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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50 years ago, on April 16, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” while being held in prison for his involvement in a city-wide civil rights protest called the Birmingham Campaign. King’s daughter, Bernice King, CEO of the King Center in Atlanta, joins Alabama’s governor, Birmingham’s Mayor and others for the unveiling of a historical marker aside the Birmingham Jail.

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This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Birmingham civil rights campaign. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his famed “Letter from Birmingham Jail” after being arrested for taking part in the protests. The campaign gained national attention after local officials used dogs and water cannons on kids after they took to the streets in what was known as the “Children’s Crusade.” A panel of authors and historians recall the turmoil of the time, as well as how Birmingham has chosen to remember its past. This event was part of the Alabama Historical Association’s annual conference.

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At the direction of Congress, the voices and experiences from the Civil Rights Movement of the mid-20^th century are being documented in an oral history project. This effort is a collaboration of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture, the Library of Congress and the Southern Oral History Program at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

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