Movie Review: Antietam

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tse4pbQp9cs
This documentary film is posted as the film played at the visitor's center at Antietam Battlefield.  It was made in cooperation with Civil War Trust and Historical Films Group.  It is narrated by James Earl Jones.  It gives a fantastic view of this battle, starting with the lead up to the a battle, the lost orders, the attack at Harper's Ferry ad the attacks through the mountain.  It was fun to view a portrayal, using historians, historical reenactments, maps and views of the battleground.  There were some parts of the battle I did not realize, including a flanking attack against the Confederates in the early battle on the North, followed by counter attack, artillery fire, the attack more towards the center, into the sunken road, which provide good defense, until it was flanked; and then became a death trap.  and then finally the attack in the south, across Burnside's Bridge.  It explained why this attack took so long to be effective, against only 400 Confederates.  It concluded with the timely charge of A.P. Hill, which hit the Union flank as they come up, having marched 17 miles that day from Harper's Ferry. 

Civil War Journal - Pickett's Charge

This short presentation is very interesting.  It does use some docudrama, but also using historians recounting the battle, including one who worked at the battle site. Also many pictures, included of corpses on the field.  Danny Glover narrates.  The presentation quickly tells of the first two days, where the Union had been attacked on botgh flanks.  On the third day, Lee proposed to strike the center. 
General George Picket's division had three brigades who were all engaged, pretty much without support.  (Others were assigned to the attack, but never arrived.)  Two Brigade commanders were killed and the other wounded.
One of the most poignant stories is that of the friendship of brigade commander General Lewis Armistead of the Confederacy and General Winfield Scott Hancock of the Union.  They had served together in California, and returned east to fight in the war, one for each side.  They faced each other this day.  Armistead lead his men into the angle of the stone wall and over, where they were engaged in fierce hand to hand combat.  Armistead was fatally wounded.  Hancock was also wounded, shot in the thigh, but not taken from the battlefield.  Armistead died a few yards from where Hancock was being attended to.  He as the men who attended to him to tell Hancock he was sorry.  It appears he felt one of his men likely wounded Hancock. 
Half of Picket's 12,000 men were lost this day, wounded or killed or captured.  General Lee took responsibility for having ordered the attack, which was over open territory of at least a mile, into cannon from all sides, and then into the reinforced Union defense.  This was a disaster, but it was carried out with good style, men marching shoulder to shoulder as the faced the hail of shell.

Movie Review: Biography: Paul Revere

Movie Review: Biography: Paul Revere, A&E Biography Channel, 1995.

Paul Revere is an interesting man.  However, the poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, presents a sketch of his midnight ride, which is influenced by truth and fable.  SO to look at this aspect of Paul Revere’s life first.  Revere was very much interested in the independence movement, and met often with those planning how to carry this about.  He was actively involved in the Boston Tea Party.  His major function was that of a messenger.  He would work his regular job and duties during the day, and then ride all night to deliver message.  His most frequent route was the Boston to New York and back.  He also visited Philadelphia.  He was also called upon to report on news from one city to another, about what efforts were being made towards independence. 

When there was trouble brewing in Boston, Paul Revere came up with the idea of a friend of his, across the bay, would let him know if the British Regulars were on the move.  Truly they used one or two lanterns to distinguish from where the trouble was coming.  Paul Revere did ride to warn those cities outside of Boston.  There was word the British military wanted to destroy a cache of arms they had heard about.  However, Paul Revere was not the only rider.  He did not say, “The British are coming.”  At that time all the residents were subjects of Britain.  However he did have a conversation with someone and said “The regulars are coming.”  He took his trip at night, as expressed.  However, he did stop and have a rest for a half hour with a friend, and letting his horse rest, before moving on to Concord.  He was not riding all out like depicted.  Such a ride would have killed his horse.  He was captured by the British, and threatened to tell what he knew.  He decided to play a bluff, and said there were 500 men expected to face the regulars.  This drew alarm, and he was allowed to leave, but withut his horse.

The story is well known.  The British first attacked local in Lexington, and routed them.  However, in Concord the situation was different.  The first fired from the North Bridge, and a volley was returned resulting the first British fatality of the war.  The British were forced to retreat, and as they did so, the local farmers and militia would fire from the trees, and then run forward and fire again.  A day that started out as a British victory, did not end that way.

As for Paul Revere, he never had an active part in the Revolutionary War.  He was expecting an officer’s commission, which did not come.  He did have command of a small garrison group in Boston.  His only real action was taking a group of men North to Maine, to clear out a British inhabited fort.  This was the largest maritime assault by Americans up to that time.  It did not go well.  There was bickering between the officers, and finally Revere ordered his men back to Boston without achieving their goal.  There was a court martial, and Revere was exonerated saying that the men were out of control, and would not have headed any command anyway. 

Revere was a very successful man.  Although he did not run for political office, he was active in civic duties, including local clubs and Free Masons.  He was one of the first industrialist.  He had trained as a silversmith, but branched out into other areas.  He and his suns established a bell making foundry.  This was at a period of religious revival, and many people needed bells for their churches.  He then expanded into copper, and made copper sheeting.  Many state houses are covered ith his copper, as well as the sides of many ships. 

 

789. Paul Revere’s Ride

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882)

LISTEN, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.	5
He said to his friend, ‘If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light,—
One, if by land, and two, if by sea;	10
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm.’ So through the night rode Paul Revere; And so through the night went his cry of alarm         120 To every Middlesex village and farm,— A cry of defiance and not of fear, A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door And a word that shall echo forevermore! For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,         125 Through all our history, to the last, In the hour of darkness and peril and need, The people will waken and listen to hear The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed, And the midnight message of Paul Revere.

Movie Review: Civil War Life: Shot to Pieces

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCH-ryrOmo4

This You Tube documentary and docudrama presented by Janson Media tells the life of William Francis Bartlett. It starts with perhaps his most heroic moment, the Battle of Ball's Bluff.  He served as a Captain.  His men were ordered to attack, but soon found themselves overwhelmed by the number of Confederates, and after a couple hours of hard shooting, were forced to pull back.  They suffered heavy loses, and made their way back to the Potomac River, where those who could swim made there way to Harrison Island.  Those who could not swim made a stiff defense, until they were able to make there way up river where they found a skiff, and under direction of the Captain and his pistol, made there way across to the island four men at a time.
Bartlett had served at First Bull Run as a Private.  He left his studies at Harvard to enlist.  He was 21 at the time.  He served is 90-day commitment.  
Bartlett's later military involvement was more difficult and costly to his own health.  In the Peninsular campaign he was shot in the knee, which shattered his bone.  His leg was removed three inches above the knee.  He was sent home to recuperate.
He returned to military service with a prosthetic, but as colonel of a different unit, new volunteers.  He trained them and when they were ready he lead them into battle being stationed in New Orleans.  There they were involved in siege of Port Hudson.  This was an attempt to control the Mississippi.  Colonel Bartlett was shot twice while doing reconnaissance.  He took a bullet to the hand and a pellet to his foot.  For a time it was feared he would lose his arm, but his medical care was able to help him preserve it.  After going home for a time, he reenlisted again.  This time he organized a regiment of veteran soldiers who had already completed one enlistment.  They joined Lee in time for the Battle of the Wilderness, and Colonel Bartlett was again wounded, this time shot in the head.  The blow was a grazing blow, and although he again was forced to take some time off, he returned again.
This time he was at the head of a division.  His unit was instrumental in the Battle of the Crater.  The charged into the crater, and found that coming up the other side was difficulty.  Bartlett was laid flat by an exploding mortar shell, in which he lost his prosthetic leg.  He was unable to retreat with others of his unit, and was taken prisoner. 
He ended up in Libby Prison, and suffered terribly for poor nutrition and illness.  He was exchanged after two months, and again went home to recuperate.  The war would end before he would return to service.  However he did return, and helped organize troops to defend Washington.  He now served as a brevet general.
He left military service in 1866.  We was successful at business, working in iron works.  However he never regained full health.  He had married his love, Agnes Pomeroy.  She felt he had done enough, but Bartlett always thought he could provide more service to his country.  He and his wife had four children.  However Bartlett passed away at age 36, succumbing to the after effects of his injuries, and tuberculosis. 

Movie Documentary Review: JFK: The Lost Bullet

JFK: The Lost Bullet, National Geographic, 2013.
This documentary takes a new look at the assassination of John F. Kennedy using the various home movies taken that day, and also talking again with eye witnesses as well as using laser evidence to examine the route of the three shots people heard.  The first shot is the lost bullet. 
They first examine the last two bullets.  Bullet two is often referred to the magic bullet.  Using laser, and getting the car in the exact position of when this shot takes place using the Zapruder film (famous home video of the assassination) they demonstrate that the course was strait through the presidents back, out his neck and then into the Governor's back.  
The issue with bullet three is that the president's head whipped back instead of forward.  There are two conspiracy theories surrounding this shot.   The first, the driver shot him.  Digital enhancement clarifies this.  The driver did turn around and look at the president.  However he has nothing in his hand.  The second, the theory of a shooter on the grassy knoll.  They use other films from a different angle to refute this argument as nothing is seen on the hill.  Also the shot would have been fired form the side, and had to of hit the president in the side of the head, and then possibly hitting Jacklyn Kennedy.  The digital enhancement of the film does show a puff of moisture going forward after the president is struck.  Then his head jerks back in a reverse reaction effect.
Then the lost bullet, or the first bullet.  The contention here is that first, the Zapruder film does not record this bullet; the camera had been turned off for a few seconds to save film.  They say it took  six seconds between the first shot and the other two shots.  This is confirmed by two eye witnesses.  Then when they tried to reenact the scene using the laxer, they discovered a stop light would have obstructed the shot.  Looking back at pictures of the light, there was a mark which could have been the result of the bullet.  The bullet may have ricocheted and been lost in the street.  One woman was injured when she was struck by concrete form the curb. 
This is the conclusion of this film.  This uses high tech lasers to confirm the Warren Report.

Movie Review: Benjamin Franklin: Scienist and Inventor

Benjamin Franklin: Scienist and Inventor, Nest Hero Classics, Living History Productions Inc.
This is Ben Franklin a the inventor, who worked with electricity.  There was much we didn't know about electricity.  Study of electricity started as a way to do some tricks.  But Franklin was sure there was something useful that wold result form his studies.  His big realization came when he determined that lightning was electricity.  There were many fires as a result of lightning. 
However there must be opposition to every bit of progress.  Those who felt that lightning was God's way of giving out punishment thought such an idea was heresy.  Franklin, after realizing the link, next became determined that he could control the electricity to prevent house fires.  However he still needed proof to back up his theory.  This is where we see Franklin with the kite, trying to prove there was electricity in the lightning.  His son helped him.

His test was a success.  The result was the lightning rod.  This allowed tall buildings to be relatively safe as the lightning would strike the rod, and the electricity would be channeled away form the home or building and into the ground. 

Book Review: The Long Road to Antietam

The Long Road to Antietam: How the Civil War Became a Revolution, by Richard Slotkin, Liveright Publishing Corp.,2012.

I thoroughly enjoyed this historical novel, which added the political environment to the Battle of Antietam.  President Lincoln was determined to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, but his cabinet convinced him he needed a military victory on which to hand his announcement of the proclamation. Coming off the Battle of Second Bull Run, the Confederacy was emboldened to attack north, into Maryland.  In this battle, the forces under General John Pope.  General George McClellan's men had been withdrawn off the Peninsula, and could have moved forward to change the tide of battle, but McClellan was no so inclined,as he was more interested in destroying Pope than the Confederates. 
President Lincoln had no choice that appoint McClellan over the Army of the Potomac, and McClellan  was always seeking more power, more influence.  This quest for power always tainted what he did and how he lead his men.  However, when the battle plans of General Lee  were found, and given to McClellan, he had the tool to destroy Lee's army.
The Confederate Army had taken refuge behind South Mountain, where there were only a couple of passes, while General Stonewall Jackson took his Crop to capture Harper's Ferry, and the federal arsenal there.  McClellan for once had the ability to get over his habitual slows, and attack the Confederates through South Mountain. The drove them back, and they took up position aaeound the town of Sharpsburg.
Even though capturing took longer than expected, Jackson had most of his men back into the defense around Sharpsburg, although tired.  One division under A.P. Hill was left behind to coordinate the capture of supplies and the surrender and pardon of the over 12,000 men. 
The federal attack started on Lee's left, where Joe Hooker's Corp attacked Stonewall Jackson's Corp.  The where able to stop them initially, but eventually three corp would attack on that wing, and drive them back.  Also there was attack in the center, where the federal came up against a sunken road, which was a natural defense.  It took some time before they could drive the Confederates from the road, but the Confederates finally had to reform around Sharpsburg, and their lines were very thin.
In the meantime, General Burnside was expected to attack on the Confederate right, where he had to attack over a bridge.  There was also a ford, but it took the troops too long to find the ford.  When this flank of Lee's was finally being overrun by superior numbers, A.P. Hill finally arrived and hit the flank of the attack and drove them back. 
Lee survived the day.  McClellan could have continued the attack, and finished of Lee's army, or at least inflicted unrecoverable damage.  However McClellan always over estimagted Lee's forces, or just didn't want an out and out victory which would have pleased the Republicans, and did not pursue his advantage. 
Lee stayed the next day, but there was no attack, and he crossed over the fords back into Virginia the next day. 
The repulse of the Confederates in Maryland gave Lincoln the victory he needed to support his announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation.  They would use the war powers act to emancipate the slaves in the rebellious states as war contraband.  With this decision, the war took on a new meaning.  We had put down on paper what the war was about, the freedom for the slaves.  In addition African Americans could now serve in the military, and almost 200,000 would serve.  This was about ten percent of the total fighting for the North, but represented almost 20 percent of those that fought in the last two years, when the African Americans were allowed to enlist.
On side note is the wealth involved in slavery.  Slavery is an evil, and the South should not have built their economy based on slavery.  At the time of the emancipation, slaves represented an investment of $3.5 billion.  The total net worth of the property in the United States at the time was $16 billion.