The Civil War Podcast

Last month I watched the Bresson classic, A Man Escaped for the umpteenth time. The true story of a French Resistance member who pulled a MacGyver-like escape from a heavily-guarded Gestapo prison. Everytime I watch it, I’m struck anew at my total lack of resourcefulness or tenacity; Should I ever be imprisoned by Nazis, I’m [...]

This article was short, but very helpful. I’m familiar with the prisoner exchanges and the idea of surrendered soldiers being “paroled”, but had never realised the “make an effort” component of it: Following centuries-old precedent, the United States and Confederate governments used parole and prisoner exchange early in the Civil War, relying on the honor [...]

Another artifact donation in the news, though unlike the Jim Lane portrait, this one was probably a wrench to give away. A Danville museum was just given a sketchbook belonging to a POW, which contains some excellently rendered landscape scenes and portraits of his fellow prisoners. http://www.wtvr.com/news/wdbj7-civil-war-sketchbook-returns-to-danville-20120201,0,1236021.story

Another one of those out-of-nowhere serendipitous museum stories that warm the cockles of my nerdy, bookish heart: For years, the Danville Museum of Fine Arts and History hoped to display a piece of work by Henry VanderWeyde, an artist turned Union prisoner of war who spent a year behind bars in Danville. “We had a [...]

The archaelogical remains of Camp Lawton have been uncovered, by a student who should have no problems defending his thesis. Georgia officials say the discoveries, announced Wednesday, were made by a 36-year-old graduate student at Georgia Southern University who set out to find Camp Lawton for his thesis project in archaeology… The Georgia Southern student, [...]