The Antietam and Beyond Podcast

In this special 162nd battle anniversary edition of the podcast, co-hosts Tom McMillan and John Banks dive into some of their favorite soldier stories — from the United States soldier who carved his name into a window sill at the Dunker Church to four soldiers who wrote to loved ones as they lay mortally wounded on the battlefield and others.

"7 AM at which I am wounded," one of the them, a soldier from Michigan, wrote in his journal. "This is written on the spot wherein I lay. May God bless me and forgive all my sins, through Jesus Christ."

The podcast is sponsored by Civil War Trails, which since 1994 has connected visitors with small towns and big stories across a network that now spans six states.

Join McMillan and Banks for regular podcasts about Antietam, the Maryland Campaign and the Civil War — the most compelling period in American history.

McMillan is author of Our Flag Was Still There and other books. Banks is author of A Civil War Road Trip Of A Lifetime. Find them on Facebook at Author Tom McMillan and John Banks' Civil War Blog. Banks' popular Civil War blog is here.

On Episode 21 of "The Antietam And Beyond Podcast," Antietam Institute president Chris Vincent visits with co-hosts Tom McMillan and John Banks about battlefield farmsteads, his 132nd Pennsylvania ancestor, The Final Attack Trail, the upcoming Institute fall conference and much more. Vincent and his wife, Amy, own the historic Jacob Rohrbach Inn bed & breakfast in Sharpsburg, Md.

For information on the Antietam Institute, go here. | For information on the Jacob Rohrbach Inn, go here.

The podcast is sponsored by Civil War Trails, which since 1994 has connected visitors with small towns and big stories across a network that now spans six states.

Join McMillan and Banks for regular podcasts about Antietam, the Maryland Campaign and the Civil War — the most compelling period in American history.

McMillan is author of Our Flag Was Still There and other books. Banks is author of A Civil War Road Trip Of A Lifetime. Find them on Facebook at Author Tom McMillan and John Banks' Civil War Blog. Banks' popular Civil War blog is here.

On Episode 20 of "The Antietam And Beyond Podcast," Bob Kalasky, author of Shadows of Antietam, talks with co-host John Banks about his groundbreaking photographic work on the battlefield. (Co-host Tom McMillan is on vacation in Ireland.) 

Kalasky — “The Shadow King” — is a leader in a unique subset of Civil War buffs and historians: the photo nerd. Several times a year, the professional massage therapist makes a 3 1/2-hour drive from his home in Ohio to the Antietam battlefield in western Maryland to prove or disprove a photo theory.

At Antietam, he has slept in his car, endured the landing nearby of a tornado and even watched in awe as three banks of fog moved around him and living historians. A supernatural force, perhaps?

True story: After John purchased Kalasky’s book, family CFO Mrs. B spied “massage” on his credit card bill. She gave him the side eye for at least 24 hours.

Buy Kalasky's book from The Kent State University Press.

The podcast is sponsored by Civil War Trails, which since 1994 has connected visitors with small towns and big stories across a network that now spans six states.

Join McMillan and Banks for regular podcasts about Antietam, the Maryland Campaign and the Civil War — the most compelling period in American history.

McMillan is author of Our Flag Was Still There and other books. Banks is author of A Civil War Road Trip Of A Lifetime. Find them on Facebook at Author Tom McMillan and John Banks' Civil War Blog. Banks' popular Civil War blog is here.

In a freewheeling discussion, Dana Shoaf talks with co-hosts (and fellow Pittsburghers) Tom McMillan and John Banks about Dr. Jonathan Letterman, medical services at Antietam, Civil War ambulances and the National Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick, Md., where he serves as director of interpretation. Shoaf, the former editor for Civil War Times magazine (R.I.P.), lives near the South Mountain (Md.) battlefields, where he occasionally hears the boom of reenactors' cannon.

For more information on the National Museum Of Civil War Medicine, go here.

The podcast is sponsored by Civil War Trails, which since 1994 has connected visitors with small towns and big stories across a network that now spans six states.

Join McMillan and Banks for regular podcasts about Antietam, the Maryland Campaign and the Civil War — the most compelling period in American history.

McMillan is author of Our Flag Was Still There and other books. Banks is author of A Civil War Road Trip Of A Lifetime. Find them on Facebook at Author Tom McMillan and John Banks' Civil War Blog. Banks' popular Civil War blog is here.

On Episode 18 of "The Antietam And Beyond Podcast," Antietam On The Web creator Brian Downey talks with co-hosts John Banks and Tom McMillan about his remarkable web site on the battle. Downey's longtime labor of love features bios and roughly 2,000 photos of soldiers who fought at Antietam, a searchable database, battle maps, a blog and much more.

"It's an obsessive sort of thing," Downey says of AOTW.

Plus, Tom gives a shout-out to listener Devan and John talks about his recent visit to Decatur, Ala. 

The podcast is sponsored by Civil War Trails, which since 1994 has connected visitors with small towns and big stories across a network that now spans six states.

Join McMillan and Banks for regular podcasts about Antietam, the Maryland Campaign and the Civil War — the most compelling period in American history.

McMillan is author of Our Flag Was Still There and other books. Banks is author of A Civil War Road Trip Of A Lifetime. Find them on Facebook at Author Tom McMillan and John Banks' Civil War Blog. Banks' popular Civil War blog is here.

In a freewheeling Episode 17 of "The Antietam And Beyond Podcast," co-hosts and published authors John Banks and Tom McMillan talk about approaches to writing about history, Confederate Brig. Gen. Lewis Armistead at Antietam, what motivates them to return to the battlefield again and again and much more.

The podcast is sponsored by Civil War Trails, which since 1994 has connected visitors with small towns and big stories across a network that now spans six states.

Join McMillan and Banks for regular podcasts about Antietam, the Maryland Campaign and the Civil War — the most compelling period in American history.

McMillan is author of Our Flag Was Still There and other books. Banks is author of A Civil War Road Trip Of A Lifetime. Find them on Facebook at Author Tom McMillan and John Banks' Civil War Blog. Banks' popular Civil War blog is here.

On Episode 16 of "The Antietam And Beyond Podcast," Gettysburg licensed battlefield guide Larry Korczyk talks with co-hosts John Banks and Tom McMillan about the many ties between the battles at Gettysburg and Antietam. Plus, we have a brief discussion of Korczyk's real gig (think Robert DeNiro movie), talk about following in the footsteps of A.P. Hill from Harpers Ferry to Sharpsburg and much more.

Korczyk co-authored Top Ten at Gettysburg, published March 2017. Since 2002, he has reenacted with the 2nd Rhode Island Infantry Volunteers, acting as company commander.  A longstanding member of the Robert E. Lee Civil War Round Table and chairman of the James I. Robertson Jr. Literary Prize for Confederate History, Korczyk shows his passion for history in each battlefield tour he gives.

The podcast is sponsored by Civil War Trails, which since 1994 has connected visitors with small towns and big stories across a network that now spans six states.

Join McMillan and Banks for regular podcasts about Antietam, the Maryland Campaign and the Civil War — the most compelling period in American history.

McMillan is author of the recently released Our Flag Was Still There. Banks is author of the recently released A Civil War Road Trip Of A Lifetime. Find them on Facebook at Author Tom McMillan and John Banks' Civil War Blog. Banks' popular Civil War blog is here.

In Episode 15 of "The Antietam And Beyond Podcast," renowned Antietam historian Dennis Frye and Troy Cool talk with podcast co-host John Banks about their historic properties near the Antietam battlefield. (Podcast co-host Tom McMillan is on vacation.)

Frye's house served as Ambrose Burnside's headquarters in the battle's aftermath, and in early October 1862, President Lincoln visited the general there.

Cool and his wife, Emily, live in a historic house on a farm that served as a major hospital site for the Union Army's Ninth Corps. On Sept. 15, 1862, two days before the battle, the Ninth Corps bivouacked on the property.

Frye, former chief historian at Harpers Ferry National Historic Park, is the author of many books, including Antietam Shadows: Mystery, Myth & Machination and Harpers Ferry Under Fire: A Border Town in the American Civil War. Check out his books on Amazon.com.

The podcast is sponsored by Civil War Trails, which since 1994 has connected visitors with small towns and big stories across a network that now spans six states.

Join McMillan and Banks for regular podcasts about Antietam, the Maryland Campaign and the Civil War — the most compelling period in American history.

McMillan is author of the recently released Our Flag Was Still There. Banks is author of the recently released A Civil War Road Trip Of A Lifetime. Find them on Facebook at Author Tom McMillan and John Banks' Civil War Blog. Banks' popular Civil War blog is here.

In Episode 14 of "The Antietam And Beyond Podcast," author/historian Steve Stotelmyer — an Antietam battlefield guide and "Wise guy" — talks with co-hosts John Banks and Tom McMillan about the legend of Daniel Wise's well (or was it a cistern?) at Fox's Gap, Robert E. Lee's serious injuries during the Maryland Campaign, unheralded battles in western Maryland (Hagan's Gap!) leading up to Antietam, Jesse Reno's death and much more.

Stotelmyer authored The Bivouacs of the Dead: The Story of Those Who Died at Antietam and South Mountain (Toomey Press), Too Useful to Sacrifice: Reconsidering George B. McClellan’s Generalship in the Maryland Campaign from South Mountain to Antietam (Savas Beatie) and From Frederick to Sharpsburg: People, Places, and Events of the Maryland Campaign Before Antietam (Antietam Institute). Go here to purchase on Amazon.com or click on publishers above.

The podcast is sponsored by Civil War Trails, which since 1994 has connected visitors with small towns and big stories across a network that now spans six states.

Join McMillan and Banks for regular podcasts about Antietam, the Maryland Campaign and the Civil War — the most compelling period in American history.

McMillan is author of the recently released Our Flag Was Still There. Banks is author of the recently released A Civil War Road Trip Of A Lifetime. Find them on Facebook at Author Tom McMillan and John Banks' Civil War Blog. Banks' popular Civil War blog is here.

In Episode 13 of "The Antietam And Beyond Podcast," military history book publisher Ted Savas — who's also a historian and passionate rock musician — talks with co-hosts John Banks and Tom McMillan about some of the more than a dozen Antietam books he has published. In the freewheeling chat, he also talks about the unheralded Virginia battlefield — a "little Shiloh," he calls it — that he helped re-discover in the 1980s. (On the battlefield, he and a friend unearthed roughly 2,000 artifacts — with the landowner's permission.) Plus, he explains the process for those who want to write a military history book. (Hint: Be in love with your project.)

• Visit the Savas Beatie web site here. 
• Explore Savas Beatie's Antietam books here.

The podcast is sponsored by Civil War Trails, which since 1994 has connected visitors with small towns and big stories across a network that now spans six states.

Join McMillan and Banks for regular podcasts about Antietam, the Maryland Campaign and the Civil War — the most compelling period in American history.

McMillan is author of the recently released Our Flag Was Still There. Banks is author of the recently released A Civil War Road Trip Of A Lifetime. Find them on Facebook at Author Tom McMillan and John Banks' Civil War Blog. Banks' popular Civil War blog is here.