Research Guides: American Civil War: Resources in Special Collections: Audio-Visual

Locating Audio-Visual Materials

Nonprint Media Services provides access to information in most film and video formats, including more than 800 hours of video-on-demand programming to the campus through the Films@UM digital research collection. For more information about access to videos and other audio-visual materials, please visit Nonprint Media Services, which is located on the ground floor of Hornbake Library.

Use this page to browse a selection of documentaries and popular films covering the Civil War. All materials are searchable using the UMD online catalog. Use the advanced search and select the location Nonprint Media Services to limit your search results to audiovisual materials available in the Nonprint Media Library.

Popular Films

An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge by A Film by Robert Enrico
Call Number: Nonprint Media Services Library Info Desk - VHS Videocassette PN1997 .O175 1983
Dramatizes the final thoughts of a condemned man as he stands on a bridge awaiting hanging by Union soldiers.
Andersonville by Directed by John Frankenheimer
Call Number: Nonprint Media Services Library Info Desk - VHS Videocassette PN1992.8.F5 A533 1996
A small group of Union soldiers, captured at the Battle of Cold Harbor, try to survive the harrowing conditions at the Confederacy’s most notorious prisoner-of-war camp, Andersonville.
Cold Mountain by Directed by Anthony Minghella
Call Number: Nonprint Media Services Library Info Desk - DVD PN1997.2 .C64 2004
An injured Confederate soldier attempts to make his way back to his wife in Cold Mountain, North Carolina.
Glory by Directed by Edward Zwick
Call Number: Nonprint Media Services Library Info Desk - Videodisc PN1997 .G543 1990
Two young Bostonians lead the first black regiment to fight for the North in the Civil War.
Gone with the Wind by Directed by Victor Fleming
Call Number: Nonprint Media Services Library Info Desk - Videodisc PN1997 .G59 1998
Presents the story of Scarlett O’Hara, a Southern belle who enjoys her socialite lifestyle and the attention of many eligible single rich men. This idyllic lifestyle is shattered by the onset of the U.S. Civil War that eventually reduces her home to near ruins. Robbed of the luxuries she loved, she vows to grow strong so she will never be poor again. She begins to ruthlessly climb to the top of the new social order.
The General by Written and Directed by Buster Keaton and Clyde Bruckman
Call Number: Nonprint Media Services Library Info Desk - DVD PN1997 .G4546 2008
Rejected by the Confederate Army, and taken for a coward by his beloved, young Johnny Gray is given a chance to redeem himself when he wages a one-man war against Yankee spies who have stolen his locomotive.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly by Directed by Sergio Leone
Call Number: Nonprint Media Services Library Info Desk - DVD PN1997 .B86 1998
During the American Civil War, a drifter, a bandit, and a sadistic bounty hunter seek hidden loot. With greed as their sole motivation, they overcome anything that gets in their way--including each other. Last of the "Dollars" trilogy.
The Outlaw Josey Wales by Directed by Clint Eastwood
Call Number: Nonprint Media Services Library Info Desk - Circ Collection PN1997 .O9843 1999
A peaceful farmer turns Confederate renegade to avenge the deaths of his wife and child at the hands of bandits-turned-Union sympathizers.

Documentaries

1863: The Universe of Battle by A Film by Ken Burns
Call Number: Nonprint Media Services Library Info Desk - VHS Videocassette E468 .C58 1999 no.5
Chronicles the Battle of Gettysburg, where 150,000 fight to their death. Also covers the fall of Vicksburg, the New York draft riots, the first use of Black troops, the battles at Chickamauga and Chattanooga, and Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.
Roots of Resistance a Story of the Underground Railroad by Produced and Directed by Orlando Bagwell
Call Number: Nonprint Media Services Library Info Desk - VHS Videocassette E450 .R78 1990
Recounts the story of the underground railroad through narratives of escaped slaves. Includes interviews with descendents of slaves and slave holders of Somerset Place, a plantation in North Carolina, who describe the personal danger and terrible risk involved in each slave’s departure.
Royal federal Blues the Story of the African-American Civil War Soldier by Produced, Written, and Directed by Greg McCampbell
Call Number: Nonprint Media Services Library Info Desk - VHS Videocassette E540.N3 R69 1991
An award winning documentary that vividly and graphically documents the inception of African-Americans into the Union Army.
Slavery: the South and Slave Culture; The Coming of the Civil War by Biography of America Series
Call Number: Nonprint Media Services Library Info Desk - VHS Videocassette E178 .B56 2000 vol.9-10
Part nine discusses how the North develops an industrial economy and culture, while the South develops a slave culture and agrarian economy. Professor Masur looks at the human side of the history of the mid-1800s by sketching a portrait of the lives of slave and master. Part ten examines how simmering regional differences between the North and South ignite an all-out crisis in the 1850s.
The Civil War by A Film by Ken Burns
Call Number: Nonprint Media Services Library Info Desk - VHS Videocassette E468 .C58 1989
Presents the entire sweep of the war, from the battlefields to the homefronts, from the politicians and generals to the enlisted men and their families, from the causes of the war and the opening guns at Sumter to the stillness at Appomatox and Lincoln’s assasination and beyond.
The Civil War
Call Number: Nonprint Media Services Library Info Desk - VHS Videocassette E468 .C54 1984
A brief visual history of the American Civil War, composed from primary source photographs & drawings. Accompanied by text written and read by historian Bruce Catton.
The Civil War: the Anguish of Emancipation by Writer and Director, John Irvin
Call Number: Nonprint Media Services Library Info Desk - VHS Videocassette E453 .C58
Focuses on the period of Lincoln’s administration when he was considering the strategy for the Emancipation proclamation and the Battle of Antietam. Explores the constitutional, social and economic background of slavery and Lincoln’s dilemma in dealing with the problem.
The Civil War: Vicksburg ; Reconstruction by Biography of America Series
Call Number: Nonprint Media Servics Library Info Desk - VHS Videocassette E178 .B56 2000 vol.11-12
Part 11 discusses the events at Vicksburg, Mississippi during the Civil War. Professor Miller looks at the ferocity of the fighting, at Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, and at the legacy of the battle and the war. In Part 12, Professor Miller begins by evoking in word and picture the battlefield after the battle of Gettysburg. Discusses the assassination of President Lincoln, and the period of Reconstruction that followed the Civil War.
The Divided Union: the Story of the American Civil War 1861-1865 by Directed and Written by Peter Batty
Call Number: Nonprint Media Services Library Info Desk - VHS Videocassette E468 .D58
Discusses the events and the battlegrounds of the Civil War. Integrates first-hand information from diaries, letters, reminiscences, personal accounts, photographs, paintings, extensive footage of battlefields and historic locations, interviews leadings historians and writers and reenacts many of the key campaigns.
The Massachusetts 54th Colored Infantry by Originally broadcast in 1991 as an episode of the television program: the American experience.
Call Number: Nonprint Media Services Library Info Desk - VHS Videocassette E540.N3 M22 1999
The story of the first officially sanctioned regiment of northern black soldiers formed in Boston during the Civil War.