2022 Symposium: The Soldier’s Civil War

Ordinary men, thrust into the epicenter of war, were faced with surviving as best they could. Wrestling with violence, loneliness, fear, death and racism, what means did they find for coping and how did their experiences impact their postwar lives? 

Parking is available on-site.
Parking will be validated when ticket is presented at the Museum front desk.

The event, moderated by Caroline E. Janney, Ph.D., Director of the Nau Civil War Center and John L. Nau III Professor in the History of the American Civil War, is presented in partnership with the Nau Civil War Center at the University of Virginia, and is sponsored by Americana Corner.

Symposium 2022: The Soldier’s Civil War

Examine how ordinary men, faced with violence, loneliness, fear, death, and for Black men racism; coped during the War; and how the impact of war affected their postwar lives. (Descriptions and detailed agenda below)

The impressive slate of speakers will examine how ordinary men, faced with violence, loneliness, fear of death, and for Black men racism, coped during the War and how the impact of war affected their postwar lives.

Presented in partnership with The John L. Nau Center for Civil War Studies at the University of Virginia. Sponsored by Americana Corner

Dr. Rob Havers, President and CEO, American Civil War Museum

Dr. Caroline Janney, John L. Nau III Professor in the History of the American Civil War; Director,  John L. Nau III Center for Civil War History

Peter Carmichael, Ph.D., Fluhrer Professor of Civil War Studies, Director of the Civil War Institute, Gettysburg College

The diverse ways in which Southern soldiers with minimal education experienced, perceived, and wrote about military service reveals a distinct cultural outlook from the ranks of Confederate armies. Like all men in the ranks, they struggled to make sense of war, but their letters, written as if spoken around a family table, reveal a condemnation of organized warfare as well as a radicalism unique to such letters.                     

Lesley J. Gordon, Ph.D., Charles G. Summersell Chair of Southern History, University of Alabama

Allegations of cowardice were serious and nearly impossible to clear; but few historians, until very recently, have thoroughly explored this topic. The story of the 2^nd Texas, and more broadly the study of cowardice, helps us to better understand the experience of war and its aftermath. 

Lorien Foote, Ph.D., Patricia & Bookman Peters Professor of History, Texas A&M University

In the winter of 1864, nearly 3,000 Union POWs escaped from Confederate prisons in the Carolinas.  Their journey not only revels Union soldier’s experiences in the final months of the war but also the transformation of the home front to a battle front inside the Confederacy.

Holly A. Pinheiro, Jr., Ph.D., Assistant Professor, History, Furman University

Counter to the narrative which championed the patriotic manhood of soldiering, research reveals that African American veterans and their families’ military experiences introduced economic and social instability which resonated for years and even generations after soldiers left the battlefield.

Jonathan Jones, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, History, Virginia Military Institute

In the Civil War’s wake, many veterans turned to opioids, and tens of thousands became addicted to the drugs. The opioid addiction crisis sparked by the Civil War affected veterans’ lives and reveals much about the war’s traumatic aftershocks in the postwar decades.

We are now pleased to offer a livestream option!