Victory of the Union

After two years of bloody conflict, the American Civil War was still unresolved and some of the hardest fighting lay ahead. Join us in this seven part series as the South is crushed and the country is reunited. Travel with us to battlefields such as Gettysburg, with its huge number of casualties, Vicksburg where the South was cut in half, and Chickamauga, where the Union armies met defeat in the west. Hear from eminent historians about the campaigns of Grant, Sherman and Meade, and how Lee, Johnston and Bragg strove to hold them back. Watch the Confederacy crumble, see where the main surrenders took place, and step into the Reconstruction era, when the tattered South was readmitted into a very different Union.

Episodes in this Series

Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville

In Virginia, Robert E. Lee’s army was all that stood between the Union forces and the Confederate capitol at Richmond. Join us in this two part episode as we walk the battlefields of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, where Lee won glorious victories over the Federals. At Chancellorsville we meet with Don Pfanz to discuss the fighting and how the rebel army coped with the loss of Stonewall Jackson. View this episode.

Gettysburg

In this episode, we explore the Battle of Gettysburg – the high water mark of the Confederacy. We talk with Garry Adelman, a life long historian of the battle, to hear the stories of the men that fought there, and evaluate why the north was victorious. Finally we end at the Gettysburg Cemetery, where Lincoln’s Address set the vision for how the war would shape the nation. View this episode.

Vicksburg

Vicksburg, Mississippi was one of the most important strongholds in the Confederacy, as it guarded the mighty Mississippi, which flows through the center of the south. In this episode, trace with us the many attempts of Ulysses S. Grant to capture the “Gibraltar of the Confederacy.” Join us to talk with Ed Bearss, National Park Service Historian Emeritus and an expert on the Vicksburg campaign. View this episode.

East to the Sea

While many people are familiar with the battles in the east, the Western Theater of the Civil War is nearly forgotten. In this episode, delve with us into these forgotten campaigns. Watch as the Confederates win their greatest western victory at Chickamauga, and then as the Union tide rolls over the southern resistance at Chattanooga, Kennesaw Mountain and Atlanta, finally culminating in Sherman’s destructive March through Georgia. View this episode.

The Overland Campaign

For two years Robert E. Lee had defeated nearly every Union general Lincoln sent against him. But in 1864, Ulysses S. Grant, who had whipped the western Confederate armies, was brought east to whip Lee. Join us in this episode as we examine the fierce fighting at the Battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor, and see who triumphed in one of the greatest rivalries in military history – Grant vs. Lee. View this episode.

The Confederacy Crumbles

In 1865 the Confederacy was on the verge of collapse. In this episode see how the North finally triumphed. Watch as the Southerners strive to beat off the ever advancing Federal armies under the new conditions of trench warfare. Travel to Petersburg, where Will Greene explains how Lee’s lines were broken. Finally, see how the country’s course was suddenly changed with the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. View this episode.

Reconstruction

When the guns fell silent and the swords were sheathed, the bitterness from the conflict still remained. Join us in this episode to examine how the two parts of the country were reunified after civil war. Delve into Reconstruction politics, some of the most hotly contended in the country’s history, and see how they changed the view of the Constitution, civil rights and the economy, still impacting the nation today. View this episode.

Preview Clips from this Series

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