Seceding from Secession with Eric J. Wittenberg
I am very happy to welcome Eric J. Wittenberg to The Rogue Historian! Eric is an award-winning Civil War author. A native of southeastern Pennsylvania, after graduating from Dickinson, Eric was educated at Dickinson College, the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. He is a partner in the Columbus, Ohio law firm of Cook, Sladoje & Wittenberg Co., L.P.A., where he manages the firm’s litigation practice. Wittenberg is the author of 22 critically acclaimed books on the American Civil War, several of which have won awards, as well as more than three dozen articles published in national magazines. He is in regular demand as a speaker and tour guide, and travels the country regularly doing both. He serves on the boards of trustees of the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust and the Little Big Horn Associates, and often works with the American Battlefields Trust on battlefield preservation initiatives. He is also the program coordinator for the Chambersburg Civil War Seminars. His specialty is cavalry operations in the Civil War. He and his wife Susan reside in Columbus, Ohio. Today we’ll be discussing his book, Seceding from Secession: Civil War, Politics, and the Creation of West Virginia - coauthored with Edmund Sargus and Penny Barrick, which is a recent publication from Savas Beatie Publishing.
You know…it was very cool to get to speak with an expert on this subject…I have a lesson on border states in my Civil War class, but now I’ve got some additional analysis to bring into the classroom, which of course means I will have to expand my look at this particular state. I will naturally bring up all the things we discuss:
The long standing tensions between the eastern and western counties of Virginia
The reaction of people in the western counties when Virginia votes to secede
The 1st and 2nd Wheeling Conventions
The “legitimate” government of Virginia
Pushing for statehood
Determining the borders
The B&O Railroad
Constitutional issues (and how this got a little tricky…)
The postwar and the Supreme Court
Lingering tensions
In methodologies of historians and lawyers…how they intersect
A preview of Eric’s new book: Tullahoma: The Forgotten Campaign that Changed the Course of the War
Have a listen…
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With compliments,
Keith