Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchBattle of Brandy Station 1863: Fleetwood Hill and a Lone Howitzer's Bluff
Episode 13009
On June 9, 1863, near Brandy Station in Culpeper County, Virginia, about 20,500 men fought for ten hours in the largest cavalry battle on American so…
1 day, 4 hours ago
Freedmen's Bureau: 20 Million Rations, HBCU Roots and Family Records
Episode 13008
Congress created the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands in March 1865 under the War Department, gave it no initial funding, and expect…
1 day, 4 hours ago
Homestead Act of 1862: 160 Acres, the Dust Bowl and Alaska's Last Claim
Episode 13007
In May 1988 Ken Deardorff received the last land patent issued under a law Abraham Lincoln signed in 1862. This episode traces how the Homestead Acts…
1 day, 4 hours ago
Daniel Sickles: Lafayette Square Killing, Peach Orchard and a Boxed Leg
Episode 13005
Daniel Sickles, born in New York City in 1819, rose through the printer's trade and the law into New York politics. In 1852 he married Teresa Bagioli…
1 day, 4 hours ago
John F. Reynolds: The General Who Refused Lincoln, Then Fell at Gettysburg
Episode 13004
John F. Reynolds was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1820, nominated to West Point by family friend James Buchanan, and commissioned into the art…
1 day, 4 hours ago
Irvin McDowell: Reluctant Bull Run Commander to Presidio Park Builder
Episode 13003
Irvin McDowell, born in Ohio in 1818, studied at the College de Troyes in France and graduated from West Point in 1838 alongside P.G.T. Beauregard. A…
1 day, 4 hours ago
Forty Acres and a Mule: Sherman's Field Order 15 and Its Reversal
Episode 13002
The phrase 40 acres and a mule began as a concrete military order. Early in the war Benjamin Butler declared enslaved people who reached Fort Monroe …
1 day, 4 hours ago
Mary Surratt: The Boarding House, a Pickaxe Visitor and the Gallows
Episode 13001
Born Mary Jenkins in Maryland in the 1820s, Mary Surratt converted to Catholicism at a girls' academy in Virginia and married John Surratt, a man wit…
1 day, 4 hours ago
Great Locomotive Chase: James Andrews and the First Medals of Honor
Episode 13000
In the spring of 1862 civilian spy James J. Andrews proposed to cut the Western and Atlantic Railroad, the line that could rush Confederate reinforce…
1 day, 4 hours ago
Albert Cashier: Irish Stowaway, 95th Illinois Private and a 53-Year Secret
Episode 12999
Born Jennie Irene Hodgers in Clogherhead, Ireland, on December 25, 1843, Albert Cashier crossed the Atlantic as a stowaway and reached Belvidere, Ill…
1 day, 4 hours ago