Each year, Time magazine selects a person who had the most influence on events during the previous twelve months. If the same question were posed in 1862, who would Time have selected as the Person of the Year? Five historians will ponder that question and present their candidates for Person of the Year 1862 at a forum organized by Museum of the Confederacy and hosted by the Library of Virginia.

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Two historians discuss Robert E. Lee’s leadership during the Civil War. They consider Lee’s education, his work as a general, and his ability to maintain troop morale under challenging circumstances. This is the second in a series of sessions we’re airing from a conference organized by the Virginia Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission. The theme of this year’s gathering was Leadership and Generalship in the Civil War. The Virginia Military Institute hosted the conference.

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Following the defeat of Union forces at the Battle of Bull Run, Abraham Lincoln summoned Major General George B. McClellan to replace Irvin McDowell as commander of the Army of the Potomac.  He would soon rise to the level of General-in-Chief of the Federal armies. 

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The New-York Historical Society hosts this discussion with historians Harold Holzer, James McPherson, and William Davis, who talk about Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis as opposing Civil War commanders-in-chief.

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Harvard University history professor and author Megan Kate Nelson talks about the battlefield photography and illustrations made in the wake of the Battle of Antietam in September of 1862. Many of the images feature dead soldiers, and Ms. Nelson discusses the impact of those images both during the war and today. This talk is from the 2012 Civil War Institute Conference at Gettysburg College. It contains graphic content and images.

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Dennis Frye, author and chief historian at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, talks about the state of the war in early September 1862. Confederate General Robert E. Lee was poised to invade the North, causing alarm among northern government officials and citizens. General Lee’s goal was Pennsylvania, but by what route and through what cities and towns was unclear.

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Peter Carmichael looks at the military executions in General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson’s command. He talks about the different forms of punishment used under Jackson’s leadership in 1862, and the reactions of Confederate soldiers to these measures. Carmichael is the director of the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College, and he spoke at the Institute’s 2012 conference.
 

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Historians discuss the circumstances, outcomes, and ongoing considerations of emancipation. They first place President Lincoln’s September 1862 issuance of the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation in the context of the War, then broaden out to discuss how Americans think and talk about emancipation and its echoes today. The Smithsonian National Museum of American History hosted this event.

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Lincoln Bicentennial Foundation Chair Harold Holzer talks about the photographs, prints, and political cartoons featuring two of the war’s leading generals, George B. McClellan and Robert E. Lee. He explains how the tone of those images changed over the course of the war and beyond, as dictated by each general’s successes and failures both on and off the battlefield. This talk is from the 2012 Civil War Institute Conference at Gettysburg College.

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Craig Symonds of the U.S. Naval Academy talks about the war’s Western Theater river operations in 1862. Symonds details the strategies employed by the Union to win several key battles, and credits those victories to the cooperation and combined tactics of General Ulysses S. Grant and Naval Flag Officer Andrew H. Foote. The Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College hosted this event.

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