Series Cast

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

Current Season

Miniseries

1990 | 9 Episodes

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.