My name is Mackenna Caruso, and I am a fourth-year student here at UVA studying Government along with Global Security and Justice. I spent the summer as a Nau Center intern at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park (FredSpot). When I first learned about this internship, I was unsure of what it would be like studying and interpreting the Civil War for three months. I had only explored this history on my own, and I had little classroom experience. I could not have been more pleasantly surprised.

My name is Nick Love, and I am a fourth year History major at UVA. Once again, I had the privilege of working as a Nau Center intern at Appomattox Court House National Historical Park this summer, and I could not wait to get back. Appomattox is a place where history is alive in the landscape, the buildings, and the people who care for them. Walking through the park feels like stepping back into the past—the scenery is bucolic, quiet, and full of reminders that the end of one of America’s greatest conflicts happened here.

My name is Thomas Davies, and I am a fourth-year student at the University of Virginia studying Political Philosophy, Policy & Law with a double major in History. I had the honor and pleasure of spending this summer as a Nau Center intern at Antietam National Battlefield. I’ve loved studying history since maybe third grade and always wanted to be a tour guide of some sort. I was able to have that experience at Antietam, educating visitors and learning more myself.

The Nau Center’s “Black Virginians in Blue” project is an ongoing effort to recover the lives of USCT veterans with roots in Albemarle County.  Recent discoveries have filled in the postwar life story of the Charlottesville Black community leader James T.S.

The Nau Center’s “Black Virginians in Blue” project is an ongoing effort to recover the lives of USCT veterans with roots in Albemarle County.  Recent discoveries have filled in the postwar life story of the Charlottesville Black community leader James T.S.

Over the course of the winter of 1860–61, a cohort of self-described conservatives waged a prolonged campaign to avert civil war in the aftermath of the election of Abraham Lincoln and the subsequent secession of seven Southern states. Among the leaders of this movement for peace was Lincoln’s longtime rival and defeated presidential candidate Stephen A. Douglas. Douglas’s Democratic Party had foundered on the shoals of sectionalism in the 1860 campaign, leading to rival Northern and Southern Democratic tickets and a decisive Republican victory in the electoral college.

My name is Emma Ellsworth, and I graduated in 2022 from the UVA Political and Social Thought Program with a minor in history. The History Department at UVA offered some of my favorite classes throughout college, particularly classes about the Civil War. In the summer of 2021, I had the opportunity to intern at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park through the Nau Center for Civil War History. My experience with the National Park Service (NPS) and the Nau Center internship has shaped both who I am and what I want to do in life.

“This Park, together with its many sisters which are coming to completion in every part of our land, is in the largest sense a work of conservation. Through all of them we are preserving the beauty and the wealth of the hills and the mountains and the plains and the trees and the streams." - President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Address at the Dedication of Shenandoah National Park, July 3, 1936

My name is Jacob Phillips, and I am a fourth-year distinguished major history student at the University of Virginia. For my Nau Center internship, I spent the summer at Antietam National Battlefield, working with its amazing interpretation staff and engaging with the public. My daily work consisted of interacting with visitors at the front desk, doing research to expand my understanding of the battle of Antietam and its consequences, and giving half-hour battlefield overviews in the park’s beautiful orientation room.

My name is Nicholas Cutchins, and I am a fourth-year history major at UVA with a concentration in War, Violence, and Society. After a successful Nau Center internship at Antietam National Battlefield last year, I knew that my Civil War history journey was just getting started. When I applied for summer internships this year, Manassas National Battlefield Park was easily top of my list, and I am very grateful that the staff there were willing to give me this opportunity.