Upcoming Events
Upcoming Events:
September 18-20, 2025 – Annual Civil War Fall Seminar: Antietam & Its Legacy. Click here for more information.
September 27, 2025 – Sedgwick’s Division – Tour of Antietam with Scott Hartwig. The tour functions as a fundraising initiative for the GTMC and the Digital History Pioneers Foundation. Following the tour, attendees are invited to a book signing and light refreshments at the Civil War Center. Please note that tickets are required for participation, and space is limited. The program will entail about 1.5 miles of moderate walking, along roads, trails, and fields. .
October 1, 2025 – Eric Campbell, former Chief of Interpretation at Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park, will offer a comprehensive overview of General Philip Sheridan’s destruction of the Shenandoah Valley’s agricultural resources during the 1864 Valley Campaign. We will explore his goals and objectives, how they fit into his larger campaign, and how the actual destruction was carried out. This program will also offer a general overview and a summary of impact/its effectiveness, or lack thereof, and its long-term effects on the civilian population. 7 pm at the Byrd CHE auditorium.
November 2, 2025 – Shepherdstown Battlefield tour. Cost $15; limited to 20 participants. Join us as historian Kevin Pawlak leads a tour of the Battle of Shepherdstown. This caravan and walking tour will cover the final event of the Maryland Campaign, the two-day Battle of Shepherdstown. Fought following the Confederate withdrawal from Sharpsburg, this battle along the Potomac River helped prevent a Confederate reentry into Maryland and officially brought Lee’s campaign north of the Potomac River to an end. This walk will include traversing some difficult terrain. We will meet at a ϳԹUniversity parking lot then carpool to the battle site as parking is extremely limited there. To register, click .
Recent Events:
July 17, 2025 – 7pm. Midnight on the Potomac: Scott Ellsworth in Conversation. A powerful and timely discussion with bestselling historian Scott Ellsworth, author of . Presented by in partnership with the George Tyler Moore Center & the Center for Appalachian Studies at ϳԹUniversity.
May 23, 2025 –Bleeding Kansas – A Historical Drama presented by Town Run Theatre Company at . Following the May 23rd performance, GTMC’s new director, Dr. Jennifer Murray, presented a short talk.
December 5, 2024 – Professor Jonathan Noyalas presented “Never to be Forgotten”: What the Battle of Cool Spring Reveals about the War’s Impact on Soldiers & Families from his book .
December 7, 2024 – Historic Christmas at the Shindler House. Join us after the parade for a family friendly celebration of the season! Stop by to create a yule log, see military reenactors, and have a snack of cider and ginger snaps.
November 2, 2024 – Black Life at Tour. Drs. James Broomall and Ben Bankhurst, along with special guest Justin Ebersole (NPS cultural resource specialist), lead a walking tour focusing on Black life, enslavement, and freedom at Ferry Hill. Participants toured Ferry Hill’s interior and walked the site grounds.
October 8, 2024 – Dr. Kate Masur presented an author talk and q&a about her new book , presented in partnership with and the .
April 25, 2024 – Dr. Clayton Butler, Historian and Assistant Editor at UVA Press, spoke on his book .
March 21, 2024 – Panel career discussion highlighting the great successes of ϳԹgraduates and potential careers for current students.
December 1, 2023 – James Scythes offered a talk from his book .
December 2, 2023 – Historic Christmas: living history demonstrations, children’s activities, battlefield tabletop games, and a display by Shepherdstown Battlefield Preservation Association.
November 8, 2023 – Co-sponsored with and Lifelong Learning, Charlie Goodyear presented from his book ““.
November 16, 2023 – Patrick Schroeder, Historian at Appomattox Courthouse National Historical Park presented from his his popular Myths ϳԹ Lee’s SurrenderǴǰ.
October 12, 2023 – Historian Curtis Older presented from his book
October 6-8, 2023 – We held our Fall Seminar, “Meade’s Decision: The Pipe Creek Line & the Road to Gettysburg.”
September 21, 2023 – Historian and filmmaker Steven Cowie presented from his book .
September 17, 2023 – Shepherdstown Opera House, along with the GTMC, Historic Shepherdstown Museum, and Shepherdstown Battlefield Preservation Association, hosted the first theater screening and q & a of “Shepherdstown Remembers Antietam,” an original film written and produced by local history researcher Jim Surkamp. The film describes the Battle’s impact through the eyes of Shepherdstown-area residents of the time, many of whom mobilized to aid wounded and hungry soldiers.
August 30, 2023 – In partnership with ϳԹUniversity’s Lifelong Learning program, Dr. Stephen Goldman presented “Brevet Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Wiley Gelray: How a Maimed Union Veteran Battled the Ku Klux Klan” from his book .
April 26, 2023 – Dr. Scott MacKenzie presented on his book , co-sponsored with Lifelong Learning.
March 16-18, 2023 – The Virginia Forum held its annual conference at ϳԹUniversity.
March 2, 2023 – Dr. Emilie Amt presented “Black Antietam: Searching for African American Civil War History” from her book .
December 3, 2022 – Holiday Open House with Living History Demonstrations and a Yule Log. We presented Christmas across the ages through hands-on demonstrations, toys, and learning the tradition of the Yule log.
December 1, 2022 – “A Classical Brass Christmas” A brass quintet, consisting of current and former ϳԹUniversity faculty performed Christmas and other classical pieces from the 16th-20th centuries.
November 29, 2022 – Robert Dunkerly presented “The Brown’s Island Explosion and Search for the Victims”
November 19, 2022 – “Culp’s Hill in War and Memory”: Dr. James Broomall and Dana Shoaf, Editor at Civil War Times, lead a walking tour of Culp’s Hill in Gettysburg National Battlefield.
November 9, 2022 – Ernie Dollar presented on his recent book, .
October 27, 2022 – Professor Jonathan Noyalas presented “‘To Be Free Someday’: Reflections on Slavery & Freedom in the Shenandoah Valley During the Civil War Era,” from his book . Watch on .
September 10, 2022 – “Exposed to the Fire of Slavery and Freedom:” A Symposium Commemorating the 160th Anniversary of the Battle of Antietam. In conjunction with Antietam National Battlefield, this one-day event featured presentations on the battle of Antietam and its contested legacy.
July 6 – 9, 2021 – “A desperate thing to do”- Jubal Early’s 1864 Maryland Campaign, Facebook, ()
June 3, 2021 – Mosby’s Rangers with Eric W. Buckland, Facebook Live, ()
May 26, 2021 – “Down the Valley, and Back Again”: The 1862 Valley Campaign“, Facebook Live ()
May 19, 2021 – “The Grinding Curse”: Race and Slavery in the Shenandoah Valley, Facebook Live ()
May 6, 2021 – Material Witness: Eighteenth- and Nineteenth- Century Artifacts and Narrating the Past-Facebook Live ()
March 25, 2021 – Searching for Hayward ϳԹ–Facebook Live ()
March 4, 2021 –Music of the People: American Folk Music through the Centuries – Facebook Live ()
February 16, 2021 – Seceding from Secession: West Virginia Exceptionalism and the Road to Statehood –Facebook Live ()
January 28, 2021 – The Winter’s War: Civil War Soldiers in Camp & On Campaign – Facebook Live ()
We hope you join us for future programs!