Narrative Films with American Civil War Settings
by Miles-10 | created - 07 Jan 2020 | updated - 30 May 2020 | PublicKen Burns once said that the impression made on the American psyche by the Civil War is demonstrated by the many movies that have been made about this war. Actually, I don’t think many movies have been set directly in the midst of the Civil War. Rather, the Civil War was too traumatic to look at it directly, even more than a century later.
Of the thousands of movies that have been set in the United States during the middle of the nineteenth century, most are set at a distance from the war in time, geography, or even psychologically.
This is not to say that the Civil War is not dramatically significant. Most movies set at a temporal distance from the war are clearly set before or after it, confirming that the war was a watershed: America before the war was a different place from America afterward.
Most of the films on the following list are grouped according to whether they are set primarily during and in the midst of the Civil War (about twenty), before or after the war (although some Civil War epics take place before, during, and after), at a geographical distance from the larger theaters of the war, or at a psychological distance. The last seems to me an appropriate if arguable category because, although the setting of, say, “The Beguiled”, might be Virginia, the effect of the movie is to take the audience into a psychological space that could be anywhere, at any time, set against the backdrop of any war or even any disaster (of which war is a species).
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1. Glory (1989)
R | 122 min | Biography, Drama, History
Robert Gould Shaw leads the U.S. Civil War's first all-black volunteer company, fighting prejudices from both his own Union Army, and the Confederates.
Director: Edward Zwick | Stars: Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Cary Elwes, Morgan Freeman
Votes: 144,489 | Gross: $26.83M
One of the exceptions that proves my rule that most “Civil War” movies don’t directly take place in the war: This movie, made 124 years after the end of the war, recalls the true exploits of an all-African-American regiment. The movie has a large enough cast (largely thanks to the generous contributions of Civil War reenactors) to stage several good-sized skirmishes and a climactic battle.
2. Gettysburg (1993)
PG | 271 min | Drama, History, War
In 1863, the Northern and Southern forces fight at Gettysburg in the decisive battle of the American Civil War.
Director: Ron Maxwell | Stars: Tom Berenger, Martin Sheen, Stephen Lang, Richard Jordan
Votes: 31,313 | Gross: $10.77M
This movie deals with one of the war’s largest battles, re-enacted from the viewpoint of both sides. Highly recommended to Civil War buffs.
3. Gods and Generals (2003)
PG-13 | 219 min | Biography, Drama, History
The rise and fall of confederate general Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, as he meets with military success against the Union from 1861 to 1863, when he is accidentally killed by his own soldiers.
Director: Ron Maxwell | Stars: Stephen Lang, Robert Duvall, Jeff Daniels, Donzaleigh Abernathy
Votes: 17,210 | Gross: $12.87M
This is another movie that deals directly with the war. If anything, the movie covers too much ground to involve the audience in any one character’s story. Nevertheless, it gives a good survey of the war, almost as if the filmmakers feared that nobody would ever get another chance to tell this story on the big screen.
4. The Birth of a Nation (1915)
TV-PG | 195 min | Drama, History, War
The Stoneman family finds its friendship with the Camerons affected by the Civil War, both fighting in opposite armies. The development of the war in their lives plays through to Lincoln's assassination and the birth of the Ku Klux Klan.
Director: D.W. Griffith | Stars: Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, Henry B. Walthall, Miriam Cooper
Votes: 26,346 | Gross: $10.00M
Set before, during, and after the Civil War, the movie explores how family and friends fought on opposite sides. The film is controversial for its portrayals of African-Americans and its interpretation (Lost Cause and Dunning schools) of the Civil War and Reconstruction. It was condemned by the NAACP at the time. Maybe the fallout from this movie is one of the reasons why many filmmakers have simply avoided dealing with the Civil War too directly.
5. Field of Lost Shoes (2015)
PG-13 | 96 min | Action, Drama, War
A group of teenage cadets sheltered from war at the Virginia Military Institute must confront the horrors of an adult world when they are called upon to defend the Shenandoah Valley.
Director: Sean McNamara | Stars: Michael Krebs, Jake Lawson, Sean Marquette, David Arquette
Votes: 2,110
Another exception to the rule, this movie is about the war itself. The Battle of New Market involved a unit of teen-aged boys fighting on the Rebel side. This is based on their story.
6. Shenandoah (1965)
Approved | 105 min | Drama, War, Western
A Virginia farmer who has vowed to remain neutral during the Civil War is spurred into action when his youngest son is taken by Union soldiers.
Director: Andrew V. McLaglen | Stars: James Stewart, Doug McClure, Glenn Corbett, Patrick Wayne
Votes: 9,629
Civilians try to stay out of the Civil War but get sucked in. There are some blue versus gray battle scenes.
7. The Hunley (1999 TV Movie)
TV-14 | 94 min | Action, Drama, History
During the siege of Charleston of 1864, Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley becomes the first submersible to sink an enemy warship in wartime.
Director: John Gray | Stars: Armand Assante, Donald Sutherland, Alex Jennings, Chris Bauer
Votes: 1,308
While I am shying away from made-for-TV movies, this one portrays the use of submarines during the Civil War. The naval aspect of the war is an important yet often neglected topic in popular culture.
8. Johnny Shiloh (1963 TV Movie)
90 min | Adventure, Family, War
Johnny Shiloh is a 1963 made for TV film that originally aired in two parts on the Wonderful World of Disney in Color. It was released in other countries theatrically as one film and is on ... See full summary »
Director: James Neilson | Stars: Kevin Corcoran, Don C. Harvey, Darryl Hickman, Eddie Hodges
Votes: 90
Another made-for-TV movie – actually more of a miniseries – that is told from the perspective of a boy serving in the Union Army. It is notable for showing some battle scenes.
9. The Horse Soldiers (1959)
Approved | 120 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
In 1863, a Union outfit is sent behind Confederate lines in Mississippi to destroy enemy railroads but a captive southern belle and the unit's doctor cause frictions within ranks.
Director: John Ford | Stars: John Wayne, William Holden, Constance Towers, Judson Pratt
Votes: 11,656 | Gross: $1.75M
Although it is about a mission behind the lines, this epic takes place in the middle of the war and has battle scenes.
10. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
Approved | 178 min | Adventure, Western
A bounty hunting scam joins two men in an uneasy alliance against a third in a race to find a fortune in gold buried in a remote cemetery.
Director: Sergio Leone | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef, Aldo Giuffrè
Votes: 811,536 | Gross: $6.10M
A fictional story set against the backdrop of the historical 1862 Confederate invasion of what is now northern New Mexico. This movie was made in Spain by an Italian director but starred several American actors. I have included it with other true Civil War movies, even though I have inconsistently grouped another New Mexico Civil War movie with those that are more removed from the war. (I have never seen the other movie.) Historical notes: The U.S. War Department almost decided to send troops to New Mexico after the territory was invaded by a Confederate brigade consisting largely of Texans. The proposed westward shift of Union troops to meet this threat did not take place because of the recommendation of a single man, General Henry Halleck, who told Secretary of War Edwin Stanton that New Mexico’s military governor, Col. E.R.S. Canby, had the situation well in hand. This movie would be a fairer take on the South’s short-lived foray into the West if it were not so inaccurate: Contrary to the movie, there were no railroads in New Mexico until after the war, neither side had a prisoner of war camp in New Mexico, there were no long bridges over any of New Mexico’s big rivers, and almost nobody in 1862 New Mexico had heard of General U.S. Grant.
11. Drums in the Deep South (1951)
Passed | 87 min | Western
Two old friends find themselves on opposite sides during the Civil War in a desperate battle atop an impregnable mountain.
Director: William Cameron Menzies | Stars: James Craig, Barbara Payton, Guy Madison, Barton MacLane
Votes: 430
Most of this movie takes place late in the Civil War. The story is loosely based on the war in Tennessee and Georgia. A fictional (and evidently highly inaccurate – see "Goofs" for this film) skirmish, using cannons, maximizes explosions but uses few extras. (This is also a shortcoming of many low budget movies set during the Civil War and other wars besides.)
12. The General (1926)
Passed | 78 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
After being rejected by the Confederate military, not realizing it was due to his crucial civilian role, an engineer must single-handedly recapture his beloved locomotive after it is seized by Union spies and return it through enemy lines.
Directors: Clyde Bruckman, Buster Keaton | Stars: Buster Keaton, Marion Mack, Glen Cavender, Jim Farley
Votes: 98,171 | Gross: $1.03M
This classic silent movie is based on the true story of the attempted theft of a Confederate train by a group of Union saboteurs. It takes place during the Civil War but is set largely behind Confederate lines. It is told from the Confederate side, and the Union soldiers are treated unsympathetically.
13. The Great Locomotive Chase (1956)
Approved | 85 min | Action, Adventure, Family
During the Civil War Union spy Andrews and his men volunteer to steal a Confederate train and drive it to Union territory while destroying the Confederate railway system along the way.
Director: Francis D. Lyon | Stars: Fess Parker, Jeffrey Hunter, Jeff York, John Lupton
Votes: 1,374
Another version of the story told in “The General” about the theft of a Confederate train by Union saboteurs operating behind Confederate lines. Told mainly from the Union viewpoint, although it tries to be even-handed toward both sides.
14. Gone with the Wind (1939)
Passed | 238 min | Drama, Romance, War
A sheltered and manipulative Southern belle and a roguish profiteer face off in a turbulent romance as the society around them crumbles with the end of slavery and is rebuilt during the Civil War and Reconstruction periods.
Directors: Victor Fleming, George Cukor, Sam Wood | Stars: Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Thomas Mitchell, Barbara O'Neil
Votes: 334,397 | Gross: $198.68M
A subcategory of Civil War movies includes those set mostly on the home front rather than on the battlefield. “Gone with the Wind” is an iconic Civil War movie, which is set before, during, and after the war. It tells us how the war affected civilians – especially, Scarlet O’Hara (Vivien Leigh). It relates her story through the parallax lenses of the Lost Cause and Dunning schools of Civil War and Reconstruction historiography.
15. Band of Angels (1957)
Passed | 125 min | Drama
Amantha Starr grows up as a privileged Southern belle in the ante-bellum South, but after her father dies broke, her world is destroyed when she discovers that her mother was Black.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: Clark Gable, Yvonne De Carlo, Sidney Poitier, Efrem Zimbalist Jr.
Votes: 2,628
Set before, during, and after the Civil War, this movie primarily focuses on how the war affected civilians. It especially looks at race relations in the period. Noteworthy for its surprise ending: What famous star of one generation turns out to be the parent of what famous star of the next?
16. The Littlest Rebel (1935)
Approved | 73 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
Shirley Temple's father, a rebel officer, sneaks back to his rundown plantation to see his family and is arrested. A Yankee takes pity and sets up an escape. Everyone is captured and the ... See full summary »
Director: David Butler | Stars: Shirley Temple, John Boles, Jack Holt, Karen Morley
Votes: 1,678
At some point, movies stopped being so sympathetic to the Confederates, but the 1930s were well before that shift. In this “home front” movie, a Confederate officer crosses Union lines to return to his family during the war. It is all about how adorable the Confederate’s daughter is. The movie is notable for the oft sampled scene of Bill “Bojangles” Robinson and Shirley Temple in a dance sequence.
17. Cold Mountain (2003)
R | 154 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
In the waning days of the American Civil War, a wounded soldier embarks on a perilous journey back home to Cold Mountain, North Carolina to reunite with his sweetheart.
Director: Anthony Minghella | Stars: Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Renée Zellweger, Eileen Atkins
Votes: 156,110 | Gross: $95.64M
Another movie set on the Confederate home front during the Civil War. Emphasis is on the home guard, who were paramilitary units that did not go to war but policed the home front, not always to the liking of even law-abiding civilians.
18. Red Runs the River (1963)
Not Rated | 90 min | Drama, History, War
This is the story of two wars - one in the heart of General Richard Stoddard Ewell and the other on the battlefields of Bull Run and Manassas. The film traces the influence of General "... See full summary »
Director: Katherine Stenholm | Stars: Bob Jones Jr., Bob Jones III, Jack Buttram, Lonnie Iglesias
Votes: 39
Another movie I have only read about. It is primarily about the religious convictions of Confederate General Richard Ewell, who was influenced by the devout General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. However, it is also about the Battle(s?) of Bull Run (a.k.a., Manassas – there were two and Ewell was involved in both), and perhaps other battles.
19. The Little Yank (1917)
50 min | War, Drama
Sallie is a beautiful Kentucky girl who belongs to a family of Union sympathizers. Her brother is a lieutenant in the Union army, and on a visit home brings Major Rushton, his superior ... See full summary »
Director: George Siegmann | Stars: Dorothy Gish, Frank Bennett, Bob Burns, Alberta Lee
This silent movie is a love triangle set in the Civil War. Union and Confederate soldiers vie for the hand of the same Southern woman. Her loyalties are tested, and they shift depending on whether she is influenced by her brother and suitor (both Union officers) or her Rebel suitor. The character Sallie, a Kentuckian, is emblematic of her "border state", caught between the two sides.
20. Andersonville (1996)
167 min | Drama, History, War
The story of the most notorious Confederate prisoner of war camp in the American Civil War.
Stars: Paul Andre Gibbons, Jarrod Emick, Frederic Forrest, Ted Marcoux
Votes: 2,096
This picture focuses on a prisoner of war camp during the war.
21. Alvarez Kelly (1966)
Approved | 116 min | Western
During the Civil War, Mexican cattleman Alvarez Kelly supplies the Union with cattle until Confederate Colonel Tom Rossiter's hungry men force Kelly to change his customers.
Director: Edward Dmytryk | Stars: William Holden, Richard Widmark, Janice Rule, Patrick O'Neal
Votes: 2,738
Though it proposes to follow the Civil War from Texas to Richmond, Virginia, this movie takes place near the war's end and remains focused on a limited event.
22. Dances with Wolves (1990)
PG-13 | 181 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
Lieutenant John Dunbar, assigned to a remote western Civil War outpost, finds himself engaging with a neighbouring Sioux settlement, causing him to question his own purpose.
Director: Kevin Costner | Stars: Kevin Costner, Mary McDonnell, Graham Greene, Rodney A. Grant
Votes: 290,774 | Gross: $184.21M
This movie starts out with a short Civil War battle scene and then gets as far away from the war as it can, and as fast as it can.
23. The Raid (1954)
Approved | 83 min | War, Western
A group of Confederate prisoners escape to Canada and plan to rob the banks and set fire to the small town of Saint Albans, Vermont. To get the lay of the land, their leader spends a few ... See full summary »
Director: Hugo Fregonese | Stars: Van Heflin, Anne Bancroft, Richard Boone, Lee Marvin
Votes: 1,031
One of my favorite Civil War movies is about the true story of a Confederate attack on the obscure town of St. Albans, Vermont, just to spread terror and rob the local bank. Talk about distance from the main theaters of war! (In his 1996 book, “Don’t Know Much About the Civil War”, Kenneth C. Davis said that Hollywood would never make a movie about such an ignominious event – but they already had.)
24. Dark Command (1940)
Approved | 94 min | Drama, Romance, War
In Kansas during the Civil War, opposing pro-Union and pro-Confederate camps clash and visiting Texan Bob Seton runs afoul of William Cantrell's Raiders.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: Claire Trevor, John Wayne, Walter Pidgeon, Roy Rogers
Votes: 3,037
This movie looks at guerilla warfare in the western states (Kansas) during the Civil War. In this story, cruelty and personal ambition run amok amidst the fog of war. Noteworthy: This movie happens to feature what is arguably the best performance of Roy Roger’s career.
25. Ride with the Devil (I) (1999)
R | 138 min | Drama, Romance, War
During the American Civil War, two friends join the Bushwhackers, a militant group loyal to the Confederacy.
Director: Ang Lee | Stars: Tobey Maguire, Skeet Ulrich, Jewel, Jeremy W. Auman
Votes: 14,560 | Gross: $0.63M
Another – if more recent – movie that takes us into the West during the Civil War. The “Bushwhackers” are a paramilitary group similar to the one that spawned the outlaw gang of Jesse James. Such guerrillas were privateers who operated outside of the control of the combatant armies.
26. Major Dundee (1965)
PG-13 | 123 min | Adventure, Drama, War
In 1864, due to frequent Apache raids from Mexico into the U.S., a Union officer decides to illegally cross the border and destroy the Apache, using a mixed army of Union troops, Confederate POWs, civilian mercenaries, and scouts.
Director: Sam Peckinpah | Stars: Charlton Heston, Richard Harris, Jim Hutton, James Coburn
Votes: 8,827 | Gross: $0.01M
U.S. troops cross the border into Mexico during the Civil War.
27. The Retrieval (2013)
R | 92 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
On the outskirts of the U.S. Civil War, a boy is sent north by his bounty hunter gang to retrieve a wanted man.
Director: Chris Eska | Stars: Ashton Sanders, Tishuan Scott, Keston John, Bill Oberst Jr.
Votes: 2,737 | Gross: $0.05M
Takes place during the Civil War, which is in the background. The main characters are trying to conduct their business while staying out of the war.
28. A Reason to Live, a Reason to Die (1972)
PG | 92 min | Drama, Western
Branded a coward for surrendering his New Mexico fort to the Confederates without firing a shot, a Union colonel attempts to redeem himself by leading a band of condemned prisoners on a suicide mission to recapture it.
Director: Tonino Valerii | Stars: James Coburn, Bud Spencer, Telly Savalas, Reinhard Kolldehoff
Votes: 2,199
Another look at the Civil War in New Mexico, arbitrarily grouped here with the “distant” movies even though I put “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” in the first category. This is also a kind of “Dirty Dozen” redux for Telly Savalas, only set in a different war. I haven’t seen this movie, but it might be loosely based on an historical incident: When Confederates took over Dona Ana County, New Mexico in 1861, an undermanned Union fort was forced to surrender after only a brief skirmish. The Union soldiers, including their commanding officer, were humiliated and then let go (which was standard practice in this remote theater of the Civil War, because neither side had the facilities to keep POWs).
29. Escape from Fort Bravo (1953)
Passed | 99 min | Drama, Romance, Western
During the Civil War, a group of Confederates escapes from the Union POW camp at Fort Bravo but has to contend with the desert, the Mescalero Apaches and the pursuing Union troops.
Director: John Sturges | Stars: William Holden, Eleanor Parker, John Forsythe, William Demarest
Votes: 3,141 | Gross: $1.45M
Another Civil War/Western does capture one truth, which is that the mutual enemy of both Confederate and Union troops was the Apache. In terms of sheer numbers of combatants, at least one battle between Union soldiers and Apaches was larger than the largest battle between blue and grey troops in New Mexico Territory. The plot of this movie involves Rebel POWs escaping from Union guards, but I am doubtful about its historical accuracy. Not many of the POWs in the southwest were held for very long because there was nowhere to keep them and no way to feed them. They were generally "paroled" or allowed to go after promising not to wage war anymore. Also, the Union's California Column that swept across Confederate Arizona in 1862 took almost no POWs (if any) because the Confederates saw them coming, knew they were outnumbered and, so, evacuated the territory well ahead of the Union troops.
30. Westbound (1958)
Passed | 72 min | Western
In 1864 Capt. John Hayes goes to Colorado to take over the stagecoach line and keep the flow of Western gold flowing and help the North win the Civil War.
Director: Budd Boetticher | Stars: Randolph Scott, Virginia Mayo, Karen Steele, Michael Dante
Votes: 1,503
If you didn’t guess it from the title, although this movie is set during the Civil War, it is also set in the West. A Union officer protects a gold shipment. (Hijacking gold shipments seems to be a recurring theme in some of these Civil War Westerns.)
31. Red Mountain (1951)
Approved | 84 min | Drama, Western
In 1865 Confederate Capt. Sherwood is heading to Colorado where Confederate Gen. Quantrill is stirring up rebellion using various Indian Nations.
Directors: William Dieterle, John Farrow | Stars: Alan Ladd, Lizabeth Scott, Arthur Kennedy, John Ireland
Votes: 651
Confederate partisans enlist Native Americans to fight against the Union in Colorado in 1865.
32. Rocky Mountain (1950)
Passed | 83 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
In California during the Civil War, a Confederate patrol and a Union troop must set their differences aside in order to survive a Shoshone attack.
Director: William Keighley | Stars: Errol Flynn, Patrice Wymore, Scott Forbes, Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams
Votes: 1,317
Union and Confederate troops in California and Nevada unite when both are attacked by Native Americans. This seems ahistorical because attempts by Confederate forces to reach California from the east were, as far as I know, stopped short. (I imagine the closest the Confederates got to California might have been one of their irregular scouts watering his horse on the Arizona side of the Colorado River and looking across at the Golden State. I discount resident Confederate sympathisers in California because they never mounted real resistance.)
33. Renegade Girl (1946)
Approved | 65 min | Western
Ann Shelby, whose family is allied with the notorious William Quantrill, turns outlaw to revenge herself on a renegade Indian who killed her brother.
Director: William Berke | Stars: Ann Savage, Alan Curtis, Edward Brophy, Russell Wade
Votes: 213
A Confederate sympathizer spies on Union forces in Missouri. It is really a Western about bad relations with Native Americans.
34. The Black Dakotas (1954)
Approved | 65 min | Western
During the American Civil War, Confederate spies aim to steal Union gold intended for the peace treaty with the Sioux and thus pit the Indians against the Union Forces.
Director: Ray Nazarro | Stars: Gary Merrill, Wanda Hendrix, John Bromfield, Noah Beery Jr.
Votes: 293
Confederates try to steal Union gold shipments in the Dakotas. It is really a Western about bad relations with Native Americans.
35. Ride a Violent Mile (1957)
Approved | 80 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Cowhand Jeff Donner meets Susan Crowley, a spy for the Union in the Civil War, and gets dragged into her espionage ring that is out to foil the South's attempts to break the blockade ... See full summary »
Director: Charles Marquis Warren | Stars: John Agar, Penny Edwards, John Pickard, Bing Russell
Votes: 41
A Civil War spy story turns into an expedition to Mexico.
36. Court-Martial (1928)
Passed | 65 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
During the American Civil War, A Union-Army officer is ordered by U. S. President Abraham Lincoln to bring in Belle Starr, the leader of a Missouri guerrilla band, dead or alive. However, ... See full summary »
Director: George B. Seitz | Stars: Jack Holt, Betty Compson, Pat Harmon, Doris Hill
Votes: 30
A Union officer must capture a woman partisan in Missouri.
37. Santa Fe Trail (1940)
Not Rated | 110 min | Drama, War, Western
In 1854, Jeb Stuart, George Custer and other graduates from West Point are posted to Kansas to help pacify the territory before railroad construction to Santa Fe can resume.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Raymond Massey, Ronald Reagan
Votes: 4,158
This movie takes place in Kansas for the most part and then in the D.C. area toward the end. Set in the 1850s, before the Civil War, it alludes to the issue of slavery as a cause of the war. It ends with the attempt by the abolitionist John Brown to capture the federal armory at Harper’s Ferry in 1859, a portent of the war to come.
38. Revolt at Fort Laramie (1957)
Approved | 73 min | Western
At the start of the Civil War, the soldiers manning Fort Laramie are split between Yanks and Confederates but the real threat is the warpath Sioux surrounding them all.
Director: Lesley Selander | Stars: John Dehner, Gregg Palmer, Frances Helm, Don Gordon
Votes: 439
On the eve of the Civil War, U.S. troops at a western fort split over the war. Historical note: Many Southern soldiers stationed in the West defected to the Confederacy, officers often submitting formal letters of resignation before journeying to Southern states.
39. The Conspirator (2010)
PG-13 | 122 min | Crime, Drama, History
Mary Surratt is the lone female charged as a co-conspirator in the assassination trial of Abraham Lincoln. As the whole nation turns against her, she is forced to rely on her reluctant lawyer to uncover the truth and save her life.
Director: Robert Redford | Stars: Robin Wright, James McAvoy, Tom Wilkinson, Kevin Kline
Votes: 30,012 | Gross: $11.54M
At the tail end of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated and the search for everyone connected with the assassin is wide and virtually indiscriminate. This movie is removed enough from the war itself as to be more about the aftermath/consequences of the war.
40. Stronghold (1951)
Approved | 72 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
In 1860s Mexico, the beautiful owner of a silver mine is kidnapped by a bandit leader, who needs money to finance his revolt against the Emperor Maximilian.
Director: Steve Sekely | Stars: Veronica Lake, Zachary Scott, Arturo de Córdova, Rita Macedo
Votes: 117
Set in Mexico, there are two versions of this movie. Evidently, the Mexican version may be the only one that begins in the American South at the end of the war, bringing home the fact that members of the same family sometimes took opposite sides. The American version begins with the female protagonist arriving in Mexico after fleeing the Civil War. (She becomes embroiled in Mexico’s revolt against French invaders, which ironically has civil war overtones since some Mexicans side with the French.)
41. Corpus Christi Bandits (1945)
Approved | 56 min | Action, Adventure, War
In flashback, Mr. Christi relates the story of his father Corpus Christi Jim. After robbing a stage, Jim and partners Rocky and Steve decide to go straight and return the money. But the ... See full summary »
Director: Wallace Grissell | Stars: Allan Lane, Helen Talbot, Jack Kirk, Twinkle Watts
Votes: 60
Set in Texas, this movie involves a Confederate veteran who is forced by circumstances into a life of crime.
42. Drango (1957)
Approved | 92 min | Western
A participant in Sherman's March becomes governor of a Southern city directly affected by the destruction - and they have yet to learn of his involvement.
Directors: Hall Bartlett, Jules Bricken | Stars: Jeff Chandler, Joanne Dru, Julie London, Donald Crisp
Votes: 393
A Union veteran seeks to hide his past from his Southern neighbors.
43. Seraphim Falls (2006)
R | 115 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
After the end of the American Civil War, a former Confederate colonel hunts down a former Yankee officer with whom he has a grudge.
Director: David Von Ancken | Stars: Pierce Brosnan, Liam Neeson, Anjelica Huston, Michael Wincott
Votes: 34,530 | Gross: $0.42M
Takes place at the tail end of the war and is about personal revenge arising from the war. There are several movies like this. In a way, one could classify many of the gunfights associated with the Old West as arising from the Civil War. Those who moved west continued to take into consideration which side of the war their adversaries – or, later, even their adversaries’ parents – had fought on.
44. 13 Fighting Men (1960)
Approved | 69 min | Drama, War, Western
A Union Captain and his troops guard a load of gold from a group of Confederates at the end of the war
Director: Harry Gerstad | Stars: Grant Williams, Brad Dexter, Carole Mathews, Robert Dix
Votes: 112
It is tempting to group together the “gold shipment” plot that is set either during the Civil War or at the tail end of it. As usual, Union forces are protecting a shipment from Rebels.
45. One-Eyed Horse (2008)
PG-13 | 137 min | Drama, Western
Hadley, Missouri 1887. Justin Gatewood has recently been released from prison for attempting to kill an old adversary, William Curry. Twenty-five years earlier, Gatewood and his brother ... See full summary »
Director: Wayne Shipley | Stars: Mark Redfield, Michael Hagan, Jennifer Rouse, Kelly Potchak
Votes: 80
Another movie about Civil-War-based revenge. The protagonist was a Confederate and POW from Missouri. A quarter century later, he still harbors a grudge.
46. Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970)
GP | 116 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
When a former Civil War soldier saves a nun from a gang of bandits, they team up to help the Mexicans in their war against the French.
Director: Don Siegel | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Shirley MacLaine, Manolo Fábregas, Alberto Morin
Votes: 30,576 | Gross: $11.50M
Set in Mexico just after the Civil War.
47. The Undefeated (1969)
Passed | 119 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
After the Civil War, ex-Confederate soldiers heading for a new life in Mexico run into ex-Union cavalrymen selling horses to the Mexican government but they must join forces to fight off Mexican bandits and revolutionaries.
Director: Andrew V. McLaglen | Stars: John Wayne, Rock Hudson, Antonio Aguilar, Roman Gabriel
Votes: 7,564
Follows the migration of Confederate veterans to Mexico in the aftermath of the Civil War. Former Union and Confederate soldiers form an uneasy truce after getting involved in turbulent Mexican politics.
48. Virginia City (1940)
Passed | 121 min | Western
Union officer Kerry Bradford escapes from Confederate Prison and is set to Virginia City, Nevada, where he finds out that the former commander of his prison, Vance Irby, is planning to send $5 million in gold to save the Confederacy.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Errol Flynn, Miriam Hopkins, Randolph Scott, Humphrey Bogart
Votes: 2,965
Set near the end of the Civil War, this movie takes place in Nevada, although an early scene is set in a Confederate prisoner of war camp.
49. Incident at Phantom Hill (1966)
Approved | 88 min | Western
After a convoy carrying a million dollars in gold is ambushed, an army captain is sent on a secret mission to retrieve the bullion with the reluctant help of one of the robbers.
Director: Earl Bellamy | Stars: Robert Fuller, Jocelyn Lane, Dan Duryea, Tom Simcox
Votes: 574
Set at the tail end of the Civil War, this is another Western about Confederate guerillas stealing a shipment of Yankee gold.
50. Jack McCall, Desperado (1953)
Approved | 76 min | Western
A Southerner fighting for the North is unjustly accused of treason and escapes to find the witness who could clear his name, but he also seeks the two Yankee soldiers who killed his parents.
Director: Sidney Salkow | Stars: George Montgomery, Angela Stevens, Douglas Kennedy, James Seay
Votes: 245
Beginning with the end of the Civil War and the decade afterward. McCall, a real-life cowardly assassin, is inexplicably turned into a hero. The movie becomes a Western set in the Dakota Territory.
51. Cavalry (1936)
Passed | 63 min | Western
Just after the Civil War, Captain Thorn is sent west to help protect the new telegraph line that is under construction. Leeds is out to establish an independent nation in the west and tries... See full summary »
Director: Robert N. Bradbury | Stars: Bob Steele, Frances Grant, Karl Hackett, Hal Price
Votes: 118
This movie is set in the West after the Civil War. The hero is a Civil War veteran.
52. The Glory Trail (1936)
Passed | 65 min | Western
It's just after the Civil War and Captain Morgan and his confederate soldiers are establishing a town on the Bozeman trail. Colonel Strong and his union men are at the nearby fort. Things ... See full summary »
Director: Lynn Shores | Stars: Tom Keene, Joan Barclay, James Bush, Frank Melton
Votes: 28
After the Civil War, unreconstructed Confederate soldiers get into a conflict with Federal troops in Montana.
53. The Beguiled (1971)
R | 105 min | Drama, Thriller, War
While recuperating in a Confederate girls' boarding school, a Union soldier cons his way into each of the lonely women's hearts, causing them to turn on each other, and eventually, on him.
Director: Don Siegel | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Geraldine Page, Elizabeth Hartman, Jo Ann Harris
Votes: 19,220
This story of a wounded soldier is more about the relationship of the soldier to a house full of female civilians. The war is in the background, outside the walls of the house. Remade in 2017.
54. No Drums, No Bugles (1972)
G | 85 min | Drama, War
During the Civil War, a conscientious objector is forced to flee to the woods of West Virginia to avoid being sent into combat where he would be forced to kill, which he is adamantly ... See full summary »
Director: Clyde Ware | Stars: Martin Sheen, Davey Davison, Rod McCary, Denine Terry
Votes: 103
The ultimate psychological-distance-from-the-war movie. A West Virginia man hides alone in the wilderness to avoid serving on either side. We see only a little direct evidence that the war exists.
55. Mysterious Island (1951)
Approved | 252 min | Action, Family, Sci-Fi
Union prisoners use a balloon to escape a Southern prison camp near the end of the Civil War and end up marooned on a mysterious volcanic island with very unusual inhabitants.
Director: Spencer Gordon Bennet | Stars: Richard Crane, Marshall Reed, Karen Randle, Ralph Hodges
Votes: 234
This horror movie really has little to do with the Civil War. It was remade in 1961.
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