Uncovering the Civil War

Join us as we uncover one of the most fascinating friendships between two well-known Americans: Mark Twain and Ulysses S. Grant. By the summer of 1884, Grant was broke and secretly dying of esophageal cancer. Worried about leaving his family destitute, he decided to write his memoirs at the urging of Mark Twain, who offered to publish them and give Grant an unheard of 75% royalty. The memoirs became best sellers and kept the Grant family out of poverty. Dr. Ron White is our guest as we discuss the unlikely friendship between the humorist and the general and uncover the truth about Grant's presidency and Reconstruction.

In this episode we uncover Rutherford B. Hayes and learn how he came to be known as the “Man of the Middle.” Dustin McLochlin, curator of Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums, joins us for a fascinating examination of Hayes’s surprising impact on the United States as the country recovered from the Civil War.

Dr. Jonathan White joins us to discuss one of the mysteries of the Civil War: why wasn't the Supreme Court more active during the conflict, which would seem to be the definition of a constitutional crisis? Join us as we seek to uncover the tension between Abraham Lincoln and the Supreme Court in this little examined corner of US Civil War history.

Our guest Dr. Clarissa Confer joins us for a fascinating discussion on the Civil War and its impact on Native Americans. We take a deeper dive into how the conflict devastated the Cherokee Nation, which had just suffered through the Trail of Tears only to be swept up in what became truly a "brothers' war" for members of the tribe. Please join us!

In our second part of our conversation with Dr. Judith Giesberg, author of "Sex and the Civil War: Soldiers, Pornography, and the Making of American Morality," we dive even deeper into how the Civil War coincided with the mass production of pornographic materials that were easily disseminated to soldiers, and how the American public reacted to what they saw as a menace to public morality and values.

In the last of our three part series on uncovering the press during the Civil War, we talk to Dr. Debra van Tuyll, author of "Journalism in the Fallen Confederacy" and "The Confederate Press in the Crucible of the American Civil War." Join us for a fascinating discussion as we look at how the Confederacy shaped and molded its news coverage of the Civil War.

Our guest this episode is Dr. David Sachsman, author of "A Press Divided: Newspaper Coverage of the Civil War." Join us for an in-depth conversation about propaganda, censorship, “Fake News,” journalistic ethics, and objectivity - both then and now.

Please join us as we start a three part series on journalism during the Civil War. In our first episode, our guest Dr. Ford Risley talks to us about the state of the press in the north, from abolition to jailing journalists. Dr. Risley is a professor of communications and associate dean of the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications at Penn State University. He is the author or editor of three books, including Civil War Journalism and Abolition and the Press: The Moral Struggle Against Slavery. His latest book, “Dear Courier”: The Newspaper Correspondence of Editor Melvin Dwinell," will be published in 2018.

Please join us and our guest, Jim Burgess, for a fascinating discussion on the weapons of the Civil War. Jim Burgess works for the National Park Service as a museum specialist at Manassas National Battlefield Park and has served there continuously since 1980. Among his various duties, he supervises the park's historic weapons program of musket and artillery firing demonstrations. Jim's knowledge of Civil War firearms is drawn from 44 years of experience shooting such arms in North-South Skirmish Association live fire competition. He is also a member of the Society of American Bayonet Collectors and a past president of the Virginia Gun Collectors Association.

Join us as we talk to our guest Steven Siler, chef and author of "Hardtack and Haversack: Recipes and Their Stories From the American Civil War." Steven has also written over twenty best-selling “Signature Tastes” cookbooks, and he has a new book recently released in 2017, “Palmettos and Pluffmud: Tales of a Lost Lowcountry Life.” He is also a firefighter in Bellingham, Washington. Help us uncover what they ate during the Civil War!