Virtual Symposium 2020: The Boys Who Rode Around McClellan

Today, we’re pleased to share Sarah Kay Bierle’s talk from the 2020 ECW Virtual Symposium. Sarah’s talk was titled: ” ‘We’re the boys who rode around McClellan’: The Chambersburg Raid of 1862.”

“Stuart’s Chambersburg Raid of 1862 has been part of my research on Major Pelham and the Stuart Horse Artillery,” Sarah explains, “so it was nice to have a topic to share that I had been studying this year. (Sometimes speaking topics are subjects that I studied a few years back!) It also brought back a lot of good memories of driving parts of the raid route and taking photos!”

Sarah admits that she missed “seeing all our ECW friends” because of the postponement of our annual symposium, but the virtual symposium did offer a silver lining. “It was a welcome day to get to see ‘long-lost’ members of the ECW team,” she says. “I started to realize how much I was missing everyone due to the pandemic and social distancing. I think that excitement was energizing. Even though I was speaking to cameras in an empty room, I still had a happiness and good nervous excitement that I hope came through the camera lenses. It was a special day and to be able to safely see a few colleagues was very uplifting to my morale.”

Click here to access Sarah’s talk on the ECW YouTube page.

Meanwhile, tickets for the rescheduled Seventh Annual Emerging Civil War Symposium at Stevenson Ridge are available for early bird purchase by clicking here. Tickets are $155.00 each and cover all three days, August 6-8, 2021. Our theme, “Fallen Leaders,” will feature a keynote address by Gordon Rhea on the fall of Jeb Stuart at Yellow Tavern, ten speakers, and a battlefield tour of Longstreet’s wounding in the Wilderness by Greg Mertz.