Symposium Spotlight: ECW Awards

One of the aspects we always look forward to the most at each Symposium is the announcement of our annual Emerging Civil War awards. Here’s a quick run-down:

The Emerging Civil War Award for Service in Civil War Public History (which is, we know, a mouthful to say!) honors someone we, as a community of historians, really admire and respect. It’s a chance for us to shine the spotlight on a person or organization that has made a significant contribution to the general public’s understanding of Civil War history. ECW is lucky to exist and operate in a wider community of really, really talented and generous people. It’s a real treat to be able to single someone out for special attention.

The Emerging Civil War Book Award goes to “the best Civil War book” published in the previous calendar year. Members of the ECW community nominate their favorites, and then a panel of judges reviews the nominees and picks the winner and a finalist. Everyone on our panel has published a book of their own, so this is a real peer-to-peer recognition of great research and writing by folks who are out there actively researching and writing.

ECW’s Brig. Gen. Thomas Greely Stevenson Award recognizes an individual or organization outside of ECW who has performed outstanding service to ECW. Our Brig. Gen. Emory Upton Award recognizes a member of the ECW community for their outstanding service to the organization.

And we’re pleased to announce the return of our Roundtable of the Year Award. We gave this out twice before, early on in our history, but then discontinued the award. We brought it back this year by popular demand (and, wow, was it hard to pick a winner from a number of excellent applications!).

For a list of our past winners, click here.

To purchase a ticket to the Symposium, you can click here. Tickets are $325 each. The event will run August 7–9, 2026 at Stevenson Ridge in Spotsylvania, VA. For details, including the line-up of speakers and the schedule, visit our Symposium page.