Past Speakers
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March 2025 -On Tuesday March 25th, Dr. Eric B. Schweickartl presented "Discovery and Identification of Civil War Remains near the Magazine in Colonial Williamsburg" Eric will be presenting about a recent excavation by the Colonial Williamsburg Department of Archaeology which uncovered two graves and a surgeons pit associated with Confederate soldiers who died from their wounds while being treated in a field hospital following the Battle of Williamsburg.
April 2025 - On Tuesday April 22, Ed Grantt presented "The Evolution of the U.S. Colored Troops".Ed’s presentation will discuss some significant events in American history that led to the creation of the United States Colored Troops. They were officially named USCT units and served throughout the various theaters of the war. Their entry into the Federal Army provided a significant source of manpower, many of whom were more than willing to take up arms to secure their freedom from the institution of slavery. By late 1864, the USCT made up ten percent of the Federal Army. After the war’s end, some of the USCT units continued to serve in the U. S. Army and would become known as “Buffalo Soldiers.
May 2025 - On Tuesday, May 27th, Jonathan Jones presented "Opium Slavery". In the wake of the Civil War, many veterans struggled with lingering pain, disabling illnesses, and mental illness. To cope, former soldiers often turned to opioids, which were ubiquitous in the Civil War era. Thousands of veterans became addicted. Jonathan S. Jones, Assistant Professor of History at James Madison University and author of Opium Slavery: Civil War Veterans and America’s First Opioid Crisis (UNC Press, forthcoming October 2025) will discuss how the Civil War era’s opioid crisis began, how the addiction epidemic affected veterans’ lives, and what this crisis can teach us about the war’s traumatic aftershocks.