McLean's home was used as Confederate General Beauregard's headquarters during that time. After the Second Battle of Bull Run McLean moved his family for safety reasons away from the fighting and bought the Appomattox courthouse in 1863. It was there that Grant and Lee would meet and finally end the war. So basically the Civil War started and ended in McLean's front yard.
US Grant is one of my favorite characters in all of history.
Mine is Louis Farrakhan.
Stuart Lee Weird choice
Characters" would imply that they're fictional. Yeah the Civil War" happened and many lives were lost on both sides.
The Civil War started on Maclean's front lawn and ended in his parlor.
I wasn't aware that his front lawn was Charleston Harbor. The Civil War began at Fort Sumter. Sure Maclean tried to claim it started on his front lawn, but that wasn't what happened.
@@thegoldfly1 I thought the war began in Philadelphia in 1787. (And it is "McClean, not "MacClean" but I loved your comment!)
You lying SOB it certainly did not!!! It started at Ft.Sumnter, South Carolina.
@BillMorganChannel This war really started in Kansas. Thats where the first bloodshed was
Ok, this is great. Lee let his pride get the better of him. He was fully committed to the cause and devotion to his army. He hoped to link up with forces in the Carolinas and fight elsewhere. It was not to be. Sheridan's cavalry thwarted his efforts. The Army of the Potomac was on the chase in getting Lee to surrender. Grant was on his heels. The surrender at Appomattox was the domino effect. Other forces were still in the field. Lee's surrender was a chain reaction. It saw to it that fighting on was pointless. Peace and reconciliation was what the country needed after a bloody civil war.
Yea i also belive the president wanted lee to be the general for the union but he turned it down because of his family in the south, i believe. Im his great great great grandson Jaren Lee
Also if lee moved operations to Texas, he would have realized that he was not yet defeated
lee was an opponent but not an enemy.
@@GravesRWFiA Isn't anyone who perpetuates the slavery of humans the enemy?
@@GravesRWFiA he literally owned slaves he was the enemy and a bad person
This video glossed over a lot. Immediately before Appotmattox, Lee's army was besieged at Petersburg, starving and without hope. When Union forces broke through Lee's lines and Lee's position became impossible, the goal for Lee's army was to fall back quickly and link up with General Johnston's army in North Carolina. That's why he refused to surrender, until surrounded at Appomattox Courthouse.
Who cares? You lost! lol 😆.
@@michaelmillerski1071 Cared enough to reply, didn't you? 😉 "You lost" ? Who? I'm not Southern. I'm not even American😄
@D Sullivan Johnston still had about 90 000 men in the field at that point. If I remember correctly, the idea was to merge the armies, and try and deal with Sherman first. If succesful, they would then turn around and try to go on the offensive against Grant. If not able to take offensive action, then solidify their position, and aim for a political end to the war, meaning negotiated peace. I seriously doubt it would have worked. Grant and Sherman would have done whatever it took to not allow Lee and Johnston to form a new army in peace and quiet. If it had worked, it could have extended the war for who knows how long.
@D Sullivan Well, Confederate armies, particularly the Army of Northern Virginia, had pulled off some unlikely victories against vastly superior Union forces in the past - 2nd Manassas/Bull Run and Chancellorsville f.example - and there was a small hope that they could repeat it.
@@jouhanneus Please check that 90,000 number. That’s an exceedingly high number for Johnston’s command.
'Lee pressed on'
Nailed it.
1:12 XD
Underrated comment
I don’t get it
Comment of the century, right here.
Lee Press-On Nails
I seriously learn more about history through this one channel than the History Channel and school combined. The gift that keeps on giving.
The History Channel is shit, but the reason you did not learn things in school is that you were too smart to pay attention.
“The war is over - the rebels are our countrymen again. The war is over, the Rebels are our countrymen again, and the best sign of rejoicing after the victory will be to abstain from all demonstrations in the field.”- General Ulysses S. Grant.
Probably his and Lincoln's most shortsighted viewpoint. It allowed for the intransigence of the rebels to continue and they are still a scourge upon the U.S. today. It's almost like they were allowed to think they won.
@@Treklosopher I doubt that racism was extremely common in the north. Racism developed because of slavery it didn't matter where north or south. You act like a huge majority of southern people nowadays are racists when that is just false. Racism still exists but it's a fraction of what it used to be I hate people like you giving yourself a false sense of reality.
@@Treklosopher As a historian: You are 100% wrong. It was their longsightedness that saved thousands of American lives! Had they tried & hung Lee, Longstreet, etc etc? Never mind; I was going to explain to why Lincoln & Grant made that decision but why bother, besides I’m not in the mood to talk history today.
i wish this was true nobody told everybody up north . instead they want erase all the souths history. and it was not a civil war it was war between the states. hey heres a thought some of yall should look at some of the contributions of confederate soilders officers and enlisted.
Because of class privilege, the West Point graduates who had taken oaths to defend the U.S. Constitution, but chose to be traitors and join the rebellion, instead were allowed to carry on with their lives when the war ended, some being honored to this day, when any rank and file enlisted troops who did the same, would’ve been hung for treason.
To my southern brothers, we love you. From Brooklyn, NY.
Thanks, but somebody else can't. They keep tearing down historic statues, destroying graves and rewriting history for the school kids.
@@erictam7014 can't what?
@@MrJoebrooklyn1969 can't stop hating.
@@erictam7014 stop hating what?
To our northern brothers, we love you as well and wish nothing but the highest quality of love and life for everyone. From San Antonio, TX
This is seriously my favorite channel. I learn so much and it's downright interesting. This is the type of content that I wish the History Channel produced. Nope. Instead we get reality shows about pawn shops and aliens.
They should change the name from HISTORY CHANNEL to BS CHANNEL.
This is why many people barely watch regular tv anymore. I watch more UA-cam channels on topics I am interested in rather than the trash they have on mainstream cable for the most part.
"The Confederates were now our COUNTRYMEN, and we did not want to exult over their downfall"
And yet Neoconfederates would have you believe that the Northerners overwhelmingly delighted at the humiliation at the South when really it was more of a relief that the war was over. This narrative serves as a rationale for their revisionist theories that brush aside any insinuations that the war was fought primarily over slavery. This gives them a victim status that justifies their ignorance and their ancestors bad decision for being on the wrong side of history.
Why the HELL not? They would have had a great big party 🎉!!.
@@mmjahink yup I see a few a month here in fl just like ignorant as can be about history.
@@michaelmillerski1071 would have? Haha. Hell their descendants are still having parties celebrating their defeat like it’s some grand achievement 😂😂
Little do they know but when Grant shook Lee's hand as he surrendered Grant gave Lee a hidden check for One Million Dollars to surrendered. I told that to my daughter as a joke when she was young and in school and during a teaching on the Civil War in class she told the teacher that thinking it was the truth and not a lie. My daughter is 29 now and we still joke about that.
You guys should make videos for schools,would prob help kids get back into learning history. I love this channel
The schools are too driven to teach fake leftist propaganda then to teach real history they want to follow their God Marx who said if you can get a people to forget their heritage you can pursade them , this from a retired public school teacher
@@hambam7533 im in 7th grade and marx hasnt been mentioned once in my 8 years of “education”
@@Antimony145 not bad kid
@@hambam7533 Geez that is stupid. If you had paid attention, or maybe even have attended classes, all you would have heard is fascist capitalist propaganda.
@@hambam7533 what do you mean? All my teachers have been pretty objective when it came to history. Its the first thing we were taught
one of the last battles of the Civil War didn’t happen down in Virginia at that campaign it happened a month after the surrender down in Brownsville Texas which is the battle of Palmito Ranch in May of 1865
Stan Waite
Palmito Ranch was also a Confederate victory.
Took while for the word to spread....
Indeed and the Confederates won too!!!
@@imtheitchyouneedtoscratch Indeed! and now we are all slaves to our wonderrfulllll goverment.
Lees forces were in Virginia waiting for a trainload of long awaited chow. They hadn't been resupplied in weeks. The train arrived as expected except the cargo was weapons instead of chow resupply. The war ended right there. General Lee had his runner contact General Grant for surrender terms. After that, General Grant dispatched 3 trains of chow.
The war didn't end at Appomattox. Sherman and Johnson were negotiating a surrender in North Carolina. In Texas, the battle of Palmito Ranch took place in May. The raider CSS Shenandoah was in the pacific sinking whalers and traders until November.
Yes. Everyone always says that the war ended on April, 9th but Lee's surrender represents only 27,000 men whereas Johnson's represents 90,000 men and no one know that.
@@hugodegrand2198 Johnston, Joseph. He was known for using delaying tactics, so he lost fewer men, gave up much ground in the process. If he could have joined Lee, the South thought they might have a chance. But there was no way they could win, thank God. God was with the North.
Another Johnston, Albert Sidney, also a Southern general, died at Shiloh.
And Palmito Ranch ended with a Confederate victory.
@@rickisaak66 Didn't matter much anyway. The Confederacy had pretty much been ended by that time.
@@kellycochran6487 True, just an interesting footnote. Win the battle, lose the war.
I have an ancestor who was one the officers who accepted the Confederate Flag on behalf of the Union. Grant wanted to reward his officers and so they drew straws.
That kind of ancestry is very interesting. I only descend from confederate officers and soldiers however.
Wow! What a neat part of your family history. What happened to the flag?
I'm a relation to this great general
The First National Confederate Flag? Or was it the Lee Family Scotish Heritage Shipping flag, the
St. ANDREW? Used by the Army of Northern Virginia?
@@SLG-jt1rd the vast majority of confederate soldiers neither owned slaves, nor agreed with it. They were fighting to keep the war from spilling onto their farms, and coming to the feet of their wives and children. They were also fighting for their individual home state more than anything. You can hold your head up high.
Amazing how so many still haven't gotten over the loss of the confederacy.
It was not the loss as much as the terrible period of reconstruction that followed. After Lincoln died, many in congress and the Army sought revenge against a defeated South. Many ex-confederate soldiers were executed without trial. The whole South was destroyed and "Carpetbaggers" and other opportunists reaped rewards for preventing any real reconstruction. Vicksburg was in ruins. Sherman burned a trail 60 miles wide from Atlanta to the Atlantic. Scorched earth took on new meaning. Yankee troops wreaked havoc plundered and pillaged South Carolina out of revenge because SC was the first state to secede. Defeated Confederate soldiers were tired, broke, destitute and had nothing to come back to. Had there been real reconstruction and rebuilding of the South from day one, bad memories and feelings would not have run so deep for generations. General MacArthur and Eisenhower realized this at the end of WW2 and expedited rebuilding of Germany and Japan.
@@golfhound Those are excellent points and make sense but we are talking about a war that's been over for at least 150 years. The other issue is that as harsh the reconstruction period was... what about the period of slavery? As an adult, I've done reading on the practice of slavery in the South and I was shocked and appalled that this actually happened. I read in about how slaves were treated as farm animals to include breeding farms for southern landowners to increase their wealth.
I was never taught this in school and slavery was a subject that was superficially covered. If anybody's got a right to be pissed it's African-Americans. Now I know why they call it "America's original sin."
@@golfhound the south couldn’t rebuild without slaves .
@@retromoto9456 what about the black slave owners? Should they be mad too? Owning slaves is bad whether you're black or white, my friend. I dont believe for a minute that the war was fought so black and white people could own slaves. That was a side issue that needed dealt with and changed. The major thing was that the tyrant Lincoln and the north were going unconstitutional on southern states. There was bad and good on both sides. And not everyone condoned what they're fellow brothers were doing on either side at all times either. That war is way more complex than just trying to free slaves, my friend.
@@dalew.6321 FACTS. I'm glad you told that Joe Biden loving gun banning clown off.
Please cover The Battle of Schrute Farms the northernmost battle of the Civil War
I did a quickie Internet search, and it doesn't seem there actually was a battle there. The northernmost land battle of the war was probably fought at Salineville, Ohio in 1863.
Hahahahaha
@@danieladrian103 Actually St Alban's VT claims that it was the Northernmost battle.....
@@datguitarplayer1656are you from Michael Scotts Paper Company? !
“The soil of Schrute Farms was stained red, as if God himself had crushed a sea of beets upon that ground “. - Memoir of Mose Schrute, 1870.
Sadly today it would be hard to find generals like Lee and Grant
Yeah, they're all too busy trying to be more woke than the others.
you are correct Blitz,this week in Virginia i watched the General Lee statue taken down and cut to pieces,the va governor
said he was glad to see this traitor go then he placed pictures of Mr. George Floyd, and LGBTQ material in the pedestal
@@williamgrant1127 not liking what happened, the like is for you telling the story.
@@chuckrobinson599 lol "woke" the irony of people like you using that word , ill assume you watch fox news and oan. whelp keep on trying buddy
@@FirstLast-hg1ez you are not going to survive the next civil war
Even with the casualties in the aftermath of 4yrs of war a man can't help but respect the valor and determination of a fellow soldier
And as a southerner, Grant is one of the historical figures I respect the most. His gracious terms paved the way for a reconciliation of a whole nation
@@wa2436A reconciliation that is now being torn down.
@@TheNightWatcher1385Calm down, Princess
@@thefuryritchie I’m not wrong.
Lee is often described as a reluctant, but honor and duty bound participant in the Civil War. Some of these letters make him sound quite a bit more zealous.
Its almost like we were lied to by propagandists.
He fought like hell, but once he surrendered he didn’t tolerate further fighting and spent much of the rest of his life advocating that the south put aside the hatred and bitterness of defeat and to be one nation with the north again.
@@TheNightWatcher1385 Lee also clearly stated that he had no desire that any statues be erected of him. He felt it could harm Union reunification.
He also made it clear, he didn't believe in equality, he was against blacks having Civil rights, and when given the chance to speak out against the KKK terrorizing people of color, he refused.
He was a white supremacist, who fancied himself a christian and a gentleman, so he sporadically threw out virtuous expressions to fool himself and others. When he was a typical sanctimonious southerner, who failed miserably to practice what they preached.
I have read accounts that Lee was heard pacing all night long by his wife before he made the decision to join the confederate cause. Lee had spent his entire career in the US Army. He graduated second in his class at West Point and was later the superintendent there. He was considered by Gen Winfield Scott to be the most gifted officer in the army.
Great video, wish it had covered just a day or two longer, when the Union Army (under Chamberlain) did a very respectful acceptance (soldier's salute) of the surrendering Confederate troops. Completely improvised, and undoubtedly helped with reconciliation.
They may have been true a generation or two ago think your wrong currently it’s the left that fans the flames of hatred .
Dividing is a necessary step in the destruction of the country .
@@hoponpop3330 That's laughable. Trump incited an insurrection and you have idiots like Boebert , Margery Taylor-Greene, Gosar, Gohmert, Ted Cruz, the list goes on. Keep up the gaslighting, though.
The Appomattox Courthouse Surrender was only for the Army of Northern Virginia. There were numerous other armies and groups of militia and son on that continued to fight long after the war ended. All good though. It was pretty much the end of the BIG WAR.
Yes. Although some shooting went on into June in isolated areas, the last formal surrender was in May 1865 when Confederate Lieutenant General Richard Taylor, son of President Zachary Taylor surrendered his army in Southern Alabama to Union Major General Edward Canby. The other surrenders including Joseph Johnston to W.T. Sherman all had terms that mirrored the terms at Appomattox. Grant and Lee ended hostilities with honorable terms and both urging their men to work toward reconciliation as responsible citizens. Civil wars have ended a lot worse, with bitterness, guerilla warfare, and enmity lasting centuries with no end.
I feel that General Grant was the bigger of the two men. It’s too bad that his presidency didn’t go so well. I guess military genius doesn’t equal political genius.
Yup, historically military leaders have made for terrible kings, presidents or dictators and vice versa. I guess running an army is very different from running a country.
Apparently, it was his friends (that he gave government positions) that messed up the country during the administration.
@@collinsbico Eisenhower did OK, but he was always in administrative and political positions.
He got a bad reputation for many decades from the Southern school of historians (Freeman et al.) as well as the Marxists. More recently, he has "risen in the rankings", especially when you consider his work in starting the first national park (Yellowstone), backing extensive surveying and exploration of Central America (for a canal) and beyond, opposition to racial and religious bigotry and violence, etc. His administration included many talented people such as Fish, Bristow, Ammen and others, as well as the people whom he wrongly trusted.
@@kevinaguilar7541 Unfortunately, that included Sherman.
But arguably, Grant can be seen as the best Civil Rights President of the US. Although Jim Crow was becoming reality with Andrew Johnson, Grant being the president after him did all he can to stop that from happening. But the scandals that happened due to the people that manipulated him and the overall tiredness of both the North and South of the Civil War just let Jim Crow happen and run its course.
Grant had his ideals, but he was also a realist and a pragmatist. He was just a man who got things done, and did it without spite of his adversaries.
The final Confederate forces only surrendered on the 6th November 1865, when the CSS Shenandoah sailed into Liverpool, UK where Captain Waddell handed over his ship to the Royal Navy and presented a letter offering his formal surrender to the British Government. Interestingly, Liverpool also has a connection to the start of the war, as the first shot fired at the Battle of Fort Sumter came from a mortar made in Liverpool. During the war, despite Britain being officially neutral, Liverpool supported the Confederacy as it had strong economic and political connections with the cotton industry in the South. It provided shipping for the Confederate Navy (CSS Alabama) and financing to their diplomats who were based at their 'unofficial' embassy in the city.
Yea your not wrong but at that point there were no large scale battles. Also the capital fell, the president fled, and the two best remaining generals Lee and Jonson surrendered. It’s like how there was still German troops fighting after its surrender during WW2
Environmentalists should note that in the summer of 1865, CSS Shenandoah sailed into the Bering Sea and wiped out the Yankee whaling fleet, thereby saving the lives of countless whales.
Maybe a little known fact, but 42 Australians joined the CSS Shenandoah as crew, when she pulled into Melbourne, Victoria in Jan 1865 for repairs and resupply. They were on board when they captured those Yankee whaling ships in the Bering sea, and stayed with her till the surrender. Edit-apparently 19 of the Shenandoah's crew jumped ship, whilst in Melbourne, with most handing themselves into the Union US embassy there.
Captain Waddell is a traitor, his surrender to the British is a slap in the face to all who fought in the American Revolutionary War.
Australia also has a Confederate connection when the commerce raider CSS Shenandoah visited Melbourne and refitted there, the officers and crew were feted and made to feel welcome during their stay.
Could you do a video on the history of messenger birds and also how they trained these birds. I have always been curious and it would be greatly appreciated
The senior officers on both sides of the United States Civil War were not only the same nationality (American), the same religion (Protestant), the same ethnicity (Anglo Saxon) and the same class (bourgeoisie). They all graduated from the same school, West Point. So of course they were going to be civil to one another. It was like the Army Navy Game, or the Yale Harvard Game, or the Stanford Cal Game, only bloodier.
But compare how Grant and Sheridan treated Lee to how the United States government (often led by the very same officers who commanded the Union Army during the Civil War) treated the leaders of the Plains Indians. There were no negotiations, no chivalry, no elaborate rituals of surrender. There was simply a brutal war of conquest where the defeated tribes were herded into reservations and the leaders treated like common criminals.
@R. P. Well the Cherokee expelled from the Southeastern United States during the Trail of Tears had already adopted the values of white Americans. They were literate, Christian, and many even held slaves (a lot of them fought for the South in the Civil War). And yet Andrew Jackson still felt it was his right to clear them off the land and send them to Oklahoma. A "war for civilization" was little more than an excuse for genocide. It's worth noting that as barbaric as the Southern Plantation class was, buying and selling human beings, they were still treated as gentlemen by Lincoln, Grant and even Sherman. West Point, founded oddly enough by Jefferson, created an elite that transcended even the bloodiest war in American history.
@R. P. I'm just pointing out that white Americans had too much experience with "civilized" Indians to believe the rumors about the Plains Indians. But even if we exclude the Cherokee you can find plenty of white men who acted like savages. Nathan Bedford Forrest massacred black union soldiers after they surrendered. And yet he was never tried for war crimes. I think the only Confederate officer who was was the commandant at Andersonville, who it's worth noting was a Swiss immigrant and not a West Pointer. Jefferson Davis spent a year or two in jail and since he was a West Pointer and an ex secretary of war it caused outrage in the north. Even the abolitionist Horace Greeley led a campaign for clemency.
@R. P. I think Charles Pomeroy Stone, who Lincoln set up as a scapegoat after the disaster at Ball's Bluff, wound up spending more time in prison than any Confederate officer. And he was completely innocent. All he did was enforce Lincoln's orders not to admit escaped slaves into the Union ranks. Yet when public opinion turned towards abolitionism in 1862, Lincoln had no trouble ruining his life. I think by the end of the war people in the North just wanted to be done with it. I wonder sometimes if Lee had organized a guerrilla war and extended the Civil War by a few more years if Northern public opinion would have turned more vindictive.
@R. P. And those contemporary accounts should be a lesson to us all today. Whenever the media tries to fill us all with fear of some other (be it the Chinese, Russians, Muslims) we should call it out for the propagandistic bullshit that it is.
But that fear didn't limit itself to Indians. Think of the Haymarket Martyrs. The newspapers also promoted hysteria about immigrant (at the time largely German) radicals and Catholics. The same Union Army officers who destroyed slavery turned on a dime after the Civil War and became muscle for rich capitalists.
Lee betrayed his oath and fought for slavery. But Grant, as President, was pretty much the Barack Obama of his day. He liked being around millionaires and oligarchs and largely served their interests instead of the people. The same army that crushed slavery crushed the Homestead Strike.
It makes me wonder how different it would have been if slavery had been ended by a popular uprising and not a professional army commanded by West Pointers. Of course that wasn't going to happen. Crushing slavery took state power (which is what Lincoln means when he talks about "Saving the union," saving the state power needed to end slavery). But that same powerful state in the following decades was used to steal land from the Indians and serve as muscle for the wealthy.
@R. P. And you're a (strangely incurious about history) apologist for genocide. So get out of my face.
My gg grandfather was Joseph Howard Powell, Company H, 5th Alabama Cavalry. He was mustered out in the summer of 1865 and took his family and what was left of their possessions ( their home and most of the belongings, livestock was destroyed by the union army) to Itawamba County Mississippi. He passed away there in 1923 at the age of 91
"War is Hell" ~ Look at Ukraine now 3/1/22. Got to admire their spirit and cohesion! 👏
( I bet it was like that in the South during the war )
Glad you are preserving & passing on those memories. My parents were border state unionists. (Lincoln had been too). There was an expression in the South "thieving Yanks" - It financially destroyed some white southerners when thousands of collarrs worth of human capital were freed (or freed themselves) when Yanks came through. Some of Sherman's defenders brought up Chambersburg PA, when Sherman wreaked destrucction from Atlanta to Savannah. Morally, southerners and their defenders had a strong argument against guerre à l'outrance. The Bible commanded, don't destroy fruit trees, don't destroy crops or farm animals. Only take the food you need. Shermans troops wreaked havoc.
@@robertshepherd8543 Sherman wasn't a Christian, and neither were most of his men, and most whose crops were destroyed weren't Christians either. To know and quote the Bible is not salvation. Living godly is. You can't be for slavery and please God. He made all men and women free. You don't please God, you don't go to heaven. But they all faced Bible retribution for their sins, even in beliefs. God took care of His own, which for some, the burners and the pro slavers, meant repenting, changing their minds to what God approved of.
TBH, most of that livestock was probably taken by confederate taxation and more killed by confederate deserters and other thugs. Mind you the majority of Northern Alabama was pro-Union.
@@OldHeathen1963 it wasn't. Southern desertion rates skyrocketed to a point that by early '62 they had it introduce a draft which exempted me who owned a certain number of slaves. They took most of the food as "tax in kind" to feed the army (it wasn't enough) and the currency was about as valuable as toilet paper. Georgia threatened to seceded from the Confederacy when the governor found out that Georgia troops were being sent to Virginia and not kept in Georgia to defend that state. The south was a damned mess from day one, and only the Postal Service worked correctly mostly due to the Postmaster General actually taking his job seriously.
In 1860 Grant was pushing 40 years old. He was married with four children. A West Point graduate that had resigned from the army in 1854, he had failed at everything he had tried afterward, and had finally in desperation moved back home to work in his father store as a clerk. There, he was a subordinate to his two younger brothers. With the outbreak of the Civil War, Grant volunteered and received a commission as Colonel of Volunteers. He was given a command of 100 men. By 1862 he was Major-general of Volunteers and second in command of the Western Theater. Two years later, he was Commanding General of all Union armies. Four years later he was President.
An incredible man who made the most of circumstances. People sometimes think their lives follow a linear path but we never know what we’re capable of until the moment arrives.
@@newerafricanThinking we somehow follow a linear path is something I have struggled with and recently came to terms with. Amazing I saw your comment right now
@@WhydoIsuddenlyhaveahandle I had to learn it the hard way, and I'm sure that I'm older than you.
It is liberating, though, isn't it?
The picture at 7:16 is of Lee's office at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, VA. Virginians still venerate Lee, but there are crazy things going on in Virginia now. Lee's office has been kept exactly the same as it was the last time he was there.
And once the civil war has come to an end, the country resumed the wars on the western frontiers against the natives, thus leading to the westward expansion we all know today. Feel bad for the natives who are being driven out of their homelands by those colonists. May they be safe and sound.
Well said
Some of the tribes actually turned on each other and supported the US Army in their conquests, the Crow being the most famous of these. The Pawnee even protected the Union Pacific Railroad for a while because the Lakota was their mutual enemy. Furthermore some western lands were genuinely purchased from the tribes or from Mexico. I'm NOT defending all of the US government's actions, but history is seldom black and white.
Let the contributions of Confederate general Stand Waite not be forgotten.
Grant, when he became president, actually tried to secure equal rights for natives.
Sadly, Congress wasn't interested and when he told people to stop stealing land they chose not to listen to him.
That was over a hundred years ago, I'm pretty sure they're all dead by now.
It is difficult to acknowledge defeat... Though necessary before healing can begin.
The picture of Grant at 8:23 was the last picture of him alive when he was dying from throat cancer in the 1880's
He died a few days after finishing his book. He worked in constant pain so he could finish his memoirs so that his family did not have to live in poverty.
I live on a former battleground in Chattanooga. Truthfully, I think this was the beginning of the end for the Confederate army
Actually Shiloh in West Tennessee was the beginning of the end.....
Lee and Grant - Two respectful giants.
Amen
Grant’s code of honor and morals are absolutely worthy. He called the Mexican-American war the most unjust war in American history
@@Elitecommando501 he is completely wrong American troops were killed on American soil and that was why we went to war because Americans on American soil across the rio grande where shot and killed by Mexican troops
@@TexasNationalist1836 It's crazy how most Americans don't know Mexico started the war and instead whine about American imperialism. I'm not even American and I know.
Only one was respectful, the other was fighting for the right to enslave black people.
What a facinating story of how such a bloody war was ended with the elegance and honor that the 2 generals handled themselves. Very interesting and it set an example of how pride and bitterness can be put aside while seeking a higher honorable end for the good of the nation.
A shame it failed to last during Reconstruction.
We all see the massive damage your federal government power grab has done not just to this former nation but to the globe.
Nice job
The history was accurate and well done
NOT EVEN A SCINTILLA OF WEIRDNESS
The manner in which Lee surrendered was perhaps one of his greatest pieces of leadership. It ended a war full stop that could have descended into a "bushwhacking" insurgency that would've added to the death toll and meant that the Union would destroy the South completely in order to ensure full capitulation. Grant knew this, hence the generosity of the conditions of surrender that he offered. Both men knew that getting the South back on its feet economically and restoring peace was far more important than gloating or score settling.
Underrated comment. Well put sir
I know, right? I especially like the way James Thurber captured the events at Appomattox Courthouse:
General Lee said, "I should like to have this over with as soon as possible." Grant looked vaguely at his aide, Corporal Shultz, who walked up close to him, frowning.
"The surrender, sir, the surrender," said Corporal Shultz in a whisper.
"Oh sure, sure," said Grant. He took another drink. "All right," he said. "Here we go." Slowly, sadly, he unbuckled his sword. Then he handed it to the astonished Lee.
"There you are, General," said Grant. "We dam' near licked you. If I'd been feeling better we would of licked you."
- From Thurber's story, "If Grant Had Been Drinking at Appomattox".
@@haskellbob funny. I've never read that.
except he only surrendered his own force. Johnston is the one who should get the credit for ending the war. and giving all remaining csa soldiers a way to go home in peace without fear of being prosecutor for treason.
@@thomasbaagaard perhaps, but by that point Lee was overall command if all Confederate forces.
At 3:10 the rifles are Eastern Block SKS semi autos .. Did the Soviet Union support the Confederacy with 1950s era rifles?
The graphics used for this video get an F. No effort at all was made to use relevant graphics. Lot's of quickie You Tube videos are now doing this. It's as though they assume the under age 45 viewers either can't tell.. or just don't care.
In Freeman's Vol 3, the description of Confederates' marching in to stack arms the next day was movingly written...Chamberlain, Gordon, the Stonewall Brigade...
"But Lee pressed on..."
And just like that, they slipped in the origins of the fake nail craze.
🤣
Smh yall 🍊🍉🍈🍇
The end of the War Between The States marked the beginning, not the end of reconciliation between former enemies. It defined what America would become and placed what it was in historical context, where it properly belongs.
How fitting that it would be two solders trained at West Point would bring the horror of that conflict to an end. It set the tone for the present and the future we now enjoy. Even though it's not perfect, our land is truly united for all think of themself as Americans first regardless of where they live.
This is one huge reason why the symbols and monuments of either side, Union and Confederate, should be acknowledged because they all tell a very powerful story and give to us a big lesson that should never be forgotten.
Sad to say the influx of illegal aliens with the government supporting their self segregation as Spanish speakers and socialist dependence on coerced taxpayers' $$$$ instead of self responsibility, has un-united the United States again.
Lee and Grant were both excellent Generals and the way Grant handled the surrender allowing southern soldiers some self respect was instrumental in my opinion.
Lincoln not Grant and Lee used it well, the Confederates did the same at Fort Sumter.
I went to Appomattox and the museum of the confederacy about 5 years ago! Fascinating to see! Also just down the road 1/8 of a mile was a cemetery of soldiers(both union and confederate)who died the morning of the surrender. They literally were fighting until the end.
Grant has always been my favorite I know some like to bring up his failings but I think we all have some so it's a moot point
Grant handled the surrender of Lee as well as anybody could have, so his failings as a man pale in comparison to his virtues as a soldier.
The failings as a man that are mostly brought up were his drinking, which was highly exagerrated and used by his enemies who had political ambitions. There were many Union Generals who had political ambitions and saw Grant as a rival for their miltary careers which were highly important to their political ambitions. Many general were political appointees. Halick was one who constantly tried to undercut Grant. He even wanted him arrested for taking Fort Donaldson without his approval. One reason the south and Lee were so successful is that they constantly went agains political appointees and inferior generals.
There was also a Union officer who constantly wrote his wife that he was the one that kept Grant sober. Those letters were used to build up his importance by denigrating Grant. @@jacob4920
I love learning about the civil war. So many famous battles, so many personalities
This is a story as much about the Land, as it is of it's People.
The narrators voice is oddly soothing and relaxing not sure why though
hope to see everyone at the next reenactment, lots of fun, everyone welcome.
Lincoln was determined to reintegrate the South back into the Union and had ordered Grant to offer generous terms. Grant had requested Lincoln's guidance in regards to the surrender terms. Lincoln's response was to "Let them up easy. "
This isn't really weird, it's factual.
I'd like to add what I consider to b an important event on the 12th when Gen Gird lead the brave Confederates into the Courthouse grounds to stack their arms: Gen Chamberlain received them, and Gordon and Chamberlain acknowledged themselves and their men by these 2 officers saluting each other with sword salutes.
That era as bloody and disfiguring as it was, was far more gentlemanly and respectful than the lunatics n Washington DC now.
Except to black people whom Lee and other Confederates and Northerners ruthlessly enslaved. No moral integrity. No bravery in treason.
expect that it is a postwar myth... promoted by Chamberlain to make himself look good.
Nothing honorable about the traitors down south. They were and still are a disgrace. But the north had blood on its hands as well, they were all talk, and either took part or condoned slavery.
It was the lesser of two evils.
@@shadysif6220 Of course you think that way because you have no idea what honor and honorable even mean.
I swear I learn a lot from the channel than toxic ass school
Try checking out History Underground, History Traveler. He always has great content, and just completed a series on Gettysburg.
@@MiJacFan1 I will need to check that channel out also. Thank you.
Richard, that's fine but at the end of the day, this channel can not provide you a diploma nor degree therefore your school is not toxic at All. Furthermore you will regret later in life on not wanting to go back into the school of your teen age years, all adults wish that later on. Don't think you won't.
@@supportyourtroopsathletes6460 that may be true but an education is very overated. I work with a professor and someone with many college debts. Long story short we all make the same with the exception of the professor. I just have to pay off any debts like the both of them. If you do get an education at least get something that you can find a job for
@@cryptoknot I can agree with that on picking a education that leads to a long term steady career with decent income and benefits for oneself as well as their family.
Lee’s self absorbed guilt of Gettysburg cost many confederate lives
Lee demonstrated courage by openly accepting clear defeat. True cowards refuse to do so, spreading lies and dissent, and defrauding their supports by taking their money under the guise that they're going to fight a battle that has long since ended.
Are you referring to Trump? If you are, than you are just allowing him to live in your head rent free.
Oh the fight isn't over. See Seattle yesterday?
... and don't leave out those that enable him. Cowards as well.
No he didn’t. He was cornered like a little bitch.
@D Sullivan stop thinking about him. Jesus is it really that hard?
This is Ted from Texas. I am a civil war re-enactor in my off time. Remembering history is a big part of my life. Both the good and the bad. We must remember both and not rewrite history. Some people in our government and some of the public want to destroy histories past. It is very important to keep all of it. Our country is facing a turning point in all life at this time. I pray that we don't have another civil war, but they are pushing and pushing and pushing to break the Constitution of the United States and rewrite history as how they see it. Please Lord, male leaders both in government military and civilians make smart decisions and saving our country.
I totally agree with you. I disgusts me to see hategroups like the United Daughters of the CSA try to rewrite history. The United Daughters of the CSA is the reason why we have so many unfortunate statues of TraitorTrash of Lee and his crew.
Thankfully people are waking up and ditching these monuments.
@@RocKnight11 . When you have time, see how Abraham Lincoln wanted to reunite the country. Everybody at that point, in our country, we're Americans. Both north and south are one. Remembering the Confederacy and what they were fighting for is equally important is knowing what United States was fighting for. This South fort for states rights. The North Fort to keep the United States as one. We are now stuck in that dilemma again. States rights over country rights. State law over government law.
@@tedebear108 Oh... what "State's Rights" were the South fighting for?
Was it the right to own another human being as property?
@@tedebear108 Also, you bring up a good point, both the North and South were Americans. Lee and his crew ki//ed many more Americans than the TaIiban or any group like them.
Yet, I get the feeling you have more admiration for Lee.
@@RocKnight11 . I do not agree with the Civil War. But we was a better General did any of the generals in the north at that time. The South had only two major Commanders of the Civil War. General Joseph Johnston , he was the first. And then General Robert E Lee. I do admit he was a good General as far as figuring out how to win a battle. The north did not get a winning General until Ulysses S Grant became in charge of the North Army. I just lights to know the history of the Civil War. I understand why General Lee resigned his Commission in the United States Army. He was offered the job being a charge of the United States Army defending against the Confederates. But he could not raise his arms against his home state of Virginia.
A lot of people's pride cost a lot of men's lives, on both sides, and still are.
How much would it cost for this fine gentleman to narrate my life?
Lol right
Your life isn’t interesting enough
@@sherlockgnomes8971 You seriously don’t know who Bradley163 is?? Are you kidding me right now??
@@Anonymous-ip4qx 🤣🤣🤣
@@sherlockgnomes8971 I'm that guy! You know, who is responsible for that thing that happened!?! Maybe your mom remembers me! Ask her!
can you do a video on PANCO VILLA !!
Pancho Villa was a POS
@@Anonymous-ip4qx thanks for your opinion, noone cares
@@joseruiz4026 The Cockroach.
I love living near Appomattox. There's so much history in Virginia!
It’s worth reading about the life of Robert E. Lee in his post-war years. A lot of people shit on him today and that’s truly sad. He was one of the most unifying forces between north and south and vigorously upheld that commitment he made at the surrender for the rest of his life while never compromising his honor and integrity. He really was one of the finest Americans that ever lived.
Love how dignified and respectful they were back then.
...As they set each other on fire and whipped their slaves...
ha ha there was nothing dignified about that traitor trying to, destroy this nation just, to hold on to slaves. evil devil
Lee’s misguided sense of duty cost the south greatly. After Petersburg it was done but lee looked for redemption.
to his credit once it was over, he worked for reconciliation to put away southern pride. he fought to the end but having lost dedicated his remaining years to healing the breach.
I have a theory that Lee made his decision to fight for the Confederacy based on economic reasons-what I mean is he needed money. My theory needs more research but I am just throwing it out there.
@D Sullivan My point exactly. Mrs. Lee inherited wealth ( She was Martha Washington’s Great-Grandaughter I believe) but R E Lee was very poor, his Father Lighthorse Harry Lee, squandered his fortune, and died. Once you start following the money it’s fascinating. A great Masters thesis is out there and untapped.
@D Sullivan R E Lee did not gain as much as it appears. Mrs. Lee inherited Arlington House and vast acres of land plus slaves. But her Father, G.W.P. Custis left plantations to his grandsons and money to his granddaughters that his estate, at the time of his death, could not pay. Also, the mansion was unfinished and needed expensive maintenance. Lee turned down President Lincoln’s offer to become General of the Army for the Union. He had a more lucrative chance at wealth as eventual President of the Confederacy (following George Washington’s example). Although our first President did not become wealthy from the position, by the 1860’s this had changed. Remember R E Lee was a risk taker.
@D Sullivan I don’t think he could have become a president of the US because no one in the South would have voted for him if he had been the victorious Union General. A Confederacy victory would have been a different matter. I apologize, never my intent to push you to defend somebody you do not admire because I not a big fan either. Not so noble.
Too many have forgotten, history repeats it self. An it's happening, all over again.
You are absolutely correct! In 1860 or so the members of congress became more polarized. The same is happening today in Washington. Civil war #2 here we come.
Not really. It's the wicked elites who control things with the Dem support. Look for the rapture soon and then the 7 year tribulation before Armageddon. Worst time this earth will ever know. But pray, if you love your family and country, 2 Chronicles 7:14. God cares...but do we?
Make a video on magna Carta.
If only we could get this information to the schools in the American south.
the big deal would be how RE Lee didn't want monuments to the confederacy and ordered no one at his funeral should be in grey. the 'lost cause' was pushed by the likes of Jubal Early who went into politics
Why the truth is it was economical warfare on the southern states, they were economical superior in every facet. if the southern states kept paying taxes after seceding from the union. The antebellum south would still be prevalent. Follow the money , no one had any moral epiphany neither.
Ummm they do. You need to understand that the majority of their families took part in the war. And if you have ever bothered to study the war you would understand that people who had family who had fought on either side have alot of pride in how they had fought in the most brutal conflict in American history. I have family that fought for the north and south. I have no hatred for my family that fought for the south.
@@simplelogic9090 I have friends and relatives that went through the public school system in the south from the Carolina’s to Mississippi, that were taught that the south won the civil war.
@@yurdp weird cause when I was in the Marines I would routinely hear the opposite from dudes from the south. Literally they say they lost the war but not their rebel spirit. Is that what you mean?
i died
Lol, poor Honest Abe... back of the head at point blank range from a Derringer. Wish it never happened.
This was twelve minutes well spent.
I would like to hear about the homeguards folks established against the confederacy in Kentucky. Those were my ancestors
Wow, that was a great video. Grant was a real badass and so was Lee.
Very honorable men
huh?
As honorable as human traffickers.
Two American heroes. Unfortunately many today have less courteously and love than the men who fought the war.
@@shadysif6220 Lee gave up his slaves before Grant. He was a complex man and slavery WAS complex then- its simple for us today. But many slave owners personally disliked slavery- kind of how we as Americans buy phones made by child slaves in Asia but its a convenient part of our way of life. Not every slave owner was a cartoon villain. Washington was a slave owner. So was Jefferson and he did more to put an end to slavery than probably any other American- even though it was not totally abolished in his lifetime, he paved the way. Learn history and learn to be forgiving and gentle towards the men of the past. And hope that future generations will be as generous towards us.
Yo U.S Grant kept it all the way gangsta .. He lead the North to a victory and still allowed Lee to surrender with honor and respect !!! True definition of a man if you ask me .. He was a super decorated veteran who did more than we can imagine for the USA no cap at all !! 💯💯💯✌🏾✌🏾✌🏾
Grant was not a great general. His army suffered massive casualties in 1864...but he knew that in order to win he would have to sacrifice soldiers....the north had more men and material. He simply threw in more soldiers and disregarded the casualties.
@@russlanedixieland 1st off the whole civil war had major casualties .. and in the midst of war what do u do if you have more men and material !? .. you use em lol like wtf are u saying ..
@@russlanedixieland Actually..Grant was the only general to never lose a major campaign throughout the war....look at his remarkable string of successes in the Western theater....from Shiloh on, it was just a matter of time....
@@daviddavenport9350 look at his losses at the wilderness and Spotsylvania.. he also got obliterated at cold harbor....may not have lost an entire campaign but sacrificed men to win...no strategy, just had more men. But maybe that's what it took to defeat Lee.
@@daviddavenport9350 I'm a 6th cousin of stonewall Jackson so you know where my loyalty is at. 😉...but grant did fight, and thats what put an end to the Army of Northern Virginia
The burning of the mile-long covered bridge in Wrightsville, Pa (6-28-1863) was the turning point of the Civil War. When the flames caught the town on fire, John B. Gordon's men actually helped save the town with an improvised bucket brigade. Having been denied access to Lancaster county and then Harrisburg, the Rebels would eventually converge on Gettysburg, three days later. This event would make a great story for your channel.
That is very possible, makes sense. God wanted the north to win, end slavery. Reminds me of the Confederates losing orders about their troops movements and them orders being found by Union troops, before the battle of Antietam. God is in control.
They weren't;'t denied access to Harrisburg. Ewell's corps was there, which included my Great Great Great Grandfather (who was captured the following May at The Muleshoe). They had to do a force march most of the day with little to no water, then made it to Gettysburg the evening of the 1st and tried to take Culp's Hill. Which they were never going to do.
8:24 This is Grant, years later, dying of throat cancer, writing his memoirs.
Grant and the Union's leniency to the South may have eased the reunification process at the time but allowed confederate pride and sentiments to continue to this day.
it would be interesting to see how the South Carolina legislature would vote today on secession. Me thinks more than a few might be unable to resist the temptation to once again "stick it" to the Yankees. And I believe Texas still has a law on the books that gives it the right to leave the union, should it so desire.
Because preservation of the Union was the point of the war, not abolishing slavery or crushing Southern nationalism. Once it was clear that the Confederacy would not be revived, that was it. Once the planter elite realized that they would retain political control in their states, they had no need to revive the Confederacy.
The failures of reconstruction rests on Johnsons' shoulders, not Grants.
The Southern pride is already fed by stories of Northern brutality.
I'm loving Horace's moustache/goatee number. I wonder if the carpet is as bushy as the drapes
These are few of Lee quotes:
"While we see the course of the final abolition of human slavery is still onward, and we give it the aid of our prayers, let us leave the progress, as well as the results, in the hands of Him, who chooses to work by slow influences, and with whom 1000 years are but as 1 day."
>Note< *What Gen. Lee meant was not that slavery should last 1000 years, but rather to trust that slavery will end according to God's timing, and that he(Lee) was praying for it to end soon.*
"So far from engaging in a war to perpetuate slavery, I am rejoiced that slavery is abolished. I believe it will be greatly for the interests of the South. So fully am I satisfied of this, as regards to Virginia especially, that I would cheerfully have lost all I have lost by the war, and have suffered all I have suffered, to have this object attained."
"What a cruel thing war is... to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our or neighbors."
"Lee pressed on.." i see what you did there.
With the capture of Richmond, Lee should have accepted defeat. Lee's stubborness did cause additional loss of life on both sides as well as suffering for his troops. Lee's vanity has been amply recorded for history.
In reference to Lee as a man and a field commander I feel that he conducted his responsibilities as a field commander he went into it with a full heart believing that his cause was just not so much as assuring slavery but to defend the community of Virginia which is now known as Virginia and West Virginia a great leader no matter what side you're on will not participate in such matters with a half a heart someone with half a heart would have gave up long before he did
He was deceived to support states rights when the main right they wanted was slavery.
Yet a few years after the war, at church, a call for salvation was made, and a lone black man came up for salvation, no one moved, but Robert E. Lee got up, walked up to the man and put his arm around his shoulder as the man accepted Christ.
There used to be an engraved bronze plaque on a large stone at Appomattox Court House that said something like Lee and his 8 thousand and something army surrendered to Grant's army of 109, 000 on such and such a date ....
Last time I was there it had been removed.
Wow, you learned all that from a statue?!
The surrender of the Tennessee Army in North Caroline which was supposed to join Lee's Army must have had a role in Lee's decision to surrender.
It happened after Appomattox...
"A people should know when they've been conquered."
"Would you, would I?"
11:30 No kidding, the actual War dragged on for at least a month until the news reached every state.
Confederates in Alabama and Mississippi didn't surrender until May 4. General Edmund Smith surrendered in Texas on June 2. Stand Watie was the last Confederate general to surrender, in Oklahoma on June 23.
...and a week later a few more shots were fired at the battle of West Point, GA/AL
nobody told *them* the war was over.
Information traveled slowly- especially in outlining areas ... happened in every war
What I would give to be a fly on the wall at that meeting, then watch as Lee mounted his horse with Grant giving the tip of a hat.
Doesn’t anyone read books anymore? Damn.