The American Civil War (Part Two of Two)

25:45It's the 23rd of November, 1864, in Milledgeville, Georgia. A weak, gray morning light filters through dusty windows as a local shopkeeper moves through his store, passing shelves that are emptier than they used to be. As he opens the shop door onto the street, there's no sign of the usual bustle and clamor to greet him. No friendly hellos. The whole town feels like it's waiting for the worst. For days now, word has been passing from farm to farm and town to town of Union columns moving south. Rail lines ripped up behind them, towns sacked, nothing left untouched in their wake. He steps out onto the threshold and squints up at a pale sun struggling through heavy cloud.

26:41Off in the distance, he hears an eerie rumble. At first, it sounds like thunder. But as he listens, the noise resolves into the steady tread of boots and the grind of wagon wheels on dirt. Sherman's army is coming.

27:01Across the street, a young mother pulls her children indoors, hurrying to bolt the door and shutter the windows. From his doorway, the shopkeeper watches dust rise on the distant road in a long, wavering plume. The shopkeeper doesn't bother to close the door. He's already heard that Sherman's army takes what it wants, regardless of locks or protests. Besides, there's barely anything left on his shelves to raid. As the vast army rolls in, the sound is overwhelming. This column alone seems endless, with thousands of blue-coated men stretching back beyond the rise. Reaching the town, the soldiers fan out, inspecting buildings, kicking open doors, claiming supplies the Confederacy cannot replace.

27:57One group splits off to head for the courthouse, while others march toward the rail spur. Another clutch of soldiers pushes the shopkeeper aside and steps straight into the shop. They take the grain first, then the cloth. Everything he has is passed hand to hand, heaved onto the raiders' carts and dragged away. He doesn't even bother to raise a hand to stop them. It's not worth his life. Instead, he stands nervously just inside the doorway and watches their rough, swift hands move across the goods he once weighed and counted, carrying them out into the street without argument or apology. Their work done, the soldiers move on like locusts through fields.

28:45The shopkeeper watches as a team with axes fell the town's telegraph poles and the The last wire to the outside world snaps and falls into the dirt.

28:59Smoke begins to rise a few streets away as the barn of a nearby farm is set ablaze. Cattle bellow and shouts ring out, but the destruction is already foregone. And as Sherman's men move on, leaving destruction and injury in their wake, the shopkeeper realizes that the Confederacy isn't only being defeated on distant battlefields. It's happening right here, town by town, where lives no longer need to be taken for worlds to end.

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30:23Red Bull Summer All Day Play. Red Bull gives you wings. Visit redbull.com slash bright summer ahead to learn more. See you this summer. By late 1864, the Confederacy is in profound trouble. The steady stream of enslaved people fleeing to Union lines has accelerated, draining plantations and armies of labor and hollowing out the economic system that sustains the war. At the same time, the physical infrastructure of the South is failing. Rail lines fall into disrepair and food shortages grip entire regions as supply depots run dry. Soldiers write home describing empty wagons and rotting uniforms while civilians barter for flour at prices that can change by the hour.

31:15The Confederate government responds with increasingly desperate measures. Food is impressed from farms at gunpoint, while horses, wagons, tools, and even enslaved people are seized to keep the army moving and the war alive. As troops defect or die, boys and old men are conscripted to fill the thinning ranks. Each measure deepens resentment and erodes whatever unity remains.

31:47The strain of war exposes widening rifts between generals and politicians, between civilians and the army itself. The Confederate government in Richmond is almost entirely consumed by the business of survival, raising troops, finding food, and keeping armies in the field, with little capacity left to govern in any meaningful sense. As shortages deepen and defeats mount, the Confederate president Jefferson Davis becomes a lightning rod for frustration. Newspapers argue over whether his leadership from Richmond has become too centralized to respond to local crises, or too weak to enforce its own policies, even to coordinate the war effort effectively.

32:35What remains is a government stretched thin, deeply unpopular, and increasingly unable to hold together the society it claims to lead. In the face of such adversity, even greater levels of desertion hit the army, sometimes quietly in twos and threes, sometimes in alarming waves. And in regions where Confederate authority has all but evaporated, guerrilla violence fills the vacuum

33:07At the same time, enslaved people inside the Confederacy continue to act as agents of their own liberation They withhold labor, pass information, guide Union troops, and seize opportunities created by the chaos of invasion What looks like collapse from above is also resistance from below And yet the destruction wrought as Sherman moves through the south on his so-called march to the sea Is often misunderstood In late 1864, Sherman leads around 60 ,000 Union soldiers out of Atlanta On a 300-mile march toward the Atlantic port of Savannah The aim is not to fight major battles, but to dismantle the Confederacy's ability to resist by sabotaging the infrastructure that keeps armies alive.

34:02This is a campaign of coercion, not massacre. While violence does occur, as homes are entered, property is seized, and people are frightened and displaced, the systematic killing of civilians is not the goal, and atrocities are not the organizing principle of the march. The misconception is that it was an all-out total war, that he was burning homes, that women were raped and pelaged, that it was just an absolute path of destruction. But still, some places suffer far more than others. Sherman's army really lays a heavy hand in South Carolina. They believe that South Carolinians started the war.

34:48They're the first to secede. They're the ones who fire on Fort Sumter. But as soon as they turn their march and start heading into North Carolina, which happens in 1865, they pull back and they are not nearly as destructive because they don't see North Carolinians as culpable and as responsible as they had South Carolinians. By the winter of 1864, the Confederacy is no longer a cohesive nation under siege, but a fractured society, feeling the full brunt of the military squeeze. It's economically exhausted, politically divided, and socially unravelling. And yet, even now, there is no sense that the end of the war is near.

35:32The conflict that many had once believed would be over in a matter of weeks drags into its fourth brutal year. Casualty lists grow longer with every campaign, and towns and cities across the country feel the constant pull of loss. And although the Union armies are advancing, victory still feels distant and uncertain.

35:58Having driven deep into Confederate territory, but still unable to deliver a decisive blow, Grant is locked in a painful stalemate outside Petersburg, just south of Richmond. Sherman, meanwhile, is still fighting his way towards Atlanta. The war is grinding forward, but slowly and at a terrible cost. And as the presidential election of 1864 looms, many northern voters are exhausted. Some begin to wonder whether continuing the war is worth the price. And Abraham Lincoln is not convinced the public will allow it to continue. Privately, he seriously doubts he'll even win a second term. Lincoln is so convinced that he is not going to win this election, that he writes a memo, becomes known as the blind memo, that he says, in the event that we lose this election, we need to do everything possible to make sure that we end this war before the inauguration of the new president, because after that, it's not going to happen.

37:04Lincoln's fear is that if the Democrats win, they will offer a negotiated peace that will end the fighting without dismantling the Confederacy, and the goal of securing emancipation will be lost. But in November 1864, Lincoln wins his re-election decisively, carrying an overwhelming majority of the Electoral College. And with that victory, the meaning of the war changes once again. After Lincoln's election, things start to change the winter of 64-65. It is pretty clear that the United States has a stranglehold. Now that we have a president who's going to continue to pursue the war and not allow for peace, and desertions within the Confederate Army reach a high point in February of 1865.

37:53On the 4th of March 1865, with the war nearly won and the nation exhausted, Abraham Lincoln stands on the steps of the Capitol to deliver what will become one of the most remarkable speeches in American history. Unlike typical political addresses, he offers no triumph or self-congratulation and no easy promise of peace. Instead, Lincoln speaks plainly about the cause of the war, naming slavery as its central truth, with a clarity he avoided in the early years. Acknowledging the unimaginable suffering on both sides, he makes clear his desperation for peace. Fondly do we hope, he says, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away.

38:49But what makes the speech so extraordinary is its humility. Lincoln refuses to claim righteousness for the Union alone. He insists that both sides read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and that neither fully understood the cost they were stepping into. Yet he also leaves no doubt about the meaning of the conflict. The war, he insists, will not truly end until the nation has done justice to the millions who were enslaved. and it is an obligation that must shape whatever peace comes next. And even as he delivers that address, the final military reckonings are already underway. By the winter of 1864-65, the war has become a brutal test of endurance.

39:39In Virginia, Ulysses S. Grant pins Robert Lee's army against the vital rail hub of Petersburg, and the campaign devolves into nearly 10 months of trench warfare, unlike anything Americans have seen before. Soldiers on both sides dig earthworks, rifle pits, and bomb-proof shelters, living in mud and freezing rain, surrounded by the constant thump of artillery. Food is scarce, clothing threadbare, and disease rampant. The Confederates hold on with remarkable tenacity, but their lines stretch thinner as casualties and desertions rise. The Union knows time is on its side. Grant, who is with the Union Army, is tightening his circle every day and in early April plans to cut off that last railroad.

40:33And at this point, Lee tries to fight his way out but realizes that he can't and he's going to have to abandon both Petersburg and the capital city of Richmond. And so on the night of April 2nd, he will send word that they're going to have to evacuate. The plan is not to surrender, but to try to leave Petersburg and rendezvous with the other major Confederate army in North Carolina, commanded by Joseph Johnston, one of the Confederacy's last remaining senior generals. His plan is if he can meet up with Joe Johnston, then maybe they will have a chance of facing off against the respective Union armies.

41:12And so he's heading west. He's looking for another railroad connection to make his way down to North Carolina. But all throughout the way, the United States Army is cutting off his path.

41:26And the picture is no better for Johnston. By now, Sherman's Union force has cut a devastating path through Georgia and into the Carolinas, destroying anything that could sustain the Southern war effort. Johnston is struggling to even assemble an effective fighting force from men who are hungry, exhausted, and often barefoot. With his hopes of support dashed, Lee finds himself in an untenable position. Finally, on the night of April 8, Lee realizes that he is surrounded on three sides by the United States Army. He's met with his men. He tells them, if we wake up in the morning and we have infantry in front of us, it's over.

42:11And so there's a small battle the morning of April 9th. It becomes clear that Lee is in fact surrounded. And so he had been exchanging notes throughout the week with Grant about terms of surrender. And on the morning of April 9th, they will finally meet at Appomattox Courthouse.

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43:38It is the morning of April the 9th, 1865, in the village of Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia. Light filters through the tall windows of a family parlor, settling across a small, oval table with plain wooden chairs arranged around it. A union officer stands just inside the doorway, hands clasped behind his back, boots still dusted with red Virginia earth. Union General Ulysses S. Grant enters the room first. He moves stiffly, his uniform creased and spattered from daze in the saddle, the collar darkened with sweat. His eyes are rimmed with exhaustion, but his manner is calm, almost deferential, as he sits and removes his hat.

44:28A moment later, the Confederate Robert E. Lee steps inside. Lee is immaculate, despite the chaos of the past few months. His gray coat is neatly buttoned, his sword polished to a gleam, gloves in hand. Grant rises immediately. The officer feels the tension in the air thicken as the two men greet each other with quiet courtesy. There are no raised voices, just the weight of history settling into the small sunlit room. Outside, thousands of soldiers from both armies wait in near silence. But in here, there is only the creak of floorboards and the soft scratch of Grant's pen as he begins to write the terms of Lee's surrender.

45:24When he is done, he slides the paper across the table to General Lee, who reads the page slowly, his expression composed but deeply tired. Grant explains how he is offering generous terms, including permission for the officers to keep their sidearms and parole for all Confederate soldiers, as well as permission to take their horses home for spring planting. They are gestures meant to bind up wounds rather than deepen them, and Lee clearly recognizes them for what they are. There is no triumph in the room and no ceremony to belie the momentousness of this meeting, only the sense of two exhausted men trying to end a nightmare with what dignity remains.

46:18Finally, Lee signs. Chairs are pushed back, and the Union officer steps aside to let the generals pass, instinctively removing his hat in deference to the moment. Outside, birdsong mixes with the distant murmur of troops beginning to grasp that, for the men gathered here at least, the killing is over. As the Union officer steps out into the soft April air, he realizes that this moment, so resigned and humane, is the beginning of the end of four years of relentless carnage.

47:06What Grant and Lee have agreed is not peace. It is only the surrender of a single Confederate army. Other forces remain in the field. The war is ending, but it is not yet over. Grant, as a military officer, cannot negotiate terms of peace. That's a political issue for officeholders to negotiate. Lincoln has told him, all you can do is compel the surrender of the Army in front of you. And that's precisely what Grant will do. When word reaches Joe Johnston in North Carolina that Lee has capitulated, he too will initiate conversations with Sherman, who's the Union officer that he is up against. And they too will come to terms of surrender.

47:55But there's never a peace treaty in the American Civil War. A peace treaty would have negated the very idea that this was a rebellion. If the Lincoln administration had offered a peace treaty, it would have recognized the Confederacy as a legitimate nation. And he spent four years saying, you're not a nation, you are a people in rebellion. The Confederate men that are sent home with their horses and sidearms return as paroled prisoners of war, bound by their word not to take up arms again. But though the main armies have surrendered, the cause remains undampened. Surrender doesn't end their commitment to the Confederate cause.

48:42And one of the really striking things is that both Union soldiers and Confederate soldiers will say that the way the war ended, it didn't quash the Confederate spirit. Union soldiers wanted one more big battle where they absolutely annihilated Confederates. Instead, the Confederates get to march home, much as they marched off to war. and they are convinced and Lee tells them that you didn't lose the war so much as you were overwhelmed by northern resources, by northern materiel and by mercenaries. This belief, voiced even as Confederate men march home under parole, allows the war to be remembered as a noble struggle tragically denied its victory by a better resourced foe.

49:36The seed of what is called the Lost Cause is planted here Ready to be carried into the decades that follow

49:48When the guns fall silent in 1865 The United States faces a challenge at least as daunting as the war itself More than 600 ,000 soldiers have been killed Hundreds of thousands more wounded And much of the South lies in ruins The question now is how to rebuild a shattered nation and define what freedom will truly mean Out of this desolation, the period known as Reconstruction begins With the Confederacy defeated and the Union restored Federal law is now enforced across the South And emancipation becomes a reality everywhere Millions of people who had been held in bondage walk off plantations and into an uncertain freedom Forging new lives, forming schools and churches, reuniting families and participating in politics at every level For a brief moment, the South sees a revolution in its democracy The path is laid for black men to vote, hold office, sit on juries, and reshape local and national life.

50:58But freedom begins with almost nothing. Many are landless, penniless, with relatives sold away years before. Now they are expected to build lives from scratch in a society that has never recognized their rights. There are brief hopes that confiscated Confederate land will be redistributed among freed families, shaped by Sherman's order of 40 acres and a mule to formerly enslaved families to help them start their new lives. But most of that land is soon returned to former slaveholders, and the promise quietly fades.

51:40And the emerging peace is dealt a devastating blow when, in April 1865, just days after Lee's surrender, Abraham Lincoln is assassinated by a supporter of the vanquished Confederacy. The man who had guided the Union through war and begun to sketch a vision for how the country might rebuild is suddenly gone. In the vacuum that follows, the backlash to emancipation is swift and often violent. White supremacist groups rise to crush any gains. Southern legislatures impose restrictive laws, and federal commitment to reconstruction falters.

52:24Emancipation proves to be a beginning rather than a completed victory, a promise to be fought for in the generations to come. At the same time, the way the war is remembered begins to diverge dramatically from the reality of what happened. For many white southerners, defeat demanded an explanation for their descendants as much as for themselves. The Lost Cause was incredibly powerful as an explanation for white Southerners about what they fought for and why they lost. And they didn't just need to tell themselves that, they needed to tell their children and their grandchildren. And so the Lost Cause was about looking forward, about explaining to future generations what you had fought for and saying what you hadn't fought for, which increasingly over the 19th century, they're going to say the war was never about slavery.

53:22We didn't go to war to protect slavery. When you look at everything they're saying in 1861, it is absolutely about slavery. So it's trying to put the best spin on it. In the decades after Appomattox, this idea of a lost cause takes root. It reframes the Confederacy as noble, slavery as secondary, and defeat as something honorable rather than inevitable. This is something that becomes part of the ethos of the white South. This is what's in textbooks that some of the biggest segregationists are reading. This is what they learn as children. And so we can't understand race relations in the United States in the 20th century, or even in the 21st century, without understanding how the way the past, and especially how the discussions of slavery and the Civil War have been leveraged for political and social reasons throughout that time.

54:20It didn't just end in 1865. But this is not the only memory that survives. African-American communities preserve a different recollection, centered on liberation, citizenship, and the immense cost of freedom. 25 % of white Southern men of military age died during the war. It was absolutely catastrophic. Of course, 4 million enslaved people are freed by the war. And so there's that part, too, that gets buried and not celebrated, the story of the United States Colored Troops.

55:02Meanwhile, Union veterans insist the war must be remembered as a struggle to preserve the nation itself, and only as the war went on, to destroy slavery as well. Even Ulysses S. Grant would later reflect that, looking back, the rebellion could only truly be understood as rooted in slavery. What had once seemed like a political conflict revealed itself in the end as something deeper and more fundamental The American Civil War left behind competing questions of what happened, why, and what it meant Some remember sacrifice, some defeat, some liberation And those questions have been and continue to be argued not just in history books, but in classrooms, in public squares, and in the very idea of America itself.

56:11itself. Next time on Short History, we'll bring you a short history of Bob Dylan. He's like no other singer in that he puts so much emphasis on variety of expression and so much emphasis on immediacy of communication. There's something about his voice that abolishes the gulf between the performer and the audience. You listen to one of his early solo recordings. It's just straight through from his mouth to your ear, as it were. and he has an extraordinary ability to vocalize in such a way that in a song where he's repeating a title line, for example, at the end of each verse, he never repeats it in exactly the same way.

57:08Most people have one voice and Bob Dylan is more like a ventriloquist. He has any number of voices. That's next time.

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