This video is unsurpassed for conveying in such a brief time, with each minute representing one year, the major events and shifting areas controlled by the Union and the Confederacy during the War. It also graphically portrays the human cost of the War as the seconds roll by and the dead and wounded toll grows ever higher.
Any understanding of this nation has to be based, and I mean really based, on an understanding of the Civil War. I believe that firmly. It defined us. The Revolution did what it did. Our involvement in European wars, beginning with the First World War, did what it did. But the Civil War defined us as what we are and it opened us to being what we became, good and bad things. And it is very necessary, if you are going to understand the American character in the twentieth century, to learn about this enormous catastrophe of the mid-nineteenth century. It was the crossroads of our being, and it was a hell of a crossroads.
–Shelby Foote
Very creative.
Hurrah for the new media!
Hmmm. By this scale, I’m 1 minute and 24 seconds into the war in Shelby Foote’s history. Long way to go.
Thanks for the great post and animation.
On a related note, Donald, I have recently posted a profile of another of Notre Dame’s Holy Cross priests who served as a Civil War chaplain, Fr. Peter P. Cooney (and he’s my favorite of the bunch!)
http://notredamecivilwar.blogspot.com/2010/05/notre-dame-civil-war-chaplain-profile-2.html
All My Best,
Jim Schmidt
A superb post Jim on Father Cooney!