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

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.

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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. 

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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, 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.

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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.

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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