Episode number 9 of Series “The Civil War”.
At Lee’s surrender, church bells peal throughout the North. The South is in ruin and despair. Unable to accept that the war is over, the actor John Wilkes Booth steals into a Washington theatre and puts a bullet into the brain of Abraham Lincoln. The nation’s grief knows no bounds; even Southerners are appalled, and the isolated fighting stutters to a halt. It is time to rebuild: “to listen”, as Lincoln implored four years before, “to the better angels of our nature”. The episode recounts the fates of the many players, great and small in the enormous drama which redefined the meaning of freedom in America.
Content notification
Our collection comprises over 40,000 moving image works, acquired and catalogued between the 1940s and early 2000s. As a result, some items may reflect outdated, offensive and possibly harmful views and opinions. ACMI is working to identify and redress such usages.
Learn more about our collection and our collection policy here. If you come across harmful content on our website that you would like to report, let us know.
How to watch
Collection
In ACMI's collection
Credits
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
325205
Language
English
Audience classification
G
Subject categories
Armed Forces, Military, War & Weapons → Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865
Armed Forces, Military, War & Weapons → United States - History - Civil War, 1861-1865
Armed Forces, Military, War & Weapons → War
Documentary → Documentary films - United States
Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → African Americans - Civil rights
Educational & Instructional → Educational films
History → African Americans - History
History → Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865
History → United States - History - Civil War, 1861-1865
People → Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865
Television → Television programs
Television → Television programs → Television programs - United States
Sound/audio
Sound
Colour
Black and White and Colour
Holdings
VHS; Access Print (Section 1)