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History Happy Hour: Freedom Fighters at Rest
Nearly 200,000 African-American men fought for the United States during the American Civil War. At least four of these soldiers are buried in Richmond’s East...
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House 200- The Architecture of 1201 E Clay St.
Architectural Historian Edwin Slipek lectures on the origins of the house at 12th and Clay Streets in Richmond's Court End neighborhood, which became the Whit...
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The Foundry Series Panel Discussion: The Press of the 1860s & Today
After his Foundry Series lecture, Dr. Mark W. Summers joined modern press members James Wallace, David Streever, and Kelley Libby to compare journalism today...
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The Foundry Series: The Partisan Press of the 1860s
In the Civil War era, most people got their news from sources that typically reaffirmed their political views. How did this biased or limited view of the worl...
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Civil War to Civil Rights: Black Virginians in Blue
Dr. William Kurtz of the University of Virginia shares stories of African-Americans from central Virginia who enlisted and fought for the Union with the Unite...
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Civil War to Civil Rights: Education in Appomattox
Dr. Hezteine Foster describes her experiences as an educator, including becoming the first African-American teacher in the all-white Appomattox School System....
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History Happy Hour- Virginia's Secession Crisis
After Lincoln's election, Virginians had a choice to make: Union or secession? In January 1861 the Virginia General Assembly authorized a state convention to...
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The Foundry Series- Civil War, Indian Wars, and Tribal Sovereignty
Throughout the country’s history, the United States government has had a complicated (and often violent) relationship with tribal nations. Featuring: Ari Kelm...
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The Foundry Series: Resistance During the Civil War
Not everyone in the United States or Confederacy agreed with the War, and many people chose to actively oppose it. How did anti-war Democrats (known as “Coppe...
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Second Place Trophies: Contexts For Making Sense of Monument Avenue
What facts and perspectives do we need to consider in order to understand the Confederate statues on Richmond’s Monument Avenue? This program will attempt to make sense...
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The Foundry Series- Refugees From Slavery
Present-day refugee camps share important similarities with Civil War contraband camps. Discover how men, women, and children who fled from slavery to contrab...
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2017 Bottimore Lecture: How do we know what we know about the Civil War
Dr. Yael Sternhell explores the unexpectedly fascinating backstory of the wartime documents that became the Official Records. You’ll never think of the Offici...
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Book Talk- To the Bitter End
Robert M. Dunkerly brings to light little-known facts as he uncovers the many confusing and chaotic twists and turns of often-overlooked events from the surre...
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The Foundry Series- Combat, Racial Violence & Resilience
Following the Civil War and Emancipation, Union veterans and African American civilians faced physical and mental challenges that put their resilience to the...
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Book Talk- Decision at Tom's Brook: George Custer, Thomas Rosser, and the Joy of the Fight
George Custer and Tom Rosser were fast friends since their teenage days at West Point. War led them down separate paths, to have them converge in the open fie...
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Video- Lunch & Learn- Susie King Taylor's Civil War
Susie King Taylor was the only African-American woman to publish a memoir about her wartime experiences. Interpretation and Programs Manager Kelly Hancock explores the role she played as both a nurse and teacher with the 33rd United States Colored...
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Video- Lunch and Learn: The New York Ladies Southern Relief Association
Discover the surprising efforts of New York City’s elite during the winter of 1866-1867 to aid impoverished white southerners who formerly had enjoyed “easy circumstances." John Coski leads this talk.
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Video- Foundry Series- Winston Churchill and the Civil War
Winston Churchill was a renowned statesman as well as an accomplished writer and historian. The son of an American-born mother, he was intrigued by the Civil War, visited battlefields and analyzed its leading personalities. Lee Pollock, Executive...
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Video- Book Talk- A Little Short of Boats: The Battles of Ball's Bluff and Edwards Ferry
Delve into the disaster at the battles of Ball’s Bluff and Edwards Ferry as author and battlefield guide James Morgan recounts how the battle wrecked a general’s career and led to the death of one of President Lincoln’s good friends.
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Video- 2016 Bottimore Lecture- The Cause of All Nations
Based on his book of the same name, Dr. Don H. Doyle's lecture explores the place of the American Civil War in the context of mid-19th-century democratic revolutions, how nations of the world viewed the war, and how the U.S. and Confederate govern...
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Video- Lunch and Learn: The Soldiers' Ordeal: Struggling with the Aftermath of War
Questions raised by the personal cost of the war are still relevant today. National Park Service Ranger Candace Hart leads this discussion of the physical and mental impacts the Civil War had on those who fought.
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Video- The Foundry Series: Tredegar Brass Band
The Tredegar Brass Band and traditional singer Joshua Allen perform and show how hymns, work songs, and military calls played an important role to people of all walks of life during the Civil War.
The American Civil War Museum's Tredegar So...
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Video- Civil War Conversation: Death and Mourning
Showcasing items from the Museum’s rich collection associated with death and mourning, Interpretation and Programs Manager Kelly Hancock examines how the 19th-century ideals of death and dying were adapted in the face of American’s bloodiest war....
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Video- Lunch & Learn- Chincoteague: The Virginia Island that Stood with the Union
This tiny island off the coast of Virginia’s Eastern Shore refused to support secession. Discover why Chincoteague chose to side with the Union as Interpretation Supervisor Bryce VanStavern leads this talk.
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Video- Foundry Series: VMI in the Civil War
Few schools played a larger role in the Civil War than the Virginia Military Institute. The Tredegar Society welcomes author & VMI alum Dr. Richard McMurray for a talk that explores how the success of VMI Cadets at the Battle of New Market so...
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Video- Women in the Post-War South
American Civil War Museum Curator Cathy Wright examines women’s experiences following the American Civil War and how they confronted the opportunities and challenges presented in the postwar years.
This lecture was part of the Museum's 2016...
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Video- The US Army in the Post-War South
Dr. John W. Mountcastle, Ph.D., Brigadier General, U.S. Army, Retired, Adjunct Faculty, University of Richmond, explores the role of the United States Army in the postwar South and examine its impact on Reconstruction.
This lecture was part...
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Video- Tell Them We Are Rising
This presentation by documentary filmmaker and author Elvatrice Parker Belsches examines the role that the Freedman’s Bureau played in educating African-Americans in the Richmond. Through the use of narratives, primary documents, and rare photogra...
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Video- Remaking Virginia
Using the Library of Virginia’s exhibit “Remaking Virginia” and other online offerings as a springboard, Library staffers Dr. Gregg Kimball and Catherine Wyatt examine how African Americans made the change from property to citizens and explore the...
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Video- Outlaws and the Transformation of Civil War Guerrillas
Following the surrenders of the organized Confederate troops in 1865, many former Confederate guerrillas continued their bushwhacking ways and became infamous outlaws. The most notorious of these were Frank and Jesse James, who were often joined b...
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Video- Lunch and Learn: Why Didn't the North Hang Jeff Davis?
Jefferson Davis led an effort to break up the United States, yet he never faced punishment or a trial for what many considered treason. Why was that? Lead Historical Interpreter Brianna Kirk explores Northern perspective in the immediate post-war...
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Video- Union Tooth and Nail: The Pamunkey Indian Tribe and The Civil War in Virginia
Pamunkey men served the Union as pilots and scouts on gun-boats & Pamunkey women aided Union soldiers who encamped near their community throughout the War. Through the voices of Pamunkey men and women recorded in 1871, and related by Ashley At...
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Video- Lunch & Learn: Metallurgy in the Civil War
Metals of various types were used during the Civil War for everything from railroads, weapons and armament to tack for draft animals, cooking utensils and wires for communication. But where did all this metal come from? What were the different typ...
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Video- Love, Sex and Consequences: An Intimate Look at the Civil War
Throughout time, the topic of young couples finding love in the midst of war has often been romanticized. The reality was that separation from loved ones often proved far more consequential. American Civil War Museum Co-CEO Christy Coleman explor...
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Video- The Tredegar Society Presents- Civil War Acoustic Shadows
Unusual battlefield acoustics have been noted for many centuries. On several occasions during the Civil War, the generation of outdoor sounds had a dramatic effect on the outcome of battles. Following a review of the physics behind acoustic shadow...
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Video- Lunch & Learn: Exploring the Lost Cause through Virginia's Confederate Monuments
Have you ever thought about "reading" a monument? In this presentation, Museum Historian John Coski demonstrates how Virginia's Confederate monuments reveal the choices made by memorialists as they decided how and what to remember about the Civil...
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Video- The Tredegar Society Presents- Maggie Walker's Richmond
Maggie L. Walker (1864-1934), is best known for being the first African American female bank president in 1903, but she did much more than that and all here in Richmond. This talk by National Park Service Ranger Ben Anderson explores Walker's Ric...
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Video- Lunch & Learn- The Other Gettysburg Cemetery: Richmond's Hollywood
Virtually visit Hollywood's "Gettysburg Hill" as co-CEO Waite Rawls explores the story of how 2,935 Confederate soldiers killed and buried at Gettysburg made the journey to Richmond's most beautiful cemetery a full decade after the battle.
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Video- Unflinching Heroism: The United States Colored Troops at New Market Heights
The first 12 Congressional Medals of Honor awarded to African American soldiers were earned at a battle fought near Richmond. Some were free men fighting to prove that African Americans were worthy of full citizenship – others were former slaves f...
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Video- Lunch & Learn: Three Abolitionists Who Helped Change America
With his Appeal in 1829, David Walker issued a warning to Americans concerning slavery; David Ruggles sacrificed his health to carry on the struggle for emancipation; Anthony Burns endured the horrors of Lumpkin's Jail after attempting to seize hi...
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Video- Lunch & Learn: Death and Life on Belle Isle
The jewel in the crown of Richmond’s James River Park, Belle Isle is best known today for its recreational opportunities and, ironically, as the site of an infamous Civil War prison camp. An overview of Belle Isle’s entire history reveals that dea...
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Video- Brown Bag Lunch Talk- To Be Free, a Citizen, and a Voter
The passage of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments forever changed American society. Museum Co-CEO Christy Coleman explores the social and political implications of these amendments at the time of their passage and in contemporary American culture....
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Video- Echoes of the Past: Popular Recording & the Civil War
Civil War music is more than sheet music and military bands. Few people realize that we can actually listen to music performed by Civil War veterans on early cylinder and 78-rpm disc recordings from the early twentieth century. Dr. Gregg D. Kimbal...
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Video- Brown Bag Lunch Series- “Raider of the Lost Cause: CSS Shenandoah”
By May, 1864, the American merchant fleet had been devastated by the successes of the Confederate commerce raiders. The Confederate naval agent in Liverpool reported to the Secretary of the Navy that the "... United State flag has disappeared from...
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Video- Punitive War: Confederate Guerrillas and Union Reprisals
In this talk, Dr. Clay Mountcastle presented a new look at the complex nature of guerrilla warfare in the Civil War and the Union Army's calculated response to it. He examined guerrilla attacks and Federal responses in a number of operational thea...
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Video- After the Fall
In most quashed rebellions, the leaders lose their lives or are forced into exile. The aftermath of the American Civil War provides and unusual example of leniency. There were no executions, outside those of Henry Wirtz and Champ Ferguson (who wer...
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Video- Laurence Keitt and the Fire-Eaters
Washington and Lee Professor J. Holt Merchant gave a talk for The Tredegar Society covering the political extremism of the fire-eaters and how they helped bring about the secession of the southern states. Merchant focused on Laurence M. Keitt, the...
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Video- James Madison and Federal Coercion Under the Constitution
Dr. Michael Signer is the author of Becoming Madison: The Extraordinary Origins of the Least Likely Founding Father (PublicAffairs 2015), and the founder and managing principal of Madison Law & Strategy Group, PLLC. On September 15, 2015, he l...
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Video- The Federal Occupation of the Confederate White House
Less than a day after Jefferson Davis left Richmond, Federal forces captured the Confederate White House, intact. Thus began a five year occupation of the site by the U.S. Army, during Reconstruction-era Virginia. White House Interpretation Superv...
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Video- War, Memory, and a Southern Family's Civil War Letters
On the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, award-winning author Frye Gaillard reflects on the war - and the way we remember it - through the lens of letters written by his family members, including great-great grandfather, Thomas Gaillard, and Tho...
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Video- The 2015 Bottimore Lecture: Ulysses S. Grant at the End of the Sesquicentennial
Dr. Joan Waugh, recipient of the Museum’s 2009 Jefferson Davis Award for her book, U. S. Grant: American Hero, American Myth, traces the evolution of Grant’s reputation over the last 150 years and assess where he stands today.
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Video- 2014 Roller Bottimore Lecture- When Metal Meets Mettle: The Hard Realities of Civil War Soldiering
University of Georgia Professor Stephen Berry lectured on the difficult and often gruesome life of a soldier during the American Civil War. This lecture took place at the University of Richmond and was co-sponsored by the university's history depa...
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Video- William & Mary and the Civil War with W. Taylor Reveley, III
The Tredegar Society of the American Civil War Museum hosted William & Mary President W. Taylor Reveley, III as he lectured on the College during the Civil War. This lecture was given in the Pattern Building of Historic Tredegar on October 30,...
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Video- "A Season of Slaughter: The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House" Book Talk
Chris Mackowski, co-author of "A Season of Slaughter" visited the Museum on November 21, 2014. He gave an enlightening talk on the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House.
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Video- “Lincoln’s Re-election” Brown Bag Lunch Talk
On November 14, 2014, American Civil War Museum Co-CEO Waite Rawls gave a talk on the Election of 1864. This lecture was part of the Museum's series of monthly brown bag lunch talks commemorating the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War.
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Video- One Bright Moment: The Wedding of Hetty Cary and John Pegram
American Civil War Museum Interpretation and Programs Manager Kelly Hancock presented this Brown Bag Lunch Talk on January 16, 2015. Hailed as the social event of the season, the wedding of one of the most beautiful belles in the South to a dashin...
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Video- Railroad Communication in the Civil War
Railroad communications have been especially important in history, but never so much as during wartime. This talk given on January 9, 2015 explored communications on the train, internally (within the railroad), and externally (with the outside wor...
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Video- Dahlgren's Raid: A True Richmond Story
The Tredegar Society of the American Civil War Museum hosted Richmond Magazine Senior Writer Harry Kollatz, Jr. as he lectured on Dahlgren's Raid. This lecture was given in the Pattern Building of Historic Tredegar on January 22, 2015.
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Video- The Last Christmas in the Confederate White House
Christmas of 1864 was the last celebrated in the Confederate States of America, for the nation did not exist the following year. Shortages and hardships affected every Southern family’s ability to observe the holiday season in the usual manner – e...
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Video- The Economics of the Richmond Slave Trade
John "Jack" Trammell, Randolph-Macon professor and author of "The Richmond Slave Trade: The Economic Backbone of the Old Dominion," gave a Tredegar Society lecture on February 12, 2015. He discussed the immense economic role that slavery had in Vi...
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Video- The Confederate Debate About Arming the Slaves
In February 1865 Southern statesmen, soldiers, and civilians were engaged in the last stages of a months-long public debate over a proposal to enlist enslaved and free African-American men “to perform military service.” The Confederate Congress ap...
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Video- The 57th Massachusetts from The Wilderness to Ft. Stedman
The 57th Massachusetts Veteran Volunteers, one of four so-called 'Veteran' regiments was brand new to the front lines in May of 1864 when they marched off into the Wilderness. From then on, the regiment would see action in every single battle of t...
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Video- Press Coverage of Appomattox
University of Virginia Langbourne M. Williams Professor of American History Elizabeth R. Varon lectured on the various interpretations of the surrender at Appomattox in the press. The lecture was given on April 9, 2015 at the Museum of the Confede...
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Video- Our Great Virginia
First public performance of "Our Great Virginia," the new state song, by the Appomattox Youth Chorale. Performed Saturday, Aprill 11, 2015 at the Museum of the Confederacy, Appomattox VA. Lyrics: Mike Greenly. Arrangment: Jim Papoulis. Special tha...
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Video- "The Valley of the Shadow" with Ed Ayers
American Civil War Museum Board Chairman Ed Ayers brought the Museum's 150th commemorations to a close at Appomattox. In this morning lecture, he discussed the "Valley of the Shadow," a digital archive of primary sources that documents the lives o...
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Video- "After the Civil War" with James I. Robertson, Jr.
James I. "Bud" Robertson, Jr. lectured at the Museum of the Confederacy-Appomattox on April 11, 2015 as part of the Museum's 150th commemorations. He discussed what many Civil War figures did after the War.
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Video- Thomas Bocock: Appomattox Native
Local historian Albert Carter presented the history of Thomas S. Bocock, who was born in Buckingham, lived and practiced law in Appomattox, served in the U.S. House of Representatives before the Civil War, and became the Confederate Speaker of the...
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Video- Q&A with Ulysses S. Grant
General U.S. Grant (portrayed by Tony Daniels) talked about his famous meeting with President Abraham Lincoln at City Point and then answered questions from the audience at the Museum of the Confederacy-Appomattox.
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Video- Q&A with Robert E. Lee
General Robert E. Lee, portrayed by David Palmer, spoke about the events of April 1, 1865 and then took questions from the audience during the Museum of the Confederacy-Appomattox's 150th commemorative events.
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Video- "John Surratt: The Lincoln Assassin Who Got Away"
Author Michael Schein discussed his book, John Surratt: The Lincoln Assassin Who Got Away in which he examines the evidence of whether John Surratt- a fierce secessionist and Booth’s closest associate in the four months leading up to the assassina...
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Video- The Great New Orleans Kidnapping Case
Professor Michael Ross discussed his latest work, "The Great New Orleans Kidnapping Case: Race, Law and Justice in the Reconstruction Era." In this book, Ross offers the first full account of the kidnapping of seventeen-month-old Mollie Digby by t...
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Video- Richmond Civilians in April, 1865
Richmond’s abrupt transition from Confederate capital to Union occupation in April, 1865 meant tremendous changes for its civilian population. Basic necessities, such as food and shelter, could be difficult to come by, particularly with much of th...
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Video- Matthew Fontaine Maury: The Scientist at War
John Grady, the author of "Matthew Fontaine Maury, Father of Oceanography: A Biography, 1806 - 1873," discusses Maury's time in Richmond during the American Civil War and his contributions to the Confederacy in this lecture.
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Video- After Appomattox: The Collapse of the Confederacy in May, 1865
American Civil War Museum Historian John Coski leads a discussion that examines the events of May, 1865 and after in an attempt to answer the question, "When did the Civil War end?". This Brown Bag Lunch Talk took place on May 15, 2015 at the Muse...
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Video- The Trial and Execution of the Lincoln Conspirators
James Thompson examined the plot to assassinate Lincoln, Seward, Johnson, and Grant, the subsequent trial and its outcome in this American Civil War Museum lecture.
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Video- To the Brave Women of the South: Confederate Artist Adalbert Volck’s Tribute in Silver
German-American historian Myra Hillburg discussed the life and work of German immigrant Adalbert Volck and his artistic contributions to the Confederate cause. At the end of his life, Volck chose to create a silver shield to specifically memoriali...
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Video- Richmond, Reconstruction and Baseball
Author Scott Mayer lectured at Historic Tredegar on July 29 about the history of baseball, especially in Richmond. Get the baseball bibliography mentioned in the lecture at the following...
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Video- Guerrilla Warfare in the American Civil War
Dr. Barton A. Myers of Washington & Lee University, spoke at this Tredegar Society event about the instances and effects of guerrilla warfare during the Civil War. Myers highlighted the "sanctioned" raiders like John H. Morgan and John S. Mosb...