Hello friends and welcome to episode 7 in our Civil War series Secrets of the Civil War.

Today we're going to hear about two men, both of them named Robert and Heldas Heroes,

who had completely different backgrounds until the Civil War changed the direction of their lives.

Forever.

Let's start it.

I'm Sharon McMahon, and here's where it gets interesting.

Robert Kultschaw was your basic, wayward, wealthy teen when you're born into the kind of generational wealth

that the Shaw family had.

It's hard to take your studies seriously.

Robert was white, young, good looking, and had never wanted for anything.

It was easy for him to shrug off authority figures and his schoolwork to do more irresponsible

and fun things.

In the 1850s, that men drinking wine in Switzerland and attending the opera with your mates to

make eyes at the ladies.

Robert's parents, Francis and Sarah, were unitarians and staunch abolitionists.

They ran in mighty circles in Massachusetts and New York and counted other well-known

anti-slavery workers like journalist William Lloyd Garrison and author Harriet Beecher Stowe

among their friends.

If you need a quick recap, Harriet is best known as the author of the 1852 book Uncle Tom's

Cabin, which was an instant bestseller in America and abroad.

In it, Harriet tapped into the genre of sentimental literature that was highly popular with educated

women in the 19th century.

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