Smithsonian's Great Battles of the Civil War

Produced under the auspices of the National Museum of American History, filmmaker Jay Wertz's excellent nine-hour documentary series Smithsonian's Great Battles of the Civil War, which originally aired in 1994, benefits from the input of numerous military historians and scholars, including Pulitzer Prize-winning author James M. McPherson. Narrated by Richard Dreyfuss, this exhaustively researched series includes readings from archival letters and documents, voiced by such well-known actors as Charlton Heston (Abraham Lincoln), Dreyfuss himself (Ulysses S. Grant), Burt Reynolds (Jefferson Davis), Dennis Weaver (Robert E. Lee), Ossie Davis (Frederick Douglass), and Burgess Meredith (John Brown). Each disc features carefully staged reenactments of key battles and events (from the opening shots at Fort Sumter to the surrender at Appomattox), augmented with authentic photographs and paintings, as well as the aforementioned comments from scholars and historical figures. Mastervision's nicely packaged DVD set (also available in three separately priced volumes for $29.95 each) includes a handsome 16-page booklet that lists the dates, places, and casualty counts of the various battles covered in each segment, and a statistical table reminding us that the Civil War cost the lives of more Americans than any other conflict before or since. Highly recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (E. Hulse)