We’re Recording our ECW Virtual Symposium Today–Wish you were here!

We’re recording segments for our virtual Emerging Civil War symposium today. We have an awesome line-up of cool talks, and we’re excited to share them with you soon! In the meantime, we’ll be posting pictures throughout the day.

If you were a ticketholder for this year’s symposium, you’ll receive information that will allow you, on Saturday, August 15, to access our virtual symposium. It’s our way of saying “thank you” to folks for their patience as we waited to see whether COVID-19 would let us hold our annual in-person symposium—and, alas, no. Stupid pandemic!

But because we love the chance to get together with our readers each year, we wanted to do something to show how important our connection is with you. ECW wouldn’t be where it is without your support!

If you didn’t get a ticket to this year’s event, but you want to access the virtual symposium, you can do so by buying a ticket to next year’s symposium, which will be held August 6-8, 2021. We’ve postponed this year’s “Fallen Leaders” theme, and our full line-up of speakers, to next year. You can get a ticket, for only $155, by clicking here.

If you can’t come to Spotsylvania for next year’s symposium, you’ll still be able to enjoy our virtual symposium. We’ll make it available on YouTube later this fall. C-SPAN is also here today, recording the event, so you’ll be able to see it there, too! (We’ll let you know when C-SPAN schedules them.)

Because the symposium is our main source of income each year, and we couldn’t hold it, we’re looking at a sparse budget year. ECW is now a 501(c)3, so if you’d like to help us out, we’d be grateful for any support. You can donate by clicking here. Thank you!

We’re back in the Riddick House this year: plenty of room to spread out and social distance.

Derek Maxfield: Hellmira: The Union’s Most Infamous Civil War Prison Camp

Mark Maloy: The First Shots of the Civil War in Charleston Harbor

Dan Welch: “Where all so well did their duty” George Greene’s Brigade at Gettysburg

Lunch! Clockwise, from top-left: Jon-Erik Gilot, Paige Gibbons Backus, Dan Welch, Phill Greenwalt (representing West Virginia, Virginia, Ohio, and Florida)

Paige Gibbons Backus: A Fight for Life or Death: Carnage in the Medical Field During Civil War

Sarah Kay Bierle: “We’re the boys who rode around McClellan” The Chambersburg Raid of 1862

Kevin Pawlak: In the Wake of Antietam: The Loudoun Valley Campaign of 1862

(So strange to be doing these great programs to an empty house!)