Portraits of Blue & Grey: The Biographical Civil War Podcast

This episode surveys Civil War intelligence-gathering and espionage on the Confederate side. We look at the cavalry's role, the Confederate Signal Corps and Secret Service, and introduce a few Rebel spy stories. Part 2 will examine some of the best-known Confederate spies and a few of the strange operations pursued by the Rebel Secret Service. In this Episode: 12:10 - Jedidiah Hotchkiss, Shenandoa...

President Lincoln called them "fire in the rear." Northern anti-war Democrats--called Copperheads--advocated for a peaceful resolution of the war and sharply criticized the Lincoln Administration's restrictions on civil liberties in the North. This episode explores the Copperhead movement, introduces a few prominent Copperheads, and evaluates their arguments against Lincoln and the war. 11:00 - Co...

This is the second half of our look at Union intelligence operations and spies during the American Civil War. This episode finishes up the discussion of Col. George Sharpe's Bureau of Military Information and the big influence Col. Sharpe had on intelligence during and after the war. We then introduce several charismatic Union spies--including Richmond socialite Elizabeth Van Lew, former slave Mar...

This episode explores Civil War espionage, starting with the intelligence operation and spies on the Union side. Allan Pinkerton, Kate Warne, Timothy Webster, and Col. George Sharpe feature prominently in this episode. A follow-up episode will be out soon finishing up our look at Union spies with figures like Elizabeth Van Lew, Lafayette Baker, Mary Richards Bowser, Pauline Cushman, and Sarah Emma...

The third (and final) episode of our series on the Red River Campaign finishes up the action in Louisiana. We look at the Union withdrawal, an unorthodox cavalry-vs-navy battle at Blair's Landing, the Camden Expedition, and some nifty impromptu dam-building by a Wisconsin engineer named Lt. Col. Joseph Bailey. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Part 2 of the Red River Campaign explores the Battle of Mansfield and follow-up Battle of Pleasant Hill--which proved to be the pivotal confrontations of the campaign. Then, we digress into some Civil War trivia. Look for Part 3, which will wrap up the series, in the near future. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Part 1 of our Red River Campaign episode explores the dichotomy between political generals and hard-nosed professional soldiers before surveying American Civil War action in Louisiana. We also get to meet Union General (and former Speaker of the House) Nathaniel Banks and U.S. Navy hero Admiral David Dixon Porter--along with Rebel Generals Richard Taylor and Kirby Smith. Learn more about your ad c...

Portraits of Blue & Grey makes its triumphant return with a look at the New Mexico Campaign's good intentions, bad logistics, and ugly results. While we're at it, we'll explore civil war in Ol' Mexico, Napoleon III's imperialist opportunism, and figure out how a Habsburg archduke briefly became Emperor of Mexico. "General Sibley. He looks dead." I definitely should have re-watched the movie before...

In this episode, we start with what was supposed to be a short discussion of the James Gang--particularly their involvement in the Missouri guerilla fighting. Then, we look at one of the most unusual happenings of the Civil War: the Confederate raid on the sleepy town of St. Albans, Vermont. As Civil War raids go, though, the St. Albans Raid stands out. And not so much because of the setting but b...

By early 1864, POW populations in Civil War prison camps had exploded, and conditions in the camps were abysmal. In an attempt to liberate captured Union soldiers held at nearby Belle Isle prison, Gen. Judson Kilpatrick and Col. Ulric Dahlgren plan a daring raid on Richmond. When the raid doesn't go as planned, suspected ulterior objectives lead to the Dahlgren Affair -- one of the most enduring c...

Part B takes us through the end of the short life of rebel cavalier Jeb Stuart. Then, Chambersburg meets its unfortunate fate, courtesy of Jubal Early. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For the most part, towns north of the Mason-Dixon line sustained a lot less damage during the Civil War than their counterparts down South. Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, though, may be the single most glaring exception. Jeb Stuart paid a visit in 1862 and was a fairly polite guest, as military occupiers go--even taking the time to sign the guestbook at the small town's most high-brow hotel. But when...

Part 4 of our series on Nathan Bedford Forrest picks back up with Forrest continuing to frustrate William T. Sherman and the series of Union cavaliers dispatched to neutralize him. As Union might becomes overwhelming, Confederate armies are forced to surrender, and the danger of Forrest assuming the role of guerilla leader looms large. Instead, he tries to quietly slip back into the life of a plan...

"His eyes, usually mild in their expression, were blazing with the intense glare of a panther’s springing upon its prey....So fierce did his passion become that he was almost equally dangerous to friend or foe.." --Major David Kelly, C.S.A. Part 3 recounts two confrontations with fellow Confederates. First, the killing of Lt. Andrew Gould by his commanding officer, Nathan Bedford Forrest. Though p...

In Spring, 1862, Nathan Bedford Forrest's military acumen began to reveal itself, as he became a thorn in the side of Union operations in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama. Part 2 includes Forrest's impressive display of physical courage at Fallen Timbers, a chaotic escape at Parker's Crossroads, and a story of equine heroism at Thompson's Station--before concluding with an in-depth look at the...

Nathan Bedford Forrest was perhaps the most despised, though begrudgingly respected, Confederate military leader. After growing up poor on the frontier, Forrest ascended the ranks of Southern society and had amassed considerable wealth by the time the Civil War began in 1861. Although he was involved in numerous business ventures, the bulk of his fortune was derived from the slave trade. When the...

Sherman's famous March to the Sea is one of the most well-known and noteworthy campaigns of the U.S. Civil War and probably contributed more than anything else to the hatred of Sherman that flourished in the South for 100 years after the war. After capturing Savannah, Sherman turned north, headed for Columbia, SC. Where Savannah survived occupation relatively unscathed, Columbia would not be so lu...

After Shiloh, Sherman got the opportunity to try his hand in civic administration as the military governor of Memphis.  And it was from Memphis that he embarked on a mission, with good friend U.S. Grant, to solve the riddle that was Vicksburg.  After months of frustration, Vicksburg fell in July, 1863.  The Sherman - Grant team's next test, which they passed with flying colors, was to save the Arm...

Part 2 of our look at the life of William Tecumseh Sherman begins with Col. Sherman commanding NY volunteers at Manassas.  The battle goes poorly for the Union, but Sherman shows strong, earning a promotion to Brigadier and a transfer to Kentucky to serve as second in command to Gen. Robert Anderson.  Anderson's health problems leave Sherman in charge in Kentucky, and the resulting stress leads to...

William Tecumseh Sherman is one of the U.S. Civil War's most controversial figures.  A "Fierce Patriot" (in the words of Sherman biographer Robert O'Connell), Sherman deserves more credit for holding the United States together than anyone save Lincoln and Grant.  His tactics left the South in smoldering ruins. Yet, in the years leading up to the war he resided in the South, helped to found the Lou...

John Brown's 1859 raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry brought abolitionism and slavery to the forefront of the national conversation.  The support for Brown's raid voiced by influential Northerners increased sectional tensions and support for secession in the South.  After his execution and the subsequent election of President Lincoln, secession became a reality, and Civil War followed. Le...

In Part 2A of our portrait of John Brown, we pick up in the aftermath of Bleeding Kansas and follow John Brown as he recruits, fund-raises, and prepares for his game-changing raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.   We look at the political situation going into the raid and see Brown continue to build a reputation as the nation's foremost militant abolitionist. Though we had origin...

A throwback to old-school Puritanism, John Brown brought passion - and violence - into the abolitionist movement.  Work with the Underground Railroad gradually gave way to more radical methods, as "Osawatamie Brown" demonstrated that abolitionsts didn't have to be pacifists. And Kansas bled. Part 1 of our portrait of John Brown looks at his early life, the growth of abolitionism in the young Unite...

The CSS Alabama continued preying on Yankee shipping throughout 1863, prowling off coasts from Brazil to South Africa to Singapore.  The success of the raider, skippered by wily Captain Raphael Semmes, inflamed Anglo-American tensions to dangerous levels.  But shrewd diplomacy by the Lincoln administration eventually convinced John Bull to turn his back on the rebels, leaving Semmes and the Alabam...

After the outbreak of the Civil War, the Union blockade crippled Southern commerce.  Hoping to ease the pressure on blockade runners (and turn the tables on Northern shipping), the Confederate Navy contracted with British shipbuilders to construct commerce raiders - warships designed to prey on merchant shipping while evading opposing naval vessels.  Denounced as a pirate in the North, Maryland-bo...