1863: "Simply Murder"/"The Universe of Battle"

Between 1861 and 1865, Americans made war on each other and killed each other in great numbers if only to become the kind of country that could no longer conceive of how that was possible. What began as a bitter dispute over Union and States' Rights, ended as a struggle over the meaning of freedom in America.

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1863: "Simply Murder"/"The Universe of Battle"

Season 1 Episode 3 | 154m 49s | CC

Follow Lee, Jackson and Grant through battles and northern opposition to the Emancipation Proclamation. Watch the Battle of Gettysburg, the turning point of the war, unfold. See Vicksburg’s fall, New York draft riots, the first African-American troops, western battles at Chickamauga and Chattanooga — and Lincoln’s dedication of a new Union cemetery at Gettysburg.

The Civil War

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Richmond falls to Grant's army, Lee surrenders, Lincoln is assassinated, and the war ends.

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Find out what caused the war, examining slavery and questions of union and states’ rights.

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1862: "A Very Bloody Affair"/"Forever Free"

Lincoln’s war to preserve the Union transforms to a war to emancipate the slaves.

Production made possible by grants from General Motors Corporation, National Endowment for the Humanities, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation

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