This 45minute talk was part of a daylong conference hosted by the university of virginias center for Civil War History. So we will begin this mornings lecture with gary w. Gallagher. As many of you know, we owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to professor gallagher. He was the founding director of the nau center, retired just last spring from uva where he held the john l. Nau chair in Civil War History from 1999 to 2018. He is the author or editor of at least 39 books, including the union war, the american war and most recently civil war places which, too, is in the back, beautiful book, his son will took the photographs and this is an absolute treasure if you havent had a chance to see it yet. So with that id like to welcome gary gallagher. It yet. So with that id like to welcome gary gallagher. Thank you, carrie. We are on a very tight schedule today which carrie has made clear to all of us in the front row, especially steve. Steve asked me to say that he will be signing 8 by 10 gloss
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
Retired just last spring from uva where he represents Civil War History from 1999 until 2018. He is the author and editor of at least 39 books, including the union war, the american war, and most recently, coedited, civil war places, a beautiful book, his son took the photograph, and this is an absolute treasure if you have not had a chance to see it yet. With that, i would like to welcome gary gallagher. [applause] dr. Gallagher thank you, carrie. We are on a very tight schedule, which all of us are aware of, especially steve cushman. [laughter] dr. Gallagher steve asked me to say he would be signing autographs in the back after his talk. So just keep that in mind. I am delighted to be back for this years signature conference, and i would like to start by thanking carrie and liz for inviting me. This is redundant, will, but will sees to all the details and seamlessly, with amazing good humor. I really appreciate that. Its also fun to see so many friends here. It is like a homecoming,
Off north carolina. This was part of a seminar the. Without further ado, let me introduce our first speake he has received many awards including the National Trust for Historic Preservations president s award for Historic Preservation and many, many others. His talk today is the ship that saved the nation, the monitors recovery and conservation. Please welcome mr. Quarstein. [ applause ] thank you. Well, you know, on march 8th, 1862 it was a terrible day for the union. In fact, it turned the tide, it appeared in favor of the confederacy when the css virginia emerged from the Elizabeth River and sunk two major union warships, the cumberland and the congress. The union navy was in disarray. People were in the white house looking out the curtains, down the potomac, fearing that this super weapon, as they would have called the merrimack, as southerners called the virginia, would be there soon and the war would finally end in a confederate victory. But all was to change as if magic, because
What hes talking about when it comes to the war. And he said to me, this woman is gangbusters. She is on fire. And if you think about all the students that gary has mentored over the years, for him to give a particular endorsement like that to one of them, really spoke volumes. And i saw that myself in the work that i read from cecily when she first started doing guest posts for us. Like this woman, she can write. Shes got smart things to say. Shes insightful. This is fantastic. And its really been wonderful role as the editor in chief to watch her journey with emerging civil war as kind of this young, upcoming, brilliant, bright star. And to see her star rise as it has. And so this past year, she was named emerging civil wars news chief historian. And so its really kind of exciting for me to be able to bring her out deep from the heart of texas, to bring her. I told her its going to be like, youre southern w a taunt unveiling. Yeah, if you will. Like the good Old Fashioned days. Cecil