PBS America (Freeview) Today

A veteran steam engine driver gives Peter Ginn a few tips on shovelling coal, and Ruth Goodman finds out about the dangers involved in working on the Victorian railways

How the combination of increased leisure time and affordable rail transport brought a new kind of freedom for working-class Victorians

An account of the origins of the American Civil War, and the rise of Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis as presidents of the Union and Confederacy

How the American Civil War became a crusade to end slavery, beginning with the political fighting that threatened President Lincoln's administration

How Abraham Lincoln decided to emancipate slaves after the success of the Antietam Campaign - a measure designed to cut the South's manpower and ensure Union victory

The Union army's failure to achieve a decisive victory by the spring of 1863, despite possessing greater manpower than the Confederates

The Battle of Gettysburg, when for three days in July 1863 150,000 men fought to the death in the Pennsylvania countryside