The Better Angels of Our Nature

1865

Part of the Series: Ken Burns: The Civil War

This extraordinary final episode of The Civil War begins in the bittersweet aftermath of Lee's surrender and then goes on to narrate the horrendous events of five days later when, on April 14, Lincoln is assassinated. After chronicling Lincoln's poignant funeral, the series recounts the final days of the war, the capture of John Wilkes Booth and the fates of the Civil War's major protagonists.

The episode then considers the consequences and meaning of a war that transformed the country from a collection of states to the nation we are today.