S01E08: 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 towards 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.

David McCullough
David McCullough
Narrator (voice)
Sam Waterston
Sam Waterston
Abraham Lincoln (voice)
Julie Harris
Julie Harris
Mary Chestnut (voice)
Jason Robards
Jason Robards
Ulysses S. Grant (voice)
Morgan Freeman
Morgan Freeman
Frederick Douglass / John Boston (voice)
Paul Roebling
Paul Roebling
Joshua Chamberlain (voice)
Garrison Keillor
Garrison Keillor
Walt Whitman (voice)