The Civil War - Season 1 - Eps 1: The Cause: 1861
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.
About The Civil War
Title: The Civil War
First Air Date: 1990-09-23
Last Air Date: 1990-09-27
Status: Ended
Rating: 8.112/10 (from 107 votes)
Language: EN
Seasons: 2
Total Episodes: 9
Network: PBS
Genres: Documentary, War & Politics, Drama
Production Companies: Florentine Films, American Documentary Films Inc., Kenneth Lauren Burns, WETA, Time-Life Video
Synopsis
A documentary on the American Civil War narrated by Ken Burns, covering the secession of the Confederacy to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
Cast
David McCullough
Narrator
Sam Waterston
Abraham Lincoln
Julie Harris
Mary Chestnut
Jason Robards
Ulysses S. Grant
Morgan Freeman
Frederick Douglass
Paul Roebling
Joshua Chamberlain
Garrison Keillor
Walt Whitman
George Black
Robert E. Lee
Arthur Miller
William Tecumseh Sherman
Christopher Murney
Elisha Hunt Rhodes
