|
|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Colleen Wright
April 23, 2002
Marketing Communications Account Executive
Telephone: (410) 581-4293
E-mail: colleenwright@mpt.org
MPT. This is bigger than television.
Maryland Public Television airs mini-series on hero of Civil War
American Experience "Ulysses S. Grant" begins May 5
OWINGS MILLS, MD: On Sunday, May 5 and 12 at 9:00
p.m., Maryland Public Television (MPT) airs American Experience
"Ulysses S. Grant," a two-part, four-hour portrait of the great
Civil War general and president of the United States. Liev Schreiber narrates
the latest entry in American Experience's acclaimed series of presidential
portraits.
During the Civil War, Grant's ruthlessness in battle won him the nickname
"Unconditional Surrender" and the admiration of the Northern
public. He was the author of the great Union victory at Vicksburg, which
etched his name in military history and irrevocably altered the course
of the war. Abraham Lincoln's favorite general, Grant was elevated to
an exalted military rank held previously only by George Washington. He
was a leader for whom thousands of Northern soldiers were willing to fight
and die, and for whom thousands did. Perhaps most memorably, he was the
general who took Lee's surrender at Appomattox and the author of its generous
terms.
Grant was also president of the United States during one of the most tumultuous
moments in its history. For two terms, he struggled to define the meaning
of the war he had fought so hard to win, and the union he had fought to
preserve. "The good news was that the Union had been preserved,"
says historian David Bradley. "The bad news was that the Union had
practically killed itself. Guys were coming home missing arms and legs.
A lot of guys weren't coming home. It was a mess - it was a total mess."
As president, Grant confronted scandal and economic depression. He sought
ways to reestablish national unity and sectional harmony after a bloody
and divisive conflict. Most important to Americans today, he confronted
fundamental questions about the role of freed African-Americans within
the American nation. "He's the last president that we have in the
19th century to talk with a kind of passion about protecting the rights
of African-Americans," notes historian Dan T. Carter.
Few public figures have ever held such a firm grip on the American popular
imagination. Grant was a man whose rise from obscurity made him a hero
to millions. "A lot of Americans could see themselves in him,"
says historian David Blight. An ordinary man who faced and met extraordinary
challenges, his successes and failures seemed to encapsulate the national
character. "He was a very honorable man, he was a principled human
being. He was a reasonable man in an unreasonable time," says David
Bradley.
Even after his troubled presidency, he was, according to historian Don
Miller, "the most popular man in the 19th century - no question about
it. Even in death, Lincoln wasn't as popular as Ulysses Grant." When
Grant made public appearances, tens of thousands of Americans turned out
to honor him. They regarded him not as the failed politician, but the
victorious general, the savior of the Union.
When Grant died on July 23, 1885, church bells tolled 63 times in his
honor, once for each year of the general's life. In the largest funeral
procession New York had ever seen, Grant's body was carried through a
city draped in mourning to a temporary tomb in Riverside Park. Alongside
his coffin marched the pallbearers: two former Union generals - who had
fought with him; and two former Confederate generals - who had fought
against him. A newspaper the next morning proclaimed, "If the war
did not end in 1865, it certainly ended yesterday."
Underwriters: National Endowment for the Humanities, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation,
Liberty Mutual, The Scotts Company, Public Television Viewers, PBS and
Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Producer: WGBH Boston. Executive
producer: Elizabeth Deane. Producers/directors/writers: Adriana Bosch
("The Warrior") and Elizabeth Deane ("The President").
Editors: Jon Neuburger Bosch ("The Warrior") and Bill Lattanzi
("The President"). Cinematography: Terry Hopkins. Additional
cinematography: Buddy Squires and Boyd Estus. Associate producers: David
Condon and Kathy White. Music: Michael Whalen. Series executive producer:
Margaret Drain. Series senior producer: Mark Samels.
Maryland Public Television is a not-for-profit, state-licensed public
television station which serves the citizens and communities of Maryland
and beyond through a variety of broadcast and nonbroadcast activities.
For more information on MPT and its on- and off-air programming, visit
mpt.org.
# # #
|
