Toy Story At Manassas: End Of Innocence

NCircle Station

Toy Story At Manassas: End Of Innocence is a 2008 documentary directed by Ben Burtt, created exclusively for the Manassas National Battlefield Park   Skywalker Sound provided POST PRODUCTION FACILITIES, including a voice reenactment cast composed of mostly Skywalker Sound's staff members. Bob Edwards served as the SOUND EDITOR & RE-RECORDING MIXER (and perhaps an uncredited sound designer); it's likely that Ben Burtt contributed sound design. Matthew Wood handled DIGITAL ARCHITECT at Skywalker.

Transcript

00:00You

00:30You

00:42They'd ridden and nearly blind widow Judith Henry seldom ventures beyond her bedroom walls

00:54A better world exists in her memories

00:57Of the bountiful rolling fields that surround her Virginia farmhouse

01:03Of the cooling waters of nearby bull run

01:08Spanned by the graceful arches of the stone bridge

01:14Of the solid strength in the stone house at the base of her hill

01:22Of the fragile beauty in the blossoms of her garden

01:27You

01:31But in this hot summer of 1861 fear grips her world

01:37It's so hot water in the garden war threatens all that was and all that may be

01:46Judith's son John arrives from Loudon for what he thinks will be his normal Sunday visit

01:53Oh

01:55John's mother his sister Ellen Phoebe and their household slave Lucy Griffith are anxious

02:02I saw those soldiers again around the house

02:06Armed southern rebels are ready to defend the heights above bull run

02:11It is Sunday morning, July 21st

02:151861

02:23Nothing will ever be normal again

02:40Weeks earlier thousands of eager federal volunteers in camp and drill on the outskirts of Washington DC

02:47They respond to President Abraham Lincoln's call to suppress the Southern Rebellion and preserve the Union

02:55They cherish the notion that they should dress up for war

03:04Colorful uniforms abound many styled after the revered French military

03:17Boys like private Henry Ritter 19 and his comrades of the 71st, New York are eager to fight

03:24Most think this war will be over in one battle

03:27Dear uncle on the 15th. We received marching orders

03:31We were already at the time appointed dressed in what is called light marching order. I thought it heavy

03:39Each one of us was given 40 rounds of cartridges which did not tend to lessen our load

03:44On

03:46Saturday the 20th our terms of service expired, but we would not turn back on the eve of battle

03:52Photographers apply the camps capturing for posterity a glimpse of fleeting military innocence

03:59None of these volunteers has seen a photograph of a dead soldier

04:04Major

04:11Sullivan blue former speaker of the Rhode Island House of Representatives

04:16Finds words which speak for thousands in the camps

04:22My very dear Sarah

04:24Lest I should not be able to write again

04:26I feel impelled to write a few lines that may fall under your eye when I shall be no more

04:34Our movements may be of a few days duration and full of pleasure

04:39And it may be one of some conflict and death to me. I

04:44Have no misgivings about or lack of confidence in the cause in which I am engaged

04:51And my courage does not halter-falter

04:54And I am willing perfectly willing to lay down all my joys in this life to help maintain this government

05:03How best to do that remains debatable at the very highest level?

05:14Federal Commander General Irvin McDowell needs a plan fast

05:19Much of Lincoln's army has enlisted for only 90 days

05:23McDowell wants to march

05:2535,000 soldiers across Bull Run to Manassas Junction a railroad hub 25 miles from Washington

05:31Where rebels have gathered to protect this link to Richmond seat of the Confederate Rebellion?

05:37But overall Commander General Winfield Scott fears that most troops are untrained too green to fight

05:46McDowell agrees, but feels pressured to move. Mr. President

05:51You are green. It's true, but they are green also

05:56You're all green alike

06:02You Lincoln insists on a march to attack at Manassas before much of his army goes home

06:16Recently returned home from duty on the Texas frontier

06:19Captain James Ricketts of the first US artillery is one who is not green

06:25veteran of the Seminole and Mexican Wars

06:28Now he leaves for Manassas with McDowell's army

06:32Riding to the sound of the guns is his profession

06:40And facing goodbye with stoic courage is the profession of his wife

06:45Frances Fanny Ricketts also a veteran of those same lonely army outposts in Texas

07:02You

07:09Rebels are also marching toward Bull Run

07:12The 27th, Virginia part of General Thomas Jackson's Brigade marched yesterday from the Shenandoah Valley

07:19Then road train cars to Manassas Junction

07:22Y'all

07:25That's all

07:28In command of company B is Captain Charles Norris barely 17

07:34He is a second classman at the Virginia Military Institute where Jackson taught

07:40Norris and other cadets trained Jackson's recruits at Harper's Ferry dear mother

07:46Not being dead yet. I thought I would attempt to write another letter

07:49You need not expect me home as I cannot get off old Jackson will not let anyone go expecting an attack

07:58Both armies north and south have been converging on Manassas for several days

08:04on Sunday morning, July 21st

08:071861

08:08They collide at Matthews Hill not far from Judith Henry's house near the muddy little stream called

08:16Bull Run

08:19a

08:28When federal scouts find that suddenly Ford is unprotected

08:33McDowell sends half his army across to attack the rebel flank

08:37Laura Thornberry and her brother live nearby

08:45They are near enough to hear fighting erupt on Matthews Hill

08:50a

09:01McDowell's green troops started marching at 2 in the morning through unfamiliar terrain difficult even for veterans

09:11Private Ritter recalls we traveled eight hours and a half steady almost without a halt

09:19On the march our company had to act as scouts until we were within a mile or two of Bull Run

09:24Having to go straight through woods cornfields and everything which was very tiresome

09:33As fast as they can arrive on the field federal troops advance up Matthews Hill a mile beyond which

09:39Laid a stone house and Henry Hill

09:49A

09:57Only 900 Confederates perched atop Matthews Hill hold the line against initial federal assaults

10:06Earliest to attack are the first and second Rhode Island soon shattered by casualties

10:12Yet heroes still emerge major Sullivan Baloo proves his metal

10:29My dear Sarah

10:30Never forget how much I love you when my last breath escapes me on the battlefield. It will whisper your name

10:43The

10:4771st New York finally deploys

10:50Our brigade was under the command of Colonel Burnside who ordered us to march up battalion front and drive the Alabama regiment back

10:57We were approaching each other when we received a perfect shower of cannon and musket balls

11:13Oh

11:16Oh

11:41The last of Ricketts guns arrives and wheels into line

11:45Joining the second Rhode Island battery already fighting since early morning. I

11:50Went on the field at suddenly spring

11:53After crossing the stream. My first order was to take to the right into an open field. I then came into action

12:00McDowell's army suffers from its strung out arrival their attack unfolds regiment by regiment in a piecemeal fashion

12:10Reinforcements rushed by Confederate commander-general

12:13PGT Beauregard swell rebel ranks to about 4,000

12:19They remain hard-pressed

12:21Fire

12:3725 miles away in Washington the roar from booming cannon is mistaken as distant thunder

12:49Fanny Ricketts knows it is man-made thunder

12:51And some of those guns are pointed at her husband

13:02The fighting means different things to different spectators

13:07We colored people knew that the war was on foot and we thought slavery wouldn't be allowed anymore if the North won

13:15Our masters would have kept us ignorant about the meaning of the war

13:18But the news leaked out so we got a hold of it slightly

13:25Florence's husband is fighting with a Virginia regiment

13:28The cannon aiding which had been heard all morning about nine o'clock became so violent as to shake the windows

13:36Unable to stay in the house aunt Lizzie ordered the carriage

13:48McDowell and Burnside finally achieved a united federal assault

13:59Confederates retreated disorder from Matthews Hill

14:04McDowell thinks he has won the entire battle

14:13But Confederate co-commander-general Joseph Johnston is rushing in more troops

14:18Now on the back slope of Henry Hill

14:21Norris believes his company of the 27th, Virginia will make him proud

14:26The troops here are getting in a pretty good state of discipline and we will give old Abe's troops a pretty hard shape

14:37Norris is told to hurry his company toward the sound of the guns

14:44When shattered Confederates retreat across Judith Henry's land

14:48John Henry is forced to evacuate his mother

14:51Not expecting a battle on this ground. We had not moved her

14:55We took her upon a mattress and carried her out intended to take her to mr. Compton's

15:02Several miles east of mrs. Henry's house

15:05Northern spectators from Washington gather to watch what they think will be the only battle of the war

15:12They spread picnic lunches on the heights above Centerville

15:16Their view is obscured by trees and smoke, but they can hear the guns

15:22Southern spectators gather on Douglas Heights

15:25Which offers a better view as the fighting spreads from Matthews Hill towards Henry Hill

15:31When Florence arrives

15:33Southern hopes are falling

15:36Few signs of excitement came from the group

15:39Composed entirely of gray-haired men women and children each of whom had some dear one exposed to those murderous volleys

15:49John and Ellen Henry never reach a neighbor's house with their mother

15:53And before we reached the woods, she begged so hard to be taken back that we returned to the house

16:00by now

16:02Confederate sharpshooters have hidden themselves in and around the house

16:09The 27th Virginia arrives with other reinforcements

16:13They join Confederates from Matthews Hill in a line held atop Henry Hill by Jackson

16:19Just 300 yards from Federals gathering slowly by the Henry house

16:24Oh

16:34McDowell sends forward some artillery to hurry along what he thinks is the retreating rebel army

16:40Among the first to arrive is Ricketts and his six guns

16:49Ricketts on limbers before infantry support arrives

16:54I

17:06Had scarcely got into battery before I saw I was going into great peril

17:24Oh

17:55I understood later that there was an old woman inside mrs. Henry who was killed

18:09Words are powerless to describe our feelings

18:12Too far off even with the aid of glasses to ascertain the fate of friends

18:16Yet near enough to see the rapidly thinning ranks of our defenders

18:24Oh

18:31Dear mother you need not send for me or want me to for I would not leave for a thousand dollars

18:37As it would look like cowards

18:41Confederate refugees from Matthews Hill find an image to rally

18:48Jackson holds fast instead like a stone wall

18:55I

19:02Shall push us forward the 11th, New York fires rocks to support Ricketts

19:14The 14th Brooklyn joins them

19:19Stubborn New Yorkers are dubbed the red-legged devils

19:25After

19:30Hours of artillery duels and infantry skirmishing Jackson orders his entire line forward

19:38Norris steps off his men hear him shout. Come on boys quick and we can whip them

19:55A

19:56Southern hopes bright the glitter of bayonets seen in the woods of Chin Ridge on the federal right flank

20:06Fresh Confederate troops attack from the Chin Ridge woods to join Jackson's assault

20:17Confederates finally overwhelm and break the federal line

20:24You

20:36Shattered Federals retreat back down Henry Hill

20:40McDowell's Federal Army is beaten back from Manassas back across the Sudley Fords and Bull Run

20:46At

20:52The cub run bridge rebel artillery explosions create panic many run

21:01Northern spectators are caught up in the route

21:03No

21:13Longer green the broken and weary warriors snake along the Warrington turnpike back to Washington

21:21You

21:29General McDowell ordered us to retreat which we did not marching faster than the common time and not one of the boys running

21:42Artillery sergeant Joseph Norris searches for his younger brother

21:50You

22:00Sergeant Norris takes the body of Captain Charles Norris home to their mother in Leesburg for burial

22:10At the Sudley Church a federal field hospital has fallen into Confederate hands

22:16You

22:19Army wagons began coming piled as high as anyone would pile wood with the bodies of dead men. I

22:26Shall never forget. I remember their faces

22:31Nearly 900 young men North and South lie dead

22:36scattered across the fields of Matthews Hill and Henry Hill

22:40Major Sullivan Baloo dies at Sudley Church and is buried nearby

22:47My very dear sir

22:48I must watch you from the spirit land and hover near you while you buffered the storm and wait with sad

22:54Patience till we meet to part no more

23:10The body of Judith Henry is laid to rest in her own garden

23:27I do think I ever felt more deeply than when I stood among the wreck and ruin of mrs

23:33Henry's home and saw the poor mangled body of the old lady placed in the coffin and

23:38Born to her last resting place by stranger hands

23:44Around the Henry garden was a hedge of Althea the only things that had escaped destruction

23:52North and south bury the notion that the war will end after only one battle

24:04Lieutenant Kirby a survivor of Ricketts battery

24:08Returns the captain's blood-stained sash and sword to Fanny with orders to deliver a message

24:19Give this to my wife

24:23Tell her I've done my duty to my country and my last words are of her and her child

24:34a

24:38Not believing her husband dead Fanny begs a pass from General Winfield Scott and heads for the battlefield

24:50Fanny relies on her pre-war army associations to wend her way through enemy lines

24:56She secures a Confederate escort to a manor house now used as a hospital

25:03Sir lady has passed

25:14Captured federal surgeon gray treats northern wounded

25:22Surgeon gray

25:25Donald Dawson told me that my husband might be here. Your husband is upstairs and I've been treating him

25:34You

25:39The driver is never seen again and presumed sold into slavery

25:45The old driver was very philosophical and wanted nothing but some tobacco which we got for him

25:51He and the team were declared contraband of war and disappeared

26:03I

26:12Firmly believe there are a few women constituted like myself who can live through these hard rending scenes

26:19Nothing, no words and they are limited in this little diary can describe the horrors around me

26:26And through all I went to my husband

26:33You

26:48Fanny Ricketts remains with her husband for five months and nurses him back to health in a Richmond prison

26:55in December 1861 he is exchanged for Confederate prisoners, but the war grinds on

27:04You

27:10Confederates blow up the stone bridge to deny Federals its use

27:16In March 1862 federal general George McClellan launches a campaign against Richmond

27:25General Robert E Lee emerges as the city's savior

27:29He throws McClellan back using General Stonewall Jackson as his strong right arm

27:34in August their eyes turn toward northern, Virginia

27:39Where general John Pope defends, Washington and a supply base at Manassas?

27:48Mrs. Henry's grave is long forgotten by the fast-moving armies

27:53Passing soldiers pick her house to its bones for firewood during the winter

27:58but when summer returns

28:00so do the soldiers and

28:03the battles

28:08Hope's black-hatted Western Brigade squares off against the Stonewall Brigade and Brawner's farm opening round

28:16The

28:25Soldiers are different now hardened by brutal battles

28:30Unlike the green recruits of a year earlier. They stand toe-to-toe and kill like butchers in a slaughter pen

28:46Oh

28:562,000 men fall in 90 minutes

29:08Their comrades march on to the next killing field

29:12Jackson's men feast on abundant federal supplies at Manassas Junction and burn what's left

29:20Hope turns his army to get even

29:23Federal veterans like private Isaac Rathbun of the 86th, New York are anxious

29:28Jackson has played a trick on us

29:30He's in our rear

29:32We marched and rested and marched again

29:34We marched and rested and marched again. We heard fighting off near Bull Run and the prospect was that we were to see some soon

29:50Second battle Manassas was worse than the first we were driven from our home by big cans planted on the east and west

29:58While we were at breakfast

30:00Soldiers came to our front door and said get out of here. You will be blown to pieces

30:08At age 19 private HD Childs is a veteran of the first, Tennessee

30:14He's as hard as the soles of his bare feet

30:21Marching in where the battle had been all day. I was looking for a dead Yankee with a pair of shoes on his feet

30:27There were plenty of dead Yankees, but no shoes

30:30Some barefoot Johnny Rebs had been there before me

30:37Outnumbered but confident Jackson accepts battle behind a two-mile long stretch of unfinished railroad

30:44Pope obliges

30:47In a deep cut of the embankment

30:50Jackson's men hurl rocks when temporarily out of ammunition

30:54Pope's Federals attack savagely

30:57I'm trying to destroy the fable Jackson

31:03Several hundred yards down the embankment child in the first, Tennessee fight doggedly

31:09I

31:22Fired taking deliberate aim, but do not know if I hurt anybody for in the storm of battle everything is soon enveloped in smoke

31:39Lieutenant Charles Hazlitt is anxious

31:43His infantry support has been withdrawn from the woods on his left

31:48Hazlitt's battery is on its own

31:52Resting along the Warrington turnpike behind Hazlitt are the weary fifth, New York and 10th, New York

31:59Recently arrived from the Richmond campaign. They are under the command of Colonel GK Warren

32:08The fifth, New York contains a batch of raw recruits are they replace casualties?

32:19Veterans like privates Alfred Davenport and James Webb view new recruits as a necessary bother

32:27Private Eugene gear is just 17. He has been a soldier now for exactly 22 days

32:34right shoulder ship

32:36arms

32:38Veterans like Davenport web and private Charles Brehm take fresh fish like gear under their wing for on-the-job training

32:46You want to master the drill you have to start with position of the solar?

32:50As this was a dangerous position. I asked Colonel Warren if he could give me some support

33:02Lieutenant Hazlitt says this ribs in the woods. He'd like a support

33:04I

33:19Warren's orders interrupt a treasured coffee break for the footsore veterans, but they dutifully marched to the left of Hazlitt's guns

33:27Heading straight into Warren's Brigade is the fifth, Texas

33:31unknown to the Federals

33:3330,000 rebels under General James Longstreet are deploying into the facing woods across a mile-long front

33:44Lee is springing a trap to destroy Pope's army

33:47Warren has sent the 10th, New York into the woods as a skirmish line the 5th, New York tries to relax

33:55Davenport recalls we made our little fires and boiled our coffee and cups our principal nourishment

34:01It struck me that mischief was brewing

34:17Hey

34:35Fifth New York must hold its fire until the 10th, New York clears

34:40The skirmishers came in on our left all much excited and said the enemy were coming in and were right on top of us

34:48Lee

34:53Has sprung his trap

35:00The steadfast color guard of the 5th, New York is mowed down in ranks to a man

35:07Others save the colors from the disgrace of Texan capture

35:17Oh

35:47Oh

35:57Webb runs a gauntlet of fire to warn has

36:02Routed New Yorkers scramble across young's branch and up another slope heading toward Shin Ridge

36:14I turned to look behind once and only once

36:17That was enough to let me know there was no time to stop

36:29The brigade's been smashed

36:31Grabbed her in the woods on your flank

36:34cease fire cease fire

36:36Secure the pieces livers to the rear for his efforts in saving the artillery

36:41Private James Webb later receives the Congressional Medal of Honor

36:47Is left crumpled by Longstreet's attack

36:50Hope fights a holding action along Shin Ridge near Henry Hill

36:55Rathbun of the 86th, New York recalls

36:58The rebels had batteries on our right and left and infantry in front

37:08We were under a terrific fire the iron began to whistle around us pretty well

37:18I

37:22Into the evening federal fight on Henry Hill to buy time

37:30The rest of Pope's army retreats on the Warrington turnpike

37:37By the time survivors fall back from Chin Ridge

37:40Federals lose 15,000 young men killed wounded and missing

37:46Confederates nearly 10,000

37:53We went in with 580 men and now draw rations for 250 most of the recruits were killed

38:05Like soldiers in every war Bremen gear try to create for themselves a bit of immortality

38:12You they carve their names

38:23Bram returns crippled to civilian life

38:27Gear never reaches his 18th birthday

38:31He dies of infection

38:41You

38:51Father walked to the battlefield to count the dead men, but couldn't it was on the unfinished railroad

38:57He got as far as 150 and had to stop he got sick and could go no farther

39:11You

39:13You

39:35Defeated Federals sullenly retreat back across Bull Run using the repaired stone bridge and

39:42Returned to Washington

39:44You

39:46You

40:11Fresh from victory at second Manassas

40:13Lee sends his army north hoping that another victory on Union soil might secure southern independence

40:31Wounded federal prisoners are held under guard in a former hog pen outside the stone house

40:37These include Isaac Rathbun

40:44Oh

40:45Bullrun Monday September 1st 1862

40:51Through the day nearly all of Longstreet's and yields forces marched by

40:56They stopped very often to talk with us. They seemed to think we were fighting for Negroes or something

41:01Well, they were fighting for their homes

41:07They were rejoicing over their victory, but they were all sick of the war and wished it could be settled

41:13But they were determined to fight as long as they lived before they would be ruled by the Yankee

41:20Two weeks later

41:22Southerners are sobered by one bloody day on Antietam Creek near Sharpsburg, Maryland

41:28The slim federal victory enables Lincoln to sound the death knell of slavery

41:39He issues the Emancipation Proclamation

41:43We say we are for the Union

41:47The world knows we do know how to save it

41:52In giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free

41:58On

42:08June 10th 1865 two months after peace has been won federal veterans dedicate a monument on Henry Hill

42:19It remembers their comrades who sacrificed all at Manassas

42:23Nearby is the grave of Judith Henry

42:30The monument honors those patriots whose lives now are entwined with the lost innocence of a nation

42:38It is a nation again under one flag

42:41With room beneath it for all patriots north and south black and white

42:47forever baptized in blood as Abraham Lincoln put it

42:51After a new birth of freedom

43:21We shall meet

43:25But we shall miss him

43:28There will be

43:30one

43:32vacant chair

43:35We shall linger

43:38To caress him

43:42When we breathe our evening prayer

43:51Oh

43:58How he strove to bear our banner

44:05Through the

44:08Of the fight

44:12And upon

44:14His country's honor

44:18In the strength of manhood's might

44:26We shall meet

44:28But we shall miss him

44:30There will be

44:32one vacant chair

44:34We shall linger

44:36To caress him

44:38When we breathe our evening prayer

44:40Oh

44:42How he strove to bear our banner

44:44Through the fight

44:47When we breathe

44:49Our evening prayer

44:54We shall linger

44:57To caress him

45:01When we breathe

45:04Our evening prayer

45:16You

45:36You

45:46You

46:05You

46:16You

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