Presented by Noah Crawford, Texas A & M University
Dinner: 6 PM, Menu: Italian Sausage and Beef Lasagna, Caesar Salad, Breadsticks, Assorted Desserts. $20 per person, RSVP by responding to this email or by calling or texting Jim Rosenthal at 817-307-9263
Program: 7 PM
Location: UNT Health Science Center, MET Building, 1000 Montgomery, Fort Worth 76109, Room 109-111
The story of three enslaved people who escaped to the Union bastion at Fort Monroe on the Virginia Peninsula is often cited as the genesis of a refugee crisis. Increasingly, historians recognize these refugees as influential in the conduct of the war. Oft-overlooked, however, are the refugees on the opposite corner of the Confederacy. Texas Unionists created headaches for Confederate forces as early as spring of 1861. Hundreds of Unionist refugees from Texas who fled to Mexico launched guerilla raids into Confederate territory. Eventually, over 4,300 Confederate troops were tasked solely with guarding the border between Texas and Mexico. Whether in the Old Dominion or in the Lone Star State, refugees upset wartime dynamics.
Noah Crawford argues that refugees in Virginia and Texas influenced the war, but in different ways. With a lack of overarching official policy, Union and Confederate commanders adopted different methods for dealing with displaced people, with varying effectiveness and ramifications. In so doing, military authorities demonstrate the complexities of war when the line between combatants and noncombatants blurs.
Noah F. Crawford is a PhD candidate and graduate assistant lecturer at Texas A&M University who studies the social history and military history of the American Civil War era. His research focuses on refugees during that conflict—who they were, how they lived, and the ways in which they influenced the course of the war. His master’s thesis—“’A Matter of Increasing Perplexity’: Public Perception, Treatment, and Military Influence of Refugees in the Shenandoah Valley During the American Civil War”—won the Outstanding Master’s Thesis Award at Virginia Tech. Archival research funding through the Nau Center for Civil War History, Virginia Center for Civil War Studies, and the Texas State Library and Archives Commission yielded conference presentations with the Center for Civil War Research, the East Texas Historical Association, and the Texas State Historical Society. He has published an article with the Journal of the Shenandoah Valley During the Civil War Era and given lectures for the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation and the Save Texas History Symposium. His research demonstrates how refugee studies can serve as a vehicle for synthesizing disparate aspects of Civil War history including race, diplomacy, gender, and military operations.
Noah comes highly recommended, and his topic is fascinating. It should be an excellent presentation. Don’t miss it!