Events

Elizabeth R. Varon (2024)

This year’s recipient, Elizabeth R. Varon, is the Langbourne M. Williams Professor of American History at the University of Virginia and a member of the executive council of UVA's John L. Nau III Center for Civil War History.

Varon grew up in northern Virginia and attended Swarthmore College for her B.A. and Yale University for her Ph.D. She has taught at Wellesley College and Oxford University. Her books include Armies of Deliverance: A New History of the Civil War, which won the 2020 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize. Her most recent book is Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South (Simon & Schuster, 2023), and her new project is a biography of humanitarian Clara Barton.

Stephen D. Engle (2023)

Stephen D. Engle, a professor at Florida Atlantic University since 1990, has been the recipient of several research and teaching honors and was a Fulbright Scholar. He has also appeared on C-Span's Lectures in American History, series, and in 2016 was named the Distinguished Teacher of the Year at Florida Atlantic University.

He is the author of six books, including "Gathering to Save a Nation," "Lincoln and the Union’s War Governors" (winner of the 55th Annual Barondess-Lincoln Award for 2017, finalist for Emerging Civil War Book Award), "Yankee Dutchman: The Life of Franz Sigel" (1993), "Don Carlos Buell: Most Promising of All" (1999), "Struggle for the Heartland" (2001 a History Book Club Selection), "A War Worth Fighting: Abraham Lincoln's Presidency and Civil War America" (2015).

Caroline E. Janney (2022)

Caroline E. Janney, 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 seven 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).

Thomas S. Brown (2021)

Thomas S. Brown was born in Boston and raised in northern Virginia. He received his undergraduate, law and doctoral degrees from Harvard University. He has taught at the University of South Carolina since 1996. He is the author of "Dorothea Dix, New England Reformer," "Civil War Canon: Sites of Confederate Memory in South Carolina," and "Civil War Monuments and the Militarization of America," which received the Tom Watson Brown book award of the Society of Civil War Historians. He helped to organize the 1997 centennial anniversary of the Shaw 54th Regiment Memorial dedication and co-edited "Hope and Glory: Essays on the Legacy of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment." He is currently working on a book about the memorial.

Peter S. Carmichael (2018)

Peter S. Carmichael is the Fluhrer Professor of History and the Director of the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College. After completing his doctorate at Penn State University under Dr. Gary W. Gallagher, Professor Carmichael went on to teach at Western Carolina University, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and West Virginia University. He is the author and editor of four books, including "The Last Generation: Young Virginians in Peace, War, and Reunion" which was published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2005. He has also published a number of articles for both scholarly and popular journals, and he speaks frequently to general and scholarly audiences.

J. Matthew Gallman (2017)

J. Matthew Gallman for his book "Defining Duty in The Civil War – Personal Choice, Popular Culture, and the Union Home Front."   J. Matthew Gallman is professor of History at the University of Florida in Gainesville. His book is part of the landmark series "Civil War America" which interprets the history and culture of the American Civil War Era and is published by the University of North Carolina Press.

Brian Matthew Jordan (2016)

Mr. Brian Matthew Jordan, for his book "Marching Home - The Union Veterans’ Continued Civil War."  Mr. Jordan received his B.A. in History from Gettysburg College in 2014, and is currently Associate Professor of History at Houston State University in Houston, Texas.

William Feeney (2015)

Mr. William Feeney for his scholarship, research, teaching, and writing on the American Civil War which has added to the public knowledge of that conflict in our American History. Mr. Feeney gave a presentation on wounded and maimed Union Veterans and how they viewed themselves and the war. 

Ashley Whitehead Luskey (2014)

Ashley Whitehead Luskey was recognized for her study of  the elite women of Richmond, Virginia, who helped to stabilize Richmond society during four years of war and unprecedented social unrest. A Ph.D. candidate at West Virginia University, Ashley Luskey is currently working as a Park Ranger and historian at the Richmond National Battlefield Park.