Grant Miniseries on The History Channel

[WP76]

First, what is the world coming to with The History Channel actually showing history? Who'd have known...

Secondly, I very much enjoyed the first two hour installment which aired this evening and I'll definitely watch the next two episodes.

Just wondering if anyone else watched it and their thoughts?

 

[iasooner1]

Of course I did. When the World returns to normal the historic battlefields are on my bucket list.

 

[CTOkie]

Of course I did. When the World returns to normal the historic battlefields are on my bucket list.

My trip to Gettysburg this month to look at several retirement communities in and around Gettysburg did not happen.
It's a special place for me since my dad took me there in July of 1960. Since 1990, I have been there at least 17 times and it never gets old.
Looks like April/May of 2021 will now be our time to go.
My recommendation to those interested should plan at least 4-5 days and visit both Gettysburg and Antietam (Sharpsburg, Md.), which is 48 miles away. Antietam is the best preserved of all the Civil War battlefields as a result of the citizens there keeping commercial property away.
Gettysburg has in the last 25 years finally decided to restore the battlefield its 1863 appearance....notably by removing the eye sours of the observation tower (erected in 1973) and the old Cyclorama Building (built in the early 1960's, looking like a big white oil tank), relocating the visitor's center off of Cemetery Hill and removing the motor lodge surrounding Lee's Headquarters northwest of town. Many trees have been cut down and new ones planted to make the battlefield topography appear as it did in the 1860's. There's still some work to do, but it's good to see Gettysburg doing what it should have done a long time ago.
My dad really started my obsession with Gettysburg 60 years ago....as he did with Cooperstown and baseball.

 

[SoonerSA]

My Dad took our family to Gettysburg in the 60's. We were living in Arlington, Va at the time. Probably a two hr drive in those days and with 4 kids a headache for the parents. I was just a teenager at the time and really didn't appreciate what I was viewing. They have canceled the 2020 Reenactment but are moving ahead for 2021 of which I plan on seeing.

 

[iasooner1]

25K died in one day @ Shiloh says Harrumph to C19

 

[CTOkie]

25K died in one day @ Shiloh says Harrumph to C19

That was the approximate total casualty number, killed and wounded. The totals are 3,482 killed, 16,420 wounded, 3,844 captured or missing in action.
Antietam, in one day, had about the same number....3,675 killed, 17,301 wounded, 1,771 captured or missing.....and Antietam was the bloodiest single day in American history.

 

[WP76]

As a battalion commander at Fort Campbell, I took my officers on a battlefield tour of Shiloh. I remember our guide expressing the opinion that Grant was fortunate that the battle was early in the war and in the secondary/western theater, far away from the glare of the eastern press. Who knows if Grant would've survived the onslaught of criticsm in light of the carnage caused and his own mistakes. As it was, Grant was given the luxury of learning from those mistakes, much to the eventual benefit of the Union cause.

BTW CT, I've walked the Gettysburg battlefield three times, with the last time being in the late 90s when I was at the US Army War College at Carlisle Barracks--about a 45 minute drive. It's an amazing and emotional experience. My only (minor) criticism is of a factor to which you alluded--it had become too commercialized for my liking. It's probably a poor analogy but I'd liken it to the "money changers in the temple" episode in the New Testament. I'm glad to hear that they've reversed some of that encroachment.

 

[CTOkie]

WP, if you visit now you will be pleasantly surprised at what the restoration has done. Go before Memorial day or after Labor Day if you want less crowds.
Avoid the silly ghost tours and wax museums.
Have at least two dinners at the Dobbin House.
See the new visitor center across the road where Meade's HQ was.
Visit the newly restored Lee's HQ that no longer is surrounded by the Larsen Motel (where I stayed in 1960) and the restaurant.
You will see monuments that were hidden behind trees and vegetation before the landscaping took place.
Based on photos taken after the battle in 1863 and by Paul Philippoteau (the painter of the Cyclorama) in the 1880's, many trees have been removed in places where there were no trees in 1863 and new trees have been planted where there were trees in 1863.
The Cyclorama has been beautifully restored (at a cost of $13 million) as a result of 12 artists from Europe chipping in. The chemicals used in the early 1960's to preserve the painting were actually harming it. The painting has really been brought back to life.
My "thrill" is to be on Little Round Top early in the morning. Occasionally there are deer roaming around. And the quiet is nice. A hot cup of coffee adds to it.
Should I manage to retire there, I can live out my life fulfilling a desire I've had for most of my life.
PS....have a chocolate malt across the street from the Gettysburg Hotel. It's the 1950's all over agin.

 

[iasooner1]

Make mine Strawberry or Turtle; everything else sounds great. Best wishes on your goal CT

 

[iasooner1]

I learned quite a bit of ‘new’ history from the series, like the fact that Mr & Mrs Grant encountered JW Booth by chance on the night Lincoln was shot & they were fortunate to have escaped unscathed

 

[CTOkie]

I learned quite a bit of ‘new’ history from the series, like the fact that Mr & Mrs Grant encountered JW Booth by chance on the night Lincoln was shot & they were fortunate to have escaped unscathed

Johnny Depp, not to be outdone by Booth, declared that he wanted to be the second actor to kill a president.

 

[iasooner1]

Yeah but not relevant to this thread.

 

[CTOkie]

I learned quite a bit of ‘new’ history from the series, like the fact that Mr & Mrs Grant encountered JW Booth by chance on the night Lincoln was shot & they were fortunate to have escaped unscathed

How Lincoln was so unprotected amazes me. The policeman guarding the door to Lincoln's box was down the street getting a drink during intermission..

 

[iasooner1]

Maybe if Grant would have accepted the invitation and attended the show, History may have been different (or not)

 

[CTOkie]

Maybe if Grant would have accepted the invitation and attended the show, History may have been different (or not)

The South lost a friend in Lincoln who wanted to show "malice towards none and charity for all" in the reconstruction period.

 

[iasooner1]

Ironic that Grant became President in 1864 and did a lot for Reconstruction in his 8 years in office and was strongly anti-clan but it took another 100 years and the assassination of another POTUS to get LBJ to sign more Civil Rights laws

 

[CTOkie]

Ironic that Grant became President in 1864 and did a lot for Reconstruction in his 8 years in office and was strongly anti-clan but it took another 100 years and the assassination of another POTUS to get LBJ to sign more Civil Rights laws

Grant started his presidency in 1869, not 1864 when Lincoln was re-elected.

 

[iasooner1]

Thanks you are correct, my mistake. Lincoln only got 3 months of his 2nd term and was killed one week after the end of the Civil War.