In partnership with the National Park Service, Eastern National invites the public to meet author Dr. Andrew S. Bledsoe on Saturday, May 28 from 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Dr. Bledsoe will be available inside the Chickamauga Battlefield Visitor Center to sign his book, Citizen-Officers: The Union and Confederate Volunteer Junior Officer Corps in the American Civil War ,and will provide a program 11 a.m. During his 20 minute presentation, Dr. Bledsoe will answer the questions: what was a company officer, how could one become a company officer, what was the role of a company officer, and why was it so hazardous.
“Citizen-Officers fills a major gap in the literature on the American Civil War.
It offers perceptive analysis of volunteers who filed junior ranks among officers in both the Union and Confederate armies. The author’s careful attention to the republican example of disinterested served, the transition from civilian to military cultures, the impact of combat, and change over time, among other virtues, lends distinction to this book,” said Gary Gallagher, author of The Union War.
About the author: Dr. Andrew S. Bledsoe is assistant professor of history at Lee University in Cleveland, Tn. A historian of the Civil War and of American military leadership traditions, he is the author of Citizen-Officers: The Union and Confederate Volunteer Junior Officer Corps in the American Civil War (2015), and co-editor of the forthcoming War is the Remedy: Toward a New Military History of the Civil War. Bledsoe earned his MA and PhD in American History from Rice University, and in 2015 was a Fellow at the United States Military Academy at West Point.
The funds generated by purchases of Citizen-Officers: The Union and Confederate Volunteer Junior Officer Corps in the American Civil War support the interpretive programs at national parks.