Science and engineering that i realized what i really loved was history, and i was bored in class one day because i forgot my book, which is the downfall of every nerd the, the day you forget your book, and i happened to be in sociology class, and the teacher also taught a civil war class. I started reading, and i thought it was the most fascinating people i read about. What fascinated me, looking at these people dealing with the most claddagh close make moments of their lives the most cataclysmic moments of their lives and the nations life and figuring out how to deal with the situation, far enough to be strange, yet close enough to be familiar at the same time. You get your chance to go to fredericksburg, now as a permanent historian. Could you tell us a little bit about some of the things that you did there . Im not saying in terms of accomplishments, but i think our audience is interested what does it mean to be a part interpreter historian at a place like fredericksburg . It means
Changed in interpretation. The Gettysburg College Civil War Institute provided the video for this event. Toso, beth i would like start by getting a feel for what led you to Civil War History and the career path you have taken. Beth that is a good question. Most people when you ask them that question who are in this field have these glowing nostalgic memories of being taken to the battlefield as children and that is not my story. My family visited some Historic Sites but not really, not that many. For us, or for me, it was when i got to high school and was considering a lot of careers in science and engineering, but realized what i really loved was history. I just happened to i was boarding class one day because i bored my book i was in class one day because i forgot my book. I picked book off the shelf. The teacher also taught a civil war class. The people i read about were fascinating. That is what fascinated me, these people who were dealing with the most cataclysmic moments of their
Its clear she will bring an awful lot to Virginia Tech with teaching, research, and outreach programs as well. She specializes in 19thcentury u. S. History, including, of course, the civil war era, but also north american slavery more generally. Warfare more generally as well. Appeared inhas civil war monitor and Civil War History journal, among other publications. Her big project at the moment is converting her phd dissertation into a book. That will be well worth looking out for a few years down the line. It is on the very same topic. You can see the powerpoint is already up there. Under the rebel lash black prisoners of war in the confederate south. She will speak for about 25 to 35 minutes, which will give us plenty of time for discussion. And i think a big advantage of the zoom format is you will be able to type in your questions using the q a feature. You will not be able to use the chat in the webinar, but you can use the q a button if you have a question, and you can type those
Tokyo. It is a great book. Bookshe author of many and came to us about 10 years ago. He came and visited the museum, gave a presentation on his book, and we have not managed to get him back here. We tried, he was going to come in april of this year, but of course things got out of hand, and we had to postpone that event indefinitely to talk on one of his other books. Im sure most of our viewers today know many of johns books. Help from the heroes hell from the heavens, for crew and country, and tin can tightens, which one the Elliott Morrison naval litter chief naval literacy award. It was awarded regarded naval history. So congratulations on that. Many years belated. As i mentioned, john was supposed to come in april, and we were able to work in the Distance Learning team to bring these programs to you all. This one specifically has to do with our theme of the end of the war, the 75th in a verse or he of the end of the war. We will get right do it so we many of theet as audience quest
Revolutionary war. Mark malloy is a historian with the National Park service and he is like, what can i do this revolutionary war . I said, this is the civil war. We decided we would let him talk about fort sumter because it is as close as we can get to the revolutionary war era. Asay that because mark is delightful historian, wonderful guy, wish i could get him to laugh on cue. [laughter] his most distinctive feature is his laugh. We are delighted to have him come here today to speak about the first shots of the civil war at fort sumter. Mark . Mark thank you so much for that introduction, chris. It is a pleasure to be able to speak at this symposium for the emerging civil war. We would love to have done in person, but being able to do it digitally is a wonderful way to do it as well. Mentioned my main passion is the American Revolutionary war. Work for the National Park service and we take care of a lot of important civil war sites. I started my career with the National Park service