Del Norte Public Library

Ken Burns's Emmy Award-winning documentary brings to life America's most destructive and defining conflict. The Civil War is the saga of celebrated generals and ordinary soldiers, a heroic and transcendent president and a country that had to divide itself in two in order to become one.

Following Abraham Lincoln's election as President of the United States in 1861, eleven states withdrew from the Union to form the Confederate States of America, sparking a bitterly contested war between North and South. The casualty figures of 1861-1865 exceed those of American soldiers killed in every other war put together. With maps, portraits, and artifacts from the Smithsonian's unrivaled collections, The Civil War traces the major engagements,...

This episode concludes the series with Lee's surrender at Appomattox, Lincoln's assassination and the capture of John Wilkes Booth, and the fate of the series' major characters. Finally, the episode considers the consequence and meaning of the war that transformed the country from a collection of states to the nation we are today.

An epic documentary bringing life to America's most destructive - and defining - conflict. Here is the saga of celebrated generals and the ordinary soldiers. A heroic and transcendent president and a country that had to divide itself in two in order to become one again.