logo
episode-header-image
Nov 2019
44m 43s

The Confederacy Dominated the Early Civi...

History Unplugged
About this episode
The Confederacy won the early battles of the Civil War, led by brilliant generals Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee (to name a few) against blundering Union commanders like the endlessly dithering George McClellan. The war only turned after Lincoln found the right generals such as Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman. This Civil War narrative—that Union generals improved while Confederate ones worsened—is popular and well-supported. Is it accurate, or did circumstances of the war bring out the true character of each general?

The answer isn't a simple 'yes' or 'no' but Scott will do his best to explain what makes a Civil War general a good one and how they improved or worsened over the course of the war.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Up next
Aug 21
James Cook Mapped the Globe Before Dying At the Hands of Hawaiians Who Once Worshipped Him
Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan are known for discoveries, but it was Captain James Cook who made global travel truly possible. Cook was an 18th-century British explorer who mapped vast regions of the Pacific, including New Zealand and Australia’s eastern coast, with ... Show More
56m 56s
Aug 19
American Anarchists: The Original Domestic Extremists
In the early twentieth century, anarchists like Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman championed a radical vision of a world without states, laws, or private property. Militant and sometimes violent, anarchists were heroes to many working-class immigrants. But to many others, anarch ... Show More
39m 37s
Aug 14
100 Years Before Ford v. Ferrari, a Horse Breeder Revolutionized Thoroughbred Racing Through a Similar Obsession With Progress
Horse racing was the most popular sport in early America, drawing massive crowds and fueling a cultural obsession with horses’ speed and pedigree. In the early 1800s, every town in America with a few thousand people had a horse racing track, with major cities drawing crowds of up ... Show More
1h 14m
Recommended Episodes
Feb 2021
General Robert E Lee: US Civil War rebel
The US Civil War of 1861-65 left 700,000 troops dead. The Southern Confederate states rebelled against the Union of the North because the Confederates wanted to protect the right to own slaves. The hero of the rebel cause, General Robert E Lee, was charged with treason and had hi ... Show More
12m 28s
Dec 2021
How Lincoln Almost Lost it All
December 11, 1862. Union Army engineers are urgently constructing a bridge, one that will carry soldiers into the town of Fredericksburg, Virginia, a Confederate stronghold. Union leaders are banking on the element of surprise and are desperate for a victory. But, by the time it’ ... Show More
33m 56s
Nov 2021
Stephen Cushman, "The Generals' Civil War: What Their Memoirs Can Teach Us Today" (UNC Press, 2021)
In the decades following the American Civil War, several of the generals who had laid down their swords picked up their pens and published accounts of their service in the conflict. In The Generals’ Civil War: What Their Memoirs Can Teach Us Today (University of North Carolina Pr ... Show More
58m 37s
Oct 2023
What if the South Won the Civil War?
What if the Civil War had ended differently, with the South seceding from the Union? Would slavery have continued? Would the southern states have continued as a whole? Would any other states have followed suit? To explore this hypothetical history, Don spoke to Aaron Sheehan-Dean ... Show More
42m 24s
Dec 2022
Making Grant: The Peacekeeper
Grant’s final victory brings Lee’s army to defeat and the Civil War to a close at last. But when President Lincoln is assassinated, Grant is charged not only with ending the war but with keeping the peace. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. 
36m 32s
May 2019
President Ulysses S Grant
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the impact of Grant's presidency on Americans in the years after the Civil War in which he, with Lincoln, had led the Union Army to victory. His predecessor, Andrew Johnson, was prepared to let the Southern States decide for themselves which rights ... Show More
55m 12s
Feb 2024
Episode 298 - The Insane Corruption of the Union Army During the US Civil War
Union soldiers may have marched off to fight for the right side of the war but that didn't mean that every contractor and General in the north wasn't going to try to steal something from the military along the way. BUY JOE'S BOOK: https://www.amazon.com/Invisible-War-Military-Sci ... Show More
58m 55s
May 2023
Reconstruction Era | From the Ashes of War | 1
In the spring of 1865, the United States celebrated the end of four years of Civil War. As American soldiers laid down their weapons, four million formerly enslaved Black people in the South grappled with the daunting task of building new lives as free citizens in a nation still ... Show More
43m 7s
Feb 2024
Origins of the Civil War
The war between the Union and the Confederacy is a major turning point in the history of the United States. But why did it happen? From slavery and states' rights, to economic, legislative, moral, and political issues, in this episode, Don and Professor Adam Smith explore how the ... Show More
34m 54s
May 2023
Reconstruction: Why We Didn't Learn About It
The Reconstruction Era, a period in American history at the end of and immediately following the Civil War, is one of the single-most important and instructive periods in American history. It has also, historically, been one of the least taught. Why is that, and what are we missi ... Show More
38m 40s