Employment
2000-2011: History Department Chair and Instructor of History, St. Anne’s – Belfield School, Charlottesville, Virginia.
- Classes Taught: World History, AP American History, American History (survey), American Civil War, Civil War Memory, Abraham Lincoln’s Civil War, Women’s History, American Studies (co-taught), Race and Gender (co-taught)
1998-2000: Instructor of Philosophy and Dorm Parent, Alabama School of Mathematics and Science, Mobile, Alabama.
- Classes Taught: Introduction to Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion, Ethics, Metaphysics
1999-2000: Adjunct Instructor of Philosophy, Spring Hill College, Mobile, Alabama.
1998: Adjunct Instructor of Philosophy, Prince George’s Community College, Largo, Maryland.
Education
University of Richmond, M. A. History, 2005, Thesis: “The Battle of the Crater, William Mahone, and Civil War Memory, 1864-1937,” Advisor, Prof. Robert C. Kenzer
University of Maryland at College Park, M. A. Philosophy, 1994, Thesis: “Explanatory Competition in Historical Studies: The Controversy Over the American Revolution,” Advisor, Prof. Raymond Martin.
William Paterson College of New Jersey, B.A. 1992, History and Philosophy.
Books
Remembering the Battle of the Crater: War as Murder
Journal Articles and Book Chapters
[in-progress] A Historiographical Overview of Military Affairs in Virginia, 1861 in Aaron Sheehan-Dean, ed., A Companion to the U.S. Civil War, ed. (Wiley-Blackwell Books).
[in-progress] “Black Confederates in the Attic,” in The Journal of the Civil War Era (commissioned by the journal).
“‘When Johnny Comes Marching Home’: The Demobilization of Lee’s Army,” in William C. Davis and James I. Robertson eds., Virginia at War, 1865, (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 2011): 85-101.
“Using Ken Burn’s The Civil War in the Classroom [pdf],” The History Teacher, (November 2010): 9-19.
“‘Is There Not Glory Enough To Give Us All a Share?’: An Analysis of Competing Memories of the Battle of the Crater,” in Aaron Sheehan-Dean ed., The View From The Ground: Experiences of Civil War Soldiers, (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2007), 227-248.
“The Battle of the Crater, National Reunion, and the Creation of the Petersburg National Military Park, 1864-1937,” in Virginia Social Science Journal 41 (2006): 13-34.
“William Mahone, the Lost Cause, and Civil War History,” in Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 113 (2005): 379-412. Winner of the M. E. Rachal Prize for best overall article in 2005.
“‘On That Day You Consummated the Full Measure of Your Fame:’ Confederates Remember the Battle of the Crater, 1864-1903,” in Southern Historian 25 (2004): 18-39.
“‘Our Little Boy Colonel’: An Account of the Life of John Bowie Magruder,” in Magazine of Albemarle County History 60 (2002): 1-46. Winner of the Mary N. Rawlings Prize for best article in 2002.
Magazine, Newspaper, and Online Publications
“Teaching Civil War Mobilization With Film” Magazine of History (April 2012): 1-4.
“How the Men of ‘Glory’ Stood Up to the U.S. Government” The Atlantic (February 22, 2012).
“The Battlefield as Classroom” Op-ed, New York Times/Disunion, February 12, 2012.
“Not Your Grandfather’s Civil War Commemoration” The Atlantic (December 13, 2011).
“How Newt’s Novel Plays Politics With the Past,” The Atlantic (December 5, 2011).
co-author, Myra Chandler Sampson, “The Loyalty of Silas Chandler”, Civil War Times (February. 2012): 30-34.
“Black Confederate Soldiers? In Your Dreams” Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, Va), September 23, 2011.
“One Day, We’ll Commemorate 9-11 Like the Civil War“, History News Network, September 9, 2011.
“Teaching Civil War History 2.0” Op-ed, New York Times/Disunion, January 21, 2011.
“Blogging the American Civil War” Common-place Vol. 11, no. 1 (October 2010).
“‘Until Every Negro Has Been Slaughtered’: Did Southerners See the Battle of the Crater as a Slave Rebellion?” in Civil War Times (October 2010): 32-37.
“Has the Lost Cause Lost?” (Invited Letter to the Editor in Response to Christopher Clausen, “America’s Changeable Civil War” in Wilson Quarterly (Summer 2010): 7, 10.
Editorial on Confederate History Month in Civil War Times (June 2010): 44.
“Executing Justice” in Civil War Times (April 2010): 46-51.
“John C. Winsmith Letter, May 14, 1864,” Eyewitness of the Civil War, America’s Civil War, (September 2006): 11-14.
“Why the Civil War Still Matters,” in History News Network, Week of April 3, 2006.
“‘The Earth Seemed to Tremble’: Confederate Reactions to the Battle of the Crater,” in America’s Civil War (May 2006): 22-28.
“Using North and South Magazine in the Classroom,” in OAH Magazine of History (May 2005): 54-57.
“Davis Used Creative Tact at Court Martial,” in Washington Times, February 6, 1999, B3
“Sharpsburg Residents Endured Horrors of War,” in Washington Times, September 13, 1997, B3.
Encyclopedia Entries
“Robert A. Paul,” African-American National Biography, eds. Henry L. Gates and Evelyn Higginbotham, (Oxford University Press, 2008).
“Kansas-Nebraska Act,” The World of Frederick Douglass, vol. 2, eds, Diane Barnes and Paul Finkelman, (Oxford University Press, 2006).
“Peter Osterhaus,” Alexander Shimmelfennig,” and “Alexander Osboth,” Germany and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History ed. Thomas North, (ABC-Clio publishers, 2006).
“United States Colored Troops,” Encyclopedia of Emancipation and Abolition in the Trans-Atlantic World, ed. Junius P. Rodriguez, (M.E. Sharpe Publishers, 2005).
“Alabama,” “Freeport Doctrine,” “Fortress Monroe,” and “Battle of Mobile Bay,” Encyclopedia of the American Civil War, 5 vols, eds., Jeanne and David Heidler, (ABC-Clio Publishers, 2000).
Recent Book Reviews
Anthony J. Gaughan, The Last Battle of the Civil War: The United States v. Lee, 1861-1883 (Louisiana State University Press, 2010), Civil War Monitor (January 2012).
Earl J. Hess, Into the Crater: The Mine Attack at Petersburg (University of South Carolina Press, 2010), Civil War Book Review (Winter 2011).
Scott L. Mingus, The Louisiana Tigers in the Gettysburg Campaign , June-July 1863 (Louisiana State University Press, 2011) in Louisiana History (May 2010).
Russell A. McClintock, Lincoln and the Decision For War: The Northern Response to Secession (University of North Carolina Press, 2008) in Louisiana History (November 2010): 110-12.
A. Wilson Greene, Civil War Petersburg: Confederate City in the Crucible of War (University of Virginia Press, 2007) in Civil War History (December 2009): 505-06.
Richard Slotkin, No Quarter: The Battle of the Crater, 1864 (Random House, 2009), in Civil War Book Review (Fall 2009).
John F. Schmutz, The Battle of the Crater: A Complete History (McFarland Press, 2009) in H-Net.
Jeffry D. Wert, Cavalryman of the Lost Cause: A Biography of J.E.B. Stuart (Simon and Schuster) in Civil War Book Review (Spring 2009).
Over 50 reviews in: American Nineteenth-Century History, Civil War Book Review, Civil War History, Civil War Times Illustrated, Florida Historical Quarterly, Georgia Historical Quarterly, H-Net, Journal of Southern History, Louisiana History, North and South Magazine, North Carolina Historical Review, Northwest Ohio Quarterly, Pennsylvania History, South Carolina Historical Magazine, Southern Historian, Washington Times.
Awards and Honors
2011 – Civil War Memory blog Selected by Library of Congress to be Archived as Part of its Digital Collection
2010 – Inducted as Honorary Member of Cum Laude Society, St. Anne’s – Belfield School Chapter
2010 – Selected by Class of 2010 to Deliver the Final Graduation Day Chapel Sermon, St. Anne’s – Belfield School
2008 – Golden Apple Teaching Award, Better Living Inc
2007 – Cliopatria Award for Best Individual Blog
2005 – M. E. Rachal Award, Virginia Historical Society
2005 – Russell Weigley Award, Society for Military History
2004 – Award for best paper presented at regional meeting, Phi Alpha Theta, Virginia Regional Meeting
2004 – Award for best paper presented at annual meeting, Virginia Social Science Association
2003 – Yearbook Dedication Award, St. Anne’s – Belfield School
2002 – Mary N. Rawlings Prize, Albemarle County Historical Society
Professional Presentations
“Race, Labor, and Mobilization: Teaching the Civil War Through Film,” Annual Meeting of the Organization of American Historians, Milwaukee, WI, April 2012.
Panelist on Civil War Sesquicentennial Working Group sponsored by the American Association for State and Local History at the Annual Meeting of the Organization of American Historians, Milwaukee, WI, April 2012.
“Searching for Black Confederates in Popular Culture”, Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Annual Meeting, Boston, Massachusetts, April 2012.
“Searching for Black Confederates in History and Memory: The Case of Silas Chandler”, Annual Meeting of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, Richmond, Virginia, October 2011.
“Searching for Black Confederates in History and Memory” Historical Society of Western Virginia, Roanoke, Virginia, April 2011.
“‘When You’re Black, the Great Battlefield Holds Mixed Messages’: Discussing Race at the Petersburg National Battlefield” Conference on the Civil War Sesquicentennial and Public History at North Carolina State University, March 26, 2011.
Annual Meeting of College Communicators Association, University of Virginia, November 18-19, 2010, “How to Creatively Pitch to Alternative Media: A Panel Discussion”.
“Reflections on the Civil War Sesquicentennial in Virginia” sponsored by the Brunswick County Committee of the Virginia Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War, forum with Waite Rawls III and Christie Coleman, October 26, 2010.
“Mahone’s Brigade and the Defense of Petersburg”, The Civil War and American Society Seminar sponsored by Shepherd University and Pamplin Park, June 2010.
Moderator for panel on Southern History at the Annual Meeting of the Virginia Social Science Association, Virginia State University, March 27, 2010.
Moderator for panel on Public History, Slavery, and Slave Resistance at the Annual Meeting of the Southern Historical Association, Louisville, November 2009.
“Lincoln and the South”, The American Civil War Museum at Tredegar, Richmond, Virginia [I will be moderating a discussion on Lincoln and the South for teachers.], March 14, 2009.
“Blogging the American Civil War”, Society for Civil War Historians Annual Meeting at the Southern Historical Association, New Orleans, Louisiana, October 2008.
“Teaching Ken Burns in the Classroom”, Society for Civil War Historians Biennial Meeting, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, June 2008
“The Relevance of Lee Today“, University of Virginia Continuing Studies Program sponsored conference on “Lee at 200″ October 31, 2007.
“The Battle of the Crater, William Mahone, and Civil War Memory”, Conference on Civil War Memory, Shepherd University, June 2007.
Moderator for panel on Nineteenth-Century America, Annual meeting of the Virginia Social Science Association, University of Richmond, March 2007.
“Soldiers, Citizens, and Sources: The Uses of Civil War Soldiers in Writing U.S. History” (Roundtable), Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association, Atlanta, Georgia, January 2007.
“Why the Civil War Still Matters“, St. Anne’s – Belfield School in conjunction with the Virginia Festival of the Book, March 2006.
“Landscapes and the Lost Cause: An Analysis of the 1903 and 1937 Crater Reenactments”
- The Virginia Forum, Winchester, Virginia, March 2006
- Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association, Philadelphia Pennsylvania, January 2006.
“‘I Understand Our Men Just Chopped Them To Pieces”: Confederates Remember U. S. Colored Troops at the Crater”
- Conference on African Americans in the Civil War, Virginia State University, Petersburg, Virginia, May 2005.
- Annual Meeting of the Virginia Social Science Association, University of Richmond, March 2005.
“‘It Was a Sad Sight and One That Deeply Impressed Me’: An Analysis of Confederate Military Executions”
- Phi Alpha Theta Regional Conference, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia, April 2004.
- Annual Meeting of the Virginia Social Science Association, Virginia State University, Petersburg, Virginia, March 2004.
“William Mahone, the Lost Cause, and Civil War History”
- Annual Meeting of the Society of Military Historians, The Citadel, Charleston, South Carolina, February 2004
- Regional Meeting of the Organization of American Historians, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, July 2004.
“Douglas Southall Freeman’s Interpretation of Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia”, The Douglas S. Freeman History Conference, University of Richmond, February 2002.
“The Logic of Historical Explanation or Why There Are No Turning Points in History”, Annual Meeting of the Georgia Association of Historians, Georgia State University, Albany, April 2000.
“Was Gettysburg the Turning Point of the Civil War?”, History Day at the University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, April 1999.
History Education Presentations/Workshops
“Teaching Civil War Film: Where History and Hollywood Intersect” Annual Meeting of the Organization of American Historians, Milwaukee, WI, April 2012.
“From Civil War to Civil Rights” w/Professor Aaron Sheehan-Dean, West Virginia University [Teaching American History Grant Workshop for teachers from Virginia Beach], January 2012.
“Black Confederates and Media Literacy in the Classroom” and “Teaching Glory in the Classroom” Civil War Preservation Trust Annual Teachers Institute, July 2011.
“How to Teach the Tough Stuff: The Civil War, Reconstruction, and Historical Memory”, Virginia Beach, Virginia, March 2011.
“From Civil War to Civil Rights” w/Professor Fitzhugh Brundage, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill [Teaching American History Grant Workshop for teachers from Virginia Beach], January 2011.
Roundtable Discussion on teaching Civil War history and Social Media, Civil War Preservation Trust Annual Teachers Institute, July 2010.
“Civil War Memory in the Classroom” w/ Professor Robert Kenzer, University of Richmond [Teaching American History Grant Workshop for teachers from Charlotte County, Danville City, Halifax County, and Pittsylvania County Public Schools], February 20, 2009.
“Key Turning Points in the Civil War and Reconstruction” w/ Professor Thavolia Glymph, Duke University, Virginia Beach, Virginia [Teaching American History Grant Workshop], February 26, 2009.
Civil War Roundtable Presentations
Rockbridge County CWRT, Richmond CWRT, Charlottesville CWRT, Alexandria CWRT, Charlottesville CWRT, Phil Kearny CWRT (NJ), Eastern Loudoun County CWRT, Fauquier Country CWRT, Bucks Country CWRT (PA), Rappahannock Valley CWRT, Blue Ridge CWRT, Harpers Ferry CWRT, Worcester CWRT, Newburyport CWRT, Olde Colony CWRT.
Professional Activities
Digital History Advisor for The Civil War Monitor magazine, (2011-)
Writer for Valley Sim Project, Flip Learning, (2011-)
Commentary for documentary on black Confederates produced and directed by Ken Wyatt, 2010
Advisory Board, Schlager Group-Milestone Documents Series
Awards Committee: 2008 Peter Seaborg Award for Civil War Scholarship, Shepherd University
Editorial Advisory Board: Virginia Magazine of History and Biography (2008-10)
Advisory Council: Virginia Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission, (2007-)
Consultant: Monticello exhibit, “The Liberty Gallery” (2006-07)
Board of Directors: Virginia Social Science Association, (2004-2007), Secretary (2005-06)
Manuscript Reviewer: Virginia Social Science Journal, Magazine of Albemarle County History, Louisiana History, Virginia Magazine of History and Biography
Professional Affiliation
Organization of American Historian