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

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

Bentonville: The Final Battle of Sherman and Johnston by Nathaniel Cheairs Hughes 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

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.

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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.

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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.  

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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. 

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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.

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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 it.  This is the story of the second bloodiest day of the American Civil War.  This is the story of the Battle of Chickamauga.

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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.

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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