Alexandria Civil War TV Series Begins Filming in April

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A primetime PBS series depicting life at a Civil War hospital in Old Town Alexandria begins filming at the end of April in Richmond, a staffmember with the Virginia Film Office said Monday. No word yet on whether filmmakers will come to Alexandria to film scenes.

The series working title is Mercy Street, according to a film office employee. (Previously considered titles were reportedly Mansion House and Civil War ER.) The show mainly follows two nurses on either side of the Civil War conflict: Mary Phinney, a New England abolitionist and Emma Green, described as a willful young Confederate belle. No announcements yet on the actors who will play the principal roles.

A casting call will be going out soon from the film office. The series is being made by Sawbone Films and Scott Free Productions.

Capitalizing on the enormous success of Downton Abbey, the series is PBS’ first foray into original drama. Set in 1862 in the Mansion House Hospital in Union–occupied Alexandria, Va., the show is focused on the professional and personal trials and tribulations of the staff. The hospital was located at Princess Street and N. Fairfax Street in Alexandria.

The hotel/hospital is described by Visit Alexandria as: “A grand hotel before the war, the building that once surrounded the Carlyle House was known as the Mansion House Hospital and could hold up to 700 sick and wounded soldiers. Nurse Mary Phinney described the constant flow of stretchers in and out of the hospital. The site’s Civil War history features many fascinating figures, including poet Walt Whitman, Confederate spy Frank Stringfellow, and Sarah Emma Edmonds, who disguised herself as a Union soldier.”

Mercy Street will premier early next year, airing on Sundays, according to PBS.

Lisa Quijano Wolfinger, who has written, produced, directed and supervised a variety of films and TV programs, is the “showrunner” for Mercy Street, with co-creator David Zabel (showrunner/writer for NBC’s ER.) Wolfinger is the president and owner of Sawbone Films.

“We think of the Civil War as a brutal, devastating chapter in American history, but it was also a moment of remarkable transition that presented opportunities unthinkable just a few years before,” Wolfinger said earlier this year, in a release from PBS.

“The locus of Alexandria at this time as a crossroads of North and South, war and peace, old and new, offers a wealth of characters and situations that is a gift for a storyteller and a perfect setting for a great American story,” Zabel said.

“Doctors, faced with mass casualties on an unprecedented scale, pushed the boundaries of medical science, women left the confines of the home and volunteered as nurses, and thousands of escaped slaves got their first taste of freedom,” Wolfinger said.

“All of these elements come together in Alexandria’s Mansion House Hospital — a dysfunctional and unpredictable world filled with conflict and passion,” she said. “Our characters (many based on real people) are colorful, complicated and completely relatable. This series is not about battles and glory, it’s about the drama and unexpected humor of everyday life behind the front lines. It’s a new twist on an iconic story, one that resonates with larger themes we still struggle with today.”

The writers and producers have worked with a prominent group of historians and medical experts, including James M. McPherson (“Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era”), Thavolia Glymph (“Out of the House of Bondage: The Transformation of the Plantation Household”) and Jane Schultz (“Women at the Front: Hospital Workers in Civil War America”).

The program is executive produced by Ridley Scott/Scott Free Productions (Gladiator, Thelma & Louise), David W. Zucker (ER, The Good Wife) and Wolfinger.

Wolfinger, co-owner of Lone Wolf Productions based in Portland, Maine, has also worked on Emmy-nominated Desperate Crossing, the Untold Story of the Mayflower for the History Channel, a Salem Witch docu-drama called Witch Hunt and the docu-drama miniseries Conquest of America.

PHOTOS: Images of Mansion House Hospital and area today from City of Alexandria; Lisa Quijano Wolfinger photo from Lone Wolf Productions and Ridley Scott photo by Gage Skidmore, March 2012.