Final Resting Places: Reflections on the Meaning of Civil War Graves

Final Resting Places brings together some of the most important and innovative scholars of the Civil War era to reflect on what death and memorialization meant to the Civil War generation--and how those meanings still influence Americans today.

In each essay, a noted historian explores a different type of gravesite--including large marble temples, unmarked graves beneath the waves, makeshift markers on battlefields, mass graves on hillsides, neat rows of military headstones, university graveyards, tombs without bodies, and small family plots. Each burial place tells a unique story of how someone lived and died; how they were mourned and remembered. Together, they help us reckon with the most tragic period of American history.

CONTRUBUTORS: Terry Alford, Melodie Andrews, Edward L. Ayers, DeAnne Blanton, Michael Burlingame, Katherine Reynolds Chaddock, John M. Coski, William C. Davis, Douglas R. Egerton, Stephen D. Engle, Barbara Gannon, Michael P. Gray, Hilary Green, Allen C. Guelzo, Anna Gibson Holloway, Vitor Izecksohn, Caroline E. Janney, Michelle A. Krowl, Glenn W. LaFantasie, Jennifer M. Murray, Barton A. Myers, Timothy J. Orr, Christopher Phillips, Mark S. Schantz, Dana B. Shoaf, Walter Stahr, Michael Vorenberg, and Ronald C. White

Brian Matthew Jordan (Editor)
BRIAN MATTHEW JORDAN is associate professor and chairperson of history at Sam Houston State University. He is the author or editor of five books, including Marching Home: Union Veterans and Their Unending Civil War; The War Went On: Reconsidering the Lives of Civil War Veterans; and A Thousand May Fall: An Immigrant Regiment’s Civil War.

Jonathan W. White (Editor)
JONATHAN W. WHITE is professor of American studies at Christopher Newport University. He is the author or editor of sixteen books, including Midnight in America: Darkness, Sleep and Dreams during the Civil War; Emancipation, the Union Army, and the Reelection of Abraham Lincoln; and A House Built by Slaves: African American Visitors to the Lincoln White House.