History at Sunset: "Held in the Grasp of War": Why Civil War Veterans Struggled to Leave the Conflict Behind (Dr. Brian Matthew Jordan)

The 4th Annual History at Sunset Series returns with 3 special programs this summer at the park, May - July 2025!

Friday, June 20th: "Held in the Grasp of War": Why Civil War Veterans Struggled to Leave the Conflict Behind (7:00 pm - 8:30 pm)

Dr. Brian Matthew Jordan, Associate Professor of U.S. Civil War History and Chair of the History Department at Sam Houston State University. 

The Civil War visited unprecedented violence on the United States. That violence was inscribed on the bodies and minds of the nearly two million men who donned Union blue between 1861 and 1865. How did Union veterans make sense of their physical, psychological, and emotional wounds as the nation plunged into the years of Reconstruction? How did the politics of the postwar years complicate their reintegration to civilian life and personal healing? Why were so many veterans so unwilling to let go of the war and its legacy, and what urgent messages do those ex-soldiers have for us today? 

The program takes place outside at the NPS Tent adjacent to the Visitor Center and Museum and will launch the 1st Freedom Day Festival Weekend.