Theory 2 Action Podcast
Theory 2 Action Podcast
MM#402--The Day America Changed: Appomattox 160 Years Later
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April 9th marks 160 years since the surrender at Appomattox Courthouse – the moment that effectively ended America's bloodiest conflict. This anniversary offers a powerful opportunity to reflect on the Civil War's enduring impact on our national identity and democratic principles.
The surrender scene itself carries deep symbolism: Lee in his pristine gray uniform meeting Grant in his characteristically muddy field attire, negotiating terms in a small Virginia parlor. What followed wasn't vengeance but surprising generosity – Confederate soldiers allowed to return home under parole, keeping their sidearms and horses, embodying Lincoln's vision for national healing "with malice toward none, with charity for all."
But understanding Appomattox requires grasping the full arc of the Civil War. That's why I've curated three essential books that offer fresh perspectives on this pivotal historical moment. James McPherson's "Battle Cry of Freedom" provides the definitive single-volume account, weaving military strategy and social transformation into a compelling narrative that firmly establishes slavery as the war's central cause. Fergus Bordwitch's "Congress at War" illuminates how Radical Republicans in Congress pushed an aggressive legislative agenda that permanently altered federal-state relationships and protected civil rights. And Edward Bonekemper's "Lincoln and Grant" examines how these two underestimated "Westerners" formed an unstoppable partnership of moral vision and military tenacity.
As we approach America's 250th anniversary in 2026, these readings help us comprehend how the Civil War fundamentally redefined our nation. The conflict wasn't just about preserving the Union – it transformed America's understanding of liberty itself, creating a constitutional framework that finally began aligning our practices with our founding ideals of equality. Pick up one of these books today and discover how this crucial chapter in our past continues to shape America's present and future.
Key Points from the Episode:
• Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson - Pulitzer Prize-winning comprehensive history that weaves military, political and social dimensions into one gripping narrative
• McPherson clearly establishes slavery as the central cause of the Civil War, not simply "states' rights"
• Lincoln's evolving definition of liberty shows how the war transformed American identity
• Congress at War by Fergus Bordwitch - Reveals how lawmakers drove anti-slavery legislation even beyond Lincoln's initial vision
• With Southerners absent, Congress embarked on transformative legislation that laid foundations for modern America
• The book highlights how Congress profoundly altered federal-state relationships and protected civil rights
• Lincoln and Grant by Edward Bonekemper - Examines the partnership between two "Western" leaders who brought the Confederacy to its knees
• Grant's Vicksburg campaign stands as a masterpiece of military strategy
• Their collaboration demonstrates how visionary leadership paired with relentless execution changed history
• The Impending Crisis by David Potter (honorable mention) - Brilliant analysis of the tense pre-war years from 1848-1861
As we approach America's 250th anniversary in 2026, I encourage you to pick up one of these essential reads to understand this critical chapter in our national story.
Other resources:
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Welcome to the Theory to Action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time, to help you take action immediately and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life. Now here's your host, david Kaiser, flourishing life.
Speaker 2:Now here's your host, david Kaiser. Hello, I am David, and welcome back to another Mojo Minute. Today marks exactly 160 years since the surrender at Appomattox Courthouse, the moment that effectively ended the American Civil War. That's a big deal. On April 9th 1865, robert E Lee handed over his sword, figuratively speaking, to Ulysses S Grant, closing out four years of bloodshed that claimed over 600,000 lives. Today we should give pause. The US Civil War is still understudied by most of our fellow citizens, yet I believe it should be one of the most studied periods of our history. So today I want to dive into what that moment meant, why it still echoes down through the decades and the century, and share three incredible books that'll help you wrap your head around this major turning point in our history, and also I've got one honorable mention book for good measure. So let's start with the scene at Appomattox Courthouse. Picture this it's a small Virginia village, spring is just breaking through and Lee's Confederate army is cornered. They're starving, they're outnumbered and they're out of options. It's been a brutal chase from Petersburg. Grant, the new general in charge, is relentless, as ever, has them pinned. The two meet in a modest parlor. Lee is in his crisp gray uniform, looking regal Grant, looking like he just rolled out of camp in muddy boots, which was his normal attire. They hash out the terms. Grant offers something unexpected Very liberal generosity. This came from his commander-in-chief, abraham Lincoln. There was to be no mass arrest, no executions, just parole. The men let them go, stack their arms and promise not to fight again. It's over. The war that brutally tore the nation apart ends not with a bang but with a handshake. Now there's a famous story of Wilford McClain. It was in his parlor that the surrender took place and if we hearken back four years from 1865 to 1861, it was in the same Wilford McLean's front yard that the Civil War started at the Battle of Bull Run. I shared that in another podcast, so be sure to check that out Mojo, minute 297. Put that in the show notes. That's the story we're going to unpack today, the whole long arc of the US Civil War. It is a study in human tragedy and yet in human perseverance, most especially towards a more just and lasting peace.
Speaker 2:I believe we have three fantastic books, three books that can be our guides, especially if you've never read really anything about the US Civil War. I tried to pick three books that would give you a big broad brush of the Civil War, not get too drowned in facts, but also give you some unique books that you might not find on any other reading list about the Civil War. So with that, let's go first up to Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson. If you're only to read one book on the Civil War, this is the book that I would recommend. It's a Pulitzer Prize winner from 1989. It's a long one, but it's one single volume. The audio is just under 40 hours, but don't let that deter you.
Speaker 2:It's part of the Oxford history of the United States. It's a modern classic for sure, and McPherson's a master at weaving the whole messy tapestry the battles, the politics, the slavery, all of it into a single gripping story. He starts way before Appomattox, traces how the nation stumbled into war over slavery's expansion, through the 1850s chaos and then to the first shots at Fort Sumter. By the time you get to 1865, you can feel the weight of every step that led to that. Parlor Wilford McLean's, parlor McPherson's crystal clear the war was about slavery full stop. There's no romantic nonsense about states' rights alone. When Lee surrenders, mcpherson shows it's just not a military defeat, it's a collapse of a system that enslaved millions. Now the book's got this knack for balancing big ideas Like how the Union's win reshaped democracy and the republic With vivid details like Grant scribbling terms while Lee is sitting stiffly knowing for sure this is its end and possibly his end. You can cut the tension with a knife. You can cut the tension with a knife. It's the perfect backbone for understanding why Appomattox matters 160 years later today. In fact. Let's grab our first pull quote from the book now. Go into the book. As usual.
Speaker 2:Abraham Lincoln said it best. In April of 1864, he returned to Baltimore for the first time since he had passed through the city secretly in the middle of the night three years earlier to foil a plot to assassinate him. This time he came in the full light of day and gave one of his few public speeches during the war. He said this the world has never had a good definition of the word liberty, and the American people just now are much in want of one. We all declare for liberty, but in using the same word we not all mean the same thing. With some, the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself and the product of his labor, while with others. The same may mean for some men to do as they please with other men and the product of other men's labor. Here are two not only different but incompatible things called the same name liberty.
Speaker 2:Lincoln went on to illustrate his point with a parable about animals. The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's throat, he said, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as a liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty, especially as the sheep is a black one. Plainly, the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of the word liberty, and precisely the same difference prevails today among us human creatures, even in the North, and all professing to love liberty. Hence we behold the processes by which thousands are daily passing from under the yoke of bondage, hailed by some as the advance of liberty and bewailed by others as the destruction of all liberty. The shepherd in this remarkable fable was, of course, lincoln himself. The black sheep was a slave and the wolf was his owner. Lincoln here prophesied the impending victory of the shepherd's and black sheep's version of liberty. And he did more than that. He signified a deeper transformation in the meaning of liberty accomplished by the Civil War. And that quote comes to us again from James McPherson in Battle Cry, freedom Quote comes to us near the end of the book, but it's McPherson at his peak.
Speaker 2:Just incredible analysis and writing. I have not read anywhere else and I've read over some 15 to. I think I'm upwards of 18 Civil War books now. So if I had to choose one, just one book to read or listen to James McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom is our number one choice. Now let's talk about our second choice Congress at War, by Fergus Bordwitch. I think I'm pronouncing that correctly Fergus, Fergus Bordwitch.
Speaker 2:This one's a bit of a curveball, I should say. It's not part of the mainstream, of what people recommend when talking about the US Civil War. It's not about generals or battlefields but about the folks in Washington who kept the war machine going. Which shines a light on Congress, especially the radical Republicans, who weren't just cheering for Lincoln. They were pushing laws, funding the war and driving the fight against slavery harder than even Lincoln himself sometimes wanted. You think Lincoln ran the show the whole time. Well, thank you again. These lawmakers were the unsung heroes, passing the Confiscation Acts to free enslaved people behind Confederate lines, raising the armies, laying the groundwork for the 13th Amendment, the one that abolished slavery for good by the time of Appomattox rolling around. Bordwitch shows how Congress had already shifted the war's purpose from just saving the Union to ending slavery and making Lee's surrender a victory that had been building for years. It's certainly a fresh take less about the mud and the blood, but more about the debates and the votes that made that April day possible.
Speaker 2:Now, why would I include this book? Well, because it's the 160th anniversary of the surrender of Appomattox, but also because next year, on July 4th, 2026, we as a country are going to be celebrating our semi-quincentennial, 250 years as a constitutional republic. And as a republic we need to get back to the basics to understand our government at its most basic functions. This book helps us to understand that more deeply about our country. The president is important, but Congress is just as important. Article 1, the first article in the Constitution, is first. For a reason it has the most power Now. Congress has been, as a body, a bunch of knuckleheads for a good portion of its life over those 250 years. But this book is important because it highlights when Congress albeit with some Southern reps and senators, excuse me, and some that have left, but when it becomes singularly focused, it can act with power and precision and move the country's trajectory as a ship of state in a vast and different direction. And in fact, let's grab a pull quote from this great book and one of my favorite books to understand this. Go on to the book.
Speaker 2:With Southerners gone, the Republicans for the first time held decisive majorities in both houses of Congress, having won about three-fifths of the seats in each chamber in the 1860 elections, along with the presidency. By the spring of 1861, one-third of the seats in both chambers stood empty, abandoned by members who had defected to the Confederacy. Their absence opened the gates to one of the most dynamic eras of legislative activism in American history, one that would change American society beyond recognition. During the next four years, congress would help win the war, craft a peace, reinvent the nation's financial system, enact a raft of forward-looking legislation that had been long blocked by Southern intransigency, and in the course of doing so, Congress also laid the foundation for the strong, activist central government that came fully into being in the 20th century, permanently altered the relationship between the states and the federal government, and enshrined protections of civil rights as the responsibility of the federal government, initiating a racial and economic revolution that would overthrow the South's cotton economy and transform four million slaves from pieces of property into soldiers, free women and men and eventually, citizens. In short, as the historian Leonard P Curry put it, quote it was the members of this Congress, sometimes by accident, sometimes by design, who drew the blueprint for modern America Boom. And that is why we should study the US Civil War in its totality, especially that US Congress from 1861 to 1865.
Speaker 2:Our modern America really starts with the US Civil War. Not that we overlook the American Revolution certainly not or the founding of the country. It's all very important. We don't lose sight of that. But our modern America, where we sit at the quarter pole of the 21st century, here in 2025—this Our modern America begins through this horrific tragedy of the US Civil War and then moves into Reconstruction, one of the most often overlooked periods in our country's history as well.
Speaker 2:We're going to have to spend more time on those books to give you a great reading list there too. Regardless for this list, congress at War is a great read Fergus Bordwitch and the audio is just over 15 hours. Now. Our third book is Lincoln and Grant the Westerners who won the Civil War, by Edward Bonekemper. The book's all about the dynamic duo who brought the Confederacy to its knees Lincoln the lanky lawyer from Illinois, and Grant the scrappy Ohio tanner's son, who were both Westerners. According to that time period. They were both underestimated and both unstoppable. Bone Kemper digs into how their partnership clicked. Lincoln's big picture vision kept the Union alive, helped free the slaves, paired with Grant's bulldog tenacity on the battlefield.
Speaker 2:Grant's campaigns, especially his incredible win at Vicksburg, which many military historians call the most inventive and creative and daring military campaign in all of the history of warfare. In fact, let's go to the book to hear all about it. As Grant approached Vicksburg he could look back at the past 18 successful days with satisfaction. He had entered enemy territory against the superior force with no secure supply line, fought and won five battles, severely damaged the Mississippi capital, driven away Johnson's relief force, driven Pemberton's army back into Vicksburg, inflicted over 7,000 losses on the enemy, separated 7,000 troops from the main enemy army and thus had reduced Pemberton's army by 14,000 troops. Grant's own casualties were between 3,500 and 4,500. In 1882, francis Vinton Green succinctly summarized the greatness of the Grant campaign. To that point Quote we must go back to the campaigns of Napoleon to find equally brilliant results accomplished in the same space of time with such a small loss.
Speaker 2:Again, it's a masterpiece of military strategy across almost all accounts and books. Grant at the time is your frontline general, then he's the guy leading the charge. But then you get Grant as a master tactician, yet not micromanaging his generals when they're performing. You see this with Grant. He allows Sherman to cut his supply lines Atlanta in September and go east to Savannah to make Georgia how, as he said he would, the incredible trust Grant had in Sherman. And then you just have the relentless push of Grant himself as the bulldog that cornered Lee at Appomattox. All of this doesn't happen without Lincoln's trust. In political cover. The book paints them as a team forged by necessity, their western grit outmatching the south's aristocratic flair. When Grant accepts Lee's surrender, it's not just a win, just not a victory. It's Lincoln's dream and Grant's hammer blow landing together.
Speaker 2:Bonekemper keeps the book tight, focused. It's a great way to see how both men two men, not armies alone turned the tide of history. I actually think this book is more important than the very famous Doris Kearns Goodwin's book Team of Rivals for a host of reasons. But we're going to keep this podcast tight too, in the spirit of Bonekemper and his writing. There will be no ranting today from me about Doris Kearns, goodwin, no Lincoln and Grant. The book by Bonekemper is not too long on Audible either, clocking in at just under 12 hours. So it is our third book on our list. Now I cannot leave without an honorable mention book and I am going to make the choice of the Impending Crisis.
Speaker 2:1848 to 1861 by Mr David Potter, absolutely one of my all-time favorite books. This one's not about the war itself, but it's how we got there. Potter walks you through those tense years before 1861. Think the Compromise of 1860. I'm sorry, 1850, the Compromise of 1850. Bleeding Kansas and all the Fights Over Slavery in its Spread. It's dense, sure, but it's brilliant. My lord, is it brilliant? It shows how Appomattox was less a sudden end and more the final note of a long and bitter song. If you want the backstory, that is the book of choice. Just one quote from Potter, because the book is in fact that good. I actually covered the book back in 2022 in Mojo Minute 138. We'll throw that in the show notes too. Regardless, let's grab a quote from the book.
Speaker 2:It's not a very serious exaggeration to say the United States was holding two elections simultaneously on November 6th 1860. This meant that each section remained somewhat insulated from what the other was doing. If the Republicans had been campaigning in the South, they would have necessarily. If the Republicans had been campaigning in the South, they would have necessarily, they wouldn't necessarily have stressed Lincoln's recognition of the right of the Southern states to determine the question for slavery for themselves. They would have presented an image of him as an old-fashioned Henry Clay Whig, a native of Kentucky. Insofar as they had done this, it might have served to prevent the creation of a totally negative and fictitious image of Lincoln which was being developed in the South the image of the quote black Republican unquote a rabid John Brown abolitionist an inverted enemy. Of the quote black Republican unquote a rabid John Brown abolitionist an inverted enemy of the South. Yet this picture prevailed during all the months of the campaign and psychologically it was not strange that Southerners felt hostile to a candidate who was not even on the ticket in their part of the country when Lincoln was elected. The result came to the South as a much greater shock than it would have if Republican speakers or even Lincoln himself had been ranging up and down and back and forth throughout the South asking the voters to trust him trying to earn their vote. The Republicans would have had nothing to gain from such a campaign and Southerners most likely would have never even permitted it. There would have been violence. But the point is that the voters of the South were naturally prepared to believe the worst of a candidate when most of them had never even seen one of his supporters, much less the man himself, and when his party did not even seek their support. In fact, the American party system had ceased to operate in a nationwide context, all by itself, in a nationwide context all by itself. And there you can see just a segment of the excellent analysis. You can see and feel Potter's words of what the country felt like in November 1860.
Speaker 2:So, 160 years on, we ask the question why do we care about Appomattox? Well, these books tell us. It's just not history. It's the moment the US decided to be. Rather well, who it would be in fact? Who would we grow up to be as a country? It's our history, it's our family story A nation without chains, stitched back together thanks to leaders and lawmakers and soldiers who, frankly, would not quit. It's probably best to grab one of these reads McPherson for the full suite Bordwitch for the political guts of the moment, bonekemper for the man at the top, and begin to learn this story. Study of good history isn't so far away. You have just a few good books to read here in this selection. So just go do that. Just go read some good history. We have four great titles here. So let us pause to reflect today, offer a prayer for our country 160 years after the surrender at Appomattox. As always, folks, let's keep fighting the good fight.
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining us. We hope you enjoyed this Theory to Action podcast. Be sure to check out our show page at teammojoacademycom, where we have everything we discussed in this podcast, as well as other great resources. Until next time, keep getting your mojo on.
Speaker 2:Music, music, music, music, music, music Music.