Symposium Speakers 
Keith S. Bohannon
Keith S. Bohannon is an associate professor of history at the University of West Georgia. He is the author of numerous essays and articles, as well as the co-editor of Campaigning with Old Stonewall (Louisiana State University Press, 1998).
Keith E. Gibson
Keith E. Gibson is Executive Director of the Museum System and Architectural Historian for the Virginia Military Institute. A bachelor’s degree from the VMI and graduate work at George Washington University and James Madison University helped prepare him for a career in public history. Colonel Gibson’s recent published works include Virginia Military Institute, A Photographic History and Moses Ezekiel: Civil War Soldier; Renowned Sculptor. Colonel Gibson was the 2012 recipient of the Governor’s Agency Star as the outstanding state employee of the year.
Robert E. L. Krick
Robert E. L. Krick has lived or worked on Civil War battlefields almost continuously since 1972. He grew up on the Chancellorsville battlefield near Fredericksburg and has worked in various historical capacities at several battlefields, including Custer Battlefield in Montana, and Manassas Battlefield. Since 1991 he has been an historian on the staff at Richmond National Battlefield Park. Mr. Krick is widely published on Civil War topics. In 2003 the University of North Carolina Press published his biographical register of the Army of Northern Virginia’s staff officers (Staff Officers in Gray). Most recently he had an essay in Cold Harbor to the Crater (2015, UNC Press).
Robert K. Krick
Robert K. Krick is the author of sixteen books on Confederate topics, including several with Jackson as a central theme, the most recent being The Smoothbore Volley that Doomed the Confederacy: The Death of Stonewall Jackson and Other Chapters on the Army of Northern Virginia. He is an historian who was responsible for Civil War battlefields in Virginia for more than thirty years.
John W. Mountcastle, Brigadier General, U.S. Army (Retired)
John W. (Jack) Mountcastle (VMI '65) was a career soldier, commanding tank units in the USA, Vietnam, and Europe. He earned an MA and PhD from Duke and taught Military History at West Point. Promoted to Brigadier General in 1994, Jack served as the Army's Chief of Military History in Washington, D.C. until he retired in 1998 and returned to his hometown of Richmond, VA. He currently teaches Civil War history courses at the University of Richmond, lectures at the Virginia Historical Society, and leads tours of Civil War sites.
Frank A. O’Reilly
Frank A. O’Reilly has lectured extensively on military history and is the author of numerous articles on the Civil War and Mexican War. He is the author of, Stonewall Jackson at Fredericksburg, and The Fredericksburg Campaign: Winter War on the Rappahannock. He is currently researching a book on the Battle of Malvern Hill and the Seven Days’ Campaign around Richmond. O’Reilly received his undergraduate degree from Washington & Lee University before joining the National Park Service. He has served as an historian at the Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park since 1990.
Elizabeth Parnicza
Elizabeth (Beth) Parnicza is a Civil War historian with a particular focus on the battlefields surrounding Fredericksburg, Virginia. A 2011 graduate of West Virginia University, she moved to the "other Virginia" to pursue her passion for Civil War History. Beth's research interests focus largely on the human aspects of war, including the looting of Fredericksburg, the movement toward hard war, and a soldier's experience of battle.
Jeff Shaara
Jeff Shaara is a New York Times bestselling author of historical fiction. His works include The Steel Wave, The Rising Tide, The Glorious Cause, Rise to Rebellion, and Gone for Soldiers, as well as Gods and Generals and The Last Full Measure-two novels that complete the Civil War trilogy that began with his father's Pulitzer Prize--winning classic The Killer Angels. Shaara was born into a family of Italian immigrants in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He grew up in Tallahassee, Florida, and graduated from Florida State University. He lives in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
