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Noyalas’ New Book Details African American Experience During Civil War ‘Slavery and Freedom in the Shenandoah Valley During the Civil War Era’ is available now

April 8, 2021

Jonathan Noyalas ’01, M.A., director of Shenandoah’s McCormick Civil War Institute, recently published his book “Slavery and Freedom in the Shenandoah Valley During the Civil War Era.”

Officially released April 6 by University Press of Florida, the book examines, in a nuanced way, the complexities of life for African Americans in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley from the antebellum period through Reconstruction. Noyalas studied the difficulties African Americans confronted in the valley — a region that was in a constant state of flux during the Civil War’s years — and how they overcame these challenges during the nation’s most tumultuous time.

noyalasThe book illustrates that emancipation came not at one single moment, but on numerous occasions and that it was contingent on a variety of factors. The book illustrates how the Shenandoah Valley’s African Americans navigated a complex world, one in which fear of the unknown, and distrust, including distrust of Union soldiers, at times erected seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Additionally, the book examines the ways the Valley’s enslaved and free Blacks contributed to the Union war effort and played an active role in slavery’s destruction. Finally, the book examines the immediate postwar era in the Shenandoah Valley including topics such as Freedmen’s Schools, the operations of the Freedmen’s Bureau, and Emancipation commemorations.”

Jonathan Noyalas ’01

Noyalas’ book can be purchased directly from the University Press of Florida and other online booksellers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and more. The Winchester Book Gallery also carries copies.

This is the 14th book Noyalas has authored or edited.

Reviews

bookWe know remarkably little about how the Shenandoah Valley’s African Americans negotiated the vexing uncertainties of secession, civil war, and Reconstruction. This compelling and accessibly written narrative foregrounds the struggles of freedom-seeking enslaved persons in America’s most turbulent era.”

Brian Matthew Jordan, author of “Marching Home: Union Veterans and Their Unending Civil War”

A groundbreaking study that demonstrates how African Americans shaped the Civil War era. Noyalas systematically dismantles the old myth that the Shenandoah Valley did not have enslaved populations and instead weaves a compelling story of African American resistance and perseverance in a region deeply contested by war.”

James J. Broomall, author of “Private Confederacies: The Emotional Worlds of Southern Men as Citizens and Soldiers”

Filed Under: Arts & Sciences, Arts and Sciences Faculty News, History Alumni, MCWI

App Uses Augmented Reality To Recreate History ‘Through Their Eyes’ Provides In-Depth Look at Battle of Cool Spring

March 24, 2021

A new app that recreates scenes from the 1864 Battle of Cool Spring is now available for download.

Through Their Eyes is a collaboration between Shenandoah’s McCormick Civil War Institute and the Shenandoah Center for Immersive Learning (SCiL).

The app has two components:

  1. 360 augmented reality component
  2. audio augmented reality experience

Download on Google Play    Download in the App Store

The 360 augmented reality experience can be done anywhere. Those who download the app can scan any flat surface and a map appears showing the contours of the Cool Spring Battlefield, which is located in Clarke County off Va. 7. Users can tap on any one of a dozen flags marking a designation on the map where a particular regiment fought. They are then instantly transported into a moment in the battle that is recreated by volunteers, students and living historians.

An example of this includes a scene that centers around the account of Lt. Col. Thomas Wildes, 123rd Ohio, where he describes the fate of a sergeant in that regiment, Sgt. Davis, who was mortally wounded at the battle and carried off the field by his comrades. Aware that he was putting those who carried him off the field in great danger, Davis requested they put him down on Parker’s Island and save themselves. Wildes’ account notes that the sergeant, fearful his personal items would fall into Confederate hands, buried them in a log. At some point between July 18 and the following day, the sergeant passed away. When the 123rd Ohio crossed back over to Parker’s Island on July 20, they discovered what the sergeant had done.

This example offers an opportunity to explore not only the battle’s tragic consequences, but also the battle’s impact on the family Davis left behind.

“It’s a revolutionary, non-invasive way to interpret a battlefield with greater depth,” said Director of the McCormick Civil War Institute Jonathan Noyalas ’01, M.A. “We are able to create such an immersive, personal experience, connecting you with people involved, that you can’t get from a printed brochure.”

The second part of the app is an immersive audio tour in which participants can walk the battlefield and hear an audio account of particular soldiers and their experiences while also learning what happened to that soldier, either at Cool Spring or in the conflict’s aftermath. The app uses GPS satellite data to determine where the participant is on the battlefield and syncs this with specific soldiers’ accounts.

Jonathan NoyalasWe’re trying to create an intimate, powerful experience that will aid individuals to better understand the personal stories of soldiers who fought at Cool Spring and the impact the battle had on them — a stark reminder of tragic consequences of what happens when a people become divided to an unbridgeable point. Both augmented reality experiences draw on the accounts of about two dozen Union and Confederate soldiers.”

Jonathan Noyalas ’01

Wes Brown, AR/VR developer in SCiL, served as the developer of the app, with several students aiding in the process.

Both he and Noyalas are unaware of any U.S. battlefield that has anything like this — a GPS-driven app that can also create a 360 experience on a 2D device.

Wes BrownThe way it interprets the 360 video is not common practice. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s new and kind of revolutionary.”

Wes Brown

 

The unveiling of the app took place March 24 at Cool Spring.

 

Through-Their-Eyes

Filed Under: Arts & Sciences, History Alumni, MCWI, scil, University Home, Virtual Reality Design

Check out C-SPAN for Episodes on American History Shenandoah Historian Jonathan Noyalas Speaks on Civil War-Related Topics

March 19, 2021

Throughout March, C-SPAN’s American History TV has been featuring presentations in which Director of the McCormick Civil War Institute Jonathan Noyalas, ’01, M.A., talks about various Shenandoah Valley-related topics.

 

Check out the episodes

Episode About Rebecca Wright – Union Spy in the Shenandoah

In the fall of 1864, Union General Philip Sheridan sought information on the position and strength of Confederate forces in the Shenandoah Valley. Rebecca Wright, with the help of enslaved man Thomas Laws, passed Sheridan intelligence that informed his battle plan for what would be the Third Battle of Winchester. Noyalas details Rebecca Wright’s involvement and how this action impacted the rest of her life.

Watch Rebecca Wright – Union Spy in the Shenandoah

 

Episode About Sheridan’s Ride

Noyalas looks at Union Gen. Philip Sheridan’s famous ride at the 1864 Battle of Cedar Creek and its commemoration in art, literature and popular culture.

Watch Sheridan’s Ride in Art, Literature & Memory

 

Episode About Union Veterans

Noyalas talks about how Union veterans of the 1864 Shenandoah Campaign attempted to burnish their regimental legacies through writing newspaper columns and publishing memoirs.

Watch Union Veterans & 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign

 

Filed Under: Arts & Sciences, History Alumni, History Spotlight, MCWI

McCormick Civil War Institute Publishes Its First Book ‘So Much to Say’ Uses 29 Donated Letters to Tell Union Soldier’s Story

March 10, 2020

Shenandoah University’s McCormick Civil War Institute has published its first book—one that chronicles a Union soldier’s wartime experience and his beliefs on war, politics and the homefront.

“So Much to Say” is an account of the Civil War experience of Robert Bradbury, a Union corporal in Battery D, the First Pennsylvania Light Artillery. The book includes 29 letters, 4 poems, 13 illustrations, five maps and 13 images.

The book is edited by Jonathan Noyalas, ’01 M.A., director of the McCormick Civil War Institute, and Charles Givens, a World War II veteran who began the original transcription and organization of the letters years ago. Givens, who died in 2001, is the father of Harriet Johnston, a Pennsylvania resident who donated Bradbury’s letters to the institute in spring of 2019. Bradbury was the grandfather of Johnston’s aunt by marriage.

Noyalas, who has read thousands of letters from Civil War soldiers, called Bradbury’s collection unique and one of the richest he’s seen. Not only does Bradbury document the happenings of the battlefield, but he also chronicles current events and the politics of the time, such as President Lincoln’s assassination and Jefferson Davis’ capture.

Bradbury’s discussions of soldier life, generals, political figures, comrades in First Pennsylvania Light Artillery, not to mention discussions of places he fought, marched through, and was stationed at are impeccably detailed. I would think that anyone with an interest in the Civil War in Virginia, particularly the operations around Fredericksburg and in the Shenandoah Valley, would find these letters useful, as would anyone interested in how Union soldiers made sense of the conflict and what enlisted men thought of generals and war-planners on both sides.”
Jonathan Noyalas, ’01 M.A., director of the McCormick Civil War Institute

Bradbury joined the Union army in 1862 when he was 18 years old. He served until the end of the war in 1865 and fought from the Virginia Peninsula to the Shenandoah Valley. During the war, he created the newspaper The Weekly Blunder. Afterward, Bradbury worked as a journalist in Philadelphia.

The book is now available for purchase at Amazon.com and the Winchester Book Gallery. After April 4, it will be available at other retailers throughout the Shenandoah Valley and beyond. In a pre-publication review, Brian Matthew Jordan, Ph.D., a professor at Sam Houston State University and Pulitzer finalist for his book “Marching Home,” described this edited collection as “remarkable” filed with “plentiful comments about the natural and material environments of war.” Jordan also noted that Bradbury’s letters are “spiced with his pungent political commentary and candid assessment of military leaders.”

All proceeds go to the McCormick Civil War Institute to support student endeavors and efforts at Cool Spring.

This is the first book that the institute has published. Since 2018, it has also published three volumes of the peer-reviewed journal, The Journal of the Shenandoah Valley During the Civil War Era.

Filed Under: History Alumni, History Spotlight, MCWI

One Artifact At A Time Shenandoah University Students Serve As Co-authors of Artifact-Driven History of Winchester

May 29, 2019

A group of Shenandoah University history majors are set to be published authors this year for their work on a book commemorating the 275th anniversary of the founding of Winchester, Virginia.

The history students are using artifacts to help tell the city’s story in a book to be published by the Winchester-Frederick County Historical Society and co-edited by Shenandoah’s McCormick Civil War Institute Director Jonathan Noyalas ’01, M.A. (Shenandoah’s main campus has been located in Winchester since 1960.)

Noyalas said he suggested the book’s creation as an item to leave behind for future generations. And, it’s a project that allows the historical society to achieve a goal of further interaction with the university.

Photo of a dress created for an early Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival, included in a book on Winchester's 275th anniversary, co-written by Shenandoah University students.

Dress crafted for an early Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival.

The book will tell the city’s story through short explorations of 50 artifacts chosen by Noyalas and the historical society’s director, Cissy Shull. The book is intended for general audiences, with the artifacts, their importance, and their connection to Winchester’s history described in approximately 1,000-word essays, Noyalas said.

Order Your Copy Now

The writers & their artifacts

Kim Oliveto ’20 is writing about a lock of George Washington’s hair and a Quaker marriage certificate. Washington, the nation’s first president, worked as a surveyor in the Winchester area prior to the American Revolution, was elected to his first office from the city, and oversaw the construction of Fort Loudoun, which sat where North Loudoun Street is today. Even so, Oliveto noted that it’s unclear how exactly the lock of the nation’s first president’s light auburn hair ended up in Winchester.

Winchester, the first city west of the Blue Ridge Mountains to be settled by European immigrants and their descendants, has a longstanding Quaker community. Oliveto said certificates, like the one she is researching, were how American Quakers proved that they had married. In her piece, she is also explaining why Quakers relocated to the area from Pennsylvania.

Sarah Powell ’19 is telling a story of immigration and business development by focusing on a mortar and pestle used by early German immigrant Godfrey Miller. The family business grew to include dry goods as well as an apothecary, which was once the longest continuously operating drugstore in the nation. Miller’s apothecary is now on display at Shenandoah University’s Bernard J. Dunn School of Pharmacy.

Shelby Sprague ’22 is exploring Fort Loudoun and the French & Indian War. Steven Stabler  ’22 is focusing on 20th-century history through a Korean War uniform, a World War II Purple Heart awarded to one of the first Winchester residents to die in the conflict, and a grouping of artifacts connected to Admiral Richard E. Byrd’s Antarctic expeditions. Through his artifacts, he’ll tell stories about how the city’s residents felt about war, as well as discuss the development of science and technology through the 20th century.

Pike

The artifact handled by Zach Thompson ’19 is a chest, owned by James Mason, a mid-19th-century U.S. senator who authored the Fugitive Slave Law in conjunction with the Compromise of 1850. The chest was part of Mason’s baggage when he was captured during the Civil War, along with Louisiana politician John Slidell, in what came to be known as the Trent Affair. Some of the story he will focus on includes the last-ditch efforts of the republic’s political leaders to keep the nation united during the tumultuous decade of the 1850s.

Jessica Kronenwetter ’20, who also photographed the artifacts for the book, is focusing on two areas. One allows her to talk about the Devil Diarists of Winchester, who were Confederate sympathizers who went to sometimes scandalous lengths to irritate Union troops during the Civil War. She will write about the many times Winchester changed hands, how the city’s women felt during the conflict, and how Union soldiers were perceived in the city. Her other area of focus allows her to explore the work of Frank Turgeon, a prominent aerial photographer and pilot who worked with National Geographic in the early 20th century.

Noyalas is also writing about a couple of artifacts. The Orrick Cemetery gravestone of Edward Hall, who served in the 30th United States Colored Troops during the Civil War, allows him to discuss racism, slavery and the 167 African Americans from Winchester who served with the Union Army during the Civil War. Additionally, he’s writing about a rifle presented by a group of Union veterans to Confederate veterans in Winchester in 1888 as an act of reconciliation – one that he said appears to have been unique in the post-Civil War south.

All told, Shenandoah faculty, alumni and students are writing about approximately half of the artifacts featured in the book, Noyalas said.

Becoming published authors

Sprague said being part of such a project, particularly as a freshman, is an honor. She said her friends at other colleges and universities don’t have such an opportunity available to them. And, the writing and research “gives me a better understanding of why I want to be a history major,” she said, noting that, at 19 years of age, she’ll be a published author.

The writing and research is providing the student authors with a unique extracurricular opportunity, said Oliveto, a grandmother who never thought a chance to be published would “happen to little ’ol me from Winchester, Virginia.” She’s loved the thrill of digging for information, and she said her experience in the history program shows that “It’s never too late to go back to college. Pick the right college and you can be published, whether you’re a freshman or a grandma.”

“We’ve gotten to showcase our talents to people outside of Shenandoah and prove our worth as prospective historians,” Kronenwetter said of the book project.

The book’s launch

Noyalas said that the hope is that the book will pique readers’ curiosity and inspire them to visit local museums or read more in-depth histories of Winchester and its demographically diverse population.

The book will be released in mid-October, Noyalas said, with the release celebrated during a special event on campus, with some of the artifacts available for viewing at the event.

Order “A Prominent Place”: Winchester’s 275 Years in 50 Artifacts

 

Photo credits: Jessica Kronenwetter ’20 and https://www.mygenealogyhound.com/

Filed Under: Arts & Sciences, Arts and Sciences Faculty News, History Alumni, History Spotlight, Magazine News, MCWI Tagged With: faculty book, faculty books, history, Jessica Kronenwetter, Jonathan Noyalas, Kim Oliveto, Sarah Powell, Shelby Sprague, Steven Stabler, Zach Thompson

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About MCWI

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  • About MCWI
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  • Through Their Eyes App
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McCormick Civil War Institute Director
Jonathan A. Noyalas, ‘01 M.A.
jnoyalas01@su.edu
540-665-4501
Office: Davis Hall 115

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