THE CIVIL WAR
WAR IS ALL HELL – 1865
THE BETTER ANGELS OF OUR NATURE – 1865
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11 @ 7:00PM & 12:00AM
Episode Eight: War Is All Hell (1865)
The episode begins with William Tecumseh Sherman’s brilliant march to the sea, which brings the war to the heart of Georgia and the Carolinas and spells the end of the Confederacy. In March, following Lincoln’s second inauguration, first Petersburg and then Richmond finally fall to Grant’s army. Lee’s tattered Army of Northern Virginia flees westward toward a tiny crossroads town called Appomattox Court House. There the dramatic and deeply moving surrender of Lee to Grant takes place. The episode ends in Washington, where John Wilkes Booth begins to dream of vengeance for the South.
Episode Nine: The Better Angels of Our Nature (1865)
This extraordinary final episode of The Civil War begins in the bittersweet aftermath of Lee’s surrender and then goes on to narrate the horrendous events of five days later when, on April 14, Lincoln is assassinated. After chronicling Lincoln’s poignant funeral, the series recounts the final days of the war, the capture of John Wilkes Booth, and the fates of the Civil War’s major protagonists. The episode then considers the consequences and meaning of a war that transformed the country from a collection of states to the nation we are today.
