SAVE THE DATE! McCormick Civil War Institute Spring 2027 Conference
“An Inevitable Part”
Transformations During the Civil War
Saturday, April 17, 2027
On the campus of Shenandoah University, Winchester, Virginia
Featuring presentations by historians Ronald S. Coddington (Military Images), Warren Eugene Milteer, Jr. (George Washington University), Jennifer M. Murray (Shepherd University), Jonathan Noyalas (Shenandoah University), and Jonathan E. Tracey (Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park)
“Sowing & Reaping” (Library of Congress)
The Civil War proved a transformative moment for the United States and for the soldiers who fought in it, the family members they left behind, the civilians caught in the war’s maelstrom, and the communities touched by the war. During its spring 2027 conference, Shenandoah University’s McCormick Civil War Institute will explore various transformations that took place during the conflict and the legacies of those changes.
Schedule
8:15 a.m. – Registration opens, Henkel Hall
9:10-9:15 a.m. – Welcome
9:15-10:10 a.m. – “If…the People… Would Unite”: Reflections on Loyalty Among Soldiers, Their Families, and Their Communities (Jonathan A. Noyalas, Shenandoah University)
10:10-10:20 a.m. – Break
10:20 – 11:20 a.m. – General George Meade and the Army of the Potomac, 1863-1865 (Jennifer M. Murray, Shepherd University)
11:20 – 12:30 p.m. – Lunch
12:30-1:25 p.m. – In a Fight for Liberty and Equality: The Lives of Free People of Color during the Civil War. (Warren Eugene Milteer, Jr., George Washington University)
1:25-1:35 p.m. – Break
1:35-2:30 p.m. – “Things had Taken a Change:” Loyalty, Property, and the Southern Claims Commission in the Lower Shenandoah Valley (Jonathan E. Tracey, Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park)
2:30-2:45 p.m. – Break and Book Raffle
2:45-3:40 p.m. – Making Civil War Memory: Portrait Photography and the Rise of Visual Democracy in America (Ronald S. Coddington, Military Images)
3:40-3:50 p.m. – Concluding Remarks
About the Speakers
Ronald S. Coddington is a lifelong collector of Civil War-era portrait photography, focusing on cartes de visite. He is editor and publisher of Military Images, the award-winning magazine dedicated to showcasing, preserving, and interpreting historic portrait photography. His six books include the Faces of the Civil War series, published by Johns Hopkins University Press, and Gettysburg Faces, published by Gettysburg Publishing. For 15 years, he wrote the “Faces of War” column for Civil War News and contributed regularly to the New York Times’ Disunion series during the Civil War sesquicentennial. He also hosts the YouTube channel Life on the Civil War Research Trail, sharing stories, discoveries, and behind-the-scenes insights into Civil War history and photography.
Warren Eugene Milteer, Jr. is an associate professor of history at the George Washington University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2014. His publications include Out of This Strife Will Come Freedom: Free People of Color and the Fight for Equal Rights in the Civil War Era (UNC Press, 2026); Freedom in the Age of Slavery: A History of Free People of Color in Virginia (UVA Press, 2026); Beyond Slavery’s Shadow: Free People of Color in the South (UNC Press, 2021); and North Carolina’s Free People of Color, 1715-1885 (LSU Press, 2020), the independently published Hertford County, North Carolina’s Free People of Color and Their Descendants (2016), as well as articles in the Journal of Social History and the North Carolina Historical Review. Milteer was the recipient of the Southern Historical Association’s Charles S. Sydnor Award for the best book in Southern history in 2022, the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association’s Ragan Old North State Award for nonfiction in 2022, and the Historical Society of North Carolina’s R. D. W. Connor Award in 2014 and 2016 for the best journal article in the North Carolina Historical Review.
Jennifer M. Murray is the Dennis E. Frye Endowed Chair in Civil War Studies and director of the Civil War Center. A Civil War historian, who specializes in military history, Murray is an assistant professor of history at Shepherd University. She is the author of On A Great Battlefield: The Making, Management, and Memory of Gettysburg National Military Park, 1933-2023, published by the University of Tennessee Press in 2014 and printed as a second edition in 2023. Most recently, Murray co-edited “They Are Dead, And Yet They Live”: Civil War Memories in a Polarized America, with John Kinder (University of Nebraska Press, 2026). Murray is currently writing a full-length biography of General George Meade, tentatively titled Meade at War. She is also co-editing a volume with Kenneth Noe on the Army of the Potomac, entitled This Glorious Army: Reconsidering the Army of the Potomac. Prior to joining the faculty at Shepherd, Murray taught at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater. A native of Garrett County Maryland, Murray worked as a seasonal interpretive park ranger at Gettysburg National Military Park for nine summers.
Jonathan A. Noyalas is the Hugh & Virginia McCormick Chair in Civil War History at Shenandoah University and is director of Shenandoah’s McCormick Civil War Institute. He is the author or editor of numerous books, including most recently General Philip H. Sheridan: Life, War, and Memory (Routledge) and Winchester and the Civil War: A Walk Through History (Reedy Press). Noyalas has also published more than 100 articles, essays, chapters, and reviews for a variety of scholarly and popular publications. Prof. Noyalas has also consulted on various projects for groups including the National Park Service, Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District, National Geographic, and PBS’s popular series “Finding Your Roots.” He has appeared on C-SPAN’s American History TV, NPR’s “With Good Reason,” and PCN. Noyalas has received numerous awards for his teaching and scholarship, including Shenandoah University’s Exemplary Teaching Award for the First Year Seminar and the State Council for Higher Education in Virginia’s Outstanding Faculty Award.
Jonathan E. Tracey is a public historian and author focused on historic preservation, memory, and veteran life in the Civil War era. A graduate of Gettysburg College and a graduate program at West Virginia University, he is currently the Historian/Cultural Resource Program Manager for the National Park Service at Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park.
For questions about the conference, contact Jonathan Noyalas at jnoyalas01@su.edu or 540-665-4501.
Registration Information
Registration will open near the end of October 2026. Please stay tuned for details.