#444- YEAR IN REVIEW: 1863 (July-September)

·31 min·3 clips

A mob burns the Colored Orphan Asylum as 233 children escape, revealing the draft riots' racial fury.

The episode begins with Union attempts to capture Battery Wagner in Charleston Harbor in July 1863. It then shifts to the New York City draft riots, sparked by Irish laborers' anger over conscription and racial tensions, resulting in violence against black residents and institutions. Lincoln writes to Ulysses S. Grant, admitting he was wrong about Grant's Vicksburg strategy. The USS Wyoming engages Japanese forces, marking an early naval conflict. The 54th Massachusetts, a black regiment, assaults Battery Wagner, suffering heavy casualties including Colonel Robert Gould Shaw. Lincoln issues an eye-for-an-eye policy regarding captured black soldiers, though it proves unenforceable. Frederick Douglass meets Lincoln to protest unequal pay for black troops. In Missouri, the deaths of women jailed by federal authorities lead William Quantrill to assemble guerrillas. The draft resumes in New York City after the riots. Louisa May Alcott publishes Hospital Sketches based on her nursing experiences. Quantrill's guerrillas attack Lawrence, Kansas, killing over 180 men. The Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley sinks in Charleston Harbor. Mail delays affect soldier morale. Union forces occupy Knoxville and Chattanooga. The Battle of Chickamauga occurs in Georgia, with Braxton Bragg's Confederates defeating William Rosecrans' army, though George Thomas holds the line. Lincoln, Stanton, and Halleck organize rail reinforcements for Chattanooga. Lincoln learns his brother-in-law, Benjamin Harden Helm, was killed at Chickamauga. The episode ends with a book recommendation on Abraham and Mary Lincoln.

As heard by us

A steady march from Morris Island to Lawrence, with the home front in view.

The episode threads July and August 1863 together by placing Charleston, New York City, and eastern Kansas under the same wartime pressure. It follows the landing on Morris Island, the first Federal assault on Battery Wagner, and the opening of the draft drawing in New York, so…

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Why you'd press play

If you want 1863 with Charleston, draft names, and a very bad day in Lawrence, press play.

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