Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War
Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War

Threads From The National Tapestry: Stories From The American Civil War

Fred Kiger

Overview
Episodes

Details

History is, indeed, a story. With his unique voice and engaging delivery, historian and veteran storyteller Fred Kiger will help the compelling stories of the American Civil War come alive in each and every episode. Filled with momentous issues and repercussions that still resonate with us today, this series will feature events and people from that period and will strive to make you feel as if you were there.

Recent Episodes

096 - Grant's Lieutenants
MAR 25, 2026
096 - Grant's Lieutenants
  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
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55 MIN
095 - After The Sound Of Bugles Faded: The Last Years of Robert E. Lee - Part 2
FEB 25, 2026
095 - After The Sound Of Bugles Faded: The Last Years of Robert E. Lee - Part 2
  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
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43 MIN
094 - After The Sound Of Bugles Faded: The Last Years of Robert E. Lee - Part 1
JAN 26, 2026
094 - After The Sound Of Bugles Faded: The Last Years of Robert E. Lee - Part 1
  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
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44 MIN
093 - Fighting On The Frontier: The American Civil War West Of The Mississippi
DEC 30, 2025
093 - Fighting On The Frontier: The American Civil War West Of The Mississippi
    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
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75 MIN
092 - A Man Committed: William Tecumsah Sherman, Part 2
NOV 21, 2025
092 - A Man Committed: William Tecumsah Sherman, Part 2
  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
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49 MIN