This is the memory palace, I'm Nate Domeo.

There was no major television documentary time to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Civil War,

which is an obvious point, but indulged me for a minute.

The men who fought, those who were still alive in the 19 Teens,

hadn't spent the five decades since the war seeing the same images and newsreel footage rolled out again and again

the way that veterans of way to wars have.

They had no flag being raised over you with Jima, or nurse being kissed in Times Square.

They hadn't seen that same loop of film,

the one shot from the back of the plane that shows the bombs areading down over the Vietnamese countryside,

the one that's in full color and always in slow motion,

usually with the rolling stones or the doors playing in the background.

The images they had, the memories they still held,

whichever ones infuse their dreams,

the ones that were summoned by the sight of a tin type in a frame or a flag folded up in a drawer,

the images that would be triggered by a walk near woods that looked a lot like the ones they once ran through,

rifle in hand, hoping like hell they wouldn't die that day.

In the summer of 1913, more than 50,000 old men traveled to Gettysburg

for five day event, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the three day battle.

They posed for a lot of photographs,

and in them you can see the men standing in fields,

the top hills leaning against fences,

and you can imagine the conversations they had

...