Russian-born, Union General, Ivan Vasilyevich Turchaninov, aka John B. Turchin became one of the Civil War’s most infamous—and misunderstood—figures. Branded the “Mad Cossack” by critics, Turchin built a reputation in the Western Theater for aggressive campaigning, contempt for Confederate sabotage, and a hard-war approach that made him a hero to some Unionists and a villain across the South.

This episode follows Turchin and his wife, Nadezhda (Nadine) Turchin, from imperial Russia to the Union Army and into the controversy surrounding the 1862 sacking of Athens, Alabama. After Confederate guerrilla attacks, destroyed rail lines, and constant violence against Union soldiers, Turchin allegedly told his men that he would “shut [his] eyes for two hours.” What followed made national headlines.

Court-martialed over Athens, Turchin appeared headed for disgrace—until Abraham Lincoln intervened and promoted him to brigadier general. Was John B. Turchin a reckless foreign officer, a scapegoat for the Union Army’s increasingly brutal war, or an early architect of the hard-war policies that helped break the Confederacy?

It is a story of Civil War memory, immigrant soldiers, Nadezhda Turchin’s remarkable wartime role, the Union occupation of Alabama, and one of the strangest promotions of the American Civil War.