As director of the Center for Civil War Research at the University of Mississippi, Neff has been bringing renowned scholars and enthusiasts together to the Oxford campus to compare notes, have discussions and take tours in search of a more thorough understanding of the circumstances and events surrounding America’s bloodiest conflict. His efforts have yielded four annual symposiums, several public lectures and, as of last year, creation of the Center for Civil War Research.
All have contributed to the inevitable and ongoing dialogue about the era, Neff said.
“We hope the center will serve as a forum, one that will provide the opportunity for the exchange of ideas and interpretations among historians and the general public,” said Neff, also an associate professor of history at UM. “The center should be a place where people of all levels of interest can explore the Civil War in meaningful ways.”
Although the center was officially launched last year, the vision for it began when Neff joined the UM Department of History a decade ago, Neff said. More recently, the history department and the Division of Outreach have co-sponsored the university’s Conference on the Civil War for about five years. Later this year, in conjunction with the history department’s annual Porter Fortune Symposium, the center will sponsor a fall conference focusing on topics related to the coming of the Civil War and the war itself.
Joseph Ward, chair and associate professor of history, shares Neff’s vision for the center.
“Under Professor Neff’s leadership, the Center for Civil War Research is becoming an important resource for those who wish to learn not only about a crucial moment in our nation’s past but also for those who wish to explore the ways in which the war has had an ongoing influence in American history,” Ward said. “It is generating significant interest from both students and established scholars.”
From its inception, the center’s goals and activities have garnered substantial financial support from donors.
“We wouldn’t exist without the incredibly generous gifts from our alumni and others,” Neff said. “It is especially gratifying to find people who are passionate enough about the study of war to donate money at this time of financial constraint.”
Neff said he is also appreciative of the graduate assistants who voluntarily assist with maintaining the center’s website and offer their services during the symposia, public lectures and other activities.
This spring, the center celebrated its establishment by inviting Civil War scholar Gary Gallagher for a public lecture. Gallagher is John L. Nau III Professor in the History of the American Civil War at the University of Virginia.
“With the burgeoning national fascination for this crisis in American history, we are primed to become a focal point in both the academic and popular realms,” Neff said. “This is a very exciting time for us.”
Robert Haws, chair of public policy leadership and associate professor of history, was a key architect for the center. Haws said he is excited about its potential.
“The American Civil War is central to our nation’s history, and especially to Southern identity and society,” Haws said. “To study the memory of the war is in no small way to study its importance in American life at the time of the conflict and in every period since.”
The center’s importance underscores the university’s long connection to the conflict. A state dependent on slavery, Mississippi seceded from the Union in January 1861. UM students, already drilling in preparation, remained in school until after the firing on Fort Sumter. All students left shortly thereafter, most as part of the University Greys, Company A of the 11th Mississippi Infantry Regiment.
In April 1862, trains brought Confederate wounded from Shiloh to Oxford, and the campus became a hospital, including a temporary morgue. During the remainder of the war, troops of both sides moved through the area. None of the University Greys ever returned to complete his interrupted education. Over the years, the university landscape came to be marked with reminders of the Civil War, demonstrating the power of memory.
For more information about the Center for Civil War Research, visit http://civilwarcenter.olemiss.