VMHC Lectures

On May 7 at noon, S. C. Gwynne delivered a Banner Lecture entitled "Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson." Stonewall Jackson has long been a figure of legend and romance. He is considered, without argument, one of America’s greatest military figures. Jackson’s brilliance at the art of war tied Abraham Lincoln and the Union high command in knots and threatened the ultimate success of the Union armies. In April 1862, Jackson was merely another Confederate general in an army fighting what seemed to be a losing cause. By June he had engineered perhaps the greatest military campaign in American history and was one of the most famous men in the western world. S. C. Gwynne’s Rebel Yell is a vivid narrative that delves deep into Jackson’s private life, including the loss of his beloved first wife and his regimented personal habits. Gwynne traces Jackson’s brilliant twenty-four-month career in the Civil War; his stunning effect on the course of the war itself; and his tragic death, which caused both North and South to grieve the loss of a remarkable American hero. S. C. Gwynne has spent most of his career as a journalist, including stints with Time as bureau chief, national correspondent, and senior editor, and with Texas Monthly as executive editor. He is the author of Empire of the Summer Moon and Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson.

The Virginia Environmental Endowment Oral History Project

McCarthy, Gerald P.

2009 October 26 (3 of 3 interviews)

Length: 1:01:10

Mss 3 V81951a FA2

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

The Virginia Environmental Endowment Oral History Project

McCarthy, Gerald P.

2009 October 2 (2 of 3 interviews)

Length 1:56:29

Mss 3 V81951a FA2

The Virginia Historical Society

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

The Virginia Environmental Endowment Oral History Project.

McCarthy, Gerald P.

2009 September 4 (1 of 3 interviews)

The Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, Va.

Length: 1:38:35

Mss 3 V81951a FA2

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

The Virginia Environmental Endowment Oral History Project.

McCarthy, Gerald P.

2009 September 4 (1 of 3 interviews)

The Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, Va.

Length: 1:38:35

Mss 3 V81951a FA2

The Virginia Environmental Endowment Oral History Project

McCarthy, Gerald P.

2009 October 26 (3 of 3 interviews)

Length: 1:01:10

Mss 3 V81951a FA2

The Virginia Environmental Endowment Oral History Project

McCarthy, Gerald P.

2009 October 2 (2 of 3 interviews)

Length 1:56:29

Mss 3 V81951a FA2

The Virginia Historical Society

On May 14, Craig L. Symonds delivered the 2015 Stuart G. Christian Jr. Lecture entitled “Leadership and Decision-Making in the D-Day Invasion.”

On June 6, 1944, more than six thousand Allied ships carried more than a million soldiers across the English Channel to a fifty-mile-wide strip of the Normandy coast in German-occupied France. It was the greatest sea-borne assault in human history. The code names given to the beaches where the ships landed the soldiers have become immortal: Gold, Juno, Sword, Utah, and especially Omaha, the scene of almost unimaginable human tragedy. The sea of crosses in the cemetery sitting today atop a bluff overlooking the beaches recalls to us its cost. Most accounts of this epic story begin with the landings on the morning of June 6. In fact, however, D-Day was the culmination of months and years of planning and intense debate. Craig L. Symonds now offers the complete story of this Olympian effort. The obstacles to success were many. In addition to divergent strategic views and cultural frictions, Symonds includes vivid portraits of the key decision-makers, from Franklin Roosevelt and Churchill, to Marshall, Dwight Eisenhower, and Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, who commanded the naval element of the invasion.

Craig L. Symonds is Professor of History Emeritus at the United States Naval Academy. He is the author of many books on American naval history, including The Battle of Midway, Lincoln and His Admirals, co-winner of the Lincoln Prize in 2009, and Neptune: The Allied Invasion of Europe and the D-Day Landings.

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 May 12, 2015, Cokie Roberts will deliver a Banner Lecture entitled "Capital Dames: The Civil War and the Women of Washington By Cokie Roberts."

Capital Dames: The Civil War and the Women of Washington, 1848-1868With the outbreak of the Civil War, the small, social southern town of Washington, D.C., found itself caught between warring sides in a four-year struggle to determine the future of the United States. While the nation’s men marched off to war, either on the battlefield or into the halls of Congress, the women of Washington joined the cause as well, serving as nurses, supply organizers, relief workers, and journalists. Cokie Roberts brings the war-torn capital into focus through the lives of formidable ladies like Sara Agnes Pryor and Elizabeth Blair Lee. Compelling social history at its best, Capital Dames concludes that the war not only changed Washington, but it also forever changed the role of women in American society.

Cokie Roberts is a political commentator for ABC News and NPR. She has won countless awards and in 2008 was named a “Living Legend” by the Library of Congress. She is the author of several bestselling books, including Founding Mothers, Ladies of Liberty, and Capital Dames: The Civil War and the Women of Washington, 1848–1868.

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 May 7, 2015, S. C. Gwynne delivered a Banner Lecture entitled "Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson."

Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall JacksonStonewall Jackson has long been a figure of legend and romance. He is considered, without argument, one of America’s greatest military figures. Jackson’s brilliance at the art of war tied Abraham Lincoln and the Union high command in knots and threatened the ultimate success of the Union armies. In April 1862, Jackson was merely another Confederate general in an army fighting what seemed to be a losing cause. By June he had engineered perhaps the greatest military campaign in American history and was one of the most famous men in the western world. S. C. Gwynne’s Rebel Yell is a vivid narrative that delves deep into Jackson’s private life, including the loss of his beloved first wife and his regimented personal habits. Gwynne traces Jackson’s brilliant twenty-four-month career in the Civil War; his stunning effect on the course of the war itself; and his tragic death, which caused both North and South to grieve the loss of a remarkable American hero.

S. C. Gwynne has spent most of his career as a journalist, including stints with Time as bureau chief, national correspondent, and senior editor, and with Texas Monthly as executive editor. He is the author of Empire of the Summer Moon and Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson.

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