Civil War Weekend at VT
Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 3:59 pm
I just got back from a very cool event at Virginia Tech called the "Civil War Weekend". Info here http://www.civilwar.vt.edu/propro/wknd.html
Two days of great food, open bars, lectures and about 200 civil war enthusiasts for $199. Pretty good deal. If you're able to travel to south-western Virginia this event takes place each year in March. He also runs a week long "Campaigning with Lee" in June where they caravan to a series of battlefield sites and get a personal walking tour from the experts. The most compelling part is some alumni has set up a fund that pays for all the liquor for the whole week of the tour (he called it a "non-temperance educational fund").
The speakers were:
James I. Robertson, Jr.
Alumni Distinguished Professor of History, Executive Director of the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies
William C. Davis
Director of Programs for the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies
Both have published many books on the period http://www.civilwar.vt.edu/jr/books.html
but may be best known for "Johhny Reb and Billy Yank - the Civil Wars Common Soldiers". Robertson is head of Virginia's sesqui-centennial (150th) group to showcase the civil war sites in the Old Dominion starting in 2011. He's got to be in his 70's because people in this program told me they took his class back in 1965 when they were student at VT...I hope he keeps going strong.
Anyway...it was great and I highly recommend my fellow AGEod-ites
to give it a try!
Two days of great food, open bars, lectures and about 200 civil war enthusiasts for $199. Pretty good deal. If you're able to travel to south-western Virginia this event takes place each year in March. He also runs a week long "Campaigning with Lee" in June where they caravan to a series of battlefield sites and get a personal walking tour from the experts. The most compelling part is some alumni has set up a fund that pays for all the liquor for the whole week of the tour (he called it a "non-temperance educational fund").
The speakers were:
James I. Robertson, Jr.
Alumni Distinguished Professor of History, Executive Director of the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies
William C. Davis
Director of Programs for the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies
Both have published many books on the period http://www.civilwar.vt.edu/jr/books.html
but may be best known for "Johhny Reb and Billy Yank - the Civil Wars Common Soldiers". Robertson is head of Virginia's sesqui-centennial (150th) group to showcase the civil war sites in the Old Dominion starting in 2011. He's got to be in his 70's because people in this program told me they took his class back in 1965 when they were student at VT...I hope he keeps going strong.
Anyway...it was great and I highly recommend my fellow AGEod-ites
to give it a try!