European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 10, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                A it pm ass a is �?o1 % \ 7 v a a a a a a a a a a i  in so a amp a a it a. V. A a a 1 1 a fat of i k \ it  a a ssh a we a of x Quot Quot t i set it it a amp a amp Ltd Wjk 1 77 s my we a >3va a a a so worx >3sv-v? a personal vivid picture of our worst War Sarah Bottorff to plus editor on television the words of the soldiers sound like voices from last months War from last weeks telecast or in yesterdays paper. A we could not help hitting them at every  a Chicken could not live on that Field with All our guns trained on it a a i love my country but if this War is Ever Over ill be damned if ill Ever love another country again.�?�. /. A a i done to think in be received More than half my letters.�?�. About the horrible and about the mundane a the soldiers Are doing the talking in the the civil War. Historians and generals Are talking too but most of the 11-hour, five part documentary starting today on an to is spent listening to the troops. And maybe that a Why it seems so much like watching a newscast from the persian Gulf. Quot this Public television series took the natron by storm last september and its every bit As Good As you be probably heard it is. Our worst War a 2 percent of the whole american population  its 10,000 Battles a is made to seem so immediate so personal that its hard to believe the ministries is done without any re enactments. Any a  a any on screen acting of any kind. When it sover you feel you know Abe Lincoln and Stonewall Jackson and More importantly Sam Watkins of Tennessee and Elijah Hunt Rhodes of Rhode Island two Ordinary soldiers who described their Battles and fears in letters Home throughout the .1 /2-Ycar War. The ministries uses their own words and follows them throughout the War beginning each part of the series by hinting. At what will happen to Rhodes and Watkins in the hour ahead. Instead faction shots the series shows old photographs and Oil paintings of Battles and sketches. This May sound Dull a but what pictures they arc. Photos of slaves staring at the camera with enormous dignity while stripped to the Waist to show their whipping scars. Sketches of the towns where abolitionists were shot by slave owners helping to set off the War. The Mclean family at their farm in Virginia shortly before the first Battle of Bull run raged Over their land. . "7 i Quot a v 4 pm a. A. A a a. 1 a a a a. A a a. A. A a National archives what a left of a Union cavalry unit lies at the foot of Maryes Heights in a photograph taken just after the Battle of Fredericksburg in Maryland. More than anything though. The civil War excels in showing the Battles. Particularly Brilliant is the Way the series shows the hideous Union do feat in Fredericksburg md., where 12.000 Union soldiers died in 14 useless charges on the heavily defended Maryes 1 eights so bravely that one Confederate Soldier tells us As we look on a a cheer after cheer for their fearlessness went up around our  a at that Battle and even More so when the series shows Gettysburg All you see Are Oil paint mrs and drawings but its hard to believe you Arentt watching the real thing. You hear a Birds song in a Field suddenly ended by the sound of Cannon fire and gunshots and soldiers screaming while the narrators use soldiers own words mercilessly to describe the action. A men fire  faces from five feet apart a says a voice  Hill in Gettysburg a they fall Down or their hands Ami Knees spinning around like tops gulping blood. Falling legless armless headless there Are ghastly heaps of dead  that a just a Sample and one reason Why perhaps its just As Well this ministries Wasny to shown on an to until alter the Gulf War cease fire. It could have been a Little too vivid a depiction of War for those with family members in the Gull. But the civil War is More than a re creation id bloody Battles. Its about a nation torn apart by slavery about two armies wracked by desertions starvation and bumbling about Battles in everybody a Hometown and on everybody a Street. And when it was Over what had been a collection of states Only weakly United were the United states. The Genius behind the series documentary filmmaker Ken Burns said recently that americans still seemed to be mesmerized by the series More than six months alter it aired. Quot there has been no diminution m the attention Quot he told the Hartford Conn cd Ourant Early in March. A peo pie write to us constantly. There is this sense that people wish to continue a conversation that they believe i began with them with the  you la see Why this afternoon. Done to miss this series. A deportment of the Sarny the Mclean farm where the civil War started at Bull run a. The photograph is  10, 1991 sunday a Page 11