Symposium Spotlight: Our 2025 Line-Up of Speakers

We are pleased to announce our line-up of speakers for the 11th Annual Emerging Civil War Symposium at Stevenson Ridge. The event will be held August 1-3, 2025, in Spotsylvania, VA.

Our theme this year is “The Cities of War.” We’ll look at Civil War stories grounded in metropolitan areas. Our keynote speaker, Dr. Harold Holzer, will discuss “Abraham Lincoln: The View from Washington.” (see more details here). Our Sunday tour, by John Hennessy, will trace the war’s impact on downtown Fredericksburg.

We have an excellent line-up of TEN additional speakers for this year’s event. We’re excited to feature:

• Philip Greenwalt, “To Baltimore or Bust: The Battle of Baltimore, April 1861″
• Theodore Savas, “Handshakes, Gambling, Gunpowder, and Augusta: How George W. Rains and Jefferson Davis Changed the Course of the American Civil War”
• Sean Michael Chick, “Shiloh Comes to New Orleans”
• Dwight Hughes, “Memphis: The City in the Middle”
• Neil Chatelain, “Confederate Privateering in San Francisco”
• Robert Dunkerly, “The Richmond Bread Riot of 1863”
• Evan Portman, “A Civil War within a Civil War: the New York City Draft Riots of 1863”
• Dave Powell, “The Road to Atlanta”
• Mark Maloy, “Suffering, Death, and Destitution: Charleston, South Carolina Burned and Shelled”
• Joe Ricci, “No Place for Liberty: The Battle of Liberty Place”

We’ll provide details about each of the talks in the weeks ahead.

In the meantime, you can order your ticket here. This year’s price is $300 for the entire weekend. Food and beverage is included for Friday afternoon/evening (with cash bar for those who want it) and light breakfast and a buffet lunch on Saturday. Plus, you’ll have the chance to meet some of your favorite ECW authors, meet some great “emerging voices” in the field, browse our used book sale, and more!

We hope to see you in August!