The Civil War

DocumentaryWar & Politics1990TV-149 episodes1 seasonMiniseries

First aired: 1990-09-23

Synopsis

A documentary on the American Civil War narrated by Ken Burns, covering the secession of the Confederacy to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

Casting

  • Morgan Freeman
    Frederick Douglass
  • Laurence Fishburne
    Various
  • Jeremy Irons
    Various
  • M. Emmet Walsh
    Various
  • Derek Jacobi
    Various
  • Gene Jones
    Various
  • Jason Robards
    Ulysses S. Grant
  • Sam Waterston
    Abraham Lincoln
  • Pamela Reed
    Various
  • Philip Bosco
    Horace Greeley
The Civil War Miniseries Poster

Miniseries

Photographs, period paintings, lithographs and headlines of the Civil War are combined with moving newsreel footage of Civil War veterans, interviews with distinguished historians and first-person accounts in this award-winning documentary by filmmaker Ken Burns. The miniseries vividly embraces the entire sweep of the war: the complex causes and lasting effects of America's greatest and most moving calamity, the battles and the homefronts, the generals and the private soldiers, the anguish of death in battle and the grief of families at home.

Number of episodes 9