Episode 1: Prologue
Oliver Wendell Holmes – We have shared the incommunicable experiences of war. We have felt, we still feel, the passion of life to its top. In our youths, our hearts were touched with fire.
Narrator – By the summer of 1861, Wilmer McLean had had enough. Two great armies were converging on his farm, in what would be the first major battle of the Civil War – Bull Run or Manassas as the Confederates called it – would soon rage across the aging Virginians farm, a Union shell going so far as to explode in the summer kitchen. Now, Mclean had moved his family away from Manassas and south and west of Richmond – out of harm’s way, he prayed, to a dusty crossroads called Appomattox Court House. And it was there in his living room three and a half years later that Lee surrendered to Grant, and Wilmer McLean could rightfully say, "The war began in my front yard and ended in my front parlor."
A friend and fellow historian recently sent me the entire Ken Burns Civil War transcript. Huh….what should I do with it?
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
What amuses me about the Holmes comment is that in 1864 … he went home.
Would it be possible to post the transcript on the internet? I am a big fan of the film and would like to read it!
Unfortunately, there are copyright issues.
In that case, if at all possible, could it be emailed to me? My email address is jhgporter@yahoo.co.uk
At this point I am going to have to say no. I am at the very early stages of a book project with another historian that involves the editing of the entire manuscript. We still need to get permission to publish. I would rather not be responsible for distributing this around for legal reasons.
My colleague and I teach the civil war to juniors in a private high school. We would LOVE to have a transcript of Ken Burns Civil War–all of it.
Thank you.
Jamie Winetrobe
Hi Jamie,
Thanks for the comment. Unfortunately, I am not able to share the script owing to copyright restrictions.