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The American Civil War Explained in 24 Minutes — Transcript

by Agent Flappy · 3,515 words · 572 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00From the bloodiest day in American
0:02history to the emotional surrender of a
0:04Confederate General to the president
0:07saving America from the brink of
0:08collapse and then getting assassinated
0:11[screaming] 5 days later. This is the
0:13American Civil War explained. A war so
0:16violent it killed more Americans than
0:19any other war in US history and if it
0:22wasn't for some legendary heroes, we
0:24wouldn't have made it out alive. But
0:26let's go back cuz wars don't just pop
0:29out of nowhere. They simmer. They stew.
0:32And by the time 1861 rolled around
0:35exploded cuz the United States was
0:38basically two worlds living under one
0:40flag. Up north it was speeding towards
0:43the future with factories, big cities,
0:46and railroads. And down south, well, the
0:49economy ran on cotton, an empire powered
0:52by 4 million slaves. But it wasn't just
0:55about dollars and cotton. It was about
0:57power, morality, and who got to define
1:01America. And this flared up every time a
1:04new territory joined the Union. Would it
1:06be a free state or a slave state? And
1:10here's the thing, whoever controlled
1:12more states controlled Congress,
1:14controlled policy, and basically
1:17controlled the future. So for decades
1:20presidents just slapped duct tape on the
1:22problem. The Missouri Compromise, the
1:24Compromise of 1850. It was like patching
1:27a sinking ship with a band-aid. Sir,
1:30we're going to need more tape. And by
1:32election day 1860, it finally blew its
1:35lid cuz unlike most presidents before
1:38him, Abraham Lincoln wasn't born sipping
1:41tea on fine China. He came from the
1:43dirt, literally. He grew up in a
1:46one-room log cabin in Kentucky. His
1:49mother died when he was nine and he had
1:52less than a year of schooling. But
1:54Lincoln had something you just can't
1:56teach, grit. Cuz after a full day of
1:59chopping wood, he taught himself law.
2:02And by the time he stepped into
2:04politics, people called him honest Abe,
2:07a lawyer that actually stood by his
2:09word. In fact, Abe once walked miles to
2:12return 6 cents of change to a customer
2:14he accidentally overcharged. That's the
2:17kind of guy this dude was, a man of
2:19character. But what made Lincoln so
2:22dangerous to the south is that he
2:23opposed the expansion of slavery. Cuz
2:26when he got elected president without a
2:28single southern state, it was basically
2:31game over for the south. And South
2:33Carolina didn't wait around for the
2:35welcome speech. Cuz before Lincoln could
2:37even unpack his bags, they seceded from
2:40the Union. And within weeks, six more
2:43states followed, Mississippi, Florida,
2:46Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas,
2:50who all got together and formed a brand
2:52new nation, the Confederate States of
2:54America. But Lincoln didn't jump the gun
2:57and invade the south. Instead, it all
3:00started with an island fortress off the
3:02coast of Charleston, South Carolina,
3:05Fort Sumter, one of the last Union
3:07outpost in Confederate territory. The
3:10problem? Both sides claimed it. So
3:13Lincoln faced an impossible choice. If
3:16he sent supplies, the south would call
3:18it an invasion. If he abandoned the
3:20fort, the north would see him as weak.
3:23So he chose a middle path and sent only
3:26food. No guns, no ammo, just bread,
3:30beans, and the hope that the
3:32Confederates would just look the other
3:34way. My man was basically trying to
3:36deliver DoorDash to avoid the Civil War.
3:39But unfortunately, the south wasn't
3:41hungry for compromise cuz Confederate
3:44General P.G.T. Beauregard gave the
3:46order, "Open fire."
3:49And for 34 straight hours, cannons
3:52thundered across Charleston Harbor. Yet
3:55somehow, miraculously, no one died.
3:58Ouch. But when the Union commander
4:01surrendered, the message echoed across
4:03the nation. War had begun.
4:06So Lincoln didn't waste a second and
4:09called for 75,000 volunteers to crush
4:12the rebellion, which ironically poured
4:14more fuel on the fire cuz four more
4:17states, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee,
4:20and North Carolina, joined the
4:22Confederacy. Sir, I think that
4:24backfired. But Virginia was the big one,
4:27the crown jewel, cuz its secession
4:30didn't just double the Confederacy's
4:32size, it delivered their greatest
4:34military weapon, Robert E. Lee, the son
4:38of a Revolutionary War hero, a West
4:40Point graduate who finished second in
4:42his class, and a decorated veteran of
4:45the Mexican-American War. Believe it or
4:47not, when the Union needed a commander,
4:50Lincoln actually offered Lee the job,
4:53but he turned it down. And not for the
4:55reason you might think cuz Lee opposed
4:58secession and even called slavery a
5:01moral and political evil. But when
5:03Virginia left the Union, Lee faced his
5:06own impossible choice, fight against his
5:08country or fight against his home. And
5:12he sided with Virginia, gifting the
5:14Confederacy one of the sharpest military
5:17minds in history. But here's the crazy
5:20part, both sides assumed the war would
5:22be over pretty quick. Cuz when Union
5:25troops marched toward Virginia, the mood
5:27was almost festive. People from DC
5:30actually packed picnic baskets and rode
5:33out in carriages to watch the battle.
5:35Anyone have some popcorn?
5:37Ooh, don't mind if I do. But the good
5:40vibes didn't last long cuz the Battle of
5:43Bull Run began with the two armies
5:45colliding. And at first, the Union
5:48pushed the Confederates back. But when
5:50Brigadier General Thomas Jackson arrived
5:53with his brigade, the Confederates
5:55rallied. One Confederate officer even
5:57pointed and shouted, "There stands
5:59Jackson like a stone wall." And the
6:02nickname stuck. Stonewall Jackson had
6:05arrived, allowing the Confederates to
6:08regroup and counterattack where they
6:10broke the Union line and forced them to
6:12retreat in a full-blown panic. And it
6:15was so chaotic, civilian carriages were
6:17bumping into Union troops in the rush to
6:20get home. Hey, wait up. [screaming] Can
6:22somebody give me a ride?
6:24But this was only the beginning cuz 1862
6:28would unleash a level of violence
6:30America had never seen before. Down in
6:33Tennessee, a quiet, cigar-chewing Union
6:35General named Ulysses S. Grant was
6:38making his move. He captured Fort Henry,
6:41then Fort Donelson. And when the
6:43Confederate commander asked for
6:45surrender terms, Grant replied with the
6:47line that made him famous,
6:49"No terms except unconditional and
6:51immediate surrender can be accepted."
6:54Translation, "I'm not here to negotiate.
6:57I'm here to win." But Grant's real test
6:59came at a place called Shiloh where
7:02Confederate forces launched a surprise
7:04attack and Union lines buckled. But
7:06Grant didn't panic. He never panicked.
7:10That night, reinforcements arrived and
7:12at sunrise, Grant counterattacked and
7:15hard cuz by the end of day two, the
7:18Confederates were the ones retreating.
7:20Woo, a close call, right? Well, not
7:23exactly. Cuz when the smoke cleared, it
7:26revealed over 23,000 casualties, more
7:30than all previous American wars
7:32combined. I just can't believe it. So
7:35with war heating up, Lincoln desperately
7:38needed someone to lead his main army.
7:41And in comes General George McClellan,
7:43young, brilliant, and a guy convinced he
7:47was Napoleon 2.0. But McClellan's
7:50confidence came with a fatal flaw. He
7:53hated taking risks. If the stars weren't
7:55aligned, the weather wasn't perfect, and
7:58the odds weren't 110% in his favor, he
8:01just wouldn't attack. GET BACK IN LINE,
8:04FLAPPY. UH, SORRY, SIR.
8:07MEANWHILE, Lincoln was losing his
8:09patience. He sent McClellan a note
8:11saying, "If you don't want to use the
8:13army, I would like to borrow it for a
8:15while." Ouch. So McClellan finally
8:18launched the Peninsula Campaign, a
8:20massive push to capture Richmond, the
8:22Confederate capital. And for a moment,
8:25it looked like the crazy kid might pull
8:27it off. Union troops got so close they
8:29could hear Richmond's church bells
8:31ringing. But that's when everything
8:34changed cuz a new commander took charge
8:37of the Confederate Army, Robert E. Lee.
8:40And oh boy, did he not waste a moment
8:44cuz Lee went straight on the attack and
8:46hammered McClellan's army. Mud,
8:48bayonets, forest on fire. It was
8:51straight-up madness.
8:53Yet in the end, Lee actually lost more
8:56men than McClellan. But he didn't care.
8:58He'd achieved exactly what he wanted,
9:01the Union Army pushed away from Richmond
9:04and McClellan's confidence was
9:05shattered. And shattered is the perfect
9:08way to put it cuz McClellan walked away
9:10convinced he'd been outnumbered,
9:12outmatched, and crushed by some massive
9:15Confederate force. But in reality, Lee's
9:18army was smaller. So riding high from
9:21his victories, Lee made a bold move and
9:23took the war into the north by invading
9:26Maryland.
9:27But that's when fate dropped a plot
9:29twist so crazy, Miss Flappy thought I
9:31was literally making this up. But I'm
9:33not, I swear. Cuz a Union soldier
9:36stumbled across an abandoned Confederate
9:39campsite and found a copy of Lee's
9:41battle plan. There it was, the full
9:43blueprint. McClellan literally held the
9:46Confederacy's playbook in his hands. So
9:49with this new advantage up against Lee's
9:51tactical genius, we finally got
9:53ourselves a fair fight. And what came
9:56next was the bloodiest day in American
9:59history, the Battle of Antietam, where
10:02Union troops surged into a cornfield and
10:04faced a storm of lead. Men charged,
10:08fell, and charged again. Bodies dropped
10:11everywhere. And one soldier later said a
10:14man could walk from one end of the field
10:16to the other without ever touching the
10:18ground.
10:19Horrifying.
10:21But just when you thought the battle
10:22couldn't get worse, it moved to Bloody
10:24Lane, a sunken road where Confederates
10:27packed in and mowed down wave after wave
10:30of Union soldiers charging straight into
10:32the rifles. Eventually, Union troops
10:35flanked the road and fired downward into
10:37the trapped Confederates below, creating
10:40a mass grave carved into the earth. But
10:43the final push came at Antietam Creek,
10:46where Union forces crossed the bridge to
10:48finish Lee's army for good. Until out of
10:51nowhere, surprise reinforcements
10:53appeared and forced the Union back. The
10:56cornfield changed hands 15 times, and
10:59Bloody Lane stacked three deep. And when
11:02the sun finally set, there were more
11:04than 23,000 [music]
11:06casualties. The single bloodiest day in
11:09American history was over. And on paper,
11:13Antietam was a draw, but strategically,
11:16the Union forced Lee to retreat. Sir,
11:19I'll be flying the flag at half-mast for
11:21the next decade, cuz that was just
11:24devastating. But back in DC, Lincoln
11:27wanted to use this momentum to his
11:29advantage. So he issued the Emancipation
11:32Proclamation, declaring that all slaves
11:35are and hence forward shall be free.
11:37Woohoo! Well, the only problem was it
11:40didn't actually free anyone in
11:42Confederate states yet. But it did give
11:45Union soldiers a moral cause worth
11:47fighting for. It allowed black men to
11:49enlist, with nearly 200,000 answering
11:52the call, and shut the door on European
11:55intervention. Cuz Britain and France
11:57could no longer side with the
11:58Confederacy without openly defending
12:00slavery. Yep, Lincoln had officially
12:03changed the game. But he had another big
12:06problem on his hands, a general problem.
12:09Cuz Robert E. Lee was on the move again.
12:12This time marching 75,000 men into
12:14Pennsylvania.
12:16And Lincoln was desperate for a
12:18commander who could finally stop him. So
12:20he made another change at the top and
12:22replaced his general with George Meade,
12:25just three days before battle. Meade
12:28wasn't a genius, but he was solid, calm
12:31under pressure, and the kind of guy who
12:33wouldn't panic if I misfired my gun.
12:36Sorry, sir.
12:38But it all kicked off when Confederate
12:40and Union forces collided near a quiet
12:42little town called Gettysburg.
12:45And by nightfall, the Confederates had
12:47the upper hand. But on day two, the
12:50battle didn't just continue. It erupted
12:53into chaos. Cuz Lee launched massive
12:56assaults on both Union flanks. And one
12:58of the fiercest attacks came at Little
13:00Round Top, a rocky hill that anchored
13:03the entire Union line. If it fell, the
13:06battle, and maybe even the war, could
13:08have been lost. But that's when Colonel
13:11Joshua Chamberlain and his 20th Maine
13:13made a heroic stand. Outnumbered and out
13:17of ammunition, Chamberlain had nothing
13:19left to shoot. So he ordered one final
13:22desperate move, a bayonet charge
13:25downhill. And against all odds, it
13:28worked. Meanwhile, on the other flank,
13:31Confederate forces stormed Cemetery Hill
13:34and Culp's Hill as night fell. The
13:36fighting devolved into ruthless
13:38hand-to-hand combat in the dark. But
13:41again, the Union refused to break. Lee
13:44had thrown everything at Meade's flanks
13:47and failed. Enraged, Lee made a fateful
13:50decision, attack the center. So on day
13:54three, Confederate artillery unleashed
13:56the largest bombardment ever seen in the
13:58Western Hemisphere. Cannons thundered,
14:01the earth trembled, and the sky turned
14:04to smoke so thick it swallowed the sun.
14:08And then,
14:09silence.
14:11Out of the drifting haze, 12,000
14:13Confederate soldiers emerged and began
14:16their march, Pickett's Charge, the last
14:19gamble.
14:21So the Union line waited, and then
14:23unleashed a storm of bullets. Men fell
14:26by the hundreds, but still the gray line
14:29pushed forward. And somehow, a few
14:32hundred Confederates actually broke
14:34through. Led by General Lewis Armistead,
14:37they reached the Union guns. And in an
14:40effort to flip the battle, Armistead
14:42placed his hand on a Union cannon and
14:45shouted for his men to fire the enemy
14:47cannons back at them. But little did he
14:50know, this was the furthest any
14:52Confederate would ever get on northern
14:54soil. Cuz when Armistead turned around,
14:57he was completely alone.
14:59Bang. The charge had failed.
15:03Of the 12,000 men who began that march,
15:05less than half returned uninjured. And
15:08when Lee rode out to meet the survivors,
15:10tears streamed down his face.
15:13"It's all my fault," he quietly said to
15:15himself.
15:16"It's all my fault." The Battle of
15:19Gettysburg proved to be the deadliest of
15:21the Civil War, resulting 50,000
15:24casualties total.
15:26But while Gettysburg shook the East,
15:28another battle was roaring 900 miles
15:31away. Cuz General Ulysses S. Grant had
15:34spent months trying and failing to
15:36capture Vicksburg, the last Confederate
15:39fortress on the Mississippi River. So he
15:42decided to change it up and do something
15:44borderline insane. At 2:00 a.m., Grant
15:48rolled the dice and sent Union gunboats
15:50right past Vicksburg's cannons, fully
15:53aware that if even one was hit, the
15:55whole plan would collapse. But it was so
15:58dark, the cannons couldn't see a thing,
16:01and the boats slid right past them,
16:03allowing Grant to finally tighten his
16:05grip around Vicksburg. Cuz inside,
16:08Confederate soldiers ran out of food.
16:11They ate mules, dogs, and eventually
16:13rats.
16:15Hey boys, maybe stay away from the
16:16eagles, all right? Pretty please?
16:19But by July 4th, 1863, the Confederates
16:22in Vicksburg surrendered. Now with
16:25Gettysburg in the East and Vicksburg in
16:27the West, the war had officially turned.
16:30Cuz now it was clear as day, Lincoln had
16:33finally found his general, Ulysses S.
16:36Grant, who he promoted to command all
16:39Union armies. And Grant wasted no time
16:42setting his strategy.
16:44In the West, he handed command to
16:46William Sherman with the order, "Destroy
16:49the Confederate Army in Georgia and take
16:51Atlanta."
16:53Meanwhile, in the East, Grant set his
16:55own sights on Robert E. Lee. And they
16:58both locked horns in a bloodbath across
17:01Virginia.
17:02First at the Wilderness, they fought in
17:04a thick forest with gunsmoke so thick
17:06soldiers could barely see in front of
17:08them. And after two days of combat,
17:11Grant's losses were enormous.
17:13Every Union general before him had
17:15retreated after facing Lee, but not
17:18Grant. He marched south, still
17:21attacking, still pushing, and still
17:24grinding Lee down. At Spotsylvania,
17:27bodies piled so high they had to be
17:29dragged away just to keep fighting. One
17:32oak tree, 2 ft thick, was cut down by
17:35rifle fire alone.
17:38Then came Cold Harbor, where Grant
17:40ordered an assault turned disaster. Cuz
17:43more than 7,000 Union soldiers fell in
17:46less than an hour. Grant later admitted
17:49it was the one attack he truly
17:52regretted. But here's one thing Lee
17:54couldn't do, stop him.
17:57Cuz every time Grant lost men, he
17:59replaced them. And every time Lee lost
18:02men, he didn't get them back. So by the
18:05Siege of Petersburg, the fighting
18:07dragged on for nine brutal months. Lee's
18:10army was pinned down, starving, and cut
18:13off. And at the same time, northern
18:16newspapers called Grant the butcher for
18:19wasting tens of thousands of Union
18:21lives. But Lincoln understood what
18:24others didn't. "I can't spare this man.
18:27He fights."
18:29In other words, Grant is the first
18:31general willing to do what it actually
18:32takes to win.
18:34Meanwhile, in the West, General Sherman
18:36took things in a, let's call it, a
18:38unique direction. Cuz he believed in
18:41something called total war,
18:43which means not just defeating the
18:45enemy, but breaking their will to fight.
18:48"War is cruelty. There's no use trying
18:51to reform it. The crueler it is, the
18:54sooner it'll be over."
18:56So throughout the summer of 1864,
18:59Sherman pushed toward Atlanta, and by
19:01September, it fell.
19:03Afterwards, Sherman sent a simple
19:05telegram to Lincoln.
19:07"Atlanta is ours, and fairly won." And
19:10the timing couldn't have been better.
19:12Cuz Lincoln faced re-election in
19:14November, and things weren't looking too
19:16good. War fatigue was high, casualties
19:19were staggering, and public confidence
19:22was slipping away. But when Sherman
19:24achieved victory in Atlanta, everything
19:26changed. Lincoln won re-election in a
19:29landslide. Woohoo!
19:32But wait, the war wasn't over yet, and
19:35Sherman knew it. So instead of stopping
19:37in Atlanta, he proposed something
19:40radical. "March across Georgia to the
19:42Atlantic and destroy everything of
19:45military value along the way."
19:48"I can make this march," Sherman told
19:51Grant, "and make Georgia howl."
19:53Grant approved and unleashed him.
19:57So, Sherman set Atlanta ablaze. It began
20:00his legendary march to the sea, where
20:0260,000 soldiers moved in two massive
20:06columns 60 miles wide. They ripped up
20:09railroads, burned factories, and
20:11everywhere they went, liberated slaves.
20:14With thousands joining the march,
20:16singing songs of freedom.
20:18And by the time Sherman reached
20:20Savannah, his army had carved a path of
20:22destruction nearly 300 miles long. He
20:26sent Lincoln a telegram that simply
20:28read, "I beg to present you as a
20:31Christmas gift, the city of Savannah."
20:34By 1865, the Confederacy was on life
20:37support. Lee's army was starving. Men
20:41were deserting, and ammunition was
20:43almost gone. When Union forces broke
20:45through at Five Forks and severed Lee's
20:48last supply line, within days,
20:50Petersburg fell. Then Richmond.
20:54As Confederate officials fled the
20:55capital, they set fire to their own
20:58warehouses to keep supplies from falling
21:00into Union hands. But the flames raged
21:03out of control, burning Richmond to the
21:06ground. Lee fled west with 30,000
21:09starving men. But Grant was everywhere.
21:12He cut off every road, bridge, and hope
21:15of escape. It was the end.
21:18Lee was completely surrounded. So, with
21:21no options left, Lee asked for a meeting
21:24with Grant, [music] and they met at
21:26Appomattox Courthouse. The contrast
21:28between the two generals couldn't have
21:30been more stark. Grant arrived in a
21:32mud-stained uniform, looking like a
21:34soldier who hadn't slept in days.
21:37Whereas Lee wore his finest dress
21:39uniform. Every button polished to a
21:42shine. He was sending a message. "I may
21:45be defeated, but I'll surrender with
21:47dignity."
21:48And Grant offered pretty generous terms.
21:51Confederate soldiers could keep their
21:52horses, officers could keep their
21:54sidearms, and every man would be paroled
21:57and allowed to go home. No executions,
22:00no treason trials, no revenge. Lee's
22:04face softened. "This will have a very
22:06happy effect on my army." He said
22:08quietly.
22:09Lee then asked if Grant could spare
22:11rations. Grant nodded. "Certainly. How
22:15many men?"
22:16"About 25,000."
22:18Without hesitation, Grant sent 25,000
22:21rations to Lee's starving soldiers. And
22:24when the meeting ended, the two men
22:26shook hands.
22:27But then came one of the most human
22:30moments of the entire war. Cuz Lee
22:32mounted his horse and rode back to his
22:34army, where soldiers crowded around,
22:37reaching for his hand as tears streaked
22:40down their faces. Lee couldn't speak. He
22:43simply removed his hat and salute. The
22:46Civil War, America's deadliest conflict,
22:49was finally over. But there was one
22:52final [music] tragedy no one expected.
22:54Just 5 days after Lee's surrender,
22:57Abraham Lincoln attended a play at
22:59Ford's Theatre, where Confederate
23:01sympathizer John Wilkes Booth slipped
23:03into the presidential box and shot
23:05Lincoln in the [screaming] back of the
23:06head. But it wasn't just Lincoln's
23:08tragic death that makes it so sad. It
23:11was the timing. Abraham Lincoln guided
23:14America through its darkest hour,
23:16preserved the Union, and struck the
23:18chains of slavery from 4 million people,
23:21only to die just before he could see the
23:24promised land.
23:26We'll miss you, sir.
23:27But in the end, the American Civil War
23:30didn't just change America. It defined
23:33it. Cuz over 600,000 Americans died,
23:36more than all other American wars
23:38combined until Vietnam, which is insane
23:41to think about. But from its ashes, the
23:44United States was given a second chance,
23:47a chance to live up to the founders'
23:49ideals that all men are created equal.
23:52God bless America, man. I freaking love
23:54this place. But speaking of tragic
23:57presidential deaths that changed the
23:59course of America, this is how every US
24:01president died and their final words.
24:04From eating raw cherries to contaminated
24:07water at the White House to getting
24:09assassinated in broad daylight. If you
24:11thought Lincoln's death was crazy, then
24:13just click this video right here and
24:15subscribe.

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