foothills of the blue ridge mountains but what happened there some time back it's history not far from get is bird there's a great valley lying a stretch calling it the cumberland and another cell the shenandoah john brown's body lies i'm older and in the grave but i watched on above the parade valley anticipating a deadly struggle between two ways of life the valley flowed north into an area both agriculturally rich and just really productive a land where factories were becoming part of the landscape but in the southern part of the valley in the land beyon of life depending on the hand labor of slaves a different way of life that seemed to call for a different kind of government this union must have placed on the right thing to do was it pleased on the question of slavery and every other question house divided against itself cannot stand april twelfth eighteen sixty one confederate guns fire on fort sumter the war in the coming south carolina had seceded from the union in december of eighty six days and six other slave states short run was a defeat for the north but not a decisive one by the spring of sixty two mcclellan now with the tough and discipline army the army of the potomac and barked aboard a huge fleet of wooden ships to the james river  drive on richmond fighting brought the union army to within four miles of richmond the heart and symbol of the confederacy but with a victory almost within his grasp mcclellan learned that his own capital was threatened by confederate cavalry they were stopped by union forces but mcclellan despite his superior numbers was defeated by a lay in a series of battles known as seven days richmond was still threatened but for that matter so was washington thus the war in the east was indecisive but things were going differently in the west here where broad rivers cut into the confederacy and then known union general surrounded fernando as the son known for terms the reply was terms of conditional surrender an unconditional surrender grant that was from that day on but ulysses s grant was not always to have things on his own terms one sunday morning in early april at his headquarters forty thousand confederates pressed the union troops to the very edge of the river towards what looked like an editable disaster but federal reinforcements arrived overnight reinforcements which turned the tide of the battle and when it was over the union army held the ground but at a cost more terrible than could be imagined general grant looked over the field i looked to the hostilities the grand strategy of the no again to america total blockade on the sea and the splitting of the confederacy by way of the western rivers thus the west was to prove crush on this war between in two days the cornfields of maryland became one of the bloodiest battlefields of the entire war was not the news of a decisive victory which reached the white house but it was enough of a victory and what abraham lincoln had been waiting for all persons held as slaves within any  the spring of sixty three found the war moving into its third tragic year with federal troops steeped in confederate territory in the once again lee's lieutenants were on the march in the cumberland valley and in june of sixty three the tides of war converged on the little town which i'm told them had been as peaceful as the seminary which stood nearby hardened veterans and trench done little round top waited the union sharpshooters and devils then waited the fertile fields of pennsylvania waited had moved with the steadiness of a dress parade their defeat was one which all but sealed the fate of the confederacy now in the midst of a tragic war not yet won a lot of folks gathered get his dedication and among them is the president he looks older now seldom smiles was been so known so many days on both sides after a while after the main speaker he has a few words to say rich east tennessee the way into georgia was now in union hands as well the mississippi river the confederacy was divided and in the grand lincoln had at last found a fighting general now placed in supreme command of all union forces grant through the army of the potomac into the wilderness campaign blasted lee's line was pushed back struck again and again the south was slowly unconditional surrender converses at length with robert e lee who hopes for something better than unconditional surrender by men would like to take their mounts home with them for the spring ploughing years it's doubtful if they will be able to put in a crop without the horses they are now writing