Civil War 150 Lecture Series Opens with Dr. Susannah J. Ural on the Average Soldier

News item published on: 2013-08-26 13:08:00

The University Libraries at the University of Southern Mississippi will sponsor the first of five talks relating to the American Civil War on Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2013, 6-7 p.m. at the Cook Library Art Gallery (LIB 105A).

The opening lecture, ’This Murderous Storm’: Soldiers and Families in America’s Civil War, by Susannah J. Ural, focuses on the average Civil War soldier who saw the war from the “worm’s eye view.” Ural's talk, which is tied to her forthcoming book, Don't Hurry Me Down to Hades: The Civil War in the Words of Those Who Lived It, will provide attendees with a better sense of ordinary men and their families in the Civil War era. The event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

Susannah J. Ural is an associate professor of history at the University of Southern Mississippi and a Senior Fellow in Southern Miss's Center for the Study of War & Society. She specializes in the U.S. Civil War era and is the author of several books including the forthcoming Don't Hurry Me Down to Hades: The Civil War in the Words of Those Who Lived It. Ural is hard at work finishing her fourth book, Hood's Boys: John Bell Hood's Texas Brigade and the American Civil War.

In September and October, University Libraries is sponsoring the Civil War 150 Lecture Series. This series focuses on different aspects of the Civil War including the life of the average soldier, African American writer and reformer Harriet Jacobs, food in the Civil War, singing and fiddling by soldiers, and slave insurrections in Mississippi. The talks are made possible by a grant from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, The Library of America, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

For more information about this talk or the lecture series, contact Jennifer Brannock at or 601.266.4347.