Welcome to our 2026 - 2027 Civil War Lecture Series

 Harold Knudsen, LTC (Ret.), (LinkedIn) is an Illinois native. His career spans twenty five years of active duty Army service, and includes seven resident career artillery, command and staff Army schools and colleges. He has many years of tactical experience in the integration of fire support into maneuver plans and fire control computation for cannon units. He spent nine years in Germany training tactics offensive armored warfare, as well as peace-keeping and counter-insurgency training. A combat veteran of Desert Storm, he performed extensive artillery fire planning and execution in support of the U.S. breakthrough of the Iraqi line and penetration into Iraq. He has also served in the Iraq Campaign. His years of staff work at the Corps, Army, and Pentagon levels give him a strong understanding of army operations from the lowest to highest levels. 

 Ronald S. Coddington - While other kids in his Middlesex, N.J., neighborhood collected baseball cards, 14-year-old Ronald S. Coddington browsed flea markets looking for old photographs. Little did he realize after he purchased his first photo in 1977 that collecting historic images would become a lifelong pursuit. He began to write about the lives of identified Civil War soldiers in his collection in 2001. Many are included in his books, "Faces of the Civil War," "Faces of the Confederacy," and "African American Faces of the Civil War." He is a regular contributor to the New York Times series Disunion, and a columnist for the Civil War News.

Newark Union Church & Cemetery is located north of Wilmington in Brandywine Hundred is the historical . The property is under the care of the Newark Union Corporation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and celebrating the legacy of the Church and Cemetery. The Corporation has a 10-member volunteer board which oversees the operations and care of the site.

The goal of the Newark Union Corporation is to honor the past and secure the future of the historic Newark Union Church & Cemetery and to share this historic treasure with the community.

The vision of enhancing the site, opening the building as a museum and making improvements in the cemetery has raised excitement and support from many visitors towards these goals. This confirmation of our vision has provided the confidence to foresee an even broader outreach to share this historical site.

There are hundreds of documented cases of women who fought disguised as men during the Civil War. Tracey McIntire and Audrey Scanlan-Teller, PhD will discuss and share documentation of some of the more fascinating women and what motivated them to fight alongside men.

Tracey McIntire earned her BA in English at Rivier College in Nashua, New Hampshire. She is Lead Educator at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine, site administrator at the Pry House Field Hospital Museum and an interpretive volunteer at Antietam National Battlefield. Since 2008, she has portrayed a woman soldier at living history events.

Audrey Scanlan-Teller earned her MA and PhD in art history at the University of Delaware. Since 2005, she has portrayed a Civil War enlisted soldier for historical interpretive demonstrations, a portrayal that compelled her to study the women soldiers of the Civil War. Dr. Scanlan-Teller is an active interpretive volunteer at Antietam National Battlefield Park and a small business

Marc Schulman has authored 20 CD Roms on American and World History, including a multimedia biography of JFK written almost 20 years ago. He was one of the earliest developers of applications for the iPhone and iPad and his company MultiEducator now has 40 apps on sale on Apple’s ITunes Store, including 10 history apps. Over 2,000 people a week download his free app called the Constitution and Federalist Papers.

Marc is the primary editor of Historycentral.com the largest history web site. Marc Schulman has taught history to a very wide range of schools from Middle School to Colleges. He is the primary editor of Historycentral.com. He received his BA and MA from Columbia University. He lives in Mamaroneck New York with his wife and children.

 Ronald D. Kirkwood retired after a 40-year career as an editor and writer in newspapers and magazines, including USA TODAY, the Baltimore Sun, Harrisburg (PA) Patriot-News, York (PA) Daily Record, and Midland (MI) Daily News. Ron edited national magazines for USA TODAY Sports and was NFL editor for USA TODAY Sports Weekly. He won state, regional, and national awards and managed the copy desk in Harrisburg when the newspaper won a Pulitzer Prize in 2012. Ron has been a Gettysburg Foundation docent at the George Spangler Farm Civil War Field Hospital Site since it opened in 2013. He is a native of Dowagiac/Sister Lakes, MI, and a graduate of Central Michigan University, where he has returned as guest speaker for journalism classes as part of the school’s Hearst Visiting Professionals series. Ron and his wife of almost 50 years, Barbara, live in the deer-filled countryside near Murrysville, PA, just outside of Pittsburgh. 

  Codie Eash has been part of the Seminary Ridge Museum staff since before the institution’s opening. Prior to his current role as Director of Education and Interpretation, he previously served as Communications Intern (2012-2013), Visitor Services Assistant (2013-2015), Lead Visitor Services Assistant (2015-2018), Visitor Services Coordinator (2018-2020), Operations Manager (2020-2021), and Director of Education and Museum Operations (2021-2024). In 2014, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Communication/Journalism from Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, where he also completed a minor in History. In 2024, he began working on a Master’s in American History at Gettysburg College through The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

In addition to Museum tours and interpretation, he lectures for American Battlefield Trust conferences, National Park Service sites, historical societies, Civil War roundtables, educational groups, and other organizations. Codie is a founding contributor to Pennsylvania in the Civil War, reviews books for Civil War Monitor and Emerging Civil War, writes articles for W. Britain’s The Standard, and serves on the Gettysburg Magazine editorial board.

  As with previous wars, the women kept the home fires burning as the men marched off to engage in battle. But during the Civil War, things were just a little bit different. 

Covering the political and social sway of the times, Bobbi Steele-Wilkins, a member of the Central Delaware Civil War Roundtable, will present a view of women’s lives in Delaware from 1861-1865. Working in homes, factory and field to provide for themselves and the armies, they added physical, monetary and moral support to their family and friends in a border state full of divided loyalties.