Symposium Spotlight 2026: Evan Portman, Frenemies

Welcome to our spotlight series, highlighting speakers and topics for our upcoming symposium. Over the coming weeks, we will continue previewing of our speaker’s for the 2026 Emerging Civil War Symposium. This week we feature Evan Portman:

Evan Portman has been passionate about history for as long as he can remember. He has enjoyed reading, writing, speaking, and learning about the Civil War ever since he took a trip to Gettysburg as a seven-year-old. He majored in history and secondary education at Saint Vincent College and received a master’s degree in history and minor in public history at Duquesne University.

Evan is currently pursuing his PhD in history at West Virginia University and is a Copie Hill Civil War Fellow with the American Battlefield Trust. In addition to Emerging Civil War, he has also written for Emerging Revolutionary War, the Westmoreland County Historical Society, the Civil War Monitor, the Catholic Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, the Antietam Institute, and the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust.

Evan’s research interests include German American, Catholic, and Pittsburgh connections to the Civil War. He now has his own YouTube channel dedicated to exploring lesser-known sites and of the Battle of Gettysburg.

A full listing of Evan’s Emerging Civil War articles can be found here.

Check out this post to learn more about Evan’s topic for this year’s Symposium!

For more information on the 2026 Emerging Civil War Symposium and to purchase tickets, click here.