The Civil War Sesquicentennial Lecture Series continues in March at the N.C. Museum of History in Raleigh. Elizabeth R. Varon, Langbourne M. Williams Professor of American History at the University of Virginia, will address myths about Gen. Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox. Hear more during her lecture “Legacies of Appomattox” on Sunday, March 3, at 2 p.m. in Daniels Auditorium. Tickets cost $8 in advance, $10 on March 3, $5 for ages 18 and under, and $5 for Associates members. Purchase tickets in the Museum Shop or by calling 919-807-7835.
Dispelling the myth that the Appomattox surrender was a “gentleman’s agreement” between Gen. Lee and Gen. Ulysses S. Grant that reunited the South and North, Varon argues that the surrender terms were controversial from the start and became the touchstone for the conflicts during Reconstruction.
Varon is an award-winning author. In 2008 The Wall Street Journal named her work Southern Lady, Yankee Spy: The True Story of Elizabeth Van Lew, a Union Agent in the Heart of the Confederacy as one of its “Five Best” books about the Civil War away from the battlefield. Varon also has written Disunion!: The Coming of the American Civil War, 1789-1859 and We Mean to Be Counted: White Women and Politics in Antebellum Virginia.
Varon’s March 3 lecture is featured during the N.C. Civil War Sesquicentennial, which continues through 2015. The N.C. Museum of History and the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources are presenting programs in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War in North Carolina.
For more information about the N.C. Museum of History, call (919) 807-7900, access the museum’s website or connect with the museum on Facebook and Twitter. The N.C. Museum of History is a unit of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources. For more information on North Carolina arts, history and culture, visit Cultural Resources online.