Cinema and television about the American Civil War

Films about the war

Before 1920

• Barbara Frietchie: The Story of a Patriotic American Woman (1908)
• The Guerrilla (1908)
• The Fugitive (1910)
• The House with Closed Shutters (1910)
• In the Border States (1910)
• The Battle (1911), directed by D.W. Griffith
• His Trust Fulfilled (1911)
• Railroad Raiders of '62 (1911)
• Swords and Hearts (1911)
• For Her Sake (1911)
• Curfew Shall Not Ring Tonight (1912)
• The Informer (1912)
• The Lie (1912)
• The Seventh Son (1912)
• The Battle of Gettysburg (1913)
• The Battle of Shiloh (film) (1913)
• The Price of Victory (1913)
• The Seed of the Fathers (1913)
• Dan (1914)
• The Sleeping Sentinel (1914)
• Barbara Frietchie (1915)
• The Birth of a Nation (1915), also known as The Clansmen, controversial film directed by D.W. Griffith
• Colonel Carter of Cartersville (1915)
• The Coward (1915)
• According to the Code (1916)
• Her Father's Son (1916)
• Naked Hearts (1916)
• The Sting of Victory (1916)
• The Blood of His Fathers (1917)
• The Field of Honor (1917)
• The Lincoln Cycle (1917)
• The Spreading Dawn (1917)
• Hearts of Love (1918)
• The Last Rebel (1918)
• Morgan's Raiders (1918)
• The Scarlet Drop (1918)
• The Son of Democracy (1918)
• Miss Dulcie from Dixie (1918)
• Hay Foot, Straw Foot (1919)
• Secret Service (1919)

1920s

• The Copperhead (1920)
• Held by the Enemy (1920)
• Hitchin' Posts (1920)
• The Kentucky Colonel (1920)
• The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come (1920)
• The Highest Law (1921)
• Johnny Ring and the Captain's Sword (1921)
• Grandma's Boy (1922)
• Barbara Frietchie (1924)
• The Dramatic Life of Abraham Lincoln (1924)
• The Warrens of Virginia (1924)
• Hands Up! (1926)
• The General (1927), film by Buster Keaton about The Great Locomotive Chase
• The Heart of Maryland (1927)
• Court-Martial (1928)
• Morgan's Last Raid (1929)
• The Overland Telegraph (1929)

1930s

• Only the Brave (1930)
• Abraham Lincoln (film) (1930)
• Little Women (1933, 1949, 1978, 1994), adaptations of the book written by Louisa May Alcott
• Operator 13 (1934)
• The Littlest Rebel (1935), starring Shirley Temple
• So Red the Rose (1935)
• Uncivil Warriors (1935), a comedy starring The Three Stooges
• The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936), a movie about alleged Lincoln assassination co-conspirator Samuel Mudd
• General Spanky (1936), a comedy starring Our Gang.
• Hearts in Bondage (1936)
• Trailin' West (1936)
• Under Southern Stars (1937)
• Western Gold (1937)
• John Ericsson - segraren vid Hampton Roads (1937), film about the inventor of the USS Monitor, John Ericsson
• Strange Glory (1938)
• Lincoln in the White House (1939)
• The Arizona Kid (1939)
• Gone with the Wind (1939), romance starring Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable, featuring life before and after the Battle of Atlanta

1940s

• Colorado (1940)
• Dark Command (1940)
• Santa Fe Trail (film) (1940), drama starring Errol Flynn about the life of J.E.B. Stuart
• Swanee River (film) (1940), a biopic about American composer Stephen Foster
• Belle Starr (1941)
• They Died With Their Boots On (1941), biopic about General George Custer
• Oklahoma Raiders (1944)
• Raiders of Ghost City (1944)
• Uncivil War Birds (1946), a Three Stooges film
• Mourning Becomes Electra (film) (1947)
• A Southern Yankee (1948), comedy
• Tap Roots (1948), drama

1950s

• The Outriders (1950)
• Rocky Mountain (1950)
• Two Flags West (1950)
• The Last Outpost (1951)
• The Red Badge of Courage (1951), adapted from the novel by Stephen Crane
• Red Mountain (1951)
• The Redhead and the Cowboy (1951)
• Silver Canyon (1951)
• I Dream of Jeanie (1952), remake of Swanee River
• Springfield Rifle (1952)
• Escape from Fort Bravo (1953)
• Kansas Pacific (1953)
• Rebel City (1953)
• A Time Out of War (1954)
• The Battle of Gettysburg (1955), documentary
• Five Guns West (1955)
• Yellowneck (1955)
• Friendly Persuasion (1956), Palme d'Or-winning film starring Gary Cooper
• The Great Locomotive Chase (1956), second film about The Great Locomotive Chase
• Band of Angels (1957)
• Raintree County (1957)
• The True Story of the Civil War (1957), documentary
• The Horse Soldiers (1959), western, starring John Wayne, based on the Grierson's Raid in the Vicksburg Campaign and the Battle of Newton's Station
• The Jayhawkers! (1959)

1960s

• Mysterious Island (1961)
• How the West Was Won (1962)
• An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (1962), French short film that won awards at the Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Awards
• Au coeur de la vie (1963)
• Johnny Shiloh (TV) (1963), "Disneyland" movie about drummer boy John Clem
• Major Dundee (1965)
• Shenandoah (film) (1965)
• Alvarez Kelly (1966)
• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), western, directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood, that involves an encounter with both Union and Confederate forces
• A Time for Killing (1967)
• Journey to Shiloh (1968)
• The Undefeated (1969), western, starring John Wayne and Rock Hudson

1970s

• The Andersonville Trial (TV) (1971)
• The Beguiled (1971)
• The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), Clint Eastwood movie about guerrilla warfare in Missouri

1980s and 1990s

• The Shadow Riders (1982) made for TV movie, starring Tom Selleck and Sam Elliott
• Glory (1989), drama, starring Matthew Broderick and Denzel Washington, about the African-American 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry
• Across Five Aprils (1990)
• Dances With Wolves (1990)
• Ironclads (1991), made-for-TV drama about the ironclad warships CSS Virginia and the USS Monitor, which clashed at the Battle of Hampton Roads
• Gettysburg (1993), war movie featuring Tom Berenger and Jeff Daniels about the Battle of Gettysburg
• Ghost Brigade (1993)
• Sommersby (1993)
• Ozarks: Legacy and Legend (1995)
• Andersonville (1996), TV movie about the notorious Andersonville prison camp
• The Tempest (1998), TV adaptation of the Shakespeare play set in the Civil War
• The Hunley (TV) (1999), movie about the Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley
• Ride with the Devil (1999), Ang Lee film about the guerrilla battles in Kansas and Missouri between the jayhawkers and the bushwhackers

2000s

• Wicked Spring (2002)
• Gangs of New York (2002), drama, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, about the New York Draft Riots
• The Miracle Men (2002)
• Gods and Generals (2003), prequel to Gettysburg (movie) and covers the battles of First Bull Run, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville
• Cold Mountain (2003), drama, starring Jude Law and Nicole Kidman, that features the Battle of the Crater and aftermath of the war
• C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America (2004), alternative history film which speculates what would happen had the South won the Civil War
• Dead Birds (2004)
• The Colt (film) (2005), drama, starring Ryan Merriman, features Battle of the Wilderness
• Prairie Rose (2006)
• Ten Days That Unexpectedly Changed America (2006), TV, recounting the Battle of Antietam
• Freedom (2007)
• The Last Confederate: The Story of Robert Adams (2007)
• Sons of Virginia (2007)
• Dog Jack (2009)

Television shows and miniseries

• The Blue and the Gray (1982), TV miniseries
• Civil War Combat
• Grey Ghost (TV series)
• North and South (TV miniseries) (Book I - November 3, 1985 Book II - May 4, 1986 Book III - February 27, 1994)

Documentaries

• The Battle of Gettysburg (1955)
• The Civil War (first broadcast on PBS from September 23 to Thursday, September 27, 1990)
• Sherman's March