VMHC Lectures

On June 2 , 2016, Joshua Kendall delivered a Banner Lecture entitled "First Dads: Parenting and Politics from George Washington to Barack Obama."

Every president has had some experience as a parent. Of the forty-three men who have served in the nation's highest office, thirty-eight have fathered biological children and the other five adopted children. Each president’s parenting style reveals much about his beliefs as well as his psychological make-up. James Garfield enjoyed jumping on the bed with his kids. FDR's children, on the other hand, had to make appointments to talk to him. Biographer Joshua Kendall will both describe the parenting practices of America's presidents and discuss how their experiences as fathers forever changed the course of American history.

Joshua Kendall is author of several books, including The Man Who Made Lists, a life of the lexicographer Peter Mark Roget; America's Obsessives: The Compulsive Energy That Built a Nation, a group biography of seven icons, including Thomas Jefferson, Charles Lindbergh and Estee Lauder; and, most recently, First Dads: Parenting and Politics from George Washington to Barack Obama. An award-winning freelance journalist, he has written for numerous newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, The LA Times, The Boston Globe, Psychology Today and BusinessWeek.

The content and opinions expressed in these presentations are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.

On Friday, April 29, James I. Robertson, Jr., delivered a Banner Lecture entitled "The Civil War's Most Valuable Diarist." At the Confederate States CapitalMaryland-born John Beauchamp Jones was an established editor and novelist when civil war began. He was one of the few people who envisioned the struggle as the large-scale, all-consuming war it became. In May, 1861, he accepted a high-ranking clerkship in the Confederate War Department. For the next four years he kept a meticulous, day-by-day journal. Nothing escaped Jones's eyes and ears. Verbal descriptions of individuals, confidential reports, personal opinions, rumors, weather, inflation, newspaper articles, life inside the bloated Confederate capital—all received attention. A Rebel War Clerk's Diary appeared posthumously in 1866. This mass of information has remained only partially used because of the absences of identification of persons and events, as well as lack of an index. James I. Robertson, Jr., has edited a new edition of the diary, which includes a long introduction, 2,700 endnotes, and an index containing references to individuals and subjects. Dr. James I. "Bud" Robertson, Jr., a noted scholar on the American Civil War, is Alumni Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Virginia Tech and former executive director of the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies. He also served as executive director of the U.S. Civil War Centennial Commission and as a member of the Virginia Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War Commission. Robertson is the author and editor of numerous books, including The Stonewall Brigade, General A. P. Hill, Soldiers, Blue and Gray, Civil War! America Becomes One Nation, Stonewall Jackson: The Man, The Soldier, The Legend, and A Rebel War Clerk's Diary: At the Confederate States Capital. This lecture is cosponsored with The Virginia Antiquarian Book Fair and the Virginia Antiquarian Bookseller's Association (VABA).

On April 29, 2016, James I. Robertson, Jr., delivered a Banner Lecture entitled "The Civil War's Most Valuable Diarist."

Maryland-born John Beauchamp Jones was an established editor and novelist when civil war began. He was one of the few people who envisioned the struggle as the large-scale, all-consuming war it became. In May, 1861, he accepted a high-ranking clerkship in the Confederate War Department. For the next four years he kept a meticulous, day-by-day journal. Nothing escaped Jones's eyes and ears. Verbal descriptions of individuals, confidential reports, personal opinions, rumors, weather, inflation, newspaper articles, life inside the bloated Confederate capital—all received attention. A Rebel War Clerk's Diary appeared posthumously in 1866. This mass of information has remained only partially used because of the absences of identification of persons and events, as well as lack of an index. James I. Robertson, Jr., has edited a new edition of the diary, which includes a long introduction, 2,700 endnotes, and an index containing references to individuals and subjects.

Dr. James I. "Bud" Robertson, Jr., a noted scholar on the American Civil War, is Alumni Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Virginia Tech and former executive director of the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies. He also served as executive director of the U.S. Civil War Centennial Commission and as a member of the Virginia Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War Commission. Robertson is the author and editor of numerous books, including The Stonewall Brigade, General A. P. Hill, Soldiers, Blue and Gray, Civil War! America Becomes One Nation, Stonewall Jackson: The Man, The Soldier, The Legend, and A Rebel War Clerk's Diary: At the Confederate States Capital.

This lecture is cosponsored with The Virginia Antiquarian Book Fair and the Virginia Antiquarian Bookseller's Association (VABA).

The content and opinions expressed in these presentations are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.

On April 7, 2016, Edward G. Lengel delivered a Banner Lecture entitled "Thunder and Flames: American Doughboys at War, 1917–1918."

In November 1917, American troops were poorly trained, deficient in military equipment and doctrine, not remotely ready for armed conflict on a large scale—and they'd arrived on the Western front to help the French push back the Germans. Edward G. Lengel tells the story of what followed: the American Expeditionary Forces' trial by fire on the brutal battlefields of France at places like Cantigny, Chateau Thierry, Belleau Wood, the Marne River, Soissons, and little-known Fismette. The picture that emerges is sweeping in scope and rich in detail, with firsthand testimony conjuring the real mud and blood of combat from the perspective of the Germans as well as the Americans and French. Lengel shows how, by trial and error, through luck and ingenuity, the AEF swiftly became the independent fighting force of Gen. John "Blackjack" Pershing's long-held dream—its divisions ultimately among the most combat-effective military forces to see the war through.

Edward G. Lengel is professor and director of the Papers of George Washington project at the University of Virginia. He is the author of General George Washington: A Military Life (2005), To Conquer Hell: The Meuse-Argonne, 1918: The Epic Battle That Ended the First World War (2008), Inventing George Washington: America's Founder, in Myth and Memory (2011), and Thunder and Flames: Americans in the Crucible of Combat, 1917–1918 (2015).

The content and opinions expressed in these presentations are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.

On March 24 and noon, Bruce M. Venter delivered a Banner Lecture entitled "Kill Jeff Davis: The Kilpatrick-Dahlgren Raid on Richmond in 1864." The ostensible goal of the Kilpatrick-Dahlgren raid was to free some 13,000 Union POWs held in Richmond. But sinister orders found on the dead body of the raid’s subordinate commander, Col. Ulric Dahlgren, pointed to a plot to capture or kill Confederate president Jefferson Davis and set the capital ablaze. Bruce Venter’s new book delves into these areas and more as he describes the political maneuvering orchestrated by Brig. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick to get the raid approved by President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. Included is a new look at the authorship of the infamous “Dahlgren Papers.” Fresh evidence on the identity of the African American guide, hanged by Dahlgren, is also revealed. And new research shows that Richmond was not defended by only “old men and young boys” when Kilpatrick and Dahlgren attacked the city. In the end, various myths and legends surrounding the raid are exposed and put to rest.

On March 17 at 5:30 p.m., Alex Kershaw delivered the 2016 Stuart G. Christian, Jr. Lecture entitled “The Bedford Boys.” June 6, 1944: nineteen boys from rural Bedford, Virginia, died in the first bloody minutes of D-Day. They were part of Company A of the 116th Regiment of the 29th Division, and among the first wave of American soldiers to hit the beaches at Normandy. Later in the campaign, three more boys from this small Virginia community died of gunshot wounds. Twenty-two sons of Bedford lost—it is a story one cannot easily forget and one that the families of Bedford will never forget. Alex Kershaw will tell the true and intimate story of these men and the friends and families they left behind—the story of one small American town that went to war and died on Omaha Beach. Alex Kershaw, an honorary colonel in the 116th Infantry Regiment of the 29th Division, is the widely acclaimed author of several bestselling books about World War II, including The Bedford Boys: One American Town's Ultimate D-Day Sacrifice, The Longest Winter: The Battle of the Bulge and the Epic Story of World War II's Most Decorated Platoon, The Few: The American “Knights of the Air” Who Risked Everything to Save Britain in the Summer of 1940, and The Liberator: One World War II Soldier's 500-Day Odyssey from the Beaches of Sicily to the Gates of Dachau. His latest book is Avenue of Spies: A True Story of Terror, Espionage, and One American Family's Heroic Resistance in Nazi-Occupied Paris.

On January 21 at noon, John Grady delivered a Banner Lecture entitled “Matthew Fontaine Maury: The Last Crusade.” When Matthew Fontaine Maury was commissioned as a midshipman, he boldly wrote: “Citizen of Virginia” in accepting his warrant. Although he was born in the commonwealth, his family, like thousands of others, fled to Tennessee to start over, free of debt. He rediscovered his Virginia roots and family when he came eastward to await his first orders. Maury always returned to Virginia when awaiting new orders or needed the warmth of family and old friends. At no time did the most popular American scientist of his time show his loyalty more than when he served on the Governor’s Advisory Council, a de facto War and Navy Department, following secession. What is less well known is his critical role in rebuilding the state following the Civil War. The ambitious “Physical Survey of Virginia” from the Virginia Military Institute was an investor’s guide to opportunity. There were new struggles and controversies over what role, if any, Confederate office holders and military officers would play in the state’s public life, how the races would coexist, which institution would be the “land grant college,” and the need for a National Weather Service. That became Maury’s last crusade. John Grady, a managing editor of Navy Times for more than eight years and retired communications director of the Association of the United States Army, is a contributer to the New York Times “Disunion” series and Civil War Monitor and a blogger for the navy’s Sesquicentennial of the Civil War website. He continues writing on national security and defense. He is the author of Matthew Fontaine Maury, Father of Oceanography: A Biography, 1806–1873.

On January 19 at 5:30 p.m., T. H. Breen delivered a Banner Lecture entitled “George Washington’s Journey: The President Forges a New Nation.” T. H. Breen introduces us to a George Washington we rarely meet. By nature shy and reserved, the brand new president decided that he would visit the new citizens in their own states, that only by showing himself could he make them feel part of a new nation. Washington made four grueling trips to all thirteen states. He displayed himself as victorious general (he wore his regal uniform and rode his white stallion) and as president (grand dinners, military parades, arcs of triumph, and balls—he liked to dance). He traveled by open carriage on terrible roads, in awful weather, staying and eating at lousy inns (he would not stay with wealthy would-be hosts). Washington drew on his immense popularity, even hero worship, to send a powerful and lasting message—that America was now a nation, not a collection of states. It was an enormous success. He drew the country to him. Breen takes us on Washington’s journeys. We see the country through his eyes and listen through his ears. We come to understand why George Washington is the indispensable Founding Father. He forged a new nation. Timothy H. Breen is the William Smith Mason Professor of American History Emeritus at Northwestern University. Breen received his Ph.D. in history from Yale University. He also holds an honorary MA from Oxford University. Breen is the respected author of eleven books, including Tobacco Culture: The Mentality of the Great Tidewater Planters on the Eve of Revolution (1985), American Insurgents—American Patriots: The Revolution of the People (2010), and George Washington’s Journey: The President Forges a New Nation (2015). This lecture is cosponsored with the Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Virginia.

On March 24 , 2016, Bruce M. Venter delivered a Banner Lecture entitled "Kill Jeff Davis: The Kilpatrick-Dahlgren Raid on Richmond in 1864."

The ostensible goal of the Kilpatrick-Dahlgren raid was to free some 13,000 Union POWs held in Richmond. But sinister orders found on the dead body of the raid’s subordinate commander, Col. Ulric Dahlgren, pointed to a plot to capture or kill Confederate president Jefferson Davis and set the capital ablaze. Bruce Venter’s new book delves into these areas and more as he describes the political maneuvering orchestrated by Brig. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick to get the raid approved by President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. Included is a new look at the authorship of the infamous “Dahlgren Papers.” Fresh evidence on the identity of the African American guide, hanged by Dahlgren, is also revealed. And new research shows that Richmond was not defended by only “old men and young boys” when Kilpatrick and Dahlgren attacked the city. In the end, various myths and legends surrounding the raid are exposed and put to rest.

The content and opinions expressed in these presentations are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.

On March 17, 2016, Alex Kershaw delivered the Stuart G. Christian, Jr. Lecture entitled “The Bedford Boys.”

June 6, 1944: nineteen boys from rural Bedford, Virginia, died in the first bloody minutes of D-Day. They were part of Company A of the 116th Regiment of the 29th Division, and among the first wave of American soldiers to hit the beaches at Normandy. Later in the campaign, three more boys from this small Virginia community died of gunshot wounds. Twenty-two sons of Bedford lost—it is a story one cannot easily forget and one that the families of Bedford will never forget. Alex Kershaw will tell the true and intimate story of these men and the friends and families they left behind—the story of one small American town that went to war and died on Omaha Beach.

Alex Kershaw, an honorary colonel in the 116th Infantry Regiment of the 29th Division, is the widely acclaimed author of several bestselling books about World War II, including The Bedford Boys: One American Town's Ultimate D-Day Sacrifice, The Longest Winter: The Battle of the Bulge and the Epic Story of World War II's Most Decorated Platoon, The Few: The American “Knights of the Air” Who Risked Everything to Save Britain in the Summer of 1940, and The Liberator: One World War II Soldier's 500-Day Odyssey from the Beaches of Sicily to the Gates of Dachau. His latest book is Avenue of Spies: A True Story of Terror, Espionage, and One American Family's Heroic Resistance in Nazi-Occupied Paris.

The content and opinions expressed in these presentations are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.