Emcee Chris Mackowski guided attendees through a lineup of eleven speakers, including a keynote by Ted Savas, PLUS a Sunday tour by John Hennessy.
If you missed the 11th Annual Emerging Civil War Symposium at Stevenson Ridge last weekend, we thought we’d share a few of our favorite pictures. Our theme was “The Cities of War,” which provided a lot of surprising twists and turns.
Post-event feedback from one Civil War Roundtable serves as an example: “We just had an executive committee meeting and I wanted to pass along the universal praise of our officers who attended the recent ECW symposium. They were really impressed with the speaker lineup…. Our officers are “veteran” Civil War enthusiasts who have heard everyone from Ed Bearss to Bud Robertson to Gary Gallagher…but this year’s symposium clicked with them all and was enthusiastically described as a ‘valuable learning experience.’ They couldn’t stop talking about it.”
If you missed this year’s event, we hope you’ll be able to join us in 2026, August 7–9, for “Partnerships and Rivalries” and keynote speakers Harold Holzer and Craig Symonds.
Thank you, Melissa Winn, for this batch of photos.
Here’s a group photo of the ECW family following Friday night’s program. We’re not all here, but here’s a nice chunk of us!Before the Symposium kicked off, Curt Fields spent nearly an hour signing copies of the new book he co-authored with Chris Mackowski, “Unconditional Surrender: Ulysses S. Grant in the Civil War.” (photo by Chris)The Thursday-night arrival of “The Jersey Boys” signals the unofficial start of Symposium weekend: (from right) Joe, Hank, and Chris. Welcome!Curt Fields as Captain Ulysses “Sam” Grant. Curt’s talk was titled “U.S. Grant in St. Louis: The Desperate Years.”A quick costume change by Curt transitioned Grant to private life in the years immediately preceding the war. Grant feared he would miss the war because he didn’t have political connections to get him a commission.Thanks to our sponsors, Civil War Trails, the American Battlefield Trust, Stevenson Ridge, and Emerging Revolutionary War.Phil Greenwalt talked about his home town, Baltimore, during the Civil War, including the “Battle of Baltimore” where first blood was shed.Ed Flanagan is one of four people who have attended all eleven ECW symposia.More than a dozen ECW authors offered books for sale. Neil Chatelain (left) came from Texas and Tonya McQuade came from California.Bert Dunkerly tried to “juice” sales by offering plenty of reading material for interested browsers.Bert spoke about the Richmond bread riots in a talk packed with anecdotes and human-interest drama. It was a topic most attendees had heard of but knew little about–and then said they were intrigued and pleasantly surprised to learn about.The second book in Dave Powell’s incredible study of the Atlanta Campaign is now at the printer. In his talk, “The Road to Atlanta,” he shared a preview of some of his cutting-edge research.Chris moderated questions from attendees after each talk. It provided a real-time opportunity for ECW readers to be part of the conversation—something we take great pride in on the blog and on social media.Mark Maloy once worked for the NPS in Charleston, a city best-known in Civil War circles for the opening shots of the war on Fort Sumter. But as Mark outlined, the city faced massive devastation over the course of the war, including a major fire in December of 1861.Sean Chick kicked off day two with a strong talk about the impact of the battle of Shiloh on New Orleans.Most people don’t think of San Francisco as a Civil War city, but as Neil Chatelain explained, it was a hotbed for Confederate privateering in the Pacific.Evan Portman, one of ECW’s bright “emerging” voices, unpacked some of the details of the New York City draft riots. (Yes, we realize he looks hardly old enough to be of draft age himself!)Keynote speaker Ted Savas spoke about his research on George Washington Rains and the August Powder Works, a little-known story that had a major impact on the war (and could have had an even more explosive impact had events gone a little differently). Ted is writing a book on the topic.ECW’s Kevin Donovan asks a question during Q&A.Earlier in 2025, ECW lost a member of our community, Dwight Hughes. Neil Chatelain paid tribute to Dwight on ECW’s behalf. It was a doubly bittersweet moment because, at that very moment, we learned of the death of ECW alum Eric Wittenberg—news that had not yet broken publicly.Patrick Kelly-Fischer (pictured) and Brian Swartz were recognized with the Brig. Gen. Emory Upton Award for Service to ECW. As the blog’s managing editors, the two have worked in tandem behind the scenes to keep the front-end running–and reading–smoothly. (Brian, who lives in Maine, was unable to join us in person this year.)Book Award recipient Paul Brueske was in South Africa during the Symposium, so his publisher, Ted Savas, accepted the award on his behalf.Paul Brueske, back in Mobile, Alabama, received his award plaque on Thursday following the symposium. (photo by Josh Frye)Eric Jacobson (right) received the 2025 Emerging Civil War Award for Service in Civil War Public History for his work leading the reclamation and restoration of the Franklin Battlefield. Eric is CEO of the Battle of Franklin Trust. ECW’s Joe Ricci (left), who formerly worked for Eric, presented the award.Eric spoke about the decades-long effort to reclaim the Franklin battelfield following its development. A Pizza Hut, pictured in the background, once stood at the center of the worst fighting.Eric’s talk literally brought the crowd to their feet. Here’s everyone, settled back down, ready for the last talk of the day. We had a full house!“New Orleans is so important, it’s the only city that had two talks,” Joe joked. He focused on the post-war battle of Liberty Place during Reconstruction.A good time was had by all. Yes, all this history stuff can be interesting, educational, AND fun.Fredericksburg’s Market House now houses the Fredericksburg Area Museum. OUr Sunday morning tour started here, at the center of town.John Hennessy, former chief historian and chief of interpretation for Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, led the group through the “City of Hospitals,” focusing the majority of his tour on Fredericksburg during the 1864 Overland Campaign. Many folks have asked for a medical-themed talk, and John’s tour delivered!Group picture at the end of Sunday’s tour. It was an unseasonably pleasant day for a walkabout downtown.As is our tradition, we capped off Saturday with social time at Strangeways Brewing. Podcasters Mare Fincher and Darin Weeks, the Civil War Breakfast Club, joined us for a drink!
It was a lot of fun, especially meeting so many new folks. Thanks for hosting and for inviting me, Chris.
Thanks for being with us, pal! 🙂
Great symposium! Curt Fields is unique; saw him last year too
Glad you enjoyed his presentation!
Great photos! And how better for Messers Wittenberg and Hughes to be remembered than among true friends. Plus, Fields is wearing my shirt!
Love to you all, and my deepest regrets at not being able to attend.
The only thing that could have made the event better would have been you and your wardrobe.
Thank you, Chris. I would especially have loved to meet your partner in crime, Ted Savas!
It was great to see Ed Flanagan, an old friend from Long Island and the Chambersburg Seminars!!
I hope he is doing well in retirement!!