Pick the Next Extra History Series! "The American Civil War" (Patreon)

It's time for our Extra History poll! Where you get to vote on what our next Extra History Series is about!

These four topics were selected from our "The American Civil War" Patreon Suggestions and are listed in no particular order below.

--- The Lincoln Assassination: Pathos, Madness and Tragedy ---

Imagine you looked at Twitter tomorrow, and found out that Charlie Sheen had shot the president. That’s how it might have felt to wake up on April 15th, 1865 and learn that one of the nation’s most popular actors and heartthrobs had killed Abraham Lincoln. It seemed bizarre and unthinkable—never before had an American president been assassinated. This series follows three men on a collision course: John Wilkes Booth, the handsome scion of an acting dynasty known for his scenery-chewing portrayals of Shakespeare characters, who resents living in the shadow of his famous older brother. Boston Corbett, a hatter whose lifetime of tragedy and exposure to mercury nitrate drives him ever-deeper into insanity—and who will play a key role in apprehending Booth. And Abraham Lincoln himself, a leader operating at the edge of breakdown, grieving tragedies both personal and national, who sees in the end of the war an escape for both himself and his mentally ill wife. As Booth beings plotting a decapitation strike against the US government and Corbett spirals further into religious psychosis, the three converge on April 14th, 1865, a date where the unthinkable will happen, and America will be changed forever.

--- John Brown: The Army of the Lord ---

From our perspective, John Brown has the ideals of a hero. A staunch believer in the abolition of slavery and equality of all races, Brown preached the evils of slavery—and was willing to fight against them. But there’s where things get complicated, since Brown lived before the Civil War, and believed that violence was a good and necessary tool in overthrowing the even more violent system of slavery. In the 1850s, he participated in the campaign of militia actions known as Bleeding Kansas, including an infamous massacre were he and his sons dragged five pro-slavery militiamen from their houses and decapitated them in a field. As the decade wore on, and America’s political factionalism accelerated toward civil war, Brown became increasingly convinced that the only way out of the crisis was to trigger a country-wide slave revolt. To light the spark, he used surprisingly modern tactics—in October 1859 he seized the federal armory at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, took hostages, and courted the media in hopes enslaved people would flock to his banner. But while his revolt never materialized and Brown would be arrested by US Marines—led by Colonel Robert E. Lee—his trial and execution would exacerbate national tensions and drive the nation closer to succession. Pro-slavery groups saw Brown as a terrorist fanatic, while abolitionists interpreted him not only as a heroic martyr, but almost a Protestant saint. When Union troops marched to war in 1861, they did so to the tune of the popular marching song “John Brown’s Body”—which would become the Battle Hymn of the Republic.

--- Siege of Petersburg: Ending the Civil War ---

For nine months in 1864, the fields outside Richmond became a scene out of hell. Halted outside Petersburg Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, Union forces under Ulysses S. Grant dug in for a siege. The stakes were enormous. If Grant could break through and cut the Richmond-Petersburg Railroad, he would choke off Lee’s main supply line and force an end to the war. But that was no easy thing, for the fighting at Petersburg would be a new kind of war—an eerie preview of the Western Front in WWI, where troops fought over trench lines 30 miles long and pounded each other with artillery and surprise raids. The fighting was brutal. During one engagement, Union engineers dug a mine under Confederate earthworks and detonated 8,000 pounds of gunpowder beneath their lines. The resulting “Battle of the Crater” would prove a bloody debacle for the Union, as troops poured into the enormous pit but could make no headway against encircling Confederates. But amid the horror there were also heroes, since Petersburg marked the first time the United States Colored Troops were deployed in large numbers, with multiple regiments fighting with distinction in the trenches, at the Crater, and in a grisly victory at Chaffin’s Farm—where 14 USCT soldiers received the Medal of Honor. Yet the costly Union victories added up, and by the time Lee was forced to abandon his forts and trenches, it was clear the war was nearly over—he would surrender at Appomattox only a week later.

--- Gettysburg: America’s Bloodiest Battle ---

On June 30th, 1863, soldiers from the Army of Northern Virginia entered the relatively obscure town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania looking for shoes—they found Union cavalry instead. Lee was prosecuting his second invasion of the north, hoping to seize Philadelphia and possibly negotiate an end to the war. As a bonus, this would also keep the fighting away from the increasingly-ravaged lands of the Confederacy. But that chance encounter brought the rebels to battle. Facing Lee was George Meade, having been put in charge just two days earlier when Joseph Hooker was relieved of command. Neither knew that this would be perhaps the most decisive engagement of the war—and by far the bloodiest. For the next three days, Union troops would weather assault after assault. Whole units would be cut to ribbons with such carnage that features of the battlefield—the Wheatfield, the Peach Orchard, Cemetery Hill and Devil’s Den—are still synonymous with bloodshed. Both sides would make costly mistakes, and heroism would at times come from strange places, like a college professor from Maine, ordering his troops into a bayonet charge that would change the shape of the battle. On the third day, as Pickett’s Charge broke against the Union lines and Lee knew he was defeated, it was clear the war had entered a new phase.

Cast your vote(s) below and let us know what series you would like us to air on Extra History!

Current Schedule:

A Diplomatic History of Pearl Harbor --> Frederick the Great --> Your Vote!

***Friendly reminder: The poll will end at 5:00 PM PT on Friday, Monday 17th. You can vote for as many choices as you want! This style of voting helps us see what people are most interested in without having to make tough decisions between a couple of close favorites. ***