The Divided Union: 3 Volume Set (VHS)

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The Divided Union: 3 Volume Set (VHS) 

Reader’s Digest: The Divided Union: 1. To Sumter and Shiloh 2. Bloody Stalemate 3. Climax at Appomattox

• Rated: Not Rated 
• Number of tapes: 3
• Run Time: 172 minutes
• Format: Color
• Languages: English
• Subtitles: English

Volume 1: To Sumter and Shiloh; Running Time: 59 minutes

The legendary Southern way of life – magnificent plantations, fields of cotton… and slaves – is challenged with words (by Harriet Beecher Stowe, among others) and with guns (by abolitionist John Brown at Harpers Ferry). But it is the election of Abraham Lincoln that finally drives Southern states to secession. When Southern rebels fire upon Fort Sumter, suddenly America is at war with herself.

During the next 12 months, blue meets gray in the First Battle of Manassas (Bull Run), the Monitor and the Merrimac clash at sea, and General Ulysses S. Grant takes Fort Donelson in Tennessee. The moving ballad, “The Battle on Shiloh Hill,” brings the volume to a close.

Volume 2: Bloody Stalemate; Running Time: 56 minutes

Brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor. Men are recruited, troops march, battles are fought, the luckiest die. But clear-cut victory continues to elude both sides. The Battle of Antietam takes place on September 17, 1862. It is the bloodiest day of the entire war.

As soldiers risk wounds, death, or capture, Abraham Lincoln frees the slaves and Jefferson Davis seeks support from abroad. Ulysses S. Grant lays siege to Vicksburg. Robert E. Lee achieves his finest victory at Chancellorsville and suffers his greatest defeat: Gettysburg.

Volume 3: climax at Appomattox; Running Time: 57 minutes

Northern troops start closing in on the war-weary Southerners, whose cities have been razed, farms plundered, and morale all but destroyed.

In Tennessee, mist-shrouded Lookout Mountain plays a pivotal role in the bloody fight for Chattanooga. Atlanta burns. Sherman marches to the sea. And Admiral David Farragut “damns the torpedos” in Mobile Bay. Finally, Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant sit down at Appomattox Court House to work out the terms of surrender.

1988 Reader's Digest