I have seen the first two episodes and have the third recorded. Good enough to keep watching the series, but like most other History Channel "documentaries", these are large on theatrics and somewhat short on "history". I am reminded that they still have Pawn Stars, Counting Cars, and many other somewhat obnoxious shows.
I prefer to watch things on the AHC (formerly The Military Channel) for better documented shows.
Ken Burns' stuff is always fantastic, as well as the narration. You can call it the ACW, the War Between The States, the War Of Northern Aggression, the Lost Cause, or the Fall Of The House Of Dixie, among other things, but it will always be what it was, historically: a true calamity that took more American lives than any war in our history, and it did not have to happen if one removed the hot-blooded men from the picture. It was a clash of completely different cultures and mindsets. If Lincoln had just let the Confederacy go its own way, it would have died in a few decades because cotton horribly depletes the soil of nutrients (the way it was farmed back then) and the agrarian Confederate economy would not have survived. The rich planters would have become poor planters and would have had no need for slaves after that point.
Yes, Jackson forcibly removed the Five Nations/tribes from their homelands in what would become Alabama and Mississippi to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) to allow him and the rich planters to continue to make money. The name of the game was extreme capitalism, whatever the cost to everyone else. Even when the planters went to Texas the land wore out, the game was over.
And the Confederacy closed a blind eye to it, even when they were running out of planting acreage.
What has always befuddled me is as to why the poorer white farmers/non slaveholders bought into this idea, and they were mostly the cannon fodder during the War as opposed to the planters and their kin for the majority part. It must have been the mindset of States Rights over the Federal government of the US that was driven home to them by the planter politicians.
The little guy really had no dog in the fight, but they did it anyway. At Griswoldville (the G&G factory) old men and boys stood up to Sherman's troops but were soundly defeated.
What mentality caused them to stand up to a Regular Army?
I guess I should have been there to understand.
Jim
That was pretty decent and I bet this new series is pretty good.
