Filmmaker Ric Burns spent five years immersed
in the subject of the War Between the States. Working with his older
brother, Ken, he was one of the writers of the 10-hour documentary
series "The Civil War."
"I cut my teeth with Ken making that series on
the Civil War from 1985 to 1990," Burns said. "And to be sure, it was a
seismic event in our lives to work on the subject then."
But even that award-winning series was not
exhaustive. When Ric Burns was asked to adapt Drew Gilpin Faust’s book
This Republic of Suffering into an "American Experience" documentary, he
discovered he wasn’t returning to familiar territory. Faust’s book is
about death and how the horrifying number of casualties in the Civil War
changed America forever.
"It’s not that we overlooked it," Burns said. "Our emphasis in ‘The Civil War’ was someplace else."
He pointed to the First Battle of Bull Run,
which was treated in the 1990 documentary series as the point when both
sides realized it would be a much different war than they expected and
"began to gear up for a much larger campaign."
But in "Death and the Civil War," it "really
had to do with the complete lack of preparation that either side had for
death tolls and casualties on this scale," Burns said. "It’s as if no
one was in charge. It’s as if no one had any idea that war was going to
be fought on this scale with casualties of this tremendous number."
If the same percentage of Americans died today
as did during the Civil War, the death toll would be more than 7
million. And in the 1860s, there was no system for identifying and
burying the dead. No system to notify next of kin. No way to return
bodies to their families. The Union Army didn’t even have an ambulance
corps until 1864, three years after the war began.
"That, to put it mildly, was completely new to
me." Burns said. "I was sort of shocked that hiding in plain sight was
this ghastly new reality [that] was cast over the entire body politic of
the American people. And it changed people inside and out, North and
South, black and white, in the government, in the way we bury people
down to this day."
Faust, who is featured prominently in the
documentary, writes and talks about how the Civil War changed
19th-century America’s view of "the good death" — one that was peaceful
and planned for — and the reality that accompanied the war.
"The book also deals with questions of meaning
and religion and transformation in psychology and belief," said Faust,
president of Harvard University. "And I think this film captures that
part of it so magnificently — the human suffering that extended not
simply to those who died, but to the survivors who had to grapple with
what that meant about how they understood religion, how they understood
the nation state, and how they understood their lives."
"American Experience" executive producer Mark
Samels, Drew Gilpin Faust, president, Harvard University and author of
This Republic of Suffering and filmmaker Ric Burns discuss the political
and social changes wrought by the pervasiveness and fear of death
during the Civil War. Courtesy of Rahoul Ghose/PBS
‘Death and the Civil War’ is gruesome and spiritual
Television » “American Experience” recounts how war changed our attitudes toward dying.
By Scott D. Pierce
| The Salt Lake Tribune
Filmmaker Ric Burns spent five years immersed
in the subject of the War Between the States. Working with his older
brother, Ken, he was one of the writers of the 10-hour documentary
series "The Civil War."
"I cut my teeth with Ken making that series on
the Civil War from 1985 to 1990," Burns said. "And to be sure, it was a
seismic event in our lives to work on the subject then."
Photos
“Death and the Civil War” airs Tuesday,
Sept. 18, at 7 p.m. on PBS/Channel 7. It’s the day after the 150th
anniversary of the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest day in American
history. Approximately 23,000 Union and Confederate troops were killed,
wounded or listed as missing.
But even that award-winning series was not
exhaustive. When Ric Burns was asked to adapt Drew Gilpin Faust’s book
This Republic of Suffering into an "American Experience" documentary, he
discovered he wasn’t returning to familiar territory. Faust’s book is
about death and how the horrifying number of casualties in the Civil War
changed America forever.
"It’s not that we overlooked it," Burns said. "Our emphasis in ‘The Civil War’ was someplace else."
He pointed to the First Battle of Bull Run,
which was treated in the 1990 documentary series as the point when both
sides realized it would be a much different war than they expected and
"began to gear up for a much larger campaign."
But in "Death and the Civil War," it "really
had to do with the complete lack of preparation that either side had for
death tolls and casualties on this scale," Burns said. "It’s as if no
one was in charge. It’s as if no one had any idea that war was going to
be fought on this scale with casualties of this tremendous number."
If the same percentage of Americans died today
as did during the Civil War, the death toll would be more than 7
million. And in the 1860s, there was no system for identifying and
burying the dead. No system to notify next of kin. No way to return
bodies to their families. The Union Army didn’t even have an ambulance
corps until 1864, three years after the war began.
"That, to put it mildly, was completely new to
me." Burns said. "I was sort of shocked that hiding in plain sight was
this ghastly new reality [that] was cast over the entire body politic of
the American people. And it changed people inside and out, North and
South, black and white, in the government, in the way we bury people
down to this day."
Faust, who is featured prominently in the
documentary, writes and talks about how the Civil War changed
19th-century America’s view of "the good death" — one that was peaceful
and planned for — and the reality that accompanied the war.
"The book also deals with questions of meaning
and religion and transformation in psychology and belief," said Faust,
president of Harvard University. "And I think this film captures that
part of it so magnificently — the human suffering that extended not
simply to those who died, but to the survivors who had to grapple with
what that meant about how they understood religion, how they understood
the nation state, and how they understood their lives."
"Death and the Civil War" deals with bigger
questions, but it’s also a gruesome reminder of the horrors of that war.
The two-hour documentary is filled with shocking black-and-white photos
of the fields after the battles.
"We were determined to show the war in its full
gruesomeness as both the photographic record and the manuscript record
would allow us access to it," Burns said. "Sometimes the gruesomeness
was actually more available through the imagined horror of receiving a
letter from [a soldier] as he lay dying on the battlefield at Antietam."
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