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. Throughout my time at FredSpot, I met and worked with experts on the park and the Civil War as a whole, and I learned how to engage with and inform the public about the history that happened on the grounds that I was lucky enough to work at every day. 

As part of our training, I was first afforded the opportunity to tour all four of the battlefields that are encompassed within the park: Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, the Wilderness, and Spotsylvania Court House. Our guides were rangers at the park, and they knew everything there was to know about what happened wherever we were. These tours provided excellent and applicable information that I used for the entirety of my internship, and they also gave me a framework for how to build my own interpretive program.

I had little experience with interpretation, but our training also included numerous workshops that helped me produce a program that was both informative and engaging, providing me with techniques that I could apply across an array of audiences. This interpretative training was helpful in terms of giving and crafting tours, but it also helped me work on my public speaking abilities at large, which is one of the most significant takeaways from my time at FredSpot.

My magnum opus was a 45-minute tour on the Battle of Chancellorsville, which was entitled, “What makes a good leader?” This program dissected the leadership and actions of men such as Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Joseph Hooker. Through my tour, I sought to contextualize what is often thought of as “Lee’s Greatest Victory,” highlighting the circumstances that each army and each general was facing. I discussed the institutional pressure that Hooker faced, the dire strain on Confederate resources and manpower that influenced Lee’s actions, and the effect that Stonewall Jackson’s death had on the Confederate war effort and the greater narrative of the Lost Cause. The staff at the park were extremely helpful, providing us with information and tips and affording us the leeway to develop programs that reflected our own interests. This made the experience that much more fulfilling.

When I was finally able to give my tour after approval and aid from the rangers at the park, I immediately jumped on the opportunity. I gave tours to groups big and small, and I was able to let my personality shine through. I incorporated jokes and activities that allowed those that I was speaking to the opportunity to both learn and engage with the history that surrounded them. As I continued, my confidence in the material and in my ability to convey it grew, and this made my experience so rewarding. Every tour was different, and I came away from each of them with information on how to grow and change my program to make it better than the one before it. Along with my tour, I also did some digital work for the park. I was able to use the knowledge that I gained during my internship to draft new text for the National Park Service’s Chancellorsville website, which was very fun and engaging. I had done digital work before, and I am glad that I got to use the information that I accumulated during my time at FredSpot to create something that will hopefully serve a purpose for years to come. 

My favorite part of my internship, however, was the day-to-day work of staffing each of the two visitor centers within the park. This is because of how great both my fellow interns and the rangers were. I had endless laughs and informative conversations with everyone that I worked with, and I couldn’t be more grateful for my time spent with the people there. I also greatly enjoyed working at the visitor centers because of the opportunity that it afforded me to engage with 100+ people every day, each with their own stories and questions. I helped people find their relatives who were soldiers, gave them rundowns of the battles, and informed them of the various amenities that our park offered. I even inducted new Junior Rangers, through which I hoped to instill a lifelong interest in history and learning. 

Overall, my FredSpot summer was one that I will never forget. I made new friends, learned so much about our nation’s history, and honed and developed skills that will help me for the rest of my life. My time at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park was more fulfilling than I could have ever thought possible, and I am endlessly grateful for this opportunity afforded to me by UVA and the Nau Center.