What If there were What-Ifs on ECW’s YouTube page?

Keeping in the spirit of our What-If weekend for the Eighth Annual Emerging Civil War Symposium at Stevenson Ridge, we’re rolling out a fantastic line-up of historians on the ECW YouTube page over the next few days to talk about some of their favorite “What Ifs.”

We kicked things off this evening with living historian Curt Fields, nationally renowned for his portrayal of Ulysses S. Grant, who talks about Grant’s greatest What If. Check out that video here. (And as an extra bonus, Curt offered his thoughts on Grant while standing next to Grant’s doors at Stevenson Ridge, where we hold our Symposium.)

In the days ahead, we’ll also hear from:

  • Living historian Thomas Jessee, who portrays Robert E. Lee, on the What-If question he’s asked most often
  • Dave Powell ponders the implications of William S. Rosecrans opening the Cracker Line at Chattanooga. Dave is the author of the Emerging Civil War Series’s two-volume study on the Chattanooga campaign, Battle Above the Clouds and All Hell Can’t Stop them
  • Battle of Franklin Trust Executive Director Eric Jacobson takes a swing at “the Affair at Spring Hill, Tennessee,” and how that sets the stage for the battle of Franklin.
  • Joe Ricci, a historian at the Battle of Franklin Trust, talks about why people are so tantalized by Spring Hill. Joe will have an essay on that topic in our upcoming More Great “What Ifs” of the American Civil War.
  • Timothy B. Smith summarizes the “What Ifs of Shiloh,” which he wrote about for our book The Great “What Ifs” of the America Civil War.
  • Greg Biggs stands on the banks of the Tennessee River and asks, “What if Ulysses S. Grant went up the river right after the fall of Fort Henry?”
  • Chris Mackowski visits the site of Stonewall Jackson’s wounding at Chancellorsville to talk about the great-granddaddy of all Civil War What Ifs.

We will take a short break in our What-If coverage to talk about something that really did happen in 1862: the battle of Cedar Mountain. Author Mike Block will talk about his Emerging Civil War book on the subject, The Carnage was Fearful. Look for that on August 9, the anniversary of the battle.

Look for more surprises on the ECW YouTube page and the ECW Facebook page over the next week as we explore the great “What Ifs” of the American Civil War!



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