The Antietam and Beyond Podcast

In Episode 52, Irishman and historian Cóilín Ó Coigligh of County Cavan gives co-hosts Tom McMillan and John Banks the lowdown on Irish soldiers who fought at Antietam, including the famous Irish Brigade commander Thomas Meagher. Plus, John and Coilin dish on their American Civil War-focused trip in August about the Emerald Isle. (Pssst: They stayed at Meagher's birthplace in Waterford — it's now a four-star hotel.)

This podcast is sponsored by the  Michigan Civil War Association and by Civil War Trails, which since 1994 has connected visitors with small towns and big stories across a network that now spans...

Duration: 00:56:13

In Episode 51, with the holiday season looming, co-hosts Tom McMillan and John Banks discuss a range of Antietam books — from Landscape Turned Red by Stephen Sears to Antietam: The Photographic Legacy of America's Bloodiest Day by William Frassanito and more.

This podcast is sponsored by Civil War Trails, which since 1994 has connected visitors with small towns and big stories across a network that now spans six states.

Join McMillan and Banks for regular podcasts about Antietam, the Maryland Campaign and the Civil War — the most compelling period in American history.

McMillan is author of t...

Duration: 00:50:40

In Episode 50, historian George Rable — author of Conflict of Command: George McClellan, Abraham Lincoln, and the Politics of War — takes a deep dive with co-hosts John Banks and Tom McMillan into the contentious relationship between the president and general. Also, Rable takes us inside the McClellan-Lincoln presidential election of 1864, perhaps the most consequential election in U.S. history. (Plus, he dishes on his cats, named for Civil War generals.) 

This podcast is sponsored by Civil War Trails, which since 1994 has connected visitors with small towns and big stories across a network that now spans six states.

Joi...

Duration: 00:59:07

In Episode 49, former Antietam National Park Service ranger Alann Schmidt joins co-hosts John Banks and Tom McMillan for a freewheeling discussion about the iconic Dunker Church on the battlefield. Schmidt, co-author of September Mourn | The Dunker Church of Antietam Battlefield, also dishes on the church's lesser-known post-war history (pile of rubble, convenience store). Plus. McMillan tells the story of an inscription by a veteran on the exterior of the church.   

This podcast is sponsored by Civil War Trails, which since 1994 has connected visitors with small towns and big stories across a network that now spans six states.

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Duration: 00:56:26

In Episode 48, Antietam guide and lifelong western Marylander Gary Rohrer joins co-hosts John Banks and Tom McMillan for a freewheeling discussion about the battlefield and his attendance at the centennial in 1962. Plus, he dishes on battlefield bridges, his family's connection to the South Mountain House (D.H. Hill HQ during battle) and gets teased about being the "mayor" of Rohrersville, Md.

This podcast is sponsored by Civil War Trails, which since 1994 has connected visitors with small towns and big stories across a network that now spans six states.

Join McMillan and Banks for regular podcasts...

Duration: 00:54:06

In Episode 47, licensed Gettysburg battlefield guide Jim Hessler, an expert on George Armstrong Custer, joins co-hosts John Banks and Tom McMillan for a freewheeling discussion about "The Boy General" and the Maryland Campaign. He also weighs in on that famous post-Antietam photograph of President Lincoln and George McClellan that purportedly includes Custer. Plus, he dishes on Libbie Custer!

This podcast is sponsored by Civil War Trails, which since 1994 has connected visitors with small towns and big stories across a network that now spans six states.

Join McMillan and Banks for regular podcasts about Antietam, the...

Duration: 00:58:36

In Episode 46, Darin Weeks and Mare Fincher, co-hosts of the excellent "Civil War Breakfast Club" podcast, join co-hosts John Banks (fresh from a trip to Ireland) and Tom McMillan for a freewheeling discussion of generals (O.O. Howard!) as well as lesser-known soldiers from the Battle of Antietam. Plus, they dish on their long-running podcast, favorite Antietam spots and much more.

This podcast is sponsored by Civil War Trails, which since 1994 has connected visitors with small towns and big stories across a network that now spans six states.

Join McMillan and Banks for regular podcasts a...

Duration: 00:55:33

In Episode 45, join co-hosts John Banks and Tom McMillan for a "Best Of" podcast featuring these previous guests:

Historian Scott Hartwig on researching for his epic I Dread The Thought Of The Place, a nearly 1,000-page book on the Battle of Antietam.Dr. Tom Clemens on the Save Historic Antietam Foundation.Historian Dennis Frye and Troy Cool on their historic houses near the battlefield.Dana Shoaf of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine on Jonathan Letterman, "The Father of Modern Battlefield Medicine." Dr. Jennifer Murray on George Meade, "Old Baldy" and her new role as director of t...

Duration: 01:07:34

In Episode 44, Justin Martin — author of A Fierce Glory about the Battle of Antietam and four other books — talks with co-hosts John Banks and Tom McMillan about the major personalities he weaved into his terrific book (Lincoln! Letterman! Gardner!). Plus, he dishes on the great lull in the fighting on Sept. 17, 1862 (and other surprises), Quentin Tarantino and driving a stick shift. 

The podcast is sponsored by Civil War Trails, which since 1994 has connected visitors with small towns and big stories across a network that now spans six states.

Join McMillan and Banks for regular podcasts about...

Duration: 00:56:37

On Episode 43, Aaron Holley — an Antietam Institute board member and West Virginia University graduate — talks with co-hosts John Banks and Tom McMillan about fields of fire, lost roads, hidden fence lines and other information derived from his fascinating battlefield mapmaking.

Holley took the late 19th-century Ezra Carman-Emmor Cope Antietam maps and aligned them with locations on today's battlefield. Through remote and field-based work, dozens of locations were matched between those maps and actual locations on the ground. This process gives these classic maps a modern GPS usage while preserving their timeless aesthetic.

Per the Antietam Inst...

Duration: 00:51:02

In Episode 42, co-hosts John Banks and Tom McMillan discuss battlefield preservation at Antietam, Gettysburg and elsewhere. Should all hallowed ground be saved?

The podcast is sponsored by Civil War Trails, which since 1994 has connected visitors with small towns and big stories across a network that now spans six states.

Join McMillan and Banks for regular podcasts about Antietam, the Maryland Campaign and the Civil War — the most compelling period in American history.

McMillan is author of the recently released The Year That Made America: From Rebellion to Independence and four other books. Banks is...

Duration: 00:48:43

In Episode 41, author/historian/speaker Sarah Kay Bierle chats with co-hosts John Banks and Tom McMillan about Confederate artillerist John Pelham, who played a pivotal role at Antietam. Her latest book is Glorious Courage: John Pelham In The Civil War, published in May 2025 by Savas Beatie. You may not know much about "The Gallant" Pelham, but you've surely seen the remarkable circa-1858 image of him by Mathew Brady in dozens of publications. Plus, Bierle dishes on the role of "Hancock The Superb" at Antietam and more.

For more on Bierle, go here.

The podcast is...

Duration: 00:58:21

In Episode 40, Brian James Egen of The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn and author/historian Jack Dempsey join co-hosts John Banks and Tom McMillan to talk all things Michigan at Antietam. That includes stories about U.S. Army generals Alpheus S. Williams and Israel B. Richardson, who suffered a mortal wound in the attack on Bloody Lane on Sept. 17, 1862. Plus, the Michiganders — co-authors of Michigan At Antietam — dish on the effort to place a Michigan monument on the battlefield.

Learn more about that effort at the Michigan Civil War Association web site.

The podcast is spon...

Duration: 00:54:18

In Episiode 39, author Linda Zimmerman talks with John Banks (co-host Tom McMillan will be back soon) about her book, A Civil War Soldier and Me, the story of 8th Connecticut Sergeant Albion Brooks. Zimmerman devoted 30 years of research and traveled thousands of miles to learn about Brooks, who survived the bloodbath at Antietam as a teen but died at Cold Harbor on June 3, 1864. 

Months after Antietam, Brooks wrote, "Many poor fellows left with us who now are beneath the ground on the battlefield of Antietam. I have seen what it is to die a soldier’s death, and...

Duration: 00:51:14

In Episode 38, Canadian and long-suffering Toronto Maple Leafs fan Devan Sommerville, a fan of our podcast, joins co-host John Banks (Tom McMillan was off) for a 15-minute chat about his obsession with the American Civil War. Without prompting, he mentions John's favorite spot on the Antietam battlefield and educates us about an unheralded Canadian tie to the battle.

The podcast is sponsored by Civil War Trails, which since 1994 has connected visitors with small towns and big stories across a network that now spans six states.

Join McMillan and Banks for regular podcasts about Antietam, the...

Duration: 00:15:52

In a freewheeling Episode 37, Dr. Jennifer Murray — incoming director of the George Tyler Moore Center for the Study of the Civil War at Shepherd University — joins co-hosts Tom McMillan and John Banks talks about her new role as well as the role of General George Gordon Meade at Antietam. Plus, they have a lively discussion about Meade's old warhorse, Old Baldy.

The podcast is sponsored by Civil War Trails, which since 1994 has connected visitors with small towns and big stories across a network that now spans six states.

Join McMillan and Banks for regular podcasts abou...

Duration: 00:48:21

In a mini-podcast, historian Ashley Whitehead Luskey — assistant director of the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College — chats with co-hosts Tom McMillan and John Banks. On April 12, 2025, she was among the speakers at the Maryland Campaign Symposium at the Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall in Carnegie, Pa. It also included historians Scott Harwig ("I Dread The Thought Of The Place"), Dennis Frye, Harry Smeltzer, John Hoptak and Kevin Pawlak. The podcast is brought to you by Civil War Trails.

Duration: 00:09:18

In a mini-podcast, Jon Erik-Gilot — curator at the Thomas Espy Post at the Andrew Carnegie (Pa.) Free Library And Music Hall — dishes with co-hosts Tom McMillan and John Banks on the recently held Maryland Campaign Symposium he organized. It featured historians Scott Harwig ("I Dread The Thought Of The Place"), Dennis Frye, Harry Smeltzer, John Hoptak, Ashley Whitehead Luskey and Kevin Pawlak. The podcast is sponsored by Civil War Trails.

Duration: 00:13:24

In a freewheeling Episode 34 — taped before an audience at the Maryland Campaign Symposium at the Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall in Carnegie, Pa. — historians Scott Hartwig (I Dread The Thought Of The Place), Kevin Pawlak and Harry Smeltzer, as well as Dana Shoaf and Melissa Hacker Winn of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick, Md., visit with co-hosts Tom McMillan and John Banks.

The podcast is brought to you by Civil War Trails.

Duration: 01:00:06

In a freewheeling Episode 33, podcast hosts Tom McMillan and John Banks discuss Iron Brigade officer Rufus Dawes, who endured despite losing his best friend at Antietam. Plus, Tom dishes on his upcoming book, The Year That Made America, and John talks about staring into Ben Franklin's privy in Philadelphia and a post-Gettysburg battlefield tramping massage in Biglerville.   

The podcast is sponsored by Civil War Trails, which since 1994 has connected visitors with small towns and big stories across a network that now spans six states.

Join McMillan and Banks for regular podcasts about Antietam, the Maryland Ca...

Duration: 00:49:29

On Episode 32, Antietam battlefield guide and author Jim Rosebrock — a retired U.S. Army officer and Department of Justice employee — talks with co-hosts John Banks and Tom McMillan about all things artillery at the Battle of Antietam. Plus, he dishes on two seldom-visited sites on the field and shares an unforgettable story about the horses of Antietam and .... oats!   

Rosebrock, author of Artillery Of Antietam, is president of the Antietam Institute. Check out the Institute site here.

The podcast is sponsored by Civil War Trails, which since 1994 has connected visitors with small towns and big storie...

Duration: 00:54:05