"The Civil War" - a film by Ken Burns

Between 1861 and 1865, Americans made war on each other and killed and wounded each other in great numbers. What began as a bitter dispute over Union vs States' Rights, ended as a struggle over the meaning of freedom in America. At least 618,000 Americans died in the Civil War, and some experts say the toll reached 700,000. The number that is most often quoted is 625,000. At any rate, these casualties exceed the nation's loss in all its other wars, from the Revolution through Vietnam. There were 412,200 wounded.

This week I watched the 11-hour mini-series, "The Civil War." Ken Burns used voice-over narrators dramatically reading letters and documents and stating the writer's name at their conclusion, fresh live footage of places juxtaposed with still images (photographs, paintings, maps, prints), and anecdotal interviews. I have never been interested in the Civil War until recently after reading "The Widow of the South" a novel by Robert Hicks and "My Name is Mary Sutter" by Robin Oliveira, and now having watched the very moving 11-hour mini-series "The Civil War".