The American Civil War remains one of the most pivotal and complex periods in our history. While much has been written, countless fascinating questions still spark our curiosity. In our podcast Civil War Curious, we enlist expert historians to answer your lingering questions about the conflict.

On this episode, we're joined by Joan Waugh, professor emeritus of history at UCLA and the author of a number of works on the Civil War era, including U.S. Grant: American Hero, American Myth (2009), The Memory of the Civil War in American Culture (2004), and, with Gary W. Gallagher, The American War (2023). She discusses the post–Civil War relationship between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, as well as whether former Union and Confederate military leaders got along after the conflict.

©2026 by The Civil War Monitor. All rights reserved.

The American Civil War remains one of the most pivotal and complex periods in our history. While much has been written, countless fascinating questions still spark our curiosity. In our podcast Civil War Curious, we enlist expert historians to answer your lingering questions about the conflict.

On this episode, we're joined by Aaron Sheehan-Dean, the Fred C. Frey Professor of Southern Studies at Louisiana State University and the author or editor of a number of books on the Civil War era, including The Calculus of Violence: How Americans Fought the Civil War and, most recently, Fighting With the Past: How Seventeenth-Century History Shaped the American Civil War. He answers questions relating to Civil War soldier life, from the ways in which troops spent their down time to how they navigated the hospital system when sick or wounded.

©2026 by The Civil War Monitor. All rights reserved.

The American Civil War remains one of the most pivotal and complex periods in our history. While much has been written, countless fascinating questions still spark our curiosity. In our podcast Civil War Curious, we enlist expert historians to answer your lingering questions about the conflict.

On this episode, we're joined by Aaron Sheehan-Dean, the Fred C. Frey Professor of Southern Studies at Louisiana State University and the author or editor of a number of books on the Civil War era, including The Calculus of Violence: How Americans Fought the Civil War and, most recently, Fighting With the Past: How Seventeenth-Century History Shaped the American Civil War. He answers several questions pertaining to the training that Union and Confederate soldiers received during the Civil War.

©2026 by The Civil War Monitor. All rights reserved.