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Ken Burns Civil War Series - Episode One: The Cause (1861)

Doog_de_JourDoog_de_Jour Member Posts: 7,986 Standard Supporter
As today is the anniversary of the Battle of Fort Sumter, I kick off my annual rewatch of the PBS documentary series The Civil War.

Annnndddddddd roll “Ashokan Farewell”...

https://youtu.be/uZmxZThb084

SPOILERS FOLLOW...

Episode opens with the anecdote about Wilmer McLean and how a cannonball exploded through his fireplace and went into the kitchen of his Virginian farmhouse to kick off the First Battle of Bull Run (ILTCIT because I’m a Northerner). Fast forward several years and the same dude is hosting Lee’s surrender to Grant. “The war began in my front yard and ended in my parlor.” WHAT ARE THE ODDS?

You briefly are introduced the cast of characters.. heavy hitters with the voice talent: Jason Robards, Morgan Freeman, Center, Jeremy Irons. You also get the first of many interviews with historians like Shelby Foote (raawwwrrrr) and Barbara Fields. Barbara definitely appears ready to rumble.

Film footage of FDR thanking Civil War vets that fought alongside @RaceBannon at Gettysburg.

Causes of the conflict are outlined...states' rights, the invention of the cotton gin, John Brown at Harpers Ferry, the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, bleeding Kansas, the firing on Fort Sumter...we didn’t start the fire...it was always burning, since the world’s been turning.

John C. Calhoun, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, and some Southerners write a bunch of racist crap that nobody asked for.

Mary Chestnut begins her diary, predicting a “cataclysmic” and quick end to the conflict.

The episode ends with a heart wrenching letter a Union solider Private Jacob Browning writes home to his wife, Martha, before being killed at Manassas Stadium by a superior Confederate squad, 34-17.
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