Illinois Public Media News
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WILL Newscast
How Sherman’s March to the Sea became ‘America’s largest emancipation’
Among the most famous episodes in the Civil War is General William Sherman’s “March to the Sea.” It split the Confederacy in half and helped bring about the end of the war.
Less well known is that the march led to the emancipation of as many as 20,000 people who’d been enslaved. Although Sherman himself was quite racist, these men, women and children joined the march — effectively making up the rear guard of “Uncle Billy’s army.”
Their perspective is at the center of the book “Somewhere Toward Freedom: Sherman’s March and the Story of America’s Largest Emancipation,” by the historian Bennett Parten. Parten will be giving a talk on his book at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday (Oct. 7, 2026) at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois.
After federal funding, cuts and ‘rage giving’ at Illinois public media stations
It's been one year since the Corporation for Public Broadcasting began winding down. That came after the Trump administration realized a longtime conservative goal of ending federal funding for public radio and television in America.
Since then, hundreds of NPR, PBS and independent stations across America have been working to carry on. We'll check in with the leaders from three Illinois stations: in Champaign-Urbana, Charleston, and Macomb.
NPR president Katherine Maher on a year without federal funding
It's been one year since the Corporation for Public Broadcasting began winding down. That came after the Trump administration realized a longtime conservative goal of ending federal funding for public radio and television in America.
Since then, NPR has had buyouts and layoffs and programming changes, but CEO Katherine Maher says as difficult as that's been, she hopes it's not led to noticeable differences for listeners.
