Just over one month after the first shots of the Civil War were fired, three enslaved black men got into a row boat and paddled across the James River from mainland Virginia to the Union-occupied Fortress Monroe. Whether they knew it or not, the three young men – named Frank Read more…
In 1864, young Daniel Folsom was institutionalized for something that we might consider PTSD. In a letter home to his sister, he promised her, “I shall try and be a man.” Why was Daniel so concerned with his manhood? What did it mean to be a man during the Civil Read more…
The nation first had to truly grapple with the extraordinary expenses of war was after the American Civil War. As part of our series highlighting our own research fields, today we’re talking about Civil War veterans and disability, trauma, gore, crime, and extraordinary federal expenditures. Listen, download, watch on YouTube, or Read more…
Today’s discussion is about the creation of historical memory and how one war in particular, The Texas War of Independence, is remembered. But also how historical memory of that war is profoundly colored by the memory of the Civil War through what is known as the Lost Cause. We invite Read more…
Today, we’re going to deal with the history behind why we have Confederate memorials and what they mean, but also talk about something fun: guerrilla warfare – the irregular forms of war that took place largely in the Western reaches of the war’s borders. We invite you to listen to Read more…
The History Buffs discuss the United States Colored Troops during the American Civil War.
We think we know the story of the end of slavery in the United States: Abraham Lincoln abolished slavery with a stroke of his pen, and millions of enslaved men, women and children went forward happily into their new lives as freedpeople. But the reality wasn’t quite so sunny. Read more…