#Kilo-0716: Parks on the Air brings ham radio hobbyists, history and middle school students together at Chickamauga battlefield

Matt Holleman serves as an activator at Chickamauga (Picket photos)

The voices of Jody Carter’s students travel hundreds of thousands of miles each year from their amateur radio club in northwest Georgia.

Those in the Rambler Radio Club (W4LMS) at at LaFayette Middle School learn about other parts of the world – by communicating with one person at a time.

“We discuss weather, geography and significant sites around them,” according to the computer science teacher.

The students recently went extremely local by calling fellow ham radio operators at Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, about a dozen miles away.

They spoke with members of Parks on the Air (POTA), a network of ham radio enthusiasts who travel to federal and state parks and talk away. The international hobby group was formed in early 2017.

I met a few of the POTA people in late September during the federal park’s walks and tours related to the 160^th anniversary of the Battle of Chickamauga, a significant Confederate victory.

The licensed radio operators were at a picnic and gathering area, away from monuments that dot the battlefield.

“This is hallowed ground,” said Allen Padgett, 73, of LaFayette. “We try to maintain the decorum there, and respect the special nature of the place.”

For Padgett and millions of others, ham radio offers a chance to chat with people in far corners of the world.

“We like to talk and have peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. It is practice for us when everything else goes down the toilet,” he said, referring to the ability of ham radio folks to keep up with emergencies and stay connected during disasters.

While any topic may come up, being at a park provides the opportunity to talk about nature or the historic importance of the site. “We have talked to people who had folks who fought or died in the battle,” said Padgett. “Those will almost make you tear up.”

On the day I was at Chickamauga, Padgett and his comrades were dealing with the sun, which was disturbing their radio signals. But they had a few dozen conversations, including with four of Carter’s students.

They wanted to know what was special about that day, Padgett recalled. “Cannons roared, rifles fired and people died,” he recalled relating to the dozens of students listening in.

Padgett (at right with antenna at Chickamauga) and Carter are members of the Tri-States Amateur Radio Club.

Carter, who sponsors the school radio club, has made several contacts with POTA, including at Chickamauga.

“The group that I chose for this contact were all 8th-grade students studying Georgia history this year, and the fact that the activation was taking place in one of the Civil War's most significant battle sites and that the site was less than 15 miles away from our school, I knew we didn't want to miss out on this opportunity,” Carter told the Picket in an email.

The educator said another group of students attended a reenactment near the battlefield the following weekend.

“I hope that they see a glimpse into our nation's past and realize the importance of remembering what those before us hoped to preserve," said Carter.

How to speak ham radio

I confess to knowing little about ham radio, its history and those who do it. Padgett gave me a bit of a primer on how it works with the nonprofit POTA.

I also listened to a couple YouTube videos which said the hobby is a fun way for participants to get  “out of the shack” and into the field to communicate. All it takes is a radio, antenna, battery and a laptop – for as little as $600 and a license with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), if you are a U.S. citizen. POTA also has a code of conduct.

So-called “activators” set up and go the group’s website to indicate they are on the air. “Hunters” around the world will then lock into the frequency from their homes or vehicles. Messages between the parties bounce off the ionosphere. (Click here to see current POTA active spots). Most participants are hunters.

The hobby awards points, gold stars and online certificates. While they have no financial value, the recognitions are a reward of sorts for taking part in activities.

“You are never in too much a hurry to not talk,” said Padgett, who was among the activators that afternoon at Chickamauga.

(Click photo at left to see typical radio bands.)

Ham radio operators have their own language, and I asked Padgett to provide a hypothetical conversation he might have had that day.

Here’s what he provided:

I would pick a frequency and say:

KN4FKS CQ Parks On The Air, CQ Parks On The Air, Kilo November Four Foxtrot Kilo Sierra, listening.

If no answer after listening for 15-20 seconds, repeat.

Say W5ABC calls simply by saying his call sign. I respond:

W5ABC, I have you 5-9 (that means strong signal and very readable) in NW Georgia at Park # Kilo-0716, Chickamauga National Battlefield.

He responds: I have you 5-9 in Kansas, thanks for the activation. (At this point, he might ask about my equipment, ask about the park or ask about the weather here. He usually judges this by how busy I am as HAMS usually listen a bit before they call)

I reply: 73 (which means best regards), KN4FKS QRZ (which means who's next?) if no one answers, then I repeat first sentence CQ. (CQ means is if you hear me give me a call)

When we activate from that picnic area we will often tell our callers from Ohio the artillery that was at our exact location on the first day of the battle was from Ohio. If from Indiana, we explain the infantry was from Indiana.

Teacher says ham radio is what the world needs now

Ham radio enthusiasts tend to be male and most are middle-aged or older.

Padgett says for an older hobbyist, sometimes “his contact with the outside world is his home health nurse and his radio.”

Carter, the school radio club sponsor, says getting students interested early pays dividends. Students have traveled beyond our world – through a 2012 conversation with the crew of the International Space Station – during the club’s 17 years.

Pupils discuss the basics of radio theory, antennas, signal propagation, the relationship between frequency and wavelength and other technical topics related to the hobby. 

“More than anything else, our students appreciate that with amateur radio, they are treated like people, not like a little kid -- they are respected for their pursuits,” Carter wrote.

“Considering the breakdown in communication that we are seeing between large groups of us nationally and globally, it is my hope that we teach the next generation the importance of making connections with people who we think are not like us, one person at a time.  Really, we are much more alike than we are different. 

“I want my students to learn how to think for themselves and to articulate those ideas effectively. And I believe that for my students, amateur radio can play a key role in teaching that life skill.  

“We desperately need it.”

Activators keep logs (left) of calls and upload the data (Picket photo)

Fort C.F. Smith in Arlington was among 68 that kept Lincoln's Washington safe; park's new visitor center tells the story of these defenders

Men of the 2nd New York Artillery (Library of Congress)

New visitor center at Fort C.F. Smith Park (Arlington Co. Parks)

The boys of the 164^th Ohio Volunteer Infantry were quite pleased with their new post after they completed a journey that took them from Cleveland to Washington, D.C.

Upon arrival, they marched down dusty capital roads, across the Potomac River and onto the ridges and ravines of Arlington Heights, on the Virginia side. There, they joined the garrison of Fort C.F. Smith, the last in a string of defensive fortifications that stretched southeast toward occupied Alexandria.

The troops could feast on luscious blackberries in the thickets (though the grounds had been denuded of trees so that the artillery would have a clear line of fire), or saunter down to the Potomac River, less than a mile away, to harvest tasty fish and eels.

“We have a most splendid location, at an elevation of two hundred feet above the Potomac river; overlooking the country in every direction,” a soldier wrote on May 21, 1864, to the Tiffin Weekly Tribune (left) back home. “Off to the east, in full view, is the city of Washington, and the capitol of our nation; to the south lies Fort Strong; in the west the Potomac winds its way through the hills, and in the distance may be seen Ft. Ethan Allen; to the north a beautiful array of hills, with splendid residences dotting them here and there.”

That sense of relative calm and comfort was common for thousands of artillerymen and infantry who occupied 68 enclosed forts encircling the capital. Twenty-two of them were in Alexandria (now Arlington) County.

None in the county saw action, but there was always the threat of a Confederate rush on the capital, which occurred in July 1864, sending the city into panic. That effort was rebuffed at Fort Stevens in Maryland, on the northern outskirts of Washington.

Fortification remnants at C.F. Smith (Arlington Co. Parks)

Earthwork remnants in the 19-acre Fort C.F. Smith Park are considered the best preserved of those 22 Arlington-area forts. While most traces are gone, the ruins of the lunette fort include a bomb proof, the fort well, the north magazine and 11 of the 22 gun emplacements.

Visitor center tells story of these sentinels

Arlington County park officials late last month opened a new visitor center at the site. Inside are artifacts, photos, a searchable database for soldiers stationed at the fort and items geared for children, including a tent and uniforms they can try on.

While the park draws birders, walkers and others interested in a meadow and generous tree canopy, officials want people in the county to know more about its Civil War past. For a long time, that was limited to Arlington House, also known as the Custis-Lee Mansion, said John McNair, acting park historian at Fort C.F. Smith.

 “Our goal is to … stir excitement in the local Arlington community for the Civil War history in their back yard,” said McNair.

 C.F. Smith and other forts (click to enlarge; Library of Congress)

The perimeter forts were abandoned in 1865 at war’s end. A few remnants exist, including at the county’s Fort Ethan Allen Park, which was located to the northwest of Fort C.F. Smith. Today, the site has a nearby county dog park.

A 1994 Washington Post article about the purchase of land for Fort C.F. Smith Park cited Civil War historians who said the capital's series of surrounding forts, trenches and cannon batteries made up a "largely forgotten legacy that literally is woven into the region's landscape."

Local counties and the National Park Service are trying to spark interest in their unheralded contributions to the war effort. After all, they kept the capital safe.

Trees were cleared and their wood used

Engineer Brig. Gen. John Gross Barnard designed and built the 68 forts, a task made much more urgent by the ignominious Union defeat at First Manassas in July 1861. Rebel troops weren’t far from the capital – in Falls Church, Va. The Union Army Balloon Corps spied on them from Fort Corcoran.

More scenes from Fort C.F. Smith (Library of Congress)

Alexandria County (which was renamed Arlington County in 1920) was largely made up of farms during the war. McNair said because the forts needed to be in cleared areas, few trees in those areas today are more than 160 years old. Barns and fences were taken down for fuel. The impact on Alexandria County residents was substantial.

Laborers cut down trees that were used for camp buildings, and the whole operation created new roads and infrastructure around the capital.

Barnard wrote: “Possession was at once taken, with little or no reference to the rights of the owners or the occupants of the lands -- the stern law of ‘military necessity’ and the magnitude of the public interests involved in the security of the nation's capital being paramount to every other consideration.”

Gen. Robert E. Lee’s victory at Second Manassas in 1862 brought renewed concerns.

“Fortifications suddenly grew stronger thanks to soldier and contract labor,” fort expert B. Franklin Cooling wrote in a feature article for the Civil War Trust. “A free black landowner watched her house crumble beneath soldier axes and sledgehammers as Fort Massachusetts was expanded and became Fort Stevens.”

About 20,000 soldiers were required to adequately man these forts. Generals who likely would have wanted them at the front knew that President Lincoln was consumed with protecting the city.

For some young men deployed in Virginia, it was their first experience in seeing plantations and enslaved persons.

“When soldiers enter Arlington from Washington they sometimes talk about entering the South, even the Deep South, like Arlington is like Alabama or Mississippi,” David Farner, a senior staffer with Arlington County Parks & Recreation, says in a video posted on the Fort C.F. Smith Park website.

It bristled with firepower

Fort C.F. Smith, built in early 1863, was considered to be well-designed and sophisticated, with C-shaped earthworks and protected areas for infantry.

C.F. Smith

Built on land owned by Thomas Jewell, it eventually was named for Maj. Gen. Charles Ferguson Smith, a mentor of Ulysses S. Grant who later served as a subordinate. Smith died of a non-combat injury shortly after the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862.

Armament included a seacoast howitzer, 24-pounder siege guns, 12-pounder field howitzers, Rodman rifles, three siege mortars and other guns, for a total of 17 to 20 artillery pieces.

The property included barracks, officers’ quarters, a cookhouse and other buildings. Photographs kept by the Library of Congress show a pleasant camp, a haven well back from the front lines to the south. 

Between 100 and 300 might be at Fort C.F. Smith at a time. The number included heavy artillerymen, who also could be deployed as infantry.

Among the units stationed there were the 3^rd Battalion, 5^th New York Heavy Artillery; the 2^nd New York Heavy Artillery; the 1^st Rhode Island Light Artillery, Battery H; and the 30^th Company of Unattached Massachusetts Heavy Artillery. The 2^nd New York is the unit featured in the Library of Congress photo collection.

Fortification remnants at C.F. Smith (Arlington County Parks)

All quiet on the Potomac?

The forts on the Arlington Line, plus Ethan Allen, were built to complement each other. “One fort doesn’t need to protect everything. It can rely on other forts,” said McNair.

That’s why most of the guns in the lunette at C.F. Smith are trained to the northwest, to cover the gap between it and Ethan Allen, instead of to the south, where Confederates attackers would likely emerge. Fort Strong took care of that sector.

The elaborate Arlington Line was meant, in part, to guard the Key Bridge and Aqueduct Bridge approaches to Georgetown and Washington. While there was plenty of drilling, training and marching, there would be down time. Baseball was popular.

In late May 1864, another soldier with the 164^th Ohio writes that morale is good.

“All is quiet on the Potomac. But the grand veteran army of the Potomac is not quiet.”

Searchable kiosk at park's visitor center (Arlington County Parks)

Young visitors can try on uniforms

Things certainly weren’t too quiet north of the Potomac River, just two months later. Confederate Lt. Gen. Jubal Early decided to attack the capital via Silver Spring, Md., where Fort Stevens’ guns bristled.

There was real cause for concern. The capital’s defensive fortifications had about 9,000 troops -- less half of their ideal staffing -- in the summer of 1864, because so many men had been sent to Grant’s Army of the Potomac for the push on Richmond and Petersburg. Many of those holding the fort, so to speak, were poorly trained reserves.

Reinforcements rushed to near Fort Stevens helped stem Early’s advance, on July 11 and 12, ending the only Rebel action against Washington. Some men of the 164^th Ohio took part in the fighting there. President Abraham Lincoln went to Fort Stevens on July 12, and famously stood on the parapet. According to legend, young officer Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. said, “Get down, you damn fool!”

Entrance to visitor center, more earthworks

'Quality' earthworks remain at Fort C.F. Smith

After the war ended, Fort C.F. Smith’s structures were removed and it was largely forgotten, returning to residential and agricultural use. The 107^th U.S. Colored Troops for a time occupied the Arlington forts, said McNair.

Some families whose land was taken were able to get compensation for the loss of property and damage during the war. The 65-year-old Jewell testified that he lived on the property with his family until "the soldiers robbed my house and ordered me off” what became Fort C.F. Smith. 

Artifacts are on display

The property was never developed, but the construction of 24^th Street on Fort C.F. Smith’s southern edge plowed through one-third of the site, and other features wore away, leaving few. Not many earthworks are left.

But some well-reserved, unrestored ones remain, and they are the focal point of a park that includes a half-mile trail near George Washington Parkway and the Spout Run Parkway.

“Our earthwork remains … considering the condition of the individual gun platforms and ramparts, I am surprised at how good a condition they are in,” McNair told the Picket. “It was a quality over quantity issue.”

The property and a house used for events and weddings was acquired from the Hendry family, which witnessed rapid growth in the area -- “the story of the agricultural community giving way to suburban homes,” said McNair.

According to the Post article, only three perimeter forts, Stevens, Foote and Ward, are restored close to their wartime appearance.

Park offers programs and tours

Fort C.F. Smith Park is nestled into an Arlington neighborhood, where homes typically sell for $1 million to $3 million.

Trail at Fort C.F. Smith Park near George Washington Parkway

Day visitors include joggers, dog walkers and students out of school. “We do have a very good, dedicated birding population out here. This is a big site in Arlington for bird watchers.”

“Our big goal is to get people more invested in the role that Arlington County played during the Civil War,” said McNair. “By and large, Arlington County residents are very passionate about their local park spaces and curious about the history they never learned otherwise.”

The county is offering history-based summer camps, school trips and guided tours of Civil War sites. “Fort C.F. Smith historic programming is going strong now and will get bigger and better with the help of the new visitor center.”

The staff is contemplating doing more on the war’s home front, including interpreting the lives of white civilians and enslaved persons.

2nd New York at Fort C.F. Smith (Library of Congress)

At new Georgia sites, you'll learn of soldiers, civilians and assume a POW's identity

My memory of visiting Civil War battlefields during my youth largely consists of those large iron signs, depicting Union forces in blue, Confederates in red.

Silhouette for Resaca panel

The disposition of fighting units, of course, is integral to telling the story of why a battle occurred at that spot and its tactical or strategic importance.

But recent years have witnessed a more inclusive story – of combatants, yes, but also the impact of war on civilians and their way of life. 

Even within the military realm, much is to be written about the operation of Civil War prisons and the larger questions of how humans treat each other during difficult circumstances.

In time for 150^th anniversary observations, the state of Georgia is preparing to open a park and a museum that will help tell that fuller story.

Resaca Battlefield State Historic Site, along a stretch of Interstate 75 in northwest Georgia, is expected to open in early 2014, a few months behind an earlier projection. The contractor is finalizing work, including the installation of about 20 interpretive panels.

The site, to be operated by Gordon County, will have loop trails, two kiosks, three pulloff areas, picnic tables and a comfort station, though no museum -- due to budgetary limitations.

Well to the south, near Millen, the Magnolia Springs History Center will have a soft opening, possibly in January, although officials say opening dates are estimates and subject to several factors. (January 14 update: The center is not yet open; no firm timetable)

That museum, in a renovated building at Magnolia Springs State Park, will tell the story of Camp Lawton, a Confederate prison built to handle the overflow at Andersonville. It held more than 10,000 Union soldiers for six weeks in the autumn of 1864. Among the planned displays will be artifacts recovered from the site.

One of the interpretive panels for Resaca (Ga. DNR)

State and local officials hope both venues also will be an economic boon to those regions.

Interstate 75 literally cuts through the Resaca battlefield; visitors will be able to exit and be inside the park within a couple minutes.

On May 13-15, 1864, Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman’s army and Gen. Joseph E. Johnston’s Confederate Army of the Tennessee bloodied each other at Resaca. There was no clear winner, but Sherman continued his march toward Atlanta, which he took several months later.

The state site covers a portion of the western side of the clash.

Debbie Wallsmith

“When you pull off the highway area, before you head downhill into the river bottom, there will be three interpretive panels that will get you oriented and provide the basic background,” said Debbie Wallsmith, interpretive specialist for the state Department of Natural Resources’ Historic Preservation Division.

“One of the neat things we have gotten are life-sized silhouettes of cannons and soldiers and a cavalryman,” she told the Picket. While driving or walking, “You will come across someone pointing a gun at you.”

The low-lying site can be fairly soggy at times and trails were set back from a stream.

Among the interpretive panels will be ones “designed just for kids. They explain the difference between the flags and the uniforms and why they were fighting in the first place.”

Others will explain the impact on townsfolk in Resaca and the history of the Confederate cemetery in town. The Friends of Resaca assisted in the project.

And while there are battle maps, with red and blue lines, Wallsmith believes visitors will have several points of entry.

Georgia DNR

“We discuss it in terms of the battle that really shouldn’t have happened. It was a matter of circumstance that it took place.”

She said there likely will be a major event at the site in May 2014, the actual sesquicentennial of the battle.

Dusty Fuller, site manager of Magnolia Springs State Park, is excited about the addition of the museum, which will be within sight of the main park office.

It will tell the story of the springs, Millen and the Civilian Conservation Corps camp that was in place from the mid-1930s until 1942. Its principal focus is Camp Lawton, which sat on the park property and what became a federal fish hatchery across the springs.

Most of the park’s visitors currently come for camping, fishing and family reunions.

For those who want to know about the Civil War, Fuller gives them an orientation at the park office and walks them to the approximate location of the stockade wall.

One of the planned exhibit rooms at Magnolia Springs State Park (DNR)

“From there, we go to the fort, explaining how many soldiers were outside (the prison area),” he told the Picket. “From the fort, usually we progress back down to the plain to a couple of excavation trenches,” referring to ongoing work by Georgia Southern University archaeology students.

“The last thing I do is we go across the plain, following the stockade wall down to where it would have crossed the stream.” He talks about the use of water for drinking and bathing and latrine use.

The history center will appeal especially to the “hard-core enthusiast. For several years, we have not had much to show them,” according to Fuller.

Patrons will see a visual presentation, likely a photo slideshow, providing an overview of the POW camp and ongoing excavations and research.

Another area in the museum, which will feature state-of-the-art security, will provide timelines, including the construction of Lawton.

To personalize the experience, visitors will be checked in as an actual Camp Lawton prisoner.

Artifacts found at Lawton (Georgia Southern University)

Most will be from the 14^th and 15^th Illinois infantry regiments, said Wallsmith, citing an excellent online database that provides hometowns, height, hair and eye color and marital status and occupation. The state has 1,200 names to assign. Most soldiers survived, although an estimated 700 died at the prison.

The “roll call” room will feature a Civil War-era field desk, information on diarists and a mannequin in Confederate clothing.

The main room features a reproduction amputation kit, copies of prisoner “shebangs,” or shelters, and displays, among others, about food and health, the stockade and the economy within the Union ranks.

Interestingly, the prisoners conducted their own voting for president in 1864, choosing between incumbent Abraham Lincoln and former Gen. George B. McClellan, who was considered a peace candidate.

“Even though a lot were distraught over the fact they had not been paroled or exchanged -- they were beginning to feel they were forgotten -- they still voted for Lincoln,” said Wallsmith.

As they prepare to leave, visitors will check on the status of the prisoner’s identity they had assumed.

“If you died in prison, there will be a number of the gravesite in Beaufort, South Carolina,” where bodies were moved after the war.

As part of her research, Wallsmith traveled to the Virginia Historial Society and was able to handle the diaries and drawings of prisoner Robert Knox Sneden, the most famous diarist at Camp Lawton.

“The last time I shook (that much) when I held artifacts is when I had to move effigy figures at Etowah,” she said, referring to a state Indian mounds site.

Rear entrance of Magnolia Springs History Center

For artifacts display, the DNR is working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which has oversight of the hatchery  built over the main prisoner encampment.

Officials hope to eventually rotate the numerous artifacts found at the hatchery site and at the state park. The Confederate officer’s quarters and related buildings are on the state side.

Fuller said he is pleased visitors finally will see “real artifacts, with real professional research.”

Overall visitation at Magnolia Springs State Park has been in decline over the past several years, in part due to other swimming areas and the opening of large water parks. And only about 10 percent of patrons come to learn about the prison site.

Fuller hopes those doing quick getaways will enjoy renovated cottages and check out the park’s rich Civil War story. Perhaps, he said, there could be a new dynamic.

“To come for the history, and stay for the overnight facilities.”

NPS may cull deer at battlefields

The National Park Service is wrapping up public meetings about the problems caused by white-tailed deer on three Civil War battlefields in Maryland and Virginia. The agency is considering using sharpshooters to kill deer that are preventing forest regeneration by eating seedlings and saplings. • Article

Wanted! Junior Civil War historians

Nine Southeastern national sites have banded to encourage young visitors and their families to visit the places where the Civil War unfolded to re-examine what the conflict means today. Children ages 6 and up earn a junior Civil War historian patch by completing Junior Ranger programs at two or three of the participating parks and/or completing online activities. • Article

Filmmaker Ken Burns: We must not lose our historical compass

Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns knew one thing when he completed the 1990 epic “The Civil War.”

He had seen enough of war.

Through photographs, diaries and stories, Burns had poignantly documented the bloody conflict that claimed more than 600,000 American lives. Like Civil War soldiers, he and his crew felt they had “seen the elephant.”

People then asked Burns to do a film on World War II.

He resisted doing “The War,” which was released in 2007, for several years.

But two startling truths changed his mind about again taking up the topic.

Some 1,000 U.S. WWII vets were dying a day. And high school graduating seniors thought Americans fought with the Germans against Russia.

“We were losing our soldiers and our historical compass,” Burns said in a talk Thursday afternoon at Georgia State University in Atlanta.

The prolific filmmaker has a large body of television work that helps tell the story of America. Among them are “Baseball,” “Jazz,” “Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson,” and, more recently, “The National Parks: America’s Best idea.”

The New Hampshire resident said his films always ask the same question, "Who are we?" Sharing memories helps us heal from turmoil and war, he said.

Thursday’s speech centered on humanity’s fascination with war. Mankind, Burns says, has the lust for war in its DNA.

Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee may have said it best. “It is well that war is so terrible – lest we should grow too fond of it.”

Burn’s talk was laced with quotations from Abraham Lincoln, his favorite president. As a young lawyer, Lincoln spoke at the Lyceum in Springfield, Ill., delivering a speech that foreshadowed the Civil War.

“As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide,” Lincoln said.

“The Civil War was the closest we ever came to national suicide,” said Burns, 56. “Paradoxically, in order to become one we divided ourselves in two.”

Burns, who is unafraid of controversy, said he was glad that the ghastly human toll documented in “The Civil War” tempered U.S. enthusiasm for bloodshed when the first Gulf War was launched against Iraq in 1990.

For “The War,” Burns told the story of 50 Americans and four communities.

Insisting “there are no ordinary lives,” Burns said the seven-part series stayed away from celebrity generals.

“If you weren’t on the front line in the war, you aren’t in our film.”

Like Lincoln, Burns worries about divisions within America. Citizens today should be aware of how much they are alike, rather than concentrating on their differences, said the documentary maker, who added that education is the key to preventing bloodshed.

Burns said Americans have a history of seeking unity. He quoted remarks Lincoln gave at his first inaugural address in 1861:

"The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."