George and Ann RichardsCivil War Era Center

“I am Far from Reconstructed”: Jubal A. Early in Exile, 1865–1869

The inaugural Mark and Ann Persun Visiting Scholar Lecture featuring KT Shively, Associate Professor of History, Virginia Commonwealth University.

This lecture is free and open to the public. Sponsored by the George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center, Penn State, and the Central Pennsylvania Civil War Roundtable.

Talk Abstract:

Approximately 10,000 former Confederates fled the South following Confederate defeat, including General Jubal A. Early. Early had attracted particular notoriety among Confederate generals for issuing ransom or raze orders when his soldiers invaded the North in 1863 and 1864 and feared he might be hanged for war crimes. From 1865 to 1869, Early traveled to Mexico, the Caribbean, and Canada, reinventing himself from a disgraced Confederate general to a renowned historian of the Civil War. This roundtable talk will explore Early’s itinerant experiences and his influence on the telling of Civil War history, as well as offering a broader look at early Confederate expatriates.

Bio:

Kathryn “KT” Shively is an associate professor of Civil War and Reconstruction history at Virginia Commonwealth University with specialties in early American military, environmental, and medical history. They are the author of Nature’s Civil War: Common Soldiers and the Environment in 1862 Virginia (University of North Carolina Press, 2013) and co-editor with Caroline Janney of the forthcoming volume, The Second Manassas Campaign (UNC Press, expected 2025). They also serve as co-PI with Paul Quigley (Virginia Tech) on the NEH-funded public history project, “Experiencing Civil War History Through Augmented Reality: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Environment at Pamplin Historical Park.” Their second monograph, History Wars: Jubal A. Early and the Confederate Origins of Modern American History, is under contract with University of Georgia Press for submission in 2025. Their favorite part of being a Civil War historian is giving battlefield tours, and they spend their non-working hours hosting bluegrass jams, making pies, hiking, and reading with their kid.

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