AllMovie

When the Civil War began, many people viewed it as a romantic adventure in which they might participate as a spectator sport. The first witnesses to the violence and bloodshed were soon disenfranchised of this illusion. For that, the rest of the country had to learn from the pictures taken by the war's photographers. These chroniclers presented the true and savage face of the Civil War. Their archival photographs are presented in the program, along with commentary by photographers and historians.