Civil War Sesquicentennial

2011 marked the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the American Civil War and the beginning of the end of slavery in America.

The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities joins the Virginia Sesquicentennial Commission in commemorating this tumultuous chapter in America’s history.

Here is a compilation of some of the work VFH is engaged in related to the Civil War and its anniversary.

Explore More: Civil War

The Plot to Kidnap Lincoln

The house in DC where President Abraham Lincoln died has been closed for renovation. Over the last 150 years, the story of his assassination has been told and retold in books, plays, and films, but a Booth biographer in Virginia says murder wasn’t actually the original plan. Thomas Pierce reports.

The Road to Civil War

In hindsight, it’s easy to see the Civil War as a conflict just waiting to happen. But to Americans in the spring of 1861, disunion was anything but inevitable.

Questions Remain

In this third part of BackStory‘s “Civil War 150th” series, the History Guys present a special listener Q & A. The episode picks up on some of the themes of the previous two “Civil War 150th” episodes, and puts a number of new questions on the table.

Why They Fought

In this hour of BackStory, the History Guys turn the question of the war’s causes on its side, asking instead why Northerners and Southerners took up arms to fight one another.

Whitman at War

In 1862, poet Walt Whitman went to Fredericksburg, Virginia, searching for his brother George who had been wounded in a Civil War battle. Whitman was so moved by the carnage he found that he worked as a nurse for the rest of the war.

Race, Slavery, and the Civil War: The Tough Stuff

To mark the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, the nation’s finest historians gathered on September 24th at Norfolk State University to discuss the role of race and slavery in the war that cost hundreds of thousands of American lives.

Showdown in Virginia

On this episode of With Good Reason, the election of Abraham Lincoln as President touched off a secession crisis in the South. In his new book, Showdown in Virginia, Bill Freehling (Virginia Foundation for the Humanities) focuses on turning points in Virginia’s months-long, bitter battle over whether to secede from the Union.

Civil War Reconciliation

During the Civil War, the residents Winchester witnessed some of the bloodiest battles for control of the Shenandoah Valley and suffered under Union occupation. Jonathan Noyalas (Lord Fairfax Community College) tells how the return of Union veterans to the Valley in 1883 sparked a spirit of reconciliation between former enemies.