Ken Burns' Civil War Author(S): Gabor S

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Ken Burns' Civil War Author(s): Gabor S. Boritt Reviewed work(s): Source: Pennsylvania History, Vol. 58, No. 3 (July 1991), pp. 212-221 Published by: Penn State University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27773462 . Accessed: 06/01/2013 13:59

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This content downloaded on Sun, 6 Jan 2013 13:59:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions -212 Ken Burns' Civil War Gabor S. Boritt GettysburgCollege

For a long timeat theGettysburg National Military Park a solitarystone wall leftstanding from a destroyedbarn evoked, better than anythingelse, the American Civil War. Purists, some might say small-minded, objected vehemendy, wanting itpulled down. After all, George Rose's barn did not start to crumble until 1934, long afterthe weary troopsof generalsRobert E. Lee and George Gordon Meade had leftforever. But the tallwall stood there,amidst lushgreen and amidst white snow, year after year, decade following decade. Experts continued to grumbleuntil at last,in 1985,a windstorm blew itdown. The strongPennsylvania stones thathad forso longwithstood thewind andweather and expertcriticism, make a finemetaphor forone of the importantachievements of thepast hundred years and more by the studentsof thegreat American tragedyand triumph:Ken Burns' PBS documentary series, "The Civil War," the winner of the first Lincoln Prize,a new $50,000 annual awardpresented by theLincoln and Soldiers Institute atGettysburg College, forthe best work on theCivil War era. Burns' eleven-hour long masterpiece is a major contribution to how Ameri cans perceive this central event of their history?indeed war in general. It follows in the traditionof brilliantfilm making which beganwith D. W. Griffith's"Birth of a Nation" in 1915.Woodrow Wilson described thatwork as "writinghistory with lightening,"but better testimonyto its terrifyingpower camewith theblack men lynchedin thefilm's wake and the rebirthof theKKK1 Nearlya quarterof a cen turylater David O. Selznick's 1939 "GoneWith theWind" demonstratedanew, ifin a less malignant manner, that cinema about the Civil War continued tomatter. Its long reign as the premier film on theWar, and the premier romanticization of the "world the slaveholders made," came to a definite end with Burns. The PBS series was seen by fourteenmillion people in itsentirety, when firstshown in the fallof 1990,and inpart by close to 40 million people.2 Repeated runson televisionand simultaneous release on video continues to add untold millions to its viewing audience. Its influence remains to be gauged, but George Bush and Colin Powell inWashington, and Norman Schwarzkopf in Saudi Arabia, provided telling illustra tionsas theywatched thefilm hour afterhour with itsdeeply disturbingemphasis on casualties.3 The country was going towar with Iraq and the documentary rein forced the leaders' insistence on a strategy designed tominimize American mili tary casualties. The recreation of CivilWar history stillmatters in themaking of new American history. Iffor bibliophiles it ispainful tohonor a film inplace of a book, itshould be

This content downloaded on Sun, 6 Jan 2013 13:59:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Courtesyof The Museum ofModem Art,Rim StillsArchive, New York.

The KKK to the Rescue. The famed cavalry charge in D. W Griffiths "Binh of a Nation" (1915).

Courtesyof The Museum ofModem Art,Film Stills Archive, New York.

Southern Visions: Tara. The plantation mansion in David O. Selznick s "Gone With theWind" (1939).

Volume 58, Number 3 July 1991

This content downloaded on Sun, 6 Jan 2013 13:59:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Courtesyof theChicago HistoricalSociety.

Unknown Union Soldier. Image reversed here. Photographer and date unknown. From Ken Burns' "The CivilWar" (1990).

Pennsylvania History

This content downloaded on Sun, 6 Jan 2013 13:59:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions -215 some consolation that Burns' work is a close kin of literature. Words count for nearlyas much in itas imagesand sounds.The filmmakerhas both theears and theeyes of a poet. He turnsdull black andwhite photos intohaunting images full of life.They hold us captive.They make us choke up. And so do thewords. More than 800 quotations and a fine connecting narrative frame the images. In a nation seemingly uninterested in history, and for this visually oriented generation uninterested in reading, Burns invokes the power of the native tongue. Thanks to him, and talented coworkers, millions heard American words from a time when the American language reached perhaps its eloquent high water mark. The words may come from a Mary Boykin Chesnut, aWalt Whitman, an Abraham Lincoln, or a Frederick Douglass?or theymay come from people long forgotten.We see men with guns. Soldiers charge. "They seemed tomelt like snow coming down on warm an ground," the words of unnamed officer. Burns knew almost nothing about theWar when he embarkedon hiswork, and his fresheyed innocence cap tured an essence that eluded experts. The accusation of anti-Southernprejudice made against the filmdoes not standup well. The charge is summedup by theSouthern Partisan cartoon showing a General Grant leaning against giant television screen carrying the words "PBS: The CivilWar" andwith thecaption adding: "Broughtto you by U.S. Grant."One can understandwhy the fewSoutherners still "fighting" the War with vigorwould, forexample, brisde at seeing in the filmAndersonville by itself,with photos of its survivors matching the survivors of Nazi death camps, and with its commander a German immigrant. Anger, however, is directed at the wrong place, even ifmost Northern prisoner of war camps were also abominations. Burns, whose Confeder ate ancestors incidentally outnumbered his Union ones, and who made Mississip pian ShelbyFoote, with hiswonderful whiskey voice, his star,intends no injustice. It is true that theNorth won theWar, many Yankee values became dominant American values, and Burns is an American. But his Andersonville is not so much a as an Rebel crime it is American crime. It represents all the prisons and all the victimsof theCivil War, indeed allvictims of thehorrors of war at all times.And the love filmmaker's of both Southerners and Northerners shines through everywhere. Much of this nation is ready for such an approach to the past.4 This is not to as deny that history the documentary is open to questions.5 It makes the War Civil the central event of U.S. history?in thewords of novelist-his torian "the cross our Foote, roads of being," America's defining moment. I, too, feel the attractionof such a faith.But scholarswho see the storyof humanity in termsof long rangeprocesses should be veryuncomfortable with it.Even within the four year focus, these and other historians, too, would want a systematic look at the home front,women, social history in general, religion, diplomacy, cultural, constitutional intellectual, and economic questions. Did any factors besides slavery deserve close attention in the coming of theWar, for example? But on these and

Volume 58, Number 3 July 1991

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other matters scholars themselves disagree. Burns has earned the right to his own interpretations. What historians would call14methodology" combines here music and sound effects, text read by 40 fine voices, and visual materials, primarily old photographs supplemented by virtuoso cinematography. Yet even as dead photos are endowed with unprecedented poetic brilliance, image and text do not always match. The rare expert familiar with the visuals receives repeated jolts.A voice speaks of a col lege in Gettysburg, the photo shows the Lutheran Seminary. Voice: Chancellorsville; photo: Wilderness. And so on. How much mismatching is justifiedby art?We would rebel ifLincoln's words were attributedto Grant, or Sullivan Ballou's to another unknown soldier. Yet photographs are as much histori cal documents as speeches or letters. For many historians, likeWilliam Frassanito, who have made great strides in turningphotos intospecific historical documents a (rather than works of art or generic props), "The Civil War" represents bitter setback. As a minimum the film needed a strong disclaimer.6 Out of place photographsalso disturbone of themost strikingelements of the film:the many photos of thedead. Burns isnot so much obsessed with death as he is its friend, one who made utter peace with it.He often teaches us with photos which the Civil War era public never saw. Mutilated bodies, with parts blown away; men grievously wounded; amputees; people soon to be corpses; a

Courtesyof D. Mark Katz fromhis bookWitness toan Era: The Lifeand Photographsof AlexanderGardner (NewYork: Viking, 1991).

Dead at Gettysburg.Photograph by AlexanderGardner, July 5, 1863.From Ken Bums' "TheCivil War" (1990).

Pennsylvania History

This content downloaded on Sun, 6 Jan 2013 13:59:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions -217 pile of limbs.These give an anti-warethos to thefilm which helps explain itswarm embrace by post-Vietnam (and pre-Iraq) America. The contradiction between being against war and for its results?in this case black freedom?is no more resolvedby Burns thanby thescholars who are equally theproducts of theanti-war and civil rightsera of the sixtiesand after. The above contradiction springs from "the hearts and minds" of the creators of the film.Others result from the presence of historians with contrasting interpre as tations. The documentary pictures Lincoln the emancipator. But Columbia Universityhistorian Barbara Fieldsdissents, giving most of thecredit for black free dom to theblack people themselves.The viewer canmake up heror his own mind about the truth of history. The soundtrackprovides a richvariety of regionaldialects. Even a feweffete European voices are heard, sometimes to criticize the North with disdain. Sorely missing, however, are the sounds of the immigrants who made up 10% of the Con federate and 25% of the Union armies. The Germans, the Irish, and so many others. When German-born general Carl Schurz speaks, no old-country accent appears. Although the important if coerced African-American contribution to the Southern home frontand their contributionto the destructionof slavery is are a ignored, the "United States Colored Troops" accorded deservedly large role in the Northern victory. The immigrants, however, remain unheard. Many of thefinest scholars of theCivil War period servedas advisors to the film,a fewappeared in it,and thework of others, too, isborrowed freely.Finding myself being quoted verbatim, in part one, without attribution,I remembered Cyrano's retortwhen told that Moli?re stole from him: "Bah?he showed good taste."A filmcan not have footnotesafter all and studentsof theCivil War surely owe as much to Burns as vice versa.7 Yet what he and his co-writers badly needed was one outside expert to carefullycomb throughall of the footage forerrors? probably a militaryhistorian since so much of the filmtargets the war on land, thoughnot thaton thewaters. Gettysburg,July 1-3, 1863, illustratesthe point. Day one. "The greatest battle ever fought on the North American continent began as a clash over shoes." Folktale. The series uses these masterfully but ahistorically"The South came in fromthe North thatday and theNorth came in from the South." A fine sentence that stresses paradox. But the South came in from theWest, then theNorth. Mundane factsoften lose out to thewell-tuned phrase or theenticing image. "Compared towhat was coming, the firstday had been a skir mish." Without going into arguments over exact numbers of troops and precise times?a venerable labyrinth?itis clear thatthe first day, with close toone-third of the threedays' casualties,was anythingbut a skirmish.It foreshadowedwhat was to come. Day two is largely devoted to one heroic episode, Joshua Chamberlain's defense of LittleRound Top. Such a twistprovides literaltestimony to the adage

Volume 58, Number 3 July 1991

This content downloaded on Sun, 6 Jan 2013 13:59:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions -218 thatthe pen ismightier thanthe sword. A professorof rhetoricfrom Bowdoin Col lege, Chamberlain wrote excellent after-batde reports and memoirs. Not surpris ingly,his unit, the 20th Maine, eventually attracted a fine regimental historian and, most importandy,in 1975,Michael Shaara,whose novel of thebatde, Tlie Killer a Angels, won the Pulitzer Prize. Itmade the professor-colonel from Maine into folk hero. Burns is sensitive to the fact that themythology of theWar continues to evolve. As for history, much of the action thatmade day two the crucial stalemate, disappears from the film almost entirely.8 Day three is Pickett'sCharge. The seven-hour strugglefor Culp's Hill is ignored. Chronology is upended for the sake of drama. The visual images at times do notmatch thespoken words andwhen theydo theycan stillgive a false impres sion. For example Lewis Armistead, who breaches the federal center, is shown on horseback in the romanticpainting of Paul Philippoteaux.Of course theVirginian marched and ran, like the other Rebs, because a man on horseback could not have survivedon theslopes of CemeteryRidge. One wonderswhether discomfortwith military matters produces gaffes that turn "aim low" into the soundtrack's "aim slow," or is Garrison Keillor misreading the text and nobody knows enough to catch theerror? Is thiswhy theTaneytown Road becomes theTarreytown Road? The inconsequentialand thehistorically forgivable shade intothe substantive until thebatde becomes litdemore than thesaga of Chamberlainand Pickett'sCharge. And yet,after spitting out what tomany must seemmalicious quibbles (who careswhether General Armistead rode a horse?) it is joyous to shout that the Gettysburg segment, like the film as a whole, is miraculously good art. Chamberlain, and Pickett, and Burns do make the batde come alive. And more. When the sunlighthits thecannon throughthe tree topson theridge, we know it isearly afternoon, July 3, timefor the Charge. Burns filmedon the rightday at the righttime. The rainscome because theyhad in 1863.The birds singbecause they are native to the ground. We see in thebackground a 104year old blackwoman, eyes shut,reciting War poetry. Her fatherwas a slave, escaped, joined the U.S. Army, returned South and shot his former overseer. We want to believe. Even the expert forgets to analyze diewords, thephotographs, the paintings. They belong, our senses tellus. So do die sounds of batde,muffled in the background,marching feet,horses hoofs, neighing,wagons, artilleryrumbling, something like a Rebel yell,guns fired,night noises, insects buzzing, birds, a piano. They take away your breath. They put tears inyour eyes. They underscore thehistorical insights.Shelby Foote: "Gettysburg was theprice the South paid forhaving Robert E. Lee. Thatwas themistake he made. The mistake of all mistakes." We know thatwe could not find 13,000 men in thewestern world todayfor Pickett to charge against thoseYankee guns.Why did the soldiers fight?Why did theygo up CemeteryRidge? Then we hear a Rebel officer urging his men, attacking south against the insurmountable northern

Pennsylvania History

This content downloaded on Sun, 6 Jan 2013 13:59:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 219 Courtesyof Walter Lane.

s Intimations of Glory. Photograph by Walter Line. French painter Paul Philippoteaux General Armistead is a monally wounded as his tr ps capture Union battery at the Angle in Gettysburg. From Ken Burns' "The Civil Wal"

breastworks: "Home, boys, home! Remember, home is over beyond those hills!" It is preposterous to compare a work that oudasted millennia with another created during the past half decade. And yet as one lovingly contemplates "The CivilWar" itconjures up theIliad, the storyof a war fromthe perspective of the winner, the perspective thatmostly survives. Homer, of course, is not very good history. Nor are die works that have made history live over the ages, the Bible, Beowulf, the Shah-nama, the Mahabharata, the Three Kingdoms, Heike Monogatari, Hiawatha and Shaka. None are good history. By the strict and often deadening standards of academe neither is the work of Ken Burns. That it is touchedby thefire of a greatgift, however, can not be denied. Itchallenges our understanding of what history is.

Volume 58, Number 3 July 1991

This content downloaded on Sun, 6 Jan 2013 13:59:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions - - 220 Notes RobertV Bruce and JamesM. McPhersonboth York Times, Oct. 14, 1990. The strongestyet on a gave a critical reading to this essay. I also unconvincing attack "The Civil War" from benefited fromdiscussing theGettysburg seg self-conscious "Southern" perspective came from ment of "The Civil War" with Norse Boritt,William Ludwell Johnson, "PBS's Civil War: The A Frassanito, Mark Nesbitt, William H. Ridinger, Mythmanagement of History," Southern Partisan, and Scott Hartwig. ThirdQuarter, 1990,pp. 35-37. a 1.Wilson quoted in JackTemple Kirby,Media The documentary was also charged with pro Made Dixie: The South in the American Imagina Southern and anti-black bias. See for example tion (Athens:University of Georgia Press, 1986), MichaelThehvell quoted inCharles Leehrsen with p. 4. Mark Miller, "Revisiting The Civil War," Newsweek, 2. Conversations with Neil Mahrer, Executive Vice Oct. 8, 1990, p. 62. The most cogent statement a came President, PBS, January 17, and February 9, 1991. related to such view from Leon Litwack of 3. Numerous conversations in person as well as the University of California, Berkeley, who argued on the with Ken Burns that Burns did not do justice to the social revolu telephone duringSpring, " 1991, See also, for example, The Washington Post, tionwhich ended slavery. Nancy Scott, 'CivilWar' September19, October 16,1990, February 5. 1991; Social Revolution? Berkeley Historian says PBS Ser TheNew YorkTimes, September24, 1990. ies Gives Inadequate Version of Events" San 4. The Southernpress, likethat of the restof the Francisco Examiner, October 14, 1990, and United States, gave lavish praise to the documen Reviewof "The CivilWar," MHQ: The Quarterly tary.See thebook of press clips on "The Civil Journalof Military History, III (Winter1991): 44 War," PBS offices, Alexandria, Virginia. The car 46. Litwackchaired thecommittee which denied toon mentioned above appeared in the 1'South 1991the Erik Bamouw Awardof theOrganization ern" Partisan, Third Quarter, 1990, p. 37. Numer of American Historians for the best television pro ous, mostly brief,press reportsalso indicated gram or documentary film dealing with on Ameri Southern objections to "The Civil War." See for can history to Burns, an award he had won twice example New Orleans Time-Picayne, Sept. 22, before for substantially smaller achievements than 1990;Alan Patureau,"Charges of Bias inCivil War '"The Civil War." Not surprisingly, the above cited Series Open Old Wounds," The Atlanta Journal Newsweek cover story also noted that a lot of aca and Constitution, Sept. 22, 1990; W Spears, demics saw theirown specialtyslighted in the "Battle Lines Drawn Over 'CivilWar,'" Philadelphia documentary. Inquirer,Sept. 22, 1990; JayArnold (Associated 5. For a useful recent look at history on film, "PBS a Press), Series "Ihe Civil War' is Accused of including bibliography, see John E. O'Connor, Northern Bias," Tucson Citizen, Sept. 22, 1990; ed., Images of Film and Television (American His "South Fears Slam From Civil War Miniseries," torical Association, Malabor, Fla.: Krieger, 1990). HarrisburgPatriot, Sept. 22, 1990; "A Southern 6. For William A Frassanito's work see Gerrys View," Augusta, GA, Chronicle, Sept. 23, 1990; burg: A Journey in Time (New York: Scribner's, David Braaten, "TrueSons of the South Smell a 1975): Antietam: The PhotographicLegacy of Yankee TV Plot," WashingtonTimes, Sept. 25, America's Bloodiest Day (New York: Scribner's, 1990;Philip Hosmer, "CivilWar StillEvokes Con 1978);Grant and Lee: The VirginiaCampaigns, troversy," Bridgewater, N.J. Courier-News, Sept. 26, 1864-1865(New York: Scribner's,1983). For two 1990; "Documentaryby Ken Bums," Societyof good recentbooks on photographysee Alan Civil War Historians Newsletter, Sept., 1990, Trachtenberg, Reading American Photographs: " as pp. 2-9; "Southern Group Criticizes 'CivilWar' Images History, Matthew Brady toWalker Evens ElectronicMedia, October 1, 1990; "The Civil (New York: Hill andWang, 1989), and Timothy War," U.S News and World Oct. 8, 1990; Sweet, Traces ofWar: and the " Report, Poetry, Photography, 'CivilWar' Deserves Emmy for Pseudohistory," Crisis of theUnion (Baltimore:Johns Hopkins Letterof Elizabeth GardnerWaddington, New UniversityPress, 1990).

Pennsylvania History

This content downloaded on Sun, 6 Jan 2013 13:59:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions -221 Crisis of the Union (Baltimore:Johns Hopkins Coddington,Vie GettysburgCampaign: A Studyin University Press, 1990). Command (New York: Scrihner's, 1968). The most A 7. handsome b k accompanies the documen important recent work is Harry W. Pfanz, Gettys tary: Geoffrey C. Ward, with Ric Burns and Ken burg:Tlie Second Day (ChapelHill: Universityof Bums, Vie Civil War (New York: Knopf, 1990). North Carolina Press, 1987). 8. The best work on the battle remains Edwin B.

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