
A documentary on the American Civil War narrated by Ken Burns, covering the secession of the Confederacy to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
StatusEnded
TypeMiniseries
Original LanguageEnglish
Network
Specials of The Civil War premiered on January 1, 1970

Miniseries of The Civil War premiered on September 23, 1990
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.

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
Charles McDowell
Samuel R. Watkins

Horton Foote
Jefferson Davis

George Plimpton
George Templeton Strong

Philip Bosco
Horace Greeley
Terry Courier
George B. McClellan
Jody Powell
Stonewall Jackson / Various

Studs Terkel
Benjamin Butler / Various

Hoyt Axton
Various

John Hartford
Various

Colleen Dewhurst
Various
Shelby Foote
Various
Ronnie Gilbert
Various

Jeremy Irons
Various

Gene Jones
Various

Derek Jacobi
Various

Kurt Vonnegut
Various

Laurence Fishburne
Various

Pamela Reed
Various

M. Emmet Walsh
Various
Barbara Fields
Various