eVideo
hoopla Instant
Valley Of The Shadow Of Death – 1864
Year
1990
Language
ENGLISH
Duration
1h 0m
Rating
TVPG
Publication Information
PBS
Summary
This episode begins with a biographical comparison of Grant and Lee and then chronicles the extraordinary series of battles that pitted the two generals against each other from the wilderness to Petersburg in Virginia. With Grant and Lee finally deadlocked at Petersburg, the episode moves to the ghastly hospitals in both the North and South, and follows Sherman's Atlanta campaign through the mountains of northern Georgia. As the horrendous casualty lists increase, Lincoln's chances for re-election begin to dim and with them, the possibility of Union victory. The presidential campaign of 1864 set Abraham Lincoln against his old commanding general, George McClellan. The stakes are nothing less than the survival of the Union itself. Opinion in the North has turned strongly against Lincoln and the war, but 11th-hour Union victories at Mobile Bay, Atlanta and the Shenandoah Valley tilt the election to Lincoln, and the Confederacy's last hope for independence dies. In an ironic twist, Lee's Arlington mansion is turned into a Union military hospital and the estate becomes Arlington National Cemetery -- the Union's most hallowed ground.