Death and the Civil War (American Experience)

From acclaimed filmmaker Ric Burns, "Death and the Civil War" explores an essential but largely overlooked aspect of the most pivotal event in American history. With the coming of the Civil War, and the staggering casualties it ushered in, death entered the experience of the American people as it never had before - permanently altering the character of the republic, and the psyche of the American people. Based on Drew Gilpin Faust's groundbreaking book, "This Republic of Suffering," the film tracks the increasingly lethal arc of the war down through the struggle, in the war's aftermath, to cope with an American landscape littered with the bodies of hundreds of thousands of soldiers.

Director: Ric Burns
Actor: Oliver Platt