Chris Mackowski
Co-Founder of Emerging Civil War Blog
Editor in Chief
Chris Mackowski, Ph.D., is the editor-in-chief and co-founder of Emerging Civil War and the series editor of the award-winning Emerging Civil War Series, published by Savas Beatie. Chris is a writing professor in the Jandoli School of Communication at St. Bonaventure University in Allegany, NY, where he also serves as associate dean for undergraduate programs. Chris is also historian-in-residence at Stevenson Ridge, a historic property on the Spotsylvania battlefield in central Virginia. He has worked as a historian for the National Park Service at Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park, where he gives tours at four major Civil War battlefields (Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Wilderness, and Spotsylvania), as well as at the building where Stonewall Jackson died.
Chris has authored or co-authored nearly two dozen books and edited a half-dozen essay collections on the Civil War, and his articles have appeared in all the major Civil War magazines. Chris serves on the board of directors for the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust and on the advisory board of the Civil War Roundtable Congress and the Brunswick (NC) Civil War Roundtable—the largest in the country. He is also a member of the Antietam Institute and the U. S. Grant Homestead Association. In 2023, he was honored with the Houston Civil War Round Table’s Frank Vandiver Award and also selected as the Copie Hill Fellow at the American Battlefield Trust.
A full listing of Chris’s Emerging Civil War articles can be found here.
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Chris is also a member of the Emerging Civil War Speakers Bureau. Of note, Chris’s many roles entail a great number of responsibilities, so he has only a very limited availability for speaking engagements. His available presentations are listed below:
The Last Days of Stonewall Jackson
Jackson’s loss has been called one of the major turning points of the war. Follow his last days, from his flank attack at Chancellorsville and his accidental wounding by how own men, to the amputation of his arm and his final journey over the river to rest under the shade of the trees.
That Furious Struggle: Chancellorsville and the High Tide of the Confederacy
For three days in May 1863, the tiny wilderness intersection of Chancellorsville became the most important crossroads in America. A campaign that began with Joe Hooker’s “perfect” plans ended up being remembered as “Lee’s Greatest Victory.”
Stonewall Jackson at Gettysburg
It’s the most-asked ‘What If’ of the Civil War: What if Stonewall Jackson had been at Gettysburg? It’s not just an impossible question to answer (because Jackson was dead) but because it would have been such an impossible scenario to begin with. Let’s look at all the reasons why, which may help up better understand some of the assumptions people make when they ask the question in the first place.
Second-Guessing Richard Ewell: The First Day at Gettysburg
It might be the most-second-guessed decision of the war: On July 1, 1863, Confederate Lt. Gen. Richard Ewell decided it was not “practicable” to storm the Union position at Gettysburg after a hard day of fighting. As a result, history has scapegoated Ewell for the Confederate loss there, and critics have loudly wondered, “If Stonewall Jackson had been there.” But Ewell made a militarily sound decision – as a look at the facts will show.
The Great Battle Never Fought: Mine Run
Facing immense political pressure to engage the Army of Northern Virginia in battle, George Gordon Meade spent the fall of 1863 instead engaged in cat-and-mouse generalship with Robert E. Lee. The season came to a head along the banks of a small stream called Mine Run, where Meade chose to sacrifice himself instead of his men.
The ANV’s B-Team: Robert E. Lee’s Second String in the 1864 Overland Campaign
1864 brought a new kind of war to Virginia. Robert E. Lee was already down one of his top lieutenants and would soon lose his others. Without the famous triumvirate – Longstreet, Jackson, and Stuart – Lee would have to rely on a “B-Team” that would not be up to the task.
Hell Itself: The Battle of the Wilderness
The Wilderness holds a place all its own in Civil War lore: as Lee and Grant clashed for the first time, the “dark, close wood” seemed impenetrable and mysterious. As the armies slaughtered each other, the forest around them burned.
A Season of Slaughter: The Battle of Spotsylvania’s Bloody Angle
For twenty-two straight hours, in torrential downpours, up to their knees in mud and blood, Federals and Confederates slugged it out in the most intense sustained hand-to-hand combat of the war. A panoply of horror, one soldier called it. A Saturnalia of blood. Hell’s Half-Acre. The slaughter pen of Spotsylvania. Most remember it simply as the Bloody Angle.
Fearless of All Danger: Brig. Gen. Thomas Greely Stevenson
As a short-tenured division commander in the most underperforming Federal corps in the East, commanded by one of the most lampooned Union generals, along the least-known front of the battle of Spotsylvania Court House, it’s little wonder that Thomas Greely Stevenson is barely remembered today or that his death gets little mention. He deserves a closer look.
Strike Them a Blow: Battle Along the North Anna River
The most overlooked segment of the Overland Campaign also represented some of the best chances both generals had for destroying each other’s armies – but the war of attrition had taken a personal toll on the commanders, peppering the North Anna River with lost opportunities.
“I Am Too Late”: The Battle of Jackson, Mississippi, During the Vicksburg Campaign
Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston arrived in Mississippi’s capital just in time to abandon it as Federal commander Ulysses S. Grant made an unexpected turn toward the city. “I am too late,” Johnston declared. Originally unplanned, the battle of Jackson proved to be a vital part of Grant’s overland campaign to capture Vicksburg.
Moments of Contingency and the Rise of U.S. Grant
U.S. Grant finished one volume of his memoirs with the aftermath of Vicksburg and opened the second with the battle of Chattanooga. Not only did that point serve as a convenient break for Grant in his narrative, it marked the turning point in his career. Vicksburg closed one chapter, while Chattanooga began another.
Grant’s Last Battle: The Story Behind The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant
Facing financial ruin and struggling against terminal throat cancer, Ulysses S. Grant fought his last battle to preserve the meaning of the American Civil War. His war of words, The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, would cement his place as not only one of America’s greatest heroes but also as one of its most sublime literary voices.
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Publications:
Emerging Civil War Series (author):
Hell Itself: The Battle of the Wilderness, May 4-7, 1864. Savas Beatie. (April 2016)
Strike Them a Blow: Battle Along the North Anna River. Savas Beatie. (June 2015)
Other Books:
The Battle of Jackson, Mississippi, May 14, 1963. (Savas Beatie, August 2022)
Articles:
“The Vicksburg Question: Why Exactly was Robert E. Lee so Opposed to Sending Help to Mississippi in 1863?” America’s Civil War, September 2021.
“The Ultimate Price: A Common Farmer from Virginia and a Millionaire General from New York Transcended the Horrors of the Wilderness Through Simple Acts of Decency.” Co-authored with Kristopher D. White. America’s Civil War, March 2021.
“The Stonewall Jackson Death Site.” On the Front Line, Winter 2020.
“‘Roadside Attraction’ Jackson: The History of Stonewall Jackson’s Memorialization Around Chancellorsville is Deeply Rooted in Tourism.” Civil War Times, February 2020 (cover story).
“John Griffiths.” (profile of Ulysses S. Grant’s great-great-grandson) On the Front Line, Summer 2019.
“Saving Spotsylvania.” On the Front Line, Winter 2019.
“Certain Death: Day 5.—The battle of the Mule Shoe at Spotsylvania.” Hallowed Ground, Winter 2017.
“Stonewall’s Greatest Joy.” Civil War Times, August 2017.
“Explore North Anna: Opportunity Lost.” Civil War Times, April 2017.
“Another Butchery: The Third and Final Union Attack on Spotsylvania’s ‘Bloody Angle’ Accomplished Little Aside from Swelling the Casualty Lists.” Civil War Times, December 2015. Co-authored with Kristopher D. White.
“Burnside’s Bleak Midwinter: The Reluctant General from Rhode Island Nearly Ruined the Army of the Potomac.” America’s Civil War, January 2014 (cover story). Co-authored with Albert Conner, Jr.
“How in the World Did They Shoot Jackson?: It’s difficult now to imagine just what went wrong at Chancellorsville.” America’s Civil War, May 2013 (cover story). Co-authored with Kristopher D. White.
“Mystery in the Wilderness: The War’s Most Famous Appendage Has a Following All Its Own.” Civil War Times, April 2013 (cover story).
“Before the Slaughter: How the Confederate Delaying Action in the Streets of Fredericksburg Set the Stage for the Bloodbath to Follow.” Hallowed Ground, November 2012. Co-authored with Kristopher D. White.
“Spotsylvania Courthouse, May 13-21, 1864.” Blue & Gray, Spring 2011. Co-authored with Kristopher D. White.
“‘Baptism of Fire’: The First Maine Heavy Artillery at Harris Farm.” Blue & Gray, Spring 2011.
“Second-Guessing Dick Ewell: Why didn’t the Confederate general take Cemetery Hill on July 1, 1863?” Civil War Times, August 2010. (Cover story) Co-authored with Kristopher D. White.
“The Battle of the Bloody Angle at Spotsylvania Courthouse.” Blue & Gray, Summer 2009. (Publication of the article coincided with the 145th anniversary of the battle.) Co-authored with Kristopher D. White.
“Burnside at Fredericksburg.” Armchair General, Spring 2009. Co-authored with Kristopher D. White.
“Forgotten Casualty: James Longstreet Wounded in the Wilderness.” America’s Civil War, May 2009. Co-authored with Kristopher D. White.
“The Wilderness Battlefield: A Field Guide.” Civil War Times, April 2009. Co-authored with Kristopher D. White.
Mackowski, Chris and White, Kristopher D. “From Foxcroft to Fredericksburg: Captain Sewell Gray of the 6th Maine Infantry.” Fredericksburg History & Biography, vol.8, Dec. 2008. (refereed)
“War Town.” America in WWII, Oct. 2008. (The article profiles the Eldred, Pa., World War II Museum.)
“Making Music: After twenty seasons, the 2nd South Carolina String Band is still going strong—and still carrying the torch for Civil War campfire jam sessions.” Civil War Historian, Aug. 2008
