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EPISODE 1.02 -
October 2, 2004
Library of Congress
Guest: John Sellers
Learn about the Library of Congress's resources and hear the stories behind them from curator John R. Sellers.
Blake's Review:
To be honest, I couldn't get through this episode. I listened to about 10 minutes and turned it off. The information about finding Civil War first-hand accounts and manuscripts at the Library of Congress is factual and important but hardly very interesting to the average listener who is not writing a major Civil War thesis or history. Not to mention that this was recorded in 2004 and the availability of material online is infinitely more than it was back then. Not really worth listening to in 2025 and so I just hit the "Next" button and moved on.
EPISODE 1.03 -
October 9, 2004
The Body and Soul of Civil War Soldiers
Guest: James Robertson
What thoughts were going through the minds of Johnny Reb or Billy Yank as he approached battle? Join us for insights on these questions and more in a rare and personal interview with Dr. James Robertson.
Blake's Review:
Another huge name in the field of Civil War history! Robertson's best known work was his massively popular and detailed biography of Stonewall Jackson. He later served as a historical consultant for the film Gods and Generals.
The episode begins with the host giving Robertson a pretty open-ended question about what stereotypes of Union and Confederate soldiers exist today and if they are accurate or not. Robertson comments that both armies were filled with amateur soldiers and that these were not professional armies in 1861. He also goes on to say that neither side, contrary to what Hollywood portrays he says, had a monopoly of good or bad men. Both sides were filled with soldiers and leaders of equal morals and courage, but also of petty jealousies and cowardice.
Talking more about the average soldiers, Robertson describes the average soldier as someone that if you removed their uniform you could not tell whether they were a Yank or a Reb. "The average age was somewhere between 20 and 22. The average height was 5 feet 7 inches, and the average weight was 135 pounds. They had very little education... and for the most part, they are farm boys, especially so on the southern side, but in the northern armies as well."
They go on to discuss why so many men enlisted and Robertson attributes it to the simple but important factor of patriotism. "I think the greatest inducement of all to these men of North and South was pure patriotism. I found in my own research that the greatest inducement for these men, whether they lived in Massachusetts or Mississippi, was the words on the poster, or maybe nothing more than a flag waving in a clear sky. That was it." He continues to draw a connection between these men and the soldiers of today by saying that, "men are motivated by the same emotions that have inspired American soldiers of all ages to defend hearth and home, to protect that way of life, to preserve that government as each side at that time interpreted what government should be."
They then discuss the impact of foreign-born soldiers in the Civil War and why they chose to fight in such great numbers (representing 20% of the Union forces and 10% of Confederate forces). Robertson attributes their willingness to fight to their belief that America represented the best chance they had for a future outside of the old confines of Europe. Based on where the immigrants settled in America, they would choose to fight to either defend the Union or defend the Confederacy as that was their new adopted homeland. Robertson tells the amusing story of a Minnesota regiment made up of all Norwegians and included 44 men named Olly Olson. The colonel eventually numbered each Olly Olson so as to keep them straight in the records (Olly Olson 1, Olly Olson 12, Olly Olson 38). Finally they talk about Native Americans and their role in the war. Robertson talks some about the Cherokees and Stand Watie and his role as a Confederate commander in the far west. But, generally, Robertson says, the Indians would be divided about 50/50 in their allegiance to one side or the other if they took a side.
What was the biggest killer in the war? Robertson, unhesitatingly responds, "diarrhea." They then discuss the lack of sanitary knowledge and practices in the 19th Century and why for every one man killed in action, two would die of disease behind the lines.
The biggest worry of the soldiers, Robertson says, was to be branded a coward for their actions in battle. "And even when you read their memoirs, they are still very, very cautious about saying that any of them every felt any qualms of cowardice. I love a quote of a Michigan soldiers whose regiment went reeling in defeat in one engagement. And years afterwards, when he was writing about it, he said something to the effect, 'of course it would not be gallant to say that anybody ran, but if there was any tall walking done during the war, we did it crossing that field.' I think this kind of conveys this obsession with not letting cowardice overwhelm you."
The host and Robertson then dive into the role of religion in the war and how it effected the soldiers and the generals. They discuss how churches were divided over the war and how each sides churches would defend their positions as the side favored by God. Robertson says the first casualties of the war were the "two major Protestant denominations in this country. In 1843, the Baptist Church split in two. In 1844, the Methodist Church similarly split in half, all over the issue of slavery. And once the war begins, every major denomination splits."
They then begin a discussion about how religion played a role in the lives of Jackson and Lee specifically. Robertson, arguably the leading scholar on Jackson, was quick to embrace this topic. When asked how Jackson, who fully believed God was on the Confederate side, could have deal with defeat in 1865, Robertson gives an interesting answer. "I'm honestly not convinced Jackson could have survived it. His faith was so deep, it was so all-consuming, that I think if he had lived to see Confederate defeat he would surely have felt that God would have forsaken him and that it would have been a blow from which he could not have recovered. But for Lee and other Confederate soldiers, they simply used the old axiom 'God's Will be done.'"
The host then asks why Lee and Jackson were such a dynamic duo. Again, Robertson noticeably perks up when discussing these two. "I think they form a model military partnership. I think what each lacked the other had, what each wanted and couldn't get, the other could." He discusses their differences in upbringing, backgrounds, and age, but "when the war comes they find one another and find in each an aggressiveness that the other has. More importantly they find a faith in each that the other has." Being a southerner, Robertson can't resist bringing football into the conversation. "I like to use a football metaphor in describing the 11 months Lee and Jackson performed so brilliantly together. I think Lee was the great quarterback who could break the huddle, come up to the line, he could look over at the defenses, see the weakness, and then call the play. Once he gets the ball he hands it off to his star running back Jackson and turns him loose and the result is a touchdown and victory after victory. I suspect they have no peers as a 1-2 fighting machine in military history."
The host ends by asking Robertson how he accounts for the continued fascination for the Civil War still today (a question also asked McPherson in Episode 1). Robertson replies, "oh, it is an infectious thing... once it bites you, you are hooked pretty good. I think a number of factors are involved here. Number one, and probably the overriding factor, is that the United States, as we know it, was born in 1865. The nation that exists today came out of the smoke and fire and death of the Civil War. That war removed the word slavery from the American language. That war established the supremacy of the federal government and established the prevalence of majority rules."
Overall, this a fantastic episode to listen to. Robertson's Virginia accent, an increasingly disappearing dialect, is a pleasure to listen to for an hour. Robertson is most animated and enthusiastic when discussing Jackson and you can tell he is most interested in analyzing Jackson and what he meant in the war.
_________________ Gen. Blake Strickler
Confederate General-in-Chief
El Presidente 2010 - 2012
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