Symposium Spotlight: Curt Fields as U.S. Grant at Massaponax Church

For the past couple years, we have been offering bonus programming on Friday morning prior to the official start of the ECW Symposium. And, wow, do we have a bonus for you this year!

Emerging Civil War is pleased to welcome our friend, Dr. Curt Fields as General Ulysses S. Grant, for a special program at Massaponax Church.

Curt is the nation’s leading U.S. Grant living historian and a member of the board of directors of the Ulysses S. Grant Association. He’s the National Park Service’s Grant for commemoration activities at Appomattox Court House each year. In 2021, he did a series about his experiences for ECW titled “Being Grant Now and Then.”

For the ECW Symposium and our theme “1864: The War in the Balance,” Curt will portray Grant and discuss Grant’s promotion to lieutenant general. What did that promotion mean for Grant at the time? What did it mean for the war effort and the country? Did events play out the way Grant intended? How did it tip the balance?

Curt will take us inside that turning-point event, walking in Grant’s shoes during the first fraught month as the new commander of all U.S. Army forces.

And to add to the experience, we’ll be holding the event in Massaponax Church, scene of the iconic series of photos that captured Grant, Meade, and the army on the march as it headed from Spotsylvania Court House to the North Anna River. While we won’t be pulling any church pews out into the yard, we will be able to enjoy the church’s hospitality (and air conditioning!) by sitting inside.

Tickets are going fast. To order yours, check out our Symposium page.