Brian D. McKnight, Ph.D.

Presents

"The Civil War in Appalachia"

Brian McKnight is a Professor of History and a Founding Director of the Center for Appalachian Studies at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise.  He is a specialist in contested and coerced loyalties. He is the author of Contested Borderland:  The Civil War in Appalachian Kentucky and Virginia, which won the James I. Robertson Literary Award, and Confederate Outlaw:  Champ Ferguson and the Civil War in Appalachia, which won the Tennessee Library Award for best book in Tennessee history.  In addition to these titles, he also wrote “We Fight For Peace”:  The Story of Twenty-Three American Soldiers, Prisoners of War, and Turncoats in the Korean War and coedited The Guerrilla Hunters:  Irregular Conflicts During the Civil War with Barton Myers.  His other writings have been featured in the New York Times and his work on Korean War prisoners of war was profiled in the New Yorker.




Our next Zoom Presentation Monday, May 13, at  6:15 PM Pacific Time


May 13 at 6:15 PM      

Our Zoom Presenter: 

Brian D. McKnight, Ph.D.

Presents: "The Civil War

in Appalachia"


When people think about the Civil War, they usually think of Gettysburg, Antietam, and Abraham Lincoln…never the Appalachian Mountains.  But those mountains separated the North from the South and the East from the West during the war.  Along the Tennessee/Kentucky/Virginia/West Virginia state lines, you had what, at that time, the Confederacy considered to be an international border…and one without many troops defending it.  The result was a broad region that became a no man’s land and an every man’s land at the same time.  Those mountains were barriers, but their gaps were gateways, and on each side stood small military forces that could not hold back a larger tide.  As a result, guerrilla warfare prevailed and civil authority quickly gave way.  Gettysburg saw a week’s worth of warfare, but many Appalachian communities suffered for the full four years of war.




David Wilkerson, MA. Founding Member of the Inland Empire Civil War Round Table

David Wilkerson was born and raised in Redlands, California,  he attended Redlands High School, and graduated in 1976.  David has lived in Redlands, California, all his life. He graduated from U.C. Riverside in 1980 with a B.A. in History and an M.A. in Historical Resources Management in 1983. David is currently a part-time (adjunct) History instructor at Victor Valley College. He's been employed as a adjunct instructor since 1982 by various southland universities and colleges. I also was employed as a federal government archivist and a DoD contractor Senior Film Researcher and Senior Archivist. 

Our next  In-Person and Zoom Presentation Wednesday, May 15, at  6:15 PM Pacific Time


David Wilkerson, MA.


"Brief Overview of IECWRT Origins, with the main topic “Abraham Lincoln vs. Jefferson Davis as President.”


Two men born less than 100 miles apart geographically and eight months apart were to play critical leadership roles in our Civil War. Jefferson Davis was born in Samuel (later known as Fairview), Kentucky, on June 3, 1808, and Abraham Lincoln was born in Sinking Springs Farm, Kentucky, on February 12, 1809. Each was born into and grew up in substantially different lifestyles. Tonight’s presentation looks at Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis by reviewing each man’s early life, political activity, experiences, and leadership skills each brought to the presidency, and finally, why Lincoln was the better orator and leader of the two.