The Journal of the Civil War Era

Richards Center CFA for the Mark & Ann Persun Visiting Scholars Program for tenured faculty in history at the rank of Associate Professor. For the 2026-27 academic year, the fellowship is open to scholars of the Civil War Era, broadly conceived, who study military or political history.

Compensated Emancipation in Maryland during the Civil War - The Journal of the Civil War Era Historians have long marked President Abraham Lincoln’s January 1, 1863, Emancipation Proclamation as the harbinger of immediate, uncompensated emancipation in both the Confederacy and the Border Stat...

In today's Muster, Amanda Laury Kleintop explores the hidden history of compensated emancipation in Maryland www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/2025/12/comp...

In today's Muster, JCWE Book Review Editor Megan Bever chats with J Matt Ward about his book Garden of Ruins (LSU Press, 2024) www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/2025/11/jcwe...

Stephen Douglas’ Fictitious Case: Immigrant Voting in Antebellum Illinois - The Journal of the Civil War Era Both sides agreed on the facts. Both sides, the Whigs and the Democrats,  agreed that on August 6, 1838, Jeremiah Kyle went to the window of a polling booth in Galena, Illinois. Both sides agreed that...

In today's Muster, Clark North examines Stephen Douglas' role in shaping debates over citizenship and voting rights in antebellum Illinois www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/2025/11/step...

Alternative Fictions: The New Lost Cause in the Post-Civil Rights Era - The Journal of the Civil War Era “What if the South Won the Civil War?” Answers to this question reflect shifts in collective memory as authors use artistic license to reframe the real-world past.[1] Mackinlay Kantor’s answer in 1960...

In today's Muster, contributor Kris Plunkett examines the rise of the New Lost Cause in Post-Civil Rights era alternative history stories www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/2025/10/alte...

Introducing New Muster Contributors - The Journal of the Civil War Era In today’s Muster, we are excited to introduce four new contributors to our site. We are excited to welcome Cassy Werking, Will Horne, Elliott Martin, and Kris Plunkett to our team. They will contribu...

In today's Muster, we introduce four new contributors to the site. Welcome Cassy Werking, Will Horne, Elliott, and Kris Plunkett to the Muster team! www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/2025/10/intr...

The history of the Civil War era is inextricably linked to indigenous history and Muster will always strive to be an outlet to highlight the ongoing conversations and important debates that reveal a deeper understanding of this nation's indigenous past

Lindsey Peterson Interview on "'Home Builders': Free Labor Households and Settler Colonialism in Western Union Civil War Commemorations" - The Journal of the Civil War Era In today’s Muster, associate editor Robert D. Bland speaks with Lindsey R. Peterson about her March 2025 JCWE article “‘Home-Builders’: Free Labor Households and Settler Colonialism in Western Union C...

Finally, Lindsey R. Peterson discussed her 2025 JCWE article on settler colonialism, western Unionism, and Indian boarding schools with Muster this past summer. Her groundbreaking article won the 2023 Anthony E. Kaye Memorial Essay award. www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/2025/04/lind...

In 2024, Paul Barba offered an deeply insightful investigation of the Office of Indian Affairs in Kansas during the height of the sectional crisis
www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/2024/07/acts...

Insurrections, Indigenous Power, & The Empire for Slavery in the Southwest - The Journal of the Civil War Era The realities of Indigenous power, marronage, and Mexico’s emancipation policies haunted Anglo-American visions of a white supremacist imperial order in the trans-Mississippi West. On May 25, 1836 Con...

Next is Max Flormen's 2021 post on Indigenous Power and Slavery in the American Southwest www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/2021/03/insu...

Honoring and Remembering Indigenous Civil War Veterans in Public Spaces - The Journal of the Civil War Era A groundbreaking ceremony for the National Native American Veterans Memorial was held on September 21, 2019—the fifteen-year anniversary of the opening of the National Museum of the American Indian (N...

In honor of Indigenous People's Day, we would like to highlight some Muster posts that have examined Native American history during the Civil War era.

First, Michelle Anderson's 2019 essay on the honoring Indigenous Civil War veterans www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/2019/11/hono...

Announcing the 2025 Anthony E. Kaye Memorial Essay Award - The Journal of the Civil War Era The Journal of the Civil War Era is pleased to announce that Dr. J. Jacob Calhoun has been selected as the recipient of the Anthony E. Kaye Memorial Essay Award for 2025. His winning essay is titled, ...

In today's Muster, we announce that Dr. J. Jacob Calhoun has been selected as the recipient of the Anthony E. Kaye Essay Award for 2025. Congratulations Dr. Calhoun! www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/2025/09/anno...

Conversation with Caleb Gayle - The Journal of the Civil War Era In today’s Muster, JCWE Associate Editor Robert Bland has a conversation with Caleb Gayle, Associate Professor of Journalism and Africana Studies at Northeastern University. Gayle is the author of Bla...

In today's Muster, JCWE Associate Editor Robert Bland has a conversation with Caleb Gayle, author of Black Moses: A Sage of Ambition and the Fight for a Black State (Penguin, 2025). www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/2025/09/conv...

A reminder that the JCWE is seeking new contributors to Muster. The deadline for applications is October 1. If you are or anyone you know is interested in contributing to our ongoing online conversation on Civil War history, please apply!

Congratulations to Dr. Mount!

Previewing the September 2025 JCWE - The Journal of the Civil War Era This issue exemplifies the wide sweep of the Civil War Era as scholars understand it, and the success of the journal’s now fifteen-year-long effort to promote broadminded interrogation of the many for...

In today's Muster, Gregory Downs and Kate Masur preview the September 2025 JCWE www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/2025/09/prev...

Muster is looking for new contributors! We want to include a wide range of voices from many different of perspectives. Please share the following call widely. www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/2025/08/call...

In today's Muster, JCWE Book Review Editor Megan Bever has a conversation with Shae Smith Cox about her book, The Fabric of the Civil War Society www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/2025/08/conv...

Teaching the Civil War: Analyzing the Clinton Massacre Using Authentic Tasks - The Journal of the Civil War Era Today’s Muster continues our series Teaching the Civil War. Each post in the series has examined a different method that college and K-12 teachers have used to make the Civil War era come alive in the...

In this week's Muster, Lindsey Peterson discusses teaching the Clinton Massacre with digital records and authentic tasks
www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/2025/08/teac...

Collaborating with the Park Service – AHA When the National Park Service moved to incorporate Reconstruction into its historical interpretation, it was with the help of academic historians.

In this AHA article, JCWE editors Kate Masur and Greg Downs discuss their ongoing collaborative work with the National Park Service around commemorating the Reconstruction era www.historians.org/perspectives...

The Militia Act of 1903 in Historical Context - The Journal of the Civil War Era Recent events have turned public attention to the previously obscure Militia Act of 1903 and the even more obscure historians and political scientists interested in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century ...

In today's Muster, Law Professor Mark Graber discusses the historical context for the Militia Act of 1903 www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/2025/07/the-...

Conversation with June 2025 Special Issue Editors Joan E. Cashin and Alaina E. Roberts - The Journal of the Civil War Era In today’s Muster, Associate Editor Robert Bland discusses the JCWE’s June special issue on material culture with guest editors Joan E. Cashin and Alaina E. Roberts. Dr. Cashin is a professor of histo...

In today's Muster, Joan Cashin and Alaina Roberts discuss their special issue of the JCWE on Material Culture during the Civil War era www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/2025/07/conv...

Andrew Donnelly, Confederate Sympathies, and the History of Same-Sex Romance during the Civil War Era - The Journal of the Civil War Era In today’s Muster, associate editor Robert Bland is joined by Andrew Donnelly to discuss his new book Confederate Sympathies: Same-Sex Romance, Disunion, and Reunion in the Civil War Era. Professor Do...

In today's Muster, Andrew Donnelly discusses his new book, Confederate Sympathies: Same-Sex Romance, Disunion, and Reunion in the Civil War Era www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/2025/06/andr...

You still have until June 15 to submit an essay for the Anthony E. Kaye Memorial Essay Prize! Please consider if you are an early career scholar working on any topic concerning the Civil War era.

Interview with Michael Allen on a Career in Public History - The Journal of the Civil War Era Today’s Muster features an interview with Michael Allen, a retired National Park Service official. Over the course of his nearly four decade career, Allen has played a pivotal role in how several Civi...

In today's Muster, Michael Allen discipline discusses his nearly 40-year career in public history www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/2025/06/inte...

One week remains to submit for the Center for Civil War Research's 2025 conference, "New Directions in the Legal History of the Civil War Era," happening in Oxford, MS Oct. 16-18. Details below; please share! @jcwe.bsky.social @joursouhist.bsky.social @historians.org

olemiss.edu/civil-war-re...

In this brief, @marthasjones.bsky.social and I demonstrate that free Black Americans spent decades claiming birthright citizenship against those who denied it, that the Framers of the 14 Amend. listened, and that these facts should matter to today's Courts.
www.brennancenter.org/media/13981/...

2025 Tom Watson Brown Book Award - The Journal of the Civil War Era The $50,000 Tom Watson Brown Book Award is presented annually by the Watson-Brown Foundation and the Society of Civil War Historians to the author or authors of the best book “on the causes, conduct, ...

In today’s Muster, we congratulate Dr. Edda Fields-Black on being awarded the 2025 Tom Watson Brown Book Award for Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom during the Civil War. www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/2025/05/2025...

Extension: The deadline for the Anthony E. Kaye Memorial Essay Prize has been extended to June 15. The JCWE and the SCWH invite all early career scholars to submit essays on any topic concerning the Civil War era. The winning submission will earn the author a $1,000 award

Conversation with Historian and Curator Jill Newmark - The Journal of the Civil War Era In today’s Muster, JCWE Book Review Editor Megan Bever is joined by Jill L. Newmark, independent historian and former Curator and Exhibition Specialist at the National Library of Medicine, National In...

In today's Muster, JCWE Book Review Editor Megan Bever is joined by Jill L. Newmark, for a conversation about her recent book Without Concealment, Without Compromise: Black Civil War Surgeons www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/2025/05/conv...