THE CIVIL WAR
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THE CIVIL WAR series is an invaluable archive of information. The nine-part series effectively intertwines the historical facts of major battles and notable leaders with dramatic reflections of dozens of Americans whose lives were touched by the war. In addition to prominent figures like Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, U.S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, the series also highlights the lives of diarists like Mary Chestnut and George Templeton Strong, as well as the adventures and reflections of countless ordinary citizens whose lives were permanently transfigured by the war. THE CIVIL WAR is the first full scale film history of the terrible conflict that tore the country apart and defined a nation.

THE CAUSE Beginning with a dramatic indictment of slavery, this first episode evokes the causes of the war, from the Cotton Kingdom of the South to the Northern abolitionists who opposed it. The episode comes to a climax with the disastrous Union defeat at Manassas, where both sides learn it is to be a long war. 95 mins / 1989
A VERY BLOODY AFFAIR: 1862 1862 saw the birth of modern warfare and the transformation of Lincoln’s war to preserve the Union into a war to emancipate the slaves. We meet U.S. Grant, whose exploits come to a bloody climax at the battle of Shiloh. 89 mins / 1989
FOREVER FREE: 1862 This episode charts the dramatic events that led to Lincoln’s decision to set the slaves free. On the banks of Antietam Creek, the bloodiest day of the war takes place, followed shortly by the brightest--the emancipation of the slaves. 76 mins / 1989
SIMPLY MURDER: 1863 The episode begins with the nightmarish Union disaster at Fredericksburg and comes to two climaxes that spring: at Chancellorsville in May, where Lee wins his most brilliant victory but loses Stonewall Jackson; and at Vicksburg, where Grant’s attempts to take the city by storm are stopped. 63 mins / 1989
THE UNIVERSE OF BATTLE: 1863 This episode begins with a dramatic account of the turning point of the war --the battle of Gettysburg--the greatest battle fought in the western hemisphere. The episode closes with Abraham Lincoln struggling to put into words what is happening to his people. 95 mins / 1989
VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH: 1864 Episode 6 begins with biographical comparisons of Grant and Lee and then chronicles the extraordinary series of battles that pitted the two generals against each other from the Wilderness to Petersburg in Virginia. In 30 days the two sides lose more men than both have lost in three years of war. 76 mins / 1989
MOST HALLOWED GROUND: 1864 The episode begins with the Presidential campaign of 1864, setting Lincoln against his old commanding general, George McClellan. The stakes were nothing less than the survival of the Union itself. Lee’s Arlington mansion is turned into Arlington Cemetery--the Union’s most hallowed ground. 72 mins / 1989
WAR IS ALL HELL: 1865 Sherman’s March to the Sea brings the war to the heart of Georgia and spells the end of the Confederacy. Richmond falls to Grant’s army and Lee flees westward. John Wilkes Booth begins to dream of vengeance for the South. 69 mins / 1989
THE BETTER ANGELS OF OUR NATURE: 1865 This episode begins in the bittersweet aftermath of Lee’s surrender and then goes on to narrate the horrendous events five days later when, on April 14, Lincoln is assassinated. 68 mins / 1989

CONFRONTING THE WILDERNESS
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Move north along the eastern seaboard of North America to examine the harsh, rocky land around Hudson Bay and trace the history of the French and British entrepreneurs who ventured there to hunt and trap. Follow the settlement of St. Lawrence River and learn how French fur traders and Ojibway, Algonquin, Huron, Ottowa, and other Indians collaborated in a prosperous business partnership until an outbreak of smallpox decimated thousands of Native Americans. 60 mins / 1991

DOMESTICATING A WILDERNESS
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The settlement of the West by Mormons and European immigrants, building the transcontinental railroad and the Indians' struggle for self-preservation. 52 mins / 1973

A FIREBELL IN THE NIGHT
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Alistair Cooke explores the causes, splendors, and miseries of Civil War. 52 mins / 1973

GONE WEST
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Alistair Cooke explores westward expansion from Lewis and Clark in 1803 to the Gold Rush. 52 mins / 1973

LINCOLN: THE SERIES
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Abraham Lincoln was a poor backwoodsman who would later become the greatest President in American history. This compelling series follows the extraordinary presidential journey as he descends into the chaos of war and then begins the slow difficult ascent into greatness. Flashbacks reveal his pioneer boyhood, his marriage and law years, his two years in Congress and his debates against slavery that launched his rise to national leadership. It is the story of the Civil War through Lincoln’s eyes and the central role of slavery in Lincoln’s life, and his legendary kindliness. Lastly, it is the story of his shocking death. Jason Robards is the voice of Abraham Lincoln and James Earl Jones narrates.
Program 1: The Making of A President: 1860-1862
Program 2: The Pivotal Year: 1863
Program 3: "I Want to Finish This Job": 1864
Program 4: "Now He Belongs to The Ages": 1865 60 mins / 1992

LONG SHADOWS
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The American Civil War was the most cataclysmic event in American history--600,000 deaths, ruined cities, scorched countryside, and social revolution. It is arguably the great and central event in our history, having captured popular and scholarly interest like no other event in our past. LONG SHADOWS explores the ways in which the echoes of the Civil War can still be felt in American society, from politics to economics, from civil rights to foreign policy, from individual to collective memory. It is a film about the nature of history in our national and personal lives--the past as prologue. The film features Robert Penn Warren, Studs Terkel, Robert Coles, Jimmy Carter and Tom Wicker. 88 mins / 1988

THE 19th INDIANA: GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
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During the Civil War, no fighting force was more respected or feared than the the Iron Brigade of the Federal Army. The legendary "Black Hats" were a beacon of courage and loyalty for the Union case. The 19th Indiana was one Regiment of that famous Brigade. These valiant men fought at such major battles as 2nd Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam - even the legendary battle Gettysburg. Producers Steven Kays traveled to Civil War reenactments, documenting the men who portray the 19th Indiana. Interviews with more than a dozen reenactors capture the admiration they have for the original 19th, and what they have learned by joining this close-knit family. Battle footage, shot at actual reenactments, gives viewers a front-row seat to the battle lines. 29 mins / 1995

PALACE CARS AND PARADISE
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This is the story of the Pullman model town, created in the 1880s by George Pullman as the ideal industrial community. Built to be a solution to the numerous labor conflicts and urban ills created by the Industrial Revolution, the town became a controversial experiment. It was seen by some to be a great success and by others, such as Eugene Debs, "to be slavery and degradation." The town’s short life climaxed with the Pullman strike of 1894, bringing it to national attention. The film brings together nearly 200 photographs from numerous archives to depict life in the town and to discuss some of the philosophical conflicts present in the late 19th century, from Social Darwinism to the "social gospel." 28 mins / 1985

THE SPEECHES OF THE CIVIL WAR
M H C A P
Let us not judge that we may be not judged, said Abraham Lincoln in the midst of the Civil War (1861-1865). This tape represents a chronology beginning with the words of John Brown, martyr of the abolitionist movement after his capture for the raid of Harper’s Ferry in 1859. Confederate General Beauregard congratulates his troops after their vistory at the first battle of Bull Run in 1861. General Lee addresses the rebel troops Oct. 2, 1862, and in 865 explains his surrender at Appomattox. President Lincoln reasserts his anti-slavery views at the 1863 dedication of the cemetery at Gettyburg, and, in his second inaugural address calls for an end to the war. Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, encourages rebel soldiers in an 1864 speech. Union General Sherman explains to Atlanta that the city must be evacuated. And on July 4, 1865, Frederick Douglass—the former slave who went on to be a leader of the abolitionist movement—speaks against Independence Day as a sham. 37 mins / 1997

THE WAY WEST
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Follow the extraordinary story of how the West lost and won, for the time of the Gold Rush until after the last gasp of the Indian Wars at Wounded Knee. This six hour documentary from filmmakers Ric Burns follows the clash of cultures and Native Americans and whites struggled bitterly over the land. 90 mins each / 1996
1. "Westward, the Course of Empire Takes Its Way" charts the frantic opening decades of expansion, from the 1840s through the Civil War. In 1849, the Gold Rush sent hundreds of thousands of people rushing across the continent to California and Oregon. Thereafter, the ever-quickening pace of expansion would lead to a series of bloody confrontations between Native Americans and whites, culminating in the Minnesota uprising of 1862 and two years later, the massacre at Sand Creek.
2. "The Approach of Civilization" chronicles the four-year period following the Civil War-an extraordinarily transformative and disruptive era on the Great Plains, marked by two great climaxes: the triumph, in 1868, of Red Cloud and Crazy Horse over the U.S. Army on the Bozeman Trial, and the joining, in 1869, of the two ends of the transcontinental railroad at Promontory Point in Utah.
3. "The War the Black Hills" follows the desperate struggle over the last unceded territories of a once vast Indian domain. In 1873, the United States invaded the sacred Black Hills in search of gold. This treaty violation, together with the systematic extermination of the buffalo, sparked outrage among the Lakotas and Cheyennes, setting the stage for a fateful showdown between the U.S. Army and the tribes of the North Plains.
4. "Ghost Dance" chronicles the crackdown on Native American tribes across the Northwest in the aftermath of the Battle of the Little Big Horn in June 1876, and charts the final, desperate days of Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. The series’ final episode examines the rise of the heartbreaking Ghost Dance religion, and the last horrendous massacre at Wounded Knee.

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