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Prince Albert’s death on December 14, 1861, came at a moment when the Atlantic world was already vibrating with tension from the Trent Affair, and the timing alone shapes much of its historical significance. The American seizure of Confederate…

The creation of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War on December 9, 1861, marked one of the most consequential political interventions in the Union war effort—an attempt by Congress to assert oversight, shape military strategy, and ch…

President Lincoln’s State of the Union message on December 3, 1861, delivered in the darkest early months of the Civil War, stands out as one of the most consequential presidential communications of the era. Though overshadowed by later, more …

The Wheeling Convention of November 1861 stands as one of the most pivotal yet often overlooked moments in the Civil War, setting the stage for the creation of West Virginia and reshaping the Union’s political map. While the Confederacy was co…

When General Don Carlos Buell assumed command of the newly created Department of the Ohio on November 15, 1861, the Union war effort entered a crucial transitional moment. The early months of the Civil War had been marked by confusion, rivalry among…

Season 2 of Breaking Nation: A Civil War Podcast opens in the tense, uncertain spring of 1861—a moment when the fate of the United States hung by a thread. The guns of Fort Sumter have just fallen silent, their smoke still drifting over Charle…

The Trent Affair, unfolding in November 1861, was one of the earliest and most dangerous diplomatic crises of the American Civil War. It began when the U.S. Navy’s Captain Charles Wilkes stopped the British mail steamer RMS Trent in the Caribb…

The Battle of Belmont, fought on November 7, 1861, in southeastern Missouri, was the first combat test for Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant and an early glimpse of the qualities that would later define his command style. Though small in scale comp…

On October 31, 1861, General Winfield Scott, the venerable commander-in-chief of the United States Army, retired from his post after more than six decades of service. Scott’s retirement marked not only the end of an era but also a moment of pr…

In the latest episode of Breaking Nation, Scott sits down with Chris Mowery, the creator and host of the hit YouTube channel Vlogging Through History, where more than half a million fans tune in to explore the forgotten corners of the past. From his…

The Port Royal Expedition of October 1861 stands as one of the early examples of Union ambition in the Civil War, combining naval and army forces in a bold attempt to seize control of the Southern coastline. The operation targeted Port Royal Sound i…

On October 24, 1861, the completion of the Transcontinental Telegraph stitched together the eastern and western halves of the United States with instantaneous communication for the first time. Coming just six months into the Civil War, this achievem…

The Battle of Ball’s Bluff, fought on October 21, 1861, along the Potomac River in Virginia, was a relatively small clash by later Civil War standards, but its consequences reverberated far beyond the battlefield. At its core, the fight reveal…

In the early months of the Civil War, the Confederacy was eager to test innovative means of offsetting the Union’s overwhelming naval superiority. One of the boldest experiments came on October 12, 1861, when the ironclad ram CSS Manassas laun…

On October 8, 1861, General William Tecumseh Sherman was appointed to command the Union’s Department of the Cumberland, a position that—while short-lived—offers a revealing window into both Sherman’s career trajectory and the…

On October 1, 1861, President Jefferson Davis convened a conference on Confederate war strategy with his leading generals—a moment that may not rank with the famous battles of the Civil War, but one that sheds light on how the Confederate high…

On September 27, 1861, a pivotal moment unfolded in the early days of the Civil War: Major General George B. McClellan engaged in a heated discussion with President Abraham Lincoln over the conduct of military operations. This confrontation was not …

September 26, 1861, holds a unique place in the moral and spiritual landscape of the early Civil War, not because of a battlefield triumph or a strategic maneuver, but as a day formally designated for “humiliation, prayer, and fasting.” …

The fighting around Lexington, Missouri, in September 1861—often called the Battle of Lexington or the “Battle of the Hemp Bales”—was one of the most notable early engagements of the Civil War in the Trans-Mississippi Theater…

In September 1861, the question of whether to remove General John C. Frémont from command of the Union’s Western Department revealed not just concerns about military strategy, but also deep tensions within President Lincoln’s Cabi…

In the fall of 1861, the Cheat Mountain Campaign marked one of the first significant military operations in western Virginia, a rugged region where both Union and Confederate forces sought to secure not just territory, but also vital transportation …

On September 10, 1861, Confederate president Jefferson Davis appointed General Albert Sidney Johnston to command the sprawling Western Department, a vast military theater that stretched from the Appalachians to the Mississippi River. The decision ca…

In this thought-provoking episode, we sit down with Dr. Robert Tracy McKenzie (Arthur F. Holmes Chair of Faith and Learning and Professor of History at Wheaton College), a renowned historian of the American Civil War and American democracy, to exp…