The Civil War

E01Playing

The Cause: 1861

Sep 23, 1990 · 1h 40m

E02▶

A Very Bloody Affair: 1862

Sep 24, 1990 · 1h 9m

E03▶

Forever Free: 1862

Sep 24, 1990 · 1h 17m

E04▶

Simply Murder: 1863

Sep 25, 1990 · 1h 3m

E05▶

The Universe of Battle: 1863

Sep 25, 1990 · 1h 37m

E06▶

Valley of the Shadow of Death: 1864

Sep 26, 1990 · 1h 11m

E07▶

Most Hallowed Ground: 1864

Sep 26, 1990 · 1h 13m

E08▶

War Is All Hell: 1865

Sep 27, 1990 · 1h 10m

E09▶

The Better Angels of Our Nature: 1865

Sep 27, 1990 · 1h 10m

Beginning with a searing indictment of slavery, this first episode dramatically evokes the causes of the war, from the Cotton Kingdom of the South to the northern abolitionists who opposed it. Here are the burning questions of Union and States' rights, John Brown at Harper's Ferry, the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, the firing on Fort Sumter and the jubilant rush to arms on both sides. Along the way the series' major figures are introduced: Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant and a host of lesser-known but equally vivid characters. The episode comes to a climax with the disastrous Union defeat at Manassas, Virginia, where both sides now learn it is to be a very long war.