Elizabeth D. Leonard
3 Cedar Street
Waterville, Maine 04901
(207) 859-5322; (207) 872-9956
edleonar@colby.edu
EMPLOYMENT
1992 - present: Colby College, Waterville, Maine
2005-present:
John J. and Cornelia V. Gibson Professor of History
Director, Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
2004-2005:
Chair, Department of History
Interim Director, Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
2003-2005:
John J. and Cornelia V. Gibson Associate Professor of History
2000-2003:
Harriet S. and George C. Wiswell, Jr., Research Fellow
Associate Professor of History
1998-2001:
Associate Professor of History
Director of Women’s Studies
1992-1998:
Assistant Professor of History
EDUCATION
University of California, Riverside
Ph. D. in United States History, June 1992
M. A. in United States History, October 1988
PUBLICATIONS
Books, Chapters, Articles
"Women Making History: Mary Walker, Mary Surratt, and Some Lessons Civil War Women have
Taught Me," in Catherine Clinton and Nina Silber, eds., Gender and the Civil War (Oxford
University Press, forthcoming).
Lincoln’s Avengers: Justice, Revenge, and Reunion after the Civil War (W. W. Norton & Co.,
Inc., March 2004), cloth and paper. This book was also chosen as a selection for the History Book
Club.
“Mary Surratt and the Plot to Assassinate Abraham Lincoln,” in Joan E. Cashin, ed., The War Was
You and Me (Princeton University Press, 2002).
Memoirs of a Soldier, Nurse, and Spy: A Woman’s Adventures
Army, by Sarah Emma Edmonds (originally published
of introduction. (Northern Illinois University Press, 1999.)
in Union
in 1864), editor and author
All the Daring of the Soldier: Women of the Civil War Armies (W. W. Norton & Co., Inc., 1999;
paperback: Penguin Books, 2001). This book was also chosen as a selection for the History Book
Club, the Book of the Month Club, and the Quality Paperback Book Club.
Yankee Women: Gender Battles in the Civil War (W. W. Norton
Inc., 1994), cloth and paper.
& Co.,
"Civil War Nurse, Civil War Nursing: Rebecca Usher of
Civil War History, September 1995.
Maine,"
Book Reviews
Daughters of the Union: Northern Women Fight the Civil War, by Nina Silber (Harvard
University Press, 2005), for the American Historical Review (forthcoming).
Women at the Front: Hospital Workers in Civil War America, by Jane E. Schultz (University of
North Carolina Press, 2004), for The Annals of Iowa (forthcoming).
Lincoln's Emancipation: The End of Slavery in America, by Allen C. Guelzo (Simon & Schuster,
2004), for The Historian, forthcoming.
Genteel Rebel: The Life of Mary Greenhow Lee, by Sheila R. Phipps (Louisiana State Univerity
Press, 2004), for North Carolina Historical Review (October 2004).
Southern Lady, Yankee Spy: The True Story of Elizabeth Van Lew, by Elizabeth Varon (Oxford
University Press, 2003), for The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography (2004).
Soldier Princess: The Life & Legend of Agnes Salm-Salm in North America, 1861-1867, by David
Coffey (College Station: Texas A & M University Press, 2002), for the Journal of American
History (2003).
An Uncommon Time: The Civil War and the Northern Home Front, edited by Paul A. Cimbala and
Randall M. Miller (New York: Fordham University Press, 2002), for the Virginia Magazine of
History and Biography (2003).
The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History, edited by Gary W. Gallagher and Alan T.
Nolan (Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 2001), for the Wisconsin Magazine of History
(2002).
Disarming the Nation: Women’s Writing and the Civil War, by Elizabeth Young (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1999), for The Historian (2001).
Bloody Promenade: Reflections on a Civil War Battle, by Stephen Cushman (Charlottesville:
University of Virginia Press, 1999), for the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society (2000).
General George E. Pickett in Life and Legend, by Leslie J. Gordon (Chapel
Hill: University
of North Carolina Press, 1998), for the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (1999).
Taking off the White Gloves: Southern Women and Women
Historians, edited
by Michele Gillespie and Catherine
Clinton (Columbia: University of Missouri
Press, 1998), for The Arkansas
Historical Quarterly (1999).
Dorothea Dix: New England Reformer, by Thomas J. Brown
(Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 1998), for The
Historian (1999).
A History of Popular Women’s Magazines in the United States,
1792-1995, by
Mary Ellen Zuckerman (Westport, Connecticut,
1998), for Business History Review
(1998).
Mary Boykin Chesnut: A Confederate Woman's Life, by Mary A.
DeCredico
(Madison, Wisconsin, 1996), for the Arkansas
Historical Quarterly (1998).
Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the
American Civil
War, by Drew Gilpin Faust (Chapel Hill,
1996), for the Journal of the Center for the
Study of the
American South (1998)
Confederate Hospitals on the Move: Samuel H. Stout and the
Army of
Tennessee, by Glenna R. Schroeder-Lein (Columbia,
South Carolina, 1994), for the
American Historical Review
(1996).
A Woman of Valor: Clara Barton and the Civil War, by Stephen
York, 1994), for the American Historical Review
(1995).
Oates (New
Victorian America and the Civil War, by Anne C. Rose (New
The Annals of Iowa (1994).
York, 1992), for
Trials and Triumphs: The Women of the American Civil War, by
Marilyn Mayer
Culpepper (East Lansing, Michigan, 1991) for
The Annals of Iowa (1993).
The Social Gospel in Black & White, by Ralph E. Luker
1991), for Labor History (1992).
(Chapel Hill,
Edmund Ruffin and the Crisis of Slavery in the Old South, by
William M. Mathews
(Athens, Georgia, 1988), for Harvard
Business History Review (1991).
Encyclopedia and Other Short Entries
Thirty-six 200-word entries (plus accompanying primary documents)
War Almanac, edited by David Rubel (2001).
Twenty-one 750-word entries for ABC-CLIO’s Encyclopedia of the
edited by Jeanne T. and David S. Heidler (2002)
for Agincourt Press’s Civil
American Civil War,
Two 1000-word entries (“Annie Turner Wittenmyer,” and “Elida Barker
Rumsey Fowle”)
for Oxford University Press’s American National
Biography (publication date unknown).
One 750-word entry (“Mary Edwards Walker”) for Greenwood Press’s Military Women
Worldwide: A Biographical Dictionary (2002).
CONFERENCE PAPERS AND INVITED TALKS
June 2005: "On Women Spies and Soldiers in the Civil War," presented to the 2005 Society, Slavery, and
Civil War Seminar, sponsored by the University of Illinois at Springfield, Illinois.
April 2005: "On Lincoln Assassination Conspiracy Theories," panel discussion event for the public,
sponsored by the International Spy Museum, at Ford's Theater, Washington, D. C.
March 2005: "Joseph Holt and Abraham Lincoln," presented to the annual symposium of the Abraham
Lincoln Institute, College Park, Maryland.
October 2004: "Teaching about Women in the Civil War," presented to a symposium of public high school
teachers at Bridgewater State College, Bridgewater, Massachusetts.
June 2004: "Joseph Holt: Lincoln's Avenger," presented at the National Archives, Washington, D. C. This
talk was videotaped and broadcast on C-Span's "Book TV" Program in August 2004.
March 2004: "Joseph Holt: Lincoln's Avenger," presented to the Surratt Society Conference on the Lincoln
Assassination, Clinton, Maryland.
March 2004: "Women in the Civil War," presented for Women's History Month at the Springfield Armory
National Historic Site, Springfield, Massachusetts.
November 2003: “Lincoln’s Avengers: The Federal Government and the Assassination of Lincoln,”
Keynote Lecture, Rhode Island Civil War Round Table, Providence, Rhode Island.
November 2003: “Lincoln’s Avengers: The Federal Government and the Assassination of Lincoln,” Joshua
L. Chamberlain Civil War Round Table, Brunswick, Maine.
August 2003: “Harriet Beecher Stowe and Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” Joshua L. Chamberlain Days Conference,
Penobscot Historical Society, Brunswick, Maine.
May 2003: “Teaching the Civil War,” Society for Military History Conference, Knoxville, Tennessee.
March 2003: “Women and the Civil War,” Winthrop area Business and Professional Women’s Club,
Winthrop, Maine. (This event was cancelled due to weather.)
March 2003: “Women Spies of the Civil War,” Gettysburg National Monument “Women in the Civil War”
Conference, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
February 2003: “Women’s Work in the Civil War,” The Interim Club, Waterville, Maine.
December 2002: “Mary Surratt and the Lincoln Assassination,” Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain Civil War
Round Table, Brunswick, Maine. (This event was cancelled due to weather).
October 2002: “Maine, Women, Leadership, and Democracy in 19 th Century: Harriet Beecher Stowe and
Dorothea Dix,” Legacy of Leadership Conference, Washburn-Norlands Living History Center, Livermore
Falls, Maine.
October 2001: “Mary Surratt and the Assassination of Lincoln,” Maine Retired Teachers Association
Annual Conference, Augusta, Maine.
June 2001: Invited response to a talk on General Ulysses Grant, Gettysburg Institute, Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania.
April 2001: “ Mary Surratt and the Lincoln Assassination,” New Hampshire Civil War Roundtable,
Epping, New Hampshire.
March 2001: “Mary Surratt and the Lincoln Assassination,” invited talk for a three-day conference
(“War Makes Rattling Good History”) held in Wittenberg, Germany, by the Institute for American
Studies.
March 2001: “Women and the Civil War,” University of Maine’s Women’s History Month
Celebration.
December 2000: “Mary Surratt and the Plot to Assassinate Lincoln,” Joshua Chamberlain Civil
War Roundtable in Brunswick, Maine, on my work on Mary Surratt. (The event was cancelled due
to weather.)
October 2000: “Women Soldiers, Spies, and Activists,” Maine Retired Teachers Association
Annual Conference, Augusta, Maine.
October 2000: Keynote speaker, 13th Annual All Servicewomen Past & Present Luncheon,
sponsored by Maine Unit #41, Waves National, Augusta, Maine.
July 2000: “All the Daring of the Soldier: Women of the Civil War Armies,” National Archives,
Washington, D. C. This talk was videotaped and broadcast by C-Span’s “Book TV.”
March 2000: Keynote speaker, Maine Women’s Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, Augusta,
Maine.
October 1999: “The Civil War: A Women’s War, Too,” Colby College Family Weekend Faculty
Lecture.
September 1999: “The Importance of Archives and Museums for
Historical Research,”
Maine Archives and Museums 1999 Fall
Conference, Colby College, Waterville, Maine.
September 1999: “Women and the Civil War,” Augusta Area Business and
Women’s Club, Augusta, Maine.
Professional
September 1999: “The Women of All the Daring of the Soldier,” North Shore Civil War
Roundtable, Huntington, New York.
July 1999: “Women and the Civil War,” Colby Alumni College 1999, Waterville, Maine.
June 1999: “Women and the Civil War,” Washburn Humanities
Livermore, Maine.
March 1999: “Women and the Civil War,” Waterville Area Business &
Women’s Club, Waterville, Maine.
Conference,
Professional
May 1998: “On Writing Yankee Women,” American and New England Studies End of the Year
Gathering, University of Southern Maine, Freeport, Maine.
April 1998: “Women’s Participation in the Civil War,” Civil War
Hampshire, Epping, New Hampshire.
Roundtable of New
February 1998: “Women Confront the Civil War,” Maine Historical
Portland, Maine.
Society Speakers Series,
January 1998: “She-Rebels and Other Female Activists in Civil War Espionage and
Resistance,” Joshua L. Chamberlain Civil War Roundtable,
Brunswick, Maine.
June 1997: "What's in a Name? Gendering the Official Records of
the
Union and
Confederate Armies in the Civil War," Conference on
Women in the Civil War, Frederick,
Maryland.
April 1997: "'She-Rebels' and other Female Activists in the Civil
War: The Testimony of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies," Organization
of American Historians, San
Francisco, California.
June 1996: "'Half-Soldier Heroines": Women in the Civil War Military and Victorian Notions of
Gender," 1996 Berkshire Conference
on the History of Women, University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill.
December 1994: "The Women of Yankee Women," National Archives, Washington, D. C.
June 1994: "'Men to the Musket, Women to the Needle': Annie
Iowa Cultural Heritage Expo, Des Moines, Iowa.
Wittenmyer's Civil War,"
May 1994: “Women in the Civil War,” University of Maine Civil War Roundtable, Orono,
Maine.
April 1994: "Civil War Nurse, Civil War Nursing: Rebecca Usher of
Historical Association, Waltham, Massachusetts.
Maine," New England
June 1993: "Extreme Pressure and Limited Tolerance: The Civil War Story of Mary Edwards
Walker, M. D.," 1993 Berkshire Conference on
the History of Women, Vassar College.
October 1992: "Northern Women of the Civil War," Colby College
Colloquium.
Women's Studies
June 1991: "Northern Women and Gender Boundaries in the Civil
Association of Women Historians Conference, Asilomar,
California.
War,"
Western
COURSES REGULARLY TAUGHT
HI 131: U. S. History Survey, to 1865
HI 200: Introduction to History
HI 231: Women in American History, Colonial Times to 1870
HI 232: Women in American History, 1870 to the Present
HI 234: The American Revolution
HI 239: The Civil War Era
HI 340: Biographies and Autobiographies of Great American Women
HI 335: Antebellum American Histories
HI 435: The Civil War
SERVICE TO THE PROFESSION
Continuing: Member, Editorial Board, The Kent State University Press’s series, The Civil War in
the North (edited by Lesley Jill Gordon).
Continuing: Member, Editorial Board, Fordham University Press’s series, The North’s Civil War
(edited by Paul A. Cimbala).
Continuing: Advisory Council for the Lincoln Prize in Civil War History,
Soldiers Institute of Gettysburg College.
Lincoln and
Continuing: Consultant (unpaid) for filmmaker Maria Agui Carter’s documentary, “Rebel,” on the
life of Civil War soldier Loreta Janeta Velasquez (a.k.a. Harry Buford).
September 2004: Book manuscript proposal referee, Oxford University Press.
September 2003: Book manuscript referee, Northeastern University Press.
May 2003: Book manuscript referee, Louisiana State University Press.
May 2003: Book manuscript referee, National Geographic Press.
January 2002: Reviewer, textbook on Civil War history, for Longman Publishers.
January 2002: Outside reviewer, dissertation prospectus, for History department graduate student,
Ohio State University.
November 2001: Book manuscript referee, University Press of Kentucky.
September 2001: Book manuscript referee, Fordham University Press.
July 2001: Book manuscript referee, Northern Illinois University Press.
March 2001: Book manuscript referee, University of North Texas Press.
December 2000: Referee for a proposed textbook in American History, for Houghton Mifflin.
October 2000: Interviewed at length, over the course of two days, for a television documentary on women
in the American Civil War (producer George Steitz, traveled up to Colby from Pennyslvania expressly for
this purpose.).
2000: Consultant, Maine Humanities Council Planning Board, for the summer 2001 exhibition at
the L. C. Bates Museum in Skowhegan, Maine: “With Valor and Courage: Maine and the Civil
War.”
July 2000: Reviewer for a proposed textbook in American Women’s History, for Bedford/St.
Martin’s Press.
February 2000: Outside Evaluator, promotion dossier, Bates College.
February 2000: Book manuscript referee, Oxford University Press.
January 2000: Book manuscript referee, Taylor Publishing Company.
October 1999: Referee for an article manuscript submitted to The Annals
of Iowa.
October 1998: Referee for an article manuscript submitted to the Journal
of Women’s
History.
September 1998: Book manuscript referee the
University of Tennessee Press.
June 1998: Referee for a textbook proposal submitted to Addison, Wesley,
Longman.
August 1997: Book manuscript referee, Northeastern University Press.
October 1996: Referee for proposed textbook revision for Houghton
Mifflin.
October 1993: Referee for proposed textbook revision for W. W. Norton &
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
American Historical Association
Organization of American Historians
Phi Beta Kappa
Southern Historical Association
REFERENCES
Professor James McPherson
Department of History
Princeton University
Princeton, New Jersey 08540
Professor Michael Fellman
Department of History
Simon Fraser University
Vancouver, Canada
Professor Kathryn Kish Sklar
Department of History
Co., Inc.
Binghamton University
P. O. Box 6000
Binghamton, New York 13902-6000
Professor Roger Ransom
Department of History
University of California
Riverside, California 92501
Professor Sterling Stuckey
Department of History
University of California
Riverside, California 92501