The Weekend of Dueling Antietams and Other Stuff Going On

From one perspective, it might have looked like “dueling Antietams.” At Shepherd University, the Antietam Institute was holding its spring symposium, focusing on Harpers Ferry during the Maryland campaign. Meanwhile, in suburban Pittsburgh at the Carnegie Library in Carnegie, PA, home of the Thomas Espy GAR post, their annual symposium likewise focused on Antietam.

Both events sold out.

At first blush, the events might have seemed like a competition for one another. But cross-pollination from the Antietam Institute insured a strong Institute presence in Carnegie, where attendees greedily bought up publications and merchandise. (To borrow from TJJ: “The Institute was heard from today.”) One of the Carnegie speakers, Kevin Pawlak, is an active member with the Institute, and he’s the one who invited me to speak at the Institute symposium at Shepherd. Kevin, of course, is a stalwart ECW member, as is Jon-Erik Gilot, the organizer of the Carnegie symposium. Meanwhile, Dan Welch, another ECW, faithful, was likewise on the bill at Antietam. Renowned historian Dennise Frye spoke at both.

If that all sounds convoluted, maybe it is, but my point is that there was a lot of coordination and shared resources happening between two events that, to an outside observer, might seem like they were competing.

Meanwhile, in Charlottesville, Virginia, the University of Virginia held its annual Nau Center Civil War-era conference on Friday, and of course, at Appomattox Court House, commemoration events for the 160th anniversary of Lee’s surrender continued. Historian Pat Schroeder told me Saturday evening that he had more people attend the “Stacking of Arms” ceremony along the Stage Road than ever before.

I could also point to the Shenandoah Valley Battlefield Foundation’s Civil War Symposium a couple weeks ago, which sold out. (ECW’s Ryan Quint, Jon Tracey, and Jon-Erik Gilot were among the speakers there.) Virginia Tech held its annual Civil War Weekend last month, and the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust held a spring seminar, too. Meanwhile, the McCormick Civil War Institute at Shenandoah University has its spring conference coming up April 26. (I’ll be among the speakers there.) That same weekend, the Gettysburg Foundation will have its “Spring Muster.” And at the start of May, The American Battlefield Trust’s annual conference will take place in Boston.

Later in the summer and into the fall, there will be other events in other places.

By all accounts, attendance at all these events has been robust.

I share this news because, as a Civil War community, we are so often discouraged by what we see as a lack of interest in the Civil War, which seems to have dwindled from the heady days of the Sesquicentennial a decade ago. But look at everything that’s going on. Look at attendance.

Don’t let anyone tell you people aren’t interested in the Civil War because people are. I know there’s ongoing discussion about the health of roundtables, which the Civil War Roundtable Congress is actively addressing, but there’s also plenty of data to suggest that people engage with the history in different ways. My good friend Drew Gruber of Civil War Trails never passes up an opportunity to tell me how booming business is for them. But even this more traditional marker—conference attendance—offers encouragement. The interest is out there. The audience is out there.

I don’t say all this as a way to whistle past the graveyard. The data doesn’t have an opinion on the matter—it is what it is.

At Emerging Civil War, we’re already closing in on another sell out for our annual symposium in August, although it’s still a little early (and there’s still a little room!). I remain heartened by the interest people show, and the questions they ask, and the books they read, and the podcasts they listen to.

As a public historian, it remains a privilege to be a part of that larger discussion, serving as an apostle of union, bringing people together to learn, to share ideas, to ask questions, and to keep thinking about the ways this history continues to resonate with us today.