Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War

    About this episode:  Revolution and civil war require explosive issues and impassioned men more than willing to make change and, if necessary, to do so violently. This is the story of two such Southern men. This is the story of fire eaters Louis T. Wigfall and Edmund Ruffin.     ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Nathaniel Macon Roger A. Pryor John Brown Sam Houston P. G. T. Beauregard James H. Hammond   Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here   Thank you to our sponsor, The Badge Maker - proudly carrying affordable Civil War Corps Badges and other hand-made historical reproductions for reenactors, living history interpreters, and lovers of history. Check out The Badge Maker and place your orders here   Thank you to our sponsor Bob Graesser, Raleigh Civil War Round Table's editor of The Knapsack newsletter and the Round Table's webmaster at http://www.raleighcwrt.org   Thank you to our sponsor John Bailey.   Producer: Dan Irving

About this episode:  It takes a cast to put on a play and our story this day is filled with characters that emoted passions raging from reasoned deliberation to knee-jerk and violent. And not only for the chain of events that led to the first confrontation of the American Civil War but throughout and  even beyond the four-year long conflict. Men and women caught in the cross-hairs of history or those that created them. This is the story of the characters and events that led to momentous drama in Charleston Harbor. This is the cast and story of Fort Sumter Revisited.     ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Robert Anderson James Buchanan Winfield Scott Robert Toombs Mary Boykin Chesnut Abner Doubleday   For Further Reading: The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War by Erik Larson   Days of Defiance: Sumter, Secession, and the Coming of the Civil War by Maury Klein   Mary Chesnut's Civil War by Mary Chesnut   Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here   Thank you to our sponsor, The Badge Maker - proudly carrying affordable Civil War Corps Badges and other hand-made historical reproductions for reenactors, living history interpreters, and lovers of history. Check out The Badge Maker and place your orders here   Thank you to our sponsor Bob Graesser, Raleigh Civil War Round Table's editor of The Knapsack newsletter and the Round Table's webmaster at http://www.raleighcwrt.org   Producer: Dan Irving

About this episode:    Some six years ago, we chronicled the Confederacy's Gibraltar that allowed Wilmington, NC to be the last major Confederate port open to the outside world. 72 episodes later and in the 160th year of its capture, we, again, turn our attention to the massive earthen fort and those that took part in the campaign to either storm or defend the Confederate Goliath. This is the expanded story of the fort whose fall in January of 1865 hastened, in many respects, Lee's retreat from Petersburg, Virginia and, subsequently, the surrender of his army at Appomattox. This is Fort Fisher Revisited.   ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Rose O'Neal Greenhow William Lamb William Henry Chase Whiting Braxton Bragg Gideon Welles David Dixon Porter   For Further Reading: The Wilmington Campaign: Last Rays Of Departing Hope by Chris E. Fonvielle, Jr.   Confederate Goliath: The Battle Of Fort Fisher by Rod Gragg   Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here   Thank you to our sponsor, The Badge Maker - proudly carrying affordable Civil War Corps Badges and other hand-made historical reproductions for reenactors, living history interpreters, and lovers of history. Check out The Badge Maker and place your orders here   Thank you to our sponsor Bob Graesser, Raleigh Civil War Round Table's editor of The Knapsack newsletter and the Round Table's webmaster at http://www.raleighcwrt.org   Producer: Dan Irving

About this episode:    She stood only about 5', yet, in terms of achievement and historical significance, she remains a giant. This is the story of not only a remarkable woman, but human being. This is the story of Harriet Tubman.   ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Charles Nalle Frederick Douglass Thomas Garrett William Seward John Brown   Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here   Thank you to our sponsor, The Badge Maker - proudly carrying affordable Civil War Corps Badges and other hand-made historical reproductions for reenactors, living history interpreters, and lovers of history. Check out The Badge Maker and place your orders here   Thank you to our sponsor Bob Graesser, Raleigh Civil War Round Table's editor of The Knapsack newsletter and the Round Table's webmaster at http://www.raleighcwrt.org   Producer: Dan Irving

About this episode:    Its mission and those who willingly took part in it dared to defy the highest law in the land. And in their desire to do what was right, they wrote, spoke and acted out against a hateful institution that remains to this day, a cross this country must bear. This is the story of brave crusaders who risked much and an organization that sought to right a moral evil. This is the story of the Underground Railroad.   ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Elijah Lovejoy Charles Nalle Harriet Tubman William Lloyd Garrison Frederick Douglass Henry Box Brown   Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here   Thank you to our sponsor, The Badge Maker - proudly carrying affordable Civil War Corps Badges and other hand-made historical reproductions for reenactors, living history interpreters, and lovers of history. Check out The Badge Maker and place your orders here   Thank you to our sponsor Bob Graesser, Raleigh Civil War Round Table's editor of The Knapsack newsletter and the Round Table's webmaster at http://www.raleighcwrt.org   Producer: Dan Irving

About this episode:  This is an episode about a phenomenon as old as time itself. Something that, throughout the ages, has brought laughter, reflection, made and rekindled memories and even moved men and women to tears. From stirring airs to ballads and everything in between, this is the story of that which has been described as a salve for the soul. This is the story of Music during the American Civil War.         ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Julia Ward Howe George Frederick Root Patrick Gilmore Henry Clay Work Stephen Foster   Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here   Thank you to our sponsor, The Badge Maker - proudly carrying affordable Civil War Corps Badges and other hand-made historical reproductions for reenactors, living history interpreters, and lovers of history. Check out The Badge Maker and place your orders here   Thank you to our sponsor Bob Graesser, Raleigh Civil War Round Table's editor of The Knapsack newsletter and the Round Table's webmaster at http://www.raleighcwrt.org   Special thanks to WCHL for providing the song recordings used in this episode.   Producer: Dan Irving

About this episode:  Presidential elections essentially boil down to a popular mandate, either supporting an incumbent's administration or repudiating it. Never was that clearer than in 1864 when some four million people went to the polls to either re-elect Abraham Lincoln or oust him. At the election's core: to stay the course and finish the war or admit it a failure and call for a cessation of hostilities. Such were the weighty consequences surrounding Abraham Lincoln's quest for a second term. This is the story of a nation's moment of decision. This is the story of the presidential election of 1864.     ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: John Tyler George B. McClellan William Seward Salmon P. Chase Clement L. Vallandigham   Additional Resources: Electoral Map - Election of 1864     Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here   Thank you to our sponsor, The Badge Maker - proudly carrying affordable Civil War Corps Badges and other hand-made historical reproductions for reenactors, living history interpreters, and lovers of history. Check out The Badge Maker and place your orders here   Thank you to our sponsor Bob Graesser, Raleigh Civil War Round Table's editor of The Knapsack newsletter and the Round Table's webmaster at http://www.raleighcwrt.org     Producer: Dan Irving

About this episode:  For millennia humans have reflected on historical events. Quite often, one poses the timeless question: what if - had a life been spared or taken, had a candidate won rather than lost and, as it relates to this episode, what if a battle or war ended differently? So, with a degree of trepidation, we address that last question and will do so through the works of a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and two university professors. With writing fueled by incredible imagination and plots, characters and consequences drawn from factual trends and themes, we offer three stories from the genre of alternative and counterfactual history. Three stories that address “what if” the South had won the American Civil War.               ----more---- For Further Reading: If The South Had Won The Civil War by MacKinlay Kantor   The Guns of the South by Harry Turtledove   The Confederate States of America: What Might Have Been by Roger L. Ransom   Gettysburg: A Novel of the Civil War by William Forstchen and Newt Gingrich   Grant Comes East: A Novel of the Civil War (The Gettysburg Trilogy, 2) by William Forstchen and Newt Gingrich   Never Call Retreat: Lee and Grant: The Final Victory: A Novel of the Civil War (The Gettysburg Trilogy, 3) by William Forstchen and Newt Gingrich   Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here   Thank you to our sponsor, The Badge Maker - proudly carrying affordable Civil War Corps Badges and other hand-made historical reproductions for reenactors, living history interpreters, and lovers of history. Check out The Badge Maker and place your orders here   Thank you to our sponsor Bob Graesser, Raleigh Civil War Round Table's editor of The Knapsack newsletter and the Round Table's webmaster at http://www.raleighcwrt.org     Producer: Dan Irving

About this episode:  Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant understood numbers. And, in the spring of 1864, he intended to use the North's advantage in men and materiel to pressure, stretch and snap the Confederacy at multiple points.  And so, he ordered simultaneous campaigns. As Abraham Lincoln put it, “those not skinning can hold a leg.” Three were to begin in Virginia: at Bermuda Hundred, into the Shenandoah Valley and across the Rapidan into the Wilderness. One was to be launched on the Red River in Louisiana and, finally, a campaign from Chattanooga, Tennessee. One that was aimed at the very heart of the Confederacy. This is the story of that campaign. This is the story of William Tecumseh Sherman's drive on Atlanta.            ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: William T. Sherman James B. McPherson George Henry Thomas Joseph E. Johnston William J. Hardee John Bell Hood   Additional Resources: Movements and Battles of The Atlanta Campaign, May 7th - September 1st, 1864   Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here   Thank you to our sponsor, The Badge Maker - proudly carrying affordable Civil War Corps Badges and other hand-made historical reproductions for reenactors, living history interpreters, and lovers of history. Check out The Badge Maker and place your orders here   Thank you to our sponsor Bob Graesser, Raleigh Civil War Round Table's editor of The Knapsack newsletter and the Round Table's webmaster at http://www.raleighcwrt.org     Producer: Dan Irving

About this episode:  Too often, we think only of wild assaults, the terrible collision of armed men, the desperate fighting of soldiers - often, hand to hand - and the killed and wounded but, in the American Civil War, we tend to overlook what happened to another element that comprised battle casualties: Those captured. This is the story about the American Civil War's prisoners of war. This is also the story of the prisons that contained them.            ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Montgomery C. Meigs William Hoffman Henry Halleck Thomas Rose Henry Wirz Edwin Stanton   Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here   Thank you to our sponsor, The Badge Maker - proudly carrying affordable Civil War Corps Badges and other hand-made historical reproductions for reenactors, living history interpreters, and lovers of history. Check out The Badge Maker and place your orders here   Thank you to our sponsor Bob Graesser, Raleigh Civil War Round Table's editor of The Knapsack newsletter and the Round Table's webmaster at http://www.raleighcwrt.org     Producer: Dan Irving

About this episode:  As we've seen in the one presidential debate this election year, a performance has consequences.  Although it was not for the office of chief executive, we turn over time's shoulder to speak of another storied debate - in 1858 and for the office of U.S. senator.  This is the story of a series of face-to-face confrontations that may not have had immediate ramifications but most certainly resonated two years later when, on the eve of civil war, the two both pursued the office of President of The United States.  This is the story of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates.            ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Stephen A. Douglas Lyman Trumbull John C. Frémont Dred Scott James Buchanan   For Further Reading: Lincoln and Douglas: The Debates that Defined America by Allen C. Guelzo   Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here   Thank you to our sponsor, The Badge Maker - proudly carrying affordable Civil War Corps Badges and other hand-made historical reproductions for reenactors, living history interpreters, and lovers of history. Check out The Badge Maker and place your orders here   Thank you to our sponsor Bob Graesser, Raleigh Civil War Round Table's editor of The Knapsack newsletter and the Round Table's webmaster at http://www.raleighcwrt.org     Producer: Dan Irving

About this episode:  Washington City was buzzing with anxiety. It was the middle of May 1864 and no news had arrived from Virginia for days. Then, finally, in flurries, it came - word from the front and it was most welcome. Grant was posed to strike a mortal blow. Readers clutched papers that, in bold print, screamed “Extra.” Unable to concentrate, Congress adjourned for three days. At 10 pm on the evening of May 11th, the President moved out onto the Executive Mansion portico where, before him, a massive crowd sprawled on the lawn. He announced the times as dramatic and, in his high, reedy voice, Mr. Lincoln read a message from Grant, “I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer.” And, indeed, it would. To the tune of Union casualties that numbered as many or more as Robert E. Lee had in his Confederate army. This is the story of two more Overland Campaign collisions between Lee and Grant. Two more that continued to bleed both armies. This is the story of the battles at the North Anna and Cold Harbor.           ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: A. P. Hill Richard S. Ewell John B. Gordon Gouverneur Warren George Gordon Meade Franz Sigel   Additional Resources: Fighting at North Anna, VA - May 24th, 1864   Actions, Battle of Cold Harbor - June 3rd, 1864   For Further Reading: To the North Anna River: Grant and Lee, May 13–25, 1864 by Gordon C. Rhea   Cold Harbor: Grant and Lee, May 26–June 3, 1864 by Gordon C. Rhea   Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here   Thank you to our sponsor, The Badge Maker - proudly carrying affordable Civil War Corps Badges and other hand-made historical reproductions for reenactors, living history interpreters, and lovers of history. Check out The Badge Maker and place your orders here   Thank you to our sponsor Bob Graesser, Raleigh Civil War Round Table's editor of The Knapsack newsletter and the Round Table's webmaster at http://www.raleighcwrt.org     Producer: Dan Irving

About this episode:  With gray cape lined with red satin and ostrich plume in hat, he was the beau ideal of the cavalier South. He rode and campaigned with Sam Sweeney on banjo and Mulatto Bob on the bones. At times, one wondered was it war or just a lark. Despite all the showy display, he was Robert E. Lee's “eyes and ears” and his reconnaissance set the table for battles and campaigns. And, in doing so, he came across as a knight in shining armor on a holy quest - a happy warrior in the middle of a desperate war. A dashing adventurer who loved to see his name in headlines, there were some who believed that for him, the contest was a constant quest for glory. And, sometimes, that propensity got himself, his comrades and the commander he dearly loved in trouble. This is the story of a man whose exploits paved the way for Confederate victories, and, to many, one of its greatest defeats. This is the story of James Ewell Brown Stuart.            ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Fitzhugh Lee Flora Cooke Philip St. George Cooke John Mosby John Pope Joseph Hooker   Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here   Thank you to our sponsor, The Badge Maker - proudly carrying affordable Civil War Corps Badges and other hand-made historical reproductions for reenactors, living history interpreters, and lovers of history. Check out The Badge Maker and place your orders here   Thank you to our sponsor Bob Graesser, Raleigh Civil War Round Table's editor of The Knapsack newsletter and the Round Table's webmaster at http://www.raleighcwrt.org     Producer: Dan Irving

About this episode:  She was witty, intelligent and a great conversationalist: everything that raised the eyebrows of proper Southern women in the mid-19th century. And then, she married the man who became the first and only President of the Confederacy. Wedded to her fate with him and a doomed nation, her life was filled with trying times. She was, if you will, locked in a personal civil war as she struggled to reconcile her societal duties with strong individual beliefs. This is the story of a remarkably resilient woman who served as the Confederacy's First Lady. This is the story of Varina Howell Davis.           ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Jefferson Davis Sarah Childress Polk Washington Irving Jane Appleton Pierce Elizabeth Keckley Alexander H. Stephens   Additional Resources: First Lady of the Confederacy: Varina Davis's Civil War by Joan E. Cashin   Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here   Thank you to our sponsor, The Badge Maker - proudly carrying affordable Civil War Corps Badges and other hand-made historical reproductions for reenactors, living history interpreters, and lovers of history. Check out The Badge Maker and place your orders here   Thank you to our sponsor Bob Graesser, Raleigh Civil War Round Table's editor of The Knapsack newsletter and the Round Table's webmaster at http://www.raleighcwrt.org     Producer: Dan Irving

About this episode:  For those aboard the fifty-gun USS Congress, it had been a quiet morning. Its crew, as usual, prepared the twenty-year-old vessel for inspection which would be held the next day. Meanwhile, the ship's quartermaster gazed out over Hampton Roads which glistened under a late winter sun. All seemed normal. And then, at 12:45 p.m., a column of heavy black smoke. Curiosity aroused, the quartermaster turned to a fellow officer, handed him his glass and asked for him to take a look. Their gaze created concern. Indeed, as the quartermaster put it, at last, “that thing is a-comin”. Something no one had ever seen before. Its mission - to change the course of the war. It was Saturday, March 8, 1862, and one vessel, an ironclad, was about to alter centuries of naval warfare. This is the story of technology turning a page. This is the story of the Duel between the Ironclads.                         ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Stephen Mallory John Mercer Brooke John L. Porter Gideon Welles John Ericsson John Worden   Additional Resources: Monitor: The Story of the Legendary Civil War Ironclad and the Man Whose Invention Changed the Course of History by James Tertius De Kay   Duel Between The First Ironclads by William C. Davis   The Blockade: Runners and Raiders (The Civil War Series, Vol. 3) by Time-Life Books   Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here   Thank you to our sponsor, The Badge Maker - proudly carrying affordable Civil War Corps Badges and other hand-made historical reproductions for reenactors, living history interpreters, and lovers of history. Check out The Badge Maker and place your orders here   *Title Image by Ivan Berryman   Producer: Dan Irving

About this episode:  When exercising power, the 16th President's stocky and sphinxlike Secretary of War could demonstrate a Jekyll and Hyde personality. Personally honest, he could be unforgiving and given to histrionics when he thought them necessary. And again, when required, warm hearted, selfless and patriotic. In charge of the Union's land-based operations, he made tough decisions and did so with little regard for those affected by those decisions. His mission was to win the war and he pursued that purpose with relentless fury. In doing so, far too many simply remembered him as the “unloved Secretary of War”. In the pantheon that was Abraham Lincoln's Cabinet, this is the story of his Mars. This is the story of Edwin McMasters Stanton.                         ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Salmon P. Chase Daniel Sickles Simon Cameron William Seward Lorenzo Thomas Manton Marble   Additional Resources: Lincoln's Autocrat: The Life of Edwin Stanton by William Marvel   Stanton: Lincoln's War Secretary by Walter Stahr   Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here   Thank you to our sponsor, The Badge Maker - proudly carrying affordable Civil War Corps Badges and other hand-made historical reproductions for reenactors, living history interpreters, and lovers of history. Check out The Badge Maker and place your orders here   *Title Image by The McMahan Photo Archive/RMP Archive/Mathew Brady / The Brady Studio   Producer: Dan Irving

About this episode:  For most of us, our mental snapshot of 19th-century battlefield medicine is captured when Union Major General Carl Schurz recorded a ghastly scene at Gettysburg: “There stood the surgeons, their sleeves rolled up to their elbows … [One] surgeon snatched his knife from between his teeth …, wiped it rapidly once or twice across his bloodstained apron, and the cutting began. The operation accomplished, the surgeon would look around with a deep sigh, and then – 'Next!'”  Relying on first-hand accounts, meticulous statistics and research, we share a side of the conflict that few who fought wanted to think about and, particularly, experience.  For our 70th episode, we tell the story of Civil War Medicine.                      ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: William A. Hammond Jonathan Letterman Samuel Preston Moore Sally Tompkins Dorothea Dix Clara Barton   Additional Resources: The Life of Johnny Reb: The Common Soldier of the Confederacy by Bell Irvin Wiley   The Life of Billy Yank: The Common Soldier of the Union by Bell Irvin Wiley   Voices of the Civil War by Richard Wheeler   Civil War Medicine 1861-1865 by C. Keith Wilbur   Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here   Thank you to our sponsor, The Badge Maker - proudly carrying affordable Civil War Corps Badges and other hand-made historical reproductions for reenactors, living history interpreters, and lovers of history. Check out The Badge Maker and place your orders here   *Title Image by Alexander Gardner   Producer: Dan Irving

About this episode:  Back in December of 2018, we told the story of an engagement that took place along the banks of the Rappahannock and detailed events that took place afterwards.  Now, five years later, we return to that story but with greater detail, and the addition of first person accounts.  Once again, we would like to take you back to November and December 1862, when yet another Federal commander wanted Richmond but, in order to do that, had to take a sleepy little town almost halfway between the Southern capital and Washington City. Once again, we return to stories not only about men in battle but men showing compassion for one another - yes, even for those deemed their enemy.  This is story of the Battle of Fredericksburg, revisited.                           ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: George B. McClellan Ambrose Burnside William B. Franklin William Barksdale Richard Kirkland   Additional Resources: Battle of Fredericksburg Overview   Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here   Thank you to our sponsor, The Badge Maker - proudly carrying affordable Civil War Corps Badges and other hand-made historical reproductions for reenactors, living history interpreters, and lovers of history. Check out The Badge Maker and place your orders here   *Title Image by Mort Kunstler *Map by Hal Jespersen   Producer: Dan Irving

About this episode:  By 1864, a desperate Confederacy realized it must resort to desperate measures.  Measures not only confined to land battles and trying to break the Union blockade, but the procuring and use of commerce raiders which would scour the oceans to wreak havoc on the North's vast merchant marine.  Anything to create economic hardship. Anything to doom Abraham Lincoln's chances for reelection.  This is the story of one such raider.  This is the story of the CSS Shenandoah.                           ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: James Dunwoody Bulloch Thomas Dudley Lord John Russell James Iredell Waddell William Conway Whittle   For Further Reading: Sea of Gray: The Around-the-World Odyssey of the Confederate Raider Shenandoah by Tom Chaffin   Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here   Thank you to our sponsor, The Badge Maker - proudly carrying affordable Civil War Corps Badges and other hand-made historical reproductions for reenactors, living history interpreters, and lovers of history. Check out The Badge Maker and place your orders here   Producer: Dan Irving

About this episode:  The Native Americans referred to Virginia's Shenandoah Valley as “Daughter of the Stars.” Yet, both the Federal Union and the Confederacy knew it to be the “Breadbasket of Virginia” - and that made it a theater for military operations. Both sides very aware of “Stonewall” Jackson's assessment in 1862, “If the Valley is lost, then Virginia is lost.” Played out in 1864, this is the story of the dramatic ebb and flow to control that strategic site. This is the story of the Second Valley Campaign.                          ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: John Imboden Franz Sigel William E. "Grumble" Jones Philip Sheridan Jubal Early Stephen Dodson Ramseur   Additional Resources: Map of the Shenandoah Valley Campaigns of 1864   For Further Reading: The Shenandoah in Flames: The Valley Campaign of 1864 by Thomas A. Lewis   Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here   Thank you to our sponsor, The Badge Maker - proudly carrying affordable Civil War Corps Badges and other hand-made historical reproductions for reenactors, living history interpreters, and lovers of history. Check out The Badge Maker and place your orders here   Producer: Dan Irving

About this episode:  This time around, a different delivery, a different approach. Rather than anecdotes and stories from a biography, battle or campaign, this time a series of facts, figures, theories and themes that set the stage for waging civil war. This session: Strategy, Tactics, Arms and Technology - a basis for understanding why our civil conflict was so long and so costly.                          ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Antoine-Henri Jomini Carl von Clausewitz Winfield Scott Dennis Hart Mahan Claude-Étienne Minié William J. Hardee   For Further Reading: Battle Tactics of the Civil War by Paddy Griffith   The Civil War Dictionary by Mark M. Boatner III   Get The Guide: Want to learn more about the Civil War? A great place to start is Fred's guide, The Civil War: A History of the War between the States from Workman Publishing. The guide is in its 9th printing.   Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here   Thank you to our sponsor, The Badge Maker - proudly carrying affordable Civil War Corps Badges and other hand-made historical reproductions for reenactors, living history interpreters, and lovers of history. Check out The Badge Maker and place your orders here   Producer: Dan Irving

About this episode:  It was over 140 years ago that the American Red Cross was founded. Though most know its founder, few know the details of her lifetime of charity, sacrifice and service. This is an attempt to correct that. This is the story of an American pioneer - an American hero. This is the story of Clara Barton.                          ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Charles Sumner Frances Gage Dorence Atwater Samuel Green Dorothea Dix   For Further Reading: A Woman of Valor: Clara Barton and the Civil War by Stephen B. Oates   Get The Guide: Want to learn more about the Civil War? A great place to start is Fred's guide, The Civil War: A History of the War between the States from Workman Publishing. The guide is in its 9th printing.   Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here   Thank you to our sponsor, The Badge Maker - proudly carrying affordable Civil War Corps Badges and other hand-made historical reproductions for reenactors, living history interpreters, and lovers of history. Check out The Badge Maker and place your orders here   Producer: Dan Irving

About this episode:  In the first days of the American Civil War, Winfield Scott, the then 74-year-old Union General-in-Chief, advised a strategy that he believed was key in putting down the Southern rebellion.  Derisively tabbed the “Anaconda” Plan, Scott believed: one, the Border States had to be held and used as avenues for invasion; two, Southern ports should be blockaded and, third, to split the Confederacy, the Mississippi River should become a Union highway.  This is the story of the incredible campaign that made Scott's third element reality.  This is the story of Ulysses S. Grant's campaign and siege of Vicksburg.                          ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: David G. Farragut John Alexander McClernand John C. Pemberton Earl Van Dorn Nathan Bedford Forrest Stephen D. Lee   Additional Resources: Assaults on Vicksburg - May 22nd, 1863   Operations against Vicksburg and Grant's Bayou Operations - November 1862 through April 1863   Get The Guide: Want to learn more about the Civil War? A great place to start is Fred's guide, The Civil War: A History of the War between the States from Workman Publishing. The guide is in its 9th printing.   Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here   Thank you to our sponsor, The Badge Maker - proudly carrying affordable Civil War Corps Badges and other hand-made historical reproductions for reenactors, living history interpreters, and lovers of history. Check out The Badge Maker and place your orders here   Producer: Dan Irving

About this episode:  It was January 1872. In Lexington, Virginia and on the campus of recently re-named Washington and Lee College, former Confederate Lieutenant General Jubal Anderson Early was on a mission: a mission to venerate Robert E. Lee, and to give Southerners a positive spin on their defeat - not only to address the recent past, but to arm them and their descendants with, as he and his disciples put it, a “correct” narrative of the war. This is the story of an ideology that simmers even to this day. This is the story of the creation and foundations of the Lost Cause.                            ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Patrick Cleburne Jubal Anderson Early James Longstreet Albert Sidney Johnston Philip Sheridan Frederick Douglass   For Further Reading: The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History by Gary W. Gallagher and Alan T. Nolan   Get The Guide: Want to learn more about the Civil War? A great place to start is Fred's guide, The Civil War: A History of the War between the States from Workman Publishing. The guide is in its 9th printing.   Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here   Thank you to our sponsor, The Badge Maker - proudly carrying affordable Civil War Corps Badges and other hand-made historical reproductions for reenactors, living history interpreters, and lovers of history. Check out The Badge Maker and place your orders here   Producer: Dan Irving

About this episode:  It was May 1864 and Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign was underway. After two days of violence in the Wilderness and a swing to the southeast, weary men from the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac found themselves eyeball to eyeball yet again. The fighting to come: savage, up close, personal, hand to hand. The consequences: bloody, even ghastly. This is the story of the most vicious episode of sustained combat ever to occur on the North American continent. This is the story of Spotsylvania Court House. ----more----   Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Gouverneur Warren Richard S. Ewell John B. Gordon Wesley Merritt Fitzhugh Lee Philip Sheridan   Additional Resources: Movements, May 7th-8th, 1864   Actions, May 8th, 1864   Situation 4 pm, May 9th, 1864   Actions, May 10th, 1864   Actions, May 12th, 1864   Movements, May 13th-14th, 1894   **Map Images by Hal Jespersen, www.posix.com/CW   For Further Reading: The Battles for Spotsylvania Court House and the Road to Yellow Tavern, May 7–12, 1864 by Gordon C. Rhea Esq.   Get The Guide: Want to learn more about the Civil War? A great place to start is Fred's guide, The Civil War: A History of the War between the States from Workman Publishing. The guide is in its 9th printing.   Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here   Thank you to our sponsor, The Badge Maker - proudly carrying affordable Civil War Corps Badges and other hand-made historical reproductions for reenactors, living history interpreters, and lovers of history. Check out The Badge Maker and place your orders here   Producer: Dan Irving

About this episode:  The United States Military Academy has a long and distinguished history. Established in 1802, its stated mission continues to be “to educate, train, and inspire the Corps of Cadets so that each graduate is a commissioned leader of character committed to the values of Duty, Honor, Country and prepared for a career of professional excellence and service to the Nation as an officer in the United States Army.” Six decades after its creation, that mission took on new and unusual interpretation, for their country was at war with itself. All too often, fellow alums and classmates - all trained on the west bank of the Hudson River - were pitted against one another. This is the story of one prominent class that found itself caught in that tragic dilemma. This is the story of the West Point Class of 1846. ----more----   Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson George B. McClellan Richard Delafield Zachary Taylor Winfield Scott Cadmus M. Wilcox   For Further Reading: The Class Of 1846: From West Point To Appomattox - Stonewall Jackson, George McClellan And Their Brothers by John C. Waugh   Get The Guide: Want to learn more about the Civil War? A great place to start is Fred's guide, The Civil War: A History of the War between the States from Workman Publishing. The guide is in its 9th printing.   Producer: Dan Irving    

About this episode:  It was March of 1865 and the men under William Tecumseh Sherman had punched their way into North Carolina. In this, the Carolinas Campaign, over 60,000 battle-hardened veterans marched, as they had since they left Atlanta, in two columns. To confront the blue surge, Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston boldly planned to throw some 21,000 men upon one of the isolated Federal wings. And so would be fought, on low-lying, marshy ground near a small hamlet in southeastern North Carolina, the largest land battle in the history of the Old North State. It would be the last major display of Confederate resistance in the American Civil War. This is the story of that desperate effort. This is the story of the Battle of Bentonville. ----more----   Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: John M. Schofield Zebulon B. Vance Braxton Bragg Hugh Judson Kilpatrick John A. "Blackjack" Logan Alpheus S. Williams   For Further Reading: The Battle Of Bentonville: Last Stand In The Carolinas by Mark L. Bradley   Get The Guide: Want to learn more about the Civil War? A great place to start is Fred's guide, The Civil War: A History of the War between the States from Workman Publishing. The guide is in its 9th printing.   Producer: Dan Irving    

About this episode:  It was early 1863 and in the very midst of a civil war that challenged the continued existence of the Union, an event that looked to its future.   Indeed, a daunting enterprise – the breaking of ground for the Central Pacific Railroad.  This is the story of a great undertaking.  This is the story of the building of the transcontinental railroad. ----more----   Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Grenville M. Dodge Theodore D. Judah Leland Stanford Thomas "Doc" Durant Lewis Clement Charles Crocker   For Further Reading: Nothing Like it in the World: The Men that Built the Transcontinental Railroad by Stephen E. Ambrose   Get The Guide: Want to learn more about the Civil War? A great place to start is Fred's guide, The Civil War: A History of the War between the States from Workman Publishing. The guide is in its 9th printing.   Producer: Dan Irving   Thank you to our sponsor Bob Graesser, Raleigh Civil War Round Table's editor of The Knapsack newsletter and the Round Table's webmaster at http://www.raleighcwrt.org  

About this episode:  Shockingly brief given the lives lost, cost, and national trauma, but the American Civil War's two greatest significances are that the nation was preserved and that slavery was ended. This is the story of a major step in ridding this country's association with “the peculiar institution.” This is the story of the labored steps for the passage of the 13th Amendment. ----more----   Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Horace Greeley Lyman Trumbull Edward Bates Thomas Corwin James Mitchell Ashley Thaddeus Stevens   Get The Guide: Want to learn more about the Civil War? A great place to start is Fred's guide, The Civil War: A History of the War between the States from Workman Publishing. The guide is in its 9th printing.   Producer: Dan Irving   Thank you to our sponsor Bob Graesser, Raleigh Civil War Round Table's editor of The Knapsack newsletter and the Round Table's webmaster at http://www.raleighcwrt.org  

About this episode:  There are some sixteen accounts about the life of the President of the Confederacy. Unlike his counterpart, Abraham Lincoln, this President, from the perspective of most historians, has not fared well.  Brittle, ill-tempered, one who held grudges, possessed poor political skills.  In short, a second-rate leader who loved bureaucracy and was unable to grow with responsibility.  When asked why the Confederacy lost the war, Southern-born David Potter, a professor of history at both Yale and Stanford Universities, commented that this Chief Executive should shoulder much of the blame.  Writing some two decades ago, another historian and biographer, William Cooper, Jr., wrote that we should look at a man from his time and not condemn him for not being a man of our time.  Though that seems to fly in the face of current sensitivities and agendas, that is what we, now, shall attempt to do. This is the story of a man, like Robert E. Lee, who is a marquee figurehead for a short-lived nation whose Constitution supported states' rights and slavery.  A man subjected to the bolts of lightning flung his way for being its elected leader.  This is the story of the first and only President of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson F. Davis.     ----more----   Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Joseph Davis Franklin Pierce Howell Cobb William L. Yancey Leonidas Polk Braxton Bragg   For Further Reading: Jefferson Davis, American by William J. Cooper, Jr.   Get The Guide: Want to learn more about the Civil War? A great place to start is Fred's guide, The Civil War: A History of the War between the States from Workman Publishing. The guide is in its 9th printing.   Producer: Dan Irving   Thank you to our sponsor Bob Graesser, Raleigh Civil War Round Table's editor of The Knapsack newsletter and the Round Table's webmaster at http://www.raleighcwrt.org  

About this episode:  It was a Thursday, March 10, 1864, when the brand-spanking new General-in-Chief of all US forces arrived at Brandy Station, Virginia where Major General George Gordon Meade made his headquarters. Fully aware the most pressing military matter was for the Army of the Potomac to forcefully campaign, Lieutenant General U. S. Grant arrived from Washington City to do what he believed he had to do - find a new man to lead the that eastern army. The Pennsylvanian, Meade, expected as much and opened their conversation by offering to uncomplainingly step down and serve in a subordinate role if Grant desired one of his own - perhaps a westerner like Sherman.  Instead, Meade's candor impressed Grant and, whatever the Lieutenant General originally thought about the Army of the Potomac's commander, the two hit it off.  They sensed they could work together.  Up in Washington City, the 16th President of the United States felt certain that, after three years of trial and bloody error, he finally had found his general.  This is the story of his learning curve and role as the nation's top military official.  This is the story of Abraham Lincoln as Commander-in-Chief.  ----more----   Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Elmer Ellsworth Irvin McDowell Henry Halleck Simon Cameron Joseph Hooker Elihu B. Washburne   For Further Reading: Lincoln's War: The Untold Story of America's Greatest President as Commander in Chief by Geoffrey Perrett   Get The Guide: Want to learn more about the Civil War? A great place to start is Fred's guide, The Civil War: A History of the War between the States from Workman Publishing. The guide is in its 9th printing.   Producer: Dan Irving   Thank you to our sponsor Bob Graesser, Raleigh Civil War Round Table's editor of The Knapsack newsletter and the Round Table's webmaster at http://www.raleighcwrt.org  

About this episode:  The former Confederate general entered the ruined city of Richmond from the south and in the midst of a heavy April shower.  His route took him through the portion of city that was most thoroughly burned in the evacuation fires of April 2nd.  People stopped and stared or pointed as he made his way up Main Street.  To them, he tipped his hat. Eventually, he turned and stopped in front of a three-story red brick house at 707 East Franklin.  There, he dismounted Traveller, gave the reins to another, opened the iron gate, walked to the eight steps to the portico, climbed them, turned, took off his muddy hat, bowed to those that had gathered, opened the door and disappeared.  And that, I feel certain, was the way he would have liked it - to move past the war and, for the rest of his days, be a constructive and positive citizen.  However, it seems history won't let him.  This is the story of a man - a marble man who, as of late, has become a lightning rod.  This is the story of the last days of Robert E. Lee. ----more----   Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Jefferson Davis Jacob M. Howard Richard S. Ewell William Lloyd Garrison George Peabody Woodrow Wilson   For Further Reading: Robert E. Lee: A Biography by Emory M. Thomas   Get The Guide: Want to learn more about the Civil War? A great place to start is Fred's guide, The Civil War: A History of the War between the States from Workman Publishing. The guide is in its 9th printing.   Producer: Dan Irving   Thank you to our sponsor Bob Graesser, Raleigh Civil War Round Table's editor of The Knapsack newsletter and the Round Table's webmaster at http://www.raleighcwrt.org  

About this episode:  Just some fifteen miles south of Chattanooga - there in the northwest corner of Georgia - there runs a creek with a harsh name.  Indeed, its Cherokee or Creek origin means “River of Death.”  That name was never more appropriate than in mid-September 1863 when Union and Confederate armies fought as if the entire war hinged on its outcome.  In the end, it may well have, for all the circumstances that flowed from the battle's outcome.  This is the story of the second bloodiest day of the American Civil War.  This is the story of the Battle of Chickamauga. ----more----   Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: William Rosecrans Braxton Bragg Ambrose Burnside George H. Thomas Leonidas Polk James A. Garfield   Additional Resources: Morning, September 19th, 1863   Early Afternoon, September 19th, 1863   Late Afternoon to Dark, September 19th, 1863   9 a.m. to 11 a.m., September 20th, 1863   11 a.m. to Mid-Afternoon, September 20th, 1863   Mid-Afternoon to Dark, September 20th, 1863   Defense of Horseshoe Ridge and Union Retreat, Brigade Details   For Further Reading: This Terrible Sound: The Battle Of Chickamauga by Peter Cozzens   Get The Guide: Want to learn more about the Civil War? A great place to start is Fred's guide, The Civil War: A History of the War between the States from Workman Publishing. The guide is in its 9th printing.   **Title Image by Keith Rocco **Map Images by Hal Jespersen, www.cwmaps.com     Producer: Dan Irving   Thank you to our sponsor Bob Graesser, Raleigh Civil War Round Table's editor of The Knapsack newsletter and the Round Table's webmaster at http://www.raleighcwrt.org  

About this episode:  The two were quite famous. One went to war with weapons and men, and the other could do the same with words and wit - yet their separate paths became one. During this country's great and terrible civil war, U. S. Grant saved the nation. After the war, Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) would save U. S. Grant. This is the story of their remarkable friendship. ----more----   Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Ferdinand Ward William Henry Vanderbilt Richard Watson Gilder Robert Underwood Johnson George Childs George Washington Cable   For Further Reading: Grant and Twain: The Story of an American Friendship by Mark Perry   Get The Guide: Want to learn more about the Civil War? A great place to start is Fred's guide, The Civil War: A History of the War between the States from Workman Publishing. The guide is in its 9th printing.   Producer: Dan Irving   Thank you to our sponsor Bob Graesser, Raleigh Civil War Round Table's editor of The Knapsack newsletter and the Round Table's webmaster at http://www.raleighcwrt.org  

About this episode:  Since its creation, this nation has so embraced several of its victorious generals that it elected them as presidents.  Up until the American Civil War, most notably George Washington, Andrew Jackson and Zachary Taylor come to mind.  This, in the aftermath of war, is the story of another - a man who, like the president he served, came from the humblest of origins and found himself in this nation's highest elected office.  A man, who in many ways, found his political campaigns just as challenging - perhaps even more so - than his military ones.  With a tip of the cap in particular to William McFeely's biography, this is the story of Ulysses S. Grant, who not only was instrumental in winning the American Civil War, but in trying to win the peace that followed. ----more----   Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Andrew Johnson Philip Sheridan Julia Grant Edwin Stanton William T. Sherman Charles Sumner Rutherford B. Hayes Samuel Clemens   Get The Guide: Want to learn more about the Civil War? A great place to start is Fred's guide, The Civil War: A History of the War between the States from Workman Publishing. The guide is in its 9th printing.   Producer: Dan Irving   Thank you to our sponsor Bob Graesser, Raleigh Civil War Round Table's editor of The Knapsack newsletter and the Round Table's webmaster at http://www.raleighcwrt.org  

About this episode:  It was a Sunday, January 11, 1863 when the incredible tedium of blockade duty suddenly lurched into frenzied electricity. Five Federal Navy blockaders off Galveston, Texas had sighted a three-masted ship and, although it was some twenty miles from the fleet, the five-gun USS Hatteras moved to investigate. At about 100 yards, Lt. Commander Homer C. Blake demanded the mystery ship's identity.  In response, someone answered, “This is Her Britannic Majesty's steamer Petrel.” Unimpressed and suspicious, Blake wanted to board and inspect the vessel which was his right under international law. To his request, there was an awkward silence. When the inspection boat from the Hatteras was only a length away from the ship in question, someone, in the twilight of day shouted, “This is the Confederate States steamer Alabama. Fire!” Thirteen minutes and several Confederate rounds later, the Hatteras sank with its colors still flying. The episode: a rare ship-to-ship encounter during the American Civil War and a favorite tactic for the Confederate commerce raider Alabama, whose career has few equals in modern sea warfare. This is its story.  ----more----   Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: James Dunwoody Bulloch Charles Francis Adams Sr. Lord John Russell Raphael Semmes John McIntosh Kell John A. Winslow   Get The Guide: Want to learn more about the Civil War? A great place to start is Fred's guide, The Civil War: A History of the War between the States from Workman Publishing. The guide is in its 9th printing.   Producer: Dan Irving   Thank you to our sponsor Bob Graesser, Raleigh Civil War Round Table's editor of The Knapsack newsletter and the Round Table's webmaster at http://www.raleighcwrt.org  

About this episode:  In mid-April of 1863, Major General Joseph Hooker oozed with confidence. So assured was he about his offensive preparations to defeat and, in his mind, destroy the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, he remarked to a group of his officers, "My plans are perfect, and when I start to carry them out, may God have mercy on General Lee, for I will have none." This is not the story of Joseph Hooker's greatest success, but that of the man he faced. For our 50th podcast, this is the story of Robert E. Lee's greatest and, perhaps, costliest victory. This is the story of Chancellorsville. ----more----   Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Joseph Hooker Daniel Butterfield George H. Sharpe Robert E. Lee James Longstreet Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson George Meade   Additional Resources: Hooker's Plan   Military Situation, April 30th 1863 and Movements Since April 27th   Actions, May 1st, 1863   Actions, May 2nd, 1863   Actions, Early Morning May 3rd, 1863   Actions, 10am - 5pm May 3rd, 1863   Actions, May 4th - May 6th, 1863   Get The Guide: Want to learn more about the Civil War? A great place to start is Fred's guide, The Civil War: A History of the War between the States from Workman Publishing. The guide is in its 9th printing.   **Title Image by Time Life **Map Images 1 & 3-7 by Hal Jespersen, www.cwmaps.com **Map Image 2 by United States Military Academy   Producer: Dan Irving   Thank you to our sponsor Bob Graesser, Raleigh Civil War Round Table's editor of The Knapsack newsletter and the Round Table's webmaster at http://www.raleighcwrt.org  

*Listener discretion advised* About this episode:  There have been more works written on the American Civil War than there have been days since it ended, and the number of topics can be overwhelming. However, one aspect of the military experience has largely been overlooked. Hidden from families and posterity, a topic as timeless as war itself. This episode: sex and the American Civil War. ----more----   Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Charles Lutwidge Dodgson - AKA Lewis Carroll Joseph Hooker Louis Pasteur Walt Whitman Joshua Speed Daniel Sickles   Additional Resources: "Prostitute License" for Anna Johnson   "Prostitute License" for Bettie Duncan   Get The Guide: Want to learn more about the Civil War? A great place to start is Fred's guide, The Civil War: A History of the War between the States from Workman Publishing. The guide is in its 9th printing.   Producer: Dan Irving   Thank you to our sponsor Bob Graesser, Raleigh Civil War Round Table's editor of The Knapsack newsletter and the Round Table's webmaster at http://www.raleighcwrt.org  

About this episode:  James Murray Mason was a Virginian. As a former member of the U.S. Senate, he once served as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. His credentials made him a natural selection for a diplomatic mission to London as a representative for the Confederate States of America. Then there was John Slidell, a native New Yorker, who moved to Louisiana where, as a young man, he embraced the French language and culture. He, too, was perfect for his assignment to Paris - to the court of Napoleon III. In November of 1861, they made their way on a mission which, if successful, would create a tipping point that would have profound consequences for the American Civil War. Then an event in the Bahama Channel abruptly interrupted their journey. Found on a British vessel, they were captured in international waters by a US armed sloop and, because of that, the two came the closest to accomplishing their designated mission long before they ever arrived. This is their story and the incredible ramifications of their capture. This is the story of the Trent Affair. ----more----   Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerson Napoleon III Robert Barnwell Rhett Queen Victoria Charles Francis Adams Sr. James Murray Mason John Slidell Charles Wilkes   Get The Guide: Want to learn more about the Civil War? A great place to start is Fred's guide, The Civil War: A History of the War between the States from Workman Publishing. The guide is in its 9th printing.   Producer: Dan Irving   Thank you to our sponsor Bob Graesser, Raleigh Civil War Round Table's editor of The Knapsack newsletter and the Round Table's webmaster at http://www.raleighcwrt.org  

About this episode:  In July of 1863, Major General Henry Halleck posed a question to a fellow Major General, one who was encamped along the big, black river down in Mississippi. Asked about the continued depth of Confederate resistance after the fall of Vicksburg, William Tecumseh Sherman answered that he felt Confederate belligerence would continue until southerners were made to suffer for a conflict he firmly believed they started. As he put it, “war is upon us, none can deny it. I would not coax them or meet them halfway, but make them so sick of war that generations would pass away before they would again appeal to it.” By the end of 1864, after his capture and firing of Atlanta, and his 60 mile-wide path of destruction across Georgia, Sherman most certainly was doing his part to make southerners sick of the war. And now, as January gave way to February in 1865, he was about to make them even sicker. This is the story of Sherman's march north from Savannah. This is the story of his Carolinas Campaign. ----more----   Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: John Schofield Braxton Bragg Wade Hampton III Henry W. Slocum Joseph E. Johnston Orlando M. Poe   Get The Guide: Want to learn more about the Civil War? A great place to start is Fred's guide, The Civil War: A History of the War between the States from Workman Publishing. The guide is in its 9th printing.   Producer: Dan Irving  

About this episode:  On Wednesday, November 16, 1864, Major General William Tecumseh Sherman initiated a campaign that, as one military publication would put it, was either “one of the most brilliant or one of the most foolish things ever performed by a military leader.” Only eight days after Abraham Lincoln was re-elected, some 62,000 left behind a smoldering Atlanta and headed east for Savannah. As Sherman put it, “My first object was…to place my army in the very heart of Georgia.” And, indeed, he did just that and more. This is its story. Here, in Part II, this is the story of Sherman's March to the Sea. ----more----   Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Howell Cobb William J. Hardee Henry Slocum Jefferson C. Davis Gabriel J. Rains P. G. T. Beauregard   Additional Resources: Map, Sherman's March to the Sea: November 15th - December 20th, 1864   Get The Guide: Want to learn more about the Civil War? A great place to start is Fred's guide, The Civil War: A History of the War between the States from Workman Publishing. The guide is in its 9th printing.   Producer: Dan Irving  

About this episode:  In the same month that Abraham Lincoln was re-elected, Major-General William Tecumseh Sherman began a campaign that cut a swath through the very heart of Dixie. Severing his supply line and committed to living off the country, he hoped to break the will of Southern resistance and knock Georgia out of the war. This episode, Part I, details the military chessboard that was late summer and fall of 1864 - the moves and calculations that had to occur in order to breathe life into Sherman's plans. This is the story of the principals and conditions by which one of the most remarkable campaigns in American military history came about. This is the story of how Sherman's March to the Sea became a reality. ----more----   Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: William Tecumseh Sherman Franz Sigel Mary Boykin Chesnut James Calhoun William Joseph Hardee John Schofield   **Title Image by Mort Künstler   Get The Guide: Want to learn more about the Civil War? A great place to start is Fred's guide, The Civil War: A History of the War between the States from Workman Publishing. The guide is in its 9th printing.   Producer: Dan Irving  

About this episode:  Major-General Patrick Ronayne Cleburne was a native of the green jewel that is Ireland and commanded a division in the Confederate Army of Tennessee. For his military prowess, he was tabbed the “Stonewall of the West”, yet the warrior was often reserved and sentimental. That surfaced the day before the Battle of Franklin when he and his adjutant paused in a little village named Ashwood. There they found St. John's Episcopal Church. Small and quaint, it was nestled in a grove, framed by ivy and, though late in fall, with flowers. Adding to the pastoral scene, there was fresh shrubbery - so very green when contrasted with the bleak, gray November sky. Cleburne reined in his horse at the church and, admiring the scene, and mused just loud enough for his adjutant to hear “that [the beauty here was] 'almost worth dying, to be buried in such a beautiful spot.'” With his time on earth now measured, in hours, his wish would soon come true. And, symbolically, in only five hours on the 30th of November, 1864, so too would the effective lifespan of an entire army. This is the story of the mortal wounding of the Confederate Army of Tennessee. This is the story of the Battle of Franklin. ----more----   Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: John Bell Hood George Henry Thomas Benjamin Franklin Cheatham John McAllister Schofield Emerson Opdycke Patrick Cleburne   **Title Image by Don Troiani   Get The Guide: Want to learn more about the Civil War? A great place to start is Fred's guide, The Civil War: A History of the War between the States from Workman Publishing. The guide is in its 9th printing.   Producer: Dan Irving  

About this episode:  While most history enthusiasts are aware that Virginia was the leading theater of the war, many of those same people are surprised when they learn that Tennessee was second.  Indeed, the Western Theater of the American Civil War is shamefully neglected, despite the fact that it was in that theater where battles were fought and won that mortally wounded the Confederacy.  The Battle of Nashville in December of 1864 was, perhaps, the most significant in helping to bring the South to its knees and the Federal officer who led that victorious army has, like the theater in which he was engaged, been overlooked.  This episode hopes to bring attention and kudos to him.  An officer that former naval commander and historian, Thomas Buell, noted was unique - a Southerner who not only remained loyal to the Union but contributed mightily to its winning the war.  Our story is about a Virginian who, despite his state's secession, chose blue: George Henry Thomas. ----more----   Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Henry Halleck Don Carlos Buell Braxton Bragg William Starke Rosecrans Philip Sheridan Gordon Granger   For Additional Reading: Thomas Buell, The Warrior Generals: Combat Leadership in the Civil War, 1998   Get The Guide: Want to learn more about the Civil War? A great place to start is Fred's guide, The Civil War: A History of the War between the States from Workman Publishing. The guide is in its 9th printing.   Producer: Dan Irving  

About this episode:  While actual combat was, indeed, nightmarish, being at home - helpless, constantly wondering about loved ones, fending for one's selves - proved to be equally harrowing.  That particularly was the case in the American South - the Confederacy - which served as the primary stage for the four-year-long conflict.  And so we return to those eleven seceded states whose political leaders sought independence but, instead, sowed the seeds and reaped the whirlwind for Southern turmoil and destruction. ----more----   Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Judah P. Benjamin George Washington Rains Sidney Lanier Blind Tom Bethune Benjamin Butler Alexander H. Stephens   Get The Guide: Want to learn more about the Civil War? A great place to start is Fred's guide, The Civil War: A History of the War between the States from Workman Publishing. The guide is in its 9th printing.   Producer: Dan Irving  

About this episode:  While fighting raged at the front, loved ones back home waged their own battles. While worried about those in uniform, each day brought the additional burden of trying to cope with and find meaning to the all-consuming consequences of civil war. Here: the efforts, the people, and personalities of those on the Northern home front. ----more----   Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Clement L. Vallandigham Salmon Chase Andrew Carnegie John D. Rockefeller Elizabeth Blackwell Frederick Law Olmstead   Get The Guide: Want to learn more about the Civil War? A great place to start is Fred's guide, The Civil War: A History of the War between the States from Workman Publishing. The guide is in its 9th printing.   Producer: Dan Irving  

About this episode:  In 1948, the Southern novelist, William Faulkner, wrote in Intruder in the Dust, ”For every Southern boy fourteen years old, not once but whenever he wants it, there is the instant when it's still not yet two o'clock on that July afternoon in 1863, the brigades are in position behind the rail fence, the guns are laid and ready in the woods and the furled flags are already loosened to break out and Pickett himself with his long oiled ringlets and his hat in one hand probably and his sword in the other looking up the hill waiting for Longstreet to give the word…”  Such was the weight and power of events that unfolded on Friday afternoon, July 3rd, 1863.  This is how it came to pass. ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: James Longstreet George E. Pickett Lewis Addison Armistead Joseph R. Davis Isaac R. Trimble John M. Brockenbrough Abner Doubleday   For Additional Reading: George R. Stewart, Pickett's Charge, 1991   Allen C. Guelzo, Gettysburg: The Last Invasion, 2014   Stephen W. Sears, Gettysburg, 2004   Get The Guide: Want to learn more about the Civil War? A great place to start is Fred's guide, The Civil War: A History of the War between the States from Workman Publishing. The guide is in its 9th printing.   Producer: Dan Irving  

About this episode:  On Thursday, July 2, 1863, the Battle of Gettysburg tumbled into its second day.  What on Wednesday, the 1st, had been a meeting engagement was now a set battle - one with far more men on the scene and still much at stake.  On this day, Robert E. Lee and George Gordon Meade would experience the crushing weight of responsibility and loneliness of command - both issuing orders which placed tens of thousands into harm's way.  And when those orders were misinterpreted or went awry: anguish from thousands who suffered the convoluted and bloody consequences.  Such were the clashes this day that geographical features, fields, and orchards would be added to this nation's list of iconic landmarks - the Round Tops, Devil's Den, the Peach Orchard, Cemetery Ridge, Culp's and Cemetery Hills.  This is the story of some of those men and their units that transformed those landmarks into hallowed ground. ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: J.E.B. Stuart Lafayette McLaws Daniel Sickles Winfield Scott Hancock Joshua Chamberlain Edward E. Cross   **Painting by Don Troiani   Get The Guide: Want to learn more about the Civil War? A great place to start is Fred's guide, The Civil War: A History of the War between the States from Workman Publishing. The guide is in its 9th printing.   Producer: Dan Irving  

About this episode:  From the Battle of Gettysburg, there are as many stories as participants. For this episode, selections from the first day: stories about the first shot, the arrival and instantaneous death of a Union corps commander, the desperate struggle for a flag, an unlikely 69-year-old volunteer, and two infantry regiments savagely engaged - the men of the 26th North Carolina and the 24th Michigan. All actors in a great historical drama, and played out - just as we are - as human beings. ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Joseph Hooker John F. Reynolds John Burns Henry King Burgwyn John R. Lane Richard Ewell   Other References From This Episode: Actions on Day 1 of The Battle of Gettysburg: July 1st, 1863 Get The Guide: Want to learn more about the Civil War? A great place to start is Fred's guide, The Civil War: A History of the War between the States from Workman Publishing. The guide is in its 9th printing.   Producer: Dan Irving

About this episode:  It was a Tuesday, April 11, 1865 - only two day after Robert E. Lee had surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia.  Down in North Carolina, with Major General William T. Sherman’s relentless blue wave only some 30 miles to the southeast of Raleigh, NC, Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston’s men of the Army of Tennessee began to march in and through the Old North State’s capital.  Women, lining both sides of Raleigh’s Fayetteville Street, greeted them.  They handed out meat, bread and tobacco.  On the western edge of town, a favorite place for soldiers to linger as they poured westward - at St. Mary’s, a school for women - where dozens of young ladies doled out food, water and encouragement.  Before them, Johnston’s ragtag force acted soldierly but, one of the young ladies, unable to mask the reality of what she was witnessing, gasped, “My God! Is this the funeral procession of the Southern Confederacy?”  Indeed, it was, for Johnston and Sherman’s men were on the final stretch of road that would lead to a rustic dwelling near Durham’s Station - the Bennett Place.  There in the North Carolina Piedmont region was the humblest of stages for the surrender of the last major Confederate army and, numerically speaking, the largest surrender of the great and terrible American Civil War.  Here, the story of those last days.   ----more----   Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode:  Zebulon Vance David L. Swain George Stoneman Smith D. Atkins John A. Logan William H. Battle   For Further Reading - May We Suggest: This Astounding Close: The Road to Bennett Place by Mark L. Bradley   Get The Guide: Want to learn more about the Civil War? A great place to start is Fred's guide, The Civil War: A History of the War between the States from Workman Publishing. The guide is in its 9th printing.   Producer: Dan Irving

About this episode:  The stage: the town of Alton in southern Illinois. The date of the act committed:  the 7th of November, 1837. On that Tuesday, an angry mob murdered Elijah Lovejoy, the Presbyterian minister who was the founder of the Illinois State Anti-Slave Society. Two days later, some 500 miles east in Hudson Ohio, a church congregation held a memorial service to honor the murdered activist. Owen Brown opened the gathering with a long, tearful prayer. At its conclusion, there was a long silence. Then, in the back, Owen Brown’s son rose and, stiffly, raised his right hand, then vowed, “Here before God, in the presence of these witnesses, I consecrate my life to the destruction of slavery.” It was 37-year-old John Brown’s first public statement on the inflammatory issue and, as time would tell, his message and actions would be ominous. And yet, on that Tuesday and in that service, this was John Brown of Hudson, Ohio.  It would take time and events to fully create the John Brown of “Bleeding” Kansas and Harpers Ferry.  From crusader to Old Testament avenging angel, this is his story. ----more----   Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode:  Gerrit Smith John Brown, Jr. William Lloyd Garrison Frederick Douglass John B. Floyd Watson Brown   Get The Guide: Want to learn more about the Civil War? A great place to start is Fred's guide, The Civil War: A History of the War between the States from Workman Publishing. The guide is in its 9th printing.   Producer: Dan Irving