European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 27, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Scattered Memorabilia illustrates a the civil War a an 11-hour documentary that was an unlikely runaway hit on to nationwide. The civil war1 powerful images show the nation a 125-year-old War by David Tirrell Wysocki associated press Ken Burns sprinted up a Gettysburg slope in the footsteps of Gen Pickett s screaming confederates and burst into tears. He mourned the deaths of Quot friends a from Abraham Lincoln to Ordinary soldiers who dropped on battlefields 127 years ago. He Laid awake listening to the deafening sounds and seeing the vivid images of americans killing americans. And after 5v� years of work the award winning filmmaker brought the sights sounds words and emotions of the civil War into millions of living rooms in a landmark Public television miniseries. The civil War an 11-hour pcs documentary was broadcast in mid september bringing unheard of ratings to Public television stations and sending the commercial networks into a tailspin. Viewers ignored the much ballyhooed new fall season of network sitcoms and dramas to tune into this nearly actor free historical report. Why the Boyish looking 37-year-old says emotions Are the key to his work and to helping viewers see the War in which 620,000 americans died in a new Light. Quot we were constantly made aware of How poignant this Story was How tragic it was a he said in his Hilltop editing studio in Walpole in southwestern new Hampshire. Quot the depth and profundity of that emotion is what affected me More than anything  tapped the emotions by peering into the innermost thoughts of his subjects from presidents Lincoln and Jefferson Davis to Ordinary soldiers who died in the mud. Their diaries and letters Are the script. He crisscrossed the country seeking information. For authenticity he filmed at battlefields on the anniversaries of the fighting at times he had to  would dream so vividly about the Battles that it was too much a he said. At Gettysburg where Lee brought his army As far North As it would get and where George Pickett led his doomed charge emotions overcame the filmmaker. Quot i ran the last several Hundred Yards of Pickett s charge and went up and Over the Wall and burst into tears with the sense of this being the most important moment a he said. Burns Hopes his series has stripped away the Quot Gallant bloodless myth of the civil War and shown that television can entertain and inform at the same time. His cinematography brought still photographs alive dragging viewers along As frightened soldiers feel their Way Forward looking for the enemy. In Gettysburg and Antietam Battle scenes his zooming cutting and panning move viewers through a Kaleidoscope of sights toward Victory death or panicked Retreat. If the images Are powerful the words Cut even More deeply. Rather than use actors As most documentary filmmakers do Burns uses Only their voices. History has Long been a fascination for Burns in his filmmaking. His first two documentaries the Brooklyn Bridge 1981 and statue of Liberty 1985were both nominated for Academy awards. Burns who studied at Hampshire College in Amherst mass., also did the documentary the Congress. The filmmaker is overwhelmed that pcs for the first time pitted a miniseries against the commercial networks new fall shows. The decision was More remarkable because television essentially abandoned documentaries 20 years ago he said. We have to first admit that television is where our children Are getting most of their information a he said Quot if you lament this and merely abdicate it to those who promote its baser instincts we be lost the  the Battle metaphor is no Accident. The m 1 Are n the felines attemptin9 to remind people that television can be used in an honorable As Well As ivxnsns9aldd nutri�?o0nal Way and that s what his be ies editor s note armed forces radio and television service has acquired the rights to broadcast Quot the civil War. The documentary should be available to the military stations in Europe in the next five months. Page 14 a a a the stars and stripes the blood of a a seeing where it happen b. Drummond Ayres or. New York times it is Little More than a Long depression in the ground now weathered smooth and benign by time like the rest of Antietam Battlefield americans deadliest killing ground. But there was hardly a moment one recent thursday when some tourist was not standing i that depression near Sharpsburg md., the former sunken Road trying to imagine what it must have been like to have been there 128 years ago during the bloodiest single Day of the civil War. Just think. Quot said Carol Adams of Mohnton pa., her the ran9 As surveyed the now Grassy place that became known As bloody Lane after 4,000 Union and Confederate soldiers fell there in four hours on sept. 17, 1862, when Lee first tried to invade the North. Adams and her husband Jim had been impelled to tuesday Nove Toj. V  Quot Quot Quot Quot Quot \ \ Iii. A get or. Union Gen. Ulysses s. Grant below left and Confederate Gen. Robert a. Lee led their armies in a War whose brutality America is now rediscovering. Below right a farmhouse at Antietam a Battlefield also being rediscovered. Above Philippet Eaux painting of the Battle of Gettysburg. Lote. Mumm my la m m we a n Linn a 25-mile trip from their Home to this Rural rolling Estern Maryland by the civil War the 11 hour vision series that was broadcast nationwide ear. They were not  nation seemed to be rediscovering the Frith interest in its causes its lessons and its or greater than at any time since the Centennial jes of the Early 1960s. 2s is Given most of the credit for the rediscovery Lerable credit is also Given to a recent string of pos and films about the War including one of most popular films glory a tale about the role soldiers played in the four year struggle Jeen saying to ourselves for a Long time that we sit Antietam a said Jim Adams a school Quot Tor Quot but after watching a couple of nights of the just piled into the car and started driving. This by brought it All Home to  according to the National Park service officials tourism was up about 20 percent in september at the Antietam visitors Center situated in the Middle of the 12-Square-mile Battlefield where in All 23,000 men fell in a fight that ended As a draw. Quot actually Quot said Ranger Joseph Nicodemus Quot attendance has been climbing All year. We think its mainly because of the increased emphasis about the War in various Media and we expect the figures to climb even  the Public broadcasting service series and to an extent glory drove Home As perhaps never before just How horrific by violent the War was. This time for Many americans the medium turned out to be the message. The Battlefield photographs by Mathew Brady and others have been around for More than a Century and a Quarter the soldiers bloated bodies broken muskets and the scorched Earth already fixed in Many minds. But those old photos achieved new Impact torn from the pages of a Book and shown night after night on National television. Quot somehow they seemed More real almost like the evening news a Marianne Voight a Telephone Salesman from Washington said As she toured the Battlefield. Quot i wonder what it would have been like if there had been television Back then like we had in Vietnam. Wonder what people would have done Quot As he studied an Antietam map John Trombetta a korean War Veteran from Towson md., said the series had Quot brought it All Back to me made me remember the futility of fighting How bad and unromantic it really  for Trombettas a wife Lucille the series increased fears about War in the Middle East Oil Fields. Quot we be got thousands of our boys Over there Quot she said. Quot we have to do what we have to do. But the series made me see just How awful fighting can  990 the stars and stripes a a a Page 15