Civil War Symposium VI

Your ticket serves as your registration for Friday and/or Saturday. We do not need to know which day you are attending.

Time: April 17th at 7 PM until 9:00 PM | April 18th at 8 AM until 12:30 PM
See below for details about each day. 

The Historical Society of Quincy and Adams County and the Tri-States Civil War Round Table are sponsoring Civil War Symposium VI, Friday and Saturday, April 17 and 18, at the Kroc Center, 405 Vermont, in Quincy. The two-day event will offer unique perspectives on the conflict from a variety of presenters, including Lincoln scholars, historical re-enactors, local historians, and Civil War experts.

On Friday, living historian Brian “Fox” Ellis, will kick off the weekend at 7:05 pm, with a dynamic performance as General John A. Logan in his program Black Jack Logan: Soldier and Senator. A military leader who was elected to Congress first as a Democrat and later as a Republican who campaigned for Lincoln, Logan is often touted as one of the most successful politician-generals in the Union Army, with triumphant military campaigns in Belmont, Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, Vicksburg, and Atlanta. He is also credited with the recognition of Memorial Day as an official national holiday.

At 8:00 pm, Erik Alexander will present Ulysses S. Grant in American Memory. Alexander is currently Associate Professor in the Department of History at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, where he teaches courses on the nineteenth-century United States, the Civil War, and Reconstruction. He is finishing a book manuscript titled Revolution Forestalled: Northern Democrats and the Politics of Reconstruction, 1865–1877 with the University of North Carolina Press.

Local historians comprise the Early Bird Vignette portion of Saturday’s event, which begins at 8:00 am on Saturday.

Then at 9:15 am Dr. Curt Fields, nationally known Ulysses S. Grant historical re-enactor, will present The Making of Ulysses S. Grant. Fields, returning to the Symposium for the fifth time, portrays Grant as both General and President and has performed the role for thousands of people in 22 states, including film appearances on the Discovery Channel and National Geographic Television and in person at sesquicentennial celebrations at Fort Donelson and Shiloh. He has also performed Grant in Lee’s Surrender to Grant in Vicksburg. He is often featured as Grant at Appomattox and offers Grant’s life story on the Civil War Trust website.

At 10:05 am, a Symposium favorite, Dr. Sam Wheeler, will take the stage with ‘A Hellish Outrage’: A Crisis in Law and Order in Civil War Springfield, Illinois. Wheeler’s engaging style and amazing grasp of details will make this a program not to be missed. Wheeler, who served as State Historian of Illinois and Director of Research and Collections at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield for several years, is now Director of History Programs for the Illinois Supreme Court Historic Preservation Commission.

The final presentation of the Symposium is scheduled at 10:55 am, when Jake Friefeld, Director for the Center for Lincoln Studies at University of Illinois-Springfield, will present his lecture Hanging Men for Votes: Lincoln, Little Crow, and the 1862 Dakota War. Previously the Illinois and Midwest Studies Research Historian for the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, he now focuses on the Center’s mission of educating the public about Lincoln, his legacy, and his impact on today.

A joint question and answer session for all speakers and audience members will be held from 11:40 am to 12:10 pm.

The Symposium is free and open to the public, but reservations are required through the HSQAC Office at 217-222-1835; hsqac.org; or [email protected].