FIELDS OF GLORY

[Music] good evening ladies and gentlemen this is jack douglas an irish poet who once visited america said my heart is pure this happy day for i have stood where brave men stood and i have stood where brave men fought and i have stood where brave men died ladies and gentlemen during the next 30 minutes you and i will have the chance to see many of the historic and sacred places where brave men stood and fought and died on american soil this special america program could have only one title fields of glory [Applause] this is concord massachusetts and once upon a time roughly a hundred years ago this tiny community was the literary center of america ralph waldo emerson the sage of concord conceived many of his noted essays in this very house and this was the home of the alcott family yes louisa may alcott who gave the world little women this giant of literature was also attracted by conquered nathaniel hawthorne and here he brought his newlywed wife and here he wrote mosses from an old man's by the banks of walden pond the rebel of conquered letters henry david thoreau built a cabin and shut himself off from the world for two years and then rewarded the world with walden a rapsodic diary of a love affair with nature but even before thoreau and the others were born an event took place here in concord that was destined to change the course of human history this small obelisk marks the very spot and as we approach it the weather beaten plaque describes a momentous incident here on the 19th of april 1775 was made the first forcible resistance to british aggression on the opposite banks to the american militia here stood the invading army and on this spot the first of the enemy fell in the war of that revolution which gave independence to these united states [Music] the opposite bank of the lazy lovely conquered river the bank occupied by the minutemen was spanned then is now by a small wooden bridge once across the bridge you will be standing on sacred american soil a small plot of ground dominated by the famous statue of the minuteman the words are by emerson by the rude bridge that arch the flood their flag to april's breeze unfurled here once the embattled farmer stood and fired the shot heard round the world only a few feet away is the final resting place of three british redcoats killed in the skirmish and james russell lowell wrote their epitaph they came three thousand miles and died to keep the past upon its throne at sundown there were few and conquered who slept soundly this was open rebellion but from the hills of virginia the voice that had cried out in anger for 10 years cried out again and now electrified the colonies gentlemen may cry peace peace but there is no peace and then in seven concluding words patrick henry gave the world an everlasting standard by which to measure freedom give me liberty or give me death the thirteen colonies were willing to pay the price a year was to pass before the declaration of independence was signed a declaration of human rights from the pen of thomas jefferson this was a day to remember and so was christmas night 1776 when washington crossed the delaware and captured trenton in a surprise attack but a year later came the winter of 1777-78 the winter america was never to forget it happened here in a hamlet some 20 miles from philadelphia and seeing it like this in the bright sunshine of summer it's hard to associate this pleasant surrounding with the unbearable suffering and human misery experienced by eleven thousand troops under washington's command but the punishment they endured cold sick literally starving to death gave military historians a new synonym for grit and guts valley forge [Music] in time by the middle of january wooden huts such as these had been built to house the cold and tattered troops then the turning point february 23 1778 at valley forge on that day the prussian military hero baron frederick von steuben freshly arrived from europe offered his services which washington gratefully accepted with the rank of major general the prussian drill master welded an army of brave misfits into an army of disciplined soldiers the thirteen colonies could now say we have an army indeed the arrival of von steuben at valley forge is accepted as the unofficial birthday of the american army and today when you visit valley ford state park you will find much that is worth seeing in this house washington made his headquarters and here martha washington came in that bitter february to join the wives of other officers and soldiers cooking knitting nursing the sick and the dying of those who perished during this winter of nightmares only the grave of lieutenant john waterman of rhode island was marked and of america's many fields of glory valley forge is singular in this respect no major battle or skirmish was fought here yet three thousand men died on this plane their only enemies had been the hard bitter hand of nature and the lack of supplies and washington the professional soldier knew rock courage when he saw it and so atop this handsome memorial arch has been inscribed just a portion of the general's lavish praise of his men naked and starving as they are we cannot enough admire the incomparable patience and fidelity of the soldiery in the warmer climate of the virginia countryside three and a half long years after valley forge the grand union of england would fly for the last time as the sovereign flag of the colonies but here at yorktown the fleur-de-lis france had every reason to wave proudly in the soft breeze for while we remember the great lafayette and well we should it was the french army under counter roshambo joining forces with washington's troops that pounded cornwallis into submission for more than a week cornwallis was to prove a formidable antagonist but outnumbered two to one and cut off from retreat by the sea because of storms and a french fleet cornwallis sent out his flag of truce on october 17 1781 and two days later the surrender was signed in this very house england had lost what was destined to become the richest jewel her empire would ever possess [Music] in the southern part of texas the city of san antonio in 1837 was the center of the texas struggle for independence from mexico on february 23 the mexican dictator general santa anna invaded the city with an army of about a thousand men a number that increased to 4 000 or more within a matter of days this was to be the battleground the field of glory the mission chapel known as the alamo converted into a fort by 187 volunteers to the cause of texas independence these volunteers from many states and even foreign countries including mexico were under the joint command of lieutenant colonel william travis of the texas army and the knife fighter from kentucky and louisiana jim bowie refusing to surrender travis and his men withstood the siege for 13 days then on the 13th day santa anna's forced prisoner was taken every man in the alamo had died fighting travis bowie bonham all dead and this man a hero in life also died as a hero is expected to die here was no starry-eyed wild west cowboy but a real frontiersman a tennessee legislator a three-time congressman yes davy crockett was also at the alamo some alamo visitors say but there isn't very much to see here well that's true there aren't even any grave markers for the bodies of the texans were burned by order of santa ana but when you come here to the alamo you will be affected not merely by what you see but by what you feel 46 days after the alamo fell general sam houston demolished santa ana's forces the lone star republic was now in the making and in that distant valhalla reserved for a very special breed of men 187 heroes could now rest in peace [Music] [Music] nature like some forms of animal life has the capacity to lick its wounds and the wounds heal and the loveliness that was is born again and as we walk along this quiet stream and its wooded glands we cannot possibly imagine just how well nature has concealed its man-made scars not unless we go back a hundred years yes this is manassas better known as bull run the name of that nearby stream it is the war of the brothers the war between the states and herod bull run was fought the first field battle of the war some 24 days after the firing on fort sumter many of the wars greatest generals from both sides saw action here and at one point in the fierce fighting a confederate officer shouted to his men look there stands jackson like a stone wall rally round the virginians the nickname stuck and one of the ableist generals in military history would forever be known as stonewall jackson this jackson this thomas jonathan stonewall jackson was no plantation powder puff but a professional a graduate of west point a professor of the military arts and in the field a brilliant tactician and leader of men this first battle of bull run turned into a rout of the union forces and more than a year later the blue and the grey met again at bull run and again the confederates thanks largely to jackson were the victors when the two battles of bull run had ended manassas looked like this in terms of human casualties the federal losses amounted to 17 000 while the confederate loss approximated eleven thousand stone house near the site of the first battle was used as a hospital by both sides this reconstruction is almost too attractive but then man like nature and its creatures also tries to hide his scars [Music] gettysburg in pennsylvania just north of the maryland border is a college town a nice town a quiet town but for three days july 1 to july 3 in 1863 the fields and ridges of gettysburg were the scene of the greatest battle ever fought on american soil 97 000 union troops commanded by general meade were engaged in a gigantic struggle by 75 000 confederates under the revered robert e lee the losses stagger the imagination 51 000 dead and wounded from the combined armies of a hundred and seventy two thousand the battle of gettysburg was fought but once it has been re-fought and re-examined however at least a million times by war colleges and military institutions throughout the world a complete tour of the gettysburg national military park would take days if not weeks in size it approximates 3 000 acres and all told there are more than 1 400 monuments tablets and markers each worthy of more than passing consideration this unusual memorial the high watermark monument commemorates the spot where pickett's famous charge was finally stopped by the union brigades as events later proved this was literally the high water mark of the confederate cause if the charge had succeeded if gettysburg had been won by the noble lee if well we will never know we do know that the tide of the confederacy had swept to its crest paused and receded the war would continue but from this point on all roads would lead to appomattox courthouse the magnificent stonewall jackson was not at gettysburg only 60 days earlier he had mistakenly been shot and mortally wounded at twilight by his own men a few months after the battle in november it was decided that gettysburg field should be dedicated as a cemetery edward everett the outstanding orator of his time was the guest of honor his speech lasted for two solid hours also invited almost as an afterthought was a man whose presence actually embarrassed the committee not one american in ten thousand knows what mr everett said but few in the civilized world have not memorized at least a portion of the handwritten softly spoken text that begins four score and seven years ago the cannons are still now the words of lincoln go marching on and this field of glory will outlast the lifespan of generations yet unborn how briskly these two young men approach this old house but on palm sunday in 1865 two older men two tired men two tormented men were not so anxious to mount the steps of mclean house in the town of appomattox courthouse they sat in this parlor and they talked they talked not of this war but of the mexican war and the old army days and finally to the business at hand surrender robert e lee the heart the soul the pride of the confederacy ulysses s grant the cigar chomping whiskey drinking military genius who was now the hero of the north grant's terms of surrender were so generous that lee could not help expressing his appreciation a stroke of the pen and the nation was reunited and a nation rejoiced [Music] the jubilation was not to last a week on april 14 only five days after appomattox president lincoln was fatally wounded by john wilkes booth the year is 1868 the sioux and cheyenne sign a treaty with the united states a vast area including the black hills is to be set aside as a permanent home for the two indian nations but less than ten years later greedy gold prospectors violate the treaty repeatedly the indians take to the warpath from washington in february of 1876 came a strong directive commence operations against the hostile indians no one could foretell that this would be the field of glory the banks and ridges of what was then a relatively unknown river the little bighorn in montana george a custer had been a general in the union army at the age of 23. after the war and at little bighorn he was attached to the seventh cavalry with the rank of lieutenant colonel the seventh cavalry was only one of numerous infantry and cavalry units involved in the overall operations under generals crook terry and gibbon but the seventh was custer's command a long chain of complicated circumstances prompted custer to split his forces so that on june 25 the day of the battle custer engaged the indians with only about 225 men under his immediate command surprised by the size of the enemy force outnumbered by perhaps ten to one or more the outcome was massacre [Music] what really happened at the battle of the little bighorn is almost as much a mystery today as it was then for not a single man with custer survived the slaughter indeed apart from the enemy the only living thing to emerge from the battle was captain keo's horse comanche and so for most of what we know we have had to rely on meager vague information from indians who participated in the battle we know that many famous chiefs were gathered in the huge indian encampment but which one was the dominant figure was it gaul or the sioux medicine man sitting bull or was the real leader the fearless crazy horse we do not know we know that custer had trusted and capable indian scouts yet custer apparently was ignorant of the strength of the main indian encampment why we do not know did the battle last the full two days as some believe or was it over in a matter of hours or even minutes we do not know but we do know this we know that once inside these gates we will be standing in the spiritual presence of 225 men who died with their boot son now theirs was not a sacrifice of life in exchange for liberty or for religious freedom yet the lack of lofty motives does not diminish their glory these men were professional soldiers and they died like professional soldiers why else would a mere handful of men be so well remembered in the pages of history [Music] they come to this building and they come by the thousands daily they come to honor a great soldier who closed his military career with these words but i still remember the refrain of one of the most popular barrack ballads of that day which proclaimed most proudly that old soldiers never die they just paid away yes those were the words of general of the armies douglas macarthur he is buried here in the macarthur memorial in norfolk virginia and a few feet away from his tomb is this reminder of his greatest triumph part of the platform or decking from the uss missouri on which the general stood in accepting the formal japanese instrument of surrender at the close of world war ii the general was right old soldiers never die but the general was wrong they do not simply fade away they live forever in the hearts of their people they are remembered at their fields of glory their deeds are recorded in the pages of history their memories are cherished by the flower of their nation's youth who would follow in their footsteps [Music] so [Music] ladies and gentlemen the painting husters last stand by edgar s paxson is on exhibit at the whitney gallery of in cody wyoming washington at valley forge was reproduced by permission of the valley forge historical society and our very special thanks to the cadet corps of vmi the virginia military institute thank you and good night [Music] you