Abraham Lincoln, America's Greatest Political Orator

By Fred Nielsen

Public speaking was an essential part of Abraham Lincoln's political career. His debates with Stephen Douglas made him a national figure. His speeches as president -- especially the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural Address -- helped shape Americans' understanding of their country and chart a path toward reconciliation after the Civil War. Whether using humor, lawyer-like reason, or a Biblically-inspired prose that could verge on poetry, he was the nation's most eloquent president.

Abraham Lincoln: The Personal Side
By Spencer Davis
This is a Chautauqua-style program done in Lincoln costume. Davis uses Lincoln's departure from Springfield, Ill., as the occasion for Lincoln's reflections on his early life.

African-American Soldiers in the Civil War: Fighting on Two Fronts
By Spencer Davis
This program presents the story of African-American soldiers in battle and their struggle for equal treatment in the Union army. Black troops in uniform were often transformed by the experience. The presentation describes how black troops faced discrimination within the Union Army as well as Confederate attacks. A growing number of these soldiers' letters and articles have been discovered, and they form the basis for this presentation. 

A Civil War Irish Soldier’s Journey to Nebraska
By Charles E. Real
Real follows the very different paths of two brothers fleeing An Gorta Mor (Gaelic for the great hunger) only to face each other on opposite sides of the American Civil War. While one brother does not survive Shiloh’s killing fields, the other becomes an officer and later successful settler and businessman in Nebraska. The program is a commemoration of survival, war, and pioneering and reveals how this ex-soldier becomes financial backer to several North Dakota and Minnesota towns and his relationship to the Great Lakes ore ship Edmund Fitzgerald.

The Common Soldier in the Civil War
By Ron Rockenbach
Rockenbach brings to life the adventure and sacrifice of the Civil War with his description of how the war was fought and his display of uniforms, accoutrements and weapons that defined a soldier's life. The presentation may include a drill from the manual of arms and recordings of Civil War songs.

Completing, Remembering, and Forgetting the Civil War

By Fred Nielsen

The work of peace was, in its way, as difficult as the fighting of the Civil War. After Appomattox, divisive questions remained: What was the place of freed slaves? What was the federal government's responsibility to them? How would former Confederate states be readmitted to the Union? In the end, Americans put their country back together by often forgetting why they had fought in the first place. How they reconstructed a broken nation in the 19th century still shapes the United States in the 21st.

From Bleeding Kansas to Old Virginny: Songs and Stories of the Civil War
By Dan Holtz
For four years, the Civil War raged on such storied battlefields as Gettysburg and Antietam in the East to lesser-known places like La Glorieta Pass in New Mexico. With guitar and harmonica accompaniment, Holtz performs songs that express the war's wide variety of sentiments, issues and stories. The program includes some of the popular patriotic and sentimental parlor songs. Thus, the war is chronicled and tied to memorable excerpts from some of the great conflict's novels, poems and short stories. Holtz can also present the program as living history by portraying fictional Nebraska Territory settler Matthias Parker telling stories and anecdotes as though gleaned from newspapers of the day or from returning veterans. As Parker, Holtz comments on and quotes such personalities as Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee and John Brown.

General U.S. Grant
By Thomas N. King
Step back to the Civil War era and listen to tales and personal history from one of America's most famous generals. This Chautauqua-style portrayal takes Ulysses S. Grant from personal mediocrity to his promotion to the highest-ranking general in the Union Army. Complete with period costume, the presentation allows audiences to relive the war years through the eyes of General Grant.

General Victor Vifquain: Nebraska's 1st Medal of Honor Winner
By Jeffrey Smith
Victor Vifquain was the first European settler in Saline County. He was eager to put his Belgian military training into practice when the Civil War broke out, so he enlisted as a private in the 53rd New York Volunteer Infantry rather than wait for muster in Nebraska Territory. He received a Congressional Medal of Honor and was promoted to brigadier general for his exciting but unsuccessful attempt to kidnap Jefferson Davis. This presentation by Vifquain's great-grandson tells the story and adventures of this Belgian immigrant to Nebraska who participated in the Civil War and the Spanish-American War in the regiment of William Jennings Bryan.

The Great Body of the Republic: Abraham Lincoln and the Great Plains
By Kenneth Winkle
Abraham Lincoln considered the Great Plains important for America’s future. As president, however, Lincoln subordinated the interest of the Great Plains and the people who lived there because of his efforts to win the Civil War.  Professor Winkle investigates how Lincoln’s wartime policies changed the history of the Great Plains forever and left an indelible impression on the lives and culture of the people who live here today.

Lincoln Lore and Legend
By Spencer Davis
Abraham Lincoln rarely discussed his personal feelings or details of his early life; but in this re-enactment in costume by Spencer Davis, Lincoln sets the record straight. Set in the 1860 election, Lincoln deals with political controversies, as well as rail-splitting legends, the Ann Rutledge affair and other personal issues.

The "Little Dutchman's" Civil War: Translating Private August Scherneckau's Diary of the First Nebraska Volunteers, 1862-1865
By Edith Robbins
Civil War documents in the German language have not often been translated, yet they deserve much more attention since the participation of German immigrants in that war was extensive. August Scherneckau, the only volunteer from Hall County, left a comprehensive diary that gives an in-depth perspective on the experience of a Union soldier. Robbins describes the difficulties in translating such a document and reads excerpts from the diary.

Music of the Civil War

By David Marsh

Multi-instrumentalist Marsh brings the Civil War to life with songs and stories. Children and adults alike will enjoy, learn, and sing along to songs from both sides of this epic American conflict and hear the origins of patriotic songs like "Dear Old Dixie" and .the "Battle Hymn of the Republic."

Nebraska and the Civil War
By David Wells or Doug Rung
Few people realize that Nebraska was involved in one of the most tragic events in our history, the Civil War, from 1861-1865. The territory sent 1/3 of its male population to the war, and more than 200 died or were killed. After the war, thousands of veterans came to Nebraska. By 1890 more than 100,000 veterans lived here, and they played a major role in the development of Nebraska from a territory to statehood. They helped found many of the cities. This presentation looks at these early settlers and the role they played—geographically specific to the program site.

The Plains Tribes and the Homestead Act

By Nancy Gillis

While many tribes inhabited the immense tract of land called The Great Plains, interacting with their environment, neighboring tribes, and even European explorers and trappers for centuries, two decades prior to the American Civil War and the two decades following the Civil War brought tremendous changes due to increased tensions in the East and legislation enacted in Washington  – the Homestead Act of 1862.  Nancy Gillis will examine why and how these changes occurred on the Plains for the tribes  by looking at changes in foods, clothing, housing, family structure, gender roles, land control, and political relationships.

President U.S. Grant
By Thomas N. King
Step back to the Gilded Age and listen to the stories and personal history from one of America's most popular and yet misunderstood Presidents. This Chautauqua-style portrayal takes President Ulysses S. Grant from personal mediocrity to his promotion to the highest-ranking general in the Union Army to his election as the eighteenth President of the United States. Complete with period costume, the presentation allows audiences to relive the two controversial presidential terms through the eyes of Ulysses S. Grant.

Robert Ramsay Livingston, M.D.
By John Schleicher
Schleicher shares the story of Dr. Robert Ramsay Livingston of Plattsmouth, one of the outstanding pioneer figures in Nebraska medicine.  Livingston began practicing medicine in Plattsmouth in 1859, captained the First Nebraska Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War, helped organize the Nebraska State Medical Society and was one of the first delegates from Nebraska to the American Medical Association.  Among varied accomplishments, he served as Chief Surgeon of the Burlington Railroad in Nebraska, Mayor of Plattsmouth, and President of the Faculty of the Omaha Medical College. Schleicher can present the program as living history by portraying Dr. Livingston in period attire or as a lecture presentation.