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.

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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

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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

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

It was the largest battle ever fought in the Western Hemisphere, and the high tide for Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.

Join CJ as he discusses:

• A little bit about Generals James Longstreet, George Pickett, and George Gordon Meade
• Robert E. Lee’s invasion of Pennsylvania, culminating in the Battle of Gettysburg on July 1-3, 1863
• The New York City draft/race riots that occurred less than 2 weeks later
• Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, delivered Nov. 19th, 1863, including its impact & legacy

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Jeff Davis called it the nail that held the Confederacy together; Abe Lincoln called it the key to winning the war. It doesn’t get as much attention from people who aren’t well-versed in the history of this war, but the Vicksburg Campaign was at least as important as the battle of Gettysburg in bringing about the eventual Union victory in this conflict — and many experts argue that Vicksburg was actually much more important in the grand strategic equation.

(Note: Slip of the tongue, when discussing Braxton Bragg, I accidentally said he won at “Chattanooga”; meant to say “Chickamauga.” Caught it in post, but decided that correcting it at that point would make for an awkward edit, so just left it as-is. Interestingly, I got the battle correct when mentioning the flip side of it — ie, Rosecrans’ defeat there.)

Join CJ as he discusses:

• The Battle of Stones River/Murfreesboro
• A little biographical info on Generals John Pemberton, Joseph Johnston, Braxton Bragg, William Rosecrans, and William Sherman
• Early Union attempts at Vicksburg in late 1862 and early 1863, which failed
• The final, successful campaign against the Confederate stronghold, which resulted in its fall on July 4, 1863
• The Union seizure of Port Hudson, which sealed up Union control of the Mississippi watershed

Support the Dangerous History Podcast via Patreon (Important announcement: The DHP has switched to a monthly contribution schedule on Patreon, instead of the old per-episode model. If you are currently a Patreon supporter of the DHP and want to keep access to the bonus episodes & private Facebook group, please make sure that your pledge is set to at least $5 per month.)

CJ’s official DHP Amazon Wish List

Internal Links

• DHP Ep. 0131: Opening Gambits: The Not-So-Civil War Part 1
• DHP Ep. 0132: Upping the Ante: The Not-So-Civil War Part 2

External Links

• A great live version of the SteelDrivers’ “River Runs Red,” a song about the Battle of Stones River
• ‘View of Vicksburg and Plan of Canal, Fortifications, and Vicinity’ (1863)

Join CJ as he discusses:

• Lincoln’s General Orders No. 100, aka ‘the Lieber Code’
• The Battle of Fredericksburg
• The Chancellorsville Campaign
• The Death of Stonewall Jackson & Southern Civil Religion

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CJ’s official DHP Amazon Wish List

External Links

• Abraham Lincoln’s General Orders No. 100 (also known as ‘the Lieber Code’)
• Ambrose Burnside & his namesake sideburns
• The Burnside Carbine