Advertise on podcast: Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War

About this episode:  Back in 1969, Columbia University Press published Volume I of a biography written by historian Grady McWhiney.  The work chronicled the life of a full general in Confederate service. There was to be a Volume II but, as Civil War historian Richard McMurray reportedly put it, “McWhiney found his subject so nauseous that he abandoned the project.” No question, the subject of McWhiney’s research was stern, intimidating, quarrelsome, a martinet, but despite those flaws, he commanded the Confederacy’s leading army in the Western Theater for much of the conflict. This is the story of a field commander who once was tabbed the most despised man in the Confederacy. This is the story of Braxton Bragg.          ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Zachary Taylor Jefferson Davis Leonidas Polk Joseph E. Johnston John P. McCown William Rosecrans   For Further Reading: Braxton Bragg and Confederate Defeat: Vol 1: Field Command by Grady McWhiney   Braxton Bragg and Confederate Defeat Vol II by Judith Lee Hallock   Braxton Bragg: The Most Hated Man of the Confederacy   Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here   Thank you to our sponsor, Celebrity Word Scramble. In collaboration with Fred Kiger, they have published a Civil War edition of the Celebrity Word Scramble series. Included in the book is 16 pages of Civil War facts, stories, and insights written by Fred Kiger. Get your copy of the book 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

About this episode:  The October 1777 victory at Saratoga opened the door for an alliance with France, and that nation's aid was crucial for American independence. All too aware of that fact, Jefferson Davis made European recognition a priority. For as many Southerners put it, this was their second war for independence. Conversely, Abraham Lincoln was just as committed to keeping the Confederacy isolated. This is the story of two governments waging war in the art of negotiation. This is the story of diplomacy in the American Civil War.        ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Henry John Temple Napoleon III Robert Barnwell Rhett Charles Francis Adams John Slidell Ferdinand Maximilian   Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here   Thank you to our sponsor, Celebrity Word Scramble. In collaboration with Fred Kiger, they have published a Civil War edition of the Celebrity Word Scramble series. Included in the book is 16 pages of Civil War facts, stories, and insights written by Fred Kiger. Get your copy of the book 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

About this episode:  In this, the 250th year of American independence, we look back over time’s shoulder to revisit the nation only eleven years after its great civil war. From Philadelphia, Washington City and the relatively civilized East Coast to the wilds of the territories, Montana, Dakota and New Mexico, we bring to light issues that dominated then and still linger. Our focus: this country as it struggled to come into its own - struggled to establish its identity. For our 100th episode, we tell the story of our nation’s Centennial. This is the story of the United States in 1876.        ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Dwight Moody William Jennings Bryan Horatio Alger, Jr. Pedro II Matilda Joslyn Gage George Armstrong Custer   For Further Reading The Year of the Century, 1876 by Dee Brown   Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here   Thank you to our sponsor, Celebrity Word Scramble. In collaboration with Fred Kiger, they have published a Civil War edition of the Celebrity Word Scramble series. Included in the book is 16 pages of Civil War facts, stories, and insights written by Fred Kiger. Get your copy of the book 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

About this episode:  Shots had been fired and mobilization in both North and South began. Many believed it would be over in six months.  Only a few anticipated a four-year struggle which would bring political, military and social change. Changes that few could even begin to imagine. In the first months of the conflict, the pieces on the military chessboard were being placed and opening moves calculated. Like so many conflicts over the course of time, there was excitement in the air and opportunity for glory. For this episode, the story of a naïve Union and Confederacy at the beginning of the American Civil War. When death in battle spawned poems and song and when the conflict was still a rebellion and long before it became a social revolution. These are the events of June 1861 and the events that led to the first land battle of any consequence. These are the stories of the early days of the war and the Battle of Big Bethel.          ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Stephen A. Douglas Benjamin Butler John B. Magruder Ebenezer W. Peirce D. H. Hill   Additional Resources: Map of the Battle of Big Bethal, June 10 1861   Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here   Thank you to our sponsor, Celebrity Word Scramble. In collaboration with Fred Kiger, they have published a Civil War edition of the Celebrity Word Scramble series. Included in the book is 16 pages of Civil War facts, stories, and insights written by Fred Kiger. Get your copy of the book 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

About this episode:  In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5, the title character states that, “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more.” That line resonates well with many during the opening months of the American Civil War. With war as their stage, many believed the struggle provided opportunity for personal acclaim and glory. Some were successful. Some were not—there at the beginning but not the end. And when politics, poor performances and toxic personalities reduced some to historical footnotes, there were some who had been waiting in the wings, took center stage and found lasting fame. For those who sought or were cast into roles as this nation was plunged into civil war, this is their story. A story—full of sound and fury—of those who were Early Players for the Union and Confederacy.            ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Simon Cameron Irvin McDowell Robert Patterson John C. Frémont Henry Halleck Leroy Pope Walker   Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here   Thank you to our sponsor, Celebrity Word Scramble. In collaboration with Fred Kiger, they have published a Civil War edition of the Celebrity Word Scramble series. Included in the book is 16 pages of Civil War facts, stories, and insights written by Fred Kiger. Get your copy of the book 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

About this episode:  In 1969 - 104 years after the fact - Canadian Robbie Robertson wrote a song for his group The Band. It was a first-person narrative relating economic and social distress for a poor white Southerner during the last year of the American Civil War. Robertson’s song was voiced by the band’s lone American, drummer and native Arkansan Levon Helm whose haunting rendition opened with,   “Virgil Kane is the name And I served on the Danville train 'Till Stoneman's cavalry came And tore up the tracks again In the winter of '65 We were hungry, just barely alive By May the 10th, Richmond had fell It's a time I remember, oh so well The night they drove old Dixie down…”   This is the story of that Federal incursion.  This is the story of Stoneman’s Raid.      ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: George Stoneman Joseph Hooker Alvan Cullem Gillem William J. Palmer Malinda Blalock P. G. T. Beauregard   Additional Resources: Full Route of Stoneman's Raid, March-April 1865   Stoneman's Raid in Tennessee, March 14-27   Stoneman's Raid from Boone to Mt. Airy, March 28-April 2   Stoneman's Raid in Virginia, April 3-9   Stoneman's Raid in the Piedmont, April 9-11   Stoneman's Raid approaches Salisbury, April 11-12   Stoneman's Raid on the Catawba, April 13-23   Stoneman's Raid, Final Days   Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here   Thank you to our sponsor, Celebrity Word Scramble. In collaboration with Fred Kiger, they have published a Civil War edition of the Celebrity Word Scramble series. Included in the book is 16 pages of Civil War facts, stories, and insights written by Fred Kiger. Get your copy of the book 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

About this episode:  In March of 1864, Ulysses S. Grant was promoted to military heights only attained by one other - George Washington. On the 2nd day of that month, the US Senate confirmed Grant’s promotion to Lieutenant General. On the 9th, President Abraham Lincoln officially commissioned him and the next day he was given official authority to take command of the Armies of the United States. Though in overall command of the mighty U.S. military machine, he had to have lieutenants who would execute his strategies. This episode is about five of them - one glorified Chief of Staff and four who served in the field. This is the story of five who administratively and militarily landed the blows that their commanding officer called for. These - biographical sketches of men who, by their deeds, assured Grant’s position in the pantheon of this country’s greatest warriors. This is the story of Grant’s Lieutenants.      ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Henry Halleck Philip Sheridan George Henry Thomas George Gordon Meade William T. Sherman   Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here   Thank you to our sponsor, Celebrity Word Scramble. In collaboration with Fred Kiger, they have published a Civil War edition of the Celebrity Word Scramble series. Included in the book is 16 pages of Civil War facts, stories, and insights written by Fred Kiger. Get your copy of the book 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

About this episode:  We begin Part II of our post-war story of R. E. Lee. It is early 1867 and, we remind you that in March of that year, there was to be a fund-raising event for Washington College in, of all places, New York City. 500 were to attend. Men of means and power - all potential donors - and much was expected from this highly anticipated gathering. And yet, a month before the gala, on the 4th of February, a disturbance in Lexington that created dark clouds for not only Lee but the college. We now pick up with the story…    ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Andrew Johnson Ulysses S. Grant William Wilson Corcoran George Peabody Frank Buchser Woodrow Wilson     For Further Reading: The Last Years of Robert E. Lee: From Gettysburg to Lexington by Douglas Savage   Lee: The Last Years by Charles Bracelen Flood   Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here   Thank you to our sponsor, Celebrity Word Scramble. In collaboration with Fred Kiger, they have published a Civil War edition of the Celebrity Word Scramble series. Included in the book is 16 pages of Civil War facts, stories, and insights written by Fred Kiger. Get your copy of the book 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

About this episode:  We begin a two part presentation that tells the story of a man who never truly sought fame and never wanted to be controversial, and yet his destiny casts such a long shadow that to this day, he may well be one of the most noted generals in American military history, and to more than a few, lurks as one who was and continues to be deemed a traitor. He began his military career at 18 years of age, when he entered West Point in 1825. We pick up his life when, after surrendering the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, he ceased to be a soldier and began his role as civilian and as an educator. Now, at 58, we seek to humanize the so-called marble man. This is the story of the final five and one half years of his life. This is part one of After The Bugles Faded: The Last Years of Robert E. Lee.      ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Jefferson Davis George Washington Custis Lee Mathew Brady John W. Brockenbrough John Letcher William Lloyd Garrison   For Further Reading: The Last Years of Robert E. Lee: From Gettysburg to Lexington by Douglas Savage   Lee: The Last Years by Charles Bracelen Flood   Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here   Thank you to our sponsor, Celebrity Word Scramble. In collaboration with Fred Kiger, they have published a Civil War edition of the Celebrity Word Scramble series. Included in the book is 16 pages of Civil War facts, stories, and insights written by Fred Kiger. Get your copy of the book 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

About this episode:  For this episode, we’ll take the American Civil War to places that far too many dismiss - west of the Mississippi. Sites and confrontations that may not be as well-known as eastern theater battlefields like Shiloh, Antietam, Gettysburg or Chattanooga but, nevertheless at locations where national interests were just as great, passions of those involved just as deep and consequences that were just as far-reaching. Three selected stories - each to provide a snapshot of personalities, events and ramifications. One to highlight Union and Confederate campaigns in faraway New Mexico Territory; Another, vengeful guerilla warfare in Kansas and Missouri; and, for our third story, while civil war raged, a clash between whites and Native Americans in Minnesota. And now, stories from the American Civil War that originated in the Trans-Mississippi. Stories from then the western frontier.        ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: David E. Twiggs Earl Van Dorn Edward R. S. Canby William Clarke Quantrill Little Crow John Pope   Additional Resources Battlefields Of New Mexico   Battles Of Kansas And Missouri   Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here   Thank you to our sponsor, Celebrity Word Scramble. In collaboration with Fred Kiger, they have published a Civil War edition of the Celebrity Word Scramble series. Included in the book is 16 pages of Civil War facts, stories, and insights written by Fred Kiger. Get your copy of the book 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

About this episode:  In the aftermath of the great and bloody battle of Shiloh, we pick up with the life and career of William Tecumseh Sherman. His personal journey continues to be one that spans the vast spectrum that comprises life itself - ups and downs, triumphs and defeats. In this episode, we speak of his command of the Union’s Western Theater and its campaigns, his post-war rise to General-in-Chief and, after retirement, his time as citizen. Through all, he was larger than life and no stranger to complexity and controversy. Now, in Part II, we continue the deeply-layered story that is William Tecumseh Sherman.      ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Edwin Stanton Ulysses S. Grant Henry Halleck Joseph E. Johnston Jefferson Davis   For Further Reading Citizen Sherman: A Life of William Tecumseh Sherman by Michael Fellman   Sherman: Merchant of Terror, Advocate of Peace by Charles Edmund Vetter   William Tecumseh Sherman: In the Service of My Country: A Life by James Lee McDonough   Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here   Thank you to our sponsor, Celebrity Word Scramble. In collaboration with Fred Kiger, they have published a Civil War edition of the Celebrity Word Scramble series. Included in the book is 16 pages of Civil War facts, stories, and insights written by Fred Kiger. Get your copy of the book 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

About this episode:  It was a Wednesday, August 11, 1880 and some 5000 Union veterans gathered at the Ohio State Fair. President Rutherford B. Hayes had just finished a speech when another was called for. The next speaker was tall, sinewy and long in the neck. His head was large and his face a regular nest of wrinkles. Often animated and mercurial in temperament, on this day, his features expressed determination - especially his mouth. “There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but boys, it is all hell…” This is the story of that speaker - one who survived charges of insanity. A man who, in the vortex of civil war, bonded with another and the two would eventually bring the Confederacy to its knees. This is the story of William Tecumseh Sherman.         ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Thomas Ewing Ellen Ewing Sherman Robert Anderson John Sherman Henry Halleck P. G. T. Beauregard   Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here   Thank you to our sponsor, Celebrity Word Scramble. In collaboration with Fred Kiger, they have published a Civil War edition of the Celebrity Word Scramble series. Included in the book is 16 pages of Civil War facts, stories, and insights written by Fred Kiger. Get your copy of the book 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

About this episode:  The year was 1859 and future Confederate Secretary of the Navy, Florida Senator Stephen R. Mallory, trumpeted, “It is no more for this country to pause in its career than for the free and untrammeled eagle to cease its soar.” He had every reason to be optimistic, for the decade of the 1850s had brought the United States of America exceptional growth and prosperity. And, with enormous resources, there was much to look forward to: vast unoccupied lands, a network of navigable rivers, untapped riches in timber, iron, coal, copper and California gold.  It is also true that in that same decade political tension had escalated but in the cold light of economics, the two sections were interdependent - perhaps inseparable. Yet there were unsettling factors at work: geography, population and its make-up, internal improvements, technology, religion, education, reform, politics and, yes, slavery and the question of its expansion. Taken as a whole, the United States in 1860, was in fact, two worlds.  On the heels of our tour of the American South in 1860, we now look at that world that comprised the so-called Free States - the North.      ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Harriet Beecher Stowe Roger Taney John Rock William H. Seward Salmon Chase   Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here   Thank you to our sponsor, Celebrity Word Scramble. In collaboration with Fred Kiger, they have published a Civil War edition of the Celebrity Word Scramble series. Included in the book is 16 pages of Civil War facts, stories, and insights written by Fred Kiger. Get your copy of the book 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

About this episode:  Sometime in 1861, the young Georgia poet Sidney Lanier, a recent Confederate Army enlistee, attended a mock medieval tournament in Kinston, NC. Watching mounted Confederate officers dressed as knights competing for the honor of a local belle, he was moved…even enraptured. To him, the scene was a metaphor for the war itself. The South was a gallant knight battling against dark Northern materialistic forces. Defending hallowed chivalry. As Lanier put it, the Confederacy’s war had “the sanctity of a religious cause” arrayed in “military trapping.” These men, this image of knights in shining armor, this lifestyle are what most remember of the antebellum South. Indeed, what many still want to remember. But they represented only a very thin slice of Southern society. About only one half of 1% of a total population of some nine million. And unlike royalty of old, those planters… those knights were part of  an aristocracy sired by property, not birth. Most of them self-made men from ordinary backgrounds whose influence was measured in the number of slaves they owned and the acreage of their plantations. Enjoying leisure and wealth, those few had the time and energy to pursue politics and, in positions of economic and political power, they enjoyed deference from the masses that made up the majority of the Southern white population. Deference which meant that majority followed the leadership and adopted the views of something they would never attain over the course of their entire existence. For this episode, we tell the story of a 19th century world filled with magnolia and cotton…populated with planters, yeomen farmers, “crackers” and the enslaved.  Taken together, the completed picture of a world…a culture that in five years would truly be “gone with the wind.” This is the story of the Antebellum South on the eve of civil war.   ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: John C. Calhoun Eli Whitney Edgar Allan Poe Stephen Foster James Dunwoody Brownson De Bow William L. Yancey   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

About this episode:  From June 18, 1864 until April 2, 1865, the Union Armies of the James and Potomac laid siege to Petersburg, Virginia - the all-important supply and communication center for Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and Richmond itself. After 45 days of constant bloodletting in the Overland Campaign, the contesting forces began what would mirror warfare five decades later - miles and miles of trenches, denuded landmarks and death not so much by rifled muskets and artillery but disease. This is the story of the Confederacy’s long, slow descent into darkness. This the story of the siege of Petersburg.    ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: George Gordon Meade Wade Hampton III Benjamin Butler Philip Sheridan John B. Gordon Gouverneur Warren   Additional Resources: First Battle Of Deep Bottom - July 27-29, 1864   Siege Of Petersburg - Actions August 18-19, 1864   Siege Of Petersburg - Actions October 27, 1864   Siege Of Petersburg - Actions March 29-31, 1865   Siege Of Petersburg - Actions April 2, 1865   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