Contact: Allison Matthews
STARKVILLE, Miss.--A Giles Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Mississippi State will be making multiple speaking appearances this spring at the New York Historical Society.
John F. Marszalek, now executive director and managing editor for the university-based Ulysses S. Grant Association and Grant Presidential Library, makes his first appearance with the society Tuesday [Jan. 7] as part of the society's Bernard and Irene Schwartz Distinguished Speaker Series.
Marszalek is one of three leading Civil War historians who will be discussing operations of major military campaigns during the nation's bloody 1861-65 conflict that is currently observing its sesquicentennial.
Next week's presentations focus on events of July 4, 1863, when the 47-day siege of Vicksburg led by Maj. Gen. Grant ended with the surrender of the Confederate forces and removed the last major remaining Rebel stronghold on the Mississippi River.
Joining Marszalek will be James M. McPherson, Princeton University's George Henry Davis 1886 Professor of American History Emeritus, and Harold Holzer, a National Humanities Medal winner and author-editor of more than 40 books on Lincoln and the Civil War.
The three historians gather again Feb. 6 at the society's museum on Central Park West to explore the Battle of Gettysburg's impact on the war; April 3, on the Battle of Shiloh; and May 21, the Battle of Fredericksburg.
For more information on the NYHS series, including admission information, visit www.nyhistory.org/grant-takes-vicksburg or telephone 212-485-9268.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see www.msstate.edu.