Symposium Spotlight: The Cities of War

When we put together our line-up of talks for this year’s Symposium theme, “The Cities of War,” we really wanted to pick some stories that challenge our ideas of the front line and the home front. What do those “fronts” really mean? What happened when those fronts intersected? And in what ways did they intersect?

We’re not featuring profiles of the cities themselves—there’s no overview of “Boston in the Civil War,” for instance. Instead, we’re featuring stories from the war that were grounded in the cities. Many are probably tales you’ve heard of but perhaps don’t know all that much about—the Richmond bread riots, for instance, or the New York draft riots. Sure we’ve heard of them, but how much do we really know?

We hope to pose some thoughtful questions. For instance:

• What price did Charleston pay for firing the first shots of the war?
• How did bloodshed in Baltimore encapsulate the tensions of the divided nation?
• Why was New Orleans so deeply affected by the battle of Shiloh, which took place so far north and even farther upstream on the river system?
• With Atlanta in the crosshairs for Sherman’s army group, what impact did that have on the communities along the way, caught up as collateral damage?
• How did U.S. Grant’s time in St. Louis prepare him for his unexpected rise to prominence?
• How did the modern growth of the city of Franklin, Tennessee, impact the history of the battle there, and how has reclamation of the battlefield allowed for reclamation of the story?

We picked a few places that, we hope, will surprise you with their Civil War stories. How did San Francisco, California, tie into the Civil War? How did Augusta, Georgia, change the course of the war? Why did New Orleans become the war’s last battleground—years after the war’s end?

We’re pleased to be leaning into our stable of ECW authors for this year’s event. You’ll get to hear from rising stars like Evan Portman, past favorites like Joe Ricci, and ECW veterans like Bert Dunkerly. You’ll get to hear the latest research from Dave Powell’s cutting-edge work on the Atlanta Campaign. Mark Maloy, who used to live and work in Charleston, will walk you in his footsteps. (You’ll even get to hear Phill Greenwalt brag about his hometown of Baltimore!)

And on Sunday, historian John Hennessy will give people the chance to see for themselves the impact of the war on the city of Fredericksburg. The U.S. Army had never trained for urban combat, yet found itself fighting its way, street by street, block by block, through the city. But even before that fateful battle, Fredericksburg had known months of occupation. It had also become the front line of Emancipation.

We hope you’ll join us August 1–3, 2025, for the 11th Annual Emerging Civil War Symposium at Stevenson Ridge in Spotsylvania Court House, VA. For more information and a full list of our speakers and their topics, or to order your tickets, click here!