Quick and Dirty History

Besides that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the show?  President Abraham Lincoln sat down to enjoy a play at Ford’s Theatre, but the night took a deadly turn. Enter John Wilkes Booth: actor, Confederate sympathizer, and America’s most infamous assassin. In this episode of Quick and Dirty History, we break down the shocking events of Lincoln’s assassination, Booth’s escape, the conspiracy behind the plot, and how this moment altered the course of U.S. history. Buckle up—this one ends with a bang!

The final days of the Civil War...from Lincoln’s hard-fought reelection in 1864 to the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment and the surrender at Appomattox... sealing the fate of the Confederacy.

The American Civil War rages on, but Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant intend to end it...at any cost.  "War is cruelty…there is no use in trying to reform it...the crueler it is, the sooner it will be over" - William Tecumseh Sherman

When the armies meet at Gettysburg during the American Civil War...it's carnage, and Abraham Lincoln has a few words to say about it too.

Who decided a bird gets presidential pass?  Is it justice, or just plain fowl play?  This turkey has better legal representation than you do!  This is what Thanksgiving during the Civil War sounds like.

The Emancipation Proclamation, it's the first big step toward ending slavery, but it was also a crucial move to keep Europe out of the American Civil War.  Freeing slaves would shift the focus of the conflict and set the stage for a larger showdown.

During the Civil War, more than 22,000 soldiers fell in the fields of Maryland in the single bloodiest day in American History.  It's the Battle of Antietam.

The Second Battle of Bull Run kicks off with a demoted Union general, and a chance for the North to redeem themselves...spoiler alert, they don't.

The Confiscation Act gets bigger and badder...and George McClellan is still....mehhh.

Robert E. Lee has a breakfast of champions...Hard Tack...and then comes out swinging in the Seven Days Battles of the Civil War.

In war, nobody wins...one side just loses more slowly.  The bloodiest battle of not just the Civil War, but any American military engagement up to that point takes place in Pittsburgh Landing, Tennessee.  It's the Battle of Shiloh.

The Navies of the Civil War go heavy metal!

Abraham Lincoln fills his cabinet with people that disagreed with him...because the Union is bigger than just one dude.

Who do you want to have a beer with?  Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis...The time there were two Commanders in Chief within our borders during the Civil War...

The beginning of 1862 is action packed, the Union strikes back!

In the North corner...it's George McClellan, and in the South, Robert E. Lee...Ready, fight!

Harriet Tubman and the abolitionist movement is full steam ahead with the Underground Railroad in the fight against slavery.  As the Civil War chugs along, the Union fires a legal shot at the Confederacy with the Confiscation Act.

The first real confrontation of the American Civil War kicks off near the town of Manassas, and only a stone's throw from Washington D.C.  It's the battle of Bull Run.

Arlington Cemetery will become our nation's most hallowed ground...but first, it will be the most strategic ground to protect Washington D.C.  And, as an unintended FU to the future general of the confederacy, it's on Robert E. Lee's family land.

The Civil War revolutionized how battles were fought.  From guns and bullets to the telegraph and railroads...America is the leader in technology, but these weapons of war prove especially devastating when Americans use them against each other.