The Second Battle of Winchester: The Confederate Victory that Opened the Door to Gettysburg

Ebook

Storming Vicksburg: Grant, Pemberton, and the Battles of May 19-22, 1863

Ebook

Unholy Sabbath: The Battle of South Mountain in History and Memory, September 14, 1862

Ebook

Holding the Line on the River of Death: Union Mounted Forces at Chickamauga, September 18, 1863

Ebook

Pickett’s Charge, July 3 and Beyond, Omnibus E-book: Includes Pickett’s Charge—The Last Attack at Gettysburg by Earl J. Hess and Pickett’s Charge in History and Memory by Carol Reardon

Ebook

Fort Harrison and the Battle of Chaffin's Farm: To Surprise and Capture Richmond

Ebook

The Spotsylvania Campaign

Ebook

Petersburg to Appomattox: The End of the War in Virginia

Ebook

Big Bethel: The First Battle

Ebook

The Peninsula Campaign of 1862: From Yorktown to the Seven Days, Volume 2

Ebook

Protecting the Flank at Gettysburg: The Battles for Brinkerhoff’s Ridge and East Cavalry Field, July 2 -3, 1863

Ebook

“If We Are Striking for Pennsylvania”: The Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac March to Gettysburg - Volume 1: June 3–21, 1863

Ebook

Year of Desperate Struggle: Jeb Stuart and His Cavalry, from Gettysburg to Yellow Tavern, 1863–1864

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Pickett's Charge--The Last Attack at Gettysburg

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The Last Citadel: Petersburg, June 1864–April 1865

Ebook

Passing Through the Fire: Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain in the Civil War

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The National Tribune Civil War Index: A Guide to the Weekly Newspaper Dedicated to Civil War Veterans, 1877-1943, Volume 2: 1904-1943

Ebook

The Battle of First Deep Bottom

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The Summer of '63: Vicksburg & Tullahoma: Favorite Stories and Fresh Perspectives from the Historians at Emerging Civil War

Ebook

Lincoln's Choice: The Repeating Rifle which Cut Short the Civil War

Ebook

The Wilderness Campaign

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Wilson's Creek: The Second Battle of the Civil War and the Men Who Fought It

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Battlelines: Gettysburg, Day 2: Civil War Combat Artists and the Pictures They Drew, #3

Ebook

Grant's Left Hook: The Bermuda Hundred Campaign, May 5–June 7, 1864

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Confederate Waterloo: The Battle of Five Forks, April 1, 1865, and the Controversy that Brought Down a General

Ebook

The Peninsula Campaign of 1862: From Yorktown to the Seven Days, Volume One

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The American Civil War (1): The war in the East 1861–May 1863

Ebook

Perryville: This Grand Havoc of Battle

Ebook

The Shenandoah Valley Campaigns, Omnibus E-book: Includes The Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1862 and The Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1864

Ebook

If It Takes All Summer: The Battle of Spotsylvania

Ebook

Army of the Potomac: McClellan's First Campaign, March 1862–May 1862

Ebook

Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump

Ebook

The Great Reset: And the War for the World

Ebook

A People's History of the United States

Ebook

The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West

Ebook

Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race

Ebook

Just Kids: A National Book Award Winner

Ebook

Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong

Ebook

South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation

Ebook

Killing the Guys Who Killed the Guy Who Killed Lincoln: A Nutty Story About Edwin Booth and Boston Corbett

Ebook

Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History

Ebook

The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government

Ebook

The Untold History of the United States

Ebook

Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer: An Edgar Award Winner

Ebook

1776

Ebook

How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States

Ebook

Killing England: The Brutal Struggle for American Independence

Ebook

Benjamin Franklin: An American Life

Ebook

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Ebook

The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us about How and When This Crisis Will End

Ebook

The Wright Brothers

Ebook

Summary of The Fourth Turning: by William Strauss & Neil Howe - What the Cycles of History Tell Us About America's Next Rendezvous with Destiny - A Comprehensive Summary

Ebook

The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party

Ebook

The Right Stuff

Ebook

Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty

Ebook

Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany

Ebook

Bowling Alone: Revised and Updated: The Collapse and Revival of American Community

Ebook

Three Sisters in Black: The Bizarre True Case of the Bathtub Tragedy

Ebook

The Book of Charlie: Wisdom from the Remarkable American Life of a 109-Year-Old Man

Ebook

Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom

Ebook

Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America

Podcast episode

Lecture 15 - Lincoln, Leadership, and Race: Emancipation as Policy: Professor Blight follows Robert E. Lee's army north into Maryland during the summer of 1862, an invasion that culminated in the Battle of Antietam, fought in September of 1862. In the wake of Antietam, Abraham Lincoln issued his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, a document that changed the meaning of the war forever. Professor Blight suggests some of the ways in which Americans have attempted to come to grips with the enigmatic Lincoln, and argues that, in the end, it may be Lincoln's capacity for change that was his most important characteristic. The lecture concludes with the story of John Washington, a Virginia slave whose concerted action suggests the central role American slaves played in securing their own freedom. Transcript Lecture Page

Podcast episode

Lecture 27 - Legacies of the Civil War: Professor Blight finishes his lecture series with a discussion of the legacies of the Civil War. Since the nineteenth century, Blight suggests, there have been three predominant strains of Civil War memory, which Blight defines as reconciliationist, white supremacist, and emancipationist. The war has retained a political currency throughout the years, and the ability to control the memory of the Civil War has been, and continues to be, hotly contested. Transcript Lecture Page

Podcast episode

Lecture 26 - Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory: Having dealt with the role of violence and the Supreme Court in bringing about the end of Reconstruction in his last lecture, Professor Blight now turns to the role of national electoral politics, focusing in particular on the off-year Congressional election of 1874 and the Presidential election of 1876. 1874 saw the return of the Democrats to majority status in the Senate and the House of Representatives, as voters sick of corruption and hurt by the Panic of 1873 fled the Republicans in droves. According to many historians, the contested election of 1876, and the "Compromise of 1877," which followed it, marked the official end of Reconstruction. After an election tainted by fraud and violence, Republicans and Democrats brokered a deal by which Republican Rutherford B. Hayes took the White House in exchange for restoration of "home rule" for the South. Transcript Lecture Page

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#303- GETTYSBURG (Part the Seventh): In which Joe Hooker decides to do something about the concentration of rebel cavalry under Jeb Stuart at Culpeper.

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#291- VICKSBURG (Part the Fifteenth): In which we look at the decisive clash of the Vicksburg Campaign- the Battle of Champion Hill, which took place on May 16, 1863.

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Lecture 19 - To Appomattox and Beyond: The End of the War and a Search for Meanings: Professor Blight uses Herman Melville's poem "On the Slain Collegians" to introduce the horrifying slaughter of 1864. The architect of the strategy that would eventually lead to Union victory, but at a staggering human cost, was Ulysses S. Grant, brought East to assume control of all Union armies in 1864. Professor Blight narrates the campaigns of 1864, including the Battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor, and the siege of Petersburg. While Robert E. Lee battled Grant to a stalemate in Virginia, however, William Tecumseh Sherman's Union forces took Atlanta before beginning their March to the Sea, destroying Confederate morale and fighting power from the inside. Professor Blight closes his lecture with a description of the first Memorial Day, celebrated by African Americans in Charleston, SC 1865. Transcript Lecture Page

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#293 VICKSBURG (Part the Seventeenth): In which we look at Federal siege operations at Vicksburg, May-June 1863.

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#299 GETTYSBURG (Part the Third): In which we look at Robert E Lee's reasons for launching an offensive strike north into Pennsylvania in the summer of 1863. 

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#72 McCLELLAN TAKES CHARGE: In which we discuss George B. McClellan's arrival in Washington in July of 1861, and his taking command of the defeated & demoralized force that would become the Union's famed Army of the Potomac.

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#288 VICKSBURG (Part the Twelfth): In which we look at the Battle of Port Gibson, which took place on May 1, 1863, as Grant advanced inland after landing on the east side of the Mississippi River.

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#334- BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG (Part the Twentieth): "it seemed as if the bullets were as thick as hailstones in a storm"

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Lecture 17 - Homefronts and Battlefronts: "Hard War" and the Social Impact of the Civil War: Professor Blight begins his lecture with a description of the sea change in Civil War scholarship heralded by the Social History revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. Along with a focus on the experience of the common solider, women, and African Americans, a central component of this shift in scholarly emphasis was an increased interest in the effects of the war on the Union and Confederate home fronts. After suggesting some of the ways in which individual Americans experienced the war, Professor Blight moves to a discussion of the war's effect on industry and economics, North and South. The lecture concludes with a description of the increased activism of the federal government during the war, an activism that found expression in finance, agriculture, taxation, building railroads, and, most importantly, in emancipation. Transcript Lecture Page

Podcast episode

Lecture 14 - Never Call Retreat: Military and Political Turning Points in 1863: Professor Blight lectures on the military history of the early part of the war. Beginning with events in the West, Blight describes the Union victories at Fort Donelson and Fort Henry, introduces Union General Ulysses S. Grant, and narrates the horrific battle of Shiloh, fought in April of 1862. Moving back East, the lecture describes the Union General George McClellan's abortive 1862 Peninsula campaign, which introduced the world to Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. The lecture concludes with Confederate General Robert E. Lee's decision to take the battle to the North. Transcript Lecture Page

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#302 GETTYSBURG (Part the Sixth): In which the armies start to move. Well, one of the armies starts to move.

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Lecture 18 - "War So Terrible": Why the Union Won and the Confederacy Lost at Home and Abroad: This lecture probes the reasons for confederate defeat and union victory. Professor Blight begins with an elucidation of the loss-of-will thesis, which suggests that it was a lack of conviction on the home front that assured confederate defeat, before offering another of other popular explanations for northern victory: industrial capacity, political leadership, military leadership, international diplomacy, a pre-existing political culture, and emancipation. Blight warns, however, that we cannot forget the battlefield, and, to this end, concludes his lecture with a discussion of the decisive Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg in July of 1863. Transcript Lecture Page

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#41 THE PURSUIT OF VICTORY: In which we discuss the Confederate and Union war aims & strategy at the beginning of the Civil War. Plus, we look at the Union's move in May 1861 to seize Alexandria, Virginia- just across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.

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#319- BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG (Part the Fifth): "the enemy are advancing in strong force"

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#295 VICKSBURG (Part the Nineteenth): In which we see John Pemberton surrender Vicksburg to Ulysses S Grant on July 4, 1863, ending the forty-seven day siege.

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Lecture 24 - Retreat from Reconstruction: The Grant Era and Paths to "Southern Redemption": This lecture opens with a discussion of the myriad moments at which historians have declared an "end" to Reconstruction, before shifting to the myth and reality of "Carpetbag rule" in the Reconstruction South. Popularized by Lost Cause apologists and biased historians, this myth suggests that the southern governments of the Reconstruction era were dominated by unscrupulous and criminal Yankees who relied on the ignorant black vote to rob and despoil the innocent South. The reality, of course, diverges widely from this image. Among other accomplishments, the Radical state governments that came into existence after 1868 made important gains in African-American rights and public education. Professor Blight closes the lecture with the passage of the 15th Amendment, the waning radicalism of the Republican party after 1870, and the rise of white political terrorism across the South. Transcript Lecture

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#332- BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG (Part the Eighteenth): "men were being mown down in great numbers on both sides"

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#325- BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG (Part the Eleventh): "no one ever received a more important command"

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#330- BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG (Part the Sixteenth): "wait a while and i will send you word when to go in"

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#304- GETTYSBURG (Part the Eighth): The Battle of Brandy Station

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#368- BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG (Part the Fifty-fourth): "it was kill all you can"

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#298 GETTYSBURG (Part the Second): In which we look at the May 15, 1863 conference in Richmond attended by Jefferson Davis, James Seddon, and Robert E Lee.

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War And Our World: Military historian John Keegan explores the impact warfare has had on modern times.

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Lecture 22 - Constitutional Crisis and Impeachment of a President: Professor Blight continues his discussion of the political history of Reconstruction. The central figure in the early phase of Reconstruction was President Andrew Johnson. Under Johnson's stewardship, southern whites held constitutional conventions throughout 1865, drafting new constitutions that outlawed slavery but changed little else. When the Republican-dominated U.S. Congress reassembled late in 1865, they put a stop to Johnson's leniency and inaugurated Radical (or Congressional) Reconstruction, a process that resulted in the immediate passage of the Civil Rights bill and the Fourteenth Amendment, and the eventual passage of four Reconstruction Acts. The Congressional elections in 1866 and Johnson's disastrous "Swing Around the Circle" speaking tour strengthened Radical control over Congress. Each step of the way, Johnson did everything he could to obstruct Congressional Reconstruction, setting the stage for his i

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#243 STONES RIVER (Part the Fourth): In which we continue to tell the story of the Battle of Stones River, which took place outside of Murfreesboro, Tennessee from December 31, 1862 to January 2, 1863.

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#297 GETTYSBURG (Part the First): In which we kick-off the Gettysburg story arc.

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#363- BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG (Part the Forty-ninth): "the whole hillside seemed enveloped in a blaze"