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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Mischa Honeck, author and research fellow at the German Historical Institute, talks about German immigrants and their motivations for fighting in the Civil War. He spoke at the U.S. Capitol Historical Society’s 2012 Civil War Symposium.
 

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Two speakers make presentations at the U.S. Capitol Historical Society’s 2012 Civil War Symposium. First, author Fergus Bordewich talks about the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, the Congressional panel created to monitor Northern military affairs. Then, economics professor Jenny Bourne talks about how the war was financed.

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Two speakers make presentations at the U.S. Capitol Historical Society’s 2012 Civil War Symposium. First, author Nikki Taylor addresses the issue of citizenship among free African Americans, and the story of Cincinnati’s Black Brigade. Then, history professor Diane Barnes talks about the abolition movement.

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Harvard University professor John Stauffer discusses African Americans and the Civil War.  Professor Stauffer examines Abraham Lincoln's First Inaugural Address, focusing on the president's claim that secession was unconstitutional.  He also teaches about President Lincoln’s efforts to keep the border states in the Union, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the involvement of black soldiers in both the Union and Confederate Armies.

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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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Each week American Artifacts takes viewers into archives, museums and historic sites around the country. At the outbreak of the Civil War in the spring of 1861, Washington, DC, was lightly defended and vulnerable to attack, with only one fort located 12 miles south of the city and the Confederate state of Virginia just across the Potomac River. By 1865, the nation’s capital arguably had become the most fortified city in the world, with about 70 armed forts and batteries encircling the city. We visited three of the surviving forts with Dale Floyd, author of a study on the Civil War Defenses of Washington for the National Park Service.

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Author and professor David Mindell talks about the technology of the USS Monitor, and the experience of its crew aboard one of the first ironclads. He spoke in early March at the Mariners’ Museum annual Civil War Navy Conference. This year’s conference marked the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Hampton Roads where, for the first time, ironclad warships met in battle.

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David Gerleman, an assistant editor at the Papers of Abraham Lincoln project, talks about some of the ideas and suggestions offered by Northerners for fighting the Confederate ironclad, the Merrimac. He spoke in early March at the Mariners’ Museum annual Civil War Navy Conference. This year’s conference marked the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Hampton Roads where, for the first time, ironclad warships met in battle.

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History professor Victoria Ott talks about the views of young, upper-class women of the South toward the North and President Abraham Lincoln. She spoke at the Lincoln Forum Symposium in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

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