Two Civil War Veterans Talking About Fighting in the Civil War - Enhanced Video & Audio [60 fps]

These are two Civil War veterans, aged 84 and 94, talking about fighting in the Civil War. Filmed in 1929, at the time of the Civil War the two men would have been 16 years old and 26 years old when the war started in 1861.

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The General Price they mentioned is none other than General Sterling Price:

On August 10, 1861, at the Battle of Wilson's Creek outside Springfield, Price’s and McCulloch’s combined force defeated Lyon, forcing the federals’ withdrawal. At Wilson’s Creek, Lyon earned the unenviable distinction of being the first Union general killed in the war. In September, Price marched northward, driving from the border counties Kansas Jayhawkers under the command of James H. Lane. Price then marched to Lexington, where his army besieged and forced the surrender of a 3,500-man fortified garrison of federal troops and Home Guard under James A. Mulligan.

Pressed by troops under John C. Frémont, commander of the Department of the West, Price soon retreated into the southern counties, where he attended the “rump session” of the legislature and voted for secession in Neosho. After a brief occupation of central Missouri, Price and his state troops went into winter camp near Springfield, where they transferred into Confederate service and in February withdrew to Arkansas.

For this video, I enhanced it using AI optimization software, interpolated it to 60 frames/second, speed-adjusted it and refined it with De Blur, Sharpness and Stabilization. For the audio, I remastered it using noise gate, compression, loudness normalization, EQ and a Limiter.

This video is made for educational purposes for fair use under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976.

[Westyrulz]

Can you imagine these 2 old blokes fought in a war with horses, muskets, swords and muzzle loading canons and lived to see a war fought with airplanes, machine guns, poison gas and tanks!

[namj]

I remember a letter in a magazine some decades ago from a man who recalled as a very young boy watching a veterans parade, when a very old man came over to him and asked to shake his hand. He did, and the man told him he was a Civil War vet who had seen a Revolutionary War veteran when he was a child and shook his hand. The Civil War vet told him not to forget he was only two handshakes away from the start of the country. I always wanted to shake that writer's hand. It's unbelievable to think even today, we could still be just three handshakes away from 1776.

[IMCcanTWEESTED]

When I was a stupid kid in the early 1960's, I would get bored to tears listening to my 95-year-old great grandmother going on and on about life in the 1800s. She was born 4 years after the end of the civil war. She was one of the less than 2% of women who attended university. She had a successful career as dramatic storyteller. Filling small theaters and sometimes even large venues. Before silent movies, dramatic readings were evidently as popular as films are today. Crazy. I wish someone had recorded her long-winded tales. I'm sure they would fascinate me today as an old geezer.

[garyfrancis]

93 years ago that guy was 94 meaning he was born 187 years ago in 1836 and we can hear him speak. He was born before photography had been invented and Napoleon was still alive on St. Helena. This is amazing.

[jonathanrichwine]

Really makes you realize that the Civil War really wasn’t THAT long ago in the grand scheme of things

[fruticetum]

The older man was born in 1835. 186 years ago in 2021. He was an adult in the 1850s and a retiree at the turn of the century. The stuff he's seen and lived through is incredible. Interesting how he talks pretty much the same as any old guy today.

[TheEncouragementKid]

“I’m 94, a pretty good age for a young man” 😆 legends

[whiltoecardhonian]

“We didn’t enlist for a month or a year. We enlisted for the WAR” that is the most patriotic statement I’ve ever heard….

[kyolym]

Does anyone realize how amazing this is? You are watching two Civil War soldiers alive and well having a conversation

[misterchubbikins]

What stands out about this.

1. How good condition they are in at 94.

2. How the generals of old actually fought alongside their troops.

3. This dude not only knew the name of his general, but also the names of the two opposing soldiers who killed him.

That takes the civil war to a whole new level.

[aguy]

The “Dutch” to whom he refers were actually German-Americans.

They told Missourians that they were “Deutsch, ” which was misunderstood as “Dutch.”

The vast majority of German immigrants in Missouri were pro-union, while quite a few of their neighbors were not.

[monty]

My grandfather is a vet from three wars. WWII, Korean and Vietnam. He was a great role model and took crap from nobody. He figured, if the Japanese navy couldn't kill him, why would he let anyone push him around. Tough as nails but very friendly and down to earth. 🇺🇲🇺🇸🇺🇸

[NickVenture]

Old men with clear minds. Nice to see that.

[Snap-Anzahl]

I grew up in Kansas and met a man named Wally Latimer. In 1984 when I met him, he was 101 years old. I was 13 at the time and listened to him go on about the old west and traveling by covered wagon. I was amazed at his tales and experiences. He drank a bottle of beer a day and was still getting around like a young man. Unbelievably He was still actively farming. He was on Johnny Carson a coupe times I believe. What an honor it was to learn about history directly from a person who lived it.

[rocnroll]

It really amazes me to see a 84 and 94 year old men that were soldiers in the civil war still active, alert, and healthy long before modern medicine.

[TheTwon]

The account of General Lyon's death is amazing. From what I read, he was shot off his horse and died. No mention about what this man actually saw, which was that he was pulled from his horse and started fighting to the end, with rocks. and was shot. He even mentions the names of the man Lyon hit, and the one who shot him. Amazing first hand account of a Historical event.

[badgerrrlattin]

Dad talked about seeing these guys when he was a kid. Stuff like this is the only chance I have to hear their accounts directly. I sure appreciate those who preserved this for posterity.

[MrPropanePete]

This is amazing. I'm an Aussie and was born in Melbourne Victoria. In 1835, the year the older boy in this video was born, Melbourne was established as just a gaggle of tents and campfires and a handful of people on the banks of the Yarra River. Same year, incredible. Today it's a city of over 5 million people. I'm 72 and I knew several old blokes from WW1 and a few Australia Light Horsemen from the Boer War in South Africa (1899 - 1902), but seeing quality footage of actual American Civil War veterans talking to each other is absolutely amazing.

[hatuletoh]

My grandfather, a WWII veteran, had memories of seeing a handful of Civil War veterans in the 4th of July parades of his childhood. That has always made me think about just how much the world has changed in the past 150-200 years. The men in this video lived in a period when, for the first time in the thousands of years of human history, the fastest way to travel on land wasn't a horse, and the people of that era recognized this change for the amazing development that it was. And yet, people from that generation would live to see airplanes fighting over the skies of Europe, and their children weapons powerful enough to destroy all humanity.

[knov]

If you know a WW2 veteran, ask them to do an interview about their experiences on camera. Links to the past like this film are precious and few.