More than 2 years in the making, based on reading dozens (I never wanted to count) of books & dozens more articles, over 300 pages of typed notes, 15 episodes long, 28 hours total run-time…..

Boom – here it is, the end of the DHP’s Not-So-Civil War series! What started over 2 years ago is finally done with — took almost half as long to make as the war took to actually happen, it’s done, here we are, one last big push to the finish line!

(Now you can binge the series all the way through, from the beginning, Netflix-style, if you want, starting all the way back with DHP Ep. 131: Opening Gambits, which came out on the last day of 2016.)

Join CJ as he discusses:

• The “Lost Cause” Mythology of the Confederacy
• One last look at the two sides of why the war happened: First, why did the South secede (including an extensive examination of primary sources on this), and second, why was the North willing to use war to prevent them from doing so successfully?
• An examination of why the war turned out as it did, and a potential alternative scenario in which it might well have turned out differently
• And some perspectives on this war that CJ finds interesting & persuasive, from several writers & historians, none of whom are simplistic apologists for either side of the conflict

Internal Links

• DHP Ep. 0131: Opening Gambits: The Not-So-Civil War Part 1

External Links

• Alexander Stephenson’s “Cornerstone Speech” from March 21, 1861

This was originally going to be one giant episode to finish off the series, but then it grew into TOO giant of an episode, so I decided to divide it in order to conquer it.

Here’s the beginning of the end of the Not-So-Civil War series.

Join CJ as he discusses:

• The costs of the war in death & destruction
• Changes wrought by the war
• The fate of the veterans in the decades following the war

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CJ’s DHP Amazon Wish List

Internal Links

• Ep. 0167: Endgame: The Not-So-Civil War Part 13
• Ep. 0166: Suppressing Dissent, Reinforcing Belief: The Not-So-Civil War Part 12
• Ep. 0161: “Disregarding the Laws of God & Man”: The Not-So-Civil War Part 11
• Ep. 0157: “I was killed”: The Not-So-Civil War Part 10
• Ep. 0147: The Sparring of the Amateur Boxer: The Not-So-Civil War Part 9
• Ep. 0146: The Grunt’s-Eye Perspective: The Not-So-Civil War Part 8
• Ep. 0139: Gettysburg: The Not-So-Civil War Part 7
• Ep. 0137: Gibraltar of the Confederacy: The Not-So-Civil War Part 6
• Ep. 0135: More Valor, Less Judgment: The Not-So-Civil War Part 5
• Ep. 0134: Battle Cry of Freedomishness: The Not-So-Civil War Part 4
• Ep. 0133: Crisis & Leviathans: The Not-So-Civil War Part 3
• Ep. 0132: Upping the Ante: The Not-So-Civil War Part 2
• Ep. 0131: Opening Gambits: The Not-So-Civil War Part 1
• Ep. 0106: A History of American Slavery Part VII: The End of Chattel Slavery

External Links

• Recounting the Dead, by J. David Hacker (2011 NYT piece about how the body count of the Civil War might be significantly higher than previously believed.)
• The Unending Civil War of Ambrose Bierce (an excellent episode of the Inward Empire podcast)
• Voting for Losing Political Candidates Lowers Men’s Testosterone

In the Spring of 1865, the Confederate military & government began to rapidly crumble.

Join CJ as he discusses:

• The Battle of Natural Bridge
• The fate of John Bell Hood’s command, including the disastrous Battles of Franklin & Nashville
• The Confederates’ partial emancipation program, passed far too late to matter to the course of the war
• The Hampton Roads Conference
• Sherman’s march through South Carolina, including the destruction of Columbia
• Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address, probably his second-most quoted speech after the Gettysburg Address
• The fall of Richmond
• The surrender of R.E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House
• The assassination of Lincoln
• The surrender of other Confederate forces
• Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith, the last Confederate Army commander to surrender
• The capture of Jefferson Davis
• The ratification of the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution
• President Andrew Johnson’s declaration of ‘mission accomplished’ in 1866
• A very brief word on Reconstruction

And be sure to tune in next time for an in-depth examination of different interpretations of the legacy & meaning of this war!

Support the Dangerous History Podcast via Patreon

CJ’s DHP Amazon Wish List

Internal Links

• DHP Ep. 0131: Opening Gambits; The Not-So-Civil War Part 1
• DHP Ep. 0106: A History of American Slavery Part VII: The End of Chattel Slavery

External Links

• Battle of Natural Bridge Mini-Documentary
• Reenactment of the Battle at Natural Bridge

Join CJ as he discusses:

• A brief word on the concept of habeas corpus
• The ways in which dissent was suppressed & civil liberties were abrogated in the Confederacy and in the Union
• Civil religion in both the North & South in the latter part of the war

Support the Dangerous History Podcast via Patreon

CJ’s DHP Amazon Wish List

Internal Links

• DHP Ep. 0138: Free State of Jones: A Dangerous History Movie Review 

The end (of this non-consecutive series) is starting to come into sight, as the Union increasingly relies on ‘total war’ to completely crush the spirit of resistance among Southern civilians, regardless of any moral considerations.

Join CJ as he discusses:

• Confederate General Jubal Early’s raid into Union territory, which reached the outer defenses of Washington D.C. before being fought off and chased back into the Shenandoah Valley
• Philip Sheridan’s decisive defeat of Early’s forces, and Sheridan’s subsequent destruction of the farms, food, and infrastructure of the valley
• The Atlanta campaign, which saw Union General William T. Sherman facing off against the Army of Tennessee, initially commanded by Confederate General Joseph Johnston
• Jefferson Davis’s replacement of Johnston with John Bell Hood, and the disastrously costly offensives Hood launched Union forces that outnumbered his by over 2:1
• Sherman’s shelling of Atlanta & ultimate seizure of the city, followed by the removal of remaining civilian residents
• Sherman’s increasingly large-scale, deliberate targeting of civilians’ shelter & means of subsistence in “total war”
• The 1864 presidential election, in which Lincoln was reelected, ensuring that the war would continue
• Sherman’s burning of the remnants of Atlanta and “March to the Sea” across Georgia

Wanna meet CJ and ? Come out to the 2018 Midwest Peace & Liberty Fest in Delton, Michigan! CJ will be there from Friday, June 22nd through Monday, June 25th, and will be speaking on Sunday, June 24th. Hope to see you there!

Support the Dangerous History Podcast via Patreon

CJ’s DHP Amazon Wish List

Internal Links

• DHP Ep. 0131: Opening Gambits: The Not-So-Civil War Part 1 (The first installment in this series)

External Links

• Madeleine Albright famously saying 500K dead children is a worthwhile price to pay in pursuit of Team America’s political goals

I was originally going to do one massive episode on the coming of ‘total war’ in 1864, but it was getting too unwieldy so I decided to break it into 2 episodes, one covering Grant’s campaign in Virginia and another covering Sherman’s campaign in Georgia. Here is the first of those.

Join CJ as he discusses:

• The Battle of Olustee
• Attrition and trench warfare
• Grant’s Overland campaign, including the Battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg

This episode of the Dangerous History Podcast was sponsored in part by LiveTeeOrDye.com.

Support the Dangerous History Podcast via Patreon

CJ’s DHP Amazon Wish List

Internal Links

• DHP Ep. 0131: Opening Gambits: The Not-So-Civil War Part 1 (if you’re new to the DHP & want to start listening to this particular series from its beginning, this is where to start.)

External Links

• “The Rain” by Scott Miller (hauntingly beautiful song about part of the battle of Spotsylvania)

This episode fills in the gap between Gettysburg/Vicksburg in the summer of 1863 and the beginning of Ulysses Grant & William T. Sherman’s total war campaigns of 1864, including some lesser-known (but still important) campaigns and battles.

Join CJ as he discusses:

• William Rosecrans’ Tullahoma Campaign
• The Battle of Chickamauga
• The siege of Chattanooga
• Grant’s breaking of the siege, including the storming of Lookout Mountain and the miraculous taking of Missionary Ridge
• The resignation of Braxton Bragg (finally)
• The Bristoe Station & Mine Run campaigns in northern Virginia
• Lincoln’s Dec. 1863 Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction
• “Christmas Bells” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• The appoint of Grant as overall Union commander, and Grant’s appointment of Sherman to command the Division of the Mississippi

Support the Dangerous History Podcast via Patreon

CJ’s official DHP Amazon Wish List

We mostly get the view from the top when it comes to the American Civil War – that is, the view from the political leaders and generals. We usually get only scattered glimpses of what it was actually like to be an enlisted man or lower-level officer in a Civil War Army. In this episode, we’re zooming in on the perspective of the common soldier. (This episode has been a long time coming due to the massive amount of research and preparation required; hopefully the end result is worth my time & labors that I poured into it.)

Join CJ as he discusses:

• Uniforms, footwear, discipline, vices, conscription, black soldiers in the Union Army
• Food, water, sanitation, pests & vermin, illness
• Battle — the horrors in hardship before & during it, as well as the grisly & painful aftermath, including what it was like to be wounded & to be taken prisoner
• Why they fought — looking at motivations that caused men to join up, that kept them in the ranks, and that kept at least some of the soldiers repeatedly charging back into battle again and again

Support the Dangerous History Podcast via Patreon

CJ’s official DHP Amazon Wish List

External Links

• Winslow Homer’s painting, Defiance: Inviting a Shot before Petersburg, Virginia