21st Annual Longwood University Civil War Seminar

The very first post, way back on March 3, 2009, on Random Thoughts on History, was my review of that year's version of the Longwood University's Civil War Seminar. 2009's version, its 10th annual, was on "Secret Missions and the UnCivil War." This year's edition, the 21st annual, is themed as "Lifting the Veil on Sundry Aspects of the Civil War." It will occur this coming Saturday, Feb. 1, at the Jarman Auditorium on the campus of Longwood. The event, like that in 2009 is free to the public. It includes an impressive lineup of speakers as shown below:

8:30 a.m. Doors open

9:00 a.m. Introduction by Dr. David Coles

9:10 a.m. John Coski: How Civil War Prisons Help Us Better Understand Pretty Much Everything About the Civil War

Civil War prisons typically are a sidebar to the textbook study of the War. Examined more closely, prisons and the prison experience shed light on nearly every aspect of the War – from the nation’s unpreparedness for a long war to the increasingly “hard” and uncivil war to the central importance of race to the experience of soldiering to the conflicting memories of the War. This program will explore these and other aspects of Civil War prisons.

10:15 a.m. Jonathan White: Dreams of War and Peace: The Remarkable Night Life of Civil War Americans

The Civil War placed new and unique strains on nineteenth-century Americans, and their nightly visions reflected those hardships. Sometimes the war intruded on people’s slumber, vividly bringing to life the horrors of the conflict. For others, nighttime was an escape from the hard realities of life and death in wartime. In this talk, Jonathan White will explore what dreams meant to Civil War-era Americans, and how their dreams reveal that generation’s deepest longings—their hopes and fears, desires and struggles, and guilt and shame. When Americans recorded their dreams in their diaries, letters and memoirs, they sought to make sense of the changing world around them, and to cope with the confusion, despair, and loneliness of life amid the turmoil of a war the likes of which they had never imagined.

11:30 a.m. Gary W. Gallagher: The Civil War in Film

The Civil War generation created four major memory traditions regarding the great American conflict--the Union Cause, the Emancipation Cause, the Lost Cause, and the Reconciliation Cause. Hollywood has drawn from those traditions in films that both shaped and reflected popular perceptions of the conflict. This lecture will examine how prominently each of the four traditions has figured in films between 1915 and the present.

12:30 p.m. Lunch

1:45 p.m. Elizabeth R. Varon Armies of Deliverance: Lincoln's Coalition for Winning the War

In her comprehensive history of the American Civil War, Varon, University of Virginia professor of American history, argues that the Union was motivated to fight not only to free the slaves, but also to redeem white Southerners from the tyranny of the planter class and the slaveholding economy. This politics of deliverance helped unify the North and contributed to the Union victory, but it failed to grapple with resistance from white Southerners who rejected the North’s terms and undermined Reconstruction. Interweaving military and social history, Varon offers new perspectives on the attitudes, goals, and frustrations of both sides.

2:45 p.m. Trevor K. Plante Civil War Records and Treasures at the National Archives

The presentation will highlight Civil War-era gems held at the National Archives. As well as provide an overview of records that are helpful to Civil War historians, educators, students, and family historians.

Schedule is subject to change