McCormick Civil War Institute Spring 2026 Conference
“Quenching The… Embers”
Victory, Defeat, and Challenges After Appomattox
Saturday, April 18, 2026
On the campus of Shenandoah University, Winchester, Virginia
Featuring presentations by historians Jeffrey Boutwell, William C. “Jack” Davis, Caroline Janney, and Jonathan Noyalas
Surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia to the Army of the Potomac sketched by John R. Chapin. (Library of Congress)
Tentative Schedule
8:30-9:30 a.m.: Check-in, Henkel Hall, Shenandoah University (1460 University Drive, Winchester, VA)
9:30-9:40 a.m.: Welcome, Jeff Coker, Dean College of Arts & Sciences
9:40-10:40 a.m.: “Our Work in Crushing the Rebellion Will Not be Done Until this Takes Place”: General Philip H. Sheridan & Mexico (Jonathan A. Noyalas, Shenandoah University)
10:40-10:55 a.m.: Break
10:55-11:55 a.m.: The Last Days of the Confederate Government (William C. “Jack” Davis, retired executive director, Virginia Center for Civil War Studies and professor of history at Virginia Tech)
11:55 a.m.-1:15 p.m.: Lunch on campus
1:15-2:15 p.m.: Lee’s Army After Appomattox (Caroline Janney, University of Virginia)
2:15-2:30 p.m.: Break and book raffle
2:30-3:30 p.m.: The “Usurpation”: George Boutwell and the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson (Jeffrey Boutwell, author)
3:30-4:00 p.m.: Concluding remarks and book signing
About the Speakers
Jeffrey Boutwell is a writer, historian, and public policy specialist whose forty-year career spanned journalism, government, and international scientific cooperation. He has written widely on issues relating to nuclear weapons arms control, European politics, and Middle East security issues. He has a Ph.D. in political science from MIT, a B.A. in history from Yale University, and he worked for many years at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cambridge, Mass. He is the author most recently of BOUTWELL: Radical Republican and Champion of Democracy (W.W. Norton, 2025), a biography of family member George Boutwell, political ally of Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant during the Civil War and Reconstruction eras who helped frame the 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution and promoted equality of rights for all Americans. Jeffrey grew up in Concord, Mass., and now lives in Columbia, Maryland with his wife, Buthaina Shukri.
William C. “Jack” Davis, retired Executive Director of the Virginia Center for
Civil War Studies and professor of history at Virginia Tech, spent 31 years in
editorial and marketing management in the book and magazine publishing industry. He
has consulted for numerous film and television productions, and was senior advisor for
the A&E and History Channel series “Civil War Journal.” Davis is the author or editor of
more than 50 books in Civil War and Southern history, and most recently co-edited with
Sue Heth Bell, The Whartons’ War: The Civil War Correspondence of General Gabriel
C. Wharton & Anne Radford Wharton, 1863-1865. He is currently working with Ron
Maxwell, director of the epic films “Gettysburg” and “Gods and Generals,” on two
docudrama series for television.
Caroline Janney is the John L. Nau III Professor of the American Civil War and Director of the John L. Nau Center for Civil War History at the University of Virginia. A graduate of the University of Virginia, she worked as a historian for the National Park Service and taught at Purdue University before returning to UVA in 2018. An active public lecturer, she has given presentations at locations across the globe. She is the past president of the Society of Civil War Historians and a series editor for the University of North Carolina Press’s Civil War America series. She has published nine books, including Remembering the Civil War: Reunion and the Limits of Reconciliation (2013) and Ends of War: The Unfinished Fight of Lee’s Army after Appomattox (2021) winner of the 2022 Lincoln Prize.
Jonathan A. Noyalas is the Hugh & Virginia McCormick Chair in Civil War History at Shenandoah University and director of Shenandoah’s McCormick Civil War Institute. He is the author or editor of seventeen books including Slavery and Freedom in the Shenandoah Valley During the Civil War Era (University Press of Florida), “The Blood-Tinted Waters of the Shenandoah”: The 1864 Valley Campaign’s Battle of Cool Spring (Savas Beatie), and most recently General Philip H. Sheridan: Life, War, and Memory (Routledge). Prof. Noyalas has appeared on C-SPAN’s American History TV, NPR’s “With Good Reason,” and PCN. He is the recipient of numerous awards for his teaching and scholarship including the State Council for Higher Education in Virginia’s Outstanding Faculty Award, Shenandoah University’s Exemplary Teaching Award for the first year seminar, and Shenandoah’s Wilkins Award.
For questions about the conference, contact Jonathan Noyalas at jnoyalas01@su.edu or 540-665-4501.