Watch a PBS Preview of 'Mercy Street,' Civil War Drama

PHOTO: Actor Gary Cole depicts James Green Sr. and Donna Murphy as Jane Green in “Mercy Street,” airing in January on PBS. Screen shot from PBS preview

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“Mercy Street,” the six part-series coming to PBS in January, recently released a new preview of the program (watch it below), which depicts Civil War-era life in Alexandria, a thenConfederate city occupied by Union forces.

The series, premiering Jan. 17 on PBS, features the Green family, whose luxury hotel in Alexandria has been transformed into Mansion House, a Union Army hospital tending to the war’s wounded.

“Mercy Street” is a production of Sawbone Films and Scott Free Productions. Executive producers: Ridley Scott, David W. Zucker and co-creator Lisa Q. Wolfinger; co-creator and writer David Zabel; co-executive producer Clayton Krueger; and producer David Rosemont.

Here’s more about the series, from PBS:

Based on true stories, ”Mercy Street” takes viewers beyond the battlefield and into the lives of Americans on the Civil War home front as they face the unprecedented challenges of one of the most turbulent times in our nation’s history.

Set in Virginia in the spring of 1862, ”Mercy Street” follows the lives of two volunteer nurses on opposite sides of the conflict; Mary Phinney (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), a staunch New England abolitionist, and Emma Green, (Hannah James), a naive young Confederate belle. The two collide at Mansion House, the Green family’s luxury hotel that has been taken over and transformed into a Union Army Hospital in Alexandria, a border town between North and South and the longest-occupied Confederate city of the war. Ruled under martial law, Alexandria is now the melting pot of the region, filled with soldiers, civilians, female volunteers, doctors, wounded fighting men from both sides, runaway slaves, prostitutes, speculators and spies.

The intersection of North and South within the confines of a small occupied town creates a rich world that is chaotic, conflicted, corrupt, dynamic and even hopeful — a cauldron within which these characters strive, fight, love, laugh, betray, sacrifice and, at times, act like scoundrels. 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 fresh twist on an iconic story, one that resonates with larger themes we still struggle with today.