#135 Surrender in the American Civil War w/ David Silkenat
The Road to Now
Benjamin Sawyer
4.8 • 628 Ratings
🗓️ 8 July 2019
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Robert E. Lee's surrender to General Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865 marked the end of the American Civil War, but it was just one of many times that officers and soldiers faced the reality of surrender. In fact, throughout the four years of the war, approximately one in four soldiers surrendered to the opposing army. In this episode, David Silkenat explains how looking at surrender as both an experience and a set of codes offers a new and insightful perspective on the Civil War and those who lived through it.
Dr. David Silkenat is Senior Lecturer in American History at the University of Edinburgh and author of three books, the most recent of which is Waving the White Flag: How Surrender Defined the American Civil War (UNC Press, 2019). He is also the cohost of The Whiskey Rebel podcast. You can follow David on twitter at @davidsilkenat.
The Road to Now is hosted and produced by Bob Crawford of The Avett Brothers and Dr. Benjamin Sawyer of Middle Tennessee State University. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.
A proud member of the Osiris Podcast Network.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Oh, Cyrus. |
| 0:14.0 | Across the margin of the podcast is a show that brings you in-depth interviews with notable authors, artists, musicians, activists, filmmakers, and |
| 0:22.1 | introspective eccentrics of all kinds, diving deeply into topics that demand deeper examination |
| 0:27.4 | and illustrating the notion that there are captivating stories to be found everywhere. |
| 0:33.0 | Across the March in the podcast is proudly in the loop. |
| 0:47.9 | I'm Bob Crawford. |
| 0:51.6 | I'm Ben Sawyer and this is the road to now. |
| 1:11.5 | I hope everybody had a good Fourth of July. How was your fourth? My fourth was fantastic. Well, thank you for asking. Had a bunch of friends over to the house. We cooked out. Solomon saw fireworks. And it was his jam. He danced and clapped and, you know, Doug and the ground, he did not know what to do. |
| 1:13.5 | He was like, it was surelation. |
| 1:14.6 | We had a bunch of people over. |
| 1:15.7 | We cooked a lot of hot dogs. |
| 1:16.9 | It was legit. |
| 1:18.0 | It was so much fun. |
| 1:21.7 | Is this the first year that Solomon kind of gets the fireworks thing? |
| 1:28.8 | Last year, we were in Big Bear Lake, like in California, and he wasn't scared for the first time. |
| 1:34.5 | And he was like happy once he saw it. But this was the first time like he knew what was coming. |
| 1:39.7 | Right. And he was like rejoicing about it like all day. So it was like the first kind of like big deal. |
| 1:48.0 | Wonderful. What about you man? What would you what did you do for fourth? I, uh, I was here in Colorado getting ready for the Red Rock shows. I played a round of golf in Littleton, Colorado at Arrowhead. |
| 1:54.0 | It's a public golf course here, and it was the views were stunning. |
| 1:59.0 | And we had a great time, me and our monitor guy, Chris, and a couple of friends of mine from here in Colorado. |
| 2:07.1 | And we had the best time, a wonderful 18 holes. |
| 2:11.9 | And then a hailstorm broke out that lasted for a few hours. |
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