Fred Kiger - Podcast Details

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Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 094 - After The Sound Of Bugles Faded: The Last Years of Robert E. Lee - Part 1 About this episode: We begin a two part presentation that tells the story of a man who never truly sought fame and never wanted to be controversial, and yet his destiny casts such a long shadow that to this day, he may well be one of the most noted generals in American military history, and to more than a few, lurks as one who was and continues to be deemed a traitor. He began his military career at 18 years of age, when he entered West Point in 1825. We pick up his life when, af...

2026-01-2644 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 093 - Fighting On The Frontier: The American Civil War West Of The Mississippi About this episode: For this episode, we’ll take the American Civil War to places that far too many dismiss - west of the Mississippi. Sites and confrontations that may not be as well-known as eastern theater battlefields like Shiloh, Antietam, Gettysburg or Chattanooga but, nevertheless at locations where national interests were just as great, passions of those involved just as deep and consequences that were just as far-reaching. Three selected stories - each to provide a snapshot of personalities, events and ramifications. One to highlight Union and Confederate campaigns in faraw...

2025-12-301h 15

How I Met Your Monster Dracula, Wolf Man, Frankenstein, Gill Man, and The Mummy in Fred Dekker's THE MONSTER SQUADAs we continue our IN DA KLERB WE ALL MONSTERS triple feature, we’re stocking up on silver bullets and garlic pizza to meet an ‘80s take on the Universal Monsters in THE MONSTER SQUAD, starring Andre Gower, Tom Noonan, Duncan Regehr, Ryan Lambert, Jon Gries, Ashley Bank, Leonardo Cimino, Brent Chalem, Robby Kiger, Stephen Macht, Mary Ellen Trainor, Stan Shaw, Lisa Fuller, and Jack Gwillim. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTubeFor bonus content and commentaries, check out our PatreonFollow the show on Instagram, TikTok, and FacebookWant...

2025-11-241h 53

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 092 - A Man Committed: William Tecumsah Sherman, Part 2 About this episode: In the aftermath of the great and bloody battle of Shiloh, we pick up with the life and career of William Tecumseh Sherman. His personal journey continues to be one that spans the vast spectrum that comprises life itself - ups and downs, triumphs and defeats. In this episode, we speak of his command of the Union’s Western Theater and its campaigns, his post-war rise to General-in-Chief and, after retirement, his time as citizen. Through all, he was larger than life and no stranger to complexity and controversy. Now, in P...

2025-11-2149 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 091 - Finding Himself: William Tecumsah Sherman, Part 1 About this episode: It was a Wednesday, August 11, 1880 and some 5000 Union veterans gathered at the Ohio State Fair. President Rutherford B. Hayes had just finished a speech when another was called for. The next speaker was tall, sinewy and long in the neck. His head was large and his face a regular nest of wrinkles. Often animated and mercurial in temperament, on this day, his features expressed determination - especially his mouth. “There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but boys, it is all hell…” This is the s...

2025-10-2952 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 090 - Rich In "Guns And Butter": The North In 1860 About this episode: The year was 1859 and future Confederate Secretary of the Navy, Florida Senator Stephen R. Mallory, trumpeted, “It is no more for this country to pause in its career than for the free and untrammeled eagle to cease its soar.” He had every reason to be optimistic, for the decade of the 1850s had brought the United States of America exceptional growth and prosperity. And, with enormous resources, there was much to look forward to: vast unoccupied lands, a network of navigable rivers, untapped riches in timber, iron, coal, copper and Califo...

2025-09-301h 03

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 089 - Colonial Status: The World Of The Antebellum South About this episode: Sometime in 1861, the young Georgia poet Sidney Lanier, a recent Confederate Army enlistee, attended a mock medieval tournament in Kinston, NC. Watching mounted Confederate officers dressed as knights competing for the honor of a local belle, he was moved…even enraptured. To him, the scene was a metaphor for the war itself. The South was a gallant knight battling against dark Northern materialistic forces. Defending hallowed chivalry. As Lanier put it, the Confederacy’s war had “the sanctity of a religious cause” arrayed in “military trapp...

2025-08-291h 09

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 088 - Death In The Trenches: The Siege Of Petersburg About this episode: From June 18, 1864 until April 2, 1865, the Union Armies of the James and Potomac laid siege to Peterburg, Virginia - the all-important supply and communication center for Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and Richmond itself. After 45 days of constant bloodletting in the Overland Campaign, the contesting forces began what would mirror warfare five decades later - miles and miles of trenches, denuded landmarks and death not so much by rifled muskets and artillery but disease. This is the story of the Confederacy’s long, slow descent into darkness...

2025-07-311h 11

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 087 - Modernizing War: Science And Technology In The American Civil War About this episode: GPS, drones, laser-guidance—all modern marvels that have served mankind in both peace and war. Nothing new, for there were creations and adaptations for a conflict contested in the 1860s; enough so that that confrontation has been called, by many, the first “modern war.” This is the story of enterprising inventors and engineers and their ideas and machines—their taking theory and making it practical. The ongoing marriage between innovation and war, this is the story of Science and Technology in the American Civil War. ----more---- Some Cha...

2025-06-261h 04

Theory 2 Action Podcast MM#419--The Threads That Bind Us: Why Understanding the Civil War Matters TodayFAN MAIL--We would love YOUR feedback--Send us a Text MessageWhat do you do when you discover a treasure that's transforming how Americans understand their own history? You break the rules and celebrate it. That's exactly what this special episode of Theory to Action does by highlighting "Threads from the National Tapestry: Stories from the American Civil War," a remarkable podcast hosted by historian Fred Kiger.As we approach America's 250th anniversary (a little over a year from now,) understanding our Civil War has never been more crucial. This conflict wasn't merely a...

2025-06-2514 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 086 - Sowers Of Dissent: Fire-Eaters Louis T. Wigfall And Edmund Ruffin About this episode: Revolution and civil war require explosive issues and impassioned men more than willing to make change and, if necessary, to do so violently. This is the story of two such Southern men. This is the story of fire eaters Louis T. Wigfall and Edmund Ruffin. ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Nathaniel Macon Roger A. Pryor John Brown Sam Houston P. G. T. Beauregard James H. Hammond Subscri...

2025-05-291h 21

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 085 - And The War Began...: Fort Sumter Revisited About this episode: It takes a cast to put on a play and our story this day is filled with characters that emoted passions raging from reasoned deliberation to knee-jerk and violent. And not only for the chain of events that led to the first confrontation of the American Civil War but throughout and even beyond the four-year long conflict. Men and women caught in the cross-hairs of history or those that created them. This is the story of the characters and events that led to momentous drama in Charleston Harbor. This is the cast an...

2025-04-301h 31

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 084 - Return To The Confederacy's Gibraltar: Fort Fisher Revisited About this episode: Some six years ago, we chronicled the Confederacy’s Gibraltar that allowed Wilmington, NC to be the last major Confederate port open to the outside world. 72 episodes later and in the 160th year of its capture, we, again, turn our attention to the massive earthen fort and those that took part in the campaign to either storm or defend the Confederate Goliath. This is the expanded story of the fort whose fall in January of 1865 hastened, in many respects, Lee’s retreat from Petersburg, Virginia and, subsequently, the surrender of his ar...

2025-03-281h 17

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 083 - A Modern-Day Moses: The Life Of Harriet Tubman About this episode: She stood only about 5’, yet, in terms of achievement and historical significance, she remains a giant. This is the story of not only a remarkable woman, but human being. This is the story of Harriet Tubman. ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Charles Nalle Frederick Douglass Thomas Garrett William Seward John Brown Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here Thank you to our...

2025-02-261h 06

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 082 - Resistance By Liberation: The Underground Railroad About this episode: Its mission and those who willingly took part in it dared to defy the highest law in the land. And in their desire to do what was right, they wrote, spoke and acted out against a hateful institution that remains to this day, a cross this country must bear. This is the story of brave crusaders who risked much and an organization that sought to right a moral evil. This is the story of the Underground Railroad. ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: ...

2025-01-3046 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 081 - Salve For The Soul: Music During The American Civil War About this episode: This is an episode about a phenomenon as old as time itself. Something that, throughout the ages, has brought laughter, reflection, made and rekindled memories and even moved men and women to tears. From stirring airs to ballads and everything in between, this is the story of that which has been described as a salve for the soul. This is the story of Music during the American Civil War. ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Julia Ward Howe George Freder...

2024-12-271h 00

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 080 - Moment Of Decision: The Election of 1864 About this episode: Presidential elections essentially boil down to a popular mandate, either supporting an incumbent’s administration or repudiating it. Never was that clearer than in 1864 when some four million people went to the polls to either re-elect Abraham Lincoln or oust him. At the election’s core: to stay the course and finish the war or admit it a failure and call for a cessation of hostilities. Such were the weighty consequences surrounding Abraham Lincoln’s quest for a second term. This is the story of a nation’s moment of decision. This is the st...

2024-11-2645 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 079 - What If The Confederacy Won The American Civil War? About this episode: For millennia humans have reflected on historical events. Quite often, one poses the timeless question: what if - had a life been spared or taken, had a candidate won rather than lost and, as it relates to this episode, what if a battle or war ended differently? So, with a degree of trepidation, we address that last question and will do so through the works of a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and two university professors. With writing fueled by incredible imagination and plots, characters and consequences drawn from factual trends and themes, we o...

2024-10-2957 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 078 - Drive on the Heart of the Confederacy: The Atlanta Campaign About this episode: Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant understood numbers. And, in the spring of 1864, he intended to use the North’s advantage in men and materiel to pressure, stretch and snap the Confederacy at multiple points. And so, he ordered simultaneous campaigns. As Abraham Lincoln put it, “those not skinning can hold a leg.” Three were to begin in Virginia: at Bermuda Hundred, into the Shenandoah Valley and across the Rapidan into the Wilderness. One was to be launched on the Red River in Louisiana and, finally, a campaign from Chattanooga, Tennessee. One that...

2024-09-261h 10

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 077 - "Stirring Violent Passions" - Civil War Prisons and Prisoners of War About this episode: Too often, we think only of wild assaults, the terrible collision of armed men, the desperate fighting of soldiers - often, hand to hand - and the killed and wounded but, in the American Civil War, we tend to overlook what happened to another element that comprised battle casualties: Those captured. This is the story about the American Civil War’s prisoners of war. This is also the story of the prisons that contained them. ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Montgomery C. Meigs...

2024-08-261h 08

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 076 - Prelude To 1860: The Lincoln-Douglas Debates About this episode: As we’ve seen in the one presidential debate this election year, a performance has consequences. Although it was not for the office of chief executive, we turn over time’s shoulder to speak of another storied debate - in 1858 and for the office of U.S. senator. This is the story of a series of face-to-face confrontations that may not have had immediate ramifications but most certainly resonated two years later when, on the eve of civil war, the two both pursued the office of President of The United States. This is the s...

2024-07-3155 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 075 - "It Was Not War; It Was Murder" - North Anna and Cold Harbor About this episode: Washington City was buzzing with anxiety. It was the middle of May 1864 and no news had arrived from Virginia for days. Then, finally, in flurries, it came - word from the front and it was most welcome. Grant was posed to strike a mortal blow. Readers clutched papers that, in bold print, screamed “Extra.” Unable to concentrate, Congress adjourned for three days. At 10 pm on the evening of May 11th, the President moved out onto the Executive Mansion portico where, before him, a massive crowd sprawled on the lawn. He announced the times...

2024-07-011h 16

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 074 - Confederate Cavalier: J.E.B. Stuart About this episode: With gray cape lined with red satin and ostrich plume in hat, he was the beau ideal of the cavalier South. He rode and campaigned with Sam Sweeney on banjo and Mulatto Bob on the bones. At times, one wondered was it war or just a lark. Despite all the showy display, he was Robert E. Lee’s “eyes and ears” and his reconnaissance set the table for battles and campaigns. And, in doing so, he came across as a knight in shining armor on a holy quest - a happy warrior in the...

2024-05-311h 03

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 073 - The Confederacy's Last First Lady: Varina Howell Davis About this episode: She was witty, intelligent and a great conversationalist: everything that raised the eyebrows of proper Southern women in the mid-19th century. And then, she married the man who became the first and only President of the Confederacy. Wedded to her fate with him and a doomed nation, her life was filled with trying times. She was, if you will, locked in a personal civil war as she struggled to reconcile her societal duties with strong individual beliefs. This is the story of a remarkably resilient woman who served as the Confederacy's F...

2024-04-261h 05

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 072 - The Dawning Of A New Age: The Fight Between The USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia About this episode: For those aboard the fifty-gun USS Congress, it had been a quiet morning. Its crew, as usual, prepared the twenty-year-old vessel for inspection which would be held the next day. Meanwhile, the ship’s quartermaster gazed out over Hampton Roads which glistened under a late winter sun. All seemed normal. And then, at 12:45 p.m., a column of heavy black smoke. Curiosity aroused, the quartermaster turned to a fellow officer, handed him his glass and asked for him to take a look. Their gaze created concern. Indeed, as the quartermaster put it, at...

2024-03-281h 09

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 071 - Edwin McMasters Stanton: Lincoln's "Unloved" Secretary Of War About this episode: When exercising power, the 16th President’s stocky and sphinxlike Secretary of War could demonstrate a Jekyll and Hyde personality. Personally honest, he could be unforgiving and given to histrionics when he thought them necessary. And again, when required, warm hearted, selfless and patriotic. In charge of the Union’s land-based operations, he made tough decisions and did so with little regard for those affected by those decisions. His mission was to win the war and he pursued that purpose with relentless fury. In doing so, far too many simply remembered him as th...

2024-02-231h 10

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 070 - Combatting The Invisible Enemy: Medicine During The Civil War About this episode: For most of us, our mental snapshot of 19th-century battlefield medicine is captured when Union Major General Carl Schurz recorded a ghastly scene at Gettysburg: “There stood the surgeons, their sleeves rolled up to their elbows … [One] surgeon snatched his knife from between his teeth …, wiped it rapidly once or twice across his bloodstained apron, and the cutting began. The operation accomplished, the surgeon would look around with a deep sigh, and then – 'Next!'” Relying on first-hand accounts, meticulous statistics and research, we share a side of the conflict that few who fought w...

2024-01-261h 00

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 069 - Fredericksburg Revisited About this episode: Back in December of 2018, we told the story of an engagement that took place along the banks of the Rappahannock and detailed events that took place afterwards. Now, five years later, we return to that story but with greater detail, and the addition of first person accounts. Once again, we would like to take you back to November and December 1862, when yet another Federal commander wanted Richmond but, in order to do that, had to take a sleepy little town almost halfway between the Southern capital and Washington City. Once again, we ret...

2023-12-261h 09

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 068 - The Confederacy’s Last Salvo - The Career of the CSS Shenandoah About this episode: By 1864, a desperate Confederacy realized it must resort to desperate measures. Measures not only confined to land battles and trying to break the Union blockade, but the procuring and use of commerce raiders which would scour the oceans to wreak havoc on the North’s vast merchant marine. Anything to create economic hardship. Anything to doom Abraham Lincoln’s chances for reelection. This is the story of one such raider. This is the story of the CSS Shenandoah. ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: James Dunwoody Bulloch Th...

2023-11-301h 08

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 067 - Return to the ”Daughter of the Stars” - The Valley Campaign of 1864 About this episode: The Native Americans referred to Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley as “Daughter of the Stars.” Yet, both the Federal Union and the Confederacy knew it to be the “Breadbasket of Virginia” - and that made it a theater for military operations. Both sides very aware of “Stonewall” Jackson’s assessment in 1862, “If the Valley is lost, then Virginia is lost.” Played out in 1864, this is the story of the dramatic ebb and flow to control that strategic site. This is the story of the Second Valley Campaign. ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode:

2023-10-3057 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 066 - Waging War: Strategy, Tactics, Arms and Technology in the American Civil War About this episode: This time around, a different delivery, a different approach. Rather than anecdotes and stories from a biography, battle or campaign, this time a series of facts, figures, theories and themes that set the stage for waging civil war. This session: Strategy, Tactics, Arms and Technology - a basis for understanding why our civil conflict was so long and so costly. ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Antoine-Henri Jomini Carl von Clausewitz Winfield Scott Dennis Hart Mahan Claude-Étienne Minié

2023-09-251h 08

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 065 - The Soldier’s Friend: Clara Barton About this episode: It was over 140 years ago that the American Red Cross was founded. Though most know its founder, few know the details of her lifetime of charity, sacrifice and service. This is an attempt to correct that. This is the story of an American pioneer - an American hero. This is the story of Clara Barton. ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Charles Sumner Frances Gage Dorence Atwater Samuel Green Dorothea Dix For Further Reading:

2023-08-2556 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 064 - Taking Down The Citadel: The Siege of Vicksburg About this episode: In the first days of the American Civil War, Winfield Scott, the then 74-year-old Union General-in-Chief, advised a strategy that he believed was key in putting down the Southern rebellion. Derisively tabbed the “Anaconda” Plan, Scott believed: one, the Border States had to be held and used as avenues for invasion; two, Southern ports should be blockaded and, third, to split the Confederacy, the Mississippi River should become a Union highway. This is the story of the incredible campaign that made Scott’s third element reality. This is the story of Ulysses S. Grant’s...

2023-07-2856 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 063 - Then And Now: The Lost Cause About this episode: It was January 1872. In Lexington, Virginia and on the campus of recently re-named Washington and Lee College, former Confederate Lieutenant General Jubal Anderson Early was on a mission: a mission to venerate Robert E. Lee, and to give Southerners a positive spin on their defeat - not only to address the recent past, but to arm them and their descendants with, as he and his disciples put it, a “correct” narrative of the war. This is the story of an ideology that simmers even to this day. This is the story of the c...

2023-06-301h 01

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 062 - ”...Hell Can’t Beat That Terrible Scene”: Spotsylvania Court House About this episode: It was May 1864 and Ulysses S. Grant’s Overland Campaign was underway. After two days of violence in the Wilderness and a swing to the southeast, weary men from the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac found themselves eyeball to eyeball yet again. The fighting to come: savage, up close, personal, hand to hand. The consequences: bloody, even ghastly. This is the story of the most vicious episode of sustained combat ever to occur on the North American continent. This is the story of Spotsylvania Court House. ...

2023-05-261h 07

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 061 - Duty, Honor, Countries: The West Point Class of 1846 About this episode: The United States Military Academy has a long and distinguished history. Established in 1802, its stated mission continues to be “to educate, train, and inspire the Corps of Cadets so that each graduate is a commissioned leader of character committed to the values of Duty, Honor, Country and prepared for a career of professional excellence and service to the Nation as an officer in the United States Army.” Six decades after its creation, that mission took on new and unusual interpretation, for their country was at war with itself. All too often, fellow alums...

2023-04-271h 01

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 060 - Desperate Times, Desperate Battle: The Battle Of Bentonville About this episode: It was March of 1865 and the men under William Tecumseh Sherman had punched their way into North Carolina. In this, the Carolinas Campaign, over 60,000 battle-hardened veterans marched, as they had since they left Atlanta, in two columns. To confront the blue surge, Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston boldly planned to throw some 21,000 men upon one of the isolated Federal wings. And so would be fought, on low-lying, marshy ground near a small hamlet in southeastern North Carolina, the largest land battle in the history of the Old North State. It would be t...

2023-03-311h 07

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 059 - Connecting The Coasts: The Building Of The Transcontinental Railroad About this episode: It was early 1863 and in the very midst of a civil war that challenged the continued existence of the Union, an event that looked to its future. Indeed, a daunting enterprise – the breaking of ground for the Central Pacific Railroad. This is the story of a great undertaking. This is the story of the building of the transcontinental railroad. ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Grenville M. Dodge Theodore D. Judah Leland Stanford Thomas "Doc" Durant Lewis...

2023-02-241h 22

Sights N Sounds with Allen Kiger Fred Young of the Kentucky HeadhuntersInterview with Fred Young of the Kentucky Headhunters

2023-02-0323 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 058 - Breaking The Chains: The Passage Of The 13th Amendment About this episode: Shockingly brief given the lives lost, cost, and national trauma, but the American Civil War’s two greatest significances are that the nation was preserved and that slavery was ended. This is the story of a major step in ridding this country's association with “the peculiar institution.” This is the story of the labored steps for the passage of the 13th Amendment. ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Horace Greeley Lyman Trumbull Edward Bates Thomas Corwin James...

2023-01-3150 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 057 - Jefferson Davis: First and Final Confederate President About this episode: There are some sixteen accounts about the life of the President of the Confederacy. Unlike his counterpart, Abraham Lincoln, this President, from the perspective of most historians, has not fared well. Brittle, ill-tempered, one who held grudges, possessed poor political skills. In short, a second-rate leader who loved bureaucracy and was unable to grow with responsibility. When asked why the Confederacy lost the war, Southern-born David Potter, a professor of history at both Yale and Stanford Universities, commented that this Chief Executive should shoulder much of the blame. Writing some two decades ago...

2022-12-291h 21

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 056 - Abraham Lincoln: Commander-In-Chief About this episode: It was a Thursday, March 10, 1864, when the brand-spanking new General-in-Chief of all US forces arrived at Brandy Station, Virginia where Major General George Gordon Meade made his headquarters. Fully aware the most pressing military matter was for the Army of the Potomac to forcefully campaign, Lieutenant General U. S. Grant arrived from Washington City to do what he believed he had to do - find a new man to lead the that eastern army. The Pennsylvanian, Meade, expected as much and opened their conversation by offering to uncomplainingly step down and serve i...

2022-11-281h 12

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 055 - Bound To Duty: The Post-War Life Of Robert E. Lee About this episode: The former Confederate general entered the ruined city of Richmond from the south and in the midst of a heavy April shower. His route took him through the portion of city that was most thoroughly burned in the evacuation fires of April 2nd. People stopped and stared or pointed as he made his way up Main Street. To them, he tipped his hat. Eventually, he turned and stopped in front of a three-story red brick house at 707 East Franklin. There, he dismounted Traveller, gave the reins to another, opened the iron gate, walke...

2022-10-281h 17

Collateral Cinema Movie Podcast Ep 67: Fred Dekker’s The Monster Squad (1987) – Collateral Cinema Movie Podcast (SPOILERS)Title: The Monster Squad [Wikipedia] [IMDb] Director: Fred Dekker Producer: Jonathan A. Zimbert Writers: Shane Black, Fred Dekker Stars: Andre Gower, Robby Kiger, Stephen Macht, Duncan Regehr, Stan Shaw, Tom Noonan Release date: August 14, 1987 PROMO: Too Many Captains (@ItsaFilmPodcast) SHOWNOTES: We hope all you movie fans and horror geeks are enjoying a spooky October! Robert, Beau, and Ash are excited this time to dive straight into the 80s and monster cinema with a look at The Monster Squad! This classic Goonies-esque feature is a fun...

2022-10-221h 06

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 054 - ”The River of Death”: The Battle Of Chickamauga About this episode: Just some fifteen miles south of Chattanooga - there in the northwest corner of Georgia - there runs a creek with a harsh name. Indeed, its Cherokee or Creek origin means “River of Death.” That name was never more appropriate than in mid-September 1863 when Union and Confederate armies fought as if the entire war hinged on its outcome. In the end, it may well have, for all the circumstances that flowed from it. This is the story of the second bloodiest day of the American Civil War. This is the story of the Battle...

2022-09-301h 09

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 053 - The Hero And The Humorist: The Friendship of U.S. Grant and Mark Twain About this episode: The two were quite famous. One went to war with weapons and men, and the other could do the same with words and wit - yet their separate paths became one. During this country’s great and terrible civil war, U. S. Grant saved the nation. After the war, Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) would save U. S. Grant. This is the story of their remarkable friendship. ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Ferdinand Ward William Henry Vanderbilt Richard Watson Gild...

2022-08-251h 00

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 052 - ”Let Us Have Peace”: The Post-War Life Of U.S. Grant About this episode: Since its creation, this nation has so embraced several of its victorious generals that it elected them as presidents. Up until the American Civil War, most notably George Washington, Andrew Jackson and Zachary Taylor come to mind. This, in the aftermath of war, is the story of another - a man who, like the president he served, came from the humblest of origins and found himself in this nation’s highest elected office. A man, who in many ways, found his political campaigns just as challenging - perhaps even more so - than h...

2022-07-281h 19

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 051 - ”Beat To Quarters!”: The C.S.S Alabama About this episode: It was a Sunday, January 11, 1863 when the incredible tedium of blockade duty suddenly lurched into frenzied electricity. Five Federal Navy blockaders off Galveston, Texas had sighted a three-masted ship and, although it was some twenty miles from the fleet, the five-gun USS Hatteras moved to investigate. At about 100 yards, Lt. Commander Homer C. Blake demanded the mystery ship’s identity. In response, someone answered, “This is Her Britannic Majesty’s steamer Petrel.” Unimpressed and suspicious, Blake wanted to board and inspect the vessel which was his right under international law. To his request, th...

2022-06-2454 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 050 - Lee’s Finest Hour: Chancellorsville About this episode: In mid-April of 1863, Major General Joseph Hooker oozed with confidence. So assured was he about his offensive preparations to defeat and, in his mind, destroy the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, he remarked to a group of his officers, "My plans are perfect, and when I start to carry them out, may God have mercy on General Lee, for I will have none." This is not the story of Joseph Hooker's greatest success, but that of the man he faced. For our 50th podcast, this is the story of Robert E. Lee's gr...

2022-05-271h 06

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 049 - Concealed Stories: Sex in the American Civil War *Listener discretion advised* About this episode: There have been more works written on the American Civil War than there have been days since it ended, and the number of topics can be overwhelming. However, one aspect of the military experience has largely been overlooked. Hidden from families and posterity, a topic as timeless as war itself. This episode: sex and the American Civil War. ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Charles Lutwidge Dodgson - AKA Lewis Carroll Joseph Hooker Louis Pa...

2022-04-2942 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 048 - The Trent Affair About this episode: James Murray Mason was a Virginian. As a former member of the U.S. Senate, he once served as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. His credentials made him a natural selection for a diplomatic mission to London as a representative for the Confederate States of America. Then there was John Slidell, a native New Yorker, who moved to Louisiana where, as a young man, he embraced the French language and culture. He, too, was perfect for his assignment to Paris - to the court of Napoleon III. In November o...

2022-03-2556 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 047 - ”Into the Belly of the Beast” - Sherman’s Carolinas Campaign About this episode: In July of 1863, Major General Henry Halleck posed a question to a fellow Major General, one who was encamped along the Big Black River down in Mississippi. Asked about the continued depth of Confederate resistance after the fall of Vicksburg, William Tecumseh Sherman answered that he felt Confederate belligerence would continue until southerners were made to suffer for a conflict he firmly believed they started. As he put it, “war is upon us, none can deny it. I would not coax them or meet them halfway, but make them so sick of war...

2022-02-2558 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 046 - Reaping the Whirlwind: Sherman’s March to the Sea - Part 2 About this episode: On Wednesday, November 16, 1864, Major General William Tecumseh Sherman initiated a campaign that, as one military publication would put it, was either “one of the most brilliant or one of the most foolish things ever performed by a military leader.” Only eight days after Abraham Lincoln was re-elected, some 62,000 left behind a smoldering Atlanta and headed east for Savannah. As Sherman put it, “My first object was…to place my army in the very heart of Georgia.” And, indeed, he did just that and more. This is its story. Here, in Part II, this is the...

2022-01-2839 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 045 - Reaping the Whirlwind: Sherman‘s March to the Sea - Part 1 About this episode: In the same month that Abraham Lincoln was re-elected, Major-General William Tecumseh Sherman began a campaign that cut a swath through the very heart of Dixie. Severing his supply line and committed to living off the country, he hoped to break the will of Southern resistance and knock Georgia out of the war. This episode, Part I, details the military chessboard that was late summer and fall of 1864 - the moves and calculations that had to occur in order to breathe life into Sherman’s plans. This is the story of the pri...

2021-12-2933 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 044 - Five Fateful Hours: The Battle of Franklin About this episode: Major-General Patrick Ronayne Cleburne was a native of the green jewel that is Ireland and commanded a division in the Confederate Army of Tennessee. For his military prowess, he was tabbed the “Stonewall of the West”, yet the warrior was often reserved and sentimental. That surfaced the day before the Battle of Franklin when he and his adjutant paused in a little village named Ashwood. There they found St. John’s Episcopal Church. Small and quaint, it was nestled in a grove, framed by ivy and, though late in fall, with flowers. Adding...

2021-11-1845 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 043 - The ”Rock”, The ”Sledge”: George Henry Thomas About this episode: While most history enthusiasts are aware that Virginia was the leading theater of the war, many of those same people are surprised when they learn that Tennessee was second. Indeed, the Western Theater of the American Civil War is shamefully neglected, despite the fact that it was in that theater where battles were fought and won that mortally wounded the Confederacy. The Battle of Nashville in December of 1864 was, perhaps, the most significant in helping to bring the South to its knees and the Federal officer who led that victorious army has, lik...

2021-10-2951 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 042 - The Southern Home Front About this episode: While actual combat was, indeed, nightmarish, being at home - helpless, constantly wondering about loved ones, fending for one’s selves - proved to be equally harrowing. That particularly was the case in the American South - the Confederacy - which served as the primary stage for the four-year-long conflict. And so we return to those eleven seceded states whose political leaders sought independence but, instead, sowed the seeds and reaped the whirlwind for Southern turmoil and destruction. ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Jud...

2021-09-2450 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 041 - The Northern Home Front About this episode: While fighting raged at the front, loved ones back home waged their own battles. While worried about those in uniform, each day brought the additional burden of trying to cope with and find meaning to the all-consuming consequences of civil war. Here: the efforts, the people, and personalities of those on the Northern home front. ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Clement L. Vallandigham Salmon Chase Andrew Carnegie John D. Rockefeller Elizabeth Blackwell...

2021-08-2746 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 040 - July 3, 1863 - Climax - The Third Day at Gettysburg About this episode: In 1948, the Southern novelist, William Faulkner, wrote in Intruder in the Dust, ”For every Southern boy fourteen years old, not once but whenever he wants it, there is the instant when it’s still not yet two o’clock on that July afternoon in 1863, the brigades are in position behind the rail fence, the guns are laid and ready in the woods and the furled flags are already loosened to break out and Pickett himself with his long oiled ringlets and his hat in one hand probably and his sword in the other l...

2021-07-3058 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 039 - July 2, 1863 - A Rolling Thunder - The Second Day at Gettysburg About this episode: On Thursday, July 2, 1863, the Battle of Gettysburg tumbled into its second day. What on Wednesday, the 1st, had been a meeting engagement was now a set battle - one with far more men on the scene and still much at stake. On this day, Robert E. Lee and George Gordon Meade would experience the crushing weight of responsibility and loneliness of command - both issuing orders which placed tens of thousands into harm’s way. And when those orders were misinterpreted or went awry: anguish from thousands who suffered the convoluted and bloody...

2021-06-251h 03

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 038 - July 1, 1863: A Meeting Engagement - The First Day at Gettysburg About this episode: From the Battle of Gettysburg, there are as many stories as participants. For this episode, selections from the first day: stories about the first shot, the arrival and instantaneous death of a Union corps commander, the desperate struggle for a flag, an unlikely 69-year-old volunteer, and two infantry regiments savagely engaged - the men of the 26th North Carolina and the 24th Michigan. All actors in a great historical drama, and played out - just as we are - as human beings. ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In T...

2021-05-281h 02

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 037 - The Confederacy's "Greatest" Surrender - The Bennett Place About this episode: It was a Tuesday, April 11, 1865 - only two days after Robert E. Lee had surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia. Down in North Carolina, with Major General William T. Sherman’s relentless blue wave only some 30 miles to the southeast of Raleigh, NC, Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston’s men of the Army of Tennessee began to march in and through the Old North State’s capital. Women, lining both sides of Raleigh’s Fayetteville Street, greeted them. They handed out meat, bread and tobacco. On the western edge of town, a favor...

2021-04-3050 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 036 - Avenging Angel - John Brown About this episode: The stage: the town of Alton in southern Illinois. The date of the act committed: the 7th of November, 1837. On that Tuesday, an angry mob murdered Elijah Lovejoy, the Presbyterian minister who was the founder of the Illinois State Anti-Slave Society. Two days later, some 500 miles east in Hudson Ohio, a church congregation held a memorial service to honor the murdered activist. Owen Brown opened the gathering with a long, tearful prayer. At its conclusion, there was a long silence. Then, in the back, Owen Brown’s son rose and, stiffly, raised his...

2021-03-2653 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 035 - Nathan Bedford Forrest - Part 2 About this episode: Thus far, we have offered anecdotal insight as to Bedford Forrest’s humble origins: his makeup and antebellum experiences. We’ve detailed his entrance into the great conflict and his meteoric rise to command - his fights at Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Fallen Timbers, and his dogged, relentless pursuit of Colonel Abel Streight’s Union command. Now, we’ll delve into the remainder of his Civil War career as well as his post-war life. Both periods, perhaps unsurprisingly, are laced with controversy. And so, we pick up the fiery story that is Nathan Bedford F...

2021-02-2643 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 034 - Nathan Bedford Forrest - Part 1 About this episode: Major General William T. Sherman, the officer who disemboweled the Confederacy with his marches across Georgia and through the Carolinas, understood the nature of total war. That uniquely qualified him to offer assessment of one of the most remarkable and yet controversial officers in all of the Confederacy. During the war, Sherman spat out, “that devil must be hunted down and killed if it costs 10,000 lives and bankrupts the Federal Treasury!” Later, in reflection, he offered that that devil, militarily speaking, was the most remarkable man the Civil War produced on either side...

2021-01-2936 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War May We Suggest - Bullets And Bandages: The Aid Stations and Field Hospitals at Gettysburg About: Through our continuing research on The Civil War, we here at Threads From The National Tapestry will come across some truly remarkable works that deserve to be shared with you, our loyal listeners. Our first such sharing sets a high bar for all future recommendations to match: the book Bullets And Bandages: The Aid Stations and Field Hospitals at Gettysburg by James Gindlesperger is an impressive and enlightening look at the Battle of Gettysburg from a unique perspective. Here, Fred Kiger will share his thoughts and reflections on this new book from Blair Publishing.

2021-01-2909 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 33 - "The Union Is Dissolved!" - South Carolina Secedes About this episode: For those in power in the state of South Carolina, the November 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln was the final straw. Convinced that he and the Republican party were certain to forever change their economic, political, and cultural world, it was time to act. And so, even before the election year was out, the Palmetto State initiated the process to do what today, few Americans - if any - would even begin to consider. For this episode, the story of South Carolina’s momentous (and as consequences would demonstrate, calamitous) December decision: secession. ...

2020-12-1841 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 32 - The Election of 1860 About this episode: The year was 1860. The nation was coming apart and yet, its political parties made plans to come together - to gather in convention despite deep-seated and festering sectional issues, each to nominate a candidate and approve platforms that, as it turned out, united regions but not a nation. That meant dark consequences, ensuring this country would reap a cataclysmic whirlwind. With today’s polarization as an historical backdrop, this is the story of the most divisive presidential election in the history of this nation - the election of 1860. ----more---- ...

2020-11-2051 min

Filmsmakarna Podcast #196 The Monster Squad - Gäst: Erik Nilsson Ranta (1987, Fred Dekker, Shane Black, Tom Noonan, Monsterklubben)Vi avslutar monstertemat med den ultimata monsterrullen: The Monster Squad, eller Monsterklubben som den heter på svenska. Inte nog med det, vi har en förträfflig gäst i Erik Nilsson Ranta, känd från tidningen och sajten Gamereactor, för en gångs skull har vi en riktig filmkritiker med i podden... Länk till Eriks filmblogg: https://www.gamereactor.se/blog/erik+nilsson+ranta/ Om ni stannar hela vägen till slutet (Sista 3-4 minuterna) bjuder vi på ett Easter-Egg som saknar motstycke i svensk poddhistoria! Handlingen, The Monster Squad:

2020-11-191h 59

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 31 - Mr. Lincoln's Pilgrimage to the Banks of Antietam Creek About this episode: A few nights after September the 22nd, 1862, a band came to serenade the 16th president. Moved by the music and supportive crowd, Abraham Lincoln stepped onto the executive mansion’s balcony and, referring to his recent Emancipation Proclamation, remarked: “I can only trust in God I have made no mistake. It is now for the country and the world to pass judgment on it, and maybe, take action upon it.” But for the President, first things first: To put teeth into his executive proclamation, he would have to win the war - a...

2020-10-3039 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 30 - "No Quarter!" - The Border War Between Kansas and Missouri About this episode: In a conflict that staged over ten thousand fights, Virginia led as a theater of war. The Volunteer State of Tennessee, second. What surprises many is that the third most active theater in the American Civil War was the border state of Missouri, a slave-holding state that remained within the Union. There, the curtain for violence rose long before Confederate forces open-fired on Fort Sumter. Indeed, on any night from 1855 until the summer of 1865, an attack on any town or settlement in Missouri or across the border in Kansas could strike like a...

2020-09-2551 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 29 - The New York City Draft Riots About this episode: Far too many see the Union war effort in the American Civil War as a monolith - patriotic men across the north from Maine to Minnesota, flocking en masse together under national colors - to fight to preserve the Union, and to rid the nation of the hateful institution of slavery. As will be evidenced in this episode, nothing could be farther from the truth. Within the federal union in the summer of 1863, there was war-weariness. Men of influence like New York politician Samuel J. Tilden, and artist/inventor Samuel F.B. M...

2020-08-2853 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 28 - "Useless! Useless!" - The Flight of John Wilkes Booth About this episode: For John Wilkes Booth, time was ticking down to the moment he knew he would act. At a tavern next to Ford’s Theatre, he asked for a bottle of whiskey and water. While steeling his nerve for what he would soon do, there came a voice from the back of the dark and smoky bar: “You’ll never be the actor your father was!” Booth smiled, nodded, and said quietly, “When I leave the stage, I will be the most famous man in America.” In less than an hour, he w...

2020-07-1743 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 27 - April 14th, 1865 About this episode: Eight decades ago, popular historian Bruce Catton, and journalist/author Jim Bishop wrote works that profoundly affected my life and future profession: teaching. Catton's This Hallowed Ground and Bishop's The Day Lincoln Was Shot were both written in such dramatic prose that the events, people - indeed, the very era itself - came alive for me. Even today, both authors and their works reinforce my passionate belief that history is alive, relevant, and should be conveyed as a story. For this episode, it is with great reverence and pleasure that I take my le...

2020-06-1953 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 26 - Clash In The Ozarks - Pea Ridge About this episode: E.B. and Barbara Long’s monumental The Civil War Day By Day reveals that there were 10,455 military events during the American Civil War. Here’s a few examples selected from the 16 classifications that they used: there were 79 captures, 727 expeditions, 6337 skirmishes, 76 major battles, and 29 campaigns. No surprise that Virginia was the stage for the most military events. Though Tennessee was second, most students of the conflict are more aware of those events in the eastern theater. However, for this episode, we take you west to The Trans-Mississippi - to an active theater of the...

2020-05-2948 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 25 - Assassination from the Bottom of the Sea - The Hunley About this episode: At the beginning of the American Civil War, the Confederate States of America were faced with creating an army and, even more daunting, a navy. Starting essentially from scratch, it needed warships to defend ports and harbors, and a merchant marine to establish desperately needed trade with foreign nations. Mr. Lincoln ordered a blockade to negate both objectives, and in response, southern political and military administrators turned to radical naval design and innovation. The construction of ironclads was one response. Another: the very source for this episode. This is the story of t...

2020-02-2848 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 24 - Misery at Murfreesboro - the Battle of Stones River About this episode: For Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, the summer and fall of 1862 was a veritable roller coaster ride of emotion, from glimmering hope to hand-wringing despair. For Davis, the Confederate summer offensive may well have been the South’s greatest chance for foreign recognition - but by the end of October, that moment had passed. For Lincoln, far too cautious and deliberate generals allowed retreating Confederate armies to escape from Maryland and Kentucky. Both presidents had to accept that the conflict had no end in sight. And yet, as 1862 drew to a close, bot...

2020-01-3147 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 23 - Chattanooga - Part 2 About this episode: The Union commander-in-chief, Abraham Lincoln, was beside himself. In the northwestern corner of Georgia, there had been defeat and near-disaster back in September of 1863. There, along the banks of Chickamauga Creek, and now in November, the real possibility of yet another reversal at Chattanooga. Besieged by Braxton Bragg’s Confederate Army of Tennessee, Major General U.S. Grant was called in to resurrect sinking morale and restore hope. He corrected the former with the opening of a cracker line. Full bellies and ample ammunition lifted spirits. Now, the man from Gal...

2019-12-2646 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 22 - Chattanooga - Part 1 About this episode: It was fall in the year 1863. Much had changed since the summer. Back in July, a doomed assault on Cemetery Ridge meant Confederate defeat at Gettysburg - and now, back in central Virginia, Lee and Meade’s armies sparred. That same July, Vicksburg fell, and the Mississippi River became a federal highway. Yet the Confederacy’s heartland was still a beating bastion of defiance. That’s why Abraham Lincoln wanted to drive into eastern Tennessee. That’s why he wanted a major railroad hub in the southeastern corner of The Volunteer...

2019-11-2542 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 21 - "I Wish I Could Forget Myself" - Mary Ann Todd Lincoln About this episode: Three of her four children did not live to adulthood, and her husband was assassinated while he held her hand. If anyone ever deserved to be troubled, it was the wife of the sixteenth president. James Cornelius, curator of the Lincoln Collection at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, Illinois said simply: “She had the most tragic public life in American history.” This is the story of the woman who once said, “I wish I could forget myself.” This is the story of Mary Ann Todd Lincoln.

2019-10-2543 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 20 - In The Shadows: Spies, Raiders, and Intelligence Gathering About this episode: During the American Civil War, great drama was not exclusive to just the battlefield. There were many instances when what took place behind the lines, or behind enemy lines, was just as engaging and significant. Those instances bring life to the men and women who operated in the shadows, who dared to infiltrate and risk all in the process. These are the stories of selected spies, raiders, and military analysts. ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Allan Pinkerton Rose O'Neal Greenhow Belle Boyd William Norris Bennett Young G...

2019-09-2045 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 19 - "Mighty Events Are On The Wing" - Second Manassas About this episode: In the light of Union frustration after the unsuccessful Peninsula Campaign failed to take Richmond, and the Confederacy’s Seven Days Campaign which repelled the Union Army of the Potomac, the North’s military powers-that-be surrendered something they would regret: the strategic initiative. This is the story of what Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia did with it. In a dramatic turnaround in the Eastern Theater, we return to ground through which ran a stream that locals called Bull Run. This is the story of the Battle of Second Manas...

2019-08-3043 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 18 - "Hell Has Busted" - The Battle Of The Crater About this episode: It was the fourth summer of the war, and Ulysses S. Grant’s Overland Campaign had sledgehammered its way down to Petersburg, Virginia. It had been a campaign that had bled both blue and grey armies white. There, east of town, under oppressive heat and humidity that walks hand-in-hand with the month of July, a daring plan unfolded - which, if successful, might end the war. Instead, it added to the slaughter. This is the story of an engineering marvel - a tunnel. This is the story of The Battle Of The Cra...

2019-07-2642 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 17 - "His Name Might Be Audacity" - The Seven Days Campaign About this episode: In March of 1862, Major General George B. McClellan began to land his massive army on the Virginia peninsula, created by the York and James Rivers. Its objective: Richmond. That army got as close as 4-5 miles, close enough to set their time pieces to the ringing church bells of the Confederate capital. Then, on the 31st of May and the 1st of June, there were two messy, inconclusive days of battle. One of the casualties was a significant one: Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston. Knocked from command of the army defending Richmond, P...

2019-06-2846 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 16 - Hell On Earth: The Battle Of The Wilderness About this episode: Since the Battle of Gettysburg in July of 1863, the two, George Gordon Meade and Robert E. Lee, and their respective armies had shadowboxed down in Central Virginia. The sparring continued throughout the fall and winter, but in spring, there was a new federal presence, and he meant business. General-in-chief Ulysses S. Grant now wore a third star; the first true lieutenant general since George Washington, and rather than be mired in political intrigue in the capital, he chose to travel with Meade's Army of the Potomac. Before, Union generals ordered the Army of...

2019-05-2843 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 15 - Shiloh About this episode: It was April of 1862, and the war was just about to enter its second year. The beginning of that year had been a bleak one for the Confederacy. In February, Fort Henry, Roanoke Island, North Carolina, and Fort Donelson all fell. Now there were invasion routes into "The Old North State," the interior of Tennessee, and the very heartland of the Confederacy. In the first week of March, Missouri was for all practical purposes lost to the confederacy thanks to Union victory at Pea Ridge. In the east, more cause for southern c...

2019-04-2600 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 14 - "With Malice Toward None" - Lincoln's Greatest Speech About this episode: The Associated Press reported the address would be brief. The day of the speech, Saturday, March 4th, 1865 dawned with steady rain. Streets oozed with mud. Like a shroud, fog wrapped its gray arms around the city. At 11:40 that morning, the rain suddenly ended. The clouds began to part, and finally, on a wooden platform before the east portico of the Capitol, the 16th president was introduced. He arose from his chair, put on his steel-rimmed eyeglasses, and stepped forward to speak. In his left hand was a copy of his inaugural address. I...

2019-03-2847 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 13 - Thunder On The Rivers Tennessee And Cumberland: Forts Henry And Donelson About this episode: At 750,000 square miles, the Confederacy was huge, and to put down the rebellion, Mr. Lincoln's armies had to go on the offensive. They would have to be the aggressor. It was a daunting task; even more so in the Confederate West where there existed poor transportation and communication networks. Known early on as The Western Department or Department Number Two, three major rivers offered invasion avenues into the heartland of the south: The Mississippi, Tennessee, and Cumberland. This is the story of a federal campaign led by an officer who was a m...

2019-02-2245 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 12 - The Gibraltar Of The Confederacy - Fort Fisher About this episode: By late December of 1864, dark waters were closing over the Confederacy. Back in August, David Farragut's fleet successfully bottled up Mobile Bay. Two months later, up in the Shenandoah, federal victory at Cedar Creek opened the valley to fire and desolation. In November, William Sherman marched his army across Georgia, and as he entered Savannah in December, he envisioned a similar path of destruction north through the Carolinas. That same month, over in Tennessee, George Thomas won a decisive victory at Nashville, and in Virginia, U.S. Grant continued to pin down L...

2019-01-1842 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 11 - Fredericksburg And The Winter Of 1862-'63 About this episode: Fredericksburg, Virginia was a little town with a long history. It was here that a young George Washington roamed. And, there were others of national fame who once made this locale home; John Paul Jones and James Monroe. But during civil war, its location made it, some 51 miles north of Richmond and 52 miles south of Washington City, a military target. On November 7, 1862, some forty miles or so to the northwest, there was an event that, when played out, would put Fredericksburg squarely in the cross-hairs of civil war. This is the story o...

2018-12-1743 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 10 - Mr. Lincoln Goes To Gettysburg About this episode: This is the story of a man and his words. It begins in the aftermath of bloody consequences that emanated from the first three days in July, 1863. This is the story of Mr. Lincoln's trip to Gettysburg and the Gettysburg Address. ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: George Gordon Meade Robert E. Lee Herman Haupt Alexander Gardner Timothy O'Sullivan Alfred R. Waud Matthew Brady David Wills Edward Everett Mary Todd Lincoln Other References From This Episode Gettysburg National Cemetery Evergreen Cemetery Cemetery Hill

2018-11-1637 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 9 - The Ram Of The Roanoke - The CSS Albemarle About this episode: This is the story of the Ram Of Roanoke - The CSS Albemarle, an ironclad constructed not in a shipyard, but incredibly, in a Halifax County, North Carolina corn field. It would completely reshape Federal strategic plans in North Carolina, Virginia, and the entire Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Stephen Russell Mallory John L. Porter John M. Brooke Ambrose E. Burnside Gilbert Elliott James W. Cooke Peter Evans Smith Charles W. Flusser Robert F. Hoke Other References From This Episod...

2018-10-1546 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 8 - Sheer Unadulterated Violence: The Battle Of Antietam About this episode: This is the story of the Battle of Sharpsburg, of Antietam, the bloodiest single day in the history of this nation. It was an engagment that moved popular historian Bruce Catton to write that September 17, 1862 was a day of sheer, unadulterated violence. ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Bruce Catton George B. McClellan General Edmund Kirby-Smith Braxton Bragg Charles Francis Adams Jefferson Davis James Longstreet D.H. Hill Joseph Hooker Other References From This Episode Sharpsburg, Maryland Harper's Ferry Antietam Battle...

2018-09-1450 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 7 - Little Mac: Letters From George B. McClellan About this episode: It's been written that Helen of Troy possessed "the face that launched a thousand ships." Well, may I introduce to you Ellen Marcy McClellan, the wife of Union MG George Brinton McClellan, who launched thousands of words. Her husband wrote to her daily, and through his letters, we know so much more than, perhaps, he ever intended for us to know. Excerpts of more than 250 of his letters to her were included by Geroge McClellan's literary executor, William C. Prime, in his biographical work McClellan's Own Story which was published in...

2018-08-1745 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 6 - The Plains Of Manassas About this episode: In the first months after war began, both North and South mobilized. Men were needed to fill the ranks. In the North, the 16th President, Abraham Lincoln, called for 75,000 three-month volunteers. Seeking excitement, adventure and certain this would be a short war, they came en masse. To them, politicians and the press, the war's strategy was simple, "On to Richmond." This is the story of how wrong they were. July 21, 1861 - a day when expected battlefield glory morphed into the grim reality of what war truly is. Hard lessons learned s...

2018-07-1844 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 5 - "Stonewall" - Part 02 About this episode: His journey had been nothing short of remarkable. From an orphan from western Virginia to matriculation to West Point where, there, along the banks of the Hudson, he had been an Immortal - placed in the weakest academic section. And yet, he willed himself to graduate 17th out of 59 in the talented Class of 1846 - a class that produced twenty generals. From there, he found confidence and promotion in Mexico, but thanks to a contentious relationship with a post commander in Tampa, he resigned his military commission as an officer and accepted an...

2018-06-1244 min

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War 4 - ”Stonewall” - Part 01 About this episode: “Stonewall” Jackson would’ve been the perfect protagonist for Greek or Shakespearean tragedy; a commanding officer struck down only hours after his greatest tactical success. An officer and man who saw life in the most simplistic terms, he was modest and impeccably honest. Interestingly, he was a study in contrasts: complex yet predictable, ambitious yet humble, wrathful then righteous. Yet, for all his quirks and eccentric habits, he was, as Douglas MacArthur noted, “…one of the most remarkable soldiers we have ever known. His mastery of two of the greatest elements of...

2018-05-1248 min