Civil War Talk Radio

Carolyn Ivanoff, author of We Fought at Gettysburg: Firsthand Accounts by the Survivors of the 17th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry. Gerry's Opening Monologue - This is Gerry Prokopowicz, with Civil War Talk Radio,...William Warren, the private in the 17th Connecticut, survived the Battle of Gettysburg and the rest of the War and then devoted much of the rest of his life to making sure that the story of his regiment was not forgotten. He compiled notes, photographs, letters from comrades, his own memories into 13 manuscripts volumes. But he never brought himself to complete the task of organizing and editing the material into a published regimental history, like so many other units have. Fortunately, Carolyn Ivanoff has taken up the task and distilled Warren’s research into account that does justice to the story in the 17th Connecticut. It's a book called We Fought at Gettysburg: Firsthand Accounts by the Survivors of the 17th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry. We'll talk with her tonight on Civil War Talk Radio.”

Robert K. D. Colby, author of An Unholy Traffic: Slave Trading in the Civil War South

Kyle Sinisi, author of The Last Hurrah: Sterling Prices Missouri Expedition Of 1864

Shae Smith Cox, author of The Fabric of Civil War Society: Uniforms, Badges, and Flags, 1859-1939. Gerry's Monologue - This is Gerry Prokopowicz, with Civil War Talk Radio,...Way back in 2011, I looked forward to reading a newly published bestseller that I thought would make a great topic for this show, it was called “50 Shades of Grey,” but to my intense disappointment it turned out to be an erotic romance that had nothing at all to say about variations and Confederate military uniform manufacturing. Tonight, happily, you finally have the thoughtful study of uniforms and their meaning that I thought we were getting 15 years ago. It's called ”The Fabric of Civil War Society: Uniforms, Badges, and Flags, 1859–1939”. The author is Professor Shae Smith Cox, and she'll talk with us tonight on Civil War Talk Radio.”

Jaime Amanda Martinez, author of Confederate Slave Impressment in the Upper South. Gerry's Monologue - This is Gerry Prokopowicz, with Civil War Talk Radio,...Many historians, from David Herbert Donald to Stephanie McCurry, have advanced the idea that the Confederacy's war effort was hampered by ideologies of state’s rights and individualism in contrast to the centralized power of the federal government. Professor Jaime Amanda Martinez says not so fast, the U.S. government never took slaves from their owners during or before the war. But the Confederate government, and states like Virginia and North Carolina, did so on a broad scale. She describes how this worked in her book, ”Confederate Slave Impressment in the Upper South.” We'll ask Professor Martinez about it, tonight on Civil War Talk Radio.

Tom Saielli, Land Stewardship Manager, American Battlefield Trust. Website: https://www.battlefields.org/

Scott A. MacKenzie, author of The Fifth Border State: Slavery, Emancipation, and the Formation of West Virginia, 1829–1872. Gerry's Monologue - This is Gerry Prokopowicz, with Civil War Talk Radio,...Everyone listening to this show knows the basic story of the formation of the State of West Virginia. The hardy anti-slavery Mountaineers who wanted no part of the elite Virginia plantation owners rebellion. So in 1863 they formed their own state, secede from secession. Well, the first sentence of Dr. Scott Mckenzie's new book is Every account of West Virginia's creation is wrong. Presumably that excludes his own account, which is titled the 'The Fifth Border State: Slavery, Emancipation, and the Formation of West Virginia, 1829–1872.' We'll find out where West Virginia really came from when we talked with him tonight on Civil War Talk Radio.

John Reeves, author of Soldier of Destiny: Slavery, Secession, and the Redemption of Ulysses S. Grant. Gerry's Monologue - This is Gerry Prokopowicz, with Civil War Talk Radio,...The U.S. Grant Renaissance continues. Ron Chernow, Charles Calhoun, Fergus Bordewich, Ron White, Jonathan Sarna, John Wall, Frank Farney, Joseph Rose. Authors are continuing to present fresh interpretations and evaluations of Ulysses S. Grant's generalship, his presidency, his writing, and his character. The most recent of these books takes us from Grant's pre-war years to his wartime path through some troubled and sometimes surprising developments. We'll talk with the author John Reeves about his book 'Soldier of Destiny, Slavery, Secession, and the Redemption of Ulysses S Grant.' That's tonight on Civil War Talk Radio.

Victor Vignola, author of Contrasts in Command: The Battle of Fair Oaks, May 31 - June 1, 1862

Dr. Cecily N. Zander, author of The Army under Fire: The Politics of Antimilitarism in the Civil War Era This is Gerry Prokopowicz, with Civil War Talk Radio,...The Civil War was fought almost entirely by vast armies of volunteer citizen soldiers, who dwarfed the tiny US regular army. The minor role that the regular Army played during the war has obscured its political significance before the war, when Republican politicians saw it as a tool of the southern slave power. And then after the war, when those same Republican's anti-military views had unintended effects on the course of reconstruction and westward expansion. Professor Cecily N. Zander describes these effects and more in 'The Army under Fire: The Politics of Antimilitarism in the Civil War Era.' We'll talk with her tonight, on Civil War Talk Radio.

Scott Hippensteel, author or Sand, Science and the Civil War: Sedimentary Geology and Combat Gerry's Monologue - This is Gerry Prokopowicz, with Civil War Talk Radio, Members of the Civil War Talk Radio community, you and me, we are generally well read on the subject of Civil War battles. We usually know where they happened, and who won. What the tactics and weapons were, what the key terrain features were, but I didn't know and you might not either, because what kind of rock lies under the surface of the Civil War battlefield? What happened millions of years earlier to shape that landform? And how the geology of a historic site can contain clues about what happened there 160 years ago, someone who does know all that is professor of Earth Sciences, Scott Hippensteel, author of 'Sand, Science and the Civil War: Sedimentary Geology and Combat.' We'll talk with him tonight on Civil War Talk Radio.

Harold Holzer, author of Brought Forth on this Continent: Abraham Lincoln and American Immigration Gerry's Monologue - This is Gerry Prokopowicz, with Civil War Talk Radio,...Nearly 10 million immigrants have upended the demography, culture and voting patterns of the nation, especially in its teeming urban centers. In the wake of such overwhelming change, resistance to immigration and immigrants metastasized, determined not only to restrict foreigners from entering the country, but to disenfranchise, demonize and occasionally terrorize those who have already arrived, settled and earned citizenship here. Now in recent years, I mean 1830 to 1860, and the rest of what I just said isn't quoted from 2024 website. It's from Harold Holzer's newest book 'Brought Forth on this Continent: Abraham Lincoln and American Immigration.' We'll talk with the author tonight on Civil War Talk Radio.

Fergus M. Bordewich, author of Klan War: Ulysses S. Grant and the Battle to Save Reconstruction. Gerry's Monologue - This is Gerry Prokopowicz, with Civil War Talk Radio,......as listeners to this show already know, the Civil War didn't end at Appomattox Courthouse. We know about the rebel armies of Johnston and North Carolina, Kirby Smith and the Trans-Mississippi. We also know that the reconstruction years that followed were marked by so much political violence that some scholars consider it consider it a guerrilla continuation of the war. But less well known is what happened when the Federal government, under President Ulysses S. Grant, muster the political will to suppress that violence. In 1871, the US Army was deployed to South Carolina to destroy a large scale terrorist operation. We'll learn the result from Fergus M. Bordewich, author of 'Klan War: Ulysses S. Grant and the Battle to Save Reconstruction,' that's tonight on Civil War Talk Radio.

Jonathan D. Sarna, author of When General Grant Expelled the Jews (Jewish Encounters Series)

Matthew Christopher Hulbert, author of Oracle of Lost Causes: John Newman Edwards and His Never-Ending Civil War

Andrew Lang, A Contest of Civilizations: Exposing the Crisis of American Exceptionalism

Elizabeth Varon, Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South

Howell Raines, Silent Cavalry: How Union Soldiers from Alabama Helped Sherman Burn Atlanta–and Then Got Written Out of History

John Banks, A Civil War Road Trip of a Lifetime: Antietam, Gettysburg, and Beyond

Kornisorn Wongsrichanalai and David Sibey, editors of Wars Civil and Great: The American Experience in the Civil War and World War I