Videos

John Coski is the author of The Confederate Battle Flag: America’s Most Embattled Emblem. He talked about debates over the battle flag as part of a Civil War conference hosted by the…

Gettysburg College professor Michael Birkner looked at Dwight Eisenhower’s interest in the Civil War, particularly Robert E. Lee, Abraham Lincoln and the Battle of Gettysburg. Dwight…

Historian Chris Kolakowski talked about the events leading up to President Abraham Lincoln naming Ulysses S. Grant as general-in-chief of the Union Army in 1864 and how Grant’s command style differed…

New York Historical Society & New School post-doctoral fellow Jonathan Lande talks about desertion among U.S. Colored Troops. His remarks are part of the annual summer conference hosted by…

Historian and National Park Service ranger Robert Dunkerly listed his top 10 turning points of the Civil War. This talk was part of a symposium on hosted by the “Emerging Civil War” blog.

University of Virginia professor Elizabeth Varon talks about Elizabeth Van Lew, who operated a Union spy ring out of the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia. Her remarks are part of…

A panel of historians explored the people and battles considered pivotal to the outcome of the Civil War. They also talked about other aspects of the conflict that benefited society as a whole, such as…

Military historian William Feis talked about his book, Grant’s Secret Service: The Intelligence War from Belmont to Appomattox, in which he explores the ways Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant…

Scott Hartwig, the former supervisory historian at Gettysburg National Military Park, talked about the lead up to the September 1862 Battle of Antietam and Abraham Lincoln’s announcing the preliminary…

Yale University professor David Blight talked about the political -- and often religious -- rhetoric that Frederick Douglass used when writing or speaking about abolition and the Civil War. This…

University of Washington historian Quintard Taylor explored slavery, the abolition movement, and Reconstruction in the West, focusing on Kansas and Missouri before and after the Civil War.…

Matt Atkinson has worked as a ranger at both the Gettysburg and Vicksburg national military parks. He compared those two 1863 campaigns as turning points in the Civil War and explored why Gettysburg…

Peter Carmichael is director of the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College. He talked about his research into “common soldiers” during the Civil War, discussing their experiences and…

Author and historian Kent Masterson Brown talked about Gen. George Gordon Meade, who commanded the Union Army of the Potomac during the Gettysburg Campaign. He examined Meade’s strategy and…

Devil’s Den is a section of the Gettysburg battlefield dominated by large boulders that experienced intense infantry and artillery fighting during the second day of the battle. Author Garry…

The Wheatfield was a 20-acre parcel on the Rose farm at Gettysburg and the site of intense fighting on the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg. Author Kristopher White discussed the…

Author Timothy Smith discussed his book, John Burns: "The Hero of Gettysburg", about a local civilian who, despite not being part of either army, decided to fight on the side of the Union…

Author Bernadette Loeffel-Atkins talked about mourning during the Victorian era. She described the different rituals for men, women, and children when a family member died and how the Civil…

Author Paul Bretzger looked at Union General Winfield Scott Hancock’s actions on July 2, 1863, the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg, when Confederates attacked both flanks of the Union…

Villanova University history professor Judith Giesberg talked about Union soldiers and pornography during the Civil War. Professor Giesberg is author the book Sex and the Civil War. This…