American Civil WaR
by bkekakis | created - 02 Mar 2014 | updated - 3 months ago | PublicThe American Civil War was a civil war that was fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865. As a result of the long-standing controversy over slavery, war broke out in April 1861, when Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina, shortly after U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated. The nationalists of the Union proclaimed loyalty to the U.S. Constitution. They faced secessionists of the Confederate States, who advocated for states' rights to expand slavery. Among the 34 U.S. states in February 1861, seven Southern slave states individually declared their secession from the U.S. to form the Confederate States of America, or the South. The Confederacy grew to include eleven slave states. The Confederacy was never diplomatically recognized by the United States government, nor was it recognized by any foreign country (although the United Kingdom and France granted it belligerent status). The states that remained loyal to the U.S. (including the border states where slavery was legal) were known as the Union or the North. The Union and Confederacy quickly raised volunteer and conscription armies that fought mostly in the South over four years. The Union finally won the war when General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at the Battle of Appomattox Court House, followed by a series of surrenders by Confederate generals throughout the southern states. Four years of intense combat left 620,000 to 750,000 people dead, a higher number than the number of U.S. military deaths in all other wars combined (at least until approximately the Vietnam War). Much of the South's infrastructure was destroyed, especially the transportation systems, railroads, mills and houses. The Confederacy collapsed, slavery was abolished, and 4 million slaves were freed. The Reconstruction Era (1863–1877) overlapped and followed the war, with the process of restoring national unity, strengthening the national government, and granting civil rights to freed slaves throughout the country. The Civil War is the most studied and written about episode in U.S. history.
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1. Glory (1989)
R | 122 min | Biography, Drama, History
Robert Gould Shaw leads the U.S. Civil War's first all-black volunteer company, fighting prejudices from both his own Union Army, and the Confederates.
Director: Edward Zwick | Stars: Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Cary Elwes, Morgan Freeman
Votes: 144,374 | Gross: $26.83M
2. Operator 13 (1934)
Passed | 85 min | Drama, History, Musical
Union spy Gail Loveless impersonates a black maid in the early days of the Civil War, but complications arise when she falls in love with a Confederate officer.
Director: Richard Boleslawski | Stars: Marion Davies, Gary Cooper, Jean Parker, Katharine Alexander
Votes: 1,503
3. Gettysburg (1993)
PG | 271 min | Drama, History, War
In 1863, the Northern and Southern forces fight at Gettysburg in the decisive battle of the American Civil War.
Director: Ron Maxwell | Stars: Tom Berenger, Martin Sheen, Stephen Lang, Richard Jordan
Votes: 31,294 | Gross: $10.77M
4. The Colt (2005 TV Movie)
TV-PG | 80 min | Action, Drama, History
During the heat of battle in the midst of the Civil War, a beguilingly innocent colt is born to Union Jim Rabb's beloved mare. Refusing the orders to shoot it, lest it prove a hindrance, ... See full summary »
Director: Yelena Lanskaya | Stars: Ryan Merriman, Steve Bacic, William MacDonald, Darcy Belsher
Votes: 567
5. Custer of the West (1967)
G | 143 min | Biography, Drama, History
George Armstrong Custer's love of the heroic traditions of the Calvary and his distaste with the coming of industrialization leads him to his destiny at the Little Big Horn.
Director: Robert Siodmak | Stars: Robert Shaw, Mary Ure, Ty Hardin, Jeffrey Hunter
Votes: 1,620
6. Wicked Spring (2002)
PG-13 | 102 min | Drama, War, Western
The story unfolds over a single horrifying night - six soldiers lost in the wicked, burning woods during the Battle of the Wilderness in 1864. When the morning sun rises, it exposes an incredible new danger.
Director: Kevin R. Hershberger | Stars: Brian Merrick, DJ Perry, Terry Jernigan, Aaron Jackson
Votes: 1,042
7. The Horse Soldiers (1959)
Approved | 120 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
In 1863, a Union outfit is sent behind Confederate lines in Mississippi to destroy enemy railroads but a captive southern belle and the unit's doctor cause frictions within ranks.
Director: John Ford | Stars: John Wayne, William Holden, Constance Towers, Judson Pratt
Votes: 11,649 | Gross: $1.75M
8. Ambrose Bierce: Civil War Stories (2006 TV Movie)
93 min | Biography, Drama, History
Three of the most popular and controversial Civil War stories by legendary writer Ambrose Bierce are presented in this acclaimed feature collection.
Directors: Don Maxwell, Brian James Egen | Stars: Campbell Scott, Vivian Schilling, Nathan Darrow, T. Max Graham
Votes: 157 | Gross: $0.02M
9. Major Dundee (1965)
PG-13 | 123 min | Adventure, Drama, War
In 1864, due to frequent Apache raids from Mexico into the U.S., a Union officer decides to illegally cross the border and destroy the Apache, using a mixed army of Union troops, Confederate POWs, civilian mercenaries, and scouts.
Director: Sam Peckinpah | Stars: Charlton Heston, Richard Harris, Jim Hutton, James Coburn
Votes: 8,822 | Gross: $0.01M
10. Grey Knight (1993)
R | 82 min | Horror, War
Slave traders bring back an evil voodoo entity that is accidentally freed by the Confederate army during the Civil War. The entity possesses the bodies of the dead soldiers to create an ... See full summary »
Director: George Hickenlooper | Stars: Corbin Bernsen, Adrian Pasdar, Ray Wise, Cynda Williams
Votes: 822
11. Dances with Wolves (1990)
PG-13 | 181 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
Lieutenant John Dunbar, assigned to a remote western Civil War outpost, finds himself engaging with a neighbouring Sioux settlement, causing him to question his own purpose.
Director: Kevin Costner | Stars: Kevin Costner, Mary McDonnell, Graham Greene, Rodney A. Grant
Votes: 290,475 | Gross: $184.21M
12. The Last Confederate: The Story of Robert Adams (2005)
R | 96 min | Action, Biography, Drama
Robert Adams was a valorous southern Captain who used his heart of fire to rally his men to fight. He fell in love with Eveline, a smart, kind and strong willed school teacher from the north. As they met, the Civil War was upon them.
Directors: Julian Adams, A. Blaine Miller | Stars: Julian Adams, Gwendolyn Edwards, Eric Holloway, Amy Redford
Votes: 510
13. Gods and Generals (2003)
PG-13 | 219 min | Biography, Drama, History
The rise and fall of confederate general Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, as he meets with military success against the Union from 1861 to 1863, when he is accidentally killed by his own soldiers.
Director: Ron Maxwell | Stars: Stephen Lang, Robert Duvall, Jeff Daniels, Donzaleigh Abernathy
Votes: 17,202 | Gross: $12.87M
14. Lincoln (2012)
PG-13 | 150 min | Biography, Drama, History
As the Civil War rages on, U.S President Abraham Lincoln struggles with continuing carnage on the battlefield as he fights with many inside his own cabinet on his decision to emancipate the slaves.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, David Strathairn, Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Votes: 272,551 | Gross: $182.21M
15. Andersonville (1996)
167 min | Drama, History, War
The story of the most notorious Confederate prisoner of war camp in the American Civil War.
Stars: Paul Andre Gibbons, Jarrod Emick, Frederic Forrest, Ted Marcoux
Votes: 2,097
16. The Red Badge of Courage (1951)
Passed | 69 min | Drama, War
Truncated adaptation of Stephen Crane's novel about a Civil War Union soldier who stuggles to find the courage to fight in the heat of battle.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Audie Murphy, Bill Mauldin, Douglas Dick, Royal Dano
Votes: 4,836
17. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
Approved | 178 min | Adventure, Western
A bounty hunting scam joins two men in an uneasy alliance against a third in a race to find a fortune in gold buried in a remote cemetery.
Director: Sergio Leone | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef, Aldo Giuffrè
Votes: 810,837 | Gross: $6.10M
18. The Great Locomotive Chase (1956)
Approved | 85 min | Action, Adventure, Family
During the Civil War Union spy Andrews and his men volunteer to steal a Confederate train and drive it to Union territory while destroying the Confederate railway system along the way.
Director: Francis D. Lyon | Stars: Fess Parker, Jeffrey Hunter, Jeff York, John Lupton
Votes: 1,373
19. Cold Mountain (2003)
R | 154 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
In the waning days of the American Civil War, a wounded soldier embarks on a perilous journey back home to Cold Mountain, North Carolina to reunite with his sweetheart.
Director: Anthony Minghella | Stars: Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Renée Zellweger, Eileen Atkins
Votes: 156,020 | Gross: $95.64M
20. The General (1926)
Passed | 78 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
After being rejected by the Confederate military, not realizing it was due to his crucial civilian role, an engineer must single-handedly recapture his beloved locomotive after it is seized by Union spies and return it through enemy lines.
Directors: Clyde Bruckman, Buster Keaton | Stars: Buster Keaton, Marion Mack, Glen Cavender, Jim Farley
Votes: 98,098 | Gross: $1.03M
21. The Hunley (1999 TV Movie)
TV-14 | 94 min | Action, Drama, History
During the siege of Charleston of 1864, Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley becomes the first submersible to sink an enemy warship in wartime.
Director: John Gray | Stars: Armand Assante, Donald Sutherland, Alex Jennings, Chris Bauer
Votes: 1,306
22. The Andersonville Trial (1970 TV Movie)
150 min | Drama
A dramatization of the 1865 war-crimes trial of Henry Wirz, commandant of the notorious Confederate POW camp at Andersonville, Georgia.
Director: George C. Scott | Stars: Cameron Mitchell, William Shatner, Jack Cassidy, Wright King
Votes: 493
23. Shenandoah (1965)
Approved | 105 min | Drama, War, Western
A Virginia farmer who has vowed to remain neutral during the Civil War is spurred into action when his youngest son is taken by Union soldiers.
Director: Andrew V. McLaglen | Stars: James Stewart, Doug McClure, Glenn Corbett, Patrick Wayne
Votes: 9,624
24. The Day Lincoln Was Shot (1998 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 95 min | Biography, Drama, History
April 14, 1865. As four year of Civil War draw to a close, our country again faces unforgettable tragedy: the assassination of the President. Starring Lance Henriksen as the Great ... See full summary »
Director: John Gray | Stars: Rob Morrow, Lance Henriksen, Donna Murphy, Jean Louisa Kelly
Votes: 385
25. Pharaoh's Army (1995)
PG-13 | 90 min | Western
During the American Civil War, a Union Army captain leads his rag-tag cavalry troop up a misty creek to a remote farm to appropriate enemy (Confederate) livestock. The farm is worked by ... See full summary »
Director: Robby Henson | Stars: Chris Cooper, Patricia Clarkson, Kris Kristofferson, Robert Joy
Votes: 713 | Gross: $0.05M
26. The Birth of a Nation (1915)
TV-PG | 195 min | Drama, History, War
The Stoneman family finds its friendship with the Camerons affected by the Civil War, both fighting in opposite armies. The development of the war in their lives plays through to Lincoln's assassination and the birth of the Ku Klux Klan.
Director: D.W. Griffith | Stars: Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, Henry B. Walthall, Miriam Cooper
Votes: 26,332 | Gross: $10.00M
27. The Beguiled (1971)
R | 105 min | Drama, Thriller, War
While recuperating in a Confederate girls' boarding school, a Union soldier cons his way into each of the lonely women's hearts, causing them to turn on each other, and eventually, on him.
Director: Don Siegel | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Geraldine Page, Elizabeth Hartman, Jo Ann Harris
Votes: 19,203
28. The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
PG | 135 min | Western
Missouri farmer Josey Wales joins a Confederate guerrilla unit and winds up on the run from the Union soldiers who murdered his family.
Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Chief Dan George, Bill McKinney
Votes: 79,805 | Gross: $31.80M
29. Advance to the Rear (1964)
Approved | 100 min | Comedy, War, Western
When A Union Army outfit of misfits and rejects is sent to the Western territory, Southern spies try to figure out what they're doing there.
Director: George Marshall | Stars: Glenn Ford, Stella Stevens, Melvyn Douglas, Jim Backus
Votes: 910
30. Band of Angels (1957)
Passed | 125 min | Drama
Amantha Starr grows up as a privileged Southern belle in the ante-bellum South, but after her father dies broke, her world is destroyed when she discovers that her mother was Black.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: Clark Gable, Yvonne De Carlo, Sidney Poitier, Efrem Zimbalist Jr.
Votes: 2,625
31. Dark Command (1940)
Approved | 94 min | Drama, Romance, War
In Kansas during the Civil War, opposing pro-Union and pro-Confederate camps clash and visiting Texan Bob Seton runs afoul of William Cantrell's Raiders.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: Claire Trevor, John Wayne, Walter Pidgeon, Roy Rogers
Votes: 3,034
32. Gone with the Wind (1939)
Passed | 238 min | Drama, Romance, War
A sheltered and manipulative Southern belle and a roguish profiteer face off in a turbulent romance as the society around them crumbles with the end of slavery and is rebuilt during the Civil War and Reconstruction periods.
Directors: Victor Fleming, George Cukor, Sam Wood | Stars: Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Thomas Mitchell, Barbara O'Neil
Votes: 334,151 | Gross: $198.68M
33. Free State of Jones (2016)
R | 139 min | Action, Biography, Drama
A disillusioned Confederate army deserter returns to Mississippi and leads a militia of fellow deserters and women in an uprising against the corrupt local Confederate government.
Director: Gary Ross | Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Mahershala Ali, Keri Russell
Votes: 62,418 | Gross: $20.76M
34. Roots (1977)
TV-14 | 74 min | Biography, Drama, History
A dramatization of author Alex Haley's family line from ancestor Kunta Kinte's enslavement to his descendants' liberation.
Stars: LeVar Burton, Robert Reed, John Amos, Louis Gossett Jr.
Votes: 18,868
35. Field of Lost Shoes (2015)
PG-13 | 96 min | Action, Drama, War
A group of teenage cadets sheltered from war at the Virginia Military Institute must confront the horrors of an adult world when they are called upon to defend the Shenandoah Valley.
Director: Sean McNamara | Stars: Michael Krebs, Jake Lawson, Sean Marquette, David Arquette
Votes: 2,110
36. The Civil War (1990)
TV-14 | 76 min | Documentary, History, War
A comprehensive survey of the American Civil War.
Stars: David McCullough, Sam Waterston, Julie Harris, Jason Robards
Votes: 18,450
37. North and South, Book I (1985)
TV-PG | 94 min | Drama, History, Romance
Two friends, one northern and one southern, struggle to maintain their friendship as events build towards the American Civil War.
Stars: Kirstie Alley, Georg Stanford Brown, David Carradine, Philip Casnoff
Votes: 11,894
38. Quantrill's Raiders (1958)
Approved | 68 min | Western
A Civil War guerilla gang plans an attack on a Kansas arsenal.
Director: Edward Bernds | Stars: Steve Cochran, Diane Brewster, Leo Gordon, Gale Robbins
Votes: 304
39. The Blue and the Gray (1982)
TV-PG | 381 min | Drama, History, War
America just before and during the Civil War, as seen through the eyes of an artist correspondent.
Stars: Stacy Keach, John Hammond, Julia Duffy, Robin Gammell
Votes: 1,866
40. The Undefeated (1969)
Passed | 119 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
After the Civil War, ex-Confederate soldiers heading for a new life in Mexico run into ex-Union cavalrymen selling horses to the Mexican government but they must join forces to fight off Mexican bandits and revolutionaries.
Director: Andrew V. McLaglen | Stars: John Wayne, Rock Hudson, Antonio Aguilar, Roman Gabriel
Votes: 7,562
41. Ride with the Devil (I) (1999)
R | 138 min | Drama, Romance, War
During the American Civil War, two friends join the Bushwhackers, a militant group loyal to the Confederacy.
Director: Ang Lee | Stars: Tobey Maguire, Skeet Ulrich, Jewel, Jeremy W. Auman
Votes: 14,556 | Gross: $0.63M
42. Rio Lobo (1970)
G | 114 min | Drama, War, Western
After the Civil War, Cord McNally searches for the two traitors whose treachery caused the defeat of McNally's unit and the loss of a close friend.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: John Wayne, Jorge Rivero, Jennifer O'Neill, Jack Elam
Votes: 13,655 | Gross: $9.27M
43. Drums in the Deep South (1951)
Passed | 87 min | Western
Two old friends find themselves on opposite sides during the Civil War in a desperate battle atop an impregnable mountain.
Director: William Cameron Menzies | Stars: James Craig, Barbara Payton, Guy Madison, Barton MacLane
Votes: 429
44. The Battle (1911)
Not Rated | 17 min | Short, Action, Drama
Union soldiers march off to battle amid cheering crowds. After the battle turns against the Union Army, one soldier runs away, hiding in his girlfriend's house. Ashamed of his cowardice, he... See full summary »
Director: D.W. Griffith | Stars: Charles West, Blanche Sweet, Charles Hill Mailes, Spottiswoode Aitken
Votes: 375
45. Little Women (1949)
Approved | 122 min | Drama, Family, Romance
The four daughters of a New England family fight for happiness during and after the Civil War.
Director: Mervyn LeRoy | Stars: June Allyson, Peter Lawford, Margaret O'Brien, Elizabeth Taylor
Votes: 8,233 | Gross: $7.47M
46. Kansas Pacific (1953)
Approved | 73 min | Western
With the Civil War about to begin, Southern saboteurs attack frontier railroad construction.
Director: Ray Nazarro | Stars: Sterling Hayden, Eve Miller, Barton MacLane, Harry Shannon
Votes: 802
47. Copperhead (2013)
PG-13 | 120 min | Drama
An Upstate New York family is torn apart during the American Civil War.
Director: Ron Maxwell | Stars: François Arnaud, Lucy Boynton, Casey Thomas Brown, Billy Campbell
Votes: 1,086 | Gross: $0.17M
48. Dead Birds (2004)
R | 91 min | Horror, Thriller, Western
A group of Confederate soldiers hole up in an abandoned plantation after robbing a bank and find themselves at the mercy of supernatural forces.
Director: Alex Turner | Stars: Henry Thomas, Patrick Fugit, Nicki Aycox, Michael Shannon
Votes: 11,129
49. The Searchers (1956)
Passed | 119 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
An American Civil War veteran embarks on a years-long journey to rescue his niece from the Comanches after the rest of his brother's family is massacred in a raid on their Texas farm.
Director: John Ford | Stars: John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles, Ward Bond
Votes: 96,235
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