2008 Presenters and Guides

The 2008 Civil War Institute will study Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s retreat to Appomattox Court House, Virginia in April of 1865 and his surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia to Union General Ulysses S. Grant on April 9th. Our guides and presenters for our 2008 program are nationally recognized historians and outstanding experts on these climatic events that ended the Civil War in Virginia. They include:

Chris Calkins
...Chief of Interpretation of the Petersburg National Battlefield has spent years studying the Petersburg and Appomattox battlefield, will lead the tour. He is the leading authority in the country on Lee’s retreat and has been active in the preservation of the Five Forks and Sailor’s Creek battlefields. His numerous articles and books on this campaign include The Appomattox Campaign: March 29-April 9, 1865, The Battles of Appomattox Station and Appomattox Court House: April 8-9, 1865, Thirty-Six Hours before Appomattox, and the Battle of Five Forks.

Tracy Chernault
...is a Park Ranger at the Petersburg National Battlefield and Five Forks battlefield. He has co-authored a volume in the Virginia Regimental Histories Series, The 18th and 20th Battalions of Heavy Artillery and he has published several articles on the War Between the States. He is past president of the Lynchburg Civil War Round Table and the Appomattox Country Historical Society.

A. Wilson Greene
...is the President and CEO of Pamplin Historical Park. Prior to that, he was president of the Association for the Preservation of Civil War Sites, now the CWPT. He was previously a historian and manager with the National Park Service. He is currently writing a multi-volume history of the Petersburg campaign for the University of North Carolina Press.

Ben F. Fordney
...is the Director of the Institute. He has taught American, World, and Western History at James Madison University and Bridgewater College. He presently teaches American history at the Blue Ridge Community College in Harrisonburg, Virginia. He serves on the Education and Interpretation Committee of the Shenandoah Battlefield Foundation. He is the author of Stoneman at Chancellorsville: The Coming of Age of Union Cavalry and George Stoneman: A Biography of the Union General.