Historians and students of the American Civil War from 16 states and Canada will converge on Virginia Military Institute for the 16th biennial Stonewall Jackson Symposium later this month.
The popular program, offered on even years since 1986 by the Institute’s Stonewall Jackson House, will take place Friday evening, May 27, and Saturday, May 28. The symposium is open to the public by pre-registration only. Registration closes May 18.
The symposium typically attracts both those who are new to the study of T.J. “Stonewall” Jackson and repeat participants. The program offers participants the opportunity to visit the town in which Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson lived and the college at which he taught during the decade before the American Civil War, while learning about the little-known college professor who became a great military leader.
The opening address on Friday evening will be offered by Frank A. O’Reilly, author and historian at the Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park. O’Reilly is the author of Stonewall Jackson at Fredericksburg (H.E. Howard, 1993) and The Fredericksburg Campaign: Winter War on the Rappahannock (Louisiana State University Press, 2006). He is currently researching a book on the Battle of Malvern Hill and the Seven Days’ campaign around Richmond.
Saturday will offer a full day of lectures by Jackson historians and biographers, including Keith S. Bohannon, associate professor of history at the University of West Georgia and co-editor of Campaigning with Old Stonewall (LSU Press, 1998); Robert E.L. Krick, historian at Richmond National Battlefield Park, author of Staff Officers in Gray (University of North Carolina Press, 2003) and contributing author to Cold Harbor to the Crater(UNC Press, 2015); Robert K. Krick, author of 16 books on Confederate topics, the most recent being The Smoothbore Volley that Doomed the Confederacy: The Death of Stonewall Jackson and Other Chapters on the Army of Northern Virginia (LSU Press, 2002); retired U.S. Army Brig. Gen. John W. Mountcastle ’65, who taught military history at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and is now a lecturer at the University of Richmond and the Virginia Historical Society; and Civil War historian Elizabeth Parnicza whose research interests include the looting of Fredericksburg, the movement toward hard war, and the soldier’s experience of battle.
Bestselling author of historical fiction Jeff Shaara will deliver the concluding address. Two of his works, Gods and Generals and The Last Full Measure, complete the Civil War trilogy started by the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Killer Angels, written by his father, Michael Shaara. His most recent book is The Fateful Lightning (Random House Publishing Group, 2015), which is the fourth book in the Civil War series that opened in 2012 with A Blaze of Glory (Ballantine Books).
Registration includes seven lectures, meals, optional walking tours, and admission to the only home Jackson ever owned. The registration fee is $215. There will be no walk-in registration.
For more information, or to register online, visit www.stonewalljackson.org.
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