Mattoon, Illinois to Columbus, Kentucky Great American Railroad Journeys


Mattoon, Illinois to Columbus, Kentucky

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I have crossed the Atlantic,

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to ride the railroads of North America

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with my reliable Appleton's guide.

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Published in the late 19th century,

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my Appleton's General Guide to North America

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will direct me to all that's novel,

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beautiful, memorable

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and striking in the United States.

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THEY SHOUT

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As I journey across this vast continent,

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I'll discover how pioneers and cowboys conquered the West.

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And how the railroads tied this nation together,

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helping to create the global superstate of today.

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The so-called Mainline of Mid-America

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takes me deeper into the fertile heartland of Illinois -

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Abraham Lincoln country.

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At the time of my guidebook, this was a land of plenty,

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above and below ground.

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I'm continuing towards the south.

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During my time in Illinois,

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my journey has taken me away from the Mississippi

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but I've been running parallel with it,

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and the river will feature again in my travels

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before I arrive in Memphis, Tennessee.

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During the years immediately after my guidebook,

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the United States overtook Great Britain

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as the world's largest economy -

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an extraordinary achievement

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in the century since its war of independence.

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I want to discover what fuelled the people and the machines that carried

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America from its political through to its industrial revolutions.

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My rail journey has charted the birth of the industrial Midwest.

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I started in Minneapolis, a 19th-century powerhouse,

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before heading south along the trade route of the Mississippi

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to La Crosse in rural Wisconsin.

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Striking out east, I called at Lake Michigan's Milwaukee,

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then headed south to recall rail's golden age in Chicago.

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I'm now travelling south again through Illinois' rich prairies,

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whose produce fed the urban masses,

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before I end my journey

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at the musical utopia of Memphis.

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Today I start in Mattoon, Illinois,

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continue to the fruit bowl of Centralia

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and the coalfields at Carbondale,

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before ending back on the great Mississippi

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in Columbus, Kentucky.

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Along the way I'll be testing my frontier resolve...

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Abraham Lincoln split rails, and then the United States.

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..unearthing Illinois' elixir of life...

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I'm making apple butter.

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See, all this fruit makes you young and good-looking, Michael.

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..and learning about Civil War tactics.

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Grant is a military commander who never made the same mistake twice -

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he understood that war is total war.

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You fight it to win or you don't get in.

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I'll be visiting Mattoon, Illinois.

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The guidebook tells me that the Chicago branch

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of the Illinois Central crosses here

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and here are the machine shops,

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roundhouse and car works of the railroad.

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But I'll be heading into the countryside

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to investigate the humble origins of the most divisive,

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most decisive figure in United States history.

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The junction town of Mattoon was born in the 1850s

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and soon flourished as the United States railroad network grew.

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Close by, it's possible to glimpse rural Illinois

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as it was before the trains arrived.

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The Lincoln Log Cabin Historical Site recreates a lost way of life

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that shaped the character of one of America's greatest presidents.

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This log cabin is moving.

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It gives a very good idea of the meagre conditions

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of Abraham Lincoln's childhood.

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And you can imagine, no doubt, that he would learn here

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the necessity of hard work and the virtues of self-reliance

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and I understand how that would create a man of principle.

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But few people have written or spoken more beautiful English prose

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than Lincoln. And I wonder how he learnt that craft.

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This is the reconstructed home

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of Abraham Lincoln's father and stepmother,

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Thomas and Sarah Lincoln,

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in its original location.

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Matthew Mittelstaedt looks after this historic site.

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Matthew.

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-Good morning.

-Hi. Michael. Good to see you.

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Well, basic living, eh?

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It is. But, really, it's a simple home

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but it was a home that was familiar to a number of Americans

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in addition to Abraham Lincoln.

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Born in Kentucky and raised in Indiana,

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Abraham Lincoln had left home

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by the time that Thomas and Sarah finally settled here.

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But they continued to live the frontier lifestyle

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that he had known as a boy.

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Children had to work in those days.

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They did. Children worked very hard.

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They were part of the economy of the farm and of the home.

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Children were taught to work very young.

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Girls were learning to sew and to stitch and to cook just beside

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their mother. Boys were learning to take care of the livestock,

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filling up the firebox, bringing the water in from the well.

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Splitting rails, of course.

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Abraham Lincoln is known as the Rail-Splitter in his later years

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as a politician. But that was a very common chore on the farm.

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Made out of felled trees with pioneers' sweat,

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split-rail fencing marked boundaries and penned in livestock.

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My image of Lincoln is tall and gangly and,

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of course, rather cerebral.

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Was he good at splitting rails?

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He was. Everyone understood splitting rails

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and so being the Rail-Splitter candidate in 1860,

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they understood that to be a hard worker, a honest man.

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And so they utilised that imagery...

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to further his campaign.

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The man who writes the Gettysburg Address -

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where do you think he got that power with the English language from?

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Abraham Lincoln loved to read.

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You know, he started as a young boy reading from the Bible

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but then he went on to read poetry.

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And Lincoln liked to think of himself as a poet anyway.

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The Gettysburg Address actually begins in a very biblical way, doesn't it?

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-"Four score and seven years ago..."

-It does indeed.

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Lincoln left his father's farm aged 22

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and found work as a boatman and a shop clerk.

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Self-taught, he became a successful attorney

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before moving into politics.

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To find out how life on the frontier shaped the great man,

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I'm attempting to get to grips with his rustic daily slog.

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-So this is what all the good fences around here were made of?

-Yes, sir.

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Abraham Lincoln split rails, and then the United States.

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I'm teased that a seasoned rail-splitter

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could get through about 700 of these logs a day.

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Ah! Tough work.

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Yes, it is.

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I can see why you'd want to sit in the Oval Office after this.

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Doing well.

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Thank you, Mark.

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-Yay!

-Well, you did pretty well.

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About 699 to go.

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About another 2,000 to finish up fixing the fence over there.

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I'm your man, Mark. Don't worry. Have faith.

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When Lincoln's nephew visited him in Washington

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at the height of the Civil War in 1864,

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he commented that if his uncle hadn't been

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brought up to maul rails, he would never have withstood

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the rigours of the White House.

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I believe him.

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I'm picking up my rail journey to delve deeper into the countryside,

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for a sweeter taste of Illinois' agricultural heritage.

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HORN BLARES

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My next stop will be Centralia, Illinois.

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The guidebook tells me we've entered the great fruit-growing region

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of central Illinois.

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"For many miles, the railroad traverses a country of prolific orchards.

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"Vast quantities of peaches are shipped annually to Chicago."

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Fruit brought zest to an otherwise unhealthy city.

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I owe that insight to my APPLE-ton.

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Centralia lies at the midpoint of the Illinois Central's rail route.

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BELL RINGS

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I'm struck by an unexpected landmark.

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This is a carillon,

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an instrument that sounds through bells in a tower.

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It had its European heyday over 300 years ago

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but became popular in America in the 20th century.

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Sorry to interrupt you.

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I was frankly surprised to find a carillon in the United States.

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Are there many in the USA?

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Oh, yes. There are around 180 in the States.

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Where does the carillon originate?

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The carillon comes originally from the Netherlands and Belgium.

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-And where are you from?

-I am from the Netherlands.

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And how long have you been working here?

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I've been working here... This is my very first day.

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-Your very first day?

-My very first day.

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HORN BLARES I hear a locomotive.

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-Yes.

-And that gives me an idea.

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Do you have a train piece you can play for me?

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Absolutely. I was thinking about Chattanooga Choo Choo.

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Take it away, Roy.

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BELLS PLAY CHATTANOOGA CHOO CHOO

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I've made my way east, out into Centralia's green belt.

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My guide claims that this region enjoyed great prosperity from its fruit.

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I'm joining the apple harvest with historian John Shaw.

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John, when did they start planting fruit around Centralia?

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The first settler came here in 1817,

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and one of the first acts was to plant an apple or two.

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That would have been just for his own consumption, I suppose?

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-Yes.

-My guidebook mentions vast quantities of peaches

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going to Chicago.

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So what made the difference? What enabled them to go commercial?

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The railroad was the thing that made it all possible.

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They could take their fruit to Centralia, put it on a train

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and have it in Chicago the next day or sometimes in two days.

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Later, as the markets developed more,

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they started growing strawberries and peaches and raspberries -

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all sorts of fruit in this area.

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Now, I would have thought that strawberries, raspberries and so on...

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..need to be kept very fresh, don't they, on the journey?

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That was the big problem when they first started -

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they would try to ship strawberries directly from the fields

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and that did not work for strawberries.

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And then in 1866, at Cobden, about 70 miles south of here,

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a man by the name of Parker Earle developed a system.

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He built boxes that would hold 100lb of ice

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and 200 quarts of strawberries.

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Just a year after Parker Earle's pioneering ice chests,

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the first refrigerated rail car was patented.

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Known as reefers, by the 1880s,

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these cars were supplying much-needed variety

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to the monotonous diet of pioneers and industrial workers.

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This orchard belongs to the Schwartz family

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who have been cultivating a variety of fruits here since the 1950s.

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-I'm Michael.

-Michael. Tom.

-And what are you doing in that pot?

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I'm making apple butter.

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And you call it apple butter because you would spread it on bread?

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You'd spread it on bread. It's apples that's been cooked down.

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You can cook as long as eight or nine hours.

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Is it very traditional, Tom?

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Yes. Very.

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But do you think it goes back to the days of Abraham Lincoln,

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-all the way back there, do you think?

-I'm sure that's why he looked so good.

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-See, all this fruit makes you young and good-looking, Michael.

-MICHAEL CHUCKLES

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Mm, wow!

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-Look at that!

-Nice and thick.

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-Cooked down just right.

-Mm!

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Oh, it's fabulous. And it's really nice when it's still warm, isn't it?

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-Oh, it's still warm. Oh, yeah.

-Mm!

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This farm is a family affair.

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On the production line, Tom's brother takes charge of packing.

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But he welcomes an extra pair of hands,

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and it's a pleasure to help out.

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How long have you been pouring apple butter?

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-50 years.

-And so this is typical, is it?

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-You get the family together like this?

-Oh, yeah.

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Nobody else'll put up with us.

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There we go, sir.

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You're getting better. I tell you what -

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he's on probation but I guess he'll work out.

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You're hired!

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As night draws in, I'm returning to the railroad station

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to board the last train of the day.

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My next stop will be the appropriately named Carbondale.

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Appleton's says that the principal business of the area is coal mining,

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about a dozen companies being in active operation.

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Coal was needed by the steel mills, by the factories of Chicago

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and by the railroads.

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All right, ladies and gentlemen, the next and final station stop

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will be Carbondale.

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Early morning. I'm making my way to explore the commodity that was

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essential to America's railroads.

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-Hello, Rosemary.

-Hello, how are you?

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-Good to see you.

-Good to see you.

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-Where are we headed?

-We are headed to the mine.

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Rosemary Feurer is a professor of history at Northern Illinois University.

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Rosemary, here we are in this tremendous opencast mine

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here in southern Illinois. When did they first mine coal in this state?

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The first coal mines were in the 1830s but, really,

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it starts getting its traction with the railroads.

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The railroads needed coal for steam

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and they needed to use it for transportation,

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but then industrialisation was highly dependent upon coal.

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The 19th-century American coal industry

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relied heavily on immigrant labour.

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British miners were highly prized for their experience

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of dangerous deep-shaft mining.

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This skilled workforce that was needed - was it well paid?

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At first, yes. But, over time,

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employers kept bringing in more and more immigrants

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and they kept mechanising.

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By the 1880s, coal had overtaken wood

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to become the country's largest source of energy.

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But by then, coal miners' wages had fallen.

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Miners battled against their employers

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for better pay and conditions.

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The British workers brought traditions of unionism

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to the state of Illinois. They formed the first miners' union in the country in the 1860s.

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The conflicts came because this was a very anti-union culture,

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as far as the mine owners were concerned.

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So where did that all lead?

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There were a series of very bloody struggles

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in which dozens of workers were killed in the state of Illinois,

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and it's because that's what it took to form a union in this state.

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From the 1890s to the 1920s,

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all of Illinois became unionised

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and that meant that they could govern what the wages were.

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They could say eight hours or nothing.

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So it was a real power for the unions.

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Today, mechanisation has transformed the industry.

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But coal is in the veins of the people of Illinois.

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-Hello, Sue.

-Hi, Michael.

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-How are you?

-Lovely to see you.

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What a pleasure, what a privilege.

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I've arranged to meet Sue in her family's cafe,

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where they commemorate the community's mining heritage.

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Sue, what is your connection with mining?

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Both sides of my family - the Elwoods,

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who came from Newcastle-on-Tyne, and the Littles,

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who came from the border area of Scotland and England -

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came here, ended up working in the coal mine.

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Who is this in this photograph?

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This is my husband's father.

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He's 14 years old.

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They didn't go to school.

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They worked.

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Is your dad on this wall?

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Back there.

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That's Bud Little.

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How did your dad feel about working underground, given the dangers?

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My dad loved it.

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And if you ever talk to a soldier who'd been in combat,

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you'd get the same feeling.

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It was, everybody was a group.

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They helped each other.

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They protected each other's back, they worked together.

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My dad loved it.

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Don't ask me why.

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Have you ever been in a mine?

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Yeah, there you go.

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I have. I agree with you.

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-I don't understand it.

-I don't understand it but he loved it.

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It's time to leave Illinois,

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but the rails don't take me where I'm going.

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So I've arranged a lift in a fine Corvette.

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Hey, Jimmy. I'm Michael. Good to see you.

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I'm heading over the Mississippi to the state of Kentucky,

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which my Appleton's tells me had a crucial role

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in the American Civil War.

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So, what are the qualities of Kentucky, do you think?

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Well, we have a lot of farming.

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-Real small communities.

-And what are the people like?

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Oh, very nice.

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All watch after one another.

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A lot of respect.

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The men still open the doors for the women.

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-And the women don't object?

-No.

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-Safe journey.

-You too.

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Bye-bye.

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It was starting in 1860 that Lincoln, the Rail-Splitter,

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split the Union.

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He opposed any territorial expansion of slavery.

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And on his election as president,

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a majority of slave-owning states broke from the Union

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to form the Confederate States of America.

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This quiet spot played a pivotal role

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in the bloody conflict that followed.

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"Columbus, Kentucky," says the book,

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"is situated on the slope of a high bluff,

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"commanding the Mississippi for about five miles.

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"At the outbreak of the Civil War,

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"it was strongly fortified by the Confederates,

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"who regarded it as the northern key to the mouth of the Mississippi."

0:23:410:23:45

The river was the artery, the aorta of the South,

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and the Union intended to convert it into a meandering rift that would

0:23:500:23:55

tear the Confederacy apart.

0:23:550:23:57

History professor Berry Craig has joined me

0:24:100:24:13

at this former Confederate fort

0:24:130:24:15

to chart the course of the Mississippi campaign.

0:24:150:24:18

Well, it's obvious from where we are and the guidebook emphasises it

0:24:200:24:23

that we're at a strategic point from the point of view of the river.

0:24:230:24:26

Did it have other strategic elements?

0:24:260:24:28

Oh, yes. A railroad came in here.

0:24:280:24:30

The Mobile and Ohio Railroad which, of course, would supply an army.

0:24:300:24:35

It's a very, very strategic place, that when the Confederates come in,

0:24:350:24:39

they heavily fortify this place with artillery.

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Now, if you look down the river,

0:24:420:24:44

they first had long-range guns that could reach way down the river.

0:24:440:24:48

If you happened to come through those guns,

0:24:480:24:51

they had mid-range guns next.

0:24:510:24:53

If you didn't get this close to Columbus as we are here,

0:24:530:24:57

the short-range guns come in. It's a murderous field of fire.

0:24:570:25:01

General Ulysses S Grant on the Union side

0:25:020:25:05

knew that control of the Mississippi was critical.

0:25:050:25:08

A bold assault on impregnable Columbus

0:25:080:25:12

was his first test on the Civil War battlefield.

0:25:120:25:16

What is the Union strategy?

0:25:160:25:18

Grant comes on 7th November 1861 to probe the Columbus outer defences

0:25:180:25:24

at Belmont, Missouri, which is just over there.

0:25:240:25:27

Well, at this point, the Confederates send reinforcements

0:25:270:25:30

across the river, Grant find himself surrounded.

0:25:300:25:33

Now, Grant's troops think, what's the logical thing to do?

0:25:340:25:38

Surrender. Grant said, "Oh, no.

0:25:380:25:41

"We fought our way in, we'll fight our way out."

0:25:410:25:43

And he did.

0:25:430:25:44

Having battled back to safety,

0:25:440:25:46

Grant revised the Union strategy.

0:25:460:25:49

He encircled Columbus by conquering nearby forts,

0:25:490:25:52

until Confederate commanders were left so vulnerable

0:25:520:25:56

that they relinquished their prize stronghold.

0:25:560:25:59

The Union river campaign drove south and pushed northwards

0:26:000:26:04

from the Gulf of Mexico to seize New Orleans.

0:26:040:26:07

In the summer of 1863, the fall of Vicksburg, Mississippi,

0:26:080:26:12

brought the mighty river under Union control

0:26:120:26:15

and split the Confederacy east and west in two.

0:26:150:26:19

What role does this play in the career of General Ulysses S Grant?

0:26:200:26:24

I think it very much illustrates the kind of commander he is.

0:26:250:26:29

Grant is a military commander who never made the same mistake twice.

0:26:290:26:33

He understood that war is total war.

0:26:330:26:35

You fight it to win or you don't get in.

0:26:350:26:38

Grant was made commander of all Union armies in 1864.

0:26:380:26:42

Five years later, he became the 18th President of the United States.

0:26:430:26:48

What do historians say of the significance of the battle here?

0:26:490:26:54

Some historians think that the North won the Civil War

0:26:540:26:57

right here in this part of the country.

0:26:570:26:59

It took four years and cost 600,000 lives,

0:27:000:27:05

but the eventual triumph of Union forces

0:27:050:27:07

ended the Confederate secession, and abolished slavery.

0:27:070:27:11

Abraham Lincoln was raised in a place of toil and resilience.

0:27:190:27:24

But he witnessed a new industrial America,

0:27:240:27:27

fuelled by coal and driven by railroads.

0:27:270:27:30

There was just one thing about the United States that was not modern -

0:27:300:27:34

slavery,

0:27:340:27:35

an economic system that had been abolished by competitors

0:27:350:27:38

like Great Britain.

0:27:380:27:40

The Civil War would resolve whether,

0:27:400:27:43

as Lincoln was to put it later at Gettysburg,

0:27:430:27:46

a nation dedicated to the proposition

0:27:460:27:48

that all men are created equal could endure.

0:27:480:27:52

'Next time, I ride the perilous Mississippi...'

0:27:590:28:02

How safe was it to travel on the steamboats?

0:28:030:28:06

It was extremely hazardous.

0:28:060:28:08

There was great danger.

0:28:080:28:11

Sinking from boiler explosions, from fire.

0:28:110:28:14

'..get my ducks in a row...'

0:28:140:28:16

-There they go. Don't let them get away!

-Oh!

0:28:190:28:21

I think this is the bizarrest thing I've ever been involved in.

0:28:210:28:26

'..and dive deep into the Blues.'

0:28:260:28:28

HE PLAYS A BLUES RIFF

0:28:280:28:31

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