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
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…
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…
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 h…
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 H…
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…
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…
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, th…
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. Ther…
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 centr…
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 six…
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…
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 t…
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 …
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…
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 sparrin…
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 …
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 wr…
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 …
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 S…
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 loc…