In a mini-podcast, historian Ashley Whitehead Luskey — assistant director of the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College — chats with co-hosts Tom McMillan and John Banks. On April 12, 2025, she was among the speakers at the Maryland Campaign Symposium at the Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall in Carnegie, Pa. It also included historians Scott Harwig ("I Dread The Thought Of The Place"), Dennis Frye, Harry Smeltzer, John Hoptak and Kevin Pawlak. The podcast is brought to you by Civil War Trails.

In a mini-podcast, Jon Erik-Girot — curator at the Thomas Espy Post at the Andrew Carnegie (Pa.) Free Library And Music Hall — dishes with co-hosts Tom McMillan and John Banks on the recently held Maryland Campaign Symposium he organized. It featured historians Scott Harwig ("I Dread The Thought Of The Place"), Dennis Frye, Harry Smeltzer, John Hoptak, Ashley Whitehead Luskey and Kevin Pawlak. The podcast is sponsored by Civil War Trails.

In a freewheeling Episode 34 — taped before an audience at the Maryland Campaign Symposium at the Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall in Carnegie, Pa. — historians Scott Hartwig (I Dread The Thought Of The Place), Kevin Pawlak and Harry Smeltzer, as well as Dana Shoaf and Melissa Hacker Winn of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick, Md., visit with co-hosts Tom McMillan and John Banks.

The podcast is brought to you by Civil War Trails.

In a freewheeling Episode 33, podcast hosts Tom McMillan and John Banks discuss Iron Brigade officer Rufus Dawes, who endured despite losing his best friend at Antietam. Plus, Tom dishes on his upcoming book, The Year That Made America, and John talks about staring into Ben Franklin's privy in Philadelphia and a post-Gettysburg battlefield tramping massage in Biglerville.

The podcast is sponsored by Civil War Trails, which since 1994 has connected visitors with small towns and big stories across a network that now spans six states.

Join McMillan and Banks for regular podcasts about Antietam, the Maryland Campaign and the Civil War — the most compelling period in American history.

McMillan is author of Our Flag Was Still There and other books. Banks is author of A Civil War Road Trip Of A Lifetime. Find them on Facebook at Author Tom McMillan and John Banks' Civil War Blog. Banks' popular Civil War blog is here.

On Episode 32, Antietam battlefield guide and author Jim Rosebrock — a retired U.S. Army officer and Department of Justice employee — talks with co-hosts John Banks and Tom McMillan about all things artillery at the Battle of Antietam. Plus, he dishes on two seldom-visited sites on the field and shares an unforgettable story about the horses of Antietam and .... oats!

Rosebrock, author of Artillery Of Antietam, is president of the Antietam Institute. Check out the Institute site here.

The podcast is sponsored by Civil War Trails, which since 1994 has connected visitors with small towns and big stories across a network that now spans six states.

Join McMillan and Banks for regular podcasts about Antietam, the Maryland Campaign and the Civil War — the most compelling period in American history.

McMillan is author of Our Flag Was Still There and other books. Banks is author of A Civil War Road Trip Of A Lifetime. Find them on Facebook at Author Tom McMillan and John Banks' Civil War Blog. Banks' popular Civil War blog is here.

On Episode 31, historian Rich Condon — editor of the Civil War Pittsburgh web site — talks with co-hosts John Banks and Tom McMillan about Robert Gould Shaw's role at Antietam, the Emancipation Proclamation and another terrible event that occurred Sept. 17, 1862. Plus, he dishes on Robert Smalls, whose life story merits a Hollywood-produced move. (Are you listening Steven Spielberg?)

Visit Civil War Pittsburgh here.

The podcast is sponsored by Civil War Trails, which since 1994 has connected visitors with small towns and big stories across a network that now spans six states.

Join McMillan and Banks for regular podcasts about Antietam, the Maryland Campaign and the Civil War — the most compelling period in American history.

McMillan is author of Our Flag Was Still There and other books. Banks is author of A Civil War Road Trip Of A Lifetime. Find them on Facebook at Author Tom McMillan and John Banks' Civil War Blog. Banks' popular Civil War blog is here.

On Episode 30, 2025 Grammy Award winner Taylor Agan, who has, like, one billion Civil War soldier ancestors, talks with co-hosts Tom McMillan and John Banks about his deep interest in the Civil War period and researching his ancestry. At the Battle of Antietam on Sept. 17, 1862, John Francis Agan of the 23rd Georgia — Taylor's great great great grandfather — was captured near the Sunken Road/Bloody Lane. Plus, Taylor dishes on "That's My King," the Grammy Award-winning song that he co-wrote, and two other of his remarkable Civil War ancestors. | LISTEN to "That's My King."

The podcast is sponsored by Civil War Trails, which since 1994 has connected visitors with small towns and big stories across a network that now spans six states.

Join McMillan and Banks for regular podcasts about Antietam, the Maryland Campaign and the Civil War — the most compelling period in American history.

McMillan is author of Our Flag Was Still There and other books. Banks is author of A Civil War Road Trip Of A Lifetime. Find them on Facebook at Author Tom McMillan and John Banks' Civil War Blog. Banks' popular Civil War blog is here.

On Episode 29, Chris Bryan — author of Cedar Mountain to Antietam: A Civil War Campaign History of the Union XII Corps, July-September 1862 — dives deep into the corps' role at Antietam with co-hosts Tom McMillan and John Banks. Bryan dishes on General Joseph Mansfield, right flank-left flank aspects of the fighting on Sept. 17, 1862, and on his dog, Harlon Boone.

Bryan's book may be purchased on Amazon.com or through Savas Beattie here.

The podcast is sponsored by Civil War Trails, which since 1994 has connected visitors with small towns and big stories across a network that now spans six states.

Join McMillan and Banks for regular podcasts about Antietam, the Maryland Campaign and the Civil War — the most compelling period in American history.

McMillan is author of Our Flag Was Still There and other books. Banks is author of A Civil War Road Trip Of A Lifetime. Find them on Facebook at Author Tom McMillan and John Banks' Civil War Blog. Banks' popular Civil War blog is here.