The American Civil War, in Four Parts, Plus Guidebook (The Great Courses) (4 Volumes of Audio CDs)

Includes all 24 discs in original publisher's cases. 48 total lectures, each 30 minutes. Guidebook for parts 1-4 included. Between 1861 and 1865, the clash of the greatest armies the Western hemisphere had ever seen turned small towns, little-known streams, and obscure meadows in the American countryside into names we will always remember. In those great battles streams ran red with blood, and the United States was truly born. Leading Civil War historian Professor Gary W. Gallagher richly details the effects of the Civil War on all Americans. You'll learn how armies were recruited, equipped, and trained. You'll learn about the hard lot of prisoners. You'll hear how soldiers on both sides dealt with the rigors of camp life, campaigns, and the terror of combat. You'll understand how slaves and their falling masters responded to the advancing war. And you will see the desperate price paid by the families so many left behind. Gettysburg. Antietam. Bull Run. Shiloh. After you absorb these lectures, the hallowed names of Civil War battles will be more than merely evocative. You will have a solid understanding of what happened and why. Although this is not simply a course on Civil War battles and generals, about half of the lectures are devoted to the strategic and tactical dimensions of military campaigns. We must never forget: The number of dead exceeded the combined total for American wars from the 17th century through the midpoint of the Vietnam War. Professor Gallagher's recounting of the great battles and campaigns is compelling. From Fort Sumter and First Manassas to Sherman's March and Appomattox, Dr. Gallagher brings complex patterns of events into clear focus, identifies opportunities lost or seized, and quotes memorably from firsthand accounts to give you a clear idea what it was like to be "at the sharp end" of the war's battlefields. Extraordinary leaders and incompetent tyrants served on both sides. Their power to fascinate, to inspire, or to exasperate remains undimmed. With powerful and telling portraits, Professor Gallagher brings to life the character of Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, William Tecumseh Sherman, Stonewall Jackson, and others. Consider this example from Lecture 12: "Stonewall Jackson is one of the great bizarre characters from the Civil War and is just a bundle of oddities and eccentricities as a person. "He was a hypochondriac. He had all kinds of worries about his body. He would often hold his right hand up in the air because he thought he didn't have an equilibrium of blood in his body, and if he held his right hand up, then the blood would flow down and re-establish equilibrium, as he put it. An interesting notion. "He would not eat pepper because he thought it weakened his left leg—not his right leg, just his left leg. He wouldn't let his back touch the back of a chair because he said it jumbled his organs, and it was important to sit upright so the organs were naturally atop of one another. "He's a very odd fellow. He's in his late 30s early in the war and about to embark on a campaign that will make him the most famous Confederate military leader." These men—some heroes, some fools—toiled in a typhoon of broader forces. Grasping this dynamic relationship among the battlefield, the home front, and the diplomatic front is absolutely essential if you hope to understand the Civil War. You also find revealing explanations of how military events affected crucial political factors, including the morale of the Northern and Confederate peoples, the policies of their governments, and the attitudes of key European powers such as Britain and France.