The American Civil War remains one of the most pivotal and complex periods in our history. While much has been written, countless fascinating questions still spark our curiosity. In our podcast Civil War Curious, we enlist expert historians to answer your lingering questions about the conflict.

On this episode, we're joined by Jonathan S. Jones, an assistant professor of history at James Madison University whose scholarship investigates the aftershocks of the Civil War in American society, culture, and medicine. His first book, Opium Slavery: Civil War Veterans and America's First Opioid Crisis, is forthcoming from the University of North Carolina Press. He discusses the causes and prevalence of postwar drug addiction among Union and Confederate veterans.

©2025 by The Civil War Monitor. All rights reserved.

The American Civil War remains one of the most pivotal and complex periods in our history. While much has been written, countless fascinating questions still spark our curiosity. In our podcast Civil War Curious, we enlist expert historians to answer your lingering questions about the conflict.

On this episode, we're joined by Kevin M. Levin, a historian and educator based in Boston. He is the author of numerous books and articles on the Civil War, including Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth (UNC Press, 2019). He discusses the nature of black men's service in the Confederate military during the Civil War.

©2025 by The Civil War Monitor. All rights reserved.

The American Civil War remains one of the most pivotal and complex periods in our history. While much has been written, countless fascinating questions still spark our curiosity. In our podcast Civil War Curious, we enlist expert historians to answer your lingering questions about the conflict.

On this episode, we're joined by D. Scott Hartwig, former supervisory park historian at Gettysburg National Military Park and author of I Dread the Thought of the Place: The Battle of Antietam and the End of the Maryland Campaign (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2023). He discusses Union general George McClellan’s slow pursuit of Robert E. Lee’s army after the Battle of Antietam.

©2025 by The Civil War Monitor. All rights reserved.

The American Civil War remains one of the most pivotal and complex periods in our history. While much has been written, countless fascinating questions still spark our curiosity. In our podcast Civil War Curious, we enlist expert historians to answer your lingering questions about the conflict.

On this episode, we're joined by D. Scott Hartwig, former supervisory park historian at Gettysburg National Military Park and author of I Dread the Thought of the Place: The Battle of Antietam and the End of the Maryland Campaign (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2023). He weighs in on whether George McClellan acted swiftly enough after receiving a copy of Robert E. Lee's operational orders for the 1862 Maryland Campaign.

©2025 by The Civil War Monitor. All rights reserved.

The American Civil War remains one of the most pivotal and complex periods in our history. While much has been written, countless fascinating questions still spark our curiosity. In our podcast Civil War Curious, we enlist expert historians to answer your lingering questions about the conflict.

On this episode, we're joined by Court Carney is a professor of history at Stephen F. Austin State University and the author of Reckoning with the Devil: Nathan Bedford Forrest in Myth and Memory (LSU Press, 2024). He discuss why Nathan Bedford Forrest was not held accountable for the massacre of black soldiers at the Battle of Fort Pillow.

©2025 by The Civil War Monitor. All rights reserved.

The American Civil War remains one of the most pivotal and complex periods in our history. While much has been written, countless fascinating questions still spark our curiosity. In our podcast Civil War Curious, we enlist expert historians to answer your lingering questions about the conflict.

On this episode, we're joined by Eric Michael Burke, a U.S. Army combat infantry veteran of the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan and a historian of culture and warfare in Europe and the Americas. His first book, Soldiers from Experience: The Forging of Sherman's Fifteenth Army Corps, 1862–1863, was published by LSU Press in 2022. He answers questions about the lives of Civil War soldiers and the weapons they used.

©2025 by The Civil War Monitor. All rights reserved.

The American Civil War remains one of the most pivotal and complex periods in our history. While much has been written, countless fascinating questions still spark our curiosity. In our podcast Civil War Curious, we enlist expert historians to answer your lingering questions about the conflict.

On this episode, we're joined Jessie Wheedleton, a Licensed Battlefield Guide at Gettysburg National Military Park, a position she's held since 2018. Wheedleton answers questions about Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain's performance at the Battle of Gettysburg.

©2025 by The Civil War Monitor. All rights reserved.

The American Civil War remains one of the most pivotal and complex periods in our history. While much has been written, countless fascinating questions still spark our curiosity. In our podcast Civil War Curious, we enlist expert historians to answer your lingering questions about the conflict.

On this episode, we're joined Megan L. Bever, an associate professor of history at Missouri Southern State University and the author of At War with King Alcohol: Debating Drinking and Masculinity in the Civil War (2022). Bever discusses the prevalence of alcohol in Civil War armies and the many issues that resulted from its presence.

©2025 by The Civil War Monitor. All rights reserved.

The American Civil War remains one of the most pivotal and complex periods in our history. While much has been written, countless fascinating questions still spark our curiosity. In our podcast Civil War Curious, we enlist expert historians to answer your lingering questions about the conflict.

On this episode, we're joined by Jennifer M. Murray, an assistant professor of history and director of the George Tyler Moore Center for the Study of the Civil War at Shepherd University who is working on a biography of Union general George G. Meade. Murray joins us to discuss whether she views Antietam or Gettysburg as the more significant turning point in the U.S. Civil War.

©2025 by The Civil War Monitor. All rights reserved.

The American Civil War remains one of the most pivotal and complex periods in our history. While much has been written, countless fascinating questions still spark our curiosity. In our podcast Civil War Curious, we enlist expert historians to answer your lingering questions about the conflict.

On this episode, we're joined by George Rable, professor emeritus at the University of Alabama and author of a number of critically acclaimed books on the Civil War era, including God's Almost Chosen Peoples A Religious History of the American Civil War (2010). Rable answers questions about the importance of religion during the Civil War, including how faith helped motivate Union and Confederate soldiers to enter—and remain in—the fight.

©2025 by The Civil War Monitor. All rights reserved.