Jonathan Noyalas Publishes New Book About Winchester’s Civil War-Era Landmarks
Book explores 80 historic sites located in Winchester, Virginia
Jonathan A. Noyalas ’01, M.A., Hugh & Virginia McCormick Chair in Civil War History and Director of the McCormick Civil War Institute, recently published a new book highlighting the many important Civil War sites found within the city of Winchester.
“Winchester and the Civil War: A Walk Through History” was released on Aug. 15 and is Noyalas’ 18th title. The book explores both structures and landscapes local to the city of Winchester. Numerous buildings used by Union and Confederate armies throughout the war, homes of Winchester’s staunchest Unionist and Confederate civilians, sites connected to the stories of enslaved people and free Black people, monuments, and gravesites are included.
According to Noyalas, his book showcases the fact that landscapes are just as historically significant as landmarks. He uses Barnhart’s Carriage Shop as an example. While no longer standing, this carriage shop was once on the intersection of Braddock and Amherst streets. Noyalas elaborates that Gen. Philip H. Sheridan’s Union soldiers used Barnhart’s in the fall and winter of 1864-1865. The carriage shop allowed Union troops to repair wagons and ambulances for Sheridan’s army. Other uses of the shop included building coffins for the killed soldiers fighting in the Shenandoah Valley.
Professor Noyalas wants readers to use his book to learn the powerful lessons history teaches us.
First, I want readers to understand that the Civil War era’s history, as revealed through Winchester’s story, is complex and must be explored in a nuanced way. Additionally, I believe that the book serves as a useful reminder of what happens when a people become divided to an unbridgeable point, but also how in the war’s aftermath efforts were taken, however imperfect they were, to attempt to begin the process of healing the conflict’s deep and bitter wounds. Finally, the book serves as a reminder of the importance of place and historic preservation. Places are tangible links to the past and become artifacts through which we can have discussions about the past and hopefully learn from that history.”
Jonathan A. Noyalas ’01, M.A., director of Shenandoah University’s McCormick Civil War Institute
Noyalas added that having the opportunity to teach in Winchester is truly a gift.
“I have oftentimes believed that there is no better place to teach history than Winchester, especially Civil War history because history surrounds us in the area – a history that not only reveals much about battles, soldiers, and combat’s impact on soldiers and their families, but underscores the impossible existence, at times, that the areas civilians – Union, Confederate, enslaved, and free – had to deal with. Teaching at SU and in Winchester has created fantastic opportunities for my students to get out of the classroom and get into the field, to make those tangible connections with the past and to study history in the places where it happened.”
Noyalas has written 18 books, nearly all focusing on battles or biographies of those who created an impact on Winchester’s history. What makes “Winchester and the Civil War: A Walk Through History” unique, is it captures the curiosity of the general public.
Not everyone has an interest in Civil War-era history, but I think that people are curious about what is around them and what happened in the place that they live and work. This book will hopefully entice general readers and the curious to walk Winchester’s streets, reflect on the Civil War era’s many lessons, and inspire them to investigate and learn more.”
Jonathan A. Noyalas ’01, M.A.
“Winchester and the Civil War: A Walk Through History” is available on Reedy Press, Amazon.com, and Winchester Book Gallery for online purchase.
Winchester retailers, including the Shenandoah Valley Civil War Museum and the Winchester-Frederick County Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, also offer many of Noyalas’ books.
In addition, Noyalas shared that his students in the course “Interpreting Civil War Sites” (HIST-309) have access to this book. This way, students can obtain a more thorough understanding of sites they will see through the course. Through “Winchester and the Civil War: A Walk Through History,” students will further observe how public historians take complex historical sites and describe them formatted for the general public.
Noyalas will be a book signing copies of the book on Saturday, Sept. 26, at the Winchester-Frederick County Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, from 10 a.m. till noon.
