Stories of the Civil War is a narrative‑driven history podcast that brings the tumult, tragedy, and triumph of America’s defining conflict to life—one human‑scale story at a time. Hosted by historian‑researcher Chris Mowery, each episode blends meticulous scholarship with vivid, emotionally resonant storytelling to place you on the smoke‑shrouded battlefields, in the candle‑lit tents, and at the kitchen tables where the war’s fate—and the nation’s future—were decided. Whether you’re a seasoned Civil War enthusiast or discovering this chapter of history for the first time, Stories of the Civil War offers a compelling, immersive journey that honors the voices of ordinary soldiers and civilians while illuminating the grand strategy that shaped the conflict. Subscribe today—no reenactments, no sound effects, just authentic, heartfelt narration that lets the past speak for itself.
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Emory Upton, the Bloody Angle, and the Future of War (Grant's Overland Campaign, Part 2)
Historian [Host Name] explores Colonel Emory Upton's innovative assault tactics during the Battle of Spotsylvania, revealing how this Civil War clash shaped modern warfare.
23 May 2026TRANSCRIPT
The Wilderness (Grant's Overland Campaign, Part 1)
Host [Host Name] explores Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant's relentless Overland Campaign opening at the Battle of the Wilderness, revealing the Union's strategic shift towards attrition.
29 Apr 2026
Shattering the Stonewall: The Mixed Legacy of Thomas J. Jackson
In this episode of Stories of the Civil War, host Chris Mowery peels back the layers of myth built up over the decades to examine the real Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson. For generations, Lost Cause ideology has painted Jackson as an infallible, flawless military genius and a saintly martyr. But does the actual historical record fully support the legend?
This episode takes a balanced, objective view of Jackson's generalship, moving past the romanticized history to examine his actual performance. We explore his undeniable tactical triumphs, including the brilliant use of mobility and geography during his legendary Shenandoah Valley Campaign. However, we also shine a necessary light on his glaring weaknesses and structural failures.
Join us as we examine the other side of his command: his disastrous, lethargic performance during the Seven Days Battles, his near-fatal tactical blunders and negligent defensive planning at Fredericksburg, and the deeply toxic, hostile relationships he fostered with capable subordinate generals like A.P. Hill and Richard Ewell.
Step beyond the marble monument to discover the eccentric, deeply flawed, and complex man who wore the Confederate gray.
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8 Apr 2026TRANSCRIPT
The Christian General: Oliver Otis Howard
In this episode, we take a deep dive into the life of one of the nineteenth century's most contradictory figures: Major General Oliver Otis Howard. Known to the press and public as "The Christian General" and mockingly referred to by his own troops as "Old Prayer Book," Howard navigated America's bloodiest era guided by an unwavering, rigid evangelical piety
We'll explore how religious fervor, military ambition, and paternalistic humanitarianism shaped Howard's extraordinary and highly unusual life. We trace his journey through the ranks of the Union Army, detailing his catastrophic battlefield injury at Fair Oaks, his controversial and humiliating tactical failures at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, and his eventual redemption operating under General William T. Sherman in the Western Theater
Beyond the battlefield, we examine Howard's monumental and conflicting post-war legacy:
The Freedmen's Bureau: Learn about his tenure as the first and only commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau, where he championed civil rights and established thousands of schools for newly freed African Americans, ultimately helping to found Howard University.
The Indian Wars: We confront the tragic irony of his later military career, where the former abolitionist led a brutal, relentless campaign to drive Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce from their ancestral homelands in the Pacific Northwest.
Educational Legacy: Discover his final educational pursuits, including his instrumental role in founding Lincoln Memorial University to serve the impoverished populations of Appalachia.
Join me as we unpack the sweeping narrative of a man who embodied both the highest ideals and the darkest hypocrisies of the American experiment.
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10 Jan 2026
Stuck in the Mud: Burnside, the Generals’ Revolt, and the Army of the Potomac’s Darkest Winter
January 1863: the Union war effort in the East is wobbling like a cannon on a wagon axle—and then it starts to rain. In the bleak aftermath of Fredericksburg, Ambrose Burnside gambles on a smart flanking move to restore momentum and morale. For a few shining hours, it almost works. Then Virginia’s red-clay roads liquefy, pontoon trains sink, mules die in harness, and an entire army learns that nature is an undefeated battlefield commander. But the mud isn’t the only thing swallowing the campaign. Behind the scenes, a crisis of command is tearing the Army of the Potomac apart: factional feuds, backchannel visits to the White House, ambitious rivals, and a stunning breakdown in loyalty that pushes Burnside toward an explosive purge. The result is a showdown with Abraham Lincoln that reshapes the army’s leadership—and sets the stage for what comes next. This episode dives into the “Mud March” and the “Generals’ Revolt”: the storm, the sabotage (or was it?), the whiskey-fueled chaos, the Confederate mockery, and the cold political math that ended Burnside’s command and elevated “Fighting Joe” Hooker
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31 Dec 2025
River of Blood: The Battle of Stones River
In the freezing rain of late December 1862, the United States wasn’t marching toward “inevitable” Union victory—it was teetering on the edge of political and military collapse. With Fredericksburg still bleeding, Union fortunes sagging in the West, and the Emancipation Proclamation only days from taking effect, Abraham Lincoln needed a win badly. That desperate need points the nation’s attention to Middle Tennessee, where two armies coil along the rocky bends of the Stones River outside Murfreesboro. This episode tells the story of Stones River—a battle so brutal that roughly one in three men who fought there became a casualty. Follow the clash of commanders William S. Rosecrans and Braxton Bragg, the near-disaster at dawn on December 31, and the frantic stands that kept the Union army from being cut to pieces: Sheridan in the “Slaughter Pen,” Hazen’s brigade holding the “Round Forest” at “Hell’s Half Acre,” and the haunting “battle of the bands” where enemies traded tunes across the darkness—ending together on “Home, Sweet Home.” The finale is as tragic as it is thunderous: Breckinridge’s “Orphan Brigade” charge on January 2, and the moment Captain John Mendenhall unleashes a massed line of artillery—58 cannons—turning the battlefield into a study in lethal physics. A hard-earned victory. A river of blood. And a turning point the nation might not have survived without.
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16 Dec 2025
The Rock, The Hammer, and The Ice: The Complete Story of Nashville 1864
This Extended Special Edition of Stories of the Civil War chronicles the brutal and decisive Battle of Nashville in December 1864, which effectively ended the war in the West.
Join us as we explore the "Paralysis of Ice" that gripped Middle Tennessee and the desperate circumstances of the Confederate Army of Tennessee under General John Bell Hood, fresh from the catastrophic loss at Franklin.
Inside this episode:
The Telegram War: Discover how Major General George H. Thomas, the "Rock of Chickamauga," defied Ulysses S. Grant's relentless orders to attack, waiting for the ice to melt before launching his master plan.
The Battle for Honor: Hear the story of the United States Colored Troops (USCT), former slaves fighting on the soil where they were enslaved, who proved their valor at Granbury’s Lunette and Peach Orchard Hill, suffering the highest casualties of any regiment in the battle.
The Collapse: Witness the Union's "Grand Wheel" maneuver and the final, crushing assault on the Confederate left at Shy's Hill. The episode details the death of Colonel William M. Shy and the total disintegration of Hood's army.
The Retreat: Follow the heartbreaking, barefoot march of the shattered Confederate army south into the dead of winter, leaving bloody footprints in the snow.
This is the complete, visceral story of the death of one army and the vindication of another, told through diaries, letters, and the voices of the soldiers and civilians on the front lines.
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7 Nov 2025
The Professor's War: James Garfield's Unlikely Rise to Major General
He was the classic "political general" who was supposed to fail—a 29-year-old college president and lay preacher with zero military experience. But James A. Garfield defied every stereotype. In just two years, he went from a raw colonel studying tactics by candlelight to one of the Union's most effective leaders. This episode charts his meteoric rise: from the icy victory at Middle Creek, won with a brilliant psychological ploy, to his daring journey commandeering a river steamer to feed his starving men. We'll uncover his role as the strategic "brains" of the brilliant Tullahoma Campaign and climax with his defining moment of raw courage—the legendary ride at Chickamauga. After the Union army was shattered and his commander fled the field, Garfield rode alone under a hail of bullets to find the last standing remnants of the army and coin the immortal nickname, "The Rock of Chickamauga"
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28 Oct 2025
A Forgotten Tragedy: The Allegheny Arsenal Explosion
On September 17, 1862, as the nation reeled from the slaughter at the Battle of Antietam, a different kind of battle unfolded on the home front. In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a series of catastrophic explosions ripped through the Allegheny Arsenal, the industrial heart of the Union war effort. The blast killed 78 people, most of whom were young women and girls, in what remains the single worst civilian disaster of the American Civil War.
This episode tells the forgotten story of the Allegheny Arsenal tragedy. While the nation’s attention was consumed by the news from Antietam, the horrific events in Pittsburgh were relegated to the back pages and quickly faded from public memory. We delve into the lives of the female workers—many of them teenage daughters of immigrant families—who toiled in hazardous conditions to produce the ammunition that armed the Union army. We investigate the chain of negligence that led to the disaster, from spilled gunpowder on a newly laid stone road to ignored warnings from the workers themselves. Through harrowing eyewitness accounts, this episode reconstructs the "horrid shower" of fire and debris that rained down on the city and honors the victims whose stories were silenced by the thunder of war
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9 Oct 2025
The Great Locomotive Chase: A Mission that Led to the First Medals of Honor
In the spring of 1862, a team of Union spies went deep behind Confederate lines with an audacious plan: steal a locomotive, destroy a vital railway, and cripple the Southern war effort. What followed was the Great Locomotive Chase, a nearly 90-mile pursuit that pitted daring saboteurs against a relentlessly determined train conductor. This is the story of the Andrews Raid—a mission that failed in every objective but became an iconic legend of the Civil War, leading to the first awards of the Medal of Honor and inspiring one of the greatest silent films ever made
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3 Oct 2025
The Thunderbolt Crosses the Ohio: Morgan's Great Raid of 1863
In the desperate summer of 1863, with the Confederacy facing defeats at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan—the "Thunderbolt of the Confederacy"—was ordered to create a diversion in Kentucky. But Morgan had a grander, more reckless plan. Defying direct orders, he led over 2,000 cavalrymen across the Ohio River on a thousand-mile raid through Indiana and Ohio, seeking to bring the terror of war directly to the Northern home front. This episode tells the story of that legendary ride: a tale of audacious plunder, widespread panic, a relentless Union pursuit, and the spectacular, strategically bankrupt failure that became known as Morgan's Great Raid.
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10 Sept 2025
The Fighting McCooks: Ohio's Civil War Dynasty
Fifteen men. Two families. One war. The McCooks of Ohio—known as “The Fighting McCooks”—sent fathers and sons alike to the Civil War, where their courage and sacrifice became legend. This is their story of duty, loss, and legacy.
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1 Aug 2025
Patrick Cleburne: The Stonewall of the West
In this episode, we explore the fascinating life of Confederate General Patrick Cleburne, whose story stretches from the green hills of Ireland to the blood-soaked battlefields of Tennessee. Known affectionately as the "Stonewall of the West," Cleburne rose from immigrant pharmacist to one of the Confederacy's most respected and feared commanders. Through vivid storytelling, we retrace his incredible journey—his courageous leadership at Shiloh, Chickamauga, and Ringgold Gap, his bold yet controversial proposal to arm enslaved men, and his tragic final moments at the Battle of Franklin. Join us as we examine the complexity of a general who defied convention, inspired fierce loyalty, and ultimately gave his life for the cause he adopted. Whether you're a seasoned history enthusiast or new to Civil War stories, Patrick Cleburne's life offers a profound glimpse into courage, conviction, and the difficult choices made amid America's deadliest conflict.
8 Jul 2025
Salt and Fire: The Second Saltville Raid (Saltville Raids, Part 2)
This episode recounts General George Stoneman's 1864 cavalry raid on Saltville, Virginia, detailing the Union's destruction of the Confederacy's vital salt supply and its far-reaching consequences.
3 Jul 2025
The Saltville Massacre (Saltville Raids, Part 1)
Host Chris Mowery explores the Saltville Raid of 1864, detailing the strategic importance of saltworks and the tragic massacre of wounded Black cavalrymen, revealing the battle's lasting impact.
28 Jun 2025
Mercy Under Fire: The Angel of Marye’s Heights
Historian Chris Mowery recounts the story of Richard Rowland Kirkland, the "Angel of Marye’s Heights," who risked his life to aid wounded Union soldiers during the Civil War, revealing the power of compassion amid conflict.
26 Jun 2025
Black Jack Logan - The Union's Best "Political" General
Host Chris Mowery examines John Alexander Logan's evolution from Illinois congressman to Union general, highlighting his battlefield courage and later advocacy for veterans and Black soldiers.
Inside a recent episode
Emory Upton, the Bloody Angle, and the Future of War (Grant's Overland Campaign, Part 2)
Published 1 Sept 2026 · Transcript excerpt
[…] You can look at the map and see exactly what I'm talking about. The soldiers, who couldn't see it from above on a map, but who had been told what it looked like by the engineers, called it the mule shoe. A salient is, in military engineering, the single most dangerous shape a defensive line can take. […]
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