• 087 - Modernizing War: Science And Technology In The American Civil War
    Jun 26 2025

    About this episode:

    GPS, drones, laser-guidance—all modern marvels that have served mankind in both peace and war. Nothing new, for there were creations and adaptations for a conflict contested in the 1860s; enough so that that confrontation has been called, by many, the first “modern war.” This is the story of enterprising inventors and engineers and their ideas and machines—their taking theory and making it practical. The ongoing marriage between innovation and war, this is the story of Science and Technology in the American Civil War.

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    Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode:

    Joseph Bailey

    Henry Pleasants

    Richard Gatling

    Samuel Morse

    Horace Lawson Hunley

    For Further Reading:

    Trial by Fire: Science, Technology and the Civil War by Charles D. Ross

    Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here

    Thank you to our sponsor, The Badge Maker - proudly carrying affordable Civil War Corps Badges and other hand-made historical reproductions for reenactors, living history interpreters, and lovers of history.

    Check out The Badge Maker and place your orders here

    Thank you to our sponsor Bob Graesser, Raleigh Civil War Round Table's editor of The Knapsack newsletter and the Round Table's webmaster at http://www.raleighcwrt.org

    Thank you to our sponsor John Bailey.

    Producer: Dan Irving

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    1 h et 4 min
  • 086 - Sowers Of Dissent: Fire-Eaters Louis T. Wigfall And Edmund Ruffin
    May 29 2025

    About this episode:

    Revolution and civil war require explosive issues and impassioned men more than willing to make change and, if necessary, to do so violently. This is the story of two such Southern men. This is the story of fire eaters Louis T. Wigfall and Edmund Ruffin.

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    Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode:

    Nathaniel Macon

    Roger A. Pryor

    John Brown

    Sam Houston

    P. G. T. Beauregard

    James H. Hammond

    Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here

    Thank you to our sponsor, The Badge Maker - proudly carrying affordable Civil War Corps Badges and other hand-made historical reproductions for reenactors, living history interpreters, and lovers of history.

    Check out The Badge Maker and place your orders here

    Thank you to our sponsor Bob Graesser, Raleigh Civil War Round Table's editor of The Knapsack newsletter and the Round Table's webmaster at http://www.raleighcwrt.org

    Thank you to our sponsor John Bailey.

    Producer: Dan Irving

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    1 h et 21 min
  • 085 - And The War Began...: Fort Sumter Revisited
    Apr 30 2025

    About this episode:

    It takes a cast to put on a play and our story this day is filled with characters that emoted passions raging from reasoned deliberation to knee-jerk and violent. And not only for the chain of events that led to the first confrontation of the American Civil War but throughout and even beyond the four-year long conflict. Men and women caught in the cross-hairs of history or those that created them. This is the story of the characters and events that led to momentous drama in Charleston Harbor. This is the cast and story of Fort Sumter Revisited.

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    Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode:

    Robert Anderson

    James Buchanan

    Winfield Scott

    Robert Toombs

    Mary Boykin Chesnut

    Abner Doubleday

    For Further Reading:

    The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War by Erik Larson

    Days of Defiance: Sumter, Secession, and the Coming of the Civil War by Maury Klein

    Mary Chesnut's Civil War by Mary Chesnut

    Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here

    Thank you to our sponsor, The Badge Maker - proudly carrying affordable Civil War Corps Badges and other hand-made historical reproductions for reenactors, living history interpreters, and lovers of history.

    Check out The Badge Maker and place your orders here

    Thank you to our sponsor Bob Graesser, Raleigh Civil War Round Table's editor of The Knapsack newsletter and the Round Table's webmaster at http://www.raleighcwrt.org

    Producer: Dan Irving

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    1 h et 31 min
  • 084 - Return To The Confederacy's Gibraltar: Fort Fisher Revisited
    Mar 28 2025

    About this episode:

    Some six years ago, we chronicled the Confederacy’s Gibraltar that allowed Wilmington, NC to be the last major Confederate port open to the outside world. 72 episodes later and in the 160th year of its capture, we, again, turn our attention to the massive earthen fort and those that took part in the campaign to either storm or defend the Confederate Goliath. This is the expanded story of the fort whose fall in January of 1865 hastened, in many respects, Lee’s retreat from Petersburg, Virginia and, subsequently, the surrender of his army at Appomattox. This is Fort Fisher Revisited.

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    Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode:

    Rose O'Neal Greenhow

    William Lamb

    William Henry Chase Whiting

    Braxton Bragg

    Gideon Welles

    David Dixon Porter

    For Further Reading:

    The Wilmington Campaign: Last Rays Of Departing Hope by Chris E. Fonvielle, Jr.

    Confederate Goliath: The Battle Of Fort Fisher by Rod Gragg

    Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here

    Thank you to our sponsor, The Badge Maker - proudly carrying affordable Civil War Corps Badges and other hand-made historical reproductions for reenactors, living history interpreters, and lovers of history.

    Check out The Badge Maker and place your orders here

    Thank you to our sponsor Bob Graesser, Raleigh Civil War Round Table's editor of The Knapsack newsletter and the Round Table's webmaster at http://www.raleighcwrt.org

    Producer: Dan Irving

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    1 h et 18 min
  • 083 - A Modern-Day Moses: The Life Of Harriet Tubman
    Feb 26 2025

    About this episode:

    She stood only about 5’, yet, in terms of achievement and historical significance, she remains a giant. This is the story of not only a remarkable woman, but human being. This is the story of Harriet Tubman.

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    Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode:

    Charles Nalle

    Frederick Douglass

    Thomas Garrett

    William Seward

    John Brown

    Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here

    Thank you to our sponsor, The Badge Maker - proudly carrying affordable Civil War Corps Badges and other hand-made historical reproductions for reenactors, living history interpreters, and lovers of history.

    Check out The Badge Maker and place your orders here

    Thank you to our sponsor Bob Graesser, Raleigh Civil War Round Table's editor of The Knapsack newsletter and the Round Table's webmaster at http://www.raleighcwrt.org

    Producer: Dan Irving

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    1 h et 6 min
  • 082 - Resistance By Liberation: The Underground Railroad
    Jan 30 2025

    About this episode:

    Its mission and those who willingly took part in it dared to defy the highest law in the land. And in their desire to do what was right, they wrote, spoke and acted out against a hateful institution that remains to this day, a cross this country must bear. This is the story of brave crusaders who risked much and an organization that sought to right a moral evil. This is the story of the Underground Railroad.

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    Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode:

    Elijah Lovejoy

    Charles Nalle

    Harriet Tubman

    William Lloyd Garrison

    Frederick Douglass

    Henry Box Brown

    Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here

    Thank you to our sponsor, The Badge Maker - proudly carrying affordable Civil War Corps Badges and other hand-made historical reproductions for reenactors, living history interpreters, and lovers of history.

    Check out The Badge Maker and place your orders here

    Thank you to our sponsor Bob Graesser, Raleigh Civil War Round Table's editor of The Knapsack newsletter and the Round Table's webmaster at http://www.raleighcwrt.org

    Producer: Dan Irving

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    47 min
  • 081 - Salve For The Soul: Music During The American Civil War
    Dec 27 2024

    About this episode:

    This is an episode about a phenomenon as old as time itself. Something that, throughout the ages, has brought laughter, reflection, made and rekindled memories and even moved men and women to tears. From stirring airs to ballads and everything in between, this is the story of that which has been described as a salve for the soul. This is the story of Music during the American Civil War.

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    Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode:

    Julia Ward Howe

    George Frederick Root

    Patrick Gilmore

    Henry Clay Work

    Stephen Foster

    Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here

    Thank you to our sponsor, The Badge Maker - proudly carrying affordable Civil War Corps Badges and other hand-made historical reproductions for reenactors, living history interpreters, and lovers of history.

    Check out The Badge Maker and place your orders here

    Thank you to our sponsor Bob Graesser, Raleigh Civil War Round Table's editor of The Knapsack newsletter and the Round Table's webmaster at http://www.raleighcwrt.org

    Special thanks to WCHL for providing the song recordings used in this episode.

    Producer: Dan Irving

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    1 h et 1 min
  • 080 - Moment Of Decision: The Election of 1864
    Nov 26 2024

    About this episode:

    Presidential elections essentially boil down to a popular mandate, either supporting an incumbent’s administration or repudiating it. Never was that clearer than in 1864 when some four million people went to the polls to either re-elect Abraham Lincoln or oust him. At the election’s core: to stay the course and finish the war or admit it a failure and call for a cessation of hostilities. Such were the weighty consequences surrounding Abraham Lincoln’s quest for a second term. This is the story of a nation’s moment of decision. This is the story of the presidential election of 1864.

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    Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode:

    John Tyler

    George B. McClellan

    William Seward

    Salmon P. Chase

    Clement L. Vallandigham

    Additional Resources:

    Electoral Map - Election of 1864

    Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here

    Thank you to our sponsor, The Badge Maker - proudly carrying affordable Civil War Corps Badges and other hand-made historical reproductions for reenactors, living history interpreters, and lovers of history.

    Check out The Badge Maker and place your orders here

    Thank you to our sponsor Bob Graesser, Raleigh Civil War Round Table's editor of The Knapsack newsletter and the Round Table's webmaster at http://www.raleighcwrt.org

    Producer: Dan Irving

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    46 min