New Birth of Freedom: Gettysburg, Lincoln, and the End of the Civil War | The American Story | Ep 17

Summary

Podcast Summary

Podcast: The Glenn Beck Program
Episode: New Birth of Freedom: Gettysburg, Lincoln, and the End of the Civil War | The American Story | Ep 17
Date: August 8, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode, adapted from The American Story: The Beginnings by David Barton and Tim Barton, takes listeners on a gripping, sequential narrative through some of the most pivotal episodes of the Civil War. The focus is on Abraham Lincoln’s inner life and leadership, the devastating tragedies he and the country endured, and the tides of war—from Gettysburg and Vicksburg to Grant’s rise and the abolition of slavery. Through powerful storytelling, direct quotes, and historical context, the episode paints a vivid portrait of the crisis, loss, valor, and ultimate hope that defined America’s struggle for unity and freedom.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Lincoln’s Personal Tragedy and Faith (00:02–04:13)

• The episode opens with an intensely personal portrayal of Lincoln during the illness and death of his son Willie—who succumbed to typhoid fever in the White House.
• Quotes Lincoln’s private grief and the emotional devastation to Mary Todd Lincoln.
  • Quote: “My poor boy, he was too good for this earth. God has called him home. I know that he is much better off in heaven. But then we loved him so it is hard, hard to have him die.” —Abraham Lincoln (01:24)
• Lincoln is depicted wrestling with grief and spiritual crisis, penning private notes on divine will amidst the chaos of war.
  • Quote: “Each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong... I am almost ready to say that this is probably true, that God wills this contest and wills that it shall not end.” —Lincoln’s private writing (02:34)

2. Robert E. Lee: Loyalty, Dilemma, and the Road to Gettysburg (04:35–09:33)

• The episode details the character, conviction, and painful decision of Robert E. Lee to resign from the U.S. Army and side with Virginia.
  • Quote: “With all my devotion to the Union... I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, my home.” —Robert E. Lee (05:48)
• Context for the Confederate decision to invade the North, setting up Gettysburg. Lee’s strategy is carefully explained.

3. The Battle of Gettysburg: Clash and Turning Point (09:33–15:03)

• The critical events at Gettysburg are narrated—Chamberlain’s heroic defense of Little Round Top, Pickett’s Charge, and decisive Union victory.
  • Chamberlain’s Stand: The 20th Maine’s famous bayonet charge, a moment of desperation that saved the Union flank.
  • Quote: “I have been a soldier all my life. It is my opinion that no 15,000 men ever arrayed for battle can take that position.” —James Longstreet to Lee (11:26)
  • Lee’s Responsibility: “This has all been my fault.” —Robert E. Lee (13:39)
• Aftermath of Pickett’s Charge marks the beginning of the Confederacy’s decline.

4. Lincoln’s Faith and Resolve (15:03–16:03)

• A private moment reveals Lincoln’s spiritual struggle and dependence on faith during Gettysburg.
  • Quote: “I went into my room one day and locked the door and got down on my knees before Almighty God and prayed to him mightily for victory at Gettysburg... I made a solemn vow to Almighty God that if he would stand by our boys at Gettysburg, I would stand by Him.” —Abraham Lincoln (15:03)

5. Ulysses S. Grant’s Rise and the Siege of Vicksburg (17:22–25:17)

• Grant’s humble beginnings, failures, and quiet determination.
• His reputation for tenacity is earned at Fort Donelson:
  • Quote: “No terms except unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted.” —Ulysses S. Grant (19:24)
• Vicksburg’s strategic importance and harrowing siege described in vivid, harrowing detail—starvation, combat, and ultimate surrender, coinciding with Gettysburg.
  • Lincoln on Vicksburg: “This war can never be brought to a close until that key is in our pocket.” —Abraham Lincoln (20:39)
• Grant’s compassion in victory and reputation for effectiveness.
  • Quote: “After the battle, these scenes are distressing, and one is naturally disposed to do as much to alleviate the suffering of an enemy as a friend.” —Grant (24:58)

6. The Gettysburg Address: Seeds of Healing (25:17–28:01)

• Lincoln’s two-minute speech contrasted with the two-hour oration by Edward Everett, with the speech’s full impact recounted.
  • Quote: “The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it will never forget what they did here...” —Abraham Lincoln (paraphrased, 26:00)
  • Everett’s Praise: “I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion in two hours as you did in two minutes.” —Edward Everett (27:51)

7. Grant's Relentless Advance and Costly Battles (29:04–33:13)

• Lincoln promotes Grant to command of the entire Union army; relentless campaign through Virginia.
• The horror and tragedy of battles like Cold Harbor.
  • Union soldiers pinning their names to their uniforms, expecting death.
  • Grant’s Regret: “The hardest part... is the responsibility for the loss of One's men. I can see no other way out of it. ... But it is hard, very hard, to see all these brave fellows killed and wounded.” —Grant (31:48)
  • Lifelong Remorse: “I have always regretted that the last assault at Cold Harbor was ever made. No advantage whatever was gained to compensate for the heavy loss we sustained.” —Grant (33:01)
• Lincoln, distressed by losses, still stands by Grant.

8. Political Crisis and the War’s Final Push (33:13–38:51)

• Republican doubts about Lincoln’s reelection; Democrats run on a peace platform.
• Sherman’s capture of Atlanta dramatically shifts public sentiment. Lincoln is reelected in a landslide.
  • Sherman's relentless march and its devastating impact on the South.
  • Sherman: “War is cruelty and you cannot refine it...” (37:31)
• Sherman’s "Christmas gift" telegram after capturing Savannah.

9. The Thirteenth Amendment and the End of Slavery (39:57–43:45)

• Lincoln’s insistence on abolishing slavery as a constitutional amendment, not just a war measure.
• The suspenseful, emotionally charged passage of the amendment in the House.
  • Quote: “We have at last got the harpoon into the monster. But we must now look how we steer. Or with one flop of his tail, he will send us all into eternity.” —Lincoln (41:46)
  • Historic Vote Announcement: “The ayes have 119, the no's 56... the joint resolution has passed.” —Speaker Schuyler Colfax (43:10)
  • The House erupts in unprecedented cheers and emotion.
• Five Democratic flips make passage possible.

10. Lincoln’s Second Inaugural and the Endgame (43:45–51:09)

• Describes inauguration: Lincoln’s hope for reconciliation and justice.
  • Second Inaugural: “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on...” —Abraham Lincoln (45:59)
• Richmond’s fall, Lee’s surrender at Appomattox.
  • Details the dignity and sorrow of Lee and Grant at Appomattox.
  • Lee to Grant: “It is more than I expected.” (50:00)
  • Grant’s Reflection: “I felt like anything, rather than rejoicing at the downfall of a foe who had fought so long and valiantly and had suffered so much for a cause, though that cause was... one of the worst for which a people ever fought.” —Grant (50:12)
• The Confederate army is fed by their former foes, echoing the episode’s theme of “malice toward none.”

11. The War’s Aftermath and Teaser for Next Episode (51:09–52:07)

• The episode suggests the next focus will be Lincoln’s assassination and the turbulent aftermath.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Lincoln’s Grief (01:24): “My poor boy, he was too good for this earth.”
• Lincoln on Divine Will (02:34): “God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time...”
• Lee’s Anguish (05:48): “I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, my home.”
• Chamberlain’s Bayonet Charge (10:39): The 20th Maine’s daring counterattack at Little Round Top.
• Pickett’s Loss (13:39): “This has all been my fault.” —Lee after Pickett’s Charge.
• Lincoln’s Prayer (15:03): “I made a solemn vow to Almighty God that if he would stand by our boys at Gettysburg, I would stand by Him.”
• Grant’s Terms (19:24): “No terms except unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted.”
• Lincoln on Vicksburg (20:39): “Vicksburg is the key.”
• Everett’s Compliment (27:51): “I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea...”
• Grant’s Regret (33:01): “I have always regretted that the last assault at Cold Harbor was ever made.”
• Sherman on War (37:31): “War is cruelty and you cannot refine it.”
• Lincoln’s Metaphor (41:46): “We have at last got the harpoon into the monster...”
• Lincoln’s Second Inaugural (45:59): “With malice toward none, with charity for all...”
• Grant’s Sorrow (50:12): “I felt like anything, rather than rejoicing at the downfall of a foe...”

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Important Segment Timestamps

• 00:02–04:13: Lincoln’s family tragedy and spiritual struggle
• 04:35–09:33: Robert E. Lee’s background, resignation, and the lead-up to Gettysburg
• 09:33–15:03: Gettysburg, Chamberlain’s defense, Pickett’s Charge
• 15:03–16:03: Lincoln’s private prayer for Union victory
• 17:22–25:17: Grant’s rise; Fort Donelson; Vicksburg campaign
• 25:17–28:01: The Gettysburg Address, Lincoln’s healing vision
• 29:04–33:13: Grant’s Virginia campaign, Cold Harbor, public criticism
• 33:13–38:51: Lincoln’s reelection, political and military turning point, Sherman’s march
• 39:57–43:45: Race for the 13th Amendment, suspenseful House vote
• 43:45–51:09: Second Inaugural, fall of Richmond, Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, Grant’s compassion
• 51:09–52:07: War’s aftermath; setup for assassination and postwar drama

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Language and Tone

True to Glenn Beck’s approach, the narration is immersive, thorough, and laced with both emotional resonance and moral reflection. The language is direct yet vivid, often quoting the words of participants or eyewitnesses for effect. The tone is respectful, contemplative, and at times somber—particularly in scenes of battle and personal loss—but with a persistent sense of hope and purpose.

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Conclusion

This episode serves as a deeply engaging narrative of both the human and political dimensions of the Civil War’s climax. It balances intimate details—Lincoln’s grief, Grant’s humility—with sweeping military and constitutional history. Its most memorable moments come in the form of first-person quotes that reveal the heartache, resolve, and humanity of those who shaped one of America’s darkest, but most definitive, chapters.

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For further exploration, listeners are invited to read The American Story: The Beginnings by David Barton and Tim Barton.

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End of Summary

Transcript

[Narrator]

The White House is supposed to be the safest house in America. But on this freezing February evening of 1862, death had already slipped past the centuries. Nearly one year into the Civil War, the nation is bleeding out on battlefields from Bull Run to the Mississippi. Yet right now, the most urgent battle, to the Lincolns at least, is happening. Upstairs, 11 year old Willie Lincoln is burning. Typhoid fever, likely poisoned by the filthy water from the Potomac river that supplies all the water to the White House. His little brother Tad lies sick in another room fighting the same invisible killer, Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln. They've been taking turns at Willie's bedside for days. They know this road too well. Twelve years earlier, they buried their second son, Eddie when he was just three years old. Now the family circle is about to shrink again. At five o' clock in the afternoon of February 20, 1862, Willie draws his last labored breath. Lincoln stands over the rosewood bed, his face buried in his hands, his tall frame shaking. Mary's assistant, Elizabeth Keckley is in the room and later records the words that she hears Lincoln utter through his tears.

[Abraham Lincoln]

My poor boy, he was too good for this earth. God has called him home. I know that he is much better off in heaven. But then we loved him so it is hard, hard to have him die.

[Narrator]

Mary collapses. She'll not leave her bed for weeks and she'll never again set foot in the room where her favorite son died. The grief is so complete that even seasoned White House staff fear for her sanity. The war outside and the sorrow inside merge into an almost unbearable weight. But the President, he can't collapse. The war is unrelenting. In the months that follow, Lincoln wrestles with the unbearable question, why? Why this gentle, beloved boy? Why this merciless war? Why does God allow both? By September 1862, around the time of the bloody battle of Antietam, he sits down in private to write, grappling with deep thoughts about the mystery of divine will. They are thoughts he never intends anyone to read.

[Abraham Lincoln]

The will of God prevails in great contests. Each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong. God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time. In the present Civil War, it is quite possible that God's purpose is something different from the purpose of either party. And yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaptation to effect his purpose. I am almost ready to say that this is probably true, that God wills this contest and wills that it shall not end. Yet by his mere great power on the minds of the now contestants, he could have either saved or destroyed the Union without a human contest. Yet the contest began. And having begun, he could give the final victory to either side any day. Yet the contest proceeds.

[Narrator]

This is a man searching for meaning in the midst of chaos. He's a father mourning his son and a president questioning destiny. Nearly a year and a half after Lincoln scratched those words into his private journal, the contest is still undecided. It could still go either way. And it is about to erupt in the largest battle of this excruciating war.

[Narrator/Host]

This is the American story, the Beginnings, adapted from the book of the same title by David Barton and Tim Barton. Episode 17 New Birth of Freedom Gettysburg, Lincoln and the End of the Civil War.

[Narrator]

Robert E. Lee. He was the kind of officer that made other soldiers straighten their spines just by walking into the room. West point graduate in 1829, second in his class, decorated hero of the Mexican war, and by 1861, a colonel in the U.S. army. He had a reputation for flawless engineering, iron discipline and quiet grace. Lee wasn't flashy. He didn't crave glory. Men who served under him described him as courteous and humble, almost fatherly. Yet when the moment came, he could be ruthlessly decisive on the battlefield. Now, Lee loved the Union. He had sworn to defend it. But when Virginia seceded in April 1861, something deeper pulled him. His home, his family, his entire world was there. In the south, he and his wife inherited Arlington from her parents in 1857, along with the plantation's 196 slaves. The property was just a few miles from the White House. President Lincoln offered Lee command of the entire Union army, but Lee turned it down. In letters written from Arlington House, he explained his torment.

[Robert E. Lee]

With all my devotion to the Union and the feeling of loyalty and duty of an American citizen, I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, my home. I have therefore resigned my commission in the army and save in defense of my native state with the sincere hope that my poor services may never be needed. I hope I may never be called on to draw my sword.

[Narrator]

When Virginia seceded from the Union in May 1861, the Lees left Arlington House, never to return. The US army then took control of their estate, and first they built forts on it. The rising toll of US Troops killed in action prompted the army to turn the property into a military burial ground. Today, Robert E. Lee's house is known as Arlington National Cemetery. By May 1863, Lee had just pulled off one of the most audacious victories of the war. At Chancellorsville, his army of Northern Virginia was riding high. But Virginia's farms were picked clean and the men were ragged. So Lee made a fateful call. We have to invade the north again. The plan was classically another bold offensive gamble. He would take the war to Pennsylvania's untouched fields for food and supplies, draw the Union army out of Virginia, threaten Washington D.C. or Harrisburg, and just maybe shatter the Northern morale so badly that Lincol would have to pursue peace. Lee believed that one more decisive blow on Northern soil could actually end it all. Lee's army crossed the Potomac late June. July 1st. Major General Henry Heth's Division marched into a sleepy crossroads town called Gettysburg in south central Pennsylvania. Heth sent men ahead to search for supplies, especially shoes, because so many of the men were just marching barefoot or in rags when they got there, they were expecting nothing more than a quiet foraging run. Instead, they ran straight into Union cavalry under Brigadier General John Buford, who had deliberately dismounted his troops on the ridges west of town to buy time for the army of the Potomac. The first shots cracked across the fields of Gettysburg almost by surprise. What started as a skirmish erupted into a raging battle. More Confederate and Union division poured in all day. By late afternoon, the Confederates drove the bluecoats through the streets of Gettysburg in chaotic house to house fighting. But the Union troops clawed their way onto the vital high ground, Cemetery Hill, Culp's Hill, and the long ridge beyond. Lee arrived on the field and saw the opportunity he was seeking for a decisive blow. The accidental collision quickly escalated into the biggest battle of the entire War. Day two of Gettysburg, July 2nd. Lee ordered James Longstreet's first corps to smash the Union's left flank. The fighting around the Peach Orchard and Devil's Den was savage, but the hinge of the entire line was a rocky wooded knob called Little Round Top. The very end of the line on the Union's left was defended by the 20th Main Volunteer infantry commanded by Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain.

[Sponsor/Advertiser]

He was a college professor of rhetoric

[Narrator]

in modern languages who had taken leave from his job to fight. Tall, bookish, with a methodical mind and a preacher's voice, Chamberlain was the last man anyone expected to become a battlefield legend. He was ordered, hold your position at all costs. Chamberlain's 358 men faced continuous waves of Confederate troops trying to roll up the Union flank. For hours they poured fire down the slope until their ammunition ran almost dry. When Chamberlain saw Confederate regiments Swinging around even further to his left, he knew one more push would break his exhausted unit. So he did something insane. He yelled, fix bayonets. And the command rippled down the line with a wild yell. The 20th Maine charged downhill in a sweeping move strai into the enemy's face. The shock of the bold bayonet assault, men running, screaming, steel flashing, froze the confederate momentum. Little round top held, and so did the union line. Chamberlain's desperate gamble saved the army's flank. By nightfall on the second night, both armies were hemorrhaging. Lee, convinced the union center had been weakened, decided the moment had come for the killing stroke. He would hit cemetery ridge head on across nearly a mile of open ground. General longstreet, his most trusted lieutenant, argued against it with every ounce of his stubbornness. Longstreet had seen the union guns and the stone walls. He knew what massed artillery and rifles could do to men in the open. He told Lee, general, I have been

[Robert E. Lee]

a soldier all my life.

[Narrator]

It is my opinion that no 15,000 men ever arrayed for battle can take that position. He pleaded for a flanking maneuver instead, but Lee would not be moved, insisting

[Robert E. Lee]

the enemy is there and I am going to attack him there.

[Narrator]

Longstreet obeyed his general, but his heart wasn't in it. July 3rd, the final day of battle. After a two hour artillery duel that shook the earth, Major General George Pickett's 13,000 men stepped out of the trees and began that long, terrible March 3/4 of a mile across open field. It became known as pickett's charge. The union guns opened up, firing canister shot that tore the confederate division all apart. Canister was what it sounds like, a tin can packed with lead or iron balls and sawdust and then fired of a cannon at relatively close range, under 400 yards. It was like a giant shotgun. When the enemy was even closer, artillerymen would load two or three canister rounds into the same cannon and fire them all at once. Canister shot likely killed more soldiers in the civil war than all other types of artillery rounds combined. Pickett's men, they dropped by the hundreds. Still 200 of them managed to reach the short stone wall in front of the union position where the two sides clashed in a nightmarish hand to hand brawl. Pickett's charge was over in less than an hour. Over 5,500 of Pickett's men, more than half his force, killed, wounded or captured. As the survivors staggered back, general Lee told Pickett to reorganize his division in a defensive position, to which pickett replied General Lee, I have no division. Lee rode out among the remaining Confederate soldiers, taking all the blame himself.

[Robert E. Lee]

This has all been my fault.

[Narrator]

Pickett's charge marked the end of the Battle of Gettysburg. Late the next day, July 4th, the Confederate army began its long retreat south in heavy rain. With a combined total of over 165,000 troops engaged. With 23,000 Union casualties versus 28,000 for the South, Gettysburg was the largest battle ever fought in the Western hemisphere. Lee's gamble failed. He lost over a third of his army just at Gettysburg. He offered his resignation to Jefferson Davis, but Davis refused it and the war would grind on. But Gettysburg turned the tide in the Union's favor. It was actually the beginning of the end of the Confederacy. Just two days after the guns fell silent at Gettysburg, President Lincoln and his 10 year old son Tad went to visit Major General Daniel Sickles. On the second day at Gettysburg, a cannonball shattered Sickles leg and it had to be amputated. Colonel James Rustling, one of Sickles staff officers, was there, and as the men talked, Lincoln, obviously burdened by the war, opened up about the darkest hours. Rustling later wrote that Lincoln told them,

[Abraham Lincoln]

in the pinch of the campaign up there, when everybody seemed panic stricken and nobody could tell what was going to happen, oppressed by the gravity of our affairs, I went into my room one day and locked the door and got down on my knees before Almighty God and prayed to him mightily for victory at Gettysburg. I told him that this was his

[Narrator reading Lincoln's speeches or thoughts]

war and our cause his cause, but

[Abraham Lincoln]

that we couldn't stand another Fredericksburg or Chancellorsville. And I then and there made a solemn vow to Almighty God that if he would stand by our boys at Gettysburg, I would stand by Him.

[Narrator reading Lincoln's speeches or thoughts]

And he did.

[Abraham Lincoln]

And I will. And after that I don't know how it was and I can't explain it, but soon a sweet comfort crept into my soul that things would go all right at Gettysburg.

[Sponsor/Advertiser]

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[Narrator]

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[Narrator]

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[Narrator]

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[Narrator]

There was nothing inevitable about Ulysses S. Grant. There was no shining pedigree or polished reputation, no aura of greatness. At least not at first glance. He was short, rumpled, cigar usually hanging out of his mouth. He was the kind of man you'd pass on the street without a second glance. Born in 1822 in Ohio, he graduated from West Point in the middle of his class. He had fought bravely in the Mexican American War, but afterward his life kind of unraveled. He resigned his commission in 1854amid rumors of heavy drinking, and then he essentially vanished into obscurity. He had failed at farming, failed at business. At one point he was reduced to selling firewood on a street corner in St. Louis, Missouri. By 1860, he was clerking in his dad's leather store in Illinois, staring down middle age with nothing to show for it. But when the Civil war erupted in 1861, Grant didn't hesitate. He returned to the army because he desperately needed it. The war gave him something he had to had in years purpose. The man that re entered military service was quiet and unassuming. He wasn't one for big speeches. He was fiercely loyal to his troops. He was a strategist who saw the whole board when others were fixated on one little square. He hated waste. He despised pomp, and he showed almost an eerie calm under fire. Officers who served under him said he treated the enemy like fellow humans. Once the shooting stopped, he wasn't flashy, but he was effective and relentless. Once he made a decision, he moved and didn't stop. It didn't take long for that quality to make him stand out, and that's how he earned his nickname. In 1862, Fort Donelson in Tennessee. After being defeated by Grant's forces, Confederate general Simon Buckner tried to negotiate terms of surrender. But Grant famously sent this written reply.

[Ulysses S. Grant]

No terms except unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted.

[Narrator]

And just like that, US Grant became unconditional surrender. Grant in the press. By the way, that S in his name actually doesn't stand for anything. It was the result of a clerical error when he applied to West Point with the S, perhaps a reference to his mother's maiden name of Simpson, but his real name was Hiram Ulysses Grant. But once he was in the army records as Ulysses S. Grant, he eventually just gave up trying to correct it. By 1863, the Union military had its eye on a vital town on the Mississippi river called Vicksburg. Perched high on the bluffs overlooking a hairpin turn in the river, Vicksburg was a nightmare fortress. Artillery batteries lined the heights. Trenches snaked across ridges, earthen forts packed with artillery, with the whole place earning the nickname the Gibraltar of the Confederacy. But if the Union could conquer Vicksburg, it could control the Mississippi. It would split the Confederacy in two. Lincoln understood this strategic importance, telling his inner circle, vicksburg is the key.

[Abraham Lincoln]

This war can never be brought to a close until that key is in our pocket.

[Narrator]

An earlier Union attempt to take Vicksburg had failed. But Grant tried several alternative approaches to the town. But the surrounding landscape was choked with swamps and tangled terrain that stalled his force in mud and disease. Finally, Grant tried something different and daring. He moved further south, cutting himself off from his own supply lines. He crossed the Mississippi river below Vicksburg, slipping past the Confederate defenses at night. Then he drove inland and he drove fast. His first major target, Jackson, the Mississippi state capitol. It was the railroad hub, the lifeline between Vicksburg and the rest of the Confederacy. Grant struck hard. On May 14, Union forces captured Jackson and destroyed the railroad tracks. Vicksburg was now alone. Grant moved his 50,000 troops and surrounded Vicksburg, trapping 31,000 Confederate troops inside the town. Grant tried to storm the city's forts twice and failed, with over 4,200 union casualties. The dead bodies of the Union troops were piled at the foot of the bluffs, decomposing in the harsh May sun. And the stench was so overpowering that Confederate General Pemberton sent a message asking Grant for a brief ceasefire to remove the dead. Determining the Confederate defenses were too strong for direct assaults, Grant began a 47 day siege of Vicksburg. Over those weeks, Union artillery rained over 20,000 shells on the town, residents dug caves into the hillsides, spending so much time in them, some were actually furnished with with rugs and chairs. As the Union noose tightened, starvation gripped Vicksburg. People were eating horses and mules, and then they resorted to cats and dogs and even rats. Grant had sealed off every single escape route. Confederate resupply and reinforcements were impossible. And finally, by July 3rd, Confederate General Pemberton knew it was over. He tried to negotiate a surrender, but Grant again refused. The next day, Independence day, Pemberton officially surrendered. Grant was convinced by his officers to parole the Confederate soldiers rather than take them all prisoner. They were all allowed to go home on their word not to fight again. As Union troops filed into Vicksburg and interacted with the emaciated Confederate soldiers, Grant

[Ulysses S. Grant]

noted, I myself saw our men taking bread from their haversacks and giving it to the enemy they had so recently been engaged in starving out.

[Narrator]

Only later would Grant and his men find out that their capture of Vicksburg came on the same day as the Union victory at Gettysburg. Jefferson Davis despaired. He considered the loss of Vicksburg worse than the Gettysburg defeat. He said, we are now in the

[Ulysses S. Grant]

darkest hour of our political existence.

[Narrator]

Meanwhile, in Washington, Navy secretary Gideon Welles burst into the white House clutching the telegram, and Lincoln, usually so measured, couldn't contain himself. He hugged Welles and said, I cannot

[Abraham Lincoln]

in words, tell you my joy over this result.

[Narrator reading Lincoln's speeches or thoughts]

It is great, Mr. Welles. It is great.

[Narrator]

For the first time in the war, the tide seemed to be turning, and general Grant was a rising star in the effort. One northern journalist embedded with Grant's force during the Vicksburg campaign wrote, nothing like

[Historian/Commentator]

this campaign has occurred during this war. It stamps general Grant as a man of uncommon military ability, proves him the foremost one in the west, if not in the nation.

[Narrator]

President Lincoln concurred, saying about Grant, he

[Abraham Lincoln]

isn't shrieking for reinforcements all the time. He takes what troops we can safely

[Narrator reading Lincoln's speeches or thoughts]

give him and does the best he can with what he has got. Grant is my man, and I am his the rest of the war.

[Narrator]

Grant never gloated after his wins. After Vicksburg, he said, while a battle

[Ulysses S. Grant]

is raging, one can see his enemy mowed down by the thousand or the ten thousand with great composure. But after the battle, these scenes are distressing, and one is naturally disposed to do as much to alleviate the suffering of an enemy as a friend.

[Narrator]

Lincoln understood that compassion, the twin hammer blows of Gettysburg, and Vicksburg had him thinking beyond victory now towards a healed Union, his first big chance to voice that vision came four months later, on November 19, 1863, at the dedication of a new military cemetery at Gettysburg. The story you may have heard that Lincoln dashed off the Gettysburg Address in the back of an envelope during the train ride. That it's wrong. He had already drafted much of the speech at the White House. He traveled to Gettysburg, and then that night, by lamplight, he refined and finished it. The next day, at the cemetery dedication, the featured speaker was Edward Everett. He was a renowned orator, famous Harvard president, and former Secretary of state. He delivered his speech from memory. It took two hours. And then Lincoln stood. He spoke for two minutes, 271 words. The most famous speech in American history. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, they have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it will never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we will take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave their last full measure of devotion. That we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that the government of the the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth. When he finished nothing, the crowd sat still, almost confused. Was that it? And then slowly, applause rolled across the field. For many of them, it would take time for the power of those who words to sink in. But Edward Everett, he understood immediately. The next day, he wrote to Lincoln.

[Abraham Lincoln]

I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion in two hours as you did in two minutes.

[Narrator]

The war still had much too far to go, but Lincoln had planted the first fragile seeds of healing for the nation.

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Dial pound 250.

[Narrator]

Say the keyword chapter. It's pound 250, keyword, chapter. After Gettysburg and Vicksburg, the Confederacy was severely wounded but not yet broken. That meant another brutal year of fighting had to follow. At the center of the storm in 1864 stood a calm, determined figure, Ulysses S. Grant. In March, President Lincoln promoted Grant to command the entire Union army. And Grant believed in constant grinding pressure. And now, for the first time in the war, he turned that pressure directly onto the South's most formidable defender, Robert E. Lee. What followed was a vicious sequence of battles in northern Virginia. As Grant pushed forward, the Union losses began to pile up again. But Grant kept pressing, refusing to let Lee breathe. It was relentless, exhausting pace for Grant's troops, one that led them into a nightmare at a small crossroads called Cold Harbor. It was just nine miles northeast of Richmond. Grant believed one decisive battle could shatter Lee's army, open a direct path to Richmond and end the Confederacy for good. But the Union troops knew Lee's army was dug in around Cold Harbor. Artillery, deep trenches, lines reinforced with timber. Grant planned a frontal assault for early in the morning of June 3rd. His men, they knew what was coming. They pinned scraps of paper to the backs of their uniforms. Names, hometown's next of kin scribbled in pencil so their bodies could be identified. They all knew they weren't coming back. At 4:30am the order came. 50,000 Union troops surged forward. They ran straight into a wall of fire. The Confederate gunfire was so thick that Union troops took cover on the ground behind the dead bodies of their fellow soldiers. In the first hour alone, Grant's men suffered over 7000 casualties. Lee's army lost just 1500. It was really more of a slaughter than a battle. Later, among the dead, a diary was found that belonged to a soldier from Massachusetts. The pages were stained with blood. The final entry Read simply, June 3, 1864, Hold Harbor, Virginia. I was killed. Grant sat in his tent that night, staring the unending casualty list to an aid.

[Ulysses S. Grant]

He admitted, the hardest part of this general business is the responsibility for the loss of One's men. I can see no other way out of it. However, we've got to keep at them. But it is hard, very hard, to see all these brave fellows killed and wounded. It means aching hearts.

[Narrator]

Back home, Lincoln stood solidly behind Grant, but even he was distressed by the soaring death toll during Grant's Virginia campaign. That May in June, the Union had over 65,000 casualties. That's about what we lost in Vietnam. Discussing Grant, Mary Lincoln snapped, he is

[Narrator/Host]

a butcher and is not fit to be at the head of an army.

[Narrator]

Grant heard the whispers. The newspapers branded him butcher Grant. To another aide, he confessed, they call

[Ulysses S. Grant]

me a butcher, but, you know, I sometimes could hardly bring myself to give an order of battle. When I contemplated the death and misery that were sure to follow, I stood appalled.

[Narrator]

Coldharbor haunted Grant for the rest of his life. In his memoirs, he I have always

[Ulysses S. Grant]

regretted that the last assault at Cold harbor was ever made. No advantage whatever was gained to compensate for the heavy loss we sustained.

[Narrator]

Just days after the Cold harbor disaster, the Republican convention in Baltimore renominated Lincoln for president. But a giant cloud of doubt hovered over the proceedings. Worry grew about Lincoln's ability to win a second term. To try to broaden support, they chose a Southern Democrat who was pro Union, Andrew Johnson, as Lincoln's running mate. They were trying to send a signal that this war was about restoring the Union, not just defeating the South. Meanwhile, Grant shifted his focus to Petersburg, a vital railroad hub just 22 miles south of Richmond. If it fell, Richmond would suffocate. But Lee had turned Petersburg into a fortress. Grant tried lightning attacks. Four days, 12,000 more union men lost, and not a single breakthrough. So Grant dug in for another long siege. During this grim stalemate, Lincoln came to visit Grant. While there, the president rode through the camp of black Union troops. The men erupted, cheering, weeping, reaching out to touch his horse and his clothes Lincoln had in hand, tears in his eyes saluted them back. He was deeply moved by these soldiers who were fighting for their own freedom. Yet even in combat, they were treated as subhuman by the Confederates. During one of the battles around Petersburg, wounded black troops in the field were bayoneted by Southern soldiers. In July, Grant gave Ambrose Burnside permission to attempt an unusual attack. Among Burnside's men were miners from Pennsylvania who dug a tunnel beneath the ground separating the Union and Confederate lines at Petersburg. Then they stuffed it with explosives. Burnside wanted to redeem himself for his failure at Fredericksburg earlier in the war. So around 5am on July 30,

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that

[Narrator]

blast blew a crater 30ft deep and 170ft long. Rifles, equipment, human limbs rained down as over 300 confederates were killed. In an instant. The explosion ripped a giant path through the Petersburg defenses. But the attack that followed under Burnside was completely mismanaged. Union troops poured through into the crater. Instead of going around it, they became trapped targets. What could have been a game changing operation instead turned into another 4,000 union casualty. Grant was dismayed, beside himself. He accepted part of the blame. He had left the operation to subordinates who as it turned out, were not up to the task. So the siege dragged on. But Lee knew the longer the war took, the more it favored the North.

[Robert E. Lee]

Unless some measure can be devised to replace our losses, the consequences may be disastrous.

[Narrator]

In the north, disillusionment was rampant. Democrats demanded peace. Republican newspaper editor Horace Greeley declared, Mr.

[Abraham Lincoln]

Lincoln is already beaten.

[Narrator]

He cannot be elected. The Republican national committee met in New York and then sent an emissary to tell Lincoln that his re election was hopeless and that he had to start peace talks with the south, even if it meant letting slavery survive. But Lincoln refused. On August 31, the Democrats nominated George B. McClellan for president. The very General Lincoln had fallen fired two years earlier. Their platform, called the war a total failure, demanded an immediate ceasefire and a convention to negotiate peace with the South. Politically, it seemed like the war effort was unraveling. But outside of Virginia, the Union was slowly breaking apart the Confederate army piece by piece. Grant had a like minded partner in the West, William T. Sherman, A man he trusted completely. Just two days after McClellan's nomination, Sherman captured Atlanta. When Atlanta's mayor begged him not to force civilians out of the city, Sherman

[Historian/Commentator]

replied, war is cruelty and you cannot refine it. You might as well appeal against the thunderstorm as against these terrible hardships of war.

[Narrator]

Sherman's victory flipped the perception in the north on its head. Suddenly, the Republicans rallied behind Lincoln. McClellan frantically distanced himself from his own party's peace platform. And two months later, Lincoln won re election. It was a landslide. 212 electoral votes and 55% of the popular vote. Grant's grinding siege at Petersburg had done its quiet work, pinning Lee down so he couldn't find rushed to save Atlanta or strike elsewhere. The Confederacy grew desperate. Jefferson Davis even backed a plan to buy 40,000 slaves and arm them to fight for the South. Meanwhile, Sherman marched to the Atlantic Ocean, carving a path of destruction across Georgia. His troops destroyed anything that could be used by the south in the war effort. In December, he captured Savannah and sent Lincoln this telegram.

[Historian/Commentator]

I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah with 150 heavy guns and plenty of ammunition. Also about 25,000 bales of cotton.

[Narrator]

The end was finally in sight. Here's a question that I want you to ask yourself.

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the history that inspired this podcast series, be sure to read the American Story. The Beginnings by David Barton and Tim Barton, available [e-mail] through the brutal, long year of 1864, President Lincoln made something clear to his Cabinet and to his allies in Congress. Winning the Civil War was not enough. Ending slavery permanently had to be written into the US Constitution itself. Lincoln was concerned that his Emancipation Proclamation might not survive any peace process. He had already freed thousands of slaves, but only as a war measure. After the war, that could be reversed. So Lincoln pushed the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. The Senate passed it in April 1864 with a required 2/3 vote. But it failed in the House, where votes were almost entirely along party lines and Republicans for it, Democrats against. Yet Lincoln refused to let it die. His annual message to Congress that December, he urged the House to reconsider. Then, on January 6, 1865, Ohio Representative James Ashley stood and reintroduced it. Race was on. Lincoln needed a handful of Democrats to flip. Standing in the way was George Pendleton, the opposition leader, the same Democrat who was George McClellan's vice presidential running mate just the previous November. Pendleton rallied Democrats against the amendment, warning of constitutional overreach and political chaos. Everybody knew the margin would be razor thin. Lincoln himself described the moment like we

[Narrator reading Lincoln's speeches or thoughts]

are like whalers who have been long on a chase. We have at last got the harpoon into the monster. But we must now look how we steer. Or with one flop of his tail, he will send us all into eternity.

[Narrator]

On the morning of the vote, Congressman Ashley panicked. He rushed word to the White House about rumors that the Confederate peace commissioners were in Washington, ready to negotiate an end to the war. If that were true, he feared Democrats would argue that passing the amendment now would jeopardize peace. Ashley feared the votes would collapse. Lincoln responded like the veteran lawyer he was carefully and deliberately writing.

[Narrator reading Lincoln's speeches or thoughts]

So far as I know, there are no peace commissioners in the city or likely to be in it.

[Narrator]

It was technically true, but also not the whole truth. Lincoln knew commissioners had been sent. They just had arrived. Yet inside the House chamber, there was barely room to breathe. Every square inch was packed. Lawmakers, spectators, Supreme Court justices, members of Lincoln's cabinet. Almost like a criminal trial, both sides delivered closing arguments before the representatives voted. Then, at last, Speaker Shuler Colfax rose and delivered the verdict on the passage

[Historian/Commentator]

of the joint resolution to amend the Constitution of the United States States. The ayes have 119, the no's 56, the constitutional majority of 2/3 having voted in the affirmative. The joint resolution has passed.

[Narrator]

Lincoln's friend, journalist Noah Brooks, captured what happened next.

[Noah Brooks]

For a moment there was a pause of utter silence, as if the voices of the dense mass of spectators were choked by strong emotion. Then there was an explosion, a storm of cheers the like of which probably no clock Congress of the United States ever heard before.

[Narrator]

Five Democrats had flipped. Without those five votes, the amendment would have failed. By the end of the year, the required three quarters of state legislators had ratified it, finally writing slavery out of the Constitution forever. March 4, 1865. 50,000 people gathered in the rain outside the Capitol building, among them something never before seen at an inauguration. Thousands of black Americans, including black Union troops. Inside, new vice president Andrew Johnson took the oath of office and then delivered a rambling, slurred 20 minute speech. Earlier, he had had a few glasses of whiskey to steady his nerves. It didn't help. But then Lincoln stepped outside. He was on the east portico. Above him, the newly completed Capitol dome. And just before he spoke, something almost theatrical happened. Noah Brooks captured the scene.

[Noah Brooks]

The sun, which had been obscured all day, burst forth in its unclouded meridian splendor and flooded the spectacle with glory and light.

[Narrator]

Lincoln spoke with the 4 full weight of the war behind every word.

[Narrator reading Lincoln's speeches or thoughts]

Fondly do we hope fervently do we pray that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondman's 250 years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said 3,000 years ago, so still it must be said, the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

[Narrator]

It echoed something deeper, something he had wrestled with after the death of his son Willie. And then he closed with some of the most famous and vital presidential words ever spoken.

[Narrator reading Lincoln's speeches or thoughts]

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in. To bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

[Narrator]

Almost a month later, Union General Philip Sheridan's cavalry smashed into Confederate lines outside of Petersburg. The next morning, General Grant hurled 14,000 men at the dense fortification. The combined force finally overwhelmed Robert E. Lee. His only option was to run, try to buy more time. So he abandoned Petersburg with his first. A messenger bursts into a Richmond church on Sunday morning. Jefferson Davis was sitting in the pews. He stood and walked out. Mid service. The Confederate capital then quickly and completely unraveled. There was panic in the streets. Confederate government officials fled with documents and gold. Citizens set fire to storehouses so they wouldn't fall into Union's hand. When Lincoln, When Lincoln received the news that Richmond had fallen, he said, thank

[Narrator reading Lincoln's speeches or thoughts]

God that I have lived to see this. It seems to me that I have been dreaming a horrid dream for four

[Abraham Lincoln]

years and now the nightmare is gone.

[Narrator]

Two days later, Lincoln walked into Richmond protected only by a handful of soldiers. He had to see this center of the rebellion for himself. Almost, almost immediately, he was surrounded by black residents shouting praises to God for their deliverance. And several of them dropped to their knees before Lincoln.

[Narrator reading Lincoln's speeches or thoughts]

He said, don't kneel to me. That is not right. You must kneel to God only and thank him for the liberty you will hereafter enjoy. I am but God's humble instrument.

[Narrator]

Lincoln was esquire to Jefferson Davis house and office where he sat at his desk and quietly put a Confederate five dollar bill in his pocket as a souvenir. He savored the moment. The long bloody rebellion was effectively over. 4-9-1865, Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia. It wasn't a building. It was the name of a small village. Grant had finally cornered Lee, who said,

[Robert E. Lee]

there is nothing left me to do but go and see General Grant, and I would rather die a thousand deaths.

[Narrator]

Grant met Lee in the parlor of the modest brick house owned by Wilmer McLean. McLean had once lived near Bull Run Creek, but that home was wrecked in the war's opening battle. He had moved to the quiet Appomattox courthouse to escape the war, only to end up hosting its final act in his own front parlor. Lee arrived first, immaculate in his formal uniform. Grant was self conscious about his own rumpled field clothes, muddy boots. He tried small talk about their shared Mexican war days, but Lee cut him short. Grant took the hint and wrote out the terms of surrender. Confederate soldiers would hand over their rifles, be paroled and go home. Those with horses or mules could keep them to farm. After Lee read the terms, Grant asked him if they were satisfactory.

[Robert E. Lee]

Lee answered, yes, I am bound to be satisfied with anything you offer. It is more than I expected.

[Narrator]

The papers were signed around 4 o' clock in the afternoon.

[Ulysses S. Grant]

Grant later reflected what General Lee's feelings were. I do not know. As he was a man of much dignity with an impassable face, it was impossible to say whether he felt inwardly glad that the end had finally come or felt sad over the result and was too manly to show it. Whatever his feelings, they were entirely concealed from my observation. But my own feelings, which had been quite jubilant on the receipt of his letter, were sad and depressed. I felt like anything, rather than rejoicing at the downfall of a foe who had fought so long and valiantly and had suffered so much for a cause, though that cause was, I believe, one of the worst for which a people ever fought and one for which there was the least excuse.

[Narrator]

Before they left the McLean house, Lee admitted something devastating. His army was starving. They had scraped by on parched corn for days. Grant didn't hesitate asking how many men needed feeding. Lee answered, About 25,000 Union troops, who just a few days earlier were firing on the men in dingy gray uniforms, now handed them meals, ladled water into their tin cups with malice toward none, the charity for all. That night, Washington, D.C. erupted in colorful music related sovereign celebration. And yet, lurking in the shadows was a final insult about to be added to so much injury. One more national heartbreak for a people who had already endured so much.

[Narrator/Host]

Coming up on the American the beginnings.

[Narrator]

As Seward rolled desperately to the floor, Sergeant Robinson regained his senses, rushed back into the room and tackled Powell from behind. They grappled with Powell, stabbing Robinson repeatedly in the shoulder. Seward's daughter, Fanny, screamed for help, waking her brother Gus, who was asleep in the other room. She ran to the bedroom window, flung it open, and screamed into the street. That's when David Harold mounted his own horse and fled, leaving Powell's horse behind. Now Gus rushed in with Sergeant Robinson. They rested Powell out of the bedroom and into the hallway. But Powell was tall and strongly built and managed to punch his way out of the brawl. He finally thundered down the stairs, out the front door, and into the night. David Herold was nowhere to be found, so Powell threw away his bloody knife, swung onto his horse, and rode away in the darkness. Secretary Seward. He lay in a pool of his own blood, writhing in pain. Just a reminder, I'd love you to rate and subscribe to the podcast and pass this on to a friend so

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it can be discovered by other people.