Hello and welcome to Civil War Stories. I'm your host, Steve Matthews. Today we're going to confront one of the darkest and most shameful chapters in Civil War history - the story of Andersonville Prison, where over 13,000 Union soldiers died in conditions so horrific that they shocked even a nation already hardened by years of brutal warfare. This is not a story of heroism or military glory, but rather a tale of human suffering on an almost unimaginable scale, and of how the breakdown of civilization during wartime can create horrors that haunt us to this day.

Hello and welcome to Civil War Stories. I'm your host, Steve Matthews. Today we're going to explore one of the darkest and most disturbing chapters of the American Civil War - the story of a man whose name became synonymous with brutality, vengeance, and the complete breakdown of civilized warfare. So settle in as we journey to the blood-soaked borderlands between Tennessee and Kentucky, where a guerrilla leader named Champ Ferguson turned the Civil War into a personal vendetta that would ultimately cost him his life and earn him a place in history as one of the war's most notorious war criminals.

Hello and welcome to Civil War Stories. I'm your host, Steve Matthews. Today we're going to explore one of the most extraordinary and bizarre incidents in Civil War history - a story that sounds too strange to be true but is documented by multiple eyewitnesses. So settle in as we journey to the Virginia Wilderness in May 1864, where one of the war's bloodiest battles was interrupted by something no military manual had ever prepared for: a bare-knuckle fistfight between enemy soldiers that brought two entire armies to a standstill.

Hello and welcome to Civil War Stories. I'm your host, Steve Matthews. Today we're going to explore a different side of Civil War history - one that deals not with military strategy or political consequences, but with the lingering shadows that some believe still walk the battlefields where so many young men died. So settle in as we journey to two of America's most haunted Civil War sites: the Devil's Den at Gettysburg, where Confederate spirits are said to guide lost visitors, and the Chickamauga Battlefield in Georgia, where a mysterious entity known as "Ol' Green Eyes" has terrified witnesses for more than 150 years.

Hello and welcome to Civil War Stories. I'm your host, Steve Matthews. Today we're going to explore one of the most extraordinary and mysterious phenomena of the American Civil War - a story that sounds like something from a fairy tale but may very well be grounded in scientific fact. So settle in as we journey to the muddy fields of Shiloh, Tennessee, where wounded soldiers reported seeing their wounds glow with an otherworldly blue light - and where that strange glow may have been the difference between life and death.

Hello and welcome to Civil War Stories. I'm your host, Steve Matthews. Today we're going to explore a fascinating and often overlooked consequence of the American Civil War - how the conflict's end gave birth to one of America's most enduring cultural phenomena: the hobo. So settle in as we journey from the battlefields of 1865 to the railroad tracks of the Gilded Age, where hundreds of thousands of Civil War veterans found themselves riding the rails in search of work, home, and meaning in a rapidly changing America.

Hello and welcome to Civil War Stories. I'm your host, Steve Matthews. Today we're going to explore one of the most innovative yet overlooked aspects of the American Civil War - the Union Army Balloon Corps and the remarkable story of the man who pioneered aerial reconnaissance for the military. So settle in as we journey back to 1861, when a determined aeronaut named Thaddeus Lowe convinced the United States Army to literally rise above the battlefield and see war from an entirely new perspective.

Hello and welcome to Civil War Stories. I'm your host, Steve Matthews. Today we're going to tell one of the most remarkable and inspiring stories from the Battle of Gettysburg - the tale of a 69-year-old man who refused to let his age keep him from defending his hometown when the greatest battle ever fought on American soil erupted in his backyard. So settle in as we explore the extraordinary story of John Burns, a civilian who became a legend by grabbing his old musket and marching off to war against one of the most formidable armies in American history.