01x01 - America Divided

[bunniefuu]

Narrator: From the ashes of the Civil w*r, a new breed of American emerges... determined to grab a piece of the nation's untamed frontier.

Life was tough certainly after the Civil w*r.

And you had this vast continent that was unexplored.

And I think that fostered a big migration to the West.

(horse whinnies)

Narrator: Over the course of 30 years, more than 430 million acres of land will be settled.

But as the US government pushes the nation west, former Confederates hell-bent on taking back what they lost become outlaws...

We intend to rob this here bank.

Who's the cashier?

(g*nsh*t)

(horse whinnies)

Narrator: ...threatening to reignite the Civil w*r.

In that day, you had to be somewhat of a bad guy to survive.

(grunts)

(g*nsh*t)

They were all tough and nobody lived very long.

Narrator: On the plains, w*r breaks out as tribes of warriors band together to protect their way of life.

We deploy Custer and 1,200 men to track down whatever remains of Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull's w*r party.

If necessary, wipe them out.

Narrator: This is the story of an age of v*olence like no other, a time when blood is shed and battles fought by ordinary men who become legends... as they fight to determine the fate of the country.

Kiefer Sutherland: The West shaped this country in ways that people either don't acknowledge or have taken for granted or have simply forgotten.

The West was true freedom.

It was such a defining characteristic of America.

Narrator: This is "The American West."

(g*nshots)

You go to hell.

You first.

(g*nsh*t)

(theme music playing)

Narrator: The story of the West begins at the end of the Civil w*r... where a young man named Jesse James is a soldier in a fringe m*llitary group known as Quantrill's Raiders.

Mark Lee Gardner: Quantrill's Raiders were guerilla fighters fighting for the South.

They didn't necessarily fight in traditional ways, and the way they fought could often be very savage, very violent, and their targets could be civilians as well as m*llitary.

(horses whinny)

(g*nsh*t)

(horses approaching)

We got to go! We got to go!

(g*nsh*t)

(men shouting)

(g*nshots)

There they go! Come on!

(g*nshots)

(grunts)

(g*nshots continue)

Get him!

(g*nsh*t)

(screams)

Can you run?

No. (groans)

(g*nsh*t)

(groaning)

Narrator: In the spring of 1865, Jesse James is sh*t and captured by the Union Army.

(squishing)

(groaning)

(labored breathing)

Now, say it.

I solemnly swear...

That I will bear the true allegiance of the United States.

Say it.

(screams)

I will bear true allegiance to the United States.

And discourage...

Narrator: Jesse James is forced to pledge allegiance to the Union.

Before he's released, the Confederacy surrenders and after four years of bloody fighting, the Civil w*r comes to an end.

After surviving a near fatal wound, Jesse James returns home to Missouri only to find death and destruction all around.

After the Civil w*r, the South was hellacious.

It had been ruined.

And there was a great deal of resentment of northern authority, of federal authority.

There were a lot of people who were mentally unbalanced by that w*r, by the brutality of it.

Narrator: In the border state of Missouri, the fighting has been especially brutal.

David Eisenbach: Missouri is one of the states that stuck with the Union during the Civil w*r, but had large sectors of the population that wanted to go with the South in the first place.

So you had Missourians fighting Missourians.

It's in this incredibly volatile, literally brother against brother world that we get Jesse James.

Narrator: Jesse soon discovers that the w*r has not only torn apart his homeland, it's left his family with nothing.

You look good, Frank.

You look like sh*t.

(laughs)

I bet you gave them Union boys hell, though, didn't you?

It's just real nice to be home.

Mom, I promise you, we're gonna get back on our feet.

Me and Frank will figure out something.

Gardner: Jesse and his brother Frank grew up in rural Missouri.

Their father had gone off to the gold fields during the Gold Rush and had d*ed there.

Jesse's mother, Zerelda James, was a single parent, and I think that created a very, very strong bond between her and her children.

Narrator: Still reeling from his time in battle, Jesse knows he has to find a way to provide for his family.

So he comes up with a plan.

He forms a g*ng... and begins stealing.

Sutherland: When you think of Jesse James and those families, they have been stripped of everything, they felt, after the Civil w*r and they were gonna come and take what they thought was owed to them.

Jesse: Come here, come here.

Let's go.

Here, take this.

Go, go, go!

Narrator: But the Union Army quickly cracks down.

(men shouting)

Jesse.

Cover that up.

How you doing?

What's in the crates?

Food, various sundries.

Got some sweet corn.

You boys hungry?

Want some water.

We don't take orders from northern...

Jesse: Frank!

We got water.

Fresh out of the creek.

Tastes like sh*t.

(pours water)

Yeah, well, I guess we're used to it.

Search the house. Take it all.

Soldier: Yes, sir.

Narrator: Fed up with the North's presence, Jesse James is determined to fight back.

(grunts)

Eric Foner: Jesse James could not adjust to peacetime.

He was strongly opposed to what was going on in the South and in fact viewed the army after the end of the w*r as being oppressive.

Narrator: As att*cks from Confederates like Jesse escalate around the South, news travels over 1,000 miles to the east to the nation's capital.

These just came in.

You're dismissed.

Narrator: The man who has to deal with the growing unrest in the South is the same man who recently claimed victory over the Confederacy... commanding general of the US Army Ulysses S. Grant.

(men shouting)

Narrator: When the Civil w*r began, Grant was considered by many to be a failure, a drunk with no future in the m*llitary.

But after a series of Union generals were unable to secure victory for the North, Abraham Lincoln promoted Grant to lead the US Army, and he rose to the task.

John McCain: General Grant is one of the true m*llitary geniuses.

He saw the objective and he knew what needed to be done.

Narrator: With tensions rising in the former Confederacy, Grant is forced to deal with the South once again.

H.W. Brands: When Grant took control of the army, he had to deal with leftover matters from the Civil w*r.

Grant understood that there was a feeling in the South that this defeat was something that still might be resisted.

And Grant had to attend to that.

Narrator: Grant knows he can't let rebels like Jesse James reignite the w*r.

So he sends more US troops south to maintain order and institutes strict martial law.

Just over a year since the end of the Civil w*r, it's North versus South again.

Narrator: With former Confederate soldiers like Jesse James lashing out against northern authority in the South...

(g*nsh*t)

General Ulysses S. Grant sends armed troops to enforce order.

Brands: During the immediate aftermath of the Civil w*r, m*llitary government martial law was imposed and Union soldiers were in occupation of much of the South.

Southerners generally resisted this.

It was, from their perspective, a continuation of the Civil w*r in which northerners imposed their will, imposed their ways on the South.

Narrator: But the increased m*llitary presence only makes things worse.

Jesse James and other ex-Confederates like him begin rioting.

(men shouting)

Narrator: With the Civil w*r on the verge of starting up again, Grant knows a new strategy is needed to heal the nation.

So he and the US government look to a plan laid out by the man who led the country during the Civil w*r... Abraham Lincoln.

Lincoln knew that the key to healing the country would be to give all Americans the promise of a new start in the West.

Redford: The value of going into uncharted territory, there's a chance for enterprise and development and a chance for people to grow and to succeed in ways they couldn't in the overdeveloped East.

And also, I think, just the excitement and the challenge of uncharted territory... that's a little bit of the American way.

Narrator: From the Missouri River to the coast of California, the frontier is nearly 500 million square miles of wide-open land.

Danny Glover: You have the Pacific Ocean on one end, and you have the Atlantic Ocean on the other end, and all the vast land in between that.

It's the whole idea of looking for opportunity, looking for another life.

Narrator: The challenge is figuring out how to get people to the West as quickly as possible.

And Grant knows the answer.

The same way he was able to rapidly move Union troops during the Civil w*r.

Man: Whoa, hold up on that sleeper.

Get to work.

Narrator: The railroads.

Man: Hold up on that...

Narrator: To promote construction, the government makes the railroad companies an unprecedented offer... millions of acres of free land.

For every mile of track that a railroad would build, Congress would provide the company with land on either side of the track.

The land grants that Congress provides really is the sweetheart deal of the century.

Narrator: 175 million acres are given to the railroad companies... more land than the entire state of Texas.

The railroads then take the land they got for free and sell it to the settlers... using a massive advertising campaign that promotes the West as an uninhabited paradise.

(train whistle blows)

People were lured by this fantastic sense of opportunity.

You can be a poor immigrant and all of a sudden there's an opportunity that you can get 50 acres and start a life.

That's like winning the lottery back then.

I mean, it was amazing.

Narrator: But as Americans begin to head west by the thousands... they're pushing into land that's already occupied by a people determined to defend it.

Narrator: As railroads expand west, hopeful new settlers push into territory that's been occupied for thousands of years.

At the end of the last Ice Age, nomadic hunters migrated into the Americas across a land bridge that once connected Siberia to Alaska.

By 1865, 300,000 Native Americans are living in the West.

The most numerous and powerful people on the plains are the Lakota Sioux.

But now their homelands are being invaded.

For the Lakota people, 1865 is a major turning point.

With the railroads coming west, there is literally and figuratively a freight train coming right at them.

Narrator: Standing in the path of the invasion is a fearless young warrior.

His name is Crazy Horse.

Andrew Isenberg: Crazy Horse was a very talented m*llitary leader who was the chief lieutenant of the Sioux in the northern Great Plains.

Narrator: The land is sacred to the Lakota and Crazy Horse feels it's his duty to defend it.

Redford: Native Americans, when they saw the railroad, they knew that there was now a vehicle to inv*de them with and it was protected by steel.

And it was fast.

Narrator: In 1866, Crazy Horse takes part in a bloody campaign throughout the Wyoming territory.

Sioux in the northern Great Plains are fighting against the settlers who are moving into that area.

And they're winning.

Narrator: In the span of six months, dozens of settlers are k*lled and movement through the territory is restricted.

News of the v*olence makes its way to Washington, DC...

(tapping)

where it's received by the man overseeing troops in the West, famed Civil w*r general William Tecumseh Sherman.

I just received word from the Dakota territories.

Another six men have been k*lled in a raid.

Narrator: General Grant knows he can't let chaos on the frontier thr*aten the government's plan of unifying the country, so he orders Sherman to use m*llitary force.

(horse whinnies)

Narrator: In late 1866, nearly 1,000 soldiers pour into Sioux territory.

Crazy Horse knows it's up to him to defend his land and his people against an enemy with superior firepower.

But he's confident he'll prevail, thanks to a powerful vision he had in his youth.

Karl Jacoby: Crazy Horse, as a young man, had a vision.

(thunder rumbles)

(cawing)

And in this vision he sees that whenever he's in battle, he's very safe from the enemy and the enemy can never hurt him.

And in essence he could be protected from anything that the enemy might do to him.

Narrator: Emboldened by his vision, Crazy Horse sets in motion a daring plan.

Jacoby: Several Lakota are set to decoy the US Army, and one of these people is Crazy Horse.

It's obviously a very risky position to be in because you're putting yourself very close to the US Army.

Narrator: Crazy Horse lures the soldiers away from the protection of their forts into an open territory.

(man shouting)

Narrator: Once he has them in position, Crazy Horse begins his as*ault.

Man: Ready!

Narrator: He charges alone...

Man: Aim!

Narrator: directly into their line of fire.

Man: Fire at will!

(g*nshots)

Narrator: It's a tactic known as riding the brave line.

And it exposes the soldiers' greatest weakness.

Man #2: Reload!

(whooping)

(all whooping)

(soldiers grunting, screaming)

(whooping)

Narrator: On December 21, 1866, Crazy Horse claims one of his greatest victories... k*lling nearly 100 US soldiers... in what becomes known as the Battle of a Hundred Slain.

Now, in addition to trying to contain the southern rebellion, Grant must deal with an Indian w*r that's beginning to rage out West, threatening the future of the nation.

Narrator: After Crazy Horse and his men k*ll nearly 100 US soldiers in a single battle, news travels back to Washington.

Incompetence.

These savages, they don't fight the way we do.

Narrator: Commanding general Ulysses S. Grant is not only facing uprisings in the South, but a new w*r in the West.

Grant realizes the only way to defeat the Indians is to send his best commander from the Civil w*r... a man stationed 2,000 miles away in Texas who's famous for both his victories and his unconventional commanding style.

His name is George Armstrong Custer.

Anne Collier: George Armstrong Custer was very flamboyant.

He had flowing blond hair.

Some say he curled it himself.

He wore a signature costume, if you will, that he called a uniform.

He had a red handkerchief, shiny boots, and a broad-rimmed hat.

And he just showed himself to be superior to others.

Where did you acquire that insignia on your uniform, soldier?

West Point, sir. Fourth in my class.

Fourth in your class?

Gentlemen, we have a celebrity in our midst.

Do you know what position I graduated?

Last.

And yet here I stand commanding you.

Why is there a button missing from your coat?

You're a disgrace to that insignia.

You are a disgrace to my unit.

And you are a disgrace to every man who ever wore that uniform.

One month laundry duty.

Make it the end of the year.

Narrator: Though Custer is not the army's most beloved leader, he is respected for the k*ller instincts he showed during the Civil w*r.

(cannonball whistling)

Cover their left flank!

Narrator: It was his daring charge that contributed to Robert E. Lee's surrender.

Lieutenant, why are you falling back?

You breach their front lines and you push.

Burt Reynolds: A lot of people laughed at him, but not in battle.

He was a hell of a soldier.

Tremendous courage.

The thing that scared people half to death was being assigned to him

'cause you were gonna be in the middle of everything.

(men shouting)

Narrator: But since the Civil w*r ended, Custer has been relegated to overseeing border patrol at a remote post.

Custer was sent into exile.

He brooded over this, of course.

And he knew that he needed to get back into action.

Sir.

Narrator: Grant gives him the opportunity he's been waiting for.

Hutton: Custer got command of the 7th Cavalry, which was going to be the cr*ck elite unit for Indian fighting in the West.

Narrator: George Custer finally has his chance to step back into the limelight.

And it's an assignment that will change the course of American history.

(crickets chirping)

Narrator: In the years following the Civil w*r, former Confederate soldier Jesse James has been leading an uprising in Missouri.

Jesse: All right, boys, I'll tell you what's going to happen.

Me, Charlie, and Frank will head inside.

Get around that counter, easy money.

Narrator: Until now, Jesse's crimes have been small.

But as the North's postwar domination of the South continues...

Jesse is starting to think bigger.

He decides that the best way to express his hatred for the North is to go after their wealth.

In the first 80 years of America's existence, there was not a single armed bank robbery.

So at the time, banks have minimal security.

And even in the South, they hold mostly northern money.

Rob a bank and you're stealing northern wealth.

Sutherland: Jesse James wanted the money, but he had a real statement he was trying to make that was as much political as it was about robbing banks.

(people chatting)

Go.

Everything in your vault.

(people screaming)

Open the vault.

Move.

(gasps)

Open the vault.

Jesse: Hold on, hold on.

In the corner now.

I know you.

Where'd you fight?

I didn't.

You did.

You fought for the Union, didn't you?

No.

Let's open the vault, be on our way.

You fought at Richmond.

No, I didn't.

Don't you shake your head at me.

Jesse.

You're the man who sh*t Bill Anderson.

Gardner: The Civil w*r made Jesse James.

He k*lled men, he saw men k*lled.

Seeing death every day changes the way you look at life.

Jesse mistook the teller for the m*rder*r of his leader during the Civil w*r.

I found you, you son of a bitch.

(shouts)

We still need him to open the vault.

Bill Anderson was my friend.

(g*nsh*t)

God damn it, Jesse. On the floor!

Frank: Come on, Jesse, we got to go.

Come on, now! Come on.

Gardner: That revolver sh*t is somewhat of a release.

When Jesse fires that g*n, there's a welled-up bitterness that's been boiling for years.

He still has the memories he witnessed personally during the w*r.

Lots of his friends have been k*lled.

Jesse refused to forget.

A lot of his makeup was revenge.

Come on, Jesse. We got to go.

Jesse, come on. Come on, now.

Get, boys, get.

(clicks tongue) Come on.

Come on.

(hammer clicks, g*nsh*t)

Narrator: Jesse James has just pulled off one of the first bank robberies in America, leaving one man dead and earning the ex-Confederate his first victory against the North.

A lot of the guys who became outlaws, Jesse James and so forth, they were all part of the Confederate Army.

And when the Union won that w*r, robbing banks was their way of continuing the fight of the Confederacy.

Narrator: The crime makes headlines across the state, turning Jesse into a wanted criminal.

All right, it's on you, Frank.

There it is. (laughs)

It's a good day to be Frank James, you know.

Sutherland: Jesse James certainly had a very specific idea.

He was going to take the money that he felt was taken from him during the Civil w*r.

The press got wind of that.

And once they started reading their own stuff, they were, "Yeah, I'm right. You know, I was questioning whether or not I should have robbed that bank, but now I know I'm right."

(laughs)

Narrator: With his reputation growing, Jesse James is fanning the flames of rebellion in the South.

Over 400 miles away, the US government is dealing with an even greater problem than southern uprisings... as Indian att*cks by warriors like Crazy Horse are slowing down western progress.

But General Ulysses S. Grant has an answer...

Civil w*r hero George Armstrong Custer.

Grant was quite happy with the performance of Custer.

Custer was one of the great heroes during the Civil w*r.

He was also willing to do whatever was necessary to deal with the Indian issue right now.

Narrator: For Custer, it's the opportunity he's been waiting for to step back into the spotlight.

For months, Custer has been hunting bands of Indians across the southern plains...

Halt!

But hasn't been able to track them down.

Gardner: I think Custer had the same ambitions that any long-term m*llitary officer had.

That was to advance in rank.

Advance in rank and to win laurels, win glory.

That was hard to do in the post-Civil w*r West.

I mean, you weren't meeting a foe that was lined up with 10,000 men on the field of battle.

You were meeting a very elusive foe.

So I think Custer was frustrated often with what he wanted to do, and I think he wanted glory.

Narrator: Finally, Custer catches a break.

His regiment discovers a band of Cheyenne Indians camped near the Washita River suspected of attacking settlers and troops.

Get the men ready.

Half an hour.

I want to hit them with everything we've got.

You have your orders.

Yes, sir.

Narrator: Desperate for another chance at greatness, Custer prepares a surprise att*ck.

Jacoby: Custer is quite consciously, I think, very aggressive in his w*r against Indians because he's really trying to reclaim the glory that he experienced during the Civil w*r when he was this American hero.

Narrator: It's only been three years since the Civil w*r ended.

But now with Custer riding into a battle for glory... and Jesse James inciting a rebellion in the South...

America is on the brink of fighting a two-front w*r.