JACKSON, Tenn. — Sept. 5, 2025 — Caroline Janney, the John L. Nau III Professor of the American Civil War at the University of Virginia, will be the speaker for the 28th annual Carls-Schwerdfeger History Lectures at Union University Oct. 6.
Janney will deliver two lectures. Her first lecture, “When the Monuments Went Up: The Long Fight over Civil War Memory,” will begin at 2 p.m. in the Carl Grant Events Center. At 7:15 p.m., Janney will speak on “After Appomattox: Ending the Civil War” in G.M. Savage Memorial Chapel.
Both lectures are free and open to the public.
Janney also serves as director of the John L. Nau III Center for Civil War History at the University of Virginia. She is the author or co-author of eight books on the American Civil War, including “The Second Manassas Campaign” and “Remembering the Civil War: Reunion and the Limits of Reconciliation.”
Her 2022 book, “Ends of War: The Unfinished Fight of Lee’s Army after Appomattox,” won the Gilder-Lehrman Lincoln Prize, awarded annually for the finest scholarly work in English on Abraham Lincoln, the American Civil War soldier or the American Civil War era. She is a frequent contributor to public history programs on the History Channel, AppleTV+, PBS and CSPAN.
A graduate of the University of Virginia, she worked as a historian for the National Park Service and taught at Purdue University before returning to Virginia in 2018.
For more information, visit www.uu.edu/events/historylecture.