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The Civil Warchevron_right
S01E01: The Cause: 1861Beginning with a searing indictment of slavery, this first episode dramatically evokes the causes of the war, from the Cotton Kingdom of the South to the northern abolitionists who opposed it. Here are the burning questions of Union and States' rights, John Brown at Harper's Ferry, the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, the firing on Fort Sumter and the jubilant rush to arms on both sides. Along the way the series' major figures are introduced: Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant and a host of lesser-known but equally vivid characters. The episode comes to a climax with the disastrous Union defeat at Manassas, Virginia, where both sides now learn it is to be a very long war.
Genres:
Air Date:
Sep 23, 1990
Runtime:
100 minutes
Production:
Casts:
David McCullough, Sam Waterston, Julie Harris, Jason Robards, Morgan Freeman, Paul Roebling, Garrison Keillor, George Black, Arthur Miller, Christopher Murney, Charles McDowell, Horton Foote, George Plimpton, Philip Bosco, Terry Courier, Jody Powell, Studs Terkel, Hoyt Axton, John Hartford, Colleen Dewhurst, Shelby Foote, Ronnie Gilbert, Jeremy Irons, Gene Jones, Derek Jacobi, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Laurence Fishburne, Pamela Reed, M. Emmet Walsh
