From the Editor
Third grade. I could hardly believe it. Wearing his favorite shirt, my youngest son, Maxwell, climbed onto the school bus to start third grade. Where has the time flown?
My first Civil War memories actually date back to third grade. I was in Mr. Leader’s class at Hershey Elementary School, and we went to Gettysburg on a field trip. My passion for the war did not ignite until decades later, but that trip gave me my first exposure.
I head back to school myself the first week of September—a relatively late start for the fall semester for me. I have a writing class to teach as well as a class on the Civil Rights movement and the media. I look forward to getting back into the routine.
Back-to-school season also usually means the start of a busy travel season for me. Five or six roundtables have regularly tapped me as the lead-off speaker for their seasons, and October and November have been pretty busy months for travel, too. But this year, I’ve scaled way back. One day about a year and a half ago, right after I headed out the door for a talk, Maxwell turned to my wife and asked, “How come Daddy has to keep leaving all the time?” Jenny recounted the story to me after I got home, and after a family discussion, we decided I would stay home more.
I spent last year fulfilling obligations I’d previously made but otherwise began declining most invitations. It's tough to say "no" to friends I've made over the years who are kind enough to invite me back. If I can get someplace and back in a day, those are easier to say “yes” to, but I really want to be home so I can help get Maxwell onto the bus in the mornings.
This has called to mind a common refrain I hear from a lot of Roundtables: “We need to get more young people involved.” While we could arm-chair quarterback that comment round and round, my experience with Maxwell reminds me that many young people have kids at home, and those kids require a lot of time, attention, and rides to soccer practice (or play rehearsal or band camp or karate or whatever). I happen to be an older dad; otherwise, it might be easy for someone my age to forget just how time-intensive parenting is.
So, perhaps the lesson there is “Don’t despair about young people.” They’re busy—but at some point, the kids go off to college and mom and dad have more free time. And at that point, they are older and wiser enough to appreciate history in a way they didn’t when they were younger and more harried by their children, and roundtables can offer a chance to get out of the house and do something.
And suddenly, they’re wondering, “Gosh, wasn’t he just in third grade? Where has the time flown?”
— Chris Mackowski, Ph.D.
Editor-in-Chief, Emerging Civil War
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Look Ahead: Mark Your Calendars!
Look Back: Relive the Good Times!
It's not too early to get your tickets for the 12th Annual Emerging Civil War Symposium at Stevenson Ridge, August 7-9, 2026. Our theme will be "Partnerships & Rivalries" with keynote speakers Harold Holzer and Craig Symonds. Early bird tickets are just $275 and can be purchased here.
If you missed out on the fun this year, you can check our recap on the blog. Also, thanks to our social media team, we have a series of interviews with a number of our speakers and other special guests. You can watch those videos on the ECW YouTube page.
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Eight Questions
with Kris White
ECW is pleased to welcome back co-founder Kris White as our chief historian. Kris helped kick this whole thing off back in the summer of 2011 and also served as our founding chief historian. You can read his full bio here.
How did you get interested in the Civil War?
I often joke that I was born to do this. My mom went into labor with me as she was watching Gone With the Wind. In that case, you'd think I'd be a die-hard Lost Causer. More accurately, it was because of my father's love of cars. He attended the car shows at Carlisle, PA, and my Uncle Jerry found a place for us to stay in Gettysburg, the old College Motel. The family would head down in the late spring and summer for the shows. We stayed at Gettysburg and toured the battlefield. I was more interested in the battle and the battlefield than the cars. Over time, we branched out and visited sites such as Antietam, Harpers Ferry, and Fredericksburg. My parents embraced my love for history.
What's your favorite topic to study and why?
If you are asking about the Civil War era, it's the command relationships between the various officers and politicians, as well as the early efforts to professionalize the United States Army. What training did they receive? Who and what did they read? How was operational and grand strategy being formulated? When did the US Army shift from being a Jominian army to a Clausewitzian army, and is this even the case? What were the long-term impacts of the war politically, militarily, and logistically? The bigger picture stuff.
The post-war use of the battlefields is absolutely fascinating. They were used for everything from sci-ops training to POW camps to tank training grounds for future conflicts.
If you are asking about my overall favorite history topic, it's the World Wars, specifically how the First World War led to the Second World War, how Hitler and other fascists were allowed to come to power and then thrive in the interwar period, and the long-term implications of both conflicts. I love to read about everything from D-Day to the lives of Eisenhower and Churchill. Ike was a huge Civil War buff. A book I can't recommend enough is William L. Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany. Shirer was a news correspondent in Berlin before the war and interacted with many well-known personalities. Some historians aren't a fan of his work due to the lack of footnotes and his interjection of personal feelings, but it's a fascinating read.
In the end, people seem to forget that we are not that far removed, in terms of time, from those conflicts, and they still shape the world map and global politics to this day. The Civil War shaped the American armies that went on to fight in the Spanish-American War and World War I. Many officers of the WWII generation took part in prewar staff rides at Malvern Hill, Gettysburg, Antietam, and Chickamauga. Ike had pictures of Lee, Lincoln, Washington, and Franklin in the Oval Office. The threads of history stretch far and wide, and the Civil War had a profound impact on American involvement in the World Wars, with America having an even greater impact shaping the post-war peace.
Are you working on any projects at the moment?
Yes, and lots of them. I'm in the process of cleaning up the new editions of Fight Like the Devil and Don't Give an Inch—books about Days 1 & 2 at Gettysburg. I'm co-authoring a book with Mackowski about Pickett's Charge. That should be available in 2026. After that, I have two other personal projects on the burner.
For the American Battlefield Trust, I am completing a new edition of our Maps of the Revolutionary War with Steve Stanley. We are also pulling together a Maps of the Antietam Campaign book, and a new edition of our Maps of the Eastern Theater Vol. 1. This is in addition to building out a new podcast for the Trust and a few really cool video projects in the coming year.
Lightning Round
Favorite primary source?
The Bill of Rights, the Constitution of the United States, the Bayeux Tapestry, and soldier graffiti (doesn’t matter which war).
Favorite Civil War-related monument?
Nice try. I'm not stepping on that third rail.
For those of you who don't know, I spent years leading a project that cataloged monuments, and I lead tours in the US and Europe. I've seen and studied literally thousands of monuments, markers, and memorials of all shapes and sizes. It's the obscure and strange monuments that I find most fascinating, like the monument to George Washington's tent at Valley Forge. You know that you are famous when your tent has a memorial.
My favorite strange "monument" is in Salzburg, Austria. More specifically on a corner of a building on Salzburg’s Steingasse (Stone Alley). An American soldier supposedly tried to drive his tank down the alley to the "Maison de Plaisir," a brothel. The tank was too wide, and it smashed into the side of a building and became stuck. The locals left the tank-shaped damage in the building to this day as a reminder of their American occupiers. Is it true that the soldier was on his way to the house of ill repute? We don't know for sure, but the locals still tell the tale.
One of my favorite obscure monuments is in Munich, Germany, the Drückebergergasse or "Shirker's Alley." The alley's real name is the Viscardigasse, and it runs behind the former Nazi memorial to the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, named the “Mahnmal der Bewegung” (Memorial of the Movement). Citizens of Munich under the reign of the Third Reich were forced to give the Nazi salute as they passed the Nazi memorial to the idiotic failed uprising that had all of the makings of an Italian comic opera rather than a full-blown political movement. Those who didn't support the Nazis would use Shirker's Alley to avoid the memorial and having to give the Nazi salute. Today, you can follow in the footsteps of the shirkers (those with the courage to defy the Nazi edict) by following along bronze cobblestones that were installed in 1955. The Memorial of the Movement was removed at the end of World War II.
I could go on and on and tell you about a relocated French plague cross that now stands as a tribute in Belgium at the Le Carrefour des Roses near Ypres, Belgium, and honors the victims of another plague—chemical warfare; or a simple memorial consisting of some stone and a single propeller blade to the crew of an RAF Lancaster Bomber shot down over Giverny, France, on D-Day Plus One.
If you're looking for a sort of Civil War monument, I'd say the "No North, No South" Monument at Guilford Courthouse National Military Park. It honors George Washington and Nathaniel Greene in a post-CW reconciliatory fashion. Guilford also contains its own strange marker, the “No Tablet Marker.” The purpose and meaning of this marker remain unknown.
Favorite unsung hero of the Civil War era?
The modern-day archivists who are working to digitize tens of thousands of primary documents. Not only are they preserving these items for future generations, but they are also making them accessible to the masses for the first time.
Honorable mentions:
David McConaughy. He was an early proponent of the battlefield preservation movement. Gettysburg may not be the American Valhalla that it is today without his early efforts.
James E. Hanger, the founder of J.E. Hanger, Inc., and an innovator in prosthetics.
Nathan Kimball. Dude beat Lee and Jackson.
What’s a bucket-list Civil War site you’ve not yet visited?
I'm not sure that I have one. I've had the opportunity to do some truly remarkable things in my career, from visiting the depths of Alcatraz to climbing to the roof of the old Vicksburg Courthouse. Do you know if visiting the basement of the Alamo counts?
Favorite book by an ECW author (that isn't you)?
Protecting the Flank: The Battles of Brinkerhoff's Ridge and East Cavalry Field by Eric J. Wittenberg
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Chris Mackowski and Kris White have been named inaugural members of the Gettysburg History Council, an initiative of the Adams County (PA) Historical Society in Gettysburg. The Council consists of “a network of distinguished scholars, authors, filmmakers, and interpreters who have shaped public understanding of this remarkable place [Gettysburg].”
Neil Chatelain just had the article "Charleston's 'Special Expedition' Torpedo Rowboats" in the Summer 2025 issue of Civil War Navy—The Magazine. He is also back on campus making final preparations for the fall semester to start.
Doug Crenshaw will be leading some Seven Days, North Anna and Cold Harbor tours in September.
Kevin C. Donovan had published this month “A Historiographical Case Study: Challenging the ‘Last Reunion’ Legend of Gen. Carnot Posey, Dr. John Staige Davis, and 33 West Lawn,” Magazine of the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society, of the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society, Volume 82 (2024) (exploring the often-repeated story that Gen. Posey died in the same University of Virginia room in which he had lived as a law student in 1836–37 while being cared for by his former roommate).
Chris Mackowski contributed a pair of articles to On the Front Line, the preservation magazine published by the Central Virginia Battlefield Trust. One article profiled the oft-overlooked Maj. Gen. John G. Parke, the IX Corps chief of staff who eventually commanded the corps. A second article recounted the history of a piece a land on the Spotsylvania Court House (Virginia) battlefield that is currently the target of preservation efforts.
In July, Chris participated on a panel discussion about the pop culture legacy of the movie Gettysburg presented by the American Battlefield Trust. He also conducted an interview with best-selling author Jeff Shaara as the keynote session for the Trust’s annual virtual Teacher Institute. (You can listen to that interview as a podcast from the American Battlefield Trust.)
Tonya McQuade will be giving several book talks in September and October about her book, A State Divided: The Civil War Letters of James Calaway Hale and Benjamin Petree of Andrew County, Missouri. All of the presentations will be to various Civil War Round Table groups in California. Email her at tonyagrahammcquade@gmail.com for specific details about locations if you would like to attend any of those talks.
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Tonya was also excited to finally visit Gettysburg National Military Park for the first time after attending the ECW Symposium. She and her husband Mike met ECW writer and Pennsylvania native Evan Portman at the Visitor Center on August 4, and he gave them an excellent driving tour and introduction to the park. She was especially excited to see the Irish Brigade monument (she wrote about the Irish Brigade in this earlier ECW post after visiting Dublin, Ireland, and hearing the song "Paddy's Lament," which she also wrote about here). They all ended the day with a delicious dinner at the historic Dobbin House in Gettysburg. She wants to thank Evan again for showing them around!
| | Joe Ricci made a stop at his old stomping grounds in Franklin just in time to see demolition of a recently acquired piece of property that had stood as a blight on the edge of the battlefield near the Carter house. Check out a pair of video's Joe made while on site, here and here. | | |
While enjoying a few days relaxing in Maine’s Rangeley Lakes Region, Brian Swartz checked out the Civil War monument in Phillips, a small town tucked in the northwestern mountains. Although it’s a simple marble shaft with an appropriate inscription, this monument is the fourth Civil War monument Brian has "found" that is not listed on the State of Maine's official website about Civil War monuments in Maine. Phillips' residents are quite familiar with their town's monument, naturally. Brian will post about the Phillips monument on his Maine at War blog and YouTube channel.
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Tim Talbott's article "Advertising Agency: The Historical Value of Kentucky's Enslaved Runaway Advertisements" appeared in the just released Winter 2025 issue of The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society's special edition, "Rethinking Emancipation and Abolition in Kentucky." On August 6, Tim joined CVBT colleauge and fellow ECW contributor Terry Rensel for "Town Talk" with host Ted Schubel on WFVA 1230AM to discuss CVBT's current projects and the community importance of battlefield preservation and interpretation. Tim also led a three-day tour of Petersburg and Appomattox Campaign sites from August 8–10.
In the Photo: Tim at the Poplar Grove National Cemetery (Petersburg) grave of Corp. Frederick Pettit, 100th PA Inf., who produced an excellent collection of published letters titled Infantryman Pettit.
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Things YOU Can Do to Help ECW
As ECW supporters, you can help us spread the word about all the cool things we have going on.
“Like” and comment on blog posts. (“Liking” helps with search engine algorithms and it helps build audience. Commenting helps reinforce the ECW sense of community.)
Follow ECW on social media. Engage with individual ECW members who are active on social media, too.
If you read a book by an ECW author, take the time to review it on Amazon.com. (It helps drive book sales.)
Subscribe to the ECW Podcast and the ECW YouTube page. (It helps build audience.
Talk to folks from your Roundtable about ECW—the blog, the podcast, and the social media channels. (It builds readership.)
Encourage your Roundtable to take advantage of the Emerging Civil War Speakers Bureau. (It promotes “emerging voices.”)
Open the ECW newsletter when it arrives in your email. (It improves our open rate.) — And if you haven’t subscribed to it yet, please do! Open the newsletter from our website and click the “Join Our Email List” button at the top.
Financially support ECW through our Patreon page or by making an online donation. (It helps keep the lights on!) — Remember, your gift to ECW is tax-deductible. Visit www.patreon.com/emergingcivilwar.
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Check out the Emerging Civil War webstore on our website.
You can order goodies for the Civil War enthusiasts in your family: t-shirts, polos, cups, hats, books, and much more!
We'll have new swag coming soon, too, so keep a look out.
Visit the website store to order today.
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ECW Multimedia
On the Emerging Civil War Podcast in August, Chris Mackowski was joined by
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Jonathan White, who concluded our Cities of War series with a discussion of his book New York City in the Civil War (listen here) (and, if you missed them, you can check out all the podcasts in that series here)
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Kris White, who talked about fighting on Culp's Hill at Gettysburg and the book he co-authored on the topic with Chris, Stay and Fight It Out (listen here)
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Historian Jeffrey Harding and meteorologist Jon Nese, who talked about their ground-breaking research in their new book The Weather Gods Cursed the Gettysburg Campaign (listen here)
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Kevin Donovan and Kevin Pawlak, who discussed the court-martial of Maj. Gen. Fitz John Porter in the wake of Second Manassas (listen here)
You can listen for free on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, or at https://emergingcivilwar.com/the-emerging-civil-war-podcast/.
You can find video versions of these podcasts and other exclusive interviews and content on our YouTube page, including a series of interviews with speakers from this year's ECW Symposium.
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Emerging Revolutionary War News
August 1780 saw one of the worst defeats for the American cause in the American Revolution. At Camden, South Carolina, Horatio Gates led his mixed Continental and militia forces to defeat against Lord Charles Cornwallis's forces. Although the battle happened 245 years ago, history is still unfolding there. So, Emerging Revolutionary War invites you to visit the blog, check out some of the past articles, and then venture down there to see history before your eyes. But, before you do, check out one of the volumes of the popular Emerging Revolutionary War Series penned by Rob Orrison and Mark Wilcox All That Can Be Expected to prepare.
In addition, the popular "Rev War Revelry" continues every other Sunday on Facebook. If you happen to miss it, don't worry: the videos get posted to the Emerging Revolutionary War's YouTube page, so go subscribe when you are done reading this newsletter.
As always check out the blog for great content as the United States moves through its 250th celebration: www.emergingrevolutionarywar.org.
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You Can Help Support Emerging Civil War
Emerging Civil War is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization. If you’re interested in supporting “emerging voices” by making a tax-deductible donation, you can do so by visiting our website: www.emergingcivilwar.com; you can mail us a check at the address below (make checks payable to "Emerging Civil War"); or you can make a gift through PayPal.
Thank you!
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September
6: Jon-Erik Gilot, "The Upper Ohio Valley and John Brown's Raid," Underground Railroad Museum, Flushing, OH
8: Curt Fields, The Northeast Indiana CWRT, Fort Wayne, IN
9: Curt Fields, President Grant will address his successes and failures, Civil War Round Table of Southwest Michigan, Saint Joseph, MI
10: Kevin C. Donovan, “The Court Martial of Fitz John Porter: Fair or Fixed?”, Jersey Shore CWRT, Toms River, NJ
11: Tonya McQuade, “A State Divided: The Civil War Letters of James Calaway Hale and Benjamin Petree of Andrew County, Missouri,” San Joaquin Valley CWRT in Clovis, CA
13: Chris Mackowski, Spotsylvania battlefield tour, Central Virginia Battlefields Trust tour
17: Joe Ricci, John Bell Hood and his postwar years, New Orleans (LA) Civil War Round Table
18: Chris Mackowski, "The Rise of Stonewall Jackson," Hampton Roads Civil War Roundtable, Virginia Beach
18: Neil P. Chatelain, "Unpacking the Civil War's Most Misunderstood Naval Engagement: The Head of Passes, October 12, 1861," 2025 McMullen Naval History Symposium, U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD.
19–21: Curt Fields, Van Raalte Farm Civil War Muster, Holland, MI
23: Curt Fields, General Grant and General Pemberton (Morgan Gates) will discuss the siege and surrender of Vicksburg, CWRT Congress’s Giving Tuesday event @ 7 p.m. EDT/4 p.m. PDT (Please join us and contribute to the cause of the CWRT Congress and the American Battlefield Trust!)
24: Chris Mackowski, "Stonewall Jackson's Greatest Hits," Buffalo (NY) Civil War Roundtable
23: Kevin Pawlak, "Antietam Endgame," Williamsburg CWRT
25: Derek Maxfield, Gettysburg CWRT, Gettysburg, PA
27: Curt Fields, The National Society of Dames of the Court of Honor Annual National Conference, Little Rock, AR
27: Tim Talbott, "We Look Like Men of War: USCTs and the Richmond–Petersburg Campaign of 1864-65," 161st Anniversary of the Battle of New Market Heights event to be held at the Varina Ruritan Club
October
4–5: Curt Fields, Dover (TN) Relic Show
8: Chris Mackowski, Lynchburg (VA) CWRT
14: Curt Fields, General Grant and General Beauregard (Larry McCluney, Jr.) will discuss their “meeting” at Shiloh, CWRT Congress’s Giving Tuesday event @ 7 p.m. EDT/4 p.m. PDT (Please join us and contribute to the cause of the CWRT Congress and the American Battlefield Trust!)
15: Kevin C. Donovan, “The Court Martial of Fitz John Porter: Fair or Fixed?” York CWRT, York, PA
15: Curt Fields, “Unconditional Surrender”: The Book, Civil War Talks Zoom program (open to the public)
16: Derek Maxfield, Miami CWRT (virtual)
18: Curt Fields, "Grant Speaks," Georgetown, OH
18: Tonya McQuade, “A State Divided: The Civil War Letters of James Calaway Hale and Benjamin Petree of Andrew County, Missouri,” San Diego CWRT in San Diego, CA
20: Daniel Welch, "Battle of Secessionville," Inland Empire Civil War Round Table, (Virtual)
21: Curt Fields, Grant in the Western Theatre, Twin Cities CWRT, Eden Prairie, MN (on the new telegraph of ZOOM)
21: Tonya McQuade, “A State Divided: The Civil War Letters of James Calaway Hale and Benjamin Petree of Andrew County, Missouri,” Peninsula CWRT in Redwood City, CA
24: Curt Fields, "Remembering Sam Clemens," Civil War Roundtable Congress, “Fridays with Grant” (on the new telegraph of ZOOM)
25: Madeline Feierstein, ""St. Elizabeths Asylum: Civil War Care at the Hospital for the Insane," Lee-Fendall House Museum, Alexandria, VA
Oct. 31—November 1: Curt Fields, Civil War Days, Johnsonville State Historic Park, Johnsonville, TN
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