On Episode 43, Aaron Holley — an Antietam Institute board member and West Virginia University graduate — talks with co-hosts John Banks and Tom McMillan about fields of fire, lost roads, hidden fence lines and other information derived from his fascinating battlefield mapmaking.

Holley took the late 19th-century Ezra Carman-Emmor Cope Antietam maps and aligned them with locations on today's battlefield. Through remote and field-based work, dozens of locations were matched between those maps and actual locations on the ground. This process gives these classic maps a modern GPS usage while preserving their timeless aesthetic.

Per the Antietam Institute, "Both the base map and the Carmen-Cope maps are available to purchase and download to your phone through the Avenza app. Peruse the map on and off the field, and by using GPS, you can immerse yourself on the landscape of the battlefield. Simply download Avenza to your smartphone, create a free account and purchase this map set for only $14.99."

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 the recently released The Year That Made America: From Rebellion to Independence and four other books. Banks is author of A Civil War Road Trip Of A Lifetime and numerous magazine articles about the Civil War. Find them on Facebook at Author Tom McMillan and John Banks' Civil War Blog. Banks' popular Civil War blog is here.

In Episode 42, co-hosts John Banks and Tom McMillan discuss battlefield preservation at Antietam, Gettysburg and elsewhere. Should all hallowed ground be saved?

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 the recently released The Year That Made America: From Rebellion to Independence and four other books. Banks is author of A Civil War Road Trip Of A Lifetime and numerous magazine articles about the Civil War. Find them on Facebook at Author Tom McMillan and John Banks' Civil War Blog. Banks' popular Civil War blog is here.

In Episode 41, author/historian/speaker Sarah Kay Bierle chats with co-hosts John Banks and Tom McMillan about Confederate artillerist John Pelham, who played a pivotal role at Antietam. Her latest book is Glorious Courage: John Pelham In The Civil War, published in May 2025 by Savas Beatie. You may not know much about "The Gallant" Pelham, but you've surely seen the remarkable circa-1858 image of him by Mathew Brady in dozens of publications. Plus, Bierle dishes on the role of "Hancock The Superb" at Antietam and more.

For more on Bierle, go 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 the recently released The Year That Made America: From Rebellion to Independence and four other books. Banks is author of A Civil War Road Trip Of A Lifetime and numerous magazine articles about the Civil War. Find them on Facebook at Author Tom McMillan and John Banks' Civil War Blog. Banks' popular Civil War blog is here.

In Episode 40, Brian James Egen of The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn and author/historian Jack Dempsey join co-hosts John Banks and Tom McMillan to talk all things Michigan at Antietam. That includes stories about U.S. Army generals Alpheus S. Williams and Israel B. Richardson, who suffered a mortal wound in the attack on Bloody Lane on Sept. 17, 1862. Plus, the Michiganders — co-authors of Michigan At Antietam — dish on the effort to place a Michigan monument on the battlefield.

Learn more about that effort at the Michigan Civil War Association web site.

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 the recently released The Year That Made America: From Rebellion to Independence and four other books. Banks is author of A Civil War Road Trip Of A Lifetime and numerous magazine articles about the Civil War. Find them on Facebook at Author Tom McMillan and John Banks' Civil War Blog. Banks' popular Civil War blog is here.

In Episiode 39, author Linda Zimmerman talks with John Banks (co-host Tom McMillan will be back soon) about her book, A Civil War Soldier and Me, the story of 8th Connecticut Sergeant Albion Brooks. Zimmerman devoted 30 years of research and traveled thousands of miles to learn about Brooks, who survived the bloodbath at Antietam as a teen but died at Cold Harbor on June 3, 1864.

Months after Antietam, Brooks wrote, "Many poor fellows left with us who now are beneath the ground on the battlefield of Antietam. I have seen what it is to die a soldier’s death, and to be laid in a soldier’s grave."

Find Zimmerman's book on Amazon 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 the recently released The Year That Made America: From Rebellion to Independence and four other books. Banks is author of A Civil War Road Trip Of A Lifetime and numerous magazine articles about the Civil War. Find them on Facebook at Author Tom McMillan and John Banks' Civil War Blog. Banks' popular Civil War blog is here.

In Episode 38, Canadian and long-suffering Toronto Maple Leafs fan Devan Sommerville, a fan of our podcast, joins co-host John Banks (Tom McMillan was off) for a 15-minute chat about his obsession with the American Civil War. Without prompting, he mentions John's favorite spot on the Antietam battlefield and educates us about an unheralded Canadian tie to the battle.

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 the recently released The Year That Made America: From Rebellion to Independence and four other books. Banks is author of A Civil War Road Trip Of A Lifetime and numerous magazine articles about the Civil War. Find them on Facebook at Author Tom McMillan and John Banks' Civil War Blog. Banks' popular Civil War blog is here.

In a freewheeling Episode 37, Dr. Jennifer Murray — incoming director of the George Tyler Moore Center for the Study of the Civil War at Shepherd University — joins co-hosts Tom McMillan and John Banks talks about her new role as well as the role of General George Gordon Meade at Antietam. Plus, they have a lively discussion about Meade's old warhorse, Old Baldy.

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 the recently released The Year That Made America: From Rebellion to Independence and four other books. Banks is author of A Civil War Road Trip Of A Lifetime and numerous magazine articles about the Civil War. Find them on Facebook at Author Tom McMillan and John Banks' Civil War Blog. Banks' popular Civil War blog is here.

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.