Society for Women and the Civil War
  • Home
  • About the Society
    • Board
    • Organization Brochure
    • Regents
    • Authors List
    • Committees & Publications
    • Scholarship Programs
    • Contact Us
    • Members' Page
  • Annual SWCW Conference
    • Details for the 2023 Conference
    • 2023 Conference Registration
    • Conference Volunteer Opportunities
    • Past Conference Summary
    • Past Conferences 2011- 2022
    • Past Conferences 1997 - 2010
  • Join the Society
  • Organizational Partnerships
  • Newsletter Archive - The Calling Card
  • Educational Materials Intro
  • Donations
  • Society Volunteer Opportunities
  • Gift Membership
  • Call For Papers 2023

We are proud to announce this year's 2015 conference speakers. We have chosen a phenomenal group of speakers with a wide range of topics! 


The Challenge to Care: Lucy Mina Otey and the Ladies Relief Hospital in Lynchburg, VA

Speaker: Lyn Kraje

Thousands of sick and wounded soldiers poured in Lynchburg, Virginia.  After being refused entrance to a military hospital because “women and flies were unwelcome,” the feisty Mrs. Lucy Wilhelmina Otey organized the Ladies Relief Hospital, with permission and support from President Jefferson Davis. Ms. Kraje will describe Mrs. Otey and her ability to circumvent Civil War gender mores and stretch social boundaries to establish an effective, caring hospital for Confederate soldiers.



Through the Eyes (and Pen) of Julia Wilbur

Speaker: Paula Tarnapol Whitcre

At the age of 47, Julia Wilbur left her home in Rochester, New York and spent the next few years in Alexandria, Virginia, as a relief agent on behalf of the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Society.  The diaries she kept reveal her successes and failures, her views on conditions for the freedmen, her battles with the Union power structure, and her observations about well-known people and events of the time.



Searching for Maria Lewis, Black Female Trooper of the 8th NY Cavalry

Speaker: Anita L. Henderson

Maria Lewis is noted in several sentences in Julia Wilbur’s pocket diary but little else was known about her until Ms. Wilburn’s main diary was discovered and transcribed.  It revealed the alias and true identity of Maria Lewis, showing how information can change with the introduction of new sources.


"In Consideration of Her Sex": Gender and the Postwar North at the Gettysburg National Homestead for Soldier's Orphans

Speaker: Elizabeth M. Motich

The National Homestead for Soldiers' Orphans opened in 1866 as a home for "the many thousands of the children of our gallant dead." By 1876, it was vilified as the site of gruesome child abuse, including girls being forced to cross-dress in the Bloomer costume. This presentation investigates the scandal from a gender perspective.


"My Name is a Heritage of Woe": Varina Howell Davis and Varina Anne Davis in War and Peace

Speaker: Ruth Ann Coski

The second wife and youngest child of President Jefferson Davis had a complicated mother-daughter relationship. Both were fiercely loyal to the memory of Jefferson Davis but in different ways. As wife, Varina tried to vindicate her marriage and her place in history. Daughter Varina Anne tried to forge her own life and escape history. She was her mother's final sacrifice for The War.


The Scarlet-Lewis-Pownall Players in the Christiana Riot of 1851

Speaker: Marva Belt

"Three harmless non-resisting Quakers and eight and thirty wretched, miserable, and penniless Negroes, armed with corn cutters, clubs and a few muskets, and led by a miller in a felt hat, without coat, and mounted on a sorrel mare, levied war on the United States" and were tried for treason as a result of the riot in Christiana which left Edward Gorush dead as he attempted to reclaim his property under the Fugitive Slave Law in 1851.


Inter Arma Silent Leges: The Wrongful Execution of Mary E. Surratt

Speaker: Kaitlyn Ramirez

On July 7, 1865, Mary Surratt became the first woman to be executed by the Federal Government for her alleged role in the plot to murder Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, and William Seward. Kaitlyn will examine the testimonies of three men which contain problematic statements leading to a reasonable doubt of her guilt.


PO Box 3117 Gettysburg, PA, 17325                       
Proudly powered by Weebly