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A Hell of a Regiment: To Gettysburg and Beyond with the Twentieth Maine Saturday, June 6, 2026 | 11:00 AM – 12:00 PMLocation: Education Gallery (First Floor)ISBN: 9780811778152 One of the most famous regiments of the American Civil War, the 20th Maine earned lasting renown during its dramatic defense of Little Round Top at the Battle of Gettysburg under the command of Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. Drawing on previously untapped sources, Peatman offers a fresh account of the regiment’s transformation from inexperienced recruits into one of the Union Army’s most legendary fighting units. His work explores the leadership, discipline, and determination that helped shape the regiment’s enduring legacy. Admission This program is free to attend. Regular Museum admission applies for those wishing to tour the National Civil War Museum galleries. About the Author Jared Peatman holds a Ph.D. from Texas A&M University and is a Senior Fellow at the George Washington University Center for Excellence in Public Leadership. He is also the director of curriculum for the Lincoln Leadership Institute at Gettysburg and the author of several works exploring leadership and the Civil War.

An eye-opening portrait of Lincoln behind the scenes: Here is the career-long party politician whose brilliant coalition-building during the Civil War set the political foundation for emancipation and Union victory. Boss Lincoln: The Partisan Life of Abraham Lincolnwith author Matthew Pinsker Saturday, July 11, 2026 | 11:00 AM – 12:00 PMLocation: Education Gallery (First Floor)ISBN: 9780393240788 Join Matthew Pinsker at The National Civil War Museum for a fascinating presentation on his new book, Boss Lincoln: The Partisan Life of Abraham Lincoln. In this engaging program, Pinsker explores a side of Abraham Lincoln often overlooked — Lincoln as a skilled political strategist and party leader navigating the turbulent years before and during the American Civil War. Drawing from years of research, Pinsker examines how Lincoln balanced leadership, politics, and principle while guiding the nation through its greatest crisis. Matthew Pinsker is one of the nation’s foremost historians of Lincoln and the Civil War. He holds the Pohanka Chair in American Civil War History and serves as Director of the House Divided Project at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Admission to the presentation is free. Regular admission applies to the Museum galleries. “A landmark book…Team of Rivals on steroids…It is hard to […]

Lessons in History with Garry Adelman Saturday, August 22, 2026 | 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. The National Civil War Museum is pleased to welcome renowned Civil War historian, author, and speaker Garry Adelman as part of our popular Lessons in History lecture series. The Civil War in Detail Join the American Battlefield Trust and the Center for Civil War Photography's Garry Adelman for an exploration of the largely unseen buried deep within Civil War photographs. Most of the roughly 10,000 documentary Civil War photographs were recorded on large glass plates and most of these glass plates have survived the ravages of time, These glass plates negatives are at least 30x larger than 35mm negatives and unlike today’s digital cameras, the hi-resolution digital scans of these plates do not substantially pixelate upon zooming in. The details that emerge are as broad and varied as the war itself. From pickle jar labels to battlefield features, pets, games, engineering, technology, celebrity lookalikes, all come into sharper relief. Most moving are the details that reveal humanity among Civil War-era people--young, old, black, white, male female, which can have the unexpected effect of fostering sympathy for, and less judgment of, the people of the […]

Lessons in History: “Soldier of the South: Fighting Dick Anderson” Saturday, November 14, 2026 | 11:00 AM–12:00 PMLocation: Education Gallery, First FloorAdmission is Free ~ Book signing to follow Join The National Civil War Museum for a Lessons in History presentation on Soldier of the South: Fighting Dick Anderson, the first scholarly cradle-to-grave treatment of Confederate General Richard “Dick” Anderson’s life. Based on the January 2026 release, this program will explore Anderson’s formative years, his Civil War service, and his role as an important division and corps commander in Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Often overshadowed by more famous contemporaries, Anderson was regarded by Robert E. Lee as a steady and dependable officer—“My brave old general.” This presentation offers a fresh look at Anderson’s successes, failures, and legacy, bringing renewed attention to a soldier whose service and significance have often been overlooked. Admission: This program is free to attend. Regular admission applies for access to the Museum galleries. About the author: Dr. Edward J. Hagerty studied with eminent military historian Russell F. Weigley at Temple University and received the Ph.D. in History in 1993.  He was appointed soon after as the first director of the Civil War Studies Program at […]