2025 Year in Review #10: Who Were the Scalawags?

It’s time to start counting down our ten most-read posts published in 2025. This year’s list includes several surprises, a lot of guest posts and “emerging voices,” and some engagement with and reactions to current events with Civil War tie-ins.

Coming in at #10 on our countdown, we have ECW columnist Patrick Young of The Reconstruction Era blog. Pat’s work on Reconstruction has helped illuminate the immediate aftermath of the war and the ongoing connections between winning the war and losing the peace–and how that still haunts us today. In 2024, we recognized Pat for his work by presenting him with our Brig. Gen. Thomas Greely Stevenson Award for Service to ECW.

He comes in on this year’s countdown at #10 with a May 24, 2025 post, “Who Were the “Scalawags” & Why Were They Persecuted By The Klan?”

We also want to give him an “honorable mention” shout-out for a post he did on December 28, 2024. It appeared too late in the year to make last year’s countdown, but after the calendar turned to 2025, his post went on to be one of this year’s most-read posts. Check out “Echoes of Reconstruction: Misunderstanding About the ‘Black Codes.’“