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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.     

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Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode:

Julia Ward Howe

George Frederick Root

Patrick Gilmore

Henry Clay Work

Stephen Foster

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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. 

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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.    

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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

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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. 

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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

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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. 

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Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode:

Montgomery C. Meigs

William Hoffman

Henry Halleck

Thomas Rose

Henry Wirz

Edwin Stanton

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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. 

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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.

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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