A fascinating exploration of a U.S. president whose greatest war took place within himself. Innovative, intimate and emotionally charged, Lincoln explores the inner conflicts that plagued and inspired the President who called himself "The loneliest man in the world." Academy Award-winning producer (When We Were Kings) Vikram Jayanti goes inside a life scarred by loss and a mind ravaged by tragedy to uncover a man whose grand achievements were fueled by his own personal turmoil. Using interviews with leading Lincoln biographers like Gore Vidal, Jan Morris, and Harold Holzer, as well as Andrew Solomon, National Book Award winning author of The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression, Lincoln presents a profound and insightful meditation on a man few knew seen through the eyes of the President himself.
One of the strangest, most intriguing, and yet almost unknown episodes in American history unfolded in 1876, eleven years after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. A band of Chicago counterfeiters hatched a plot to steal the President's body from its tomb outside Springfield, Illinois, and hold it for a ransom of $200,000. A paid informant told the newly formed Secret Service. When both the police and the criminals showed up at the cemetery on the appointed night, the scheme was foiled. This feature-length special from History explores the peculiar confluence of historical trends and cultural movements that prompted the crime: the birth of counterfeiting, the growth of embalming, and the influence of secret societies in American life, among others. But above all, the story shows how important this beloved President remained to a public so unprepared for his violent death in 1865. Startling and informative, this is one of those tales you have to see to believe.
For 12 days in April 1865, as terror gripped the nation, thousands of federal troops, detectives, and police scoured the country in search of the assassin who shot President Abraham Lincoln. The History Channel tells the compelling story behind the conspiracy to decapitate the government by assassinating Lincoln, his Vice President and his Secretary of State, and the manhunt that ensued. The Hunt For John Wilkes Booth takes viewers through the Maryland countryside, across the Potomac River, and finally into northern Virginia as Booth and co-conspirator David Herold elude their captors. Often fictionalized, this is the true story of this harrowing time, gleaned from news reports, trial transcripts, and a diary kept by the man who pulled the trigger--John Wilkes Booth. Shot in riveting real-time style along Booth and Herold's 60-mile escape route, The Hunt For John Wilkes Booth follows the trail of one of America s earliest assassins--a man who changed history.
General William Tecumseh Sherman s scorched-earth strategy against the South helped end the Civil War and in the process changed military strategy forever. In Sherman's March, The History Channel explores his brutal and effective campaign, which arguably saved the Lincoln presidency, the Union, and thousands of lives on both sides--and made Sherman one of the most hated and misunderstood figures in American history. In November 1864, Sherman and an army of 60,000 troops began their month-long march from Atlanta to Savannah. Burning crops, destroying bridges and railroads, and laying waste to virtually everything in his path, Sherman moved relentlessly to the sea, crushing the South s will to fight. Through cutting-edge CGI battle scenes and dramatizations based on contemporary sources, Sherman's March mixes the sweep of large-scale military strategy with intimate stories of the women, the slaves, and the soldiers who fought on both sides. Shot in hi-definition, Sherman's March is both a lavish documentary and a gripping portrait of the complicated man who coined the phrase War is Hell and came to be called the father of modern, total warfare.