We examine the most powerful, influential and consequential propaganda campaign in American history, the Lost Cause myth of the Civil War. With religious-style fervor, Confederate apologists turned fiction into history, villains into heroes and created rationalizations for enslaving 4 million human beings. Several historians and authors are interviewed.

Mary Todd Lincoln is one of the most interesting characters in the Civil War. She turbocharged Abraham Lincoln's ambition, especially when his political career seemed at a low ebb. Yet her strong personality could rub people the wrong way. To better understand her, I interviewed one of the nation's premier experts on Abraham Lincoln, Michael Burlingame. He is the author of many books, including "An American Marriage: The Untold Story of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd." This book is diligently researched and thus sorts fact from rumor. Burlingame is a history professor at the University of Illinois - Springfield.

One of the most interesting and important characters in America's Civil War history is Henry Clay of Kentucky. Like Thomas Jefferson, he made antislavery statements and yet enslaved many people. Clay also was instrumental in developing compromises between slave states and anti-slave states. Though the compromises eventually had to fail -- there is no compromise on freedom -- the delays made possible the presidency of Abraham Lincoln. To understand Clay, I interviewed Eric Brooks, curator at Ashland, the Henry Clay Estate. The expertise of Brooks is on display here. Follow my website: civilwarsurvivor.com.