Ken Burns’s ‘The Civil War’: America Then and Now

Ken Burns produced and directed "The Civil War" documentary, the most watched program on PBS. (PBS)

 TV-14 | 9 episodes | Documentary, War, History | 1990

First airing on five consecutive nights from Sept. 23 to Sept. 27 in 1990, the nine-part, nearly 690-minute documentary series “The Civil War” remains the most watched program in the history of PBS, drawing nearly 40 million viewers in its initial broadcast.

Directed, co-produced, co-edited, and co-photographed by Ken Burns, “The Civil War” established a new high bar for documentary filmmaking that has yet to be equaled or surpassed, even by Mr. Burns himself.

The opening and closing segments of the first episode set the stage for a large portion of what’s to come.

Ken Burns (seated, R) filming an interview for the documentary "The Civil War." (PBS)

My Front Yard and My Parlor

During the First Battle of Bull Run in Virginia, the Confederates commandeered the home of resident Wilmer McLean to use as headquarters.

Not quite five years later, in the town of Appomattox Court House, also in Virginia, McLean was approached by a Union messenger and asked to lend his home for the purpose of the official surrender of Robert E. Lee to Ulysses S. Grant, to which McLean reluctantly agreed. McLean later remarked, “The war began in my front yard and ended in my front parlor.”

Wilmer McLean, whose home was used as a Confederate headquarters and the place of the Confederate surrender, in the documentary "The Civil War." (PBS)

The episode ends with the reading of a letter written by Union officer Sullivan Ballou earmarked for his wife, Sarah, prior to Bull Run. The ultimate fate of Ballou is better left unrevealed here, but it is safe to say that, by the end of the reading, many viewers were left in a tear-laden heap.

This passage, and many others to come, is accompanied by the instrumental “Ashokan Farewell,” composed by Jay Ungar. Even though the piece was written in 1982, it sounds as if it originated in the 19th century. Mr. Burns understood that it perfectly captured the sense of longing and melancholy associated with the era.

Union officer Sullivan Ballou wrote a letter to his wife prior to the Battle of Bull Run, in "The Civil War." (PBS)

Voices of the Unheralded

“The Civil War” dedicates appropriate time to the major battles and the military higher-ups in charge, something that was essentially required. However, just as much, if not more, attention is lavished on the barely known soldiers, journalists, and everyday citizens who chronicled the war from start to finish.

Mr. Burns and his writers took this workaday approach a step further. They included passages dedicated to the favored food and drink of the combatants, their musical preferences, leisure activities, and the “long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror.”

The series is equal parts sociological observation, the blow-by-blow descriptions of battle, the psychological effects on everyone who survived the war, and the long-reaching ripple effects that are still being felt to this day.

The Ken Burns Effect

It isn’t unusual (actually, it’s expected) for any documentary to rely completely on still photos, narration, and stock film footage for content, especially for events taking place well more than a century ago. “The Civil War” employs all of these features, but Mr. Burns ratcheted this up by creating something that would come to be recognized as “the Ken Burns Effect.”

Boiled down, this “effect” was a mix of still photos and paintings that were zoomed in on and/or panned across creating different fields of detail and depth. Audio commentary and narration was then added. This was further enhanced by sound effects, and sometimes current-day footage of the places where the events took place.

Ken Burns (L) filming a scene in the documentary "The Civil War." (PBS)

It’s easy to understand why the project took five years to produce.

The extended scene taking place during the description and depiction of the Battle of Fredericksburg in the fourth episode is among the finest examples of this storytelling device in the series. It instantly transformed the production from dry history lesson into a riveting and engrossing quasi-live-action feature. Viewers were left emotionally drained—and newly informed.

Digging Deeper

According to at least one source, “The Civil War” was the first experience that most viewers were given to understand the Civil War as a whole. Watching the documentary dovetailed into many of them seeking out further details.

I was one of those viewers, and soon thereafter acquired a library card to investigate further. This led me to eventually visit 30-plus battlefields in six states, finding out more with each subsequent stop.

With “The Civil War,” Mr. Burns pulled off the near-impossible. He took a grade school history lesson and transformed it into a social/media phenomenon: This left not only Americans, but people the world over, with an unquenchable desire to find out more about one of the most significant events in human history.

Mr. Burns and his collaborators also did this without a single whiff of political bias or slant.

“The Civil War” is not the ultimate, say-all, be-all documentary about a certain time in U.S. history; no production of this kind could ever do so. What it does achieve with blazing efficiency is to provide the bridge linking the founding of our country, what it grew into, and how it continues to develop and evolve.

Simply stated, “The Civil War” will forever remain one of the greatest works of the motion picture art form medium ever produced.

Poster for the documentary "The Civil War." (PBS)

The series is available on home video and streams on Fandango at Home and Amazon Prime.

‘The Civil War’ Director: Ken Burns Episodes: 9 Parental Guidance Rating: TV-14 Release Date: Sept. 23, 1990 Rating: 5 stars out of 5

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