Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War
History is, indeed, a story. With his unique voice and engaging delivery, historian and veteran storyteller Fred Kiger will help the compelling stories of the American Civil War come alive in each and every episode. Filled with momentous issues and repercussions that still resonate with us today, this series will feature events and people from that period and will strive to make you feel as if you were there.
- Update frequency
- every 29 days
- Average duration
- 55 minutes
- Episodes
- 90
- Years Active
- 2018 - 2025
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…
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 procu…
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 Virgi…
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, theor…
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 …
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 Souther…
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 …
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 Nort…
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 Cad…
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 histori…
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…
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 …
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 “Rive…
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 …
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 Wash…
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 s…
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 A…