George Wunderlich, director of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine, discusses the life-saving lessons learned during four years of bloody conflict between North and South.

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This week on The Civil War, a talk by A. Wilson Greene on the West Virginia campaigns in the summer and fall of 1861.  Greene is the executive director of Pamplin Historical Park, and the National Museum of the Civil War Soldier in Petersburg, Virginia.  He gave this talk in June to conference attendees at the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College.

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This week on The Civil War, a talk by Wayne Hsieh on the army doctrine employed by  top generals in the Union and Confederate armies, and how it impacted the course of the war.  Hsieh is an assistant professor of history at the U.S. Naval Academy.  He gave this talk in June at the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College.

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Each week, American History TV marks the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. This week, authors and historians discuss the Battle of Ball’s Bluff in Leesburg, Virginia, which occurred six months into the war. To this day, the battle – fought on October 21st, 1861 – is the only military action in which a sitting United States senator was killed. Colonel Edward Dickinson Baker, who represented Oregon, died while commanding a Union brigade of General Charles Stone’s division.

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Old Dominion University professor Timothy Orr teaches a course on the Civil War and Reconstruction. In this lecture, he discusses how Union and Confederate forces handled prisoners of war, and takes a look conditions inside some Civil War prison camps. Old Dominion University is located in Norfolk, Virginia.

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The Battle of Wilson’s Creek in southwestern Missouri on August 10, 1861, is considered by many historians to be the second battle of the Civil War – taking place about three weeks after the better-know Battle of Bull Run back east in Virginia. Missouri State University History Professor William Piston talked about that battle and the events that led up to it at an event hosted by the Missouri History Museum in St. Louis.

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Lincoln and Civil War scholars discuss why the Civil War didn’t end in 1861, the year that it began. They talked at the Lincoln Forum Symposium in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

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Jonathan Hansen presents a history of America's presence at Guantanamo Bay.  The author reports on the United States' early interest in the area, which was central to U.S. plans to control the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean.  Mr. Hansen examines the creation of the U.S. naval base and prison at Guantanamo and its continued use despite calls for its closure.

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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell talks about the political career of fellow Kentuckian John J. Crittenden, a member of the U.S. Senate in the 1880s.  A friend and ally of Henry Clay's, Crittenden also served as Kentucky's governor and twice as U.S. attorney general. Senator McConnell emphasizes Crittenden’s commitment to the Union before and during the Civil War and reflects on what current lawmakers can learn from former legislators. This event was hosted by Eastern Kentucky University.

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How is slavery interpreted at historic sites – and how has that interpretation evolved over the last quarter century? Those were among the questions addressed at a conference convened at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello to consider the history of slavery scholarship and how it makes its way to the American public.

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