Antietam National Battlefield Presents Sneak-
Preview Screenings Of “Civil War: The Untold
Story”
Civil War: The Untold Story is a visually stunning new 5-part documentary series narrated by Elizabeth McGovern (Downton Abbey) and produced for public television by Great Divide Pictures. Antietam National Battlefield in partnership with the Washington County Free Library and the Heart of the Civil War Heritage Area will premiere the series on Thursday nights, March 13, 20 and 27 at 7:00 pm at the park visitor center. The series breaks new ground by examining the war through the lens of the Western Theater – including critical yet lesser-known battles of Shiloh, Vicksburg, Chickamauga, and Atlanta. Filmed with sweeping cinematic style on the very grounds where these epic battles were fought, it recreates authentic scenes and features interviews with top historians to provide new insights on the war and the relatively unknown roles that African Americans played in the conflict, from enslaved to emancipated to soldier.
The series is produced and directed by Chris Wheeler of Great Divide Pictures (greatdividepictures.com). For more than 20 years, Great Divide has been producing award-winning historical documentaries including:How the West Was Lost, Our Time in Hell: the Korean War, and Godspeed, John Glenn which was narrated by Walter Cronkite. Additionally, Great Divide has recently produced Visitor Center films for more than 25 National Parks, including Shiloh National Military Park, Chickamauga/Chattanooga National Military Park, and Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park.
Parts 1 and 2 will premiere on March 13. Parts 3 and 4 will be shown on March 20. On March 27, Part 5 will be shown and the film's producer Chris Wheeler will speak about his project.
"The film is not just about who we were then. It's about who we are now," said producer Chris Wheeler. "In a nation arguably as divided today as we were 150 years ago, Civil War: The Untold Story is a compelling, relevant program that we believe will strike a powerful chord with Americans today." Interspersed are compelling on-camera interviews with some of America's top Civil War historians – including Allen Guelzo, Henry R. Luce Professor of the Civil War Era at Gettysburg College; Peter Carmichael, Robert C. Fluhrer Professor of Civil War Studies at Gettysburg College; Amy Murrell Taylor, Associate Professor of History at the University of Kentucky; and Stacy Allen, the Chief Historian at Shiloh National Military Park.
Episode One – Bloody Shiloh With the 1860 election of anti-slavery candidate Abraham Lincoln, thirteen states from the South secede and form the Confederate States of America. Union military leaders, along with Lincoln himself, realize that ending the rebellion rests on controlling the Mississippi River. In February 1862, Union forces, led by an obscure general named Ulysses S. Grant, establish a foothold in southern Tennessee near a simple log structure known as "Shiloh Church." On April 6, 1862, a Confederate force of over 40-thousand, led by General Albert Sidney Johnston, launch a surprise attack on Grant. The fighting in the hellish terrain surrounding Shiloh is some of the most brutal of the entire war. By day's end, victory is in sight for the attacking Confederates. But Johnston has been struck in the leg by a bullet, and bleeds to death in 20 minutes. The death of Johnston is a harbinger of a great change that will soon sweep over "Bloody Shiloh."
Episode Two – A Beacon of Hope In the disaster at Shiloh, Union General Ulysses S. Grant sees victory. On the night of April 6, 1862, Grant's beleaguered army along the Tennessee River is reinforced. The next morning, Grant's counterattack leads to victory. The defeated Confederate force of 40- thousand retreats south to Corinth, Mississippi. At Shiloh, the Confederates lose arguably their best opportunity to change the outcome of the war. The shocking combined casualties of 24-thousand men is more than in all the wars fought to that date in the United States. Many of the nearly 4 million slaves across the South see the war as an opportunity to seize their own destiny. Thousands of escaping slaves, dubbed 'contrabands', seek refuge with Union forces advancing into the South. At Corinth, Mississippi, the Union army sets up a 'contraband camp.' The former slaves begin building a community that includes a school, hospital, and church. As thousands of slaves flee northward, the question asked all over America is this: are they still slaves or are they now free? In a cottage overlooking Washington DC, Abraham Lincoln begins drafting a "proclamation" whose message will boldly answer that question.
Episode Three – River of Death Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation does not only free slaves in the rebelling states. It changes the war from one of reunification, to one of ending slavery. The Emancipation Proclamation also gives African Americans freedom to fight. By war's end, some 200,000 will enlist. In truth, Lincoln's proclamation is an empty promise without the power of the United States Army to enforce it. In 1863, Ulysses S. Grant begins a campaign to take Vicksburg, Mississippi, a Confederate citadel overlooking a strategic section of the lower Mississippi River. In May, Grant begins laying siege to the city of 4500. Mary Loughborough is one of the many terrified civilians who have dug caves into the hillsides for protection. Clutching her 2-year old daughter, Mary "endeavored by constant prayer to prepare myself for the sudden death I was almost certain awaited me." On July 4, 1863 – the day after Pickett's disastrous charge at Gettysburg – the Confederates surrender Vicksburg to Grant. With the Mississippi River now under Union control, the campaign moves eastward to Chattanooga, Tennessee, a rail center that Lincoln considers to be as important as the Confederate capital of Richmond. Eight miles south, along the Chickamauga - a creek the Cherokee call "the river of death" - Union and Confederate forces clash in what will become the biggest battle of the Western Theater.
Episode Four – Death Knell of the Confederacy September 19, 1863. The first day of the Battle of Chickamauga ends in a bloody draw. On the next day, the battle is determined by one of the biggest blunders of the Civil War. Miscommunication, confusion, and fatigue with Union General William Rosecrans and his generals have left a gap in the Union line more than a quarter mile wide. James Longstreet's force of 11,000 from the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, pour through the gap and split the Union army in two. Rosecrans and his beaten army escape to Chattanooga. Chickamauga's combined casualties of 34,000 are only topped by the carnage at Gettysburg. In October, Rosecrans is replaced by U.S. Grant, who immediately plans an offensive. In November 1863, Grant routes the Confederate stronghold just outside Chattanooga. As they escape southward into Georgia, a Confederate officer calls the devastating defeat: "the death knell of the Confederacy."
Episode Five – With Malice Toward None In the spring of 1864, General William Tecumseh Sherman's force of 100-thousand men marches from Chattanooga toward Atlanta, Georgia, the industrial hub of the Deep South. Twenty miles north of Atlanta, Sherman's army is soundly defeated at Kennesaw Mountain. Sherman's defeat combined with Grant's stalemate in Virginia, enrages a Northern electorate already weary of war. The presidential election is in November, and Abraham Lincoln's chances for a second term are dwindling by the day. The Democrats nominate George McClellan. The party's platform calls for a negotiated peace with the Confederacy in which slaveholders will be allowed to keep their property. If McClellan is elected, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation will almost certainly be struck down. Though victorious at Kennesaw Mountain, the outnumbered Confederate Army falls back to a defensive position at Atlanta. After 6 weeks of bloody conflicts around Atlanta, Sherman wires Washington: "Atlanta is ours and fairly won." For the first time in the war, many in the North now believe victory can be achieved. Eight weeks later, the president defeats McClellan in a landslide. After the election, Sherman begins his March to the Sea. The largely unopposed march across Georgia to Savannah is a psychological blow to the Confederacy, and a stunning conclusion to the Western Theater.
To view video clips, images and additional information on Civil War: The Untold Story, follow the series on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CivilWarTheUntoldStory .
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