The American Civil War Podcast

In the late summer and fall of 1861, Joe Johnston confronted a host of problems. Few of them involved the Yankees in McClellan’s rapidly-growing army across the river. Instead, his often-difficult relationships with Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, General Beauregard, and other men under the Confederate flag took center stage. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other s...

Join as we explore the life and times of Joseph Eggleston Johnston, all at once a serious, friendly, difficult, courageous, annoying, loyal, adventurous man. He managed to join most of American’s fights after attending West Point, and would go on to become the very first West Pointer to ever attain a General’s rank. Yet he gave it all up to go South. This is a public episode. If you would like to...

On November 1st, 1861, McClellan seemingly enjoyed a moment of unmatched triumph. He accepted the position of General-in-Chief of the United States Army. Behind this lay a great deal of hard work managing the Army of the Potomac. Yet also, his road had been smoothed, not with battlefield glory, but political machinations. And his rise was General Winfield Scott’s fall. This is a public episode. If...

Today’s episode is about the human cost of war, whether in terms of death, wounds, capture, glory or disgrace. It is about how war reaches out and touches the lives of men and women very from the fighting. And it is about a bloody, pointless little scrape called Ball’s Bluff. There, in October of 1861, a Union reconnaissance effort came to grief near the town of Leesburg, Virginia. This is a publi...

In the late summer of 1861, Robert E. Lee sort-of received his first field command in western Virginia. The only problems were that he had no authority to tell anyone what to do, and two of the men who did hated one another. The result was another humiliating Confederate failure in the breakaway region. And yet Gen. Lee managed to escape with no consequences for his later career. This is a public...

On November 8th, 1861, Captain Charles Wilkes of the United States Navy decided to seize passengers the RMS Trent, a British mail-carrier steamship. This act of blind hubris nearly forced Abraham Lincoln and Lord Palmerston, the British Prime Minister, on a collision course of nationalistic pride neither man wanted. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers...

In November of 1861 the Union Navy went on the attack again, expanding their toehold on the Carolina coastline into a foothold. In the end, the brief fight would prove the simple part. Union control over Hilton Head and Port Royal would create new social and cultural challenges in addition to military results. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or ge...

Most infantryman of the Civil War spent weeks or months on the parade-ground learning how to fight in the prescribed Army fashion. So what did they learn, and why was the military so darn particular about the details? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit uscivilwar.substack.com

Following a string of defeats in 1861, the Union Army went to rebuilding and recovery. The Union Navy had no such need. Instead, they began an independent plan to cut off the Confederacy’s economic arteries and slowly blockade her ports. The first target would become Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to...

In the decade or so before the Civil War, small changes in the technology of the infantry led to a radical strengthening of their impact on the battlefield. Join as we explore this transformation, as well as the direct response of cavalry and artillery to the newfound power of the rifle. The proudest horse soldier and the best-trained artilleryman would quickly come to respect the common infantry....

July and August brought radical changes to the Missouri front. Sterling Price desperately sought aid from the Confederacy, and then to turn on Union General Lyon. Nathaniel Lyon, seeing himself hugely outnumbered, embarked on a risky offensive strategy. The resulting battle would be decided at Wilson’s Creek. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get...

George Brinton McClellan led an eventful life long before he rose to command the burgeoning Army of the Potomac. Who was this man, what shaped him, and why did he make the choices he made? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit uscivilwar.substack.com

This episode explores some of the events and changes that The Battle of Bull Run, or Manassas as the Confederacy called it. Within days, Lincoln became intent on building up a new, far more powerful force. And to lead it, he called into service one General George McClellan. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit usc...

Irvin McDowell launched his men into battle across Bull Run creek on July 21st of 1861. Everyone, North of South, Unionist or Confederate, believed this would decide everything. But, it was not over. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit uscivilwar.substack.com

Less than thirty miles separates Washington from Manassas Junction. It would take Irvin McDowell a week and two hundred casualties just to reach it. When Union men marched to the first great battle of the war, it seemed that everything went wrong. As it turned out, they didn’t know the half of it. This episode cover the prelude to Bull Run. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss th...

In a campaign spanning less than three months at the dawn of the Civil War, one George Brinton McClellan rose to becomes the nation’s second soldier and helped rewrite the map of Virginia. It was a stunningly-quick achievement, and also a testament to the utter lack of support for the Confederacy in this region. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or...

June of 1861 saw a further ramp-up in hostilities. In Virginia, the Union attempted to secure a larger zone of control around its power centers. But Secessionists wouldn’t go quietly, and the results became first martyr and the first battle. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit uscivilwar.substack.com

In May of 1861, the newly-minted Major General Benjamin Butler took command of the defenses at Fort Monroe. Almost immediately, he found an opportunity to involve himself in devising a new anti-slavery policy. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit uscivilwar.substack.com

In April of 1861, the United States Navy lost control of perhaps its most valuable base: the Gosport Naval Yard, located at Norfolk, Virginia. Bungling, hesitation, and fear led to a series of crucial mistakes. Join us to explore the key events, as well as a (very) quick overview of American naval history, finishing with the Union response to the fall of the Norfolk. This is a public episode. If y...

As Lincoln felt a rising tide of Secession beginning to strangle Maryland, so too the state of Missouri. faced its own desperate challenge. Yet Congressman Francis Blair and Captain Nathaniel Lyon quickly faced down the Confederates and secure and early victory for the Union. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit u...

The Union mobilization did not occur without controversy even amid widespread unity of purpose between Democrats and Republicans. But a riot in Baltimore led to Americans killing one another in the streets and a near-uprising in Maryland. Within days, it reshaped Lincoln’s agenda and sparked further political change. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscriber...

Join us for an exploration of the change from militia to professional armies in an American context, as well as what all those officer ranks and unit strengths actually mean. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit uscivilwar.substack.com

Where was the war actually fought? In this, we can look to the physical spaces occupied by the Confederacy. This episode attempts to define the most significant attributes of that geography, leading to a brief explanation of General Winfield Scott’s Anaconda Plan. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit uscivilwar.su...

The fall of Fort Sumter would propel more states out of the Union. The tide of disunion appeared unstoppable. Where would it all end? As it turned out, it ended rather quickly, when the Border States stopped short of Secession. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit uscivilwar.substack.com

In April of 1861, the eyes of all the states turned towards a little-known fortification in Charleston harbor known as Sumter. On that site everything came to tense standoff. Union against Confederate, ambition against loyalty, treason against fidelity. Many men tried to avoid the shedding of blood, yet in the end all their efforts only made the clash inevitable. Or perhaps it was simply that even...