Dr. James J. Broomall
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Profile
Dr. Broomall is a cultural historian of Nineteenth-Century America. He specializes in the Civil War and Reconstruction era, southern history, and material culture. He has published articles or essays in Common Place: The Journal of Early American Life; Gettysburg Magazine; Ohio Valley History; Civil War Times; Civil War History; and The Journal of the Civil War Era. He co-edited with Dr. William A. Link, Rethinking American Emancipation: Legacies of Slavery and the Quest for Black Freedom (Cambridge University Press) in 2016. And the University of North Carolina Press published his book, Private Confederacies: The Emotional Worlds of Southern Men as Citizens and Soldiers, as part of the Civil War America series in 2019. Dr. Broomall is an active public historian who frequently serves as a consultant for National Park Service sites, leads tours of battlefields and historic sites across the country, and delivers numerous public presentations each year. Invested in fostering active learning, he frequently organizes symposia, conferences, workshops, and field experiences. He has authored two major historic resource studies for the National Park Service and the Organization of American Historians including a study conducted for Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park, Middletown, VA,“The Stars Fought From Heaven”: Race and Slavery in the Shenandoah Valley From Early Settlement to Jim Crow (2020). In 2023, he co-authored with Drs. Keith Alexander and Ben Bankhurst a report on Black history at the Blackford House, Ferry Hill, and Bridgeport community in Washington County, MD. Dr. Broomall directed the George Tyler Moore Center for the Study of the Civil War at Shepherd University, Shepherdstown, WV, for nearly a decade, and previously served on the faculty of the University of North Florida and Virginia Tech.
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Grants and Fellowships
Military Historical Society of Massachusetts Fellowship awarded by the Massachusetts Historical Society, Fall 2021
Short-term research fellowship awarded by the John L. Nau III Center for Civil War History, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia, Fall 2021
Participant, National Endowment for the Humanities, Visual Culture of the American Civil War and Its Aftermath summer institute, CUNY but held virtually, July 2021
Major Grant, West Virginia Humanities Council, Summer 2016
Archie K. Davis Fellowship awarded by the North Caroliniana Society, University of North Carolina, Summer 2009
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Awards
James C. Price Award, Preservation of Historic Legacies, Historic Shepherdstown Board of Directors, 2024
Finalist for the West Virginia Professor of the Year, 2023
Milbauer Prize for Best Dissertation in the Department of History awarded by the University of Florida, 2013
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Presentations
Presentations (select)
“Always Ready”: The Charge of the 9th New York in History and Memory, keynote address for the Antietam Institute, Shepherdstown, WV, September 2024
“The Good Death Undone: The Fate of North Carolinians at Gettysburg,” Civil War Symposium,” Raleigh, North Carolina, July 2024
“From Battlefield to Burial: The Visual Discourse of Death,” Society of Military History, April 2024
“At the Cannon’s Mouth: Battlefield Relics and the Making of Civil War Memory,” Virginia Museum of History and Culture, Richmond, VA, July 2023
“A Great but Benign Sorrow: How the Good Death Shaped Memorial Day,” Memorial Day Program, Antietam National Battlefield, May 2023
“Beyond Words: Material Culture of the Civil War Era,” roundtable discussion at the Society of Civil War Historians Conference, virtual June 2021
“‘The Very Jaws of Destruction and Death’: The Emotional Landscapes of the Gettysburg Battlefield,” History Talks Series, Northern Virginia Parks/Virginia Piedmont Heritage Area, Aldie, VA, July 2021
“Visualizing War: Clothing and Camps,” Powhatan Civil War Round Table, October 2020
“The Materials of War: Confederate Camps and Clothing,” Petersburg Civil War Round Table, August 2020
“Experiencing the Real War: Emotional Expression and Metaphysical Confusion among Confederate Soldiers,” First Annual Southern Roundtable Forum, University of Georgia, March 2014, Athens, GA
“At the Edge of War and Peace: The Emotional Language of Defeat,” presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association, January 2014, Washington, D.C.
“Tenting Tonight: Manhood and Community in Confederate Camps,” presented at the Conference of Florida Historians, March 2013, Sarasota, FL
“Circles and Bands: Initiation Rites and Rituals in the Ku Klux Klan, 1867-1870,” presented at the Organization of American Historians Meeting, April 2012, Milwaukee, WI
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Memberships
Society of Civil War Historians Southern Historical Association Save Historic Antietam Foundation
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Institutional Service
Dr. Broomall is actively involved in historic preservation, public history, and community service. He currently serves on the board of the Save Historic Antietam Foundation, and is a frequent consultant for National Park Service sites. Between 2019 and 2023, he worked on the committee for National Park Service Collaboration with the Organization of American Historians, and between 2021 and 2024, served on the program committee for the West Virginia Humanities Council.
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Grants and Fellowships
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Selected Publications
Books
Books and Public History Projects
Private Confederacies: The Emotional Worlds of Southern Men as Citizens and Soldiers (University of North Carolina Press, Civil War America, 2019)
Co-edited with William A. Link, Rethinking American Emancipation: Legacies of Slavery and the Quest for Black Freedom (Cambridge University Press, 2016)
“The Stars Fought From Heaven”: Race and Slavery in the Shenandoah Valley From Early Settlement to Jim Crow (peer-reviewed, historic resource study submitted to The National Park Service and Organization of American Historians, 2020)
“This Debatable Land”: The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal’s Civil War (peer-reviewed, historic resource study report submitted to National Park Service and Organization of American Historians, 2016)
Journal ArticlesSelect Articles and Essays
“Picturing Gettysburg: John B. Bachelder and the Making of Civil War Memory,” Gettysburg Magazine (January 2023)
“The Fabric of War: Civil War Uniforms and the Making of Memory,” Ohio Valley History as part of special edition on material culture edited by Joan Cashin (Winter 2022)
“Wartime Masculinities,” in The Cambridge History of the American Civil War, vol. III, ed., Aaron Sheehan-Dean (Cambridge University Press, 2019)
“Chaos Along the River: Confederate Raiders Raised Continuous Havoc in the Potomac River Valley,” Civil War Times (December 2017)
“‘We are a band of brothers’: Manhood and Community in Confederate Camps and Beyond,” Civil War History. 60, No. 3 (September 2014): 270-309
“Ulysses S. Grant’s Last Battle: Has the Battlefield Butcher and Bad President been Redeemed?”, in A Companion to the American Civil War, ed., Aaron Sheehan-Dean (Wiley-Blackwell, 2014)
“Ulysses S. Grant Goes to Washington: The Commanding General as Secretary of War,” in A Companion to the Reconstruction Presidents, 1865-81, ed., Edward O. Frantz (Wiley-Blackwell, 2014)