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

Support the Dangerous History Podcast via Patreon

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

I was originally going to discuss the song “Battle Cry of Freedom” and the Emancipation Proclamation, and then cover another major battle or two at the end. However, by the time I got done talking about the Proclamation, I had more than enough material for an entire episode, so decided to just stop there for now. Hope you enjoy!

Join CJ as he discusses:

• The song “Battle Cry of Freedom,” composed by George F. Root in July of 1862
• The Lincoln-Greeley letters of August 1862
• The Emancipation Proclamation (announced in September 1862 & implemented in January 1863) and its effects

Support the Dangerous History Podcast via Patreon

CJ’s official DHP Amazon Wish List

Internal Links

• DHP Ep. 0106: A History of American Chattel Slavery Part VII
• 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
• DHP Ep. 0133: Crisis & Leviathans: The Not-So-Civil War Part 3

External Links

• “Battle Cry of Freedom” (Union version) with vocals
• “Battle Cry of Freedom” (Confederate version) with vocals
• “America F*#k Yeah!” The Team America: World Police theme song

In this episode we’re talking about mobilization of manpower and resources for large-scale warfare and the resultant growth in the size and power of the central state, something that happened on a massive scale in the case of both the Union and the Confederate governments.

Join CJ as he discusses:

• The mobilization of manpower, finances, and resources in the North
• The mobilization of manpower, finances, and resources in the South

Support the Dangerous History Podcast via Patreon

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

• The State by Randolph Bourne on pdf

In this installment, we’re covering the major military developments in the war up through September of 1862.

Join CJ as he discusses:

• A little bit of background on the 4 most important generals in this episode: Robert E. Lee, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson; George McClellan; and Ulysses Grant
• The Union’s campaign to control the Mississippi watershed system in the Western theater of the war, including the Battle of Shiloh
• Stonewall Jackson’s Shenandoah Valley Campaign
• McClellan’s Peninsula Campaign against Richmond & Lee’s counterattack, known as The Seven Days’ Battles
• The Confederate invasion of Maryland & the Battle of Antietam

Support the Dangerous History Podcast via Patreon

The official DHP Amazon Wish List

Internal Links

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

External Links

• Wikipedia’s entry for the ‘City-Class Ironclads’ the Union would use in their Mississippi River operations
• Interesting article (from the NY Times of all places!) about the river operations of the CivWar
• Leroy Jenkins (It’s hard to stick to the plan when someone goes all Leroy Jenkins…)
• Ambrose Burnside (Hint: When you’re a general and your facial hair is more famous than your performance in battle, you’re a shitty general.)

Drum roll please……………..Here we go — the first podcast installment in a monstrous enterprise, CJ’s White Whale: the Dangerous History Podcast’s coverage of the War Between the States!

In this first installment, we’ll cover the opening moves, from December 1860 to November 1861.

Join CJ as he discusses:

• The secession of the seven states of the Deep South following the election of Abraham Lincoln
• The formation of the Confederate States of America, including its constitution
• The accession to office of the Lincoln Administration
• The firing on Fort Sumter
• Sumter’s impact on the North and the South, including the secession of the Upper South
• Lincoln’s actions to try to keep the Border States in the Union, by any means neccessary
• Preparations for war & early skirmishes
• The Battle of Manassas (or First Bull Run) and its impact
• Julia Ward Howe’s “Battle Hymn of the Republic” (written in Nov. 1861) as portent of the total war-crusade to come

Support the Dangerous History Podcast via Patreon

The official DHP Amazon Wish List

Internal Links

• DHP Ep. 0099: A History of American Slavery Part V (in this episode I give an overview of the politics in the decades leading up to the war)
• DHP Ep. 0124: The American Civil Religion

External Links

• Full text of the ‘Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union’

Between 1946 and 1953, the cornerstones of a permanent garrison state were laid within the structure of the US government.

Join CJ as he discusses:

• Henry Luce’s 1941 article “The American Century” & the construction of the Pentagon (begun on Sept. 11th, 1941 -the pic above shows the Pentagon under construction, BTW) as harbingers of this change
• George Kennan’s original, much more limited strategy of ‘containment’ towards the USSR
• American intervention in Greece, 1946
• The National Security Act of 1947 (the single most important piece of formal legislation in this process)
• NSC-68
• Proof of a revolution within the form: Harry Truman’s sending of American forces into significant combat in 1950 without a declaration of war
• How the Eisenhower Administration tacitly ratified all this into permanence, despite Ike’s occasional statements that indicate his misgivings about the whole thing

Support the Dangerous History Podcast via Patreon

CJ’s official DHP Amazon Wish List

Internal Links

• DHP Ep. 0115: Out with the Old Right, In with the New Right

External Links

• Henry Luce, “The American Century”
• George Kennan’s ‘Long Telegram’
• Winston Churchill, “The Sinews of Peace” (the ‘Iron Curtain’ speech)
• Harold D. Lasswell, “The Garrison State,” published in The American Journal of Sociology, Jan. 1941.
• Full text of NSC-68