S01E09: The Better Angels of Our Nature: 1865

This extraordinary final episode of The Civil War begins in the bittersweet aftermath of Lee's surrender and then goes on to narrate the horrendous events of five days later when, on April 14, Lincoln is assassinated. After chronicling Lincoln's poignant funeral, the series recounts the final days of the war, the capture of John Wilkes Booth and the fates of the Civil War's major protagonists. The episode then considers the consequences and meaning of a war that transformed the country from a collection of states to the nation we are today.

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)