Product Review

Narrated by Elizabeth McGovern

It’s not just about who we were then. It’s about who we are now.

“First-rate…compelling” —James Lighthizer, President, Civil War Trust

In this revealing documentary, Elizabeth McGovern (Downton Abbey) recounts how the struggle between North and South—long defined by battles like Gettysburg, Antietam, and Bull Run—was quite dependent on events in the lands then known as “the West.” Although often overlooked, the western theatre—between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River—saw some of the conflict’s bloodiest encounters, such as Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Chickamauga. It featured iconic leaders like the Union’s Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman as well as the Confederacy’s Albert Sidney Johnston and John Bell Hood. This series also tells inspirational and untold stories of African Americans—from enslaved to emancipated to fighting for their freedom.

Using dramatic battle recreations, compelling archival imagery, 3-D maps, and insightful interviews with top Civil War scholars, this five-part series shows why the West played such a vital part in the outcome of the war.