The Civil War
1990 Documentary, War & Politics 1 season
TMDB rating 8.0/10 Ended
A documentary on the American Civil War narrated by Ken Burns, covering the secession of the Confederacy to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
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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.
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TMDB rating 6.5/10
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Cast and details
David McCulloughNarrator (voice)
Sam WaterstonAbraham Lincoln (voice)
Julie HarrisMary Chestnut (voice)
Jason RobardsUlysses S. Grant (voice)
Morgan FreemanFrederick Douglass / John Boston (voice)
Paul RoeblingJoshua Chamberlain (voice)
Garrison KeillorWalt Whitman (voice)- George BlackRobert E. Lee (voice)
Arthur MillerWilliam Tecumseh Sherman (voice)
Christopher MurneyElisha Hunt Rhodes (voice)- Charles McDowellSamuel R. Watkins (voice)
Horton FooteJefferson Davis (voice)
- Network
- PBS
- First aired
- Sep 23, 1990
- Latest episode
- Sep 27, 1990
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Release dates are original schedules and may differ from availability in your country. A release never marks anything as watched. Last checked Nov 2, 2026.Schedule data from TVmaze, CC BY-SA.