The Civil War (TV series)

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The Civil War
Civil war.jpg
Genre Documentary
Starring David McCullough
Sam Waterston
Jason Robards
Julie Harris
Morgan Freeman
Garrison Keillor
Arthur Miller
George Plimpton
Country of origin USA
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 1
No. of episodes 9
Running time 690 minutes/11 hours 30 minutes (9 episodes)
Production company(s) American Documentaries Inc.
Kenneth Lauren Burns Productions
Distributor PBS
Original channel PBS
Picture format 1.33:1
Audio format Mono
Original release September 23–27, 1990

The Civil War is a documentary film created by Ken Burns about the American Civil War. It was first broadcast on PBS on five consecutive nights from September 23 to 27, 1990. Approximately 40 million viewers watched it during its initial broadcast, making it the most-watched program ever to air on PBS. It was subsequently awarded more than 40 major television and film honors. The film was remastered on the twelfth anniversary of its release, and a book following the movie has also been released.[1]


Ken Burns was inspired to make this documentary because of Mathew Brady's photographs. More than 10 hours in length, the documentary has nine episodes that explore the Civil War through personal stories and photos. During the creation of the movie, Burns made extensive use of over 16,000 archival photographs, paintings, and newspaper images from the time of the war. The series' slow zooming and panning across the photos resulted in the coining of the term the "Ken Burns effect".

He combined these images with modern cinematography, music, narration by David McCullough, anecdotes and insights from authors such as Shelby Foote,[2] historians Barbara J. Fields, Ed Bearss, and Stephen B. Oates; and actors reading contemporary quotes from historical figures such as Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Walt Whitman, Stonewall Jackson, and Frederick Douglass, as well as diaries by Mary Chesnut, Elisha Hunt Rhodes and George Templeton Strong. A large cast of actors voiced correspondence, memoirs, news articles, and stood in for historical figures from the Civil War.


The film took five years to produce, longer than the four years it took to fight the Civil War, which lasted from April 12, 1861, when the Confederacy attacked Fort Sumter, South Carolina, until April 9, 1865, when General Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House, Virginia.[3]



The theme song of the documentary is the instrumental "Ashokan Farewell", which is heard twenty-five times during the film. The song was composed by Jay Ungar in 1982 and he describes it as "a Scottish lament written by a Jewish guy from the Bronx." It is the only modern piece of music heard in the film. It became so closely associated with the series that people frequently and erroneously believe it was a Civil War song. Ungar, his band Fiddle Fever and pianist Jacqueline Schwab performed this song and many of the other 19th century songs used in the film.[4][5] Schwab's arrangements in particular have been acclaimed by many experts. Musicologist Alexander Klein wrote: "Upon watching the full documentary, one is immediately struck by the lyricism of Schwab’s playing and, more importantly, her exceptional arranging skills. What had been originally rousing and at times bellicose songs such as the southern “Bonnie Blue Flag” or the northern “Battle Cry of Freedom” now suddenly sounded like heart-warming, lyrical melodies due to Schwab’s interpretations. The pianist not only changed the songs’ original mood but also allowed herself some harmonic liberties so as to make these century-old marching tunes into piano lamentations that contemporary audiences could fully identify with".[6]



Episode list[edit]

Each episode was divided into numerous chapters or vignettes,[5] but each generally had a primary theme or focus (i.e., a specific battle or topic). The series followed a fairly consistent chronological order of history.

No. Episode Original air date
1 "The Cause" (1861) September 23, 1990[7]
2 "A Very Bloody Affair" (1862) September 24, 1990[8]
3 "Forever Free" (1862) September 24, 1990[8]
4 "Simply Murder" (1863) September 25, 1990[9]
5 "The Universe of Battle" (1863) September 25, 1990[9]
6 "Valley of the Shadow of Death" (1864) September 26, 1990[10]
7 "Most Hallowed Ground" (1864) September 26, 1990[10]
8 "War Is All Hell" (1865) September 27, 1990[11]
9 "The Better Angels of Our Nature" (1865) September 27, 1990[11]
Assassination; Useless, Useless; Picklocks Of Biographers; Was It Not Real?

Reception and awards[edit]


The series sparked a major renewal of interest in the Civil War. It was widely acclaimed for its skill in depicting and retelling the events of the Civil War, and also for noticeably drawing huge numbers of viewers into a new awareness of the genuine historical importance of this conflict. Prior to this series, the Civil War had been somewhat neglected in popular historical consciousness. After this series, there was a vast new sudden upturn in popular books and other works on the Civil War. [12]

Enough historians were critical of the series that editor Robert Brent Toplin responded with a book in 1997 titled Ken Burns's The Civil War: Historians Respond which gives voice to several historians as well as responses from Ken Burns and others involved in the series' production.

2002 remastering[edit]

The entire series was digitally remastered in September 17, 2002 in VHS and DVD. The DVD release included a short documentary on how a Spirit DataCine was used to transfer and remaster the film.[13][14] The remastering was limited to producing an improved fullscreen SD digital video of the source 16mm film, for broadcast and DVD; no widescreen/HD/Blu-ray versions are available. The soundtrack was also remixed.





No. Title Artist(s) Length
1. "Drums of War"   Old Bethpage Brass Band 0:10
2. "Oliver Wendell Holmes"   Paul Roebling 0:32
3. "Ashokan Farewell"   Jay Ungar, Matt Glasser, Evan Stover, Russ Barenburg, Molly Mason 4:05
4. "Battle Cry of Freedom"   Jacqueline Schwab 1:40
5. "We Are Climbing Jacob’s Ladder"   Bernice Johnson Reagan 4:27
6. "Dixie/Bonnie Blue Flag"   New American Brass Band 1:57
7. "Cheer Boys Cheer"   New American Brass Band 1:12
8. "Angel Band"   Barenburg, Jesse Carr 1:07
9. "Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier"   Schwab, Carr 1:44
10. "Lorena"   Ungar, Carr 1:44
11. "Parade"   New American Brass Band 3:30
12. "Hail, Columbia"   New American Brass Band 2:06
13. "Dixie (reprise, lament)"   Bobby Horton 2:06
14. "Kingdom Coming"   Glaser, Stover, Ungar, Art Baron, Mason 1:01
15. "Battle Hymn of the Republic"   Ungar, Schwab 1:38
16. "All Quiet on the Potomac"   Schwab 1:12
17. "Flag of Columbia"   Schwab 1:03
18. "Weeping Sad and Lonely"   Glasser, Schwab, Carr 1:10
19. "Yankee Doodle"   Old Bethpage Brass Band 0:41
20. "Palmyra Schottische"   New American Brass Band 3:30
21. "When Johnny Comes Marching Home"   Old Bethpage Brass Band 0:45
22. "Shenandoah"   The First Bull Run [original] 0:47
23. "When Johnny Comes Marching Home (reprise)"   Ungar, Yonatin Malin, Schwab, Mason, Peter Amidon 1:00
24. "Marching Through Georgia"   Ungar, Mason, Amidon 0:57
25. "Marching Through Georgia (reprise, lament)"   Schwab 1:14
26. "Battle Cry of Freedom (reprise)"   Schwab 2:33
27. "Battle Hymn of the Republic (reprise)"   Abyssianian Baptist Choir 3:22
28. "Ashokan Farewall/Sullivan Ballou letter"   Ungar, Roebling, David McCullough 3:34


See also[edit]


  2. ^ "'Civil War' audience 'discovers' storyteller-writer Shelby Foote". TV Today (The Milwaukee Sentinel). September 25, 1990. Retrieved 2013-07-01. 
  3. ^ 'The Civil War': Ken Burns documentary airing on PBS for 150th anniversary of war
  4. ^ Ashokan FAQ
  5. ^ a b Episode Descriptions retrieved 2009-11-02
  7. ^ "Sunday Prime Time Television Listings". The Milwaukee Sentinel. September 22, 1990. Retrieved 2013-07-01. 
  8. ^ a b "Monday Prime Time Television Listings". The Milwaukee Sentinel. September 24, 1990. Retrieved 2013-07-01. 
  9. ^ a b "Tuesday Prime Time Television Listings". The Milwaukee Sentinel. September 25, 1990. Retrieved 2013-07-01. 
  10. ^ a b "Wednesday Prime Time Television Listings". The Milwaukee Sentinel. September 26, 1990. Retrieved 2013-07-01. 
  11. ^ a b "Thursday Prime Time Television Listings". The Milwaukee Sentinel. September 27, 1990. Retrieved 2013-07-01. 
  13. ^ PBS Why we decided to Re-master the The Civil War
  14. ^ Why we decided to remaster retrieved 2009-11-02.

External links[edit]