From its home in Virginia Tech’s History Department, the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies promotes greater understanding of the Civil War era among academics and the public through in-person talks, zoom discussions, and other programs.
Bud Robertson Exhibit
A new exhibit on the Virginia Tech campus highlights the life and legacy of Dr. James I. “Bud” Robertson, professor of Civil War history at VT for more than forty years and founder of our center. The exhibit was created by Miles Abernethy, a second-year graduate student in the History Master’s program and a VCCWS scholarship recipient, who works at Virginia Tech Special Collections and University Archives as part his graduate assistant duties. Stop by Special Collections on the first floor of Newman Library to check out Miles’ work!
Civil War Weekend
We look forward to welcoming you to Blacksburg March 28-30, 2025 for Virginia Tech’s annual Civil War Weekend. You’ll hear from a stellar group of speakers and enjoy fellowship with other history enthusiasts—all in the comfortable surroundings of the Inn at Virginia Tech.
This year’s theme is “Civil War Duos.” The Civil War era fundamentally transformed human connections—from friendships and marriages to political alliances—bringing some Americans together into productive new relationships while driving existing partnerships apart. This year our speakers will explore an array of different partnerships that took new forms amid the challenges of slavery, sectional conflict, and war.
Keynote speaker Ilyon Woo will share the incredible story of the enslaved couple who escaped to freedom in disguise, the subject of her recent Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Master, Slave, Husband, Wife. Our distinguished speakers will also investigate the critical relationships between leaders on both sides: Lincoln and McClellan, Lee and Jackson. We’ll learn about how war transformed romantic pairings in the North and the South. One lecture will explore a more institutional duo, examining how the United States Army and Navy slowly worked their way toward a more harmonious collaboration as the war went on.
You can also join us for our annual Spring Campaign — an optional two-night field trip. From our base in Frederick, Maryland, we’ll take a custom guided tour of the storied battleground of Gettysburg, focusing on the critical military decisions that made July 1863 go down in history. We’ll also explore the National Museum of Civil War Medicine and the Monocacy Battlefield, where Jubal Early’s Confederates threatened to break through to Washington, DC, in July 1864.
See you in March!
Free webinar — Playing at War
Join co-editors Patrick A. Lewis and James “Trae” Welborn, as well as contributing authors Kathleen L. Thompson, Nick Sacco, and Jonathan Jones, for a virtual roundtable discussion on November 13 at 7 p.m. of the recently published Playing at War: Identity and Memory in Civil War Video Games (LSU Press, September 2024).
Each panelist will briefly outline their contributions to the volume before engaging in open discussion of its innovative focus on Civil War video games as significant sites of memory creation, distortion, and evolution in popular culture. With fifteen essays by historians, the collection analyzes the emergence and popularity of video games that topically engage the period surrounding the American Civil War, from the earliest console games developed in the 1980s through the web-based games of the twenty-first century.
The talk is free and open to the public. Register here: https://virginiatech.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_bIIaggaPRUGB3gvpy8175A#/registration
2023-24 Year in Review
As we wrap up the 2023-24 academic year, we want to share with you all of the exciting recent events from the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies. This year we sponsored four free guest lectures including an in-person talk with NPR host Steve Inskeep, continued the annual Civil War Weekend (a tradition for more than 30 years) and visited numerous fourth-grade classrooms across the New River Valley. Click the links below for YouTube and C-SPAN videos of our recent events. And if you are in Southwest Virginia, check out our Civil War Driving Tour:
Photos from 2023-24 events:
Who are we?
Civil War history lives at Virginia Tech. From its home in Virginia Tech’s History Department, the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies promotes greater understanding of the Civil War era among academics and the public. Whether you’re a student or a professional historian, a serious history buff or someone who just likes to learn, we have something to offer you here.