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  • Editor’s Note
  • William Blair

Six years ago, the idea was born and refined. First came the call from the director of the University of North Carolina Press, which set things into motion. Then came meetings to hammer out details among the Society of Civil War Historians, the Richards Center, and the press. As so often happens, the best brainstorming came over food, in this case in a little barbecue shack in Charlotte, during the Southern Historical Association meeting. Two blinks of the eyes later, and we have finished our fifth volume year. And now I’ve decided it’s time for my tour as editor to come to an end.

It amazes me how quickly this journal came together and how quickly it entrenched its reputation for attracting work of a high scholarly rigor. During startup, I had many moments of anxiety as we got the word out and recruited the research that launched this project. My mind kept perverting a line from the movie Field of Dreams: what if you build it and they don’t come? After all, a journal has a direct impact on the contributor’s livelihood—establishing the building blocks for tenure and a scholarly reputation. Departments that decide on tenure must trust that the journal screens its material professionally. Colleagues must consider it a publication to read, something to consult in order to see what is being done in the field. We were fortunate to receive validation of our efforts very early, through recognition by the Library Journal as one of the Top Ten new publications of 2011. But I must especially thank those authors who trusted us by putting their intellectual children in our hands, especially for that first volume year. And I am equally grateful for those who continue to do so now.

The only way I know to assess how well we perform our jobs comes through the quality of submissions, which continues to impress. We work so far ahead that we have a good portion of volume year 2016 already laid to rest. Some of this has been recruited through special issues, such as the one we offer today on veterans of the Civil War, and the usual historiographical feature that updates us on the state of some corner of the field. These latter pieces, according to data from ProjectMuse, have a tremendously long shelf life and consistently garner the most hits. But the material that has come in lately renews my faith that the field remains incredibly vibrant, keeps attracting different kinds of scholarship, and pushes into fresh areas to explore. You have to take my word for it that good things are coming down the pike. [End Page 479]

No effort of this magnitude involves one person. I have many people to thank. Kate Torrey threw her considerable support behind this effort. James Marten, Steven Engle, and David Perry provided input during that magical dinner. I am especially grateful to Judith Geisberg, Tony Kaye, and Aaron Sheehan-Dean, all of whom were instrumental in the founding of the journal and who each added significantly to the product. And I thank those on the editorial board who donated their time to read and recruit manuscripts. I also need to thank the supporters of the Richards Civil War Era Center who provided the resources for us to be a true partner with the University of North Carolina Press. It has been a joy to work with the truly thoughtful and professional people who make it such a quality press.

The keys to the car are being turned over to an incredibly competent driver, Judith Geisberg of Villanova University. She was with this project from the start as the book review editor and demonstrated a keen editorial eye and organizational abilities. She knows the field intimately and has made her own contributions to the literatures on gender and race. Her book Army at Home stands as a singular treatment of common women in the North during the Civil War. And she shares the vision for this journal as a place to bring into conversation many of the subfields that animate nineteenth-century history—to reach out broadly to scholars who...

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