Civil War Talk Radio: Recent Episodes
Gerry Prokopowicz
Each week since October 2004, host Gerald Prokopowicz and a guest discuss the various aspects of Civil War History. Each show consists of an hour long conversation with guests from the very well known historians James McPherson, Doris Kearns Goodwin and Gary Gallagher to mention a few. Gerald also speaks with artists such as Don Troiani, filmmakers Ken Burns, re-enactors Rob Hodge, novelists Jeff Shaara, curators, game designers, children’s authors, collectors, and others. In addition to well known names like the ones mentioned, the show often features authors of first books who are just starting to make their reputations.
Niels Eichhorn and Duncan A. Campbell, authors of The Civil War in the Age of Nationalism.
Bjorn Skaptason, former Shiloh National Military Park Ranger and bibliopole for the Abraham Lincoln Book Shop, joins Gerry to discuss Ambrose Bierce and the Civil War.
Michael Megelsh, author of Adelbert Ames, the Civil War, and the Creation of Modern America.
Caroline Davis, co-author of Force of a Cyclone: The Battle of Stones River, December 31, 1862-January 2, 1863.
David A. Powell, author of The Atlanta Campaign: Volume 1: Dalton to Cassville, May 1-19, 1864.
James Hill Welborn III, author of Dueling Cultures, Damnable Legacies: Southern Violence and White Supremacy in the Civil War Era.
Robert Merry, author of Decade of Disunion: How Massachusetts and South Carolina Led the Way to Civil War, 1849-1861
Peter Carmichael Memorial Show, with Aaron Sheehan-Dean and Caroline Janney, co-editors of Janney, Carmichael, Sheehan-Dean, eds., "THE WAR THAT MADE AMERICA: Essays Inspired by the Scholarship of Gary W. Gallagher"
Edda L. Fields-Black, author of COMBEE: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom during the Civil War.
Frank Garmon, author of A Wonderful Career in Crime: Charles Cowlams Masquerades in the Civil War Era and Gilded Age.
Brian Matthew Jordan, co-editor of Final Resting Places: Reflections on the Meaning of Civil War Graves.
Richard Upsher Smith, Jr., editor of A Quaker Colonel, His Fiancee, and Their Connections: Selected Civil War Correspondence.
Gerry's Opening Monologue - "This is Gerry Prokopowicz, with Civil War Talk Radio. Tonight we start with two trash bags full of letters. But not just any letters. Not even just Civil War Soldier letters, but much rarer. Letters from both the soldier and the letters the soldier received from his fiancée, as well as from other family members, while Charles B. Lamborn was marching and fighting, his friend since childhood, Emily Taylor was at home learning to adjust to the trials of civilian life in wartime, while nurturing a growing bond with Charles. The letters of Emily and Charles, as well as some of those from their siblings, parents and friends have been assembled and edited by Richard Upsher Smith Jr. as the book, ” A Quaker Colonel, His Fiancée, and Their Connections: Selected Civil War Correspondence.” We'll talk with Doctor Smith about them tonight on Civil War Talk Radio.”
Shae Smith Cox, author of The Fabric of Civil War Society: Uniforms, Badges, and Flags, 1859-1939.Gerry's Monologue -This is Gerry Prokopowicz, with Civil War Talk Radio,...Way back in 2011, I looked forward to reading a newly published bestseller that I thought would make a great topic for this show, it was called “50 Shades of Grey,” but to my intense disappointment it turned out to be an erotic romance that had nothing at all to say about variations and Confederate military uniform manufacturing. Tonight, happily, you finally have the thoughtful study of uniforms and their meaning that I thought we were getting 15 years ago. It's called ”The Fabric of Civil War Society: Uniforms, Badges, and Flags, 1859–1939”. The author is Professor Shae Smith Cox, and she'll talk with us tonight on Civil War Talk Radio.”
Jaime Amanda Martinez, author of Confederate Slave Impressment in the Upper South.Gerry's Monologue -This is Gerry Prokopowicz, with Civil War Talk Radio,...Many historians, from David Herbert Donald to Stephanie McCurry, have advanced the idea that the Confederacy's war effort was hampered by ideologies of state’s rights and individualism in contrast to the centralized power of the federal government. Professor Jaime Amanda Martinez says not so fast, the U.S. government never took slaves from their owners during or before the war. But the Confederate government, and states like Virginia and North Carolina, did so on a broad scale. She describes how this worked in her book, ”Confederate Slave Impressment in the Upper South.” We'll ask Professor Martinez about it, tonight on Civil War Talk Radio.
Tom Saielli, Land Stewardship Manager, American Battlefield Trust. Website: https://www.battlefields.org/
Scott A. MacKenzie, author of The Fifth Border State: Slavery, Emancipation, and the Formation of West Virginia, 1829–1872.Gerry's Monologue -This is Gerry Prokopowicz, with Civil War Talk Radio,...Everyone listening to this show knows the basic story of the formation of the State of West Virginia. The hardy anti-slavery Mountaineers who wanted no part of the elite Virginia plantation owners rebellion. So in 1863 they formed their own state, secede from secession. Well, the first sentence of Dr. Scott Mckenzie's new book is Every account of West Virginia's creation is wrong. Presumably that excludes his own account, which is titled the 'The Fifth Border State: Slavery, Emancipation, and the Formation of West Virginia, 1829–1872.' We'll find out where West Virginia really came from when we talked with him tonight on Civil War Talk Radio.
John Reeves, author of Soldier of Destiny: Slavery, Secession, and the Redemption of Ulysses S. Grant.Gerry's Monologue - This is Gerry Prokopowicz, with Civil War Talk Radio,...The U.S. Grant Renaissance continues. Ron Chernow, Charles Calhoun, Fergus Bordewich, Ron White, Jonathan Sarna, John Wall, Frank Farney, Joseph Rose. Authors are continuing to present fresh interpretations and evaluations of Ulysses S. Grant's generalship, his presidency, his writing, and his character. The most recent of these books takes us from Grant's pre-war years to his wartime path through some troubled and sometimes surprising developments. We'll talk with the author John Reeves about his book 'Soldier of Destiny, Slavery, Secession, and the Redemption of Ulysses S Grant.' That's tonight on Civil War Talk Radio.
Victor Vignola, author of Contrasts in Command: The Battle of Fair Oaks, May 31 - June 1, 1862
Dr. Cecily N. Zander, author of The Army under Fire: The Politics of Antimilitarism in the Civil War EraThis is Gerry Prokopowicz, with Civil War Talk Radio,...The Civil War was fought almost entirely by vast armies of volunteer citizen soldiers, who dwarfed the tiny US regular army. The minor role that the regular Army played during the war has obscured its political significance before the war, when Republican politicians saw it as a tool of the southern slave power. And then after the war, when those same Republican's anti-military views had unintended effects on the course of reconstruction and westward expansion. Professor Cecily N. Zander describes these effects and more in 'The Army under Fire: The Politics of Antimilitarism in the Civil War Era.' We'll talk with her tonight, on Civil War Talk Radio.
Scott Hippensteel, author or Sand, Science and the Civil War: Sedimentary Geology and CombatGerry's Monologue -This is Gerry Prokopowicz, with Civil War Talk Radio, Members of the Civil War Talk Radio community, you and me, we are generally well read on the subject of Civil War battles. We usually know where they happened, and who won. What the tactics and weapons were, what the key terrain features were, but I didn't know and you might not either, because what kind of rock lies under the surface of the Civil War battlefield? What happened millions of years earlier to shape that landform? And how the geology of a historic site can contain clues about what happened there 160 years ago, someone who does know all that is professor of Earth Sciences, Scott Hippensteel, author of 'Sand, Science and the Civil War: Sedimentary Geology and Combat.' We'll talk with him tonight on Civil War Talk Radio.
Harold Holzer, author of Brought Forth on this Continent: Abraham Lincoln and American ImmigrationGerry's Monologue -This is Gerry Prokopowicz, with Civil War Talk Radio,...Nearly 10 million immigrants have upended the demography, culture and voting patterns of the nation, especially in its teeming urban centers. In the wake of such overwhelming change, resistance to immigration and immigrants metastasized, determined not only to restrict foreigners from entering the country, but to disenfranchise, demonize and occasionally terrorize those who have already arrived, settled and earned citizenship here. Now in recent years, I mean 1830 to 1860, and the rest of what I just said isn't quoted from 2024 website. It's from Harold Holzer's newest book 'Brought Forth on this Continent: Abraham Lincoln and American Immigration.' We'll talk with the author tonight on Civil War Talk Radio.
Fergus M. Bordewich, author of Klan War: Ulysses S. Grant and the Battle to Save Reconstruction. Gerry's Monologue -This is Gerry Prokopowicz, with Civil War Talk Radio,......as listeners to this show already know, the Civil War didn't end at Appomattox Courthouse. We know about the rebel armies of Johnston and North Carolina, Kirby Smith and the Trans-Mississippi. We also know that the reconstruction years that followed were marked by so much political violence that some scholars consider it consider it a guerrilla continuation of the war. But less well known is what happened when the Federal government, under President Ulysses S. Grant, muster the political will to suppress that violence. In 1871, the US Army was deployed to South Carolina to destroy a large scale terrorist operation. We'll learn the result from Fergus M. Bordewich, author of 'Klan War: Ulysses S. Grant and the Battle to Save Reconstruction,' that's tonight on Civil War Talk Radio.
Jonathan D. Sarna, author of When General Grant Expelled the Jews (Jewish Encounters Series)
Matthew Christopher Hulbert, author of Oracle of Lost Causes: John Newman Edwards and His Never-Ending Civil War
Andrew Lang, A Contest of Civilizations: Exposing the Crisis of American Exceptionalism
Howell Raines, Silent Cavalry: How Union Soldiers from Alabama Helped Sherman Burn Atlanta–and Then Got Written Out of History
Kornisorn Wongsrichanalai and David Sibey, editors of Wars Civil and Great: The American Experience in the Civil War and World War I
Robert Emmett Curran, American Catholics and the Quest for Equality in the Civil War Era
Darin Wipperman, author of Burnside's Boys: The Union's Ninth Corps and the Civil War in the East
Gene Harmon, of Inheriting Heritage, LLC. Inheriting Heritage, LLC provides professional interpretive consulting, interpretive training, and heritage interpretation to sites nationwide and is passionate about helping people connect to historical, cultural, and natural resources.
Paul Hodnefield, author of Shermans Woodticks: The Adventures, Ordeals and Travels of the Eighth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry During the Civil War
Minoa Uffelman, author of The Civil War Letters of Sarah Kennedy: Life under Occupation in the Upper South
D. Scott Hartwig, author of I Dread the Thought of the Place: The Battle of Antietam and the End of the Maryland Campaign
Jonathan W. White, author of Shipwrecked: A True Civil War Story of Mutinies, Jailbreaks, Blockade-Running, and the Slave Trade
Alexander Rose, author of The Lion and the Fox: Two Rival Spies and the Secret Plot to Build a Confederate Navy
Clayton J. Butler, author of True Blue: White Unionists in the Deep South during the Civil War and Reconstruction
Bryan Cheeseboro, National Archives/Alliance to Preserve the Civil War Defenses of Washington/Re-enactor
Jeffry D. Wert, author of The Heart of Hell: The Soldiers Struggle for Spotsylvanias Bloody Angle
M. Chris Bryan, author of Cedar Mountain to Antietam: A Civil War Campaign History of the Union XII Corps, July – September 1862
William A. Blair, author of The Record of Murders and Outrages: Racial Violence and the Fight over Truth at the Dawn of Reconstruction.
Jill Ogline Titus, author of Gettysburg 1963: Civil Rights, Cold War Politics, and Historical Memory in Americas Most Famous Small Town
Sheridan R. Barringer, author of Unhonored Service: The Life of Lees Senior Cavalry Commander, Colonel Thomas Taylor Munford
Gerry Prokopowicz, our host....Almost Live, from the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College
Sarah J. Purcell, author of Spectacle of Grief: Public Funerals and Memory in the Civil War Era
Gene Eric Salecker, author of Destruction of the Steamboat Sultana: The Worst Maritime Disaster in American History
Earnest Dollar, author of Hearts Torn Asunder: Trauma in the Civil Wars Final Campaign in North Carolina
Michael E. Block, author of The Carnage was Fearful: The Battle of Cedar Mountain, August 9, 1862
Jim Downs, author of Maladies of Empire: How Colonialism, Slavery, and War Transformed Medicine
Roger Lowenstein, author of Ways and Means: Lincoln and His Cabinet and the Financing of the Civil War
Christopher Thrasher, author of Suffering in the Army of Tennessee: A Social History of the Confederate Army of the Heartland from the Battles for Atlanta to the Retreat from Nashville
Lorien Foote, author of Rites of Retaliation: Civilization, Soldiers, and Campaigns in the American Civil War
Meg Groeling, author of First Fallen: The Life of Colonel Elmer Ellsworth, the Norths First Civil War Hero
Jonathan White, author of A House Built By Slaves: African American Visitors to the Lincoln White House and To Address You as My Friend: African Americans Letters to Abraham Lincoln
DeAnne Blanton, founder, Society for Women and the Civil War and co-author of They Fought Like Demons: Women Soldiers in the Civil War
John F. Messner, author of A Scottish Blockade Runner in the American Civil War: Joannes Wyllie of the Steamer Ad-Vance
Chuck Veit, author of A Lively Little Battle: New Perspectives on the Battle of Fort Butler, Donaldsonville, Louisiana, 28 July 1863
Francis Augustin O'Reilly, author of The Fredericksburg Campaign: Winter War on the Rappahannock
Deborah Willis, author of The Black Civil War Soldier: A Visual History of Conflict and Citizenship
Caroline E. Janney, author of Ends of War: The Unfinished Fight of Lees Army after Appomattox
Charles R. Knight, author of From Arlington to Appomattox: Robert E. Lees Civil War, Day by Day, 1861-1865
Brad Asher, author of The Most Hated Man in Kentucky: The Lost Cause and the Legacy of Union General Stephen Burbridge
Michael K. Brantley, author of Galvanized: The Odyssey of a Reluctant Carolina Confederate
Ronald C. White, author of Lincoln in Private: What His Most Personal Reflections Tell Us About Our Greatest President
Christopher C. Moore, author of Apostle of the Lost Cause: J. William Jones, Baptists, and the Development of Confederate Memory
John David Smith, co-editor of The Long Civil War: New Explorations of Americas Enduring Conflict
Gil Hahn, author of Campaign for the Confederate Coast: Blockading, Blockade Running and Related Endeavors During the American Civil War
John Reeves, author of A Fire in the Wilderness: The First Battle Between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee
John Douglas Ashton, author of William Barksdale, CSA: A Biography of the United States Congressman and Confederate Brigadier General
Stephen Cushman, author of The Generals Civil War: What Their Memoirs Can Teach Us Today
Chuck Veit, author of Sea Miner: Major E. B. Hunt's Civil War Rocket Torpedo, 1862-1863
Thomas Kernan, author of the dissertation entitled Sounding 'The Mystic Chords of Memory': Musical Memorials for Abraham Lincoln, 1865-2009
Christopher Dickey, author of Our Man in Charleston: Britain's Secret Agent in the Civil War South.
Bill Backus, author of A Want of Vigilance: The Bristoe Station Campaign, October 9-19, 1863.
Col. Matt Spruill, author of The US Army War College Guide the Battle of Chickamauga and many others.
Brian James Egen, co-author of Michigan at Antietam: The Wolverine State's Sacrifice on America's Bloodiest Day
Nick K. Adams, editor of My Dear Wife and Children: Civil War Letters from a 2nd Minnesota Volunteer
Wade Sokolosky, author of To Prepare for Sherman's Coming: The Battle of Wise's Forks March 1865
Thomas Heard Robertson, Jr., author of Resisting Sherman: A Confederate Surgeon's Journal and the Civil War in the Carolinas, 1865
Betty Brennan, President of Taylor Studios, Inc., Exhibit Designers for the Lincoln Heritage Museum, Lincoln, IL
J. Matthew Gallman, author of Defining Duty in the Civil War: Personal Choice, Popular Culture, and the Union Home Front.
Kenneth A. Griffiths, author of Seven Days in July: A Historic Account of the Battle of Atlanta
Jonathan W. White, author of Emancipation, the Union Army, and the Reelection of Abraham Lincoln.
Kent Masterson Brown, author of Retreat from Gettysburg: Lee, Logistics, and the Pennsylvania Campaign. Mr. Brown is also the principal of the Witnessing History LLC film production company.
Richard Sommers, author of Richmond Redeemed: The Siege at Petersburg, The Battles of Chaffin's Bluff and Poplar Spring Church, September 29 - October 2, 1864.
John Hennessy, Chief Historian and Chief of Interpretation at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Parks and author of books on both Battles at Bull Run/Manassas.
Tom Parson, author of Work for Giants: The Campaign and Battle of Tupelo Harrisburg, Mississippi, June to July 1864
Matt Hulbert, author of The Civil War Guerrilla: Unfolding the Black Flag in History Memory, and Myth.
Adam Dean, author of An Agrarian Republic: Farming, Antislavery Politics, and Nature Parks in the Civil War Era.
Julianne and David Mehegan, editors of Record of a Soldier in the Late War: The Confederate Memoir of John Wesley Bone
Patrick A. Lewis, author of For Slavery and Union: Benjamin Buckner and Kentucky Loyalties in the Civil War
Thomas J. Brown, author of Civil War Canon: Sites of Confederate Memory in South Carolina.
David A. Powell, author of The Chickamauga Campaign - A Mad Irregular Battle: From the Crossing of Tennessee River Through the Second Day, August 22 - September 19, 1863
Aaron Astor, author of Rebels on the Border: Civil War, Emancipation, and the Reconstruction of Kentucky and Missouri
Evan Jones, co-editor of Gateway to the Confederacy: New Perspectives on the Chickamauga and Chattanooga Campaigns, 1862-1863
Larry Babits, co-editor of From These Honored Dead: Historical Archaeology of the American Civil War
Stephen Cushman, author of Belligerent Muse: Five Northern Writers and How They Shaped Our Understanding of the Civil War (Lincoln, Whitman, Sherman, Bierce, Chamberlain)
Nicole Etcheson, author of A Generation at War: the Civil War era in a Northern Community
Caroline E. Janney, author of Remembering the Civil War: Reunion and the Limits of Reconciliation
William N. Still, Jr., author of Iron Afloat: The Story of the Confederate Armorclads and Civil War Maritime Archaeology.
Rick Sauers, author of The Fishing Creek Confederacy A Story of Civil War Draft Resistance.
John Barr, author of Loathing Lincoln: An American Tradition from the Civil War to the Present.
William Blair, author of With Malice Toward Some: Treason and Loyalty in the Civil War Era.
Rachel A. Shelden, author of Washington Brotherhood: Politics, Social Life, and the Coming of the Civil War.
Randall Fuller, author of From Battlefields Rising: How The Civil War Transformed American Literature.
Kathryn Shively Meier, author of Nature's Civil War: Common Soldiers and the Environment in 1862 Virginia.
James B. Conroy, author of Our One Common Country: Abraham Lincoln and the Hampton Roads Peace Conference of 1865.
Robert Conner, author of General Gordon Granger: The Savior of Chickamauga and the Man Behind Juneteenth
Robert I. Girardi, author of The Civil War Generals: Comrades, Peers, Rivals-In Their Own Words.
Rae Katherine Eighmey, author of Abraham Lincoln in the Kitchen: A Culinary View of Lincoln's Life and Times.
Richard Slotkin, author of The Long Road to Antietam: How the Civil War Became a Revolution.
J. Michael Cobb, author of The Battle of Big Bethel: Crucial Clash in Early Civil War Virginia.
Gerry Prokopowicz, author of Did Lincoln Own Slaves? Gerry discusses Lincoln and other topics in this special call-in show where listeners get to talk directly with Gerry and ask any questions they may have about the Lincoln, the Civil War and more.
Frank Varney, author of General Grant and the Rewriting of History: How the Destruction of General William S. Rosecrans Influenced Our Understanding of the Civil War.
Kristopher White, author of Chancellorsville's Forgotten Front: The Battles of Second Fredericksburg and Salem Church, May 3, 1863
James Oakes, author of Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861-1865
Eric Jacobson, author of Baptism of Fire: 44th Missouri, 175th Ohio and 183rd Ohio at the Battle of Franklin
Charles W. Calhoun, author of From Bloody Shirt to Full Dinner Pail: The Transformation of Politics and Governance in the Gilded Age and working on a new book about Ulysses S. Grant.
David S. Cecelski, author of Fire of Freedom: Abraham Galloway and the Slaves' Civil War
Philip Leigh, Annotator and Editor of Sam Watkins classic memoir Company Aytch, or a Side Show of the Big Show.
Jake Boritt, filmmaker, The Gettysburg Story, w/ appearance by Gabor Boritt, The Gettysburg Gospel
Jonathan Wells, author of A House Divided: The Civil War and Nineteenth Century America.
Bland Simpson, author of Two Captains from Carolina: Moses Grandy, John Newland Maffitt and the Coming of the Civil War.
Rhonda Kohl, author of The Prairie Boys Go To War: The Fifth Illinois Cavalry, 1861-1865
Brian Jordan, author of Unholy Sabbath: The Battle of South Mountain in History and Memory.
Ernest Dollar, Director, City of Raleigh Museum, on The End of the War in Central North Carolina.
Doug Batson, a General D.H. Hill Presenter, pays Gerry a visit.
Gerry's Introduction: ...our subject today is Conferedate General Daniel Harvey Hill. Related by marriage to Stonewall Jackson. D. H. Hill led troops in action from Big Bethal, Virginia, in June 1861 to Benntonville, North Carolina, in March of 1865. From Seven Pines to South Mountain, Antietam to Gettysburg to Chickamauga. He served on both fronts throughout the war. We will have two guests on our show for this topic today, Doug Batson, an expert in the history of D. H. Hill, will be with us. But before that, we will hear from D.H. Hill, himself. Join us for a time travel trip, today on Civil War Talk Radio.
Tony Horowitz, author of Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War.
Gerry's Introduction - This is Gerry Prokopowicz, with Civil War Talk Radio, John Brown was the sacrificial lamb. The man who freely gave his life in accordance with God's will, to free us all from the bondage of sin. John Brown was the long bearded religious fanatic who commanded a suicide attack on a building that symbolized the power of the United States; killed 19 of his followers and touched off a long and costly war. Who was John Brown? The 19th century version of Jesus Christ? Or Osama bin Laden? The debate goes on marching today. We will have the author of Confederates in the Attic, Tony Horowitz, who gives his take in Midnight Risings: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War, with us today on Civil War Talk Radio.
Barbara Gannon, author of The Won Cause: Black and White Comradeship in the Grand Army of the Republic.
Brian Dirck, author of Abraham Lincoln and White America.
Episode 915 (Season 9 Show 15) Show#252
Gerry's Introduction - This is Gerry Prokopowicz, with Civil War Talk Radio,it's February 2013, and we're approaching the 204th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. With well over 16,000 books already written about our 16th President, what new left to say? Surprisingly, a lot. Lincoln had more impact on race relations than perhaps any othTer individual in American history. This week we'll talk with Professor Brian Dirck about one of Lincoln's qualities that is so significant, relevant and obvious, that it is astonishing that no one has addressed in detail before. Professor Dirk is the author of Abraham Lincoln and White America and he joins us today on Civil War Talk Radio.
Anthony Gaughan, author of The Last Battle of the Civil War, United States Versus Lee, 1861-1883
CWTR Episode 914 (Season 9, Show 14)
Show#251
Gerry's Introduction: “…today our topic is the Last Battle. That, of course, means Bentonville, North Carolina 1865? No. It means Appomattox in Virginia in April 1865? No, not that either. How about CSS Shenandoah in the wastes of the North Pacific, fighting Union ships months after the shooting stopped on land? No, it’s not that either. It’s the battle on the United States vs. Lee and the battleground is the United States Supreme Court. Our guest, Anthony J. Gaughan is the author of “The Last Battle of the Civil War, United States Versus Lee, 1861-1883 and we will find out about this fascinating legal encounter today, on Civil War Talk Radio.”
Michael Weeks, author of The Complete Civil War Road Trip Guide: 10 Weekend Tours and More than 400 Sites, from Antietam to Zagonyi's Charge
CWTR Episode #913 (Season 9, Show 13)
Show#250
Gerry's Introduction: ...’no book can take the place of being there, of seeing the landscape, walking the fields and communing with the ghost of the people who made this war a defining moment in America’s history.’ That is a line from the introduction of a book that you need to take with you when you go on one of these trips to where the war happened. The book is “The Complete Civil War Road Trip Guide” it’s one of several valuable and interesting road trip guides written by today’s guest Michael Weeks. Join us for our conversation on the road, with Michael Weeks, today on Civil War Talk Radio.”
John Jakes, author of the North and South Trilogy.
CWTR Episode #912 (Season 9, Show 12)
Show#249
Ellen Gruber Garvey, author of Writing with Scissors: American Scrapbooks from the Civil War to the Harlem Renaissance.
CWTR Episode #911 (Season 9, Show 11)
Show#248
Bobby Horton, multi-instrumentalist and composer of Civil War era music.
CWTR Episode #910 (Season 9, Show 10)
Show#247
Gail Stephens, author of Shadow of Shiloh: Major General Lew Wallace in the Civil War.
CWTR Episode #909 (Season 9, Show 9)
Show#246
Brian S. Wills, author of George Henry Thomas: As True As Steel.
CWTR Episode 908 (Season 9, Show 8)
Show#245
Douglas Egerton, author of Year of Meteors: Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, and the Election that Brought on the Civil War.
CWTR Episode 907 (Season 9, Show 7)
Show#244
David Silkenat, authot of Moments of Despair: Suicide, Divorce, & Debt in Civil War Era North Carolina.
CWTR Episode 906 (Season 9, Show 6)
Show#243
Ted Alexander is the Historian at Antietam National Battlefield. He is the author, editor and contributor to seven books about Antietam and other aspects of the Civil War. He has also written more than 200 articles and book reviews for publications such as Civil War Times Illustrated, Blue and Gray Magazine, Maryland Historical Magazine and The Washington Times He lectures frequently for organizations such The Civil War Preservation Trust, Johns Hopkins University's Odyssey Program and The Smithsonian Associates
Sam Houston State University professor and author, Susannah Bruce joins Gerry to discuss her current book, The Harp and The Eagle
Author and President of College of Southern Maryland, Bradley M. Gottfried joins Gerry to discuss his current book, The Maps of Gettysburg: The Gettysburg Campaign, June 3 - July 13, 1863 and his other works.
Civil War historian and author of In The Footsteps Of Grant & Lee, joins Jerry this week to discuss his book.
Author of, HIstory Buffs Guide To The Civil War, Thomas R. Flagel joins Jerry this week for an in depth discussion.
We're featuring one of Gerry's favorite shows while he's away. Tune in and enjoy. Gerry will return LIVE September 7th.
Dr. Michael P. Gray, author of The Business of Captivity: Elmira and its Civil War Prison, looks at activities in and outside the walls of the North's deadliest prison camp.
Michael W. Kauffman, author of American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies, clears up myths and misconceptions surrounding the assassination.
Dr. Albert A. Nofi, author of The Civil War Notebook and editor of Knapsack for North & South magazine, shares a wide range of fascinating facts.
O. Edward Cunningham wrote a dissertation on Shiloh more than forty years ago; Dr. Gary D. Joiner, co-editor of Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862 has brought it to the light of day.
Alan Archambault, artist and Curator, Fort Lewis Military Museum, inspires a new generation of Civil War students.
Dr. Ethan Rafuse, author of McClellan's War: The Failure of Moderation in the Struggle for the Union, re-evaluates the Young Napoleon.
Theodore Savas, of Savas Beatie LLC, talks about the business of publishing of books on the Civil War and other historical subjects.
Thomas P. Nanzig, editor of The Civil War Memoirs of a Virginia Cavalryman: Lt. Robert T. Hubard, Jr., reveals what life was really like among Lee's cavaliers.
Dr. Chandra Manning, author of the forthcoming What This Cruel War Was Over: Soldiers, Slavery and the Civil War talks about the motivations of the blue and gray.
Dr. Bruce Levine, author of Confederate Emancipation: Southern Plans to Free and Arm Slaves during the Civil War, challenges neo-Confederate mythology.
Joseph R. Reinhart, editor/translator of August Willich's Gallant Dutchmen, describes the career of the 32nd Indiana infantry regiment.
Cavalry genius? War criminal? Both? The war produced no character more controversial than the man Grant called that devil, Forrest. Dr. Brian Steel Wills, author of The Confederacy's Greatest Cavalryman: Nathan Bedford Forrest offers his views.
In Lincoln's Sword: The Presidency and the Power of Words, Dr. Douglas Wilson argues that for Abraham Lincoln, the pen really was mightier than the sword.
J. David Petruzzi, co-author of Plenty of Blame to Go Around: J.E.B. Stuart's Controversial Ride to Gettysburg, discusses the real reasons why Stuart acted as he did in June 1863.
Dr. John C. Rumm is the Executive Director of the Civil War Museum of Philadelphia, the oldest Civil War museum in the country, and one with a very promising future.
Steve Courtney, with his co-editor Peter Messent, have produced a fine volume of previously unpublished letters from a Civil War chaplain, The Civil War Letters of Joseph Hopkins Twichell.
Dr. Michael Burlingame has made a reputation as an indefatigable researcher of previously unmined collections related to Abraham Lincoln. He has edited numerous reprints of 19th century Lincoln sources, written the controversial The Inner World of Abraham Lincoln, and is at work on a monumental four-volume Lincoln biography.
Dr. Michael W. Schaefer, author of Just What War Is: The Civil War Writings of DeForest and Bierce
James Percoco, author of Divided We Stand: Teaching About Conflict in U.S. History, has made a career out of bringing the Civil War and other eras to life for his students.
Dr. Eric T. Dean, esq., author of Shook Over Hell: Post-Traumatic Stress, Vietnam, and the Civil War, describes the phenomenon of psychiatric casualties in the Civil War.
Dr. Stephen R. Taaffe, author of Commanding the Army of the Potomac, argues that leadership issues were endemic in that underachieving organization.
Robert Hicks, author of The Widow of the South, talks about the remarkable fate of the Confederates killed at the battle of Franklin
Dr. Phillip Shaw Paludan, author of 'A People's Contest': The Union and Civil War 1861-1865, discusses his work, covering topics from the Lincoln White House to the Shelton Laurel Massacre.
David Lee Poremba drew on years of experience at the Burton Historical Collection to create If I Am Found Dead: Michigan Voices from the Civil War.
Dr. Jonathan Sarris, author of A Separate Civil War: Communities in Conflict in the Mountain South, discusses the war that Georgians fought among themselves.
Dr. David W. Blight, author of Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory presents the 1913 50-year reunion at Gettysburg in a new light.
Dr. Allen C. Guelzo is the first two time winner of the Lincoln Prize, for Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President and Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America.
Dr. Harry S. Stout, author of Upon the Altar of the Nation: A Moral History of the Civil War, defends his controversial work. Two segments are available.
One of the paths that led to the Civil War was a hidden one: the Underground Railroad. Fergus M. Bordewich, author of Bound For Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America, reveals the reality behind a much mythologized historical phenomenon.
Dr. Timothy B. Smith, author of Champion Hill: Decisive Battle for Vicksburg, tells what it's like to work as a NPS ranger at Shiloh.
Brigadier General Harold W. Nelson (ret), former Chief of Military History for the U.S. Army, has led hundreds of staff rides across Civil War battlefields, for everyone from ROTC students to civilian corporate leaders. Listen in and hear what they learn.
If Isaac Stevens hadn't been killed at Chantilly, he might have commanded the Army of the Potomac at Antietam. Find out more about Stevens and the other remarkable characters behind the Port Royal expedition of 1862 with Patrick Brennan, author of Secessionville: Assault on Charleston.
Everybody knows that Lincoln suffered from depression, right? Joshua Wolf Shenk, author of Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness, takes closer look at what we really know about Lincoln's temperament.
You've seen him in movies, TV, and on the cover of Confederates in the Attic. Now he researches and produces his own Civil War films. Spend a fascinating hour with Robert Lee Hodge.
Dr. Doris Kearns Goodwin discusses her prize-winning study of Lincoln and his Cabinet, Team of Rivals: the Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.
Beyond the CSS Hunley, the Civil War saw the invention of other submersible warships, and Dr. James P. Delgado has found one of them intact.
Dr. Thomas J. Brown, author of The Public Art of Civil War Commemoration, analyzes the meaning of monuments
James A. Morgan III, author of A Little Short of Boats: The Fights at Ball's Bluff and Edwards Ferry
Out of the more than one hundred people who make all or part of their living portraying Abraham Lincoln, none does it better than Richard Fritz Klein.
Mark Bradley, author of This Astounding Close: The Road to Bennett Place, discusses the North Carolina campaign of 1865.
Shane Seley and Ed Leydecker of Wide Awake Films describe the process of making Civil War battle documentary videos.
Unlike the soldiers themselves, author Thomas Lowry, MD, is happy to discuss The Story the Soldiers Wouldn't Tell: Sex in the Civil War. Most CWTR programs unavoidably make reference to the massive bloodshed that marked the Civil War. This program discusses not only violence but also sex, using plain language. Educators and parents may wish to preview this show before recommending it to students or children.
Dr. Michael Vorenberg, author of Final Freedom: The Civil War, The Abolition of Slavery and the Thirteenth Amendment, analyzes the politics of the 13th Amendment.
Dr. Richard P. McMurry, author of The Fourth Battle of Winchester and Two Great Rebel Armies, presents a fresh approach to Civil War history.
Dr. Elizabeth Leonard, author of Lincoln's Avengers and All the Daring of the Soldier: Women of the Civil War Armies, covers topics from the Lincoln assassination to the participation of women soldiers
Carolyn Texley, Director of Collections at the Lincoln Museum, Fort Wayne, Indiana talks about the challenges of preserving the Lincoln story.
Dr. Donald E. Collins, author of The Death and Resurrection of Jefferson Davis describes the remarkable postwar career of the Confederate president.
Richard F. Miller is the author of Harvard's Civil War, a history of the 20th Massachusetts that goes beyond battles and campaigns to reveal the inner workings of a Civil War regiment.
Prolific Civil War author Dr. Gary Gallagher discusses why the South lost, black Confederates, how battlefields should be interpreted, and other controversial topics.
Learn about the latest communications channel for Civil War students from Dimitri Rogov, creator of the weblog (blog) Civil War Bookshelf
Lonnie Speer, author of Portals to Hell: Military Prisons of the Civil War and War of Vengeance: Act of Retaliation Against Civil War POWs, reveals some harsh realities of the war.
Dr. Kenneth Noe, author of Perryville: This Grand Havoc of Battle, traces the course of the war's least-remembered major battle.
Karen Winnick explains the challenges of communicating important stories of the past in the format of the children's picture book, as she has done in Mr. Lincoln's Whiskers and Cassie's Sweet Berry Pie, both set in the Civil War era.
Mark H. Dunkelman has spent a lifetime researching the story of the 154th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment. In Brothers One and All: Esprit de Corps in a Civil War Regiment, he uses his findings to shed light on the social world of the Civil War soldier
Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer presents a new look at a long overlooked work by Abraham Lincoln, as described in his fascinating book, Lincoln At Cooper Union: The Speech that Made Abraham Lincoln President
Eric J. Wittenberg, author of Little Phil: A Reassessment of the Civil War Leadership of Gen. Philip H. Sheridan, shares his thoughts on Union cavalry.
Ronald Christopher, Chairman and Project Manager of the USS Arizona Civil War Gunboat Foundation, details the remarkable history and recent discovery of a Civil War ship.
Dr. Thomas F. Schwartz, Illinois State Historian, describes the creation of the new Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield, Illinois.
Join CWTR for a fascinating conversation with Keith Poulter, ex-British intelligence, former wargame designer, and the founder and publisher of North & South magazine.
Dr. John M. Coski of the Museum of the Confederacy talks about the subject of his book, The Confederate Battle Flag: America's Most Embattled Emblem.
James Loewen, author of Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong, talks about distortions, errors and outright falsehoods to be found at many Civil War sites.
Frank J. Williams is Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island, a member of the Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, and author of Judging Lincoln.
Larry J. Daniel, author of Days of Glory: The Army of the Cumberland, 1861-1865, shares his thoughts on where the war was decided.
Donald C. Pfanz, author of Richard S. Ewell: A Soldier's Life, talks about his role as historian at the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park
Dr. Lesley J. Gordon, author of General George E. Pickett in Life and Legend, crosses boundaries by combining contemporary academic methodology and theory with traditional military topics.
From his father's The Killer Angels to his own best-selling novels, Jeff Shaara discusses the craft of historical fiction.
Dr. Craig L. Symonds, history professor emeritus at the United States Naval Academy and author of the Battlefield Atlas of the Civil War, talks about a range of topics from Confederate generals to Union ironclads.
Prolific Civil War author William C. Jack Davis shares observations based on a lifetime of research, and talks about new directions for the future
Dr. Steven Woodworth, author of many Civil War titles, including Jefferson Davis and His Generals, brings to light a rarely mentioned facet of life in Civil War armies.
Dr. Mark Grimsley, author of the Lincoln Prize-winning The Hard Hand of War: Union Military Policy Toward Southern Civilians, 1861-1865, talks about the motivations and actions of the men who fought for the North.
Dr. John Y. Simon, editor of the Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, tells us what's wrong with the way Abraham Lincoln is presented to the public.
Albert Castel, author of the award-winning Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864, challenges some widely held beliefs about the war
Dr. John Marszalek, biographer of William T. Sherman and Henry Halleck, shares his views on some famous (and infamous) generals.
Eric Caren describes how he and Steven Goldman assembled a remarkable collection of Civil War era newspapers, and made them available in print as a Smithsonian Headliners series book.
Dr. David Long discusses Lincoln's re-election in 1864 and its impact on American history.
Professor Jim Janke brings us the strategy and drama of naval warfare between the Union and the Confederacy.
What thoughts were going through the minds of Johnny Reb or Billy Yank as he approached battle? Join us for insights on these questions and more in a rare and personal interview with Dr. James Robertson.
Learn about the Library of Congress's resources and hear the stories behind them from curator John R. Sellers.
Dr. James McPherson, Pulitzer Prize winning author, tackles several political and emotional issues surrounding the causes and legacies of the Civil War.