Barry Cunliffe looks back to the American Civil
War, which began in April 1861 and in which
750,000 soldiers were killed. One passionately involved observer of what is often regarded as the first of the modern wars was the poet
Walt Whitman , who worked as a nurse and visitor in the hospitals of Washington and on the battlefield. Compiled from his wartime journals, letters and poems, this programme evokes
America in her agony. With Denis Quilley as Walt Whitman.
Producer John Knight