Plot Synopsis

As told through the perspectives of the soldiers, BLOOD AND FURY: AMERICA'S CIVIL WAR explores the war's most significant battles -- Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettsyburg, Nashville, and Petersburg -- illuminating both the bigger themes and revel in the smaller, little-known and surprising stories of this brutal, hellish conflict. The series opens with the Battle of Bull Run in July 1861, the first real battle of the Civil War, as untested and poorly trained Union and Confederate troops clash on the blood soaked banks of the Bull Run River. Thousands are killed and wounded, and a shocked nation is plunged into four years of almost unimaginable violence. The second installment chronicles the Battle of Antietam in September 1862, as Confederate military genius General Robert E. Lee brings his Army north in a bold attempt to end the Civil War and win Southern Independence. During what will become the bloodiest day in the nation's history, a Union artillery crew must keep one of the Confederacy's hardest fighting regiments from breaking the Federal line and winning the battle. The series continues with the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862, where Federal forces clash with a massive Rebel army in the town of Fredericksburg, Virginia. In what will become the largest fight of the Civil War, we follow Union and Rebel troops as they battle on the waters of the Rappahannock in the first opposed river crossing in American military history, in the streets of the town and on the heavily fortified slopes of Marye's Heights. Next, in the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, an elite band of Yankee Sharpshooters must stop Robert E. Lee's Alabamian shock troops from flanking the Union line. If successful, this victory on the battlefield in Gettysburg could mean a greater victory for the entire Civil War. The penultimate episode chronicles the Battle of Nashville in December 1864, as Confederate forces try to retake the city of Nashville and sever the supply line that's feeding the Union invasion of the south. As the battle reaches its bloody climax, an untested regiment of African American troops will be given an almost impossible task: drive one of the Confederacy's hardest fighting units from a heavily fortified hilltop position. The finale covers the Battle of Petersburg, where the Union invasion of the South has ground to a halt at the seemingly impregnable ring of trenches built around the city. After eight bloody attempts to storm them have failed, two officers from Vermont lead a daring nighttime raid to crack the Rebel line and end the war. Battle-hardened, Rebel true believers do whatever they can to stop the attack and keep the dream of a free south alive. Starting Monday, July 31, 2017 at 9pm, AHC: American Heroes Channel re-aired the series with a new title, CIVIL WAR: BROTHERS DIVIDED, showing back-to-back episodes on Mondays.