Date Posted: Wednesday, May 24th, 2017

During the last year of the American Civil War, the main Union and Confederate armies in Virginia were engaged in trench warfare, a method of combat that was far different from the first three years of the conflict. On Saturday, June 3, at 10:30 a.m. the Delaware Public Archives will host a program presented by Dr. Steven E. Sodergren of Norwich University that will examine the experiences of soldiers in the Army of the Potomac, including several Delawareans, during the last year of the Civil War. What motivated these men to see the conflict through to victory and how did these soldiers react to the escalating bloodshed of the war? The program will also focus on how Americans adapted to the changing forms of warfare during this era.

Steven E. Sodergren earned his doctorate in American and Military history from the University of Kansas in May 2006. While in graduate school, he received a General Matthew Ridgeway Research Grant from the Military History Institute in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and a Dissertation Fellowship from the U.S. Army Center of Military History for his work on combat soldiers in the American Civil War. Sodergren is currently Associate Professor of History at Norwich University in Northfield, Vermont and Coordinator of the Studies in War and Peace degree program there. Sodergren’s first book, The Army of the Potomac in the Overland and Petersburg Campaigns: Union Soldiers and Trench Warfare, 1864-65, will be published by Louisiana State University Press in June 2017.

The program is free to the public and will last approximately one hour. No reservations are required. For more information, contact Tom Summers (302) 744-5047 or e-mail thomas.summers@delaware.gov.


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