My name is Jack Cunningham, and I am a 3rd-year undergraduate student studying history at the University of Virginia. I had the honor of spending this past summer as a Nau Civil War Center intern at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. During my time as a representative of the Nau Center and UVA, I gained invaluable experience in historical research, public speaking, and engaging with the public, among many other things. 

My name is Nick Love, and I am a fourth-year student pursuing a degree in history and a minor in political science. I had the honor and the privilege of spending my summer interning at Appomattox Court House National Historic Park in their Cultural Resources department. I will treasure the experiences I had, the knowledge I gained, and the people that I had the opportunity to meet. My time at the park just fueled my love of history, which I did not think was possible, and it provided me with a passion for protecting and preserving historical objects.

My name is Taryn Tuttle, and I’m a third-year majoring in Government and Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. I spent my summer interning at Manassas National Battlefield Park through the Nau Civil War Center. Over the course of the summer, I had the opportunity to develop new skills and polish others, engage in meaningful, perspective-shifting research, and make genuine connections.

Every historical project worth its salt includes at least a handful of genuine archival surprises. One that shaped my book, An Unholy Traffic: Slave Trading in the Civil War South, took place in the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library in the winter of 2019 (a visit made possible by the support of a Nau Center Library Fellowship).

When historians say the Civil War pitted “brother against brother,” they usually mean siblings fighting against one another on opposite sides of the conflict: one wearing Union blue, the other Confederate gray. In the case of William Tecumseh Sherman and his younger brother, John, however, two siblings on the same side of the war found themselves in frequent disagreement, usually over military affairs.

In the spring of 1867, Americans found themselves navigating uncharted political waters. Two years after the fighting between Union and Confederate forces had ended, the country remained deeply divided over how to move forward. President Andrew Johnson’s approach to Reconstruction had failed. The Republican wing of Congress, frustrated with the president’s accommodation of rapidly rehabilitated and largely unrepentant former rebels, had taken control of Reconstruction policy and set new terms for the readmission of the late Confederate states to participation in the national government.

Over the summer, I had the joy of working with the Nau Center for Civil War History at UVA on the Letters Home digital history project. The John L. Nau III Civil War History Collection, housed in UVA’s Special Collections Library, contains thousands of letters, diaries, and photographs from the Civil War era. The Letters Home project will make this material more accessible to scholars around the world. It will include transcriptions of the documents along with interactive maps and biographies of the soldiers and their families.

My name is Hannah Fleming. I am a 4th year undergraduate student studying history with a concentration in War, Violence, and Society at the University of Virginia. I have always been interested in military history, and my time at the University of Virginia has fostered a deep passion for Civil War history. I became involved with the Nau Civil War Center after taking a course on the Civil War and Reconstruction with the Nau Center’s director, Dr. Caroline Janney, that motivated me to pursue research outside of the classroom.

My name is Jacob Phillips, I’m a third-year history major at the University of Virginia, and I spent this summer as a Nau Center intern at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. The time I spent at the park gave me a personal insight into the world of public history and connected me with amazing historians and fellow interns that I otherwise would never have met. Working at a Civil War battlefield also gave me the opportunity to be physically present at critical national landmarks and immerse myself in the study of the war.

My name is Greyson Bettendorf, and I am a fourth-year student majoring in History and Psychology at UVA. This summer, I had the great opportunity to work as a Nau Center intern at Manassas National Battlefield Park, the site of the first major land battle of the American Civil War. The 5,000 acre park tells the story of both the First and Second Battles of Manassas and of the people who once lived in the area. My time at the park allowed me to dive into many different aspects of the National Park Service and public history.