American Civil War

Spotlighting radical abolitionist John Brown, as he raids Harper's Ferry, setting the scene for the Civil War.

Abraham Lincoln becomes frustrated with his cautious commander, George McClellan, whose army gets routed at Manassas, Va.; Confederate Gen. "Stonewall" Jackson earns his nickname.

Robert E. Lee, who once turned down command of Northern forces, becomes the top Confederate general; Ulysses S. Grant scores Union victories in the West.

Former slave Frederick Douglass pushes President Abraham Lincoln to free his people; Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, after the bloody Battle of Antietam.

A Confederate victory at Chancellorsville, Va. comes at a high price; a Southern bullet accidentally mortally wounds Stonewall Jackson.

The North turns back the South's invasion; a heroic bayonet charge led by Maine's Joshua Chamberlain; the doomed Confederate charge led by Gen. George Pickett.

Once drummed out of the army for drinking, Ulysses S. Grant earns his place as the North's best general; the Union's first black regiment marches into battle;

A U.S. senator, war hero, and presidential aspirant who has much in common with Abraham Lincoln; Jefferson Davis answers the call to lead the Confederate States of America;

George McClellan poses a tough challenge to Abraham Lincoln's re-election; Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee clash on the battlefield;

Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman burns Atlanta and marches to the sea; Abraham Lincoln's re-election; Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox, Virginia.

John Wilkes Booth assassinates President Abraham Lincoln, potentially reversing the South's Civil War loss with a single bullet;

The defeated South attempts to rewrite history by denying slavery was the root cause of the Civil War;