The Civil War Monitor

Civil War Breakthroughs is a podcast that explores how the inventions, ideas, and innovations of the Civil War era defined a new kind of conflict. In our second season, The Medical Renaissance, we'll explore how modern medicine took root during the Civil War.

On this episode, we're joined by Judith Giesberg, the Robert M. Birmingham Chair in the Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Villanova University and the author of a number of books, including Civil War Sisterhood: The U.S. Sanitary Commission and Women's Politics in Transition (2006). She talks about the impact...

Civil War Breakthroughs is a podcast that explores how the inventions, ideas, and innovations of the Civil War era defined a new kind of conflict. In our second season, The Medical Renaissance, we'll explore how modern medicine took root during the Civil War.

On this episode, we're joined by Jane Schultz, a professor of English and director of Literature at Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis and the author of Women at the Front: Hospital Workers in Civil War America (2004). She talks about the motivations and experiences of the women who volunteered as nurses during the Civil War.

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Civil War Breakthroughs is a podcast that explores how the inventions, ideas, and innovations of the Civil War era defined a new kind of conflict. In our second season, The Medical Renaissance, we'll explore how modern medicine took root during the Civil War.

On this episode, we're joined by Lindsay Rae Smith Privette, an associate professor of history at Anderson University and author of The Surgeon’s Battle: How Medicine Won the Vicksburg Campaign and Changed the Civil War (2025). She talks about the wartime evolution in military surgeons' training, knowledge, and practices.

©2026 by The Civ...

On the front lines, doctors fought to contain lethal disease alongside battlefield wounds. In field hospitals, volunteer nurses and a new citizen commission helped develop an improved standard of care. And on the home front, returning veterans faced the long aftermath of unseen trauma and addiction.

I’m Terry Johnston, publisher and editor-in-chief of The Civil War Monitor. The Civil War is a story of courage and conflict, but it is also the story of a nation that underwent profound and lasting change. While much has been written about the battles and leaders, we believe the pivotal in...

The American Civil War remains one of the most pivotal and complex periods in our history. While much has been written, countless fascinating questions still spark our curiosity. In our podcast Civil War Curious, we enlist expert historians to answer your lingering questions about the conflict.

On this episode, we're joined by Allen C. Guelzo, a professor of humanities at the University of Florida’s Hamilton School for Classical and Civic Education. A three-time winner of the prestigious Lincoln Prize, his books include Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America (2004); Fateful Lightning: A New Hist...

The American Civil War remains one of the most pivotal and complex periods in our history. While much has been written, countless fascinating questions still spark our curiosity. In our podcast Civil War Curious, we enlist expert historians to answer your lingering questions about the conflict.

On this episode, we're joined by Joan Waugh, professor emeritus of history at UCLA and the author of a number of works on the Civil War era, including U.S. Grant: American Hero, American Myth (2009), The Memory of the Civil War in American Culture (2004), and, with Gary W. Gallagher, The American...

The American Civil War remains one of the most pivotal and complex periods in our history. While much has been written, countless fascinating questions still spark our curiosity. In our podcast Civil War Curious, we enlist expert historians to answer your lingering questions about the conflict.

On this episode, we're joined by Aaron Sheehan-Dean, the Fred C. Frey Professor of Southern Studies at Louisiana State University and the author or editor of a number of books on the Civil War era, including The Calculus of Violence: How Americans Fought the Civil War and, most recently, Fighting With...

The American Civil War remains one of the most pivotal and complex periods in our history. While much has been written, countless fascinating questions still spark our curiosity. In our podcast Civil War Curious, we enlist expert historians to answer your lingering questions about the conflict.

On this episode, we're joined by Aaron Sheehan-Dean, the Fred C. Frey Professor of Southern Studies at Louisiana State University and the author or editor of a number of books on the Civil War era, including The Calculus of Violence: How Americans Fought the Civil War and, most recently, Fighting With...

The American Civil War remains one of the most pivotal and complex periods in our history. While much has been written, countless fascinating questions still spark our curiosity. In our podcast Civil War Curious, we enlist expert historians to answer your lingering questions about the conflict.

On this episode, we're joined by Gary W. Gallagher, the John L. Nau III Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Virginia. He is the author or editor of a number of books on the Civil War, most recently The Enduring Civil War: Reflections on the Great American Crisis, and...

The American Civil War remains one of the most pivotal and complex periods in our history. While much has been written, countless fascinating questions still spark our curiosity. In our podcast Civil War Curious, we enlist expert historians to answer your lingering questions about the conflict.

On this episode, we're joined by Garry Adelman, the chief historian at the American Battlefield Trust, the vice president of the Center for Civil War Photography, and, since 1995, a Licensed Battlefield Guide at Gettysburg. He discusses his role as a Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guide, including what it takes to become one...

The American Civil War remains one of the most pivotal and complex periods in our history. While much has been written, countless fascinating questions still spark our curiosity. In our podcast Civil War Curious, we enlist expert historians to answer your lingering questions about the conflict.

On this episode, we're joined by Garry Adelman, the chief historian at the American Battlefield Trust, the vice president of the Center for Civil War Photography, and, since 1995, a Licensed Battlefield Guide at Gettysburg. He discusses the enduring legacy of the 1993 movie Gettysburg, including what he thinks it got right and...

The American Civil War remains one of the most pivotal and complex periods in our history. While much has been written, countless fascinating questions still spark our curiosity. In our podcast Civil War Curious, we enlist expert historians to answer your lingering questions about the conflict.

On this episode, we're joined by Brooks D. Simpson, ASU Foundation Professor of History at Arizona State University and author of a number of books on the Civil War, including Let Us Have Peace: Ulysses S. Grant and the Politics of War and Reconstruction and Ulysses S. Grant: Triumph Over Adversity...

The American Civil War remains one of the most pivotal and complex periods in our history. While much has been written, countless fascinating questions still spark our curiosity. In our podcast Civil War Curious, we enlist expert historians to answer your lingering questions about the conflict.

On this episode, we're joined by Christian McWhirter, who serves as a historical initiatives consultant for the Lincoln Presidential Foundation and editor of The Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association. He is the author of Battle Hymns: The Power and Popularity of Music in the Civil War. He discusses the importance...

The American Civil War remains one of the most pivotal and complex periods in our history. While much has been written, countless fascinating questions still spark our curiosity. In our podcast Civil War Curious, we enlist expert historians to answer your lingering questions about the conflict.

On this episode, we're joined by Anne Sarah Rubin, a professor of history at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, where she teaches courses on the Civil War, American South, and the 19th-century United States. Her most recent book is The Perfect Scout: A Soldier’s Memoir of the Great March to...

How did the civilians and soldiers who lived through Sherman’s March view its impact years later? How central was music to the lives of Union and Confederate soldiers? And what is the real story behind Ulysses S. Grant’s supposed drinking problem?

I’m Terry Johnston, publisher and editor-in-chief of The Civil War Monitor. The American Civil War is a period of our history that we’re still trying to fully understand. Even with everything that's been written, there are still plenty of questions that deserve a closer look—from the personal character of its leaders to the way...

Civil War Breakthroughs is a podcast that explores how the inventions, ideas, and innovations of the Civil War era defined a new kind of conflict. In our first season, The Technological War, we'll explore the technologies and concepts that brought the conflict into the modern age.

On this episode, we're joined by David Hochfelder, an associate professor of history at the University at Albany and author of The Telegraph in America: 1832-1920. He talks about the vital and often unseen role of the telegraph during the Civil War.

©2026 by The Civil War Monitor. All ri...

Civil War Breakthroughs is a podcast that explores how the inventions, ideas, and innovations of the Civil War era defined a new kind of conflict. In our first season, The Technological War, we'll explore the technologies and concepts that brought the conflict into the modern age.

On this episode, we're joined by Jennifer Raab, an associate professor in the Department of the History of Art at Yale University and author of Relics of War: The History of a Photograph. She talks about the power and importance of Civil War photography, including how the camera captured a brutal...

Civil War Breakthroughs is a podcast that explores how the inventions, ideas, and innovations of the Civil War era defined a new kind of conflict. In our first season, The Technological War, we'll explore the technologies and concepts that brought the conflict into the modern age.

On this episode, we're joined by  Scott Huffard, a professor of history at Lees-McRae College and author of Engines of Redemption: Railroads and the Reconstruction of Capitalism in the New South. He talks about how railroads became the engine of the Civil War, transforming everything from logistics to troop movements.

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Civil War Breakthroughs is a podcast that explores how the inventions, ideas, and innovations of the Civil War era defined a new kind of conflict. In our first season, The Technological War, we'll explore the technologies and concepts that brought the conflict into the modern age.

On this episode, we're joined by Nathan Madison, a historian, researcher, documentary producer/consultant, and author of Tredegar Iron Works: Richmond’s Foundry on the James. He talks about the crucial role played by northern and southern industries during the conflict, with a focus on how Richmond’s Tredegar Iron Works fuel...

Civil War Breakthroughs is a podcast that explores how the inventions, ideas, and innovations of the Civil War era defined a new kind of conflict. In our first season, The Technological War, we'll explore the technologies and concepts that brought the conflict into the modern age.

On this episode, we're joined by Gordon Calhoun, a historian at the Naval History and Heritage Command in Washington, D.C. He talks about  the pioneering developments in naval warfare that occurred during the Civil War, from the rise of ironclads to the birth of the submarine.

©2026 by Th...

Civil War Breakthroughs is a podcast that explores how the inventions, ideas, and innovations of the Civil War era defined a new kind of conflict. In our first season, The Technological War, we'll explore the technologies and concepts that brought the conflict into the modern age.

On this episode, we're joined by Jonathan Noyalas, professor of history and director of the McCormick Civil War Institute at Shenandoah University. He talks about the significance and impact of several key advances in Civil War era ammunition.

©2026 by The Civil War Monitor. All rights reserved.

A new network of wires and tracks changed the way a war was fought. On the seas, the age of sail gave way to the age of iron and steam. And on the home front, the camera transformed the way a nation saw conflict.

I’m Terry Johnston, publisher and editor-in-chief of The Civil War Monitor. The Civil War is a story of courage and conflict, but it is also the story of a nation that underwent profound and lasting change. While much has been written about the battles and leaders, we believe the pivotal innovations of th...

The American Civil War remains one of the most pivotal and complex periods in our history. While much has been written, countless fascinating questions still spark our curiosity. In our podcast Civil War Curious, we enlist expert historians to answer your lingering questions about the conflict.

On this episode, we're joined by Jonathan S. Jones, an assistant professor of history at James Madison University whose scholarship investigates the aftershocks of the Civil War in American society, culture, and medicine. His first book, Opium Slavery: Civil War Veterans and America's First Opioid Crisis, is forthcoming from the University...

The American Civil War remains one of the most pivotal and complex periods in our history. While much has been written, countless fascinating questions still spark our curiosity. In our podcast Civil War Curious, we enlist expert historians to answer your lingering questions about the conflict.

On this episode, we're joined by Kevin M. Levin, a historian and educator based in Boston. He is the author of numerous books and articles on the Civil War, including Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth (UNC Press, 2019). He discusses the nature of black men's service in...

The American Civil War remains one of the most pivotal and complex periods in our history. While much has been written, countless fascinating questions still spark our curiosity. In our podcast Civil War Curious, we enlist expert historians to answer your lingering questions about the conflict.

On this episode, we're joined by D. Scott Hartwig, former supervisory park historian at Gettysburg National Military Park and author of I Dread the Thought of the Place: The Battle of Antietam and the End of the Maryland Campaign (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2023). He discusses Union general George McClellan’s slow pu...

The American Civil War remains one of the most pivotal and complex periods in our history. While much has been written, countless fascinating questions still spark our curiosity. In our podcast Civil War Curious, we enlist expert historians to answer your lingering questions about the conflict.

On this episode, we're joined by D. Scott Hartwig, former supervisory park historian at Gettysburg National Military Park and author of I Dread the Thought of the Place: The Battle of Antietam and the End of the Maryland Campaign (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2023). He weighs in on whether George McClellan acted...

The American Civil War remains one of the most pivotal and complex periods in our history. While much has been written, countless fascinating questions still spark our curiosity. In our podcast Civil War Curious, we enlist expert historians to answer your lingering questions about the conflict.

On this episode, we're joined by Court Carney is a professor of history at Stephen F. Austin State University and the author of Reckoning with the Devil: Nathan Bedford Forrest in Myth and Memory (LSU Press, 2024). He discuss why Nathan Bedford Forrest was not held accountable for the massacre of black...

The American Civil War remains one of the most pivotal and complex periods in our history. While much has been written, countless fascinating questions still spark our curiosity. In our podcast Civil War Curious, we enlist expert historians to answer your lingering questions about the conflict.

On this episode, we're joined by Eric Michael Burke, a U.S. Army combat infantry veteran of the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan and a historian of culture and warfare in Europe and the Americas. His first book, Soldiers from Experience: The Forging of Sherman's Fifteenth Army Corps, 1862–1863, was published by...

The American Civil War remains one of the most pivotal and complex periods in our history. While much has been written, countless fascinating questions still spark our curiosity. In our podcast Civil War Curious, we enlist expert historians to answer your lingering questions about the conflict.

On this episode, we're joined Jessie Wheedleton, a Licensed Battlefield Guide at Gettysburg National Military Park, a position she's held since 2018. Wheedleton answers questions about Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain's performance at the Battle of Gettysburg.

©2026 by The Civil War Monitor. All rights reserved.

The American Civil War remains one of the most pivotal and complex periods in our history. While much has been written, countless fascinating questions still spark our curiosity. In our podcast Civil War Curious, we enlist expert historians to answer your lingering questions about the conflict.

On this episode, we're joined Megan L. Bever, an associate professor of history at Missouri Southern State University and the author of At War with King Alcohol: Debating Drinking and Masculinity in the Civil War (2022). Bever discusses the prevalence of alcohol in Civil War armies and the many issues that resulted...

The American Civil War remains one of the most pivotal and complex periods in our history. While much has been written, countless fascinating questions still spark our curiosity. In our podcast Civil War Curious, we enlist expert historians to answer your lingering questions about the conflict.

On this episode, we're joined by Jennifer M. Murray, an assistant professor of history and director of the George Tyler Moore Center for the Study of the Civil War at Shepherd University who is working on a biography of Union general George G. Meade. Murray joins us to discuss whether she...

The American Civil War remains one of the most pivotal and complex periods in our history. While much has been written, countless fascinating questions still spark our curiosity. In our podcast Civil War Curious, we enlist expert historians to answer your lingering questions about the conflict.

On this episode, we're joined by George Rable, professor emeritus at the University of Alabama and author of a number of critically acclaimed books on the Civil War era, including God's Almost Chosen Peoples A Religious History of the American Civil War (2010). Rable answers questions about the importance of religion during...

Have you ever wondered what drove soldiers to find solace in faith amid the horrors of war? Or how different the course of the Maryland Campaign might have been under different leadership? And what were the long-lasting wounds that the soldiers carried home with them?

I'm Terry Johnston, publisher and editor in chief of The Civil War Monitor. The American Civil War remains one of the most pivotal and complex periods in our history. While much has been written, countless fascinating questions still spark our curiosity—from understanding the key decisions that shape the conflict to pondering th...

THE FREEDOM SEEKERS

The 1864 Project is a limited series about the consequential decisions and events that shaped outcomes and affected lives during a pivotal year in the American Civil War. 

On this episode, we're joined by Amy Murrell Taylor, the T. Marshall Hahn Jr. Professor of History at the University of Kentucky and author most recently of Embattled Freedom: Journeys through the Civil War's Slave Refugee Camps (2018). We talked about the experiences of those who escaped slavery during the Civil War, the role the Union army played in the process, and the establishment of "c...

THE PRISONER EXPERIENCE

The 1864 Project is a limited series about the consequential decisions and events that shaped outcomes and affected lives during a pivotal year in the American Civil War. 

On this episode, we're joined by Evan Kutzler,  associate professor of history at Western Michigan University and author of Living by Inches: The Smells, Sounds, Tastes, and Feeling of Captivity in Civil War Prisons (2019). We talked about the state of Civil War prisons in 1864, from the POW experience to how the breakdown of the formal prisoner exchange system affected conditions.

©2026 by The Civ...

MEADE, GRANT, AND THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC

The 1864 Project is a limited series about the consequential decisions and events that shaped outcomes and affected lives during a pivotal year in the American Civil War. 

On this episode, we're joined by Jennifer M. Murray, an American military historian at Oklahoma State University. She is the author of On A Great Battlefield: The Making, Management, and Memory of Gettysburg National Military Park, 1933-2013 (2014) and is working on a book tentatively titled Meade at War: The Military Life of George Gordon Meade. We talked about how the r...

THE WOMEN'S WAR

The 1864 Project is a limited series about the consequential decisions and events that shaped outcomes and affected lives during a pivotal year in the American Civil War. 

On this episode, we're joined by Stephanie M. McCurry, professor of history at Columbia University. She is the author of a number of books on the Civil War era, including Masters of Small Worlds (1997) and, most recently, Women's War: Fighting and Surviving the American Civil War (2019). We talked about the great diversity in women’s experiences—northern and southern, white and black—during the conflict.

THE WESTERN WAR

The 1864 Project is a limited series about the consequential decisions and events that shaped outcomes and affected lives during a pivotal year in the American Civil War. 

On this episode, we're joined by Steven E. Woodworth, professor of history at Texas Christian University and author of a number of books about the Civil War, including Six Armies in Tennessee: The Chickamauga and Chattanooga Campaigns and Manifest Destinies: Westward Expansion and the Civil War. We talked about the war’s oft-overlooked western theater in 1864, with a focus on how the decisions made by Uni...

GRANT VS. LEE

The 1864 Project is a limited series about the consequential decisions and events that shaped outcomes and affected lives during a pivotal year in the American Civil War. 

On this episode, we're joined by Cecily Zander, assistant professor of history at Texas Women's University and author of the recently published book, The Army Under Fire: The Politics of Anti-Militarism in the Civil War Era (Louisiana State University Press, 2024). We talked about the challenges Robert E. Lee and his vaunted Army of Northern Virginia encountered when facing a new opponent in Ulysses S. Grant d...

THE 1864 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

The 1864 Project is a limited series about the consequential decisions and events that shaped outcomes and affected lives during a pivotal year in the American Civil War. 

On this episode, we're joined by Harold Holzer, one of the country’s leading voices on Abraham Lincoln and Civil War-era political culture. Holzer is the chairman of the Lincoln Forum, and his latest book is titled Brought Forth on This Continent: Abraham Lincoln and American Immigration. We talked about the 1864 presidential election, and how Union military progress and his administration’s emancipation policy affected Linco...