Valley Campaign Conference
"A chapter in history...without parallel": Perspectives on Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign
A Sesquicentennial Conference Presented by the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation
Shenandoah University, Winchester, Virginia
Saturday, March 3, 2012
9:00 am - 4:30 pm
Cost: $20 per person
In early 1862 Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, commander of Confederate forces in the Shenandoah Valley, was ordered to prevent Union forces in the Valley from moving east to join Gen. George B. McClellan's push on Richmond via the Virginia Peninsula. In one of military history's most brilliant campaigns, Jackson, with 18,000 men by mid–campaign, kept three Union armies – almost 60,000 troops – at bay, helping to save the Confederacy's capital from capture early in the war.
In 2012, the Shenandoah Valley will revisit the dramatic story of the legendary campaign that altered the course of the Civil War.
The first major program of the commemoration will be "A chapter in history...without parallel": Perspectives on Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign, a conference presented by the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation, which will be held at Shenandoah University in Winchester on March 3, 2012. Scheduled speakers include renowned Civil War historians and authors Eric Campbell, Jeff Wert, Peter Cozzens, Gary L. Ecelbarger, and Jonathan Noyalas. The cost to attend is $20 per person.
Registrations are now open. To register, download and complete the registration form and mail with your payment to Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation, P.O. Box 897, New Market, VA 22844.
Scheduled topics include:
- Eric Campbell: The Significance of the Valley Campaign
- Jeff Wert: The Stonewall Brigade and the Valley Campaign
- Gary Ecelbarger: “We Rejoice in Your Brilliant Success”: Richmond’s Involvement in the Campaign”
- Peter Cozzens: The Valley Campaign: A Study in Command
- Jonathan Noyalas: “We Are Prisoners in Our Own Houses”: The Valley Campaign’s Impact on the Civilian Population
For more information, email theder@svbf.net or call 540-740-4545.
About the Speakers:
Eric Campbell is a 25 year National Park Service veteran who served as a park ranger-historian at Gettysburg National Military Park for 20 years. He has authored over two dozen articles and essays for scholarly publications, along with the book “`A Grand Terrible Dramma’: From Gettysburg to Petersburg, The Civil War Letters of Charles Wellington Reed.” Since 2009, he has served as Park Ranger at Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park.
Jeffry Wert is the author of nine books on Civil War topics, among them A Brotherhood of Valor: The Common Soldiers of the Stonewall Brigade, C. S. A. and the Iron Brigade, U. S. A., From Winchester to Cedar Creek: The Shenandoah Campaign of 1864 , and Mosby’s Rangers. His articles and essays on the Civil War have appeared in publications such as Civil War Times Illustrated, American History Illustrated, and Blue and Gray.
Peter Cozzens is the author of sixteen critically acclaimed books on the American Civil War and the Indian Wars of the American West, including Shenandoah 1862: Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign, which was a Choice "Outstanding Academic Title" for 2009 and was called "An incredibly learned and absorbing exercise of history, the best single work on any Civil War campaign to appear in many, many decades." All of Cozzens' books have been selections of the Book of the Month Club, History Book Club, and/or the Military Book Club. Cozzens’ This Terrible Sound: The Battle of Chickamauga and The Shipwreck of Their Hopes: The Battles for Chattanooga were both Main Selections of the History Book Club and were chosen by Civil War Magazine as two of the 100 greatest works ever written on the conflict. The prestigious Easton Press included This Terrible Sound as one of thirty-five volumes in its Library of the Civil War. Cozzens is a member of the Advisory Council of the Lincoln Prize, one of the nation’s foremost literary awards. He is a frequent speaker nationwide on the Civil War and American Indian Wars. Among his nearly one hundred public appearances, he has been a four-time featured speaker at the Southern Festival of Books, repeat guest speaker at the Chicago Historical Society, and presented the 11th annual Hayes' Lecture on the Presidency in 2000 at the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center.
Gary Ecelbarger is a Civil War historian who has written or co-written eight books, including Three Days in the Shenandoah: Stonewall Jackson at Front Royal and Winchester and We Are in for It!: The First Battle of Kernstown.
Jonathan A. Noyalas is assistant professor of history and director of the Center for Civil War History at Lord Fairfax Community College in Middletown, Virginia. He is the author or editor of eight books on Civil War Era History including “My Will is Absolute Law”: A Biography of Union General Robert H. Milroy and Stonewall Jackson’s 1862 Valley Campaign: War Comes to the Home Front. Prof. Noyalas served as the Civil War historian for the historic resource study at Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historic Park and also served as a consultant for National Geographic’s “Civil Warriors” which debuted in the United States in April 2011. He most recently served as the content expert for the Civil War Trust’s battlefield app for Cedar Creek. In addition to researching, writing, and consulting he is active in battlefield preservation in the Shenandoah Valley serving on the board of directors of the Kernstown Battlefield Association. He also serves as chair of the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation’s Committee on Interpretation and Education. Currently he is under contract to write a book about the Battle of Fisher’s Hill.
