Rod Gragg
Rod Gragg is an historian, journalist, and author. Among his published works are Covered with Glory: The 26th North Carolina Infantry at Gettysburg (for which he won the first Dr. James I. Robertson, Jr. Prize for Confederate History), Confederate Goliath: The Battle of Fort Fisher (for which he won the Fletcher Pratt Award from the New York City Civil War Round Table as the best Civil War book of the year), and A Commitment to Valor. He has also been awarded the Douglas Southall Freeman Award for history. His books have been selected for Book-of-the-Month clubs, the History Book Club, and the Military History Book Club. Browse some of Rod Gragg’s work on Amazon
Dr. Chris E. Fonvielle, Jr.
Dr. Chris E. Fonvielle, Jr. is a native of Wilmington, North Carolina, with a lifelong interest in American Civil War, North Carolina, Lower Cape Fear and Southern history. His in-depth research focuses on Civil War coastal operations and defenses, blockade running, and the navies. He has published two books on North Carolina’s coastal war, The Wilmington Campaign: Last Rays of Departing Hope (Savas Publishing, 1997) and Fort Anderson: Battle for Wilmington (Savas Publishing, 1999).
Fonvielle also co-authored a third book, The Best Ever Occupied:
Archaeological Investigations of a Civil War Encampment, Folly Island,
South Carolina (South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, 1989), that dealt with African American soldiers’ wartime experiences. He has also published articles on the Civil War, the most recent of which was “Making the Obstinate Stand: The Battle of Town Creek, North Carolina,” Civil War Regiments Vol. 6, No. 1 (1998).
After receiving his B.A. in Anthropology at UNC-Wilmington, Fonvielle served as the last curator of the Blockade Runners of the Confederacy Museum. He subsequently received his M.A. in American history at East Carolina University, under the direction of Dr. William N. Still, Jr., and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina, where he studied with noted Civil War historian Dr. Thomas L. Connelly.
Dr. Fonvielle returned to his undergraduate alma mater at UNC-Wilmington in 1996, where he now teaches courses on the Civil War, Wilmington and the Lower Cape Fear, the Old South and Antebellum America. He also teaches extended education courses on the history of the Lower Cape Fear through the university. Browse some of Dr. Chris E. Fonvielle, Jr.’s work on Amazon.
James I. Robertson, Jr.
One of the most distinguished names in Civil War history, Dr. Robertson was Executive Director of the U.S. Civil War Centennial Commission and worked with Presidents Truman, Kennedy, and Johnson in marking the war’s 100th anniversary. Today his Civil War Era course at Virginia Tech, which attracts 300 students per semester, is the largest of its kind in the nation.
The Danville, Va., native is the author or editor of more than 20 books that include such award-winning studies as Civil War! America Becomes One Nation, General A.P. Hill, and Soldiers Blue and Gray. His massive biography of Gen. “Stonewall” Jackson won eight national awards and was used as the base for the Ted Turner/Warner Bros. mega-movie, “Gods and Generals”. Robertson was chief historical consultant for the film.
The recipient of every major award given in the Civil War field, and a lecturer of national acclaim, Dr. Robertson is probably more in demand as a speaker before Civil War groups than anyone else in the field.
He holds the Ph.D. degree from Emory University and honorary doctorates from Randolph-Macon College and Shenandoah University. He is presently an Alumni Distinguished Professor, one of ten such honorees among Virginia Tech’s 2,200 faculty. He is also Executive Director of the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies, created by the University in 1999.
Robertson is also a charter member (by Senate appointment) of Virginia’s Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission.
Browse some of Dr. James I. Robertson Jr.’s work on Amazon.
