War has played a key role in the history of the United States, from the nation's founding

right down to the present. War made the U.S. independent, kept it together, increased its

size, and established it as a global superpower. Understanding America's wars is essential for understanding American history.

Welcome to Key Battles of American History,

a podcast in which we discuss American history through the lens of the most important battles of America's wars.

Here is your host, James Early.

Music your host, James Early. Scott here with another episode of the History Unplugged podcast.

After the Civil War ended 160 years ago, Southern historians crafted a narrative that

the North only won the Civil War due to the overwhelming material and manpower advantage

over Brave Southerners.

For decades, revisionist historians have pushed back, arguing that the Civil War was won

when courageous Yankees triumphed over the South.

But one aspect of the war that has remained little known since its end

is a number of Southern Unionists who played a decisive role in the Civil War.

One such group was the first Alabama cavalry, formed in 1862.

They mostly consisted of Jacksonian Southerners who lived in Appalachia

and didn't feel a strong kinship to southern plantation culture.

The first Alabama cavalry went on raids that destroyed Confederate communications and also

marched with Sherman's forces across the south. They aided in the fall of Vicksburg and

the burning of Atlanta. Today's guest is Howell Raines, author of Silent Cavalry, how Union

soldiers from Alabama helped Sherman burn Atlanta and then got written out of history.

He pieced together the fact that Union General William to come to Sherman's decisive effort to

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