Inspired by real people and events, Mercy Street goes beyond the front lines of the Civil War and into the chaotic world of the Mansion House Hospital in Union-occupied Alexandria, Virginia. , 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: Nurse 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 Union occupied city of the war. Ruled under martial law, Alexandria served as the melting pot of the region: 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 of war. It's a fresh twist on an iconic story, one that resonates with larger themes we still struggle with today.
In Season Two premieres, pushing the drama beyond the hospital walls and picking up where season one ended. The show chronicles the chaos in Alexandria, Virginia; the complicated lives of Dr. Foster (Josh Radnor), Nurse Mary Phinney (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and the Mansion House staff; the increasingly precarious position of the Green family; and the changing world of the burgeoning black population.
