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64: Grant's Overland Campaign: The Battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, & Petersburg May 11, 2020

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“I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer.”

This is the story of hard fights and harder losses.

It’s early 1864, and battle-proven, newly promoted Ulysses S. Grant is now over the whole army, and he’s launching an ambitious plan: the Overland Campaign. He’ll wage several battles in Virginia as other generals strike other parts of the Confederacy. The losses are staggering. Not only will tens of thousands of men lose life or limb, but one particularly influential and beloved Confederate leader won’t make it out alive.

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Bonus: A Chat about Southern Accents w/ Jeremy Collins from "Podcasts We Listen To" May 06, 2020

Show notes

History can touch on present-day issues, and rather than duck away from such discomforts, Greg has always been stupid enough to try to hit them straight on. Indulging that stupidity today, Greg sat down with born-and-bred Southerner Jeremy Collins from the podcast, "Podcasts We Listen To," to discuss the South; particularly, Southern accents. Whether you've never been south of the Mason-Dixon Line or are as Southern as Jeremy, we hope you learn from and enjoy this honest, candid, and jovial chat.

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63: Wounded and Dying: Nurses, Doctors, and Disease in the Civil War Apr 27, 2020

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“I had never severed the nerves and fibers of human flesh.”

This is the story of Civil War medicine. At the start of the war, the wounded sometimes lay on the field of battle for days hoping for help. Some die slowly and painfully from exposure and thirst. Others are robbed as their life expires. The divided nation has new, deadlier guns, but medical treatment has changed. It’s a deadly combination.

Both sides step up. The Union’s new “Ambulance Corps” sets a new standard for battlefield first aid as the newly created US Sanitary Commission improves policy. The CSA’s “Infirmary Corps” and regional organizations make similar improvements. North and South, women save countless soldiers as they enter a new medical profession: “nursing.”

But most surgeons don’t believe “refined ladies” should be working in this professional role. Some intentionally make life downright miserable for these female patriots. Luckily for the wounded, these women don’t break easily.

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62: The War in Tennessee: Chickamauga and Chattanooga Apr 13, 2020

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“Gloom and unspoken despondency hang like a pall everywhere.”

This is the story of personalities.

Union General William “Old Rosy” Rosecrans takes on Confederate General Braxton Bragg out in Tennessee. Their clash at the Battle of Chickamauga is among the deadliest of the whole war.

The aftermath is anything but straightforward. Short-tempered as ever, Braxton Bragg is clashing with his generals, particularly Nathan Bedford Forest and James “Old Pete” Longstreet. CSA President Jefferson Davis even pays them a visit in the field to try and keep the peace! Meanwhile, US President Abraham Lincoln and War Secretary Edwin “Mars” Stanton aren’t seeing eye to eye on what to do in the Volunteer State as Ulysses S. Grant is inheriting command at the besieged city of Chattanooga. Can he turn things around? Or will Confederate infighting win the day for him at the last major battle of 1863? We’ll find out.

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61: The Louisiana Native Guard, the 54th Massachusetts & On: Black Soldiers in the Civil War Mar 30, 2020

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“It is hard to believe that Southern soldiers—and Texans at that—have been whipped by a mongrel crew of white and black Yankees … there must be some mistake.”

This is the story of Black Soldiers in the Civil War.

Black patriots are ready to fight from day one. The Lincoln Administration and Congress, however, are not ready to have them. They fear losing the support of the border states and the Democrats. But as the war drags on, they change their tune. Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, and black regiments are incorporated in the US Army in early 1863. Eventually, as many as 200,000 black soldiers will fight in hundreds of engagements across every theater of the Civil War.

But trailblazers often cut hard paths. As a skeptical nation wonders, “will they fight?” the black creoles of the Louisiana Native Guard and the black troops of the 54th Massachusetts answer that question in the most forceful way possible: with their own blood and lives.

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60: Gettysburg Mar 16, 2020

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“I shall lead my division forward, sir.”

This is the story of Gettysburg.

It’s summer, 1863, and Robert E. Lee is making a bold move; he’s leading his Army of Northern Virginia into Union territory. He hopes a victory up north might be the decisive blow he needs to demoralize the US. Meanwhile, Union leadership is getting shaken up (yet again) as the Army of the Potomac’s command passes from “Fightin’ Joe” Hooker to George Meade. But the two armies won’t clash on either commander’s terms. They’ll collide somewhat unintentionally at the southeastern Pennsylvania town of Gettysburg.

The battle rages for three days under the hot July sun. It’ll prove the deadliest battle of the entire war. Its impact will long be remembered—as will President Abraham Lincoln’s speech dedicating the final resting place of the battle’s thousands of dead that November.

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59: Stone’s River, Suspending Habeas Corpus, Vicksburg, & Stonewall’s Death at Chancellorsville Mar 02, 2020

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“Grant is my man and I am his the rest of the war.”

This is the story of hard fighting—on the battlefield and in the courts.

President Abraham Lincoln is making the controversial decision to suspend the writ of habeas corpus. While the Constitution does permit this to be done “in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion” that threaten “the public Safety,” is the executive branch the one to do it? Is it prudent?

Meanwhile, battles rage across the nation. Stone’s River claims a higher percentage of combatants than any other battle has or will. Ulysses S. Grant is laying siege to Vicksburg, which is the last Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River. Can he do it, effectively cutting the CSA in two? Finally, friendly fire is laying low one of the Confederacy’s most talented generals at Chancellorsville. The war will never be the same.

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58: Conscription & Riots (“A Rich Man’s War, But a Poor Man’s Fight”) Feb 17, 2020

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“Here’s a damned abolitionist! … He’s a Tribune man! Hang the son of a b****!”

This is the story of Civil War conscription and riots.

Conscription is completely foreign to Americans. They’ve never relied on force to fill the military’s ranks. But the Civil War is changing that. Left with the choice to either give up or draft men in the army, the Confederacy, then the United States, both turn to conscription. When it appears that the burden of fighting will fall disproportionately on the shoulders of New York’s mostly Irish-Catholic working class, it unleashes racial, economic, and religious angst, and causes one of the worst (if not the worst) riots in American history.

Meanwhile, Southern women are starving. Their husbands and sons are fighting, but the Confederacy and its states are doing nothing to check a rampant rise in the cost of food. Stuck with choosing between letting their children starve or rioting, it’s a no-brainer. They’re choosing the latter.

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57: Recap of The Civil War's First Half (1861-63) Feb 03, 2020

Show notes

"Keep the details! We love the stories!"

After 11 episodes covering the first half of the Civil War, it’s time to digest a bit. Greg, Josh, and Cielle attend to the usual roundtable business (pronunciation corrections and talking cotton production in Arizona!), then talk through the “who’s who” of our massive cast of characters. Enjoy one last chat before we dive into the final harsh years of the war.

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56: The Battle of Fredericksburg and the First Campaign of Vicksburg Jan 20, 2020

Show notes

“If the world had been searched by Burnside for a location in which his army could be best defeated ... he should have selected this very spot.”

This is the story of leadership turnover in the Union and total war on the field. US President Abraham Lincoln has had his fill of George B. “Little Mac” McClellan. Little Mac is getting fired. He’s being replaced by the general with the best facial-hair game in the army: Ambrose Burnsides.

But Ambrose doesn’t want command. He doesn’t think he’s the man for the job. Still, he’s going to try to be the aggressive general he knows the President wants. Ambrose plans to charge at the Confederate capital with his 120,000-strong Army of the Potomac. But he’ll have to deal with Robert E. Lee first. They’re coming to blow up the little Virginia town George Washington’s mother once called home: Fredericksburg.

Meanwhile, Ulysses S. Grant is facing challenges out west in the Mississippi Valley. Can he out-navigate a politicking general and take the crucial river town of Vicksburg, Mississippi? We’ll find out.

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