Ken Burns's The Civil War

“The conflict was inevitable; the slavery lasted too long.” -- Oliver Wendell Holmes

Here are some mind-boggling facts about America’s Civil War:  Some 3,000,000 soldiers fought in a War that lasted four years.  An estimated 625,000 soldiers died, more than in America’s two World Wars combined.  Of these dead, 400,000 died of fatal diseases, and 7,000 died in the first twenty minutes.  And the War was fought in 10,000 different places.

There is no doubt that the Civil War was the bloodiest war fought on American soil. It was the the country’s most-traumatic war and transformed the country forever. The cultural landscape was changed with the abolition of slavery and the unification of the states of America. The aftermath of the War triggered a rapid growth in the manufacturing sector, a growth responsible for making what America is today.  Fought a hundred and fifty years ago, the Civil War sometimes gets lost in the heroics of the two World Wars, the Vietnam War, and the more-recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it seems like a distant memory in recent times. Nonetheless, the Civil War remains a game-changing event in the lives of the people who lived through it and the generations that followed the Civil War era. To this day, the repercussions of this deadly war still reverberate in our society.

Ken Burn’s “The Civil War” is a magnum opus in Burn’s filmography. It’s an epic documentary covering the monumental war in fine detail. Aired in September 1990, “The Civil War” was watched by some forty million viewers, making it the most-watched TV program on PBS; this record was soon eclipsed by another Ken Burn’s documentary, “Baseball” (1994), that was watched by about forty-five million viewers. Starting with the first episode of “The Civil War,” “The Cause,” Burns takes us on a journey chronicling the entire War, with copious information; and after watching the documentary for six hundred minutes, I can say that Burns covered every possible detail about the War. The film is highly educational and thought provoking, and I learned a lot about the War I had never known before.

Every war starts for a reason, and Burns outlines the cause in the first episode, “The Cause.” Abraham Lincoln was the President of the United States in the 1860s, and he faced the enormous task of uniting all the states under one union that would follow the Constitution written by the founding fathers. At that time, the slave trade was at its peak--mainly in the Southern states--where slaves worked in cotton plantations. Initially, Lincoln wanted restrictions on the slave trade, but somewhere along the line, the cause for the War became widely known with the emancipation of the slaves. In a strongly worded speech addressing the Union, Lincoln outlined a plan calling for the abolition of the slave trade. His speech was a last ditch effort for the Southern states to liberate the slaves and to add all the states to the Union. The Southern states opposed Lincoln’s idea of freeing the slaves, and its leaders challenged the Union by saying that each state could independently decide on the legality of slavery. After a lot of deliberations with his generals and leaders, Lincoln gave marching orders to start the War. The Civil War started at 4:30 a.m. on April 12, 1861, with the first shot at Fort Sumter.

In the first episode, through several photos, we witness the plight of the slaves and their yearning to be free. We also learn about John Brown, a person who was a failure in most of his life but became widely known as the “meteor of war.” In the mid 1850s, he was the first abolitionist to oppose the idea of slavery, and his revolutionary approach sowed the seeds for the war. In 1862, a black abolitionist and former slave, Fredrick Douglass, urged Lincoln to emancipate the slaves and started lobbying the government for more support.  In the same year, Union politicians felt that emancipation was a basic demand of civilization.

Although there were many notable heroes in the battlefield on both the sides, four generals defined the course of the Civil War: William Sherman, George Meade, and Ulysses Grant for the Union army and Robert E. Lee of the Confederate army; their names were forever engraved in American history books. In the initial phase, the Confederate army was a powerful alliance. With each win, the Confederates started marching toward the North, and two years into the War, in 1863, both armies came face to face in the most-deadly battle of the Civil War. This battle was fought in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, resulting in roughly 51,000 casualties for both the armies.  After fighting nonstop for almost three days, General Meade’s army defeated the Confederate army led by General Lee; it was the first major victory for the Union army, and it became the hope for the fading Union cause. In 1863, Lincoln issued a proclamation, making the last Thursday of November a National day of Thanksgiving. 

More battles followed, and in the second year of the battle, Sherman’s army faced stiff resistance from Lee’s army in Atlanta. In 1864, the nation for the first time held elections amidst a Civil war; people were losing hope in the Union’s cause, and Lincoln’s reelection prospects looked slim. But unexpected good news arrived for Lincoln when a Union Admiral, David Farragut, led fifteen ships past three forts to engage the Confederate troops guarding Mobile Bay; it was the first major victory for the Union army in months. In spite of the Union army gaining considerable ground, both the armies continued to lose men, with no end in sight. The casualties for the Confederacy increased, and with continued shortage of supplies, food, and clothes, the soldiers began defecting. Finally, in 1865, the Confederate army headed by General Lee surrendered to Grant’s army at Appomattox Court House. After four years of brutal fighting, the surrender was the beginning that marked the end of the Civil War. And the uphill task of reconstructing and uniting the nation just began.

The Civil War still remains the subject of intense discussion and analysis. The War that started with the emancipation of the slaves was soon becoming a forgotten cause, as the War gathered steam in its third year. Union soldiers chanted that they were fighting for the Union; and for a few, it was never clear for which side they are fighting; and others held power-hungry generals accountable for the deaths in the war. Whatever the root cause, it is now generally agreed that the Civil War was fought to liberate slaves, with a view to restructure the social hierarchy. A famous historian, Stephen Oakes, thinks that even though the Civil War was an American event, it was a universal event in its nature; the war was a testament for the liberation of the human spirit. At a basic level, the War freed the slaves, but they were still deprived of their basic civil rights. A famous professor of American history, Barbara Fields, argues that the Civil War is still going in the form of social inequality. She explains the significance of the Civil War by quoting author William Faulkner’s line: “History is not was, it is.” This is true in the context of the Civil Rights Movement that gathered momentum in the post-Civil War era. Fredrick Douglass fought for the Civil Rights Movement and became the most-powerful Black politician in history. Even though the war was officially over, a White supremacy ideology was still deep-rooted in the South with the formation of a cult-racist group, the Ku Klux Klan (the KKK) in 1865.

Nonetheless, the war was an emotional roller-coaster ride for the North and South. After the War ended, the South struggled about how to recognize its heroes who died in battle. Should the Southern cavalry be rewarded for following the principles associated with White supremacy? Or should their efforts be celebrated because they fought in the War, unconditionally, like true heroes?  As the central figure in the war, Lincoln clearly understood what had transpired in the battles, and he was very sympathetic to the South. In an effort to heal the nation’s wounds, Lincoln started planning for the peace by openly welcoming the Southern rebels as citizens of the United States. In addition, he ordered Northern troops to be respectful of the rebels and asked Union soldiers to provide rebels with rations and other supplies. No matter how friendly the Northern States were, however, the South was in economic shambles, and it impacted the economic growth in the Southern states for years to come.

On the economic front, the Civil War triggered a boom in the manufacturing sector. Amidst all the battles, several bridges, roads, and railroads were constructed in record time to transport critical supplies to different regions. A military telegraph system was set up along 15,000 miles of wire, carrying 3,000 messages per day; $400,000,000 worth of bonds were sold for the Union. Before the War started, there were only seven foundries in Ohio, but after the War ended, twenty-one foundries were producing 60,000 tons of steel every year; and foundries were popping up elsewhere in the country. This was just the start of a golden era.

In a military aspect, the Civil War witnessed ingenious battlefield planning. The Civil War generals fought with uncanny accuracy; they were focused; they were methodical; and they had the ability to concentrate for long hours. This enabled the generals to understand their enemy’s moves, enabling them to enter into deadly cat-and-mouse games with their enemy. The battlefield strategies were innovative and highly adaptable. In episode six, “Valley of the Shadow of Death,” we witness Grant and Lee locked in a chess-like game. Both were so swift in their planning that it resulted in a deadlock. For the first time, Henry Repeating Rifles were used, allowing fifteen bullets to be fired without reloading. What’s more, the trench warfare employed in the Civil War was routinely used in the two succeeding World Wars. Even though the majority of the battles were fought on land, the sea battles saw the use of large warships that also commenced a boom in the shipping sector.

Covering the Civil War in a single documentary was an arduous challenge, considering the enormous scope of the war. Unlike other wars in the last century, the absence of live footage of this event represents a filmmaking challenge on how to describe the war in a structured film format. This becomes an uphill task, especially when ten hours of documentary needed to be created that would hold a viewer’s attention. Through the use of bulky photo cameras that existed in the 1860’s, more than a million photos were taken during the Civil War. However, most photos were lost after the War ended, and the remaining photos have been rightly preserved in museums and monuments.

After meticulously gleaning through archives, diaries, and historical notes, documentarian Ken Burns ended up using more than 16,000 photos, newspaper clippings, maps, and paintings for his film. It is hardly surprising that the mammoth task of representing the entire Civil War for the film took five years in the making. You feel the depth of Burns’s research on this subject, particularly in the manner Burns presents the sequence of photos, alongside maps. Through the use of the photos, Burns is able successfully to convey the magnitude of the tragedy on both the sides. You see the photos of soldiers living in horrible conditions; big fields covered with decomposed bodies; anguish on the faces; and doctors performing live amputations on the battlefield.  The silent photos included in the film are quite expressive and have enormous power to stun a viewer.  You are shocked at the colossal loss of human life, and you come out sympathetic. I never realized that portraits could be so emotionally moving in this manner.

As such, this makes the material in the film easy to follow, once you understand Burns’s filming structure. Furthermore, Burns talks about major global events in the mid 1860s that will eventually go on to shape the world.  Indeed, the archival material presented by the filmmakers perfectly lays the foundation for the film’s narrative structure. Add to it David McCullough’s immersive narration, and “The Civil War” becomes one of the best documentaries ever created.

Video

Paramount presents “The Civil War” in its original televised format of 1.33:1. The film is driven by the photos, paintings, and war maps. Some photos look better than the rest, partly due to the restoration. You can see the damage on some photos, which has nothing to do with the actual film print. Otherwise, the film looks clean.

Audio:

The sound has been remastered for a Dolby Digital 5.1 surround mode. This is a dialogue driven affair. David McCullough’s narration is clear and sharp throughout. Deep sounds are produced to convey the battle scenes. The documentary can also be viewed in English subtitles.

Extras:

First, we get an audio commentary by Ken Burns on every episode in the documentary. In a few commentaries, he talks about how the idea of creating the documentary on the Civil War came about. He discusses his challenges in getting to the archival materials and how the materials laid the format for the film.

There is a separate disc included for bonus items. On disc six, we get, first, an interview segment, “From the Archive,” with interviews from a notable historian, Shelby Foote. Ken Burns shot three separate interviews, along with over three hours of film with Shelby Foote. Most of the material was archived for the last twenty years. Here, we see Foote describing the war, soldiers, and the personal side of Abraham Lincoln.

Following this, there is an interview segment with Ken Burns. He discusses the real Civil War, the idea of creating the film, and the filming process involved. We also get additional interviews with Shelby Foote, musicians Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, columnist George Will, and critic Stanley Crouch.

Parting Thoughts:

An American newspaper editor, Horace Greeley, said during the Civil War, “Our bleeding bankrupt, almost dying country longs for peace, shudders at the prospect of further wholesale devastation of new rivers of human blood.” Greeley’s comment is a powerful statement on the devastating consequences of the War, and it is still valid in today’s global political climate. Wars destroy economies and make nations poor. Innocent people are pulled apart in meaningless wars, and the havoc unleashed is almost irreparable.

One thing the Civil War teaches us is that the scars of war, even though they are deep, can be healed if we learn from the past. It’s a gradual learning process that comes with self-reflection and a conscious choice to learn and implement.  This is something many of our leaders have followed in making what America is today. Indeed, our nation owes a great deal to the Civil War; it is something that should not be forgotten. As far as this film goes, Ken Burn’s documentary is a landmark film. I can say that I understand the Civil War better now, its cultural significance, and how it influenced the lives of Americans. Thank you, Mr. Burns.