Virginia Historical Society Podcast

On April 25, 2019, Aaron Sheehan-Dean delivered the Banner Lecture, "The Calculus of Violence: How Americans Fought the Civil War." At least three-quarters of a million lives were lost during the American Civil War. Given its seemingly indiscriminate mass destruction, this conflict is often thought of as the first "total war." Aaron Sheehan-Dean's latest books, The Calculus of Violence, demonstrates that this notoriously bloody war could have been much worse. Military forces on both sides sought to contain casualties inflicted on soldiers and civilians. In congress, in church pews, and in letters home, Americans debated the conditions under which lethal violence was legitimate, and their arguments differentiated carefully among victims: women and men, black and white, enslaved and free. Sometimes, these well-meaning restraints led to more carnage by implicitly justifying the killing of people who were not protected by the laws of war. As the Civil War raged on, the Union's confrontations with guerrillas and