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Civil War, Ken Burn's Episode 2: A Very Bloody Affair 1862 [VHS]

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This second installment of Ken Burns' "Civil War" documentary focuses on two very interesting aspects of the War, as well as continues to give an overview of the entire confrontation:

The first interesting topic is the reluctance of Union General George McClellan to attack the rebel Confederate forces. McClellan, while a brilliant trainer of military regiments, was inexplicably always convinced that the rebels had him surrounded (when in reality his armies always outnumbered theirs), thus was very reluctant to order attacks that would have undoubtedly put a quicker end to the nasty confrontation between North and South.

The other subject that Burns focuses on in this chapter of the series is how both armies (Union and Confederate) sustained casualty rates that had never been seen before and likely will never be seen again. At the battle of Shiloh alone, 23,000 men fell. Whereas mortality rates of 10% per battle would cause outrage today, the percentage was much closer to 30% during multiple Civil War battles.