Civil War seminar at Old State House

The Old State House Museum will host its annual Civil War seminar, entitled A Divided Arkansas, on Saturday, August 25, from 9:30 a.m. to 12 p.m.  Doors will open at 9:00 am. Admission to the seminar is free but seating is limited; those wishing to attend should call (501) 324-8641 by Wednesday, August 22, to pre-register. This seminar is sanctioned by the Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission.

Speakers and topics include: 

·        Dr. Carl Moneyhon

A House Divided: Political Dissent in Confederate Arkansas, 1862 - A summary of the political situation in Arkansas (within the national context) at that time

·        Dr. William Shea

Fatal Ground: The War in Arkansas, 1862 - An overview of what happened in a year bookended by the battles at Pea Ridge and Prairie Grove

·        Dr. Daniel Sutherland

The 'Real' War Begins: The Origins of Guerrilla Warfare in Arkansas - The rise of guerrilla warfare in 1862 and the formation of the Union counter-guerrilla outfits

Speakers’ Biographies:

Dr. Carl Moneyhon joined the faculty of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 1973, and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He serves on the editorial boards of the Arkansas Historical Quarterly and the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture. Dr. Moneyhon is a specialist in the history of the American Civil War and the South and is widely published in the field. His work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, and he recently received one of the first College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences Summer Fellowships for Research. Dr. Moneyhon is working on a book on the connection of war-time experience and developed identity among Confederate soldiers. His publications include: Texas after the Civil War: The Struggle of Reconstruction (Texas A & M University Press); Arkansas in the New South, 1877-1929 (University of Arkansas Press); The Impact of the Civil War and Reconstruction on Arkansas: Persistence in the Midst of Ruin, 1850-1874 (Louisiana State University Press); and Republicanism in Reconstruction Texas (Texas A & M University Press).

Dr. William L. Shea is professor of history at the University of Arkansas at Monticello. A native of Louisiana, he has a B.A. from Louisiana State University and a Ph.D. from Rice University. Shea has been a Fulbright Scholar in China, a consultant for the National Park Service, and a battlefield guide for the Smithsonian Institution. He is author or co-author of numerous books and articles on American military history, especially the Civil War west of the Mississippi River. His most recent book is Fields of Blood: The Prairie Grove Campaign (University of North Carolina Press). It received the Fletcher Pratt Award of the New York Civil War Round Table for the best book published on the Civil War in 2010, and the J. G. Ragsdale Award of the Arkansas Historical Association for the best book published about Arkansas history that year. Among Dr. Shea’s other books are Pea Ridge: Civil War Campaign in the West (University of North Carolina Press); Vicksburg Is the Key: The Struggle for the Mississippi River (University of Nebraska Press); and The Virginia Militia in the Seventeenth Century (Louisiana State University Press).  

Dr. Daniel E. Sutherland received his Ph.D. in history from Wayne State University in 1976. He taught at Wayne State University, Mercy College of Detroit, the University of Alabama, and McNeese State before the University of Arkansas. His principal area of research is nineteenth-century America. He has written eight books and edited five others. He has published over fifty book chapters and articles in both popular magazines and scholarly journals. He has received over forty honors, awards, and research grants. Five of his books have been selected by the History Book Club. Dr. Sutherland’s publications include: A Savage Conflict: The Decisive Role of Guerrillas in the American Civil War (University of North Carolina Press). He served as editor for From Shiloh to Savannah: The Seventh Illinois Infantry in the Civil War (by Daniel Leib Ambrose, Northern Illinois University Press); This Terrible War: The Civil War and Its Aftermath (with Michael Fellman and Lesley Jill Gordon, Longman); Civil War Arkansas: Beyond Battles and Leaders (with Anne J. Bailey, University of Arkansas Press); and Guerrillas, Unionists, and Violence on the Confederate Home Front (University of Arkansas Press).

About the Old State House Museum
The Old State House Museum is a museum of the Department of Arkansas Heritage and shares the goal of all seven Department of Arkansas Heritage agencies, that of preserving and enhancing the heritage of the state of Arkansas. The agencies are Arkansas Arts Council, Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission, Delta Cultural Center in Helena, Historic Arkansas Museum, Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, and the Old State House Museum.