Videos

Robert Levine talked about the Reconstruction Era following the Civil War and the lives of Frederick Douglass and President Andrew Johnson. This virtual program was hosted by the National Ar…

While photographs of earlier conflicts exist, the Civil War was the first to be extensively documented through this then-nascent medium. Deborah Willis shared dozens of images of African Ame…

Charles Bracelen Flood talked about his 2009 book, 1864: Lincoln at the Gates of Destiny, which examines how the Civil War and Lincoln’s life were transformed that year. The National Archive…

Author Joseph Reidy discussed how during the Civil War the emancipation process was often messy and nonlinear, rather than occurring at one moment or neatly tied to Lincoln’s proclamation. A…

Author Elizabeth Mitchell talked about her book, Lincoln’s Lie: A True Civil War Caper Through Fake News, Wall Street, and the White House. She described Abraham Lincoln’s relationship with …

Stephanie Jones-Rogers detailed her research into Southern white women slaveholders who, she calculates, comprised 40 percent of slave owners in some regions. The previous estimate had been …

Historian Douglas Waller talked about his book, Lincoln’s Spies: Their Secret War to Save a Nation, in which he recounted the team of Union spies that provided President Lincoln and his gene…

U.S. Army War College History Professor Christian Keller talked about his book, The Great Partnership: Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and the Fate of the Confederacy, in which he recounte…

Author and historian John Reeves discussed his book, The Lost Indictment of Robert E. Lee, which recounts the June 1865 indictment against the General Lee and other Confederate leaders for t…

Jessica Ziparo, author of This Grand Experiment, talked about the experiences of women who worked for the federal government during the Civil War. She described the types of jobs they did, c…

Damani Davis talked about petitions filed by owners and slaves under the District of Columbia Emancipation Act. Signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln in April 1862, the act freed ensl…

John Emond read letters from ordinary Civil War soldiers, placing the letters in the context of the war as well as the soldiers' daily lives, which he says were defined by personal hardships…

Panelists talked about the development of Washington, D.C.'s, Civil War forts, their role in the war, and their ensuing transformation into the public parks and cultural resources known as t…

Drew Gilpin Faust talked about her book This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War. During the war, approximately 620,000 soldiers were killed. In her book Professor Faust …

Catherine Clinton talked about how both President Abraham Lincoln and Confederate President Jefferson Davis suffered the loss of a child in their respective White Houses and how it impacted …

Peter Carlson talked about his book, Junius and Albert’s Adventures in the Confederacy: A Civil War Odyssey, in which he recalls the capture of journalists Albert Richardson and Junius Brown…

David Keehn talked about the secret society known as the Knights of the Golden Circle that sought to establish a slave empire spanning the southern United States, Mexico, Cuba, and the West …

Robert Remini, historian of the U.S. House of Representatives, presents a history of the Compromise of 1850 brokered between the North and South by Kentucky Senator Henry Clay. The Compromis…

James Oakes talked about his book, Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861-1865, in which he examines the efforts, ranging from the militaristic to the legisl…

This week on “The Civil War,” author William Dobak discussed his book, Freedom by the Sword: The U.S. Colored Troops, 1862-1867, which examines how African American troops were used to impro…