CFP: The Passage of the Armies: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Enslaved in the Civil War and Reconstruction

2023 Conference on the Civil War/Porter Fortune SymposiumThe Passage of the Armies: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Enslaved in the Civil War and Reconstruction The Center for Civil War Research and the History Department at the University of Mississippi seek papers for the 2023 Conference on the Civil War, to be held October 12-14, 2023 in Oxford, MS.  The conference features a keynote address by William Blair (Penn State) and a special roundtable with Amy Murrell Taylor (University of Kentucky),  Andrew Lang (Mississippi State), and Barton Myers (Washington and Lee). Papers will be considered for inclusion in an edited volume.  As Civil War armies traversed the American landscape, they set millions of people in motion and onto collision courses with one another. Regular units, irregular forces, and civilians (both enslaved and free) encountered each other in a context literally and figuratively transformed by war. Their interactions reshaped social and political relationships of all kinds. As armies entered new areas, they displaced white and enslaved refugees, policed civilian loyalty, and disrupted communities along lines of conflict that blurred the boundaries between combatants and noncombatants. Occupying forces imposed conflicting conceptions of order and justice, challenged existing hierarchies, and imposed visions of society on conquered regions. These conflicts continued into the postwar period, in vigorous debates questioning the role of the army in the aftermath of war in both the south and in the west. Interactions between soldiers and civilians of all kinds provoked wide-ranging questions (both theoretical and practical) that would prove the Civil War era’s defining aspect for many Americans. We welcome papers that consider interactions between soldiers, civilians, and enslaved people broadly defined, during the Civil War and Reconstruction. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:military occupation and its challengesdissent and the policing of loyalty in both the Union and the Confederacyviolencefreedpeople and the armycontraband campsthe experience of emancipationenlistment and desertionthe Civil War homefrontthe gendered experience of occupationguerrilla and irregular warfarelegal and political battles over occupation and martial lawthe aftermath of occupationReconstructionthe military in the westNative Americans and the army Interested participants should submit a paper title, 250-word abstract, and one-page CV to civilwar@olemiss.edu by Monday, May 15. The Center for Civil War Research offers stipends to offset travel costs for presenters lacking institutional support. For more information about the Center for Civil War Research, visit: civilwarcenter.olemiss.edu