John Wayne, Richard Widmark, and Laurence Harvey in The Alamo (1960)

Henry Fonda, Linda Darnell, and Victor Mature in My Darling Clementine (1946)

Or more precisely as many films (and TV shows) as I can find (excluding documentaries) about, set or with characters shaped by the civil war. Despite the title of this list it contains not only the good films, but the bad and several downright ugly ones as well!

1-73 Films seen which are set wholly or mostly during the civil war and where it plays an important part in the story being told.

74-143 Films seen which are completely set within the civil war era. These may be partially or completely set during the civil war itself but where the war is not really an important part of the story. Other films set in the post-war period include solid references to the war or have major characters who are veterans of the war.

144-157 Films seen which have flashback scenes set during the war or important references to it, but where the film as a whole is not actually set during the civil war era.

158+ Films not yet seen or which I don't recall seeing but otherwise match one of the three categories above. My intention, if possible, is to watch all of these as well.

Within each of the first three categories, the films are loosely ordered with my favourites first. The final category is ordered by year with the most recent films first.

Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind (1939)

Military - War - Movies - Series - TV Shows - Documentaries 

Benjamin Bratt, Katie Holmes, and Charlie Hunnam in Abandon (2002)

Liv Tyler, Sean Astin, Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, Ian McKellen, and Andy Serkis in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

Vin Diesel in The Chronicles of Riddick (2004)

The American Civil War was a civil war that was fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865. As a result of the long-standing controversy over slavery, war broke out in April 1861, when Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina, shortly after U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated. The nationalists of the Union proclaimed loyalty to the U.S. Constitution. They faced secessionists of the Confederate States, who advocated for states' rights to expand slavery. Among the 34 U.S. states in February 1861, seven Southern slave states individually declared their secession from the U.S. to form the Confederate States of America, or the South. The Confederacy grew to include eleven slave states. The Confederacy was never diplomatically recognized by the United States government, nor was it recognized by any foreign country (although the United Kingdom and France granted it belligerent status). The states that remained loyal to the U.S. (including the border states where slavery was legal) were known as the Union or the North. The Union and Confederacy quickly raised volunteer and conscription armies that fought mostly in the South over four years. The Union finally won the war when General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at the Battle of Appomattox Court House, followed by a series of surrenders by Confederate generals throughout the southern states. Four years of intense combat left 620,000 to 750,000 people dead, a higher number than the number of U.S. military deaths in all other wars combined (at least until approximately the Vietnam War). Much of the South's infrastructure was destroyed, especially the transportation systems, railroads, mills and houses. The Confederacy collapsed, slavery was abolished, and 4 million slaves were freed. The Reconstruction Era (1863–1877) overlapped and followed the war, with the process of restoring national unity, strengthening the national government, and granting civil rights to freed slaves throughout the country. The Civil War is the most studied and written about episode in U.S. history.

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