Historians & Guides

Garry Adelman

A graduate of Michigan State University and Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, Garry Adelman is the award-winning author, co-author or editor of 20 books and 50 Civil War articles. He is the vice president of the Center for Civil War Photography and has been a Licensed Battlefield Guide at Gettysburg for 25 years. He has conceived and drafted the text for wayside exhibits at ten battlefields, has given thousands of battlefield tours at more than 60 sites and has lectured at hundreds of locations across the country including the National Archives, the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian. He has appeared as a speaker on the BBC, C-Span, Pennsylvania Cable Network, American Heroes Channel, and on HISTORY where he was a chief consultant and talking head on the Emmy Award-winning show Gettysburg (2011) and Blood and Glory: The Civil War in Color (2015). He works full-time as Chief Historian at the American Battlefield Trust.

American Battlefield Trust Youth Leadership Team 

The American Battlefield Trust Youth Leadership Team (YLT) is a rotating group of 10 young people, aged 15-18, who will serve as the youth face and voice of the American Battlefield Trust. YLT members are selected every year to participate in Lobby Day; create preservation, education, or visitation projects in their local communities; and attend our annual conference.

By supporting this group of motivated young leaders, we hope to create a ripple effect for battlefield preservation, visitation, history education in our nation. Our goal is for young people to connect and empower each other to create change within their own schools and communities.

The American Battlefield Trust Youth Leadership Team is supported by the generous contributions of the Pipkin Charitable Foundation. 

Bill Backus

Bio coming soon. 

Sarah Kay Bierle

Sarah Kay Bierle graduated from Thomas Edison State University with a BA in History, works in the Education Department at American Battlefield Trust, and occasionally writes for Emerging Civil War. She has spent years exploring ways to share quality historical research in ways that will inform and inspire modern audiences, including school presentations, writing, and speaking engagements. Sarah has published three historical fiction books and her first nonfiction book, Call Out The Cadets: The Battle of New Market, is part of the Emerging Civil War Series.

Daniel Davis

Dan Davis, is Principal, Interpretation and Special Projects at the American Battlefield Trust. He is a native of Fredericksburg, VA, where his love for the Civil War began on childhood trips to local battlefields. Dan is a graduate of Longwood University with a bachelor’s degree in Public History. Dan has worked as a Ranger/Historian at Appomattox Court House National Historical Site and the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. He is the author or co-author of numerous books and articles on the Civil War and Revolutionary War.

David Duncan

David Duncan is the President of the American Battlefield Trust. David joined the American Battlefield Trust in March 2000 after 14 years in the direct marketing, political, and charitable fundraising industry. His work was recognized three times by the American Association of Political Consultants for effectiveness. A native Virginian, he graduated from James Madison University with a BS in Telecommunications and a minor in Music Composition. He is a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals and the Direct Marketing Association of Washington, which has awarded the Trust 15 awards for marketing excellence. David spent more than 20 years as the organization’s primary fundraiser and Chief Development Officer before being named, in October 2020, to take over the top spot following the retirement of longtime president O. James Lighthizer. David can identify three Civil War ancestors; two from the 54th VA Infantry with the Army of Tennessee, while the third was a lieutenant in the 57th VA Infantry (Armistead’s Brigade, Pickett’s Division, July 3, ’63). 

Kate Egner

Kate Egner graduated from the College of William and Mary with a M.A. in American History and has a B.A. in Historic Preservation and Classics from the University of Mary Washington. Kate has experience in historic archaeology, architecture, and quantitative and digital history. As a John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library Fellow at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, she has transcribed records of the Williamsburg Public Store (1775-1780) and is continuing her research on the store’s customers, goods, and functions in revolutionary Virginia. A member of the State Historical Records Advisory Board, the Virginia Association of Museums, and The Company of Military Historians, she was previously a curator for the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation in Williamsburg, Virginia, and is currently the Senior Manager, Digital Content, at the American Battlefield Trust.

Dennis Frye

Dennis E. Frye recently retired after 20 years as the Chief Historian at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. For his more than 3 decades of service with the National Park Service, Dennis earned the “Distinguished Service Award” - the highest honor of the Department of the Interior. Dennis also received the American Battlefield Trust’s highest honor, the “Shelby Foote Award,” and was recognized with the “Nevins-Freeman Award” for his years of scholarship and his national leadership role in battlefield preservation. Dennis is a prominent Civil War historian as a writer, lecturer, preservationist, and battlefield guide. Dennis has numerous appearances on PBS, The History Channel, The Discovery Channel, C-SPAN, A&E, and Voice of America as a guest historian. He helped produce Emmy award-winning television features on the Battle of Antietam, abolitionist John Brown, and Maryland during the Civil War. Dennis is respected as a national leader in Civil War battlefield preservation. He is co-founder and first president of the Save Historic Antietam Foundation, and he is co-founder and a former president of today’s American Battlefield Trust. Dennis is a tour guide in demand, leading tours for the Smithsonian, National Geographic, The New York Times, Civil War Round Tables, and staff rides for US Army and Marine Corps leadership. Dennis also is a well-known author, with 139 articles and 11 books. His latest is Confluence: Harpers Ferry as Destiny. Most recently, Antietam Shadows: Mystery, Myth & Machination has received national acclaim. His book Harpers Ferry Under Fire received the National Book of the Year Award from the Association of Partners for Public Lands, and September Suspense: Lincoln’s Union in Peril was awarded the 2012 Laney Book Prize for distinguished scholarship and writing on the military and political history of the war. Dennis has written for every major Civil War magazine and periodical.

John Hennessy 

John Hennessy retired as the Chief Historian at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park--a position he held for two decades. He began his career at Manassas National Battlefield Park and also worked as a preservation specialist for the New York Office of Historic Preservation. His essays on the Army of the Potomac have appeared in numerous published anthologies, and he plans a book that will elaborate on the themes of his talk today. He has written four books (most notably Return to Bull Run: The Campaign and Battle of Second Manassas) and dozens of articles and essays that have appeared under the imprints of Simon & Schuster, University of North Carolina Press, University of Georgia Press, Cambridge University Press, Stackpole Books, LSU Press and others. He lives in Fredericksburg. 

Dr. Chris Mackowski 

Chris Mackowski, Ph.D., is the editor-in-chief and co-founder of Emerging Civil War. He is the series editor of the award-winning Emerging Civil War Series, published by Savas Beatie, and the “Engaging the Civil War” Series, published in partnership with Southern Illinois University Press. Chris is a professor of journalism and mass communication at St. Bonaventure University in Allegany, NY, and historian-in-residence at Stevenson Ridge, a historic property on the Spotsylvania battlefield in central Virginia. He has also worked as a historian for the National Park Service at Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park, where he gives tours at four major Civil War battlefields (Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Wilderness, and Spotsylvania), as well as at the building where Stonewall Jackson died. Chris has authored or co-authored a dozen books on the Civil War, and his articles have appeared in all the major Civil War magazines. Chris serves on the national advisory board for the Civil War Chaplains Museum in Lynchburg, Virginia. Chris owes all of his success in the Civil War field to his best friend, mentor, boss, and co-author, Kristopher White.

Rob Orrison

Rob Orrison, co-founder of Emerging Revolutionary War, has been working in the history field for more than 25 years. Rob received his Bachelor’s Degree in Historic Preservation at Longwood College (now University) and received his Master’s Degree in Public History from George Mason University. Currently, Rob serves as the Division Manager for the Prince William County Office of Historic Preservation, which operates 12 historic sites, museums, and parks in Prince William County (VA).

Outside of work, Rob serves as the Past President of the Virginia Association of Museums and as a member of the Board of the Frontier Culture Museum of Virginia. His published works include books about the Battle of Bristoe Station, Guide to the Gettysburg Campaign, Guide to the Antietam Campaign, and “A Single Blow: The Battles of Lexington and Concord” with Phillip Greenwalt. He lives in Dumfries with his wife, Jamie, and sons Carter and Grayson.

Kevin Pawlak

Kevin Pawlak is a Historic Site Manager for the Prince William County Historic Preservation Division and works as a Licensed Battlefield Guide at Antietam National Battlefield. Kevin also sits on the Board of Directors of the Shepherdstown Battlefield Preservation Association and the Save Historic Antietam Foundation.

Previously, Kevin has worked or completed internships at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, The Papers of Abraham Lincoln at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, and the Mosby Heritage Area Association.

Kevin is the author of Shepherdstown in the Civil War: One Vast Confederate Hospital, published by The History Press in 2015 and the co-author of To Hazard All: A Guide to the Maryland Campaign.

He has also authored, The Heaviest Blow Yet Given the Confederacy’: The Emancipation Proclamation Changes the Civil War in Turning Points of the Civil War, part of Emerging Civil War’s Engaging the Civil War Series with Southern Illinois University Press.

Kristopher D. White 

Kris is the director of education at the American Battlefield Trust. White is a graduate of Norwich University with an M.A. in Military History and California University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in History. He served as a ranger-historian at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. He has also served the Penn-Trafford Recreation Board as a historian, and as a continuing education instructor for the Community College of Allegheny County. White is the co-founder of Emerging Civil War and co-creator of the Emerging Civil War Series. An award-winning speaker and editor, White has authored, co-authored, or edited some two dozen books, including four covering the Battle of Gettysburg. Kris frequently leads tours and staff rides in the United States and Europe.