With approximately 620,000 lives lost during the Civil War, there was scarcely a household, North or South, that wasn't ravaged by the grief of this immediate influx of loss that altered the American terrain swiftly and forever. Ric Burns' Death and the Civil War plays like an affixation to his brother Ken's monumental, epic length documentary, of which he was also a contributor. The film is as mournful as its title would indicate and as poetic and intelligent as you would assume a continuation, albeit an unofficial one, of that great work would be, and benefits from the narrowed view of its scope, conveying its sorrowful message thoroughly.
