Come and join us for the 16^th Annual Sarasota Civil War Symposium. As hotels along the Gulf of Mexico rapidly give way to condos, our host hotel, the Helmsley Sandcastle, remains a beachfront oasis on the white sands of Lido Beach - where friends meet annually to see one another, and deliberate and debate about the Civil War. In late January, as we relax in the warm breeze and enjoy spectacular views of the Gulf of Mexico, we will listen to the carefully crafted presentations and share the company of nine of America’s leading Civil War historians, including Chris Fonvielle and Scott Patchan who will be joining us at Sarasota for the first time, and Gary Gallagher and Joe Glatthaar who will be rejoining us after an absence of several years.

We now open enrollment for this symposium, widely regarded as the premier event of its type. We again expect a full house and we invite you to enroll now and be assured of a space and a hotel room. You can enroll for all or any part of the symposium.

We have reserved a block of rooms at the Helmsley Sandcastle Hotel at the special nightly rates, single and double, of $110 (Northside or Courtyard), $130 (Poolside) and $155 (Gulfside). The Helmsley Sandcastle offers 600 feet of private beach, two outdoor pools and a host of other amenities. After you enroll with us, act to reserve your room - call 800-225-2181 Monday thru Friday, 9:00AM-5:00PM and identify yourself as a registrant for the Civil War symposium.

Please also see information on this website about the 3^rd Annual Sarasota World War II Conference – January 30-February 2 (you will save $50 if you enroll as a full package attendee for both Sarasota meetings). And to enliven the proceedings between these two (in case you’d rather not just sit back and relax) we are presenting a tour across Florida, led by the incomparable Ed Bearss, on the theme of the Second Seminole Indian War, which departs from Sarasota on Monday morning, January 28 and returns on Wednesday afternoon, January 30, in time for the opening reception of the World War II conference. Information about the tour is shown on this website.

In late January and early February, as the battlefields of Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Tennessee lie cold and still beneath winter frosts, we hope you will join us on the warm, white sands of Lido Beach, and across Florida, for one, two, or all three of these special adventures in American history.

16th ANNUAL SARASOTA CIVIL WAR SYMPOSIUM

January 23-26, 2008

* FACULTY *

WILLIAM C. “JACK” DAVIS is Professor of History and Director of Programs at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He served as the principal historical consultant to the A. & E. television series, Civil War Journal and has authored or edited many books including ‘A Government of Our Own’: The Making of the Confederacy; An Honorable Defeat: The Last Days of the Confederate Government and Look Away!: A History of the Confederate States of America.

EDWIN C. BEARSS, historian emeritus of the National Park Service, is the most well known battlefield guide in America and is acclaimed as one of the stars of Ken Burns's award-winning PBS series, The Civil War. While working for the NPS at Vicksburg in 1956, he helped locate and raise the ironclad gunboat Cairo, one of the most significant artifacts of the Civil War

CHRIS E. FONVIELLE, JR. is an associate professor of history at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington. He is the author of several books including The Wilmington Campaign: Last Rays of Departing Hope and Fort Anderson: Battle for Wilmington.

GARY W. GALLAGHER is the John L. Nau III Professor in the History of the American Civil War at the University of Virginia.  He is the author or editor of many books including The Confederate War; Lee and His Army in Confederate History; and The Lost Cause and Civil War History.

JOSEPH T. GLATTHAAR is the Alan Stephenson Distinguished Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the author of many books including The March to the Sea and Beyond: Sherman’s Troops in the Savannah and Carolinas Campaigns; Forged in Battle: The Civil War Alliance of Black Soldiers and White Officer, and Partners in Command: Relationships Between Civil War Leaders. His current writing project is entitled General Lee’s Army.

ROBERT K. KRICK, a leading authority on the Army of Northern Virginia, is the author of many books including Stonewall Jackson at Cedar Mountain; Conquering the Valley: Stonewall Jackson at Port Republic, and most recently The Smoothbore Volley That Doomed the Confederacy: The Death of Stonewall Jackson and Other Chapters on The Army of Northern Virginia.

SCOTT C. PATCHAN, a popular Civil War tour guide, is the author of several books including Forgotten Fury: The Battle of Piedmont; Second Manassas: The Battle of Chinn Ridge and most recently, Shenandoah Summer: The 1864 Valley Campaign.

CHARLES P. ROLAND recently retired as Professor of History at the University of Kentucky. He is the author of many books including Albert Sidney Johnston: Soldier of Three Republics; An American Iliad: The Story of the Civil War; Reflections on Lee: A Historian’s Assessment, and most recently My Odyssey through History: Memoirs of War and Academe.

JOHN Y. SIMON is Professor of History at Southern Illinois University and serves as the executive director of the Ulysses S. Grant Association. He is the author or co-author of several books and many articles on Grant and Lincoln and for more than 40 years has worked to assemble, edit and publish the multi-volume Papers of Ulysses S. Grant

Schedule of Events

Wednesday, January 23

7:00 PM - 9:00 PM                   Welcome Reception - Cash Bar

7:00 PM Wed- 12:00 N Sat        Civil War Book Display & Sale – Butternut & Blue

Thursday, January 24

8:30 AM – 9:30 AM                  The Reverend General William Nelson “Granny” Pendleton: Lee’s Controversial Chief of Artillery

- Robert K. Krick

9:45 AM – 10:45AM                 General Philip H. Sheridan: The Man behind the Myth

 - Scott C. Patchan

11:00AM - 12:00 N                   The Missing Man at Appomattox; George G. Meade

– John Y. Simon

12:00 N - 1:00 PM                    Group Lunch in Dining Room. 

                        (Those not enrolled for group lunch can dine in the Hotel Coffee Shop). 

1:15 PM - 2:15 PM                    My All-Time Favorite Civil War Books and Why

                                         – a panel discussion with various faculty members

5:00 PM - 6:30 PM                    Pool-side Reception - Cash Bar

Friday, January 25

8:30 AM – 9:30 AM                  Lee and Jackson: An Indomitable Team

 – Charles P. Roland   

9:45 AM – 10:45AM                 Lieutenant William B. Cushing and the

Victorian Ideal of Heroism   - Chris E. Fonvielle

11:00AM – 12:00 N                   Presentation 6 - TBA - Joseph T. Glatthaar

12:00 N - 1:00 PM                    Group Lunch in Dining Room. 

                        (Those not enrolled for group lunch can dine in the Hotel Coffee Shop). 

1:15 PM - 2:15 PM                    The Attempted Escape of John Wilkes Booth

 – Edwin C.  Bearss

Saturday, January 26   

8:30 AM – 9:30 AM                  Hollywood and the Lost Cause

-”The Birth of a Nation” to “Gods and Generals”

-  Gary W. Gallagher

9:45 AM – 10:45AM                  A Virginian Scrapbook--Preserving Memories

During the War – William C. “Jack” Davis

11:00AM - 12:00 N                   Freeman, Catton, Foote and Nevins:  Pros and Cons of the Grand Old Men of Civil War History – a panel discussion with various faculty members