Research Interests:
What does it mean to be an American? This question guides my work as a historian. For me, it is the essential question that ties together a large swath of American history. As a result, it pervades my research and teaching.
My fascination with this query comes from the fact that there is no easy answer to the question. Nor is there a singular answer. The meaning of American identity, the meaning of inclusion in society, has changed drastically over the nation's relatively young history. Even in the United States' early history, from 1775 to the end of Reconstruction, Americans encountered changes to their identity wrought by the Revolutionary War, conflicts with and the conquest of many Native Americans, the Market Revolution, the early foundations of women's suffrage, waves of immigration, as well as the Civil War and Emancipation. Each of these events, along with countless others, transformed how Americans understood their nation as well as who they believed should be a part of that group.
My attempt to answer this question comes in the form of how residents of the Mid-Atlantic border region (Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia) used loyalty as a lens to interpret their experiences throughout the long Civil War Era. By examining how these individuals defined and understood loyalty from the 1850s through the turn of the twentieth century, my dissertation places the question of inclusion and identity at the heart of the narrative of the Civil War. Unionists and Confederates, black as well as white Americans, men and women, all developed their own interpretations of loyalty before, during, and after the war. By probing the cultural and social constructions of allegiance my research explores how interpretations of loyalty sharpened distinctions between Northerners and Southerners before the war, influenced their connections and experiences during the war years, and shaped their memories long after the Civil War ended. To do so, my dissertation explores a variety of thematic elements: how Mid-Atlantic residents wielded "informal" cartography to map loyalty and disloyalty during the war; how African Americans vigorously displayed their own vision of allegiance, compelling white Unionists and Confederates to react; how they incorporated allegiance into Mid-Atlantic politics before, during, and after the war; and how print culture, fiction, memorials, and politics shaped post-war memories of the war. For nearly half a century, I have found, that loyalty became one of the most important factors in determining who could be a part of American society.
My fascination with this query comes from the fact that there is no easy answer to the question. Nor is there a singular answer. The meaning of American identity, the meaning of inclusion in society, has changed drastically over the nation's relatively young history. Even in the United States' early history, from 1775 to the end of Reconstruction, Americans encountered changes to their identity wrought by the Revolutionary War, conflicts with and the conquest of many Native Americans, the Market Revolution, the early foundations of women's suffrage, waves of immigration, as well as the Civil War and Emancipation. Each of these events, along with countless others, transformed how Americans understood their nation as well as who they believed should be a part of that group.
My attempt to answer this question comes in the form of how residents of the Mid-Atlantic border region (Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia) used loyalty as a lens to interpret their experiences throughout the long Civil War Era. By examining how these individuals defined and understood loyalty from the 1850s through the turn of the twentieth century, my dissertation places the question of inclusion and identity at the heart of the narrative of the Civil War. Unionists and Confederates, black as well as white Americans, men and women, all developed their own interpretations of loyalty before, during, and after the war. By probing the cultural and social constructions of allegiance my research explores how interpretations of loyalty sharpened distinctions between Northerners and Southerners before the war, influenced their connections and experiences during the war years, and shaped their memories long after the Civil War ended. To do so, my dissertation explores a variety of thematic elements: how Mid-Atlantic residents wielded "informal" cartography to map loyalty and disloyalty during the war; how African Americans vigorously displayed their own vision of allegiance, compelling white Unionists and Confederates to react; how they incorporated allegiance into Mid-Atlantic politics before, during, and after the war; and how print culture, fiction, memorials, and politics shaped post-war memories of the war. For nearly half a century, I have found, that loyalty became one of the most important factors in determining who could be a part of American society.
Current Projects:
There are two major projects that I am working on that relate to my study of American culture and social history during the Civil War Era. The first is my dissertation, "Breaking and Remaking the Mason-Dixon Line: Loyalty in Civil War America, 1850-1900," which explores how all residents of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia used loyalty to interpret the Civil War.
My second project has grown organically out of my dissertation. In particular, one chapter revolves around the mapping of loyalty by Mid-Atlantic residents. As they marched throughout the region, fought in battles, or encountered opposing armies, local residents articulated where they found loyalty or disloyalty to their cause. Unionists and Confederates alike incorporated their fondness for maps to record their observations of loyalty and beauty, thereby confirming the cultural superiority of their section or nation in juxtaposition to their adversaries. From this chapter, I have started a dual project--the drafting of an article on this informal cartography and a corresponding ArcGIS Story Map of the Mid-Atlantic. The Story Map will serve as a vehicle to track the cartography Unionists and Confederates created as they moved throughout the region, highlighting loyalty or disloyalty to their cause.
My second project has grown organically out of my dissertation. In particular, one chapter revolves around the mapping of loyalty by Mid-Atlantic residents. As they marched throughout the region, fought in battles, or encountered opposing armies, local residents articulated where they found loyalty or disloyalty to their cause. Unionists and Confederates alike incorporated their fondness for maps to record their observations of loyalty and beauty, thereby confirming the cultural superiority of their section or nation in juxtaposition to their adversaries. From this chapter, I have started a dual project--the drafting of an article on this informal cartography and a corresponding ArcGIS Story Map of the Mid-Atlantic. The Story Map will serve as a vehicle to track the cartography Unionists and Confederates created as they moved throughout the region, highlighting loyalty or disloyalty to their cause.
Publications:
Articles:
- "Mapping Yankeedom and Dixie: The Informal Cultural Cartography of Loyalty in the Civil War Mid-Atlantic"
(In Progress) - ““Like a Dark Cloud”: Loyalty, Virtue, and the Civil War in Western Virginia,” West Virginia History: A Journal of Regional Studies, Volume 10, Number 1, Spring 2016, 45-68.
Book Reviews:
- Review of The Second Battle of Winchester: The Confederate Victory that Opened the Door to Gettysburg, Eric J. Wittenberg and Scott L. Mingus, in Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Volume 125, Number 1, 74-5.
- Review of Emancipation, the Union Army, and the Reelection of Abraham Lincoln. Jonathan W. White, in The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Volume 141, Number 1, January 2017, 98-9.
- Review of For Slavery and Union: Benjamin Buckner and Kentucky Loyalties in the Civil War. By Patrick A. Lewis. and More American than Southern: Kentucky, Slavery, and the War for an American Ideology, 1828-1861. By Daniel R. Matthews, in West Virginia History: A Journal of Regional Studies, Volume 9, Number 2, Fall 2015, 106-9.