Of history and comparative american studies at oberlin college. We are glad to claim her as one of our own, receiving her ph. D. From uv. She will speak on i wore the uniform of blue making the case for africanamerican enlistment. I have the very difficult task of going after gary. I would like to thank you for inviting me and for will for for all of my traveling snafus and being so gracious. And to thank liz, whos my former adviser, and Gary Gallagher, whos also a dear mentor of mine, for not only having me here at the conference but also for years and years of mentoring that dont seem to end. Im going to talk about im going to begin with the battle that gary does not think is important. Because it is in North Carolina. To be fair, i dont think many people think that the battle of new bern is incredibly important or significant, so i dont think hes alone. Nor am i arguing that the western theater is more important than the eastern theater. I just want to throw my hands up and say that