For four years in the 1860s, half of the United States was held hostage by an unrecognized white supremacist republic. Shot on 16mm in national military parks, swamps, forests, and the suburban sprawl across the former battlefields, the film follows General Grant’s path liberating the southern United States.
“Shot on 16mm in national military parks, swamps, forests and the suburban sprawl across the former battlefields, the film follows General Grant’s path liberating the southern United States. Part travelogue, part essay film, part landscape documentary, it moves from the Texas-Louisiana border to a prison island off the coast of New England. Instead of relying on actors, vintage photos, and the sounds of bullets and explosions, the battles are animated with the paper reenactments of hex and counter wargames and bubblegum cards from the hobbyist gamer subcultures that have sprung up around the Civil War. The sound and music are inspired by ’70s crime films to celebrate the destruction of the Confederacy with the synth jams they deserve.”
There have been countless documentaries about the Civil War, but none have taken this approach. Clocking in at just under an hour, “The Annotated Field Guide Ulysses S. Grant” is an experimental historical documentary. Framed through a Marxist lens and focused on the material interests that drove the war, writer/director Jim Finn cites intellectuals like W.E.B. Dubois and Frederick Douglass.
The demand for cotton affected both the North and South. Most of the northerners acquired cotton from merchants, while slave owners in the South were Jewish immigrants from Europe. “The gold traded for cotton bought rifles that killed union soldiers and instead of blaming capitalist mill owners, or President Lincoln, Grant blamed the Jews.” Grant appeared anti-semitic; he also freed his father-in-law’s slave instead of selling him for a profit.
In one of the best scenes, the camera drifts down a swamp, keeping symmetrical trees in the frame while describing more Southern battles that led to the liberation of slaves. Most notably John Brown – one of the instigators of the war who led a failed rebellion at Harpers Ferry – inspired others to become abolitionists and freedom fighters. A brief scene moving through the wax museum dedicated to Brown’s life showcases his movement’s milestones. Nat Turner’s rebellion, which found the enslaved preacher, led an uprising that terrified the South for years to come. Turner’s rebellion also inspired the Union’s legendary General George H. Thomas, aka the Rock of Chickamauga, who avoided serving the confederacy which led to his own family disowning him. Thomas joined the Union and after marching with Sherman became a Northern legend.
Finn moves back to Grant’s war strategies, like waiting for moonless nights to send steamboats for reconnaissance and transporting goods on the Mississippi. He was also an early user of spy games and an intelligence network that today is considered an oxymoron. After moving further down the river, “Grant had a different supply line opened: the Union Navy established a point from which supplies could be sent overland behind the Union lines.” Eventually, this led to the Battle of Vicksburg in Mississippi which marked the first time black troops fought in the Civil War.
Grant’s counterpart, General Robert E Lee believed Black people were inferior and thought slavery was necessary. During Lee’s attacks in Gettysburg, he brought an attaché of slave catchers who kidnapped various Northern freedmen and sold them down in the slave markets in Arlington, Virginia. Union General George Sherman said, “watch this!”, and left a path of destruction in the seceding States while freeing slaves, destroying infrastructure, and infuriating the whole South.
One of the war’s most disputed veterans is Nathan Bedford Forrest. Also known as the “Wizard in the Saddle” for his reputation of hunting down women and children who were fleeing their slave owners (or allegedly because he shot 29 men dead from his horse while having 30 horses shot from underneath). Forrest also inspired the birth of the KKK who used his Wizard moniker as their basis for the leading Grand Wizards. Interestingly, after Forrest led the organization in 1869, he ordered the KKK to disband and began advocating for Black rights in Memphis, Tennessee.
I yearn for more thoughtful documentaries that avoid the sentimentality of Ken Burns. There are fascinating details of the Civil War and there were quite a few stories I had never heard of. While some modern spaces have remained landmarks to commemorate, other battlefields have been converted into golf courses, corporate offices, and motels named after the war’s notable events and people. Finn also avoids the statue-destroying debate. The documentary ends with a quote often paraphrased, leaving out the important ending: Grant wrote, “I felt like anything rather than rejoicing at the downfall of a foe who had fought so long and valiantly, and had suffered so much for a cause, though that cause was, I believe, one of the worst for which a people ever fought, and one for which there was the least excuse.”
Now available to stream on OVID.TV
