Participant Info

First Name
Susannah
Last Name
Ural
Country
United States
State
MS
Affiliation
Mississippi State University, History Dept.
Website URL
http://susannahjural.com/
Keywords
U.S. Civil War, war & society, military history, 19th Century America
Availability
Media Contact
Additional Contact Information
PhD
PhD

Personal Info

Photo
About Me

Susannah J. Ural, Ph.D. is the Frank & Virginia Williams Chair for Abraham Lincoln & Civil War Studies in the Department of History at Mississippi State University. A military historian by training, Ural specializes in nineteenth-century America, with an emphasis on the socio-military experiences of U.S. Civil War soldiers and their families. She is the author of four books and numerous articles on the U.S. Civil War and Reconstruction eras. Her new book project explores the enlistment and experiences of United States Colored Troops in the Mississippi Valley between 1863 and 1865, and considers how these experiences shaped President Abraham Lincoln’s and the US War Department’s policies in the last two years of the Civil War.

At Mississippi State University, Ural serves as Professor of History and, as the Williams Chair, directs the Frank and Virginia Williams Collection of Lincolniana at MSU Libraries. The Williams Collection was considered the nation’s largest privately owned holding of Lincoln research and display material, and the country’s most comprehensive privately owned Lincoln and Civil War library, valued at nearly $3 million. In 2017, Frank and Virginia Williams donated the collection to Mississippi State University, and in 2022, they established the Frank and Virginia Williams Chair for Abraham Lincoln and Civil War Studies to ensure that scholars, educators, students, and the public can benefit from these incredible holdings.

Learn more about Ural and her work here.

Recent Publications

Hood’s Texas Brigade: The Soldiers and Families of the Confederacy’s Most Celebrated Unit. Louisiana State University Press, Conflicting Worlds Series, November 2017.

Don’t Hurry Me Down to Hades: Soldiers and Families in America’s Civil War. Osprey Publishing, 2013.

Editor, Civil War Citizens: Race, Ethnicity and Identity in America’s Bloodiest Conflict.  NYU Press, 2010.

“The Summer of Irish Rage: The Cause and Consequences of the New York City Draft Riots,” America’s Civil War, 22 (March 2009): 24-31.

The Harp and the Eagle: Irish-American Volunteers and the Union Army, 1861-1865.  New York: NYU Press, 2006.

“The Harp and the Eagle: Irish-Americans and the Union War Effort, 1861-1865.” The Journal of Military History 69 (April 2005): 331-359.

Media Coverage
The Atlantic, New York Times, CSPAN, MichaeLA (CNN), "Who Do You Think You Are?" (TLC), CSPAN
Country Focus
United States
Expertise by Geography
United States
Expertise by Chronology
19th century
Expertise by Topic
American Civil War, American Presidents, Family, Military