Conferences

Conference 2012
The War At Home: Civilian Life During the American Civil War

The Center for Civil War Research at the University of Mississippi was thrilled to host yet another outstanding Conference on the Civil War. The 2012 Conference theme was The War at Home: Civilian Life During the American Civil War. Scholars presented captivating and innovative research on a wide range of topics dealing with the homefront during the war. Our understanding of the far reaching consequences of the war expanded tremendously thanks to the work of our presenters.

Our 2012 keynote speaker was Leann Whites of the University of Missouri. She gave a fascinating presentation on new ways in which to position the role of female civilians, illuminating their complex involvement in guerilla warfare. Professor Whites also implored us to reconsider the definition of "civilian" as an innately gendered category.

The Center was also pleased to formally present its 2012 Wiley-Silver Prize to Dr. Barbara Gannon, assistant professor of history at the University of Central Florida. Her work The Won Cause: Black and White Comradeship in the Grand Army of the Republic explores the role comradeship played in fostering interracial cooperation in the GAR.

We would like to sincerely thank all of our presenters and spectators for a fantastic conference! If you would like to see more pictures of the 2012 Conference, please visit our Facebook page.

 

 
 
 

UM Conference on the Civil War – 19-20 October 2012 “The War at Home: Civilians Experience the American Civil War

 

Friday, 19 October

First Session, 8:30 – 10:00
The War from the Margins
“‘Coaxing Out a Few More Dollars:’ The United States Christian Commission in California”
Rachel Williams, University of Nottingham

“Reconsidering the Geography of the Home Front: American Exiles’ Response to the Civil War”
Christopher Wilkins, William Jewell College

Second Session, 10:30-12:00
The Civil War as a Theological Crisis
“Millenarian Dreams and Apocalyptic Nightmares: Black and White Civilians in Occupied Virginia, 1861-1863”
John H. Matsui, Johns Hopkins University

“Crafting a Hermeneutic for the Times: Theologies of Confederate Defeat”
Elizabeth L. Jemison, Harvard University

Third Session, 2:00-3:30
Courtship, Love and Loss during the Civil War
“Love and Romance During the Civil War Era: A Case Study of the Contrasting Views of Elodie Todd Dawson and Rebecca Vasser”
Jennifer Ann Newman Treviño, Troy University Montgomery

“When a Copperhead loves an Abolitionist: Politics, Race, and Youth on the Midwestern Home Front”
Julie A. Mujic, Sacred Heart University

“Behind the Black: Confederate Widowhood”
Angela Esco Elder, University of Georgia

 

Keynote Presentation,

4:30-6:00 – Overby Center
LeeAnn Whites, University of Missouri

"Homefront as Battlefield: Reconsidering the Role of Women in the Civil War."

 

Saturday, 20 October

First Session, 8:30 – 10:00
The War as a Crisis in Governance
"The Battle at Home: Conscription, State Courts, and Confederate Constitutionalism"
Donald L. Stelluto, University of Notre Dame

“Impressment and Negotiated Federalism: The Davis Administration, the Confederate Governors, and the Popular Will”
Michael A. Powell, Frederick Community College

Second Session, 10:30-12:00
Emancipation and Black Enlistment
"Recruiting the 118th U.S.C.T.: A Ground Level View of Emancipation"
J. Michael Crane, University of Arkansas – Fort Smith

“‘The War Fattens on the Blood of Western Men:’ Emancipation, Regional Identity, and the Limits of Practical Abolitionism in the Middle West”
Matthew E. Stanley, University of Cincinnati

“‘We Have Served Long Enough and It Will Be Time Enough When We Are Pressed in the Service:’ Labor, Manhood, and Black Enlistment in Civil War Missouri”
Miller W. Boyd, University of Mississippi

Third Session, 2:00-3:30
Long Shall It Be Remembered: The Memory of the Civil War
“Fighting Battles of the Mind: Eastern North Carolina’s Public Memory of the War at Home”
Leonard Lanier, Louisiana State University

“The Home Front Battlefield of History: The Election of 1880, Garfield, Hancock, and the Legacy of the Civil War”
Kanisorn Wongsrichanalai, Angelo State University

Fourth Session, 4:00-5:30
The Battle for Hearts and Minds off the Battlefield
“Christian Manhood, Respectability, and the Contours of Confederate Identity”
Rodney J. Steward, University of South Carolina Salkehatchie

“‘Children of Misfortune:’ Navigating Race, Politics and Mental Health in Reconstruction-Era Mississippi”
Allan Branstiter, University of Southern Mississippi

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
 
 

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