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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The Fort Sumter-Fort Moultrie Historical Trust marked the start of America’s bloodiest war at Fort Sumter by inviting leading historians to offer their reflections on the anniversary.  Next, Ed Ayers and Emory Thomas speak on the issue of leadership and the troubling issues of 1861.

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Senator Charles Sumner was a political figure from Massachusetts who became a prominent abolitionist and supporter of human rights. 

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In the summer of 1863, riots erupted in New York City over new laws that drafted more men into the Union Army. The laws particularly impacted working class immigrants. The New-York Historical Society recently hosted a panel discussion on the draft riots and the lasting toll they had on the city.

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This year the Gettysburg College Civil War Institute’s annual summer conference focused on mobilizing for war and the Battle of Bull Run.

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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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Yale history professor Joanne Freeman and University of Chicago political science professor William Howell are interviewed about acts of violence in the U.S. Congress leading up to the Civil War, and congressional checks on war powers in the modern era. Professor Freeman is working on a book titled "Field of Blood: Congressional Violence in Antebellum America." Professor Howell has written about congressional checks on presidential war powers. The interview was recorded at the Organization of American Historians meeting in Milwaukee.

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President Reagan called on Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall" in this address at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin on June 12, 1987.

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Fifty years ago on June 26, 1963, President John F. Kennedy spoke in Berlin on the differences between free and Communist systems, famously stating that as a free man he took pride in the words “Ich bin ein Berliner.”

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This June marks the 50th Anniversary of two of President John F. Kennedy’s most memorable speeches. On June 10th 1963, JFK delivered the commencement address at American University known as his “Peace Speech.” He called for high-level negotiations with the Soviet Union, a nuclear test ban treaty and an end to the Cold War.  On June 26th 1963, President Kennedy took a harder line in West Berlin, famously stating that as a free man he took pride in the words “Ich bin ein Berliner.” This is a discussion from the Kennedy Presidential Library about the significance and lasting influence of these two addresses.

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