I've been listening to and have attended NPS Ranger talks for a long time. And these just keep getting better. They are the best of the best.

@GettysburgNPS

9 жыл бұрын

Randy Chadwick Thank you for your continued support, Randy!

@bruceboudreau5631

3 күн бұрын

This is an excellent presentation and this ranger does an exceptional job. Easily one of the best I have seen.

Another great battle talk from GettysburgNPS! Ranger Nicholas did an excellent job of painting a vivid picture of the horror of war during the Civil War without completely bumming out the listening audience. Good stuff!

This is the best hour I’ve spent this whole week. Listening to this man, I thought it started off slow but as he got going, he had my complete and undivided attention. I’ve been studying the Civil War and Gettysburg, in particular quite a bit lately, and this fellow really puts things in the proper perspective. Just a wealth of information. Great talk!

wow this is a masterpiece, especially the step-by-step, in-their-shoes recount of what it would have been like approaching the battlefield, after, and then life after the war.

Awesome and very informative job. I’ve been a student of the Civil War for many years and this lecture was a real eye-opener. Made me feel like I was an enlisted man in that war. Thank you for bringing so much of that reality to us!

Amazing! I felt closer to the Civil War foot soldier here than anywhere else.

I went to Gettysburg, and it was one of the most profound experiences of my life. Every American should go, for there is no better place to meditate upon freedom's true cost.

Fantastic talk and showed the reality of soldiers. Many times, I feel visitors think of soldiers as machines led by generals and not people. The human connection to history gives the best story and personal connection

Nothing short of absolutely fascinating. I wish we could clone this VERY knowledgeable and engaging Nicholas and put him in every history classroom. Bravo! Thanks for uploading.

EXCELLENT presentation! Thanks John Nicholas!

and after this great lecture, Ill go get a cup a' coffee!

I'm from the South, Florida and proud of it, but every man is created equal in my eyes! Great talk i enjoyed the whole hour!

Awesome, thank you for making this!

EXCELLENT presentation! Thank you very much.

What an excellent talk, and quite the vivid picture this Gettysburg Ranger paints of those soldiers' grueling lives in fighting that horrible war. It's very interesting and worthwhile listening to. I feel even more admiration and respect for these soldiers now. Some people who will listen in the future may be taken aback by the very realistic description given in Ranger Nicholas' lecture, given the idea of the 'romance' of war and 'glory.' The perseverance and fortitude especially shown by men who volunteered and stayed for 3 or longer years --- if they were lucky enough to still be alive and reasonably healthy after that lengthy amount of time --- is very impressive considering the horrid conditions and situations they had to try to deal with. I'd never in the past heard such a down-to-earth narration of the trials and tribulations of the everyday soldier in the Civil War, plus the details of how the 'nightmares' of that war, for them, didn't end just because the war had. My hat's off to ALL of them. Many Thanks to all the Rangers who give these talks, and to Gettysburg National Military Park for posting them. I really appreciate getting to see them.

@josephjohnson5086

7 жыл бұрын

Rita Gregory

Very educational and entertaining. Thank you for producing these.

Ranger John Nicholas, great job! Thank you very much for a very informative presentation!

Great presentation. He hits the nail on the head about the pain of being a foot soldier during the war.

Don't ever stop these videos, such a service to the US and the world to post these. :-)

An outstanding no holds barred lecture, that shows the hardships that these men all endured during and after the war. Why is it that every government deserts their veterans once the wars are over.

I just subscribed to this channel and i love it. I'm planning a trip to Gettysburg.

@GettysburgNPS

9 жыл бұрын

Smithfilmproductions Fantastic -- thank you for subscribing. Please check out www.nps.gov/gett/planyourvisit/index.htm if you need help planning your trip!

@sartainja

8 жыл бұрын

Great channel. I am hooked.

I REALLY Like this one! great Insight of the times Thank you John 5 years later from texas (Y)

I loved this talk. He did such a good job. If I ever get to the Gettysburg battlefield I hope to attend one of his lectures.

Most excellent presentation. 5 stars.

Ranger John Nicholas thank you sincerely for painting such a profoundly vivid picture of these men. To your point, too often the narrative is about valor and fighting, not about the awful daily reality of what these soldiers endured before they died or survived. Your presentation should be required viewing for everyone. (I'm now inspired to write a screenplay about your perspective of the real casualties of the Civil War). JGH

I thoroughly enjoyed this...

It's great that we have good park service employees like this man he did a great job

Thanks John first-rate job

I went to Gettysburg (from Oregon) on what was basically a self-guided car tour about 12 years ago. Since then, I've watched many of the GettysburgNPS videos that are now available and really wished I'd had that background for the trip. They help you to appreciate what you experience and also put what you are seeing in a proper context. I have to admit that I had stopped at some places that I now know are famous, but at the time had no idea what I was looking at (there's only so many info signs that you can absorb).....I highly recommend going to visit, and taking them time to watch the videos beforehand if you get a chance. I really hope to visit again someday...its a wonderful place.

Excellent presentation and exposition of the life (and death) of the average civil war soldier; probably you and me, back then...

Ranger John does and excellent job.

Excellent presentation. Very interesting.

Through forensic research and modern computing being able to track statistics in a matter of moments, modern historians now estimate that at least 750,000 soldiers died during the US Civil war. They're including deaths in 1865-7 reported as a result of wounds received during the war. I imagine that if they included men who died of diseases and medical conditions resulting from constant exposure and poor nutrition over 4 years of war, the number would easily reach a million deaths.

I am enjoying this video enjoying my morning coffee

great video

He'd be a lot easier to understand if he didn't rush to get words out. Frequently he wasn't finished with one before he started another.

@bloopyscoopy3141

2 жыл бұрын

No kidding--how irritating for the listener.

This is the first Ranger lecture that the Ranger lectured his opinion as much as the facts.

@woohog1

2 жыл бұрын

I would concur with that. It was certainly a very biased opening in my opinion. Study Shelby Foote and some others writings and perhaps he will have a better understanding of the southern reasons for the war. States rights being one of them, slavery, economic unbalance, and the 10 amendment as well. A plethora of issues that were simply glossed over. Nevertheless once the opinion ended and the facts began, it was a good lecture.

When this Ranger spoke of The Battle of Sharpsburg, no mention of the worst casualty North or South of The 1st.Texas lnfantry Regiment-Hood's Texas Brigade- 81.3% .

so very moving thank you so much for your knowledge an insight I learned so much

this was great

Watching from Ireland a wonderful story about the people during the war and not the battles

coming over from england to do the American civil war trail next year ..can't wait

@tonyalanmarchant7330

3 жыл бұрын

Did you enjoy it???

@jaredalexander3403

3 жыл бұрын

@@tonyalanmarchant7330 I dont think Alan made it lol

I agree, these narratives are fascinating, and really put in the shoes of the soldier....

Amazing

I love this presentation, great job! I’m excited to get back to Gettysburg now at 27 than ever before. Was there on a 5th grade field trip after studying the battle for a full semester and thought it was amazing. However, I was a bit too young to understand all of the context, and warfare in general, but it kicked my interest into overdrive. Thanks to that trip I’ve been a full blown military history buff ever since, with a particular interest in small arms and our 2nd Amendment. I was raised by my pap, a Vietnam veteran who taught me how to shoot before I could even tie my shoes. My other pap is a gunsmith who has been building PA style flintlock muzzleloaders for decades now. Guns are in my genes, and I look forward to the day that the Biden administration tries to disarm Americans like me. I pray we get this over with now, so that our children and theirs may live in peace and freedom. Turbulent times are coming, please prepare for them if you have not done so yet. The New World Order is no longer just a conspiracy theory. This may not be the appropriate place to share this message, but I am done with being silent. We are being backed into a corner that we will have to fight our way out of. The Great Reset is here, and part of that reset is stripping the population of what liberty remains. I will fight to the bitter end to defend what little remains of our constitution. I find it hard to believe how many thousands of muskets were found on the battlefield with multiple rounds in their barrels. I realize that the noise and chaos of battle would prevent you from hearing your firearm discharge, but you would still feel the recoil. I don’t see how that many soldiers kept forcing ball after ball down the muzzle without knowing their gun is not firing, the ram rod would not go it’s entire length down the barrel any longer as there are multiple rounds stacked on top of each other. This leads me to believe that a large number of these soldiers were loading multiple projectiles at a time, on purpose, to achieve a shotgun

18:35 ...the german army-slang-word for 'hard-tacks' is 'Panzerplatten' (armor-plates)

Interesting lecture very well done

@marymoriarity2555

5 жыл бұрын

I had forgotten so many soldiers died from disease rather than being in battles. The reminder if Scarlets first husband in Gine With the Wind

Being a soldier during the 1860's decade was about the worst thing possible. Advances in weaponry which dealt more damage, and doctors as one remembered 'still living in the Dark Ages'. The death toll was astounding and what's sad is that microbiology came into being less than 10 years after the war ended as this would have saved hundreds of thousands of lives. Doctors came extremely close during the war to discovering germ theory and some advances were made like not using the same sponge to wash a clean wound after an infected one and they also discovered bromide applied to gangrene was extremely effective. (It was also extremely painful having applied, but luckily doctors gave liberal doses of ether or chloroform-another myth that they didn't.) They also had extremely effective morphine for pain management, but they also gave it for 'the Tennessee quickstep' or diarrhea because it constipates. Doctors became very skilled at amputations with a 75% survival rate that's incredible considering the circumstances.

The lecturer almost repeated Jules Verne's writing from his book "Nord Contre Sud" who explained why many Southerners without slaves fought for the Confederation. However there were people in the South who were not slave owners but they were in family connection or in friendly connection with the slave owner families. I think 3 groups were the confederat supporters without slaves: In the first group there were who were afraid of loosing their social rank with the emantipation. This group was mentioned by the French Author Jules Verne and Ranger John Nicholas as well. The second group consisted of those people who were strong familiar or fiendly connection with the slave owner families. The slave owner's daughters married with not slave owners for example. The third group consisted of those people who planned to became slave owners in the future. The best example is Texax. In Texas the slaves were very few population about 1846. Mexico was not slavery system country and the independent Texas did not attracted many slaves between 1836-1846, but after 1846 when Texas joined USA many slaves were brought there (Kentucky gave to Deep South 70000 slaves beween 1850 and 1860.) To became slave owner on a smaller cotton plantation could be a possibility in the Western Deep South.

I never thought about the US being the only republic at the time.

@avenaoat

2 жыл бұрын

Swiss Republic and many South and Central American countries were Republic too!

I had to rewind for the part about how many muskets were found with multiple rounds loaded into them.

PTSD was insane back then....

GREAT public speaker

What is the difference between a national park and a national military park?

@12rwoody

6 жыл бұрын

Zellig A National Park is a federally protected area that may or may not have had a historic event occur within it's boundaries. A military park is a battlefield or field or fort that had a hand in the action

Does he say 674,000 captured at 44:10 ? I thought the total of deaths was about 620,000 (?)

@Mrlrobertson

5 жыл бұрын

Yep, that's over 4 years and a lot of those men would be paroled or traded back or exchanged.

@indy_go_blue6048

4 жыл бұрын

The modern accepted number is 750,000.

Straight lasted brogans were pre-war. The issue brogans were left and right, they were also hobnailed and healplated. As for the shirt, gray flannel shirts accounted for over 80% of all issue shirts purchased for distribution.army shirt were gray .

Great ranger and also an actual explanation for why most southerners joined the confederate army!! So many people don’t even know about this all they hear is slavery..... most was joining because everyone was joining and a lot of kin was

Good presentation, 'just need to mention that the number 23,000 is casualties, not deaths.

Outstanding lecture

23:55 This isn’t the first time I’ve heard that they could only identify the body’s by their under clothing. That never made sense to me because you can clearly tell a union soldiers uniform from a confederate by that part of the war.

Riveting! The untold story of the soldiers of Gettysburg

ahh nice audio!

I laugh when I see that hard tac that’s on display at manassas nps

No matter which ideology humans follow it always ends in self-righteousness corruption greed and malice.

He’s excellent.

He failed to mention that Southern Baptist Christians preached that slavery was gods divine will when discussing reasons men chose to fight for the south. He does refer to anecdotes where men believed they would not be killed or wounded because they are not sinners, and the sinners are on the other side. The implies that he believes the church propaganda is actually highly relevant at the time.

I KNEW IT!!! WE GOTTA STOP THEM THIRD GRADERS!!!!!!!

Gettis burg!

sounds like the c rations lol

People joined the war for the Union for many reasons, but when they saw the horrors of slavery in the south in 1864-5 the horrors of war was justified as the same as the GIs realised when in Germany in 1944-45

@ldg2655

5 жыл бұрын

MemeWarVeteran2016 : the war did not start about slavery, although it factored in because the South depended on slave labor for production of their products. The slavery issue came to the fore later, when Lincoln was anxious for the end of the war and sought to bolster Northern moral and support by spotlighting the slavery issue. Northerners, as a rule, did not like blacks either, and were often cruel to the escaped or freed slaves. The war was prompted by the North putting taxes and tariffs on export from the South. The South rebelled at being controlled by a group of people whose lifestyles and livelihoods were quite different, and did not wish to submit to laws placed upon them by people who lived very different existences. . How do you break an enemy? You destroy their homes, means to income or production and you destroy their food supply. Since slaves were so important to the south, it was the obvious way to cripple the south and eventually bring it down. Many slave owners ( notwithstanding that owning another human is WRONG) treated their slaves kindly. Only a small percentage were cruel, although even the kind masters did not treat the slaves as equal human beings.

join the army for the girls the muchachas!! impress her!! okay, Ms you reject me or play games I'll join the army become a hero, slightly wounded, you'll change your idea of a Real man. Interesante...the community is joining sounds like fun....

The united states' is still ye only place one can elect their tilers no dictators or kings and queens

Capitalism, racism, classism and the caste system explained by the school social pecking order. No wonder school seemed so much like slavery or prison.

@cajunboytrucking5041

4 жыл бұрын

Why you say capitalism why you disagree with that explain? And what would you consider

Smart guy, but he needs to slow down. Running his words together a lot

@emzyking5847

4 жыл бұрын

It’s part of the reason Matt Atkinson’s tours are so good. His slower southern tempo, charm, sense of humor and crowd interaction make all the difference in the world.

i am having a hard time understanding that my ancestors choose to fight to the death for a pecking order on the social status. ...want you please tell the general populas about the invasion by the north. the burning of Shenandoah valley by Sheridan or the March by Sherman....all the killing and destruction. ...this is far thicker than slavery, protecting their lands, towns, and families. the beginning of the war may have been powered by slavery but the ending results were to stop a northern mercenary from destroying and plundering their homes and killing and raping their families and killing all the food supply so they didn't have to watch their young children starve to death. the northern army was merciless. ..

@richhoule3462

6 жыл бұрын

War is Hell and you can not refine it.

@buildingblocks51

6 жыл бұрын

Well your ancestors decided to take up arms against their nation. The south, the grand children of loyalists to the crown, fired the first shots on Fort Sumpter without provocation. The fired shots at the American Army who fought under the flag that their grandparents fought to create. The south made deals with England (against whom we had fought 2 wars,) for arms and support and waged a war dedicated to the proposition that the white race was superior (if you don't believe me read declarations of succession from each state and the corner stone address,) which led to the deaths of more Americans than any other war in history. If you want to be upset by someone about the destruction of the south then you should turn your anger towards the folks who started the war not the ones who ended it. The march by Sherman was the same as dropping the bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Maybe if the south wasn't starving prisoners to death in Andersonville, drafting 16 year olds, lynching freed slaves, and continuing with gorilla attacks it wouldn't have been necessary.

@halwarner3326

6 жыл бұрын

Don't commit treason.

@mikelovin7

6 жыл бұрын

buildingblocks51, Achilles 1776, hal warner, This is the most ignorant idiotic responses I have ever read, you people are stupid low IQ brainwashed shmucks, you should spend more time researching real history, only if your half a brain cell could handle real information.

@nora22000

5 жыл бұрын

@@mikelovin7 Planters created a rush job to secede from the Union. They started a war to support that secession without doing anything to figure out what might be the negative effects on the people of the South. They never cared about the rank and file, the regular people, and no discussion before the war shows even one minute of concern about the people. Your confederate leaders, the planters, brought the wrath of the Union down on the heads of the poor whites and they never paid the price. The descendants of those same poor whites are still praising these confederate leaders to the skies for incurring pain, suffering, death and destruction to save their slaves and the leaders' rights, not the poor whites' rights.

Please work on your enunciation! Very painful to listen to you run all your words and phrases together. You pronounced the United States of America as "th-u-states-smerca".

He compared a slave revolt to tragedy's such as Pearl harbor / 9.11...

What crap. America was not the only democracy in the 1860s.

@halwarner3326

6 жыл бұрын

What were the others ?

@12rwoody

4 жыл бұрын

Wrong

Most of these videos are good, but this guys BS mentality about the slavery issue is more than I can stand to listen to.

@mikelovin7

6 жыл бұрын

Achilles 1776 I suggest you research real history, not this liberal agenda bs.

@halwarner3326

6 жыл бұрын

What is the bs part?

@mikelovin7

6 жыл бұрын

hal warner If you have to ask that, your low IQ would never let you understand, even if I explained it to you.

@Txman1996

5 жыл бұрын

Achilles 1776 State secession declarations seem to be the magic bullet explanation to the low hanging fruit. I would ask why the Union supported the Fugitive Slave Act and Emancipation didn’t occur until 1863. You do know about Lincoln’s repatriation plan for possibly Panama and eventually Liberia?

Look at all the slavery apologists in this comments section.

Sounds like a shouting boy...very annoying.

People don't hate change. Most people understand that all prosperity comes from change. There's a group of people that hate change. They are called Republicans.

@RobbyHouseIV

7 жыл бұрын

Klaus Mühlbach Let's try and keep this channel free of stupid political comments like this okay?

@hhn1776

7 жыл бұрын

LOL. You don't know your history, neither the events that led to the Civil War nor the fight for civil rights. What party fought to get rid of slavery? Who was Woodrow Wilson and what were his racist policies? When and what part passed the first civil rights legislation?

@Txman1996

5 жыл бұрын

Klaus Mühlbach Progressives, such as yourself, are actually just Communists. You operate very closely to the Neocons, but push a more degenerate agenda. Both want the middle class and native stock destroyed.